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I've been invited to join an ongoing local D&D (I haveth impressed the DM with my lore of all things Fantasy related over a game of chess ) ut there's a problem.
While he gave me his email to contact him he hasn't contacted me back, or logged onto MSN. I can't go to roleplay if I don't know ehre he lives!
:EDIT:
Yay he logged on!
Alright wish me luck, this is an important step in a mans journey. The moment when he finally gets to toss the dice for real in an epic adventure.
Okay, now for the part that concerns Hatrack, what are the standard rules of etiquet for being part of a D&D campaign. Any tips, helps, clues, pointers, and pewters?
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It's always best to boss the others in your party right off the bat. Most D&D players crave leadership and will accept whoever makes the first bid for the reins. Also remember to isolate yourself from the others as it's impossible to make crucial decisions if you are tied down by alliances and mere feelings. I'll have more advice later.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Bring snacks. Don't wear a costume (unless it's one of those kind of games, and then good luck).
Don't forget to bring all the dice, pencils, scratch paper, character sheets, rule books, and miniatures you might need.
Posts: 3950 | Registered: Mar 2006
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Most dungeons in this game are equipped with some of the following: trapdoors, false doors, priest holes, fake stairs, changing gravity, arcane scribblings, bizarre clues, inviting pools, acid baths, etc. all liberally stocked with treasure and/or monsters. If you come to a dead end there is often a hidden way to move on, just like in many video games.
When the dungeon master is describing various features, he may give away clues with his body language or facial expressions. Is he forcing casualness when he mentions the red door? There could be a nice magical weapon there, or some demon. Be prepared for either.
Blackblade is joking. His advice is a sure way to get fragged before you even get warmed up.
If you're generating a character on the spot, try to complement or offset the skills of the others in the party. If they are heavy on warriors, try magician or thief. If they're good with warriors, magicians and thieves, try priest. Also balance your charactor's equipment--ask around for what you need and what is already plentiful in the group.
Teamwork is the way to succeed in the game. A thief spots a trapdoor which hides a chest with his nightvision. A magic user casts a detect traps spell. A warrior smashes the chest open . The priest heals the warrior from the poison that wasn't detected. Everybody's characters' skills will come into play somewhere.
Also, many dungeon masters give a you a goal or quest. Make sure your team works towards that and doesn't get bogged down.
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Definately, my usual plan is to make either a warrior-mink type dragonborn of Bahamut or a drow/elf wizard which Is tyle after the Doctor, that has been my plan of action in NWN2, ill try and see how it goes with this group.
Dragonborn because in a non DragonLance setting its closest to being a Draconian.
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I've played a few times, and although I think the rules aren't defined well enough for me to grasp the game, I felt it was best to go in with the expectation to have fun, and to not take things too seriously.
Posts: 2489 | Registered: Jan 2002
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Do NOT attempt to make a "unique" character, one that is so distinctive or weird or powerful or possessed of personality quirks that he tries to claim all the spotlight for himself. You want to be a team player, not a superstar.
This means no 7' albino elves with wild animal sidekicks and a tortured backstory involving a lost princess.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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quote:Originally posted by TomDavidson: Do NOT attempt to make a "unique" character, one that is so distinctive or weird or powerful or possessed of personality quirks that he tries to claim all the spotlight for himself. You want to be a team player, not a superstar.
This means no 7' albino elves with wild animal sidekicks and a tortured backstory involving a lost princess.
Of course this is true, but don't be afraid to add one at the most two eccentricities to your character, so long as those eccentricities are kinda quirky but nothing that's threatening or obnoxious. One of my friends is on a campaign as a dwarven druid who was abandoned as a baby and raised by an order of druids. His last name was Stetson so whenever they kill animals for food or whatnot he typically skins the animals and while they are traveling crafts hats and gives them to people.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I wouldn't even try to do THAT until you've got a feel for the group you're playing with. I know lots of groups that would find that attempt at humor to be really grating.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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quote:Originally posted by TomDavidson: I wouldn't even try to do THAT until you've got a feel for the group you're playing with. I know lots of groups that would find that attempt at humor to be really grating.
