Re: Ch 26 meta
In reply to Jacob Richardsen (msg # 960):
Understood. The short answer is "nope, the heroes haven't observed or detected any kind of previously unexplored" areas as a result of the tremors.
The longer answer is, well, not really an answer but something that prompts the Judge to expound a bit.
In-game IC, it's apropos for Jake to feel this way. Really, for all of the characters, but probably the most for the rifleman as he doesn't have Survival, Repair, Academics, or Science. The underground system is dark, twisty, and confusing. Any hero lacking these certain skills is bound to feel at a loss within the caves. Even those having these skills still face a challenge when it comes to underground exploration in a game which is predominantly set aboveground. Most of what Tracy learned about navigation, for example, involves gauging the movements of the sun and the moon as well as the positions of the stars in the night sky.
As players sitting around the virtual table, OOC, this is something that needs to be managed. If we were actually gathering around a table in the same room, the Judge and players could easily talk things through -- at least enough for the characters to proceed without holding up the action for too long. Even so, the Judge probably wouldn't have provided any explicit maps of the cavern. It would still be mostly "theater-of-the-mind" except for maybe some grid maps to ease the combat situations.
Fact is, the Judge likes the way this has evolved since the group first began exploring the caves. Fortunately, this group has complementary skills to facilitate the exploration of the caves -- including the combat encounters in which Jake's skills have definitely made a difference. There has been good teamwork throughout chapter 25 and 26. Because of that, the Judge has assumed the characters can navigate to places they've already been, without needing any dice rolls or exposition. The Judge also provides information when the characters perceive something new or enter a new cave, sometimes with prompts and suggestions or reminders.
Please know that the Judge would pass along information such as "you see a new passage that you either missed before has somehow become accessible after the dynamite and the tremors" if it were true and important. That isn't the situation right now. The Judge alerted the players what was new and different -- the dead bats.
As Earnest noted in Ch26 OOC comment, the Judge is dropping clues. Please see my imminent reply to that, as well, for more information.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:05, Fri 06 May 2022.