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Dungeons & Dragons; Zeta Style
Topic Started: Sep 13 2009, 02:36 PM (102 Views)
Kelsa Rynvale
Administrator
You might be interested to know how Dungeons & Dragons can be ported to a Message Board, right?

Won't claim this is the best way, but it's a little slice of how it's done here.

Applications
If you've stopped by the "How to Join..." thread you'll have noticed applications are done in two parts. The First part is a Character Spreadsheet, or the numerical aspect of Dungeons & Dragons that allows characters to easily adhere to rules of fate, chance, and deistic amusement. The Second part is the Character Application, or your standard 'Who is your character really? Because this ain't 'Numbers: The RPG.'

Now players come in two types: 1 and 0, or those that understand Binary and those that don't. First, there's your Free-form Role Player that places the emphasis on character portrayal and development. Secondly, there's the Hardcore Dungeons & Dragons (AKA Dungeon Delver at Ad Tenebrae) player interested in adhering to strict rules that might keep you alive as often as they kill you--but the loot is to die for. While the former, Free-form, might not be up to filling out the entire Character Spreadsheet what we do ask of them is enough to allow them to role play with those that are (provided their thread is open for new recruits); otherwise we'd have this nice little boundary players could never ever on the pain of death cross, and that would be bad--so we try not to dig that trench.

Magic


Initiative
Combat's relatively easy once you have Character Spreadsheets and the handy Dice Script in the Post Options area for new posts. What isn't so easy is incorporating the idea of Initiative. Then I recalled how we did in at the table...

When characters roll initiative everyone's placed a list of who got the highest roll plus their highest initiative modifier. This indicates how fast your character is aware of the events around them and how fast they react to those events at the onset. To keep things simple that order is kept throughout the duration of the encounter. The enemy, as a bloc, also rolls initiative and takes their place on the list.

All things said and done you end up with an order like: Superman, Ninja, Enemy, Badass, Eagle Eye, I'm with ya, and Why's everyone so upset? Given this setup, all that really matters is who acts before the Enemy in the opening round; because after that the order rarely changes and it's one big, repeating loop of whose line is it anyway? After Superman & Ninja's first encounter posts, the order turns into: Enemy, Badass, Eagle Eye, I'm with ya, What's everyone so upset, Superman, and Ninja...Repeat.

Now on a message board we could do that, adhere to a strict order of posting (and maybe your thread will), but considering it doesn't really matter whose "turn" it is (beyond who has the jump on the enemy at the very beginning) just that you only act/post once per round (between times when the Opposition acts/is posted for) that seems the best, overall option (helps alleviate posting congestion). Initiative, however, remains important--it never hurts to have the drop on the enemy.

Dice And You
Alright you Diceholics, Advocatus Tenebrae has a dice script in play just for you. Yes, just for you. When you make a new post, or edit one, there is a section called "Roll the Dice?" Pretty self-explanatory what you do with it.

The Roll Type helps identify why you rolled the dice. Keeps it nice and neat when people look at your post and wonder how you popped the head of a gnat off at a thousand paces--yeah, it was that "Attack Roll 3d20: 20 20 20."

Number of Dice refers to... the number of dice you want to roll at a given time.

Lastly, the Number of Sides refers to the number of sides per die you want to roll. Sadly, the script can't mix things up. You get 3d20 now and 2d8 later or bust.

If you need multiple types of dice rolled, which is probably going to be pretty common, you can edit your post and select another set of dice to roll when you click the "Edit Post" button. Preview will not show you the numbers ahead of time; and if someone's caught flubbing their numbers someone's character is going to get hurt. Really hurt. Possibly dead, risen, and dead again for good measure.

All rolls appear at the bottom of your post.

Experience
Well it wouldn't be Dungeons and Dragons if your character didn't level now would it? Unlike pen and paper, though, Ad Tenebrae does it a little different. For each post you make, in character, you get a few experience points. If someone sees you whip out an awesome post (or string of posts) in a thread you may get Bonus Experience. Once you get enough XP you level! How do you know you've leveled? Well, in a thread look just below your name/avatar; it'll tell you how many posts you've made and what your level is.

