OOC:
Since it is the weekend, I will wait, like last week, until Monday to post a round-up if before that time not everyone has responded yet.
However, in the meantime, have a look at the current state of the game. I did some drawing.
This is the cloaked figure threatening you. And here's the glade you're currently in; you've had a while to take in your surroundings, so all of you have a pretty good idea of where all the potential enemies are (normally this would be different; but for this first fight, let's not get too in-depth about it - we'll save that for the next time
). The path you just came from is in the bottom right-hand corner, while you can spot another path leading out of the glade at the top of the image.
(Click the images to enlarge them.)
Since most of you did not describe your characters' appearances and I did not have internet at the time of drawing these to look up proper references, I came up with icons to represent you by heart. If you disagree with this portrayal, please do say.
Anyway, here are the characters:
Harpic..............Master...............Shrooblord........Dog Food........Chimney...........Udongo Mtu
The cloaked figure is in the centre of the glade, next to
Shrooblord and
Udongo Mtu. The stall is the structure in the bottom left-hand corner of the image stretching across three tiles, and the tiny figure brandishing its weapon is the tile placed on top of the centre of the stall, adjacent to
Dog Food.
Since you're getting ready for combat, let me take this opportunity before it all begins to go down to explain some things about it.
It should be noted that combat works a little differently to the regular roleplaying. First of all, you don't post your actions explicitly in this topic, but rather describe to the Director through a PM what you wish to do with the two actions you have in your turn that round (please see the rules post on the first page). This PM may include things like what the character says or how they attempt to do things, of course, but because of the nature of combat and how fast-paced and focus-depriving situations of battle are, there will be less focus for all other members of the party on what exactly is done by all members individually, and more on the results of all characters' turns that round. (This also gives the
saboteurs more of an avenue to mess around with the party a bit more easily without getting spotted out as quickly; combat is chaos and unless you're paying close attention to one particular party member, you may not notice all the subtleties that go down in a fight as well as you would in a conversation.)
Now, take a look at this image:
Here is the layout of a fictional battlefield. First of all, each hexagonal space you see is one of the available spots you can stand in when in a map-bound situation. Spaces can be occupied by one character and one character alone. Each space is five feet removed from the next, so, for instance, a
maximum movement speed of
15 feet/action translates to the ability to move three spaces in one action.
It is currently
Master's turn, and he's deciding what he's going to do using the allotted two actions he can take in his turn. He is a character whose
dexterity is quite high, so he's thinking about throwing a
ranged basic attack (
range 25 feet). The green targets in the picture indicate possible locations for his attack to land. The red target shows which unit is out of range for his attack. Naturally, he could also choose to attack one of his allies if he so wishes, but that would be a little counter-productive for his chances of survival.
There is also another option he could choose to go with, if he has the correct powers available to him to do so: he could send out an
area of effect attack (with a radius of at least 10 feet) centred on
Dog Food, which would hit two enemies for the price of only one attack, and not harm
Dog Food in the process, since he is considered an ally to
Master.
Furthermore,
Chimney is not in the way of
Master's attempt at a
ranged basic attack towards the creature at the bottom of the image (again, because the obstructing character is considered an ally to him), while he does receive the benefit of having an ally in between him and his enemy, should that enemy decide to throw a
ranged attack his way in return. As you can tell from these brief hints at combat tactics, positioning can be the key between winning a fight or having a close encounter with the Angel of Death.
Finally, he could choose to use one of his two actions to move up to his
maximum movement speed (15 feet/action) towards a foe, and then attack using a
melee basic attack, which goes off of a character's
strength, instead of a
ranged basic attack, if he so wishes.
Having made up his mind, he PMs the Director with the following information:
Example Master wrote:I would like to use my two actions to throw two ranged basic attacks at the two enemies next to Dog Food.
However, one of the enemies next to
Dog Food happens to have an ability that, whenever it is targeted, it raises a shield to increase its defences.
Having done that, the Director rolls for the attacks. One hits and the other does not (most likely because of the shield, but it's up to the Director whether or not information about this is disclosed to the players). They note down how much damage the enemies take (which is, incidentally, based on the same
skill that was used to throw the attack) and post the results of that round to the topic (this is after all the other players have made their turns known to the Director, too, and the enemies have taken their turns, of course).
And with that, a round has ended and a new one can begin. The board state will probably have changed around a bit, including characters having moved, died, obstacles being put into place or removed, other such events that change on a round-by-round basis. Anyway, players may then PM their requested actions to the Director once more, for the following round.
So, in short:
- Combat moves in strict, well-defined rounds. A minimum time limit is in effect for combat rounds; you have at least a day to post your actions for your turn in combat, after which the Director may post an update at any time - so to be sure your wishes for your turn that round are adhered to, please post within a day of the "round summary" post from your Director appearing in the thread.
- Turns consist of two actions and one reaction; please see the rules post on page 1.
- You can choose to attack enemies in range, or get in range to attack.
- Instead of posting here within the time limit, you should PM the Director what you want to do with your turn.
- After all PMs have been received and enemy movements plotted out, the Director will update you on what actually happened that round*).
- A new round begins; rinse and repeat.
*)= Or rather, all the things that everyone knows happened - some people might be informed individually based on certain factors secrets about other players based on what those others did or tried to do and how well they've managed to conceal that.
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And that's about it!
I know that's a lot to take in; I wanted to be sure to get it out of the way before the combat actually began, so you could all get used to the idea of it all and ask questions beforehand.
