Thanks all for the feedback!

For my part, if I had it to do over again, I would probably have put my foot down when it came to splitting up the party and forced the party to come to consensus. It was cumbersome to run two separate games, but the bigger issue came about due to balance issues between the two parties. One party had all the spellcasters and the other had all the melee characters. In the end, all it accomplished was to ensure some characters missed out on large portions of the adventure, which would have happened anyway (as I mentioned, it was impossible to complete all three threads of the story...not enough time), but certainly the entire party could have engaged in two of the three main arcs.

I would also have done a better job of awarding Inspiration. I forget about this when I run tabletop games as well, but have gotten better about it now that I use tokens, which I keep right in front of me when I run the game.

From the player's side of things, you guys worked together really well and had a good dynamic. There was a little bit of drama when Ellie was still in the group, but that resolved itself when I cut the player from the cast. You all played your characters very well and are excellent writers, giving me enough information in your posts to build from. It was definitely give and take, which is nice in PbP. Too often, I have seen games where it is all take, take, take and from the GM side of things, it feels like the players are waiting to respond to posts without doing anything to propel the game forward. That didn't happen here, for which I am thankful.

***

As far as the "What Now?" goes. The goal of this game was to run Legacy of the Crystal Shard from beginning to end, which we've now done. So I feel pretty good about that and haven't given much consideration to anything beyond this goal. Bill and Rob have gamed with me enough to know I like having definite end state goals. I don't run open-ended, The Game Must Go On! type games anymore, especially in PbP, because it's too easy to lose focus and have games wither and die on the vine due to apathy, atrophy and entropy.

While it's true you are all fantastic players and writers, I value your (and my) time too much to sign us up for "MORE!" without doing the required homework to ensure a potential sequel is more than a pale, hollow, imitation of the original. If that makes sense?

Having said that, I have some rough ideas of potential sequels, but I need to mull them over a bit to determine what would be required to run them to a satisfying conclusion.

One idea involves continuing with The Forge of Fury adventure from the Tales of the Yawning Portal harcover adventure book. At its core, Forge is a relatively simple dungeoncrawl into an old dwarven mine that features a host of intelligent adversaries. It's well regarded and looks like it could be a lot of fun, and this coming from a DM who's not really into dungeoncrawls. I like this idea because it's different than the Legacy adventure, it would not be a lot of homework on my part, I have never run the adventure before, it would be nice to use The Yawning Portal book, and the adventure itself would be pretty straight-forward to run.

The other idea is more work on my part, but could potentially be more satisfying if we could pull it off--Storm King's Thunder. This is a hardcover 5e adventure that pits the PCs against rampaging giants and is also highly regarded. For this to work, I need to do some homework to figure out how to make this adventure work in PbP and then work up an outline using select elements of the larger adventure to frame out scenes. I like this idea because the story seems pretty cool and I think it has the potential to make for a fun, memorable game. This is a more risky option and I am still not sure it's workable in PbP, at least the way I run games.

At any rate, those are my preliminary thoughts on the subject.

Thanks,

Shane

Fair warning, Bill and I played the prologue for Storm King's Thunder. It was very well done. The game ended before we made any further progress however.

The Prologue is not something I am looking at using. From my understanding, the Prologue primarily meant to bring characters to 5th level, where they can begin the adventure in earnest. One of the post-prologue starting points is Bryn Shander, but that's about all I know about it.

Yeah... we made it to Bryn Shander and then the DM shut things down. Interestingly enough he just popped back to life on RPOL after like a year's absence. He's running Tomb of Annihilation instead now.

In reply to Morgrim Ironhammer (msg # 348):

It's remarkabale how common it is for DMs to set up and recruit for games that will be major time investments taking several years to run to completion, only to see those same games fold shortly after character creation when the DM disappears, then have the DM resurface a few months later proposing a new major time investment.

But more remarkable is how players line right back up to play again, when it's pretty easy to see a GM's track record by viewing other games they've run. A big red flag for me when I am looking at joining any game is a history of aborted games. But then again, I am pretty choosy about how I spend my free time.

I'm also hesitant to join a game from a DM with a large graveyard of games behind their name. Unfortunately on this site that sometimes seems to be the only choice you have.

In reply to Morgrim Ironhammer (msg # 350):

That's why I very rarely join games as a player. I don't like wasting my time on games run by  what I am sure by well-intentioned GMs, but for one reason or another do not complete what they start.

