The Hollow Man (Inactive)

Game Master trux

Barrier spell I believe Karl is asking for.

I just want to float out there that you guys are all welcome to play new characters at any time.

I, for my part, am a HUGE fan of everyone. Okrin, Karl, Caramir, Morti, Mikka-Kakao. In order of seniority for simplicity's sake. Think we have a great group here. Know we have a great group here.

People, just a heads up - I will be away with the family during the weekend, and back on next Tuesday. Bot me if needed ;)

If I bot ya, ya die. So I'll probably avoid botting you.

Run caramir, run

So.... Are we moving this along, or..?

well, I was hoping to let okrin, mikka, morti and karl have a chance to chime in again.

And it looks like Caramir's luck ran out. Irony is that I only needed one more roll for that group.

And it looks like Caramir's luck ran out. Irony is that I only needed one more roll for that group.

Disappointing. I was really hoping Caramir would return to report something. I think that would have helped the campaign move forward.

I think that I'll still wait before reading any of the spoilered text since my character doesn't know what happened.

Yeah, I was hoping to discover anything meaningful before returning.

And it looks like Caramir's luck ran out. Irony is that I only needed one more roll for that group.

Not luck at all - Stealth is my best skill.

With a +12 to perception, that thing you were looking for was bound to find you. Sorry.

With three critters looking for you, it was just a matter of time.

Never doubted it was a matter of time.

I'd not wanted to pile on Kakao's last batch of questions and just thought you hadn't had a chance to answr. (and also was holding out hope for Caramir to make a dramatic entrance?)

Aside from suspecting Mother Molver (despite/because of Kaerl's specific denial), I'm kinda out of ideas here.

Welcome all!

This is Eric Swanson, aka Elsie, introducing himself to the group. I have been monitoring the Gameplay thread closely and I hope my character can help out here...

Again, thanks to trux for graciously allowing me to join this setting, which is one of my favorite settings to play in! It scratches my old-school itch totally!

Welcome to the game Eric.

trux, I am assuming this means I won't be allowed to replace Caramir once he is dead?

I'd not wanted to pile on Kakao's last batch of questions and just thought you hadn't had a chance to answr. (and also was holding out hope for Caramir to make a dramatic entrance?)

Aside from suspecting Mother Molver (despite/because of Kaerl's specific denial), I'm kinda out of ideas here.

Sorry Morti, I didn't intend to shut other characters out. Would have loved if someone had added more questions to the list, or even pointed out information we hadn't given the villagers yet.

Karl had some ideas. Add to his list things like:
* Heal everyone.
* Let Mikka get that special spell (One with the Trombel), see what happens.
* Show the spell page to Kakao. He has Spellcraft and wasn't around when the group was looking at it last time.
* Decide if we destroy the wards since the enemy has shown an ability to subvert them, or protect them somehow from being subverted.
* Track Caramir. Although it is impossible to track the Hollow Man and easy to get lost in Trombel Woods, we shouldn't have much problem tracking someone who ran through the woods like Caramir did.

There is probably other things that I've forgotten.

On a slightly different note:

Is it typical for PbPs to go as slowly as this one has? It would be nice if we could find a way to move this along a little faster.

I prepared it that morning just haven't had an opportunity to do much with the talking circle dominating everything.

Honestly I think with PBP's if conversations happen during downtime or watch they can be great for fleshing out characters and building the sense of story, but when a large amount of time is spent discussing what to do next it tends to bog things down quite a bit. Especially since some characters will have little to contribute.

The subject and aspect of the story usually sets the pace, and each PBP is different. I'm in one that can hit 50-100 posts a day with 4 players.

Also, Welcome Eric!! It's been a while.

Welcome to the game Eric.

trux, I am assuming this means I won't be allowed to replace Caramir once he is dead?

That's not the case at all. If anything, you will have more freedom to choose what type of character you want to play! And hold out a little hope, pal, Caramir ain't dead yet, as we say in Texas.

Honestly I think with PBP's if conversations happen during downtime or watch they can be great for fleshing out characters and building the sense of story, but when a large amount of time is spent discussing what to do next it tends to bog things down quite a bit. Especially since some characters will have little to contribute.

Here's the thing.

The party has not been managing or attending to their relationship with the villagers (who ostensibly hired them.) As such, there is still a lot of distrust and misinformation simmering in this small village.

Montepierre was handling that relationship. Mak was helping. They aren't here anymore, and on top of that, the party called them away from tending to the villagers (read: customers).

I had hoped to keep them around in the background longer, and take the pressure from the village off you all as players. This would have given you a free hand to roam. Instead you took them out into the woods on your endeavors. They were slowing down gameplay. (Not to mention, taking some heavy hits for you lot.)

Even something as simple as "I give the militia advice on training before we leave (Roll profession soldier)".

