OOC thread for Echoes of Empire: https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/play-by-post/184662-echoes-of-empire

Please post any OOC conversation including rule questions and character creation to this thread.

Ruling Summaries:

Travel:

Rations last one day. One day of travel will take you two hexes by road, one hex in plains and desert, 1/2 a hex in forest and hills, and 1/3 of a hex in mountains. We will do a survival check at the start of each day to determine whether you get lost and determine what you find, adding another day of travel. You can double your daily speed but you will need to consume twice the rations  and take one level of exhaustion.

Awesome thanks! 

Combat Initiative

In order to keep things moving relatively quickly, we are going to modify the way we handle initiative in the following ways:

1. At the beginning of an encounter that requires initiative, I will roll initiative for group of monsters and each player
2.  I'll state the intentions of each group of monsters so you can decide how to react ahead of time
3. If initiative rolls mean that a group of players would normally act sequentially with no monsters in between, the players can post in any order.

Example:

Taya and Horros approach the burning streets near the markets of Shadowdale. They encounter a group of goblins, a group of orcs, and a group of human guards.

1. I roll initiative for every group, the goblins get a 2, the orcs get a 15, Horros gets a 13, Taya gets a 14, and the guards get a 17
2. I state the intentions of each group of NPC combatants. This is what they will do if uninterrupted by player actions: "The guards mount a last ditch effort to fight off the orcs, the orcs will attempt to finish off the remaining guards, the goblins will move in on a group of trapped civilians"
3. The guards and the orcs take their respective actions because they beat our Taya and Horros in initiative, players can post reactions as needed and I will retcon based on the rolls (for example, if you want to use counterspell, I will edit the post to reflect your reaction and its result. This part may be a bit tricky so we'll play it on a case by case basis.)
4. Taya and Horros act in any order, based on who posts first
5. The goblins act
6. We go back to step 2

Sounds good!

Works for me 👍

Fine with me too!

Same! 

Also just want to reiterate and emphasize that death is on the table and tends to be permanent. I’m not going to go out of my way to kill you off but rolls are public and you do not have plot armor. I’d recommend having backup characters ready and leveled.

Cool! I love that method for initiative. Sounds much smoother for this pbp method. I've seen whole days get chewed up just waiting for everyone to even roll initiative before. This is better. 

I'm west coast US, also, btw. Didn't ooc that in the other thread.

Also, Arling, thanks for the updated 1st post on the main thread with the character list and summaries and links. Super useful, and very organized. Love it!

Quote from ArlingLongsword >>

Also just want to reiterate and emphasize that death is on the table and tends to be permanent. I’m not going to go out of my way to kill you off but rolls are public and you do not have plot armor. I’d recommend having backup characters ready and leveled.

I know that Taya runs a bit hot headed into a fray that might be well over her head. On her way to the market she passed a human rogue that made a few wrong calls and considers to look for a quiet exit from Shadowdale before his guild finds out.

My cleric is also likely to get into some shit lol. I have my variant human wizard on standby - anticipated bladesinger but also have a barbarian built too. Less fleshed out but equally happy to play either. 

hey, good opportunity to test out builds 😂 

Like I said I’m not gonna go out of my way to end you at all costs, but adventuring is dangerous and I just wanted to make sure we’re all on the same page about the level of difficulty and what the stakes are.

Oh also, I should add that if your character is going to die, I will give them a single turn with the full benefits of a long rest and full action economy (movement, action, bonus action) to go out with a bang. The only rule is that they will drop dead after their final turn no matter what (aka no healing yourself and continuing on with the character)

You can also choose to take inspiration for your next character or gain advantage on all actions your dying character takes with their final breaths.

That’s sick 

I have at least 2 characters of every class set up and ready to go because I enjoy building them. So I’m ready if I die, not that I’m in any big hurry to do so. This should be fun!

Gonna get a head start posting the new scenes since it'll take a bit for me to get everything together. When Aridove gives me her actiond I'll retcon her in

You almost make me look forward to Haj's demise, so I can try some of my other characters. ☠️

Got a crit on my first roll. I can’t tell if that’s lucky or if I burned all my good luck now and roll like garbage from now on 🤷🏼

Alright, the posts are up. Feel free to read through them and draft responses but out of respect for the posting window lets wait to post for another 50 mins to give aridove some time to respond