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ROUND 2

Elbbsas pulled back her sleeves and rubbed her hands quickly together. A static shock began to envelope her hands and crackle. She weaved her hands together, harnessing the electricity, then threw it at Mathyland. The Lightning Bolt made a loud crack, struck the Ranger, dealing 12 damage, then branched out, but reached no other combatant.

Moonstomp got on his hands and knees and began to grunt and groan. His body lurched and grew until he looked almost like a bear. Now in his Beast Form, he growled, then set his sights on Lord Spud. He swiftly charged and swiped at the Mystic with his claws, dealing 12 damage.

Wolfgang, empowered by his Prayer but daunted by Fear, attacked Lord Spud with his sword, dealing 11 damage.

Tau, still in his Beast Form, quickly followed his teammate and also attacked Lord Spud, making a large scratch across the Mystic's chest, which dealt 11 damage.

With three more combatants not acting this round, more drunk audience members started throwing their coconut drinks and glass bottles into the Arena. Lord Spud, Mathyland, and Jenora took 2, 5, and 1 damage, respectively.

Current Player Stats

                                             Health    Stance    Cooldowns       Effects
Mathyland                                 23       off
Moonstomp III                           36       off        R5-Beast        Beast Form
Elbbsas                                     36       off        R4-A1,R5-A2   Dodge(1)
Lord Spud                                   4       off        R4-Ability 1
Jenora Ellantor Magicbane           39       def        R4-Fear
Shaman Tau                               40       off        R4-Beast      Beast Form
Wolfgang von Strucker                40       off        R4-Pray       Pray(1)/Fear(1)

Cooldowns: R# means you will be able to use that ability again on that round. For example, "R4-Fear" means you can use Fear again in Round 4.
Effects: (#) means you will have that effect for that many turns. For example, "Dodge(2)" means you will have the Dodge ability affect you until it is your turn in two rounds.

The Combat Order for Round 3 will be:
@Wintermoot
@Mathyland
@taulover
@xXTheHydraXx
@Crushita
@Elbbsas
@Aethelia

Everyone please send me your actions by 5pm ET on Thursday, August 24. If I get all of your actions before then, though, I may end the round early to speed up the game.

ROUND 3

Moonstomp, in his Beast Form, rushed towards Elbbsas and tried to take a huge bite out of her, but she deftly Dodged out of the way at the last second. The Druid turned around in anger, but then panic set in his eyes. He slowly began to shrink until he was back in his Human Form on his hands and knees. He shook his head and jumped back up, sword in hand.

Mathyland, seeing the nearly dead Lord Spud, jogged over to him and sliced the Mystic's chest without breaking stride. Lord Spud promptly fell over dead.

Tau, also in his Beast Form, decided to attack Elbbsas. He ran over and lunged at her with his claws, but again she dove out of the way, Dodging the attack.

Wolfgang, irked by the fact Elbbsas had dodged two attacks in one round, got down on one knee and held his sword out in front of him. He quietly prayed to his gods to Smite the Mystic. Suddenly, his blade burst into flames, but the Paladin didn't flinch. He stood, still with the benefits of his Prayer and detriments of his Fear, and swung his flaming sword at Elbbsas. She tried to dodge but got nicked by the tip of the blade, dealing just 2 damage.

Elbbsas, glad she had taken so little damage after so many attacks, switched to a defensive stance. She then continued her attack on Mathyland. Her defensive stance, however, caused her to not thrust her sword as hard as she could, so she dealt only 1 damage.

Jenora again did not perform an action. Some not-so-drunk audience members joined some of the drunk ones and booed and yelled, "FIGHT, BARD! FIGHT!" They threw more junk at her, dealing 4 damage.

"Settle down, everyone! Heheheh," the Host shouted out with a nervous laughter. "Our Bard is probably just in shock for having witnessed her only teammate's death -- our first death of the game! She WILL fight, and we hope to see her take revenge. Now, back to the game!"

Current Player Stats

                                             Health    Stance    Cooldowns       Effects
Mathyland                                 22       off
Moonstomp III                           36       off        R5-Beast
Elbbsas                                     34       def        R5-Ability 2
Lord Spud                                   0
Jenora Ellantor Magicbane           35       def
Shaman Tau                               40       off                          Beast Form
Wolfgang von Strucker                40       off         R6-Smite

Cooldowns: R# means you will be able to use that ability again on that round. For example, "R4-Fear" means you can use Fear again in Round 4.
Effects: (#) means you will have that effect for that many turns. For example, "Dodge(2)" means you will have the Dodge ability affect you until it is your turn in two rounds.

