D&D, burglar alarms, christmas hols, pants
Dec. 9th, 2003 01:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kingandyAvid readers will know that last night was the regular Forgotten Realms game. It was good, though ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
arwel refuses to accept that resting up would have been a better plan than immediately attacking the enemy stronghold, low on health and out of spells. There was something to be said for striking while the iron was hot, but there's also something to be said for letting sleeping dogs lie. Plus - if they were dead set on assaulting the stronghold they would have done well to take the whole party and not run away at the first sign of reinforcements. If you're going to do it, you might at least do it right... give the enemy some actual wounds to lick rather than lead them right to our own poorly-fortified lair (we broke into it last week) so they can immediately attack in force. Luckily they only had CR2 soldiers (albeit equipped with heavy plate armour). We killed 27, and next week there will be 15 more to deal with at the bottom of the tower (I think).
Of course, the plan and execution was all perfectly in character for Dorn Thunderhammer.
samharber spent a considerable amount of time looking up rules that could be used against himself, and insisting that he should be at a disadvantage, when even the DM was saying "No, I don't care, you're fine." I think that means he's Lawful. That, or he's really keen on his back-up character concept.
Burglar alarm went off last night. This was my fault, for not ensuring the (interior) kitchen door was firmly bolted before going to bed - the bolt slipped out and the door swung open at about 3AM, setting the alarm off. Pathetically I then got the alarm code wrong about twenty or thirty times before remembering that it was not, in fact, the code I was mindlessly trying over and over and over - I could remember the shape of the buttons alright but had got the double-press in the wrong place. As if to punish me for my stupidity, the landing light chose that moment to explode, taking all the downstairs lights with it. It was like my own personal slice of hell, the Hell of Noise and Darkness.
Katy helped with candles and was mercifully unoffended. I think she started off a bit annoyed by her sleep being interrupted ("Andyyyy," she moaned plaintively as she pulled her door open after the first couple of minutes of hellish wailing, as though it was my fault or I was doing it on purpose to annoy her, which I thought was a little bit harsh because we didn't know it was my fault at that point and I might have failed to turn the alarm off on account of being stabbed by burglars). Eventually I got my head together, and we flipped the fusebox switches, left the alarm off and went back to bed.
Apparently Katy doesn't bother with the alarm when she is alone, because, I don't know, she likes the idea of strange men wandering around the house or something. And I thought she left it off because she knew I'd be home late ... oh well.
I have booked 24th December - 2nd January off work. Unfortunately most of my friends have not.arwel has, though, so we shall spend that week together, getting into japes and seeing who has the largest christmas presents.
Last night we got into a discussion about the button fly jean. I maintain that it is contrary to the point of a fly, at least on man's pants, which is to allow ease of urination by enabling tackle access without necessitating the removal of aforementioned pants. (Woman's pants have a fly so that they can get the relatively narrow waist aperture around the wide, childbearing hips. Obviously man's pants share this facility but the primary function is urinatory.) No belts need to be undone and there is no risk of pantfalldownage. I have owned a button fly jean in the past, and I found it most uncomfortable as I was worrying about said falldownage.arwel maintained that the only true, manly way to urinate is to undo all and sundry and let belt and trouser flap freely while you go about your business. (Perhaps it is a size issue, I can see certain related logistical points.) ghostbritain interjected with the point that, all urination aside, button flys have the advantage of rapid-trouser-removal for the purposes of nookie, plus it is sexy to tear trousers off. While this is an excellent point, I remain firm in my belief that the button fly is wholly and fundamentally wrong. For one thing all sexiness goes out of the window if you get the angle slightly wrong and get stuck at the first button.
arwel refuses to accept that resting up would have been a better plan than immediately attacking the enemy stronghold, low on health and out of spells. There was something to be said for striking while the iron was hot, but there's also something to be said for letting sleeping dogs lie. Plus - if they were dead set on assaulting the stronghold they would have done well to take the whole party and not run away at the first sign of reinforcements. If you're going to do it, you might at least do it right... give the enemy some actual wounds to lick rather than lead them right to our own poorly-fortified lair (we broke into it last week) so they can immediately attack in force. Luckily they only had CR2 soldiers (albeit equipped with heavy plate armour). We killed 27, and next week there will be 15 more to deal with at the bottom of the tower (I think).Of course, the plan and execution was all perfectly in character for Dorn Thunderhammer.
samharber spent a considerable amount of time looking up rules that could be used against himself, and insisting that he should be at a disadvantage, when even the DM was saying "No, I don't care, you're fine." I think that means he's Lawful. That, or he's really keen on his back-up character concept.Burglar alarm went off last night. This was my fault, for not ensuring the (interior) kitchen door was firmly bolted before going to bed - the bolt slipped out and the door swung open at about 3AM, setting the alarm off. Pathetically I then got the alarm code wrong about twenty or thirty times before remembering that it was not, in fact, the code I was mindlessly trying over and over and over - I could remember the shape of the buttons alright but had got the double-press in the wrong place. As if to punish me for my stupidity, the landing light chose that moment to explode, taking all the downstairs lights with it. It was like my own personal slice of hell, the Hell of Noise and Darkness.
Katy helped with candles and was mercifully unoffended. I think she started off a bit annoyed by her sleep being interrupted ("Andyyyy," she moaned plaintively as she pulled her door open after the first couple of minutes of hellish wailing, as though it was my fault or I was doing it on purpose to annoy her, which I thought was a little bit harsh because we didn't know it was my fault at that point and I might have failed to turn the alarm off on account of being stabbed by burglars). Eventually I got my head together, and we flipped the fusebox switches, left the alarm off and went back to bed.
Apparently Katy doesn't bother with the alarm when she is alone, because, I don't know, she likes the idea of strange men wandering around the house or something. And I thought she left it off because she knew I'd be home late ... oh well.
