Then you realize the potion of invisibility was empty... most recently used...
I am not that familiar with google docs. Does someone else want to make a google doc for group loot/divvied-up loot?
Not as much as you'd think. But it was for my wife :P
Good news on her side it went well. So that bodes well for the mine she's working at
I will get a google sheet setup.
Wow! Great news! Congratulations!
Anyone in the group opposed to Preacher drinking the cure light wounds potion from the dwarf room loot?
I think that would be an excellent question to ask in gameplay once it is identified.
I am a little shocked there has been no interactions. Be it in gameplay or discussion.
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The scales are only usable three times per day. They have all four abilities. But only one abikity is usable per day for that character.
■Cloud walking(levitation)
■Disguise,
■Resistance,
and ■ Sacred Weaponry.
A number of silver scales lie scattered amid the stones, each about the size of a human man’s palm. These are Terendelev’s scales, shed as she died, and each one possesses a unique power, infused by her departing soul. A PC who picks up a scale receive a flash of insight about the scale’s properties, along with an emotional rush of sadness tinged with resolute determination.
Cloudwalking: Three times per day as a standard action, a scale can be used to cast levitate. A pillar of roiling clouds rises below the levitating object or creature, growing and shrinking with the target’s altitude. This pillar is 5 feet in diameter (regardless of the target’s size) and provides concealment (20% miss chance) to any creature or object
wholly contained within.
Disguise: Three times per day as a standard action, a scale can be used to cast alter self. While disguised, the target gains a +4 bonus on all Bluff checks made against evil creatures.
Resistance: Three times per day as a standard action, a scale can be used to cast resist elements—but only against electricity or cold.
Sacred Weaponry: Three times per day as a standard action, a scale can be used to cast align weapon, but only to make a weapon lawful or good. Unlike a normal align weapon spell, this effect can be cast on an unarmed strike or natural weapon.
Please everyone communicate. Also ask any and all questions here. I would prefer to explain than there be hard feelings over anything. If you don't state a problem I have troubles fixing it!
I hope everyone is having a good time so far. I appreciate everyone who is helping out where they can and making the game more enjoyable!
You found the scales in the first cave! One for each character. Though I am not sure who collected them and if they passed them out or not.
I am enjoying the game as well.
As Preacher is one of the characters who has been detecting magic and identifying some of the items successfully, he would have divvied the scales up amongst the group, whether he successfully identified them or not.
I do have a question regarding the scales:
Your post refers to them each as having unique different powers and all having the same four powers...
so do they each have a fifth power, that is unique to that particular scale, that none of the other scales possess?
- - - and if yes, can Preacher (and others capable of identifying magic item properties) make a Spellcraft roll to attempt to discover the unique power of each scale, or are the unique powers per scale plot-hidden?
* *
Things on the homefront, and working on prepping for one of my future PBP campaigns, have been eating up a lot of my free time, which is why I have not been as active in the additional non-gameplay/non-discussion tasks (such as typing up the more detailed character backgrounds for each of the phantoms and sorting all their information into their main character profile pages (if you were to look at my aliases page, you will see that Preacher and each of the six phantoms have multiple profiles, with a 'during life' profile for each phantom, as well as other profiles for Preacher and each phantom for sorting/extra 'character space' as needed - as I might need more than a single Paizo alias profile to contain all relevant mechanics and backstory elements for Preacher/some of the phantom (with the final sorting being their main profile pages including the crunch of their mechanics & gear, with linked addtional profiles for their backstories).
Would it be okay to ask if Sylvie can have the weapon scale?
@GM:
What time in the day was it we were gathered top-side before things became chaotic? As Preacher can (currently) only manifest another phantom after at least 24 hours has passed since he last manifested a phantom (as opposed to 'next morning') unless you want to simplify things to make it so Preacher 'can't manifest another phantom until after his next long rest' instead of '24 hours since the last time he manifested a phantom'?
With the Phantom Call archetype class feature he will gain at a higher level ignoring that stipulation, as usual, for the extra daily use ability to manifest a phantom.
Bot me. I'm exhausted. Sorry. See your posts in the morning.
Seems like.
Oh well, I'm fairly beat. I'm gonna call it a night and turn in. See y'all next Wednesday.
G'night.
Sorry y'all. I totally forgot about yesterday. I got home at 4:30 and crashed out hard. Slept through the night. Wow 14 hours of sleep!
The scales have all four powers. But when you activate it for the day you may only use that ability for the day.
It seems Xantor and I both were exhausted.
Where are we on XP? Story awards and such?
58956xp, 2x vorpal holy Avengers, 25x scrolls of disintegration and a total of 50 000 pp
LoL!!! RotF!!!
But seriously have you been rewarded XP?
