What horror have I unleashed?

Ah ken, reit? it's loch a train wreck: ye dornt want tae swatch, but ye cannae help but swatch. it's fascinatin' an' horrifyin' aw at ance.

QUESTION:

If one were crazy enough to want to try to read all of the in-character threads to catch up on what has already happened in the game, what is the recommended reading order?

ANSWER:

You're insane.  But if you want to do that, use the list below.  It has been put together to account for PC cross-overs and to try to show how events in one thread led to developments in others.  Because of the number of cross-overs and intertwining of NPCs/events, there is a lot of back-and-forth.

1.  Tara's and Jochim's (PC retired by his last player) thread through Message No. 532.

2.  Veiled Tangles (player withdrawn) Part I through Message No. 360.

3.  Mobley's first thread through Message No. 288.

4.  the thread that compiles the posts for Richard (withdrawn) and Aladar (PC retired)

5.  Then Iminye's first thread through Message No. 174.

6.  Tara's and Jochim's thread, Message Nos. 537-604.

7.  Mobley's first thread, Message Nos. 289 - 322.

8.  Tara's and Jochim's thread, Message Nos. 605 - 745.

9.  Iminye's first thread, Message Nos. 175 - 272.

10.  Mobley's first thread, Message Nos. 323 - 375.

11.  Tara's and Jochim's (and for much of it, Mobley's and Jonathan's) thread, Message Nos. 746-983.

12.  Mobley's first thread, Message Nos. 380 - 461.

13.  Then Iminye's first thread, Message Nos. 273-310.

14. Morgana's (player withdrawn) thread, Message Nos. 1 - 78.

15.  Veiled, Part I, Message Nos. 361 - 871.

16.  Iminye's first thread Message Nos. 311 - 335.

17.  Mobley's first thread, Message Nos. 462 - 524.

18.  Iminye's first thread, Message Nos. 336 - 422.

19.  Mobley's first thread, Message Nos. 525 - 617

20.  Tara's solo thread, Message Nos. 1 - 370.

21.  Mobley's first thread, Message Nos. 618 - 690

22.  Tara's solo thread, Message Nos. 372 - 434.

23.  Iminye's first thread Message Nos. 425 - 471

24.  Jonathan's solo thread, Message Nos. 1 - 235

25.  Iminye's first thread Message Nos. 472 - 537

26.  Jonathan's solo thread, Message Nos. 236 - 315

27.  Donato's thread, Message Nos. 1 - 356.

28.  Konrad's and Garflin's thread, Message Nos. 1 - 30.

29.  Amira's thread, Message Nos. 100 - 557.

30.  Iminye's thread, Message Nos. 538 - 675.

31.  Mobley's, Hamble's, Dagobert's, Maren's and Petra's, thread, Message Nos. 1 - 670.

32.  Tandro's thread, Message Nos. 1 - 423.

33.  Morgana's thread, Message Nos. 79-251.

34.  Jonathan and Tara, Message Nos. 316 - 506.

35.  Donato's and Kellendil's thread, Message Nos. 360 - 774.

36.  Iminye's thread, Message Nos. 676 - 973.

37. Valan's thread, Message Nos. 1 - 118 (with the first appearance of Gabhran.

38. Morgana's thread, Message Nos. 252 - end (includes the first appearances of Kheldar and Elliot).

39.  Amira's thread, Message Nos. 558 - 590.

40.  Mobley's, et al.'s, first thread, Message Nos. 671 - 967.

41.  Mobley's, et al.'s, second thread Message Nos. 1 - 98.

42.  Jonathan and Tara, Message Nos. 507 - 726.

43.  Iminye's second thread, Message Nos. 1 - 272.

44.  Jonathan's thread, Message Nos. 727 - 816.

45.  Tandro, Aeroc, Josep and Charan,  Message Nos. 424 - 698.

46.  Charan, Josep and Aeroc after the scene in the restaurant, Message Nos. 1 - 89 (note this compiles content from three separate threads into one).

47.   Iminye's second thread, Message Nos. 274 - 388.

48.  Konrad's, Liss's, Anansi's and Garflin's thread, Message Nos. 32 - 281.

49.  Tandro's, et al.'s, thread,  Message Nos. 699 - 761.

50.  Amira's, Tristan's, and Euron's thread, Message Nos. 591 - 671.

51.  Donato's thread, Message Nos. 775 - 969.

52.  Jonathan's and Tara's thread,  Message Nos. 817 - 972 and their second thread, Message Nos. 1-37.

53.  Veiled, Part I through Message #871 to end and Part II, Message No. 1 to end.

54.  Mobley's, et al.'s, thread Message Nos. 99 - 242.

55.  Luke's, Bell's and Kubrik's thread Message Nos. 1 - 233.




And to become current:

Stories set in the West (Sutton/Wyndham/Darilei/A'nari Keep area):

1.  Tandro's, Charan's and Josep's thread,  Message Nos. 762 - end

2.  Aeroc's thread, Message Nos. 135 - end

3.  Kheldar's thread, Message Nos. 1 - end

3.  Donato's, Kellendil's, Elijah's and Murtagh's thread, Message Nos. 1 - end

4.  Konrad's, Garflin's, Liss's and Anansi's thread, Message Nos. 282 - end

5.  Elliot's thread, Message Nos. 1 - end

6.  Jonathan and Tara, Message Nos. 38 - end


Stories set in the east (Chade, East Redding, Sa'iph or off the map to the southeast Neridi isles):

1.  Valan's thread, Message Nos. 118 - end

2.  Amira's, Tristan's and Euron's thread, Message Nos. 672 - end

3.  Mobley's, Hamble's, Petra's, Dagobert's and Maren's thread Message Nos. 242 - end

4.  Luke's, Bell's and Kubrik's thread Message Nos. 234 - end

5.  Iminye's second thread, Message Nos. 389 - end

---

<i>Edited to update links to archived messages on Dropbox.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:48, Mon 04 Aug 2014.

ach!

