Ah, the oldest trick in the Cleric handbook - When in doubt, accuse them of being a lesbian.
Never fails. :D
And now for Ritmush to play the GUESS THAT RACE game.
Badly.
Thikka , our characters should hook up.
Ritmush hath spoken XD
Matchmaker ritmush at your service. Providing odd couple pairings at minimal prices.
LOL, Thikka likes Minerva, but she's too mangy looking. :) All the furless look diseased to a ratfolk. :) She's polite though and doesn't say anything about it to avoid hurting their feelings.
Dammit Valind you comedic b@stard, you made me snort my coffee XD
yeah I'm really glad I wasn't drinking something when I read that.
Ah what a great set up that one.
Aw, thanks guys.
Nice rejoinder from Thikka, though :)
It was funny (Your post Valind). I had to come up with something to try to match it. :)
Poor Ritmush, just getting all his antics ignored by people.
Thoughts on our artifact lodestone?
GM nuttyness for now. Too many things in a short amount of time to make a decision. :)
Seriously though, too many random things at once to be able to make a decision about the mcguffin, that's why Thikka just blew it all off. If things come too fast and furious, the best thing is to just observe and wait, and try not to get smooshed. For now, she's in 'observe and dodge' mode.
Eh, we should give it to the were-cow.
It's not weirdness, I have no issue with weirdness...
But it needs to come in a paced and controlled manner. It's kind of like sugar and spice, a little bit here and there of each is good. But if you mix a bottle Tabasco sauce with a cup of sugar and cram it into someone's mouth, it's too much all at once.
It isn't like you just pitched this stuff at us out of the sky.
Fact is we just managed to stumble onto all of the weirdness in the adventure all at once.
But hey once we get it out of the way less weirdness.
AND, And look right there in cow form? Yeah that right there is a perfect lever for Ritmush's convoluted ploy to both get information and the shiny magic doom ball out of our hair.
Don't go smutting the magic doom ball now Ritmush, it holds the key to Minerva's racial past.
But I'd like to agree with Thikka here, the weirdness is no issue and indeed it serves the story well. But with the sheer amount of odd developments so quickly, there was little time to react to, and digest, each one.
Hrmm... reading it over I'm not seeing a whole lot of downsides to having the prisoners out of our hair.
I think the general opinion was the prisoners ought to speak up, least that's what Thikka said and no one disagreed.
I mean unless you guys want to attempt Ritmush's plot, which could be easily pulled off with Caliopes help.
Only need one or two prisoners who want to speak up, the rest can try to build a better life somewhere else if they feel safer doing that.
Hey everybody,
This is a message I'm putting up in most of the games I'm in here on the forums. I feel bad about having to do this, but I'm dropping many of the games I'm in on here--pretty much everything that's been moving at a good clip. Life's become very hectic lately, and I don't see things calming down any time soon. Between everything that's been happening, my focus has been spent elsewhere, and I'm just not able to put in the time and effort to keep up with play-by-post right now.
I've enjoyed all the games I've been in here, and it's a lot of fun. You all put it in a ton of effort and excitement, and I'd love to do the same, but right now I'm not able to do that on a regular basis. It would be unfair of me to keep going dark for days or weeks at a time, but I don't think I'll be able to avoid that for a while, and I need to focus on other things right now. I'm really sorry about having to do this, but life has reared its ugly head, and I hope you all understand.
Again, I've enjoyed my time with you all, and hope that you continue to have great gaming in the future. I look forward to the day when I can return to these boards and join new games, and maybe even play with some of you again. But for now, I have to part ways from you all.
--Loup Blanc
Sorry to see ya go loup. Best wishes
Man. We're going to have to pay for that cow.
Which means the proverbial cow would then be ours(well yours, ritmush aint gettin paid for this.) I wonder what the average pay of a well trained mercenary would be. Indentured servitude is a thing that can happen in this setting right?
Droka makes no promises about not telling whatever story he thinks will make for the best performance.
Well
Given how much she's had her mind obliterated with the constant 'Everything you know is wrong'
I think Minerva just wants to get to this town and Settle in for a nice, long nap.
..Even if she cannot ask Mr Tramsen for his company..
And then Minerva discovered the towns inhabits were Were-cows.
And that the town was actually an ancient colony of Mimics that has learned to live off ambient emotional energy.
Well the occasional missing traveler but eh...
Shhhh.
You'll give him ideas!
Like addressing the fact that Calliope is about to run away with 1 cows worth of loot?
Not sure how much one of them is worth but I can't imagine its cheap.
Wonder how much an indentured servant earns per day...
A doppleganger could be exceptionally useful if anyone happens to want to make a Knowledge check and realize she just said she was a CR3+ monster race (as normal doppels only get alter self and Caliope would need to be the "greater" doppelganger mentioned in the races fluff in order to turn into a cow, which is the purview of Polymorph.
Also At will detect thoughts. We get that little lady to help us and social encounters become cake.
As to the mission Ritmush isn't really involved in it.
He has the least invested in this venture of everybody so I don't really have much for him to say beyond what he has already posted.
