They Who Slaughter Kings: A Medieval RP OOC

[gamer5]

I haven't done scaling on the map, but 50 miles per day on foot is impossible unless your one of those long distance runners. On foot at most would be around 3-4 miles per hour.

The group has been on the road for about a week and a half so far.

Yeah but since you gave no distance it is hard to tell how much we walked. If we walked for some 10 days, 12 hours each days at 3 miles at hour our group would have walked roughly 360 miles.

Assuming this is the whole trip from the capital to where are we now I would say that the continent itself is rather small, probably even smaller then our world's Australia...

 

[Windstormugly]

I haven't done scaling on the map, but 50 miles per day on foot is impossible unless your one of those long distance runners. On foot at most would be around 3-4 miles per hour.

The group has been on the road for about a week and a half so far.

Have to disagree with you. But fine, we are slow, likely due to people not used to travelling long distances om foot and overly caution against our surroundings.
So Im guessing that one week is from Fort Seima?

 

[Tempest]

3 miles per hour is actually a steady and healthy pace for the average person. That said, depending on the season, daylight hours last anywhere from 9-14 hours. Assuming it takes about an hour to break down and set up campsites and that all eating happens on the road, that's only 8-13 hours to travel safely in a day. So 24-39 miles, depending on time of year... this isnt considering terrain, weather conditions and so forth.

Now, if we're going to assume that we're in an average medieval society, most townships are less than a day's journey from each another. Even more to consider, the fact it is medieval means the potential that we don't know the full extent of the world and that what we see could very well be the approximation of a single continent in the veins of Europe.

But now that we've gotten that out of the way... y'all can get over it. In a society with magic, alchemy and so forth, let's not make our hang ups stupid things like traveling. The GM posted how long we've been traveling and where we've been through. That should be fine and clear enough : /

 

[Sir Salty]

So sorry for the shortness of the post. I wasn't sure how combat is being utilized right now.

Also next time, if its not too much trouble. Could you give us visual maps of the battlefield? Like where the bandits are, etc. It's generally useful. I'm a visual thinker and its hard for me to decipher this information alone in text.

So I hope my inference in my post was okay

 

[Slade]

Great posts guys, I'll be rolling the dice and putting a post up sometime this week! :)

 

[Slade]

Hey guys, doing a double post. IC post has been slightly delayed to either tonight or tomorrow morning. I've been working alot of hours since more were offered to me this week. I was planning on writing it up last night but I randomly reconnected with an old friend so that's how I spent my night.

Either way this should be a good last chance for anyone to submit if they haven't already. Apologies for the delay but it'll be up very soon! :D

 

[Dovahkiin]

Hey guys, doing a double post. IC post has been slightly delayed to either tonight or tomorrow morning. I've been working alot of hours since more were offered to me this week. I was planning on writing it up last night but I randomly reconnected with an old friend so that's how I spent my night.

Either way this should be a good last chance for anyone to submit if they haven't already. Apologies for the delay but it'll be up very soon! :D

I should be getting a post up soon!

 

[Slade]

Hey guys, post is up! I have all the dicerolls and I'd love to go through with you with it right now. But at the momenet I have to run for work. I literally just posted this up >.< don't even have time to edit for the numerous grammatical errors I surely made.

I'll have everything put up tonight when I get home. Whether in an edit of this post or another post altogether.

Home you Enjoyed the post, warts and all. I'll be sure to fix things up later but I just wanted you guys to have something instead of another delay <3

cheers

 

[Slade]

Been doing alot of double posts lately. But this one is important enough to warrant its own post because there is a lot of stuff I want to cover, and go over things that I think worked and what I think didn't work. This was basically just me figuring out how combat will go and how to make it better in the future. Which is why it only lasted one round and I had Otto clean up house afterwards. I didn't wanna get bogged down for something like this, especially when we got more fighting to do in the future.

But before I get more into all of that, lets go through the Dice rolls!

Jeanna was going to be given two rolls. The first to see if she killed the guy she charged at, and the 2nd to see if she would break through the group and charge at the crossbowmen.

Her first roll was a 14 but I gave her a combat modifier of +6 due to her skills as a warrior as listed in her strengths plus the general weakness of the opponent she was facing. Which gave her a natural 20. So she cleaved right through the guy and decapitated him. Due to that good roll I would have taken anything that was a 10 or higher for her to break through and melee the crossbowmen. Unfortunately she rolled a 1, with the combat modifier only gives her 7 so she got bogged down and whacked around a bit. But hey, she managed to insta-kill one guy.

