The airship mostly does exploration for us.  Meanwhile, we have armies because we can't be everywhere all the time (also, more exploration and security when we're out and about).

Also nobody would take our country seriously if it was just the party doing everything.

Yeah...  But we know you /could/ do everything.  But I do understand the optics.

To be fair, we're technically playing nice with the larger country nearby since their rulers are fully aware that we could just utterly destroy them if we wanted.

Instead, we're actually paying them when we expand into their lands.  Because we're polite like that.

Also we have a genuine claim to their throne via a party member so we're just biding our time until we take over the map anyway =D

Hey all,

I haven't been on this site since my last OOC post, what, seven years ago and I don't do much gaming these days, unfortunately. All my other games are gone, but not this one for some reason. I honestly can't believe this game is still preserved here, but it damn sure deserves to be. This might be the most enjoyable game I ever ran. I definitely put a lot of effort into it, but what made it great was you three. I am glad you enjoyed yourselves as well. I really need to reread our story.

I'm sorry we never had the opportunity to continue on. I went through some rough times, working while living in my car, and honestly I never did get the introduction post completely written for the second part of the campaign, though I did have the adventure outline written up. I think I was up to about six pages by the time I lost it. There was A LOT going on as there were many character-related subplots tied through three layers (Quest for the GRAIL, Arthurian Cycle Intrigue, Personal Stories). I'm sad to say that the laptop that had it and my GM notes is long gone, but I still remember the rough sketch of each of the arcs that were planned.

From what I remember from my outline I had the campaign divided into five parts of which we completed part one. We deviated heavily from my written plan of part one when you guys decided to have an explosion rip through the Ballroom scene-all due to Gwydion's commitment issues! =P What came after was brilliant though. Amazing character development.

I just wanted you to know that Brun, Gwydion, and Meara are three characters that will probably always be burned in to my psyche and their players are some of the best I ever had.

If you guys ever read this I hope you are all happy, healthy, and doing well.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:39, Thu 06 July 2023.

It's good to hear from you after all this time!  I'm glad you're okay, and I hope you're doing much better now.

This game was an absolute blast, and Meara was one of those characters who instantly started writing herself (despite my efforts to reign her in).  I miss playing her, and if you ever want to run another game here, shoot me a PM!

I'm doing much better now, myself.  I've got a house with two roomies and two kitties (one's ready to get along and the other is very much not, so eventually we'll be able to let them both have the run of the house), got a promotion at work (Accounts Receivable no longer, now I am a proper Staff Accountant who handles... sales & use tax filings and registerings... yaaaaaaaaaay... why does every state have to have a different process).

Anyway, I should get back to work, but, again, it's really good to hear from you!

It's good to hear from you as well. I am so glad you are doing well. Good news feels like it's in short supply these days. I do hope your cats make buddies with eachother soon!

I'm not sure if I could run another game. I am long out of practice and have surely forgetten all the nuances of RPOL. But, if ever I did you guys would ALWAYS have a spot in my games. Honestly, part of me wants to sit down and make another attempt at recreating/cranking out the introduction to Chapter 2 that I promised and never delivered to you guys. Like I said, circumstances were less than ideal and the Chapter 2 opening post was probably three-quarters written, and I had every intention of getting it finished within a few days the last time I posted and just never got the chance. I wish I had. But that's life I guess. Sometimes your most earnest intentions get kicked in the teeth. The best laid plans of mice and men and all that jazz...

Well, I guess it's time to test that age old adage "Better late than never." In this case, there's probably no difference. But I finally delivered the promised post.

Gwydion, if you ever read this, I am sorry for the wall of text. I know you have a hard time with those. This one wasn't avoidable. Take it in small bites and I hope you enjoy.

Brun, a lot going on here. I hope if you ever see it, it's to your liking.

Meara, I think we all know where Freyr is. ;)

I'm honestly not sure where Freyr might be.  Like...

1) Already at the meeting wondering where Meara is.
2) Overseeing the repairs of their Armours.
3) Passed out from overwork.

All of these seem viable!