 Lady, you are the insane one... I'm dumbstruck by the effort you put into this. What is the next step? Hardback edition?

Oh good lord, no.

In cleaning up extraneous threads (where PC A splits off briefly from PC B and C, and then B and C go their own way for a bit), I copied the text from those shorter, separate threads over to the "main thread" (or, for the Charan/Josep/Aeroc post-restaurant bit, turned one [Charan's] into a main thread to compile all three) and then deleted the shorter ones.  As part of the process of figuring out where things fit, I had to take note of things like, "time-wise, this happened first, and then that happened later, so the insertion point has to be somewhere in here."  Which led to a lot of note-taking, and eventually ballooned into the master list.

At some poin in the near future, the older threads (the ones on the second page, marked "CLOSED" with their last posts in 2013) will be archived completely to .pdf and saved to Dropbox before deletion here.  Going forward, I think I'll probably wait 4-6 months after a thread closes to archive it off -- as I can see it most useful for reference for the players until the new thread in their storyline has moved on quite a bit from those last events.

chalk up another court of appeal visit on the exp.  Hope all goes well.

In reply to Hamble Setzhammer (msg # 136):

Court of appeal?

Yes indeedy, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which hears appears from the federal trial courts in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.  My case involves a dispute regarding prohibited party-in-interest transactions involving an ERISA pension plan.  Exciting stuff, let me tell you.

I'm skeptical about the prospects of settlement, but the court mediator wants to try.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ4yd2W50No

Hee.

Well, that didn't take long.

Good news?

In reply to Murtagh Fhaolain (msg # 141):

I think she's talking about the Yoda reference.

Actually, I was talking about the mediation.  Things go quickly when the other side says "We offer nothing.  And will never offer anything."  So, we get our briefing schedule and I start working on a brief that discuss the legislative history of the Moving Ahead for Progress Act for the 21st Century.

I think I'm going to need more than one or two vodka-and-tonics in the coming weeks.

Sigh, never fails.  Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.  Made me 'homesick' for the days of Chris Claremont's X-Men.

Well, just run it through the translator and then selectively dial it back some.  I actually quite enjoy it, but I can see it becoming a bit much.

No problem, I'll see what I can do.

Done for tonight, all.  Definitely up tomorrow:

Konrad, et al.
Iminye
Jonathan/Tara

Giving Luke a chance to post in his thread before responding to Bell.

I'll confess, part of me wants to start a new game with a comic focus (though sustained comedy/farce is HARD) in which everyone uses one of those translators.

Maybe I'll use one of them for any orcs in this game.  <G>

It would only make sense for Murtagh to slowly adapt his speech so that his traveling buddies get at least part of what he's saying ;)
Apparently that's what I do every time I'm with family.

On an other topic, will Aeroc be turning to the dark side? I can't watch...

In reply to GM (msg # 132):

Wow.

I mean...wow.

I'm getting flashbacks to how my own Eastern Kentucky accent was forcefully beaten down when I went to college, just so my classmates and professors could understand me.



Many years ago my spouse told me that he knew when my father was on the other end of a phone call just by hearing how my accent crept back in while talking to him.



Well, I'm trying.  But it's entirely up to him how he wants to go with this -- maybe he'll just pretend to enjoy murdering a bunch of children, having his arms and legs chopped off and blowing up planets, only to redeem himself at the last minute by saving his whiny son.

Oh most definitely.  I can tell when my wife is thinking of her mother or grandmother by the change in accent.  Funniest look when I call it.

  It is your destiny! Join me, and together, we can rule the galaxy as weird woman from a fallen house and half-shal from an other fallen house!

Well, Tandro is a higher level PC than you.  And Charan's player (who is also Hamble's player) delights in figuring out how to work the rules to make even a low-level PC AMAZING in something -- for him, it's this funky thing called Versatile Performance, which is a standard Pathfinder thing for bards (so he didn't exactly have to look far and wide for this one).  It has an ... ummm ... interesting effect in making a bard, typically second best at everything, pretty damned good at some things at very low levels.

Part of me wants to make him actually perform to take advantage of it, because I love the idea of Charan having to sing something while he's sensing motive on someone -- and having Ellinden So magically seal his mouth when she wants to lie to him.  (Not that she would ever lie to you guys, or fail to tell you something important ...)

So how does a GM counter a PC with such a high sense motive?  NPCs don't lie.  Or they say things they believe.  Or they are told lies by someone else off-screen that they don't know are untrue.  Or they are themselves maxed out on their bluff, or have magical defenses or use spells to cloud his mind, or they don't bother trying to do anything other than beat Charan into a bloody pulp because https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi-RaaG-yx4 -- "Enough talk!".

All similar to how a GM addresses a PC with a ridiculously high AC, or ridiculously high attack bonus/damage.

As for PC v PC use of the social skills ... well, that's a hot topic for debate.  (Most recent episodes of Happy Jack's RPG podcast, in fact!)  Everyone should feel free to contribute their thoughts on that, and we'll see how long it takes things to dissolve into bitter recrimination and tears.


Here, Tandro offered himself up for a Sense Motive roll because the sight of Raisa's handwriting was a huge surprise for his PC and he rolled his own bluff just to see whether his PC would be able to hold it together.  Damned dice roller gave him a 3.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:38, Thu 31 July 2014.