The Combat Order for Round 4 will be:
@Mathyland
@Aethelia
@Wintermoot
@Elbbsas
@xXTheHydraXx
@taulover

Everyone please send me your actions by 5pm ET on Friday, August 25. If I get all of your actions before then, though, I may end the round early to speed up the game.

Are my messages not getting sent? I had actions for the last two turns, I can see them in the IM message topic thing between us.

Are my messages not getting sent? I had actions for the last two turns, I can see them in the IM message topic thing between us.

Hmm I haven't been getting anything. Try sending a new PM thread.

Are my messages not getting sent? I had actions for the last two turns, I can see them in the IM message topic thing between us.

Hmm I haven't been getting anything. Try sending a new PM thread.

What are you planning to do with these orders in the past rounds?

Huh... I just learned something about the forum software being used.
If you are in the inbox, and you see what appears to be a thread for you and one other person, the topmost "reply" button does not make the message visible to both of you, it makes it visible to you + whoever sent the topmost message. Despite what it looks like, the entire message thread isn't visible to both people even though it presents it as if that is the case. So if someone sends you a message that says "This is where you'll send me your actions when the game starts." and you reply 3 times for 3 turns, the first one is sent to them, and the next two ARE SENT TO YOURSELF. AS IF THERE'S ANY REASON THAT I WOULD CHOOSE TO DO THAT. Very frustrating. I blame the forum software for presenting it confusingly. Not even a confirmation box saying "Are you sure you want to send this message to yourself?". Why would they think that there's a situation where I would want to do that, if I want to leave a note for myself only, I'll open up Notepad for that like a normal person.

Are my messages not getting sent? I had actions for the last two turns, I can see them in the IM message topic thing between us.

Hmm I haven't been getting anything. Try sending a new PM thread.

What are you planning to do with these orders in the past rounds?

I'll put here what I sent to Aethelia:
If you send me a screenshot of your actions for rounds 2 and 3, I'll add them to the previous rounds -- unless it's like Confuse where it would affect other people's actions that already happened. If it's an attack, I'll just remove HP from whomever you hit, but if you used Confuse, then I'll pretend you just didn't cast it. But either way, I'd credit you back the HP removed from inactivity.

Huh... I just learned something about the forum software being used.
If you are in the inbox, and you see what appears to be a thread for you and one other person, the topmost "reply" button does not make the message visible to both of you, it makes it visible to you + whoever sent the topmost message. Despite what it looks like, the entire message thread isn't visible to both people even though it presents it as if that is the case. So if someone sends you a message that says "This is where you'll send me your actions when the game starts." and you reply 3 times for 3 turns, the first one is sent to them, and the next two ARE SENT TO YOURSELF. AS IF THERE'S ANY REASON THAT I WOULD CHOOSE TO DO THAT. Very frustrating. I blame the forum software for presenting it confusingly. Not even a confirmation box saying "Are you sure you want to send this message to yourself?". Why would they think that there's a situation where I would want to do that, if I want to leave a note for myself only, I'll open up Notepad for that like a normal person.

Yeah, that's a very easy mistake to make, especially if you've never encountered it before. Happens a lot in group PMs, so it's definitely not just you.

A tip: always use the "Reply All" button at the bottom of the page when replying to PMs on this site.

ROUND 4

Mathyland, having been attacked by Elbbsas the past two turns, pulled out his bow and trained his sights on her. He had watched her movements then made a Precise Shot, aiming where should be rather than were she currently was. The arrow flew and met its target in the Mystic's shoulder, dealing 7 damage.

Jenora looked at the Octarine team, whose members were still smug and healthy. She switched to an offensive stance, targeted Shaman Tau, and thrust her sword at him, dealing 14 damage.

Moonstomp watched this attack then made a loud whistle using two of his fingers. A large brown wolf jumped over the side of the Arena's boundary wall and ran up to the side of the Cyan Druid, who patted his Wolf Companion's back and quietly spoke something to it. The wolf looked at Tau and growled. It then sprinted straight at the Octarine Druid and jumped up and bit his arm, dealing 11 damage. Then, just as quickly as the wolf had appeared, it disappeared over the side wall out of the Arena.