Selia rolled a 10 and I gave her a combat modifier of +4 due to her skill and the fact that her opponent's back was turned as he was preparing to attack Jeanna. So he was dispatched well enough.

Henry decided to take on four people and I decided to roll for each foe he fought. If he rolled a high enough number he would kill his first opponent and move on to the next one. If he rolled low he would get push back by the remaining enemies. His dice numbers looked like this:

13 with a combat modifier of +6=19, insta-kill
12+6=18, another insta-kill
6+6=12 his rampage stops here as a punch to the face halts him. But it's high to let him deliver a injury to the opponent. Now that he has been halted he loses the opportunity to roll against the fourth enemy. If there had been a 2nd round he would have rolled then.

Now I gave both Henry and Jeanna the same modifier due to the fact that even though their fighting styles as our "fighters" are different, they are still both effective against an enemy as weak as these ones. This will change in the future depending on the enemy and you may find yourself at a disadvantage.

Renvar, since his weaknesses state that he isn't much of a fighter actually gets a combat modifier of -2. Thankfully he still rolled really well with an 18. So a total of a 16 is still enough to wound and bring down the enemy to serve as interrogation later. Nice Job!

Coby's attack with her sparkflash bolt is what really turned the tide of the battle. I gave her a combat modifier of +3 so with her dice roll of 13, it was more than enough to kill one of the crossbowmen and slow down and distract the other archers from firing.

Erin also has a combat modifier of +3 with her magical support. Expect her modifier to get larger the more experienced she gets. I know that applies to everyone but it especially applies to her. Everyone should know from DnD that mages get OP the more they level up >.> Either way it was enough to fuck with the archers and make them miss their shots. I rolled for the archers as well though I didn't record those down. Just know that they all sucked and missed.

I'll talk more about Nuit in a moment, but a combination of his good stealth, plus the distraction from Coby's sparkflash bolt resulted in him getting a combat modifier of +7. With his roll of 15 it was insanely easy for him to sneak up behind Henry's remaining opponent and kill him quickly. Because his roll was so high (22) I decided to give him the kill for the man Henry had injured earlier.

Now onto our final two, the archers that put an end to the battle. Both Triversia and Keevah fired three shots and here were the results

Triversia had a combat modifier of +3 due to the blue potion he drank

1st arrow was a 6 +3=9 complete miss
2nd arrow was a 8 +3=11 wounded but not life threatening
3rd arrow was a 16 +3=19 killshot.


Keevah had a combat modifier of +5 because of her experience and training as an archer

1st arrow was a 1 +5=6 clear miss
2nd arrow was a 9 +5=14 respectable hit
3rd arrow was a 19 +5=24 critical hit. I added pinning his head to the tree as a cool visual because crits are cool.


Now if you're wondering if I rolled anything for Otto. Lol no. He's insanely strong and there is really no reason to roll for him. I think this is the only time he will ever fight directly by your side so don't rely on him.


Now I asked a friend what she thought of the post and she gave me some pretty good criticism. Namely that those players who just decided to spam attacked were always more effective than those who planned our a single lethal attack. Basically discouraging tactical thinking and roleplaying. Which is something I'm against and have written about in one of my essays on roleplaying. However, she did have good point. salty sent me a number of PM's about how he'd go about a backstab but it seemed to be no more or less effective than Triversia or Keevah who show arrows. All that effort really was a wash and that's not what I want. I want the players to think tactically and work as a team because down the line there will be insanely powerful, nightmare inducing opponents who you will have to fight where a perfect crit will only dent them. You'll have to think smart and this IC post I put up, while having a lot of nice fluff of dudes dying to your badass skills, isn't a good method of nurturing that mindset. This isn't supposed to be the Morrowind school of combat where you hit the attack button and let the RNG in the backround do it's thing until the giant mudcrab dies. So I have to do better.

I also think that at some point as the players get stronger I'll have to up the Dice to match your skills. Instead of a D20 I'll use a D30... or a D50... then finally a D100 (I have seen those things, super cool but are like 14 dollars).

I have also edited the IC post and fixed it up a bit. Mainly so I won't be cringing at it when I read it. Even though this combat IC was far from perfect, I had a lot of fun writing it and I hope you had a lot of fun reading it and are looking forward to more fights that last more than one round. I have a few shit-your-pants ideas for combat scenarios in the future that hopefully I'll be able to implement. Some are super serial, while others are taking the piss but I think you'll all enjoy them in the future <3

 

[Sir Salty]

@Slade

I mean, what do you want me to do with a stealth assassin? Run up and kill people like a warrior. I am not sure I understand what you're saying.

