OOC V

[Alethan]

With an INT of 7, Rhys is illiterate. One of his mentors, however, was able to teach him enough to speak orc passably. He said it was important for Rhys to be able to understand his adversaries.

[sulldawga]

Marodin speaks Thyatian and Traladaran.

[frobozz]

Marodin speaks Thyatian and Traladaran.

That just leaves Semele. TK, does Sulldawga choose the language known or do you?

[thirdkingdom]

Marodin speaks Thyatian and Traladaran.

That just leaves Semele. TK, does Sulldawga choose the language known or do you?

She speaks Thyatian and Traladaran.

[frobozz]

Re: listening at dungeon doors:

I noticed that mystics do not have the same "Hear Noise" skill as thieves, which means that Rhys hears noise at the same level as any other human PC (ie. on a 1 on 1d6). Whereas demi-humans hear noise on a 1-2 on 1d6. With that in mind, maybe we should have Thordin do the listening (since he will be at the front of the line anyway).

Re: opening stuck/locked/barred dungeon doors:

Since we no longer have a thief to pick locks, we will most likely have to force open any locked doors for which we do not have a key. Per page 127 of the DD Rulebook, a Strength check with certain modifiers will open the following types of doors:

Stuck doors: Strength check
Locked doors: Strength check (minus 4 modifier)
Barred doors: Strength check (minus 8 modifier)

Note that a failed first attempt at forcing open a door will alert any creatures on the other side and prevent them from being surprised. With that in mind, we might want to use our strongest PC when forcing open stuck/locked/barred doors to increase the chance of opening it on the first try. Party strength is as follows:

Thordin - 12
Marodin - 12
Bregalad - 15
Tratiln - 10
Lanny - 15
Rhys - 11
Drudsa - 9
Semele - 10
Innana - 9

So, Bregalad or Lanny would have the greatest chance of success at opening these doors on the first try. I'd recommend Bregalad (unless he is injured), only because he has a shield ready in case of any immediate danger right behind the door. If there is no immediate danger, he can allow Thordin and Marodin to pass and then take his position back in the second rank.

Any objections to these proposed changes to the SOP for dealing with dungeon doors?

[Alethan]

Nope.

[sulldawga]

Thanks yet again, Frobozz, for figuring all this out. Sounds like a plan to me.

[sulldawga]

Rocks.

This happens way too often.

[thirdkingdom]

Uh, so this is actually a published adventure from the 80s, so you guys should be prepared for a fair amount of shit that doesn't necessarily "make sense" (i.e. weird traps and things). I'm changing some of the monsters to make it more challenging and rerolling all the treasure.

[frobozz]

Uh, so this is actually a published adventure from the 80s, so you guys should be prepared for a fair amount of shit that doesn't necessarily "make sense" (i.e. weird traps and things). I'm changing some of the monsters to make it more challenging and rerolling all the treasure.

Not to worry, Lanny will find a way to rationalize its presence, no matter what it is. And who knows, some of his rationalizations might even prove to be right on occasion! What's that Magic Mouth doing there in that goblin cave? Why, Bargle created it while living in the cave to function as a communication medium through which to divine answers from the Outer Planes, of course.

[frobozz]

Rhys the Traveler

Rhys moves to the doorway in the northeast corner of the room and peers through it. It is apparent he wants to continue examining the main level before going back downstairs.

Do we have a map drawn up yet? It seems to me we have a lot to explore on the main level...

I have been keeping a rough map on paper until we get our official map. We do indeed appear to have many rooms left to explore on the first floor.

I am wondering if, while we are on these "dungeon crawls", we can find a way to fast-track the decisions about which way to go next, as it seems to take a while to get 4 people to agree on a direction (or, at least, to actually post that they agree on a direction). I assume this is because nobody likes to just post "Lanny agrees". Do you guys want to try a "moved and seconded" approach just on the votes about which direction to go next (with all other votes requiring a standard majority)? PCs can still post actions and/or propose alternate paths if they wish, and TK can still allow the usual time for such posts to happen. If there is no dissent, TK can move ahead with the "moved and seconded" direction whenever he is ready to do so. If there IS dissent, then a standard majority would be required.

What do you guys think?

[sulldawga]

For decisions like this that shouldn't involve a lot of discussion (like which way to go when we have no information on either choice), I wish we could have the "Caller" of the party make the decision for the party.

It would speed things up immensely and save the discussion for when it's actually needed.

If no one wants to be the permanent Caller, we could have the position rotate between "sites" (e.g. dungeons, cave complexes, etc.)

I will volunteer to be Caller for the Mistamere Castle site, if we want to try this.

[Alethan]

For decisions like this that shouldn't involve a lot of discussion (like which way to go when we have no information on either choice), I wish we could have the "Caller" of the party make the decision for the party.

This.

I will volunteer to be Caller for the Mistamere Castle site, if we want to try this.

This is cool with me, as well.

[thirdkingdom]

If you guys want to try a Caller go ahead. However:
1)I really have no problem with posts that simply read "Magnimar agrees with Balthezar's proposal" because a)it is a good way for me to tell if players are still involved and b)it is short, sweet and to the point. In other words, it provides me with usable information that I do not have to parse.