Elbbsas, still in a defensive stance, again attacked Mathyland. Her caution prevented her from overextending, though, so she ended up dealing only 5 damage.

Wolfgang again kneeled and Prayed to his gods for protection and strength. He stood back up renewed and ready in a defensive stance.

Shaman Tau, still in Beast Form, attacked Elbbsas. She ducked just under the slash of his claws, but they still came down on her back, dealing 10 damage. The Druid then let out a howl that turned into a whimper as he began to turn back into his Human Form.

Current Player Stats

                                             Health    Stance    Cooldowns       Effects
Mathyland                                 17       off       R7-PreciseShot
Moonstomp III                           36       off       R7-CallWolf
Elbbsas                                     17       def
Lord Spud                                   0
Jenora Ellantor Magicbane           35       off
Shaman Tau                               15       off
Wolfgang von Strucker                40       def     R6-Smite,R7-Pray    Pray

Cooldowns: R# means you will be able to use that ability again on that round. For example, "R4-Fear" means you can use Fear again in Round 4.
Effects: (#) means you will have that effect for that many turns. For example, "Dodge(2)" means you will have the Dodge ability affect you until it is your turn in two rounds.

The Combat Order for Round 5 will be:
@Aethelia
@Wintermoot
@Elbbsas
@Mathyland
@xXTheHydraXx
@taulover

Everyone please send me your actions by 5pm ET on Saturday, August 26. If I get all of your actions before then, though, I may end the round early to speed up the game.

Was the attack from Aethelia from this turn only, or does it add up damage from earlier rounds?

Was the attack from Aethelia from this turn only, or does it add up damage from earlier rounds?

From this turn only. I'll say separately the results from her previous turns when she sends me the screenshot.

I messaged this to Gerrick earlier, but I think I'll just explain it here...

I could actually understand if someone suspected I was trying to cheat by doing that. Thinking about it, I realize that since the subject is IM's, I can't really prove to you that I didn't already know about this forum quirk. I really didn't know, but I can't prove it so you only have my word. Screenshots can be faked anyway, I could tell you that I said I wanted to attack Mathyland at the time since the Ranger class being the most Offence based present seemed like the greatest threat at the time, but I could use MSPaint to rewrite that easily. To be really sure we'd have to ask Wintermoot if forum admin powers include spying on inboxes since I can't change the server database the same as a screenshot, and that's really not something to ask about in this situation.
But even if I could prove that there was no lying involved, others may have acted differently if my actions went through, based on my stance and the HP of whoever I attacked or used Confuse on. If someone thought "I'd have done something different/be winning now if it weren't for Aethelia cheating", I'd have to admit that it wouldn't be unjustified.

Nice of you to offer to take back the idle turns, but thinking of the consequences, it's not worth it. Even if it's not really cheating if you offer it as an option first, I would find it understandable for others to see it that way if I did it. Not cheating or being seen as a cheater is far more important than winning.
If I really wanted to win anyway, probably wouldn't have picked Bard, they have low 1 on 1 potential so I expected I wouldn't win even if I last to the end, and I'm fine with that, I don't need to win and certainly don't need to cheat with even a small unfair advantage, I just picked it because it seemed fun and I love DnD Bards.

I am still frustrated that the forum IM's work that way, I don't know how many agree with this or understand what I meant with my previous post, but I still think it's ridiculous that the reply button in that case would cause me to reply to myself and result in a screen that looks like a conversation that both me and the other person can see in entirety. But the frustration isn't about it making me lose this, I'm fine with losing a forum game, really, I'm more frustrated because as a former Quality Assurance person I wouldn't have let such poor design pass. I don't need to win this arena game. I do need to fix this forum issue. It's frustrating that I can't. I want to fix it. Either changing how it works, how the layout looks so it's more clear who is getting the message, or just an alert box to pop up if someone is replying to themselves during an IM with another person.

Wouldn't hold others to this expectation, but for myself, I feel like I should explain my actions when relevant, in this case why I'd like to just move on and not undo the apparent idleness on turn 2 and 3. Can explain why not cheating is an important value to me too, but that's a long and very boring story for another time.