@GM:
What time in the day was it we were gathered top-side before things became chaotic? As Preacher can (currently) only manifest another phantom after at least 24 hours has passed since he last manifested a phantom (as opposed to 'next morning') unless you want to simplify things to make it so Preacher 'can't manifest another phantom until after his next long rest' instead of '24 hours since the last time he manifested a phantom'?
With the Phantom Call archetype class feature he will gain at a higher level ignoring that stipulation, as usual, for the extra daily use ability to manifest a phantom.
It was about noon.
Yeah I am good after a 'long rest'.
LoL!!! RotF!!!
But seriously have you been rewarded XP?
im a lion, i cant count
also, none that im aware of
Why don't we just use milestone leveling like almost every campaign here does? Playing here since 2015 and I have literally never been in a game that uses xp.
Oh I am using milestone XP. I was using a 10 point system. 10 minor events but you can earn more.
I think you mentioned in a post we were at (or just about) halfway to a milestone...
I am too tired currently to do read through backlog post history to find the post.
No idea what milestone xp is. We level after 10 things happen?
It seems to me we have a communication problem in general in the game. Nobody seems to be on the same page about anything, to the point we seem too have simply lost a dwarf we captured. Just poof gone because nobody bothered to say anything about it except to note a couple of times later on that we did nothing about the dwarf.
I have no idea what is going on with Onyx or even what Onyx is. Like literally I couldn't figure it out even after reading the character sheet. Onyx does stuff almost randomly it seems to me, which wouldn't be a huge problem except for a total lack of any understandable communication that signals to us, or at least me, that it's happening or even when it's happening.
For example, if Onyx really must wander off to find some miracle salve (what is the stuff and where is it coming from BTW?) why couldn't that have happened earlier while we were with the mongrel people instead of waiting until we're traveling again? Why did it need to happen? What does it mean? There's just no context at all for this stuff. The pentagram door? Did it mean anything or was it just a loot dump? Otherwise it's just this thing that happened suddenly in the middle of other things that were happening and now it's over and for all it mattered it might as well not have happened.
On the other hand, things that might matter are just reduced to mechanics. We were told straight up and immediately to say something to Arashnivial about his language or we would suffer a -2 on rolls to interact with the mongrel people. That seems like something we should figure out, or use our own initiative to decide to act on or not depending on our characters' ethics or common sense?
So yeah, as far as Bengi knows Onyx just wandered off in the middle of trying to get somewhere so no, I won't be stopping to wait around for it because I have been given no reason to because nothing about what is going on has been communicated to me as a player or a character. So yeah, no salve I guess.
Maybe I'm the only one who only sort of knows what's going on about half the time. But it seems to me like Onyx, Preacher/Captain, and Xantor are the only ones really clued in, like they're playing some kind of mini-game together inside the game. But for me, just trying to keep who, what, and where straight in this game has been frustrating and exhausting.
The way I see it, Xantor is juggling caring for/transporting the injured/civilians, and making sure his possibly-mentally compromised friend doesn't unlock any more pentagram doors and get everyone up to the surface. He's got a lot on his plate.
We knocked out the dwarf, restrained him, questioned him ('off-camera'), and took some of his possession as recompensance for him trying to kill us. We did not bring him along as a captive. The discussion with the mongrels established we encountered the dwarf, but did not take him prisoner. Taking him as a prisoner would have delayed our time in getting the injured NPCs to the surface.
As for part of the communication problem, Bengi made the assumption that the way she was heading was the 'correct way' to the surface with no way of knowing with certainty if it was, ignoring that there were manufactured stairs found, and decided against keeping the group as one collective whole when she decided to press forward without the full group.
Bengi is a main component of the 'lack of communication' (as your posts have included her thoughts regarding others 'choosing' to not keep up with 'the group' even though the two separate groups were about the same size, when not including the injured NPCs, who, we, as a group, told would help them get back to the surface - so from the NPCs' perspective, do not be surprised if they start viewing Bengi as not a 'group-minded' indidividual, who seems to think not waiting for everyone does not somehow reduce the protective capability of the (reduced) number of people helping the injured NPCs to the surface when Bengi decides on her own to continue moving forward without the full group.
Of the group so far, Bengi is the one that has been demonstrating more selfish behaviour than the rest, as she seems to be using the principle of "My way or be left behind, regardless if it increases the chances that the forward group (with the injured NPCs) will be not be at full size (full strength) to deal with any threats that the forward (smaller due to Bengi's selfishness/drive to get to the surface as fast as possible) group come across."
* *
I also suggest you take into consideration some of us are roleplaying our characters, and not just dealing with the tactical situations to reach the surface.
Whatever is happening with Onyx could be an ongoing mystery that is part of the plot (be it from the AP or one that our GM has added to his WotR campaign - and if it is something our GM added, that does not 'take away' from the campaign as written, but adds to it). Maybe your play style prefers that there are not 'mysteries to be solved' during a campaign, though that is a staple of D&D/ttrpgs since the decade D&D was first published 5 decades ago.
