Episode 3 planing stuff

[Xa44]

Haru Yates

Usually, that's why a tabletop RP will often try to work in a concrete way to measure distance. In D&D, distance is measured in feet and a character has a speed measured in feet as well. In general, if you are using a grid then each square represents a 5'x5' space. So if you can move 25', then you can move up to 5 squares on your turn (unless you dash). And you move through difficult terrain at half your speed because it's, well, difficult.

The grid-based maps with markers or tokens (or whatever you want to call the things you put on the paper to represent characters, effects, difficult terrain, and whatever else you might need to keep track of) may be a good option if you find it easier to have a visual to go off of to see who is where in relation to what. The rest all boils down to good old pencil and paper.
Not sure if this information is helpful, or if I'm just telling you stuff you already know, but it might be worth setting up measurements for distances other than far away, nearby, etc. (touch is fine. It's a no-brainer distance-wise.) Might help to figure out actual distance. Might work better with a grid that way.

I know but I would then need to be sending pictures every post to keep you informed and for an online system that doesn't work, especially since sending messages is so complex compared to other messaging apps  

[Haru Yates]

Xa44

Haru Yates

Usually, that's why a tabletop RP will often try to work in a concrete way to measure distance. In D&D, distance is measured in feet and a character has a speed measured in feet as well. In general, if you are using a grid then each square represents a 5'x5' space. So if you can move 25', then you can move up to 5 squares on your turn (unless you dash). And you move through difficult terrain at half your speed because it's, well, difficult.

The grid-based maps with markers or tokens (or whatever you want to call the things you put on the paper to represent characters, effects, difficult terrain, and whatever else you might need to keep track of) may be a good option if you find it easier to have a visual to go off of to see who is where in relation to what. The rest all boils down to good old pencil and paper.
Not sure if this information is helpful, or if I'm just telling you stuff you already know, but it might be worth setting up measurements for distances other than far away, nearby, etc. (touch is fine. It's a no-brainer distance-wise.) Might help to figure out actual distance. Might work better with a grid that way.

I know but I would then need to be sending pictures every post to keep you informed and for an online system that doesn't work, especially since sending messages is so complex compared to other messaging apps

You don't have to show us pictures of the board/grid so long as you describe the scene enough. The more descriptive you are, the better. If there are walls or boulders, you can tell us that they're there and where they approximately sit/stand (like, distance away), and we can act accordingly. If we need clarification on where something is, we'll ask. (This is where skill checks to notice things, detect creatures, use stealth, etc, come in handy. They tell you (the GM) how much we (the players) take notice of things in our surroundings, as well as how well we can perform a task, such as hiding and avoiding traps. (You are simulating a "real" world, in a sense after all.))
What was I saying again? Oh, right; I was saying that if you can describe the scene well enough, then we don't need pictures of the game board.

If you really want to post pictures, you can google "bbcode image hosting".
The first site that comes up should be this one, and I find it works pretty well:
https://imgbb.com/  

[Xa44]

Haru Yates

I would also need to make a lot of images to do that, my point is that doing that is too much work for 1 spell and if I made more spells like that then that goes against the main gimmick and ice already does that making it feel off  

[Haru Yates]

Xa44

Haru Yates

I would also need to make a lot of images to do that, my point is that doing that is too much work for 1 spell and if I made more spells like that then that goes against the main gimmick and ice already does that making it feel off

I still don't get why ice keeps sneaking into this. Flatten is still a water spell, right?

You could buy grid-paper (or make your own) and make your own tiles. (so that you can move things around as you go or something). Or you can skip the grid and just use detailed descriptions if that's more practical. You can write out the descriptions ahead of time if you think that's easier, or you can improvise as needed. Describe everything that is obvious or highly noticeable, and hint at anything that you want us to investigate further. Use simple diagrams for your own notes if you find them useful, and describe what happens if an effect or spell alters the terrain or spills something across the floor.
But don't give away all of the information. If there is a body on the floor, don't tell us if it's alive or dead unless it's obvious. (if we choose to examine it to find out what happened, then you can tell us more information based on what we can perceive).
And if we ask about doing something that you weren't prepared for, then you may have to improvise. Like if we look around for a makeshift weapon, then you may have to add in some rocks or sticks in on the fly. (My friend used a tree trunk for a while. He also tried to drop me into a frigid lake because I bet him that he couldn't. When he failed, he tried again and knocked the tree I was in down, nearly making me fall. [I have the best party members, eh? Constantly doing things that make me want to pretend I don't know them.]) You don't have to be overly specific though. If I say that I want to climb a tree, then it doesn't necessarily matter which tree, but if you think it should matter (like to flee from bears in a forest), then you can simply narrate which tree. If I disagree, I'll tell you when I make the proposal to climb it.

This might be a dumb question, so please don't be offended by this but, have you ever been a Dungeon Master before? (For tabletop games specifically. Sorry, I'm just curious.)

I have limited experience myself, but I've run a few sessions. I suck at building combat encounters, but I can run them well enough (so I do prefer scripted adventures so far because they take less time to prepare and I don't have to build encounters from the ground up). Well, except that time when my DM surprised me by saying, "OK, today you're going to run the encounter!" and he just kinda threw me into it without telling me what the heck was going on. (It's a little hard to run a battle when you don't know why the trolls are attacking the party! [my first time running an encounter.])
To be honest, I still don't know how to build a combat encounter properly because experience is a b***h.  

