Community

Hey there, Lurkers!

After a few years off I have decided to make a sudden appearance.  Perhaps my display of audacity will lure the likes of MindWandererB, Caterane, and SauroGrenom to the fore.  If not, I shall just have fun chating.

On an unrelated note: WOW I HAVE 15 CREDITS! 

Glad to have you around my man. Very glad.

Personally - I would love to dredge TheMagister back to the fray and get some Denth-kicking on with Sdentch and Auburn again. That was always a good time after all

On the others - I think MWB has given up on D&D completely (I searched his most recent posts some time ago and he seemed pretty disgusted with 4e when he left). Cat I think is in politics in Europe somewhere. I have no clue what happened to Sauro though.

Hi Vath!
This is very nostalgic - Vath, you were one of the most welcoming people when I first came to CoCo, and some of your characters are super memorable (psibeast is actually a well known recurring supervillain in a RL campaign that I DM, though known by a different name)

It's nice to see you popping by; I wouldn't have guilt over hopping in as a player... plus, if you do, it'll likely addict you and draw you back into the fold full time, time permitting or not

Welcome back, and thanks for popping in!

Good gaming, all. I'm glad to see these walls are still up, though the paint has changed from when I last recall. Yeah, seeing some of the old gang would be a nice get-together of old hats (Vath woke me from my slumber and guided me here).

I think I'll make more of a habit of popping in and seeing what's interesting. I actually do still play the good game, though these days I more teach and coach new players, while crafting story ideas for DMs.

It took me a long minute to find where the Credits List was hidden (I used to know these streets like the back of my hand) ... Still sleeping on my heap of 235 creds, I see (I should re-open my brokering service).

Thanks for the birthday shout-out Telin. I respect your commitment for holding the fort down.

Very happy to see you as well Huan and thanks for the kind words. We'd always be happy to have you - even if it is just to stop by and say hi.

You two have made an otherwise dreary day (2+ hours of conference calls for work) into a rather good one. Thanks for that.

Wonderful!

 Sdentch and Auburn would be wonderous.

I don't blame MWB, as I never gave 4th ed much of a chance myself. 

Eluria, I'm honored that PsiBeast has made a name for herself in other alternate realities.  Thanks for the kind words. I think getting sucked back in would be my primary worry.  I would love to, but I'd have to cut back from 6 hours of sleep a night to 5.  Just not manageable right now.

Though building some software is awefully tempting....

Huan!  Wow, you were old timer when I first showed up.  Quite the pleasure that you responded. 

Sorry to hear about the conference calls, Telin.  I'm in the middle of a restructuring right now, and tomorrow will be the first day this week with less than 4 hours of meetings.   I can definitely relate.

HOLY HELL!!
community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758...
THIS STILL EXISTS!?

and this - community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758...
 
and I still have access to this?! s180.photobucket.com/profile/Pitlords 

I should hope it still exists, as there are a few characters from there that I'd like to use in a campaign I'm vaguely planning (if their owners (Zevox, MWB and McJarvis) are ok or no longer involved), although that requires a substantially larger community.

I left around the era where it was unsure if Gleemax would ever release the archives for public viewing.  I had copies of all my stuff, but there was a gap where no one could reach the old material.

I saw that The_Fred was asking about the share spell house rules... and remembered that time a few weeks before the shapeshifting house rules were created when Auburn and her familiar turned into a pair of flying invisible remorhaz.

But for the record, that was just an improved version of Sindorin's original technique.

My thoughts on 3rd vs 4th ed:

Interesting points.  Mind if I post it elsewhere?

Also, speaking of nostalgia: Anyone remember who ended up ruling Gladius when the Guild system ended?  I think it was Lia Mortiniella (the person who the Loyalists were trying to put on the throne), but I may misremember.

@Yitzi
I don't mind, please share.

Despite my rambling, I wanted to stress that both versions have their strengths, and should be played accordingly. Personally, I lean more towards 3e/3.5 overall, though I had fun with 4e as well.

