DM Barcas - Kingmaker: Eye of the Cyclops

Game Master Isaac Duplechain

Newhaven stands as a nation in its own right, upsetting the balance of power in Brevoy and the River Kingdoms, placing it in peril of covetous neighbors. An ancient evil rises to threaten everything that the Founders have built, casting a single malicious eye upon their kingdom.


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DM Barcas wrote:
At one draft, I had Kesten raise the same worried point that it might be an elaborate plot between them to entrap our army between theirs. I omitted it, but I'm glad that it found its way in.

Drats, that actually reduces the chance of it actually happening. Well, that's good for Berrin's odds of survival at least


Waiting to finish the conversations before the re-assemblage. Soon, I hope.


Female

Shane and Issac...since Arkady and Evie are in the same place on the same timeline, after I wrap up with Aylene, who do you want to start the next scene? Meaning a possible scene/meet up conversation between Arkady and Evie somewhere in town.


It appears that Nikolai and Arkady should begin their own conversation soon, so perhaps we should bounce you straight to Verik.


Female

Okey dokey

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2013

How about this. Nikolai and Arkady will meet and travel rightaway. Nikolai and Verik can flashback the other bit of conversation as we're able to get our crap together.

Silver Crusade

Male Human 8th Lvl Expert

I get the feeling there's going to be a convergence soon and we're not continuing on separate tracks, so I'm not sure we should skip forward in time at this point. Are we all about to be asked to join Aylene today or some such?


Female

For any PC that understands Hallit, I can put spoilers in when Evie speaks with Barrister. If no one else knows Hallit, then I'll leave them out. K?


Male Human Magus (Kensai) 5/Rogue UN (Roof Runner) 3: AC 22/18/14 / HP 70 / F +10 R +9 W +8 / Init. +5 / Perc. +12 / Sense Motive +8

What the heck is Hallit? some sort of strange meal?


Hallit - This harsh, guttural tongue, spoken in rapid staccato is native to the the Kellid people originally from the north of Avistan and centers around survival and war.[6][7] Although many northern barbarian tribes use versions of Hallit that have no written form[8], at least one ancient one does exist.[9] It is spoken by a significant portion of the population in the following countries: Brevoy[10], Galt[11], Mendev[12], Nirmathas[13], Numeria[14], Razmiran[15], the River Kingdoms[16], and the Worldwound[17].


Female

By the way...I will apologize in advance. I ended up using Turkish as my translation for Hallit. Based on the book's Kellid description, I would have preferred to use Mongolian or Innuit, but that wasn't available in the translator. I think either one of those would have done Hallit more justice.


Male Human Magus (Kensai) 5/Rogue UN (Roof Runner) 3: AC 22/18/14 / HP 70 / F +10 R +9 W +8 / Init. +5 / Perc. +12 / Sense Motive +8

Well I'm completely offended...


Female

Ha! You would be... :)


Dub dun dunnnnnnn


Male Human Cleric (Abadar) 7th / Fighter 1st / AC 24/10T/24F / HP 61 / F +10 R +3 W +11 / Init. +0 / Perc. +5 / Sense Motive +14

Hi Everyone,

It's been more of a work and personal disruption than I thought in terms of time, but I'm looking to get back in the swing of things tonight with some limited posting this week, and hopefully back to full speed next week. I've not read the latest three posts on the board yet (or messages in our other medium), but that will be my first action later today to get myself back into the mind of Verik here.

Thanks!


I'm looking forward to it. I've been underwater with law school and work and selling my house, but it's clearing up a little bit. My main paper is due in a week, as is my closing.


Female

So, I know I'm going to come off as a complete b%+$# when I mention this, but as a player, I'd really like to bring something to the table. I think there needs to be a discussion about posting frequency. The story line is super cool but it's really difficult to keep it going when you only have 2 or 3 players carrying a scene, especially one that may be critical to the story. I've felt like this regarding the current scene with the death of a Founder. That seems like a really important scene to me that's not getting it's proper due or input.

Now I absolutely understand that life happens and there will be times when posting frequency slows, but as we all know, play by post is a bit of a commitment (or it should be). It's frustrating when weeks, or in the case of this particular game, months go by without player posting (or the barest minimum of posting). Even I've had times where I haven't posted for a couple of weeks, but I make an effort to make sure it doesn't go any longer than that out of fairness to the other players and the DM so the scene doesn't die on the vine. Any thoughts other than for me to stop b#$!!ing or that that's just the way it is?


I should be speeding up a bit more as I make it through my classes, and I'm hopefully getting to a spot with more downtime.


Isaac. I honestly don't think the pacing falls on you...


More of a concern is that I have only received about 12 sentences since December 1st from players other than Tony and Kris, who have each written a small novel. Let's not put everything on them. Everyone write a novel!

