The Unseen Servant forums

Some of this may move to the other threads, but wanted to put an opportunity out there to ask.

I am still setting up stuff behind the scenes, but at this point we have three PCs, my preference is to run with four low-mid level characters, but figured I'd put it out there to see what you thought.

My idea is that four dedicated players are better than the usual PbP method of getting a bunch so play doesn't slow down. Also, at the end, the idea of playtest is to see what the strengths and weaknesses of the adventure are as well. Fewer players make that piece easier.

Thoughts?

I've been doing some pretty active PbP gaming for about nine months now. Some of them are more of the make-your-own-rolls style and some of them are where the GM does all of the rolling for the entire group. I prefer the former much more than the latter. Technically, it shouldn't be any different since it they should all be random dice rolls, but... there is definitely an added level of excitement when you roll your own dice.

(BTW, if you are going to use Unseen Servant Dice Roller, let me know what the campaign number is and I'll get my character added to it.)

Regarding the number of players... If you only have four players in the party, then all four of those players definitely need to be ACTIVE in the game. You can't have someone in the party who will only make posts when there is a fight and otherwise indicates they will hold the torch and stand behind so-and-so to help them see better. The others will quickly tire of dragging them along from fight to fight (hey, go play 4e if you just want to fight battles, OK?). Get two people like that in a party of four and the game starts to get tedious for the two active ones, who feel like they need to work extra hard to keep things moving along.

Keeping that in mind, I'd still rather have a smaller party with more-active players than rely on a larger party just to keep the game moving.

I'm all for going with the smaller group as well, but would defer to your judgement as DM on that, Ron. I agree that a well balanced group, made up of say what you'd mentioned: a fighter, thief, cleric, & magic-user, would probably be easier to run/manage from a DM's standpoint and would also make for a better play-testing assessment of the module/product in the end, imho.

As Alethan stated, a smaller, more dedicated group would streamline things and help speed up the game overall. The PbP game does run a slower pace but can still be fun and stay consistent if everyone can commit to a normal (or minimum) post rate.

I wasn't sure what class(es) I'd go with; just came up with an elf fighter as a single class but then thought an elf fighter/mage would be cool. I saw that Alethan had gone with a single class halfling thief, so in the interest of party balance (or if another player really wanted to play a fighter or magic user), I could easily go cleric!

Happy to wait and see what the other 2 players have rolled up & discuss our party make-up before moving forward.

Had a couple questions I came up with when rolling up the character that I wanted to throw out there for clarification. (Note: I know we still need to decide on PC levels )

1. Are we rolling for our starting gold and selecting items/equipment?
(In reading the character background, and if we are going to be say anywhere from 2nd to 4th level PCs, I wasn't sure if it was assumed we already had adventuring gear (armor, weapons, etc.) or not.)

2. Will we be using weapon specialization for fighters/rangers?

3. Can a demi-human fighter/mage cast spells while wearing armor? If so, what kind/types?

4. Do you have any restrictions on any particular PC classes or alignments?
(I do remember you saying we could pick any race & class)

Well it looks like player #3 will be ToniXX the Site Admin. So, though as far as I can tell he hasn't played yet on his own boards, but we know he'll be around enough!

I'm all for the smaller group, I don't care how y'all play it out, multiclass, single class, fighter, heck I think Arg's got the stats for a 1/2 elf ranger if you want. And absolutely welcome to coordinate the characters after all four players come on.

Lastly, as for rolling dem bones, I feel whatever is easiest honestly. Even if there isn't a link to the rolls, I'll trust you if you want/need to roll live. There's always that temptation to fudge, but I think we'll be fine here.

So, in summary, I'll look for one more player, then y'all can coordinate PCs, and at that point we're a go. I only have pieces of the module right now, but I've got enough to start us rolling with some prep time.

OOPS, I see Argennian's post, so let me answer his questions before posting:
1. Please choose any realistic equipment (figure you've already been adventuring) and then roll for starting gold. I figure you've bought stuff already, and picked it up as you adventured. So the mundane stuff (weapons, torches, rope, flint, thieves tools, etc) you've already got, horses you can borrow but likely won't need, then the gold can be for anything else you feel you may need above and beyond regular equipment.

2. Weapon specialization for single class fighters or rangers only. No double weapon spec, and bows are in... because it can get insane with the rapid fire, but using the "just as much chance to hit friendlies vs. enemies in melee" rule makes it more fun!

3. Depends on the demi-human, gnomes only leather, but elves and half-elves can where any armor. I say nay to that optional rule that they cannot.

4. Any race and any class but Assassin... gotta be for the good of the party at least! So any alignment but do no evil.

Actually so let's just solidify the 10,250 xp because I'll limit to 4 characters.

And ToniXX wants to play a cleric, so that opens other options there!

I'm excited, this will be fun!

rredmond wrote:Actually so let's just solidify the 10,250 xp because I'll limit to 4 characters.

And ToniXX wants to play a cleric, so that opens other options there!

I'm excited, this will be fun!

Awesome! Sounds good and looking forward to the fun here as well!

Ron, I directed the GM of that other campaign (Michael) your way. He'd expressed an interest to me in finding a good, solid PbP campaign a few weeks ago. He love's being a DM, but likes to be a player, as well, and had been missing that. I thought this would be a good fit for him.

Is the 10,250 before any XP bonus? (Hey, doesn't hurt to ask!)