I used 4e as a template for other game modes, much like how 3e could be custom-tailored. One of my favorites was a pokemon-esque adventure where the players commanded teams of monsters vs other monsters. Another example is a 4e-inspired minigame I played with my group with positive feedback that I would like to share here. To give it some context, it was a large-scale multi-army clash done in an turn-based strategy fashion (think Fire Emblem/Advance Wars) with a 4e mindset. Give it a review (I would actually love to play another match online with this game).


The map was a large, symmetrical (sometimes assymetrical) map populated by various terrain tiles. On the fringes of the map, spaced equally apart from each other (like the starting spots of a fight here) are the starting positions of a base. In the dead center of every map is the boss base (the Dragon) usually limited in number of approached and surrounded by difficult terrain.

Note: Was usually played on a hex map.

Ikaruga Battle

Win conditions (satisfy one):

1)        Destroy all other enemy armies.

2)        Control every fort on the map.

3)        Attain (25 * # of players) Resource pool.

Stats:

Every unit has a cost in Resource to produce and place in their starting zone. Every unit has health in the form of HP, and the amount of damage they can inflict to another unit in terms of Dmg. Rg is the number of spaces away they can deal Dmg, with 1 being an adjacent space. Mv is the amount of spaces a unit may move during its turn.

 

Gameplay:

Every side picks a race and starts with 5 Resource, and 1 Lord unit. Players roll dice to determine turn order by reversing the order by which players select their starting base location (raw roll result, starting from highest). ie the first person to move in a turn is the last person to pick a starting base location. On their turn, a player may move and/or attack each individual unit they possess, as well as create OR promote a single unit. Units may move before or after a Dmg, but not both (except Scouts), even after creation. If an army does not have a Lord, it cannot create other basic units. A Lord may create basic units if they start their turn standing on a camp, where the new unit spawns in the nearest, adjacent free space. An army cannot create promoted units, it can only create basic units and promote them. There is a cap of 2 Lords per player faction, and a second Lord may not be created until the first lord is promoted. If an enemy is in range of a unit, the unit simply rolls damage per their Dmg, and the enemy unit loses that amount of health and possibly Resource. The cleric may heal in place of an attack. There is no friendly fire, and clerics may not heal other factions.

 

Units:

[Basic]: A Basic unit costs 5 Resource to make. A Lord costs 15 Resource to make.

MAGE: HP 5, Dmg 4, Rg 3, Mv 1

WARRIOR: HP 10, Dmg 4, Rg 1, Mv 2

ROGUE: HP 7, Dmg 2 + [-1 Resource], Rg 1, Mv 3

LORD: HP 30, Dmg 5, Rg 2, Mv 2

 

[Promoted] It costs 10 Resource to promote a basic unit. It costs 15 to promote a Lord. Promoted units all gain +2 Dmg and +1 Mv. The promotion modifiers stack on top of whatever the existing unit already has.

WIZARD (mage, lord) HP +5, Attack has radius 2

CLERIC (mage, lord) HP +5, Can Heal a unit at Dmg value at Rg 5 instead of attacking (may heal self)

RANGER (warrior, lord), HP +4, Rg 3, Becomes Rg 4 and +2 Dmg when stationary for whole turn, Cannot attack Rg 1-2

BARBARIAN (warrior, lord), HP +10, Can lose -3 health to inflict +4 damage

ASSASSIN (rogue, lord), HP +5, 25% chance to instantly kill a non-lord unit with its attack, +3 Dmg to Lords

SCOUT (rogue, lord), HP +7, Mv 5, Can split up movement before and after an attack

 

Race:

-Dwarf: All units +2 HP, +1 Dmg when inside Mountains

-Elf: All Units +1 Dmg when inside Forests, Warriors/Rogues +1 Rg

-Ork: All Units +1 Dmg, additional +3 Dmg vs Buildings

-Undead: 25% chance a unit resurrects to half-health (round down) when killed

-Fiend: Gain additional +1 Resource when killing another unit

-Genie: 25% chance to deal x2 Dmg

-Hawkman: Ignore Movement penalties from terrain, +3 Dmg to Dragon faction

-Fey: Basic units cost -1 Resource to create, Lords cost -3 Resource to create, Mages have Mv 2

-Gnome: Mages/Lords have +2 HP and +1 Dmg

-Halfling: Rogues/Lords have +2 HP and +1 Dmg

-Giant: Warriors/Lords have +2 HP and +1 Dmg

-Merman: All units +1 Rg/+2 Dmg on Water, Movement on/through Water is free (up to 3 spaces)

-Golem: All units ignore 1 Dmg per attack

-Human: All units +1 Dmg per adjacent ally, additional +1 Dmg when inside a fort.

