Kingmaker

Game Master Rackal28

Oh, I did have to do Hallit in one game. I'm pretty sure I used Bulgarian in the end, but it might have been Lithuanian. I wanted something quite different. Since Kellids don't match up with real world anyone with a known language I decided I wanted something Eastern European and very archaic looking on the page.

Bulgarian was nice because it doesn't have so many long words. It looks rough and blocky. Lithuanian is the most archaic Indo-European language still spoken. I wanted something sort of Scythian flavored since the character used a no-dachi I reflavored as a falx.

I've heard good things about Fly By Night. I'll have to get around to reading it someday.

Once in a PFS scenario we had to get a Kellid tribe to help us but nobody spoke Hallit. My Bard actually did use interpretive dance for diplomacy with them, and it Worked!

Honestly, I think you're literally the first person I've talked to who's even heard of it. It's a lot of fun, as is its sequel. The relationship between the two main characters is really nuanced and compelling (for YA), and they play as great foils to one another. I don't read a lot anymore except for work, but it's probably my favorite novel, for whatever it's worth.

A lot of the plan banked on the mites having at least one sagacious little monster among them that spoke Sylvan or Common. Failing that, the best bet was to roll well. Failing that... well, Wisp already committed by putting herself in the front lines, she might as well go as ham as possible and hope for the best. :P

Wisp has a pretty good reason here to roll badly, at least. As good as her speech might or might not be, her delivery could very well be dreadful. Sometimes she genuinely just doesn't have enough fuel left in the tank.

Yeah, I didn't realize mites spoke Undercommon, though on reflection, I remember running some gremlins that also only spoke Undercommon. Oops. Well, not speaking a language does put something of a damper on negotiations.

At least she's not the most fragile of our little group - that honor goes to our magus.

Wisp gives several small nods and limps towards the tree, uncharacteristically bold, it seems, as she follows to stand beside Lina.

Uh-oh...

Wow! What a rousing speech and brilliantly roleplayed at that Kobold! Well done.

In light of how awesome that was I'm gonna make a few allowances.

First of all, yes Wisp will get the extra plus one for treating with bandits because although the mites arent what you would ordinarily consider a bandit to be I fell they have enough experience with both fey and bandits to sort of bridge the gap as it were.

Second, I would ordinarily impose a penalty of negotiating with creatures you don't speak the language of, especially through an interpreter who also doesn't speak the language properly but... given the epicness of the speech and the showmanship with the magic added in (I'm a huge theater nerd so little things like this speak to me) there wont be a penalty!

Now all that being said for the sake of full transparency the DC was 24 via the standard diplomacy check for hostile creatures so even with aid coming from the whole party you would fall just one point short. I looooved the attempt though and was really excited for the chance to shake up the AP so much. Better luck next time and enjoy the battle~

I read the first half of your post here, went to get something to eat, then read the second half. Rackal, I laughed out loud, then cringed and went to go survey the damage. XD

Yeah, I didn't realize mites spoke Undercommon, though on reflection, I remember running some gremlins that also only spoke Undercommon. Oops. Well, not speaking a language does put something of a damper on negotiations.

At least she's not the most fragile of our little group - that honor goes to our magus.

Hey! ;)

It’s a struggle, I assure you, having one’s defining class feature dictate a free hand that would otherwise quite happily hold a shield. And the vexed question of stat allocation...

It feels weird enough stretching a bit to carry a two-handed weapon, which is one reason why Lina’s got Catch Off-guard, just so she can (hopefully) short-haft it at the expense of all the fun stuff that goes with using it properly.

Oh, I did have to do Hallit in one game. I'm pretty sure I used Bulgarian in the end, but it might have been Lithuanian. I wanted something quite different. Since Kellids don't match up with real world anyone with a known language I decided I wanted something Eastern European and very archaic looking on the page.

Bulgarian was nice because it doesn't have so many long words. It looks rough and blocky. Lithuanian is the most archaic Indo-European language still spoken. I wanted something sort of Scythian flavored since the character used a no-dachi I reflavored as a falx.

I've heard good things about Fly By Night. I'll have to get around to reading it someday.

Once in a PFS scenario we had to get a Kellid tribe to help us but nobody spoke Hallit. My Bard actually did use interpretive dance for diplomacy with them, and it Worked!

