Out Of Character

[The Red Baron]

Would Gunter's armor fit a hobbet?

I needed to think on that one.
It seems like dwarf-armor was ill-fit Bilbo Baggins, who instead wore the mail shirt of an Elf-princeling.
I think Dopey could wear dwarf-plate, at a pinch, but it will be heavy (compared to Hobbet-fit) and would not fit well so he would be AC 6 (rather than AC 5).

If you're heading back to camp, take it and sell it there. You might get enough for it to buy some real hobbit-fit plate.

Sounds like a good plan.

[waysoftheearth]

Some observations about the recent combat encounter:

. Nine rounds of combat were fought (following exchange of missiles),
. 19 days of real time elapsed,
. 14 casualties were sustained,
. two figures were incapacitated.

. Resolving multiple rounds at a time didn't appear to much affect players' orders.
. The players pressed the combat when they had an opportunity to pause after three rounds.
. Having the helmet/shield rules in play on both sides delayed the outcome.
. The players act like mini-heroes (attacking Thick-Neck while other normal targets were about).
. Randomising NPC attacks across the players--while the players are able to focus on one target--worked to the players' advantage.

It could have been useful to have a "default morale" for the players... will need to think more about that.

Comments welcome

[sully]

What do you mean by "default morale"?

[ehiker133]

What do you mean by "default morale"?

I think he means some trigger point (1/2 the party is dead, 1/2 the fighting-types are dead or incapacitated, the party is outnumbered 2-to-1, etc.) where the party would break off combat and retreat or surrender or do whatever it is that they determined they would do in a losing situation.

[sully]

Might be useful to at least have the conversation. I know The Herald was ready to discuss terms with Thick-Neck and crew but was essentially forced to fight on because one other person chose continued hostilities.

[waysoftheearth]

It can very easily happen, in the PBP format, that one player's post can carry more weight than it otherwise might, just because of timing, or because one player happens to use affirmative language while other players post in terms of "if, elseif, otherwise...", etc. I don't think responsibility necessarily falls to that player, it's as much about the way PBP works.

However, that is partly why I was thinking of allowing each player to set his own "Morale stat" (probably having a "default", as well as being able to override it out the outset of any given combat scenario). The ref could then use reaction/morale dice (adjusted by the player's setting) to determine plausible player actions in combat. I suspect some players would simply want "fanatic" morale (i.e., they always fight to the death). Others (i.e. possibly M-Us) might want more circumspect morale.

The whole point of that would ultimately be to facilitate *faster* combat resolution. I.e., I would ideally like to be able to resolve entire combats in a single post, regardless of how many rounds are fought. This is partly because I want the exploration component of the game to progress steadily wtihout getting bogged down by combats, and partly because I just want to try more abstract combat to see how it flies.

That's why I'm interested to see how folks found the recent combat from the player side, particuarly where I resoved two or three rounds at a go.

[mgtremaine]

Well, let's see, I died. Not sure it worked out how I wanted.

[acodispo]

The combat ran smoothly enough from my point of view. I actually felt that I could have posted fewer times and still got the rosolution I wanted, but chimed in to keep my personal posting momentum going.

It is a little tricky to get the hang of finding a way to script upcoming actions without filling posts with if/then stuff. Next time I will probably lay out my entire battle script before the 1st round, and then make adjustments or make descriptive posts for added color as the battle went on.

Different topic: when do we "heal" a single hit? Knowing what our actual remaining HPs are would help make this decision about whether to push forward or fall back.

[waysoftheearth]

when do we "heal" a single hit? Knowing what our actual remaining HPs are would help make this decision about whether to push forward or fall back.

A brief period of test, drinking water, strapping wounds, tightening belts and straightening armor, etc. is presumed to occur immediately after hostilities end. You can post words to this effect in character (and some already have). You'll all recover 1-6 hp at the conclusion of the post-combat rest.

I'll leave it to the players (with the help of the trusty assistant-ref) to ensure the hp totals on their character sheets are correct.

[ehiker133]

I'll go through the combat posts and total everyone's hit points and then adjust for the rest period after WOTE rolls those dice.