Oh I could certainly see that, but then again would it be fun playing with THOSE sorts of people? Angry nerds are none to fun to be with IMO.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by TomDavidson: Do NOT attempt to make a "unique" character, one that is so distinctive or weird or powerful or possessed of personality quirks that he tries to claim all the spotlight for himself. You want to be a team player, not a superstar.
This means no 7' albino elves with wild animal sidekicks and a tortured backstory involving a lost princess.
Bring food, be nice, make sure to take turns talking, show up on time, don't be the last one to leave, and what Tom D said.
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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Try to get a sense before hand as to whether the group is geared towards story-telling, role-playing, or dungeon-crawling. Not that there can't be combinations of the above, but most campaigns I've seen tend to pull one way or another. If you can talk to some of the players before hand, or the GM is honest and accurate in his/her own assessment, it will help. It's good to know before going in if the party needs a paladin for his ability to be a strong moral center or his ability to be a brick with healing and protection from evil.
Take things slow, and learn. Don't try to impress anyone early on with your keen wit or irreplacable cunning.
And find out what sort of snacks your GM prefers. (Hey, can't hurt.)
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
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Don't play a paladin. Unless you're really an experienced role player, you're going to end up having to arrest the entire group at every turn.
In the same theme, don't add any personality quirks that force you to fight with the group, or go off on different tracks. Nothing makes a game less fun than spending a lot of time fighting within the group.
Posts: 3950 | Registered: Mar 2006
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Bring Mountain Dew and Funions. It's a delicious combination. And using a magic missile to attack the darkness ALWAYS works.
Posts: 1156 | Registered: Jan 2004
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Blayne Bradley
unregistered
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Alright got back an hour ish ago.
Here's a recap:
Unfortunately it seems that the sessions are only like once every 3-4 weeks or so since our DM can't afford that many geusts over every weekend, and while I'm used to having weekly shedualed sessions they aren't. So itll be a few weeks before the next one.
I brought my laptop for the pdf's, a pencil, and my notebook (very important as I became the note keeper for the party). Because of transportation issues I came somewhat early (7:40 AM rather then the originally requested 9:30) so we played Halo 2 the 2 of us (I gotz pwned) then at 8:30-ish we started brainstorming my character.
I wanted to be either a dedicated mage, or dedicated fighter as I don't like multiclassing. Sinbce there was already a wizard in the group and the DM did say that he'ld very much like a fighter I decided to roll a Shield Dwarf fighter. (hes reaction was "I am so glad your a dwarf, they get so may racial bonuses)
I name him Rurik Bradenski longtime Waterdeep resident afraid of water, I go the whole two handed Dwarven battle ax route.
The rules of what races I could choose were anything not more then ECL+1 so no full Drow or half dragons and crazy races.
We played using a big rectangular table with the DM and his little area on one end and everyone around the table. We had a smaller table nearby for the minitatures so we knew all the exact details measurementwise of our surroundings.
The original group had the mission of clearing out sections of the sewers of vermin, between fights our characters would roleplay our moves and reasonings behind them very fun, my character got introduced as a Dwarf looking for work, overheard them talking about a job with the city and joined up with them.
The group had a plaintouch(? Azimar) Wizard, Moon Elf rogue, human fighter, moon elf druid, dwarf fighter (me) there's 2 in hiatus characters a half drow cleric and a monk of some kind.
We went into the sewers the DM was very good at describing surroundings and seemed to know intuitively what all the game mechanics were only chcking the reference manuals for specific information, we had random encounters, lots of traps (the rogue sprung them more often then not) and I go the uncanny feeling that the DM was trying to creatively challenge us
We came across a river in a narrow corridor 20-30 feet wide, 20 feet wide river going through it, the rogue threw a rope for the team to swing across, the druid nearly fell in the rushing waters, the wizard fell in, TWICE had to be pulled out via chain the first time, and managed to swim out the second time.
My dwarf not liking either the water or the rope jumped across (roled a 20 on my jump chgeck) and managed to stay balanced when I landed at the other end.
The rogue not only swung across but scored max on a tumble check, the DM magnificently described in detail how the rogue as it swung over, flipped over into a sumersault, flicked the rope to detach from the stagmalite, bundle up at his side as he was in the air landed with a "Tadaah!" and in one smooth motion put the rope in his backpack.
