Whatever happened to:
…and…
…and…
Too fast or too slow?
I’ve been waiting for input from @Daaksyde as to what Ranar’s going to do now that the carriage horses are hurt, and to see if he manages to keep them under control. As soon as I get that, I was going to run the fight forwards a bunch of turns until the next major decision point.
Jibril and Nic are going for the centaur that Nic earlier hit with the arrow; I’ve got enough of an idea of what they’re doing to run that forwards for a bit. Thwip is presumably going to keep firing at the one that just skewered Hawk.
Hawk took a nasty hit, but it was mostly just bad luck; wrong place at the wrong time. A quick healing spell may keep him in the fight, though.
–
I have slipped on hiding the mechanics, though; after the first few rolls, I thought it’d help you to see what the odds are with missile weapons etc.
Sorry about the retcon on the first shots; I considered leaving the original events in place for the sake of keeping the narrative smooth, but I thought that doing so might give the false impression that missile weapons are useless.
I’m talking about all the dice-rolling.
Sure, if someone wants to roll the dice for a big dramatic moment, then fine, but otherwise, it’s just slowing things down.
The dice have control of whether or not I get knocked back and fall unconscious, whether you tell discbot to roll them or I do. And in GURPS, a turn is a second, so I now need to make a jillion rolls vs HT to stay awake (or, as you said, I could heal myself).
I just don’t understand why you’re asking me to roll dice in the first place, when the mechanics are supposed to be “out of sight.”
Well, as I said earlier, I thought y’all might get more of a feeling of control over things by “rolling” some dice yourself. Mitchell and William seemed to get a kick out of it while they were firing at the incoming centaurs.
The pause for Ranar isn’t just waiting on a Teamster roll; it’s that his original plan of charging with the carriage isn’t really feasible now that one of the horses has been skewered, so I need a revised plan of action.
If you’d rather I keep all of Hawk’s dice out of sight, I’d be happy to do that. It’s the first time I’ve run a game online; I’m still feeling out how best to do it.
If I had the dice in my hand, I might, but I’m not very superstitious about PRNGs.
Sorry for taking my frustration out on you, but I am frustrated. It’s just a bit annoying that our first fight (first two fights, if you count the guards that we wisely managed to avoid fighting altogether) were against opponents that we couldn’t possibly hope to defeat in a fair fight. It would have been nice to get a handle on the mechanics of a fight in a more forgiving context.
Anyway, I don’t mind seeing the mechanics, and what you’re rolling against, and why the skill is higher or lower, or how much we missed by, etc. (though, admittedly, I’d prefer that the other thread be strictly in-character, with no talk of dice rolling or skill names). I just don’t see the need for me to be rolling the dice myself.
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I do get where you’re coming from with that.
I will say, though: don’t give up just yet. You haven’t seen Ranar and the swordsmen in action yet, and Thwip already has one quarter of the opposition on the edge of dropping.
Low-skill high-strength opponents are a lot less effective against targets that can defend; if Hawk had seen the javelin coming, he would have had a better than 50% chance of dodging it. The centaurs have got bugger-all chance of getting through de Courcy’s parry except by extreme luck.
I’ve been making an effort to convey how intimidating the centaurs are. It appears that I might have overdone it a touch… 
They’re more bark than bite.
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Running a combat via this method is pretty hard. Especially when everyone is trying to write a story about it. As you can no doubt agree, we’re all stepping on each other’s feet doing it that way.
The most down-the-middle solution for this I can think of is to keep all of the rolls here in the meta thread.
- Describe our intent in narrative thread.
- Do all dice rolls here. Those who want the GM to roll or guess the outcomes based on dice odds can leave it to @Wanderfound. Those who find discbot charming can do that themselves.
- GM describe results of our moves (And more importantly, the timing of them) in the narrative thread.
- Repeat.
This would require we all make sure to not jump ahead or assume what the next moment of action would be when we write. And also that we all cool our heels and wait for everyone to say their bit even if it takes a day or two.
It can seem a bit robotic but it’s just for the combat stuff where the mechanics of an RPG holds sway. When we get back to the talking bits we can return to the more freeform story writing we were doing before the fight.
