Absolutely live that show!!

I'm sorry if you actually LIVE that show, that'd be dreadful reliving each day over and over! However, if you LOVE that show, then awesome!

Bill plays himself in Zombieland, it's funny.

I mean don't we all.... same corona day every day....

Yeah all these zombie movies with survivors huddled and isolated can be seen through a slightly different lens now.

@Erlin: was that a serious question or is she just making sarcastic comments in the corner?

If you mean Erlin's question to Renee about the swordlords, its both serious and in jest; she doesn't know the politics of the south, and has never traveled in swordlord lands, so to her its a fancy term that sounds a bit silly - but she also finds her lack of local knowledge serious, especially if she is going to extend her career down in the south, so she is trying to be both serious and funny at the same time, in the vein of a bard or skald.

Now I'm kind of curious to see how long it's going to be until he notices.

I figure I'll give it another day and then try a PM

I think he missed the serious comment above and why the others came up.

So, what is happening?

I think we are waiting on the GM since it seems silly to act as if the exact same event happening is normal. I mean I went back and the posts are cut and paste exact copies.

 So the two thoughts:

Either we just had something alter time and these guys are acting as if this is the first time and we go WTF we already signed these contracts don’t you remember this? Or the GM had a major memory loss that we did this scene and he retcons the approach to the outpost to say the new guards and we don’t get hit up by Jhod and The other guy with the weird update and contracts.

Cause it’s awkward to replay a scene we played.

As the new person I try to give benefits of the doubt. I run several games myself and I know mistakes happen or details get overlooked, but it sounds like maybe the GM is too busy to properly run his games. I don’t know all the issues that went before but it sounds like the lack of personal touches to fit the current crew has made previous players feel like the GM doesn’t care and is just rehashing the game.

Maybe the GM needs a co-GM to help out with NPCs or keeping things running. I dunno.

I’m a bit concerned that the characters are woefully under level for the challenges they are facing. I mean we just now made second level after going for a solid year. I know Kingmaker AP is supposed to make the characters rulers but right now with the sucky dice rolls and running away from bandits, I don’t see this leadership aspect manifesting any time in the foreseeable future. I can see previous Renee’s frustration- she has one spell to use per day and then she plays healer but that secondary role is handled by the cleric. So all she has is the RP aspect to work off of. I can see why she left...

Anyways, hopefully the GM reads this and the previous serious posts that came before and responds with the NEXT STEPS.

A co-gm is probably a good idea, but who?

Well shit. That's my bad. I'll scrap the thread and start fresh. I swear I checked but I missed it completely. There's been so much that has happened between then and now it completely slipped my brain.

Feel free to call that out a lot earlier instead of leaving me cryptic clues in OOC. The really stupid thing is it is listed there in the adventure log.

Things happen man, we get it. But I would hardly call the below "cryptic", and it was posted shortly after you did.

No hard feelings, we all get busy, but I feel this would be a good time to give fair warning that if you are going to gloss over what we are doing, or not read what we are taking the time to write, I am likely going to bow out the next time it happens.

You seem you have your hands full, and if you need to step away from this one to make the others work, I would completely understand that as well.

Just please don't continue if your heart is not in it, or potentially seek out some help like Renee's player suggested if it's needed.

Here's hoping we can all continue to have fun and to see these characters and the story grow

Alright fixed. To expand upon this I on occasion do updates late at night. Normally that is fine but it appears in my exhaustion I forgot huge sections of this game. That has been corrected. Like I said before it is stupid because all the quests and stuff are right there in the adventure log.

RE: CO-Gms. I may suck at this here and there but I have found co-gms to be more trouble then they are worth. By the time they are up and running and I can start to rely on them, they vanish. After 10 years on this sight I don't really view anyone other than myself as a permanent figure anymore. I would love to collaborate but I find it easier to only rely upon myself.

RE: XP - This is a much slower AP than others because of its non-linear nature. Where in a typical adventure you would be led by the nose to a level-appropriate dungeon, guided through and given your rewards after a challenging (but easily manageable) boss fight at the end, Kingmaker is much more open ended ESPECIALLY after the extensive edits I've made. If you look at your open quests you have an entire level's worth of XP right there but you have to actually finish them. This is in line with my expectation though. The party goes around, discovers all these opportunities and while it is very important for game development the exploration phase doesn't lend itself very much XP. Instead it turns into a grand tour where you find out just what there is to explore which, I feel, is very thematic to the adventure.

After you get your feet under you and a solid plan though the XP starts pouring in as you start focusing and running down quests and enemies. I would expect you to hit level 3 in half the time it took you to get to level 2 because you've already made a lot of important discoveries.

Finally if you are legitimately stuck IC, use the NPCs. That's what they are there for. You have a mid-level healer, an experienced fighter and a couple that knows the Greenbelt pretty well. Ask questions and even if they don't know the answer they might help point you in the right direction.

