MoF's Hells Rebels

Game Master MordredofFairy

Oh sorry to see you go. But it was fun while it lasted : )

Good luck on your other endeavours and maybe we'll see you around at some other time!

Agreed, hope for the best for you, Nissim!

Best of luck to you, Nissim. it has been a pleasure.

I'm in airports all day today. Will be back in the swing of things tomorrow.

Dibs on Nissim's cut of the loot!

But seriously, hope things settle for soon and your other games go well.

Oh well.
That said: I do feel you are quite capable as you are. But, of course, a full arcane vancian caster could be needed later. Or maybe you feel something else(like a tanky melee, or a Milani-worshipping Bard) would bring something useful to the table?

Specifically, the prison break would offer a great opportunity to add someone new to the team if that is desirable.

My instinct is that I think we are fine the way our group is--5 solid characters. But I would defer to the group.

Also, just to be clear: Those scrolls were not planned originally...but you are short one member(so they are compensation for that) and they might allow you to act with a bit more confidence to avoid over-analysing. I like to throw open scenarios like this at my home players but I suppose they need a kind of direct back-and-forth discussion that is not working out to the same level in pbp...part of my learning process, I'll adapt.

I'm in the path of Harvey (southern end of the storm, not a direct hit). If I'm incommunicado these next few days, I'm internetless. Please bot if needed.

Will do, if it comes to that...lets see what'll be the pace we get to move ahead with, here...if nobody speaks up against the stated plan, we'll progress with it at Sunday...

It's hard to have really in-depth discussions in pbps, since it's days between suggestions instead of minutes. But we'll try : )

Aye, I kind of knew that going in :)
But it's also the possibility of interjections I had not considered.

At a table game, someone will take up the mantle and start formulating a theoretical solution, and if anybody sees a problem with a step, they'd speak up, drawing attention to details that might otherwise have been missed, or alternate solutions...if thats not the case, or when those aspects have been addressed, there will be a "plan" of sorts(often not a very good one, but hey, that's on my players) that, due to the process it went through, is accepted.

It's harder in pbp, but I simply assumed it would work in a similar vein, of a plan being formulated and then others chiming in. The logically fallacy of course being that certain later plan components might depend on earlier ones...as such it HAS to be a sequential process which is a lot more effort to go through in pbp.

@all: *shrug* as said, you're my guinea pigs. I like to say I learn things, but yeah, we can also take Nissim's departure as a opportunity to empower that learning process...as he said, he had the AP doubled up, but picked the other game. It's nice of him to say it's because you guys are a great team that does not effectively need him, but...well, lets say looking at his post frequency here compared to other games I'm not convinced that alone was the reason.

So, that said, I can only 'do better' if I know what's wrong. Wether in discussion or PM, I would appreciate feedback. It's been over a year. Most of you are still here, so I hope not everything is bad :) But I know some things could be better, so do help me.
What did you not like? What would you change if you could? What did you like? What would you like to see more/less?
I'd appreciate if you all took a few minutes and wrote me. Some things may never have occured to me, so if you bring them to my attention that would be great.

It's also key that I should note: Nissim also said he was having trouble getting into his character. That's something a DM can't fix, and it's something I've had issues with as well. Depending on how much effort you're putting into the campaign and that character as a DM, it can create a rather large problem.

Take my Wrath of the Righteous game.

The important thing here is that the player grew bored with a character and changed characters. That's something I don't really see happen in PbP ever. It's like an unwritten rule that you simply don't. Because the DM picks you based on the character you make, what does it say when you change that character? (The WotR DM actually chose us based on a lot of things, not least of which our post rate, dropped games, backstory, etc.)

So it could also be -entirely- that Nissim wasn't feeling his character and felt 'stuck' in that character. Even though realistically he was not (You'd likely prefer for him to change to have fun and you get to keep a player you enjoy playing with). This may be projecting, though. :P

So, I think it's more likely that it's the 'trapped in the character' thing. He had a character he couldn't really get into, whose role was sort of muddied by the fact that multiple other characters covered the same roles, so there wasn't really a way to branch out. On a tabletop, the character can evolve much more quickly. On PbP a character you're not into can literally take months to have a chance to 'change'. Not just change to a new character, but 'grow' the character.

That's sorta where I'm at with Lily. Nothing has pushed her away from being a goody-two-shoes 'cleric' of Shelyn. So she's just the quintessential good girl making hard decisions. Over time, i suspect thigns will grow harder. But I'm also running into the opposite problem. I feel like the role she fills isn't really filled by the party at all. So any realistic change would be 'changing to similar' or Keeping Lily Around.