* *
One thing we have not been doing, which our characters should be doing, is divvying up loot as we find it (which includes which items goes into a 'group collection' - and which of our characters is carrying the 'group collection' of items.
As for the pentagram door room and stairs down to a lower level - something that is seen that is intrinsically linked to one of the group member's past does not seem like a mere 'loot drop' - as well as tailored magical gear for some of the PCs (even linked to how they were able to open two of the chests) but something the GM put some thought into the mystery aspect of his run of the AP. My educated guess is the other chest was tailored for Sylvara, as she is a PC who has a deity patron for her class, and the two opened chests were linked to the deity the person who opened the chest reveres.
I am curious, when something that is tailored to Bengi comes up, how you would feel/react if one of the other players decided that you having your character engaging in a tailored encounter for her is a 'waste of time' like you have expressed your opinion that the pentagram door room was for our group. There has been nothing to indicate that any of us would think such an tailored-enounter for your character is a 'waste of time'.
I also remind you that our GM told us, before gameplay started, that he would be making tailored stuff up for our characters to add to his run of the AP.
Bengi "...and for all it mattered it might as well not have happened."
==> magical weapons (and armor) that some of the characters now have (and potentially Syvara might have had too...)...could it be so our group might be better prepared to fight a creature that has DR/magic soon? So 'might as well not have happened' is pretty poor view of that particular tailored 'loot drop'.
Even without the GM telling us there could be a mechanical penalty if we did not persuade the NPCs to adjust their talk, I still would have done the same thing - as even without that 'spoiler warning of potential consequences' it was clear that such talk could rub off the wrong way on to our mongrel folk hosts.
Captain Fergus' roleplay posts includes starting to view the other PCs as being members of 'his crew'
first: Guriok
second: Xantor
third: Arataurë
fourth: Onyx
As yet to have roleplay scene to start viewing them as 'mates':
Sylvara
Bengi
So I don't want to get into some long drawn out debate with you Preacherelius. It would just be a waste of everyone else's time, assuming they might feel they need to read through it all. But there are some points I want to respond to.
We knocked out the dwarf, restrained him, questioned him ('off-camera'), and took some of his possession as recompensance for him trying to kill us. We did not bring him along as a captive. The discussion with the mongrels established we encountered the dwarf, but did not take him prisoner. Taking him as a prisoner would have delayed our time in getting the injured NPCs to the surface.
I'm not sure how things happen ('off-camera') in a text based game. It's either somewhere in text or it's not. I went back and took another look. I did find a mention or two of trying to question the dwarf. A few related to looting the dwarf. But I didn't find anything that was a response by the dwarf to any of this anywhere. Maybe I missed it again in the second read through. But I still don't rally know what happened to the dwarf with any certainty.
As for part of the communication problem, Bengi made the assumption that the way she was heading was the 'correct way' to the surface with no way of knowing with certainty if it was, ignoring that there were manufactured stairs found, and decided against keeping the group as one collective whole when she decided to press forward without the full group.
Well, was Bengi wrong about which way to go? It's not like there are lots of tunnels to choose from. She checked options as they came up and continued along routes that didn't dead end. So, actually she wasn't certain from the outset. It just wasn't that hard to figure out.
If I remember correctly those manufactured stairs went down. Call me crazy but after falling some distance underground (meaning that we need to go up) stairs going down just doesn't look like a promising solution for getting out.
Bengi is a main component of the 'lack of communication' (as your posts have included her thoughts regarding others 'choosing' to not keep up with 'the group' even though the two separate groups were about the same size, when not including the injured NPCs, who, we, as a group, told would help them get back to the surface - so from the NPCs' perspective, do not be surprised if they start viewing Bengi as not a 'group-minded' indidividual, who seems to think not waiting for everyone does not somehow reduce the protective capability of the (reduced) number of people helping the injured NPCs to the surface when Bengi decides on her own to continue moving forward without the full group.
Maybe the NPCs could decide Bengi isn't group -minded at some point. But I think they would have a very hard time deciding she was not always working toward making good on the promise to get them out. On the other hand the people f#$*ing around with the door made a promise to them and immediately stopped doing anything about it. I'm not sure it makes much difference anyway. The 3 NPCs with us get one line updates here and there. Bengi is the only character I believe who has actually cooperated with one of them to get something done, or talked to them much. As handled so far, they're mostly just cargo with the potential to say something.
Of the group so far, Bengi is the one that has been demonstrating more selfish behaviour than the rest, as she seems to be using the principle of "My way or be left behind, regardless if it increases the chances that the forward group (with the injured NPCs) will be not be at full size (full strength) to deal with any threats that the forward (smaller due to Bengi's selfishness/drive to get to the surface as fast as possible) group come across."