I understand where you are coming from but I would just like to point out two things

1) This game, at its inception, was pitched as a duplicate of another game I am running. I put in a lot of work customizing that kingmaker game and a lot of people want to run Kingmaker so I added this game onto my plate with the idea that I could run the overall framework the same. Yes that does mean that I will hit the same major beats in both games. When the villain or NPC gives a grand "welcome to the club" speech it is likely the same across all my games.

HOWEVER

2) This is NOT a copy and paste game. There have already been huge major changes and if you look closely you will see that customization. To peel back the curtains so far these are the different changes

• In the other game, they saved Jamandi from assassination. In this one she is dead and legit dead. While I can copy and paste Kesten's speech and some other stuff once you guys hit the post-game stuff you are branching into completely different directions.
  
• In the other game they assaulted the Deadly dealers at their tower and captured the sorceress (and one of them is converting them into an eventual companion). In this game the PCs had Oleg's outpost get assaulted instead. While that hasn't come into play much right now, it is going to drastically change some stuff in the future.
  
• You made contact with the fey while the other party didn't. Again I know it doesn't seem like that means anything right now but some stuff takes time to develop. If it does. I do a lot of RNG stuff in the background.

So yeah, some stuff is copy and pasted but a lot of this game isn't. The whole outpost battle for example.

Normally I would take my lumps, especially after a colossal screw up like I just did, and move on but it legitimately puzzles when I make a reactive game that lets you murder the main NPC and burn down the main home base and then hear my players say the game isn't reactive enough.

I've mentioned it before, but text lacks so much nuance that it can be difficult to offer constructive criticism.

I appreciate you taking the time to run this, it's a lot of work, and I feel you have done a great job in many respects, especially as we were getting started with so many players, etc.

And I do hope that we can continue. I have had a lot of fun.

But part of that mutual exchange, the back and forth of player and GM is being honest with you. Honest enough to give you my observations and expectations. To keep you in the loop so that you are not blindsided.

We are all mortal, I've made my fair share of mistakes and then some, so please don't think this is "punitive" or anything like that. I imagine we have an awful lot in common.

Buy keeping silent on stuff like this helps no one, hence me reaching out.

That is fair and by all means you should push me to be better. Apologies if I came off a bit defensive.

None needed.

This is all easier around a table with a couple of beers. Computers or smart phones not so much.

You're good man :)

If Erlin fights naked again will she get more XP?

Achievement Unlocked: Natural Armor

Woohoo!

She gets more XP, while the boys get distracted... Not sure if I'd call that a win. (We already have lousy die rolls!) ;)

GM - I feel you. The ebb and flow of RPOL is a huge changeover. I've been on this site since 2012, took a few year hiatus during RL, and came back almost two years ago. Co-GMs can be trouble, they can be a blessing.

Maybe a GM-only thread for yourself to remind you of the major achievements in this game?

One of the biggest issues with XP progression in D&D is the fact it centers on the hardest part to manage in this setting - Combat. Also, overcoming is a broad term and most GMs play it as 'must kill' the bad guys. But isn't experience also learning, exploring, and preparation? I awarded XP to my players for Role-playing and puzzle-solving while de-emphasizing combat. On RPOL - Role-playing is engaging the game and interacting and responding to the scenes. That's what 95% of the posts I have read over the past year have been interactions. Combat is a mere 5% of the events. At the tabletop, once XP shifted from combat to Role-playing, the players became more creative in avoiding combat or talking through things rather than simple murder hobo tactics.

5e did milestone XP, you reach this milestone and boom XP.

Most well-run games on RPOL seem to last for about 2 years. I've had some die after 6 months because of player attrition. Given the ebb and flow, with what you've said at year 2 we'll be level 3, maybe 4.

If the group decides we can switch to milestone but that could be even more awkward because of the non-linear nature of things. You could spend ages at one level and then ding through the next two super fast because you did those milestones back to back.

I adamantly do not believe in rewarding XP for good RP because I feel I shouldn't have to bribe you for effort. This is your game, you get what you put into it. I feel overall I do a good job of rewarding good RP with other perks.

I will say you guys are longer on level 1 than I was expecting but that is because of the exploration route you chose. I don't think it was the wrong choice at all and I enjoyed the journey.

@Renee: That is why I have the adventure log. Like I said I did a really really stupid thing and bypassed several checks that I have in place to make sure stuff like that doesn't happen. I was tired and had a complete brain fart.

I am happy we are all back to being friends again.

I would like to revisit one thing you did post which was new from Jhod.  The thing about the place he had seen in his visions.  Can we have him report that for us?
This message was last edited by the player at 06:25, Sat 17 Apr 2021.

Aye. Ill review and post the new info.