Loving all the language ideas! And now I’m going to have to track down a recording of Lithuanian, because Wiki tells me it has a pitch accent? I have a tin ear, so I’m rubbish at actually following such things, but I’m intrigued!

My headcanon “close enough” for various fantasy languages tend to be boring, since I don’t know enough about language families to spin out interesting relationships between related things. One of these days I’ll think of what I want to make Uralic (probably Hungarian, specifically) in my Golarion.

Now all that being said for the sake of full transparency the DC was 24 via the standard diplomacy check for hostile creatures so even with aid coming from the whole party you would fall just one point short. I looooved the attempt though and was really excited for the chance to shake up the AP so much. Better luck next time and enjoy the battle~

Indeed, that was grace under tremendous pressure Wisp/Kobold!

Not going to lie, throughout, I was also thinking nervously, “Don’t mites HATE gnomes, too?” “Oh gods, shut up, Lina! Do you want to be up to your ears in gremlins?” :)

Hopefully there’ll be many more more reasonable fairies in our future.

Oh, yeah, there's a reason why Wisp didn't take her skull mask off, in the vain hopes that I would be mistaken for, perhaps, an unusually kawaii halfling. :P

Even though I was very tempted by the dramatic value, I also didn't want to blow the face reveal on a bunch of mites.

Also, while I think that Wisp's "we will make sure the kobolds pay the price" promise might draw some interesting questions in-game, I do want to clarify for OOC purposes that I was by no means planning to force a betrayal of Signy's lizardy buddies. Wisp had a plan. Was it a good plan? One out of five centipedes approve!

I figured I could have Brental sort of take the fall for that natural 4. Cheers.

Mhmm I think that it might be a good idea for us to post here more often to clarify intent like Kobold just did. It can be hard to register what people are thinking behind their keyboards when one character interacts with another.

I was a little concerned when inter-party conflict started to brew that it was influenced by players being angry with one another. So, for my sake, if there is inter-party conflict in the future could you please post in Discussion along with it that it is just in character and not a representation of how the players feel towards one another. It would help me out a lot.

I can do that. I prefer to let my character speak for himself. And I don't see inter-party conflict as a red flag. Further, I try hard not to let any personal gripes come out through my characters. If I'm having a real-life problem, I'll let you know in real life. But from me I hope that you can always assume that I'm letting what happens at the table stay at the table. We have no reason to be angry with one another, as far as I can tell.

If it takes more regular check-ins to maintain a happy gameplay environment within the context of conflict, though, I'm happy to oblige.

Thank you Brental. It's very much appreciated!

"You may have things in common. You are just from different worlds." Oh rotting earth, that last line had some connotation of star-crossed lovers, didn't it? Had the author of this codex imagined himself a lothario among drow? Was this a bad romance novelette he had been reading?

Loving this so much. Got to see my grandmum’s old phrasebooks from her globetrotting days when she was sorting through a section of her library, a while back, and was appalled to see that the Berlitz things used to have an entry for proposals of marriage under the “Going Out” heading. Not to be a buzzkill and ruthlessly stomp on dreams of love at first sight (related: I loathe Romeo & Juliet, speaking of star-crossing), but the idea of some hapless swain standing with phrasebook in hand makes me wince. XD

Mhmm I think that it might be a good idea for us to post here more often to clarify intent like Kobold just did. It can be hard to register what people are thinking behind their keyboards when one character interacts with another.

Oh, of course! Especially since Lina is a bit morbid, a bit spooky, and (since references to the Bard seem to be a thing this morning (*also makes note to keep an eye out for Fly By Night, though now I’m thinking of Colonel Blood*)) probably is inflected by Touchstone, my favourite fool.

I’ll try to recalibrate if she feels a bit too snippy or out of alignment with the stories we’re telling together here.

I have a map all set up and ready to use! (And by "I" I mean my lovely wife~)

So wait, whose turn is it right now? The init tracker seems to suggest Brental should go after a bunch of enemies, so I'm not sure how turn order works.

Sure. Like Brental I mix personal and character very little, and I also prefer a degree of friction in the party in some way or another.

