Getting everything started

[John]

So the forum is up and now the task of setting up all the needed threads and stuff. I intend to post up the contents of the books in their own threads as well as a character sheet thread to give us a place to roll characters( and I am likely going to make a character for myself as well). And we also need to agree on some of the rule bending and what we want to use and general structure and whatnot.

So let's discuss a couple of rules to start with.

Initiative rolls: When I used to play this table top, we used ten sided dice to roll initiative and then added dexterity modifiers.

Critical hits/Double Damage on a natural 20: Do we want to use them with the 30 sided dice table? I have nothing against them but if the adventurers use them so can the monsters, which can prove a little detrimental if an orc cuts off your arm.

I'm sure there's a more we need to discuss, but here's a start,. And feel free to throw stuff out there for us to consider.

[Korvis]

although i dont know much about dnd, i am in :)

[John]

Awesome. The next thing I intend to do is put up the character sheet creation thread along with a guide to character creation. And don't forget, you can check out this link (http://www.purpleworm.org/rules/) for mostly everything you will ever need.

And I'm going to try not to get all this too involved to make it easy for anyone to join

[Korvis]

instantly overwhelming. this is why i abandoned all those complicated rules and made my own custom stuff for our group.

[John]

It's meant more as a guide. I won't be using everything there and have some rule variations of my own from back in the day/ And of course, I will happily help out anyone who needs it with character creation

[Korvis]

i think i would want to be a thief :o

[John]

I have a feeling we may need one. And the character creation thread is up. Feel free to ask questions concerning characters and their creation there. It is still a work in progress as there are a few things I do want to add as we should all start at level one. So I doubt anyone would be walking around in full plate mail or carrying a +5 vorpal blade.

We should also toss out some ideas of how everyone meets up, unless you guys want to RP it out. But I'm thinking y'all met up at an inn hearing about adventure opportunities at Castle Greyhawk, which is where your first adventure will take place. Something simple and lighthearted to start us off. Get our feet wet so to speak.

[Awean8]

I think it'd be cool if our characters knew each other prior to the campaign that way it'd be more casual and lighthearted.

[John]

Kind of what I was thinking too.

And, wanted to run all this by you for a possible posting format. For battles and initiative rolls. When a battle starts, I will make my roll, and then all of you will post what you;'re doing right away and roll yours. Then, we do our battle posts in order of initiative rolling any to hit and damage rolls in that post. As far as the having everyone around to do this issue. Let's face it, we all do have lives, so if we can find a time when all of us can be on, great. If not, I'm thinking we allow for a maximum of 48 hours for someone to post before they get skipped. And if anyone is going to be gone for an extended length of time, let me know and I will NPC their character for them until they return.

And I will likely have to use the PM system in this as well as there is always that point where you would be sitting at the table and pass a note to a player telling them something that they noticed or whatnot. And as it won't be much fun if i post absolutely everything for you, it makes sense to do it this way when needed. Some things of course can be mentioned in the OOC as well.

[Awean8]

I also think that the whole meeting up at the tavern in the search for adventure opportunities is a bit unrealistic and overdone to death. Like would you expect to find job at a bar? I think we should have our characters drinking and having a good time at the tavern, and that point you bust out with some plot device that motivates/forces our characters into adventures.

The posting format sounds great by the way. :D We'll have to just experiment for awhile until we get it right.

[Tune]

Dice rolling puts an instant damper to my interest. I know D&D was founded on dice rolling, but the whole dexterity modifiers, and what not would get really confusing. Rolling dice for damage however would be fun, and we wouldn't need to deal with godmoders that way. However, do the dice tables work for everyone or is there still some issues with it showing up?

In the D&D Online game I play, your soul is linked to the tavern whenever you die. There really isn't much to do inside a tavern, and not many characters would be up for the merriment of getting drunk off their asses. It might be less likely to see a female elf getting drunk with a rowdy bunch of men. A dwarf would almost be expected to live in the bar, though :lol: Maybe some other sort of meeting place? Or perhaps other threads could allow players to meet in different settings, then they all meet up in the tavern for supper?