Or maybe, "I pat the kid on the head and tell her soon there will be no need to hide"

Believe it or not, the town council meeting is a part of the published module.

So, if it wasn't clear. This is your main opportunity to A: Convince the villagers that they can trust you. B: Tell them how you want to involve them in your plan to stop the Hollow Man killings.

I hadn't realized that the party was hired to handle the problem with the Hollow Man nor the role that Mak and Montepierre had in the village. Guess I need to go back through the Gameplay and read much more carefully.

It now makes more sense why the group was invited to the town meeting.

I'm guessing binding and gagging Aldan wouldn't help with the trust issue. He seems mighty quick to throw accusations, draw attention away from anything that might be productive conversation, and incite distrust.

To be fair, he just buried his daughter... I want to say three days ago?

She died day One, when our intrepid friends arrived in the village.

On day two, Kostya died.

Next, on day three, Baca left... his head came back, though.

We are on day Four, in which the village has a town meeting, apparently.

Here's the thing.

The party has not been managing or attending to their relationship with the villagers (who ostensibly hired them.) As such, there is still a lot of distrust and misinformation simmering in this small village.

Hmmmm, I don't think I can agree with you on this trux - there have been multiple interactions between the group and villagers in the 'actually short time' we were in the village. Maybe not by all of us, but certainly by some. I'm not saying that is enough for the villagers to fully trust us, that is up to you, but I wouldn't say we haven't 'attended our relationship with the villagers'

Can't do it now, but I'll link posts with such interactions later on.

Also, we were 'hired' to chase down the Hollow Man? I was under the impression we took it upon us to face him. I apologize if this is wrong, and please correct me if so.

I'm in agreement here with Caramir, but as a point of support for the way the game has played out. Okrin has through mis steps of his own given several folk in the village reason to doubt his capabilities. Such miscommunication seems to be good reason for them to lack trust, at least when it comes to the young monk.

trux wrote:

Here's the thing.

The party has not been managing or attending to their relationship with the villagers (who ostensibly hired them.) As such, there is still a lot of distrust and misinformation simmering in this small village.

Hmmmm, I don't think I can agree with you on this trux - there have been multiple interactions between the group and villagers in the 'actually short time' we were in the village. Maybe not by all of us, but certainly by some. I'm not saying that is enough for the villagers to fully trust us, that is up to you, but I wouldn't say we haven't 'attended our relationship with the villagers'

Can't do it now, but I'll link posts with such interactions later on.

Also, we were 'hired' to chase down the Hollow Man? I was under the impression we took it upon us to face him. I apologize if this is wrong, and please correct me if so.

So, Caramir, for example. You did a great job roleplaying your interactions with Kostya's widow.

The question I ask is different perhaps from what you'd expect.
"Did this interaction work to inspire confidence in the party's capabilities?"

It's not just, "did you interact with them" it's How Did you interact with them.
So far, some people like Okrin, some people like Morti, etc. Anna is afraid some people will try and burn down her barn, etc.

So, for example, we lost Mak and Montepierre, and Rata too. You haven't really told anybody what happened to them.

The villagers apparently received some standing orders to train a militia and take on a few other things. It wouldn't hurt to hear what those were, would it?

I completely missed the party being hired by the town as well. To me it's read like the towns people being typical fear-driven small minded folk turning on the outsiders that are risking their necks to save them out of altruism.

The party has not been managing or attending to their relationship with the villagers (who ostensibly hired them.) As such, there is still a lot of distrust and misinformation simmering in this small village.

Montepierre was handling that relationship. Mak was helping. They aren't here anymore, and on top of that, the party called them away from tending to the villagers (read: customers).

Morti's young, kinda brash, and not so great with the Cha-dependent work I think it's fair to say he hasn't effectively groomed relationships wit hte village, because he sees the relationship being defined by going out and beating the hollow man and very little else. (And is frustrated that the villagers don't understand that he's investing a lot in the relationship by going out and wandering the woods.) ((And having heard very little of interest to his worldview at the meeting, is inclined to throw up his hands and set off in search of Caramir.))

Out of character, I certainly missed Mak & Montpierre's role -- big part of why I was always interested in bringing them along into the woods was to get them involved in The Plot.

Oh, but they were involved with the plot.
They were organising the militia, or planning to.

* Show the spell page to Kakao. He has Spellcraft and wasn't around when the group was looking at it last time.

That's a good idea, and perhaps Caramir and Karl could retry in the new day? ....Though wasn't Caramir in possession of the page, so we'd have to hope that he left it with his things rather than having it on his person.

BretI wrote:

* Show the spell page to Kakao. He has Spellcraft and wasn't around when the group was looking at it last time.

That's a good idea, and perhaps Caramir and Karl could retry in the new day? ....Though wasn't Caramir in possession of the page, so we'd have to hope that he left it with his things rather than having it on his person.

