I was hoping for at least one other post from someone before we continued, since I only saw one of you acting... XD;
(Maybe I'll rework the idea and restart with a smaller group... I actually had a number of things I wanted to change based on how things went, including making combat more fluid and interesting while retaining the theme of being in WAAAAAAAAY over your heads.)
There may be a few too many changes in the combat system... *Rubs chin* I'm actually running a number of other games as well, and some elements seem to work far better than others in play-by-post games. I do have a lot of ideas for this story, and I want to see it work somehow. XD I'll work on things tonight and see if I can come up with a plan that will work better for everyone.
Based on the general lack of posting, yes, I think I will see about adjusting things and trying to better integrate my ideas into a playable campaign. As such, we can now consider this campaign closed - though I'll leave this up for a bit in case there's any lingering discussion/questions, and I'll try to have a new recruitment thread up as soon as I can figure out a good plan for the campaign.
Incidentally, because I will be changing MAJOR ideas, characters, and themes... does anyone want to know what was actually happening, or would you prefer leaving it a mystery?
I'm not planning to reuse (much of) these ideas, so here you go. XD
Back Plot:
The title of this game, 'Deus Machina' (literally "God Machine"), refers to the plan of your primary foe, who was attempting to channel enough eldritch power to turn himself into a Lovecraftian deity. The plan itself was basically sound, but it failed to take into account one thing - the existence of an external force with enough knowledge to figure out what he was doing and enough power to act on it. As you found out, Grimoires are not mere spellbooks - they have their own identities and ideas about how things should be done, and as the campaign developed, you would have obtained the ability to manifest an altered body for a short time each day (following standard character creation rules). This was intended to help you deal with combat situation while still providing a limit on how "safe" you were each day and generally enhancing the themes of the campaign... but it's the same power that the greatest grimoire - the Necronomicon - was using to infiltrate your enemy's organization and subvert it from within. Allison Hazel was one of the forms the Necronomicon took, and never existed in the first place - and while Professor Derleth did die in the opening act, she was replaced by an avatar as part of the Necronomicon pretending nothing had happened. The Necronomicon's ultimate mission is the suppression of all occult powers that cross a certain line, threatening the world itself, and the PCs were being monitored (and raised) by it to see whether you would become an asset to protect the world or a threat that would have to be eliminated. Had you succeeded in defeating your main foe by your own power, the Necronomicon would have admitted the truth to you and asked for your help dealing with a much bigger, much greater threat as the final arc of the campaign - one it actually needed help with, because while the god of all grimoires is powerful, it's certainly not omnipotent...
I'm not sure how well it would have worked out on the table, but that's the general idea I had in mind. XD;
Incidentally, "Allison Hazel" was a reference to "Abdul Alhazred", the writer of the Necronomicon. Bit of a hint for anyone that wanted to try and figure things out on their own.
On the bright side, my restructured idea is coming along nicely. ^^ Very different setting, but I'm hoping this will be a little more workable for whoever ends up involved.
Aaaaaaaand the recruitment thread for the new campaign is open. ^^ I'll probably mark this campaign as no longer active once recruitment there is done.
I figured it might work better to do something else. XD The Regular Joe version miiiiight be workable on a tabletop, but PbP doesn't seem like it's quite as good a place to go for that idea.
Male Human Strange Paradox who Works the System 1 M 12/12 | S 9/9 | I 16/16 (E1)
I think Denton will take the semester off, then. :o) And since you're looking at a small group, I'll step back and let someone else have a go. It sounds really interesting though, and I'll probably lurk the game.