Not a super issue, but probably why you've also noted lower post rates on this character than characters in other games. :)

So, to your questions!

What do I not like: I feel like this raid is going to be a lot harder than we can adequately plan for, but with Aldous captured, we no longer have a choice in whether we roll forward with a plan or when we roll forward with that plan. My player-brain says 'abandon Aldous, scuttle the wreckage! The others must live!' My gamer-brain says 'we won't be put in a situation we can't handle.' my me-brain says 'LOGICAL FALLACY. THE GAME DOES NOT BEND TO YOUR PETTY BELIEFS ABOUT FAIR.', and my Lily-Brain says 'Save everyone. Do it now! No need for a plan! Just do it!' So I have all these conflicting things going on, and my brain is simultaneously telling me 'it will be fine. you have to do it. You have no way of knowing it will be fine.' And even you don't think we've adequately planned for it. :P So, what I don't like, is all the extreme internal conflict.

What I do like/sorta don't: Personal scenes tend to take a lot of time and rob us from interacting with other players. 'Never split the party' is not an issue at all to me. Totally split the party. But avoid moving the party solo. Like, if Aldous had gone in with one of the other characters, it wouldn't be solely on Aldous and you to interact with the prison scene. You could get a lot more interesting back and forth and it wouldn't feel like a job or commitment to relate to it. I tend to over-RP my solo scenes, so keeping it short and sweet with 'you're by yourself, what do you do' may be more ideal. (I say that, after being the person who did the least interaction with my 'prep days'. Work has been nuts.)

What I do like: Mostly everything else. You've put a lot of effort into molding hte world to be very different from the base HR, so anyone who's read the first bits is thrown off quite a lot from expectations.

What I'd like to see more of: Forward momentum. The more thoughtful players are on PbP, the slower things tend to move. We also stalled quite a lot, due to real life stuff, which kinda pushes back on that forward momentum. The thing here, though, is that forward momentum tends to be more on the players than the DM, short of 'waiting for the DM to respond'. So this is more of a 'I'd like to see me pushing the game forward more, but I'm not. Sorry.'

Something I'd like to do: Involve Hannah more, and eventually have her overtake Lily's position within the Rebellion, with Lily becoming Hannah's 'cohort'. What that means in the short term is a question: How do you and Aldous feel about Hannah being in the prison, and how do you and Aldous feel about Hannah and Aldous knowing each other? It seems pretty likely that the Jarvis family would have a Retainer. :P

The only thing I worry about is how we would have detect thoughts and charm person interact with the Vigilante class. Would you also like a list of things she might be thinking of? I'd figure since she hasn't told anyone she's an uncaped crusader that there's nothing to worry about for spilling that bean to even the best of friends. :)

What are the thoughts on that last bit? :)

I want stupider enemies, better rolls for us, and more loot. The usual player complaints, in other words :p.

Could do with a bit better tracking on loot (we still haven't figured those raven statuettes out, for instance), campaign rules--proposed and accepted/rejected--and the rules for running our little rebellion.

LOGISTICS FOR THE GUNSLINGER. OF COURSE THAT'S WHAT HE WANTS.

:)

LOGISTICS FOR THE GUNSLINGER. OF COURSE THAT'S WHAT HE WANTS.

:)

Well of course! I am the leading man, after all...

I'm in the path of Harvey (southern end of the storm, not a direct hit). If I'm incommunicado these next few days, I'm internetless. Please bot if needed.

Stay safe, looks like a big one.

@Raven Statues - I think there were [Number of Players] statues just so everyone get one each. That's what I've been assuming at least : )

@Like - I do actually like the small alone-time intermissions, since it's a bit different. But mostly because they have taken place while we also have another discussion going on. So when we were plotting our next moves and stuff they fit quite well. Probably not so much if we didn't also have those : )

And onto the bigger picture! This game is quite well run, at least from what I can tell : )

@Improve - Hmm tougher. Like Lily this whole prison break is a bit conflicting. But I'm not sure if it isn't supposed to be this way. A trial by fire for the rebellion or something. But yeah the whole detail plan something in a pbp is hard (or rather very time consuming!).

@Storm - Good luck : )

Questions if you do want/are okay with Hannah being in the prison:

What level should I make her? (I currently have her at level 1 with several 'future choices' somewhat locked in. So it should be easy to level her up if you're okay with her coming along.

