Preserved Topic: The Dragonhunt -- Ozone Asylum D&D Campaign Logs & Commentary

If you're wondering what this thread is about, go here to find out where we're picking up.

I just played an excellent session with Veneficuz, and I figured I should post the log right here. If you're in the game, you're encouraged to read this when you've got a chance; if not, read it for fun! Perhaps you'll enjoy it, perhaps not, but I really go for a very strong narrative feel to my games, in the hopes that they'll be entertaining to bystanders as well as participants.

Kudos to Veneficuz for playing a good game (although he really should have closed his eyes... read the log and you'll see what I mean ). I expect this to be an excellent campaign!

I'm playing the second half of Veneficuz's prologue at the same time this Saturday: that's 18:00 GMT -- that's 12:00 noon in US Central Standard Time, and 7:00 pm in Norway. Everyone is welcome to get OpenRPG and have a look at what we're doing. We're on the Dragonhunt Campaign Server, and the campaign room password is ozone.

edit: I'm informed that on a dialup connection, getting the components to run OpenRPG takes a while. Be warned. Worth it, though.

[This message has been edited by Perfect Thunder (edited 01-03-2003).]

well, i'd definately like to watch. i've never seen anyone play dnd, let alone play it myself. i like rpg's though so it should be interesting to watch
thanks!

I doubt closing the eyes would have worked, because that is kind of what I did when the sun reflected in the sword only not voluntarily

It was none the less a great session and I hope the next one will be as good.

edit: The link to the log doesn't seem to work...
_________________________
"There are 10 kinds of people; those who know binary, those who don't and those who start counting at zero"

[This message has been edited by Veneficuz (edited 01-03-2003).]

Works for me; could be my server was down.

As for closing your eyes, the answer was at least something like "I avert my eyes from the blade." Just enough to prevent his trick from getting you.

edit in response to below post: Well, I'm certainly not holding it against you! At this stage in the game, things like that are going to make a small difference in the storyline, but not kill you.

[This message has been edited by Perfect Thunder (edited 01-03-2003).]

... but he was inexperienced in combat and in awe of the great master he was fighting so that thought never occured to him.

The log page is working now, so whatever was wrong seems to be "fixed" now.

_________________________
"There are 10 kinds of people; those who know binary, those who don't and those who start counting at zero"

[This message has been edited by Veneficuz (edited 01-03-2003).]

Here's the transcript of today's session, where Morgan meets an old friend (?) of Aaron Wrenfall, visits the cosmopolitan city of Ilium, and follows the trail of anger and despair that follows the mysterious Dorothy Durai, until he can finally confront her on her home ground.

The log.

And chokes...hehe...

He'll never get that harp...

The final section of Veneficuz's prologue. Enjoy!

WebShaman, Tikigod, Skaarjj, get at me and let's get your prologues rolling. I'll work your characters into each others' prologues if it's feasible.

I'm up for Saturday...around 8:30 evenings...

Saturdays are good for me also...

I'll icq you with my charecter ideas.


-tiki, cell 478

Good, good. These days, I'm usually on around 20:00 GMT until whenever; but I've caught the plague (well, the common cold), and I'm having trouble sleeping, so who knows? If I never seem to be on, just shoot me an email.

WebShaman, Q me or email me with your background, a rough character sheet, and any abilities or techniques you'd like to have. Or, if you prefer, I'll be glad to just whip something up for you; and then you can tweak your powers, or map out an upgrade path, on your own once you feel more comfortable with the setting. Past experience has shown that players tend to be a bit "timid" in creating their own powers, since they don't want to be considered power-gamers. Rest assured that in the Dragonhunt, that's not as much of a concern.

I believe I originally said something like 72 + 6d4 points to allocate among abilities? That turned out to be on the high side, so we're making it 64 + 6d4. (Easier to remember, too.) This means that you can easily pop an 18 or whatever into your main ability, but more than that will require penalty scores as well. Oh, and if you get racial bonuses or penalties, they affect your maximum in that ability, too. So a half-elf can't have more than 16 Con to start; but a hobgoblin can have 20 Str.

Allow me to interlink two threads that may be of mutual interest.

[This message has been edited by Perfect Thunder (edited 01-07-2003).]

Next session is WebShaman's prologue -- teaser graphic here.

19:30 GMT -- that's 8:30 pm in Germany, 1:30 pm U.S. Central Standard Time. Anyone who wants to kibitz is welcome to; you'd also have the option of picking up an NPC and running him around the battleground.

For anyone who is following along, the transcript of the latest session is here. Not terribly eventful from an overall plot perspective, but some interesting things happen at the beginning and end.

The next session (WS, set it up with me) will have more "meat" to it, as far as startling occurrences and dramatic personalities.

Tikigod's prologue is on the front burner. We're waiting for a time to do the second half of WebShaman's prologue, but there's no reason everything has to be in chronological order.

Therefore, Tikigod, let's set up a time to play your prologue. After the events of WS's prologue, you'll be up to 4th level, meaning that you'll have a slightly larger bag of tricks.

Teaser graphic.