2)I do not want this becoming an excuse for characters not to post.

3)If you are the Caller I would like you to a)let us know if you will be unable to post for more than, say, a 24-hour period and b)make clear, concise posts. I really don't want to have to keep asking for clarifications when the primary purpose of a Caller is to make things clearer.

[sulldawga]

I view the Caller's role to be two-fold:

One, to make decisions when the entire party doesn't need to be consulted at all
Two, to make decision options clear to the party so they can vote

I don't think the Caller will be making so many unilateral decisions that others can coast along without having to post at all.

To be honest, Frobozz has been doing a lot of this already for us, without being asked (because he's awesome). But there's a lot of times where we go in circles for three days before we finally get it down to "do we do A or B?" and having a Caller could shorten the wait times between discussion and decision.

[Alethan]

If you guys want to try a Caller go ahead. However:
1)I really have no problem with posts that simply read "Magnimar agrees with Balthezar's proposal" because a)it is a good way for me to tell if players are still involved and b)it is short, sweet and to the point. In other words, it provides me with usable information that I do not have to parse.

2)I do not want this becoming an excuse for characters not to post.

3)If you are the Caller I would like you to a)let us know if you will be unable to post for more than, say, a 24-hour period and b)make clear, concise posts. I really don't want to have to keep asking for clarifications when the primary purpose of a Caller is to make things clearer.

I like party callers. Especially when we're all sitting around a table, rolling dice and joking around and it's harder to discern discussion from play action.

But hmmm... Points 1 and 2 are really good reasons to not have a caller in a PbP game. I can totally see that from a DM's perspective. Honestly, being in some games where I question how involved certain players are, I can see that from a Player's perspective, as well.

I guess having limited Caller actions might not be too bad. As TK says, though, I DO see where people could start getting lazy with their posts...

Personally, I don't have any problems posting a quick "That sounds fine by me" by a few people before an action is taken. It should easily fall within the 24 hour response time.

But, to offer a third option, I'm also not opposed to someone just taking an action and having everyone else follow, either. Or not follow, if they choose. If we're standing in a room with three exits, we can have one person post, "How about west?" (which is just as good a direction as the other, since we know nothing about either new location) and then wait for others to agree or disagree.

Or we can just have someone say, "Rhys looks into the room to the west. If it appears safe, he steps into the room..." and just take an action. Then others can follow as they want. Should we do that EVERY time? No. But in situations like where we are right now? Why not? One way is as good as the other.

I think sometimes the group gets analysis paralysis, where we over-think things. The fight with the gnolls should be a warning to us that we need to think and act quicker.

Just my two cents.

And, by way of example for the third option, Rhys just walked into the next room...

[zebediah]

Having a party caller works for me as it might help ensuring a constant pace to the game if everyone is happy with that. I understand TK's concerns so I think if some of us would not be comfortable about it then perhaps we should stick to our current approach.

[frobozz]

Guys, if you would like, I would be happy to take on this role, if there is support for it from the players and DM. I can certainly post a few times per day (this is the only game I am in right now). Some of the posts would be typical "caller" posts (eg., to frame the debate into a couple of clear choices for the party to vote on, or perhaps to summarize and synthesize the various ideas and suggestions from the PCs into a single clear plan or strategy), while other posts would be just Lanny's individual preference for a particular course of action, or even just Lanny's roleplaying.

Here is another suggestion I have on how to be more efficient with our time:

Since our game generally requires a post once per day, I would suggest that we try (whenever possible) to end each RL day with a clear signal about where we are going next and what we are doing next, so that TK can post a fresh DM post in the morning (if he is prepared to do so). I noticed that TK usually posts in the early morning, which would give us the work day to bounce around ideas from that DM post, and maybe shoot off some one-liner posts (such as asking for clarifications, little quips here and there, etc.). If we arrive at a consensus on a major action, that might set us up for an after-work DM post by TK. If not, we can wraps things up in evening posts to get us ready for the next DM post in the morning.

This formula will not always work, of course, but I think it would help the game move along at a steady and predictable pace.

[sulldawga]

If Frobozz wants to do it, I'm fine with him being Caller. We might as well try it out and see how it goes.

[frobozz]

Ok. I will try to use the "party caller" function sparingly, so as not to be too overbearing with it. Also, since party caller is an OOC player role rather than an IC character role, I will try to be very clear when I am speaking as party caller as opposed to when I am speaking as Lanny (most likely by using OOC comments as party caller, and by prefacing those comments with the words "Party Caller: ", or something like that, either in spoilers within an IC post or in a separate OOC post). I view the party caller role as to clearly and concisely convey the expressed will of the party, rather than to make decisions for the party, so please continue to post at your normal rate and to offer up any unique ideas or suggestions (btw, a couple of "I agree" posts to support those ideas or suggestions will be helpful for me to know and convey the expressed will of the party).

One last thing: TK, if you have enough info from the players' posts to proceed with your next DM post without clarification from the party caller, please go right ahead. I'll just use the party caller function when it appears we are at some sort of impasse, or at your request.

Anyway, let's give it a try for Castle Mistamere and see how it goes.