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2013

My novel is pending a response from Shane. But it'll show up


Well, we are down a player. Borodin handed in his resignation from the game today. I don't particularly blame him. We've allowed too much of the game to fall to the wayside. I want to keep it going, obviously, but I am very worried that it will simply become Verik and Evie against the world, with the occasional two-sentence posts from everyone else.


We need a resolution of this issue before we move forward. If we don't have one, moving forward will just put us all in the same situation. I need to know if everyone is on board with keeping the story going. I have a bunch of stuff plotted out for the future, but it hinges on interacting with everyone (and everyone interacting with each other). Having placed many years of work into this game, I don't want it to end - but it can't simply be an exercise in singular storytelling or overly reliant on the few still responding. I've had to adapt time and time again thanks to players coming and going. So many storylines have been modified and dropped and added in order to accommodate the constant changes. I've seen plenty of hooks get ignored in favor of some of the players simply passively experiencing. When was the last time we had a truly interactive session, except for Verik and Evie? What I'm saying is that I need more, and this game deserves more.

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2013

Uh..I have never stopped paying attention. I'm just slow to respond during the investigative arc. I don't know anything about the deceased and try to not work on in character knowledge.

So I just run into rooms shirtless until Nikolai can contribute.


Just a heads-up, I'm on holiday and traveling to Namibia (south-western Africa) for Christmas. I'll be back early January.

Just my thoughts on the situation: although I love the story being told/developed by us - I think the story has also become very fragmented. In a way that is not conducive to story-telling. 50+ (N)PCs to track and multiple concurrent plot-lines are great for reading enjoyment, but are prohibitive when participating.

Jemini is limited to relatively short posts a lot of the time. In part this is due to my own time constraints - even a little post takes half-an-hour when I need to put the story into context in my head. Spending a couple of hours building a larger body of text is - for me - limited to when I have ample time and feel a significant contribution by me would be valuable.

But also reactivity is hard to do when matching posts are expansive but rare. Jemini scanned detect evil 10 days ago, in an effort to cue her subsequent actions. I don't want to post her actions based on assumptions of what the result would be; nor do I want her to just ignore the results and proceed with a new plan without good cause.


Female Human Hunter 8th / AC 22/16T/18F / HP 59 / F +8 R +11 W +6 / Init. +4 / Perc. +17 / Sense Motive +7

Soooooooo...based on how the discussion dialog is going, I'm going to take a stab in the dark at this one. I'm guessing this game is on hiatus until after the holidays (at minimum). Do we revisit after the first of the year then and see if we can attempt to regroup? That way everyone's had their say, holiday fun will be done and everyone's had a chance to think about whether or not they want to continue to make a commitment to this story line or not.
Ultimately, a lot of the banter needs to go through Issac through PM like with Borodin. That's why it's there...to express your thoughts and concerns with the DM. Playing this game is, as we all know, a choice. I myself really like the story line and would like to keep going with it. I'm going to continue to devote time to it provided I have other players to interact with. I'm fairly new to Play by Post, but one of the things I've noticed is that it's difficult to see other players devote a ton of time and dialog to other online games and then poo-poo the same thing on this one. Thoughts?

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2013

I have always had the same opinion about pbp. You play as frequently as you're able and try to understand when life makes posting difficult. Additionally, sometimes a scene doesn't call to your specific PC, so if the central figures are slowed down a little, and another is just not an active voice in the scene, it feels like the whole thing has stalled. Really, a little stimulus for Nikolai and he'd post more. But constant posting from Nikolai during the investigative portion of the game, or during scenes that should focus on Arkady or Verik, starts to make it a lot of Nikolai who already makes long posts during combat and who had his share of scenes with the wargs and trial and such.

So..I hope people can get back to posting and playing, but I am never critical if exams, work, etc get in the way. I have three jobs that demand time. I'm the last guy to be critical if the game slows for a few weeks before picking up speed again.


Having given it some thought, I have made a decision of sorts. We will go on hiatus until Monday, January 11th. If we are still interested in resuming the game at that point, we can work that out. If not, we can go our own ways. If this is the end, we've had quite the run. If it isn't, it will be a nice vacation to decide what we want to get out of the game. Does anyone have any objections?

Silver Crusade

Male Human 8th Lvl Expert

I've stayed away from much of this for the past few weeks, as I needed to not dwell into the negative and focus on other creative aspects of my role-playing hobby which I enjoy greatly. Lately I've digested these discussion posts as well as what's on the messenger app. I've also talked with Cromlich and why he left the game. At this point I think I've distilled down what's eating at me with this game, and what (as a player) I need in order to invest the creative time and energy as Verik.

