I've been at a conference all week, which has been absolutely amazing, albeit somewhat overwhelming.
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I've been playing more than I should (in about 10 pbp for the moment), but most of them (weirdly, I should say) have been slow for problems in the GM's real life. Aside from this, there is a Kingmaker where the GM got married, Villains for the greater good where the GM is studying for exams, Reign of Winter where the break won't last more than a day and a Skull and shackles where we just got no response, but the pathfinder society games are running normally.
But I'm using my time to study, which is indeed a good option ^_^
Also I'm looking for a house to buy, but that's been fruitless...
Yeah I'm in 9 games, at the moment. It can definitely be hard to manage, especially when some move quickly. I absolutely love playing this way, though, even in the cases where the game moves really slowly. There are so many more opportunities for roleplay than you get when sitting around a table, and it totally makes it for me. I played for like a decade before coming to this format, and I'm not sure I'd be in any rush to go back. Though a friend is talking about starting up an in-person Call of Cthulhu or Shadowrun game, so it might be a thing sooner than I intended, haha.
Funny story, sometimes I feel a bit on the older side for this site - not that I'm even that old - but it seems like most of the people I'm in games with are in college. Hell, one of the best GMs I've ever played with (He's running THREE of the games I'm in) only just recently turned 18 and even started college. And I'm like "Hi yes I'm going to be 30 before you're 20."
Buying a house is pretty aces, I wish you luck with it! What are you studying?
Mogwai - What kind of conference were you at? My experience with conferences is almost always that I come away with a severe case of information overload, so I can understand how you might be dealing with some overwhelmed'ness. Sidenote, I understand you on feeling a bit too old for this site, I am staring at 30 with a wife, 3 kids, and a house. Not a lot of folks in the same boat on here lol. Heck, with most people my age I am a bit of an oddball, as I got married when I was 21 lol.
Aetherni - You have to take an exam to get a government job? Are you outside of the US? How would you say that Kingmaker works PbP? I would love to get into a Kingmaker game, as the entire idea of that AP just really appeals to me, but haven't had much luck lately with submissions. This could also explain why I can sometimes dominate this game a bit, this is the only active game I have right now, so whenever I come on, I come just for this game lol.
Tarlane - I am glad to hear she is holding on, but continuing to hope and pray for a good turn to come soon. If there is anything we can do to help, game or otherwise, let us know.
Hope things get better Tarlane. :(
Mogwai - What kind of conference were you at? My experience with conferences is almost always that I come away with a severe case of information overload, so I can understand how you might be dealing with some overwhelmed'ness. Sidenote, I understand you on feeling a bit too old for this site, I am staring at 30 with a wife, 3 kids, and a house. Not a lot of folks in the same boat on here lol. Heck, with most people my age I am a bit of an oddball, as I got married when I was 21 lol.
I was engaged at 20, so yeah I definitely get that. I'm still stuck in bachelor-land these days, but a lot of my friends are married / have kids now. It's definitely crazy how quickly that kind of thing happens. That's awesome that you've got little ones though!
I'm at a User Experience conference in Boston (Where I live). I've been a Front-End Website Developer for a couple of years, and I'm trying to get more into the Research / Testing side of things, really just to expand on my own skill set and open up more possibilities for my future career. But I've definitely learned so damn much in the past few days. And it's that kind of situation where you find out JUST HOW LITTLE you actually know. It's very eye-opening. It'll be a few weeks before I've digested it at all, but man, it's been well worth it.
I just turned 32 last month, so yea, seems we're all pretty much the same age. Kinda cool.
Tarlane, this is a phenomenal game, and while I want you around all the time to keep playing, real life comes first good sir!
I'm 21 and a bit, and I have been for 23 years (What can I say? it's a very bit!).
Got a wife, 5 kids and house. My second daughter is disabled, so I am full time carer for her (thankfully very light duties, but that means lots of time on my hands).
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5 kids, Oh my gosh! He's got his own gang!
I'm 28, living with my girlfriend, in Brazil, btw. I wouldn't say age is much of a deal here. I'd say that most of the good players are 30+. We've had tables with kids of 16 to 18, but before the age of 25 they rarely are any good you know. I can't explain it, they just sux.
Oh, and the Kingmaker works like every other pbp game Brutus, but since we haven't actually got rid of enough bandits (for the gm getting married) to build up a kingdom, nor even a settlement, so I can't say for sure if it will work.
So it seems that this game is either really unique in that we are all close to 30+ or maybe the perceived age discrepancy on these boards doesn't really exist?
