By the way, I appreciate everyone's responsiveness as well as patience as I get the hang of remembering to manage things like light levels which I admittedly don't pay a huge amount of attention to when I'm a player :)
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So, I've been working on a short story and I was wondering if I could get some help on the tone of it. I'm shooting for more of a wry, slightly sarcastic sense of humor, but I think I missed rather badly. Anyone wanting to give it a read and let me know what you thought can see the text in the spoiler below.
"Bravo Charlie Zero-Seven-Niner, This is Tartle One. We have contacts from the alpha screen. Over."
Space is mind boggling huge.
"Tartle One, Bee-See-Oh-Seventy-niner. Roger. Any details yet? Over."
So huge that it takes light from the primary of any system hours to reach the jump limit.
"That's a negative. We'll keep you informed. Tartle Two is pulling in the Echo and Foxtrot screens just in case."
So huge that even that volume of space is miniscule when compared against the distances between stars. Even so, it's an enormous volume of space when compared to ships that are best measured in units that light takes very tiny fractions of a second to traverse. Though, with radiator arrays for fusion power plants, torch drives, and communications lasers that can be picked up loud and clear from the other side of the jump limit, modern spacecraft are beacons of energy, interceptions require lots of thrust and delta-vee, a ludicrous amount of luck, or a willing target.
"Tartle One, Tartle Two. Sir, we're picking u-- Status change! We just lost the Alpha through Delta screens."
This should make things like minefields, pirates, or ambushes practically impossible given the odds of someone stumbling into your basket versus them just sailing away.
"Tartle Two! Fireplan Echo three! We've got inbound. Zero-Seven-Niner, go evasive and random walk on vector one-six-five by three-three-five relative. Do you copy?"
Of course, this flies into the cold, hard brickwall of reality where ships take courses that cost them the least amount of money and avoids the more inconvenient customs patrols. That makes the impossible only difficult.
"We copy Tartle One. Be advised our max acceleration is only two gravities on the mains."
If the baddies obtained the schedule for their target, difficult becomes easy.
"Okay, wobble on vector one-si-"
If the target is a great lumbering liner full of sophonts that would not like to learn what the inside of a maraca is like, easy turns into milk run.
"Welp, our escorts just turned into vapor."
At this point, having idiots flying escort is just gravy for the pirates.
"Attention CPV Wattatwist, You are hereby commanded to cease your futile attempts at fleeing this space. You will shut down all of your systems except those needed for life support and prepare to be boarded."
Of course, there are plenty of ways for a milk run to turn into something much worse.
"Civilian Passen- Hey! This is our prize you sniveling, tailless worms! We were tracking the too-tall fools first!"
Such as having your most hated enemies show up to collect the same prize.
"Is it too late to just suicide?"
The engineer already scrammed the powerplant. The airlocks are still fully functional if you rather die by explosive decompression than face two different races of cute, furry, xenocidal maniacs. I'm sure that the readers would love some descriptions about now.
I know I'm going to need to rewrite it a good bit, but any feedback would be appreciated.
While I know that perhaps that may have seemed easy I will say that things most definitely could have turned ugly if you hadn't done so well with your Diplomacy checks - and they definitely would've been ugly if you'd not bothered trying to talk Cassiel down at all!
Thanks for the notice Ylva and safe travels when you go!
Just posting some stuff here that I've been thinking about in regards to GMing and the like. The following isn't necessarily me asking for advice (though advice is always welcome) but more that writing my thoughts down sometimes helps me to better organize and think things through.
So when I get spare moments I try to think about things I can do to up my GM game, whether from a technical/mechanical standpoint (my earlier question re: Spellcraft) or from a storytelling perspective. By this point it's obvious (and I've grown to trust) that everyone here is enjoying themselves because you wouldn't still be here if you weren't! And so I wonder if it would be more helpful for me to ask for specific scenario feedback instead of going, 'How'd I do, guys?' In my mind specific scenario feedback encompasses things like, 'This section here seemed clunky, maybe there's a way to streamline it?' and 'The plot during this part seemed hard to follow'.
While I trust that everyone here would (and will) speak up in the moment if something seems particularly egregious I know I've had games where I enjoyed the experience as a whole but disliked certain parts or still felt confused about plot points after it was all said and done. Feedback like this obviously wouldn't come into play for you guys directly but it could help me know what sorts of adjustments to make the next time I happen to run a specific scenario. Of course sometimes such issues may just be a limitation or failing of the scenario more than lack of effort or clarity on my part but I still want to do what I can to make each scenario the best it can be when I run it.
I'd also like to take more 'requests' from my favorite players and fellow GMs on things to run in the future so folks can get a chance to play certain characters, play (or replay) a specific scenario, etc. After receiving a good bit of feedback encouraging me to narrow things down to the scenarios and modules that *I* would be most interested in running for people, I've been working on doing just that and have a preliminary list encompassing all of the PFS-sanctioned modules as well as every season of PFS up through the first few Season 10 scenarios. I'll probably make another run through that list to narrow it down further but even then I'll still probably have a sizable list to choose from.
