I sidle up to Grell. "So, uh, you reckon this is real?"
posted by Scholeologist at 2/28/2004 06:43:00 PM

Oh, and incidentally, they haven't tried to eat Spade, have they?
posted by Scholeologist at 2/28/2004 02:43:00 PM

[Barik's TB] Great, they brought us back from the dead just so they could sacrifice us. Or eat us. Or both.

I stand up, slowly and cautiously. I keep looking around. If they grab me, I'm not going to flail around or anything.

Barik is steeling himself for his no doubt painful re-death, and he's not going to give them the satisfaction of seeing him squirm. Or scream in agony, if he can help it. On the other hand, they haven't tied him down, and maybe it's like a dream, and he can just sort of sneak out of here and they'll be oblivious if he stays real cool about it.
posted by Scholeologist at 2/28/2004 02:26:00 PM

If I'm not tied down, I sit up and look around. I don't say anything or make any sudden moves.
posted by Scholeologist at 2/28/2004 12:41:00 PM

"I will come. I'm not sharpening this blade just to hang it up."
posted by Scholeologist at 2/28/2004 06:34:00 AM

I liked hearing about Alonzo's and Grell's character concepts. I'd picked up on a lot of that through the game, but it's neat to hear it "from the source" -- kinda like the "making of" extras on DVDs.

...Most orc leaders wield an Orc Double Axe and have the Two Weapon Fighting feat, which explains the 3 attacks per round.
Well, that and he was at least the same level as us, so he's got a +6/+1 BAB (or more.)

OK, why don't you just come in at whatever level you want, and pick your own stats?
Come on, that's a little oversensitive, isn't it? John's asking why not the 80 points system instead of the 32 point system, not why can't Grell have all 18's or any of the extremes you mentioned.

I know _nothing_ about the 80 point system (when I came in, Barik got created with the 32 point thing). I'm going to guess you can distribute 80 pts among your stats any way you want. So, you could have 3 10's, 2 18's, and a 14. That's an awfully sweet setup for any class. The 32 point system makes you accept a little more trade-offs: to get a higher average score, you have to accept a more uniform point distribution. Incidentally, both of them typically give you averages above the "roll 4d6, drop the lowest" scheme. (The average for that, by the way, is just a bit below 12.)

Curiously, I see now that Barik would have been happy under either system: his ability scores cost 32 points initially, and they added up to 80. So for a "typical" set of scores, they look about the same. It's at the extremes that one sees the big differences: you can't get 4 15's and 2 14's with 80 points (and who'd want to?), but you can't get 3 10's, 2 18's, and a 14 with the 32 pt. system.

are we gonna stop all the griping and get back to the game some day?
That's up to you, Jacob, and Scott. Grell, Alonzo, and Barik's spirits are hanging overhead, and in between blaming you for our demises, we're negotiating terms with the powers-that-be for our reincarnations. This has all been in-game stuff, buddy. :)

Being dead myself, I sympathize with John's frustration over the -1 level rule, wordsmith or not. :) Like it or not, in the game we want to portray cool characters, and everyone _is_ making compromises in the interests of the game as a whole. How often has someone here "played the cleric" because they were trying to let newbies be whatever they wanted? (Thanks, by the way, John.) The front-line fighters -- and keep in mind you're counting a ranger and a cleric as "front-line" -- are only going to be put at more risk, and I just don't see a time in the near future when Linnam or Drusilla is going to "catch up" with our level loss. I'm happy with Barik as he is, in the fray, but he has ambitions of adopting at least the "tactical leader" role, and being a level below that punk Linnam who's always throwing around orders is not going to make that easier.

Part of the fun of the game is getting rewards (for your character) that you feel you've earned. Fighting the boar was, in some sense, the best combat so far -- sure we overmatched the poor thing, but for once we overmatched _something_, and Linnam could say "wow" and Barik felt cool handing out more attacks than he's been subject to finally. Scott's been pretty stingy with the treasure goodies -- and that's fine -- so levels is the primary reward we've got.

We're grieving, okay? If we're confident that we're going to go on and have fun with the game after our characters come back, then we'll get over our concern, level loss or whatever. But think right now about the changes you'd have to make to your character sheet if it was you and not us, and perhaps you'll feel our pain. :) We're just looking for some reassurance.

I've got a copy of the (3.0 edition) DMG, and I've read a little of the first chapter. I think some of it is very appropriate here.
posted by Scholeologist at 2/25/2004 08:13:00 AM

Scott's post at 1:27:42 PM was in part in response to this here.

I think that we all have to decide what we want the campaign to be about. Like Gonzo asked, what's the best part of the D&D experience? If we're all on the same page, everything will be peachy, but I'm worried that if we just sort of keep going from here, the fun will be eroded away at the next deathfest, or unfortunate plot twist, or whatever. If we all know the challenge level, and want to put in the effort to battle-plan effectively, that's fine with me. But I for one didn't adjust to switching back and forth between serious fighting and happy character talk, and only now realize what I should have been doing. Alternatively, we could just change the characters so that we all get along and understand each other and work together, so fighting would be more like the rest of the time.

Side note to the survivors: getting killed is a little depressing, but realizing that all the cool stuff that just happened at the last level-up is going away is a lot more depressing.

I'll be honest, there are a few other things I plan to quibble about other than just the split between combat and noncombat, but on the whole, they're really just minor points.
posted by Scholeologist at 2/24/2004 02:56:00 PM

I find this appropriate.

Spade tries speaking to the beast-men in Badger, from his vantage point near Barik's corpse.
posted by Scholeologist at 2/23/2004 07:33:00 AM

I lick Barik's face and snuffle mournfully, trying to heal him with cuteness. I bark at anyone around, saying "Help him! Help!" in badger. :)

[Bob's TB] Yeah, I knew it would change all the posts, but (a) I thought the first post was too cute to pass up and (b) creating a new ID and getting one of you admins to give it permission to blog would have been a pain.
posted by Scholeologist at 2/22/2004 05:43:00 AM