The goal is to collect some rainwater so I can Study it (capitalization intentional), since it seems to be magically tainted.  And I don't know how long it's going to take to find whatever I'm able to find, so long-term storage would be ideal in order to not hold up the caravan while I nerd it up in some makeshift cave lab.

I don't want to waste any of Garl'thak's merchandise if I don't have to.  Seems like that would be bad for employment prospects.  So if the Last Chance Salve didn't come in a usable container, then I suppose it's back to the drawing board...

If you mention this out loud, Trilarigas is in a, well, let's just say he would point out twice dead Ork Stomachs could be crafted quickly into water skins...as long as you aren't planning on drinking from them.

Per the Players Guide, I do believe unless Korentin decides to bite off Talia's hand, or otherwise attack her mid-administration, that he should be getting a free recovery test at a Step 8/2D6.

I'm not sure from Siff's post, but I should clarify, it's not like, pitch black in the mine -- you guys had a light crystal.  (Which as I remember was set up near the front of the cave, and I do believe is still there.)  It's just that the sudden evaporation of the storm doesn't bring sunshine and singing birds.

Also, I'm really sorry this post took so long.  I got kind of stuck on something I hoped would happen and it didn't.  I'll try to get back to my weekly rate if we want to keep going!

...But I do... um, I just want to check.  Do we?  And if so, what do you guys want to do?  Because I have to admit I am at a bit of a loss.

There are days I wish I could find a way around the clause in the EULA for Real Life, the clause that says "If you stop playing RL, All other games stop, too." I am glad you are feeling better  and I want to continue.

I fear we need a couple of days of rest.

On a semi related note: I am about to start a game called "The Shadowstones" Where the PCs are just out of High School, set in a Flintstonian way but Medieval...so D&D setting but Modern attitudes. Would you use Shadowrun, Earthdawn, D&D, Runequest, Dragonquest, or some other system? (It is supposed to be funny)

Siff is just nervous and want to patrol the area.
I should probably have done a Silent Walk test too. ^_^'

As for Trils question...
I have no idea...

What?  No, I meant something I hoped would happen in the game!  I find I do that a lot, actually, painting myself into corners that absolutely rely on a reaction from the players.  Not like I need you guys to do One Specific Thing, just, that I'm specifically waiting for something to like, shape things around and... it seems like often that doesn't happen and then I don't know what to do.  But if I'm not setting things up to hinge on a response from the players then, um, I frankly don't know why you guys are here.  So I don't know.  I know there's a balance to this, I've seen some GMs who do it brilliantly, but I took over this game in 2010 and if I haven't gotten the hang of it by now I don't think it's suddenly going to click.

Bah, "rest".  By my count you guys still have at least five HP left among you.  You'll be fine.

It's not too late if you want to roll Silent Walk, Siff!


...That actually sounds like fun.  Um, Earthdawn would be interesting.  I'm not sure how well it lends itself to comedy and I always have a hard time putting Earthdawn in any setting that isn't Earthdawn -- the setting and mechanics are so deeply entwined.  But that in itself makes it feel kind of interesting to try to make that work.  ...Honestly though it feels like a bad fit, I just kind of want to encourage Earthdawn anywhere.

D&D is obvious and opens up your player base, and it certainly can work.  One of my favorite games was a 3.5 game based on Order of the Stick.  It might be interesting, for that premise, to bring in elements of d20 Modern, too -- maybe add some modern Skills and Feats.

Shadowrun could also be interesting if you really keep it Shadowrun-y... eg., medieval megacorps and fantasy-themed "cybernetics", jumping past "modern".  But Shadowrun is, I have to admit, a somewhat daunting system.

I'm not familiar with Rune or Dragonquest.  You could look at one of the lighter ones that are more meant for comedy, like Donjon or something?

I'm not sure how helpful that is.  Mostly I think from what you described I'd just go with D&D, but it hurts to say that.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:08, Sun 10 Oct 2021.

 I honestly thought we were supposed to be hunting someone or other, from a short list of like, four or five people. We went looking for one of them, only to find out in no uncertain terms that we were getting into a fight that was way, way beyond our ability to do anything with - like, we spent a couple of months of real life time going out, a couple of days realising that we wasted our time and then... I think we ended up with this caravan going to do something about someone else, maybe?

 The lack of focus in this campaign way predates you Garlen. We haven't been very clear on our objectives since... Hell, since Mallowroast sank into the blasted earth. We've gone places and we've done things, but more or less invariably in a state of general confusion.

 Right now, we've had the crap kicked out of us and we're in no shape for a combat, we're in the arse end of nowhere, we're not sure what's going on outside and I for one, am not all that sure where we're going or why... Which makes it really hard to frame a coherent post, as much as I want to because despite all of the above, I like the game and I like the characters.

