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Hey guys, live PFS went well today but we had an early start and so what was meant to be a short nap upon getting home turned into a much longer one. I'm writing this before transitioning from couch to bed so I will update either before work in the morning or when I get home tomorrow afternoon. Thank you for your patience!
Hey, no worries Erik! I've been slow myself this week due to work keeping me busy. Enjoy your vacation and post when you feel up to it (and are able) :)
Also, though I do post the initiative list in order from highest to lowest, please feel free to post your actions for the round at any time if you're up. Insisting on posting in strict initiative order is a bit restrictive for PbP, in my opinion anyway.
No worries Damien; I had to make a court appearance today (work-related, don't worry) and also put in a few hours on the job too. I'm paying my folks a visit now but updates will be forthcoming a bit later this evening :)
Bolonwr, I hope you'll forgive me for taking a small liberty with your character there but I decided to prod things along a little bit! In the future, for smaller things like an UMD check (which doesn't impose any penalties for a wand beyond 'Oh it doesn't work') go ahead and roll the dice so we can keep things moving along :)
Not a problem; I've had many moments like that myself!
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Besides, it's the standard Juraan excuse you should know so well by now:
"Especially espresso with a wee bit of lemon juice added. Yum, yum!"
But that's the player's excuse.
Kind of feeble, but it (sort-of) works well enough.
^It's funny, the likelihood of me making mistakes with combat posts (in general) seems to definitely go up if I try posting while tired...but if my 'Favorited By Others' tab is any indication, I also apparently do some of my best writing when I'm running on little to no sleep? Anyhoo...
We're getting close to the end of the scenario so I'll go ahead and take a quick poll. There's an optional encounter present in this scenario - shall I include that as part of the experience or would you prefer to skip it? Either option is fine by me and I'm not going to take it personal if folks want to skip it in the interests of finishing up a little sooner :)
Optional is a go, then! I'm getting ready to go out to dinner with some friends but I'll update later tonight when I get home :)
@Damien - Aw shucks, I've just been trying to go with a marching order that seems intuitive (casters in the middle) and is based on the gist of everyone's posting (Bash and Damien tend to lead the way).
@Everyone - Well...that was the optional encounter! I almost feel bad that it turned out to be so easy, but on the other hand when you've got three fighters who are scary good at what they do... :)
Maybe I should've had you guys fight the <redacted> instead? :3
At any rate, those things actually DO have a pretty poor AC - Bolonwr, you *just* missed with that second ray if that says anything!
Anyhow, I'm working the day shift tomorrow (and actually need to get back to bed) so updates won't happen until I get home tomorrow evening - around 5:30ish CST.
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… At any rate, those things actually DO have a pretty poor AC - Bolonwr, you *just* missed with that second ray if that says anything!
That is a pretty pathetic AC. And Bolonwr's shot (roll) was even more pathetic! :p
Mind you, he's probably the only character in the party not good at combat.Only marginally better in melee than your average sorcerer, I reckon.
Afraid so...and alas, she's not Lassie either ;)
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Posting this here for the record so no one worries about shenanigans during this next combat round - after some additional consideration, reading over stuff about mounts, combat-trained critters, and Handle Animal, and consulting with a third party, I'm going to reverse my decision a bit re: Damien's horse.
Though the bit about her not being right there waiting when you exit the tunnel still stands (obviously), I'm going to rule that Damien can attempt to call her with a DC 10 Handle Animal check as a free action. Since the DC is 10, this means that he may attempt it untrained. If he's successful, she'll show up within about a round or so. The big factor in me changing my mind on this is remembering that hey, Janira and the minotaur are out here and they started at the other entrance to the tunnels as well...plus it makes for a cooler story without just stomping all over the rules or the scenario-as-written :)
Does that sound good/make sense to everyone?
@Damien - Not a problem!
@Eredur - I know you will be leaving tomorrow (Saturday) for vacation; do you have any specific botting instructions for me as we finish out the scenario or do you want me to use my own judgement?
It'll be a move action for you to hop on. Sorry for the confusion, I decided to use that picture for Ruby since the rider looks a lot like the avatar you have for Damien! Feel free to move your 'unmounted' token off somewhere in the extra space on the right of the slide so as to avoid any further confusion :)
Since it's the weekend I'll give Bolonwr and Erik a little time to post before I look at botting either of them. Technically the same goes for Eredur but I suspect I was a bit too late to catch him before he started his vacation so I'll bot him once Bolonwr and Erik act :)
Also we're almost done! I'll start work on getting everyone's chronicles ready soon :)
No worries! I had to get to bed earlyish anyway for work today so it all worked out. And now everyone can act again, yay!
