Lausa Stalwind's eyes light up with admiration as she discusses weaponry with Kurith, thoroughly impressed by his expertise. "Should any of your fine weapons ever suffer a nick or scrape, just bring them my way," she offers generously, a twinkle in her eye. "But I must be off now—the lads upstairs are waiting for another barrel on the third floor." As the party approaches the Clover Tavern, they are greeted by the remarkable sight of a six-story structure winding around the trunk of an ancient tree. This bustling hub of the community resonates with the sounds of lively music and hearty laughter, welcoming all who enter. Inside, a humanoid clank accompanied by a small fox-bat gestures towards a sign that reads, "Shoes off, no exceptions." It seems that this is a local tradition for newcomers to remove their shoes and hang them on a line that spans the bar’s ground floor, adding a quirky charm to the warm and inviting atmosphere.

Kurith smiles at the old woman, twirling his halberd expertly before removing the leather sheath from its head. It's definitely got some history to it, though it is by no means ornamented. Still, it is in fine condition, the only defects being a couple of chips on the cutting edge. "Da al'ays called this un <Swift Judgement Against Avarice>. 'S been i' th' family fo' five gen'rations - th' head, a' least. Handle's been replaced of'en 'nough." He then bangs his gauntlets together, making their runes light up. "The twins etn't ol' 'nough ta earn names yet. Less'n a year ol', an' only seen combat yest'day. An' I's no' a poet, so prolly won't be naught a' int'res'in nor fancy a' <Judgement>. 'Twill pro'lly be a fine name i' th' end, though." He gently taps his fingers together, deactivating them before pulling them off. "I' th' meanwhile, a pint a plain sounds won'erful. Mayhaps a fine lass servin' it, too?"

Yhen Davasdrend Agility +1 Strength -1 Finesse +1 Instinct +0 Presence +0 Knowledge +2 Evasion: 9 | Armour: 5 | Armour Slots ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐| HP ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ | Stress ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ | Hope ▣ ▣ ▣ ☐ ☐ ☐ Breastplate ArmourBreastplate Armor - Base Score: 3 (-1 AGI) Armor | GreatstaffGreatstaff - Knowledge, Very Far - d6+2 (Mag) Two-Handed Feature: Powerful (Roll one extra damage die and drop the lowest.) Primary Weapon | Glowing RingsGlowing Rings - Agility Very Close - d10+2 (Mag) Two-Handed Primary Weapon | Scholar of Magic (+2) | Wilderness Expert (+1) Domain Effects • Book of Ava[Spellcast Roll: +2] [Damage: 1d10] Power Push: Make a Spellcast Roll against a target in melee range. On a success, they are blasted back to far range and take d10 magic damage. ------------------------------ [Feature Roll: 1d6] Tava’s Armor: You may spend a Hope to give a target you can touch +1d6 to their Armor score the next time they spend an Armor Slot. You cannot stack Tava’s Armor multiple times onto a single creature. ------------------------------ [Spellcast Roll: +2] [Damage: 1d6] Ice Spikes: Make a Spellcast Roll to summon large ice spikes within very far range. You may also treat them as a ranged weapon against a target or group. On a success, they deal d6 physical damage. • Book of Tyfar[Spellcast Roll: +2] [Damage: 2d6] Wild Flame: Make a Spellcast Roll against up to three enemies very close to you. A flame erupts from your hand, dealing 2d6 magic damage to any you succeed against. ------------------------------ Magic Hand: You can reach out with a magical hand the same size and strength as your own to anywhere within far range of you. ------------------------------ Mysterious Mist: Spend a Hope to cast a temporary, thick fog that encircles a stationary area up to very close range your current location. Everyone within is hidden to anybody outside the fog. Features • PrestidigitationYou can perform harmless, subtle magical effects at will. Examples might include changing an object’s color, creating a smell, lighting a candle, floating something small, illuminating a room, repairing a small object, etc. • Strange PatternsChoose a number between 1-12. Anytime you roll that number on a Duality Die, gain a hope or clear a stress. You may change this number on any long rest. [1] School of War (Knowledge) • Gain armour slot. • Attack with Fear, deal +1d10 Daemon • FearlessWhen you roll with Fear, you can mark 2 Stress to make it a roll with Hope instead. • Dread VisageYou have advantage on rolls to intimidate other non-Daemon creatures. Loreborne • Well-ReadYou have advantage on any rolls you make that deal with the history, culture, or politics of a prominent person or place. Yhen lets the others handle the talking while she checks out the area itself. She's not inherently a suspicious person, but after the last little encounter, she wanted to be sure. She gives Verris a 'just keep an eye out' look as she does.

