So far, so good. Another was a similar failure. So, we should be in good shape for a little while until the AI advances again.

So, I set up a series of questions for prospective new members that, at first blush, seems to confuse the AI bots.

rhialto wrote:

Ghul wrote:

The bots will just crush us with advertising if they got in. They wouldn't affect the PbP. What I mean is if we went to a better option than boardhost, all that would be lost, and I don't want to do that to those involved. But at the same time, boardhost hasn't done anything to improve in years. They don't answer customer support emails, either.

Preface: easy for me to say, since I don't do PbP, but...
All campaigns end, eventually, right? With enough warning, maybe the folks engaged in it here can plan for the transition to a brand new campaign, replete with all the mystery and wonder that entails? 

True, true. I set up another series of question for prospective new members yesterday, and about eight AI bots figured it out. Now I have set up more vague questions that would be harder to answer and would maybe more easily identify an actual person from a bot. 

"Why do you want to join this forum?"
"Tell me about your favorite PC you've played."
"What is the longest campaign you've ever played in?"

We'll see what happens...
 

I have been turning down all registrations lately, because they are all obvious bots. Boardhost, the company that we use for this forum, gives you two options for registration approvals:

1) Allow anyone to register any time.
2) Force the user to answer one to three questions. If they get them right, it is assumed they are human and want to join our little community.

We used #1 at first in the early years. Then came the bots and spammers, so we went to #2. Now, the bots have evolved, armed with AI tech, and they can answer any question I come up with. I have contacted Boardhost to see if they have any new options they are considering to deal with this. Can we defeat Skynet? Seems unlikely...

There are other options out there for forums, but I would hate to lose what we have here. Especially, too, the good people who have been running the PbP here. That would be a shame to lose all that. So...

Any thoughts are welcome! 
 

rhialto wrote:

Osric_of_O wrote:

They would be that, but are they able to attack from prone?  And for all that their AC is penalised, are their attacks not penalised for attacking from prone?
 

RAW: prone is never mentioned with respect to attacking while prone, only defending. It would probably be a helpful clarification to explicitly state that attacking while prone is not allowed under the definition of prone, but it is only implied (by the absence of any mention of attacking while prone, and only mentioning defending while prone). The discussion of surprized being treated as prone on p.266 of the PM strongly implies that prone means no attacks (since surprized parties cannot attack).

A good call. I will try to tighten up the language a bit for future printings. There are very few instances in which I would allow any type of action from a prone defender. In almost all cases, they would be in a poor state, barely able to offer any self-defense. 
 

Yes, this will be my first Origins. Very much looking forward to it!

This might be a good question to ask over at the Discord server, because a lot of those gamers are dabbling with a lot of systems and are familiar with a lot of content.

 https://discord.com/invite/jpbJU7W

Prof.Dogg wrote:

I am ridiculously excited about the Foundry ruleset. I've already started building the framework of a campaign.  Will the artwork be imported from the corebooks when the compendium is done? 

Happy to hear you are excited about the development! Right now the only plan for art importation into the compendium is for monsters. 
 

Interesting, Dave. You might find this interesting, too. You may have this already, but it was basically Gary's thoughts on multi-classing and dual-classing for Castle Zagyg, using C&C rules: 

NOTES ON DUAL-CLASS AND MULTI-CLASSING
It seems reasonable to this author that very able characters be able
to operate in two distinct and not incompatible classes at the same
time. Thus, a fair number of the non-player characters encountered
in this setting have dual class status and it would be unfair not to
present the players with the same options. There are two options
when a player decides his character should have more than one
class. The first option is multi-classing. This allows a character to be
made up of more than one class when initially created. The second
option is dual classing. Dual-classing allows a character to acquire
another class later on in their career.

MULTI-CLASSING

Choosing the Classes
1. Any class can combine with any other class barring
alignment restrictions.
2. Up to three classes can be chosen for humans and two for
demi-humans.
3. The classes chosen must correspond to a prime attribute.
4. The HP/ dice for each class are rolled together and then
averaged, rounding up fractions of .5 or more, dropping any
below that.

Advancing Levels
1. All experience points are divided up equally amongst the
classes chosen for the character. For example, if a fighter/
thief were to receive 250 experience points, 125 is applied
to the fighter class and 125 to the thief class. All fractions
are dropped.
2. Once a character acquires enough experience points to
progress in one class, they do so. For example, a cleric/
wizard has 2,252 experience points in both the wizard and
cleric class (they must always be equal), that character
advances to 2nd level cleric while remaining a 1st level
wizard.
3. When advancing a level, use the Hit Dice type for the
class one advanced in to determine the number hit points
gained. Using the cleric/ wizard

grodog wrote:

I didn’t see the show live Jeff, but will check out the recording!

Allan.

Excellent! Let me know what you think.