In reply to Meara (msg # 929):

Oh, I know. I was making a joke about how open I left it. All of those would be perfectly appropriate. As a player, it would 100% be your choice where she was. Completely up to you.

I'll admit in my GM brain I imagined that, perhaps, Sir L1-4MNT was returning to Mars today and that Freyr might have been delayed while *ahem* Facilitating Diplomatic Relations. She'd pop up later, her usual pristine self, except for the Sex Hair^TM she just can't quite hide. Just seemed like a good idea for a few reasons--a) Give Freyr some added depth, b) An opportunity for tension down the line if and when the personal and political conflict, c) Meara has to deal with her social oopsie without Freyr's guidance at the moment, d) a bit of light comedy, depending on how we chose to play it, e) genre emulation. Just an idea though.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:52, Sun 09 July 2023.

MerLN! You're back! :D This is the best of things! I am super ready to jump right back into things with you guys, been hoping for this moment for seven years! <3

Just gotta do a li'l reading and catch up on where we all left off, then take the new info a li'l at a time and get a post worked up. Never been happier to see new posts.

Would you guys really want to continue after seven years? I mostly just checked RPOL on a burst of nostalgia. I was shocked when our game was still here. I assumed it would have been pruned long ago. Like I said, I'm not able to game much these days, so I am long out of practice. I don't have the mojo I once did. The last thing I would want is to have the game turn into one of those revivals of a beloved show or movie that ends up disappointing and leaves you thinking, "I really wish they wouldn't have bothered."

I just really felt that I owed you guys the post I promised all those years ago. That poor guy had every intention of delivering and no idea of the metaphorical train that was coming his way. It left you three without closure, which is unfair to everyone. I just wanted to take the time to give you that insofar as is possible. You three are wonderful folks and the best three players a GM could ask for.

We 100% want to continue!  I've been catching up on things myself so I can make a proper post today, myself.

I laughed when I found where I made the in character comment of King John Arthur being cute.

Where do you think I got it from? That was your wonderful flourish! I remember reading that scene where Meara and JA were having that talk about loss, grief, and you threw that bit in there about her finding him cute and I thought to myself, "What a wonderfully authentic sort of 'intrusive' thought." I think everyone has probably had a moment like that where they are deep in an emotional moment or mood and then there's suddenly a random thought or unrelated observation. I thought that was a great touch in a poignant scene, so I called back to it in the Ch. 2 intro.

As far as continuing...I think I've made my reservations clear. It's probably best I stay retired. That said, if we can get the whole band back together, I'd be willing to give it a shot. But if it doesn't hold up to the original, well, in the words of DJ Khaled, "Congratulations. You played yourself." So if Brun drops in or either of you know how to reach him, and he also wants to keep going, then we'll attempt it.

None of us are the same people we were seven years ago, and none of us are expecting to be. But we have well and truly missed you, and each other, and regardless of whether we can carry the exact same feel as before, we do want to play together and be able to stay connected like that.

Besides, how will you get your mojo back if you don't get back into practice? I've seen sports movies where they pull the old guy out of retirement and he has to have a training montage. :P

Also, if things here don't work out so well, I do have a Discord server these days I can happily invite y'all to for continued nerdery. Which is actually where I'm gonna be for the next few hours, as I'm running a Zelda game tonight and won't have much chance to catch up on this game until afterward.

True enough. I sent Brun an rMail, so hopefully he'll see it if he's still an RPoL user. If not, unfortunately, I don't have any other contact info for him.

I'm on many a Discord server having fun with many fellow rpol nerds I have met over the years.  It's great fun.  And yeah, we are all different people than we were seven years ago.

For instance, seven years ago I wasn't 40!

I'll be 36 in a few weeks myself.

I've heard a lot of PbP is done by discord these days. Given it's channel layout, I can see why. It's not too different than RPoL in that way.

I wonder if Brun is on any of the RPOL discords.

It's possible!  The only RPOL discord I'm on is the one that was initially created specifically for site outage status reporting back when the server and/or its connections were sorely misbehaving for like two weeks straight, which I mostly just have in case, well, one of the RPOL mods or jase has an announcement to make when the site's down.