Also, on the topic of storms: Haven't been keeping up with it, let us know once it's 'over'. If you can :)

@Lily-roo - Mhmp Lily is fun and sweet to be around but what is important is really that you are having fun. And I'm sure Hannah will also be an interesting character : )

(Also curious to see how the Vigilante would play out. This does seem like a good campaign for it!)

She'd be focusing on Kineticist, so only 3 levels of vigilante. I may wind up asking for a custom feat or the like to help 'boost vigilante cool things' she has. Like I plan on giving her Safe House and may want to invest in making that better, if it's possible. It should be fine as is. Likewise, I may want to try to 'buy' some quality of life thing, like Quick Change. Not that I see it being necessary, probably. Though there's some value to it.

Not transformation sequence :P?

^^?

Lily, I'll come back to Hannah once I have some time to consider, I don't want to give a rushed answer.

@Transformation Sequence:
I'm tempted to use a Half-Orc or Dwarf Monk with Int as dumpstat and give them one level of Magical Child Vigilante, just so they can do the sound+lightshow transformation into their alter ego...which is the same half-orc or dwarf monk in a sailor suit and a zorro mask.
But they are well-liked enough in their area of renown that everybody basically plays along with "Oh, who is that and where did he come from?"...

No landfall here yet, and south Texas may avoid the bad stuff. Looking more and more like Houston/Corpus/Galveston are going to get walloped though :/

@ Hannah, I've got no problem with Aldous knowing her. Perhaps her family is a longstanding client of Jhalto, Jhalto, & Ness, Aldous' firm?

The way the cells are set up, Aldous hasn't seen too many people, so there's no continuity problems. She could simply be in one of the cells Aldous has yet seen.

@ raid: Take your time. Aldous is capable of taking care of himself, and barring any more really bad will save rolls, he should be out of the fire and into his cell on a more or less permanent basis. Plus, he got himself into this. I'm ok with it if it costs him his life. He knew the risks.

@ state of the game: I think the game is pretty good, GM. I run a sandbox game on these boards, and I appreciate the open-endedness you're going for here, and the work you're putting into it. But, open-endedness is tough in PBP. For what it is worth, here is what I've learned in my game (YMMV):

1) I stopped going totally sandbox pretty early in the process, where I had set up a large city sandbox, with different plotlines for each PC. Some took to it, and some didn't (and I started my game with players that were handpicked because they are good players that initiate things). I had a large character ark designed for a specific player that was going to fill in a lot of plot questions and develop inworld NPC relationships - and right when that was to go into effect, that player had a crisis and was largely unavailable for the next couple of months, other than one-line posts. It turned out OK; I pivoted, reused those plot elements later, and no one was any the wiser.

2) The process of consensus just takes too long in PBP. As I said above, I stopped going to total sandbox. Instead, I go with multiple rails. The analogy in this game would be the prison raid, which has largely been up to us to plan and execute, given the information we have. This is really cool, and I love it, but planning an intricate raid is just too difficult in this format; the end result is circular arguments and stasis, leading to hesitation.

2a) What I do, in order to avoid this sort of circular discussion -> stasis -> hesitancy thing, is I prompt a lot of the planning discussion. Sometimes, I'll limit the PCs to three options (never more than three), drawn up by their in-world knowledge and whatever successes and failures they have had, and just present it to them.

Sometimes, my players will hit on another idea taking advantage of different aspects of things provided by me, once I've laid out some basic ideas.

Sorry, Miranda, that didn't do you justice!

2b) Other times, I just guide the discussion. A lot. I usually do this in the discussion tab, sometimes concurrently with rails being laid. If players don't pick up on something, but I'm pretty sure their PCs would, I go ahead and clue them in. PBP is a drawn out affair with lots of writing; it is easy to miss things.

I agree with Lily about forward momentum. Something I do is I don't wait for every player to chime in. If a player voices an idea and someone else agrees, I go ahead and move things along treating that as consensus - unless it is a really crucial point of discussion, like say, a prison break :)

The only complaint I have, and it is pretty minor, is that I (as a GM) don't roll important rolls for PCs. That Aldous opened the door and got whacked with two mind control spells that I never had the chance to roll to counter was a tough pill to swallow.

I understand the desire to move things along from the GM perspective, however, and a lot of GMs do exactly the same thing, so as I said, it is a minor complaint.