We'll incorporate Skaarjj into this prologue as well, so let's set up a time that's Australia-friendly.

that being any time from GMT 0000 to GMT 1500

Some new information on the Dragons page.

WebShaman, when would you like to play the second part of your prologue? (Conversely, if you're not really up to it, let me know early.)

[This message has been edited by Perfect Thunder (edited 01-17-2003).]

Given everyone's schedules, it's looking like I might have made a bit of a mistake recruiting the regulars of the other campaign to play in mine. I think this is a good time to ask if a reorganization is in order. Right now we've got some good characters and ideas that can lead to an excellent game, but we haven't really gotten underway yet.

If any of you think that it'll be too much trouble to play in my campaign as well as Veneficuz's, then it would be for the best if we shuffle players now, instead of later. I honestly don't want to force anyone to bend their schedule to the breaking point just for my game; and for my own sanity, I don't want setting up a full-party session to be like negotiating a new miner's-union contract.

Another alternative -- perhaps we could settle our scheduling woes right now by agreeing to play on alternate weekends?

I have no problems with that...however, we'll need the input from the others, of course...

That would actually work very well for me. I've had several people in the Asylum and out ask me if I was taking more players for this game, so I've considered starting a second party, whose story would run alongside yours, and maybe overlap on occasion. (edit: the point being that if the first party were playing every other weekend, the second party could play in the "off" weekend, while Veneficuz's campaign runs.)

Insider, Cprompt, anyone else who chimed in -- still interested?

[This message has been edited by Perfect Thunder (edited 01-20-2003).]

Every other weekend sounds fine to me. The amount of playing was beginning to get to my normally very understanding wife.


-tiki, cell 478

Dragon*bump*!

Hey, I was just about to post here, now you saved me the trouble of finding the thread!

Two things! First off, from the other RPG thread:

quote:

---

I'm ready any time during the weekend. If you want to play the Dragonhunt at the same time as this last session -- 1100 GMT -- I can handle that.

---

Sound off, gentlemen!

The other thing is for WS. I did a little research on Lone Wolf and Cub, and considered how to relate the general idea (palace intrigue leads to rogue samurai) to the hobgoblin Kingdom of Sune. Here's what I came up with:

You know from the website that the Kingdom of Sune has a two-tier government. Overall policy and international affairs are controlled by the dragon Shadow-watcher and his three dragon underlings. Then the nuts and bolts of daily government are handled by a hobgoblin feudal structure.

In the hobgoblin government, powerful nobles act as provincial governors, and form the national legislature. The king is the chief military executive, and is the head of the judicial system. He has three personal ministers.

The Chief Executioner is the supreme judge of the legal system: when a nobleman is condemned by the court, the Chief Executioner commands the military operation against him (since no noble goes down without a fight). The Grand General is in charge of military operations against other countries. And the Prime Minister is deals with peacetime foreign relations, and is the king's representative in the Council of Lords.

The dragon government interfaces with the hobgoblin government through the three dragon overlords -- one oversees the lords (retaining ultimate veto power on laws, for instance), one oversees the military, and one oversees the commoners (infrastructure, farming, etc). Shadow-watcher, the dragon ruler, is also known to have a secret society that looks after his interests.

WS, you've said your character is the son of the Chief Executioner, but some sort of intrigue forced him to flee the country. Here's my suggestion:

A public scandal forced the indictment of a noble named Seishiro Kagami on charges of rape and murder. Overwhelming evidence piled up against him in court, leading to an obvious verdict of guilt. Since the victim was a noble heiress, the sentence was death. Your father, in his role as Chief Executioner, had a responsibility to ensure justice; and even though Kagami pled guilty to the crime, your father came to believe that the entire situation was a frame-up.

Ignoring the dragon goverment's urging for a quick trial, your father chose to investigate the crime on his own, instead of trusting the investigators who'd argued the case. (Normally, in hobgoblin law, the prosecution and defense each investigate the case, and present conflicting interpretations of the evidence.) Your father went to Seishiro Kagami's manor alone, trusting that the lord would assist him in clearing his own name. Instead, your father was killed, and Kagami was blamed.

The four dragons flew at the head of a punitive army and razed Kagami's manor. Then, after killing Kagami summarily, they declared that the office of Chief Executioner had proven itself ineffective, and called on the Council of Lords to dissolve it.

You were just a child at the time. All you remember is that your father left and didn't come back, and then your family friend Genjiro Hideki, the "mad general," came to you at home and took you on a "tour of inspection" of the new southern holdings. Instead of stopping at his camp, however, he took you straight out of the kingdom and rushed you to a temple of Michael. He left almost immediately, but his last command to you was to serve Michael as you would have served the king.

How does this sit with you?

Tikigod, you might be interested in the new Stealth page. Next up is Warcraft.

Oh, and since I'm not sure where it'll fit into the final page structure, I'll mention right here that all the numbers associated with the Jump skill will be increased to allow some serious Jackie Chan stuff; and there'll be a companion skill, informally called "High Jump," which will synergize with Jump to allow some serious wire-fu. (Each style/class has a different name for it -- WS's character would call it something like "Wings of Flame," and he'd manifest broad flaming wings on each jump, for example.) So if you're willing to drop two skillpoints into jumping each level, you can end up with some serious mobility.

