Sunday Game Stuff

[Ghost of Bob]

Just a thought to maybe limit the lack of team play in the Sunday game - Do we want to decide upon occupation/race/religion/alignment guidelines for new characters or a theme for the party? The lack of focus has led to clerics choosing not to provide for some party members, party in-fighting (and breakup), and unnecessary difficulties.

I know Bob is opinionated and an ass, but there is a very good reason for that. He grew up in a sheltered backwater and has little worldly experience.

Ideologically, some players have VERY inflexible views and should either post those views or clue newer players in to what their character's hot button issues are.

If we could work on some dos and don'ts, we might be able to focus as a group on completing a mission.

Your thoughts?

[David]

Sounds good to me. As DM, I would like to keep the milieu at least somewhat consistent and you are now somewhat limited as to what new PCs you're going to encounter (the party is in a rural, woodland backwater on the edge of Western Civilization at BEST and usually stuck inside Thorbardin [Dnd's answer to the Mines of Moria], which would naturally limit who'd be there). Reasonably, the area would support Oerdian (default fantasy) folks, plus maybe Baklunish (Celts) and possibly Norsk (Vikings).

Because the party has a number of PCs with Nereganti/Egyptian ties (Bart and, ironically, Mikhail), another of those would work, assuming they came looking for the existent PC. Such characters have the "standard" Nereganti/Egyptian cultural buttons of a) do NOT rob the dead/tombs, b) necromany isn't all bad, c) undead can be useful, d) non-humans are pretty trivial (there isn't even one myth about them), e) their culture is CLEARLY *so* much better than yours (so much so that enslaving non-Nereganti is ok), f) children are very important, and g) if you're not breeding then what's wrong with you?!?

We have one Medegian/Greek PC, Jo, who might need help with her own roleplay but basically, a) humans are better than elves, hobbits, gnomes and ESPECIALLY dwarves, b) humans are the best, c) Greeks are the best humans [although we do respect Egyptians], d) raping defeated foes is a valid way to humiliate them (homosexuality is cool), e) chastity/fidelity is only for women (or men who're pussy-whipped), f) arrogance and equating yourself to the gods is the greatest hubris, and g) you might THINK you're worshipping Thor or Ra, but really Zeus or Apollo is just humoring you until your culture is ready to get the correct form of worship cuz you're not Greek (although well-traveled Medegians/Greeks know better).

Oerdians in the party (like Bob) are from basically "default fantasy European" culture, BTW (makes 'em easy!). There is, however, a distinction between Suel and non-Suel (Flan and Oerdian with book-defined Baklunish gods redefined as one of those two since my Bakluns are Celts) gods...the former include Lendor, Wee Jas, Kord, Lydia, Bralm, Phaulkon, Traala, etc.

That should leave only Baghsheer as the only "undefined" human -- he's from Tabot...and is about as mysterious as that is to you.

Dagna and Calin are dwarves and unless you're in a coma, I'm sure you've read and/or seen Lord of the Rings. And, yes, my dwarves do have some issues with elves...and the only hot dwarf is a bearded one, regardless of the shape or placement or type of reproductive organs...!

Talesin is an elf (what kind, David?) and thus also much like Tolkein's prototype. And that includes ethnocentrism and slight haughtiness, ESPECIALLY toward dwarves...and metrosexual gender-bending is a way of life...

NO ONE is culturally familiar with ANY of the following (except as noted):

• psionics -- they're a form of witchcraft or MAYBE innate sorcery such as gnomes and drow possess (clearly, Mikhail knows better)
  
  
• witchcraft -- they're all evil and have sold their souls (Egyptians and Elves know better while Greeks are distrustful but POSSIBLY tolerant)
  
  
• spell-jamming -- wizards put in on peanut butter toast, right?
  
  
• cosmology -- the world is laid out JUST like your myths, which means humans (other than Oerdian ones) think it's flat and you'll fall off...
  
  
• drow -- unknown unless you're an elf (some limited knowledge) or dwarf (even less)
  

[Ghost of Bob]

Quick question regarding wearing armor attachments - If the piece does not add to overall armor class, why do we need them? Bob was wearing Red Dragon-hide gauntlets to protect his hands and wrists, however they were not even taken into consideration when a crit landed to that area of his body. I thought the incentive to wearing the other pieces of armor in D&D was to provide protection against area-specific hits and crits.
Am I wrong in assuming the question of what kind of protection an area has should come up before a crit table result is enacted? Does wearing a gorget not protect one from simple strangulation results? I'm just saying...
I feel like the excitement of a good roll sometimes clouds the appropriate follow-up question. The gauntlet should have negated a simple bite crit to the hand or dropped it down in severity. (I mean you don't see manes eating through dragons often, do you?) A result of broken wrist would have been more accurate had the armor been taken into account.
If rolling for individual attacks from ticks and fleas nightly, we would have decapitations occurring regularly over time. What happened has happened, but for future can we ask for the game more interactive? I know monsters have allowed armor and shields to affect crit results in the past. Am I just being whiny?

[David]

Actually, Adam, you bring up a good point. I think we touched on this Sunday, but to recap for everyone (and thanks, Aaron, for your two cents too!)

Armor DOES make a HUGE difference with crits. It's the major difference between "light" and "heavy" tanks. A heavy tank wears armor which means many crits get ignored or reduced but that's already built into the crit. Many read "Head struck, helm damaged, victim stunned 1d3 rounds; –2 to all attack rolls if victim had no helm (in addition)" or "Leg injured, minor bleeding, 1/4 move, –2 to attacks; if victim has no armor, leg broken, major bleeding, no move, –4 to all attacks (in addition)" -- those are real crits I added, actually. So piece-meal armor or helms make a MAJOR difference, as those who play light tanks (like Ray's Marc or Paul's sumo, Genji) can certainly shake a severed limb or broken rib at...!

Bob's crit was on par with the one Daj would have gotten (but avoided thanks to her mirror image) -- whatever was hit was coming off. Pretty much any rolls that adjusts to a crit of 11 or 12 is lethal or severing.

[Ghost of Bob]

Well, it never hurts to get clarifications. We obviously need more magic armor in our loot if we get our butts handed to us by orcs when the party is mostly 5-6th level...
(okay, there were about 200 of them, but really?).

[aaronthecow]

We also had blown quite a few of our spells previously with the orcs out side, so more like 500 orcs total...

[Ghost of Bob]

Hey now! Let's not let context get in the way of a good complaint... (ha.)

[David]

Without my notes in front of my, I think over the second day of this game, the heroes have slaughtered about 200 orcs...with another 150 or so from the previous day...plus orogs and ogres and such.