Welcome to the Dragon's Egg RPG subforum

[Steerpike]

Yeah when a creature is helpless like that, you are going to be able to just hit it if you want to. Same applies to characters, of course. If you're helpless (bound, or whatever) and a creature wants to take a shot at you, it hits without a roll.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Yeah, that's why I thought Ireth's lack of d20 might not have been a mistake. (Looks like she unwittingly did that right, but still, this is very good to know.)

It would be sad to be lying on the ground next to a pinned monster, then take a stab and miss!

Is that melee only, or can ranged attacks also hit without rolling in this situation? (Not that Baldy can use ranged weapons without PO'ing Brynhild—or hit the broad side of a barn with a ranged weapon for that matter. I'm just curious.)

 

[Steerpike]

You still have to roll a ranged attack, but I usually give a +2 situational bonus for the target being helpless and the target also loses DEX bonuses to AC. Also, if you were standing a foot away I might well ignore the roll

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Oh… if I'm tied down I hope I get shot at. I'm better off without my dex bonus.

 

[Steerpike]

Oh… if I'm tied down I hope I get shot at. I'm better off without my dex bonus.

HA! Good point.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Oh, shoot. Did I just give away a loophole that benefits me?

Kidding of course. I took that to mean that you lose + DEX mods (bonuses)
but are still stuck with – DEX mods (penalties).

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

I don't know why, but last night when I read Ankari's post, it made me laugh so hard I had to struggle to explain my reaction to Amelia, my five-year-old. My mental picture was of Ankari feeling frustrated about his unlucky streak on the inside, but on the outside, his expression and voice radiated confidence as he called out to the party, "Anyone want a quick way out, follow me dooooown…"

The others glanced in time to see him flop ungracefully out the window, then continued their procession out the apparently-much-safer door.


That was just my interpretation of the low DEX check. The official story might be that he stumbled and caught himself since I doubt the DEX check was necessary. I just had to share that because it was by far the funniest moment in the game for me. As a first-time D&D-er, I'm surprised at how much visualization occurs simply from the d20's result. (When I see a 20+, amazing stuff happens. Can't wait until level 3 or so when I can roll 30+ for feats of strength.)

It was actually cool explaining to Amelia why I was in tears laughing. When I was finally coherent enough to describe my mental picture, she laughed and said she wanted to see it. I said we can only see this image in our minds. So now it's official. Dragon's Egg is edutainment, like Donkey Kong Jr. Math.

 

[Sparkie]

I don't know why, but last night when I read Ankari's post, it made me laugh so hard I had to struggle to explain my reaction to Amelia, my five-year-old. My mental picture was of Ankari feeling frustrated about his unlucky streak on the inside, but on the outside, his expression and voice radiated confidence as he called out to the party, "Anyone want a quick way out, follow me dooooown…"

The others glanced in time to see him flop ungracefully out the window, then continued their procession out the apparently-much-safer door.


That was just my interpretation of the low DEX check. The official story might be that he stumbled and caught himself since I doubt the DEX check was necessary. I just had to share that because it was by far the funniest moment in the game for me. As a first-time D&D-er, I'm surprised at how much visualization occurs simply from the d20's result. (When I see a 20+, amazing stuff happens. Can't wait until level 3 or so when I can roll 30+ for feats of strength.)

It was actually cool explaining to Amelia why I was in tears laughing. When I was finally coherent enough to describe my mental picture, she laughed and said she wanted to see it. I said we can only see this image in our minds. So now it's official. Dragon's Egg is edutainment, like Donkey Kong Jr. Math.

I could be wrong, but I thought it was Dave Arneson who championed D&D as a learning tool. There's the mundane things like math, science and english that can be incorporated into the game, but also the character building aspects can have (IMHO) a positive impact on a young mind as well.

 

[Philip Overby]

Hey guys! I'm going to be flying home to America in a couple of days, so I'm not sure how often I'm going to be able to post on the game. I'll try to post when I can, but for now I plan on "writing myself out" somehow. I'll try to work out with Steerpike how I can get worked back in later, I hope. So if I'm not posting much, then that's why.

Good luck!

 

[Sparkie]

Hey guys! I'm going to be flying home to America in a couple of days, so I'm not sure how often I'm going to be able to post on the game. I'll try to post when I can, but for now I plan on "writing myself out" somehow. I'll try to work out with Steerpike how I can get worked back in later, I hope. So if I'm not posting much, then that's why.

Good luck!

Thanks for playing, Phil, and have a safe trip home!

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

The nasty she-beast looks forward to the cute tiny man's return. Have fun in the U.S. When I lived in Asia, I cherished the time in the U.S., and I'm sure my wife will feel the same when we take our trip to Hong Kong this year. Yeah, I don't expect to see you online during that time. Enjoy it to the fullest!