 I mean, we're guarding a merchant and scouting threats out as we go, but mostly that's taken the form of mysterious omens, dangerous weather, attacks from the dark which told us nothing much and I for one feel no better informed about the countryside than I did when we started. Does anyone have a clearer idea?
This message was last edited by the player at 22:51, Mon 11 Oct 2021.

While I haven't been here quite as long as Korentin, I echo the sentiment about feeling a little directionless overall.  It kind of feels like our goal for this moment has boiled down to "survive the night."  Fun things like exploring a cave that I'm 100% sure doesn't have anything deadly in it whatsoever, come on guys it's totally fine, should probably wait.

If everyone is on the same page about this then maybe the optimal storytelling move is to fast forward to tomorrow morning, or whichever inconvenient interruption happens next?  That's my 2 coppers anyway.

Tril - If you're familiar at all with Dungeon World I think that would be a good fit for your idea.  It hits all of the standard D&D tropes while being lighter than D&D proper.  Also the players have a more active role in defining the setting, or even details of particular scenes, which I think will be a benefit for a comedy game.  Plus there's a free SRD available which is always nice :)
This message was last edited by the player at 01:25, Tue 12 Oct 2021.

In reply to Kathkar (msg # 861):

+1

All of that is totally fair except, honestly, this.



I took over this game in 2010.  It's been mine for more than a decade.  I think we're well past the point I can blame its failings on anyone else.

When I tried having like, plot and stuff, before, and realized no one had any idea what was going on, I blamed that largely on my posting rate, and I really hoped that addressing that would, then, fix the problem, but (okay, ignoring last month) I've been pretty good about that for a while now and it doesn't seem to be helping.

I could break down how things have gone since we rebooted from my perspective, because there are some reasons why things have been confusing that aren't totally my... fault, I guess?  Like, the orcs that ambushed you were tied to Viltok and that was supposed to be helpful, for example, but naturally Viltok had to drop out of the game right in the middle of that which left it much more random.  But... really that's a fairly small piece of things and that's just a reality of PbP.  I do kind of feel like if I haven't gotten the hang of this by now... it's probably not going to get any better?

I, for one, do not want to quit. I would understand if you felt you needed to take a break and collect your thoughts before restarting.

 Likewise, I don't want to quit.

 But in your defence Garlen, you weren't handed the easy stick either. We were set up with the big villain what's-his-name and his major league allies as our first big baddie, way out of our league, able to vanish whole settlements and generally kick arse and take names. We didn't work our way up a minion chain or uncover leads early on, we were dumped into fighting a major bad guy whose whole deal is being mysterious pretty early on and you were handed that. row to hoe.
 By its nature we couldn't have clear goals. It wasn't 'this settlement is in trouble, here are several escalating threats and perils for you to overcome while becoming invested in it', or 'here is a bad guy of your level you can hunt across two or three clear misdeeds, helping folks along the way'.

 So here we are now, a decade later in the middle of nowhere, trying to help a merchant chap map a trade route. We've been attacked by bad guys we couldn't really fight effectively (it was dark which they ignored because: orcs and they were faster than us, with ranged weapons) and driven into a cave, where we're hiding from bad weather, which we also can't really fight.

 For my money, we need to be somewhere. A small community, a trade post, a static location in trouble. Somewhere we can help or hinder in low-level ways while putting a stick in the Night Lords spokes. And not just by direct adventuring - you're right about our post rate - there should also be some background tasks we can be doing during normal play... Such as, I don't know:

 Training up some militia, healing folks in the infirmary, helping with herds and mounts, repairing and making arms, reinforcing buildings... All handled with 'here are some skills you can use, the more specific the skill, the easier the checks and you need to accumulate X amount of success to improve things by X amount' type stuff, you get a roll or two each day while doing other stuff.

 Meanwhile, we're doing other small-scale side-jobs. A nearby ruin to clear, a short scout to run, a patrol to make, a caravan in trouble, unusually large rats in the cellar.

 Let us work our way up with some Name-worthy deeds until we can reasonably take on serious threats.

I think we all signed up for it and have long since accepted that this is a slow posting rate game.

Personally I haven’t really had time to adjust and post/read thoroughly ever since I got a 40 hour work schedule again.

Honestly I know the frustration.
I mean… Look at my game. I have a storyline and plot I have yet to get to. It’s been months since my last post…
I have long accepted that the traffic on the site is low (honestly I think the entire forum is dying).
If it wasn’t for this game I’d probably quit the site all together.