I've played in parties where everyone was super-agreeable and always very much on the same page about everything all the time. It gets dull very quickly. There are two reasons for that I think. First, it's hard to write super-agreeable and mutually complimentary posts over and over all the time without running out of new things to say. PbP campaigns stretch into years and Adventure Paths are rarely written at a level of complexity that allows for much dynamism if the players aren't creating some too.

The second reason is that all players always being completely simpatico with everything about each other stunts character development because characters can't develop far away from a baseline of views, actions, etc. They need to be quite samey and stay that way.

I'll use my favorite character relationship in all my games as an example. In War for the Crown my character Amandine is an Investigator and the groups leader more or less. Another character, Greenly, who is a Barbarian is almost a polar opposite to Amandine. Greenly is impulsive, undisciplined outside her interest in personal fighting prowess, rude, and rather dumb, as well as completely transparent in emotions and opinions. Amandine is a genius who precisely plans all things, digs into details, and cautiously covers all bases. She's also a bit cold and slimy in her ability to read people and shift her persona to give them whatever it takes to manipulate them.

Amandine and Greenly are not friends. Greenly is fun and Amandine is not. Amandine gets things done while Greenly lacks direction. They don't like each other really, but they need each other and both know it. So while they occasionally insult each other or bicker, and Greenly always says Amandine's name wrong on purpose to needle her, they still value each other. In game terms they have room in their relationship to do things to surprise the other. And the other player and I are having lots of fun with it.

I'm not saying they're a model for all character relationships; they're on the extreme end of things. But characters that have some amount of mixed feelings about others for some reason have more places to go, and more options in their relationships over time.

So with Signy, for me she's not a driver character so much as a passenger character. Even her backstory sets her up as more of a tourist. She's there to see some cool stuff, do some neat new things, and hammer on the stuff that threatens good, peace-loving folk when she comes across it. Hopefully she also provides some light comedy here and there. Signy doesn't have any stake in local politics, doesn't adhere to any complicated ethos or cosmology (being a Caydenite is cartoonishly simple), so she will be more minimal in those areas, leaving them for other characters.

As for what she's thinking about the other characters, it's something like this so far.

Meneas: Signy probably aligns most completely with him on views and purpose. They will typically agree on things. But she thinks he's too grim about stuff, and seems to lack compassion.

Brental: Nature is nice, but Signy's not nearly so into the details as he is. He's the nicest of the group for sure, and she finds him very handsome. He is very serious though, which means he can be a stick in the mud.

Whisp: Signy doesn't really have a handle on what Whisp is all about. She talks in ways that are long-winded and hard to follow. Most of the time Signy's attention drifts off before Whisp is finished so she doesn't figure out the point Whisp is trying to make. Seems nice on balance, maybe isn't so nice though?

Lina: she's an elf and that's very neat. Signy's picked up on Lina making cosmetics or something of that sort. That certainly needs to be explored further, especially if she has any samples to hand out. Otherwise she's new and Signy hasn't really formed any opinions yet.

Lina goes first here Kobold then the enemies

So, I think interparty conflict is fun when everyone's on-board and players are communicating well with one another. That said, if the players don't know or respect each other's limits, it's sometimes more fun for one player than the other. I feel like "letting my character speak for themselves" tends to play better in in-person games, or games where the players are well familiar.

To be fully honest, I don't know anyone here very well. We only communicate via text, which is not a good venue for subtlety. That's why I've tried to be very up-front about my intentions and my boundaries. I'm a fan of the check-in idea.

I generally find conflict more compelling when it's built on a solid foundation to start with. If conflict starts being forced before the PCs even like each other, the whole party dynamic becomes strained - because why would someone travel with someone they only fight with? Why would they care to help them, much less feel emotionally moved by them being placed in danger? It can work, if the players communicate a lot OOC about intentions and are mindful of going overboard.

Conflict in a nuanced relationship is interesting and adds dimensions. If the only interactions of any weight are conflict, it comes one-note and boring. The whole thing starts to feel forced. I understand that a party with too little conflict gets dull and stagnant, but a party with too much gets exhausting. The party ends up feeling like a bunch of coworkers who don't talk outside the workplace.

