I've had fun replacing/filling in for background/roles of characters, but always, always, always ye need to be able to tweak to make the character your style.  Spell/choice/skill choices are huge to make a character work, and work the way you like.  Unlike Abbas, they've also normally improved in combat :)

The good fun is playing changes to the new build and why.  :)

Fareeda's next tune for those of you who didn't forget your ipods on the Scilandar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...&lf=list_related

Pretty cool artist, found her when typing in 'mandolin music' in google hah.
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 22:28, Tue 10 Jan 2012.

I'm fairly happy with the group we have, even if Fareeda needs to be abandoned to the professors wiles on the Scilandar. She was interesting and certainly helpful, but now we have a DINOSAUR with us and Jibril seems to get along better with him anyway.

As for adding more players, I've always been more attached to the traditional small party of 4-6 players. I personally think things will be fine without her, given we have a druid now. That said, only the GM knows the intentions of the adventure, and if more players are needed then I wouldn't mind.

But we'll need someone to be tied up and sacrificed to the giant gorilla gods. :) I don't think Asha's the type.

We have eight characters in the party, nine when Zane appears, which is probably too many as it is. So I don't think there's a great need to keep her active

Because the monsters have split initiatives, I need to wait until they have gone to post my turn, otherwise the amount of conditional lines in my turn will be ridiculous.

Well, while you're all been busy deciding my fate, Fareeda the Fourth has now arrived.

I had originally applied when it was going to be Fareeda the Third, but my submission was sent in a bit too late, and I've been on the wait list.  It'll take me day or two to come fully up to speed, and then I'll vamp and enchant will full force.

Well that's settled. Welcome again Fareeda, I'm sure you'll have plenty of fun.

Hi, Fareeda IV :)

Thanks.  I just hope the role isn't cursed or something.  :)

I've cursed it.

Welcome!

Yes, I've heard of you.  Consider my huff already up.  (In character, at least.)

Oh, I think the fat lady needs to get singing and help us out...

Fat?  Are you calling me fat?  I'll admit to quite pleasantly rounded in the desirable locations, but certainly not fat.

;)

Well greetings and howdy doo.

I disagree with the 'small party' idea, at least in PBMB anyway. In real life yes, 4-6 is the max or it gets ridiculous but online having a larger group is good as it means there's always activity. If you had 4 players and the posting rate of 2 slowed due to RL reasons the game would just waste away. Here we have enough solid, active players that there's always roleplay going on even if somebody starts drifting. Combat becomes a bit more intricate but I enjoy it.

Large parties typically don't work on Rpol. With large numbers it is inevitable that PCs get left behind. Additionally, having as many as nine PCs in a group makes roleplaying extremely cumbersome. Each of the nine are entitled to respond to anything that happens, and that makes for very slow progress.

It is also next to impossible to develop meaningful relationships with eight companions. Relationships will develop, but it is practicably impossible to converse with eight different people, posting once per day, on rpol and develop anything other than an acquainted connection. That's about 20 posts to each companion per year (accounting for combat and NPC posts). Smaller parties are harder to staff with good people, but in finding the devoted people they provide a better roleplaying experience.

The only game I have ever seen work on such a large scale was a pure, 100% dungeon crawl where the DM was ruthless with posting rates on pain of expulsion.

In my experience, the best size for a balanced 3.5 experience on Rpol is 5 or 6.

Having said all that (as we were invited to :p), welcome again Fareeda IV :)

Again, I disagree, I see no difference between the level of roleplay and interaction between characters in this game and in games I've run with 4 players. The only difference is that if one player starts slipping, it's not so noticeable here. The onus is on you guys to interact after all. And the times I've logged in to see a page and a half of new roleplay and character interaction discredits your idea of once per day, 20 times per year. Of course in large groups some characters will not interact much with other certain characters and a lot more with others - is that not how it is in real life?

I've been in games with groups of 15+ characters! Hard work for the GM but great fun seeing that many different interactions and activities going on all at once. Again, combat is the disadvantage, as combat is already clunky on PBMB but with a bit of work and effort from me and from you guys, we're still having fun aren't we?

I know I'm enjoying beating you all up at regular intervals ;]

If you are struggling to picture the difference, consider a dinner party which is attended by your wife and another couple, versus another dinner party with your wife, another couple, the guy next door, your boss, an ex-girlfriend who is in town for the weekend, your insurance agent and a guy who bought your parrot cage off you last year and has taken a liking to you. Simple math will tell you that while you might still have plenty to say to your wife, and perhaps the ex-girlfriend, your insurance agent and the parrot-lover are going to struggle to get more than a 'pass the salt'.

You can't divide any number by 4 and 9 and get the same result :)

Nevertheless, we move on :)

Well if you apply that example to RPoL the dinner part would consist of all those individuals sat separately at home, conversing by email, where it would be somewhat easier to get a word in no? I haven't played real life DnD in a long time but if someone said to me we were going to have a RL session with 10 people (GM +9) I would laugh and probably attend to watch the GM have a nervous breakdown after half an hour.

Lookee Mr. "I can hit things in combat"



... and hurt them.





*raspberry*

:)  Great stuff bud - keep 'er coming.

In reply to Abbas (msg #603):

Thank you.  :)   Hitting Things was my Major in college.     I Minored in "Kicking them while they were down".

Hey, I got attack 21, bludgeoning damage 9. With a club I had the foresight to make myself before we got here. :p

My poor skeletons! Do you know how much it costs to reanimate the dead these days? There is an economic crisis on you know - have some consideration!

Updates tonight.

We'll take up a collection for the Undead Widows and Orphans Fund.