I believe we were with the merchant to potentially gather intel about Kethra, the Night King Nethermancer, by going with the one merchant crazy enough to head that way as an act of pure defiance. But, agreed, we haven't really found out anything so far. Just nearly died and so not our most successful mission so far as that goes. Might be time to cut our losses and head back. Do a different kind of research, earn some LPs.

I'm sorry, I've lost track - are we only rolling the one recovery test for first thing in the morning, or can we also roll for any that we had left from yesterday?

Apologies: I went for speed... figuring nothing else was happening today, I just rolled all of today's.

I've kind of lost track of how much time as passed, what time of day it is etc. I think I have 1 more recovery test, according to my scratchpad, but I'm not sure where I noted my current damage or any of that

I'm sorry this took so long to get back to.  Yes, you can roll Recovery Tests that you had left at the end of the day, with the assumption that they occur as you sleep.  I can't see any real reason why they wouldn't do that, and they're pretty limited already.  (And also I double-checked on the forum and Panda said it totally works like that.)

And since the group is spending several hours resting, yes, it's okay to make however many you want in the morning also.  Um, up to however many you have, of course, you haven't found the Lost Cave Of Infinite Recovery Tests.  Probably.  I mean, hey, maybe you have!  Maybe if you just go down that deep black tunnel you'll -- no?  Well.  Fair.  It does seem more likely to be something with teeth.


Imerdijn at least is easy.  Your damage level was exactly your Unconsciousness Rating.

Anyway, on the meta stuff...

I did that though.  It was less miraculous than I'd been hoping.


...Okay.  That's valid, actually, that really is the basis I picked up and started from and shaped a lot of the Night Kings as I tried to make that plot my own.  And yes, what I was aiming for was to give you guys a minion chain to work on because the Night Kings are a long-term goal, but, um, the Orcs that attacked you were tied to Viltok, who, of course, had to leave the game in the middle of the combat, because apparently there's some kind of universal rule about that.  So that potential "clue" kind of went with him, and then I did try to set something up with the prisoner being rescued and the chance to try to track him down.  But I also can't say that deciding not to follow a trail that was left for you by someone who is clearly also a bad guy was a bad choice on your part, so that's fair too.

The storm, though, I have to admit seems to have come across about exactly right, so... um, yeah.


Tying the group to a small community for a while is a good idea.  I have an online convention this weekend that has been eating up a lot of my attention the last couple weeks, but I will try to think about a good way to work that in.  If any of you think your character might have a good link to something like that, let me know?  I kind of think that, as tradition dictates, most of you razed your home towns in your backstory though. 

Hm.

Calypte had been from a kaer that had sort of like, cracked their doors open and then largely decided to close them again.  I know only a couple of you still have ties to her, but maybe it would work if she met you in Bartertown and asked you to help them Emerge properly?  It was never established where that was, so I could just place it not too far away where Kethra would remain a sort of looming menace and keep that track open while you build up some legend?

Also, you'd get to meet Calypte's parents.  I know that's a bonus.

 That sounds near-perfect. Helping a Kaer get set up on the surface, bringing folks up to speed, interacting with other communities...

 ...the nice thing about that, is that it promises to have some short-term pay-off in the form of visible successes. A decade or so of general frustration has, I think about played itself out. ^_^

Does that include the +9 from woodskin?

I healed with a recovery test of 9.

What I remember is that Imerdijn healed to 1-point-away-from-Unconsciousness and then walked straight out into some rain that she knew was causing small amounts of damage. That stayed with me.  The exact numbers didn't.

But if she had Woodskin active at the time, then yes, it would have been included in that, but would since have worn off but taken those same points of damage with it as Woodskin does leaving you still exactly at your Unconsciousness Rating.

If you had any Recovery Tests left at the end of the day you can roll those also, and then you'd have your morning one and then, really, however many you have-and-want-to-use in the morning.

But... okay, as I said earlier, I do think that you guys being out in the wilderness, with your supplies a bit limited and people hurt, is an interesting situation to find yourselves in, but do people want to play that out or should I just fast-forward us back to Bartertown and we can assume damage has healed?  I do totally understand that situations that might be fun to play out in person are less interesting in PbP, and also, I'm sure this isn't the only time you guys will be pressed this way, so I'm good either way.

My only frustrations are with the dice roller. Frankly, it too accurately mirrors my actual luck.

I am good either way.

In reply to Garlen (msg # 874):

 In person, I would play it out over the course of a single session.

 Here, doing that'll commit us to around six months of failed dice rolls and falling over.

 Since Black has about enough money for two rounds of drinks or a night or two in an inn (and I can't see us getting paid for this, since we failed miserably), picking up at the start of the next chapter might not be a bad idea.

I could go either way.  Maybe go with whatever will make it easier for the GM to come up with some interesting ideas?