So here I have to reject your claim that Bengi split the group. It always takes two (at minimum) to split the group. If you go back and read through what happened, it was more complicated. Maybe Bengi spoke on the subject first, maybe not; but the majority opinion of the party when the glowing red pentagram doors suddenly shows up was approximately "Nope, probably very unhealthy and certainly evil" and we almost all were moving on forward out of the room.
But Onyx, because he(?) got brain freeze or possessed or whatever, started mucking with the door, even after being directly told to leave it alone by multiple characters. This is what split the party. Everyone starts filtering back they way they'd come to keep him from killing itself(?). Bengi and initially Sylvara did not. Guriok almost didn't. In short, the party split due to Onyx's actions and after she(?) more or less coerced everyone back due to fears about his(?) safety.
I also suggest you take into consideration some of us are roleplaying our characters, and not just dealing with the tactical situations to reach the surface.
Oh, I don't doubt you and everyone else are roleplaying your characters. I am too. It's true that Bengi is tactically-minded. She is also fairly no-nonsense and can be quite harsh. There are reasons for all these things that will come out eventually.
But, within the realm of RP I do think that characters should generally act like rational people who exercise some degree of common sense. Getting to the surface, where there is on ongoing battle to save the city they live in, along with as many people who live in that city as possible isn't metagaming. It is the core emergency around which I'm roleplaying Bengi. Joining that fight is the paramount thing, because if the city is lost there isn't much reason to go to the surface anymore.
Treating the situation as if time is standing still and nothing further will happen up there until we show up to kick things off is the metagaming because yeah, things aren't going to happen until we're there. We players know it. Our characters shouldn't.
Whatever is happening with Onyx could be an ongoing mystery that is part of the plot (be it from the AP or one that our GM has added to his WotR campaign - and if it is something our GM added, that does not 'take away' from the campaign as written, but adds to it). Maybe your play style prefers that there are not 'mysteries to be solved' during a campaign, though that is a staple of D&D/ttrpgs since the decade D&D was first published 5 decades ago.
I suppose there is some mystery involving Onyx. That's fine. But we could be informed in any number of ways that's what's going on. A post in discussion saying "hey, there's something up with Onyx that's important to his story and development so I'll be doing some things that don't really add up, bear with me it is going somewhere" would be one.
Actually I love mysteries and puzzles in games. But in this case there isn't much narrative support, no "hook" to bring others in, at least as far as I've seen. There are also ways of dropping hints that don't involve having to sidetrack everyone to deal with the character's special situation.
One thing we have not been doing, which our characters should be doing, is divvying up loot as we find it (which includes which items goes into a 'group collection' - and which of our characters is carrying the 'group collection' of items.
Agreed.
As for the pentagram door room and stairs down to a lower level - something that is seen that is intrinsically linked to one of the group member's past does not seem like a mere 'loot drop' - as well as tailored magical gear for some of the PCs (even linked to how they were able to open two of the chests) but something the GM put some thought into the mystery aspect of his run of the AP. My educated guess is the other chest was tailored for Sylvara, as she is a PC who has a deity patron for her class, and the two opened chests were linked to the deity the person who opened the chest reveres.
Oh, so it was a special tailored loot drop, not a mere loot drop.
A couple of things. First the loot issue. This is literally happening in the very first room we're starting in. We're starting with 2nd level gestalt characters with a rapid ability score schedule, EitR, etc. We got masterwork goodies and plenty of money to start with. We can't manage a little while without even more stuff?
WotR has a reputation as overpowered already. I assumed all this is to compensate for ditching mythic rules since I don't think they were mentioned. So, if we're not steamrolling everything for a little while without even more stuff, it means extra more difficult enemies are going to be added to balance things. But WotR already has power creep problems. Adding even more inflation on top of that seems to me like a bad idea for where we're at down the road.
Also, if there is loot that needs to be handed out, it can be done like most loot, acquired here and there along the way, without having to add a bunch of chests holding exactly all the right things for each player.
Second thing, Onyx is a GM-PC. This is something I've never seen before. Most of the disruptive things that have happened to the party are actually the work of the GM to further the GM's own character apparently. Remember, Bengi is only reacting to these things, not instigating them.
I am curious, when something that is tailored to Bengi comes up, how you would feel/react if one of the other players decided that you having your character engaging in a tailored encounter for her is a 'waste of time' like you have expressed your opinion that the pentagram door room was for our group. There has been nothing to indicate that any of us would think such an tailored-enounter for your character is a 'waste of time'.
I did submit a side quest plot hook as required to apply. I'm fine with it never coming up. If it does, the other characters can respond as they wish. It's not something that could easily be worked in anyway I think, but I might be wrong. Depending on the circumstances at the time it did come up, Bengi might or might not want other characters along. I didn't ask for a loot side quest, and wouldn't expect any. It's about information and just for RP purposes.
I also remind you that our GM told us, before gameplay started, that he would be making tailored stuff up for our characters to add to his run of the AP.