That’s my thought on the matter… Unless you guys sorted this all out 300 posts ago… Then that’s still my thought on the matter and good job everyone. 
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?
(I hope you’re okay with me sharing this, as I’ve practically said it already in character):
- Centaurs are physically imposing. The top half is just as strong as the bottom half; they’re more than a match for most men on horseback.
If we’re talking feudal society, there aren’t many men on horseback who aren’t combat-trained, armed, and armoured to the gills (or surrounded by people who are combat-trained, etc.).
That line doesn’t just convey strength to me, it conveys skill. That’s why I’ve had Hawk bellowing that we should, under no circumstances, try to fight these guys, as we’re going to lose.
Evenly matched, a centaur would clobber an equally skilled and equipped man one-on-one. Hawk’s experience supports that perception; the lightly-equipped pastoral horse nomads of the Northlands don’t like to mess with them.
These centaurs, however, are outnumbered, unarmoured, poorly armed and tactically stupid (partly due to racial overconfidence, partly due to plot-related circumstances). They’re herdsmen, not soldiers.
Ranar and de Courcy are soldiers.
I have to admit I wasn’t expecting quite so much dice rolling and seeing of the man behind the curtain. Maybe the odd one, but more of a
“there are 4 centaurs approaching…what do you do”
Players make suggestions:
a) try to talk
b) attack
etc.
Then if we get into combat, we make a top-level statement about how we want to fight, and you take over and do all the fighting. If for no other reason, to mean it doesn’t take forever as we play over multiple time zones.
Maybe that’s not going to work here…? (dunno, I don’t play any RPG things like this - but I wasn’t expecting each fight to end up like the combat arena thing you’re playing).
These centaurs, however, are outnumbered, unarmoured, poorly armed and tactically stupid
So am I!
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These centaurs, however, are outnumbered, unarmoured, poorly armed and tactically stupid
Who hasn’t been there?
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Outnumbered? Hawk’s a healer, not a fighter, Arron isn’t taking part in the fight yet (unless he’s doing the blurry thing), and Ranar is busy driving the wagon. And even under the best circumstances, 5v4 is hardly “outnumbering” to the point worth speaking of.
So are pretty much all of us, except for Ranar, and maybe de Courcy.
They have spears and multiple javelins (which are capable, as demonstrated, of piercing entirely through a person if they land).
They seem to be doing pretty well for themselves so far. We’re not much (if at all) better, tactically.
And half of the soldiers in our party are busy driving the wagon.
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Generally in RPGs, I’m there so often I’ve chipped in on a time-share condo.
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I teach ESL to children. That’s my entire life.
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Once I get Ranar’s plan of action, I should be able to run the fight from there to conclusion if the fighters are cool with letting me handle the fates for a bit.
Afterwards, I’ll keep any dice-rolling on this thread instead of the narrative one.
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So far, they’ve managed to injure one horse and accidentally (and non-lethally) skewer the least combat-oriented of the opposition.
In return, they’ve expended all of their ready missile weapons, had one of their own badly shot up and have closed to a position where the two warriors on point can double on one of them while the other charges a loaded rifleman (who, admittedly, had better make his next shot a good one).
Y’all are doing okay.
[quote=“nimelennar, post:316, topic:83289, full:true”]]And half of the soldiers in our party are busy driving the wagon.
[/quote]
…although there were some tactical flaws in the defence. Leaving the rearguard to just the squishy wizards might not be a thing you want to repeat. 
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Well I was going for a drive-by swing, so I wouldn’t have wanted it to get stuck and yank me off the bench, but that’s no longer possible.
@discbot roll 3d6 vs 7 (Teamster -4)
@Daaksyde the 3d6 dice reads: 10 vs 7 (Teamster -4) (3,4,3)
I’m guessing the result of that roll is pretty bad. At this point, he doesn’t so much have a plan of action as raw rage. If he has fallen off the carriage, or can bring it to a halt, he’s heading straight for the centaur that hurt the horse (using the spike). He’ll reach for/unsling his shield reflexively, but won’t waste time on it if it’s not ready at hand.
Just finished resolving the fight, writing it up in dramatic style now.
Just as a piece of trivia, Ranar’s final swing delivered 33HP of damage. 
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