Most of my selections are made with an eye towards RP & skill-focused scenarios but I also tried to choose some that were stated (based on reviews) to have a decent balance of the above two as well as combat. Pure dungeon crawls can be harder to make interesting (and tend to be a little more boring for me to GM and to play) *but* I saw a few that were stated to at least offer a flavorful and atmospheric setting and/or opportunities to learn more about Golarion lore that I did make note of. 'Theme' is less important to me when it comes to selection but I will admit to a bias/slant towards horror and away from deep social/political intrigue - and I have no problem with getting some tech in my fantasy (looking at you, Season 6).
Of course once I get a list that still leaves me with trying to figure out the best way to field requests without getting overwhelmed. I've seen some Flaxseed GMs who have a spreadsheet to field requests - maybe something like that with the link shared only with certain folks? Or maybe one of those Google poll things would work better. Still uncertain. Or I could just pick someone at random from my unofficial list of cool dudes and ask them directly. Decisions, decisions.
In other news, it's almost time for work but I'll get a proper GM post up later today or this evening~
I actually do own that one! I'm trying to narrow it down to like, a Top 10 so I can hopefully pick a few up with Christmas money...
Whatever format is most comfortable and easiest for you! My email is listed under the spoiler at the top and my PM box is always open; posting here is also fine. If folks would be more comfortable providing anonymous feedback then I can look at setting up one of those Google Survey things :)
By the way Hepsubia, you don't have to sit around while the rest of the group is getting the grand tour - hope I didn't make you think that! :)
Though it shouldn't affect Gameplay flow too much, my work schedule has been shifted to solely night shifts in the wake of our one dedicated night shift person quitting unexpectedly. This will probably be what I'm doing for the somewhat-foreseeable-future so you'll be less likely to see posts from me during daylight hours (say, anywhere from about 8-10am up to 5-7pm CST).
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Sorry for disappearing yet again. I ducked out of work at noon on Thursday and drove down to New York to attend a family wedding. I picked up my daughter from college on the way. I didn't get back home until early Sunday evening and then made the mistake of checking my work email... and found that everything in my area was figuratively on fire. I've been putting in some long hours because of that.
Thanks for understanding!
And now to wade through 67 posts in the Gameplay thread...
Happy to see you back, Theodric! I was about to PM you (and then realized that wouldn't be helpful as the site still isn't showing PM notifications) and then thought about pinging you elsewhere...and then you posted!
Hope all the work fires have been put out!
It does indeed say 'seedpods' but it doesn't phrase it as all of them being her seedpods specifically :)
Sorry for the quiet; had some family business yesterday evening and more today. Updates to resume later this evening!
By the way guys, we're almost done with this scenario and since this one has been ran under the PbP Gameday VII umbrella that means...we get to roll for BOONS!
Please roll a d20. If you get a 19 or a 20, please roll a d4 to determine which boon you'll be receiving. While I *could* roll for everyone to save time, I think it's more fun to roll (and potentially win) for yourself :)
Even GMs get a chance to win, so let's see...
No boon for me! Maybe next time :)
Woohoo, glad to see someone win something! :D
As I said elsewhere, I completely understand. Thank you for letting me know and I hope this will help you find the balance you're looking for! I'll try and get us wrapped up quickly so you can at least get your chronicle sheet before you go, should you ever decide to play Ylva again down the line somewhere.
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@Kiango - Replied to your PM, will elaborate a bit further here for everyone else's benefit.
For everyone else, I did want to say that we will continue on as we are once we finish School of Spirits since we will - hopefully - still have six players. I won't be recruiting another 7th and will only recruit more players should we dip to less than six.
That said, I know one or two of you have mentioned being busier than usual of late and so once we finish School of Spirits there will be an opportunity for anyone else who needs to or wishes to bow out to do so. For those of you with multiple characters, I'm happy to allow some swapping around if you feel the need to do so or if you have another PC in range that you *really* want to play for a particular scenario - we can always consider such swaps to be 'TL;DR Team + A Very Special Guest'! I've already been approached by Kiango who has expressed some interest in swapping out for a more frontline-oriented character to replace Ylva, which is fine with me if it's fine with everyone else. As always, if you've got any questions or concerns, feel free to talk about them here or shoot me a PM/email :)
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As much as it pains me to say it, I'm also gradually stepping down from PbP as my current games wrap up. Things have gotten way too busy for me since I started grad school, and I just don't have to time to make posts anymore. Have fun y'all, I know this will be a great campaign, and I'm sorry I won't get to see Torag in action.
I'm sorry to see you go as well Tupp but I definitely understand. Work and trying to juggle several games has slowed me down some on my posting but as I said I'll do my best to hurry things along so you and Ylva can get your chronicles. Thanks to both of you for being such great players :)
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I feel your pain Tupp- I’m getting ready for my last semester of grad school and it definitely is a lot! Good luck!
I think we’re allowed to completely rebuild our characters in between sessions until 2nd level, right? I’m willing to rebuild if we need some more melee? (If it’s PFS legal) I think I could probably switch over to a hexcrafter magus without much change to his background and stuff... or, I could look at something a little more drastic?
If you'd like to rebuild after this scenario (Sylvak or anyone else that's not yet reached and played at 2nd level) then please feel free. With Tupp also leaving after this scenario that will put us down to 5, so I'll be looking to recruit a new 6th. While I've got some ideas of my own for people to hit up, I'm also happy to take suggestions if anyone has someone they like playing with that might be interested.