What I do: ask the player for the relevant save(s), with the statement that I need it ASAP. I'll shoot the player a pm or spoiler the results of a failed save. If I don't hear from them in a certain amount of time (usually I give 24 hrs), then I roll the save(s) and move on.

Apologies for the lack of posts, by the way. Just finished moving, and things are scrambled right now, including the contents of my head :p.

Re: Transformation Sequence: I feel like the familiar side of things would actually make vigilante considerably less valuable. In addition, while a fun gimmick, I think I'll save Magical Child for an Aerokineticist Gestalt. SHAZAM!

It's just that the really flashy change won't do well at all for a sneaky sneaky vigilante, you know? Time seems less of the essence than the tradeoff of 'odd. She just walked into that room, confetti leaked out from under the door, and now our heroine has appeared...'

But I -do- plan to probably take the familiar on my Kineticist side. Either a Raven that takes the Mascot route (I haven't doublechecked compatibility for that archetype) or go straight for a Nosoi psychopomp via additional feats. :)

Not sure the base familiar talent is worth nearly as much, though...

As for Saves/Perceptions/Sense Motives/Linguistics checks and their ilk, I don't at all mind you rolling those for me. Anything that can get valuable information into my hands more quickly is worthwhile to keep things flowing, at least to me. :)

To put it another way, BBEG throws a fireball at the party. Party needs to roll reflexes. A failed roll could KO one or two of the players. As a result, everyone -needs- to wait until -all- saves are rolled to respond accordingly. One enemy action just became 1-2 days waiting for posts. Yuck.

Weekend is family time, mostly, so I'll not go in depth...I'll try and address things more on one of the evenings or monday...but 2 things I wanted to comment on:

just casual: Transformation Sequence - it's amusing, in that Vigilante, as written, does not "lose" anything if their social persona/hidden identity is revealed. I actually intended to play a schizophrenic Dr Jekyll/Mr. Hyde kind of Vigilante with the social side being a nice guy-hero and the vigilante side a psychotic...anti-hero, and not trying to hide it's the same person.
Just when Mr. Nice Guy figures he can no longer fix things, he allows his darker side to take over and take care of the situation-

@Saves: Aye, Lily's explanation, basically. In some cases, I need to know WHAT happens to continue writing. In Aldous example, if the Charm Person had failed, you could have decided to try and leave, or Mr. Besker might have reacted differently.
And the Detect Thoughts, same thing, he would have asked less leading questions and more direct ones, relying on Sense Motive, or possible asking a cleric for assistance.
I did those because they helped the game flow. Crissali's fine tomes? Yeah, that doesn't look good for them, but this way, you KNOW what happened. If they simply incarcerate you, then find the connection during a routine background check, or investigate closer because his daughter failed her save, you don't know WHY what happens happens, you can assume it but it seems more random. Not saying anything WAS scripted in that regard, matter of fact, I had no plans for the bookstore in that scene(could have been you thought about something else).
So what I'm saying is that having done it like that helped the flow, and, in this case, "failure" simply allows me to create meaningful events in the near future that are connected to something that happened on-screen.
If you succeeded, things would still happen in the future, but I would have to invoke "off-screen"-causality. So I felt that this was a case where the save, while it matters in the story, to the character, from a player/GM perspective was either neutral(if you make it) or lucky(for me, if you fail it) and proceeded to roll it for you to keep things going.

That said, I think I did mention it in the past. If there's any Save-or-Sucks(that really matter) or Save-or-Dies coming up later on, you will get to roll yourself. Not vs. some Ghoul's paralysis that shifts target to someone else. But if the Asmodean Cleric intends to coup-de-grace you next round, yeah, you'll get to make the save yourself.
Keep the flow going, but the REALLY important saves will be your own to make...of course, I'll be the final judge on what is deemed important. :)

Just a quick pop in to say a couple of things about dropping the campaign.

@Mordred: Your posting pace didn't have anything to do with it. God knows our ROTRL campaign is slower for example. I'm not really bothered by that sort of thing nearly as much as I was back when I started PbP.

You're right about the character issues though. Nissim has always been difficult for me to get a feel for, and know what to do with. Actually I don't think it's Nissim in particular as much as a lack of interest in full arcane casters on my part. I just don't grok them.

++++++++

So anyway, I didn't choose against this campaign so much as I chose for others. There were a few considerations there.

