GM Harrow’s Curse of the Crimson Throne - AE

Game Master GM Harrow

Works for me. :)

Sorry, today's been busy at work. I haven't forgotten about you all.

It's all good. Rather you keep the lights on than get a post from you a few minutes sooner.

My job was trying a test pilot for my team to take over a new support queue with the notion the queue has only light incoming tickets. 'Light' has so far proven greatly exaggerated.

Sorry for the delay.

Yeesh. I don't envy you there.

As for the delay, real life happens. I don't think any of us are keeping score.

@Everyone: I feel like there have been several PMs in my inbox recently, and I am not certain if I have answered each of them. If you were expecting a response to me regarding a prior PM, please let me know, so I can go comb through my inbox and get to it.

I promise I had no intention of ignoring or overlooking anything to which anyone needed an actual reply!

@GM: I think I'm good. If I realize I do need something from you, I'll just send a new PM.

I'm going to wait for Abella to post, mainly because I want to wrap up that little interaction before moving on. I have no idea how Audria's going to track everyone down. I think Pip and Dal are staying in the Sanctuary, but Audria has no idea where Shrike lives or when/if she'll be showing up.

Pip, Dal, would you mind confirming where you are staying for the moment for me? Audria would know, since they are in effect her guests, but I, the player, don't know for sure if y'all are staying at the Sanctuary of Shelyn.

Meta-game knowledge suggests you won't have too much trouble finding Shrike soon, but Audria won't know that.

The pause after my post is mostly for Shrike to make her entrance and allow any further RP between all of you before gathering everyone in my next post with Theolan.

Oh I figure she's going to show up and scare Tallyfeather half to death again whenever, but I still think Audria would worry about it a little.

Dal is slightly above vagrant level and definitely took the opportunity to crash at the Sanctuary.

@GM: I've added a couple of entries on the NPC list in Audria's profile. One is Sister Jenelyn, whom I think I stole from you. (sorry/notsorry :P ) The other is Zacharias, the young acolyte that was the runner that got jumped and whose absence prompted Bartholomew to send Audria to go find out what was going on. He's the Zach Audria's referring to. Post where he shows up. It's towards the end of The Bear, Part 2.

I just made up Professor Diablus Focaccia (yes, as in the bread) on the spot. Feel free to have fun with him. >:)

@Shrike: I'm tempted to make it a running joke that Talanaliel and/or Audria never seem to notice your arrival while in your Shrike persona. Only thing is, I don't know if Shrike would do it on purpose or if it should just be one of those things that happens because we find it amusing.

@Audria: I like that. Shrike wouldn't startle them on purpose exactly, but she is definitely in the habit of being a big sneaky weirdo and that isn't going to change. And she does find their reactions amusing, in her deadpan way. More importantly, I find it funny when you do it, so will try to continue writing in opportunities for it if you like.

That's awesome. I'm glad that I'm not the only one this amuses. Please do keep writing in those opportunities. :)

Hey y'all. This is Audria's player, Adam. I'm putting together some stuff to run a short adventure here on the boards and I wanted to get some feedback on what I need to add, remove, or change in my profile here to answer some questions and to provide a clear idea of what y'all can expect from me as a GM and what I expect from you as players. I've enjoyed playing with all of you and I know at least one of you (*cough*Pip*cough*) has said they want to see me run something again.

Please take a look and let me know what you think. I'm trying to be a better GM and give myself the best shot I can of finishing what I start, so here I am preparing as much as I can ahead of time.

And speaking of being better, please, let me know how I can be a better player to all of y'all. Can't fix something if I don't know it's going wrong after all.

If you’ve looked at this GM profile you know profile advice from me won’t help you secure any players.

Could look at it as if you were a player looking to sign up for a game I'm running. What kinds of questions do you have? Is there anything that I didn't cover? Are there any points that have you concerned?

I will be traveling from tomorrow through 8/16. I hope I'll be able to post pretty normally from my phone, but please don't wait on me for any decisions or hesitate to bot Shrike if it's been 24 hours.