This is such a common thing that it doesn't even need to be stated. In fact, I'd expect a GM who was planning to run an AP precisely as written would be doing something unusual enough to mention it. Pretty much every GM adds, subtracts, and modifies APs.
Mostly this is to cut out stuff that isn't all that important. PbP is a dreadfully slow thing. Cutting to help things along is a good idea. Sometimes plots or situations need to be altered or added to so they make sense, or better sense. Again common. Throwing in extra combat that doesn't further any plot isn't done much because combat is the slowest thing of all on PbP. Why add extra combat for no reason? Like, what was the point of the flaming skeletons?
The first character posts in gameplay are dated 12/27/25. We were arguing about the door come 01/25/26. Roughly 4 weeks into the game and we hadn't made it out of the room we started in. Hell yes I wanted to get going. We'd already had to hang around longer due to flaming skeletons out of nowhere. Now we have to stick around for the door? Not the place and time for it.
A GM can do what they want; they're the GM. As a player I can say "hey wait a minute..." about stuff they do.
Bengi "...and for all it mattered it might as well not have happened."==> magical weapons (and armor) that some of the characters now have (and potentially Syvara might have had too...)...could it be so our group might be better prepared to fight a creature that has DR/magic soon? So 'might as well not have happened' is pretty poor view of that particular tailored 'loot drop'.
I think I've already addressed this. Power creep.
Even without the GM telling us there could be a mechanical penalty if we did not persuade the NPCs to adjust their talk, I still would have done the same thing - as even without that 'spoiler warning of potential consequences' it was clear that such talk could rub off the wrong way on to our mongrel folk hosts.
It's not the end of the world. Bengi would have said something anyway as well. I've just never seen a GM do that sort of thing before. Maybe it would be a skill check with DC spoilered at most. Usually it's left up to RP by the GM. Why take away opportunities for players to RP their characters by telling them how to do it right?
One final thing on communication. What I don't mean by communication is just character to character conversations. Those are great, but not always possible or appropriate. There are other ways. For example this, OOC conversations about what is happening in the game. Also narrating information about characters thoughts, feelings, motives, state of mind, etc. etc. can go a long way toward clarifying what is going on with the character or what they are doing and why. Narration doesn't have to be limited to laying out character actions.
There. You've had your say and I've had mine. Let's leave it at that alright?
The dwarf was knocked out cold...
Onyx was going to wander and find the salve... but that isn't happening now.
I will put up a spoiler for those who want to interact with the dwarf as it should be RPed out.
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It's not the end of the world. Bengi would have said something anyway as well. I've just never seen a GM do that sort of thing before. Maybe it would be a skill check with DC spoilered at most. Usually it's left up to RP by the GM. Why take away opportunities for players to RP their characters by telling them how to do it right?
It was me getting information out quickly before getting dragged away. I normally will spoiler such information with skill and a DC. Or if not addressed the modifier is applied for future events.
@GM Wolf: There's no point in revisiting the dwarf at this point. It's in the past. I was using it as an example of the chaos and disjointedness in the game. We can barely move from one place to another without problems.
I guess I'd refine what I'm asking for down to this:
To play this (or any other RPG) together, we need a single shared reality. We don't all have to react to or think about that reality in the same way, but we must agree at least on what what's around us. This part is contributed by the GM. We need clear descriptions and so forth. I don't think this has been a big problem.
But one thing that would help is to cap off and/or open up a change from one day to the next. Just a post that somehow indicates the day is over, or that it's the next morning. This would help us realign with each other time-wise. For example, we have both left and not left the mongrel's place depending on which character post you read. It's still perfectly possible for characters to write about the night before or whatever, but everyone will understand those events written about to have happened in the past rather than the present.
I personally don't like things that tend to break reality, like a door being present and the skeletons showing up out of nowhere after multiple members of the party have painstakingly searched the area. The whole episode just doesn't "fit" with anything before or after. It's just dropped in without any logical way it connects to anything else. It just happens, and now back to the regular world of the characters.
Sure, it was something about Onyx's side quest, and perhaps to drop a bunch of loot. Maybe it meant a lot to Onyx. But nobody else was given the opportunity to know anything or buy in to there being something important that Onyx wants, needs, is curious about, or whatever it is that makes it important to Onyx. Afterward we have no idea if, how, or why it mattered to Onyx. I didn't know it was an Onyx side quest until somebody told me that what is was.
I'm not against characters having side quests come along where they get to be the focus of attention, the star, for a while. It think it is both generous and clever. But time and place matters.