-Celestial: All Units heal +1 HP each at the end of their turn

 

The Dragon is a unique Boss NPC with its own faction. The Dragon acts exactly as another player, only it may create new units and promote twice in its turn. In addition, the Dragon may create units of any Race for its basic units, and starts with 2 Lords. The Dragon may have its two Lords start at any of the forts at the beginning of the game. All Units in the Dragon’s faction ignore 2 Dmg from every attack. The Dragon itself is a unique Lord with HP 60, Rg 4 (with radius 2), Dmg 5, with no movement. It may promote itself but cannot create another Dragon. The Dragon itself is larger than other units, occupying a radius 2 area. If the Dragon dies, its faction may continue like a normal rival army.

 

Resource:

Resource is gained at the end of a turn. Every player gains +2 Resource every turn from their home base. Having a unit end their turn on a Fort garners +2 Resource, which stacks across multiple forts. Having multiple units on the same fort does not stack. You may gain Resource on a fort even if you do not control the fort. A player controls a fort by being the only faction on the fort and gains an additional +1 Resource per turn for doing so. You may spawn new units inside a fort you control. The Dragon starts in control of all free forts in the beginning of the game despite not having a unit on it. Until another faction steps into a fort, that fort is under the Dragon’s control, and afterwards it may be contested. Having a unit end their turn on a Camp garners +1 Resource. Killing another faction’s unit garners +1 Resource.

 

Terrain:

Forest: -1 Mv, minimum 1

Mountain: -2 Mv, minimum 1

Water: Cannot cross, except for Hawkmen, Mermen, and Scouts. Hawkmen and Mermen may also end movements in Water.

Buildings: Buildings by themselves are unique (see below)

 

Buildings:

Forts: HP 30

Base: HP 50. If a home base is destroyed, the previous owner loses half of its Resource.

Doors: HP 15, cannot be passed by any unit

Lord Abilities

When a Lord promotes, it not only becomes a stronger version of that promotion tier, it also gains a unique Ability. All Abilities cost 1 Resource to activate and may be done once per turn. A Lord chooses only one Ability upon creation and it cannot be changed unless the Lord is re-promoted.

Note: Lord naming scheme is [Race] [Ability] Lord (eg: Giant Devastation Lord)

Wizard:
-Teleport: Activate to teleport itself or an adjacent friendly unit up to 3 spaces. This form of movement can pass through occupied spaces and doors.
-Warp: Activate, and create a warp point on your space. You may create multiple warp points, each costing a cumulative +1 Resource (2nd warp costs 2, 3rd costs 3, etc) and all allies that enter a space with your warp may choose to instantly warp to any other space with your warp point. A unit may only warp once per turn. Warp points from multiple factions may share the same space. Occupied destinations mean the unit appears in the nearest adjacent free space of their choice. If the Warp Lord dies or is demoted, the warp network still persists. Because the warps are networks, warps and warp costs for multiple Warp Lords all pool together.
-Regression: Activate to demote any friendly unit to its Basic class, fully healed. Cannot demote self

Cleric:
-Shield: Activate to negate the next attack or ability against a friendly unit within 5 spaces
-Sacrifice: Activate to kill a friendly basic unit and return its Resource cost to your faction's pool. (net is +resource cost -1)
-Mass Healing: Activate to make your healing Radius 2 for 1 round

Barbarian:
-Cleaving: Activate to deal Dmg to 2 adjacent enemy units.
-Whirlwind: Activate to deal half your Dmg to every adjacent space.
-Devastation: Activate to degrade current terrain space (Mountain -> Forest -> Plain) permanently. Does not affect Buildings or Water.

Ranger:
-Sniper: Activate for +1 Rg and +2 Dmg for 1 turn.
-Strider: Activate to move again.
-Primal: Activate to give all allies on the same terrain as you (Forest, Mountain, Water, Building, or Plains) +1 Dmg for 1 turn.

