Search Posts
Sounds truly excellent, thank you! I'll gladly wait for a few weeks for a game to start!
Looking for a PbP game primarily for my Lvl 3 PFS 1e Core character. I've been on a loooong hiatus (5 years or so), so I might be a tad rusty rules-wise. I would prefer lower level play. Open to almost anything, and I haven't played almost anything from season 7 onwards. I have a lot of experience with PbP, so the etiquette is familiar.
Regarding announcements, yes, a hanging splash frame on top of the site informing about the issue at hand would be the best. Especially when you can click X to close it forever. And using only Facebook is ass. Facebook already has algorithms that are astoundingly idiotic, meaning some people never see updates from Paizo even if they are following it. You'd need to back up with at least Twitter. Actually, the latter (Twitter) would be a much better choice for such announcements. I've been coming here so sparsely recently (interest in PbP waning) I haven't been affected by the downtimes nearly at all, but I did see a no-store splash. I can imagine serverspace costing some, but it might free up them from other tedious tasks. Dunno, I've always imagined Paizo to be a workplace where everyone is overworked all the time, because HR doesn't realize they could hire more people instead of burning out who're left there.
I saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens yesterday, and the aftermath of it... I felt really meh. But it's not just that movie, all things in general seem to let down. No surprises, no twists, nothing I couldn't foresee from afar. I'm guessing this is one of the reasons even PFS scenarios have been feeling dull and don't, uh, "cut a dash"? Anyone else feel like the movies, series, scenarios, adventures, all feel ultimately the same and with little difference or excitement. Even the latest PFS Special—I can't even remember the name—had some really predictable elements in addition to the common never-ending battles I begin to abhor.
Ai kato joo, unohdin itsekin tuon kun niin harvoin kukaan perusgauntletilla lyö. No, osui onneksi kuitenkin.
A couple of things: 1) I'm still looking for players for Dragon's Demand. PM me if you are interested. You will get a reserve spot in case someone decides to decline. The game is held offsite, so in case you are Paizo-only, it might be an issue for you. 2) Once I'm done with most of my current PbPs I'm ready to run a game. I prefer running Seasons 0, 1, and 2, because I'm familiar with them. 3) I have played but not ran EotT. I'm guessing it could work well as a "big, 5xp module", but I fear it would eventually feel lackluster. If at all possible, try to play it IRL.
I can't fathom why people would spend so much money on a boon. Says the person who has refused GM boons from events, and still to this day only has two boons laying about, both unused: an obsolete nagaji/wayang/kitsune race boon, and a tian weapon proficiency boon. I intended to burn the former boon when I got it, but never got to it.
Besides a 2.5 week hiatus doesn't mean the players should remain silent. They could try to come up with an improvisational theater type of thing and keep the show going on and on and on and on. I'm configuring that Dragon's Demand on RPoL (the o is lowercase for some reason), and I could give a short report about how it went down, among other things. I don't mind trying it out.
I've been meaning to cut down my entire PbP collection in order to prepare for the Dragon's Demand megamodule. I've already asked for interest for it here, and I intend to repeat my inquiry in case someone changes his/her mind. Furthermore, since the topic of Paizo's messageboards' reliability has come under the question I've started to look for potential alternative that would not, however, compete with Paizo's community and opportunities. I, personally, like to see if another system is better and gradually shift my attention there. For a more grand campaign I feel I need more customizable platforms to work with all the given attachments and whatnot. So, again, if you are interested in playing Dragon's Demand, voice your interest via PM. I intend to try out RPoL as the PbP platform. Word of advice, though: the site does not utilize https, so all traffic is in cleartext. Thus, when creating an account there, use a disposable password. My inner internet security expert cringed when I received a verification mail that contained my inputted password in plain text accompanied with my account name. While this might put off some people (those highly concerned with their security), the site so far has proven to be alright despite the 90s-esque theme, which overall seems to a prevalent phenomenon among the older roleplaying sites. (The site was launched in August 2000, so it's pretty old for a still active site) RPoL does offer aliasing and character names, includes a dice roller, has quick formatting buttons (straight up html codes, actually), and a private scratch pad, multiple threads per game/campaign etc. The layout does feature an irritating thing, though, since under each message's heading there's a squiggly line instead of a neutral, light gray horizontal line like in Paizo's messageboards (the one under my name). Once I've used the site for some time I'll make a collection of improvement suggestions and post them, and seriously hope I'm not disregarded. That happens often and it frustrates me. tl;dr Dragon's Demand on RPoL, mmkay?
