As you near Greenest, you see that the smoke is just an illusion, most of the houses aren't burning, only a few farmhouses. Without warning, five humans dash out from between two buildings on your left. A limping man and three young children race across the street into more shadows, and a woman carrying a round shield and a broken spear turns and faces back in the direction from which they came. Seven kobolds stream out of the alley on the family's heels and fan out around the woman, who looks determined to delay the creatures for as long as possible.

Vanlir sees the family in danger and rushes to the woman's side. He hold his greatclub as he casts Shillelagh on it.

He then casts Thorn Whip at the nearest kobold.

(Thorn Whip: 9 Damage: 6)

Hey if you're doing combat you have to roll initiative. I didn't ask you to roll initiative because I wasn't sure you would attack

If you're attacking, roll initiative 

Okay, we going to go that route. Would you say you are by the book kind of DM?

Initiative: 11

I am a bit confused about "by the book". Does that mean using intiative is sticking to the rules

Also, don't most DMs use initiative? You didn't even "surprise" the kobolds, so if you attack anytime you want it's going to be chaos. Pbp doesn't mean whoever comes first attacks first. If it did, the kobolds would just always attack first

This isn't even sticking straight to the rules, even dms that have a lot of house rules use initiative.

I mean, in a situation where the enemies are tied up, you just automatically hit by my rules, and there is no initiative, even if the enemies can make strength checks to escape. But the kobolds aren't tied up, neither side is surprised, conclusion: this is a straightforward combat situation- and I don't know about you but I like to use initiative in straightforward combat situations.

TL;DR(TheBritGeek should read all, this is meant for the others): "Going that route." Yes, I am using initiative in a completely normal combat situation. Is that "by the book?"

I may sound a bit aggressive, but your comment kind of confused and offended me

Besides, shillelagh only works on clubs, not greatclubs. Greatclub doesn't fall in a "club" category, unlike 4e; you can have proficiency with greatclubs but not clubs, and vice versa.

Initiative: 5

Initiative:  11

Seeing the woman surrounded, Galeryn draws an arrow back and moves toward the kobolds surrounding her preparing to take a shot. (Initiative: 15)

Welll they burst out from nowhere but you were ready so they didn't surprise you. You really had 0% chance surprising them

Quote from Penguini >>

Seeing the woman surrounded, Galeryn draws an arrow back and moves toward the kobolds surrounding her preparing to take a shot. (Initiative: 15)

OOC: My thoughts on above are that I would think that since I had previously readied my bow that should allow a round prior to initiative if the kobolds noticed us, and if they did not notice us, we should get a surprise round.  Ok with whatever, but that's my thinking.

 

OOC: To get a surprise round, we'd all have to make Stealth checks, which none of us opted for. Therefore, no surprise round.

Sorry I'll do intiative now

woman: 19

limping man: 8

C1: 6

C2: 6

C3: 13

K1: 5

K2: 3

K3: 8

K4: 13

K5: 9

K6: 18

K7: 15

Initiative Ties

Drogar - 2

Galeryn - 3

 K1: 7

C3: 14

This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.

huh? I didn't manipulate anything

Hey this dice roll thing is strange every time i edit the post to add initiative ties the die gets rerolled

Quote from Jayden0 >>

Besides, shillelagh only works on clubs, not greatclubs. Greatclub doesn't fall in a "club" category, unlike 4e; you can have proficiency with greatclubs but not clubs, and vice versa.

 Ok, fine I can still cast it on my quarterstaff instead.

Quote from Jayden0 >>

This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.

huh? I didn't manipulate anything

 You must have added more dice rolls in an edit, this also triggers the alert.

Quote from Jayden0 >>

Hey this dice roll thing is strange every time i edit the post to add initiative ties the die gets rerolled

 You need to add all dice rolls in one go. If they're ties why are you adding them as dice rolls after the first post?

Quote from Jayden0 >>

Hey this dice roll thing is strange every time i edit the post to add initiative ties the die gets rerolled

 OOC: Yeah if you edit the post and change the coding of the dice mechanics, it'll give you that warning and the dice will be rerolled on each roll. Might just need to make another post and just tell us to make Dex checks if we have Initiative ties or something if we have the same Dex score.

Quote from Ryno628 >>

Quote from Jayden0 >>

Hey this dice roll thing is strange every time i edit the post to add initiative ties the die gets rerolled

 OOC: Yeah if you edit the post and change the coding of the dice mechanics, it'll give you that warning and the dice will be rerolled on each roll. Might just need to make another post and just tell us to make Dex checks if we have Initiative ties or something if we have the same Dex score.

OOC: It is very finicky.  You have to be very careful not to edit anything *around* the dice roll. You will notice that I do all of my rolls inside of parenthesis (Like So: 1). Then if I edit anything outside of the parenthesis, I don't have any issues. I've been very successful with that method. I've been able to add new rolls to an edited post that way as well. (This link, edited dice rolls, is a post I did 3 rolls in. The initial Roll 1 was the initial post, then I edited the post 2 more times and added a roll each time.)

Another DM I've played with always rolled inside of spoilers. Again, so he could edit other parts of the post without disrupting the dice rolls.  

(Sorry I was sleeping) Thanks everyone, I'll just reroll the whole thing now

woman: 20

limping man: 19

Child 1: 14

C2: 2

C3: 10

K1: 6

K2: 19

K3: 6

K4: 3

K5: 8

K6: 20

K7: 8