My dwarf could only sputter at his showoffness.
We got through, went into a room, encounted a Lich, not quite a Lich as he only had certain powers to harm us but we disturbed his grave and he demanded we finish one of his experiments from long ago inorder to leave alive.
We explore his lab thingy encounter a patchwork zombie thats not animated yet, before we put his reanimation gem into the zombie we notice a goal knawing on the corpses behind us so deciding to secure out option for a retreat we killed it (I got the finishing blow) and 3 more appeared nearly killing the Druids stupid badger that the druid insisted on healing rather then us.
We killed the ghouls, and reanimated the patchwork aka manbearpig zombie, and the Lich gave us 1 minute to leave his domain or else he'ld sick the zombie at us, now for a bunch of level ones we theoretically beat it.
But we were so weakened from the ghouls that it would have raped us hardcore so we ran, infact as it turns out in the previous session the human fighter had found a teleportation device in a nearby room which we then ran to, we all grabbed him and got teleported out.
We all upon teleportation failed our reflex saves ad got shunted, normally this would've killed the entire party but the fighter but instead we had our health reduced to 0 (no matter what) and rendered unconsience for 8 hours.
The fighter unharmed, stole my 4 portions of cure light wounds, and revived the druid, the rpgue, and then the mage and finally me.
When they told me they took my potions for this my dwarf was furious, as they stole me property, the fighter made admens by offering to pay for 200 gp of ale.
Thats 7000 mugs of ale, so I get free drinks for life now
I livened up my Irish accent for my role, I roleplayed well enough to gain an extra 100 xp. I even managed to get to lvl 2!
*Sigh* 3-4 weeks until the next session
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quote: DM: So.... it has the left arm of a... lizard folk, it muscular and scaly, the right arm of a Dwarf...
Me: (IC) By Moradin's Beard! That arm, its Dwarven in origin!
DM: And it has a leg of a... of a bugbear, and the other leg is human, its head is this shunked dishevelled face, and its eyes are white with no pupils.
Me: (OOC) So it's a manbearpig?
Everyone: Laughter.
........ Later ........
Me: Alright lads! Lets do this! Ruuuuuuurriiiiiik Braaaaadennnnnnskiiiii!
posted
Glad it was a positive experience for your Blayne. Hopefully you will continue to enjoy many more campaigns in the future.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Blayne, the DM was good to suggest a more "normal" character for your first game with them... it's important to realize that with pen&paper D&D it's far more important to make an interesting/believable/fun character than to power-game... every time I'm playing with my friends and one comes in with 3 natural 18's etc it's more annoying than anything else. Since pen&paper isn't nearly as bound by the strictures of the rules, stats etc really don't make nearly as much difference (in general).
basic summary: your awesome NWN2 character would probably make a terrible addition to a pen&paper game. However, that bumbling thief with a dex of 13 would probably make a great character, especially once you add in that he's a kleptomaniac and thinks he's actually an ogre...
also, I'm amused that a 4' tall dwarf somehow managed to jump 20' =p
Posts: 1038 | Registered: Feb 2006
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Assuming Blayne actually rolled a natural 20 on his Jump check, it's within the realm of possibility. His dwarf is probably in mediumish armor, so we're looking at a penalty of around -7. The DC for a 20' long jump is 20, so a Jump skill of 7 would do it for him. He'd actually be within range of the edge with a Jump skill of 2, provided he made a Reflex save (DC15) -- which is probably harder for him than the Jump check, since he's a dwarven fighter.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
I had maxed out (+4) skill points into jump when i made my character. I'm geussing 20-25 feet wide river as the map showed that it took about 2-3 domino blocks to bridge it.
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If you had 4 points in Jump and the river was 25 feet wide, you could not have made that jump even with a natural 20.
If you had 4 points in Jump and the river was 20 feet wide, you could have made that jump on a natural 20 if you were wearing light armor or rolled a Reflex save against DC15.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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Blayne Bradley
unregistered
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As I said I'm assuming its 20 based on my rough gestimation on the map, I never asked what the digiterilymeters were.
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That depends on whether they were using the very common variant rule that a natural 20 on skill checks translates to a 30.