That looks fine to me as a DM profile, DM-Salsa. If anything, it might be a bit intimidatingly comprehensive. The only thing that confused me was the languages section — are you trying to say that you want players to always give things said in non-Common languages in quotes, but run the words through a translator to one of those other languages first so they look alien? It's not clear because in the example text the words are just in English still.

Actually, yeah, that's exactly what I was wanting. Thanks for pointing out that wasn't very clear. I'll change that example and make that more explicit.

As for being intimidatingly comprehensive, I'm not sure how to get around the intimidating part. Suggestions?

You could organize the resources for making characters, names, backgrounds, tokens and etc. behind spoilers, maybe? It seems good overall though. Good luck and happy gaming!

A serious question for Pip, where and how did he get the chicken and pastries? I've got this image in my head of Shrike, Abella, and Audria walking up to the door to the kitchens and Pip walking out carrying a rucksack overflowing with food.

I believe Pip is making a humorous recurring situation where Pip always has an over abundance of food. I’m allowing it until food actually matters mechanically.

Okay. I just didn't want to assume that he came out of the kitchens with his haul. Already made a fool of myself twice this campaign by making assumptions. Don't want to add a third one before we've even hit level three.

Hmm? I’m not sure assuming he came from anywhere else would be likely. If he’s not coming from the kitchen after “restocking,” I would have no clue from where else this food appeared.

If it isn't clear, I'm looking for consent. Posting has slowed way down recently, and I'm not sure why. So if you're just not figuring out what kind of response I'm expecting, it's for all of you to indicate your interest or disinterest in what Brother Theolan has requested.

I'm not interested in railroading anyone, so please realize your input will be required whenever NPCs ask, request, demand, or command you to do something. I assume nothing.

Do you got to Queen Ileosa's party?

I will be traveling from tomorrow through 8/16. I hope I'll be able to post pretty normally from my phone, but please don't wait on me for any decisions or hesitate to bot Shrike if it's been 24 hours.

This is noted, and as a result, I may extend the upcoming scenes as I feel your presence in the banquet sequence will be better served with more time to post. I had originally planned on having the party actually spend the night in Castle Korvosa, so I might go ahead with that plan. More than likely the ensuing roleplay will stretch long enough to cover the length of your trip.

@Everyone (except Audria): Please remind me of any and all NPCs with whom you have an association which could possibly for any reason make an appearance in the castle or you would like to have show up. This is one of the reasons I asked about the family for whom Pippip used to work. ;)

@Audria: I'm already well aware of your potential NPCs, don't worry. Two which have remained off-screen until now will have their debut.

If it isn't clear, I'm looking for consent. Posting has slowed way down recently, and I'm not sure why. So if you're just not figuring out what kind of response I'm expecting, it's for all of you to indicate your interest or disinterest in what Brother Theolan has requested.

I'm not interested in railroading anyone, so please realize your input will be required whenever NPCs ask, request, demand, or command you to do something. I assume nothing.

I do not appreciate the chastising tone when we have been contributing and it was a weekend, in which people generally post slower. I was waiting for a reaction from the Brother before posting more myself, and I note you did not post all weekend either.

It particularly feels unfair when last week you were tied up and we were all understanding.

I know I'm dragging right now. My son went to the dr on Friday with an ear infection and yesterday my wife got knocked on her butt by the flu. I'm running a sick ward lol

I certainly did not intend to chastise, merely express my confusion as to the recent slowdown as I was unsure if something is being expected of me as the GM. I apologize if my words sound like a rebuke. I can assure you the intention is merely me trying to remove any confusion you may have and also set a precedent for future moments of this nature in which my NPCs make statements in a similar manner.

I’d thought the lighthearted “Choose Your Own Adventure” reference would make that clear, but as it did not, I apologize.

Edit: Also, I had noticed an uptick in players RPing, so I have allowed more time for that specifically. I leave it you all to decide when that’s finished, and I try to allow time before I advance the plot so we do not have too many split posts as that has led to some confusion in the timeline of events recently.

