How the game will work

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How the game will work

Post by Blackferne » Thu Feb 17, 2011 7:41 pm

Since we are playing on the forums, the game may have to take certain mechanics out if they prove cumbersome to a fluid game experience. The game will have two modes: A narrative mode and a combat mode.

Narrative Mode

In the narrative mode I largely will not care about your Hit Points, defenses, weapon damage etc etc. There will be a back and forth between me giving exposition or dialog from non-player characters and you guys explaining what you are doing. I would prefer you take a little flair to your writing in this phase. Any dialog portions should be bolded. It should be done in third person mostly and you are not obligated to share inner thoughts, if you do those should be italicized You have some license to do snippets of dialog involving minor NPCs like the bartender or docking attendant. No god modding it though. So you can take the liberty of writing up a dialog debating the merits of a particular brand of Correlian Brandy with a bartender, but if you have him do something completely unheard of like "Well Dood you know more than me so here is the deed and keys to the bar. I'm off to Naboo!" I will make you pay in some pretty cruel ways.

An example as if I were playing Arillius as a normal player might read something like this:
Arillius glanced around the room checking the exits and sizing up potential threats. After feeling confident that he hadn't been followed he spoke "Belton says you are trustworthy, but I still have my reservations. Why should I give you the datacards?" He flipped the small card around in his hand like a pazaak card.
Occasionally I will ask for perception checks or skill checks. For that you will respond with a separated line like this:

1d20+(skill modifier)=Result

So Arillius doing a perception check where he rolled a 7 would read like:

1d20+9=16

That syntax will be used for pretty much all skill and attack rolls in this game. Based on the result I will inform you on what is seen or not, whether you passed or failed the skill check etc etc.

Sometimes I might stop a narrative post with no prompting on what to do, ie not end with a NPC asking you a question, this is normal and you can respond however you feel is appropriate or you want. Because we are on a forum and have many players, I may split the party up with each subplot or narrative arc getting its own thread.

I know this is a lot to ask, but for the enjoyment of players and keeping these things on track I ask that non-game related comments be kept to a minimum. If you have a rules question or feel like you must make an out of character comment please put them in These kind of brackets { } with a preface of OOC (for out of character statement) or rules: (for questions about the rules). Example:
Arillius walked down the street fastening his jacket closed to fight off the biting wind. He looked at the scaffolding for the building. Can I scale this and sneak in an upper window? he thought.

{rules: how do I make a climbing skill check again and do I take damage if I fall?}
Participation on this mode is pretty lax as I'm not going to take control of your character and make you ask questions or whatever. If you make no posts we will just assume you are quietly following the gang. Some NPCs will make specific queries towards a given player. If you don't respond in a timely manner you might miss out on a vital clue, a tip, or in some cases money/loot. Silence in that case is assumed to be you ignoring that NPC and you can't go back very easily and make it up to them in hopes of getting what was offered before.

Combat Mode
When the time comes for fisticuffs, either initiated by you hooligans or the proper civilized galaxy at large looking to tame you, I will make a call for initiative. This will be done even if you guys get or are about to receive a surprise attack round. The initiative rolls will be our turn based order for the duration of the combat. Unlike in the narrative phase I will take control of your character if you do not post your move within 24 hours of it being your turn. This is to make sure the game doesn't stall out because Reese went on vacation and didn't bother to tell anyone.

During combat mode you are required to start every post with the following line of information
Hit Points, Threshold Damage (condition if <0 ) Fortitude defense, Reflex defense, Willpower defense, Speed, Base attack modifier, Strength modifier if using a melee weapon, Dexterity modifier if using a ranged weapon So for example Arillius' line would look like:
HP 24 (Threshold 13) FortD 13 RefD 17 WillD 17 Speed 6, atk +2, Dex +2
As I give you damage or effects you will modify that accordingly. For example if I had Arillius hit with some kind of goo that last 3 turns and reduced his Reflex Defense and Dexterity by 2 I would note it as follows:
HP 24 (Threshold 13) FortD 13 RefD 17-2(3 rds) WillD 17 Speed 6, atk +2, Dex +2-2(3 rds)
And each round the (3 rds) would go down one until the effect is gone as well as those pesky -2 mofiers.

