This is a general discussion thread for discussing all aspects of the game.
This message was last updated by the GM at 22:50, Mon 18 Apr 2022.

This is going to be an odd first post for discussion.
As things stand I have 3 completed (well 2 finished and 1 as good as) characters.
I have had no further responses since either my initial post or the effective bump of 2 days ago. Even the original player who suggested I run a game here hasn't bothered to respond.

The choice now comes down to
1) I abandon attempting to run a game here, which in a lot of ways is unfair on the 3 of you who've bothered to take the time to create characters
2) I run with the 3 characters I have and a stack of "character NPCs", and anybody who wants to join later will have to take over one of these "character NPCs".

The background of the campaign effective precludes any "lost" Amberite characters with any Pattern knowledge/capability, which also mostly precludes any characters with Shadow traversing Trump capability.

This means any character with Amberite heritage who joins later, and it will be a while before this is even possible, will be in exactly the same boat as the starting characters are at the beginning, although they may have slightly more knowledge about some things.
What any such character won't have is all of the history and background that the characters, including the "character NPCs" will have learnt.

Having only 3 players, would make life really difficult later, which is also partly what the "character NPCs" are for, although they will only act, at least for the most part, in concert/support of what the main players do.

How we proceed from here is now down to the 3 of you so I need some opinions please

What I would personally recommend - if such a thing is possible since I don't know your campaign notes - is creating a couple of "blank slots." That is, have characters who are recruited in the initial pitch but don't become plot important at that time, so if we get a few players straggling in late, the blanks can have been hanging out in the background and involved in offscreen activities.

It's not an elegant solution by any means, but this is RPoL and we're a pickup group, so that's my idea. If not, go with Plan B.

I like the option 2  or something along the lines of what Winter had in mind. A horde of NPCs, some of which could even be 'vaguely described'. Depending on their number, obviously not all (6+) of those involved would be working together constantly. So easy enough to have the blanks (or a couple of the NPCs) be doing things separate from the main PCs (and core NPCs).

If/when someone wishes to join in, they can either take over one of the established NPCs or try to fill the more vague blanks. Perhaps only have 2 of those; enough to fill the void to get up to the approximately 5 it sounds like you were planning and then have more NPC options for extras (or those who want to join without doing a full character creation).

Okay so 2 out of 3 basically in agreement.. we'll go with option 2..

That sounds good to me as well.

Just a quick note.
I'm not going to progress the invitations thread for a couple of days.
Trying to reach a consensus of opinion with another player over their character. I think we maybe close now, so I don't to get too far ahead.

Hi. I don' know how I missed this thread but I vote to press on as well. for what it's worth

Finally, took a lot of hammer and tongs and beatings about the head, but I'm here.

And of course, now begins the most dreaded part of any new character; finding an avatar that fits even remotely.  Why do I always do this?  Make the character, describe them, and then go looking through the picture database...

Ugh, I know exactly how you feel

Hear that.

Good luck with that one. Tons of options on here.. but finding the right one is never easy.

It's easy if you're playing an attractive young woman or handsome white/black guy... by stray to far out those boxes and things begin to become limited.

Lots of heavyset/beefy bearded guys too... not too many beefy native americans.  Gonna have to find a good young pic (or commission an artist) of Will Sampson*, submit it, and then wait a bazillion years for the database team to add it.

(Or someone else... still have my eye out, but Will Sampson in The White Buffalo is really close to the look I'm aiming at...)

I had a discussion with a GM about finding a good picture for a Black woman. It was...a pain.

Often I just put the image in the description instead of using the portrait system.

If she wasn't supposed to be "classically" beautiful... yeah that can be a pain.


Ditto.  But I usually also submit a pic tot eh system and hope...

Right now I'm just trying to decide between Will Sampson (Crazy Horse The White Buffalo, Chief Bromden One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) and Rodney Grant (Wind in his Hair Dances With Wolves).

Sampson has that rugged, not-a-pretty-boy look, but Grant has better pictures (go figure his movies are more recent) and looks younger (he was younger).

Sorry I'm a bit slow on the posting today*... I spent four hours last night typing up my Background (the long "A Tale of Two Cities" version) in Notepad only to have a power flux on the final proof-reading...

And no.  Apparently I still haven't learned my lesson about using my preferred Notepad versus something that would have sensibly been auto-saving for me (and apparently I haven't learned to just reflexively save for myself).  I promise there were tears at 4am (very Manly™ tears though).

