Discussion

[Lyonize]

This thread is for general discussion about "Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained."

[Lyonize]

Alright. I want to bring up a couple thoughts.

First, what do you guys think of the use of the wisdom modifier to determine passive perception in this post:

Jul 24, 2016 2:59:10 GMT Lyonize said:

At this point, Pulsar notices that the hippo is still in the same spot at the deep end of the waterhole but has now turned it's attention to the lions. However, you sense no signs of aggression. (Keep in mind, this means only Pulsar notices this. This is due to his wisdom which affects passive perception.)

This is the way it's done in D&D, however, it's a little more complicated. It usually involves dice rolls and numerical values, etc.

Also, somewhat related, abalancedbreakfast. In your post, Feroz notices the direction Pulsar is looking and then notices Kanai hiding. In D&D, your character, with his low wisdom modifier, most likely wouldn't notice Kanai because her high dexterity affects her ability to hide.

Now... do we want to get into things this deep? Obviously, we aren't using dice and numerical values and multipliers to determine things like this because we're trying to keep things simple, however, I think we should try to allow each person's character to play their strengths. In this case, Kanai's ability to stealth due to her dexterity. Later on, Feroz's strength may come in handy, but what fun is it if there's a boulder in the way but Pulsar is able to move it? Maybe Kainai could figure out a way around. Though, this could slow things down.

Thoughts?

[Pulsar]

It would be nice if the character's abilities did actually play a part in the whole thing, rather like standard RPs where every character is pretty much an ace of spades. That being said it's a matter of how to utilise that in the RP, are effects from our chosen order of abilities determined by the GM or can we state to use such things ourselves? I could see observational things possibly related to the story as being something only the GM can inject, but things like strength etc could maybe be applied by the RPer themselves.

Of course that means we as RPers need to be considerate of the abilities of the other characters to help us when we are referring to other characters in our posts. Like the instance you stated about ABB's character noticing Leor's character.

[Lyonize]

I want to briefly talk about what I've done in this post just for the sake of clarity for anyone else who wants to DM in the future and also to get input on whether or not you guys think it's too complicated or if you like the inclusion of these statistics/modifiers. Also because it's the first time we've done combat so far.

So, first, Diwani has been trying to gauge you guys for your trustworthiness. Pulsar is pretty charismatic so he was pretty convincing. Kanai, I wasn't so sure on so I rolled a D20 and got a 19. Diwani seems to like her innocence. Feroz wasn't too convincing. He has pretty low charisma and, well, he's huge. Time for Imara to work her magic.

Now, the roll for initiative. I rolled a 1 for Feroz and a 2 for Imara. However, Imara has a +2 initiative modifier because of her training with Adhama's knights, making it a 4. (This is a modifier that you yourselves could get if you joined Adhama's knights) Normally I wouldn't tell you guys this for the sake of preventing metagaming but given that this is an experimental RP, I want to be a little more open with my reasoning.

Now on to the combat. I gave your characters a +/- 2 for the top and bottom attributes of all characters. So when I roll a D20, I can add those modifiers. For example, here's Feroz's attributes and modifiers.

-Strength +2
-Constitution +1
-Intelligence
-Wisdom
-Dexterity -1
-Charisma -2


Feroz had a bit of bad luck here but was able to save himself a bit. I put the initiative roll into a context that makes sense. Feroz was definitely not prepared for combat at all which is reflected by the 1 he got in the roll for initiative.

Imara then went in for an attack which you add the strenght modifier to. In her case, she rolled a 9 and adds a +1 for her strength, making it a 10. Now this means, Feroz must roll a 10 or higher if he wants to dodge the attack. This is modified by his Dexterity. He rolled a 9 and since his Dex. is -1, that brings it down to an 8, meaning Imara's attack lands.

Since Feroz was unprepared, I decided this caused him to stumble so he needs to roll a dexterity saving throw to try to catch himself. I predetermined he needed to roll an 8 or higher to regain his balance and he rolled a 12, or 11 with his dexterity modifier.

Alright. So what do you guys think? I made this pretty dang complicated so that we can dial it down if we think this is too much. I personally don't mind doing things this way. As the DM, I'm doing all the work here but I think it's kinda fun. Plus, having the stats plain to see makes it less likely that I end up godmodding too much and makes for some interesting results with the dice throws.