A new Millenium...

The Sisters of Abby Island are in need of a group of experienced adventures to help one of their sisters who has fallen ill. The group will need to travel to Millennium Island which is known for its difficult challenges and high rewards.

So far the following adventurers have responded to the Sisters call for help:
Mikal (Male Human Cleric) (Leader)
Quinn (Male Human Fighter) (Defender)
Kaddim (Male Genasi Swordmage) (Defender)
Miri (Female Human Wizard) (Controller)
Thia (Female Elven Ranger) (Striker)
Varis (Male Elven Rogue) (Striker)

This adventure will be for 4-6 7th level characters. The characters may be chosen from the premade characters that I have created (listed above) or a player may use an existing Westron character or create a new character. A balanced party would be best, but I’ll leave party makeup to the players. If the group wants to play with 5 rogues, then that’s their choice (though the Sisters may end up sending a second group as the fist got TPK’d…)

This will be an online only adventure and will be conducted using MapTools (1.3.b50)/Ventrilo. I’m planning on having at least 1 two-three hour session every two to three weeks most likely during weekday evenings (more if scheduling permits).

Notes:

1. All player made characters must be created using the WotC Character Builder program and a copy of the character needs to be sent to me.
   
2. All characters need to have a MapTools token created using the “Veggie Man” macros. (I’ve created tokens for the 6 PCs named above).
   
3. Once a player starts the adventure with a PC, that PC may not go on other adventures until this one is complete (could take a while…)
   
4. Each PC will have three magic items (I’ve preselected the ones for the premade PCs before deciding on the adventure) 1@6th, 1@7th, and 1@8th. They’ll also have 1,800gp for future needs.
   

Maptools 1.3.b50 can be downloaded for free at RPTools they have a newer version out now, but I haven’t had a chance to test it out with the toke macros I use.

Players who have chosen their PC may ask questions of the Sisters.

Not sure if I should pick here but I will play Thia.

Here's fine.

I'll post summaries for each PC in the People/Places thread. I'd email them, but I don't have everyone's email address.

I would like to play Kaddim.

Oh, also, can you send me the Character Builder file for Kaddim please.

I will be playing and creating a new character. Her name is Chandilly, the rest I will be working out shortly.

Revised my choice see below.
Friday night meetings works best or almost any night after 9:00

We are kind of light on healing.

Seems there is a delema. Chandilly is SUPPOSE to be a Elf Monk from 3.5 but there are no monks in 4.0 intil May when we will be able to beta Monks. I COULD multiclass here in the future into Monk but that can be a waste.

The other character I was thinking is Nilrem who is a swordmage but one has already been taken. Any ideas on a class you would want? With PHB II coming out I could create a bard.

By the way will the night be set or will it flow around session to session? I vote for Friday.

If you want to play the sword mage you can. I can make up another character.

I'm not sure what's different with the "Build: Battle Cleric" compared to a "Cleric".
Don't they have the Class Features:Channel Divinty & Healing Word? You didn't list them in his Powers under "Encounter".

Brad wants to play Miri (Female Human Wizard) (Controller).

I've uploaded all of the PC to the Yahoo Group files page http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/nwgamers/files/

You guys can have to of the same if you like, up to you guys. If you create your own PC, then you have to create a token for it as well. Each of the tokens took me 1-2 hours and I've already done 6. I thought me making them may speed things along.


The Character Builder Summary doesn't list all of the PC options/class features. The "Battle Cleric" disignation is just flavor text. He has Turn Undead, Divine Fortune, and Healing Word.

I think I change to the
Quinn, level 7
Human, Fighter
Build: Great Weapon Fighter

I take someone easier to play since I am the least familar with the rules.

Honestly, I don't think fighter are any easier in 4.0 to play than any other character. All PCs at that level will have several class features, at will, encounter, and daily powers.

I think the goal is to play what you like or to try to fill a role the party needs.

...call me hard headed, but I've been dying to play my Warlord. I don't know how many of the sessions I'll make, but I think this is a good "fill in" character, some fighting, some healing, some battlefield control.

Sonya Moorcut, the 5th level version of her is posted on People, Places, Things.

Almost set...
I have the NPCs created for the first few sessions
The maps are created
Premade PCs and their tokens are created
MapTools networking works for my internal LAN.

Things left to do:
External MapTools connections. I've had to re-configure the routers at my house to get port forwarding to work properly. It's almost there since I no longer get errors when I start my server. But I haven't been able to connect to it from an external PC yet. Hopefully I'll be able to get that working this week.

MapTool map lighting/"Fog of War" effects. This will take a day or two since not all of it has to be done for the first session.

As soon as I get the two items above working I'd like to schedule a session to get everyone familiar with MapTools and to conduct the first couple of encounters.

Does anyone have MapTools b50 loaded and be willing to attempt to connect to my server this evening?