Wisp is Neutral Evil, and an ex-bandit. She already has plentiful sources of conflict. My priority in the early game is to make sure that if/when her loyalty is tested, or her secrets are revealed, there's been enough actual groundwork laid that it actually means something.

Hey Rackal--if you plop a spell token on the map, I can indicate where Brental cast the Entangle spell with his readied action. For the moment, I shifted Brental to indicate where there is now an area of difficult terrain and entanglement (DC 14 to escape). I'll move Brental back next to Wisp when it's his turn to act. Cheers~

Because Signy got me thinking about it, I went and wrote Wisps's more up-to-date evaluations of the four current partymembers.

Signy Birkirsdottir
"Agh, Signy's a... a very wild girl. Very wild. Stubborn as a sturgeon an' bold as a badger, an' with not the good sense of either. She knows how to be vicious, an' she's plenty o' wit, plenty of sparkle to her eye, but with nothin' to temper that flame but a drunk god an' far too much sense o' this be right an' this be wrong. I try to tell her: Cut that tree an' it bleeds fire. She means well. Not the best upbringing, maybe."
Signy gets on Wisp's nerves, little as Wisp likes to admit it. Signy is everything Wisp isn't - brave, blunt, boisterous, noble, reckless, and full of righteous certainty. The jaded little gnome would like to style herself something of a guide or guardian, but she's not good at her job. She normally finds it a lot easier to worm into people's good graces, but Signy seems so far to be immune - or maybe she galls Wisp too much for Wisp to fully manage it.

Brental Fenson
"A good, honorable Oaksteward. I'd be proud to travel alongside him for a ways. He... he sees things I don't, but he needs someone to help steer him in the right direction so he doesn't get into trouble."
Wisp has traveled now and again with Brental, who she's taken to calling "Brother Odd-Eyes"—a reference to his eyes' tendency to change color. She quite likes him, considering him an excellent servant of the Green Faith. She's depended on him a great deal lately, as the more intense and prolonged interactions with people she's endured have made her nonverbal episodes more frequent, more in need of a go-between. She's tried to talk once or twice to his mount, but has trouble understanding the angel-touched beast and is loosely convinced the mammoth hates her, though she can't exactly explain why.

Meneas the Cowl
"The Cowl is grim, bloody an' unyielding, but funny, in a quiet sorta way. Easy on the eyes when the hood comes off. Keeps a lot to himself, doesn't seem to trust easy. He carries the First World with him somehow, but clingin' to him just as tight is some noble scandal, some ugly past that's sent him here to us. He'd make a good bandit, if he'd point his butchery any other direction, but don't tell the devil I said that."
Wisp has never met Meneas before being hired for this job, but she's already a mix of wary and fascinated. His manner has a fey-ness to it that she finds curious, but he strikes her as a professional. She knew the type back in the bandit camp, people who cared little for coin but killed because they were good at it. She's not sure that's Meneas, but, well, those bandits always spooked her a little, so she's reluctant to press him.

Lina
"She's a talker, but I'm still workin' on getting more of an understandin' of what it is she's saying. She's smart in the way mages sometimes are. But I've no notion what it is is her business out here, an' people who talk too much sometimes are tryin' to cover up things they'd as soon not talk about. I wonder if she's Forlorn."
Wisp doesn't know much of Lina just yet, though she's intensely relieved to finally have someone else in the party who likes talking as much as she does. She's very curious about the elf, but not sure how to engage yet. She hasn't traveled with an elf since the bandit camp, and can't stop wondering if Lina might be someone worth getting to know better.

Meneas isn't quite sure what to make of Wisp or Lina yet. Lina, at least, seems handy enough in a fight. Wisp, he doesn't yet trust, but he's willing to wait before making judgment.

Signy's outside her comfort zone and needs looking after, outside of combat, where she's acquitted herself well, and Brental seems to Meneas to be the closest aligned to him in terms of his beliefs and outlook.

Posted! Sorry for the delay, folks: morning did not go according to plan, and that left me hiking back quite a ways from the boonies. It was a lovely walk, though, and I got the embroidery thread I needed.

Oh, and Wisp, I suppose we'll see how her character develops overtime, but at the moment I'm thinking of Lina as appreciating wordplay, banter, and even a good con more than being chatty as such. Working words hard even more than being prodigal with them (though probably that too, on the rare occasion that she lets her hair down (metaphorically) and really gets going). Purple prose, definitely, and italics, like Emily Starr, much to Mr. Carpenter's dismay.

