# OOC/Setup Thread for SDMB D&D 5e PBP game **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [August 28, 2014, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooc-setup-thread-for-sdmb-d-d-5e-pbp-game/696813 "2014-08-28T23:58:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooc-setup-thread-for-sdmb-d-d-5e-pbp-game/696813/81 "2014-09-10T13:10:44Z")
Yeah, we’ll definitely start having to get the participation going, or we’ll end up going nowhere. PM him maybe, make sure he noticed the new thread. Oh, and during character creation, I forgot to roll a trinket. I got a needle that never bends. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooc-setup-thread-for-sdmb-d-d-5e-pbp-game/696813/82 "2014-09-10T13:43:12Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > I plan on posting tomorrow to give **Hamster King** a chance to post and to let you guys continue to chat. After that, I will hopefully be able to start and maintain a S/T/R posting schedule. Sorry. Been swamped. I can’t post anything on the main thread right now. (I have to get the kids to school.) But I’ll do so in the next few hours. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooc-setup-thread-for-sdmb-d-d-5e-pbp-game/696813/83 "2014-09-10T14:10:19Z")
Hamster: No problem. Like I said, I don’t plan on posting until tomorrow. For everyone: A note as I go through the process of adding characters to the wiki: If you roll for your gold, you do not **also** get the equipment listed for your character and background. I’m not going to go back and double-check everyone’s purchases because that sounds boring, but if you took both, just make sure to deduct the cost of your major starting items (weapons, armor, bundled packs) from whatever gold you have remaining. Don’t worry about the little stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooc-setup-thread-for-sdmb-d-d-5e-pbp-game/696813/84 "2014-09-10T14:16:09Z")
Is Thoradin’s reference to the Lost Islands taken from something in the campaign setting? I’m somehow missing it if so. Just wanting to make sure I understand all the context. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooc-setup-thread-for-sdmb-d-d-5e-pbp-game/696813/85 "2014-09-10T14:19:08Z")
There are rumors that the receding waters of Rhye have begun to reveal islands and mountaintops full of treasure and ruins. Nobody you know has ever seen one, though plenty of people know a “friend of a friend” who has. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooc-setup-thread-for-sdmb-d-d-5e-pbp-game/696813/86 "2014-09-10T14:35:27Z")
Just to clarify something about my response IC: One of Halduor’s personality characteristics is that he tells tall tales. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooc-setup-thread-for-sdmb-d-d-5e-pbp-game/696813/87 "2014-09-10T17:45:36Z")
I’ve populated three out of five characters on the wiki so far. When you guys have a minute, please go there and fill out the “posessions, mundane” section yourselves, since there’s a lot of stuff and I don’t feel like doing it five times. Those of you that I’ve finished (Morath, Rinzo, Thoradin), feel free to have a look and make sure I did everything correctly. If I did something wrong, feel free to fix it yourself and just let me know what my screwup was. As a note, I’m not going to keep track of rations unless there’s a dramatically appropriate reason for doing so, so we’ll assume that everybody always has “five more” days of rations on them unless I say otherwise. Same for torches. For now, we’re going to track ranged weapon ammunition, but I may get tired of it and abstract that as well. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooc-setup-thread-for-sdmb-d-d-5e-pbp-game/696813/88 "2014-09-10T17:52:43Z")
It’s okay, because there isn’t actually a minstrel’s guild. As far as the gear goes, I’ll sort it out but I’m pretty sure that I can afford all the stuff listed on my character sheet. If not, it’ll turn out I don’t have a 75 gp Hand Crossbow after all. This damned character sheet, I swear to God. Yes, the system is simpler than 3rd edition, but the standard issue character sheet is designed to pretend the system is even simpler than it actually is. I shouldn’t have to search around to find where my armor is buried in a list of miscellaneous crap. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooc-setup-thread-for-sdmb-d-d-5e-pbp-game/696813/89 "2014-09-10T17:59:51Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > I’ve populated three out of five characters on the wiki so far. When you guys have a minute, please go there and fill out the “posessions, mundane” section yourselves, since there’s a lot of stuff and I don’t feel like doing it five times. If you’re happy with your Wiki formatting on that, I can actually set my chargen to fill in the appropriate places in that Wiki code. Gear will be the last priority. Well, maybe spell list handling. But the rest of the character specs are ready to be fed into some kind of output method, so long as your class’ name begins with B through D. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooc-setup-thread-for-sdmb-d-d-5e-pbp-game/696813/90 "2014-09-10T18:48:07Z")