As an additional reason for this, in general for this whole forum category, I don't want to win the festival anyway. I'm very far from rich myself, but I'm not in poverty either, so I can afford my own Steam games if needed. If anyone should win Steam games here, it should be someone less wealthy than me, or at least someone who needs Steam games more. And if I somehow accidentally won, I'd either have to decline taking anything, or offer something in return to make it fair.

Let's just continue on as if I didn't login those two days? More of a warning I guess so that nobody else does that by accident, make sure you either use the right Reply button, or use Reply All as suggested as that won't fail.

I messaged this to Gerrick earlier, but I think I'll just explain it here...

I could actually understand if someone suspected I was trying to cheat by doing that. Thinking about it, I realize that since the subject is IM's, I can't really prove to you that I didn't already know about this forum quirk. I really didn't know, but I can't prove it so you only have my word. Screenshots can be faked anyway, I could tell you that I said I wanted to attack Mathyland at the time since the Ranger class being the most Offence based present seemed like the greatest threat at the time, but I could use MSPaint to rewrite that easily. To be really sure we'd have to ask Wintermoot if forum admin powers include spying on inboxes since I can't change the server database the same as a screenshot, and that's really not something to ask about in this situation.
But even if I could prove that there was no lying involved, others may have acted differently if my actions went through, based on my stance and the HP of whoever I attacked or used Confuse on. If someone thought "I'd have done something different/be winning now if it weren't for Aethelia cheating", I'd have to admit that it wouldn't be unjustified.

Nice of you to offer to take back the idle turns, but thinking of the consequences, it's not worth it. Even if it's not really cheating if you offer it as an option first, I would find it understandable for others to see it that way if I did it. Not cheating or being seen as a cheater is far more important than winning.
If I really wanted to win anyway, probably wouldn't have picked Bard, they have low 1 on 1 potential so I expected I wouldn't win even if I last to the end, and I'm fine with that, I don't need to win and certainly don't need to cheat with even a small unfair advantage, I just picked it because it seemed fun and I love DnD Bards.

I am still frustrated that the forum IM's work that way, I don't know how many agree with this or understand what I meant with my previous post, but I still think it's ridiculous that the reply button in that case would cause me to reply to myself and result in a screen that looks like a conversation that both me and the other person can see in entirety. But the frustration isn't about it making me lose this, I'm fine with losing a forum game, really, I'm more frustrated because as a former Quality Assurance person I wouldn't have let such poor design pass. I don't need to win this arena game. I do need to fix this forum issue. It's frustrating that I can't. I want to fix it. Either changing how it works, how the layout looks so it's more clear who is getting the message, or just an alert box to pop up if someone is replying to themselves during an IM with another person.

Wouldn't hold others to this expectation, but for myself, I feel like I should explain my actions when relevant, in this case why I'd like to just move on and not undo the apparent idleness on turn 2 and 3. Can explain why not cheating is an important value to me too, but that's a long and very boring story for another time.

As an additional reason for this, in general for this whole forum category, I don't want to win the festival anyway. I'm very far from rich myself, but I'm not in poverty either, so I can afford my own Steam games if needed. If anyone should win Steam games here, it should be someone less wealthy than me, or at least someone who needs Steam games more. And if I somehow accidentally won, I'd either have to decline taking anything, or offer something in return to make it fair.

Let's just continue on as if I didn't login those two days? More of a warning I guess so that nobody else does that by accident, make sure you either use the right Reply button, or use Reply All as suggested as that won't fail.

You could mention the PM issue in this thread. That thread is typically used to report issues to Wintermoot.

That's a pretty honorable thing to do, Aethelia. I hope nobody would take this game so seriously that they'd ever be suspicious and hold something like that against you, though. For all anyone knows, I'm not using a random number generator and instead giving numbers to influence the game. I mean, I'm not doing that, but I hope there's enough trust among everyone here that they don't even suspect someone of cheating. But good on you for taking a blow to prevent anyone from being in that situation.

That issue has been occasionally mentioned before, and I've ran into it myself...unfortunately, I've never had a chance to get into the PM system and work with it before, so it's pretty much as it was when the forum was new out of the (virtual box).

If it were up to me and I had the time, the entire PM area would be overhauled.