[OOC] A Silence at Midnight

[Corwin]

Welcome! The game thread is here: A Silence at Midnight. It'll be made public as soon as I've got it fixed up and I'll PM you when it's ready. Please take a few moments to read this over, particularly if you're new to play-by-post or West Marches, and post below to let everyone know that you've found the game threads and are ready to go.

Also, please click Thread Tools > Subscribe to this Thread at the top of the page both here and in the Game Thread, which will add the thread under the My Account navigation link and give you an option to receive emails when new content is posted. Much thanks to secretID for the guide below, which I've totally butchered.

DM Requests 1) Please use at least minimal formatting in your posts for legibility. During combat, that includes a separate section (under a button or in a fieldset) stating movement, action, etc. Let me know if you need a template to copy - I knew nothing about formatting when I came to RPGX. 2) Please include a link to your character sheet somewhere in your post template. 3) Please keep OOC-only posts in this thread. An OOC comment within a regular game (IC) post is fine.

Intro to Playing West Marches The West Marches is the name of the area surrounding Westhaven, but more importantly, "West Marches" is type of D&D game setup that differs from longer campaigns by taking place in the course of a D&D single adventuring day. That doesn't necessarily mean that the party will be back in Westhaven by nightfall. The big differences: 1) Short rests - Your party members are limited to benefiting from only two short rests over the course of an adventure. 2) Long rests - You can sleep outside Westhaven if necessary to avoid Exhaustion, but no abilities, spell slots, etc, are regained by long resting. So, think strategically about how and when you use anything regained on a short rest compared to the condition the party is in overall.

Play-by-Post Play Speed and Common Courtesy 1) I think everyone has posted that they expect to keep up a 1-2 day posting pace, which is great. In reality, some player posts are necessarily delayed waiting for the outcome of other player posts and some situations require discussion in the OOC thread, so the pace will be dictated by the state of the game as much as by player speed. That said... 2) If you'll be away for more than a couple days, please let everyone know in the OOC thread. If the game bogs down for more than 48 hours since the last player has posted and is stuck waiting for a post for no apparent reason, I may NPC your character for a turn or assume that they're going along with the rest of the party's decisions to keep things moving along. 3) Before you post, PLEASE closely read the new posts in the game and OOC thread. Someone may have given you a crucial buff or taken an action that gives you advantage, or someone may already have accomplished something that you would otherwise try to do, and missing such important points slows the game down for backtracking.

General Tips 1) Unless there's an open-field combat that's really easy to describe in words, there will be maps. When there are maps, please include the grid co-ordinate that you're moving to in your action block. 2) Remember that this isn't a combat-only game; look for opportunities to use skills and non-combat abilities.

Combat Tips and Notes 1) Visibility/darkness may matter, so keep light sources in mind. 2) Cover bonuses for terrain (+2AC for 1/2-cover and +5AC for 3/4-cover) will be applied as below. If you're not sure if your PC's location can provide cover, just ask in the OOC thread. On grid maps... -If you can draw 4 unblocked lines from any corner of your square to all corners of an enemy's square, they have no cover. -If you can only draw 3 unblocked lines to corners of a target square, the target has 1/2-cover for +2 AC. -If you can only draw 2 or 1 unblocked lines to corners of a target square, the target has 3/4-cover +5 AC. -If it isn't quite clear from the map, and sometimes it might not be because map features don't align perfectly with the grid, go with the more generous interpretation. -If a corner is blocked by a map feature, you and the enemy can't melee diagonally through that corner. -Movement in any direction costs 5 feet (no 5/10 rule for diagonals.) If a corner is blocked by a map feature, you can't move through it diagonally; you have to use 10 feet of movement to go around the corner. 3) Optional flanking rules are not used. 4) Opponents will act on one initiative. Initiative determines who goes before or after the opponents in rounds, but other than that, player actions will be resolved in the order that you post so that you can play off previous posts without having to guess ahead what other players might do. This sounds complicated but will make a lot more sense when you see how it works.

Rolling Skill Checks and Saves 1) Roll checks whenever you like and I'll resolve them in DM posts whenever the result is significant. If I need specific checks, I'll request them in the OODM fieldset.

Any questions, just ask!