 

[Steerpike]

Hey guys I'm flying again today and arriving back in California very late. Going to be unavailable for the most part. Looks like we have some players who haven't posted since my last post, so this will give some more time. Should be back on track with regular posts once I arrive home. Sorry for the lack of updates. I have a new phone and I suddenly can't post to the site from my phone anymore.

 

[Sparkie]

Hey guys I'm flying again today and arriving back in California very late. Going to be unavailable for the most part. Looks like we have some players who haven't posted since my last post, so this will give some more time. Should be back on track with regular posts once I arrive home. Sorry for the lack of updates. I have a new phone and I suddenly can't post to the site from my phone anymore.

No problem. The break has been nice for me, especially on Super Bowl weekend. Don't rush on our account, we'll be fine.

 

[Ankari]

May I make a suggestion to all players? Phil The Drill has already alluded to it in a humorous way, but I think the message was not appreciated. Dragon Egg is an RPG. The play-by-post method allows for some great character development and strong storytelling. When we write something that is in narrative form, do not react to what could only be garnered if you were inside the character's head.

A good example is Phil The Drill. Many people reacted to his thoughts rather than his outward emotional display and actions. I think it detracts from the RPG aspect if we, as characters, cannot flesh out the intricacies of our characters and must resort to flat action only.

I love Sidekick's Baldhart. It would suck if I start addressing Nissa dialogue instead of reacting to Baldhart. Same with Sparkie and his awesome introductory excerpts from his made up religion. It puts in context what drives his dialogue, but it would suck if I referred to his latest post and told him "What would you have sheathed? My questions or his answers?"

We are building characters. In your WIP (or NIP), you will not have various characters reacting to internal dialogue rather than spoken word. Let's keep that philosophy in this game as well.

The More You Learn The More You Grow.

PSA over.

 

[Ireth]

May I make a suggestion to all players? Phil The Drill has already alluded to it in a humorous way, but I think the message was not appreciated. Dragon Egg is an RPG. The play-by-post method allows for some great character development and strong storytelling. When we write something that is in narrative form, do not react to what could only be garnered if you were inside the character's head.

A good example is Phil The Drill. Many people reacted to his thoughts rather than his outward emotional display and actions. I think it detracts from the RPG aspect if we, as characters, cannot flesh out the intricacies of our characters and must resort to flat action only.

I love Sidekick's Baldhart. It would suck if I start addressing Nissa dialogue instead of reacting to Baldhart. Same with Sparkie and his awesome introductory excerpts from his made up religion. It puts in context what drives his dialogue, but it would suck if I referred to his latest post and told him "What would you have sheathed? My questions or his answers?"

We are building characters. In your WIP (or NIP), you will not have various characters reacting to internal dialogue rather than spoken word. Let's keep that philosophy in this game as well.

The More You Learn The More You Grow.

PSA over.

Not sure what hasn't been appreciated here. I've been trying to do that all along.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Same here.


Technically, Baldhart was aware that Nod hadn't been injured when he was in the cellar - they were there together. She assumed the self-inflicted wound was accidental, and from a bottle because he was soaked with booze. Obviously, I gathered what really happened from his internal thoughts, but I also used my character's knowledge to make what I thought was a believable assumption. She guessed - incorrectly - that Nod dropped booze on himself.

I think my use of the phrase "self-inflicted" made it appear that Baldy guessed the truth, and maybe seeing the broken glass could be a stretch, but I didn't think I crossed the line. As Phil used humor and didn't make much out of it, I didn't offer an explanation. But if it's necessary to explain why Baldhart knew what she knew, there it is.

Like I said, I wrote her jumping to the wrong conclusion, and I thought I was using only information she could know. I think one thing to keep in mind is we all have different interpretations of what our characters see, and internal dialogue helps form that interpretation. A barbarian has "combat sense" as a skill. I imagine she'd notice things like broken glass in someone's hair when curious about a wound that wasn't there when she personally escorted uninjured Nod to safety. She would be curious because she left Nod with Burnbright and assumed he was fine and they were safe.

Understandably, any of you could have read that and said, "Oh, c'mon! What is Baldhart, a CSI?"

 

[Phietadix]

May I make a suggestion to all players? Phil The Drill has already alluded to it in a humorous way, but I think the message was not appreciated. Dragon Egg is an RPG. The play-by-post method allows for some great character development and strong storytelling. When we write something that is in narrative form, do not react to what could only be garnered if you were inside the character's head.