I personally don't mind the downtimes all that much, but that's just because I recently bought Rocket League, and the downtime gives me a good excuse to play that game much more... I'm always curious to know why certain things don't work, or why there's a fault. Even when I was working as IT support (the hands-on type) I never settled on solving the problem, but rooting the problem out and preventing on it happening again. Unfortunately many companies' policies prevent them from detailing the issues at hand. I for one would love to hear the technical details of the problem even if they were over my head. This one time I had some very peculiar problems with my home internet connection, seemed like I couldn't upstream anything. It severely prevented me from e.g. playing multiplayer games but allowed me to browse the web and whatnot. After I finally made a call to the ISP's support, I detailed my error and it took maybe two tries... one guy there apparently knew what he/she was doing and noticed my MTU (maximum transmission unit) value was skewed, and set it to 1500. Prior to that incident I had absolutely no idea of MTU's existence. But the point of the story is that I was told what the source of my problem was, though I doubt they would have told me the technical specifics if I was a 80-year-old lady.
If one would prefer to have a proper site for PbPs of all types, one would have to build it oneself.You can always tell the other software developers out there. Many of us suffer from NIHS. I had similar thoughts myself. ;-) Fun fact (I've got a lot of these): I'm not a software developer although I would want to be one. I have the appropriate mindset since I do work on IT, but I've yet to find the correct learning method.
And now for a bit a more serious post. Most of the time Paizo's servers are fine, they just recently hit a streak of instability and have been down some days. Particularly on Sunday Paizo was offline most of the day, forbidding me of PbP activity. While I understand your frustration on the matter, I find the issue very minor, and a bit on the overreaction side. These shortages could be a result of a third party screwing up things. It wouldn't be a first for an ISP to f~#$ things up. Right now, for example, Archives of Nethys is down (and has been for at least a week!) which is my main source of online PF material (I hate PFSRD). I could consider seeking an alternative in case Paizo's messageboards take a turn for the worse at the most unfortunate time. Like their servers blow up and they don't have any backups. Considering how technologically backwards the messageboards are, I wouldn't wonder if there are other things lacking as well (quick formatting buttons, custom avatars, a functioning search utility...) I took a look at both of those sites you linked, and from a technical point of view they are both sucky. I've yet to find a properly built platform suitable for all kinds of PbPs and so far the search has been fruitless. Myth Weavers is nothing but a phpbb bulletin messageboard with a slightly stylished layout; it differs little from other messageboards of the internet. Storycrafter seemed more of a cooperative novel writing project than one suitable for PbPs, and incidentally the layouts on some of those projects were truly attrocious, straight from the darkest pits of 90's geocities. If one would prefer to have a proper site for PbPs of all types, one would have to build it oneself.
I can't wait to get my hands on that scenario and detail all the errors I will undoubtedly find. You can ask FranKc how much I love proof-reading PFS scenarios. :) To this day I find #6-05: Slave Ships of Absalom to be the most error-free (but not completely!) scenario I've laid my hands and eyes upon. #6-08: The Segang Expedition and #4-10 The Feast of Sigils had a bit too many editorial mistakes for my taste, however. I'm such a dick.
I actually took Delzden to Glass River Rescue where at least Silbeg is playing. Day of the Demon will get Rravn. I seriously have no control over what games I've promised to play. I need to keep a calendar or something... And I don't have too many games going on at the same time, never. 1 GM game, 5 player games.
I have to admit my knowledge of classical music is very limited; I've never been that interested in it. I know the most famous composers by name, but if I were to put them on a timeline based on who lived when, whose music is baroque and whose renaissance, I'd be lost. @Damo: Huh, these messageboards do work in an odd way. I've also begun to wonder why there aren't quick buttons for bold, incursive, and such tags. Those are super simple stuff. Then again Paizo boasts with many other technical oddities that continue to baffle me. Similarly I'm wondering why on earth are old Living Greyhawk veterans so drawn to Yahoo groups. That platform was the worst of the worst.
Sorry for ignoring this; I had completely forgotten I had voiced my interest. Stupid forum doesn't show games in which you've dotted only on discussion tab... Kid's sitting on my lap, so I can't really concentrate on selecting the character and all that right now. The instant I have time I'll read everything and post accordingly.
Oh don't get me wrong, it's hard to give critique face to face after a game (especially if the game went sour or was exhausting), and often players resort to making a post on the interwebs about it. I too have been subtle about telling these players how their style of gaming doesn't match mine. In fact, I've rarely said anything about it. I too do it for the courtesy, wary of offending someone. That's the main reason I ask for critique myself. There's actually a method for giving advice; start off with praise, continue to critique, then end your post with compliments. It works the best, so say the sociologists.
