swils

It's kind of funny: the same details that I've managed to read once and then neglect at a later point, are the same types of details that I'm a fan of using when putting together my own adventures. Maybe I'll have to emphasize the importance of taking notes, if I ever get around to hosting, heh.

Hrm, first the description of the dream sailor class and the weapons it can use, and now an important detail about one of the quest items. I really need to start reading back a few pages before I post XD

Well, no one said we can't be ninja's in the daylight! Although, I just woke up and may have missed a scene-description by Sandy about the sun starting to set, or some such... going back to re-read the post, now

"Well, whatta ya say, Thothy? Hop the fence now, or should we maybe take Bluto back to our friends before we go and get all ninja-y? Should we visit the Necromancer tonight, or hang around for that flower? Or maybe meet back up with Cinna and Bartholomew, see how they're doing, and decide where to go from there?"

I thought hastened just meant you took two actions in the space of your turn on the lineup, not that you were actually listed twice. So I'd say just one hit, but my word is far from the final say, heh.

Nothing wrong with some autopilot strewn throughout. Most MMORPGs employ frequent use of "trash mobs" to populate the dungeons. What fun would it be if you walked in the front door, fought a boss, and left? Bah on that! Especially in a game that uses dice rolls, the random factor can lead to some hectic situations, even in fights not meant to really be challenging. It's that danger that adds flavor. Of course, those fights should be mixed in with problem solving and story telling. (I find myself saying this next bit quite often) Sandy presented Heroica RPG to have a fairly simple, inviting groundwork. I think that should be the focus, especially for combat. If -every- encounter started having all these advanced mechanics, not only would it get confusing, or would people not be as assured about hopping into combat, but I think things would get tedious awful quick. It's the combination of the creativity, and uniqueness of the encounter that really set them apart. Don't throw new mechanics all over just because you can. Save up your ideas for those really memorable one-time fights. (I don't mean to say your ideas were doing that, Flipz. I actually rather liked them, and even have plans for a fight that is very dependent upon player positioning, myself. This was meant to be a general warning ) Oh, and yes, be afraid. Be very afraid. Excited, but afraid. I might not tell you up front what those valves do--they'll just be sitting there in the battle, and someone will either have to put 2+2 together, or throw caution to the wind and see what happens when they attack one of them. Careful, the pipes they control are awfully tangled, one of 'em might even open up towards the party! Oh, and if you find yourselves fighting a Water Elemental while slogging through a series of flooded hallways, you *might* want to think twice before striking it with anything that carries an electrical charge.. Edit: Now if only I could get my hands on my lego collection back home to do some actual set building... grumble

I can't speak as a Heroica QM yet, but I can offer a bit of advice from other hosting: 1) Actually, I'm not quite sure what you mean. Do you want Dak to accompany the party of heroes as an NPC for the duration of the quest? 2) Not to be rude, but it sounds almost like you want to hand out items and levels like candy, heh. Rewards are nice and all, but quests should be about the story/journey. Personally, I think going through an entire quest of fight after fight would not only trivialize the leveling system (and likely annoy anyone who didn't get to go on the quest, see: the cursed firesword from the cave sounds quest, and the little uproar it caused, haha), but it would take *forever*. Combat is arguably the most time consuming part of all the quests so far, and if you want to have a bunch of battles, well, that's a lot of "I want to attack this, then wait for up to 24 hours for everyone else to decide who to attack, then do the same thing again. and again. and again." Some may enjoy it, but I don't think it'd make for a very intriguing/interesting quest. And again, levels/items shouldn't be handed out. Make the party earn them, so that they really value those gains. I like the idea of the wave-based boss battle, but think that it should be one continuous battle with a pause between waves to allow for recovery, so there's still only one XP gain at the end. And if you're deadset on hosting a quest with mostly a bunch of battles, then have the players collect items from those battles, and turn them in at the end of the quest for XP rewards. Might take 4 battles to get enough "Bear Claws" to trade in at the end for a single level-up. Something like that. 3) IMO, Powerful. This ties in with #4 a bit, but if you have a mixed level party, try to avoid one-shotting the lower levels as a result of someone else's action (IE, Lv10 monster with a cleave attack on a roll of 6, Player A has 20HP and rolls 6, so everyone in the party takes 10 damage, including Player B, who only had 10HP to start with), but don't make them so weak that higher levels can shrug it off. Scaling attacks work really well (perhaps a special that deals half the target's current HP as damage, with a minimum of 1, to prevent it ever becoming truly useless), or caps on damage based on some factor ("If this attack would deal more damage than the target's max health, it reduces their HP to 1 instead"). Alternatively, toy around with status-effects, repositioning, etc. There's a ton of ways to come up with powerful, creative specials besides just stacking the damage on. 4) Base the enemies around the party, not the party around the enemies. Everyone wants to be remembered for "That really tough bigbadboss that nearly wiped the floor with the party", so if people start building parties around the encounters, lower level players will be excluded and discouraged. Scaling damage, or creative use of the environment in a battle setting are great ways to keep it accessible to everyone. See that giant Steam Golem up ahead? Well, he may run on steam, but he's not rust-proof. Just so happens that there's a few pressurized water valves around the room, and each requires a certain strength (read: Power) to turn (Consider the valves as separate enemies, Level 0, with varying HP values. Their HP regenerates each turn, so you effectively have to OHKO them to "turn" them). Being made of metal, this golem is fairly impervious to low-damage attacks, so low-level players can't really fight through it's inherent SP. Now, if they take a turn to open a valve, it will spray the golem with water, causing a bit of damage from the sudden impact, AND cause him to rust up for a few turns, removing his SP. Okay, so the party opened one valve, and is taking a whack at him now that his defenses are down... but he's still a giant-frickin-golem. His punches hurt. Now your higher level party member can go open a second valve, and this really causes him to rust up--his attacks are now dealing 1/4 of what they usually do! All of a sudden, *everyone* can really participate in the fight, AND people will remember the encounter for having been so imaginative and out of the ordinary.