A good example is Phil The Drill. Many people reacted to his thoughts rather than his outward emotional display and actions. I think it detracts from the RPG aspect if we, as characters, cannot flesh out the intricacies of our characters and must resort to flat action only.

I love Sidekick's Baldhart. It would suck if I start addressing Nissa dialogue instead of reacting to Baldhart. Same with Sparkie and his awesome introductory excerpts from his made up religion. It puts in context what drives his dialogue, but it would suck if I referred to his latest post and told him "What would you have sheathed? My questions or his answers?"

We are building characters. In your WIP (or NIP), you will not have various characters reacting to internal dialogue rather than spoken word. Let's keep that philosophy in this game as well.

The More You Learn The More You Grow.

PSA over.

I never saw this happening, would you care to give examples?

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Well, I wrote this:

I look at Nodrick. He's bleeding! "What in the world happened to you?" Was I so focused on Burnbright's blood that I failed to notice the tiny man was hurt? "Hold still... Rydh!" I bend over Nod's head and--a piece of glass? "Hey, wait a minute..." I kneel down so we see eye to eye. "Your wound is just like mine:" I point to the burn on my shoulder-- "self-inflicted." --the burn caused by my reckless shoulder charge into in enemy made of fire. I begin to laugh at the poor little creature. "Did you reach up to the shelf to get a drink, only to have the bottle come down onto your head? I guess I'm not the only clumsy one around here? Ha!"

So, Nod's internal dialogue revealed he wasn't hurt in battle. He hit himself over the head to make it look like he was hurt. Then he told Burnbright an elf from our party hit him. I can understand how my response came off as mind-reading, but here's the process I went through before responding:

What Baldhart definitely knew: he wasn't hurt in battle - she knew because she was with him until he left the temple.

What Baldhart likely would have figured out: the would was caused by a glass or bottle of booze - I'm not very observant and even I notice a single chard of glass in a parking space from far away. Baldy is a 6'9" woman looking down at a 3' man and is concerned about the wound. She'd look closer, notice the glass in his hair, I believe, and would notice Nod's soaked with booze.

What Baldhart could not possibly know or even guess: (1) Nod purposely hurt himself. Note Baldy's inner monologue which explains what she meant by 'self-inflicted.' (2) Nod blamed the elves, since no one told her that. But she was in the temple with every elf in the party, so I was hoping that information would be revealed.

What Baldhart assumed: he got a drink (correct) and was too short to reach it so he hurt himself (incorrect) - he's short, so he gets hurt reaching high places. Well, I didn't think that was a stretch.



Again, I'm not trying to be defensive. I'm showing this to explain that, yeah, we do read inner dialogue/monologue. What we do with that information is part of the process when it comes to writing realistic reactions.

Sparkie and his awesome introductory excerpts from his made up religion… puts in context what drives his dialogue

This is exactly where I'm going. Our characters' inner thoughts give context. They may also give visual clues. When Sparkie writes a bible quote, that's a facial expression for Rydh. He feels remorseful. I can have Baldhart say, "Don't beat yourself up over it, Rydh." She can't say, "The First of Battles has so many stories of warrior women! You can preach at my church anytime!"


The reason I'm responding to this as much as I am is that, while I agree that misusing character's thoughts is cheesy, it would also hurt the game if you went out of your way not to use information your character doesn't know. A perfect example is our last battle that could have turned out tragic.

Bladhart left Rydh with a stunned creature thinking Rydh and at least two others will finish the wounded beast. When Rydh didn't follow Baldy to the basement, she could have assumed (1) Rydh's dead, (2) everything's fine and Rydh is with the party getting the priest out, or (3) she left him trapped in a fiery hallway with a creature that keeps dodging his attacks and will drop him if she doesn't get her butt back there.

I knew (3) was the correct assumption, but didn't know what I would assume without having that map. No way am I going to ignore the map and get players killed because my character doesn't have information that I do have. As long as the correct action is a realistic action, I'm taking it. (The action I didn't take was to turn back as soon as I realized my goof could get our healer killed. Baldhart had to finish getting Burnbright out before turning back even though I wanted her to turn back right away.)

Note the dialogue between Rydh and Baldy as they rushed to Cadell's aid. They didn't know he was in danger, but of course Sparkie and I did. "Making sure the party is safe" was a good enough in-game reason to hurry over there. EDIT - The in-game reason to hurry was the collapsing ceiling.

 

[Phietadix]

I will be incapable of being on either Saturday or Sunday. So a short two-day break from continuing the story for those days would be nice.

 

[Philip Overby]

Hey everyone, I'm in America now, but still kind of busy, so I just wanted to check in. I hope to jump back into playing once my trip is over in a couple of weeks.