The Avalon Chronicles

Game Master lynora

I'm good here. Work has been crazy.

Still crazy after all these years.

But is anybody really surprised...?

(^-^)

No worries, KC - you already stated your intentions earlier sir. :)

Oh, it's ma'am these days! :)

[Checks Profile]

Oh....well, I need to correct my quite 'out-of-loop' self then:

The Dalesman wrote:

No worries, KC - you already stated your intentions earlier [EDIT] ma'am [/EDIT]. :)

Oh, it's ma'am these days! :)

(As best as I humbly can, anyway) (^-^)

I hope everyone had a grand Thanksgiving, with good food and good family times.

[Raises random container of stuffing]

(^-^)

No! No more stuffing! I'm not a turkey!

:)

Omghai

Seems things have slowed down enough for me to keep up now. :)

Heellooooo!!!!

Hmmm.....

I don't know what you're thinking, but you better stop it right now.

Unless, you plan on sharing. :)

Just a bit of old reverie from an old Dalesman. Don't mind me.

Ah. the nostalgia.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls.....
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.
.
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....Dining Time's Here! :D

Happy Thanksgiving to All - those still lurking, and those long-missed (^-^)

[Raises mug of cranberry sauce.... and wonders how this stuff got in my mug]

Hip hip cheerio! or konpai or something. I know there is a right response somewhere around here.

Indeed - it just requires more digging ;)

Heyas all! I hope you all had a good set of Holidays and 0 family drama!

Back at you, good sir! (^-^)

Every time I come back here, I read a bit. I really miss this game.

It's been well over three years since the last meaningful post in gameplay. I've probably played in over a dozen games, easily, since.

This is still one of the absolute best games I've ever played. Seriously miss ya'll and our characters/stories so very much!!

Honestly, I had fun with Vakkler, but I think what I really liked about this game was the chance to not be a complete nightmare in a forum RP. Character development.

Well, we certainly have...events unfolding around our favorite hobby, don't we?

Interesting times, indeed...

Interesting times indeed. I initially hoped to take advantage of this for my own game system to get ahead, but doesn't look like.

I liked this game. It was just way too fast a post rate. I couldn't keep up.

Well, we certainly have...events unfolding around our favorite hobby, don't we?

Interesting times, indeed...

Heckin' exciting hobby we got, eh?

Interesting times indeed. I initially hoped to take advantage of this for my own game system to get ahead, but doesn't look like.

I liked this game. It was just way too fast a post rate. I couldn't keep up.

It had an amazing pace at its height, no doubt. We might have even been one of the top PbPs for sheer volume and activity...

The Dalesman wrote:

Well, we certainly have...events unfolding around our favorite hobby, don't we?

Interesting times, indeed...

Heckin' exciting hobby we got, eh?

Ain't it just? ;)

Hi friends!

I'm running a rather interesting game semi akin to Avalon. It's set in the world famous World Serpent Inn and it's my hope that it becomes a sort of living world kinda like Avalon.

What's neat(if you know nothing about the Inn) is that doors to it can be found anywhere, even Avalon! Well, okay, probably not in the school itself, as I feel like Ryo and others likely prevent weird, random interdimensional doors from suddenly popping up, but definitely one could be found in the nearby town(can't remember the name, lol).

Anyways, you could totes bring an Avalon character(lower level for some of us) over there, or make a brand new one who could come from literally **anywhere!** (No really, we have one PC from an alt Earth that has no humans, only fantasy races, and another from the Star Wars universe).

Would love to see some of you over there!

Oh, how interesting!

Hi friends!

I'm running a rather interesting game semi akin to Avalon. It's set in the world famous World Serpent Inn and it's my hope that it becomes a sort of living world kinda like Avalon.

What's neat(if you know nothing about the Inn) is that doors to it can be found anywhere, even Avalon! Well, okay, probably not in the school itself, as I feel like Ryo and others likely prevent weird, random interdimensional doors from suddenly popping up, but definitely one could be found in the nearby town(can't remember the name, lol).

Anyways, you could totes bring an Avalon character(lower level for some of us) over there, or make a brand new one who could come from literally **anywhere!** (No really, we have one PC from an alt Earth that has no humans, only fantasy races, and another from the Star Wars universe).

Would love to see some of you over there!

Neat!

Oh, I forgot to mention, if the PC rules are bit a daunting, or you don't feel like you can commit to a regular character atm, I have a slew of NPCs as well...

Depends on how committed you are to the old "spooky gnome-like barmaids" rule! I may have a couple ideas if we're allowed to break from that lore.

Depends on how committed you are to the old "spooky gnome-like barmaids" rule! I may have a couple ideas if we're allowed to break from that lore.

I picked up a 5e supplement for the WSI, though it's mostly system agnostic, and I'm combining what's in there with what's 'official'. I can't remember where I read it, but I think I saw that the Serpent Servers are *mostly* those fae gnomes, but not all of them. I would say there's at least a 60/40 split.

I also have an idea for a 'hostess' or 'matron' type that's in charge of all the servers, but I haven't put too much thought into her just yet. Plus, at least a head chef, and a baker, mostly just for funsies.

But, yes, aside from like Mitchifer, pretty much everything can and will be altered, **especially** for a player.

Well, we certainly have...events unfolding around our favorite hobby, don't we?

Interesting times, indeed...

Interesting enough the 5e Monster Hunter creator I followed is now working on converting all of it over to PF2e and between that and Hasbeenbro's awfulness I'm actually looking at PF2e for the first time since the awful playtest just to have it as an option.

I might not like PF2e, but damn if I am gonna missout on a chance at a Monster Hunter game!

Also, hi all! Hope everyone is and has been well.