He hands Thothwick 35 gold pieces, a sabre, and the fire bomb, and takes the remaining itens for himself. He turns to Bluto, "You've got a knack for brawlin', Bluto! Fought damn well." He holds up the sabre "Think you'd be able to brandish one of these badboys in combat, or is it a bit too unwieldy for you yet?" If Bluto is capable of using the sabre, I'll loan it to him for the duration of the quest. "Visiting the Almagesta's seems as good a choice as any, right now. We'll have to remember to come back here at night."

"That I would!" Updated turn actions for round four: Order: Thormanil Thothwick Bluto Thormanil uses potion from back row. Thothwick attacks Sabredancer B from front row. Bluto attacks Sabredancer A from back row.

"Couldn't agree more, Thothwick!" Order of Action: Thormanil Thothwick Bluto Thormanil will use a potion from the front row. "Bluto, stay hidden until Thothwick has attacked, and then attack Saracen Sabredancer A from the back row row."

Order of Action: Thormanil Thothwick Bluto Thormanil will attack Saracen Sabredancer A from the front row. "Darn, Bluto, you're a natural! Attack Saracen Sabredancer B from the back row row again, show him that you mean business!"

Shrugging off the elaborate swordplay, though fancying it to a hit of regular strength, Thormanil finds a moment to encourage the team, "Great job, keep it up you two! Thoth, if you're gonna go grab your shuriken, I'll brace for a hit from one of the Sabredancers." Order of Action: Thormanil Thothwick Bluto Thormanil will attack Saracen Sabredancer A from the front row. "Bluto, you're doing great! Attack Saracen Sabredancer B from the back row row again." OOC: Sorry for another OOC. I'm about to go to sleep for the night (currently ~1am here). For the sake of keeping things moving, if it's more convenient to have Prof. Flitwick direct actions (I noticed he was active on the thread a fair bit earlier than I was today, and I got up at 7am my time, heh), then you two can feel free to continue with him acting in my stead over the next few hours. I trust him to make good decisions That said, if Thoth is going to retrieve his shuriken, switch my attack to the Pyromancer from the front row, leaving a Sabredancer with the free hit, to spare an extra 2hp of damage.

Actually, I was wondering about that myself. Does the 50% damage reduction from being in the back row apply to this, as well?

"Ah well, your loss!" Order of Action: Thormanil Thothwick Bluto Thormanil will attack Saracen Sabredancer A from the front row. "Bluto, let's have you attack Saracen Sabredancer B from the back row row."

"As my friend mentioned, we haven't got the gold between us to cover yer.. toll. We're not exactly lookin' for trouble, though. Reasonable bunch of men as yourselves, surely we can reach an agreeable alternative to fightin' here, for the young'ns sake?" He nods towards Bluto

Mopags are really miniature molemen. The humanoid bodies are really just shells created and maintained using the latest and greatest magicks from the necromantic and arcane schools. Each of the shells is operated by an individual Mopag. The first encounter between Mopags and the true humanoid races of Eubric was brief, and occurred before the Mopags discovered how to hone their eyesight through incantations and enchantments for better use in the daylight. The exploratory party of Mopags were quickly chased back underground, before they could really get a good look at the overworld inhabitants. They were terrified to return to the surface for fear of persecution, so they began to develop the shells in the image of the overworlders. Unfortunately, the first batch of shells were designed with from the memories of the initial exploratory party, so certain features weren't replicated quite accurately. But by the time they realized their mistake, they had already introduced themselves to the overworld as Mopagians, in the form with grotesquely large eyes, and so couldn't really go back. Thus, the Mopags as you know them today. *The above is completely non-canonical. **The above should be completely canonical.

