"Glad not to have had to watch one of these kill you, Yar. I'm Ioney. Not much of a sailor, I'm afraid."
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In traction for 2 weeks is "nothing critical?" Sounds like he's had a pretty bad time of it. REALLY sorry to hear that. Looking forward to him healing. ALSO looking forward to the game continuing, but that's nowhere near as important as his healing.
Ioney gathers his things and changes ships, PAINFULLY aware that it wouldn't matter if Captain Harrigan had bought the farm. He was going to be under the thumb of the thugs that want them all dead, anyway, without the Captain's protection.
Accepting the reward, Ioney tries to present a confident face and honest gratitude instead of revealing the fear that quickly develops that this may make the thugs target him even harder . . .. "Thank you, Captain. Just trying to keep the promise that I made about keeping the entire crew as happy, healthy, and productive as I can."
But he keeps cutting his eyes towards the thugs, and can't keep his voice from quavering a bit.
So, congratulate him on achieving a difficult goal, or harass him about being a lawyer . . .? Glad to hear you're making your way into the business you've chosen!
Expressing himself with some colorful language, Ioney moves away from the sailor, pushing himself around the stern to close with the officer.
Once he reaches the officer, he tries to poking the man. "Bad man. No leaving!"
The bard steps up, trying to fit around the wheel, striking out at the officer.
Not being quite the hero others might hope, Ioney avoids putting himself in a 2 on 1 battle, and goes to create a 3 on 2 battle instead. Once he moves into place, he tries to poke the sailor escorting the officer so closely.
I hope so! It'll be hard to make friends after one of puts steel in the other's belly.
"You cowards there! You're running the wrong way! We'll gut you before you leave the ship. Surrender and live! Flee and be cut down!"
HUZZAH! HUZZAH! HUZZAH!
Continuing his chant, now focused on Sebastion's spurious slicing, Ioney moves up and around so he can reach out to Sebastion's head and touch him with a little positive energy.
Spotting the assailant heading for the Captain, Ioney finds himself in a quandary. The Captain's the one technically holding them all prisoner, but his second would just make their lives even MORE difficult. Thinking about how badly the Captain's officers have demonstrated they want to punish Ioney, he hesitates for much less than a second. ""
Chanting about Nivian's Needles Needling, and running short of better ideas, Ioney decides to try to put the pointy end inside the guy trying to hurt his friends.
Seriously not confident in his ability to contribute in a stand-up fight, Ioney maintains his bard song, chanting about the deathly blows dealt by Helgash the Horror, as he tries to weave in a defensive activation of his bloodline ability . . ..
Consuming his daily use of Glitterdust to no effect.
There is no Ioney. There is only Zuul.
Ioney begins a rolling chant about death on the open sea, and how dangerous it is to face their team, as he moves onto the enemy ship. blade at the ready.
Had the office Christmas party tonight. Work 0700 to 1600. Go home, get the wife and grandkids. Party from 1800 to 2200. Edit: Hmmm . . .. Level gets me a familiar. Archetype says specifically a Monkey or Parrot (raven). Guess that class feature sits idle until we spend some time ashore somewhere. Not a stress point.
"Promised the Captain to do everything I could to keep the crew alive, lively, and onboard. I'm going to follow through on that promise." Once they get to Jape down in the Bilge, Ioney will sing a short piece about Spring growth, and the beauty of a field of wildflowers as he cast a CLW on Jape.
"C'mon, Jape. We've got orders to get you to the Doc. Shame you had to slip and fall on your own blade like that, and that you bounced around in the bilge and onto the blade more than once. Good thing you've got people willing to help keep you up and moving, yeah?"
Ioney looks past Scourge and Tam to Sebastian, the question obvious in his face, but he hesitates for only a second. "Tried to kill? I'm here to heal who needs it. Tam is mobile, so he should be able to keep for a moment. Who else was involved, where are they?"
Exchanging looks with Nivian, Ioney goes to follow them down. Visions of horrific options running through his head. The blood showing on Tam doesn't lead to calmer imaginings. "Does someone need some healing?"
