Since you asked, I'll admit to having experienced some boredom with this game.
I think it stems from a few things. Firstly, no character-specific hooks or interactions. Second, encounters that don't seem at all fitted to the group; in every encounter so far (both combat and non-combat), some or all of us have been useless. Lastly, other than a few instances early on, there haven't really been any situations to generate/foster/encourage roleplaying among the group members. There have been encounters that just seem designed to seriously mess up the party (affecting some members more than others), but nothing to really give the group something to talk about and bond over.
The best adventure ever made still has to make some concessions to the group that's playing it (players as well as characters).
Admittedly, I designed this adventure before picking a group. I also designed it for a party of 4 or 5, not the 8 we ended up with. I figured a larger group would actually speed things up. I think I was wrong about that.
This dungeon was designed to have a sort of survival-horror feel, where things got worse and more desperate the deeper you went. Perhaps I should have said that at the beginning so everyone knew the sort of feel to expect. At this point we have characters coping with degrees of madness and some with broken equipment, which is exactly how I hoped things would go. I'm not sure what I could have done differently and still achieved that. Again, maybe I should have said something about the kind of dungeon it would be.
As for fostering role-playing among the group, I feel that's not really something I can help with. That's an area where players need to be pro-active. I've tried to encourage it in small ways. Every knowledge and search check, and a few of the encounters so far, have encouraged characters to speak from their own perspective about what they knew or found. I had hoped it would spark dialogue as other players asked what things meant, or tried to deduce things. It has rarely happened.
I will try to encourage more role-playing, but in the end, character investiture is up to the individual player, not the GM.
I waited a while to respond in order to consolidate my thoughts on this, as well as give others the time to post theirs.
Had you described the game in your recruiting post in the way that you did in your post on Sunday, I would not have applied. My characters are potential heroes, and the fun for me is in watching them grow into true heroes. I'm not interested in Tomb of Horrors, Rappan Athuk, or other games in the "survival-horror" genre. I understand that there are people who like them; that's fine. They hold no appeal for me.
With that said, I don't abandon games, so I hope that we as a group can reach a solution. If everyone else is fine with the game that you've described above, I'm fine with helping find a replacement for Zayid and continuing until such a one can be found, at which point I'll bow out.
If the rest of the group expresses other feelings, I hope that we can all communicate openly and arrive at an amicable solution.
Keep in mind, this is the first dungeon. This is not how the entire game will be.
The characters aren't heroes yet. Right now they have been thrown into a situation that they weren't really prepared for. They're being forged and earning the competence that will define them later.
In my opinion, first and second level shouldn't be clearing basements of dire rats. That isn't heroic. Situations like this, where you're cut off from help in a place full of danger, surviving by wits and luck, that's how heroes are made.
So far, I think the party has done fantastically. I think the main issue has been the length of the dungeon. If it had ended three or four rooms back, I think everything would have been fine. The snake-room encounter seemed to be the turning point. It seemed to frustrate a lot of people. I hadn't anticipated only one person being in the room when it animated. That turned the encounter into an extremely mean situation.
As I said earlier, the dungeon is almost done. You are in the last "ring" of the tower. Perhaps with a smaller group the game will move faster and build up some of the momentum that has been lost.
It's all fine and good for characters in novels to have their "hard times" that "forge them" into heroes. In roleplaying, though, I'm looking to have fun. It's not fun to be constantly harangued and harassed as if the DM is out to get you. It's not fun to have your equipment broken with no way to replace it, have your mind affected with no way to fix it, or just generally go through those same "hard times" you wouldn't mind reading about in a novel. This is my viewpoint and my personal idea of what's "fun".
I don't think the issue with this dungeon is the length, or the snake room... I think it's the fact that there's nothing interesting happening. No neat equipment, no discoveries, no treasure, no intriguing mysteries. Just traps and other stuff that's pretty clearly designed to seriously frustrate and disrupt the party.
I'll push on in hopes that this is just a temporary issue.