:) Just imagine one group of players running into each other in the wilderness, think it's an ambush and try to kill each other until they realize what is going on? But that would make things difficult, and others might not want to stick to the main storyline that way, especially if the group is separated into two. A huge group of people would draw tons of unwanted attention, though, but I guess each player could mention how they made it to the main setting.

[Korvis]

if we are all meeting up somewhere, we have to have a very dedicated (not literally) gm. when everybody is together, there are huge chunks of time when people decide not to post or whatever, and the whole group cant move on. its the problem we are having with another rp im in atm. yes rl comes first, but... meh. i guess dnd is all about being together in a group. ill just say this: i hope our gm is very dedicated, because that is what its going to take.

[Anne Bonny]

I've been in Naz games before, and I can promise you all that he's one of the most dedicated I've ever seen.

PS
Don't tell him I said something nice about him. I don't want him getting a big head.

[John]

Misfortune, actually, it's very simple. Most modifiers will be included in whatever roll you make. As for the roller, give it test and see if it works for you.

Korvis, this is something I've wanted to do for a while now on RPA and only now have gotten the ambition to do it. I'm going to be dedicated to this. I love this game

Anne, don't worry, I won't tell him XD

[Tune]

Alright :) I trust you, Naz. You and others who are interested seem really knowledgeable on this subject.

I suggested Toxin to this world, too, to see if he will be interested. He should since he really enjoys D&D and helps me understand the very basics of the game.

[John]

More people are always a good thing!

Just so everyone knows, I'm headed out to work but will be back on later to help anyone who needs it and to get all the sheets prepped. Anyone who wants to can do their rolls while I'm gone and create character threads. I will look everything over when I get back tonite.

[Mask]

I don't know much about 2nd edition but i know some about 3.5, I'll give this a shot :P

PS: once i find the dice roller i'll try to roll and see if it works for me.

20

Won't work :( help?

[Mask]

[dice0]

second post to try the roller again

oh got it xD

I'll read up on stuff then post rolls in character thread

[John]

Just to clarify, the dice roller doesn't work if you edit it into a post, or edit a post after you roll in it

[Awean8]

I just had the strangest D&d experience ever. @_@

Tonight, we had a session where I made a character which managed to seduce a Gelatinous Cube. What?!? XD

[Mask]

Wait. What. How? And WHY? :O

[Awean8]

My character was low on health and was obviously about to be eaten, so I was like "What the hell?", so I asked the DM if I could attempt to seduce it.

The die landed on 20. Like a boss.

[John]

I just had the strangest D&d experience ever. @_@

Tonight, we had a session where I made a character which managed to seduce a Gelatinous Cube. What?!? XD

Well...um.... er... there's always room for gelatinous... er...jello... um....

[Awean8]

I kept running into traps too! XD

btw, is there anything else that needs to be worked on or decided on before we start?

[Mask]

mad dice skills ;)

[John]

mad dice skills ;)

There's a few more things that need to be worked out. I do need to make threads for the posting procedures and whatnot but am going to do those as I go. Also have to put up the OOC for the first adventure. Still need to decide if we want to use d30 critical hits tables. A few people still need to get their characters done, and spellcasters do take a little longer to do.

[Meinolf]

Whoops, no one told me about this thread. Aaaanne, you've got some 'splainin' to do!

So, Naz, from your original post, here are my thoughts:

Initiative: Standard 2nd edition has a 1d10, lower wins, no mods. If you fold in the surprise roll with it, then you would be using the reaction adj. table from your Dexterity score. The Rules cyclopedia, which is Basic 5th edition, had it to where you rolled a 1d6, high wins, and we could have reaction adjust it as well. Either way, pick a number you like and allow reaction to adjust it as you wish. You don't even have to be consistant with it, as you can change the die type to shake things up as you go. The real question would be whether we are doing individual initiative or group initiative.