Building some appetite among the rest of the players matters. Make the rest of us curious or concerned for the focus character so all of us have buy in. Give us time to get to know other characters so we care about them and their troubles, ambitions, and so forth. Start weaving in the side plot before it drops on us like a piano. So, off the top of my head, how about Onyx finds a key or a signet ring or whatever instead. He recognized a symbol on the door or something right? Well, the thing he(?) finds has the symbol. Now he knows the important thing might be nearby somewhere. Maybe underground, maybe in the city, maybe somewhere else later on. This gives Onyx some time to tell the rest of us a little about what's up, and gives the rest of us time to come to want him to succeed. That's all it takes. As a bonus, it gives characters more to talk about with each other as time goes on.
I don't really care if you're running a GM-PC. I've never had a GM do this before except for temporarily taking over a character who's player is no longer in the game until the character can be written out or a replacement is found. But whatever, go for it. I will just ask 2 things.
1. Please remember a GM with GM-PC is a closed loop. We don't even get the passive information about them we normally get when a GM and player need to communicate about the player's character. Make the effort to keep us informed about the character rather rather than assuming it's happening without any extra effort on your part.
2. Please don't jerk us around for your character's benefit, or to satisfy your characters needs, wants, plot arc, or development. This is hard over time, and the main reason why GMs don't run their own characters in the games they also GM.
That's it. This is a long post I suppose, but a small ask I think.
Yeah sorry, the dwarf scene got away from me.
Yeah I get time and place, actually it was Fergus's side quest, I was using Onyx. As I intend to use him as a plot device to further each of you.
I get it Bengi and I appreciate your words and opinions.
There. You've had your say and I've had mine. Let's leave it at that alright?
Sounds good. Have some suggestions regarding a subsquent post you made, which I will discuss below - expanding on reason I (and potentially other players) have difference of view regarding spoiler talk for questioning dwarf.
@GM Wolf: There's no point in revisiting the dwarf at this point. It's in the past. I was using it as an example of the chaos and disjointedness in the game. We can barely move from one place to another without problems.
Actually, that would be a really good idea to have spoiler for dwarf interrogation, as it will allow our characters (who question the dwarf/present in room when dwarf is questioned) to learn the methods used by the characters in interrogating someone - as that can reveal things about the interrogator PC(s) to the other PCs present - and of course allows for roleplaying between the PCs that are based off the interrogating style.
For example, say one player does something like hold their dagger up to the bound and gagged dwarf's neck and tells the dwarf, "Speak true, or it will be the last words you ever speak."
Both Preacher and Captain Fergus would have different responses to witnessing such a severe threat to a bound and gagged (and apparently helpless) captive.
Educated guess is some of the other PCs might also speak to the dagger-to-dwarf's throat-interrogating PC before he removes the dwarf's mouth gag.
Sometimes a simple player vote (or to-the-point question by the GM to the players) can also quickly help us move on faster from certain scenes.
i.e.
GM asking us in discussion "Would any of you like to continue the conversation with (insert NPC name) as a 'Before' spoiler, while we continue on with the current in-game events/time?
We could include such 'before' spoilers in gameplay or spoiler-contained (or not spoiler-contained) posts in discussion.
So in the spirit of the above:
"What are any of the 'dastardly' methods/words your character said to the dwarf when we questioned him?" [ooc]posted in discussion, with players posting both their answer to the question and if (and how) they would react to any stated answers to the question by others.
As for distinguishing between sections of our gameplay posts that are regarding earlier and current situations/events/conversations, do the 'earlier' header/spoiler and the 'now' header (in ooc format), like some (all?) of us have done for some of our posts already.
@everyone: Any other suggestions on how to streamline things to better streamline our gameplay posts?
GM Wolf: Thanks for hearing me out. I know GMs put in a lot of work running a game, and it could be difficult to get critiques. I really appreciate your listening to me.
Preacherelius: Sure, I'm fine with retconning a conversation with the dwarf if others want to do it. I don't know that Bengi would really want to interrogate him. She did try to talk him down at first but it didn't work out because of what might have been a misunderstanding. Sylvara posted an attack which didn't name a target, but the wording seemed to fit the dwarf situation so I took it for an attack on the dwarf because he had cast a spell. I assumed Sylvara was with Bengi because they had been together. After an attack on our side went off (maybe), I figured talk time was out of the question and also attacked. But then later it seemed she was actually fighting the roper things, or at least the lion was. Not really sure.
But from what she gathered before it came to blows, she figures the dwarf is paranoid and maybe out of his mind. If he knows a way out, great. But otherwise probably not worth much effort interrogating. But sure, I have a couple of ideas for it I think.
Since Bengi has been kinda mean to everyone, I'm going to let a couple of mild spoilers out. It might not even be spoilers depending on how you look at it. More social stuff the individual stuff.
Also I realized there is no BAP information on her character sheet. I could swear I put it in, wrote elsewhere and copied over, but it's not there now. I don't know if something happened, or (more likely) I thought I put it in but didn't. I'll have to find it and add it.
Bengi has dropped some things, like taking about "crusaders" in ways that are not complementary. She hasn't been very friendly, and so forth. Here's a bit of why.