I have been on this site for nearly 10 years now. In that time, as a player I played one Basic D&D game (2.5 years) to a satisfying conclusion, one Dungeon Crawl Classics (1 year) to a conclusion, and one 5e game to completion (1 year). There were a string of other still-born games, but now I am pretty selective about what I sign up for and generally prefer to run my own games.

I've run two games on RPOL, one on my own and one cooperatively. I found the investment of time more than I could keep up with on an ongoing basis. I really appreciate all that you committed DMs do.

My kids are interested in the game now. We just finished Sunless Citadel as a family. My wife is enjoying the game more than she thought she would. She pretty much assumed 'dungeons and dragons' was a euphemism for getting drunk with the guys in university. It never really took until she had an obsessed 7 year old to entertain.

Jack, my eldest, has decided he doesn't want to play a pregenerated character any longer. He made his first individualized character last night, opting for Half-Orc Barbarian. We'll see how it goes :)

In reply to Morgrim Ironhammer (msg # 352):

My kids are 11 and 10 and also play D&D. We played through Lost Mines of Phandelver as a family and they've played several Adventurer's League modules and a couple of D&D Epics as well.

I will say they were not entirely thrilled when I had them use pre-generated characters for the LMoP game, but they got through it and still enjoyed the game. My daughter played the halfling rogue and my son played the dwarf cleric.

Their AL characters are as follows:

Daughter: Human Rogue (Level 6) and Human Druid (Level 4), Halfling Rogue (Level 5)
Son: Tiefling Paladin (Level 5), Human Ranger (Level 3), Dwarf Cleric (Level 3)

At least your son picked a relatively straight-forward character to play. My kids like to pick spellcasting classes and then play them as straight-up fighters (son) or rogue (daughter) and forget to use their magic abilities in game or spam cast their weak cantrips exclusively.

Not sure if you're familiar with them, but AL adventures make for good, self-contained play in short sessions.

Haven't played AL. I kind of thought it was a structured game environment for continuous play across multiple groups and I never foresaw that happening. Most of my outlet for playing is online, family games aside.

We played Lost Mines of Phandelver when he was 6. My daughter was too young to join us for that adventure. I made a simplified character sheet with pictures instead of words so he could follow along. Re-skinned the adventure as a Christmas themed romp. Gundren Rockseeker became Santa, Sildar became our Elf on the Shelf Max, the nothic in the pits of Tressander was the Grinch. Jack also wanted there to be velociraptors, because why not. There are stats for them in Volo's and they're the same CR as goblins, so half the goblins became dinosaurs. It was good fun.

It's great to hear how you bring in the next generation of gamers.  :)

I have left a couple of games where I did a favor and pitch hit for a pre generated character (sci fi theme).  I can understand about not "relating" to those characters.  I think when you go and make your own choices you learn about character creation so much more.  Plus you put yourself into the character and understand better how they would react in situations.

I will confess that while I love Clerics (and probably always will), I like the 5E edition better now.  Even though my cantrip didn't do much damage in combat thanks to great dex saves on the NPCs side, it still made me feel like I was taking action and not just sitting there.  Of course I could get into melee which I did sometimes, but having the faith and expressing it I thought was more Dal's style.

I still need to figure out the timing issue with "bonus actions" but you know, this is all a learning thing.   I was totally happy to game with you guys and would love to do it again.

WOW!  That's a great epilogue.  Can't wait to meet the heroes...oh wait.  That's us!   :)

Loved it.  Thank you.

At its heart, yes, that is what AL is about. But it's also self-contained, fun, well-designed short adventures that are designed to be completed in 2 and 4 hour time blocks. I have found the 2-hour sessions ideal for young gamers.

I wish more people had patience with younger gamers in my area.  My younger son is 13 now but he's also on the spectrum with ADHD so he tends to lose interest.  I've had tabletop GM's tell me they won't allow him to play, which makes me sad.  He loves to play when he can.  There is one GM who specifically asks for younger players and he's wonderful with my son ... who loves playing a dwarf fighter.  My older son started with the half-orc barbarian too but has since found he really likes some of the other classes, particularly the ranger.

This has been the first online game for me to ever be completed.  I had a tabletop game that ran for four years where we went from level 1 to epic levels.  I know I was absent here and there due to my personal health and issues with my sons, but I was so grateful to you for running the game and being patient with me.  It has been an absolute pleasure and whatever you decide to run next, I hope you will allow me to continue.  I'm pretty much stuck at home most of the time and this is my outlet to be creative and interact with other people.  I have no criticisms about how you ran the games and apologize for being part of the issue that caused the party to split.  Kira (and myself) are just sort of stubborn and when a promise is given, it's a matter of honor.