We should move on to the valley at least. Standing in the road doesn't help with much. I do agree that Calliope is a very useful ally and Unbolath is actually interested in befriending her out of curiousity, utility and also it seems she has no where to go ( much like Unbolath ), and could use a job or purpose. On the walk back he will chat with her.
Honestly, I just am not sure what to do. Most people don't talk to Thikka, she responds when they do, and talks back. Thikka has two things to do, but there isn't really an overarching plot for the group at this point. Plus everyone is kind of shell shocked in character I think.
Basically, I'm not sure about anyonne else, but I'm not sure what the group itself would do, as we don't really have anything to bind us together at this point. We're kind of strangers on the train, and the train arrived..
Hey Terquem,
let me start by saying that I reckon I'm an amateur at running PbPs, so take everything with a big grain of salt. Sorry, sounds ominous I know.
I signed Valind up because I thought your original premise was exciting and brave; a chaotic, multi-dynamic-teams sandbox. Even if it failed I thought it would be amazing to just be in it and learn. I thought it was a great sandbox, but I can see that it lost players, even if I can't see why. Eventually it fell below critical threshold, and you changed the direction of the campaign and re-recruited.
Maybe I should have dropped Valind out then. He wasn't actually built to be an adventuring cleric, and I think it shows. He doesn't really fit with combats, and only really with bureaucratic social scenes. I think he would have been great as a semi-NPC in the sandbox that occasionally went on little quests. He doesn't really heal, doesn't really fight and doesn't cope well with full size or larger parties. Still, I admired your craft and I liked the setting you'd created and decided I'd like to stick around - and I don't regret that.
I think the introduction of the new characters gave a bunch of new interactions. I especially congratulate Thikka on being so ******* annoying ;P. Minerva & Valind seemed to be starting to get some interactions (no, not like that Thikka).
I sort of 'lost the game' when all the big reveals happened all at once. The setting changed unexpectedly (for me), the original premise had already changed, We were away from the fort, I couldn't keep track of what was happening (as shown by one of my posts) and I just... lost the game. Don't know how else to describe it.
I've been thinking about saying something for weeks. Yesterday I decided if you thought the game could be saved the best thing I could do was to try to push it forward till you could catch it, so I posted.
I liked the world. You responded well to player buy-in (when it happened). The world was detailed in breadth and depth. There was great verisimilitude. The NPCs were all real people, roleplayed differently and with three dimensions.
I think maybe you need to encourage player buy in (somehow, don't ask me, I can't do it) and possibly explain your new vision for the game (it sounds a bit like Iron Gods?)
As I say, at this stage I've lost the game and I'm looking to withdraw Valind.
:(
It has been somewhat a challenge to fit Unbolath in, as I envision him, he isn't really a super chatty 'hey buddy' sort of fellow, and even the very bizarre stuff he takes in stride. He sort of ignores the random antics of the others and overall the stoic hunter persona probably doesn't help cultivate much in the way of relationships. If you think about it, it makes sense too. He signed on for a short job to transport a wagon, its probably unlikely he would form any sort of life long friendships with the group. The odd events so far have basically created something of interest, but he is unsure how to respond, having little expertise in the technological stuff, and it appears the NPCs have more of a handle on things, so he has in some ways just been going along for the ride.
So far it seemed fine to me, but it is a large group and while there is a clear 'task' in the wagon delivery, there doesn't seem to be a clear overall mission, which is fine if its a sandbox style, but that style can be hard with a large group of people to manage and maintain any cohesion without a driving force or personality. There seem to be a lot of things unexplored or potential, but things move slowly because i think we want to give everyone a chance to weigh in or give their character a chance to take part in the scene. People post from their character's perspective, but there isn't a lot of things to tie us together as a group, other than proximity and shared destination. Few of the characters seem to actually know each other, or are friends, so if you think about it, if we completed a mission like this in real life everyone would probably go their separate ways.
Personally, I am trying to determine what Unbolath's take on everything would be. He is interested in the techno items, but it is alien to him, and the agents and some lich queen involvement in the power orb thingy. So in some ways is it something a normal inexperienced person would get themselves mixed up in, even if they were an adventurer?
Just thoughts really, I don't have any clear critique or advice.
Unbolath still feels responsibly for the wagon, but given its contents and some seemingly larger threat, he was basically waiting in the street for some input to see if we wanted to do something else with it. I had no idea about any of the previous mission stuff.
Thanks for the recap, its good to know out of character what the general destination of the plot is.
Unfortunately in character Ritmush knows little of the history and just the fact that there is a dwarf, and machines and weird people with goggle ghosts. Oh and were-cows. lets not forget the were-cows.
I kind of want to keep Caliope, she sounds amusing to bring along and quite useful. Need to think up an angle though.
Yeah I'm aware of the type of reaction Ritmush draws. It is in fact something I strive for (seriously making this crap up is half the fun of the character).
I might have to make the next post split into chunks as I'll be wandering about town interacting with people. Easier to get responses when you toss a big net and get it all down at once. Harder to pin down where the characters are at any particular time though. But then I think that might just be ritmush's thing.