First, duplicate campaigns. If I'm playing the same AP more than once, one of them would be dropped. I had 2 each of Hell's Rebels and ROTRL.

Second, how integrated into the character group is the character? Would dropping it really screw up what the other players are doing and/or bust the group in some way beyond the typical need to find a replacement? I can say that is true of 3 APs where a lot of work has been put into relationships and shared history that really screws some other players if I drop.

The ROTRL Modred and I are in doesn't count among those 3, my character is replaceable in it, but I have made a personal vow to finish ROTRL (the campaign is my 4th shot at it) and I will never quit it.

I'm not dissatisfied with any of the campaigns I've been playing. I'm fairly easy to please I suppose. But due to my character in this one, and the fact he can disappear with only a few slight ripples in the game to mark the departure compared to the other one, I decided to keep the other. (It's also the one I started first of the two).

Anyway, I just wanted to make it as clear as I can that I haven't been unhappy at all with this campaign, and it isn't evidence of any flaws with it. I've enjoyed it and liked playing with all of you. I simply have to cut back due to time and had to make decisions based on something.

That's really the long and the short of it.

But, but... how am I supposed to project upon you when you're giving us the answers directly..?

Slight delay and taking a day or two longer to respond here and update.

I just(~2 hours ago) had a slightly devastating discussion with my superior at work(those are regularily scheduled twice a year).
You may or may not remember that I changed from one department to another April this year.
Well, to make it short: As things look now, I'll be losing certain benefits((because it was a verbal agreement with my old superior, and the new one will not extend it "because other people in the department would demand the same benefits"), may lose my current 2-people office(and be moved to a large multi-user cubicle-office space(in order to share a workspace with a subcontractor for more direct communication)), may have to do shift work(starting 5am, which means getting up ~3:30 am, or open-ended into the evenings) and weekend work(regulary on sunday, sometimes on saturday)...all in all, a wholesome "bad deal" that, right now, honestly has me contemplating writing applications to other companies if the 'blow' is not softened(and no, the little extra cash they have to pay for working on sunday won't cut it-)

Thats some stuff that stays on my mind, and I can't simply put that on hold and focus on something else. Apologies, I will try and come back to this as soon as possible, just right now(when I planned to do so), I'm not really feeling up to it.

Good luck. I believe most people know the strain of keeping your head on straight when work is trying to tear it off. (My last year. But.. at least I haven't been concerned about money until the last two or so months of it... :P)

Hopefully things work out for you in short order.

Thanks. Well, it doesn't help that while I have a 40-minute commute to work, I learned that a contractor that we outsource services to has it's main office literally across the street from where I live. It's like, 2 minutes on foot, and thats mostly spent waiting on the elevator.
I truly am tempted to try and write an application, see if they would take me -

Easy interview answer: "I just had a baby born and am looking to spend that more-than-hour time spent to and from work with her."

Businesses love family men. They're stable. :P

Best of luck to you GM. Always apply for something if it interests you, imo. There's nothing to lose but a little time.

Indeed, good luck!

That doesn't sound very fun at all! Good luck on sorting it out : )

Aye, expected resolution of my personal life drama expected next week. I had several talks this week, and will have a decisive talk with the superior of my superior early next week - I'm very much on edge about that(because I know I'll have to defend my position and change his mind which will not be an easy task), but yeah, thanks for the moral support!
@Always apply/go to interview: Not that easy for a variety of reasons I won't discuss in depth...suffice to say there's more going on in the background.

Back to the regularily scheduled programme:
First and foremost: Aldous, I hope you're fine? I mostly get my Disaster-news from Imgur, and it seems like an inquiry might be in order?

@Nissim: I don't even know if you are reading along(and I will move you to inactive, I forgot previously, apologies), but I'll still answer.

I know plenty of games are slow, but I also see examples that manage a daily update, or several updates a day. I also know that I check in to paizo more than once a day, so yeah, it is an issue for me. Like, I only RUN one game, and can't do as well with the updating as others who run more games. I like to think I compensate by more depth, not plainly following a prewritten path, but...yeah, it still bothers me. I repeatedly said I want to try to get at least 2 updates in per week, and I maintain that goal, so I'm always feeling bad when I don't manage to do so.

/Character not clicking - As Lily has said, if any of you are unhappy with the character you play, I much rather would see you tell me, we provide a fitting end(alive or dead, as wished) for the character and you roll in with a new one. Luckily, with a rebellion, we get a steady influx of promising new hero-wannabes.