If anyone's curious what a mostly-complete fighting style looks like, there's the Sleeping Dragon style. Fun with CSS -- the only graphic on the page is the Dragonhunt logo.

Ok, so Saturday, at GMT 11:00?

Everybody ok with this?

I'll be there...I'll be a lurker, but I'll be there

I doubt that I'll be there...

Good luck with the campaign anyhow

_________________________
"There are 10 kinds of people; those who know binary, those who don't and those who start counting at zero"

^Gothic freak!

We'll miss you, V... (sniffle) Remember, you can only listen to Cradle of Filth and Death in June for so long before you need a fluffy-bunny break!

Well... more information. This is some stuff that should have been around during character creation, so you're all welcome to shift points around if you want to change your skills.

Oh, and there's new information on the culture page, but none of it is terribly important. Read it eventually, that's all.

[This message has been edited by Perfect Thunder (edited 02-01-2003).]

The "cool moves" have a downside, whose magnitude has yet to be assessed. I'm very worried that it'll just be too much... too much "I forgot I even had that move" and too little "I pull out the move which Alan had in mind when he designed this encounter!" For example, take a look at this, which was also linked from the Dragonhunt thread. A fighter would have all these moves (and many more) by 10th level; a paladin/ranger/barbarian, by 12th. Are they all cool? I hope so. Are they the equivalent of a mage spell list? Essentially. The trouble is that people who play fighters sometimes do it because they don't want to be shackled with big lists of complex tactical maneuvers -- they want to keep their options pared down to "bash" and "bash harder." I respect that.

Skaarjj: Zan's style is slightly different from Itto's. If you rejoin us for the rest of WS's prologue, you may use Backdraft (after missing an attack, immediately make a backhand continuation for 3 kp; if you miss, lose a turn with -4 AC) and Firebolt (your sword turns into a flaming lance, which you fling up to 20m for double melee damage; the sword reforms in your hand only if you hit, otherwise it goes flying).

Hmm... depending on my schedule, I may be lurking.

By the way, Skaarjj, I misused Zan's name... right now, his full proper name is Zanziger LoPresti, Zan for short. Later on, as he becomes a more important and independent NPC, he takes on the alias "Zan Icarus."

Suho, we'd be glad to have you. If you've like to play, there will always be an NPC or two for someone to pick up. Right now, you've got your pick of a prayermaster of Raphael (extreme healer/defender, Zan's sidekick); a hobgoblin paladin of Uriel (knight who defends the proper balance of life and death); two priests of Raphael (healing with a solid dose of blunt-object-fu; one is a very insightful and innately wise youngster, palpably destined for greatness, the other's just a wit); and a priestess of Gabriel with a Type A personality (stealth, marksmanship, detection/guidance magic). Just tell me which one you'd be interested in running (WS's prologue only), and I'll scratch you up a simplistic character sheet between now and then.

When the main campaign picks up, Veneficuz's character will have a ragtag collection of self-appointed retainers (minor plot spoiler, I know, but you must have seen it coming, V). Anyone wanting to help out in a session will always be welcome to pick up one of these guys and help define his personality and powers.

I can't wait till tiki's prologue...you all get to meet Dannyl Naïlo...a...well...you'll find out.

A smelly three-foot-tall dwarf with an eyepatch, a glass eye, a hunch back, a hook for his right hand, no left hand at all, and terrible breath. He rides in a sedan chair carried by beautiful women, is an expert at the ancient dwarven strategy game "get all the gold," eats live fish, and is kind to small children, who are invariably terrified by him. His character class is "Expert," although he's thinking of double-classing to an Aristocrat once he can afford to buy his way into fine society; he has a Luck of 5; he distills his own brandy; and he chews on twigs to "keep his teeth in shape." His poetry is self-indulgent and full of overblown simile, but his egregious lisp makes it almost incomprehensible. He once dreamed of following in his father's steps as a cheese sculptor, but lacked the dexterity to work with anything harder than fontina. In dwarven numerology, his name can be expressed as the sum of the square roots of three numbers all of which are square roots of each other. He has fits of insanity in which he believes he is a dog. He likes pie. Everyone likes pie.

Thanks for ruining the surpise PT...jeeeeeez

Hmmm... playing an NPC, nifty! I'll give this some thought and give you an answer tomorrow (tomorrow for me, that is).

Whether or not Tiki can make it, I'll make a point of hanging around for a little bit at 1100 GMT. Anyone who feels like it can contact me by ICQ, or just look for a Dragonhunt server in OpenRPG. If nothing else, we can chew the fat. Skaarjj, I'd like to see what you've come up with for your character; it sounds like you've been making some progress on the chap.

WS, it sounds like life is getting to you lately. Don't worry about the Dragonhunt, I've got an idea. Although I'm eager to put your prologue "in the can," as my film-major roommate would say, the main campaign will be a looser affair, where a full party isn't always an absolute requirement.

