Forum Campaign Notes

[The Widowed]

This is a list of notes to be considered in the course of this campaign.

Cyan text serves as the Dungeon Master's voice in-game. The Dungeon Master's voice is unbiased and will speak only to make announcements or advise the players of any relevant rules invoked by certain circumstances or actions, ie:

Yavana has found a secret door.

...or...

Drinking from the fountain has temporarily increased Antinidia's Wisdom by 2.

The Dungeon Master's voice will not be used very often; I only reserve it for those rare occasions when I am unable to describe what has happened through in-game dialogue. The DM voice is strictly out-of-character and metagame; Characters should not react to the voice in any way.


http://mypetdungeon.tritonius.com/DarrovanAinsleyPog.png Darrovan Ainsley, unlike the Dungeon Master (or my voice), is biased quite heavily in favor of the players. Being the Dark Lord of Bardosylvania (even if he has yet to regain his throne as the political Lord of Bardosylvania), Darrovan may pop in and, as an aside, advise the players of things which their characters would know or comprehend (possibly because Darrovan already informed the characters in-game yet offscreen, so to speak), even if the players themselves did not previously know such, ie:

http://mypetdungeon.tritonius.com/DarrovanAinsleyPog.png "Iron doors are twice as heavy and--unless one resorts to theft or plunder--twice as costly as bronze doors, yet iron doors are four times as difficult to batter down or destroy."

New or outstanding quests, errands, missions or other objectives will appear as large yellow header text...

Recover the Libram Tenebra from the Pit of Despair.

...advisories (usually relating to morsels of common sense which the players may have overlooked) will appear as large green header text...

Thorn has not prepared any spells yet. Does the party still wish to break camp?

...and warnings will appear as large red header text.

Alarm sounded! Intruders have entered the refectory!

Other items or conditions will be detailed in-game and in-character as much as possible.

[Akamaz]

NO! not the refectory!!! that's where i Refec..tor...

[The Widowed]

NO! not the refectory!!! that's where i Refec..tor...
That's where you eat, boney! :P

[The Widowed]

Prompts are my concise way of asking a specific player, "What does your character do now?".

In my Play-By-EMail campaigns, simply ending an email with "Actions" is enough to tell a player that it's time for him or her to take the next turn; The email is addressed to that person, therefore they immediately understand that I'm talking to them. In an open forum, however, I have to be a bit more specific. So I've taken a cue from those old-school text-based adventure games like Zork. And hence, the prompt looks a little something like this:


Yavana >


...or, as it might appear in context:


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[Wids:]
The bronze door opens to reveal an intersection about twenty feet beyond, with narrow passages stretching into the darkness to the south and the east.

Yavana >

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[Scarfy:]
Yavana raises her lantern and goes south.

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Multiple prompts can be used in a party with multiple player-characters. With a little editing, this can indicate which players have taken actions and which have not.


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[Wids:]
The secret door's heavily rusted mechanism refuses to budge.

Corwin >
Ashton >
Antinidia >

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[Maz:]
Corwin pours a flask of lantern oil into the gears of the mechanism.

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[Knight:]
Antinidia waits/watches Corwin/does nothing/stands by/chooses the "inaction" option.

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[Wids:]
[...EDIT EDIT EDIT...]
The secret door's heavily rusted mechanism refuses to budge.

Corwin > Oils the mechanism.
Ashton >
Antinidia > Waits.

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[Gaia:]
Oh! Sorry. Ashton watches the west door in case those hobgoblins are still after us.

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[Wids:]
Corwin uses up one flask of oil.

Corwin reaches inside the hatch and copiously dumps the oil all over the malfunctioning clockwork, lubricating the gears and bolts quite nicely. The mechanism's gears--and the massive hinges linked to them--break free of their century's worth of rust and clatter slowly to life, and the masonry grinds slowly apart to reveal the treasury beyond.

Without warning, the party of hobgoblins barrels through the door with an ill-tempered cry. But Ashton is already well alert and tensed to strike at them first.

Ashton may take one free standard action against the hobgoblins.

Ashton >

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So it goes, so it goes.

The prompts can also be used to track initiative and may include enemy actions during combat rounds. I follow the traditional White Wolf order of initiative declaration: Last first, first last. The character with the lowest initiative roll declares his/her/its action(s) for that round first, followed by the character with the second-lowest initiative, then the third-lowest, all the way up to whoever has the highest initiative roll for that round.

That way, the faster combatants (who rolled the higher initiative) are able to anticipate and react to the actions of the slower combatants with the suckier initiative rolls, friend and foe alike.


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[Wids:]
Ashton's hurled dagger buries itself in the nearest hobgoblin's belly, sending the goblinoid staggering for breath as he clumsily advances. Alerted to the threat, Corwin and Antinidia draw arms and enter the fray.
[Bunch of initiative rolls]

Ashton [Init 10]>
Corwin [Init 8]>
Hobgoblin Leader [Init 7]>
Hobgoblin 1 [Init 7]>
Hobgoblin 3 [Init 6]>
Antinidia [Init 5]>
Hobgoblin 2 [Init 3]> Shortbow attack on Ashton.

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[Knight:]
Anti blasts Hobgoblin 2 with his Wand of Magic Missiles. Maybe I can kill him before he gets his attack off.

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[Wids:]
Ashton [Init 10]>
Corwin [Init 8]>
Hobgoblin Leader [Init 7]> Charge, battle axe attack on Ashton.
Hobgoblin 1 [Init 7]> Attempts to hide in shadows.
Hobgoblin 3 [Init 6]> Shortbow attack on Corwin.
Antinidia [Init 5]> Wand of Magic Missiles attack on Hobgoblin 2.
Hobgoblin 2 [Init 3]> Shortbow attack on Ashton.

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See how that works now? :)

To keep the game moving at a reasonable pace during these times, I'd like to impose a two-day limit on the time a player takes to choose their next course of action; If those two days following my post come and go without a peep from the player, I'll either make the character pass on all actions or--in less leisurely circumstances--choose the character's next action(s) in the player's stead.

Does this seem fair enough to everyone? :think: