Like CoffeeNoise, I too am less than pleased. My apologies, team. I vote for point-buy.
Additionally, I'd like the group/DM to weigh in on having both a dwarf barbarian (my character) and a goliath fighter (DirtyDog's character) in the party. Would it me more beneficial for the group if I were to play a rogue instead? Something I am happy to do. I have the rogue character ready to go if we pursue that option. Race will be dark gnome and, therefore, he will have familiarity with the Underdark.
I'm glad you said something, Jack. I'm not really happy with my scores, either (ugh, that 7!). I'd prefer point buy, but would have stuck it out if everyone else wanted to keep their rolls. I don't see a problem with having a barbarian and a fighter. Having two front-liners seems like a good idea to me. I will say that if you switch to rogue, I'd like to switch to barbarian. It fits a little better with my character, but fighter works as well.
As much as I will be weeping over the loss of +16 (compared to the point-buy), I'm fine with all the players using the same starting line (instead of being in a -5 hole, like the rolls you got).
I will probably multi-class ranger-rogue down the road, but I think the party already has a good enough mix that you should go with what you want to (barbarian OR rogue), and not worry about an optimal mix.
Beegred Thornpost - Lvl 8 Halfling Ranger - Out of the Abyss by Kerrec Drusk - Lvl 8 Half-Orc Life Cleric - The Long Road: Dragon Heist by Mingofaust (player & current DM) Hunferho Aelorothi - Lvl 5 Half-Elf Bard/Rogue - Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus (by Pokepaladdy) DM - Frontier City of Nunkreet (ended)
I'm fine with using point buy. And as for the classes, I think two frontlines is fine, but if you think we need a rogue more then go for it. I'm still not sure if I'll be more melee or caster (havent decided between hexblade and GOO just yet.)
@Kerrec I figured that she wouldn't be welcome in the Underdark. She has probably been down in the Underdark before though, and was just very careful.
Beegred is familiar with the underdark in general (favored terrain), but not specifically wherever you are (which is the reason for him to want to leave the underdark, since he got lost running from a stone giant).
Beegred Thornpost - Lvl 8 Halfling Ranger - Out of the Abyss by Kerrec Drusk - Lvl 8 Half-Orc Life Cleric - The Long Road: Dragon Heist by Mingofaust (player & current DM) Hunferho Aelorothi - Lvl 5 Half-Elf Bard/Rogue - Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus (by Pokepaladdy) DM - Frontier City of Nunkreet (ended)
The module allows an alternative background feature and an alternative bond. Seeing as all of you except for Beegred chose to be unaffiliated with the Underdark in any way, only Beegred gets the option to choose to go this route.
@Beegred: If you do want to have an Underdark themed background feature and/or bond, then roll 1d4 (for the feature) and/or 1d10 (for the bond).
I'll skip this. While Beegred has spent time studying the Underdark, and made trips there for experience, his background was on the surface in his halfling village.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Beegred Thornpost - Lvl 8 Halfling Ranger - Out of the Abyss by Kerrec Drusk - Lvl 8 Half-Orc Life Cleric - The Long Road: Dragon Heist by Mingofaust (player & current DM) Hunferho Aelorothi - Lvl 5 Half-Elf Bard/Rogue - Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus (by Pokepaladdy) DM - Frontier City of Nunkreet (ended)
I see most of you went ahead and picked your backgrounds already. Which is fine, but I want to make your backstories part of the campaign, not just a fun bit at character creation and then forgotten during play (I'm very guilty of this as a player). To me, it's the difference between a good campaign and a great campaign. As a DM I already know the whole story, just not how you will all get to the ending. So I'd like to log in every day and get to read some stories that are unknown to me. It's one thing to say I want you to do this, and another to expect it to 'just' happen. So I'm going to provide rewards for doing so.
PART 1
Before I get to the reward, let me explain Inspiration.
There are two kinds of Inspiration in 5e. Bardic inspiration which is doled out by player bard characters and Dungeon Master inspiration which is doled out by the DM as a reward, at the DM's discretion. Bardic inspiration and DM inspiration work differently. The way DM inspiration works is you can only ever have ONE, and it can be used to give you advantage on ANY dice roll. Once you use it, it's gone.
I'm going to use DM Inspiration as a reward mechanism to play your characters per the Traits, Ideals, Bonds and Flaws you chose at character creation. If you post an action, interaction, speech or character behavior that is defined by the Traits, Ideals, Bonds or Flaws of your character, then I want you to post in this OOC thread submitting it for consideration. For example:
Player 1 faces a wooden door and wants to get through. There's the option to, you know, check if it's unlocked or pick the lock or the old fashion bash down the door. This player chooses to bash down the door without even checking the other options because he has "I enjoy being strong and like breaking things," as a trait. So he makes his post, then comes into this OOC thread and follows up with:
DM inspiration for Post #130 for Trait "I enjoy being strong and like breaking things."
I'll review the post just to be sure, and award the inspiration.
The Catch:
You have to cycle through all your traits, bonds, ideals and flaws before you can use the same one again.
Please review your choices. Some may be very difficult to incorporate into roleplay per the above. Regardless of what background you choose, I will allow Traits, Ideals, Bonds and Flaws from any background. (You'll have to copy them in manually.)
This next bit is ambitious and I don't know if it's going to work. If it doesn't, no big deal - I tried and maybe I'll try to improve it or just not bother in my next games.
You're all going to start together, but none of you will have known each other prior. This is part of the module. By necessity, you will all have to work together to escape, but that doesn't mean you're friends. There will be NPC's you will fight with and travel with to escape that would be enemies in any other scenario. Once (and if) freedom is achieved, those NPC's are probably going to revert and if you see them again, they won't be reminiscing your time together in the Underdark. Along the same lines, all of you can work together the whole way out of the Underdark and once you reach the surface, you go your own way and never see each other again. Unless your characters form strong bonds of friendship. I'm going to try to do provide the same "reward" motivation to have stories within the Out of the Abyss story, where those stories are your characters forming bonds. Other than setting it up at character creation, I will be completely hands off from that point onwards (other than providing the awards).
I'm not yet ready to explain the mechanics and I will do so as soon as I can (it's just too late tonight). But in the meantime, what I want is for each of you to create a deep dark secret your character has, that they haven't been able to tell even their best friends, or family. Something they just haven't been ready to face yet. It can be anything from vile acts done to others or vile acts done to the character. Anything that justifies the secrecy. Once you've chosen, tell me what it is in private messages and I will record it. Then I will explain how it will work when I have time to sit down and write it all out.
My hope is when we get into combat initiative order, we won't have to wait days to get through the combat order to get to post again. In situations like those, each of you can continue to post along the lines of:
"During the last long rest, I was on guard duty with so-and-so, we talked during our shift. This is what we said...."
That way you can all work on your stories while we slog through the combat in OotA.
I like that this Inspiration reward system gives a nudge of extra motivation to pause, reflect, and consider my character’s past experiences. In my (admittedly limited) roleplay experience, it’s sometimes easy for me to forget that my character lived a complex life prior to being in the situation he/she is currently in. Irregardless, I think some (maybe all?) characters are just one part or another of their creator - so it’s a simple mistake to make. Per Kerrec’s recommendation, I’ve adjusted a few of Delmae’s traits to accommodate.
I hope it works. If it doesn't, no big deal. We'll still play through the module. I'll just hand out inspiration the old fashion way... when I laugh or am impressed.
Like CoffeeNoise, I too am less than pleased. My apologies, team. I vote for point-buy.
Additionally, I'd like the group/DM to weigh in on having both a dwarf barbarian (my character) and a goliath fighter (DirtyDog's character) in the party. Would it me more beneficial for the group if I were to play a rogue instead? Something I am happy to do. I have the rogue character ready to go if we pursue that option. Race will be dark gnome and, therefore, he will have familiarity with the Underdark.
I'm glad you said something, Jack. I'm not really happy with my scores, either (ugh, that 7!). I'd prefer point buy, but would have stuck it out if everyone else wanted to keep their rolls. I don't see a problem with having a barbarian and a fighter. Having two front-liners seems like a good idea to me. I will say that if you switch to rogue, I'd like to switch to barbarian. It fits a little better with my character, but fighter works as well.
My apologies, team. I vote for point-buy.
As much as I will be weeping over the loss of +16 (compared to the point-buy), I'm fine with all the players using the same starting line (instead of being in a -5 hole, like the rolls you got).
I will probably multi-class ranger-rogue down the road, but I think the party already has a good enough mix that you should go with what you want to (barbarian OR rogue), and not worry about an optimal mix.
Beegred Thornpost - Lvl 8 Halfling Ranger - Out of the Abyss by Kerrec
Drusk - Lvl 8 Half-Orc Life Cleric - The Long Road: Dragon Heist by Mingofaust (player & current DM)
Hunferho Aelorothi - Lvl 5 Half-Elf Bard/Rogue - Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus (by Pokepaladdy)
DM - Frontier City of Nunkreet (ended)
I'm fine with using point buy. And as for the classes, I think two frontlines is fine, but if you think we need a rogue more then go for it. I'm still not sure if I'll be more melee or caster (havent decided between hexblade and GOO just yet.)
@Kerrec I figured that she wouldn't be welcome in the Underdark. She has probably been down in the Underdark before though, and was just very careful.
Make your characters with Point Buy.
Barbarian & Fighter is fine.
Next post from me will be a big one, and I may not be able to get to it until evening.
Forgot to address the underdark assignment: Valthana is definitely NOT familiar with the underdark and had no intention of entering it.
Point buy is fine. I added a background and basic backstory to my character sheet. Narstin would not be familiar with the underdark.
Delmae is not familiar with the Underdark.
Beegred is familiar with the underdark in general (favored terrain), but not specifically wherever you are (which is the reason for him to want to leave the underdark, since he got lost running from a stone giant).
Beegred Thornpost - Lvl 8 Halfling Ranger - Out of the Abyss by Kerrec
Drusk - Lvl 8 Half-Orc Life Cleric - The Long Road: Dragon Heist by Mingofaust (player & current DM)
Hunferho Aelorothi - Lvl 5 Half-Elf Bard/Rogue - Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus (by Pokepaladdy)
DM - Frontier City of Nunkreet (ended)
Tozer has no previous experience with the Underdark.
The module allows an alternative background feature and an alternative bond. Seeing as all of you except for Beegred chose to be unaffiliated with the Underdark in any way, only Beegred gets the option to choose to go this route.
@Beegred: If you do want to have an Underdark themed background feature and/or bond, then roll 1d4 (for the feature) and/or 1d10 (for the bond).
I'll skip this. While Beegred has spent time studying the Underdark, and made trips there for experience, his background was on the surface in his halfling village.
Beegred Thornpost - Lvl 8 Halfling Ranger - Out of the Abyss by Kerrec
Drusk - Lvl 8 Half-Orc Life Cleric - The Long Road: Dragon Heist by Mingofaust (player & current DM)
Hunferho Aelorothi - Lvl 5 Half-Elf Bard/Rogue - Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus (by Pokepaladdy)
DM - Frontier City of Nunkreet (ended)
I see most of you went ahead and picked your backgrounds already. Which is fine, but I want to make your backstories part of the campaign, not just a fun bit at character creation and then forgotten during play (I'm very guilty of this as a player). To me, it's the difference between a good campaign and a great campaign. As a DM I already know the whole story, just not how you will all get to the ending. So I'd like to log in every day and get to read some stories that are unknown to me. It's one thing to say I want you to do this, and another to expect it to 'just' happen. So I'm going to provide rewards for doing so.
PART 1
Before I get to the reward, let me explain Inspiration.
There are two kinds of Inspiration in 5e. Bardic inspiration which is doled out by player bard characters and Dungeon Master inspiration which is doled out by the DM as a reward, at the DM's discretion. Bardic inspiration and DM inspiration work differently. The way DM inspiration works is you can only ever have ONE, and it can be used to give you advantage on ANY dice roll. Once you use it, it's gone.