My original idea had been to have a solid four-character party that soldiered on through everything. However, given the difficulty of scheduling, I'm wondering if it might not be better to relax that to a four-to-six-person ensemble, of whom at least three people play each major adventure. The game is story-driven and character-driven, so there'd be pressure on the absent players to read the logs, of course; and I'd like to have a full group most of the time, just because I love you all; but it seems like a more flexible plan might be best.

It would work fine with my overall plan for the campaign. Obviously, each individual character should be in more than half the sessions, or else why bother? But there are only a few chapters (1, 5, 6?, 10, 15, 20) for which I'd require a full roster, so for all the others, "flexible seating" is a possibility.

I know it might sound like I'm fretting a lot about a campaign that hasn't really even gotten underway yet, but Veneficuz's prologues really got me excited about the potential here, and I want this game to flourish and succeed! And I don't want Veneficuz's hard work and sleep deprivation to be wasted.

Thoughts?

[This message has been edited by Perfect Thunder (edited 02-07-2003).]

So, are we actually going to play today? If not, it would be nice to know a little in advance so I can make other plans...

OK, so it looks like tiki isn't going to be able to make it(just spoke with him on Q), so the session is probably going to be a wash. I'm not sure what my schedule is going to be for today--if I was positive that we were playing, I would have kept it open, but it doesn't look like any playing is going to happen. I may end up being around anyway, but don't count on me.

[This message has been edited by Suho1004 (edited 02-08-2003).]

Sorry, I can't make it. I'm on a real big deadline for a Flash demo this week(kind of an emergency thing at work). I'll be on ICQ all weekend but I don't have time to play.

Next week all?

Damn...oh well, PT, you and I can go over some calculations for my character. I've got his history and stuff down, it's just the actual character stuff I need a slight hand with

Well, I've ended up staying up later than I expected (went out to see Shanghai Knights -- weak in spots, but redeemed admirably by Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson, who between them could charm the pants off things that don't even have pants).

Since it's just you and me, Skaarjj, how about we skip the 1100 GMT (since it'll be too early for me now) and I just catch you on ICQ before long? And of course you can email me any time -- signal@IGNORE_THIS.alanmacdougall.com.

Mins, mins! Glorious Mins! Get your personal Mins here! D & D Miniatures.

This message brought to you by the Min maker...hehe...

In response to public demand, I've finally written up how Luck works. There's also a new section on death and dying; the details are a little bit different from usual. Not by much, though, and the changes are generally more generous and forgiving than the PHB version. Check the submenu of the System page.

If you're curious, I've written a bit more about the criminal underworld, such as it is. Read the very bottom of the Organizations page (part of the Setting section).

Oh, and the Logs page also has brief teaser blurbs for upcoming adventures. Huzzah!

What else are people curious about? I'm taking requests...

edit: erm, the website is still at http://www.alanmacdougall.com/dragonhunt/ of course.

[This message has been edited by Perfect Thunder (edited 02-11-2003).]

Thanks for that bit on the underworld. I will be looking into it, hopefully I can get a background going for it. From there would it be possible to get working togeather towards entering the campaign?

For the moment, pencil yourself in. The idea is that if we can get on a regular gaming schedule, but maybe not everyone can make it for every session, we can at least have three or four people per session. That's where you (and possibly another person) might come in. But for the moment, I'd want to finish WS's prologue, then play Tikigod's and Skaarjj's prologues, and then play at least the first "real" chapter... if we get that far, which I hope we will, then we'll have a solid base to include other people.

The idea is that we end up being able to play every two weeks, on average. In practice, we might end up just playing with laborious slowness, and lose interest in the campaign entirely. That's my main fear. (Hasn't V's campaign been in the works for a year now, with only 4 real sessions played? edit: then again, interest there is still plenty high.) So I'd rather have "proof of concept" before I lead you to get too excited.

[This message has been edited by Perfect Thunder (edited 02-11-2003).]

Okay! Skaarjj, sorry I got your message too late to play with you and Tikigod; I would have been able to do it, too, I just didn't have Trillian up out of sheer forgetfulness.

So, how about we play the exciting climax of WS's prologue this weekend? Everyone is welcome. And then, if Skaarjj and Tikigod happen to have a few hours once we're done with that, we can consider bulling through to Tiki's prologue, which I'm pretty excited about, too. It'll be one of those really freeform adventures, where you get an objective, a city map, and a time limit, and then we play fast and loose from there. My second-favorite type of game!

My favorite, of course, is the big dramatic semi-scripted sequences, full of revelations, internal character conflicts, and solemn martial arts showdowns, that form the elemental set-pieces of the Dragonhunt campaign philosophy. Sequences like the end of WS's prologue! (/me bounces up and down in his chair)

Avengers, assemble!

I'm good for this weekend preferably Friday night or Saturday morning, before Mrs. Tiki gets back from Baton Rouge.

Wahoo! That means that even if everyone else dies of pneumonia between now and then, at least we'll get to play something!

It also means that we could potentially schedule WS's prologue for one day, and run Tiki's prologue on another.

Well, I'm not sure if my NPC is in any of the upcoming sessions, but it doesn't look like I'll be able to play this Friday--I could probably swing an 1100 GMT Saturday time, though. But don't change schedules just for me--after all, I'm only an NPC. If you happen to play at that time, I'll happily join in. If not, then maybe next time.