...

Oh gosh, does that make Alaïs (backstory) her Ilse Burnley? I must think on this. :)

Anyway, I think it will take another couple of days of game time for Lina to get a sense for everyone. I might post her impressions then. Mind, Lina's head- rather than heart-smart, so she's likely to trust whatever face people put on.

That's fair, Lina! I honestly haven't seen much of her (I only skimmed while catching up) and neither has Wisp. I originally meant for Wisp to be a bit more taciturn, but as I realized that Meneas had that niche covered very well, it sort of morphed into a "scared of dead air" quirk.

I'm also very talkative and prone to going on in real life, so that inevitably bleeds into all my characters no matter how hard I try to control it.

Meneas has to at least somewhat uphold his patron's nature.

Just to be clear, Signy doesn't consider the kobolds to be friends. What she does think is there's a possible pathway forward to something of the sort based on past experience.

The party has met some of the kobolds and we had a civil conversation. They tried to rip us off in bargaining, but fair enough. We haggled them to an acceptable price and peacefully got what we came for. Significantly, part of the payment is to be made in the future, which shows a degree of trust on their part.

Signy owes them a recipe for the stew, and she keeps her promises. What happens afterward if anything she wouldn't predict one way or another. But there are good reasons to believe further progress can be made.

I think I've given a pretty good window into Brental's brain so far, but I'll also sketch his current impressions:

So I noticed that I didn't change Signy's initiative bonus to account for getting Cunning Initiative at 2nd level. It's actually +5 now instead of +3. It doesn't really make much difference in the current combat since she only goes from dead last to nearly dead last. But I at least I caught it sooner rather than later.

Noted and adjusted Signy! Also Dang Brental that Entangle is waaaay more of a problem for these mites than I thought it would be xD

I forgot to add the +1 of the Blessing to Meneas' attack, but it hit anyways.

Oh, right! Yes, that's a good thing to remember. Good Ol' Deadeye.

Signy's views on the mites have been reinforced by first-hand experience with them now. They're a scourge and menace to others. There are still three satisfactory outcomes for her.

1. The mites are dead.

2. The mites stop acting like mites.

3. The mites exit the region.

We tried 2 first and it failed. Number 3 is highly doubtful since it would require cooperation from the mites.

Brental is inclined to allow creatures to surrender or flee if he doesn't think they will continue to be dangerous or could be reformed, but he won't necessarily hold others to his standards.

Vodnykel still has the Attack command until Brental says "Down". Or at least that's how I've been running Handle Animal.

Rackal, that's actually a question for you: do I need to issue a Handle Animal command each round, for each creature until it's dead, or only to start a given command? It's kind of ambiguous in the rules, so I have been opting for the simplest interpretation.

Meneas... still thinks that killing the mites would be the simplest answer. But he also doesn't think that the group's able to negotiate with the mites - no one speaks Undercommon, and that appears to be all that the mites speak.

That's not even getting into the whole "are they smart enough to remember to keep their promises? Would they bother even if they are?" thing. That said, he probably will feel a little bad if he just runs them down with Veil.

Wisp doesn't see any reason to kill fleeing enemies who are about to have no reason to stay in the region and are known cowards. I will consider later, maybe tomorrow, how rigidly she's going to hold to that, but I will say that killing a fleeing creature who is not an active threat is a bit darker than I think I'm really comfortable with in most games, so that might be an issue for me on an ooc level. To be clear, Wisp isn't the type of person to make a huge deal about it or feel a moral issue here, so it's not a fun source of conflict IC.

This isn't to say there's no shades of gray between "let them go and hope they leave the area peacefully" and "butcher them all as they run in panic".

A couple of things about Signy's reasoning. Signy doesn't know much about mites except for what she knows they've done. They aren't known cowards to her. They started the fight, which suggests to her they aren't.

Leaving the region is different from running away. Running away probably means coming right back when we leave. Exiting the region is packing up their stuff en masse and going somewhere that isn't the Stolen Lands.