I've tried using the external IP address from the local LAN and that doesn't seem to work, not sure if that's expexted behavior or not. I've also tried coming in from one of my work PCs using a VPN connection and Remote Desktop. That didn't work either, but it could be because of the VPN connection.

Since the "Test Connection" feature of MapTools says it's successful, I'd like to try with an actual remote system. The test should only take a few minutes. Sometime around 8pm would be best, though I'll try starting the server after the kids finish homework (guess I need to get yet another PC, they keep taking mine...)

Ken, I've built a PC for your adventures I'd like to play. I think it will be a good fit for the party.
I don't have the Character Builder, so would you mind inputing him in?
I will paste him here for you review/approval.



Name: Candelos
Gender/Race: Male/Eladrin

Paladin 7^th = ( exp)

Deity: Corellon: God of Spring, Beauty & Art, Patron of the Fey
Alignment: Unaligned



(UNDER REVISION)

Ken, I can test it tonight. Just let me know when.

Mick wrote:Ken, I've built a PC for your adventures I'd like to play. I think it will be a good fit for the party.
I don't have the Character Builder, so would you mind inputing him in?
I will paste him here for you review/approval.

Your PC looks fine except all PC will have three magic items and 1,800gp when the adventure starts. PC will not have the opportunity to buy lesser items with their left over gold until after the first session.
You'll also need to create a MapTools token for your PC. If you need help with token creation let me know. It's not difficult, just time consuming (1-2 hours per token, though I'm getting quicker after making all of the NPC tokens. So far I've made about 50 NPCs).

Mick,
I input your PC into the WotC Character Builder, but only gave them the sword, armor, and armbands.
He ended up
HP65
AC23, Fort18, Ref16, Will17
Basic Melee +12 1d8+10
Ranged (normal dagger) +8 1d4+2

OK, I'll revise.
I'll try and make a token too.

Mick,
I input your PC into the WotC Character Builder, but only gave them the sword, armor, and armbands.
He ended up
HP65
AC23, Fort18, Ref16, Will17
Basic Melee +12 1d8+10
Ranged (normal dagger) +8 1d4+2

Shouldn't AC be 24 (10base+8plate+2magic armor+1twoweapondefense+3level)
Shouldn't Ref be 17 (10base+2ability+1palclass+1twoweapondefense+3level)
Damage should be 1d8+11 (4str+2eladrinsoldier+2magicwaepon+2ironarmbands+1twoweaponfighting)
Do you have a weapon in each hand?

You're right, I didn't put anything in his offhand. I put a dagger in his off hand and got
AC24, Fort18, Ref17, Will17
Basic Melee +12 1d8+11
Ranged (normal dagger) +8 1d4+3

The server is up and running at
IP: 97.113.122.155
Port: 51234

Let me know if you can't connect.

Thanks

Thanks for testing. I'm glad the connections worked, now off to maps and lighting.

Token creation:
The following link describes how to create the tokens and how to download the Veggie Campain: http://forums.rptools.net/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=6276

If anyone has specific questions, let me know.

It took a while for me to get RPTools working again.
I updated all the RPTools and Java. Seen to work now.
Start building my token but still have a lot to do on it.

The macros I created seem to be a bit too verbose. I may need to trim the text down a bit. I used the whole descriptions from the PHB/Compindium including flavor text, power description, power effects, attacks and damage.

I'll probably leave it verbose for the first few sessions, then either create new tearse macros or just trim the existing ones.

So far it looks like the players/PC will be:

Premade chars:
Ross with a Swordmage
Chris with a Ranger
Brad with a Wizard

Waiting for tokens:
Mickey with a Paladin
Stu with a Warlord
David with a Fighter

Haven't heard from
Trevor
Jeff
Others...

I'd like to get started next week if possible. For those of you creating your own PC/tokens, will you have them ready by next Wednesday?

I will do another fighter, different type. Scott Freebird will be his name.

Not trying to influence party makeup...
But, the party should have at least one ritual caster (ie cleric or wizard).

Brad was going to play the Wizard.

Thanks, I wasn't sure since he hadn't posted.

Ken, are you making the tokens with the RPTools Token Maker or do you modify the veglib token download from the site? http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/nwgamers/files/
Can you point me in the right direction.

I drop the veglib token into a map I opened.
I double clicked the veglib token and change the name to my PC and started filling in the tabs. I also change the picture.

The instructtions on the site seem to talk about filling/inputing PC sheet info in tab of the map. Does that stay with the map of the token.

Ken, can you give me some insight.