Assassin:
-Vengeance: +[-1 Resource] Dmg, and an additional 2 points of Resource damage if the targeted unit attacks on its next turn.
-Toxic: Activate and next attack target loses -1 HP/ -1 Resource for every space it moves for 1 turn.
-Disabler: Activate against a Lord and next attack also negates usage of targets Lord Ability for 1 turn. Against non-Lords, target has Mv 1 for 1 turn.

Scout:
-Strafe: Activate to deal either +X Dmg or -X Mv (for the next turn) to its attack target, where X is the number of spaces moved before the attack.
-Predator: Activate and pick 1 enemy unit up to Rg spaces away. All allies gain +1 Dmg against that unit for 1 turn.
-Recon: Activate to prevent being targeted by any enemy unit beyond 2 spaces for 1 turn. Does not apply to area Dmg.

By the way, it might have been missed in the discussion, so in case anyone does know, I'll ask again: Anyone remember who ended up ruling Gladius when the Guild system ended?

I do not know.  The nobility storyline sounds familiar, but I can't remember anything specific.  I was running The Arcane Order at the time, and didn't pay much attention to the other guilds (other than making sure all of them were at least neutral to TAO).

And I don't suppose you remember who was Guildlords at the time...

I was under the impression that the pitlord was doing it, meaning Cat and then Telin.

The people who did Guildlords (as the overarching position) were Caterane, Zevox, and myself I believe. I'm actually not sure I did it, though I did run the Celestial Forces for a while.

And you already said you don't remember how it ended...

ancient lurker checking in... was rather surprised to hear much from this neck of the woods and I do have incredibly fond memories of CoCo... interestingly enough, i've been jonesing for a DnD fix after a massive failure in signing up for various games last fall... i some how managed to sign up for 6 different games all at the same time which all fell through within 1 month or so... without very much progess to speak of.

I was even going for EPIC with a commoner-human... the idea behind that game was "The party of heroes, they are awesome, everyone knows it.... the heroes get bored with being awesome and turn to the dark side... enter the heroes #1 lacky ... this is the game of the 'would-be's ... you're pathetic, now go conquer that 20th lvl paladin!"

all that aside... it's great to actually be remembered from yall... I really miss my wizard who was hellbent on ruling the arcane order and eventually all of Gladius... still remember him being the unfortunate victim of a noxious vapors spell.. barely surviving a massive ambush by keeping himself alive with summoned monstrous centepeds and then having the one last possible trump card ... a charm person on the town guard so we didn't have to explain why we were a group of beaten and bloody and vomit covered people with a gagged hobgoblin wizard as a hostage... last spell i even had prepared ... FOR THE WIN!

what's been going on around here?

Awesomeness!  I'll let the stalwarts catch you up on current events.  I've been hanging out for about a month, cycling through all my characters.  Very sleepy though.  I'll catch you tomorrow.

Nightbanegod! See - my birthday notes do get to people - they really do!

*wipes a proud tear from his brow*

Anyway - we've been plugging along here for years already and we're getting close to the 1000 fight mark. Be a part of the history man. History!

Things continue to fluctuate, but Gladius has been doing well since Vath came back and we've got two newcomers in the mix to help out. With another couple of players, we could virtually be screaming with activity.

Oh sorry - I meant to say SCREAMING with activity.

So what do we need to do to get you to be active around these parts again? I've always got a spare supply of rope if needed, but my hogtying skills are not what they used to be...

well, i'm a 3.5 player, through and through. some of my old characters could be dredged up or i could go and stat out some new ones. I'm not opposed to either. i tried getting a few characters started in another forum, which was a huge bust.. *sigh*... so much wasted mental energy...

this upcoming week is going to be just shy of hell for me. i'm working two jobs and I'm a full time college student still. OHH and i need to get an application in for a passport... which should be a feat in itself.

otherwise, RL commitments aside. I just want to game... seriously... fiending for it.... i could actually "intelligently" retool my drow cleric a bit. just let me know where i might fit in... i'm fond of the guild system and i'm curious as to the RP side of gladius... although i would appreciate a bit of both roll with Role ... playing either way is nice.