My concern about slowdown is aimed at not always reading the room to know if you have finished the player-to-player RP before I push it forward.

I can see where that would be what you were going for, but the way you worded that first post coupled with that second post made it come off as passive aggressive instead of lighthearted.

If you don't mind some unsolicited advice from someone who's been in the same boat as you on wondering where the posts have gone, here's a few things that I have done if I'm wondering what's going on or if I wanted to push the players.

1. Ask if anyone's waiting on you for anything, or waiting on anything in general.
2. Ask for everyone to post something quick just to see who's here and watching the threads.
3. Ask what the plan is.
4. Ask if everything's okay or if everyone's just busy.

Keep things friendly, it's not an interrogation, after all.

So, instead of that first post, I would have done something like this:

Hey y'all, I've been noticing that posting is slowing down a bit. I know it was the weekend, that Dal and Shrike are busy, and to be honest I wanted to give some space for role-playing before that, but I'm worried about losing momentum. Is anyone waiting on something, especially from me? Is there anything y'all need from me to help get things moving again? I don't want to railroad anyone if I can help it, so knowing what y'all's intentions as players are would be a big help in that regard.

It gets across your concerns, what you'd like to avoid, and prompts the players into responding out of character and letting you know what they intend to do so you can use that to help jumpstart things if needed. It also lets the players know that you're aware of the extenuating circumstances (Dal did mention he's got loved ones in his house going through some health stuff before today,) and it gives them a chance to poke you and let you know if there's something that you've dropped the ball on or that they are waiting on a reply from you on before proceeding.

I know I'm dragging right now. My son went to the dr on Friday with an ear infection and yesterday my wife got knocked on her butt by the flu. I'm running a sick ward lol

Oof, hope they're feeling better and getting better. Stay healthy, my friend. I'd hate for you to get sick too.

It has been a struggle these last couple of days. I'm beat.

I bet.

On the plus side, if you like to cook, you now have an excuse to make homemade chicken noodle soup. :)

@Dal: I'm sorry your wife and son have been sick. I hope they feel better soon and you can catch up on your rest.

@GM: Agreeing here with Abella and Audria. I was also waiting for Brother Theolan to respond somehow in the office scene before posting a yes or no in relation to that scene. Now he has, but you've also said this:

This is noted, and as a result, I may extend the upcoming scenes as I feel your presence in the banquet sequence will be better served with more time to post. I had originally planned on having the party actually spend the night in Castle Korvosa, so I might go ahead with that plan. More than likely the ensuing roleplay will stretch long enough to cover the length of your trip.

@Everyone (except Audria): Please remind me of any and all NPCs with whom you have an association which could possibly for any reason make an appearance in the castle or you would like to have show up.

I'm not sure I understand. Do you mean that because I am on mobile only for the next week or so, Shrike should skip this banquet sequence and the rest of the party RPing it out can last until I'm home again? Or did you mean something else by this, because you were then asking me along with most of the others to remind you of potentially castle-appearing NPCs? I'm confused.

To be honest, I was thinking of having Shrike decline this invitation and spend the next two days returning children, anyway. OOC, I don't want to, however. I would rather not immediately split the party again after we just got back in the same room, and of course I would rather participate in the RP than not. But IC, while I could justify returning the Queen's brooch in the vigilante identity as part of an adventuring party, it doesn't make sense to me for Shrike to go to a banquet. Attending social events is what the social identity is for — but Merula hasn't been invited to this party. (She could certainly help Audria out with some basic noble etiquette though.)

I'm certainly winning a communication award this week.

@Shrike: In my mind it made sense since I knew what I meant. I suppose the relevant information missing is that I was thinking of delaying the banquet scene until you had returned. I had initially planned to have the party stay as guests in the castle overnight before the event, and if I run that scene, it should allow you plenty of time for your trip but not be overly burdening for posting while on your trip.

Of course, all of that is moot if Shrike/Merula declines the invitation.