I was unsure with Nissim, because he was a fixed starter. You got the slot without needing to worry about competition, so could have played anything you wanted to play, class/race/conceptwise(within reason) - I expected the problem was that you did not have to think about Nissim in-depth during recruitment and then had a problem finding a proper niche/role for yourself.

As with Juliette before, I think I already said it: If you want to come back to the game, with Nissim or a different character, you are welcome. I know time right now is an issue, there was a reason you had to cut back, but if things get better again, feel free to drop a note.
Regarding the campaign being a duplicate: I think Lily already said it...there is little need to worry, so much is changed...I'm staying within a framework, but thats about it :)

@Boros: Better dice rolls is not my responsibility ;) Stupider enemies - will definitely come up. No worries. You'll also get smarter enemies, though. So...be prepared.
More loot: Well, it's probably not a spoiler, but there's lootable stuff in the blacksite. The question is simply "how long do we risk staying?"...if you rush in and out, stuff may be missed, but in general, I'll try to keep things roughly aligned with WBL.

@Extending the Campaign Info with additional information and rules: Yes, that is a very valid point you bring up. I will try and find a day in the not-so-far future to go through the threads again, sum things up and put them into campaign info with reference.
As well as put an excerpt of the rebellion rule system - after all, you'll have your first full/proper week coming up soon.

@Aldous: I think I explained the part with the rolls in an earlier post here.
I appreciate sharing the experiences you had with sandbox-games. I suppose I was reluctant to try and push into certain directions using a NPC(in fact, I try to keep Rexus out of the spotlight) - but it seems once a certain time has passed with nobody taking the initiative and formulating a plan, I should do so.
My worry was thus: If I choose a "good" approach as GM, then it makes sense to let the NPC's plan things out by themselves and tag along.
If I choose a "bad" approch to a problem, then it seems like I'm punishing plyers for not choosing themselves. So I want to avoid the latter, and not get players used to the former...and if I go with a middle-ground, then it seems bland, which is not a good solution if it comes up repeatedly.
I'll keep in mind what you told me and will think about it further.

@Lily: The goody-two-shoes part: I understand, and I apologize, I only wanted to run so many sub-plots simultaneously, and I figured with you being so busy at work it would be easiest to not run a more involved arc for you, at the time. Besides, I could have seen her as the "Good Soul" of the Rebellion, if only you saw more of why it is so necessary to stop what Thrune is doing here.(as in, fully commit to those hard decisions)
@Role not covered: If you feel there would be a void in covering Lily's role, but not want to bring in a new character, I can also provide a temporary GMPC for that, until such time as you can take yourself as Cohort.

@Raid difficulty: A mixture of all that. Your gamer-brain is right insofar as I would not push you into situations that terminate in a TPK - I'd at least try somehow to discourage you from that course of ction. Your me-brain is right in that I'm also not pulling punches. If you see something that seems beyond your ability to cope with, it probably is and you should start running. If you insist on trying to overcome every challenge, that may be deadly. Your player-brain is welcome to voice that opinion, as it definitely is valid...he got into this himself, after all. Then again, you haven't heared from Hanna for a while...so the Lilybrain may have a point.
That said, some internal conflict is good :) Much more interesting than non-decisions where you're riding in a complete railroad.

@Personal Scenes: Yep, I figured that after running the first weeks solo scenes. But here, they were supposed to be a backdrop happening simultaneously with the planning of the prison break.
To be honest, I envisioned something along the lines of the character, for example, bringing up that they would scout out the sewers, then together with that statement at planning provide a days action where they do just that...then I'd provide feedback and more planning could take place based on that. In a movie, you would hear the person explain the plan from the off while seeing the scene play out in a montage- that kind of thing.
But yeah, I messed up myself, there - that it did not work out like that is on me, but this time, there was a point to the solo scenes(with hopes of being ready to jump into action when everything was resolved).
@Forward momentum: It's also on me. I sometimes try to write back quickly, other times I take significantly longer. I'll need to be more consistent in my own response times to elicit a higher "push" rate from players. So yeah, while that momentum comes from players, it's easy to "take it easy" with slower-moving games.

Regarding Hannah: I would be willing to wave the requirements from Subjective Truth and let her pick it up early. In my eyes, this should be a key element for a vigilante that tries to keep their identity secret. Especially in a setting where magic and law enforcement is commonly available to enemies and one is part of a rebellion - those without it would soon get rooted out by the inquisition.

