Hope you get to feeling better quickly. And no worries in the delay, either. I'm in no rush to get booted around some more with sucky dice rolls :p.
Agreed, hope you are well and on your way to recovery.
Ufduh. Hope you feel better soon, GM!
Hey all, the flooding in south texas got our neighborhood. I'm out of town but driving back now. Don't know the extent of the damage yet but I may be gone a bit.
That sounds really bad, hope your home is okay.
+1!
Here's hoping you're high and dry!
It's better for me, now. There's been lots of surrounding stuff to take care off, but I think that break was long enough.(I started posting again a few days ago - catching up and getting back into posting was harder for the 2 games I run...the other one I'll tackle in the evening.)
One game(with 150 new posts waiting) is still waiting for me to catch up.
Oh, and for the protocol, regularily the Devil would have went invisible, Lily made that impossible - as a result, he would have left regardless of the mentioned streamlining, he simply opted to delay you until reinforcements could arrive.
Mordred, welcome back! We'll probably pay for allowing the devil to go free, but that was always going to be hard to avoid.
Aldous, hope everything turned out okay with your house.
If Miranda attacks and steps back, Varuzhan can then take up her spot in the front line, while giving Boros room to step and attack.
Aye, he has some nice recordings.
And aye...as he is actually REALLY here, not just summoned, a death would be final. He was cocky as long as he was not hurt, but things got a bit too inconvenient, with the swarm leaving, realizing the was a silver weapon involved, and that the incompetent attackers actually could hurt him. He could probably have held out a round or two more, but why take the risk if not contractually obliged...Still, you won the encounter ;)
Also, I hope everything's okay on your end as well, Aldous.
Nice to see this getting back on track :-)
I'll need to take a look at the current situation to get back into it though, hopefully I'll have time tonight!
Aye, I understand. Took me a bit to get up to speed with the situation again, as well.
Mm.
In hindsight I don't recall why we didn't simply grapple the annoying thing and pummeled it into the ground while hoping it can't concentrate. Ah well maybe next devil :-P
In hindsight, it was pretty much 'He appears!' 'Roll fort to do anything!' you both fail. Then 'Roll reflexes and fort to do anything!' And by the end of it, I think you had to roll an 8+ twice just to get the opportunity to move or swing, and the dice did not enjoy our company. :P
Aye, he was not much of a combat beast, more of a disabler, and as his agenda was to delay you, it made sense to play to that strenght.
I did mess up on the teleport+full-round-summon, but as compensation, he did waste a round trying to bite you :/
But mostly, I blame unlucky dice on your side- . Lets hope the hiatus helped solve that streak ;)
Yep, I'm good. Our neighborhood got wrecked, so we were relatively fortunate, all things considered, only suffering some damage at the exterior of our property and our HVAC system. Which considering the entrance to our neighborhood was under 4' of water, isn't too bad!
I'll get a post up today.
Meant to update today, but I am on standby again this week :/ had a very short night yesterday and just fell asleep typing. I'll save it and finish tomorrow :)
Mhm I just recalled that we were wearing masks! So only red eyes; no pointy teeth visible :P
Hello! I think this is working again. Hopefully.
Yey! Hopefully :P
Woot! Hiya all y'all!
About time!
Glad to see site is back, and more so over seeing most of you check in :)
Site had serious issues - and I've been getting maintainance Goblin for the better part of last week(though I guess that WAS universal).
Lets hope its more stable now, I do have a family visit taking place over the weekend, but I'll try and finally get an update in on monday!
Yeah they shut it all down for maintenance Monday or Tuesday or something I think. There were apparently some notice somewhere (at least reddit said so!) about it a few days after the fact or so.
It was all on twitter, usually later than was necessary. :o
I've been dealing with major anxiety lately. Normally I go in phases of expanding and contracting. I'll stretch myself too thin, and then I'll rebel against all of the responsibilities and expectations I've gathered for myself. I feel like I can do it, so I try, and I really do my best. But eventually I wind down. All of the optimism and energy I can muster slips away, and I'm left mostly as a shell of myself, moving forward like a ghost.
I've been falling towards despair for the last few weeks. I've been feeling more and more like nothing I do matters or makes a difference. And I've struggled against that. On Friday and most of Saturday, I had really good days. Things seemed better... Then my anxiety lead to defensiveness, lead to a fight, lead to someone confirming all of my worst fears. The things I know are true when I'm most unhappy. And now I'm skittering at the edge of a really deep depression.
I'm letting you guys know this, because I need to limit what I feel responsible for, so I can limit my anxiety. I need time to repair.
