I just think it's better that I go. :(
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Yeah. I really haven't been. I've been emo. I -was- busy for about two weeks. And right now I'm sick and grumpy. :p
I believe at this point, it's safe to say what I believe is the primary problem. What's happening right now. It has been more than four days since you asked a very direct question, and two days since you followed it up by prodding the player in question.
You don't have to make me interested in the story, Eldon. I've been interested in that since I started reading. You've done a great job of developing a story with an air of mystery, with tidings of things to come. The problem is the speed at which things present themselves, and how the combats have paced. There have been lulls where folks were incapable of decision-making (because that's a total thing in real life, too.), but overall, it's just combats taking -forever- to settle.
Yeah... Regardless of whether you continue or not, I think I should go. Like I said, anxiety and depression. Worse though, is the fact that it makes me frustrated over little things that don't bother other people, and I'm just probably going to stay pretty crabby unless everything is completely fixed... and that's a ridiculous expectation.
Okay, so, I crunched some numbers. For all major characters, approximate posts per day, since joining. Starting on first incharacterpost (I may have messed that up for some) and ending on most recent post (in this thread) If you exclude the last two months, the numbers are significantly higher. The following is # of posts per month, with remainders dropped. Antonio 20.
If you exclude the last two months, nearly all of these balloon significantly, especially for players who haven't been around forever. For example, I zoom up to nearly 50/month. People are definitely -not- managing 1/day, though. This is fairly understandable, given what combat does. The last two months have been combat. We can only move as fast as our slowest piece in combat... and that person managed four posts in nearly a month. (Excluding the person who has continuously stated that they're too busy for the game.) Nala only has ~ 160 posts since actually joining. On one other character of mine, that's about a week of posting. Unfortunately, I'm sort of gated. I could throw a tea party with Sakuro if you like... but... :(
Pretty much that. I definitely enjoyed the game when it was moving, so it definitely isn't anything wrong with the world. It was just the pacing... and honestly, you have very little control over how often specific players post. It's part of the beast... and part of why I'll be adding 'bot' and 'removal' rules to future games I DM. Waiting weeks on specific players ruins an entire campaign for people as impatient as I am. :(
Yeah. The speed is ultimately the problem, and when it comes to combat player speed is almost always the clincher. Not -every- time, but... In this case, it was waiting a week each round for the one person who could do something to do something. I posted pretty much every round that there was one to say 'still doesn't do anything'. I recognized that I could have messed with the fish, but again, dc 25 with only a +3. So on and so forth. I couldn't do anything, so I couldn't make your requirements without breaking character.
Yeah. That became obvious 4 weeks ago. Which is why it was so annoying that it still took something like 7 weeks for it.
I'm sorry, Eldon. I just don't enjoy this game. I see a post and I go 'okay, maybe this time.' and I read it... and it's just more frustration.
"Nor am I. Things do not like me. I have worked towards being able to work with animals, but the net result has been mostly moot."
"Not without teaching it to attack people or boats." Nala, replies, dourly.
My character has been incapable of doing virtually anything, save for waste spells, for 5 weeks. My interest is in very, very poor shape. In fact... I am still sitting here behind the very large guy, who is standing in a pool of grease, and taking up the entire hallway. I can't seem to pass him. That hasn't changed. For five weeks. As for abandoned... not so much. Though I am considering dropping it again. Along with several other games, I've slipped pretty heavily towards depression in the last few weeks. I've had anxiety problems for well over a year and they've gotten pretty bad lately. I'm leaning strongly towards just pulling out of all the games that I don't explicitly love, thus making room for others in the ones that want to recruit, and just... having one less responsibility in those that the DMs either don't feel they need me, or don't feel the game is worth continuing.
Nala stands and waits for space to be available for moving, still. She sighs. Giant people in small spaces were annoying.
Honestly, it's been a lot of 'rawrgleblargh'. on my end. :) How was your trip? What were the highlights?
