Session is still planned to go ahead for tomorrow.

Ba is presumed to still be filling in for Roman, Buzzfloyd will be filling in for Delphine.

hopefully much combatative action will transpire.

If you're still doing the actiony bit, is Alton back at the inn for another session?

unless you want us to write him in like he'd been there all the time. or we could say that he snuck along. It's up to you.

Okay, unless anyone has any brillaint insights for an in-character motivation for Alton to have secretly snuck along, we're going to rewrite things a bit and say he's been there the whole time.

watch this space for any specific updates, or just show up on time so i can fill everyone in tomorrow

Gah. not the best of sessions today...

Still, we shall learn from this, or die trying. My suggestions:

1) Until we've got the hang of the basic rule structure, we don't try to learn anything else - which means no using other programs that might include battle maps.
2) Battle maps, as visual aids, are going to be essential for most of us. I, as the DM, need them to keep track of where everyone is and this is important if we're going to follow the rules as written about movement, instead of just going with estimates and hunches. You, as the players, probably have different needs, but at least one or two of you have found the excel sheet to be a good idea if not essential. It'll cut into keeping a vivid descriptive tone, but while we learn the rules we can sacrifice a bit of that.
3) Stragtegy and tactics. The characters in this party include at least four people who should have extensive training/experience in combat; at least two of them should have a measure of training in group combat as opposed to personal combat. I think the party needs a combat leader, and it needs one badly. The characters we've got aren't inherently or automatically well suited to taking orders from each other, and since this is a teaching exercise i have no problem if we have a strategy leader who works out of character.
In character, Sevan and Aidan make the most sense to me as fight leaders. Their backstories and their stats make them well suited to it. In terms of players who know the rules well, I think Roman's better suited to it than doors. This is just my suggestion. If we're looking at out of character leadership, Ba is probably the most seasoned player with this ruleset, but his character is the least likely to take a leadership role. I'd like to know what you guys think.
4) Leader or not, I think we need to plan out the course of action for next week BEFORE we sit down to play. as Grace said a few times, she simply doesn't know how to fight. When I said that course of action X, Y, or Z would be dangerous, she shut down thinking they would be suicidal. As a group, we need to work out where our strengths and weaknesses are and what we can do to improve on that.
This fight is in a tricky position. I'm fully prepared to bend rules and reality as much as needed to make it work for the players, but the players need to come up with their plan of action. It's not playing a game, it's just acting a script otherwise.

Now, there were some questions about the rules for a few things.

I'll try to dig up some resources to help clarify things and make it easier for folks to get into. Since we've only got the SRD for most people to rely on, and it wasn't written to be easily accessible or self explainatory (neither was the Player's Handbook for that matter...), I think some supplimental material might be necessary.

If you will catch me on AIM over the next week, I'll have some more stuff to give out, but for right now here's some links that may or may not be helpful.

1) http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/rg this serries of articles examines various aspects of the rules of the game, sometimes in excruciating detail. "All about movement" might help clear up some confusion from today.
2) http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/gs this serries, now concluded, focused on particularly tricky rules and presented them in a transcript format which I found very illuminating to read. There should be something in there about attacks of opportunity, which might be helpful.
3) http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/er/20030221a this is the FAQ page, the Main 3.5 FAQ is what you're after. Bound to be some clarifications of some rules in that.


Most of that probably won't be the most immediately accessible info, so I'll keep looking for some more user friendly stuff. If anybody finds their own, please link ASAP!

It's been suggested that we could all profit from some smaller groups for training sessions... maybe three or four new players with one or two of the experienced ones.

I dunno when roman's gonna be back, or when ba might be free, but I'm up for the idea on any night I'm home.

If nothing else, it'll be fun to knock together some simple characters for quick demos.

I agree with a lot of points raised here. I think the battle map works very well and it doesn't really interfere that much in terms of roleplay.

I think Sevan would be a good choice for combat leader, I hope Roman wants to take the position. Especially for the first few combats, someone barking orders will be much appreciated.