Okay, there's now some information up about magic, although it might not be of great interest to anyone except Skaarjj.

What are you folks still curious about? Just tell me and I'll get to writing.

Okay, I'm hearing from Skaarjj that he's okay to play in Tiki's prologue; I hear from Tiki that he's okay to play in Tiki's prologue (a relief!); anyone else? WS, got a time slot free?

edit: And as for Skaarjj and Tikigod, when would you like to play? I'm up for anything, so it's up to you two to hash it out.

[This message has been edited by Perfect Thunder (edited 02-20-2003).]

I'm fine with the usual saturday at 1100 GMT if we aren't doing then already.

Oy, turns out I won't be able to make it on Saturday... maybe next time.

Works for me. I do have to go when my wife gets home that afternoon.

Okay, excellent, we'll do Prologue 3: Grey Light at 1100 GMT on Saturday.

WebShaman, how does your crystal ball look? Got any gaps in your schedule coming up? We can put your prologue in the can given another two hours.

[This message has been edited by Perfect Thunder (edited 02-21-2003).]

This weekend is out...got my daughter...next weekend?

Good for me, provided it doesn't cause an uproar with the other campaign.

New information: read the section on Ilium. If you're Tikigod or Skaarjj, the information is particularly important, since we'll be using it in the next game session (a mere five hours away, and hideously early in the morning for Tikigod and me, so it might not be entirely reasonable, I guess.)

You think it's hiddeously early in the morning for you? It starts at 10 pm for me, and one session didn't finish until 3 am...so

Or judging by last nights session....5:30 AM....It's 6:30 PM now...and I only got up about an hour ago.

edit: The corrollary to the following is that I'm apologizing to Skaarjj. From now on, we won't be doing the super-long sessions. I'm going to set an eggtimer or something.

Yeah, I'm going to start revising my estimates of how long things take to play. So far, I'd been saying that if I think something should take a half-hour to play, I'll allow an hour for it. From now on, I'm going to allow an hour for each fifteen-minute segment. If we need to go down to an hour for every five minutes, we'll do it. And I'll start setting an exact time limit for each session, and I'll break the adventures up into suitable chunks.

So in this case, for instance, we'd have had Cortes enter the city; someone kills a bystander to get his attention; he chases the killer into a building; the killer takes a potshot at him and then the cops chase Cortes out of the building... end of session.

Next session, Cortes goes to a new neighborhood, following a note left by the killer. A murder attempt there is foiled by Skaarjj's character, Dannyl. Cortes and Dannyl follow another tip, and go to a bar, where there's another assassination attempt. This one is too close for comfort, and one way or another, they end up talking to the City Watch. The Watch captain can't catch the assassin unless he uses Cortes and Dannyl as bait, so he gives them what they need to help out: a camera to catch the assassin's face. If they can prove who the assassin is, the Watch can intimidate the assassin's boss into calling him off. End of session.

Next session, Cortes and Dannyl plot and plan on how to take the vital photo. They have maybe twelve hours of game time. They're warned to consider all factors, since even a slight slip-up could nix their chances. They execute their plan; if they get the shot, they have to race across town to the Watch headquarters, while the assassin tries to strip or destroy the camera. End of session.

At our current rate, each of those sessions would have taken about two hours. And knowing how scheduling works, it would probably take a good two months to set them up.

This really isn't so bad. This isn't the focus of my life or anything; I'm quite willing just to say "okay, so we've got a campaign that could take a good four years to play out completely." Whatever, you know? If I get really impatient, I'll recruit a local group and play a different game with them. This is Milwaukee, home of Dungeons and Dragons, and I'm right next to a major university. If I can't find gamers here, then geez.

I just want to know if you're all okay with the idea of continuing on this basis. Limited-length sessions, an acceptance that we can't get a whole lot done in one session, and an acceptance that scheduling will always be flaky.

[This message has been edited by Perfect Thunder (edited 02-23-2003).]

Black Hole, by Purgatory. Pretend it's better, of course. I made it myself, and I suck.

Yeehooo! I'm up for the weekend!

I'll apoligise if I was getting shitty there towards the end...I'm not used to being up so late, and the fact is was late coupled with how long everything seemed to be taking, and how we seemed to be going over the same things three times was getting up my nose.

Important thing to rmember about Dannyl Nailo...unless oyu want to be locked in place for a while, never, ever call him Danny

Well, right at the very end, I was double-checking your plans and actions to give you a chance to reconsider. If you'd had Cortes lure Greylight away while Dannyl set up the traps, I would have given you the win. But it was too late in the session for you to be concentrating, or really engaging in any creative or critical thinking at all. That's not an insult, it's just another problem with playing for so long. We were all pretty tired. If the last part had been its own session, you probably would have been able to win on planning and inventiveness, instead of the entire adventure coming down to a single toss of Skaarjj's cursed dice. (By the way, Skaarjj, have you read the page on luck? Next time you've got something that critical coming up, spend a luck point to make two rolls. I admit that I'd forgotten about it too, or I would have suggested it.)