@Hannah and Aldous knowing each other: thats your decision to make, but I feel it could also work out nicely if only Lily knows her at first and introduces her to the group(which would have the side effect of letting you describe her, and/or tell the others about herself from her own point of view, without assuming one of the players to have more knowledge already).
@Detect Thoughts: Could be relevant, but I'd wave it if she picks up subjective truth as I see her mind as sufficiently 'distinct' to not think about the other ID's "topics". That does not mean Hannah in her Social ID is a big fan of Thrune, just that there's nothing incriminating. If you decide to pass on Subjective Truth(it's an offer, not a requirement) then yes, a list of thoughts to roll on would be appreciated.
That said, yes, we can include her as you suggested.

So, only Varuzhan responded earlier, asking once more:
With Nissim taking his leave, do we need a replacement character?
With Lily swapping to Hannah, in combination with Nissim leaving, do we need a replacement?
Considering Lily would return as cohort, should Lily simply keep her in the background of the Rebellion?
Do you want a GMPC tagging along for that while?
Please do share your thoughts on those questions.

I will try and update game later or tomorrow.

Re: Replacement: I don't know that one is necessary, but if you do want one, I can play as either Lily or Hannah, allowing them to 'fill' that other role. I really do like both characters. :)

After more thought about 'changing' and 'cohort': It's more accurate to say that as a player, I'm looking at the Rebellion as an opportunity to have more than one character that could feasibly be involved, and that I'm perfectly happy to have one character be busy for one reason or another (either by my choice or yours!). Lily may be locked down helping Laria cater to some rich noble's party. Hannah might be getting audited or investigated. Other characters: ???

If that's not something you're interested in, not a big deal. I can easily go with 'one or the other' until something bad happens, then I'll have the other, for obvious reasons. :)

What level should I prep Hannah for?

I'm going to abstain on the question of an extra player/character until I see how Hannah does. I know f&~$-all for kineticists and the like, so I have no way of figuring out how the party balance will be affected.

Think of it as a sort of really heavy hitter. But only for a single attack at a time. There are actually a lot of utility things as well.

Think of her as an evoker mage that's somewhat limited in their other cool things (so really limited spell selection, but more reliable use thereof).

To start, she'll have DR 1/Adamantine, and the ability to spend her move action to bullrush on hit. At third level, she'll have a range of 120 feet (because there really aren't any better choices than extended range at level 3 or earlier). Her starting feats are Noble Scion (because she's of house Jarvis!), which enables the DM to just automatically roll her perception to detect secret doors and hidden spaces and Bludgeoner, which allows her to blast people in the face (or back of the head) with nonlethal damage. So she doesn't rack up on our body count.

On the vigilante side, she gets a sort of sneak attack (2d8 damage against unaware enemies (or 'allies'), 2d4 against flanked or dexless), as well as the ability to keep her home life and action hero life separate in her head (per Mordred's suggestion). She's also really good at keeping the separate personas physically separate as well. She has the ability to use stealth and acrobatics at full speed with no penalty.

Starting at level three, I'm a little torn. A safehouse is cool and was the original idea (270 square feet in 10 foot high rooms). Renown (her original level 1 talent) can be picked up as a feat. Companion to the Lonely is pretty strong and fitting but 'acts of physical pleasure' is probably meant to be directly interpreted as sexual, rather than romantic.

As an aside, Turnabout is probably one of the most overpowered class abilities I've seen in pathfinder. It's just ludicrously good.

Hey GM, I'm good. Harvey made landfall a little farther north of where it was first thought, and as a result, where I live, on the border, was unharmed.

@ Recruitment: We've got five players still, and that's a number that I personally like for PBP. Maybe we should revisit roles and see if there's any holes?

What's Hannah's role? Front-liner/tank, if I understand right?

We should be okay:

Varuzhan - melee
Boros - ranged/melee
Miranda - skills/traps
Aldous - magic/heal
Hannah - ranged/utility?

A little light on healing, but out of combat we can rely on wands.

Hannah is a deceptively tanky ranged. She'll have a few tricks for sploding thing and controlling things and even a few enabling bits in her build.

I'm actually thinking I'll stick with Lily for now if you guys are pleased with that. I do still think that Hannah being in the prison is a neat surprise for Lily, a way for Aldous to have a conversation partner, a way to introduce the vigilante to the rebellion (if not the other way around), so on and so forth. I think it's just all around nice to go ahead and add that tie-in. What do you folks think?