My apologies. I should have said something. I play Santa on top of my day job and trying to help care for my grandkids. Kind of a busy time of the year for me. My wife has 16 appointments on the calendar for me over the next 19 days. People are still trying to book me for more. So, when I saw the pause as we tried to deal with this recent conflict, I kinda let it lie. Trevor just poked me in an IM. Last thing I saw, I thought we were waiting for the conflict to reach a conclusion that we thought it already had . . ..
I find that accepted conventional wisdom is defined by the loudest, most insistent voices, which tend to be the "race to zero massive damage is all that matters" crowd. So, I tend to treat that conventional wisdom as the opinion of people who play the game a specific way and look to see what other things different people find to be important. The only thing absolutely wrong in such discussions is the idea that different opinions are inherently wrong and thus irrelevant.
I can't directly speak to what went on/is going on in Robert Henry's head. I can say that my communication with him in and around other games has suggested to me that he is also an older gamer. Sometimes we don't recognize something as relevant until we are unhappy as a result of it. I don't think that's necessarily an age thing, but people like to pretend it is. He found a way to implement leaving the game that fit within the storyline of the game pretty seamlessly. It may have been based on making choices that most wouldn't want to make, but it did, actually, fit into the story well. Personally, if I was planning to do something like that, I like to think I would try to communicate with the GM a couple of times about my concerns first. But things would have to be REALLY, REALLY bad for me to just drop instead of finding a story-appropriate exit. IF he was thinking along these lines, he might not have intended to go right now, but the story provided the opportunity RIGHT NOW. As players we often go with our gut, yes?
Hesitating for a second, Ioney calls out in a loud stage voice, but with an obvious lack of confidence, "Man overboard?"
Good stories are organic, and honest efforts to work with who the characters are instead of just what the script says usually provides far more rewarding results. But I gotta admit, I'm waiting to see how this attempted suicide plays out.
And I'm good with it! Plays out better in my head to have her string nw along for a backstabbing
Stepping away from Maheem, Ioney pulls his sap before striking out at Syl.
1) I checked Blinded, and saw the -2 listed as an AC penalty, so I didn't claim a bonus. Easy enough to use it as a bonus instead. Just need to know when to claim it. <grin> 2) Stepped away from Maheem, struck out at Syl, and hit Maheem? Or did I get the icons backwards? Making the icon position not match the text. I could do that easily enough.
And, for the record, I was choosing to attempt trust, just like Ioney said. If you never trust, you can never establish positive relationships. But choosing trust can HURT. I just got lucky on those saves.
Stepping away from Maheem, Ioney pulls his sap before striking out at Syl. "I really didn't want to be doing this. You started it."
As Syl turns (figuratively) and Maheem steps out, the Varisian's shoulders slump and he suddenly looks very tired. "That's the problem with trying to make friends. You have to extend trust, and sometimes the people you choose to trust turn on you. Still the reward is worth the risk, when you get it." He closes his eyes and holds his hands out at his sides as he invokes the power of his ancestry, with himself at Ground Zero. Glitterdust spell-like ability
"'K?" He sounds uncertain at best, but Ioney goes with her.
Ioney looks at her in mock shock, then at his hands, and the knees of his pants. "You don't say? I hadn't noticed anything unusual about the work assignments . . .."
But as you pointed out, between the overly-powered build I provided and the boons he has provided, given time we could convert the gross majority of the crew. Not sure how long we'll actually get, of course. I really underestimated how powerfully social this build is. I figure that will be more useful once we start trying to sell loot than it is now.
Ioney will spend a few moments working with Slippery Syl. "I get at least part of why you don't like the new recruits as a group, but, you know they are just trying to figure out how to make it on this ship, how to survive and maybe even thrive in this environment. It is new to most of us, scary to some."
Really shouldn't be responding at work, my phone or not, but . . .. I've tried to show that the big block of mechanics can be personalized and turned into a chance to add a little RP flavor. Yes it is more work, but it is also the best way to create some positive entertainment for at least yourself out of what is otherwise just dice chuckin'. I rarely enjoy just chuckin' dice. I managed to have some fun with the boarding effort anyway.