You should also use your post to describe your actions including movement, indicate targets etc etc. Remember brief dialog costs no part of your turn as I assume you can talk and shoot at the same time. However if you can't say your line of dialog in approx 6 seconds then you probably need to cut it down some. So no singing the entire score to the HMS Pinafore Dood. Break that up over a few rounds.

Movement will be on a grid system with letters on the Y axis and numbers on the x axis. Movement will be notated as moves to G13. Be sure to notate what direction you are then facing. For simplicity even though it may not be accurate to the particulars the maps top side is always north. So "Arillius moves to G13 and faces Southwest". Targets will be given names like Boss A, Boss B, Commando A. Occasionally you will get named combat opponents so you can just use their names if that applies. Also if you just want to target an object of an area you can say so like "Bulwark uses autofire on squares a1, a2, b1, b2" or "Dood attacks the chair on C13 for being offensively tall".

When you roll to attack also roll your dmg on the assumption you hit. If you roll a 1 or a 20 you should note that. 1s are automatic misses (even if the modifiers were past their Reflex defense). And 20s are critical strikes and double damage. You will be working off the honor system that you are not rerolling for more favorable rolls. If however I notice that your numbers don't seem random enough I reserve the right to start doing your rolls for you. http://www.wizards.com/dnd/dice/dice.htm is a place where you can do all your rolling.

I will not give you a running total of your opponents (or NPC allies hit points etc etc. So an average combat move should look something like this:
HP 24 (Threshold 13) FortD 13 RefD 17 WillD 17 Speed 6, atk +2, Dex +2
Arillus draws his Heavy Blaster Pistol from his holster and targets the Hutt henchman B and begins attacking. "Tell your Boss I don't work for him anymore!" Blaster bolts fly out towards the Rodian.

Attack: 1d20+2+2-6=13 (because of roll+attack bonus+dexterity modifier-range penalty)
Dmg: 3d8+1= 12 (because his blaster is 3d8 and he gets +1 to damage for his level)
I will post periodically out of opponents turns or whatever if there is a change in the battle that needs to be addressed. Also if an Attack of opportunity (pg155) opens up to a player I will notate it and feel free to post you attack whenever and it will be rolled in. If no post is made within 24hours I will take control of the character for that attack.

Chapters and XP
This campaign is going to be broken up into chapters or minor adventures which when taken as a whole will make up the full story we are playing. Each chapter completed by players will grant 1 level. I don't like the whole "well you killed 13 gurks at CL 3 each therefore you have 1271XP" so I'm saying eff that. If you have to step out for a chapter (life gets hectic and you can't play) you can rejoin later. I will always make sure your level is no lower than 1 level below the lowest person already playing. Over time this might make for a range of levels in the group, but it is the catchup logic I am going with.


Final Note
If you don't check in and make your moves (both narrative and combat) and the campaign seems to drag as a result I will ask you to either commit or remove yourself from play. I hope that doesn't become an issue though.

Does anyone have any questions or is anythign unclear?
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Re: How the game will work

Post by Blackferne » Thu Feb 17, 2011 8:49 pm

In addendum:

Try to check in at least twice a day if you can. Once in the morning before work and once in the evening. That should be enough interaction to maintain a good pace.
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Re: How the game will work

Post by Blackferne » Thu Feb 17, 2011 8:58 pm

PPS: I am pretty intent on keeping the game focused on the game itself. We have a strong cultural tendency to derail and hijack threads. I would like very much to try and keep Chapter(split chapter) threads free from this, so I reserve the right to edit and moderate comments to keep them on task.
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Re: How the game will work

Post by Bulwark » Thu Feb 17, 2011 10:30 pm

Using letter based coordinate system seems rather limiting. If I run at full speed (4 * 6) that's 24 letters. I will run out of alphabet pretty quick. Also, it makes taking a long range shot hard as well.

Can we use a basic x,y grid with 0,0 in the middle and move out from there?

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Re: How the game will work

Post by Blackferne » Thu Feb 17, 2011 10:36 pm

Bulwark wrote:Using letter based coordinate system seems rather limiting. If I run at full speed (4 * 6) that's 24 letters. I will run out of alphabet pretty quick. Also, it makes taking a long range shot hard as well.

Can we use a basic x,y grid with 0,0 in the middle and move out from there?

Okay I'm cool with that.
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Re: How the game will work

Post by Bulwark » Fri Feb 18, 2011 3:40 pm

Another thought...

combat looks like it will take a while to do. I can easily see it taking a month just to get thorugh a single combat.