Oh, I see. Well, Shrike will agree to go if Brother Theolan says he wants her there specifically because of the vision. She feels an obligation to him, for looking after Isi and the other children while the party dealt with Lamm, that has not yet been discharged. Alternatively, Merula could show up and be shanghaied in somehow after lessons.

NPCs that might attend a fancy party at the Queen's request: Any of her dancing lesson students with their parents, but especially Keyra Endrin (whose father Marcus Endrin is minor nobility and commander of the Sable Company), Cordelinda Tuttle (whose mother is a bureaucrat and grandfather is Darb Tuttle, the Archbanker of Abadar), or Dessa Perenne (whose mother is Lolia Perenne, the Magistrate of Regulation — not a noble but a high-ranking bureaucrat.)

I certainly did not intend to chastise, merely express my confusion as to the recent slowdown as I was unsure if something is being expected of me as the GM. I apologize if my words sound like a rebuke. I can assure you the intention is merely me trying to remove any confusion you may have and also set a precedent for future moments of this nature in which my NPCs make statements in a similar manner.

I’d thought the lighthearted “Choose Your Own Adventure” reference would make that clear, but as it did not, I apologize.

Edit: Also, I had noticed an uptick in players RPing, so I have allowed more time for that specifically. I leave it you all to decide when that’s finished, and I try to allow time before I advance the plot so we do not have too many split posts as that has led to some confusion in the timeline of events recently.

My concern about slowdown is aimed at not always reading the room to know if you have finished the player-to-player RP before I push it forward.

I appreciate the apology. Thank you.

For what it’s worth, I am antsy to push ahead, which is why I am not going on tangents with Abella’s posts. It’s very much feeling like we are in a “prologue” at the moment and I’m feeling ready for the “logue.” We’ve gotten a lot of tasty appetizers but I am ready for some meat. We’re not quite hitting the right balance for me yet.

To give an idea of what I like about play-by-posting in pre-written games, I like the idea of playing with a character without having to worry about creating a whole plot from scratch. I do that on my own time with my own writing. I think of play-by-post as essentially getting prompts that I write in response to. If I want to do something, or not do something, I will tell you. Or just do it. I already know I can write whatever I want. I do so with my own writing. I want to be challenged by the unexpected. I was the odd one out even in my writing workshops in grad school in this regard, but I have never needed permission to do whatever I wanted in writing and always wanted constraints instead.

As for NPCs for the banquet, the only NPC I imagine Abella being interested in talking to would be Cressida Croft, as she would have been Cainabeth’s boss. Otherwise, I would rather keep Abella’s focus on the other PCs right now as we work on building that rapport. Well and of course the queen.

What about guardsmen that Abella knew through Cainabeth?

As for building up a rapport between different PCs, Audria and Dal and Audria and Shrike have some connections already built in. I'm not sure how to get Audria and Abella closer, or Audria and Pip for that matter.

For what it’s worth, I am antsy to push ahead, which is why I am not going on tangents with Abella’s posts. It’s very much feeling like we are in a “prologue” at the moment and I’m feeling ready for the “logue.” We’ve gotten a lot of tasty appetizers but I am ready for some meat. We’re not quite hitting the right balance for me yet.

You are not wrong. As I expressed to Lania/Shrike in a recent PM, I've been intentionally stalling this part of the adventure a bit more because I don't feel the campaign as written really does a good job of giving the players reasons to stick together nor does it really make the meeting with the queen the rather significant event it should be.

This is a "hometown" adventure with the initial reason for the whole campaign start being to defeat Gaedran Lamm...which is the first thing that happens. Absolutely nothing that comes next encourages the players to stick together especially since the next event is a city wide crisis which should actually engender a desire to separate as each PC rushes off to find and protect their family and friends (especially in the event you find any of the loved ones alive at Lamm's hideout), temporary posse dispersed. If I had written this, Book 1 would have entirely been finding Gaedran Lamm as the riots create the opening needed to finally locate him. In my mind, Lamm should have been the BBEG to defeat at the end of Edge of Anarchy with it culminating in the discovery of Lamm's inclusion in a plot which threatens Korvosa at large now encouraging the team to stick together since only they know the threat.