We should decide on a course of action before next week and this thread would be well-suited (suggested by Garner, and I agree completely).

So... my suggestion for a strategy (also formed after a discussion with Garner):

Form a group with the heavily armoured melee characters, centred around the Tin Can, to the front and the vulnerable characters at the back. We run towards the woods, sticking together, and drop prone at the end of our move. This gives us an AC bonus against arrow fire so we should hopefully be able to reach the woods in the next round without taking too much damage.

Okay, tell me what you think.

Edit after seeing Garner's new post:
That would be a good idea. Count me in.
I'm available:
Monday, Tuesday evening and morning, Saturday and Sunday.

that's really a compromise view based on suggestions from Ba as well.

Looking at it as a soloist, I'd say the way to go is to have a crossbow locked and loaded, charge to within 40 feet of the trees, and drop prone. on my next turn, use a move action to hop up, shoot any orcs in site, and fall prone again. If there are no orcs in sight, move up to 30 feet closer, and fall prone as a free action.

The problem is, if you get caught on your own, you could get swarmed. standing or prone, four or five orcs all attacking you at once could spell the end!

So, moving in mass is the key, i think. Moving in formation is not so vital, but thus far we haven't seen any Area of Effect (AoE) attacks, so there's no dire need to spread out.

if we form up on the dwarf tin can, move at that dwarf's base speed (80 feet max per round, in a flat out run, 40 feet as a double move, 20 feet standard), and fall prone as a free action at the end, then enemy archer fire is not such a threat. if people with crossbows were keeping an eye from the rear and only moved a single move action, fell prone as a free action, and then used their standard action to ready an attack against any orcs coming out from the woods, you could have a fairly solid defense, but you'd move much slower.

until we actually SEE the orcs, there's little need to worry about covering fire.

Okay, this Gametable program that Tephlon suggested looks like it could be useful.

There's only two things we need:

1) You have to have Java Runtime Environment v1.4.2 installed to use the program,

2) We need someone who can host it. BT does something funky with the IP addresses, so I can't. Ba can, but he's on a dialup and we get a bit of lag. Hopefully I can experiment a

Now, you can get the program itself from:

http://gametable.galactanet.com/

and they have a link to download the Java stuff. Some of you probably already have it installed. To check, just go to Control Panel, Add Remove Programs, and scroll down to the J's.

if you see Java Runtime Environment and the version number is 1.4.2, we're good to go.

Hopefully one of our other broadbanders can successfully host for us.

I have been testing this for the last few minutes. Hosting, for me, is out of the question due to firewall restrictions at the uni. Joining, due to said firewall restrictions, may also be in the same state.

Nifty little thing, though.

For those still unaware, the session for today has been CANCELED.

Thank you.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to pull out of the roleplaying altogether. Sorry guys, but I just don't have the time. I'm getting a lot of work from school at the moment, and it's only increasing in amount.

Thanks for putting it all together, Garner. Now I can draw myself up to my full geeky height and say, 'I've played D&D.'

Edit: bad grammar.

no worries, CJ. it happens. if school calms down and you want back in, just say so.

apologies to all for the lack of notice on cancelation. i needed a chill-out day.

is there anyone who's going to be out on next sunday? if not, we can try to get back into the story then.

Not me, I'm available all Sundays. I think getting into a back story is a good idea if we can get everyone together again.

Okay gang!

sorry about the past couple of weeks with the zero-warning cancelation.

I'd like us to all be together to resume gaming this coming sunday. Is everyone available? (discounting CJ, who's been intruded upon by school)

if so, then we'll get back to the real game instead of the fightclubs, and there'll be a significant change.

Ba's ranger will be with the party. He's always been with the party. Do not probe this, as it may collapse the entire space time continuinium as we know it.

If the party cannot find a solution to the oil field encounter, then we'll take it as a learning experience.

failure IS an option. keep that in mind. it's just not a very good one.