Hmm - looks like you had only posted one of your characters the last time you stopped by (Dalamar Ohmsford). He currently is in prison for some minor errors reported by Vath back in 2009 (note I made a couple of corrections to that violation in the post immediately following).

If you need help finding your other characters - just say so and I can dredge them up.

There has been some talk about starting up the roleplay again, but we're still too few in number to really go with any guild system. That said - if we want to open up a thread or two for general roleplay we can certainly do that. And if it takes off, I can make it its own subforum so people can add more threads - let's see how it goes though. I know I've been itching to play with Vallgar, but I've also been very busy lately.

Mar 18, 2012 -- 6:41AM, TelinArtho wrote:

but we're still too few in number to really go with any guild system.

That might not be true for much longer, though, if we keep getting people...

(Speaking of which, the new guild system that I wrote and posted is still subject to review, so anyone who wants to look at it and give suggestions is welcome to.  Also, any old-timers who remember what happened at the end of the old guild system, and in particular who ended up ruling Gladius, would be greatly appreciated.)

Can you link me the guild system you wrote?  I've heard mention, but have not found the thread.

I'll double check my archives, but we may have to default to saying that the Royal Loyalist faction took control of the city. 

Guild System by Yitzi.

Mar 18, 2012 -- 9:50AM, TelinArtho wrote:

Guild System by Yitzi.

This is the actual system table of contents.

Feb 13, 2012 -- 11:17AM, Yitzi wrote:

By the way, it might have been missed in the discussion, so in case anyone does know, I'll ask again: Anyone remember who ended up ruling Gladius when the Guild system ended?

Didn't it just kind of peter out after all the complaining about the system?

Hogarth!  Hi!
Hope you are well.  Happy recent-ish birthday.

Reginald Molehusband has been an inspiration to us all.  Or at least to me.

Also, what would "ruling Gladius" entail?

The previous version of the guild system was a sort of board game.  Guilds owned districts of the city and tried to gain control of other un-guilded districts.  Ostensibly, the winner would be the guild which had control of a majority of districts, and thus majority control at the city council.

There was an ongoing plot line about the Loyalist faction trying to restore the king and do away with the representative government of Gladius.

Many of the guilds focused on building up a stronghold (The Arcane Order, The Living Tree, Watchful Eye).  The Celestial guild (Celestial Forces) continualy fought with the Abyssal guild (East Habari Trading Company).  The Psionic Consortium focused on rapid expansion, if I remember correctly.

Mar 21, 2012 -- 12:06PM, hogarth wrote:

Feb 13, 2012 -- 11:17AM, Yitzi wrote:

By the way, it might have been missed in the discussion, so in case anyone does know, I'll ask again: Anyone remember who ended up ruling Gladius when the Guild system ended?

Didn't it just kind of peter out after all the complaining about the system?

No, I remember there was actually a post in each guild thread officially ending the game.

Mar 21, 2012 -- 3:31PM, The_Fred wrote:

Also, what would "ruling Gladius" entail?

Taking control of the city, making decisions for it.  It's all RP.

Mar 21, 2012 -- 12:57PM, Eluria wrote:

Hogarth!  Hi!
Hope you are well.  Happy recent-ish birthday.

Reginald Molehusband has been an inspiration to us all.  Or at least to me.

I hope he wasn't too inspiring, considering I based him around using the most dubious, cheesy, underhanded powergaming combinations that I could think of, like his light warhorses with Improved Grapple (before that was banned), bringing in extra allies with Forgery (before that was banned), brain-locking enemies and beating them to death with his psicrystal, etc.  

Those were definitely some lulz.  Shame I couldn't talk Cat into letting me play an awakened warhorse outright.

Back to the topic of Guilds, I'm making my way through Yitzi's guild system.  Holding off critique until I actually finish it though.
I'm disappointed to report that after reviewing my archives I have found no more information on how the guild system ended.  The files are missing.  If anyone has saved copies of the old guild threads, do speak up.

 I have vague memories of writting something, martial law instituted in the city, soldiers sequestering the university... I don't remember if it was a quest plotline or the actual ending.  If nothing else, I could just rewrite the ending with the Loyalists winning.  That does sound familiar.

That actually sounds kind of creepy, like all the records were destroyed, mysteriously...