I haven't been out of the country since I was like 5... and that was only going across the great lakes to say we had. Sorry, I don't know much about foreign countries.
Nala watches the creature slip through the waves, and tries to determine what she can recall about it.
Nala has a sling, but short of moving away from the big guy, she can't possibly hit a target -through- him. Which means she'd just be throwing rocks at really long ranges and hoping. I don't recall whether anyone else has a ranged weapon besides Antonio (who usually fires and drops his crossbow).
Reiko is pretty much in the same position as everyone else, I think. Stuck behind Antonio. The only actions most of us have from back here is turning our own magic back off.
Nala's action will stay full defensive, keeping herself between the tiny mage Sakuro and the enemy (to grant soft cover) until such time that I can do something else besides that or cast. :)
Nala moves into a defensive stance, like Sakuro. Trapped as she is behind the considerable bulk of her companion and the grease, she doesn't have any options short of diving into the water.
Nala allows her portable thunderstorm to stay right where it is, and then moves forward, towards where the grease is, to make the concept of crossing it seem that much more daunting.
Nala commands the storm orb to travel onwards towards the chapters, seeking to either interrupt their casting, or at least obscure their vision. Then she steps forward with a powerful lunging thrust, towards the cultist that has come in behind them.
Yeah, I can understand that. The pace is one of the biggest problems for me, but it's more of a per-player issue. I'm often one of the first to react to something, and with some characters, I'm a leader, with Nala, she's on the outside looking in. That is part of her character, and something I hope to address as the game moves forward. It's hard to bait role play when your character is afraid of attachments. :p Normally I work to give lots of hooks... but I have trouble doing that when Nala isn't that kind of character. I've already pushed her beyond comfort a few times. I intend for her to come off as a weathered tree... still alive, but with a lot of dead wood.
That does help, a lot. I'm less apt to run away with my tail between my legs knowing that the reason you acted that way was because you'd needed me. My fight/flight is permanently set to 'freeze'. Online, I'm better able to perform fighting retreats... much to my detriment. Like I said,I will see what I can through. Nala is also intended to be a frontliner, given her stats, but she can't turn into big scary things yet. She is more a force of nature than a nurturer, by far. We also have two melee folks. I gave her a few support abilities to help keep the party going, alongside Nia, but plan to focus on buff and bear more than healbot. The problem I face, is that when I try to supplement my 'hit things with a stick' with spells, I'm left with close to no knowledge of what is even possible. As a melee, I hit them back. As a ranged, I hit them back. As a caster... is entangle worth using? Can I hit multiples with sleep? Can I reach with my storm? If we can get a method for us to see what we're doing now, it'll help me a lot. I'll try to prod more when I see something is amiss. But my default setting is 'avoid all confrontation'. What I said about DMs also goes for good players... and it is a struggle. I'll try to be more vocal in the meantime. If we can improve things as a group, I have no complaints. As a side note: I have no problems personally with the water thing. It worked out well with my mythic choices. I do feel for people like Sakuro... who gets to not need her spell book for sixty minutes a day, or to mainline the lsd water. :p
I knew I'd forgotten to mention something. I completely understand missing things. I really do. It's just the number of them. No one expects perfection, but they need consistency. To be fair, I've not been here long, and if I remember right, I did offer things as they came up. I also expressed disappointment when things went differently than expected. I've been fairly open with my feelings, though I readily admit that I waited way too long. When it got to feeling like a job, I spoke up. When you reacted rather aggressively, I was done. I understand your frustration, and I do not want to be a continued part of it. I think the game was better off without me. You should -not- quit because of one player who just joined. If you were frustrated for a while, I understand, but I'm just one of several people, and after joining, I found it wasn't for me. I am not attacking you as a person, actions mattered prior to the island. There are several instances. Combat is where things really seem to struggle. I assumed while reading through that you were using maps, but now that you aren't (were you ever?), it becomes sort of a mess to describe actions and such. Like they said, it's sort of 'react to what just happened' and being proactive is hard. Look back to the giant fight, as an example. Sakuro spent a third of the fight asking if they were in range yet. Nia has to repeatedly ask for knowledge checks to use her class. I still don't know what even happened with my thunderous or Sakuro's grease. These are not dampening mistakes. These are errors to work on. At no time have i said you were a bad DM. There are plenty of bad DMs. I'm definitely not a good one. I struggle. I miss things. I can only list the things I did, because they are things I have to (and have had to) work on myself. I wasn't thinking of going anywhere until I gave criticism, and received a rant in return. This game has been difficult for me to be a player in. That does not mean it has been a problem for the others, or that even the things I have listed have negatively impacted them. Like you, I suffer from depression, and mine has a lot to do with self-worth. That is why I felt that it was better that I leave when I realized I was going to cause more problems than I would fix. I do have a question though. Would it have been better had I not been up front with my issues and just vanished? If so, just please try to pretend that is what I did, and I'll get out of your hair now. To everyone else... if this dies because of me, I apologize for destroying something you love. :(
I also love the setting, and I love the story. Those are the things that kept me interested as long as I have been.
