alexandraerin (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
alexandraerin) wrote2010-07-16 11:42 pm
alexandraerin) wrote2010-07-16 11:42 pm
Entry tags:
Some Info For The Inn Players
Livejournal Updates
I'll be using Livejournal posts to keep players updated about things like experience points and any schedule alterations or changes in the group roster, if someone has to drop out and/or someone new joins. You can bookmark the tag "inn campaign" and keep an eye on it for updates. Once we get going, it will pretty much be one post after each session.
Some posts will be tagged "player action required". The actions required won't be too onerous... this is a game, not a homework assignment... but please read these posts and follow the directions, as they'll help make sure everybody is ready to go at the start of each session and so we can make the most of our one night a week.
The structure of the game is going to be somewhat episodic. Once the campaign is rolling, there will be times when the characters have "down time" between sessions. When this happens, you can use the comments on the game update post to describe what your character is doing with the free time. If anybody is so inclined towards freeform play-by-comment roleplay with the other characters using the "downtime" post, that's cool, too. Nobody has to do this... the time commitment is only for the one night a week... but I imagine some people will want to.
I'll elaborate on this a bit more later, when it'll make more sense.
There will be a "player action required" post this weekend, in which you will be asked to write a short description (or long, if you're bored) of how your character comes to be at a certain place. The details will be in that post.
Narrative Combat
Both to save time and to try to keep the narrative flow moving smoothly from the moment right before a combat happened to the fight itself, I'm going to be doing all initiative rolling in advance. When a situation turns hostile/dangerous, I'll prompt the first player for what she's doing... or announce what the first NPC is doing... and then let the following players know when it's their turn.
We're still using the default combat rules, with the necessary adjustments for a lack of map. You still have your standard, move, and minor action each turn, and they still do all the same things. You still have all your powers.
But I would like for people to keep thinking (and acting) in character. At a minimum, please include a bit of description or dialogue along with the power you're using. Using things in the environment creatively will be strongly encouraged. Not every fight will offer equal opportunities for these things... some of them will be fairly simple affairs. In general, I'll try not to make a fight long or complex without making it interesting enough to be worth the time it takes.
Most fights will have a "main character" on the other side, who will usually have more interesting things to do in a round than regular opponents. When dealing with intelligent beings, this should give you someone you can focus any roleplaying/interaction on. Making a skill check as part of an attempt to negotiate with, calm, trick, etc. an opponent in combat can be done once per turn as a minor action. This will be treated as a skill challenge, with multiple successes necessary to bring about a resolution.
Also, for this sort of tactic to work, you have to be going for something in particular... you can't just say "I use Diplomacy to make the bandit captain stop fighting." It's diplomacy, not diplomancy. A charismatic character can get a hostile party to listen to an offer, but there has to be an offer.
As with any skill challenge, this can become a group effort, with different skills being brought in for different effects.
(Alternately, you can just focus on bringing the principal antognist down. The point of this is to give you options for how to deal with conflicts, not pigeonhole everyone into one solution.)
Allowable Backgrounds
In a conversation with Tonyia (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gamingdragon), we realized a couple of things.
One is that IPlay4E, while it puts an impressive amount of info on a single screen, does not seem to list Background and Background benefits. If you've taken a background for your character, please put a note of it (and what benefit it gives) in the Traits or Notes section of your character so I can see it without downloading the character file.
The other is that it's not necessarily clear what I meant when I said only backgrounds with a standard benefit are allowed.
I consider a standard benefit to be the things that were listed in PHB2 when Backgrounds were introduced:
It also mentioned "Regional Benefits" as found in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. The problem is that a lot of those regional benefits far outstrip the individual benefits listed above. In fact, at least one gives you all three of them.
If you've taken a background that gives you any benefit except one of the three listed above, please select a different benefit. Also, I note that very few backgrounds explicitly include the "choose a language connected to your background" option. At least, few that aren't also connected to other benefits. You'd expect it to be attached to all the "raised among another race" choices, but in the Character Builder, it's not. If another language fits your background, feel free to add it to the character in place of a background benefit.
Group Test Run
The game proper begins a week from next Thursday, on the 29th. On the 22nd, we'll be having an optional session that will take place "out of continuity", for any group member who wants some practice with the 4E rules or with the ACME system before we do things "for real". People who have less experience with D&D/4E are strongly encouraged to participate as it will be geared towards learning more than accomplishing combat or adventure goals.
