The Girl in Glass

Tell us how you are using our gaming tools and how your sessions are going.

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tomlib
Giant
Posts: 195
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:48 am

Jan 8, 2010 - Session

Post by tomlib »

After our Christmas and New Year layoff the campaign is once again on track as we had a good session Saturday night.

We made level 16 last night as the group is well into the Lizard Folk lands as they attempt to stop Hestwing Bardagus from leading the creatures in an invasion of Tanelorn.

I may need to redo the attack macro again. The level 16 powers work a lot with resistances and none of that is automatically applied in my framework. I also need to work the bloodied state into it as well because that is also not automated as far as effects go. I've been dreading another rewrite but I think with all the resistance things going on it is necessary. I've figured out pretty much what I need to do and I'll see if I get to it this week or not.

As for MapTool itself, it continues to work brilliantly other than my code errors. We are averaging four to five combats, some of them quite large, each session. At high level D&D this would not have been possible without MapTool's automations. This rate of play will also cut down on the total number of sessions needed to complete the campaign. We took almost forty session to get halfway through but now are averaging three sessions to the adventures. We are two thirds of the way through the Paragon path so, if we continue at our current rate we will only need twenty-two more sessions to finish.

MapTool rocks!

Tom

tomlib
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Posts: 195
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:48 am

Jan 15, 2011 - Session

Post by tomlib »

Another Saturday, another session of the Girl in Glass!

My revamped attack macro worked perfectly although I also rearranged all the buttons and this slowed us down a little as people got used to the new layout. There were surprisingly few problems considering that I changed virtually every button. I think the new layout is going to speed play even further as if we need that. We're just ripping along. Three more combats and two skill challenges and the group is all but finished with the 10th Adventure.

The group managed to convince the members of the Lizard Folk council that support of the deathcult Black Ibis clan is perhaps not the best strategy although they failed to dissuade most of the creatures from their plans of attack on Tanelorn where they hope to liberate the Staff of Sakatha.

War is coming to Tanelorn quickly now as the Lizard Folk, Gnolls, and Rock Beasts seem poised to launch an invasion from three sides. If the Orcs of the Five Nations do not join in the defense of Tanelorn then all might be lost.

Next week the group will finish up with the Rise of Sakatha adventure and move on to Adventure 11: Rousing the Nations!

The Paragon tier is moving towards a conclusion and the fate of Tanelorn hangs in the balance.

Tom

tomlib
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Posts: 195
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:48 am

Jan 22, 2011 Session

Post by tomlib »

Another Saturday means another Session of the Girl in Glass Campaign.

We polished off the 10th Adventure and started on the 11th - Rousing the Nations. The group killed Hestwing and his allies on the way back to Tanelorn and made their report about the possibility that both the Lizrd Folk of Drak'val and the Rock Lord might join the Gnolls of Grelm in a tri-pronged attack. This led to some serious debate among the powers that be as to the proper defensive strategy.

The group was sent as an unofficial delegation to the Five Nations to try and get the tribes to hold a Council and vote to unite as the One Nation under the First General. This is notoriously difficult as the five tribes have to vote unanamously and it hasn't happened in three generations.

MapTool was flawless as my new macro setup seems to be clearly enough laid out that the players can find their appropriate buttons quickly. We did two large combats and one very complex combat along with a lot role-playing. We are still using v70 which seems very stable. I may jump up to the latest version when we finish the Paragon Tier.

MapTool rocks!

Tom

tomlib
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Posts: 195
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:48 am

Jan 29, 2011 Session

Post by tomlib »

Another Saturday means another Session of The Girl in Glass!

MapTool is simply rocking away. My new arrangement of macros seems to have helped and people are finding their buttons fairly quickly despite the fact that at 17th Level the number of Powers and Feats is fairly large.

We only did two combats and a skill challenge but we are in a heavy role-playing section of the campaign as the group tries to convince the leaders of each of the Five Nations to vote unanimously to unite against the theat of the Gnolls, Rock Beasts, and Lizard Folk.

We take next week off but then resume in two weeks. The climactic module of the Paragon Tier, "For the Gray" fast approaches as the group scrambles to prevent the destruction of Tanelorn.

MapTool rocks!

Tom

tomlib
Giant
Posts: 195
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:48 am

Feb 12, 2011 Session

Post by tomlib »

We played another session of the Girl in Glass last night.

The group continues their journey across the Five Nations in an attempt to convince the leaders of each tribe to vote for the One Nation which will then come to the aid of Tanelorn against the trimvurate of enemies, the Gnolls of Grelm, the Rock Beasts of the Rock lands, and the Lizard Folk of Drak'val.