I'm going to use DM Inspiration as a reward mechanism to play your characters per the Traits, Ideals, Bonds and Flaws you chose at character creation. If you post an action, interaction, speech or character behavior that is defined by the Traits, Ideals, Bonds or Flaws of your character, then I want you to post in this OOC thread submitting it for consideration. For example:
Player 1 faces a wooden door and wants to get through. There's the option to, you know, check if it's unlocked or pick the lock or the old fashion bash down the door. This player chooses to bash down the door without even checking the other options because he has "I enjoy being strong and like breaking things," as a trait. So he makes his post, then comes into this OOC thread and follows up with:
DM inspiration for Post #130 for Trait "I enjoy being strong and like breaking things."
I'll review the post just to be sure, and award the inspiration.
The Catch:
You have to cycle through all your traits, bonds, ideals and flaws before you can use the same one again.
Please review your choices. Some may be very difficult to incorporate into roleplay per the above. Regardless of what background you choose, I will allow Traits, Ideals, Bonds and Flaws from any background. (You'll have to copy them in manually.)
PART 2
This next bit is ambitious and I don't know if it's going to work. If it doesn't, no big deal - I tried and maybe I'll try to improve it or just not bother in my next games.
You're all going to start together, but none of you will have known each other prior. This is part of the module. By necessity, you will all have to work together to escape, but that doesn't mean you're friends. There will be NPC's you will fight with and travel with to escape that would be enemies in any other scenario. Once (and if) freedom is achieved, those NPC's are probably going to revert and if you see them again, they won't be reminiscing your time together in the Underdark. Along the same lines, all of you can work together the whole way out of the Underdark and once you reach the surface, you go your own way and never see each other again. Unless your characters form strong bonds of friendship. I'm going to try to do provide the same "reward" motivation to have stories within the Out of the Abyss story, where those stories are your characters forming bonds. Other than setting it up at character creation, I will be completely hands off from that point onwards (other than providing the awards).
I'm not yet ready to explain the mechanics and I will do so as soon as I can (it's just too late tonight). But in the meantime, what I want is for each of you to create a deep dark secret your character has, that they haven't been able to tell even their best friends, or family. Something they just haven't been ready to face yet. It can be anything from vile acts done to others or vile acts done to the character. Anything that justifies the secrecy. Once you've chosen, tell me what it is in private messages and I will record it. Then I will explain how it will work when I have time to sit down and write it all out.
My hope is when we get into combat initiative order, we won't have to wait days to get through the combat order to get to post again. In situations like those, each of you can continue to post along the lines of:
"During the last long rest, I was on guard duty with so-and-so, we talked during our shift. This is what we said...."
That way you can all work on your stories while we slog through the combat in OotA.
Oh, one last thing.
Pick your starting equipment per the character creation rules. Post a list of all your stuff. Then delete ALL of it from your character sheet.
I like that this Inspiration reward system gives a nudge of extra motivation to pause, reflect, and consider my character’s past experiences. In my (admittedly limited) roleplay experience, it’s sometimes easy for me to forget that my character lived a complex life prior to being in the situation he/she is currently in. Irregardless, I think some (maybe all?) characters are just one part or another of their creator - so it’s a simple mistake to make. Per Kerrec’s recommendation, I’ve adjusted a few of Delmae’s traits to accommodate.
I hope it works. If it doesn't, no big deal. We'll still play through the module. I'll just hand out inspiration the old fashion way... when I laugh or am impressed.
Backpack
Bedroll
Blanket
Clothes, Common
Herbalism Kit
Leather
Mess Kit
Rations (1 day) (x10)
Rope, Hempen (50 feet)
Scimitar
Shield
Tinderbox
Torch (x10)
Waterskin
Yew Wand
A scroll case stuffed full of notes from your studies or prayers
5 GP
Xilyra's equipment:
Backpack
Clothes, common
Crowbar (2)
Arcane focus
Dagger (3)
Hammer
Leather armor
Pitons (10)
Quarterstaff
Rations (10)
Rope, hempen (50ft)
Tinderbox
Torches (10)
Waterskin
15 gold
Tozer's traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws have been finalized.
His chosen weapons and equipment are as follows:
Tozer's backstory and dark secret will be completed soon.