In general, the more thought and creativity you put into your actions, the less you'll have to rely on luck.

By the way, my lurker friend whispered his plan to me: tell Greylight that you've already got a picture and are willing to bargain for it, then get a snap of him when he comes in to negotiate. I wasn't expecting that, but it would have been perfect.

WS: Awesome. I keep taking lessons away from these sessions... if I'm lucky, the last session of your prologue will be just right, and we can all breathe a sigh of relief.

Since Veneficuz is going to be absent after this weekend, we'll give priority to his campaign. WS, if you feel like playing the Dragonhunt some other time this weekend, post away. Otherwise, we'll just finish up prologues in Veneficuz's absence.

1100 GMT Sunday is the only time available for Ven's campaign as Master uho will not be available on saturday (it's a holiday over in Korea)...so do you want to do saturday at an 1100 GMT again..say with a limit to playing until 1330 GMT?

That's good enough for me.

Good for me! 11:00 GMT on Saturday...

I'm about to start recruiting locally for a tabletop version of the same game. It wouldn't have any effect on you gentlemen, except this: I'm rearranging the website to obscure the logs, since obviously they contain plot spoilers for my hypothetical tabletop group.

So once I make the change, the Logs pages will seem to disappear, and the Characters pages will revert to their pre-game state; you can access the current stuff for the Ozone campaign at http://www.alanmacdougall.com/dragonhunt/ozone.php -- that's right, it's just the base Dragonhunt URL with "ozone.php" at the end of it. Hope it's not too inconvenient. And yeah, security by obscurity is weak like a small child.

Hey, Skaarjj... what kind of adventure would you like for your prologue? Intense combat, exploration, mystery, diplomacy? I've got some vague ideas burbling around, but nothing solid, so I figured if you've got a preferred type of adventure, I could indulge you.

Mystery is good...With a hint of diplomacy...Intense action is not really Dannyl's kind of thing, and the time needed to cast some of his transducer spells makes defense a big issue for him.

It's up to you...but I do love a good mystery, and I'm not that bad a diplomat if I do say so myself (does this mean the watch can't come after me? *prays for diplomatic immunity*)

Tell you what, then... I'll make your prologue a pleasant segue into Chapter One. You might have read about the Spring Festival in the Ilium guide? Well, it turns out that the City Watch wants to do a little spring cleaning before the Festival... just to make sure that the many wealthy visitors who attend the festival won't find Ilium's back streets too "dirty." There's a particular series of unsolved murders that the Watch would love to clear up ahead of time.

Watch business is Watch business, of course. They have to get pretty desperate before they start relying on outside help; and it's not like Dannyl has any particular reason to get involved in the first place. That is, until he gets a telegraph from Ander Kurtzweil. The Psychic Investigator has a lead on a problem of special interest to Dannyl... and the mysterious murders in Ilium are of special interest to Ander. Quid pro quo ensues. Dannyl gets to bluff or bargain his way into the murder investigation; then he gets to investigate.

He might not like what he finds, though...

Dannyl doesn't like much of anything, except food and staying alive...

The lights suddenly dim and a disco ball begins sparkling in the middle of the room...

"Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk,
I'm a woman's man, no time to talk."

Oh, sorry, I thought this was the disco party...

*Does the Saturday Night Fever "Point Dance"*

Watch it, Skaarjj... as an Explodist, you've got to watch where you point those fingers! You fire a light-based spell into a disco ball and man... that's just a lot of destruction.

Hmm... kinda gives you ideas, doesn't it? There are already (minor tactical spoiler) mages who use enchanted prisms to give their spell effects an artificial spread. Maybe you could start a revolution?

Dannyl Nailo -- the Disco Mage!

Say, this brings up an issue that might be useful to know later on -- the physical laws of the Dragonhunt world are different from ours in some ways. For example, light is not a waveform, but just a particle. Photons come in different colors -- red light is made of red photons, for instance. Now, almost all properties of light work the same: a prism sends each color of photon in a slightly different direction, casting a rainbow. Green paint absorbs all photons except green ones. White light is made of all colors mixed together.

Here's the difference: each color of photon has an associated physical effect. Under normal conditions, you never get hit with enough photons at once to feel anything, but if someone were to focus a pure and continuous stream of red photons at you, you'd feel hot... if someone shot you with a laser of energized red photons, you'd burn.

Naturally, given the game setting's tendency toward specialization, there are Light Mages, who specialize in beam attacks using different colors of light. Their tactics are just a little more complex than just firing off elemental lasers, of course... but I'm sure you can imagine.

*Dannyl points the wrong way, manages to blow this topic ot the top of the list. There is no explosion...just a sound*

*BUMP!*

So...WS's prologue is being finished up tomorrow night...anything else being played this weekend?

Whoohoo! Kill the demons! Mash them! Grind them! For the Flame!

No mercy...hehe...

*hobgoblin grin*

Hobgoblin grins are scary, too. Those big pointy tusks!