This is the primary reason why every character must have their own account at Advocatus Tenebrae. Oh, and keep your Character Sheet around even after you've been accepted, unless you fancy filling it out again to find out what you gain when you level (or you can ask a Staff member, they'll help too...You should still keep a personal copy of your Sheet though).

Money
Money! Gold. Silver. Copper. You won't earn money by posting. No one's carrying around a magic bag that says "Congratulations, having taken three steps you have been selected to receive THREE, yes, THREE silver pieces." You want money? Earn it like a real adventurer. Chat it up with the locals. Loot the corpses of your enemy (if you're into that sort of thing). Or, wait for it to fall from the sky.

Current going Exchange Rate: 1 Gold, 10 Silver, 100 Copper. A Platinum Piece (which even entry level Heroes don't often got to tote around) is worth 100 Gold.

Spending money's the same thing. If you're buying an apple feel free to make the purchase on your own, but if you're buying, say, a magic sword or an airship you might need to stop on by the NEMPA Market for haggling. To put it another way, purchasing something under 100 Gold Pieces? Feel free to handle that internally. If you're buying something more expensive, however--usually means something very powerful or very big--you'll need to stop by the market.

So, 'What is the NEMPA Market' you ask? Why it's nothing more than a world-wide consortium of the finest traders and worksmiths in all the lands. The finest armors, the most inspiring of weapons, and the strangest of novelties all available for purchase. Vendors are every where and they're waiting to serve you. Yes, you. The one waving the damn platinum piece around. NEMPA is monitored by Staff to ensure that players aren't buying magic items on the lam. Why, no, that Level 30 Deathcut Armor won't cost 1,000 Gold, and yes our vendors will start somewhere around the real value of 3,125,000 Gold Pieces. That's right, three million. Start your copper pinching. (Good news is there's a Level 5 variant that does go for 1,000 Gold so knock your blackheart out with glee).

Treasure, Loot, The Good Stuff
Thread Dungeon Masters/Story Tellers/Bards/et al. can disperse items as they fit into the story and/or encounters (e.g. fights) along the way. Within reason, of course (and keep in mind even if you were to give them a Level 20 item as a Level 4 Hero they won't be wearing that for a good, long time).

As a helpful guideline, this is what the Dungeon Master's Guide indicates is appropriate for a group of five Level 4 Heroes (assuming one level were broken into 10 encounters and each encounter got a 'package' of loot; though 'Tellers should feel free to have some encounters be devoid of meaningful treasure and others with grand stock piles to keep things interesting):

[Ordered Most to Least Expensive]
1. Magic item, level 8
2. Magic item, level 7
3. Magic item, level 6
4. Magic item, level 5
5. 470 gp, or (one 250 gp art object + two potions of healing + 120 gp), or (four 100gp gems + 70 gp)
6. 420 gp, or (one 250 gp art object + 170 gp), or (three 100gp gems + one portion of healing + 70 gp)
7. 280gp, or (two 100 gp gems + 80 gp), or (one 100 gp gem + two potions of healing + 80 gp)
8. 280 gp, or (one 250 gp art object + 30 gp), or (250 gp + 300 sp)
9. 140 gp, or (one 100 gp gem + 40 gp), or (one potion of healing + 90 gp)
10. 90 gp, or (50 gp + 400 sp), or (one potion of healing + 40 gp)

* Keep in mind loot comes in all forms, not just shiny coins. You're free to sell such items for shiny coins, of course, but you're going to have to carry it back to a town first.

* I should also caution you that Ad Tenebrae levels won't be broken up into 10 encounters unless you're making massive posts and coordinating your story outside of the thread itself...in which case you still won't get 10 because you'll have earned bonus experience for doing an entire encounter in one post per person. Not to mention the level of magic in Caelum doesn't suit itself to you finding a magic device every other thing you happen to kill, steal, or otherwise relieve of possession. Always feel free to ask any questions you have to Staff.

Naturally, if the gods (Staff) feel a 'Teller is tellin' too tall a tale 'bout a groups' loot they will pay the Bard a midsummer night's visit; should said 'Teller not have a purpose behind otherwise epic lootz for otherwise humble Heroes said equipment might get poached by the first available thieving guild said gods can find (so be sure to keep a ward out, 'cause we're comin').
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