Around the Gaming Table (OOC Stuff)

[Ithril]

Happy ThanksGiving Everyone!

thanksgiving.jpg (68.15 KiB) Viewed 454 times

[Rex]

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

[gurusql]

Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you all have a festive time!

[Ithril]

Redwarrior has unfortunately had to resign the game for personal commitments.

I have already recruited another player to take his place playing the wizard, Dorath, however.
Please welcome Crig to the game!

[gurusql]

Welcome Crig!

[Rex]

Welcome Aboard Crig!

[Crig]

Hello everyone! Happy to join!

[Ithril]

Maybe I'm breaking the plot by saying this... so I'll spoiler it. Read ahead at your own discretion:

Whatever magic is powering the mask, the mask knows everything about these catacombs, including why the dead wander here, and what would be required to break the curse. (Which is the main goal here.) I was hoping someone would have the sense to ask this It seems obvious to me.

Also:

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

[Rex]

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas Everyone!

I find, that even very smart people often miss the obvious even when it is right in front of them. In pbp it is made worse by nothing really being right in front of you.

[gurusql]

Happy Holidays to Everyone!

[Rex]

Thanks for the xp. Conweena is less than 100 xp to 3rd level. Bring on the monsters.

[Ithril]

I apologize for the delay in posting. I discovered a website that will emulate an accurate Evisath calendar. This is a high priority for me, so I wanted to get it worked out as soon as I realized it would suit the needs of this world. The calendar will show phases of all celestial bodies important to the game; aside from comets or other phenomena. There are also a set of leap days that occur, 1 every year, a second in every third and fourth year, and a fourth in every fourth year.
The elven calendar has a leap month, and a leap day, and everything is stable for the seasons over extended periods of time.

I still need to determine exactly what year we are in, but at least now I have a better idea of what is going on cosmologically in Evisath.

Click here to see a typical year in the human calendar !

Evisath has 2 moons in a binary system. The celestial bodies are as follows (elven names, human names later)

Ellu/Ebru Binary Sun System
Lúnya/Lendë Binary moon system

First planet: Nandil
Second planet: Illessë
Third planet is of course Evisath
Fourth planet: (I need to name this one)
Fifth planet: Sildamir
Sixth planet: Arandur/Ugdúr
Seventh Planet: Vëarámë
Eighth planet: Núril/Nargúl

There may be others in the system, but their orbits would span more than 40 years, so they will not affect conditions on Evisath on a variable basis in the time spans we will be gaming in.

I'll plan on posting tomorrow.

[Rex]

Interesting website. Thanks for sharing. Your calendars are neat.

[gurusql]

Very cool. Thanks!

[Ithril]

Sunphoenix and I had a conversation he other day, and I guess somehow something I was expecting got lost, but it's really important to detail your attacks.

He mentioned "Don't know how many DM's I've played with that have discribed some injury the beastly foes has that I've tried to exploit only to be told... "That's just flavored text you can't avoid the creature on its left just because the description says its left eye is missing... its still got the same AC and attack bonuses..."

This to me is a terribly wasted element of both player agency and immersion. I hope I have not wasted a lot of effort painting the situations you are dealing with. To consider these details to be inconsequential would be like telling players "I know I said the room has 3 doors that you could choose to explore, but you really can only choose the one on the left because the other two are just flavored text.."

I think this is a failed opportunity to fill the game with flavor and give the players more agency than just deciding to attack/flee/ or... oh wait ! Those are about the only options you really have in combat; aren't they? Uuuunless some how you're given the opportunities to flavor the combat somehow, and that is through better descriptions of the situation.

Wouldn't it be dull if Tolkien or R Howard described all the combats as "the (hero) hits the orc with his sword. The orc missed the (hero) with his blade. The (hero) hits the orc again and kills it...."
If fantasy writing was like that, I think I would have to find some dissertation on the intricacies of paint drying that I need to read.

Granted there may be things I detail that you can't really act on, but I want to encourage you to try.
One of the reasons I prefer AD&D 2ed (instead of latter versions where every tactic and option has been analyzed to death to make rules for every potential possibility) is because there are a lot of situations that aren't clearly defined in the rules, and we have the latitude of making out own choices. So in Evisath, if a creature has a missing eye, maybe you can sneak around on that side of it without drawing it's attention. Maybe it will see you in the mirror hanging on the other wall though. Maybe if something has half it's head missing, you can call an attack on that portion, and gain some advantage. Maybe. Try it!

[Rex]

That all sounds reasonable to me. I am by no means a rules lawyer and my DM style borders on just wing it. If you need to come up with a rule on the fly and it is never used again I am just fine with that.

[Ithril]

I'm becoming more heavily invested in FantasyGroundsUnity. I'm considering transferring your character statistics to an instance of it to help with records-keeping, hit points and combat, as well as encumbrance.
Do any of you have any opinion on this? Hopefully the change will be reasonably seamless, though typically my experience with this type of thing is that there is always some catch.

Let me know.

[Rex]

If it is on your end, I don't care either way. If it involves me dealing with another site I haven't had any issues with the sheet here, but usually willing to try free stuff out. But, I will admit to being very picky.

[gurusql]

Similar answer to Rex, if it is on your end - whatever helps you is great.

If I need to move somewhere else, I will try admit it being a weak bias against - but I would need more before giving a definitive opinion.

[Ithril]

I have no plans to move anything anywhere. This is entirely on my end, and will be (hopefully) invisible to you guys.