Skaarjj, I haven't yet done the deep thinking regarding your prologue. But since V is off next weekend and Tikigod is on, I guess I'd better see if we can do your prologue before then, huh? So tell me what time you'll be free (Sunday, maybe?) and I'll probably make it.

I should be free all next week and next weekend...

With edits, this post has become long. Please read it anyway, but skip over the grappling part if you'd like. (WS, you should read it, though, since it answers the confusion we were both struggling with yesterday.)

Give me some help here, gentlemen. Last session had the potential to be good -- a group of half-trained kids trying desperately to take down an enemy anti-paladin who just won't die -- but I wasn't able to move it along fast enough, and when you combine the slow pace of RPG combat, WebShaman and me arguing over the rules (including a feat that isn't even in the PHB, and making up WS's abilities on the fly, as usual), Skaarjj falling asleep, interruptions, delays to discuss this or that finer point, my own ineptitude in allowing the story to get derailed by WS's entirely legitimate technique...

I don't know. There were good aspects of the session, I was doing my best to keep the plates in the air, but it was really discouraging to me. It's trying to tell me not to have combat in the Dragonhunt. Or it's trying to tell me to figure out which battles will be long, and set aside two separate sessions for each one. "Well, there's a boss fight coming up, so we'll play the first three rounds next weekend, and three more rounds every weekend after that until it's over, okay?"

I really don't know what to do here. In tabletop playing, I've always been able to keep things under better control, and keep things moving a lot faster. But between this session and Tikigod's prologue, I'm suddenly feeling like this just isn't going to work the way we want it to.

Can anyone give me some ideas or help?

edit: "Improved Grapple" comes from the Oriental Adventures book. It allows you to make a free Grapple attempt after hitting with a normal melee attack. From the Oriental Adventures FAQ:

quote:

---

The Improved Grapple feat does not allow you to cause damage when you initially establish a grapple using the feat. The benefit of the feat is that you donít take an attack of opportunity for initiating a grapple, and you can choose to use the feat any time you hit for damage with an unarmed strike. The Improved Grapple feat is not meant to allow you to deal damage twice with one attack.

When using the Improved Grapple feat, you automatically grab an opponent after hitting for damage, and then you attempt to establish a hold with a grapple check. You do not deal damage with this grapple check, but once you have established a hold, any further grapple checks you make can deal damage. Pinning works the same way as damage. You must first have a hold on your opponent before you can make a grapple check to pin.

When you have multiple attacks and you establish a hold, you can either continue grappling or continue striking. If you choose the latter, any additional hold you might establish through the Improved Grapple feat has no effect. If you choose the former, you can progress through the normal grappling sequence (hold to damage or hold to pin). Note that once you pin your foe, thereís no point in making any further grapple checks unless you want to deal damage through grappling.

The example character could strike once, dealing 1d8 points of damage, and then establish a hold with the same attack. The characterís next attack could be a normal strike, or it could be a grapple check. If the latter, a success could damage the opponent or establish a pin. The third and final attack could be a normal strike, it could establish a pin (if a pin had not been established earlier), or it could be another grapple check that deals damage. If you win a grapple check, you can end the grapple.

---

When it says "The benefit of the feat is that you donít take an attack of opportunity for initiating a grapple, and you can choose to use the feat any time you hit for damage with an unarmed strike," I interpret that to mean that that's the entire benefit of the feat. The other stuff the FAQ says about the grappling sequence is just how normal grappling works. I hereby add Improved Grapple to the game, since there seems to be a demand for it. Improved Unarmed Strike no longer allows you to start a grapple without an attack of opportunity.

edit (removed previous edited-in comments that aren't relevant in the light of this edit): I just went over the grappling rules from the PHB with a fine-toothed comb, and here's how it works.

First, the attacker makes an unarmed melee attack. Apparently, unless he has Improved Grapple, the enemy gets an attack of opportunity.

If the attack hits, THEN both people make an opposed grapple check.

If the attacker wins, the grapple begins. Now either person in the grapple can attempt to escape, pin, deal grappling damage, or strike with light weapons or unarmed attacks.

This removes all my objections to grappling. In fact, if we'd realized exactly how it works, there wouldn't have been a problem with Itto grappling Garland -- you would have hit with all the melee attacks, but he would have had a chance to escape the grappling attempt.

This also removes my annoyance with grappling in general. I am going to put in a new potion that provides an electric field to deter grapplers at the cost of the defender's own hit points; but grappling in general is now OK in my book.

I apologize for any inconvenience.

Oh, and in retrospect, I'm feeling better, although I'd still like to hear your comments and suggestions regarding the pace of the game. The fight with Garland was nine rounds, it was planned to be nine rounds, and we literally did three rounds an hour. That just can't keep happening. We need to learn the rules, we need to settle exactly what everyone's skills and abilities are and what they do, we need to buckle down and resolve combats as quickly as possible. And when I say "we," I mean we, not "you." As DM, I'm more at fault than anyone.

[This message has been edited by Perfect Thunder (edited 03-02-2003).]

Doing things like this over the internet is always going to be slower, unless we all load up NetMeeting and do voice...Different epolpe's typing speeds vary greatly...and typing will always be slower than talking...unless you talk by spelling each word out letter by letter.