I'll see what I can do to make things more interesting from now on.
It's also worth noting that all conditions that afflict the party will have cures. They just don't right now. Even Mahatsi's alignment-shift is more of a plot-device than an actual detriment or curse.
I honestly thought the archeological mystery of what this place was and what the creatures who lived here were would be compelling. I apologize if it isn't, or if I didn't include enough reason for the characters to care about investigating it.
When you get back to the city, I will allow the players to re-build their characters, or make new ones. I'll also attempt to give character specific hooks to make what is happening in the overall plot relevant to each character.
I guess I'll chime in, since I've definitely been pretty apathetic about this game.
There's no real incentive to explore. The PCs are prisoners forced to explore the ruin, it's not the most compelling adventure hook. Finding the missing surveyors works well enough, but it also means that there is no incentive to explore any room that they clearly didn't enter.
As for the dungeon, it's pretty busy. There's a lot of random stuff that doesn't really matter. The giant scales room was interesting, but there was no compelling reason to experiment with it. It's not like we get to keep anything we find and that's a pretty big issue. Greed is more or less the driving factor of almost every low level PC.
There hasn't been any NPC interaction or need for planning or scheming, so that's limited RP possibilities. There is no real need for banter.
I like the setting. I think it could be very fun to play in, I just need something to make me check out the next room.
You know I'm a fan of your Gm'ing style. That being said I agree that the problem isn't really the setting which is great, but the lack of a draw to the characters and players being emotionally invested.
If the players are emotionally immeresed into their characters and the mission, they'll gladly go through hell for the sake of the story.
"You're convicts. Go find these people if you want a chance at being set free." Isn't all that compelling, and there's nothing to really tie the characters to what they're doing, the dungeon or each other.
The number of characters is definitely a factor though because whatever we're doing, somebody's standing around feeling useless.
I think in a case like this with a setting so unique in flavor, the scerio needs to be a bit more tailored to the characters to draw them in.
I'll work on fixing that. I actually already have some ideas to that end.
Once this mission is done, the Archeological Society is going to have it's work cut out for it. This is the beginning of some Bad Stuff, but there will be a bit of down time between this mission and the next one that will allow for some character-montages.
I think games work best when characters have some personal investment in the things that are happening. You folks are right that there isn't much of that at the moment. I take full responsibility for that, and I apologize. I think we can come up with things that will help make the characters part of the story, rather than just being pushed into it.
So, here's what I'm thinking-
Farooq and Zayid will be offered membership into the Archeological Society. That will give them a support network, allies, and (hopefully) will make investigating the things that will happen as the story progresses into something they want to do.
Mahatsi, as the only person left in the party who has been directly "touched" by the heretic idol, will need to be watched carefully. Her connection to it makes her both a potential liability and an asset. Finding a way to cleanse her of the heretic taint will become an important goal (though she may not believe she's been negatively effected)
Zariah being an Oracle, gets the fun of being my plot-prophet. Fire-visions make great story hooks.
Do those sound like steps in the right direction?
Works for me.
Yup that sounds promising. Simply running with 4 PCs should make things go faster as well. I don't need much to keep me interested, money and power will do it. Fame is nice too.
I'll be able to move the game forward sometime tonight or tomorrow morning. Sorry about these delays.
I went from a family reunion vacation straight to a nasty injury that has had me spending the last three days in varying degrees of drug-induced stupor. It has left me with a serious deficiency in my creative juices. I could probably post something, but I'm worried it wouldn't be very good, or that I'd forget something.
Thanks for bearing with me folks.
Get some rest, we'll be here.
Ok, we're back in action.
The next room is basically a hole to the level below. You're going to have to climb down somehow.
I think Apedemak is technically the best climber, but I'd prefer to keep the NPCs in the "rear group" as much as possible. If there is a skill deficiency in a needed area among the PCs I'll jump in, but as long as one of you has it covered I'd like to let you handle it.