Congrats guys! There's still some wrap-up to do but with the defeat of the minotaur you've basically finished the scenario. I'll work on getting everyone's chronicles done tomorrow and I'll leave this campaign open until Eredur's player gets back from vacation and can catch up on how things turned out :)
In the meantime, I'd be interested to hear what everyone thought about the game. Feel free to call 1-800-Nat20s post comments or constructive criticisms here *or* you may PM me if you'd rather share your thoughts in private :)
Okay folks, there's still a little exposition left but I wanted to go ahead and get the game reported and your chronicles finished in case anyone was wanting to try and squeeze in another game on their character before Gameday VI.
Please let me know if there are any mistakes or corrections that need to be made!
Awesome! I'm out ~shopping~ today but I'll get some wrap-up posts done later this evening. Also it occurs to me that I should have asked first about the additional notes on everyone's chronicles; if anyone wants one without the scribbling then just let me know :)
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I actually just remembered that this is my second chronicle because I'd applied GM credit to Damien. He has 1 Prestige and 1 XP before this. It's how I was able to afford the combat-trained mount and lance for his first real mission. I can change the values on the chronicle myself, just need your go ahead. Sorry for the trouble!
Not a problem; my fault for forgetting to ask for those more detailed details! I'll remember that for my next game. Go ahead and change your values, it's fine :)
Hum, that's a good point and one I hadn't thought about. I'd just remembered that there's been a push recently for PbP GMs (and everyone really) to fill out everything on the sheets, so that's what I tried to do. I'll keep that in mind next time I report for sub-2 PCs :)
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Hmm...I hadn't planned to run anything else before my scheduled games for Gameday VI, primarily because I wanted to have a little breather as well as time to prep my scenario since (unlike Confirmation) I've only played it the one time and have never ran it.
HOWEVER, that doesn't mean that I'm not down for running something for all or any combination of you at some point in the future, whether with these same characters or different ones! Maybe play it by ear for now and see what things look like over the next month or two?
(I might have to start trimming down my games as a player so I can GM more!)
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Okay, I've already received a little feedback privately on the game but I realize that maybe it would be easier for folks to offer it if I'm a little more specific about stuff I'm curious about.
(1) Initiative - I ran with block initiative which seems to be pretty standard for games on here, both PFS and otherwise. However, I've seen it pointed out that you can run the risk of someone getting gimped if, say, you have multiple enemies acting at once with only or two potential targets for their spells/attacks. Any thoughts? Is it worth the risk to keep it block format for the sake of making combat rounds flow more quickly or do you think the concern of getting gimped warrants asking a group to 'choose' which method they want at the start of a scenario?
(2) Active Condition Tracker - One of you mentioned privately that you appreciated the tracker of what effects were in place during a combat. A lot of guides I've seen advocate putting the burden of keeping track of buffs and beneficial effects on the players, but to be honest I found it handy for myself when writing combat posts so I knew what AC my bad guys were trying to hit or whatnot.
(3) Posting Speed - Admittedly I have only so much wiggle room to adjust my posting speed due to my job but did everyone find the pace acceptable? Or was it too fast or too slow?
(4) Player Involvement - Related to the previous point, but did everyone feel like they had enough opportunity to post what they wanted to post or did anyone feel like they got left behind or left out at any point? Did you feel like your character's actions and contributions mattered to the story or did I give too much spotlight time to some and not enough to others?
(5) 'Assuming' Things - Since I was already familiar with each of you from other games, I wasn't as inclined to insist that you make posts about searching rooms or spellcrafting items. I honestly dislike having to play the 'if you don't say/post it then it didn't happen' game except in situations where there might be a detail that is specifically noted as needing a specific action to find/trigger/whatever. I understand that doing so is helpful to avoid metagaming (and have seen my own IRL GM use this to curb another player's tendency to do exactly that) but for the most part I figure that the PCs are, as a collective, smart enough to search rooms, look for traps, pick found locks, etc.
(6) Player Agency - Sometimes it's difficult to avoid doing this, especially when writing longer exposition posts, but I tried my best not to take too much player agency away from the group. Did everyone feel like they had a chance to play their character as they saw fit?
(7) Rules vs. Rule of Cool - This is another one where I can only do so much when running a PFS scenario, but was everyone comfortable with my rulings on certain things? I was probably a bit looser in my interpretation of the rules for mounts and the like in this game than some GMs would have been, but to be honest I thought that allowing Damien to call Ruby in for the finale encounter helped to make it a cooler and more dramatic experience. I can already say that I'm probably going to be a GM that's not quite as strict about the rules as others but at the same time, I do want to maintain some degree of consistency with the rules as well as with what you'd expect to see at the majority of PFS tables.