Painlord, here goes. A Some players, as stated before, post irregularly, and even then their posts contain little to no content. You can't continue on those, they don't pose questions that would require interaction; they are automatons tagging along to collect a chronicle. This, at least, is how it looks like to me. B Such a little detail, but so irritating... names. Character names. Are most players really that unimaginative? I've seen Jarlaxle Baenre, which is a straight copypaste from R. A. Salvatore's famous novels. I've seen Michael J. Caboose, which was also a clone from a webcomic called Red vs. Blue. Currently I'm playing in a game with a character named "Zorro the Swashbuckler". That Iron Man? Pass, I've seen a Finnish player play a weird ranger/wizard/eldritch knight/something that mimics Iron Man in a tasteful way. There are most likely some other examples as well, but none of them come to mind right now. C Lack of hooks. The characters can't interact with each other, if there's never anything to react to. I've noticed the best way to create RP situations is to be create verbal conflicts, hence why nearly all my characters are grumpy, rude, and generally dislike all other pathfinder agents. Delzden is different because I noticed this pattern of hatred among my characters. D Grammar and punctuation. I deliberately checked how you write stuff with quotes, how you place dots and commas, just so the text would be right. I don't mind people deviating from this slightly, but writing in lowercase, leaving out a dot from the end of a sentence, or infuriatingly replacing "you" with just "u". Examples:
"This is how you do it in English," said the man, "it's easy!" "This is how you do it in Finnish", said the man. "It's easy!" E Sometimes it's the GM who's rushing it, leaving almost no time for RP. Like making multiple updates and driving the plot forward during weekend which commonly is quiet time due to family time and whatnot. I must point out I'm not perfect myself; as a GM I still sometimes struggle to push the game onwards, in a weird way hoping for the players to start posting. In one instance I had a three-month long Core game, where I maybe needlessly waited for them to devise an elaborate plan. This resulted in two players not posting anything for two weeks, and when asked why not they said something in the line of "their characters had nothing to do so they opted to wait it out". To me it looked like they vanished completely. Although no one really likes to be critiqued, it's the only way to get better. I'm unsure whether it's a cultural thing, but Americans tend to thank a lot regardless of the game's outcome. I could be wrong though, letting the general "stereotypicalization" flow through me. EDIT: When it comes to style of play, I'm adaptive. I do like some serious gaming with no-nonsense and real emotions, but I also like light-hearted games that show the characters maybe even as ridiculous caricatures consisting of just one key characteristic. Problem is players rarely speak out about the style they prefer, they just all bunch up together and play individually.
I meant to clarify I have no intention to start this right away; I too have a lot of PbPs ongoing, and I wish to concentrate on this Dragon's Demand and disregard nearly everything else. As for the PFS thing, yeah, I meant campaign mode as in "PFS restrictions don't apply", but you would still receive the four chronicles which you can apply to any character you wish. @Painlord: I'll get to you next time I'm at my own desktop. My wife's computer has a very obnoxious and horrible keyboard I'd rather not use... better than mobile, sure, but still no good.
Just a warning ya'll, I've been playing some PbPs and since a majority of them sucks donkey balls, I've begun to think of just running ONE game, albeit it'd be big. Dragon's Demand. I own that thing as a physical copy and managed to run it for a select home group for some time, but we lacked a proper place to play, and weren't able to get a babysitter. So it died down almost immediately after finishing chapter 1. I'd run the module in campaign mode, stripping away the rules of PFS and allow almost everything (but limiting to good taste). I'm intrigued to know are you interested in investing into a much larger PbP game.
Deussu, if we can get a full group for Subtier 6-7, then I will run a second group for Beggar's Pearl. It looks like the Sub Tier for those currently signed up besides yourself is Sub Tier 1-2. Aye, that's fine. I've GM'd the scenario on both 1-2 and 3-4 subtiers, but never on the highest subtier. AFAIK it's the only subtier worthwhile, too.
I'll grab onto this offer. Dotting on the discussion thread.
Seems like they errata'd it to be even more confusing. Sure, that specification was to counter the use of a swashbuckler's panache points to use the deeds gained through magus arcana. They should've have just changed the required point from panache to arcana, after which swashbucklers couldn't have make use of them. This errata is sloppy. It makes me angry, sloppiness that is. Proof-read, yo.
|