[Haru Yates]

Xa44

Maybe we should just focus on the world-building stuff for a little while longer. emotion_drool  

[Xa44]

]

Haru Yates

Because the gimmick of ice is to place down terrain, I want to keep that as a ice thing and changing this spell is unnecessary

I'm sorry but I don't have the time to plan out all the maps 80% of this chat is about spell rulings I have a lot of other things that I am planning

I have been a GM for Urealms
And for building an encounter the big thing to look at is action economy, and something's to look at in that is stuff like AOE attacks because if all of a creatures attacks are AOE then it's like everyone is in a one on one
]

Haru Yates

Maybe we should just focus on the world-building stuff for a little while longer

Yeah for the best  

[Haru Yates]

Xa44

Because the gimmick of ice is to place down terrain, I want to keep that as a ice thing and changing this spell is unnecessary

I'm sorry but I don't have the time to plan out all the maps 80% of this chat is about spell rulings I have a lot of other things that I am planning

kk

Xa44

I have been a GM for Urealms

This makes sense. (in terms of your preferred mechanics as far as I know.)

Xa44

And for building an encounter the big thing to look at is action economy, and something's to look at in that is stuff like AOE attacks because if all of a creatures attacks are AOE then it's like everyone is in a one on one

It's not so much the running the encounter or what kinds of enemies to use in the encounter, but rather the whole "XP Thresholds" thing; specifically at lower levels. You plan out an encounter in D&D based on the enemy levels/challenge rating, the player levels, the number of party members, and the target difficulty of the encounter. The higher the difficulty, the higher the threshold and the stronger the enemies. It's trying to find a balance within the scale to prevent my newbie players from getting discouraged at lower levels. (Because Level one characters can die really freakin' easily if the DM doesn't pace the battle right for newcomers. A group of 4 level 1s against a single bear is a fair according to the charts, but it can still one-shot a level one character. See where I'm coming from?).
Next time I plan to start my players out at a higher level, story permitting.

Then again, I planned an encounter that was supposed to involve a fight with a goblin, and the players managed to notice him and negotiate a deal without actually fighting. My players seem to like healing and making friends of enemies that were scripted to die in the battle. confused (making "diplomacy" pretty valuable to many of my players. 'cept the punch-first-ask-later ones.)

Xa44

Haru Yates

Maybe we should just focus on the world-building stuff for a little while longer

Yeah for the best

So tell me about the water town. (I'd ask more about the shadow town, but maybe I should focus less on me so that Bored Reckless can possibly think about where she's been, since she doesn't remain in one place for long.)

Want me to ask if she's ok with you possibly using any plot-hooks from her back-story? (Her imprisoned father hold potential as a plot-hook.)

...*can't resist* I must ask about the shadow town: You said they fish there, so does the dark energy around the town cause the fish that are caught to spoil faster like it does fruit? (giving them a shorter "shelf life" if you will?) Or do they cast spells on them to preserve them longer?  

[Xa44]

Haru Yates

So tell me about the water town. (I'd ask more about the shadow town, but maybe I should focus less on me so that Bored Reckless can possibly think about where she's been, since she doesn't remain in one place for long.)

Want me to ask if she's ok with you possibly using any plot-hooks from her back-story? (Her imprisoned father hold potential as a plot-hook.)

...*can't resist* I must ask about the shadow town: You said they fish there, so does the dark energy around the town cause the fish that are caught to spoil faster like it does fruit? (giving them a shorter "shelf life" if you will?) Or do they cast spells on them to preserve them longer?

The water town looks something like this

The town is known for trade and having a lot of different people around, and having a lot of people native to other towns living there(oh and obviously fish)

Sure, some more about there backstory would be nice(as in some big things they did(maybe about the 1 time they where caught)or if anyone who is after them or something)

You already asked the food question before(twice), yes but it will never actually happen in the RP because that is a pain to keep track of and would only be inconvenient

Also something about the dark town, there is a pair of folk heros(brothers)fairly well know around the town, because they used to go back to there hometown a lot to tell tails of there adventurers, they stopped showing up after the war. What connection do you think you would have to them if any?  

[Xa44]

Sry, img wasn't working for me so hope this works  

[Xa44]

3rd time?  

[Haru Yates]

Xa44

3rd time?

(Can't stay online long this time)

Is the water town really that big?! Wow. It looks so much smaller on the map, lol. It could take you the better half of a day just to walk from one end of the town to the other end by the looks of it!  

[Haru Yates]

Also, I got my drawing tablet today. I'm drawing Terran. Might take me a while to finish it, though.  

[Xa44]

Haru Yates

Xa44

3rd time?

(Can't stay online long this time)

Is the water town really that big?! Wow. It looks so much smaller on the map, lol. It could take you the better half of a day just to walk from one end of the town to the other end by the looks of it!

That is just an example of how it looks, I can't quite say the exact size, but all the towns are about the same size  

[Haru Yates]

Xa44

As for the two famous adventuring brothers, I suppose it depends? Were they racist or prejudiced towards Terran for being a cursed b*****d child? (Most think he's cursed, and some people do blame him for Yulia's mental state. He's also been blamed for superstitions and stuff)  

[Xa44]

Haru Yates

Probably not, they have been around the world a lot so they probably understand his position, because dark mages aren't viewed that highly