Sure, so we can capture them, or keep chasing them, or destroy the sycamore, or otherwise take steps to encourage their retreat t doesn't end at the clearing's edge. Tons of options without immediately jumping to killing while refusing to acknowledge potential objections.

I actually think it's a bit of a concern that party members are outright ignoring each other instead of arguing or explaining, because I don't really have any way for Wisp to interact with that barring pvp (which obviously isn't the right response here). I don't get what kind of fun conflict is supposed to emerge from it.

Signy trying to kill them when they initially retreated felt relatively in-character. However, with two PCs completely at odds at this point, her then ignoring Wisp's request without comment puts me in a very frustrating position. What exactly am I supposed to do?

Signy is in the middle of combat and she and Whisp are acting simultaneously. Signy's not going to just stop and chat.

Honestly I'm concerned that you're trying to coerce players into letting you have veto power over their characters actions by raising OOC complaints at every turn.

What exactly am I supposed to do?

It's up to you to decide what you do, don't ask me. It is up to me to decide what Signy does, don't tell me.

Honestly, I think that's a pretty unpleasant way to interpret me, but communication is a two-way street. I've been trying to work out how Wisp can fit into a party like this one. I don't really think she can. I've been trying to work out how I can fit into this game. I don't really think I do. I'm sad and tired and incredibly anxious, and I really wanted to slot back into this PbP. My attempts to get across discomfort were that--attempts to establish a friendly environment at times when the roleplay or out-of-character interactions felt hostile. Oversharing and over-checking-in are my coping mechanisms for extremely debilitating anxiety. I have appreciated everyone's patience with me, for whatever it's worth.

Text isn't a good medium for passive aggression, so I'm going to say it straight: I'm very uncomfortable with this, and you're right that one player's discomfort shouldn't force other players to drastically modify playstyle. I wasn't asking anyone to. I did not realize the things I was asking for were as important to you as they are.

One player's discomfort can't govern five other people's play beyond reasonable limits, but that doesn't make me suddenly comfortable with everything. So I'm going to respectfully tap out. Sorry, Rackal.
I don't really want to try to work this out because I've been trying to do that a lot lately and it has only made people frustrated with me. I am not good at it. So I probably won't be back this time.

The in-character explanation, at least, is simple enough: Wisp feels bad about the fight and decides to leave. I do enjoy the mental image of Wisp just continuing to give Brental her walking sticks, but I think it probably makes more sense for her to keep this one for balance's sake. Up to you, Rackal. :P

Oh. I posted in gameplay first before checking on the discussion tab, and I missed a bunch.

Not meaning to poke my nose in where it’s unwanted (please tell me if it is, and I’ll back off!), but I’d be sad to see an impasse reached on tone already. Kobold, you mentioned that exploiting a critter’s retreat is a bit dark for you, but that you could see some shades of grey. If you haven’t quite made up your mind yet – and no pressure, sometimes it’s just time to call it quits – could you elaborate?

As I imagine Lina, and I would guess as most of the other players do their characters, I’m not sure our adventurers would peg the mites as no longer an active threat. They’re not looking particularly brave right now, but how many of them are still carrying darts, or might also have magic they haven’t revealed yet? As an elf (and, goodness knows, a glass-cannon-y magus :) ), Lina would be particularly alive to the possibilities of hit-and-run tactics. It would be another matter if the mites had dropped their weapons first, if she was reasonably sure that she could handle any other surprises they might have, and if they had actually begged off, instead of just starting to retreat.

I don’t think anyone means to ignore anyone else’s character or dictate their actions, but we are in the middle of combat, and these are important questions of theme and tone, so maybe could we table the latter until after the current encounter, if folks still feel like discussing it?

Again, not wanting to push anyone, and in particular, if this game is that bit too far out of your comfort level, Kobold, I’ll be sorry to see you go, but hope maybe we can gather around another campaign table sometime.

Okay, this is going to eat at me if I don't clarify.

I am not leaving because of anything in-character, just to be clear. I'm leaving because of this.

I'm concerned that you're trying to coerce players into letting you have veto power over their characters actions by raising OOC complaints at every turn.

It's up to you to decide what you do, don't ask me. It is up to me to decide what Signy does, don't tell me.