So... well... that's what I'll be (re)doing tonight.  Hopefully I can squeeze a game post in as well, if not tomorrow Tuesday at stupid o'clock in the morning at the latest.


* And I just realized my last post wasn't "Friday night" as it feels like to me, but Saturday morning midnight-thirty... so anyway, yeah, next post might be tonight, or as I corrected above, Tuesday "first thing in the a.m." (my time is GMT-5).

Download Notepad++.. it's miles better and will autosave..

I have it... I don't like it*, it's not what I've been using for a billion years, it's younger than 20 years old, unproven technology, Unga bang rocks together!

Yes... I am one of those types.  I mean, I used Netscape for so long it would feel shameful, if I could feel shame.  I think Netscape was actually discontinued for several years before I finally migrated to Chrome and Firefox, and that was because most of the websites I enjoyed didn't work on it any more.



* Except for a few very specific uses, like opening and editing non-text files that Notepad screws up.

I get you, yeah. I still want to go back to Windows XP.

Myself, I use Wordpad for my text files out of sheer laziness.

MS can pry Win7 out of cold dead hands!


*sigh*  I know that someday they'll be a vidya game I really, really, really want to play and it'll require Win10 or 11... and I haven't decided if on that day I give up my gamer badge or not.  It might prompt me to install Linux and figure out how to shell Win10 on a virtual machine... I know it's almost as bad as actually installing it, but I'd feel better about it.

Bad enough the work computer has Win10 on it... but if it borks up, not my monkeys, not my zoo.


I hate the way Word and Wordpad format things autoannoyingly sometimes... but a spellcheck feature on Notepad would be nice.  That and auto save are all I wish it did extra.  I used to write in Word and then copypaste to Notepad to strip formatting... but that's just extra steps...

Not forgotten about anybody.. will get to those who've not had a event yet later in the week. Been having to back fill an area of the real Earth which isn't a simple matter.. if you're really interested in some reading
https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what...ed-again-yellowstone
https://www.usgs.gov/observato...ews_science_products
https://www.usgs.gov/media/ima...wstone-supereruption
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvrad...olcano/article.shtml

Sorry y'all, lost my job on Monday and the last three days have been upside down.  But I tonight I destressed (instead of shipping resumes and hitting all the job recruiters) and tomorrow I aim to get back into the game, finish the background, etc.

Not like I'm working 10 hours a day anymore...  :|

Oh my God. I'm so sorry to hear that. I hope your next job is better and you're happier for it.

With no disrespect to Machk, given his abrupt change in circumstances and the complete change in stressors that entails, I really do now need to move things on. If there is a suitable backfill then I will do so..

I've not heard anything from evileeeyore so it may be that due to his IRL issues he's not able to play, either currently or going forward.
Machk will stay around as a character, i.e he will get collected so if evileeeyore does re-appear he can theoretically just pick the character back up.
If you've been paying attention you'll have noted I've added 2 more characters to the Character/Player reference. Hoping to have them on-boarded by the weekend, so there might be a slight delay to progressing Chapter 2.

Yup, I exist and am glad to be here!

Welcome Nathaniel!

.... and is it Welcome Cassandra?

Welcome to the (upcoming) party everyone! :)

Yup, Hallo
Nice to meet you all. It's lovely to be here!

Hello.

Also: I see what you did with your name.

Hmmm .. looks like gain one lose one.. not heard anything from Digishade/Nathaniel since his initial post. Hoping to be able to move chapter 2 along later.

Hello everyone, glad to be here !

Welcome aboard!

Hi Edward. Welcome

Welcome.

Ref Chapter 2.
Not sure we're going to get a post from Machk, had hoped I might have got a further response to his message on Sunday, so if Edward can respond then I can move things forward to Cordelia actually physically materializing through the Trump Portal, and what happens next.
At this point I'll deal with everyone in collection order.

Sorry, while I put a lid on the stress I hadn't quite nailed down the busy.  I'm actually completely and totally free tomorrow, so I'll be finishing the character sheet and background then.

Just waiting on a response from Mr Elgrim.. then we can move on. Next bit will need to be in order of collection..

Okay.. typical bad GM.. forgot about the "Group Bs".. I can also deal with any reaction from Group B characters at this point.

With replies from the "active" Group B's, I've not heard anything from Digishade(Nathaniel) since his initial messages and post, I'm going to move things forward..