I've decided, in tandem with my slow descent into depression, and my inability to connect with my character, that I should drop this game once this particular part of the story is over. If you're happy to just use her abilities to move us out of the prison, then I'm also okay with leaving now.
I'm sorry to hear that you have to deal with that. It's tough. Really tough.
I've never seen words actually fix this issue but if you feel that you just want to chat or vent or anything you are always welcome to send a pm : )
Best of luck hopping back ontop of things!
Thanks, M. Yeah, talking doesn't really help, because it only highlights how little I understand why I feel this way beyond 'things went wrong a long, long time ago' and the like. I'll cycle back, eventually.
Thanks for letting us know. If you want to take a break, it's fine, I think you should seriously consider doing so, as opposed to waiting until the prison break is over. Your health and well-being are more important than any game.
I highly recommend medication if you have not gone down that route. Anxiety is a disease and there are treatments.
Lily, I'd personally prefer you stick with us, and the game's current pace means that there's no problem DMing you for a few months worth of posts while you get your head right again. (Plus, dropping the things you enjoy while depression has a grip on you can actually make the depression worse over time, personal experience there.)
But if you really need to drop, I'll wish you the best.
Right now, I'm holding on to wrath of the righteous (but letting our bard take over my cohort), my superhero game, and my magical girl game. The latter two I find very easy to post in, and the former I... Think I'd have to be very, very bad to let go of. I've made some good friendships there, and even met a couple of the players face to face.
Unfortunately, I can't really build that sort of connection to this game. The pacing is far too slow for me, so when I get anxious about something (spending weeks needing people to succeed on multiple saves to stop getting eaten by rats, as an example), we just sort of stay in it. I felt like I might like the game more once we hit four (Lily more than doubles in power at level four), but I just don't know. It's just like... Reading a book a paragraph at a time. I just find it really hard to jump in and do things becaus I never really get into it. Part of that may be how empty Lily really is as a character. I've never done much with her besides her concept, which isn't really interesting to roleplay from. That's not on you guys, but on me.
Also, V, I was getting treated around two years ago, and had been getting treated for one-to-two years before that (it runs together). But the psychiatrist I was going to pretty much only ever prescribed me antidepressants, despite my main concern being the anxiety. I can deal with being unhappy sometimes. I can't deal with getting irrationally upset with loved ones... but they never treated it.
I think I've grown to better understand that I'm likely either bipolar or cyclothymic (likely that latter, due to more hypomania than mania). Looking back over my life, I can see a lot of poor decisions that I made because I felt good... i.e., stopping my antidepressant regimen and no longer going to a psychologist, because I felt like it didn't do anything for me. And... the truth is, I think it made the anxiety worse.
Hotaru, I'm really sorry to see you go. I've greatly enjoyed your contributions to the two games we've been in together, and I think you're one hell of a roleplayer.
I hope that you'll stick around this game, and if you go, I hope to see you around the boards some day.
Best,
FC
First, on a personal note: I was on vacation in the last week but found myself unable to announce that previously as the site was in both planned and unplanned maintenance, every single time I checked.
A lot of work, commute times and 2 small kids means I have to set aside 'game time' on a schedule and am not very flexible with it - so events such as this time of instability are painfully destructive for my posting rates.
I am back now, will catch up on all my games, and try to post in all of them before the end of the work week. Apologies for any inconveniences caused by my inflexibility.
Now, regarding Hotaru: I've had some good talks with you, if only briefly, and when I had more time still.
As such, I am sorry to hear you are not well. I would like to offer wisdom, help, or even witticisms that could cheer you up momentarily, but I doubt I am in a position for any of that.
I am also aware of the game problems you mentioned. You mentioned an interest in back seating Lily earlier and continuing play with her paramour - and the posting rate has been too slow, with events stretching out far too long - courtesy of only running one(2 recently when I took one over from storyteller shadow) game(s) I am still learning and adapting, even if a long time has passed IRL.
That said, I would love to see you stick around as a player, not necessarily as Lily - but I am also well aware that you may simply need the time for yourself and freedom of obligations connected with that activity.
As such, you should do what's best for you, and what's healthiest - if that means taking time for yourself, good. Maybe you want to take a few weeks off from the boards, completely? I am certain the people in those other games would understand a hiatus - or maybe doing what is healthy means keeping contact with some people online - that's good too if it comes easily to you in those games you stay in.
Just know that you will always have a place here - actually the same offer provided to Juliette and Nissim when they departed...you want to pick things up again, you are free to return, with this character or another.