We are having fun doing this PT, make no mistakes about that. It just takes a bit of patience and perseverance...also, being able to play at some point in the week other than the weekend would help to...we really must dicuss that...

I agree wholeheartedly with Skaarjj...just 'birthing' problems, nothing more. I found that we all handled the situation rather well, considering the circumstances. A bit of healthy 'bickering' is never bad...and we all recognized the fact that, as the DM, your word is law. In that respects, everything went fine.

In note Grappling...yeah, that was a pretty...unusual tactic to take, granted. However, my character fights to win, even when the situation seems hopeless...he is is faith, after all. Since we were hopelessly out-matched, I needed to use the things that gave us the advantage - my strength was higher...and our opponent was alone. We had him outnumbered...these were our only advantages. In every other aspect, we had no chance. Thus, Grappling came to mind, to exploit our only advantages. That you, PT, as the DM was not prepared for this, shouldn't come as a surprise...players often do things that 'throw' a DM off-balance. I thought that we all handled it pretty well...and the game continued.

All in all, it was fun...but yes, I need to spend a little more time with the rules *sigh*

Okay, V is away this coming weekend, but it looks like Skaarjj, Tikigod, WS (?) and Suho (?) are free to play -- thus, I suggest the official inaugural Dragonhunt session. Dannyl's prologue, "Silence and Shadow," is underway right now, and going swimmingly, so we'll be able to make a smooth segue if everyone is up for it.

All in favor?

edit: Skaarjj's prologue flyer graphic!

Also, anyone who hasn't had a decent glance over the house rules should at least take a look at the sections on Luck, Skills, and Potions. Particularly note the usefulness of getting your potion gauntlets magically secured against attack.

[This message has been edited by Perfect Thunder (edited 03-03-2003).]

Well, I'll probably be around this weekend, but classes are starting this week and I also started a new job that I'm actually going to have to go into an office for (that is, until they realize--with a little help from me--that I don't need to be at the office to do what I'm doing). So I'm not sure if I'm going to have a whole lot of time to prepare for taking on a new character. We'll have to see how things go.

Can't...I have my daughter this coming weekend...sorry.

Tikigod's next playable time is on the weekend of Mar. 22-23. WS, if you get your daughter every other weekend, you might not be free for that one either... any chance?

If you can't make it, but everyone else can, we'll just do Chapter One without you and hope to get you in on Chapter Two. If more than just WS can't make it, we'll have to put it off until the next good time.

[This message has been edited by Perfect Thunder (edited 03-03-2003).]

OK, per PT's request, here's my post...

I should be available for most of this weekend, since I won't be going anywhere, but that doesn't mean I can spend a lot of time playing and/or preparing to play. I've got a ridiculous amount of work to get done, but I should be able to spare a few hours...

The typical 1100 GMT time would work on Saturday or Sunday, and the 0600 GMT time would work on Saturday.

Also, PT, would I be playing the character we discussed last time?

As far as I know, yes, you'd be taking over from Veneficuz in the role of Morgan Cathyrn. He already sent you his character information, right? Just raise him to 6th level and you're good to go. If you haven't quite had time to browse through his prologues here, I can offer you a one-page synopsis by email.

And since we're already missing WS, we'll only be playing this weekend if Tikigod is on board. So you might have all the time in the world for the other stuff. At any rate, I'm going to be making a concerted effort not to drive players into the ground. Skaarjj is doing all the heavy lifting in this one; once he gets in over his head, his prologue ends and the main adventure begins, but Skaarjj's efforts will have laid an excellent foundation for you to whip through the chapter at speed.

Actually, I haven't gotten anything from V... I haven't seen him around much lately.

I'll be gone all day today, but I'll be home from this evening and all day tomorrow, so maybe we can figure something out.

I'm about to take a nap, then wake to play Skaarjj's prologue (we're having a fun sort of free-form wandering-around thing -- my second-favorite type of game, although it's time-consuming). I'll email your Hotmail address with full details if I don't see you on Q beforehand.

Yep...havin' heaps of fun here...I just got to know one of the best Hundred Deadly Fighters. Nice guy actually...wouldn't have guessed it.

Yeah, I'm afraid that part was sort of a digression, but as long as you're not screaming for those hours of your life back, I'm in the clear.

Tell you what, since we're missing WS, and we might be missing Tikigod, and Suho's pretty busy, and we don't have his character quite sorted, and since I've got a major outing on Saturday evening (1100GMT is 5am for me), and since Skaarjj and I are still ambling through his prologue... how about we just knock off this weekend, and play Chapter One once everyone is completely prepped and available?

Sounds good to me.

And I guess 1100 GMT isn't such a great time...

Thanks for that PT. I am now officially knee-deep in work. Thanks to the deadline given to Saddam yesterday I will have no time this week. For those of you who don't know, I work for the corporate online department at a newspaper company. We basically do the large or national projects that the individual newspapers can't handle individually.

War coverage is one of those things, so I'm kinda screwed till my birthday and possibly after(March 17, the deadline for Saddam is my birthday).

sorry all. I wish I could play, but they write the checks...

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