@Replacement character - I was thinking my silence on the topic could be treated as a solid 'meh'. I don't think we really need one, but if people do want one I'm not opposed. Though it seems as if most of us are also feeling confident with what we have : )

@Roles - I think we have most stuff covered actually.

There's plenty of us with a bit of skill so most of that should be covered (though I suppose we could pester Lily to put Hannah in that spreadsheet of ours and see if there are any glaring holes? Maybe she already has, I haven't actually checked yet :P). Miranda has the super-magical trapfinding thingy and that's usually the one skill-y thing that might be missing.

We have more then enough ways to hurt our enemies, both at melee and almost-melee range (guns, Destruction sphere, earth-bender). I suppose we could benefit from someone with really really long range - but we are in a city. And we have some bows if the worst comes to it.

For healing we have someone with the Life sphere to patch our wounds and a witch which have some witchy brews that help statuses a bit (I think). Not super duper mega good - but there's always Cure Light Wound Wands and the Heal skill. And besides Aldous might pick up a few tricks maybe and Lily will eventually come back (or never leave?) and she can at the very least read scrolls :)

In the magic department we have a fake wizard, spheres of power shenanigans and soon fake earth magic. Plus a whole slew of little other magical trickery up our sleeves thanks to 3rd level gestalt. So I think we are set for now. Though eventually, in say about 10 levels or so, we might find that we are missing the really world shaping magics. But that's then - and I'm sure we'll figure something out :P

The last section works decently well as crowd control and force multiplication and so - and this is a category that's more nice then needed (though very useful!). But a bit of buffs and stuff won't be missed if anyone can think of a decent way to find any. But it seems unnecessary to rope someone in just so they can sing our praise ^^

Just my two cents on the topic.

@More people: It's fine, consensus seems to be you got things covered :) Just wanted to make sure the inquire didn't just get overlooked/lost-

@Hannah/Lily I'll have to think more on running them simultaneously/exchangeable. I am not genuinely opposed to the idea...but...

...one reason is, spoiler ahead, that your Level 4 Boon will be a Cameo, where you get to, once in the campaign, get to have another of your characters from any other campaign(or one of my characters, just because) show up and help out in a ongoing situation/scene(no sending off that Level 19 assassin to kill Thrune :P).
That could be when things look bleak(a deus ex machina rescue squad of your own making...), or simply when special expertise is needed - but the value is slightly diminished if we go with "multiple characters is a thing and you get to swap between them between missions to change your "loadout" for optimal mission performance".

Any character? Do they *uh* get to bring their gear (even if - especially if - the game isn't pathfinder)?

Man I'm really feeling that dipping my toes in traveller is about to pay off big time ... :P

Tsk.tsk.tsk Miranda :)
Terms and conditions will apply :P
Don't get worked up over possibilities before you even know more about it - it's mostly supposed to be a flavorful get-out-of-jail free card(pity aldous only gets it after he'll be out of jail) when things seem to go seriously wrong(bad luck streak etc) without me needing to pull punches, but requiring the expenditure of a very limited resource.(If this was a SHMUP consider it a screen-clearing smartbomb - the boss may still kick your ass but you may have earned a breather-).

Naww okay... *tucks away orbital bombardment plans*... :P

I... don't have any characters from other games that would make sense to appear in the city and do a thing. :o

So I suppose it's a good thing I have backup characters in the city to do the things. :)

I think the thing that's more important to me is to establish the presence of Hannah now so she isn't shoehorned in if anything should happen to Lily. Plus, I get really excited about the opportunity of new characters.

In my WotR game, my character just almost died (but thanks to random consumable we're making it out okay), and I was actually excited at the prospect of my body probably not being recoverable so I could implement my next awesome character concept. Even though I absolutely love my current character. :O

As said, don't worry about that boon stuff yet :P That comes up when it comes up, and will be defined. It's a cameo for a reason, other characters would not need to make sense in THEIR story to appear here...call it an alternate universe where they DID end up here(in a way that makes orbital bombardment unlikely as an option).

That said, I was not absolutely ruling out the option of 'switching' between characters, albeit I would honestly like to see a primary. I did mention that I do try and get characters involved in sub-arcs/plots...which is hard if the character gets swapped out regulary and gets less than half the screentime she or he would usually have - because time doesn't move fast in pbp to start with, know what I mean?

...in a way that makes orbital bombardment unlikely as an option)

:D