I chose to keep the "prologuing" going to help cement the team's desire to see things through and grow on each other a bit more. Now that we've arrived at the visit to the queen I have a feeling things will start to move a lot more quickly which inevitably means a lot more combat, ha.

Sorry it has been feeling less exciting recently as soon the sense of unease and urgency will begin to multiply quite rapidly especially with the start of Book 2 which, all in all, we're probably not too far away from depending on how quickly/easily you handle the next few events.

What about guardsmen that Abella knew through Cainabeth?

As for building up a rapport between different PCs, Audria and Dal and Audria and Shrike have some connections already built in. I'm not sure how to get Audria and Abella closer, or Audria and Pip for that matter.

I considered that but it doesn’t sound interesting to me, and I’m not going to make up an NPC just to make up an NPC. If I wanted to and had the energy to, I would. I also find play-by-post gets a bit solipsistic if we are all off in our corners chatting up our pet NPCs if we do it too often. Also too much like writing fiction on my own, which I already do and am not looking to replicate.

As for rapport, it is a function of doing things together imo, not pre-built connections. I once saw a looking for friends post from someone on Lex and—just like me—they were trans, lesbian, loved Legos, and autistic. Then we actually had a conversation and it turned out we were completely opposite types of autistic (she was a STEM programming type and I’m a hyperverbal humanities type), were in completely different places in our lives and transitions, and didn’t even like the same types of Legos. On paper, we sounded like we would have a lot to talk about, but the conversation fizzled almost immediately.

The way you get characters to build conflict, tension, and rapport between each other is, 99% of the time, putting them in the same room and figuring out how to react to each other.

Abella Tribastarion wrote:

For what it’s worth, I am antsy to push ahead, which is why I am not going on tangents with Abella’s posts. It’s very much feeling like we are in a “prologue” at the moment and I’m feeling ready for the “logue.” We’ve gotten a lot of tasty appetizers but I am ready for some meat. We’re not quite hitting the right balance for me yet.

You are not wrong. As I expressed to Lania/Shrike in a recent PM, I've been intentionally stalling this part of the adventure a bit more because I don't feel the campaign as written really does a good job of giving the players reasons to stick together nor does it really make the meeting with the queen the rather significant event it should be.

This is a "hometown" adventure with the initial reason for the whole campaign start being to defeat Gaedran Lamm...which is the first thing that happens. Absolutely nothing that comes next encourages the players to stick together especially since the next event is a city wide crisis which should actually engender a desire to separate as each PC rushes off to find and protect their family and friends (especially in the event you find any of the loved ones alive at Lamm's hideout), temporary posse dispersed. If I had written this, Book 1 would have entirely been finding Gaedran Lamm as the riots create the opening needed to finally locate him. In my mind, Lamm should have been the BBEG to defeat at the end of Edge of Anarchy with it culminating in the discovery of Lamm's inclusion in a plot which threatens Korvosa at large now encouraging the team to stick together since only they know the threat.

I chose to keep the "prologuing" going to help cement the team's desire to see things through and grow on each other a bit more. Now that we've arrived at the visit to the queen I have a feeling things will start to move a lot more quickly which inevitably means a lot more combat, ha.

Sorry it has been feeling less exciting recently as soon the sense of unease and urgency will begin to...

I totally understand the concern, but I also don’t think it’s necessarily your job to come up with motivations for us to stay together, but I recognize I may be in the minority here. I’ve been GMing 20 years myself, and when I started, I spent a lot of time angsting over PC motivations. I have a much different attitude now.

In my view, the first job of creating a protagonist (and we have all created protagonists) is making someone who will stick around for the whole story. My character is sticking around to play Curse of the Crimson Throne because I want to play Curse of the Crimson Throne and she exists for this reason. The second job of making a character for an ensemble cast of protagonists is making a character who other people will stick around for the whole story, so I made a character who will play well with others and (hopefully) not be grating on people because I want to play with other people as a social experience. Just as if I accidentally created a character who drives everyone else mad and ruins their fun, if I created a character who wouldn’t actually do the adventure I signed on for, I would ask to change my character, not expect you to change the AP for me.