I have booked 24th December - 2nd January off work. Unfortunately most of my friends have not.
arwel has, though, so we shall spend that week together, getting into japes and seeing who has the largest christmas presents.Last night we got into a discussion about the button fly jean. I maintain that it is contrary to the point of a fly, at least on man's pants, which is to allow ease of urination by enabling tackle access without necessitating the removal of aforementioned pants. (Woman's pants have a fly so that they can get the relatively narrow waist aperture around the wide, childbearing hips. Obviously man's pants share this facility but the primary function is urinatory.) No belts need to be undone and there is no risk of pantfalldownage. I have owned a button fly jean in the past, and I found it most uncomfortable as I was worrying about said falldownage.
arwel maintained that the only true, manly way to urinate is to undo all and sundry and let belt and trouser flap freely while you go about your business. (Perhaps it is a size issue, I can see certain related logistical points.) ghostbritain interjected with the point that, all urination aside, button flys have the advantage of rapid-trouser-removal for the purposes of nookie, plus it is sexy to tear trousers off. While this is an excellent point, I remain firm in my belief that the button fly is wholly and fundamentally wrong. For one thing all sexiness goes out of the window if you get the angle slightly wrong and get stuck at the first button.
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no subject
Date: 2003-12-09 03:30 pm (UTC)What i probably should have said is - The outcome of you entering the Commission Building as you did was actually different from the outcome if you'd entered with a few more hit points, with Nym & Talindra, and possibly Woodrun too, back on full spells and with the full group.
This may be down to me being a bad GM. It probably is. There are several things that could have happened that didn't. You could have gotten further than you did, gained more xp and really fucked Mike & Al off, seeing as you'd gone on this adventure as soon as they'd gone off to meditate.
You could have taken a lot more damage, in fact you should have, but i forgot about the guards with cross bows for a round, by which it was too late. Additionally the reinforcements could have arrived a lot sooner, seeing as you started battering in the door for some 30 seconds, then had a fight for another minute. Gemma's LJ illustrates that Helzig was only conscious through the luck of the dice.
I hadn't given much thought to the defences of the Commission House, but seeing as only three of you approached, i didn't make them that deadly, because i didn't think it was going to be a full scale assualt.
Had all 6 of you marched over there, then there would have been hails of arrows, possibly boiling oil, waves of guards, attacks against you as you tried to break down the door.
I guess i wasn't fair.
But then, the point of the game is to have fun, and the GM disagreeing with your logic and killing you because you're doing something he feels is dumb as fuck isn't fun.
So it's not about fairness. It's about providing a game which challenges you and you enjoy.
Hopefully i delivered that this session.
I won't really entertain arguments of 'fairness' because it's entirely subjective. I usually have to react to what the players do on the spur of the moment, and everything up to the 3 of you kicking the door in was going according to plan. After that it was all on the fly.
I reacted as best i could to challenge and entertain.
In hindsight it would have gone down differently. I'm happy with the calls i made though, and i'm happy with the results.
You're all pretty fucked, you're no better off than you were before, seeing as you still have no idea what's beyond that entrance chamber, and you'll still be hard pressed if you continue without resting, and taking a gamble if you do rest.
But, it was, in my opinion, a quality session, with quality role-playing, genuine drama and a really big fight.
Whilst i personally think it was a dumb move, that's what role-play is about. You all remained in character, and played it well.
I should probably point out that i'm very happy with the group, and the high standard of geek they produce.
Plus, any game that produces constructive heated debates is doing something interesteing, if not right...
no subject
Date: 2003-12-09 04:01 pm (UTC)Anyway. There is something to be said for punishig stupidity, but I similarly have little confidence in GMs who say "Oh, that was the encounter I had statted for the entire party, I was powerless to change it". I think if a subset of the players charge at something set up for the whole party (in the full knowledge of this), it should be degrossed due to the lack of players but also made slightly harsher to punish the stupidity. That is to say, rather than "challenging for 6" make it "life-threatening for 3". Which may or may not be the same number of foes as "challenging for 6", I haven't read the DC rules ever. But I imagine it, in my mind, to be fewer than "challenging for 6" but more than "challenging for 3".
Helzig may only have been standing due to the luck of the dice, but the same could be said for her opponents, with two cleave attacks per turn... one of those combats where everybody kept swiping at each other and missing.
... Oh, I may have been a bit confused about ranger feats. I don't get Manyshot until next level. I think what I did was, I looked up the manyshot feat and started working out when I'd meet the prerequisites, and then realised I'd get it next level so didn't need to buy it with my level 6 feat, then started thinking that if I didn't need to buy it that must mean I already had it ... or possibly I just got confused about being a level 6 character and only a level 5 ranger. Oh well, I only used it once in the session.
Harsh is as Harsh does
Date: 2003-12-09 11:02 pm (UTC)A couple of things.
1. If me and Al were the you would have tried harder to kill us? Thanks Nook, makes me feel wanted.
2. We wouldn't have to rest 18 hours... the Priest of Torm was going to be finishing his meditation 7 hours or so from then.
Re: Harsh is as Harsh does
Date: 2003-12-10 02:45 am (UTC)But clerics of Torm pray at Dawn? Unless the cleric hadn't prayed that morning...?
no subject
Date: 2003-12-10 01:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-10 10:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-10 12:00 pm (UTC)It was a quality session
Date: 2003-12-10 02:52 am (UTC)I'm happy about the fact that Helzig almost died. I don't want her to but the threat of it has made her realise that isn't invincible. This means she might actually stop and think about what she does a little more. She actually isn't as dumb as she acts, she's just impulsive and easily bored; she has room to grow. Maybe she will. Maybe.