The Player Characters met a group of religious fanatics devoted to the idea that the Old Empire will rise, fought a couple of battles, and convinced one of the Five Nations to vote for unification.

MapTool performed perfectly as usual. I had a couple of minor problems with macros but easily fixed.

Tom

tomlib
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Posts: 195
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:48 am

Session 48 - Mar 5, 2011

Post by tomlib »

After a little hiatus because I was sick and then roped into a work function we are back at it. Click the links to find the latest session of the Girl in Glass campaign complete with screenshots of battles as they are happening! Wohooo!

The group managed to convince the Orcs of Oggos'da not only to vote Yes in Council but actually summon the Five Nations together in the hope they will unite and come to the aid of Tanelorn in its time of need. After this bit of good news they headed into what they thought were the peaceful farm lands of Delm'ga only to find religious uproar.

Now they must somehow convince the supposedly placid farmers to vote yes in Council so that the One Nation can be organized in time to send troops to aid the Gray Lord. After that the only hurdle that remains is to speak with the leaders of the Far'da Tribe about who should be First General. This seems like it might be a sticking point.

Meanwhile back in Tanelorn the invasions have alread begun although the group doesn't know it.

MapTool rocks!

Tom

P.S. Oh yeah, I jumped up to v3.84 this week and green changed its color! Hey now. All my Daily powers were not so easy to read as the new green is pretty dark compared to the old. I fixed it by modifying the Delete Macro macro created by Rumble (I think) to change the color to lime. Was there any reason for the color change? Also, loops seem to go much faster in .84 compared to .70 which is quite nice.

tomlib
Giant
Posts: 195
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:48 am

March 19, 2011 - Session

Post by tomlib »

We missed last week because several people ended up unexpectedly being away but we're back at it this week and had a rip-roaring Session of the Campaign.

The group finished off their work in the Five Nations getting each of the orc kingdoms to agree to call the council although there remains concern that they will not be able to attain a majority vote for First General.

Along the way they discovered that the Lizard Folk of Drak'val are bolstered by human warriors of Stav'rol and the Gnolls of Grelm are similiary supported by Dwarves claiming a heritage of the legendary citadel Craggen Steep. Both pieces of news bode ill for Tanelorn in the coming war.

The group is now in the final adventure of the Paragon Tier, For the Gray! and fast heading towards an exciting denuement.

As far as MapTool it was a strange session. We are now using v84 although the module was originally created in v70 and there was some odd behavior. One player's ceiling and floor math macros weren't working and we kept getting decimals while everyone elses was fine. Several players reported slow MapTool responses and we restarted the server which helped. Then there was some quite inexplicable behavior with macro button colors. My Daily and Encounter power buttons turn white when used. They were not turning white but when I went to manually do it showed as white! One of them even turned lime for some reason!

None of this effected the game overly but it was quite strange.

Happy Gaming!

Tom

tomlib
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Posts: 195
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:48 am

Mar 26, 2011 Session

Post by tomlib »

We had a huge Session of the Campaign last night. For some reason everyone was at their computer and ready to go early so we got quite a few battles and Skill Challenges done.

The Paragon Tier is all but complete as the group races back to Tanelorn City with Jon Gray with three thousand Gray Knights tries to stop fifty thousand Gnolls from sacking the place . The task seems all but impossible and the odds are against them. We should finish up the Paragon Tier next week with another good session.

MapTool repeated some of the same strange problems from last week with Power buttons not changing color appropriately. The problems occured after the host switched from one campaign to another and perhaps that is related to the issue although it is hard to say. Other than that MapTool performed ably.

I've been working on my Talislanta Framework and I've really made tremendous strides in how it is organized. My attack macros are now almost fully on the Library Map pulling information from Properties which makes updating a million times easier. I wouldn't mind updating my 4th Edition Framework along these lines but it would be a lot of work and I'm not sure worth the effort. We are two thirds of the way through the campaign and it does work.

MapTool rocks!

Tom

tomlib
Giant
Posts: 195
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:48 am

The Girl in Glass - April 2, 2011 Session

Post by tomlib »

Another Saturday means another Session of the Campaign.

We finished the Paragon Tier with a huge session that involved a monster fight against a Solo. Tanelorn was saved at the last moment through a series of heroic events and all seems well in the world. The young orc champion Retribul Blackrose was killed, there are rumors that the Gray Lord broke his vow of neutrality to save his son, and meanwhile the group's arch-enemy has suddenly emerged as the leader of the armies that saved Tanelorn. I'm sure nothing bad will come of all that.

MapTool continues to have little problems but nothing serious. Buttons refuse to change color immediately but after a short lag usually turn. The only real problem is that each member of the party has so many Powers, Feats, and other buttons that finding what they want to do is getting slightly cumbersome. But, that is an issue of streamlining my macros for certain things. We are two thirds done with the campaign so I'm not keen on spending a lot of time rewriting macros that basically work.