That would be impressive. I don’t have the exact same fields for every character, though, and I also don’t know that I have all the relevant details up on the character sheets. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooc-setup-thread-for-sdmb-d-d-5e-pbp-game/696813/91 "2014-09-10T19:22:14Z")
I’ll look at the others then and see if I can generalize it into a template, with the parts that don’t apply to certain characters simply not being included in the code. Also, the spreadsheet is set up to handle multiple weapon loadouts: that is, you can specify the weapon in the main hand, then a weapon or shield in the off-hand if one is free, and the spreadsheet can figure out your attack, damage and your AC for that configuration because although it’s not as complex as 5e, what you have in your hands does affect your AC because of the Shield, and the Dual Wielder feat. It’s been years since I’ve done any Media Wiki coding, but it seems like you’d want a grid then for each loadout, something like: ```auto +---------+------------+------+-----++--------+------------+------+-----++--+ |Main Hand|Attack Bonus|Damage|Range||Off Hand|Attack Bonus|Damage|Range||AC| +---------+------------+------+-----++--------+------------+------+-----++--+ |Rapier | +5 |1d8+3 | - ||Dagger | +5 | 1d4 |20/60||14| +---------+------------+------+-----++--------+------------+------+-----++--+ ``` ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooc-setup-thread-for-sdmb-d-d-5e-pbp-game/696813/92 "2014-09-10T19:27:34Z")
Wow, yeah, that would all be awesome. Go nuts, do what you like. I’ve basically been cannibalizing other wiki entries for my formatting, so if you think you can do better have at it. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2014, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooc-setup-thread-for-sdmb-d-d-5e-pbp-game/696813/93 "2014-09-11T14:03:09Z")
All characters have been uploaded to the wiki. Expect a post later today or possibly early this evening. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2014, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooc-setup-thread-for-sdmb-d-d-5e-pbp-game/696813/94 "2014-09-11T20:01:09Z")
Okay! We’re getting right into things. You all won’t be able to enter combat right away - that’ll probably be after my next post. Go ahead and describe what you each do, and maybe discuss what your tactics will be. I’ll go into more details about how we’ll deal with the combat itself when you all are able to engage. Assuming you do! You could all certainly tuck tail and run. If you want to do anything that you think would require a roll, roll it yourself on the site and link to it. I’ll adjudicate the result in my next post when I respond to everyone. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2014, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooc-setup-thread-for-sdmb-d-d-5e-pbp-game/696813/95 "2014-09-11T23:08:52Z")
Things to remind self of constantly: - “Breaks 4th wall” is not a special ability of any class - Neither is “is Deadpool” - I am not Mr. Welsh and acting like him is a good way to get blacklisted from playing D&D on this site. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2014, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooc-setup-thread-for-sdmb-d-d-5e-pbp-game/696813/96 "2014-09-11T23:15:37Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > Things to remind self of constantly: > > - “Breaks 4th wall” is not a special ability of any class > - Neither is “is Deadpool” > - I am not Mr. Welsh and acting like him is a good way to get blacklisted from playing D&D on this site. 4th wall I know. The rest of your references are going over my head. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2014, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooc-setup-thread-for-sdmb-d-d-5e-pbp-game/696813/97 "2014-09-11T23:32:21Z")