Critical Hits: Standard 2E has two types of critical hits: Straight up double damage on a natural 20, or allow an extra attack on a natural 20. For my latest campaign, I went with the double damage, but allowed some weapons (namely daggers and glaive) to deliver on a lower die roll than just a natural 20, and would actually quadruple damage on a 20. But then, I was running a modified rules cyclopedia weapons list instead of the standard 2E. Shorter list and more fun for fighter-types.

Death's Door: Another optional that I want to bring up: Hovering on Death's Door. Do character's die when they reach 0 or -10? I prefer them to die when they hit 0, just like a monster. However, this caused so much angst from my players that I eventually put in a 3rd-level priest spell that would bring a character back to life, as long as they fit in under the -10 ruling.

Of course, the most fun my character's had when dealing with death was during a Greek campaign, when they had to travel to Hades and physically fight their way back to bring a friend to life again. The higher level resurrection spell allowed them to travel beyond Hades, to Elysium (where pure Elves went -- explaining why raise dead wouldn't work on them) and Tartarus.

[Tune]

Interesting option about Death's Door. Toxin once explained that to me, too. 0 isn't necessarily death in many cases, more or less being knocked unconscious. The minus hit points result in bleeding out on the ground till death occurs, though the occasional Regeneration can happen but seldom when monsters are attacking your corpse.

From a storytelling prospective, the -10 hit points would lend more to character development, and if a cleric/hireling is in the party with the ability to raise the dead, a player can deal with Resurrection Sickness. D&D wise with rolls, and what not, I guess there would be rules if -10 would be allowed. Story wise, 0 HP meaning unconsciousness, and minus HP would result in bleeding out till death, would add an interesting dynamic to a group's playing skills when dealing with a dead or unconscious member.

As for the Initiative, as a new person to D&D, I really have no opinion other than it could become confusing or interesting if correctly added to the campaign.

[Mask]

Initiative says who goes first.

DDO is 3.5ed this is 2ed so there are things very different in this xD

[Tune]

Oh, well that explains the differences in editions.

[John]

Initiative: I want to try doing single initiatives to see how it works out at the start anyway. We can always adjust to group initiative if it becomes too much trouble

Critical Hits. I'm willing to let y'all decide how you want to work this.

Death's Door. I would prefer to go with the unconscious at 0, dead at -10. My reason gin behind this is that it will be possible for monsters to kill a character in a single hit otherwise in the first module.

[John]

FYI, we have two completed characters atm. Tonight while I help those that are here with their sheets, I will make a thread for how the posting will work for the dice roller stuff and will likely get the OOC for our first adventure up as well.

And for anyone who's interested, the name of the first adventure is "Castle Greyhawk: Against The Little Guys"

[Meinolf]

I was going with "Naz and the RPA Brigade," but that works too. Anne is helping me make up my character as I type this. Isn't she wonderful? :)

[Awean8]

btw Meinold, Anne told me you had some good sites for fantasy images. Would you care to divulge some of them?

[Anne Bonny]

I was going with "Naz and the RPA Brigade," but that works too. Anne is helping me make up my character as I type this. Isn't she wonderful? :)

Thank you dear. I do try.

Besides, you're going to help me too!

[Meinolf]

awean8: I know a few sites. Let's see ...

http://www.kekaiart.com/
http://www.morano.pl/about.php
http://www.komarckart.com/index.html
http://www.massiveblack.com/MBwebolution/index.html
http://www.eva-widermann.de/

Give those a shot. If they don't have anything you like, let me know and I will link up a few more sites. :)

[Korvis]

i was wondering what you guys thought of my character. she is just a tiny bit cliche... but i think she will make for a very fun roleplay.

[Awean8]

Thanks Meinolf. I'll pilfer through them for awhile until I find something appropriate.

[John]

I posted a thread in the reference section called "How To Post" It isn't complete yet, and for the time being, would like to leave ti unlocked so we can discuss it and tweak it as we go.

And Korivs, I dig the character. Reminds me of a couple of mine from back in the day

[Merry]

http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/rr348/annebonny10/rpa/withfilter2-1.jpg