Lorekeeper and Steven, I can both understand your viewpoints and your reasoning behind them (I suppose I will add Shane to this from third-hand knowledge, though he has not posted here to know for certain). I just don't agree with where they put the Kingmaker game at in a continuity and pacing sense, or the consequences to those players like myself that want to post with greater frequency and/or consistency.

Simply put, if ALL the players have this same outlook there would be no game to play - it would be utterly impossible to carry on a shared story experience in writing if every player is writing once every two+ weeks, or gone for weeks or months at a time with no communication of leaving or returning. That scenario has plagued the current Eye of the Cyclops chapter at least three times now, which is why we've had to engage in a rehash of players last fall season. The disappearance of more than one character in a scene - social or combat - creates issues of momentum where the scene becomes flat...or falls apart completely. The perceived inequality of participation creates ill-feelings and trust issues among the players. Eventually, the posting devolves down to a series of player-to-NPC solo interactions, and is no longer about a group experience.

Yet if DM Barcas wants to allow some players to interact infrequently or at their own pace and choosing, who am I as a player to say otherwise? That has essentially been the truth of the Jemini character for several years now since the middle of Rivers Run Red. When we've had five or six other players that can write and keep the game going it simply didn't matter as much - I just object to the heart of the story arcs running through that character when other characters are left as utterly peripheral (which I believe happened with the Borodin character). Perhaps there is room for multiple play-styles and levels of interaction if DM Barcas wants to spend the time to run different characters at different levels and storylines in the campaign. All I can do is clearly state what I need in order to fully participate in this game with Verik and be fine with it.

So for me to have enjoyment and interest in Kingmaker, I NEED three or four players besides myself to be actively participating two-to-three times weekly in the shared story my character is engaged in. That's what I signed up for back in 2011 when I took over Verik from Rellen's departure. That is what I strive for. I want to look at the boards DAILY and see "something" is going on by "someone" so that I can think about it that day or night and play off of it the next time I sit down and write for Verik. With four or five players doing that together, the scenes and the story arcs are moving forward each week, whether in dialogue, combat or narrative. It's interesting. It's fun. If I have trouble figuring out an interaction for my character in a scene, the other players posting tends to give me creative energy or an angle I didn't see before, so that I in turn get enthused and write something cool. Which in turn helps for another player to write for their character. Four or five players can keep any scene going...and usually bring in unique elements that pumps up the DM to be more enthusiastic and creative. That's what I've seen works, and is what I strive for in my Zeitgeist PbP game.

That's what I need to continue with Kingmaker as a player. Four-to-five core players including myself, consistently posting multiple times weekly, with adequate communication on departures or absences over a week in duration. That core group should also have the principal/primary arc stories and threads running through their characters. If other players besides that core group are allowed by the DM to run characters at different frequencies and commitment levels, either as PC-to-NPC solo roles or with a couple players on their own dedicated side-arc, I wouldn't personally object as I'm not forced to play at that pace (it would be fun to read actually in the context of the main storyline play).

All of that though puts a lot on the DM to setup and maintain. I cannot assume DM Barcas has either the time or the inclination to do it. All I can do is to honestly describe what I need out of the game to continue to write and play my character.


Well put.


Goooood morning (or day-time-indication as applicable). I have returned from Namibia - my first holiday in 2 years.

I feel ready to kick ass and take names


Fantastic. I am rested and ready to resume the game, if we have everyone's buy-in. We have a great game going and I'm not ready to throw in the towel - but I do want everyone to give me the sort of high-quality writing that we have written in the past.

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2013

Let's get it on!


Do we have sufficient promise from everyone? Arkady hasn't checked in, and Borodin is still gone. What sort of game will we have?


Maybe not everybody knows to "check in" here?


So, the players that currently have expressing their interest in resuming the game are as follows:
- Verik Jarrow
- Evie Damyanov
- Jemini Lebeda
- Nikolai Rogarvia

Is that correct? Once I have the correct roster, I can move us onward to the next leg of the adventure.


Okay.

I've come to the unfortunate decision that we don't have the ability to continue this game. As sad as I am that it has come to an end, I know that it had to happen sometime. We pushed it as far as we could, through a lot of difficult challenges. I will always remember the adventures that we shared. I want to thank each of you that is still with me, and those out there who took part in the game. I wish everyone the best of luck in continuing their adventures, roleplaying or otherwise. I hope that you've enjoyed yourself as much as I have.


Pity.

But thank you DM Barcas - it's been a tremendously enjoyable campaign. I can honestly say that you've opened my eyes to possibilities when it comes to campaigns.

For your own future online or offline games, I'd like to recommend Hell's Rebels - one of my friends runs it IRL and its been consistently amazing up to now. I wasn't expecting it to be as good as it is, but it is.

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2013

: (


I'm tying up a few loose ends after re-reading the entire thing over the last few weeks. What a ride this was!

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