I do believe I have some things to offer by way of advice. What you are doing probably works great for tabletop. Being able to spring things on your players in an instant is great there, and would keep a vibe going. Here, though, it rapidly becomes a chore. Asking 'what is he wearing' in a tabletop game takes literally seconds to get feedback on. Here, it takes hours. You -have- to front load information as a DM. Tell them all the major stuff, and prod them to investigate the things they're interested in. If you don't, immersion goes out the window as we wait for hours to get information that will guide our actions. This adds literally days to a campaign when not done properly. Worse, it takes a little weight off of you and puts a lot on every other player. Second, you have to be responsive and attentive. Players will lose faith in a DM quickly when they miss a ton. I've seen literally ten actions, questions, and requests in the last month that slipped through without acknowledgement until the player nudged you again. And even then, it isn't always answered. This is immensely frustrating as a player. Those first two are really your only jobs as a DM, any more is gravy. Provide a backdrop, and give a person reasons to exist there. That being said, I have a few more things that may help. Third, do not be afraid to set expectations. Say what you want. With all but the best players, you must herd them like cats. Even with the best players, providing guidance is key. The fastest pace game I have is filled with responsive players and a DM who pushes us forward gently. Fourth, this is one that I work very hard to do, avoid gotchas, and actively reward players for doing things that make some degree of sense. Yes is a very, very powerful word in a Dm's toolkit. Far more powerful than no. Yes inspires things. Yes rewards players for getting into things and investigating things. Yes directly creates a pattern on play by post of 'if you are active, good things will happen'. Avoid, very strongly, any sort of gotcha moment. If you punish players for opening doors, or going in front, you definitely create unease, but you also create a great deal of tension. Out of game. That lasts for weeks due to pacing. Constant apprehension will drown your players and your game. (I have not seen much of this, but ad it is my cardinal rule as a DM, I would be remiss to not mention it). I'm not sure if any of that will actually help... but in its current positioning, the game feels very frustrating. It is slow. My actions don't feel like they matter. I'm spending more time trying to understand the situation at hand than I actually am playing. And in some cases that can be really great, because it means I'm thinking about it... but in this instance, it's like... trudging. I'm having to ask for the shapes of buildings. Ask if there are Windows. Ask how many dogs we see. Ask if there is anything else at all on the island. Ask for basic information about the room we are in. Ask if anyone in town knows anything. That's all told something like twenty questions (including repeatedly asking the same ones). It feels as though I am fighting to be able to exist and make a difference in this game... And that's a real downer. Once we're at a good stopping place for Nala to pass off the reigns (if possible), I would like to leave. But I would like to leave the game better for me having been here, if possible.