Ivy's eyes flickered as the elderly woman spoke. The unexpected enthusiasm for weapons and their tales was sudden but curious. Personally, Ivy had always preferred to keep her tools simple and unassuming, but as she listened to her companions talk about their own weapons, she couldn't help but feel a sense of curiosity herself. When it was her turn, she hesitated for a moment. Sharing personal details, especially about her tools of the trade, was a new and somewhat uncomfortable experience. However, the warmth in Lausa's eyes and the genuine interest she showed made it easier for Ivy to open up, if only a little. "I don't name my tools," she began slowly. "To me, they're just a means to an end. A lockpick's a lockpick, and a blade's a blade." She shrugged, a hint of a smirk playing at the corner of her lips. "As for who made them, I couldn't tell you. Most of my gear is... acquired along the way." She glanced down at her belt, where a set of sleek, well-used lockpicks rested in a small leather pouch. Her dagger, a simple but finely crafted piece with a black hilt, was tucked securely at her side, while the magic one was well hidden and not to be discussed. "These have served me well," she said, patting the pouch lightly. "They've opened a lot of doors—sometimes literally." The mention of the Whitefire Arcanist returned her attention to more important things. Delivering the package was their primary objective, and she was eager to complete it. Ivy gave Lausa a nod of thanks. "Thanks for the tip," she said. "We'll be sure to mention your name." With a quick glance at her companions, she gestured toward the village center. "Let's find this Whitefire Arcanist," she suggested. "The sooner we deliver this package, the better." The bustling village around them was inviting, but Ivy knew better than to let her guard down completely. Even in a place as seemingly safe as Hush, danger could lurk just around the corner. But for now, she embraced the warm atmosphere and the promise of a new challenge ahead.

An older woman with a thick greying hair, and the hint of fine downy sideburns, balancing the barrel effortlessly on her shoulder, beams at Ellu with a warm smile. "Alright my luver, what a pleasure it is to chat with new faces! Lausa the name, Lausa Stalwind" She stands there and looks up at Ellu "You probably know my cousin Evard, he went off with a lovely fae girl not two summers ago" She seems lost in the moment before looking down at your arms and armour. "But tell me, before we get into any serious business, let's indulge in a bit of chinwag about those fine tools of the trade you've got there. What are the names of your weapons, and who was skilled enough to forge such beauties?" Her eyes twinkle with unabated curiosity as she eagerly waits to listen to each party member. "And the year, don't skip on that—every mark on a blade tells a story, doesn’t it? There’s nothing quite like a good tale of metal and fire to stir the soul!" Lausa’s enthusiasm for the history and details of each weapon is infectious, clearly showing her deep appreciation for the art of weapon making. Finally, seeing that you’re all just as engaged, she leans in closer, lowering her voice with a conspiratorial wink. "Now, about that Whitefire Arcanist you’re looking for, last I saw, they were cosied up by the fire in the tavern. Might still be there, lost in a pint or perhaps a page. You can probably catch them if you hurry—but don’t forget to tell him Lausa sent you, alright my luver?"

A:+1 | S:+2 | F:+0 | I:-1 | P:+1 | K:+0 Hope ••○○○ Stress •○○○○○ Evasion 3 Hit Points ○○○○○○ Armor 8 Armor •○○○○○ It had been nearly a dozen years since Verris travelled to Hush. The memory of the place was thin and faded. In fact, they hadn't realized yet that they arrived at Hush until they passed through the boundary, and only then did the feeling connect with the old memories. This was Hush. There might have been people that they had met earlier, but no one that they could recall. Would the people of this village remember their last visit, or would it have been so long ago that memories had been forgotten. The friendly waves seemed genuine, but no one seemed to know them well enough. Verris returned their waves and greetings. The feeling of safety was welcome, the friendliness was relaxing, and Verris dropped their intense watchfulness. This was a safe space and friends were waiting to be made. Verris approached with Ellu, only to find that he already had friends here.

Evasion: 9 | Armor Score: 3 | Armor Slots ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ | HP ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ | Stress ▣ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ | Hope ▣ ▣ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ Passive: Arcane Sense (class)You can sense the presence of magical people and objects when you’re close to them. Reactions: Luckbender (per session)Once per session, after you or an ally in close range makes an Action Roll, you can mark a Stress to allow a reroll of the Duality Dice. If you do, take the new result. Token actions this combat: 0 Ellu checked his ears at the slight popping sensation. They hadn't moved too high for pressure to shift, had they? Probably not worth dwelling on. Find the arcanist, deliver the package, and find the next thing to distract from worries left unspoken. Finding a pliable ear in a new place was something Ellu was more than familiar with. He tapped Kimber on the shoulder to slow enough he could disembark, and used a practiced eye to find a lingering gaze that wasn't guarded, then deployed one of Toosum's old standard strategies for sliding into welcome. "Oh but you look familiar, at least from the stories I've heard. I think we've an old friend in common, as it were, and I'm hoping you can help me find them. Any idea where the Whitefire Arcanist is lazing about today?" ((OOC: burning a Hope to add +2 from Ellu's "We have an old friend in common" Experience on a Presence roll to try and sweet talk folks into pointing us to the Arcanist. Looks like 26 with Fear. So close to a crit... EDIT 2: Ellu's Arcane Sense class ability should confirm if the stone pilars are magical. It doesn't appear to need a roll or anything, so I think he just gets some kind of buzz whenever anyone or anything around him is magic.)) Presence with experience))

Meanwhile, Ivy was checking fresh bodies for anything valuable. Mundane weapons could be sold, probably, if any good. But who knows, those bandits could have something else hidden.

