Author: John Carlson

Follow Me, And Die!​, it looks like your mapping challenge to Dyson Logos made it into his printed cartographic review!

Downtime Activities for Party, Between Session 93 and 94

Axel

Axel can send word through Xenilum’Khel’s messengers to procure large chests for the cart. A large chest is 2 cubic feet, which translates to 30 slots of carrying capacity. With locks and reinforcements, these would cost 20GP each. Assuming Finklemur has a medium-sized cart (I don’t see any indication of the size on his sheet), you can fit two chests fully loaded on the cart before it breaks. Meanwhile, feed for the ox would be 1SP/day.

Sturloc will be happy to take Axel up on his offer to send the money to Em. He will explain that Talon felt especially protective of the girl, and, with his death, Sturloc feels its his responsibility now.

Idony can produce three more healing potions during the week if she hires Aribert Pouchemaker to hunt the ingredients down the mountain. It will cost 450GP/potion.

Chuq

Chuq can spend the remainder of the 21st studying the last few blueprints for automata that are with the party. His plan to reach the Chief Engineer’s room was sound and he encounters no one either on the way to Lupaa or between her chambers and the Power & Engineering facility. Studying the Bioforge cube Chuq gives him a +2 for the purposes of determining stuns/instant kills against the studied races/creatures normally eligible for such attacks when using an unarmed strike. Chuq can also attempt stun/kill strikes against the remaining creatures (i.e., those outside the usual size restrictions) but without any bonus. He can accomplish this for all the listed cubes/races within the seven days of downtime.

Edan

Edan finishes studying the remaining automata schematics on the 21st of Faurilden and then accompanies Chuq down to the Power & Engineering facility. While there, Kalgunn the Elder will suggest a trade: in exchange for stories about the history of the world since the fall of the ancient dwarves, he will teach Edan how to construct automata — with the caveat that the primary engines of these creations cannot be fabricated without special facilities. We can discuss Edan’s response to that offer and another suggestion (involving Thorfus’s viewing mask and its signal network) at the next session.

Quick Poll for Players

I’ve been reconsidering the use of fancy virtual tabletop maps with dynamic lighting and all those other dynamic Roll20 features. There’s a definite trade-off using them: 

Pros of VTT Map Use

– Players are much more aware of exactly where their characters are and there is less negotiation about exact distances/positioning

– Players will not make basic mapping mistakes because they misunderstood the DM’s spatial descriptions

– “Opening” a door and being face-to-face suddenly with tokens representing enemies is a good way of evoking in players some of the same feelings their characters would have in that situation.

Cons

– Technical issues caused by slow connections or the little bugs in the dynamic lighting system are not uncommon

– Using VTT maps creates a lot of token busywork when there are PCs, hirelings, etc. to move around during exploration (partly defeating the first benefit listed above when we just hand-wave token positioning because fiddling with them is a headache)

– The crutch of having a map right there on-screen (even if it is missing indications of finer details) probably has an adverse effect on room descriptions (both in terms of how I deliver them and the players’ attention)

Some of you were in the campaign before we made the switch and have experience with both approaches (pure theater of the mind vs. VTT map); others have joined afterwards. I’m interested in the perspectives and opinions of both groups about a possible reversion.