The Epic Tier awaits!

Tom

tomlib
Giant
Posts: 195
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:48 am

Apr 16, 2011 - Session

Post by tomlib »

We actually played a Session of the Campaign last week as well but I didn't get the recap up until late in the week. So we've had two sessions since I last posted.

Things continue along quite well with MapTool and only minor connection speed issues mar the experience.

The group is now into the Epic Tier as the quest for the Girl in Glass begins in earnest. As the survivors of the siege on Tanelorn offered their thanks in a funeral to those who gave their lives at the city walls the strange Apparition appeared for the third time and proclaimed that whomever rescued her would recieve a great reward. Almost everyone interprets this as a promise of Imperial Rule. This announcement quickly rippled through the region, and far beyond, as almost every able bodied male in area immediately began to plan for a rescue.

The group went north with a goblin guide in an effort to find out more about the girl.

MapTool rocks!

Tom

tomlib
Giant
Posts: 195
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:48 am

April 23, 2011 - Session

Post by tomlib »

Another Saturday means another Session of the Campaign.

It was fairly uneventful this week as the group continued to try and find a connection between the revived Church of Demogorgon and the Girl in Glass. It seems for the moment that there is no connection at all and that the two events might be coincidentally happening at the same moment.

MapTool continues to perform excellently and with the group now being at Epic Level I can't even imagine how long combats would take with pen and paper. We did a combat last night in about twenty-five minutes. It wasn't a huge battle but it would have taken at least twice that without MapTool. My other 4th Edition game we were 15th level and battles were averaging about two hours.

Also, shameless plug, I have self-published a Sword and Sorcery eNovel for the Kindle and Nook titled The Staff of Naught. Please visit Amazon or Barnes & Noble and purchase it if you like that sort of thing. For those of you without an eReader both the Nook and Kindle have PC and Tablet applications free for download.

MapTool rocks!

Tom

tomlib
Giant
Posts: 195
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:48 am

April 30, 2011 - Session

Post by tomlib »

Another Saturday must mean another Session of the Girl in Glass Campaign.

The group could not find a connection between the Girl in Glass and the emergence of Demogorgon as a new power in Gnoll politics and decided to head back to Tanelorn for further adventure. When they got back they found hundreds of young men in town and more arriving every day with the sole purpose of finding the girl and marrying her. Many of these newcomers seem to know the group is involved in the search and that doesn't bode well.

They are just shy of level 22 now with five full adventures in the campaign to complete. MapTool is pretty routine these days with steady gaming goodness and nothing in the way of strange events.

MapTool rocks!

Tom

tomlib
Giant
Posts: 195
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:48 am

May 7, 2011 - Session

Post by tomlib »

Sunday morning means another Session in the Girl in Glass campaign.

We had a couple of late events so we didn't get started until about an hour after normal time. We only managed to complete two fairly difficult combats and a good hunk of role-playing. Everything works as advertised with MapTool and no strange behavior.

The group is now into the Epic level plot line and the search for the Girl in Glass has become red hot. There are a number of parties interested in the girl and events are now on track for the conclusion of the campaign. The PCs are now level 22 and only five adventures remain.

I hope you enjoy the sessions.

Tom

tomlib
Giant
Posts: 195
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:48 am

Mar 14, 2011 - Session

Post by tomlib »

Our string of consecutive weeks continued with another Session of the Campaign.

It was mostly fighting this week as the group headed south in pursuit of Jerichi. They learned that there is a large bounty on the head of the Sea King's son and their job to protect him might be far more difficult than they imagined.

We did three fairly large combats. Our server had a strange little hiccup at one point. One player tried to connect and failed and then was locked out. We had to reboot the system and then everyone jumped on fine. Other than that things went smoothly.

MapTool rocks,

Tom

tomlib
Giant
Posts: 195
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:48 am

May 21, 2011 - Session

Post by tomlib »

Another Saturday and another Session of the Girl in Glass.

MapTool was flawless. We played two battles because there was a fairly healthy dose of role-playing and both battles were moderately complex. One battle was shipboard and the main cabin blocked off the view of the PCs in the bow from those in the stern. Thus, they could only hear (and read chat) about what was going on. It made for excellent atmosphere and everyone enjoyed it.

The campaign proceeds apace as the group follows Jerichi into the heretofore unseen Dragonborn lands. There is some bickering about what course of action to take as the final conflict over the Girl in Glass clearly approaches. At our current pace we should complete the campaign in perhaps twenty more sessions.

MapTool still rocks,

Tom

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