In order to speed things up, can we all post our primary moves and a backup moves at the same time at the start of each round and have the GM work them out in initiative order?

For example:
Primary: Dood attacks the chair on C13 for being offensively tall
Backup: Dood attacks Arrican on C14 for being offensively hairy

So, if HappyClam had higher initiative and destroyed the chair before Dood, Dood would then attack Arrican.

I think this would speed things up a lot. This way a round takes 1 day, rather than 4 or 5. We lose a bit of fluidity and ability to quickly react, but I think it will keep us from being bogged down in combat.

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Re: How the game will work

Post by Blackferne » Fri Feb 18, 2011 3:42 pm

That is a good idea too.
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Re: How the game will work

Post by Cuspar » Sat Feb 19, 2011 8:09 am

What language are you guys speaking? :lukepilot:
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Re: How the game will work

Post by Bulwark » Sat Feb 19, 2011 3:29 pm

Cuspar wrote:What language are you guys speaking? :lukepilot:
French.

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Re: How the game will work

Post by Blackferne » Sat Feb 19, 2011 7:46 pm

Cuspar wrote:What language are you guys speaking? :lukepilot:
:obiwan:

We are playing a star wars role playing game based on pen and paper rules. Think Dungeons and Dragons except instead of playing a wizard you play a jedi, and instead of a thief you play a scoundrel, and instead of slaying the dragon you fight (jedi/sith/your mom).

Also you can be a mon cal. If you want in Cuspar, and I know you do, let me know. Call me on the phone even and we can get you set up.
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How the game will work

Post by Reese » Sat Feb 19, 2011 11:51 pm

Hey guys I've totally been on vacation and didn't tell anyone.

Ok really my sheet and background are in. I look forward to being an impediment to your fun time.
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Re: How the game will work

Post by Cuspar » Sun Feb 20, 2011 8:00 am

Can not do. On holidays in Maui and no way I could get it done... Sounds interesting though!
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Re: How the game will work

Post by Blackferne » Sun Feb 20, 2011 4:02 pm

Cuspar wrote:Can not do. On holidays in Maui and no way I could get it done... Sounds interesting though!

Watch it develop as you get back and we can write you in for chapter 2 or 3.
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Re: How the game will work

Post by Furiel » Sun Feb 20, 2011 7:08 pm

Cuspar wrote:Can not do. On holidays in Maui and no way I could get it done... Sounds interesting though!
I see how it is, I'll go to Maui with my family, and Vegas for a bachelor party for a guy I barely know, but the hell if I'll go to Vegas to meet a bunch of my friends for a weekend when they all get together for the second time in a decade. :shun:
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Re: How the game will work

Post by Blackferne » Sun Feb 20, 2011 7:40 pm

Furiel wrote:
Cuspar wrote:Can not do. On holidays in Maui and no way I could get it done... Sounds interesting though!
I see how it is, I'll go to Maui with my family, and Vegas for a bachelor party for a guy I barely know, but the hell if I'll go to Vegas to meet a bunch of my friends for a weekend when they all get together for the second time in a decade. :shun:
Or play a forum based game that requires no travel AT ALL. :shun:
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Re: How the game will work

Post by Blackferne » Thu Mar 24, 2011 4:19 am

Change in the rules.

I've been hesitant to get aggressive with combat to this point because I'm worried about making the maps viable on all platforms(Work PCs, smartphones etc etc) etc etc. So for forum based encounters you basically have to say what you are doing in the post and say what your Standard Action-Move Action- Swift action is.

For example Syric is in a Bar with the Goons wanting to kick his ass. Whitey could say:

Syric HP: 24 Threshold: 12 FortD:12 RefD:18 WillD:15 Base Attack: +1

"I draw my heavy blaster and make my way to the door, shooting at Goon #3
1d20[16]+1+3=20, Damage 3d8 [3,6,4]=13

And I'll respond the same way like "@whitey You make your way to the door and are only 15 meters from it now, you shot at Goon 3 and your shot landed squarely in his chest dropping him to the floor"

So it will be descriptive on movement and location, but actions and rolling is still by the book. So if you want to close range or look for cover or maintain range be sure to note that. "I keep 10m from Goon 4 and crouch behind cover (if available) and shoot 1d20[X]+mod Dmg etc etc".