Given that the site has a pretty strict privacy policy from what I remember, I don't think you can just make a thread that says, "Does anyone know our buddy, <AccountNameHere>?" either.

Fudge Dice. =/

At least the wait lets us refamiliarize with everything. And I can start fresh on my GM planning in case Brun does come back too.

Both of you feel free to respond to the IC thread if you want. Maybe activity will summon Brun from the aether.

I was planning on making a post tonight, after work!  I had just recently caught up on things.

I remember Meara being spunky and un-noblelike, but I had apparently forgotten the degree of her un-noblelike behavior.

And yes, having caught up on things, Freyr most likely said goodbye to Sir L1-4MNT and that's why she's not there.

I'm looking forward to Meara potentially failing her Zeal roll to stealthily reach the tea party and pretend she has been there all along (no roll will make that a success but it's funny and something she would absolutely try).

Also can't wait to see how her aunt interacts with her, because you know Meara's going to mention how cute John Arthur is (as well as say he's also a good man).  And, uh, possibly ask what he's like when they're alone.  Not like, in bed alone, but when they can drop their guards and interact as a married couple.  Meara hopes he's funny because that's super important.

**Grabs Popcorn and impatiently spams refresh**

Meara, doing something like you described would be difficult, yes, but I think you underestimate having a Zeal of Superb/+5. That's reaaaally good. She could definitely pull it off with a bit of luck if you wanted.

Yeah, the two of them seemed to hit it off at the Ball, and L1-4MNT fought alongside you guys during the attack. That's why I had it as an idea. But if you have other ideas, feel free to go with those. Freyr is your purview by and large.

I look forward to that interaction! I feel like she's probably the more serious of the pair. Did you ever read Gwydion's Campaign intro? Probably not since I think I set everyone's to show to them for the sake of clarity, I'll go ahead and remove that so you can read them all if you are interested. I've always written JA as being just like really chill and down to Earth. Or down to Moon, I guess?

Also, you guys ever see the last episode of the original Samurai Jack where Jack finds the baby? I won't spoil it if you haven't, but that's straight up what I see for Mimi when she pops up now and again.

---

I managed to find someone on a forum for another system Brun and I used to play together with the exact same account name. I sent a PM to see if it was him. Hopefully he has the "receive email notification of new PMs" option turned on.

I can't believe you two have talked me into this...
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:08, Mon 10 July 2023.

If you want Meara to pull an unsuccessful sneak, you could always suggest it as a Compel against one of your aspects. Then you automagically get spotted arriving late and get a Fate Point for the trouble!

Also my ADHD brain has been making catching up really hard, but I was also planning on doing a post either tonight or tomorrow. Also also I'm turning 38 in August! Just to hop on that particular bandwagon. :P

What was that? We're putting the communist player in charge of twenty thousand refugees with the resources of a magical moon city and a wizard computer? I'll take "mutual cooperation and empathy for $1000". :D

Also being sweet to my adorable but PTSDed up girlfriend. She's definitely getting chocolates soon. So many of them.

I'm actually going to leave it up to the GM whether or not that (Un)fortunate Reputation compel activates.  It depends entirely on whether or not Queen Valerie plays along.  I mean, she has to know Meara might do this.  There's no way her sister hasn't complained to her about it happening all the time.  Yeah, I definitely made the roll, but that doesn't mean the Queen's foolish enough to think she's always been there, just that Meara wasn't there, and now she's there.

Also, Freyr is very much going to be late with, perhaps, a button or two out of place, or her impeccable hair mussed just so.

Meara, while sorely tempted, will be wise enough not to tease Freyr about it until they're alone.

You can always suggest compels, though, and in Fate it's hard enough to find Compels on the regular so helping provide the GM with them is always top score. Tasty tasty Fate Points. :3

Man, Gwydion has so much moping and apologizing to do if we get to hear from Brun again. He's feeling super self-conscious about his choice to try and save everyone.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:16, Tue 11 July 2023.