"Well sure, but I'm not one to hog the glory, or the ecks-peas, whatever those are. Sound tasty. Better to go after them as a full group! "

"Oh, ah, uh. Must have lost my head there. Okay, you two are going to the menagerie.. I suppose we'll down the dark alley to talk to Nemeshtar." "We'll obviously want to hold off on visiting the Bog, and probably the shoreline as well--no telling how many scorpions we might have to deal with before we find a golden one. And demons.. I haven't even the slightest idea of how we'll find them.. maybe someone'll be selling the dust over at the souk later." OOC: Whoops, sorry about the delay. I read that DD was going to edit her post, but then got distracted, never saw the thread get a new post for the rest of the day, and didn't pay it any mind. Glad I re-read the last page or so :P

I don't think any changes should be made unless any glaring issues pop up during play. I think the chance to OHKO is powerful. I think a 1/6 chance is a pretty fair balance for it. As for the Berserker, I actually never thought it was too strong--quite the opposite. While having a shield is a pretty big benefit, I was concerned that the sticky targetting might be a bit too much of a limitation. If anything, I would suggest strengthening some aspect of the Berserker. What happens when we get a group of smart enemies, and you start wailing on one, but then all of a sudden, it switches to the back row? You're stuck targeting it, despite having your damage halved. I think having the shield's SP added into the damage equation somehow for Extra Furious Critical Hit at least might be interesting :P Edit: As always, Theorycrafting < Playtesting, so let's just have some fun with any that might be OP, and iron it out after the fact, heh.

While waiting for the man to unfold the paper and look over it, Thormanil turns to the group, who seem to have gathered near the center of the square "Just one minute, I'll be right with ya! Thothy's right though, we should split up, at least while we're in the city and investigatin' and what-not. If we have to do anything more than visit a shop or house, say, chop down a man-eatin' wildflower in that one garden, we should probably regroup 'fore we tackle it." The paper plane hitting him in the back of the head, he turns back around to the man on the roof. Hearing what he had to say, Thormanil thanks him and hurries back over to the group.

"OH, RIGHT! I UH.." He takes a copy of the list and folds it into a paper aeroship, which he throws up to the man "GROCERY LIST OF SORTS. ANY SUGGESTIONS?"

For the more complicated rolls, I was just planning on adjusting my turn posts as follows, using Spellblade as an example, on a turn in which I want to use physical attacks rather than magic: Thormanil will attack Enemy#1 from the front row. 1: - / 2: Extra Crit / 3: Hit / 4: Counter / 5: - / 6: -

His grogginess finally wearing off, Thormanil looks up at the sky, squinting. He notices a man wearing a turban leaning out from one of the rooftops. Trying to get the man's attention, he shouts, " 'SCUSE ME! YOU, UP ON THE ROOF! ANY CHANCE YOU COULD HELP ME?"

I disagree. Encounter design thus far has shown that enemy level is mostly tailored to fit a damage output, while the health values remain fairly independent from that. A 1/6 chance to kill out-right on any damaging roll is pretty significant, especially at a point in the game where any single player's damage is highly unlikely to have the potential to OHKO any given opponent from full health. The poisoning relates to my concerns with scaling -- At 1 dmg/turn across the board, it's more potent at low levels, but tapers off as the game goes on. Same as HP scaling within classes. Again, I think it's just one of those things we'll have to see how it goes. Might turn out that it works better as Venom rather than a toxin, applying a separate poison-type debuff that stacks with weapon-tipped poisons. Who knows? Heh. Edit: Although, the Berserker not being able to change targets thing did throw me a bit. I'm assuming the balance lies in the fact that they get 3x crit and a shield, but for not being able to change targets, I might have liked to see perhaps a 3x reg. crit, 4x extra crit, or maybe a damage reduction beyond the shield. Not sure if the limitation is balanced by the benefits. As always though, we'll see how it plays out

Just noticed this point. I didn't particularly see this as an issue, but then, maybe I *want* to dismiss any beneficial flaws with a branch of "my" class.. (typical behavior in a game-community with varying classes, eh? haha). I can see lots of similar "issues" with a bunch of the advanced classes, but aside from what I've mentioned so far, I think we'll just have to let things unfold and see how it all works out. I personally think that Assassins are looking far too strong, and several people have claimed they look forward to playing them. Maybe we'll both be proven wrong. Let's see :D