Argennian, I saw you contemplating the fighter/mage combo on your chargen sheet. The 10,250 XP would give you a level 3 fighter/level 3 mage - with the elves' ability to wear any armour and still cast spells, that isn't a bad start! With my straight thief build, and ToniXX playing the healer, you can multi-class and still give the fourth person quite a few options to single-class a fighter-type or mage or do another multi-class.

I went straight thief because I had the roles to set one up really well with the 18 Dex after the Halfling bonus. Plus, I tend to play burly plate-wearing fighters most of the time, so it's nice to take on a different role every now and then.

For equipment, I rolled starting gold and then picked out the basic gear I wanted. I'll be interested to see what/how the magic item selection is/happens. I've always been a stickler for things like encumbrance and realistic weight distribution, so that's why you'll see me do little things like split up sling pellets (.33 lbs each) into large and small pouches (small pouches hold 2.5 lbs) for the sake of realism. Plus, it makes them all easily accessible.

Ron had mentioned wanting some kind of a background story, so that's what I'm working on now.

I'll update character sheet with the 10,250 XP and fill in the blanks appropriately...

Put the Magic Item packages up in the Rules thread. One package per customer, but what you do with them after that is up to you.

Alethan wrote:Ron, I directed the GM of that other campaign (Michael) your way. He'd expressed an interest to me in finding a good, solid PbP campaign a few weeks ago. He love's being a DM, but likes to be a player, as well, and had been missing that. I thought this would be a good fit for him.

Excellent! Could be the final piece.

Alethan wrote:Is the 10,250 before any XP bonus? (Hey, doesn't hurt to ask!)

I looked and this doesn't hurt/help either way, but go ahead and do it, who knows what will come after the playtest!

Alethan wrote:Ron had mentioned wanting some kind of a background story, so that's what I'm working on now.

I'll update character sheet with the 10,250 XP and fill in the blanks appropriately...

Nice! I better get moving myself...

7. +1 ring of protection, boots of elvenkind

I'll take this.

Alethan wrote:...Argennian, I saw you contemplating the fighter/mage combo on your chargen sheet. The 10,250 XP would give you a level 3 fighter/level 3 mage - with the elves' ability to wear any armour and still cast spells, that isn't a bad start! With my straight thief build, and ToniXX playing the healer, you can multi-class and still give the fourth person quite a few options to single-class a fighter-type or mage or do another multi-class...

Yeah, I was thinking the same way!

A multiclass character, especially one without a CON bonus, can have a tough time making 2nd level in all their respective classes! With the ability to wear armor, attack as a fighter, and have spells to cast, that makes a formittable PC. Although, as Ron pointed out, I could play a specialized half-elf ranger...

Alethan wrote:I went straight thief because I had the roles to set one up really well with the 18 Dex after the Halfling bonus. Plus, I tend to play burly plate-wearing fighters most of the time, so it's nice to take on a different role every now and then.

Yeah, I just played a human ranger in Solinor's PbP that just wrapped up on these boards. I also play a 6th lvl human ranger in a 2E FtF game group. Since I usually play human PCs, I thought it would be cool to change it up a bit and go with a demi-human. A 1/2 elf ranger is available and always an attractive possibility, but I would enjoy having the magic user capabilities as well. I haven't played too many mages in my time, at least ones that lived!

Alethan wrote:For equipment, I rolled starting gold and then picked out the basic gear I wanted. I'll be interested to see what/how the magic item selection is/happens. I've always been a stickler for things like encumbrance and realistic weight distribution, so that's why you'll see me do little things like split up sling pellets (.33 lbs each) into large and small pouches (small pouches hold 2.5 lbs) for the sake of realism. Plus, it makes them all easily accessible...

Yeah, I'm curious what that chance for magic items will yield too!

As a Dm, I'm also a stickler on encumbrance, so it makes sense to be the same way as a player. Staying on top of that stuff helps the Dm with tracking movement rates and does add a more realistic aspect and challenge to gameplay. I'll get to work on my elf fighter/mage and will be listing encumbrance on my sheet as well!

Choose one per player, once one is chosen, no one else can take that package.

Sooo.... is it going to be the same process for the second round of picks?

And... *sigh* I guess I'll take the ceramic dog for $78, Pat.

Heh, good question, we'll have to see how that pans out!

Alethan wrote:Ron, I directed the GM of that other campaign (Michael) your way. He'd expressed an interest to me in finding a good, solid PbP campaign a few weeks ago. He love's being a DM, but likes to be a player, as well, and had been missing that. I thought this would be a good fit for him.

He's in!

Woot!

Hi! It appears I'm the fourth, so I will head over to the rules thread and read up, then go to the character thread and roll up a character. There aren't many things I've never played, so we'll see what the rolls look like

migellito wrote:Stat Rolls: Stats: CHR:10, STR:11, WIS:10, DEX:9, CON:16, INT:9

Migellito, you know you can arrange those rolls to whatever stats you want, right? Ron just had us roll 4d6 for six stats and then we could drop the lowest rolls and appropriate the stats as we saw fit.

Yup particularly if you wanted to go half-orc ftr

though with spec in play for singke class ftrs might not be a bad thing to keep your CON high. But whatever you like.

Yep, I decided to arrange them that way on purpose I had thought about half-orc, but wasn't sure.. if it's ok, I would really like to make her a half-orc! I have the perfect pic for her, woohoo!

Also, I'll go ahead and opt for magic package 3, Chain +1, Shield +1