(8) Are You Not Entertained!? - This one is highly subjective, but was everyone entertained if not for the entire game then at least most of it? Admittedly I tried really hard to make the game entertaining and maybe a bit unique since this scenario has been run/played to death by most players at this point. I tried to make Janira be a bit more engaged with the group, I wanted to give Uori a little more character, and I wanted to give what few intelligent opponents you had (the kobolds, the minotaur) a little personality as well. I also hope the occasional 4th-wall-breaking and lampshading of certain things (You can only go one way, what a coincidence!) wasn't off-putting.
Thoughts? As always, feel free to call 1-800-CritsForDayz post here or PM me :)
Haha yeah, I had it as 'To Be Continued' first and then realized that might give the wrong impression so I went back and edited to make it 'Post 1 of 2'. Oops :)
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Further feedback, as concisely as I can put it:
(1) Initiative - If by block initiative you mean letting PCs act in the same 'block' of initiative, then I think that's the way to go with PbP. I never group enemies together this way because I don't feel it's fair.
(2) Active Condition Tracker - Great idea, I do this in some of my games too. A little micromanagy, but I find I forget things unless I do this.
(3) Posting Speed - Your speed was perfect. Not fast enough that I got behind, but not too slow that the game stalled.
(4) Player Involvement - I felt everyone had a chance to shine.
(5) 'Assuming' Things - The only time I make players specifically say they're looking for something is traps. Otherwise, if the scenario text describes something noteworthy, it's a great idea to point it out just because. Sometimes, the writers can put some pretty arbitrary stuff in the scenario that no one would ever think to even look for.
(6) Player Agency - No issues here!
(7) Rules vs. Rule of Cool - I quite liked that you let Ruby join us against the minotaur in a way that was fair. I had to burn a turn to call her and then another move action to mount her, but she really helped decide the outcome of that fight in the end.
(8) Are You Not Entertained!? - Based on my PM, I don't think you have any doubts that I really enjoyed the game. As I mentioned, I'd always be up for another game you run!
Thanks for the input Damien! All of this feedback will help me do a better job running my next game *and* give me an idea of what sorts of things I need to put on my GM profile about how I roll and such :)
As I mentioned before, I'm going to leave this campaign open until Eredur's player returns from vacation and has a chance to read everything and get his chronicle. Once that's taken care of I'll close it down, probably sometime early next week.
It's been a pleasure running for everyone and I'll be sure to check in with everyone next time I plan to run a game and have some openings :)
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I'd like to mostly second Damien's thoughts. There is a delicate line to letting everyone get their say and chance and keeping the game moving at an interesting pace. In my opinion you did great in that regard. So long as people know upfront on how fast/slow a game is going to get run then its fair game (punnn).
I loved the extra flair you put into the NPCs, most times I've seen them they've been pretty flat, which is expected in this game that most people have run repeatedly.
Flexible on the rules is ok so long as they are within reason and keeping to the spirit of the rules. Mounts get screwed in most scenarios so I saw no issue with how you handled that in the least.
Pointing out things is a good idea. I have some GMs that don't put enough into explaining mechanics or listing some options and it can really slow down the game or have someone do something they wouldn't do if they understood how it worked.
That's the best way I've seen to do initiative. Pretty fair and most importantly keeps combats moving along quickly. I would also add maybe asking your players to put in botting instructions in their character sheet and to make a bot rule for how long till they get botted so things don't bog down. Goes hand in hand with pace of play stuff however fast you want the game to run.
Thanks for the feedback, Bash! It's definitely proving helpful as I (slowly since I don't have my scenario yet) start preparing a bit for my first Gameday game :)
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GM Ladile, both Bash and Damien has spoken well about your style and I agree with all they have said. I would look forward to being a player in one of your games anytime.
One of my GM's as far as enemies go puts them in initiative based on type, the boss enemy get's his own place in there while his minion might take up a completely different location. Not saying this way is any better though; because within PbP it can slow down posting if someone in the middle is AWOL. It is just another option.
I can't speak from the GM standpoint, but as a player, a thoroughly enjoyable experience with obvious thought put into the play of the NPC's.
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Back from vacation!
It was really a pleasant experience. Everything was ran smoothly and with efficience.
I enjoyed the little humor touches (but you know me a little already Lady L, and you know I appreciate jokes.) and the personality shown in NPc.
Sometimes I thought I could have done better with Eredur, I rarely play wizards, and selected some spells that weren't useful (Nothing against undead and no magical ray)
Things weren't too tough or too easy, and you kept a great balance.
Thank you for this great game, I'll enjoy some future adventures with you as a GM, Lady L