For what it's worth, I never took part in the playtest, but I've fallen totally in love with PF2 since then. I'm so deep in that going back to PF1 genuinely feels like a chore now. It seems like everyone I know who hates PF2 was also involved in this infamous playtest. X3

I would love to be able to play in a new game. I don't think I've played in an inline campaign since this one.
I'm kinda with KC though, I'm not keen on playing 1E so much.

online* campaign. Pesky edit timers!

Gosh, the temptation to start another PbP is powerful. I have to be wary of seductive thoughts like "how hard could it be to run a Swords & Wizardry game?" or "surely, with my new rhythm, trying to run a PF2 PbP on here couldn't hurt".

Question for you guys then, I'm trying to take the aspects I love about 3.x/pf1 and make my own system that modernizes it, because pf2 and 5e went the opposite direction of what I want.

So I'm curious about the aspects and traits that you dislike about pf1. Would you mind elaborating about it?

For me its all the different ways I can build a character, so width and breadth of options fo before creation and leveling/advancing at things I like.

Probably why I am enjoying GURPS so much.

For me it's boredom. The group I play with every weekend IRL have played PF1 to death. We've cracked the system mastery, played with all kinds of various rules, home rules, homebrews, etc.
We've taken it as far as we can. Familiarity breeds contempt, I guess.

We're playing GURPS too, atm DB3. Great minds! Granted it's heavily modified GURPS...

Yeah, I haven't played a PF1 game since Wrath of the Righteous came out, I actually quit TTRPGs for a long time because I was so sick of PF1.

Luckily Starfinder showed me there was a little life left in 3.5, and then PF2 reignited my love for the hobby. Even going back to Starfinder now feels like a chore compared to PF2, I can't imagine trying to play PF1 again.

I seem to in the minority when it comes to still absolutely loving PF1.

For me, the endless variety, the ability to make pretty much any character I could ever imagine(especially when you include 3pp), and continuously finding new material(some of which is truly new, some that's old but I have recently found on Drivethru) kinda makes it the perfect system, imo.

I suppose it helps that while I'm not actually in the circle of 3pp creators, I'm probably as close as one can get otherwise. I'm friends with a lot of them on FB(and met a few of them at GenCon), in several discord servers, have helped with playtests, etc.

It's more than just a game to me, I guess is what I'm trying to say.

The crazy thing is, the idea of getting bored by a system is so completely contradictory to how I look at the game, it's not even funny. From my perspective that is like saying you are bored of speaking the english language.

A major point of my desire is a system that does it's job so well that as one gets familiar with it they stop thinking about it and think only about the narrative they are playing, much like how we know english so well that we don't think about the language we speak, only the message we want to convey.

I'm just not sure what to think. How can I make it clear in my system that you should never be looking at my system for anything but utility, that anything of interest should be the rp?

To each their own. I studied other languages so I didn't only have to speak English.

... I didn't only have to speak English.

No, but that's beside the point.

Did you think about the words? Compare which words had more letters? Did you carefully consider the grammatical rules and try to bend an twist and rules lawyer them into getting the highest score possible? Try to win in some fashion according to the rules of the english language?

Or did you just worry about the message you wanted to convey and just say it with minimal thought towards the language you used to say it?

lol you're the one that chose the analogy.
No, to most of these questions. The goal of language is to convey a thought successfully. It doesn't have to be efficient, or even completely grammatically correct. As long as the person understands what you're saying, that's a win.
Probably not the best analogy, I guess.

lol you're the one that chose the analogy.

No, to most of these questions. The goal of language is to convey a thought successfully. It doesn't have to be efficient, or even completely grammatically correct. As long as the person understands what you're saying, that's a win.
Probably not the best analogy, I guess.

Actually, that's exactly why it is a great analogy.

The rules are not the game, they are just a tool, thus it has always seemed odd that people would put so much concern on the tool outside it's ability to do it's job.

Now comes the idea that people put so much focus on the tool that they basically don't want to use the tool because the tool itself is boring, completely ignoring the thing you needed the tool for.

That's what isn't making sense to me.

I can't tell if you're being general or specific.
In general, yes I agree that the roleplay is the most important aspect of an RPG.
Specifically, the mechanics of any given RPG (PF1E, DnD 5E, GURPS, etc.) apply as such:
Some situations in an RPG don't require the mechanics to justify or allow what you're doing as you RP, in some they do.
In the cases where they do, why wouldn't someone pick the mechanics they find less boring, and choose to play that game?

There is never a point that mechanics justify or allow. Never.

Communication, risk, tension. Those are things that mechanics aid, but mechanics are not required for any of them.

Less boring is a statement that you are looking to the mechanics to find things of interest. The ideal system however is invisible, used without conscious consideration. Why? Because all the interesting stuff is supposed to be the narrative.

To use an alexandrian example,
Interesting,
"This, Gandalf, was Glamdring, Foe-hammer that the king of Gondolin once wore."

Boring,
"+3 longsword"

+3 longsword has no need to be interesting. All it tells me is whether I know how to use it properly and how much easier it is to hurt enemies. Anything about the sword to be interesting is the narrative.

Give me a reason, any reason, why "+3 longsword" should be interesting, and worse yet, how can it possibly be interesting in any way without taking away from the interesting narrative of being Glamdring?

Yes they do.
If you rp as a strong person, you'd better have the stats to justify it.
If you want to be someone who's good at bluffing someone, you'd better have the skill for it.
This is what I mean.

As far as Glamdring vs +3 longsword...
I mean, if someone was just going on and on about their fancy named sword, but wasn't actually special in any way, people would think they were mental. The "+3 Longsword" mechanically justifies the special treatment, to anyone who notices it slicing well in combat, or who casts detect magic.

You can't wholly divorce RP from the mechanics.
Ergo, your choice of mechanics matter, even if it matters to no one but yourself.