Aetherni - Brazil, very cool! That would explain the exam for "governmental jobs." I live in Midwest USA, so I have no concept of how the world works in most places, just that its different.
Mogwai - Ha! I read Website Developer and I got tired, I couldn't imagine any kind of tech conference... that would go over my head so fast lol. I used to build computers, but I have been out of it for so long, that even that feels like I am reading a foreign language when I go back.
Gav - 5 kids, congrats! (A few years late obviously lol) I had a friend tell me when our twin boys were born recently that the jump from 1 to 2 kids wasn't that bad, but the jump from 2 to 3 was terrible, and after that it was pretty easy. Would you say thats accurate?
He also said that 1 kid = double team, 2 kids = man to man, and 3 kids plus moves you into a zone. Apparently the switch from man to zone defenses really messes with some parents. So I am not sure how much I trust the basketball metaphor parenting advice lol
I don't really know the ages of most of the people I play with.
Did the dwarf just assume the only way out of the mines was the main entrance??
Worst.Dwarf.Ever!
Note: Not serious, but I do find the comment amusing.
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Gav - 5 kids, congrats! (A few years late obviously lol) I had a friend tell me when our twin boys were born recently that the jump from 1 to 2 kids wasn't that bad, but the jump from 2 to 3 was terrible, and after that it was pretty easy. Would you say thats accurate?He also said that 1 kid = double team, 2 kids = man to man, and 3 kids plus moves you into a zone. Apparently the switch from man to zone defenses really messes with some parents. So I am not sure how much I trust the basketball metaphor parenting advice lol
Don't know about that, never played basketball. I do know that 1 child is hard work, but two is not twice as much hard work and each child gets progressively easier, because you are not doubling up on all the work and the older ones can help with the younger. Mostly the shock of parenting is over after the first one, you know what to expect, you have all the equipment and you know how to use it.
Twins is different, though; they have their own set of difficulties, as I understand it. Still, it's a rewarding task being a parent. My Eldest is currently in his last year at Junior School, and has passed his test to go to Grammer School; My youngest is still at Nursery.
I guess I'm lucky that they all get on so well together. The way some kids behave towards each other would definitely make for a stressful environment.
Getting back to the game, Perhaps Aetherni's not really a dwarf, just an elf in disguise. That would explain his assumptions about the mine and the Duergar.
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I did play in a game where I was going to be a summoner who played a very fey theme with his eidolon(it was a bit before the splat book that made an actual fey based summoner archetype) and I talked to the DM and ended up running a human child who ran away after his powers manifested and pretended to be a gnome to the rest of the party since there were certainly a couple of them who would not have wanted to put a child at risk adventuring.
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Ha, I'm in a Reign of Winter campaign with 6 others, and I said I'm a Paladin but they never saw me using paladin powers, so they start questioning and after some time wondering if I'm a rogue, a fighter or whatever, someone guessed a Barbarian, so I've changed my profile to match it (I'm not, but I'm having fun with the misdirection).
Did the dwarf just assume the only way out of the mines was the main entrance??
Worst.Dwarf.Ever!
Note: Not serious, but I do find the comment amusing.
I must say, I laughed for far too long about this lol. Worst Dwarf Ever... and I can't stop laughing, thanks Vorik!
Once I heard that the first child is made of glass, the second of porcelain, and the rest of rubber, steel and granite.
HAHA! That seems to be true, I like this quote.
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I was actually about to nudge about that myself Aetherni. I figured someone might want to chime in to the sheriff before he left, otherwise let me know the plan. Morton is intending to lead you over towards the mill so that 'he' can inspect the body and get a better idea of what is going on.
Don't any of you be afraid to step in and keep us going.
Been out all night, and kinda wanted to step back, as I've had a bit of the spotlight just now.
I'm set, Mogwai won't make his appearance known to the group until he's sure it's safe (IE: Everyone has gone.)
Well, two creatures that use crossbows spring to mind: Duergar, which we have already seen, and Drow, which use poison and spiders - and stealth. I'm leaning toward drow for this one, but we need proof.
Drow are my theory, but I can't remember anything, so I'm just gonna sit around and be useless for now.
Well, I mean, this is the Drow War, so it's reasonable. It also fits the bill.
I can't imagine it being a Duergar. They don't seem the type to use either poison or deal with spiders. I also can't think of why a Duergar would leave the mine just to kill this man. If anything I'd expect them to come after us, since we know their lair's location.
There's something larger at work here, for sure.
I'm inclined to agree with you Mogwai, though the thought crosses my mind that they know surface dwellers have invaded their territory, shooting at them (or so it might seem to them), and if they went to the surface they may have seen Jim's man running away or come across his trail, or just wandered towards the town and come across him accidentally.
