TOPIC: Gear Mat

Great point, Matt.

A week or two before ticket sales are open, you could try posting here "LFG" stating your approximate availability and preferred class and difficulty.

Usually one person buys all ten tickets, and everyone pays them back. Well organized groups work out their builds ahead of time, and hands the coach a completed party card when they walk in. It's an awesome way to go, spending your time getting to know your new friends instead of juggling tokens. Why start the adrenaline rush in the coaching room?

Brad Mortensen wrote: The skill/memory tests aren't available anywhere, by design. But don't stress about them. Don't think of it as "if I fail, my spells take a penalty." Think "if I succeed, my spells get a bonus." Many players refuse to do them and just accept the lower amount of healing or damage to save time. (I'm not trying to talk you into playing a caster, just saying that they can be fun, too, if you get stuck with one, and if you don't put too much pressure on yourself.)

I know a couple players that have been playing as long as me and they refuse to do the Skill Checks simply to help the Party. Doing a Skill Check can eat up valuable time even when you know it by heart. The DM has to move to the board and/or pull out the beads/cards and then take time to verify the answer. And then the DM has to spend time crossing the spell(s) off the character card. Time is also wasted by the casters having to move over to the DM and do the skill checks.

Many of the skilled players, as has been already stated, choose to just tell the DM what they cast and how much damage they did. Pretty smart actually. It's all about the Party being a well-oiled machine.

That makes sense for clerics and druids, when the DMs have to pull out and hand over beads/leaf cards. For wizards, though, an experienced DM and wizard can do the skill check almost instantly - wizard stands by the board, DM says a plane, wizard points, DM familiar with the planes knows whether he is right or wrong.

bpsymington wrote: ...DM familiar with the planes knows whether he is right or wrong.

Many aren't, though.

Ro-gan wrote:

bpsymington wrote: ...DM familiar with the planes knows whether he is right or wrong.

Many aren't, though.

DM secret #37 - You don't have to remember the whole board. Just memorize three or four planes. That'll get you through the majority of combats.

Brad Mortensen wrote: DM secret #37 - You don't have to remember the whole board. Just memorize three or four planes.

Ditto that for leaves & beads. (Though admittedly, the planar chart is the easiest of those to work.)