The Olde Irish Pub (The OOC Thread)

[Papa Bear]

OK, I hope you guys are not opposed to Roll20. I've gotten used to the freedom it provides in PbP games in that you can move your toon around and track HP (Probably red bar for Body, Blue Bar for Stun, and Green bar for END). However, if you've had a terrible experience with it and can't use it, I can make and update maps to post.

anyway, Game Invite

[GleefulNihilism]

For the record, I keep trying to code rolls to do 3d6 and check the total but I keep failing. Closest I've managed is they check each roll individually. lol

Edited April 30 by GleefulNihilism (see edit history)

[Papa Bear]

you do? You just type in 3d6? only?

[leons1701]

I think they're trying for the automatic success check, which AFAIK only checks individual dice because it's really intended to count successes in dice pools. Not sure there's a way to do that with totaled dice (there might have been in the old roller, I never used it that way so I'm not certain) but honestly, comparing a total isn't really a task that should need automated.

[hakootoko]

I like using Roll20 to move minis around and get a feel for the layout of the battle. I use it live for my Friday evening game. In another MW game I'm in, the GM screen shots Roll20 every time he posts, so there's a permanent record of where we were that round.

Ditzie was more convenient for PbP, but nothing lasts forever...

[leons1701]

Oh yeah, Roll 20 is fine. Use it in most of the PF2 games I've been in.

[Papa Bear]

Oh, that Screenshot idea is good... though I tend to just trust my players. We're all here to have fun and I've found that in virtually all instances, the players are honest about things and if there's any differences, they are honest mistakes... or at least I'm happy to go with that. I don't want to stress out over the games and I don't want others to stress out. I figure its a community and if you develop a reputation for cheating, that spreads. Funny thing is, on another site before I came to MW, their die roller was cr@p. People just had a difficult time with it. I told my players they could just roll at home with actual, real, physical dice (I miss that) and I'd trust the results they said they rolled. Funny thing is only twice did anyone do that and only at the beginning after saying that. Everyone wanted to be 'above reproach' and the person that did, saw everyone else still using the die roller and stopped rolling on the desktop.

Fair warning; If a roll doesn't directly affect you guys, but some NPCs, like perhaps Superion if/when he shows up to help and he's battling something/one else, the results of those rolls will just be me rolling dice at my desk. I'll narrate what happens, of course, but those rolls have just been so much easier for me to do that way in my other games. However, if it might affect you directly, and even indirectly in some cases, I will use the die roller.

GM Fiat; I rarely will use it unless there is just something in the story that has to happen, which might be more likely with a 30 year old adventure path that couldn't have possibly predicted computers in everyone's pockets with access to the wealth of the world's information within seconds. I don't like using GM Fiat, but sometimes it is necessary and when I do, I'll award you guys 'hero points' with which you can 'negotiate' certain advantages with me for an encounter, such as an 'oopse, that was terrible... may I spend a hero point to roll that again?" or you want cover as you approach an enemy lobbing grenades or something. We'll negotiate. I reserve the right to say no to an idea or make a 'counter offer' (like saying "OK, but it costs 2 Hero Points") and you have the right to decline. I want my Hero Points back so I'll likely grant certain benefits as we go when you have them.

Hmmm, that said, let's start everyone with 1 Hero Point. This will be a 'reward' for your individual RP threads.

You can earn Hero Points from GM Fiat, but that hopefully won't happen (much) and from doing particularly heroic, self-sacrificing things that could either get your character killed (but for a purpose... draw the fire of a dangerous enemy so your teammates can sneak up on them or get some innocent civilian clear of danger) or play to your complications when there is no benefit (and without being a distraction to the game) because its part of who your character is. Of course, the more dangerous or awkward, the more likely to earn a hero point. If your toon is afraid of spiders, you'll not get a hero point every time your character notices a spider. Heck, you'll probably never get a Hero Point for that. I say probably because some industrious RPer might risk something, having their character freak out, put themselves in danger because of it because they have a 'plan' for something later on and want a couple Hero Points to negotiate with me to help bring it about.

Edited April 30 by Papa Bear (see edit history)

[hakootoko]

I should have elaborated more, I guess. My intent had nothing at all to do with dishonesty.