As for the story arc: I meant to bring it to an end "quickly" since it has been going on for a long time now. But if you want a timeout now, then don't feel compelled to stick around until we get there...it will likely still be weeks before you all are safely back at base. I'd rather you take a break now before it all turns into a chore, then consider coming back if you feel better in a few months(I do hope you will!), rather than look back at it all with negativity. Or even just pop in in a few months to say hi and let us know how you are, even if you are deciding against coming back.
Ultimately, I don't think it's something 'to be fixed'. One of the problems I'm having is that it simply seems to be 'not for me', not that there's anything wrong with it in particular. Everyone else seems to jump in to excitedly play their character, but I don't really get that from this game. The depression spell has amplified that to make it sort of a chore to post even in the games that I absolutely love.
I don't know that it is 'learning' that you need to worry about, either. You're not lacking as a DM, IMO... it's just too slow and I'm just not 'into it'. I probably shouldn't have wasted your time the first time I came back. :(
@Mordred - Welcome back! I hope the vacation was nice : )
@Hotaru - Just know that you are fun to be around. You have never "wasted" anyones time here. We were more then happy to try and have you play with us, even if that meant waiting a bit. But that's time invested, not wasted, even if it ultimately won't work out : )
Would be fun if you would hop in and say hi later if you want!
The learning I refer to was understanding what does and what doesn't work with pbp...I thought out some convoluted sub-plots that I realized would run 2 or more years even with the 2 posts per week planned.
Stalling combat tactics may make sense for enemies, but it's simply not fun to be held back from acting for a month because of bad luck and posting frequency...
I found myself not taking notes on a few minor things, then found myself needing to check back because I forgot some detail - needing extra time for that and not allowing a quick post when I had time.
All that and more. Things that would be perfectly fine in tabletop sessions where subplots take a month of weekly sessions, stalling tactics last a few minutes, and I only really need to remember some details for that same session...the pacing in pbp is a different kind of beast, and I'm still learning to ride that.
You did not waste anybody's time. A character that is not for you? Can be exchanged for a different one. I do have experience as a GM, on table games. By far not as much as many other excellent RP'ers I have met on these boards, but enough to be somewhat confident that I don't mess up completely. But the way a world is set, a story told...that varies. For sake of example, some players prefer if more is left to their imagination and their own "theater of the mind" sets the scene. Others prefer if more detail is provided, to better immerse themselves - while others yet are scared away by overly long passages holding little relevant information.
As such, if anything, I should apologize for wasting your time - not feeling the game, not feeling excited to jump in and play - that one is on me, both for pacing and presentation of the world.
And it also was a particularly bumpy road this year - slowly but surely, things get better at work as my ("new") colleagues are capable of taking on several tasks and ease my workload. And at home, one of my girls is now in kindergarten - only a couple hours each day, but all the difference; with the younger one slowly developing steady day-night-rhythms as well. Why do I write all that? Because over and over I said that I would like to speed up the pacing, and over and over I slammed into obstacles that prevented that. As such, it is an apology as well as a cautiously optimistic statement that finally, I see myself 'fixing' at least one of the problems on my end, in the next few months - one that may be of interest to others, as well.
As said...gaming should be fun. The moment it turns into a chore, depression, anxiety, or whatever else the reason, taking a break seems in order. Putting a negative association or pressure on an activity that is supposed to bring joy and relaxation is not doing any good, for anybody.
I would love to keep you here, but I understand that's not what is best for you at the current time - superficial social contact has its merits, but may bring more drawbacks with it in your situation...you are the judge of that, and since you hold on to your most dear games, you are not completely isolating yourself, which alleviates my worries a bit.
As such, as said above, I simply extend an invitation to come back any time you wish, as a player, or as a visitor just saying hi.
Hmh I think I need my memory refreshed. Which trapdoor would Rexus be talking about? The one on the roof?
Work is giving me a kicking at the moment. I'm probably not able to post before Friday, so bot me as needed.
Aye, there's two trapdoors on the roof. You entered through one of them(the kitchen 'ventilation' one). There's a second one further from the entrances/exits, but also marked on map.
Rexus did not specify which trapdoor is being breached, thought the effect would likely be the same.
So they are on the roof of this building?
That's *uh* interesting.
Well, you can't say it doesn't make sense from a strategic point of view :)
But yeah, we can assume it will be interesting shortly ^_^
Question is how they got on top of the building so quickly. But we can probably ponder that problem later : )
Well, you did figure out that that kitchen trapdoor was mostly used for ventilation purposes - there was no conveniently placed ladder and the place was locked.
So one could reason that the guards on top of the roof used the other trapdoor to get up and down - and if an alarm is raised, it may make sense to reinforce up there. *smug grin*
So, yeah, probably normal procedures, which means it's not 20 people with crossbows waiting that failed to get through the other door. Just a normal response team forcing their way towards their assigned position.