Feel free to metagame strategy in this thread as much as you want! However, anything you come up with out-of character has to be plausible in-character. For instance, if you come up with a strategy out of character, your characters still have to communicate it to each other in the game thread before you can act on it.

[Corwin]

Very Specific Things

There will be combat, but this adventure is mostly about solving a crime. A lot of the clues will be apparent but piecing them together is up to you. Skills like Persuasion and Intimidation may come in handy for influencing NPCs, but you won't be able to force any NPCs to act directly against their own interests.

Very roughly, for Persuasion...
-DC 0 to get someone to tell you something that they wanted to tell you
-DC 5 to get someone to tell you something that they had no idea was important
-DC 10 to get someone to gossip
-DC 15 to get someone to tell you something that might get someone else in trouble
-DC 20 to get someone to tell you something that might get the speaker in trouble with someone else
-DC 40 to get someone to admit to an outright crime - they're just not going to do it, even on a nat 20, without some other reason

For Intimidation, remember that the Abbey folk are a tightly knit religious group who know each other pretty well. Any time you threaten one of them, news will get around, they'll get less friendly, and the DC on the next Intimidation attempt will go up.

[psuedenim]

Hi.

Looks like I need to keep my intimidation in the low down

[secretID]

Shoot - I think I left my interaction skills in my other jacket.

Corwin, are there restrictions on the width of the party marching, or do you want different orders for different situations, or...?

[Corwin]

A single file order for narrow places and corridors and an ideal order for open ground would cover pretty much everything. If there's a specific situation where neither of those work, you'll be able to see it.

[secretID]

Deamiss and Rhaegalt are the toughest, so one first and the other last? Deamiss has the bow, so maybe he's better in the rear.

Bill and Girgaden, or vice-versa, in second and third. (Bill has Interception Style, which is very nice for protecting others.) Qijon second to last.

Opinions?

[psuedenim]

I'm OK with that order

[KhamLuc]

I like to be a part of the best investigation team of WestMarshe ... where INT is the worst stat average of the group and STR is the Best follow by CON

:" you better talk or else you don't for a less a month... "

LOL

[JaDeX105]

Hey everyone. I'm fine with Rhaegalt up front, not the best perception or investigation though (0 and -2 respectively). I'm working out of state today, so probably will be tomorrow when I get a game post up

[secretID]

Blind leading the blind in this group.

So, it's looking like a consensus on Rhaegalt, Bill, Girgaden, Olin (forgot him before), Qijon, and Deamiss.

[Hitmyto]

Hey everyone! Found the threads, subscribed to both and I agree with the marching order. Gonna see if I can get a game post up tonight.

2 questions:

• When you say we can be generous in determining cover when it's not quite clear from the map, is it the generous interpretation for the attacker or the defender?
• I'm thinking not, but just checking: if we take a long rest/sleep to stave off exhaustion, can we prepare different spells?

[Corwin]

Welcome, everybody

Originally Posted by Hitmyto

2 questions:

• When you say we can be generous in determining cover when it's not quite clear from the map, is it the generous interpretation for the attacker or the defender?
• I'm thinking not, but just checking: if we take a long rest/sleep to stave off exhaustion, can we prepare different spells?

1) It'll be more obvious when a map is up. Sometimes the grid doesn't quite align with the image it's overlaid on and it's a little hard to gauge by sight. In those cases, if you're not sure if an opponent has 1/2-cover or 3/4-cover, assume it's 1/2. And if you're really not sure, just ask I check the OOC daily even if a DM post isn't up yet.

2) Nope, all a long rest does is keep the party from being Exhausted.

[Corwin]

Aiming to post tomorrow!

[secretID]

I don't expect it to come up much in this game, but I often propose a version of the "48-hour rule." Starting X time after a DM combat post, any player can post for a PC that hasn't acted yet. This solves the common problem of one player stalling a whole fight, and takes the burden off the DM. Usually we use 48 hours, and sometimes we don't count weekends.

Any objection? Anyone want something other than straight 48 hours?

[JaDeX105]

Hopefully it won't be necessary, but I don't see an issue with that. I'm fine either way with weekends since we're (usually) not working but then you might have activities going on too so it's a bit of a wash