And so it begins.
Three days ago each student would have received an email informing them of which section they would be attending for the winter combat trial course. As Inanna previously outlined there are two sections, a morning section and an afternoon section.
The PC’s have been assigned to the evening session of the course starting today. This section takes place Monday-Thursday 3pm-8pm.
The course takes place in the training center in one of the simulation rooms. The first twenty minutes or so of the course will be going over the course objectives (Find an appropriate weapon for your skill set, abilities, body type, strength and/or dexterity, learning how to hold aforementioned weapon, training with the weapon to make the character proficient and focused with the weapon, beginning to branch out into other weapons that also suit the character, and some minimal hand to hand combat. Also covered in this course will be some basic team combat tactics and maneuvers.) After the first 2hrs of 15mins of the course there is a 30min break, then the last 2hrs and 15mins of the course will continue without break. This will be a vigorous physical course so come well rested.
Inanna will also outline the requirements that have been set for this course by the university. It is required that the students attend this course for a total of 40hrs in the period of the next 2.5 weeks. Starting this Wednesday and Thursday provides the students with New Years day and the day after off (Course runs Weds & Thurs, then they have Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon & Tues off, class starting again on Weds & Thurs the following week). However if students would like a longer period off to celebrate New Years Inanna is open to holding two classes on alternative days. If students want to have class this week Weds-Sat and then have the complete next week off (Sunday Dec 31st- Sun Jan 7th) that is a possibility. Or the students can take class Weds-Fri this week, have the full week off, then have class Mon-Fri (in 5 hour blocks still) the week of Jan 7-13 as well.
If players would like to have any of the classes as a thread let me know and it can be arranged. I do plan on having at least one plot point based around the course. I encourage individual characters to seek Inanna out at some point and discuss with her what they think. Inanna will also be speaking with each character individually to suggest what she thinks would best suit them in a combat situation and what their particular set of skills best suits them to use.
Professor Wantanabe and Takahashi Sensei/Professor Takahashi are expected to be attending this course as well.
Please vote for which days your character would want to have off/have class on within the suggested time periods in this post and also if you have any questions or concerns please feel free to ask or leave general comments here.
What the characters are going to gain by the end of this course is proficiency with a small set of weapons along with one weapon in which they 'focused' their training on by the end of the course. Other new tricks maybe be learned over the period of the course, what else is possible that the character could learn will be determined by what each player discusses what they want their character to do and focus on with the head moderator.
Up for debate still is if the group may learn "group maneuvers" which would allow the group as a whole to gain access to "Teamwork Benefits". If there is a consensus on interest in learning group maneuvers, the different maneuvers and the benefits which can be derived from them will be laid out at a later date. Each team maneuver needs two things (1) A team leader to show the rest of the group how to work the maneuver and lead them through it and (2) for the team to meet the minimum requirements of the maneuver so that they can follow along with the instruction. An example of a "Teamwork benefit" is:
Team Shield Maneuver: When your team fights as a group, its members can close ranks to protect a badly injured ally.
Training: Your group learns to react quickly when an ally falls. You drill in pushing aside a wounded team member before he tumbles to the ground and moving him out of harms way.
Task Leader Prerequisite: Shield specialization
Task Member Prerequisite: Shield Proficiency.
Benefit: When a team member's hit points drop to -1 or lower, any teammate adjacent to him/her who carries a shield (or can improvise one) can use an immediate action to push the fallen party member out of harm's way. The injured team member moves 10' out of the way, in the direction pushed/pulled before falling prone.
Tip: This tactic works best if one of the group's second-line characters has a potion or wand ready to heal the fallen character. In this case, even a character who isn't a member of the team can play a valuable role in making the most of this benefit.
Info: An 'immediate action' is an action that can be taking during combat regardless of whose turn it is or where in the initiative order your character is. It will not effect your character's turn when it comes back to their turn in initiative.