DM_Scholar's Kingmaker (Inactive)

Game Master Asmodeus' Advocate

@DM_Scholar Is everything alright? I'm assuming you're just busy, but... it's always good to check. (marauding marauders and all that)

I'm alive! I'll get a post up some time in the next four hours.

Was it something Awn said?

I've actually been meaning to ask the advice of the more experienced Play by Post GMs among you.

Typically (or atypically, lately), I read what it is that people have posted fairly early in the morning, and then I mull things over and decide what happens next while I go about my day. When I sit down at a computer to type things up, mostly I'm just moving the ideas I came up with while lost in thought waiting for something or doing brain-dead drudgery from my mind to the screen as fast as I can type it and beautify it.

Out of the two most common threads of advice I've heard for dealing with writer's block, the most common one - "just sit down and write" - has never really helped me. Sitting down and writing fiction without knowing what it is I want to write always winds up taking a tremendous amount of time for the number of words produced, and it's very seldom of high enough quality that I can honestly say that I'd seek it out to read. The second most common thread - "work on something else instead" - hardly solves our problem, does it?

Do any of you other GMs have this problem? If so, how did you fix it?

The "just sit down and write" advice doesn't work as well in cases where you need to write and submit something /now/. I think the idea behind it is not that if you sit down and write something, you will have written something, but rather that the process of doing down and writing will keep you in the habit of writing and thinking about writing, and when your inspiration returns, you be ready for it, even if you have to throw out most of what you wrote while blocked after the fact.

That's probably not very helpful to your situation, though. In this case, maybe we need to examine what we are collectively trying to achieve, then decide if we want to abbreviate or fast-forward events to get everyone more inspired and engaged.

The issue here, I think, is that our goal was to meet the family of a PC. We did that, but we need a goal from there. Because the scene cuts out most PCs due to toe stepping.

I’d advise for using this to Segway into a new plot point. Such as the elves requesting help with dealing with a threat to them. Such as a marauding giant and his tribe. Or if you are feeling evil, have it be a territorial dispute with Brevoy that has fallen into violence that the elves are afraid they will lose. They are planning on fleeing from Brevonian aggression...but if someone could drive away the settlers....

Basically pick a plot you want to explore and move the tracks towards there.

Or, as Dashiell Hammett advised, have someone kick in a door, holding a gun. Works. Every. Time.

If I were stuck, I'd start writing. Anytging. Then chop, change, edit if I needed. Mulling is good up to a point, but you need to work ftom something. Note that this comes from fiction writing, not GM story driving, but I don't think there is a great difference.

To get a head count: I'm still active.

I think just writing anything is alright advice. Maybe you won't be happy with it, entirely, or feel proud of what you wrote in retrospect, but something is better than nothing. Besides, when you're decent enough at writing (which I believe you are), it's not going to be that bad.

Another thing here is that nobody's going to be reading our campaign like they would a book; it's perfectly fine to have sections with less-that-awe-inspiring storytelling/dialogue/whatever. The plot and character development move forward, and every post is kind of a fresh start. When you feel inspired again you can write good stuff, but since you're not feeling it right now, just stuff, regardless of quality, should suffice for the time being.

I'm with Jen on this one. Its not like your writing will devolve to Guthruc's common. And we remember the overall story, less the indevidual posts. Just keep at it, and you'll be writing like a late 16th century poet in no-time.

Or, as Dashiell Hammett advised, have someone kick in a door, holding a gun. Works. Every. Time.

If I were stuck, I'd start writing. Anytging. Then chop, change, edit if I needed. Mulling is good up to a point, but you need to work ftom something. Note that this comes from fiction writing, not GM story driving, but I don't think there is a great difference.

Actually I think it was Raymond Chandler, not Dashiell Hammett.

DM - where is you? Anyone else still about?

i'm still here

Still here.

Hi

Hi everyone. Sorry for not being around, that's fairly rubbish of me.

Remember when I said, "I don't want to bite off more than I can chew and wind up disappointing the players" or something to that effect? Yeah.

I've learned a lot in the nineteenish months since this game began. And there's a lot that I'd do differently, will do differently when I pick up GMing again. The biggest thing I've taken away, though, is that I don't really have the mental makeup for committing to years-long games as a GM.

It's been a lot of fun playing with all of you, and I hope to play with each of you again. When my schedule opens up enough that I can run games again, I'd be joyed to see you on that recruitment thread. I want to experiment with shorter adventures, modules and homebrew, games that resolve themselves inside of a few months. Experiment with different level ranges and systems, settings and tones. But I can't foresee myself having the time to do that for months at least.

It was an honor to be your GM, you guys have been the best players a GM could ask for. I've been debating writing this up for a while now, because of that. But I figure it's probably for the best.

It was great being in your game from the start, and a weirder wackier crew I haven’t had the fortune to play with. That includes you Jen!

We started in style, and kept the revs up through some tough times, losing a little momentum when Abaos disappeared. Personally, and you guys know this, I struggled at the beginning with Awn being a part of this...unruly mob, but I figured out his place and he grew as a character from that early dissociation.

DM - you kept your hands on the tiller the entire time from my perspective, playing an awesome mix of “Yes, and...,” with a dash of “Now for something completely different” while still staying true to the core of the premise of the AP. Your characters felt well realised, combats were awesome, cinematic and gruesome, and the aftermaths were always something I looked forward too.

Mostly though you kept level pegging with each of our individual zaniness, and never made it farcical. A special skill indeed, and with tough acts to follow - each of our mad band was a true character.

Happy to play with you again, by all means hit me up with a PM if you are dipping into GM - even for a small game, or different system. PF2e drops soon, and a new system will fire up a bunch of new recruitments... See you all around here - Abaos, Guthruc, Ozzy (and crew, Mr Blinky and Mr Winky), Iorskan and Jen. Special mention to Shemeska who disappeared far too early.

A Monstrous Kingmaker.

Thank you for running this. I had a blast! You were a great GM and I’ll keep an eye out for your recruitment threads. And I do commend you for being upfront rather than letting this linger and die.

DM - can you mark this game as Inactive?

Sorry for being a bit late to this; I haven't checked the thread for a while since it went quiet. I really did enjoy playing with you guys, though, short as it may have been for me. It was my first online campaign and it's made me pretty eager for more ;). I'll be open to playing with any of you guys in the future!

Thanks especially to you, @DM_Scholar, for inviting me in and putting in the time and effort to put together this campaign. I totally understand that you don't always have that time or that energy, but it was great while it lasted. I do hope we'll continue our online correspondences.