It's like any DnD session, Rogue with stealth attack, stealth attacks.

 

[Silvir]

Now then. =^.^=
While i do enjoy the Dice concept, something that i find refreshing in the writing to hold back certain... Power trips.
I also find that it is a difficult system to implement in an RP as it's Roleplaying but at the same time collaborative writing.
Where all participants has to at some level come to agreement on what level the story is being written on.

How much realism do we have?
What kind of tropes do we want?
What limitations apply when we write things?

Since these are all currently vague right now the Dice system becomes too unpredictable. And can in many ways twist the intended writing of one PC when the dice has been rolled. Leaving a certain atmosphere of dissatisfaction.
To me at this moment it looks like it would work better as a karma system based on what actions we decide our characters should take in certain situations. If too out of character and to unlikely to succeed then a dice could decide the fate of that decision.

Of course that is what i see right now looking at what has currently happened so my perspective is limited.
For example in the beginning when we started going trough character creation. It was mentioned that our characters where above average or the crème of the crop. Yet the dice right now can make even seasoned characters look like complete beginners. Which then begs the question of where we are on the spectrum of writing a fun story together or just doing a straight down DnD session forum style.




-"Now if you're wondering if I rolled anything for Otto. Lol no. He's insanely strong and there is really no reason to roll for him. I think this is the only time he will ever fight directly by your side so don't rely on him."
I can understand this from a writing perspective but from the dice perspective that makes no sense at all since that creates a weird balance for characters PC and NPC.
:3

 

[Rae]

Now then. =^.^=
While i do enjoy the Dice concept, something that i find refreshing in the writing to hold back certain... Power trips.
I also find that it is a difficult system to implement in an RP as it's Roleplaying but at the same time collaborative writing.
Where all participants has to at some level come to agreement on what level the story is being written on.

How much realism do we have?
What kind of tropes do we want?
What limitations apply when we write things?

Since these are all currently vague right now the Dice system becomes too unpredictable. And can in many ways twist the intended writing of one PC when the dice has been rolled. Leaving a certain atmosphere of dissatisfaction.
To me at this moment it looks like it would work better as a karma system based on what actions we decide our characters should take in certain situations. If too out of character and to unlikely to succeed then a dice could decide the fate of that decision.

Of course that is what i see right now looking at what has currently happened so my perspective is limited.
For example in the beginning when we started going trough character creation. It was mentioned that our characters where above average or the crème of the crop. Yet the dice right now can make even seasoned characters look like complete beginners. Which then begs the question of where we are on the spectrum of writing a fun story together or just doing a straight down DnD session forum style.




-"Now if you're wondering if I rolled anything for Otto. Lol no. He's insanely strong and there is really no reason to roll for him. I think this is the only time he will ever fight directly by your side so don't rely on him."
I can understand this from a writing perspective but from the dice perspective that makes no sense at all since that creates a weird balance for characters PC and NPC.
:3

This basically sums up my ideas/thoughts on it. :) I have no qualms about utilizing a dice system, but it seems a bit lackluster given the proverbial advantages/disadvantages given to certain characters and not to others. If we are going to use such a system, with perhaps some refinement, I would like to have more information on how Jeanna, say, got a +6 but others only got +3 or +4.

 

[Sir Salty]

This is my thing. I'm reliant on a dice system with no visuals. If you need someone to use MS paint to make a map and say You are Here, Enemies are Here. Here's some rocks, there this tree, etc. Then I will lend my expertise.

But without a map or a visual reference like they do in a tabletop RP, I rather rely on Slades dice system.

 

[Silvir]

This is my thing. I'm reliant on a dice system with no visuals. If you need someone to use MS paint to make a map and say You are Here, Enemies are Here. Here's some rocks, there this tree, etc. Then I will lend my expertise.

But without a map or a visual reference like they do in a tabletop RP, I rather rely on Slades dice system.

The dice system has little to no effect on that depending how much Slade controls NPC's. and decides engagement rules. No? I mean you still have to write a reaction before any dice is thrown.
Besides isn't the OOC here for us to use when we have questions or need clarification?

 

[Sir Salty]

The dice system has little to no effect on that depending how much Slade controls NPC's. and decides engagement rules. No? I mean you still have to write a reaction before any dice is thrown.
Besides isn't the OOC here for us to use when we have questions or need clarification?