In-universe. Abella’s motivation for sticking around is that she has had to face being alone for the first time in her life, and she never, ever wants to experience anything like that ever again. If everyone else moved to Minkai and didn’t tell her where they were going, she would track them down and show up the next day pretending that she was out for a stroll and happened upon them and oh-by-the-way-could-she-stick-around-for-a-bit? Nothing that has been introduced has changed that. It’s all I need.

Sorry, I’m not trying to lecture, and I apologize if I come across like that! I’m just trying to explain my thinking and how I arrived at it. I also don’t want you to feel like all the load-bearing of the game is on you. We are all meeting each other halfway :D

The way you get characters to build conflict, tension, and rapport between each other is, 99% of the time, putting them in the same room and figuring out how to react to each other.

Agreed, but that it's quite what I meant when I said built-in connections. Basically, it's more like a hook that we can use to hang those interactions off of and gives a little more to work with than two strangers meeting for the first time. It also helps that Shrike was an acquaintance and it was her alter ego that Audria met and the interaction with Dal was in passing, though it did have an affect on Audria. (Basically Dal's player picked up a moment from her background and used that as the hook hang the rest of it on.)

Now, as for this most recent post, do I wait to see what the others do with it or go ahead and dive in? Decisions, decisions.

Oh my gosh, work tickets falling from the sky today! It should calm down this afternoon, hopefully. I will try to get something posted then.

I will be advancing us forward when I have a few moments to write, so if anyone would like more time, please let me know as it will be a fairly large jump.

I was wrong on it slowing down. I will probably have to something later tonight.

On a vacation with spotty internet. Sorry bout delays.

I'm actually feeling fortunate so many of you have had some delays as it makes my own seem less disruptive.

Yesterday and today were crazy at work, but I had a chance to get an important Raven post put up, and a smaller intermediary piece right before I shift us to the Castle Korvosa entry.

Fair warning, my plan is to try and keep posts a decent rate which may mean I move past an event you'd like to address or roleplay into. I will pause and respond or allow roleplay as long as you all notify me you'd like some time with the scene. As using OOC header titles of varying degrees of cleverness seems to work, I will use that as well, and if any of you would like more time with a particular header, just post up something quick here in the Discussion thread letting me know, so I don't move us past it if you need a minute to write it up or think through how you will respond.

Looking forward to this next bit quite a lot! Even if it's just for my own writing, I'll enjoy it, but if you all want to throw up some words, you have my support.

Welp, you nailed Eliana. :D

I do have one scene between Audria and Shrike/Merula that I want to do before we leave for the castle, but that shouldn't really affect anything.

I'll be working on it now.

Since it looks like we're going to the castle, staying the night, and being interrogated by officials(!), can we arrange things so that Merula, and not Shrike, also accompanies Brother Theolan as an attendant not associated with the adventurers who retrieved the brooch, like Jessica the stylist? Something like: 1) Shrike declines the invitation, 2) Merula shows up for etiquette lessons, 3) Audria asks to take her along too for support and in case they have last-minute questions? And then just skip ahead to Merula being there with the Sanctuary of Shelyn group broadly. Like I said, I don't want to miss the banquet or split the party, but the whole thing should just make Shrike very leery. Especially if we're not allowed to bring in weapons, which would make sense for a celebration in these very tense times.

I have no problem with this description.

@GM: I know you want to get us to the castle soon, so are you okay with handwaving Audria asking if Merula could tag along as an attendant like Cinnabar suggested?

That's probably up to Shrike, really. As far as I know, only Audria knows who Merula is.

If Shrike wants the opportunity to roleplay Merula's "first" meeting with the rest of the folks, however brief, I'd leave that decision to her. But of course, if we're going too long without posts, I'll do what I have to to keep us moving.