Bengi is Kellid, specifically Sarkorian. Her family has lived in Kenabres since the Worldwound opened and the area her family is from was overrun. Her parents own and operate a tannery. Tanneries don't smell good, so the property is out on the edge of the city where people too poor to complain live.
Sarkorians haven't been treated very well by the Mendevian crusader state that has arisen, especially when it comes to religion. This is not just suppression of traditional religion, but inquisitions resulting in numerous executions based in false accusations of demon worship.
Bengi is well aware of these things. She is fairly well-educated and knows what is happening around her. She has no fondness for the crusaders who run Mendev and make up most all of the important members of Mendev's population. On the other hand, the demons of the Worldwound are worse. For her it's a "the enemy of my enemy is a friend" situation.
Bengi splits her time between helping with the tannery when needed, and working for the crusaders. She isn't a crusader per se, but hires on as a guide and scout for crusader patrols and so forth when they go out and need someone like her along. It's sort of like day labor. She'll go and let the military know she's available for a day or two, sometimes a bit longer. If there's a need for her she's hired for the period of need.
The model I'm working from here is the Native American scouts and trackers that were hired by the U.S. army cavalry if you watch westerns. Do you think they liked their bosses? Given there would be different views among different individuals, here's where those Native American scouts tended to stand on the subject. You'll probably recognize some of these from the game already.
1. Incompetent Trackers and Woodsmen: Native scouts often viewed the survival and tracking abilities of U.S. soldiers as very poor. They found the cavalry to be noisy, easily tracked, and incapable of navigating harsh terrain without assistance.
2. "Too Slow" and Rigid: Pawnee scout leader Luther H. North noted that neither the "wild tribes" nor the government scouts adopted "white soldier" tactics, preferring their own methods. Chief of Scouts Stanton G. Fisher explicitly stated, "Uncle Sam's boys are too slow for this business".
3. Highly Effective Firepower: Despite their lack of fieldcraft, the Army was recognized as lethal when properly deployed, especially with superior weaponry like Springfield Trapdoor rifles and Colt revolvers.
4. Distrust of Command and Discipline: Scouts often found the rigid, monotonous discipline of the army (parades, strict schedules) to be absurd or useless in the field. They frequently preferred their traditional attire over military uniforms, which they complained were uncomfortable and restrictive.
5. Respect for Specific Leaders: Scouts held in high regard commanders who fought alongside them and displayed, personal bravery and toughness, such as General George Crook.
6. A Means of Survival: Many scouts, particularly the Apache, joined the U.S. Army not out of ideological loyalty, but to survive, gain food, and protect their families from hunger, poverty, and being labeled "hostile".
So this is the template I'm working from. Bengi doesn't dislike any of the other characters personally. She doesn't know any of them. But she sure doesn't respect them or think much of their competence at this point.
I'd think anyone who's been around a while and has some experience with hired guides would be familiar with what they're like. So, maybe not so much a spoiler as basic social information about Mendev.
I picked up on the historical beef between the Sarkorian Kellids and crusaders 'secondary invaders' that seems integral to your character.
Nice research to add to the view your character has (and many Sarkorian kellids proably have of the crusading 'saviors').
I grew up in an approximately 50% caucasian/50% native populaton area. I was the only 'white boy' who was not afraid to make frequent trips to the largest native reservation (only high-school attending resident of the largest reservation that was paler than me was a metis native).
I have some first-hand experience with natives who did not appreciate seeing a 'white man' on their land - though when I met them the following day (they were drinking the night before when they first saw me) they welcomed me (after my native friends introduced me and they got to know my reputation of being a nice guy was genuine).
Good times...usually...
Once during a high school dance...high school in central part of (largest freshwater island in the world) and I was spending the weekend at my native best friend's place on the large reservation (which I spent a lot of weekends at his place/on the large reservation throughout high school) - and each of the six grade school towns had a schoolbus for students to get back home from the high school dance (takes 2 hours to drive from east side of island to west side) - there was a HUGE fight between natives and whites when the dance was over but before most students were already on the waiting schoolbuses (first fight between two younger (grade nine or ten) girls, then by those two girls' older sisters (seniors) - me and my native friends were the first on the bus going to largest reservation - we were in the last six seats of the school bus - rest of natives came on pissed off at 'all whites' - I ducked down some behind one of my female native friends so the pissed off blood-boiling natives coming onto the bus did not see my pale face (fortunately for me, my group of natives including some of the strongest natives/guys in high school - but that did not reduce my in-the-moment 'fight or flight' response). Some of the things the pissed-off natives were saying as they came onto the schoolbus included "All white men should have their throats slit (or something to that extent - it was three decades ago this happened, so might be paraphrased some).