I think this is a very unpleasant attitude to encounter in a group-based role playing game. I don't know how to respond to it, I was very upset by it, I still am very upset by it, and it's not a play style I feel able to engage with. "I'm just playing my character" is not a license to ignore the comfort levels of other players. A player trying to establish their triggers and comfort levels is not a form of manipulation or coercion. The in character issues were matters to discuss. This reads to me as an attempt to shut down that discussion.

Let’s go back to that triggers discussion at the beginning of the game. You said: ”I don't have any major triggers when it comes to a text-only medium. Just, y'know, no explicit torture or abuse, no excessively descriptive gore, that sort of thing.”

Yet almost from the outset you have been flagging events in the game as problematic and hostile, creating tension. These call outs have notably concerned my posts, which were apparently insufficiently warm, or affirming, or deferential to Whisp. For example it was troubling that Whisp who wears a skull helmet and acted quite weird at the initial meeting in Restov was thought of by Signy as weird.

This trend would continue up until you exited the first time due to the “tension” you felt existed between characters. Everyone else had to admit they didn’t feel it, but nevertheless. While you labeled this a party problem, the only person you ever named was me.

”Signy and Wisp got off on the wrong foot, and that's been hard to bounce back from, but it's honestly the only interaction that's really bugging me.”

In brilliant passive-aggressive form you said "It must be my character just doesn't fit the party, except it's really Signy's fault".

I did not feel that at all, and never understood why you did. Although I was frustrated by that, I was sorry to see you go.

However, on your return you picked up exactly as you left off. Whisp immediately found the course of action we’d decided on completely objectionable. We complied with your wishes and diplomacy didn’t work out.

Now, more egregiously, you have unilaterally declared combat over although everyone else agrees it’s still going. It is an OOC problem that I didn’t retro my last game post to have Signy stop on a dime, and jump over into the discussion thread to work things through with you. I made it clear in discussion why she didn’t, but that doesn’t matter because now there is a new OOC comfort issue.

I stand by my last couple of posts and here is the more nuanced version. There is a long pattern of comfort issues brought forth by you after Whisp doesn’t get what she wants. I don’t think you separate in character and out of character sufficiently, so anything you don’t like in game is almost automatically an OOC comfort issue. You have often said you're trying to figure out how to fit your character into the party. But really all you've ever done is try to make the party fit your character.

As with this most recent problem: You don’t want the fey killed so you call combat over when you want it to stop, and anyone who doesn’t follow suit is an uncomfortably murderous character/player.

I may be completely wrong about all of this. If anyone cares enough, they can go back and read through the game and discussion threads themselves and make their own decision. I think it bears out what I'm saying well.

But it doesn’t matter. I’m tired too. I’m tired of being the Big Bad you chose for yourself. I’m also tired of having to endlessly analyze every game post and write four discussion posts explaining why exactly to you. I won’t do it anymore. At this point 75% of our time and energy is being spent in discussion addressing issues you raise. My game time is too limited for that, and it is its own kind of not having fun too. I'll also note here that until today I have never raised any concerns or issues concerning you or Whisp at all. I have told you I was sorry a few times however, even though I had no idea for what.

If you want to stay Kobold, the game is yours. I will not be playing with you anymore.

Well, what can I say. I'm beyond dissappionted by what has transpired here and to everyone that was effected by this in any way, shape, or form I am so very sorry. I've been trying my very best to work out this issue between players away from the table and it seems I've utterly failed in my attempts.

My goal here was to create a space where everyone would feel comfortable and welcome. Where we could all sit back and relax. Let our minds wander as we forget the troubles of the world for a few minutes and explore the possibilities and adventure of this made up little world at our 'table.'

I wanted you all to feel free to express your characters how you liked shy of insults or inter-party violence. This was not enough, I'm sorry.

I wanted everyone to feel safe and happy here and tried to gently steer players in that direction if ever an issue arose. This was not enough, I'm sorry.

I wanted to create a space of fun and fantasy and to that end I didn't rule harshly against any player but more nudged them along a route I thought would work better for everyone. This was not enough, I'm sorry.

I'm extremely new to play-by-post so while I have DMed a few table games before I was nervous about starting this out. Wondering if I'd have what it takes to manage a group like this. Clearly, I had every reason to worry as this has turned into a disaster. Never, in all my years of DMing experience has a game exploded like this. There have been issues but I was always able to quietly resolve them with private chats with my players. Online is different. I obviously don't have the skills needed to manage a game like this and I'm so very sorry that I let everyone down like this.