Interesting. Means that the shotgun methods we have used will provide almost zero allies, though, and prove ineffective at reducing the opposition as well. That's not a whine, just an observation. Whining would be more like: "Dude! Not telling us about this mechanical change is going to break our fun factor and make us all as unhappy as a cat in a rocking chair factory!" Which is not remotely what I'm saying nor how I'm saying it.
Ioney, you have a permanent +3 bonus from the fact you use your little ditty to remove fatigue from the crew. Heh. Okay. That pretty much cements my results, then. 3 of the 6 man thug crew friendly to me. Another few days, and I could have them all liking me!
I am having more fun with how bad a sailor Ioney is than I am with how good he is at social things. Though I have to say he's far better than I expected him to be.
More than fair enough. Using a system people think they already know just increases the meta-gaming. My first order of business was to try to get all the women to like me. I know I skipped Grok and Giffer. A one-eyed Gnome? Maybe later. Just realized I skipped Toppin. That was an error on my part. I went with Maheem trying to follow the advice from Syl. Plus, I figured Ioney is really the only person on our squad with a chance to positively influence the thugs, so if somebody was going to try it, it needed to be me. Edit: AND Shivikah? I must have been meta-gaming more than I thought I was. I'm sorry for that. Thought I was actively trying not to. Only worked on getting two guys friendly, too. I could have had an all woman posse. Oh, well.
Given how generous the dice just were to Ioney, I'll take Helpful to one keeps them out of the fight and be THRILLED to have it! 2 or 3 of the main thug team removed from the fight has GOT to be a benefit, right? And if they actually switch sides instead . . .. And Ioney successfully got all the female human-size crew that he spoke with to Helpful. I missed getting all of them because I tried to push Maheem over into Helpful instead of getting Grok there. I should go add some conversational bits so that dice chuck is more than a wall of mechanics.
3 days' worth of Diplomacy:
"So, I understand you were also an entertainer before joining the ship? I could really use some help adjusting to this life. There's so little of what I did everyday that seems to apply here. How did you adjust? Do you have any tips for the latest crewman to lose his line of work?"
"Cogward? I get that this kind of work lets you help people meet Pharasma, and I am glad that you've found your calling. Can you give me some tips how to be one of the ones sending people to Pharasma and not one of the ones heading to meet her?"
"I'm trying to follow your advice and get friendly with more of your crew. I think Aretta's warming up to me. I know Fipps is going to take a lot of work, so I should try to work with some of the others first. Any recommendations?"
"Hello, Maheem. Syl was telling me we should talk, get to know each other a little better. I don't know about you, but I'm not sure I'm ready to ignore her 'friendly advice,' ya know?"
"I remember hearing that one of the easier ways to make some money is to ransom officers and nobles back home, maybe even the ships themselves. You're saying this crew doesn't do that? We just skip that income stream? Why?"
"I need to thank you for the help, or guidance, or whatever you want to call it. I think I'm getting more of your team to not hate me. At this rate, I should have options about who to hang with. My world is expanding, and it is thanks to you."
"I have a silly question. Not because I'm wondering IF it happens, but because I'm wondering how anyone gets any privacy. I mean, we've got quite an assortment of people here, so there has to be SOMEBODY sneaking off for a little one-on-one time. I can't believe that gnome hasn't tried, at least! Where do they steal privacy?"
"What's the big deal with following Fipps, anyway? Is it just he's got a good line in with Plugg, or what? Nothing wrong with sticking to the boss's good side! It's just that Plugg doesn't seem like the sort to encourage loyalty, ya know? He's more a fear me than a work with me kinda guy."
I think everyone is just dealing with the holiday. While Onnello has found a way to entertain himself during the "make friends" dice rolling, others have not. As important as building these relationships can be, keeping things on a skill roll process means at least some are feeling left out. Hard to balance this extended process in PBP. I don't have a good solution, but the easy one would be to acknowledge that anybody neutral to us or better can be made into friends, and to assume the rest can not, and move past this bit. It ignores the opportunities the dice can provide, like my managing to soften Syl somehow, but it is easy and skips something that is leaving players unengaged.
"You are so much better than those others. Why do you sully yourself hanging around those three?" "Because being alone makes you bait, and unless you've missed it, your friends don't like me." |