I'll be using Livejournal posts to keep players updated about things like experience points and any schedule alterations or changes in the group roster, if someone has to drop out and/or someone new joins. You can bookmark the tag "inn campaign" and keep an eye on it for updates. Once we get going, it will pretty much be one post after each session.
Some posts will be tagged "player action required". The actions required won't be too onerous... this is a game, not a homework assignment... but please read these posts and follow the directions, as they'll help make sure everybody is ready to go at the start of each session and so we can make the most of our one night a week.
The structure of the game is going to be somewhat episodic. Once the campaign is rolling, there will be times when the characters have "down time" between sessions. When this happens, you can use the comments on the game update post to describe what your character is doing with the free time. If anybody is so inclined towards freeform play-by-comment roleplay with the other characters using the "downtime" post, that's cool, too. Nobody has to do this... the time commitment is only for the one night a week... but I imagine some people will want to.
I'll elaborate on this a bit more later, when it'll make more sense.
There will be a "player action required" post this weekend, in which you will be asked to write a short description (or long, if you're bored) of how your character comes to be at a certain place. The details will be in that post.
Narrative Combat
Both to save time and to try to keep the narrative flow moving smoothly from the moment right before a combat happened to the fight itself, I'm going to be doing all initiative rolling in advance. When a situation turns hostile/dangerous, I'll prompt the first player for what she's doing... or announce what the first NPC is doing... and then let the following players know when it's their turn.
We're still using the default combat rules, with the necessary adjustments for a lack of map. You still have your standard, move, and minor action each turn, and they still do all the same things. You still have all your powers.
But I would like for people to keep thinking (and acting) in character. At a minimum, please include a bit of description or dialogue along with the power you're using. Using things in the environment creatively will be strongly encouraged. Not every fight will offer equal opportunities for these things... some of them will be fairly simple affairs. In general, I'll try not to make a fight long or complex without making it interesting enough to be worth the time it takes.
Most fights will have a "main character" on the other side, who will usually have more interesting things to do in a round than regular opponents. When dealing with intelligent beings, this should give you someone you can focus any roleplaying/interaction on. Making a skill check as part of an attempt to negotiate with, calm, trick, etc. an opponent in combat can be done once per turn as a minor action. This will be treated as a skill challenge, with multiple successes necessary to bring about a resolution.
Also, for this sort of tactic to work, you have to be going for something in particular... you can't just say "I use Diplomacy to make the bandit captain stop fighting." It's diplomacy, not diplomancy. A charismatic character can get a hostile party to listen to an offer, but there has to be an offer.
As with any skill challenge, this can become a group effort, with different skills being brought in for different effects.
(Alternately, you can just focus on bringing the principal antognist down. The point of this is to give you options for how to deal with conflicts, not pigeonhole everyone into one solution.)
Allowable Backgrounds
In a conversation with Tonyia (
gamingdragon), we realized a couple of things. One is that IPlay4E, while it puts an impressive amount of info on a single screen, does not seem to list Background and Background benefits. If you've taken a background for your character, please put a note of it (and what benefit it gives) in the Traits or Notes section of your character so I can see it without downloading the character file.
The other is that it's not necessarily clear what I meant when I said only backgrounds with a standard benefit are allowed.
I consider a standard benefit to be the things that were listed in PHB2 when Backgrounds were introduced:
- Add a skill to your class list.
- Add +2 to a given skill check.
- Choose a language connected to your background and become fluent in it.
It also mentioned "Regional Benefits" as found in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. The problem is that a lot of those regional benefits far outstrip the individual benefits listed above. In fact, at least one gives you all three of them.
If you've taken a background that gives you any benefit except one of the three listed above, please select a different benefit. Also, I note that very few backgrounds explicitly include the "choose a language connected to your background" option. At least, few that aren't also connected to other benefits. You'd expect it to be attached to all the "raised among another race" choices, but in the Character Builder, it's not. If another language fits your background, feel free to add it to the character in place of a background benefit.
Group Test Run
The game proper begins a week from next Thursday, on the 29th. On the 22nd, we'll be having an optional session that will take place "out of continuity", for any group member who wants some practice with the 4E rules or with the ACME system before we do things "for real". People who have less experience with D&D/4E are strongly encouraged to participate as it will be geared towards learning more than accomplishing combat or adventure goals.