After what seems an eternity to Ellu but is merely a few minutes, you finally locate the package. To your relief, it is still intact and undamaged. With the precious cargo secured, you head back to where the others are. There, you find Kurith busily clearing the remnants of the broken wagon off the road, making way for your own wagon to pass through. Act two: Will continue in the new thread

The journey resumes, leading you deeper into the forest. Soon, a large stone pillar emerges from the dense foliage, its entire length etched with ancient dwarven runes. This majestic marker signifies the boundary of the peaceful village of Hush. As you cross beyond this stone sentinel, a subtle sensation washes over you—like the gentle pop of a bubble—and suddenly, the ambient sounds of friendly chatter intensify. The Sablewood trees continue to loom around, yet the air here feels unmistakably safe and comforting. Entering the village, you notice a few villagers turn their heads, their faces lighting up with smiles. They wave and offer warm greetings as your carriage rolls through. Lively music wafts towards you from the tavern at the village centre, inviting and full of promise. Amidst this welcoming atmosphere, you remember your mission: to find the Whitefire Arcanist and deliver the King's package. This task at hand guides your next steps as you delve further into the heart of Hush.

depends, I've seen GMs do both, it's a personal preference. If I do swap to a new thread, I usually say so, and give links to the new one. Act two is up:

Kurith gently taps the fingertips of his gauntlets together, and the light of the runes dimmed from blazing to smouldering. He walked over and tugged his halberd out of the ground, before motioning to Verris. "Typica' ban'its. Leave summat big an 'eavy middle 'a th' road, 'n jump 'em when th' wagon has tae stop. Dinnae work well fo' 'em this time, though, right?" He laughs as he starts driving his shoulder into the wrecked cart, trying to find a good place to grip the hulking mass. "Well, now tha' th' ban'its are dead, naught keepin' us from clearin' the road. Has tae been done sometime, why not now?"

It's been several years since I've been in a PbP game. Is starting new threads for ongoing campaigns the usual practice? (this is a genuine question. My working assumption was that a given adventuring party would just use the same thread until their party ended adventuring, but like I said it's been awhile).

Evasion: 9 | Armor Score: 3 | Armor Slots ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ | HP ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ | Stress ▣ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ | Hope ▣ ▣ ▣ ☐ ☐ ☐ Passive: Arcane Sense (class)You can sense the presence of magical people and objects when you’re close to them. Reactions: Luckbender (per session)Once per session, after you or an ally in close range makes an Action Roll, you can mark a Stress to allow a reroll of the Duality Dice. If you do, take the new result. Token actions this combat: 1 Ellu gave a sigh of relief, his boots reconnecting with the ground as his wings folded back to blend with his cloak. "Okay, I think he threw the box this way. Is everyone all right?" ((OOC: I'm not sure if the thief threw the package such that it requires an Instinct roll to search or not, so I'll hold off rolling for now, but the intent is retrieving the package))

Help an Ally You can spend one Hope to help an ally who is about to make an action roll where you could feasibly aid them. When you do this, describe how you’re helping and roll your Hope die; this doesn’t count as an action for you. Your ally then chooses which of the two Hope die results count toward the roll; the other one is ignored. Only one PC can contribute an extra Hope die in this way.

right, thanks for the feedback, I'll get back to the adventure.

I always equated Session with Thread. So if you start a new thread, then you start a new "session", meaning there was a significant break in what is happening. I am glad that I did give you some Fear to work with. I haven't rolled with Hope yet. I will say that the block actions seemed to work fine, and I don't think people took too many turns. I know at the beginning of the fight, I wanted to not rush forward after the little guys and stand my ground against a possible counter-attack (then things happened more quickly while I was very busy). I thought I would avoid giving you actions until I was ready to take an action. At the table, this would be easy with a nod or hand waive, letting others know I would or wouldn't want to take an action. I'm not sure if requiring a "No Action" post would be helpful. I think the game flowed smoothly, and people who had actions took them had things to do. Which is the problem with D&D, is that when it's your turn, there is a pressure to do something. Thanks for posting the stat blocks. I was curious what low-level creatures looked like.