The fact that we only just found out that there are three visible dogs is a big deal. The fact that there are more than ten is a big deal. Neither of these facts were mentioned. Knowing that there are a dozen or more enemies is far different from knowing that there are seven, which is the only number we had when I said I did not understand. 'at least two casters, at least two armored, and at least three men with daggers, also at least three dogs.' I understand that you want to conserve information to instill panic and it's ilk, but you tend to conserve too much, so that we can't really react to situations properly. Not 'deal with', but 'react to'. Likewise, one player readied an action to do x,and you said it would go off, but apparently, no matter what she does we get hit by three enemies, with no time to react. Your frustration is very much showing when you give information we need and then a few hours later have that information become old news. This coming within a game where your players have notoriously taken weeks to get back to you. I can understand impatience, as I am also a DM, but punishing us for not going the precise speed you want (in which we have to wait for gm confirmation, because questions have been asked, multiple times, and never answered, thus leaving us unable to react), no slower and assuredly no faster, is a good way of biting your players for something that I definitely have zero control over. This is not the game I was expecting it to be, at all. I can understand you wanting to speed it up, but getting frustrated when those who are quick to respond, for asking more questions isn't really a good idea. I'll see what I can through to the end, but I play to have fun... And I'm really not.
I'm having a lot of problems with lack of information and theater of the mind. Knowing very little about any given situation, for example 'there are dogs barking'. 'How many?' No answer. There are several people 'how many?' There are casters 'How many?'. I'm having a lot more trouble keeping up with what is going on in the last few months of posts compared to the posts you had initially authored. You'd done a really good job of describing what was going on back then, without revealing too much, I thought. Now, though, I just can't really piece together a full image... pretty much ever. :(
Nala takes a moment and sends a roiling thundercloud (DC 15) into the casters, not being picky about which, given that the dog was already occupied; it wasn't the dog's fault it had bad owners. If the dog were close she'd have taken a step back to ensure she could finish the spell.
Reiko may be out to lunch again. Or he might be waiting on Sakuro to say 'I hold my action to grease' before he does anything.
Sakuro
Nala lazily watched the dogs as she moved over the edge of the ship to get onto the banks.
No. I just literally do not understand the situation. We apparently entered a room with boats to either side. Dogs began barking at the side of our ship. Nala tried to work with them and the others took care of it, because she is worstdruid. She then stepped off the ship, and you then asked what we were doing... because we apparently were not at the docks-equivalent. So... I'm mostly waiting for someone else to react that does know what's going on, so I can be filled in without looking stupid.
Nala would calmly hop off of the ship on the side that did not have the baying hounds that had gathered around the ship.
"And now whoever else is here knows that we are as well." Nala sighs as she looks to the hounds, attempting to stare them down with a glare, showing who their leader is.
"And good things are held where all can see, while evil is buried in the darkest recesses." Nala adds.
Nala removes the belt pouch from the butt of her spear, revealing its counterweight once more. It let out a cool flame, like that of a torch, providing light beyond what the creepy dinginess provided, and then stood quietly watching.
"Most likely where the widow was located." Nala said, insightfully. "Although, be careful as we approach... most likely not all of it is above water, and thus not visible. But... you know your job better than I."
Nala looked over the structure as they drew closer, looking for any sort of hint of how to enter the buildings with the majority submerged.
And Nala was actually asking! Even if it may have seemed Rhetorical, and she might as well have been asking the water for an answer, any answer was acceptable. She nodded to Sakuro. All of that seemed quite possible.
"Peculiar. Why was she waving at us?" Nala said unceremoniously as she watched the tides whip against all of the solid surfaces around her.
As the rain sets in, Nala takes a drink from her water skin, and then casts mythic endure elements three times, two with spell slots and one with her mythic power (using a total of four mythic power.), protecting the group, the captain, and two of his crew from the weaker parts of the storm, including visibility and wind. Then she just silently waits. A portion of her tells her to get underground... But another portion tells her that that is exactly what the storm wants.
The worst that can happen is that we must rebuild the boat once more."
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