Strategy talk

[dmw71]

Ok... reading the other thread now, I see what you were talking about.

Guess Freda was no longer watching the other hallway.

My apologies.

At the time, I was simply thinking that the party would want to remain together. We sent Blodgett to search the door and listen for noise. When report came back that the door was safe, I assumed we were preparing to enter it. We can certainly leave members out in the hallway to stand guard, but my thought process had us all staying together considering the unknown on the other side of the door.

[rredmond]

I'm not sure I made clear to this PbP, but I'm a firm believer in (if it makes sense) the retcon in Play-by-Post games. If we go too far ahead, or things happen that you didn't mean and you can explain why, I have no problem turning back time and fixing it.

As it is these hallways start cramped, who knows what the future holds though.

[dmw71]

I was thinking about some things last night, which is sad.

If it makes you feel any better, I have had the game on my mind as well.

I think we should split the group into two squads. One would be the main squad who will more or less
lead the way, enter the rooms first be the first into the fight. The second group will be a reserve group who
watches for anything from behind, can do independent scouting (like head down the other hallway we are facing now), checks for hidden treats etc.

This might be an option as well.

From an "avoid confusion" standpoint, I can see how things stand to get mucked up on occasion in a play-by-post game with multiple threads and a party this large. At the same time, dividing the party in half might expose one (or both) groups beyond a point where it's safe.

If this most recent door Elwita mentioned opening did spill into a room filled with all sorts of baddies... we would obviously be in a better position at full strength. At the same time, however, there's nothing that says the party needs to enter a room simply because a door was opened. If we do divide and one group stumbles upon something powerful, there's a chance (though, probably not a certainty) the discovering group could fall back and attempt to re-group with the other members.

I, seriously, would be fine either way.

[Alethan]

I'm not opposed to moving forward in two groups that remain in visual contact with each other.

But yes, completely splitting up is baaaaaad. Bad. Bad. Bad.

Also, it's good for everyone to remember that this is a one-night campaign. We don't have the chance to memorize spells again or sleep for wound recovery... Basically, what you see is what you get. So use your spells/ammo/potions/scrolls wisely... though ammo and scrolls and pots (er... potions; sorry, my DDO abbreviations are coming out here) can certainly be found.

We should also keep in mind part of our objective, which is to free any slaves we find. We'll need to find a safe place where we can hide them away until we're ready to leave, if we happen upon any before we complete the other objective, which is to crush the organization by destroying the leaders of the evil band...

[ToniXX]

I'm not opposed to moving forward in two groups that remain in visual contact with each other.

But yes, completely splitting up is baaaaaad. Bad. Bad. Bad.

I agree on both of these points. Even if we are out of visual contact, shouting contact may be okay (but we probably want to make as little noise as possible, in reality). But splitting up completely is super-bad.

[Alethan]

Ok... reading the other thread now, I see what you were talking about.

Guess Freda was no longer watching the other hallway.

My apologies.

At the time, I was simply thinking that the party would want to remain together. We sent Blodgett to search the door and listen for noise. When report came back that the door was safe, I assumed we were preparing to enter it. We can certainly leave members out in the hallway to stand guard, but my thought process had us all staying together considering the unknown on the other side of the door.

Not a big deal. It's not going to be easy to coordinate a party of eight walking through 5' wide hallways. We'll work out all of the bugs as we make our way, I'm sure.

[dmw71]

Here's the latest:

Day 1– In the complex - down the hall

Until stated otherwise, I'm assuming the party is staying together.

Karraway closes the door behind you as you continue down the tight hallway by the meager light of Ogre's sword, the hallway goes about 55' before the party turns a corner and the hall ends after about 5' in a door. The wooden door to this room is charred with several boards missing and other planks obviously weakened. The handles, hinges, and other metal fittings are half-melted, soundly jamming the door shut. The room beyond, as seem through the holes, is severely burnt, its furnishings buried and ruined beyond recognition. Though the ceiling of the hallway was better than the ceiling by the secret door, which was pockmarked with holes to the sky, the ceiling of this room has collapsed for the most part, revealing another chamber on the second floor. About 5’ of the ceiling still remains around the walls of the room, forming a narrow jagged ledge. The floor is littered with beams, plaster, ash, and unknown pieces of junk. The air is filled with the odor of rot.