Here's the steps I follow when I create a PC token:
1. Start MapTools b50
2. Load the template campain from http://gevearth.pbwiki.com/f/VegTemplate.cmpgn
3. Select the Sample PC or you can drop in one of the PCs I've created.
4. Use the "Edit Character Sheet" macro button in the Setup My Character section. You need to fill out the first two tabs. You'll also need to run a few tests to make sure you entered the correct values. For skills I press the "Roll Skill Check" button to see if my skill modifiers are correct. For powers I press the "Basic Melee Attack" button until I get a critical. This allows me to see if I got the attack bonus correct and max damage correct.
5. Use the "Edit & Equip Held Items" button to put in the bonus for your melee weapon, ranged weapon, and implement (if you have one).
6. You need to equip the proper weapon and run tests to make sure your modifiers are correct.
7. To create a power, use the "Create a Power Macro" button. I may have deleted the create/load macro buttons off of the sample PCs I created. You can add it back by selecting the PC and the sample PC. Then drag the button to another button group. This will make a copy of the button for both the PC and sample PC. You can delete the copy from the sample.
7.a For each power I enter
Power name
Action type
Usage type
Keywords
Ranged type, and range
Use Flavor text, and flavor text
Depending on the power I edit
Requirements
Trigger
Target
Attack description, code
Hit description, code
Crit code.

I got the flavor text from the Compindium since I can copy/paste. I wasn't able to copy/paste from the Character Builder power descriptions.
7b. Some power will have additional effects so I go to the "Final input" tab and enter Effects, Sustain text.
7c. Some powers enhance other powers. These you make supplemental, then when you make your attack, you can have a second power kick in. The example he has is Hunters Quarry. This holds true for sneak attacks, and the Promis of Storm power I created for the swordmage.

These macros may seem a bit too complicated, but they're much better than trying to come up with the macro coding ourselves and they display nicely.
It is a fair amount of work, which is why I created the default PC for those who may not want to get into token/macro creation.

Thanks Ken
I'll work on my token again tonight. I hope to be ready by next Wednesday.

I didn't think you were going to be able to make the first session next Thursday. I'd move it to Wednesday, but my kids have Kendo practice and we don't get home until 9:30/:45.

I was planning on doing two encounters, but we could start a bit late and just do one encounter if you can make Wed.

Let me know.

I can't make Thursday. And don't change to late Wednesday for me. Go with the time the majority can make it.

Ken, thanks for the step by step on the tokens.

I'm going to leave my server running for a while if anyone wants to test their connection/tokens. I may be afk, but I'll check in every now an then.

Same connection info as last time:
Server IP: 97.113.122.155
Port: 51234

I put a couple of Gig more RAM in my server and is seems much more responsive to token movements.

MapTools observations...

I ran through a mock battle with the six premade PC vs a level 7 encounter. It took about 45 minutes and was pretty one sided in the PCs favor (which was expected).

The biggest suggestion I would give players is to know your powers and have them handy just like in an in-person game. The macro buttons are nice for executing the powers, but you still need to quickly know which power does what as the macro buttons don't have a way to preview the power. It would be nice if they had a pop up similar to the character sheet that would display when you hovered over the button.

It looks like I was able to connect to Ken's server/map.
I dropped my Token in to Ken's forest map with the steam and bridge.
My Token is coming along. I have most on the inputs in and a couple of powers macro-ed. I should be done tonight with it and then do more testing.

I'll try to leave the server up and running as much as I can (I left it running and was able to connect to it using my laptop at work ). The IP should remain the same until my modem resets.

If anyone want to log into it as a GM, the GM password is dwarmaj. I've also turned on the feature to allow all players to control any of the other tokens. As a GM you can enable/disable Fog of War to see the whole map and get a better understanding of how lighting works in the game.

I think it would be a good idea for everyone to get use to how to move the PC, how to rest/regain hitpoints, use action points, and other MapTools functions.

Forgot to mention that in the upper right corner is a globe. If you click on the globe you can see the maps associated with the campain file and move between the maps.

Ken, where do you want me to send the Token to? Email address?
I'm almost done with my Token. I've been testing it and it seem to work right. I sure you'll test too.

I have a copy...

When you drag your token into my session, it stays in the session when you leave.

So far it looks good.

A few small details...
The picture didn't show up and had a question mark.
You'll need macros for class features and daily powers.
Acrobatics skill needs a zero in it. Without it your skill shows up at +321

I have added the daily powers.
Still need to added class and race feature powers.
I saw that +321 in Acrobatics also. I've corrected that.
I'll drop him in again when I'm done.
I don't know about the picture. It showed up correct when I dropped him in your map.
Do you need to place the image in the support folder in the upper right corner of the map RPTools?

I'm not sure on the map either. The first time you added your token the picture was of the default sample PC and it was fine. Do you have a custom picture? Worse case is that you can email me the picture and I can add it on my side. Not a big deal.

Dave/Stu, have you started on your tokens yet?

...nope, haven't started yet. I doubt I'll be ready in time; start w/o me. I'm getting ready for the session tomorrow and then I'll be writing the recap.