In fact, the more I think about it, having not known it before, having it be sandbox style may work out well. I have to ponder which direction to take.
The "update feed" apparently went poof, I will re read the last couple pages of posts and get back to you once I have done so.
For the past bit, which I was around for I simply got lost. I know as a DM, you had a plan, albeit weird things were tossed it but I presume you had it all planned out to at least all tie them together.
In your Wwodbridge campaign, everything you have done there as made sense, if not at the time then shortly down the line, so I give you the benefit of the doubt in this group as well.
Portia, is a "country" girl, not a city-slicker so to speak. She would had stayed with the bull, even though there is a strange magic item of doom sitting there with here. She had mentioned Karl Drespor, at least i *think* I dif, can't recall that far back.
I am very much still here, both as a pc and a person. Those you go shall be missed and if Valind does go Portia will miss her halfling buddy, but I will re read the last couple pages or so and get a post up. Thanx for the patience and I am in.
I as a person was lost once all the weirdness happened is all, but I will do better to understand and ask ? to makes things go more smoothly.
I'm kind of iffy this week, due to travel. But I'm more than willing to keep giving it a try.
If I might suggest something? ANd this is just a suggestion, not 'do this or I quit'.
I think the characters need something to bind them together. Even if it's just some body saying 'Look, this dangerous thing is going on, we need help, we'll pay you if you work on this for us'.
It could be the investigator guy, the agents, anyone. But without something to get them to stay together long enough to make connections at the character level, they're going to stay 'strangers on a train'.
|
I know I've been a very silent character since the rebirth of this game with the introduction of the new PCs, but like Unbolath, Sithundan is the strong silent type trying to take it all in. He is a man of the Earth both in his class as well as in his blood. I know I really haven't added much of anything to the story, but I have been here reading every post and trying to make sense of it all as well as figuring out how Sithundan would react to it all. He wants to keep some distance from the alien tech because he is one of the few in the group who really understands how dangerous it really is.
Now as for making lasting connections Sithundan has had issues with this before joining the party as well as during the adventure. Everyone he has ever cared about has either left him or he was forced to leave them. Examples of this are given in the backstory he tells Derrick way back before we left the fort the first time. He tells how after years of enduring ridicule for years he is forced to run to the hills leaving his mother, the only person to ever really love him, behind never to see her again. He next finds himself in a halfling village as their protector, but the halflings become lazy and careless knowing that good old stone face Sithundan will just come save me like he always does. So after training a young apprentice he leave the village forever to save them from themselves. He then ends up in the caravan heading to Fort Horizon. Upon arrival he swaps stories with Derrick and they become fast friends. After their first failed mission Sithundan meditates to clear the horrific images from his head while the rest of the party either leaves town or goes to meet the Captain. When only Valind and Portia return he desides to join them and get caught up on what he missed and finds himself on, at least what seems to him, like a the third wheel on a little person date. As they get closer he tries to busy himself with little tasks and becomes more quiet. Finally the next quest begins and he sees his closest friend from the original group, Derrick, greets him and tries to start a little small talk, but all it seems Derrick cares about is this new shadowy looking girls, , and so he becomes even quieter and more reserved. Finally, in the end Derrick just ups and decides to leave making Sithundan feel even more alone. I have a feeling this will be Sithundan's last excursion, once this is done will most likely leave the group and head for the hills feeling abandoned and alone.
As for the missed opportunities in the first challenge from my understanding the intention was always to return to the caves when we were a bit stronder. We narrowly survived to come back to Fort Horizon so, at least I thought, we were going to do a few missions here and there, gain a few levels, meet back up with Jeannine and give it another go, maybe at a reduced pay. I never intended for us to just give up on it all together, but I can only speak for myself and Sithundan. And after your "gentle" reminder about Karl Portia did bring him up with Derrick, Valind, and myself right before we were hit with wave after wave of plot twists and her concerns kind of got put on the backburner while we tried to sort it all out and finally we all kind of said "You know it's getting kind of late we need to get the mission over with." and kind of lost track of Karl.
I know I just made about a million excuses for just about everything and it really doesn't excuse my lack of posting, but there it all is in a nut shell. I'm sorry Portia but it looks like your going to be the last remaining original cast member, but Sithundan is heading to the nearest mountain range. Terquem, if you wouldn't mind keeping Sithundan on the active character list I would like to continue following this game even if I am no longer an "active" member of it that would be greatly appreciated, but if not oh well that's your choice. It's been interesting and good luck to all the remaining players.
Hey guys. I'm sorry but I'm gonna bow out of this game. I just lost interest in it. Not through anyone's fault or actions....just me. Again...my apologies.
Posting to all my games :
As you should know by now, I'm going to Kuwait for two weeks and leaving today. This week has been very hectic between work, preparing for the trip, and having my work laptop bricked by our IT folks yesterday afternoon (and spending 6 hours getting data off the drive and resetting the OS).
I will try to get a post up on all games today before I go, but it will likely be this weekend before I can post, assuming I can do so from the hotel in Kuwait. I'll also be on Kuwait time, so likely I will only get a post or two up a day due to time differences.
I'll be back to US time in two weeks.