Blodgett does his thing, reports not hearing anything. Is pretty certain the door isn't trapped (look at it!) but is also pretty certain (without trying it himself) that it won't open easily (look at it!)

Here is an opportunity to divide the party. We could send in a group to investigate this room, while leaving the remaining group members out in the hallway as backup.

Any volunteers to enter the room?

*Elwita raises her hand*

[Nuke66]

Well, I'd say splitting the party not only endangers our success, it slows down the game in PbP.

Slam open the door and blast whatever is there......we'll all rush in.

[rredmond]

So as not to screw up (too much) any of the actions you guys take. I'll try answer questions here, but until it goes into the Action Thread I'm not going to consider it a called action.
Thanks!

[Knight of Gondor]

If I missed this somewhere my apologies but how tall is the corridor and the room?

[rredmond]

Corridor is 10', the room is sort of the same, except that the ceiling is mostly demolished exposing, somewhat of an upper area/room.

[Knight of Gondor]

Corridor is 10', the room is sort of the same, except that the ceiling is mostly demolished exposing, somewhat of an upper area/room.

Thanks...next question may I use levitate to pin an opponent to the ceiling? Assuming I can would this require me to maintain concentration on subsequent rounds?

[Nuke66]

crap, I can turn undead, forgot all about that as a FIGHTER/cleric...lol

Fighter instincts won out in round one.

[rredmond]

Corridor is 10', the room is sort of the same, except that the ceiling is mostly demolished exposing, somewhat of an upper area/room.

Thanks...next question may I use levitate to pin an opponent to the ceiling? Assuming I can would this require me to maintain concentration on subsequent rounds?

Aye, one creature, straight up. They'd get a saving throw versus spells though. And it looks like (from the OSRIC manual) that you can cut it off (drop the creature per se) but you don't have to concentrate on it. Just cast it, send the creature up, and do something else until you end the spell, dropping the creature, or the spell ends, slowly lowering the creature.

[Alethan]

But also keep in mind... this is a one-night campaign. We aren't going to be making camp and sleeping and memorizing expended spells again. Use it and you can't get it back.

So we need to be smarter about where we're going and what we're going to fight. The goal is to find out who the slaver ringleaders are and take them out. Not clear the compound of bad guys. This battle could easily have been avoided.

[Llama]

Or...this room could lead to an unguarded passage deep into the pits, saving us several battles along the way. You never know!

[Argennian]

Agreed we should avoid any unnecessary encounters if possible but point taken about not knowing/having a layout or location of where our targets are. (we got nothing about the layout of this place from the escaped prisoner, right?) I would highly recommend that at first chance, we snag a prisoner. If any of the mages have a Charm Person spell, all the better. This could give us invaluable intel that could make the difference between success and failure, imho.

Expanding upon Alethan's point of order, between the 2 clerics in the party, we only have a small number of Cure Light Wounds spells (like 3 or 4 now?).

Imo, Nuke made the absolute correct choice in applying a CLW to Ogre, as he was seriously injured. I'm not sure off hand how many healig potions there are but as a group, we should remain cognizant of this and perhaps adjust the marching order appropriately, perhaps having moderately to seriously wounded PCs take rearguard or somewhere farther back in the M.O. Just my 2 coppers here, gang!

[Alethan]

Or...this room could lead to an unguarded passage deep into the pits, saving us several battles along the way. You never know!

Absolutely true.

But if I'm going to bet, I'm going with the odds.

[migellito]

Or...this room could lead to an unguarded passage deep into the pits, saving us several battles along the way. You never know!

That's exactly why I wanted to go in here.

[dmw71]

But if I'm going to bet, I'm going with the odds.

The unfortunate reality of the situation is, I suspect we're going to be weakened after the room we're currently in which will force us to be more selective of which rooms we decide to enter going forward.