Tips and Tricks

[TheTick]

When your character speaks, change the color of the text to make it stand out, like so:

"I begin to like you, Earthman," said Kang.

That color is listed as Teal, and works well for this.  I'm reserving Orange for DM notes in posts, like so:

[DM]I need to know what Boris and Natasha want to do here.[/DM]

I will handle most dice rolling in my secret DM roll thread, but if you want something specifically done, you can either ask me to roll it, or roll it yourself.  Example:

You mentioned a pile of rubble in the corner.  I go over and look through it for anything of value.
This dice roll has been tampered with!
Searching the rubble 1d20+2 : 2 + 2, total 4

I would then check that roll against the difficulty, and see if you found anything.  The sky is kind of the limit with skill checks, if you are stuck for something to do in a situation, start asking questions.  You never know what will eventually help you out.

When combat starts, this is how it goes more or less:

Combat is cyclical; everybody acts in turn in a regular cycle of rounds. Combat follows this sequence:

• Each combatant starts out flat-footed. Once a combatant acts, he or she is no longer flat-footed.
• Determine which characters are aware of their opponents at the start of the battle. If some but not all of the combatants are aware of their opponents, a surprise round happens before regular rounds of combat begin. The combatants who are aware of the opponents can act in the surprise round, so they roll for initiative. In initiative order (highest to lowest), combatants who started the battle aware of their opponents each take one action (either a standard action or a move action) during the surprise round. Combatants who were unaware do not get to act in the surprise round. If no one or everyone starts the battle aware, there is no surprise round.
• Combatants who have not yet rolled initiative do so. All combatants are now ready to begin their first regular round of combat.
• Combatants act in initiative order (highest to lowest).
• When everyone has had a turn, the combatant with the highest initiative acts again, and steps 4 and 5 repeat until combat ends.

Once you know when you get to go, there's much you can do.  Pick a target and hit it will be popular, considering we already know there's a fighter and a barbarian in the mix.  Wizards, Sorcerors, Druids, Bards, Clerics, Paladins and Rangers all have varying degrees of spellcasting they can do.  You may have a potion that you want to drink to boost your strength.  Maybe you want to grapple the enemy sorceror or take a prisoner.

As I think of more stuff that might help our newer players, I'll add more posts.

[TheTick]

Already forgot one:  if you want to do something sneaky and not tell your teammates (not so good for party dynamics but hey, it happens), PM me what you want to do and I'll roll it.

[TheTick]

I will use the Spoiler tag to put hints and tips for our new players, which can be safely ignored by our veterans.

[Lotofsnow]

So, should I not be able to read spoilers at all? It says I'm not allowed to.

[TheTick]

Ah, no, let me fix that.

[TheTick]

Should be working.  The ONE thing I change that I don't test with an alternate account.

[Lotofsnow]

Should be working.  The ONE thing I change that I don't test with an alternate account.

Looks good. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything.  ;)

[TheTick]

When rolling the dice - you can put multiple die rolls within the 'roll' tags.  Also, if you want to label them the way I do, put the text you want in {these brackets}.  For example:

[rolll][{Thog's Attack Roll} 1d20+4
{Thog's Damage} 1d8+3[/rolll]

Which gives this (when you spell roll right:

Thog's Attack Roll 1d20+4 : 18 + 4, total 22
Thog's Damage 1d8+3 : 6 + 3, total 9

[TheTick]

Just in case, this link has the basics of dice rolling here.  Some examples:

[roll]1d6[/roll]
Rolled 1d6 : 5, total 5

[roll]{Attack Roll:} 1d20+2
{Damage:} 1d8+3[/roll]
Attack Roll: 1d20+2 : 12 + 2, total 14
Damage: 1d8+3 : 8 + 3, total 11