@KorvinStarmast @goodguy5 @Ben Any preferences for how much combat, exploration, puzzling, and NPC interaction you want to see?

Assume that we'll have lots of time for player-player interaction shenanigans

Not really. I just play the game I'm placed in :)

@MikeQ I am happy with either, since the character I've put together can deal with both. (Monk(shadow) / trickery cleric) ... and I am happy for plenty of player to player interaction

My only caution is that "puzzles" take a lot of time, typically, unless someone is on the same wave length as you are as DM, so I'd be careful about the amount of that since we have a limited time frame per your gane description.

@MikeQ Will we be doing this in the back room, via chat, over discord (voice only?) or in roll20 with you making a game as DM?

I'd prefer the roll20 + Discord combo, but I would be fine with whatever format works for the others.

@MikeQ OK, d20 + discord is a good combo. Have you created the game shell yet? I was out of town for a few days to I played around with making the character, I'll be happy to fill in a char sheet.

No. I should do that soon. I've been swamped with day work and grad school work.

Back story: five sentences or more, five sentences or less? What's your preference?

@MikeQ Understand, RL can be such a cramp on gaming. :)

Generally 2-4 sentences is sufficient for backstory. Anything more than... let's say... 8 sentences is probably too much.

@MikeQ OK, thanks, I'll tailor that to your model. You want it ahead of time, or is that something we use to introduce our chars to each other when we meet?

Either's fine. You could tell me in advance or surprise me at the game start. I trust yall not to make antagonistic characters.

@MikeQ I'll send you an email. the "5 sentences or less" will force me to do a better job of editing, brevity is the source of wit. Trickster God: does it have a name, or shall I just call it The Trickster? If we meet in a city, what is it called/ If you have not gotten that far, no worries, I can back fill when you get the time to do such things

Call the deity whatever you want. Could be Trickster, Tymora, Loki, Reynard, Crow, Bob, etc.

Haven't picked a city yet. Maybe Waterdeep? Baldur's Gate? Some unmarked town that we make up on the spot? I don't really know the in-lore cities very well.

@MikeQ Reynard it is, and I'll wait for city. For back story I'll just call it "The City" (which is what a lot of people from SF call SF FWIW)

Heh, the french Reynard is a nice fit, I had already chose the name Jacques for the character ...

@nitsua60 We're doing ToA later right?

@MikeQ I'm good for it.

D&D5e. Normal shield are made of metal or wood?

@EnderLook "Made from wood or metal" according to ch5 of PHB. So absent anything else, I'd suppose you can choose.

Ok, thanks

(Some character art--fighter, I believe--features completely-wood; other--paladin, maybe--has metallic.)

Goblins and Hobgoblins? Does them has an affinity towards wood or metal, or any?

I would assume goblins-->wood and hobgoblins-->metal, given the stereotypes of goblins being "uncivilized" and hobgoblins being more organized and martial.

But settings vary widely.

Ok, thanks

How bad is this restriction to D&D5e? "You can't use Skill Checks unless you are proficient on them". My DM is using that. I find strange that I can't check for traps (Perception), or check corpses (Investigation). He said that because he doesn't like that everybody always does a check for everything, using that, only proficient characters can. Un-proficient people can only help, giving advantage.

@EnderLook How bad is it? Not really. And it's for a reason that seems legit. The bad thing, IMO, is that they're implementing this sort of house-rule without prior discussion/buy-in with players. (I'm assuming, from your question.)

@nitsua60 That is true. He never say which ones are his house-rules, until we try to do something that he don't want

I mean, not wanting the table to crawl to a halt every time a room is opened is a fine goal. I don't think that's the best way to get there, personally, but it's not crazy.

Ok

It's just too bad if the party didn't know ahead of time, so as to be able to plan out proficiencies.

(What happens when bard and rogue get their reliable talent and jack of all trades?)

@nitsua60 I was thinking in that, there are a lot of proficiencies that we don't have

@nitsua60 No idea

@EnderLook Or ask him if you-all can coordinate and re-assign, if you didn't know ahead of time.

@nitsua60 You are right, I'll have to ask that, but at the moment he has already gone to bed, better tomorrow.

Ah, one more thing. We are a Forge Cleric (Tank and damage able to heal), Mage Bladesigner (Damage Spellcaster), Warlock (damage?), Rogue (Stealth) and Bard (Support, Healing). We also have a Paladin (Tank/Healer) but he hasn't joined in both sessions, so we are thinking in kick him. Now we have the following question: Do we need to invite another person?

I always think that numbers matter, but one of the players says I can handle the tanking, and so we don't need to split the XP, Coins and Items in 6, jut 5, and the action-economy moves faster. Should we invite or not another person if he doesn't join in the next session?