In reply to Kira (msg # 358):

You'd have made a great Dwarf Kira!  Furrybutt and I might have to talk into making you all honorary members of our Clan.  You are good at fighting and holding your liquor...or is that holding me when I'm liquored up.  Either skill is very valuable.  :)

In reply to Kira (msg # 358):

I have found it helps with younger players to keep sessions short (1-2 hours max) and keep the adventure goals relatively simple. In mixed groups of older and younger gamers, this can sometimes be problematic, especially if older gamers are accustomed to playing longer sessions.

You also sometimes run into issues with age inappropriate language, jokes and innuendo...specifically, some players view D&D as a time to blow off steam, let their hair down, and this may include any and all aforementioned activities. I tend to keep my games PG and try to avoid cursing anyway, but some players have absolutely no filter. I have run into problems with this in the past when gaming with my kids, but fortunately, these instances are few and far between.

In my current tabletop game, we have a young lady (14 years old) who has shown up to play a couple of times, with her Dad as chaperone. Her Dad pulled me aside before the first game and asked if it was okay if she just watched, because she had seen people play on YouTube and Twitch and had always wanted to play but didn't know anyone who played. He also said she was mildly autistic and had a speech impediment, which caused them to pull her out of school (due to bullying) and was now homeschooled, so she had very little social interaction skills.

I told her Dad, "Well, it seems like kind of a waste of time to drive all this way for her to just watch. Watching people play D&D isn't really that fun, but to each their own. If she's here, she might as well play..."

That young lady was so excited to be given a chance to play, as an equal. It made for a really fun game. She's still learning social cues on when to allow others a chance to speak/act, but she'll figure that stuff out with time.

Good for her. My son is oblivious to social cues. This seems to be helping, if anything. It forces him to think about the other people around the table.

I'm convinced that the social interaction of a tabletop D&D game can be a very beneficial thing.

When I was younger, I was painfully shy. Being able to act in-character at the gaming table helped me to overcome that, I feel certain.

Heads up...

I will be traveling to my in-law's house for Thanksgiving, leaving home this coming Saturday, 17 Nov, and coming back 24 Nov. My in-laws live out in the sticks and their internet connection is pretty garbage. This, coupled with family stuff going on around the holiday, will impact my ability to post. Not sure what our other American players have going on for the holidays, but I suspect it will be pretty quiet.

Thanks,

Shane

In reply to DM Shard (msg # 363):

Enjoy your break Shane.  It sounds like a nice time.

I'm going to hybernate this Thanksgiving.  Hope to get some work in on quilting and other crafts and just enjoy.

It's just me and my boys, the older is a cart pusher at Wal-Mart and schedule almost every day Thanksgiving week, including Thanksgiving Day, but we'll be hibernating in the house and stuffing ourselves silly.  Enjoy your family time, DM!

And Dal, Kira would adore being an honorary dwarf!  :D

This is true.  Not for me so much, I was always a talker and very outspoken.  But the face to face interaction with a group of peers and / or non-peers really helps everyone understand or learn those social norms that one doesn't necessarily get from schooling.

I remember my first dungeon master.  He was a friend of mine from grade school that ended up going to the "other" junior high school in our school district.  We remained friends though (he was maybe a 10 minute bike ride from my house) and he introduced me to DnD Basic Set back in the late 70s / early 80s.  Back then it was such a cool concept, role playing games with fantasy and swords and magic and stuff.  I played an Elf and we played long enough that "Lord Teel Dragonstar" made max level (10th, if I remember correctly) and was pretty darn powerful.

At least to a 7th grader ;)

I've been a DnD'er ever since.  DM'd many adventures for my older brothers, then buddies in college, then online here on RPOL, and now am introducing it to my sons (albeit slowly).

Right now we're playing Hero Quest, a board game from the mid-90s that I really love and have held on to like a cherished possession.  I am also working on a homebrew set of RPG rules of my own (which is a hugely laborious effort when one gets to magic and magic spells, etc - makes me wonder if my idea is worth the effort!)

I've gamed with many people who would in social situation be called "odd ducks" but in the context of a gaming table they really open up and show themselves to be smart, clever, and often very funny to be around.  They just needed a safe and welcoming space to open up.

~Rob

Wishing everyone and their families a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and a joyous New Year.

Cheers!

~Bill

Happy holidays :)

Merry Christmas, everyone!  Have a safe closing out of 2018 and here’s to a wonderful 2019 :)