I thought it went well! Even though we sort of acted in blocks, it did feel a little looser in that I didn’t feel like I had to make sure X character acted ahead of me. I mostly tried to make sure I wasn’t just acting solo back to back and held off a bit when it seemed there were folks who hadn’t acted at all yet. One PbP wrinkle possibly related to that is I’m struggling to figure out how best to give a Help. It seems the game assumes there will be a decent amount of “let me give my companion advantage,” but since I think the intent of that is to declare in the moment (before a roll result), it’s tricky to figure out. I could say “I’ll burn a Hope to give whoever goes next advantage,” but since the idea is you have to describe how you help that gets clunky. Tag Team will probably be similar, but since that’s session limited, I imagine we’ll hold back on that for when fights look tougher) Oh! Do we have a “house rule” for when session abilities reset? PbP had no sessions really, so I’m not really sure how to gauge that. Overall thank you and well done!

First thing to say is that your ego should rest peacefully. We are trying a very new system that changes as we play and we test it on an official module. Whatever we might criticize is on CR. So far I can say that I still like the core idea of the mechanics - Hope/Fear. But like others unsure about the initiative and action economy. It might feel better and smoother at the table. For the PbP it does seem like more structure is needed. Block initiative and 1 post per "turn" can work but there is a problem with interruptions. For example, the thief freely took the package with at least three PCs around. Sure, we were in combat but there was no window to say "I risk an attack of opportunity (or whatever analog we have here if it exists at all) and grab the package preventing the thief from taking it." Again, at the table it would be simple and - I think - expected. But how can we handle it here?

Thistle-folk stats and the thief I basically spent the fear to interject and interrupt as you folk kept getting Success with hope, and not fear, and once done I'd play a couple or so actions for each of the thistlefolk, keeping an action in case I needed it. Once you failed with fear, I was also able to do some actions and use the actions I'd banked to do more. for every complication, I tried to further the pre-defined goals for the ambush. I hope I was doing it right, as the system changed from 1.2 to 1.3 so was a little confused. (does that help?) I agree that some had a few actions more than others, due to posting faster, and I agree there perhaps should be a limit, I'll re-read the rules again, and check. But you all kept rolling well, so few Fear dice being higher.

I think it went really well, even if we're all getting used to some of the way things work. We basically ended up using initiative anyway but i'd be curious how things would go if we weren't basically acting in blocks. Whether on purpose or not we basically all acted as a PC block and then the GM block, there were a couple of times i thought i could just make another post, but then you really risk me making 4 posts and everyone else making one. And even though that means the action economy is stable - the GM just gets 4 more actions - it does overwhelm the other actions so i think the player/GM blocks are good, but it also doesn't feel like its really properly using the combat system either so i'm really torn on that. I feel like there must be a way to allow players multiple actions 'out of turn' while still restricting it so one player doesn't just take six turns. Like maybe you can't take 2 or more turns in a row - so you always have to wait for someone else - and maybe limit the amount of turns you have based on something like your level.

Since this was a playlets, I would like to see in your post how you spent Fear/Actions. I was able to figure it out myself after a bit. What were the stats for the Thistle-folk? Evasion-Armor-HP Thresholds, etc. I think the combat went well. I didn't have an issue with it, and you were more responsive than I thought you'd be.

ok folks, first combat is over, I'd like any thoughts, feelings, comments and criticisms of the system, my handling of it, or things that nature. (preferably constructive, my fragile ego can't take it) thanks!

Ivy swoops over to get a clear shot hovering far enough away so as not to be in melee range, her little dagger flies true and thuds into the creature who lets out a groan of defiance, blood now pouring out of his wounds. Ellu's lightning strikes home the electricity only lightly dancing over the creature's form, in a last desperate attempt, the thistle-folk thief throws the package into the underbrush in a vain attempt to lose it before succumbing to his wounds. OOC Ivy: Success with Hope; gain +1 hope Ellu: Success with Fear; you gentle land Combat over Thistle-folk: all Dead Fear: 4 players are up.

Evasion: 10 (flying) | Armor Score: 3 | Armor Slots ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ | HP ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ | Stress ▣ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ | Hope ▣ ▣ ▣ ☐ ☐ ☐ Passive: Arcane Sense (class)You can sense the presence of magical people and objects when you’re close to them. Reactions: Luckbender (per session)Once per session, after you or an ally in close range makes an Action Roll, you can mark a Stress to allow a reroll of the Duality Dice. If you do, take the new result. Token actions this combat: 1 "Why is it always the last one that's wily and worrisome?" Ellu flits in an arc, not as close as Ivy, but he didn't want to chance misjudging the gap. Ellu felt a surge, the kind that made his stomach drop when it was tied to his magic. don't let this go wrong... With another crackle, blue-white lighting zig-zagged chaotically across the space to the amphibious thief. (OOC: 19 with Fear to hit, 4 damage). Dualstaff Attack