If Caramir didn't have it on his person (which is quite likely) it means we most likely have to go back to where we had made camp to retrieve it. I believe we only brought what was considered critical back.

The rules between the Spellcraft skill and the section on Arcane Magical Writings don't seem to agree on when you can retry something.

Retry: You cannot retry checks made to identify a spell. If you fail to learn a spell from a spellbook or scroll, you must wait at least 1 week before you can try again.

To decipher an arcane magical writing (such as a single spell in another’s spellbook or on a scroll), a character must make a Spellcraft check (DC 20 + the spell’s level). If the skill check fails, the character cannot attempt to read that particular spell again until the next day. A read magic spell automatically deciphers magical writing without a skill check. If the person who created the magical writing is on hand to help the reader, success is also automatic.

I think that if Kakao understands it, he would be able to give Aid Another to one of the wizards trying to understand it. He basically explains what he knows of the spell as they are going over it.

Trux would have final say on exactly what can or can not be done here.

I believe the no retry on spells applies to identifying spells being cast, or that have been cast.

I believe the no retry on spells applies to identifying spells being cast, or that have been cast.

I was referring to the second sentence in that line. It talks about failing to learn a spell from a spellbook or scroll.

Hey all -- I'm going to be traveling the next two weeks. Won't be off the grid for the most part, but largely limited to phone posting. Trux an bot as needed.

Posted multiple things for various times during the day. I'm flexible on exact sequence, but wanted to make sure those things got done by Kakao today.

If there is a better way to do this, please give constructive feedback. This is my first PbP.

I don't see any issue with it Bret - it is a good way to keep things moving, in my opinion. Mainly in periods of 'downtime' or similar.

Peoples, I am away with the family during the weekend. Back to regular posting Sunday/Monday evening.

[dice=Merlin, Berlin, and the Scarlet Wizard]3d20

GM: tehehehehe

You're good with the sinister dice rolling that may or may not mean anything, you know that?

If I told you what it was, or just said "catepillar" every time, you would think I worked for Cat.

If I told you what it was, or just said "catepillar" every time, you would think I worked for Cat.

That might be fair. Most cats think humans work for them.

People, just wanted to let you know I am going on vacations with my family next Monday, and won't be back until Sunday.

Tomorrow I am probably available to post, and during the remaining days I should have access to a laptop and internet, but as you may presume, RPG is not going to be a priority during these days - it is possible that I may drop a line or three, but feel free to bot me at any given point if needed.

/sigh

I can't wait until colder weather blows in, and I can devote more time to this. Sorry for the laggardness, y'all.

Sorry trux, I didn't get that expression. What does it mean?

Which bit? Being a laggard?

Laggard: to be lazy, apathetic, slow
:)

If it's the cold weather thing, then understand that 85% of my professional responsibilities come from work done in the great outdoors.

Dudes, Ladies
Mesdames, Monsieurs
Androgynous Internet Entities of indeterminate origin and uncertain cause

I regrettably will need to pass away into the aether.

These rides through white wall are taking too much time, so much time. Time better spent helping others, "doing the good work" as it were.

When you play rpgs with other people, you get to know them very well.
Be assured, I find you are all fine personas and genteel actors. None wanting in any way.

-Adieu

@moebharrell

Dang trux/makirut... I could sense you had less and less available time for PbP, but was clinging to the possibility of keeping this one alive - a shame to see you go man, and I wish you all the best.

Caramir/Reknar

-----------------------

P.S. Guys, I would hate to see this one dying away... Shall we discuss how to keep it alive? Off the top of my head, I see three possibilities:

1) One of us picks it up, though personally I'm not sure where we can get the source materials;
2) I could try to get in touch with Grimmy, and check if he wants to GM this one again, even though I know he was trying to pace himself;
3) We post in Recruitment, and look for a replacement GM - the scope of this game is quite an endeavor, so it may not be easy, but definitely doable. We can also extend a direct invitation to someone to GM for us.

What do you guys think?

I think since this campaign is intended to be linked to Grimmy's, he would have some say on if anyone else could take it over.

I'll try to get a hold of him.

This has been a great game so far, and I'd be sad to see it wither away. I agree that we ought ask input from Grimmy.

I'm pretty sure Tales of the Old Margeve is the source of the Hollow Man, though trux had also commented that we were way off the rails and a lot of what we were dealing with was original material.

trux - do you have digital notes that you could easily hand off to another to keep us going? Your work here has been amazing, and I don't want to just see it written off and go "by the book" if there's a way to keep it going.

Even if you do, though, might be hard for somebody to pick up mid-flow and make sense of it. If we go to Recruitment, we may have to consider "jumping ahead" to the Lost City module.

I'm game for sticking around, but don't have a lot of extra time to help in the effort of running the game or recruiting.