Posts: 10177 | Registered: Apr 2001
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Tom, are you factoring in other modifiers or assuming Blayne's statement meant his total bonus to Jump was +4?
He said he "maxed out"jump with +4, which I took to mean 4 ranks at level 1. But Jump is a strength skill, if memory serves. And he's a dwarven fighter, right? How much you want to bet he has at least a 16 strength? Giving him the necessary +7 to make the jump.
Squicky's suggestion is also possible... as is the possibility that nobody involved in the game is versed enough in the rules to realize that n20 on skill checks does not equal automatic success. I've met plenty of people who assumed any n20 meant success, regardless of the nature of the roll.
Posts: 3580 | Registered: Aug 2005
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quote:Originally posted by MrSquicky: That depends on whether they were using the very common variant rule that a natural 20 on skill checks translates to a 30.
I believe Neverwinter Nights 2 uses that same rule, so to speak: 20 is instant success unless the task is way beyond your abilities.
Posts: 3486 | Registered: Sep 2002
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Blayne Bradley
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I have 18 strength, which makes sense as I am fairly sure our DM knows damn well what hes doing as he has been doing dnd for a long time.
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the point I was trying to make was that it seemed silly in terms of actual physical dimensions, not in terms of gameplay... if I were DM-ing that session I'd probably allow it.
it's just that if you picture a stout, short-legged humanoid with a total height of ~4 feet it's nigh-impossible to accept that he'd be capable of an unassisted 20' jump or even something like a 15' jump (assuming a safe margin on Blayne's estimation) I'm just laughing at the thought is all
note: this is coming from a guy who's had characters killed by pineapples before, so...
Posts: 1038 | Registered: Feb 2006
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Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
My Dwarf is also afraid of water, hence the jump.
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One of the things I love about fantasy role playing games is that people will argue about whether or not a Dwarf could physically jump a 20' gap, while not worrying about the undead he's fighting on the other side. Posts: 3950 | Registered: Mar 2006
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quote:Originally posted by MightyCow: One of the things I love about fantasy role playing games is that people will argue about whether or not a Dwarf could physically jump a 20' gap, while not worrying about the undead he's fighting on the other side.
As long as none of the undead are wearing chain mail pants....
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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quote:Originally posted by MightyCow: One of the things I love about fantasy role playing games is that people will argue about whether or not a Dwarf could physically jump a 20' gap, while not worrying about the undead he's fighting on the other side.
I really don't see why that surprises you. Any time you read any Sci-Fi or any sort of fantasy novel, there will be things you are willing to suspend disbelief for, and things you won't. I guess if you find all Sci-Fi (except really, really, really hard SF) and fantasy inherently silly in this way, I'll let it go. But otherwise, it seems like you're being a hypocrite.
Posts: 3580 | Registered: Aug 2005
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World-record long jumps are a bit less than 9 meters, or roughly 30 feet. That's for 6-foot human athletes in peak, absolutely top physical condition from a modern training regime (including the possibility of drugs) and carrying no gear at all. Jump lengths do not scale linearly with size, so allowing for that we can say the dwarf world record should be somewhere around 25 feet. But again, that's for athletes who practice every day for ten years and wear the lightest possible clothing. In any kind of armour (or ordinary street clothing!), wearing a backpack, even just carrying an axe - fuhgeddaboudid. Short of Moradin appearing behind you and huffing and puffing to blow your Dwarf over, you should have been dumped in the river.
However, as Blayne says, 20 feet is his estimate from a glance at the map. Going the other way and reasoning from the known fact that a dwarf in armour managed it on a natural 20, we may calculate the river width as somewhere between 12 and 15 feet.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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He might have, but I don't think that it's such a unique idea that you can really say that with such certainty.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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My fourth-level Iron Heroes character, who wears no armor, has a +18 running Jump check (+22 if he's raging). In theory, then, he can leap a 42' wide chasm. He has a 50% chance of jumping more than 31'.
It's rather amusing. Especially since he can jump slightly farther than he can move in a round, which means (according to the rules) that he actually spends one full round suspended in mid-air before landing. Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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![[Smile]](smile.gif)
over a game of chess ) ut there's a problem.
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
So itll be a few weeks before the next one.![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
