OOC THREAD

[Telcontar]

I loved the look of the first edition, but the art samples I saw i. The second were pretty rad too.

[Telcontar]

I put a poll up to see if Bandy should come back or not.

[GandalfOfBorg]

Do we know where the next chapter is going?

[Eclecticon]

Doug has been making all sorts of noises about moving the narrative east of the Wood for a bit, so I would say to Lake-Town or Dale.

[Eclecticon]

I put a poll up to see if Bandy should come back or not.

I don't really have a view on this.  I like the way Hathcyn is playing into Grimbeorn's 'heavy hangs the head that wears the crown' subplot – as we just saw, having not just some guy but another PC following him around who will do as he is bid, regardless of the danger it might place him in, is giving a bit more weight to his decisions.  Matt may have his own views on how enjoyable this makes things for him! 

On the other hand, Bandy is always great fun.  Plus, more Bandy means more Fellowship, and more arrows-sticking-out-of-things. 

So I guess I'm just saying that you should go with whichever you think is more fun to play, and I'll keep bouncing dialogue off you. 

[tomcat]

Paul is right about the story direction - we go north!

Tom, do as you please. I enjoy both characters. I might buff Hathcyn a bit, though. He came into the game as a raw build and is very out-paced by the others' experience.

I will have more tomorrow.

[Telcontar]

Buffing him requires Xp and Ap points That's your department Doug!

Im to pump his valour up but it wont leave me enough to raise his weapon score.

[tomcat]

No - I mean AP and XP.

I do not want to give away too much of a freebie, so you have the fun of building a PC, but he should have at least been more than a raw build on intro.

I am auditing the games total XP/AP awards and will have an answer for Hathcyn in a short bit.

[Eclecticon]

If you go by the Taking Courage rules (Adventurer's Companion, pp 104-105), Hathcyn would receive five Courage points per 'game session' (limited by his basic Heart rating - Grimbeorn has been consistently about 80 XP ahead of him).  Hathcyn made his debut in Chapter 6 (the one where Grimbeorn was left in charge) and we've just finished Chapter 8. 

Depending on how you wanted to interpret 'session', then, he'd be eligible for 3+ XP, 6+ AP and quite a few Hope points. 

[tomcat]

Well I finished my spreadsheet and it was not a good method of tracking AP and XP throughout our story.

There are a lot of inconsistencies in balances and how the points were spent (meaning there were no notes posted).

Anyway, I am retcon-ing each PC now to see how many XP and AP have been spent in their build to see if it matches my spreadsheet.

The Excel sheet is now in the Dropbox for any that want to see. Understand that it only focuses on the current active PCs.

[Telcontar]

I'm ok with him being underpowered in mechanics as he came to the show late and was a nobody to begin with. The catch up method that Paul is describing is kinda what I do in my Dungeon Crawl classics game. In that game the new characters come in raw at first level so show their inexpereince, but they get bonus XP based upon the highest ranking character in the group. I call it Mentor XP. So if the highest character is 3rd level then the 1st level guy gets x2 the Xp they get to close the gap faster, but the growth still comes through play.

Anyway. I'll take a look at the audit and adjust accordingly. Doug, did you incorporate the XP and AP from Paul's adventure as well?

[tomcat]

That's cool, Tom.

It is not my intent to buff him to the same level as the other PC's, but it makes it difficult when I am trying to build the challenges and your skill sets are not up to the challenge.

Anyway, I am still working on a couple things and then I am going to get a post and a new thread up.

[Eclecticon]

For what it's worth, I'm also looking at bringing a new character on to the stage in the not-too-distant future.  I think that, once we get into more of a rolling roster of PCs, with some more experienced than others at any point in time, building challenges for the group as a whole will get a bit easier. 

Without meaning to step on your toes, Doug, one of the ways you could help this process along is to replace Esgalwen with another, newer character.  I'm not sure what sort of narrative plans you have for her, but maybe the events coming up in the east and north could lead to her stepping back from being an active member of the Fellowship (though she can still show up where the story could use her, a la Bandy at the Battle of Stánford). 

[Telcontar]

Doug,
 I looked at the audit. Are the negative numbers on the second sheet an overage or a deficit? Would any of the fellowship phase under takings affect that?

[tomcat]

Don't worry about the audit - it is impossible to know what was doled out over the last four years. I tried to look at each Fellowship phase but it was a really tough web to unweave and it was not complete. A number of times, there were no advancement posts for characters. I never had the exact count of AP's, and I think I even say that I gave out bonus points along the way (but who knows when and where). There is also the point that XP can be spent to upgrade mounts, I think? Not that we did that, either! 

Anyway, instead I just took each PC sheet and determined the number of points earned based on what has been advanced via XP and AP. Here are the results:

Arbogast
Earned and spent 82 XP and 184 (-10 for previous experience) AP
His sheet says 90 XP and 184 AP.
No discrepancies

Bandy
Earned and spent 52 XP and 101 (-10 for previous experience) AP
His sheet says 80 XP and 107 AP.
Something happened along the way.

Esgalwen
Earned and spent 88 XP and 144 (-10 for previous experience) AP
His sheet says 88 XP and 134 AP.
No discrepancies

Grimbeorn
Earned and spent 94 XP and 124 (-10 for previous experience) AP
His sheet says 106 XP and 112 AP.
Minor discrepancies.

Hathcyn
Earned and spent 12 XP and 88 (-10 for previous experience) AP
His sheet says 20 XP and 38 AP.
Xp is fine, but i have no idea how he has the AP score he does and the skill ranks, too.

Anyway... it has been a lesson in "it really doesn't matter". I just need to get my head together on the final Fellowship posts and start our next chapter.

As for Esgalwen, Paul, she will return to Dale and be there in her duties to king and steward. I actually have no intention of having a new PC. The only reason I took up Esgalwen, in the game, was because she had no player and I thought her story was cool enough to see it continue.