Zayid's got a +3, and Mahsati is at a +6 without her armor, I believe, though I'm not sure she'd want to take it off at this point.
I'm in support of keeping the NPCing to a minimum. :)
Farooq has +2 and has no interest in being the first one on the ground.
Zariah at +0
We oughtn't send the casters down first anyway, so how about Zayid goes down first and then Mahsati can bring up the rear with the rope? (Unless one of you casters has a way of untying the rope from the bottom...)
Sounds good. Go ahead and make the posts/rolls.
First person down, give me a Perception check.
Mahsati's metal things list:
Dagger
Earthbreaker
Flint and steel
Armored coat-- not 100% sure if fthis should be included on the list. The description says that the metal plates are sewn into the lining. I'll leave the accessibility to your discretion.
Thank you. Good luck. :)
I think I may not have described the hole in the door well enough.
So the door is at the bottom of the slope of the fallen rubble. Most of the door is buried. At the top of the door a section has been bashed out. That's where you've been squeezing through.
When you pulled your way through, there was a drop of about 5 feet. Now, when you stand at the other side, the hole is roughly head level.
Does that help?
Things have been going a bit slow, so this note won't have a huge impact on things, but I thought it prudent to give a heads-up: I have just acquired a new place, and over the course of the next few days I am going to be pretty scare, as moving all my junk in is going to be my top priority. I'll still keep an eye on things, however.
Congrats on new place!
Transitions are always rough but usually good once they smooth over. :)
Game-wise, I'm on a graveyard shift tonight. I'll push things into the next round in about 12 hours. That's how long Zariah has before I take her turn for her.
Life got a little crazy for the last couple days and sleeplessness took it's toll.
Can I get a check in of who's still with us?
Still here!
I'm still here too.
As am I
Well we've been waiting on you! I was just about to start a post to NPC you.
Glad to see you're back. :)
Will post in a couple hours, just leaving work.
So, about that post...
I have to make a decision about this game. As it stands it is currently dead in the water. I don't have any idea how many reliable PCs I have left, and what was supposed to be a simple fight with a complication thrown in to make things interesting has turned into a fully stalled bore.
So my options are:
1) Shut the game down.
2) Do a narrative post that moves the group into the next area and effectively separates them from the NPCs.
3) Do the opposite, narrative cutting off the Non-PCs from the PCs, forcing the PCs to go back to the surface for rest, resupply and reinforcements. (this would allow PCs to make new characters if they aren't enjoying the ones they are playing, and to recruit a few more players)
Let me know what you think. Be brutal if you need to. Lord knows I probably would be.
I can't say for the others, but I still check in fairly regularly. In terms of what to do... I honestly can't say. I'm still willing to slog through things, but with the frequent stalls, stops, and waiting for posts, I would not be too surprised or malcontent with the ending of affairs. I'd like to see things go on, but it's reaching that point where I doubt it would be possible.
Honestly, as long as I have one enthusiastic player, I'll continue things. I'm a patient person and I tend to try to give people plenty of time to work things out that might be happening in real life, but at this point enough is enough.
I'm still here, and still checking regularly. I have to admit to being pretty tired of the "you can't do anything at all" combats, and I'll echo Mahsati's sentiment:
[W]ith the frequent stalls, stops, and waiting for posts, I would not be too surprised or malcontent with the ending of affairs.
Honestly, this game is dead. I think you would better served by starting fresh with a new campaign and offering spots to people from this game who are interested.
Honestly the reason I couldn't find the inspiration to post was the fact that I really didn't have anything I could do. Couldn't get Zayid unstuck, couldn't see or do anything a bout what was attacking him, so every time I went to post I just drew a blank.
I think this was one of those concepts that works at the table and not that well in a PBP, like many a dungeon crawl.
Good feedback. I'll chalk it up to a learning experience. PbP games are a whole different animal than tabletop.
I'm going to close this game down.
I'll let you guys know what my next project is. I've had an idea for a goblin game for a while now. Maybe I'll flesh that out.