Mar 21, 2012 -- 9:55PM, Vathelokai wrote:

I have vague memories of writting something, martial law instituted in the city, soldiers sequestering the university... I don't remember if it was a quest plotline or the actual ending.  If nothing else, I could just rewrite the ending with the Loyalists winning.  That does sound familiar.

I certainly have no problem with that if you are so inclined. I think we lost a good portion of the old guild threads due to time. I'm just glad I was able to recover some of the posts that the guildlords put up (TLT's analysis of Animal companions, CEF's Summon Monster with Augmented summons, etc)

Hey all, good to "see" you again!

I poked my head in to get in on the 5e/ D&DN playtesting forum, and saw that I had PM's sitting around. Good to see I hadn't been forgotten.

I've had an interesting D&D life since CoCo last saw me... after a great in-person campaign with Hirumajoe and Erithmu, I moved and started doing 4e RPGA. I actually love 4e, especially in a serial format, but a) there are a lot of things it got wrong, and b) the product decisions seemed to be deliberately designed to alienate as many current players as possible. Since I was doing sanctioned play at the time, Essentials made the whole game not worth keeping up with. I actually preordered both Essentials books, and after reading the first one, never even opened the second--and this from someone who bought books like Magic of Incarnum with no real intention of actually using them, just to read. I'm just getting into the swing of a 3.5 campaign; I wanted to do Pathfinder, but two of the players wanted to be a half-giant psychic warrior and a githzerai monk, so it was easier to stick with 3.5. Now, having done 3.5, then 4, then 3.5 again, it's actually hard to play either, as both have a lot of strengths and a lot of weaknesses.

Which is why D&DN is so appealing: I love D&D in general, I really want to get back into it, but I want a game without the linear fighter that does nothing but attack and the quadratic mage with eight gazillion spells, with fast-paced math and interesting monsters at all levels, but also a game with lots of combat options, realistic geometry, out-of-combat magic, and heavy customizability of characters. Hopefully the edition is a game I can play again.

I won't be doing CoCo again, in any event. I don't have time, and I've resolved to never again take on a commitment for a non-real-life game. It's hard enough to squeeze in an hour or two of Terraria or Mass Effect here and there, and prep for my in-person game. Telling my wife I don't have time for whatever she wants me to do because I have to do pairings, run a fight, or write tactics isn't something I have in me anymore. Plus D&D really is better as a cooperative game. I might start reading the threads, but I won't do anything where people are depending on me.

My recollection of what happened with the guild system is that we had some ideas of where we wanted to wrap it up before closing it and launching a new system, but that it fell apart due to lack of interest. We'd lost too many players and no one was sufficiently motivated to keep up with the bookkeeping. I think we had a campaign or two going, where the intent was to use it as a guild system/edition change transition story, but the DM(s) disappeared. CEF was still the most powerful guild, though the gap between them and PSI and TLT wasn't as big as it was before the first reboot. I'm pretty sure Guildlords was Cat, then SauroGrenom, and then me, but honestly it was a long time ago. The official "Lords" went away when they prohibited shared accounts, and merged all aliases by email address without notice (so they were all tied to me irrevocably).

Has it really been eight years since we started CoCo? It's a bit frightening how time flies by. I still remember the first matches when CoCo was nothing more than a single thread in the MinMax Forums. In any case, my time in CoCo was a great one. I loved to read and pitlord fights, roll pairings on wednesdays and write stories. Together we then created a whole fantasy world and went out to fill it with life. That said, I'm very happy to see CoCo still being alive. It will always be a part of me and I'll never forget it. 

I think 4th Edition wasn't good for CoCo as the minmax potential was reduced significantly. Even my own gaming group fell apart with 4th Edition and I haven't played since then. The announcement of 5th Edition filled me with new hope and brought me back here. 

Like with MWB, I am very busy in my real life (what Telin correctly guessed). I'm not in my 20s anymore so there are lots of things one has to do and especially in these troubling times (EU-crisis), other things have priority. I don't know if I ever come back to CoCo but I am sure that sometime in the future, I will once again reserve time for a D&D group with friends when my focus shifts back to the funnier things in life. Until then, I will visit you once in a while and say hello. Or happy birthday, CoCo!