Managing a world, creating interesting NPCs, and handling encounters is only part of what a good DM MUST do for her players. The most important part, in my opinion, is creating a safe space for every player to express themselves and let go of all their worldly troubles so they can fully immerse themselves into the fantastical realm she manages.

To this end I'm deeply sorry to both Signy and Kobold. I hope you can forgive me.

And to the rest of you I'm sorry I wasted your time. Your characters were all brilliant and I had so much fun getting to know them all.

I'm sorry I failed you.

Please don't blame yourself, Rackal. Whatever the source of the problem was - whatever the reason was that rdknight and I were unable to understand one another to such a horrible extent - it wasn't your job to manage something like this.

The other four players had no issue with one another, nor with rdknight. I'm no longer in the game or engaging with things here, so it's not going to be a problem anymore. I would really genuinely rather you blame me than yourself here. There are more grounds for it. You didn't fail anyone. Please, please, please don't hold yourself to account for what happened here. I hope you can take a break and come back and continue running for everyone else and continue to take joy in this wonderful game of yours.

If anyone needs to contact me, PMs are best.

You absolutely should not think you failed at anything Rackal. You were saddled with an extremely unusual problem for which there were no good solutions. You did the best you could, which is all anyone could have done, probably with no better results than you.

I apologize to everyone for blowing up. I'd just reached the limits of my patience with the situation and saw no end in sight. It would have been better if I'd just dropped out without comment, and I'm sorry I didn't take that route.

I hope Rackal will continue on with the game if she can; there are a lot of great players here who shouldn't lose out over this. Although Kobold has left, I figure I should still do the same. That way you can all have a fresh start and put this behind you.

Best wishes to you all.

I've read through all your messages and you've all been super sweet. Honestly it was really refreshing after such an unfortunate experience. If the three of you that remain want to continue the game... well I'm willing to give it one last shot.

We will have to address the lack of players again though and I'm not sure of how to tackle that exactly since I'm hesitant to ask a person to join a game that is teetering on the edge.

A lot of you also recommended that I take a hiatus and I think I kinda need that right now. It's good advice for me to take a moment to get my head on straight. Besides we can use the time to figure out the new player issue. That said I'll be putting the game on hiatus until the 21st of this month.

I'm really sorry that it took me a bit to answer you all but, honestly, I had been drinking yesterday (not a depression thing Tuesday night/Wednesday morning are always set aside for me to enjoy a couple glasses) and so I wanted to address everyone properly and put real thought and consideration as to whether I wanted to try to keep this going.

Truly I still feel awful about what I did but you all have been a pleasure to play with and I'd hate to see your lovely characters go to waste. If you'll have me I'd be happy to continue on as your DM. <3

Hey Rackal.

I did send you a PM as I didn't want to throw a bunch of stuff here on the board. No need to respond to that rambling mess unless you want to.

I would love to continue the game with you as DM, but I fully support a hiatus. Let's talk more after the 21st.

To Kobold Cleaver with Wylhia the Wisp, and to rdknight with Signy Birkirsdottir: it has been a pleasure gaming with you, and I am sorry that we will not continue in this game together. Bon voyage, and be well.

I just want to echo Brental’s words: Kobold and rdknight, it was a pleasure, and I’m sorry it didn’t work out for all of us to continue sharing this table together, but maybe our paths will cross again sometime. Stay safe out there!

Rackal, thank you for your patience and your courage. I’ll probably send you another PM in a bit, just since you mentioned using the hiatus to work some stuff out, but no pressure, of course! Just trying to help out a bit, if I can. Beyond that, I hope you enjoy your weekend.

Alright everyone! The hiatus is over and DM Rackal makes her glorious return to the stage!

Fire!

Explosions!

Gasps!

Bees?

BEES?!

Bees.

Applause!

Please choose a direction you would like the party to advance or look around or discuss things. Whatever you want to do really. :)

I hope I can do better for you all this time. Have fun <3

Something something "not the bees!", something something Nic Cage.

Welcome back, and cheers!