Probably.
Hmhhmhm. I must have let this hatch-business get to my head! I'll take a look at the map and adjust properly ...
All right! So Miranda knows there is crossbowmen on the roof and, seeing as they just shot someone and are busy taunting us, approximately where.
Spells without targets can designate their effected area by defining it.
So maybe it would be possible to simply have black mist along the edge of the roof, starting over the entrance and extending to the sides?
(7st 10x10x10 boxes in total, so not the whole roof sadly...)
If not then she'll just have to head outside to create some cover! Luckily it's an spell-like so interrupting it shouldn't be a worry.
Unless of course "double-agent" Boros doesn't shoot us first :P
-_- Oh dear, I am revealed. However shall I complete my dastardly mission of murder and betrayal now?
:p
Ah, it was bound to happen eventually, Boros.
@Miranda: Generally, sure. You do have line of effect, but lack line of sight. The spell, generally, is dumbfire. It does not 'understand' to cling to some edge, as it does not interpret.
You could probably work around that with placement(putting the center of the boxes along the imagined roof edge), but there's a chance you don't quite get it right.
As you have to focus mentally to get it right, and place your spell and the effect from memory and imagination, it would seem that a concentration check would seem in order for that kind of thing, depending on how complicated a thing you are trying to do outside your line of sight.
Maybe simply go with the DC for Casting Defensively.
Failure, then, simply means that you do not manage to align it perfectly between your theater of the mind and actual reality. Maybe some angle is off, or some detail is missing, whatever seems applicable.
You could make a wall of fog at the top of your vision, though, mimicking an obscuring mist spell... Fwiw.
Yeah it probably doesn't need to be perfectly aligned with the roof level, a foot or so bellow should work fine : )
Not sure if seeing a tiny part of the area is enough to avoid rolling any pesky concentration check, so I'll do that anyhow in the game thread.
"You must designate the location where these things are to appear, either by seeing it or defining it. Range determines how far away an effect can appear, but if the effect is mobile, after it appears it can move regardless of the spell’s range."
The above is joinked from the magic chapter on effects. I'm not exactly sure on how vague they are intending "defining" to be (or if they are even intending anything and not just vomiting some extra words!) but it's there. It's the reason I personally think the spells have some sort of targeting logic.
Now if we are totally going by RAW then I think the Line of Effect overrides it anyhow. Straight line not crashing into any objects is tough to get around corners!
But that also means it's really really though to use Scrying! Or similar spells :P
Anyhow! The point is that there's clearly something more to magic then juuuust pointing. How much more though I feel is hard to say...
Yes, Miranda, but that 'defining' is exactly where I believe it's "dumbfire", not in the way of point and click, but in the way of not being able to interpret intent.
Say you've never been to this place and emerged from underground. You could still "define" the spell to cling to the edge of the roof. Despite having no idea yourself how the roof is shaped, how high it is...
Going a step further, someone 2 corners away who only knows you are somewhere in range could "define" you as weapon-wielding individuals inside the building not aligned with his faction, without knowing your exact position(even if he may need to 'start' the effect closer to himself, see below.).
So with defining, I'm more keen on going with the dimension door variant. You can decide to go 200 feet that direction, even standing next to a cliff/mountain, in the expectation that there's a empty space inside that the spell will shift you to. There may be such a space 150 feet in, but there's no fuzzy-logic that 'homes in' on the empty space, except by shunting you there with backlash.
As you say, going with RAW Line of Effect makes a lot of things more complicated than easier, and in the current case, you could simply start the effect(point of origin) on the outside as high as perceivable, and extend it from there - If that is not allowed, there'd be a ton more problems with interpretation.
So, since the spell has no 'concept' of what the roofs edge is without you providing that information, it relies on your character knowledge and definition. Pin-point-Buffing someone far away, you do provide that targeting information, by clearly defining the person...if you can't visually distinguish them(e.g. all including your ally are wearing the same uniform/are shapechanged/whatever and it's a free for all, then yeah, you could not simply say 'my buddy' and assume the spell magically homes in. Because who is or is not your ally in that case is player knowledge, not character knowledge, and making the spell omnipotent in that manner(knowing more than the player and interpreting player intent) brings a ton of other problems. ("I cast it on the guy who betrayed us. Oh, no target? Great.")
In the case of the 'shapeable' spells, my interpretation of defining is that you mentally decide on a form and origin. You define the location in your mind. In the current case, you attempt to, from your relative position and memory, match that shape to the physical reality of the place.
(after 3 casts, he goes home and prepares a ton of cold spells to clean out whatever is left.)