Your neighbor's yard is, uhh, arid.

Every Baldy campaign encounter:

Yeah, I don't know what that's about. Seems weird to me. I am looking around to see where I can fit a mini godswood, and he has the bare minimum required by the HOA. There shouldn't be a requirement from an HOA because an HOA shouldn't exist, but people should know to plant trees.

E6 is a little tricky as DM because the players do not have the power to alter the fabric of the world and killing them is a real possibility. But then you remember they really are a bunch of Murder Hobos and maybe killing them is what's best. At high level, yeah... players always have stupid tricks to get them out of everything. Honestly, I think we just want to kill one or two players, but that balance is really hard to find. Not quite enough, and it's a trivial encounter. Just a little more, and it's a TPK.

I think E6 is a little more reasonable than most, because it's hard to build a serious alpha-strike character, and hard to build a character where two spells will completely result in a game over for the PCs. It's certainly true that a hard enough encounter in a 2nd-3.5 game at max level will usually result in at least a wizard or cleric escaping and resurrecting the (now impoverished) party, but that's not a particularly thrilling outcome normally.

The one thing you want to avoid- but often cannot- is the case where:
-The bad guys know about the PCs
-The bad guys have plenty of resources
-The bad guys need to kill the PCs
-The bad guys can find the PCs

If all four of these are true, the PCs will face encounters at times they don't want, and the encounters will be extremely lethal. If you take away any of these four it is fine. Missing the first one, the bad guys have to spread their resources thin as they attack a variety of potential good guy groups. Missing the second, the bad guys will challenge the PCs to some awesome cool fight late at night, but the fight is not inherently lethal. Missing the third, the bad guys have other priorities, so when they do fight the PCs they will not always care if their minions succeed- this is fine at low level, but by the time the PCs make themselves notorious, they'll need to be casting nondetection or better, as they will eventually rise high enough that someone in shiny red armor will be screaming about them with a british accent or something. And the most common scenario versus an evil empire or whatever is when the fourth one is missing- the PCs have some anti-scrying setup.

But sometimes all four of them need to be true narratively, and when that happens, the PCs are going to get roundhoused, barring some seriously proactive plays.


Anyway, I'm currently trying to figure out when my trips are. Currently I'm booked to leave the 16th and return the 29th, which only blacks out the 22nd, but this doesn't work at all with my mom's travel (she's going to my cousin's wedding). So I'm trying to figure that out.

YOU GAVE US A MAGICAL STATUE WITH NO WAY TO IDENTIFY IT AND MADE VAMPIRES HATE US BECAUSE SWEETCHEEKS WANTED TO PLAY SOMETHING DIFFERENT AND YOU LET US FIND A GOTH GIRLFRIEND IN STASIS!

I do not think this qualifies as "cannot avoid," so much as "Really went out of your way to make that happen."

Next campaign is going to be a little rough, but we'll manage.

https://cheezburger.com/10698757/genius ... sy-accents

Feb 29. 3pm.

I can try to morph Thrork over to a Texas drawl, but that's gonna take some practice.

The gnome bit was IMO the main punchline of the thread.

March 28: Yes
April 4: Yes
April 11: Probably not, but unsure right now.
April 18: No
April 25: Yes

March 28: Most likely yes, but won't know for another week or so
April 4: Yes
April 11: Yes
April 18: Yes
April 25: No

Miss you guys! See you in 2021.

For virtual online shit now that nothing exists outside.

Saturday, March 21: Yes
Sunday, March 22: Yes
Saturday, March 28: Yes
Sunday, March 29: Yes
Saturday, April 4: Yes
Sunday, April 5: Yes
Saturday, April 11: Probably
Sunday, April 12: Yes
Saturday, April 18: Yes
Sunday, April 19: Yes

I was actually planning on playing my character as a bit of a southern gentleman. He will be from one of those families that claim they are 1/16th Cherokee except replace that with giants.

Heres my availability because of virus + infant + most likely unemployed

Saturday, March 21: Yes
Sunday, March 22: Yes
Saturday, March 28: Yes
Sunday, March 29: Yes
Saturday, April 4: Yes
Sunday, April 5: Yes
Saturday, April 11: Yes
Sunday, April 12: Yes
Saturday, April 18: Yes
Sunday, April 19: Yes

Discord appears to be primarily voice only. While that's doable, I'd prefer to see those smiling faces rather than speaking into the void. I hate speaking into the void.

I've used Zoom with several clients. Works pretty well and it's free.

GoToMeeting isn't free, but it's paid for. The last update, someone said "this looks like Zoom." We've never actually used it with cameras, though. Shit, do I have a camera? I guess my laptop probably does.

Roll20 has video chat as well. I've never used it. Maybe we should do a test run before we actually do it. In any case, everyone needs a roll20 account. It's free (just the DM pays if he wants to do a maze with moving torches like some kind of asshole).


Edit: In case you are thinking "I wonder if they are currently price gouging on webcams," rest assured that they are. Ridiculously so.

I can have my laptop for video stuff.

Speaking from exceptionally recent experience (like, an hour ago), Zoom isn't free if you want unlimited time for more than two people.

Roll20 may be the way to go. I'm up for a test session. Complete sequestration away from my kids will be a little bit of a challenge, but I can give it a shot.

Let me check with my wife on availability and I'll post back soon.

I'm good for any of the days posted. The more notice, the better.

Discord offers streaming very nicely. It does not seem to offer full meeting mode though.

I am not sure how well my laptop camera works though, have never used it.

Also I am available any weekend day and honestly some weekdays could even work.

I have never used a camera either. We might as well start with roll20 and see how that works out. I think a test might be a good idea.

Do we get bonus experience points for appearing on camera in costume?

I'm free every saturday until I think the 11th of July.

What are good days?

The 27th is looking best for me.

27 works for me. Actually everything does except this coming weekend, and that's only because we're moving stuff from one room to another for the painters. My next appointment is... Christmas?

We doing this thing?

So gaming anyone?

7/25 Yes
8/1 Yes
8/8 Yes
8/15 Yes
8/22 Yes
8/29 Yes

7/25 Yes
8/1 Yes
8/8 Yes
8/15 Yes
8/22 Yes
8/29 Yes

I have zero obligations.

8/1 No
8/8 Yes
8/15 Yes
8/22 Yes
8/29 Yes

Bump.

I am free for all Saturdays in the reasonable future.