However, the use of poison is uncharacteristic of Duergar, and that and the connection with spiders suggests Drow. The metagaming connection also suggests Drow, though that's not definitive.
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Also, as mentioned in the other thread, right now I'm letting you all discuss things and come to a decision. Don't worry about the limelight right now. Just chat away to get an idea of where everyone stands, unless you are looking for some input from Morton he is going to be primarily surveying the scene and noting whatever he comes up with.
As a side note, while the campaign is the Drow War and they will be a somewhat steady enemy at points, you don't need to leap to any conclusions about them being a foe at any given point. While story-wise I could suggest drow as a favored enemy for a ranger, as far as power goes it would be a relatively weak choice since they are only encountered now and again.
Gav- Not particularly important at this juncture, but I had noticed back at character creation that you are the one person I can't send PMs to. I wasn't sure if that was a feature you had turned off purposefully or not.
I just realized that I never saw Aetherni's post before I posted mine, so I never actually responded, I thought I was making the first suggestion. I will wait till the others post and then will respond to other points of view.
Gav- Not particularly important at this juncture, but I had noticed back at character creation that you are the one person I can't send PMs to. I wasn't sure if that was a feature you had turned off purposefully or not.
Not deliberately, though I'm not entirely sure how to turn that feature on.
My vote is we come back in the morning and try to follow the trsil, to see if it comes direct from the mines or scouts around the town first. If it comes direct from the mines, the attacker set out after jim's man in order to kill him. If it scouts around the town, then killing Jim's man is just coincidence.
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Well you just had me learn something! Turning on/off PMs is under my account, all the way at the bottom where there are privacy settings. It is among all the checkboxes for what emails paizo can send you, so it probably just got toggled off if you messed with those.
As noted above, it wasn't a very pertinent thing at the moment, I simply noticed because I was adding everyone to my PM address book for easy access. I fire messages on occasion so its nice to be able to do, but it wasn't important enough to be a problem if you had blocked it on purpose or something.
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Also as a side note, Morton is there with you as he's supposed to be keeping an eye on you while the sheriff and mayor talk with Jim about his view of events. Morton just was willing to more or less turn a blind eye and focus on the body for a few minutes if you were going to be doing something more legally dubious.
I think the bigger problem in that regard wouldn't be alignment issues(while you would be breaking the law in the truest sense of the word, if you believe Jim is a bad guy and hiding things it can be justified to raid his house) but there is the risk of getting Morton in trouble by it and losing some of your good standing with Davan/giving Jim some ground to say 'I told you so.'
Please note that Mogwai's agreement that we need a leader does not at all point towards him wanting to be one. He has his own opinion on who would be good at it, and he's too humble to think of himself as right for it.
But we do seem to get into these situations a lot, where we have different opinions on what should be done, where we should go, what should be done next. It's possible that "Leader" is the wrong moniker in the sense that we don't need someone "telling us what to do" at any given time, but it's more about smoothing things out between the group, breaking ties, and yeah, sometimes taking charge to prevent us from splitting the party / getting killed.
Yeah, that's how I see the leader role being. The problem is, there are many ways to skin a cat (seriously, where does that saying come from? Why would anyone want to skin a cat?) and if we all try and do what we think is best the result is chaos. That doesn't mean our ideas are wrong or bad, only different and it is unlikely that we would be unable to recognise the merits of anothers plan. that means we only need someone to act as arbiter between different ideas.
To be honest, we've been doing that all along to some extent. maybe we don't need an "official" leader. Most leaders don't become leaders by vote, they act as leader long before then - suggesting plans, persuading the reluctant, curbing the overenthusiastic, etc.
Just for you Gav....
But no one has taken place on the role yet, so I suggested we vote on one, even if it's for a single day, and see how it goes. Might save us some time...
Its only been I believe two, maybe three days in game so far. We've been playing for almost three months however, so it probably seems far longer.
Give everybody some time. We are still learning about ourselves, let along the others and group dynamics.
The fact that I'm completely irritated right now speaks to how good this game is.
I was trying to come up with a word for what the humans were being to express my frustration, but the truth is that they're just being humans, and to get that level of, hrm, realism in a game is pretty aces. Were I anyone but Mogwai, this constant endeavour to prove our innocence, while getting nothing in response, would lead me to have said "K, tried to help, f%%@ you all." long before now.
In other news: How late is it? I assume I have a limited amount of time to get the Hobgoblins the materials that I promised them. I was hoping to be able to give them some positive word from the humans, but it isn't looking good.