DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Hall of Fame - Latest Top 10 completed games HHE: The Haunted Helm OOC: Pizza

OK guys, good stuff. So that was a 13th Age travel montage.

Although I've been making skill checks for you behind the screens, when I get a good example of skill checks, hopefully involving everyone, we'll do the rolls out in the open so you can see how 13th Age skills work.

In the meantime, the party are just about to start the unguided stage of the journey. i.e., The dangerous part. As long as none of the PCs were taught wilderness navigation by the Blair Witch, all they have to do, to avoid getting lost, is following the big wet thing.

If I don't get a chance to post for the rest of the week, it's because I'm in Majorca until Saturday lunch-time and may get distracted.

Majorca ... have fun ya bastard!!!

He forgot and left us behind dammit. I think we need ta plan some thing ... 'special' for his return <weg>

We need to whip up some special skill checks for him.

A start <g>

Anyone have a specific suggestion?

Sipping expresso, overlooking the Med right now. Felt the need to share.

Nice! I wish I was there.

You bastard! Rubbing it in like that <sigh> I am so jealous <wink>

And I'm back, ready for more message gaming in the 13th Age. Skill checks required over the past week included Buffet Foraging, and Swimming (definitely Took 20 on that one). Save vs Sun Rays was also succeeded, but only just.

So we need a party order. The PC with the strongest applicable background makes sense to lead. Who might that be? Well, the following PCs have backgrounds that strike me as obviously applicable:

Nestaron - Wanderer in the Wilderness +2
Seyja - Mountain Woman +4
Tindarien - Wilderness Survivor +1
Zoltan - Tracker +4

Less obvious:

Jex - Bandit +2
Weston - Rover +2

As a mere follower, Heilbutt doesn't make skill checks as such, so if he leads, you place yourself in the hands of GM fiat.

Welcome back. Glad it was a fun time.

Weston is happy to be where ever makes sense. Maybe near the middle so that he can move to the front or back as needed.

Well, I'm not sure which skill or talent is more beneficial, but I would guess Zoltan or Seyja.

Hiw about one on each end? To keep the rest of us in line.

Skill checks and backgrounds in 13th Age are a soft system, prioritising your character concept over mechanics.

Frex, if your char is a grizzled trapper, you've probably highlighted that in your background, maybe "Wild Man of the Woods +4" or however you want to phrase it.

When it comes to a skill check, it's up to the player to explain why the chosen background is applicable. To recognise that bellowing roar, deep in the forest "Wild Man of the Woods +4" is going to be relevant, whereas "Swaggering Dandy +4" isn't (unless you can convince the gaming group otherwise).

In HHE, whoever's leading the party will be scouting the way. Navigation isn't a problem, since you're following the river, but who knows what other challenges might lay ahead.

If it's just following the river what could possibly go wrong???

Oh, wait, I think I saw that movie <gd&r lmao>

How about Zoltan (better armour) backed up by Seyja?

Well, if we were tracking someone then Zoltan definitely first, followed by Seyja. But I don't think our quarry came this way as his horse couldn't navigate the route. Zoltan has no special skills in mountains. He has outdoor survival skills, but they are more general in nature.

That said, is the trail so narrow it has to be single file? Zoltan and Seyja up front together works well.

Actually ... as I understand it ... there is no 'trail' per say. We are simply following the river where there is a fairly wide 'shore line'.

I gather that the 'quest' is to find the person best able to help us avoid any 'obstacles' and/or 'traps' that we might encounter along the way. Otherwise the GM will be free to 'unload' on us <wink>

Well, I'd say Seyja first then. The combination of her skill and class seem to work best. Tindarien's and/or Nestaron's classes don't seem to mesh with being first in a marching order.

Zoltan can be second.

Yeah, that works. From how the characters have been described, I think you'd peg Seyja as the best scout.

The one thing you don't have to worry about is getting lost. You literally can't get lost. The Scintilla River flows from the Titan's Elbow down to the fishing town of Rosencliff.

As for 13th Age skill checks, so far I've been making skill checks behind the screen, like I did with TVS. I deliver the result, but don't announce the roll.

So if you fail to spot the river troll hunting you, the first you'll know about it is it jumping out at you.

Having said that, when we get an interesting, party-wide skill roll, I will call attention to it, because I want to demonstrate how the 13th Age system works.

Do you want some sort of "Standard Action" for each pc? IOW we all have special Feats, Powers, and Skills, some of which can occur during another player's turn (or even during the DM's turn). From what I noticed of the initial encounter there wasn't an opportunity to go back once you posted the turn and say "Wait, I wanted to do this".

Jex will stick in the middle.

Wanna bet? You should =never= issue a challenge like =that= ... especially =here=!! <chuckle>

And Nep, feel free to try and keep Weston entertained. We are both in the middle <wink>

I will do my best to have Jex keep Weston smiling.

That's a good idea, Zeim. Although it isn't mandatory.

We'll use the Gallery for this purpose, as it's an easily accessible place to store quick ref information for a character.

Check it out...

You'll notice I've edited the description for each char's Gallery thread to "Enter your scripted actions here".

You can either edit the original post, or post a new one to your char's Gallery thread; they work just like normal forum threads.

Therein you can state any action your char takes as standard, in a given combat situation.

As I say, this isn't mandatory, I'll try to do what I think's best for the char when resolving combat, but any advice you can give me all helps.

Then what I'll do is when resolving combat, check your Gallery threads first.

Let's have a look at a very mundane skill check in 13th Age. Pathfinding/scouting/navigation, whatever you want to call it, but leading the party through the wilderness.

Exeter's Seyja has the lead, and we'll use her Mountain Woman +4 background.

She's rolling to see how tiring the hike is. With a success, she finds a quick and easy, low energy route along the river with few obstacles. With a failure, it's the opposite, the hike is much harder going. As a result it's a little later in the day before you can stop to make camp, your char's feet and thighs are a little sorer.

Pff, why roll then? Here's where we bring into play a key 13th Age principle, fail forward.

Certainly if there's no real consquence to failure, the roll is pointless. And sometimes failure would just bring the story to a grinding halt. Frex, "Oh bugger, they didn't find the essential clue to progress the plot!".

So we apply the failure later and keep moving. This is fail forwards.

In this case, if Seyja fails I will give an advantage to an enemy encounter later on, perhaps a first round -1 penalty (you're less spry), perhaps extra foes (the enemy converges on your trail), etc.

In 13th Age, a skill check is:

1d20 + background bonus + char level + most apt ability score bonus

We'll use Wisdom in this case, and the target number is 15.

I roll... I get 14 on the dice, plus 5 is a total of 19. No problem!