The problem is you can give me the clarification in words all you like. I am a strict visual thinker when it comes to those situations. In my own RPs I use strong visuals of locations and such.

 

[Silvir]

The problem is you can give me the clarification in words all you like. I am a strict visual thinker when it comes to those situations. In my own RPs I use strong visuals of locations and such.

Soooo you even being able to write anything, that has to do with our characters positions and movements at all is just miracles performed since you can't visualise it???
Cause that is essentially what you are saying. :/
How did you manage to write the banquet?

 

[Sir Salty]

Soooo you even being able to write anything, that has to do with our characters positions and movements at all is just miracles performed since you can't visualise it???
Cause that is essentially what you are saying. :/
How did you manage to write the banquet?

Action for me is something very different.

I know what a Banquet hall looks like. I keep picture skellige for some damn reason. lol

But when its technical writing like combat, its easier for me with a map or some kind of visualization.

One of the reasons my grammar and I have sentence structures issues in my writing often is because I don't think in words. I think in moving pictures. I see a movie in my head. Not words.

 

[Silvir]

Action for me is something very different.

I know what a Banquet hall looks like. I keep picture skellige for some damn reason. lol

But when its technical writing like combat, its easier for me with a map or some kind of visualization.

One of the reasons my grammar and I have sentence structures issues in my writing often is because I don't think in words. I think in moving pictures. I see a movie in my head. Not words.

Action is Action. Whether you walk from point A to point B Or throw a knife at someone and run in one direction.
"A Banquet hall"??? We are talking about "this" Banquet hall. Not any other, they do not all look the same. This was one specific hall.
O____O wat?


Combat isn't really technical writing. It is mostly vague writing. Unless you want to specify how you rips someone's throat out =^.^= Then yes that can be quite technical if you want to put in the effort.

 

[Tempest]

Action is Action. Whether you walk from point A to point B Or throw a knife at someone and run in one direction.
"A Banquet hall"??? We are talking about "this" Banquet hall. Not any other, they do not all look the same. This was one specific hall.
O____O wat?

Google Image Result for Medieval Banquet Hall

I mean... I see a common trend... That falls in line with our GM's description that it was 1 table spanning the length with the king at one end.

But you know. I guess we all have that funny imagination thing, doin' crazy things to us all. Aw shucks.

Anyways, some actions are a lot less complex than others.

For example... Looking at the open field battle at the burned caravans as opposed to the banquet hall:

Open Field: All we know is that we're by some upturned caravans (not even how complete or high-up or etc they are) and that a number of bandits are coming out of the wood. We don't know how wide-spread the bandits are, or what directions they're coming, etc. In a combat scenario, you're suddenly pretty lost, because all your tactical thoughts? They're out the window because you can't effectively see the battle. For example, Silvir, looking between your AoE effect and mine. Yours apparently covered a lot more area than mine, because you were able to effectively snare a wide number of enemies -after they scattered for other means.- Now look at mine. It was an explosion centered specifically around just the archers and they were all apparently able to quickly run out of its effect field. There's a lot of room for interpretation on these events because... we honestly don't know where they are. The only things we can effectively have in our head is that there's a tree-line and there's some caravans of indeterminable size and number, with the bandits being closer to the trees and us being closer to the caravans.

Banquet Hall: We are given a number of objects to consider: First off, we enter through one end and out before us is a long table. The lower class is presented as being closest to us along the table, and divided along partway where it transitions into the upperclass, with the king on its end. Around the outer ring of this long banquet hall are guards... Now, this offers a lot more information, even if it doesn't necessarily outline the number or descriptor features of the hall. We know where to look along this singular stretch for various individuals and our relation to other individuals because of this. We were told in what company Jackal was oriented, as well as the named nobles, and even our friendly captains Udo and Aapo. If we all were to draw a map of all this and the people present, you could probably draw a rough estimation of just about what the area is and where everyone is and it'll be much closer and with much less effect upon the scenario that the Open Field scenario has. *shrugs*

 

[Sir Salty]

As @Snowball put it @Silvir

again in a tabletop scenario, I can see where the bandits are, and be able to point to which one I want to attack

without the picture in my head, I don't know where the bandits are standing

I don't know where we're standing

I don't know where exactly the caravans are

Combat is a bit different than a banquet hall and requires more tactful consideration. Because again. I'm an assassin not a warrior. I get flanks and focus on stealth. I need to know where the appropriate coordinations are