> [@Johnny\_Angel](#): > > 4th wall I know. The rest of your references are going over my head. Deadpool is famous for breaking the 4th wall constantly. Like, that’s almost his super-power. As for Mr. Welch… [Here is a small selection of things Mr. Welch is not allowed to do in a fantasy roleplaying game.](http://theglen.livejournal.com/16735.html) Mainly found out through trial and error. > [@](#): > > 1. My monk’s lips must be in sync. > 2. The green elf does not need food badly. > 3. There is no such skill as ‘improvised cooking’ > 4. The Goddess’ of Marriage chosen weapon is not the whip. > 5. Gnomes do not have the racial ability ‘can lick their eyebrows’ > 6. Gnomes do not have the racial ability to hold their breath for 10 minutes. > 7. Gnomes do not have the racial ability ‘impromptu kickstand’ > 8. Before facing the dragon, not allowed to glaze the elf. > 9. There is no Kung Fu manuever “McGuire Swings For Bleachers” > 10. There is no ‘annoy’ setting on a phasor > 11. My thief’s battle cry is not “Run And Live” > 12. Nor is it “You take care of the orcs, I take care of the traps” > 13. Victory laps after killing the dragon with my 1d2 bow is considered in poor taste. > 14. I cannot base my ancient kung fu master on neither Gene Simmons or Bluto Blutarski. > 15. Character descriptions cannot contain two of the following words: Slavic, Tonedeaf, Karaoke, Musician. > 16. If at any point if my dwarf takes on the mannerisms of Macho Man Randy Savage, he dies. > 17. My monk’s battlecry is not “Round 1: Fight!” > 18. I must remind the GM that my Blessed can Raise Dead before he runs another murder mystery again. > 19. Anything the DM has to ponder the full impact of for more than a minute is forbidden. > 20. “When I’m in the mood” is not a valid trigger for a contingency spell. > 21. If the party wakes to find a chariot upside down in a fountain, I’d better not be the prime, usual or only suspect. Et cetera. The full list is some 2750 items long and freakin’ gut-busting. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2014, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooc-setup-thread-for-sdmb-d-d-5e-pbp-game/696813/98 "2014-09-13T03:05:07Z")
This is my first play-by-post game, so I don’t now if protocol has already been established, but I think it would help me if we front each in-character post with the name of the character. At a table, I don’t seem to have any trouble looking at a person and thinking of their character, but here I’m having to look it up every time. Possibly also in parenthesis the name of the poster, like so: **Rinzo** (Johnny Angel) It might even be useful to give a brief caption including whatever might make whomever we’re now seeing the actions of immediate: **Rinzo** _human bard_ (Johnny Angel) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2014, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooc-setup-thread-for-sdmb-d-d-5e-pbp-game/696813/99 "2014-09-14T22:56:39Z")
Okay, I’m getting ready to post the next bit and the beginning of our first combat. Combat in a pbp game has to be necessarily abstracted, or else it’s going to take us weeks to get through even a few rounds. To that end, many combats will be done in chunks run entirely by you guys. I’ll post the stats of the bad guy and let you engage with them, rolling both your rounds and theirs on [rolz.org](http://rolz.org). When in doubt about things like flanking, areas of effect, and so on, go with what seems reasonable when deciding what you’re doing. If I think you’re taking too many liberties I’ll say something. This may be a little awkward at first, especially as we learn the pacing of combat and I learn what the smoothest way to facilitate things will be, but I’m confident that we’ll make it work. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2014, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooc-setup-thread-for-sdmb-d-d-5e-pbp-game/696813/100 "2014-09-15T09:43:09Z")
Could you explain a little more about how you want the combat to go? We roll initiative. If we’re above the monsters, we simply act whenever we want to post, even though we don’t know what everyone’s initiative rolls are. I would assume that for round 2, we’d use the actual initiatives, but then again, that might slow it down if we’re waiting on one particular person to post. So do we use our actual initiatives, or just in two categories of acting before or after the monsters? Once everyone with greater initiative has acted, do you want one of us to roll/act out the attacks as per your instructions? If we don’t have specific instructions, do we just make the monsters do whatever course of action seems most reasonable, painting a new picture of the battle scene if need be? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooc-setup-thread-for-sdmb-d-d-5e-pbp-game/696813.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooc-setup-thread-for-sdmb-d-d-5e-pbp-game/696813.md?page=6)