What's on the Roll20 screen is transitory. Once minis have been moved again, some people will honestly misremember where they were before. It's not a problem when you're in the middle of a session and something happened only 30 minutes ago. Enough people will remember it clearly enough to sort it out. Sort of like how the characters will remember it because it happened to them only seconds ago. Yet when someone goes afk for several days and comes back to the game to refresh their memory by reading old posts, they may not remember whether a particular bad guy has vanished because he died or because he ran away, for example. Sometimes I find myself a bit lost in PbP action scenes, and then I go back and re-read a few pages of old posts before I make my next one. These are the sorts of things I want a 'permanent record' for.

Rolling physical dice on your desk is no different than the old skool rolling of dice behind the GM's screen. I don't know if you have (and I'm definitely not accusing anyone), but I have fudged a few dice rolls as a GM. Not so many. I've learned to be wary of overdoing it from seeing other GMs fudge so many dice rolls that it's obvious to everyone at the table.

On another note, you could cheat with the die roller on oMW. I regularly pointed this out to people I gamed with not so they could use it, but so they could notice it when it happened. I don't recall ever seeing anyone do it on purpose, but I saw people do it by mistake from time to time. (This happened when you edited a post and added a new die roll to it, above dice you already rolled. It would change the results of all the dice rolled below the edit.)

 

[Papa Bear]

OMG, I hope I didn't imply cheating... of course, I did talk a lot about it... that's more me rambling (I did warn you lot about my rambling). I hope you were in no way offended. But I do see what you mean. That screenshot can have many uses! I should do it too in case someone asks where they were originally or whatever. That is a good idea to track information and would be very easy to do.

I will admit to 'cheating' as a GM at the table, face to face. Mainly I do it because I A) try to read the group and B) have an idea in my head how long (how many turns) a battle should take. If I can tell the players are really into the fight, I'll figure out ways to make the battle go on a little longer or conversely, if I see players getting frustrated or bored, wow, such and such villain just had their HP halved. Battles going too long can be painful, battles too short can be anti-climactic. Either way, it hurts the game. In PBP, that's not as much of a problem because of the nature of PBP. If I miss interpret how much damage my villains or players are doing, that can cause problems and need to be adjusted on the fly... sometimes players just roll very poorly during an encounter and the GM keeps rolling crits! Granted, sometimes a character has to die, but that needs to be organic and not feel 'smitey'. There's not nearly as much drama and excitement in being ultra uber in every encounter. I never intend to kill a character (unless a player comes to me with an idea, which might just be 'i don't like my toon as much as I thought I would' and we decide to bring in a new character for them) but when players know it could happen, that adds drama.

That added die roll on oMW really screwed me up the first few times I encountered it GMing. I would roll up a bunch of critter attacks, but not include damage until I saved and saw if the rolls hit, then I went back in and put damage rolls under the successful attack rolls and then everything was all screwed up!!! took me a couple times to figure out what was going on. After that I started doing Attack rolls then an 'if that hits, it deals x damage' rolls under it which I would do a strike through if the attack missed. I tried doing damage rolls at the bottom, which worked fine on smaller encounters, but I would invariably forget a damage roll or two on larger encounters. Doing them immediately following the attack rolls just helped account for all of the attacks.

As to me rolling on my desk, I just found it easier. I was troubled by the die roller here (which was just me being used to doing it the oMW way... its actually pretty good once I got used to it) and one of the games I GM came over early when I still hated the die roller (I'm an old curmudgeon... get off my lawn!) and I started doing that for the indirect rolls so that I just had less die roller rolls to make. I just like it now. :)

that reminds me, I miss the old emojis from oMW

[RagallachMC]

Im good with Roll20. Far from an expert, but I can move my guy around.

 

I think all of us want the same thing: To tell a cool story and to have fun doing it. A good DM will 'sacrifice' some accurate rolling to facilitate that.

I'm totally fine with you rolling offline PB. Whatever makes your life easier.

[Papa Bear]

and more fun... I like rolling those little polyhedrals

[hakootoko]

I look forward to getting the group together. Solo isn't really my thing.

[leons1701]

19 hours ago, Papa Bear said:

that reminds me, I miss the old emojis from oMW

I too miss our orc buddies.

[Papa Bear]

My favorite was :danceorc:

[hakootoko]

It still seems to be working. It's dancing, all right.