OOC THREAD

[Stefan]

In case I neglect to mention it later, I'm going to be going on vacation from the 21st to the 29th of May so I won't be posting during that time.

[Eclecticon]

Welcome, disench4nted!  Glad to see you could make it - we've heard a lot about you!*



* For a given value of 'a lot'. 

[disench4nted]

Hey! Welcome to you too Eclecticon! I think this is going to be a fun game

[Posterboy]

I'm out at the moment recovering for surgery and the drugs make it hard to concentrate at the moment.

Esgalwen's intention is to join the group for safety and food. If needed, she try to use her award-winning smile and an awe/persuade roll to try to convince the others of her good heart.

Hope to back by Monday.

[tomcat]

No problem, Ayrn.

Recover well.

[Bandobras]

Just wanted to let you all know that due to heavy work demands and some family obligations I may not be posting much if it all for the next 3-4 days.

[Eclecticon]

Without meaning to be a dick, can I make a rules quibble?  By the rules as written, the Stances mechanic doesn't get used for NPCs - it's purely player-facing.  Picking your stance determines both how easy it is to be hit, and to hit others. 

I don't want to do the last round over, or anything, I just thought it was an important point to bring up. 

[tomcat]

 You're not being a dick - I see where I read the rules wrong. I will correct the threads.

I see, all TN's are based on PC stance. Thanks for the input.

[Telcontar]

It seems that I have missed something important......gotta catch up.

Yes, foes do not get facings.

also, I dig the new emojis!!!     

[tomcat]

 Thanks, man. I spent a good hour generating those.

[Telcontar]

Ok this is my reading of events. I think it is worth going over since this is the first fight.
The party was essentially ambushed, some of the company were aware, some preoccupied, most were prepared for a fight.
Step 1: Resolve Ambush
The company is ambushed, but the attackers immediately begin to break off. This is ambigious in the rules and I would have set the situation up differently for our first combat if I had thought about it more. Anyway, there is lots of room for interpretation. Let's for arguments sake say that the Tyrant's Hill men ambushed and then immediately tried to flee. So Dagmar gets an attack and everyone starts to flee. The company calls upon the peaceful gentle powers of the west and begin slaying everyone in site. (that's my version anyway)
I would then give initiative to the foe with a bunch of wasted actions and then an attack by the party.
Round Zero let's call it.
Forward Stance: NONE
Open Stance: Esgalwen, Grimbeorn, Arbogast
Defensive: Rorin
Rearward: Bady, Orophin (The party is close to outnumbered but not quite so that allows the rearward stance)
Since this is not a tactical combat game there is a bit more narrative than position in this game. Since the party pressed the attack it would be up to Tomcat to determine who was actually lined up with who for the situation, or he could delegate that to me. It seems he has so I am going to then pair off my non player character heroes in a logical way.
Tyrant Hill Men: T1-5
Dogs: D1-5
Dagmar: DG
P174 Revised Rule Book: Engagment. The foes outnumber the party so the LM gets to pair off the oppoenents and determine who is where.
In this case I would have paired off the dogs and men to protect Dagmar, but let's throw her in the fight so that the previous posts stand from the last thread. Rearward stance goes last however.
The TN is determined by what stance the players are in, not what stance the foes are in since they don't have stances.
Dagmar's protection roll against Bandy would be successful because she rolled a 1 an Eye of Sauron, which is an automatic success for the bad guys.
Grimbeorn would hit since the TN he needs to hit is only 9 Assuming it's a man so need a Protection Roll
Orophin's Attack would be a hit because he only needs a TN12 to strike. Needs to pick a target.
So let me lay out the bad guys. Keep in mind this represents a thematic layout, not people in grid squares. If the heroes had matched the foes they could then pick their targets.

Open Stance:
Esgalwen  > T1, D1, D5
Grimbeorn: ..>T2, T4, D2
Abrogast: DG, T5, D3

Defensive:
Rorin...> T3, D4


At this point at the beginning of Traitors in the Night the Men of Tyrant's Hill would get to go.

Doug for the sake of not breaking up the action I will post and let you edit. Its up to you if you want to keep the rolls in the thread or let everyone reroll now that the situation is clearer.

[Telcontar]

I was mistaken in all my posts. 11 is the Eye not one.

[tomcat]

I am fine with all of this, Tom, except two things.

1) I do not call the situation being Company outnumbered, as the hounds are only used by each bad NPC to get an extra attack or abate a hit - they do not have individual stats. So, the count of Good Guys to Bad Guys is 6:6.

2) That said, I am allowing the pre-combat attacks to made against Dagmar that the player's rolled in the Poison's Grip thread. All the PC's see the treacherous act performed by Dagmar and try to pounce on her, thus knocking her down and out. Only Rorin grabs one of the bad guys - the guy who walked through the cobweb and gave Dagmar her distraction.

So...

when we pick up things in Round 1 of Traitors you need to just give me the actions of Dagmar's people. Are they going to run and leave her and the one held at knife point, or are they going to attack. Because you gave me attack rolls I will interpret them based on how you diversified the hillsmen. Only Dagmar's actions and TH4's am I going to rescind.

Cool? I am going to give interpretive narrative in the round 1 combat thread.

[Telcontar]

Sounds good to me!

[tomcat]

Hey all, let me know if the Combat Round header post (meaning the first post) is giving you guys all the information you need for situation, modifiers, conditions of characters, and stance/engagement in a clear way. I want to have a template for TOR that I use everytime we go into combat so that you guys can quickly see what you need for each combat round.

Going to revise a couple things I am doing and will explain here as soon as I get it done.