When we do a live session I'd really like to have maps in play and am still looking at the best means to achieve that.
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Re: How the game will work

Post by Dood » Thu Mar 24, 2011 4:24 am

Anyone else suddenly nervous about the evening's activities?
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Re: How the game will work

Post by Gandolfini » Thu Mar 24, 2011 1:55 pm

Dood wrote:Anyone else suddenly nervous about the evening's activities?
I don't see why. You guys are just watching tonight.
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Re: How the game will work

Post by Whiteness » Thu Mar 24, 2011 1:58 pm

Dood wrote:Anyone else suddenly nervous about the evening's activities?
Let's see, first combat encounter we had no way of winning and had to throw down our weapons, the second time I draw a pistol a bartender draws a bigger gun, third time I shoot a crew member and have to back down, and the last time I was outnumbered and tried to run like a bitch.

I would really like to see how a full combat encounter works, weren't we going to do a test run before we started the game?
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Within 5 squares of Syric: +1 to Healing surges, +3 Diplomacy, +2 Intimidate, +2 Speed on surprise and 1st regular rounds
Between 6-10 squares of Syric: +1 Diplomacy

HP 63 / AC 23 / FORT 20 / REF 18 / WILL 21

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Re: How the game will work

Post by Bulwark » Thu Mar 24, 2011 2:26 pm

I thought this was the test run.

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Re: How the game will work

Post by Blackferne » Thu Mar 24, 2011 2:32 pm

The problem I'm having is as long as we are on forums with people checking from smartphones, work PC's with websense etc etc I want to just make it as simple as possible. The last thing I want is for us to be unduly delayed in a combat round because somebody is like "I need to see the map so we'll have to wait til I get home". Or if I'm checking while out I'd like to nudge it along from my droid to do the same.
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Re: How the game will work

Post by Cuspar » Thu Mar 24, 2011 3:05 pm

We could just de-emphasize the tactical part of any combat, and if someone wants to move to an area that would be difficult, or guarded, or something, Pat could just add a dexterity check. Just a thought from teh nub.
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Re: How the game will work

Post by Blackferne » Thu Mar 24, 2011 3:08 pm

Cuspar wrote:We could just de-emphasize the tactical part of any combat, and if someone wants to move to an area that would be difficult, or guarded, or something, Pat could just add a dexterity check. Just a thought from teh nub.
That is kinda what I'm saying. You guys talk about what you want to do and I'll inform on modifiers etc etc and we deal with the rolls that way.
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Re: How the game will work

Post by Takanudo » Thu Feb 27, 2014 6:14 am

Dicemod has been added for your pleasure. Fair warning: if you try to edit a post to remove a dice roll, it will be put back automatically. For the visually inclined, go to User Control Panel > Board preferences > Edit display options, and select a dice skin under Display dice.

[dice]1d20[/dice] - board is set to use dice=total by default, so this is equivalent to [dice=total]1d20[/dice]
[dice]0[/dice]

[dice=total]2d20[/dice] - hover over total to see individual dice rolls


[dice=string]3d20[/dice]


[dice=total,string]4d20[/dice]


[dice]1d20+3[/dice] - modifiers
[dice]4[/dice]

[dice=total]2d20+5[/dice]


[dice=string]3d20+7[/dice]


[dice=total,string]4d20+9[/dice]


-Takanudo (is happy to help if you run into any problems using the new mod)
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Re: How the game will work

Post by Takanudo » Thu Feb 27, 2014 6:19 am

Takanudo wrote:Dicemod has been added for your pleasure. Fair warning: if you try to edit a post to remove a dice roll, it will be put back automatically. For the visually inclined, go to User Control Panel > Board preferences > Edit display options, and select a dice skin under Display dice.

[dice]1d20[/dice] - board is set to use dice=total by default, so this is equivalent to [dice=total]1d20[/dice]
[dice]26555:0[/dice]

[dice=total]2d20[/dice] - hover over total to see individual dice rolls


[dice=string]3d20[/dice]


[dice=total,string]4d20[/dice]


[dice]1d20+3[/dice] - modifiers
[dice]26555:4[/dice]

[dice=total]2d20+5[/dice]


[dice=string]3d20+7[/dice]


[dice=total,string]4d20+9[/dice]


-Takanudo (is happy to help if you run into any problems using the new mod)
Wow. I rolled four 20s.

-Takanudo (hopes that was luck and not poor design)
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