dalamb

It has become painfully clear that right now I cannot continue with this game at any reasonable pace. I have hopes that i can resume in a couple of months, but as you have all seen my predictions are pretty much horrible failures.

I am very sorry to have wasted the time of so many creative people.

Once my health recovered, all my energy went into finishing a draft of a book and submitting it to a publisher - which I did yesterday. I apologize for lack of communication; I kept telling myself "I'll catch up in-game after today's editing session" and kept spending all my time on the manuscript. Today is catching up with Real Life stuff for the most part.

My health has improved (and has been better for a couple of days, unlike the last couple of times when I thought I was doing better and it didn't last). However, enough stuff in Real Life has piled up, some of which I was ignoring even before starting to revive this game, that I've had to re-evaluate what I can get done. I plan to continue, but can only manage an hour or so every couple of days to work on the campaign. This was historically enough to run the game but it will probably be excessively annoying during this recruitment phase. So, if anyone is too discouraged by the delays to continue, please mark your application with a "withdrawn" tag.

I have no scheduled real-life things tomorrow (Wednesday) so hope to be able to spend an hour then to try to catch up.

My health status is improving, but Real Life tasks have piled up while I was recovering. I will see how fast I progress with the IC posts for a day or two before figuring out how much longer I need before considering who to accept.

Thank you all for your kind words.

So, I have come down with what feels like a cold and sore throat, which for me is accompanied by brain fog. I can't cope with anything creative until the brain fog lifts. I will post again when I can make any kind of progress. There might be a few semi-mechanical things I can do that require little brainpower but I am not going to try it today.

I've run out of steam for the day; I'm afraid there is much more Real Life stuff going on than I had anticipated. I think I can be done with the current set of interviews by Friday, but I suppose it is possible I might have to extend the interview period by a day or two to give everyone a fair chance to show me how they would react in-character.

I really need answers to my questions before I can proceed with the interview thread, plus a new one: does the recommendation letter say more than "excellent boatbuilder, has magical lyre" (that is, any more than lothar has mentioned)?

I am sympathetic, but am not in a position to work out details.

I think everyone who has checked in now has an interview thread, and that I have caught up with the Purple Dolphin thread. If you expected a response from Garth to something you have said or done in that thread, and I haven't replied, please send me a PM. I know I am behind on IC and character threads and will work through them as fast as I can given everything else that is going on.

@KellyCat thanks for the heads up; I extended your interview first, but will try to get to the others in chronological order.

I like the background, but haven't had the time to check mechanics.

17 hours ago, TheBard101 said:

 @dalamb, I am trying to get a specific effect. The only magic Item I see has three different effects. But, I only want one. Can I just make an item at 1/3rd the price with the single effect I'm looking for?

I am not up to fiddling with what "the right costs" might be for a custom magic item; my gut reaction is that 1/3 is too cheap but I have no idea why so I can't give you any guidance based on that notion. Magic items seem to get very expensive very fast; there aren't many Rings or Wondrous Items under 8k GP in the SRD, even in Pathfinder which has lots more magic items. Is there anything close to what you want in the Magic Item Compendium?

On 3/17/2024 at 12:44 PM, bloodsprite said:

@dalamb what you think of Feytouched, I feel it is open ended how their physical description is?

https://web.archive.org/web/20090603083727/www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20040213a

was also thinking of adding Amphibious Stormwrack Template, but hate the -2 Dex, and willing to pay CP to but that out.

I have been open to requests for official WotC web enhancements, but I am uneasy about “racial classes” for the same reasons I am uneasy about the monster classes in Savage Species, which I already excluded. So I’d rather not add Feytouched.

Dragon Magazine is not a listed source. Please submit a character created from listed sources.

On 3/14/2024 at 12:03 PM, Lord Foul said:

I have a peculiarly British sense of humour (rather dry and tending to the sarcastic), and I know my attempts at humour sometimes run into Titanic-like issues crossing the Atlantic.

I'm Canadian but of British descent (2nd generation on that side), so I've sometimes had the same issue.

On 3/14/2024 at 11:40 PM, Barrigan said:

I'm almost certain I saw something saying traits and flaws were banned but I can't put my finger on it now.

I said nothing about traits and flaws, and in fact forgot about them. I will add to the character creation directions that they're allowed, but flaws will come up to your disadvantage in play, as time and plot permit, and flaws that don't actually hurt are inappropriate (e.g. Noncombatant is a no-no for a primarily ranged character).

On 3/14/2024 at 6:36 AM, whitelancer said:

dalamb, I would like to ask if I could take the feat Darkstalker from Lords of Madness page 179. It is specifically about sneaking up on foes with senses very different from a humanoid. Quotara is very good at stealth, having skill focus in both Hide and Move Silently, so taking a feat to be able to sneak up on Sharks, Killer Whales, Jellyfish, Dolphins, and anything from the depths that doesn't hunt with eyes.

I have turned down quite a few requests for material from unlisted sources, but I did say it was OK to ask about feats. However, I think in addition to turning down a few feat requests, I've also always turned down stuff from supplements I don't own. If I goofed on something I don't mind y'all pointing it out.

On 3/13/2024 at 3:22 PM, Lord Foul said:

So, we now know the identity of the sneaky, hidden character.

Not a great way to endear oneself to one's prospective teammates, but it takes all sorts, I suppose.

I'm still working through all that was posted since Thursday; if there is any controversy I need to intervene with, that's one of the few appropriate times to send me a PM, since I get notified via gmail fairly quickly.

Edit: OK, so this seems to be about the fact that I gave a few people permission to post private apps, and have been posting a few private tags in some people's public character threads. Plus, there are the required private plot hooks.

On 2/12/2024 at 5:08 PM, dalamb said:

* If you have some strong reason for making your thread private, PM me and we can talk about it, but bear in mind your thread (or a copy of the critical parts of it) must become public if you are accepted.

I will stick with this, and much of what was in the private applications will appear in redacted copies for accepted characters. Please blame me instead of the potential player if this (mostly temporary) privacy is upsetting.

Edit 2: Apparently there was no harm, no foul, and maybe I should to read the whole thread before responding to things.