Aside the near the surface animosity some whites (think wtih some 'inherited' racism views some of the white popluation has towards natives, and the not unexpected reactions of people who are on the receiving end of such unjustififed racism, which was the reason for a number of white-native fights, - I do not recall with certainty, but think I had heard that part of the reason the younger girls had added friction involved a boy that had slept with both of them/or one of the two girls tried to sleep with a boy they both liked (do not recall if hte boy was a boyfriend or not). From what I had gathered it seemed like the friction between the natives and whites on the island would fluctuate over the years to being more amicable or the opposite. That is minor portion of each population - as my several years of regular weekend visits to the largest reservation, a number of times some unjustifed (towards me on a individual level) negative attitude towards me from a near full-age range of natives who lived on that reservation - with my native friends sometimes simply telling me about specific natives simply 'disliked' all whites. I was the first 'white man' some of my native friends young siblings saw - one of them (think maybe 4 year old boy) hid behind his big sister the first time I was at her house. For some of the younger native siblings I seemed to be sometthing of a 'novelty' they were curious about when I and my native friends would hang out at one of the houses of one of the other girls in our friend group.
There are still occasional overt racism slur words some whites in some of the white towns yell with hated, which still surprises some people that there are still white-towards-native bigotry on the island by a few.
When I moved back to the big city I am orignally from (I was 8 when my father moved us to the island, and aside for my grade nine year, I spent the rest of my grade-school/high school years on the island) one of my biggest peeves with the friends I made (after moving back to my hometown big city after my first four years of post-secondary shcooling) was them continuing to use the negative stereotype of natives being 'alcoholics', even after I pointed out that they had considerable way less experience with natives than I did (as I grew up in an nearly 50% white/50% native population - and there was no noticeable difference between the percentage of white town drunks and native town drunks.
Two of the main causes of racism is 'inherited' views and the lack of cirtiical thinking on the part of racists who incorrectly deduce the 'actions of a few' to 'automatically' mean it applies to 'the entirety' of a race/religion/etc.).
My first weekend staying at my friend's place on the largest reservation on the island (the largest unceded native reservation in North America) we went to a dance that was held at the grade school for that reservation (located on same downtown street intersection my friend's house was one of the closest houses to) while my friend was making out with some girl on the dance floor a considerable larger and old native sat at the table I was at (across from me) and starting b@%+$ing about it was wrong for my friend to bring a 'shoginosh' (white person) to Wiky (the shortened and more commonly used name the native reservation is called). That was my first night on the reserve. I was watching my friend, thinking as soon as the current dance was over, he would come back to the table and smooth things with this new native I do not know that was clearly pissed that I (a white boy) was on their land. My friend continues dancing with the girl for the next song (or two or three) - also during this time I saw a skinny native standing by a wall punch another native, which dropped that native to the floor, and the native who punched him hit him two more times before the guy even finished his fall to the ground) - and that was a skinny native, and I had a native that was over 250 lbs sitting at the table across from me making it clear he was not happy about my presence on their land. My friend introduced that larger native to me the next day and he apologized for scaring me the night before.
Another time I got 'scared' because I did not know if some of the natives might have thought what I just accidentally did might have been done intentionally. On one of the other corners of the same street intersection is the arena/rec center. We were playing volleyball and I bumped the volleyball higher than I meant to and it went all the way up and broke one of the light bulbs on the ceilings.
How my native best friend and I became best friends:
I had skipped a grade (gifted intelligence) so when I moved back to the island for grade 10, I should have been in grade nine for my age - my (not as yet) native friend and I were both in the grade 10 advanced gym class - while playing basketball on the same team I had chest passed the ball to him, which he did not catch but got smacked in the face hard with the basketball. I immediately (genuinely concerned I had accidentally hurt him) rushed over and asked if he was okay. That was what led to him and I becoming friends and him asking me if I wanted to spend the weekend at his place (the place that the 'cool clique' of white boy hockey players I would hear say they wouldn't go to Wiky unless they had their friends with them (guess they knew being dicks to natives and then going to the big reseverve would not be good for their health) (can you tell I have a tendency to go off on tangents when telling a recollection story about my life? :P ). Years later after my native best friend and I became friends he told me that when I had accidentally hit him in the face with the basketball he thought it was intentional (due to the dick actions a lot of the white boys did to natives) and was planning to kick my ass in retaliation, but as it was clear that was not my intent and I was genuinely remorseful for inadvertently hurting him, he changed his initial reactive plan to getting smashed in the face by a white boy (that probably would have been intentional if certain other white boys on the court had hit him in the face with the ball).
Apologies if there are any unneccesary reiterations above (reiterating is one of my quirks), and I am still waking up currently - finally have been getting some half-decent sleeps (5 hours) again after about a week of really crappy (3 hours or so) not very restful sleeps for about the past week.
@Guriok
(Regarding how to have an (untitled) spoiler within a (named) spoiler.)
Thank you!
Test 1
Test 2
[spoiler]
Does it work? ==> No, it does not.
[/spoiler]