How long should I wait for Kenneth before claiming my preferred assistant?

Given he's not posted anything in a week then no don't wait.. I can back fill as required.

I'll give Winter and Rhiannon some time (like a day should be fine) before I post in.

I'm waiting on Winter. Once she posts I'll be right behind her

I'm here also, and waiting my turn, but I'm last.   :)

I think you're about the only character left to post..

I'm going to wait another couple of days (till Monday evening my time..GMT) for Edward to post before moving on with the meeting in the library.

That gives me plenty of time to make posts of Machk grumbling about the 'high tech addiction' and the 'ivory tower attitude'...  :P

Sorry guys, a bit of distraction on my end.

I'm catching up now and hope to post soon.

Real life does have a habit of throwing curve balls and getting in the way sometimes. You can fill in the blanks and change the "Assistant" I assigned to you as you wish.. I may just have to adjust one of the NPC selections as a result but that's not a particular issue.
Or you can leave things as they are and pickup when we get to the Meeting in the Library.

Bro, I lost like 12 days to sudden onset stress.  It happens.


Anyway, I thought I'd already done so, but I guess I finally updated my character's description page.

Forgot mine as well.

Should be up now.

Pssst, Winter, whatever site you linked to does not allow off-site linking.  But we get it, Jill Valentine is hot.

I'm more an Ada fan myself, is that so Wong?




I'll see myself out.

Which is why I didn't hotlink.

And I appreciated RE2 back in the day. It helped to Claire-ify a lot of things about the series.

In reply to Winter Li Mei (msg # 54):

I can't see the image either. Is it from the original Resident Evil series circa 1996 to 2006 or the remake.. because if its the remake then it hasn't happened yet.. And you're assuming that such data is available...

Original series. The new Jill has straps on her tank instead of a tube top! :(

Does this one work?
This message was last edited by the player at 17:18, Sun 05 June 2022.

Hotlink, external link, same thing... ish.  At least for that sites porpoises.

In reply to Machk Kikkenintiso (msg # 57):

So noted. Works fine for me, but maybe my browser is weird!

In reply to Winter Li Mei (msg # 58):

I can see the image above..

Can people look at the library detail and indicate approximately where they are sitting (edit your posts please).
If it's not obvious the right-hand end as you look at the picture is the foyer end, and the trolley's with the food and drink on are between the window and the book cases at the right-hand end.

Edited.

Kenneth should be at the far "right" table from the foyer entry, so the upper most table on the right when looking at the map.

Okay.. it appears people are having diffuculty talling the written description against the drawing.. so I've labelled the drawing.. Can people update their posts again to make things clearer..

This is the map I see

http://www.azer.co.uk/amber/Ad.../Common/Library.html

No labels. Is there another?

In reply to Rhiannon Erica Kerrigan (msg # 63):

Give it a refresh, that might help.

Also, I've updated my character description with links to Cassandras tattoos if anyone wants or needs to know what they look like and where they are.

Miss Cassandra needs a profile picture !     :)

In reply to Cassandra Troy (msg # 64):

I refreshed it multiple times

In reply to Rhiannon Erica Kerrigan (msg # 66):

I had to clear my data cache on Firefox to get it to reload the new image. No matter what else I did it just kept reloading the image it had cached.

Great. Let me go figure out how to do that.

In reply to Rhiannon Erica Kerrigan (msg # 68):

For Firefox.. Settings->Privacy and Security->Clear Data. Make sure you untick cookies and just leave the other option ticked.

Thank you!!

In reply to Edward Pinmillion (msg # 65):

I know, I'm working on it, it an unfortunate struggle to find the picture you want.

I feel ya.  At least temporarily, I'd say find something that can be linked into your Character Description page.  Then, if you're feelin frisky, submit a profile pic and then wait awhile... wait forever! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!


Sorry, just been like 6 months since the profile pics have been updated.



Never know who is new and who isn't, so here's the relevant threads:
Profile Pic Submission Process:
link to a message in another game

Profile Pic Update Thread:
link to a message in another game

Ach, my boy, you're right in the middle of a rant on the chauvinism of colonialist powers and you engage in sloppy colonialism yourself, oh my boy, how could you betray yourself?

A couple of things..

Firstly I don't end player instigated or involved scenes. For time to "move on", the PCs need to move on in time, however that may occur, e.g. return to my room, or spend the time idly chatting till breakfast. Usually there is some form of indication from on of the major NPCs, currently Cordelia, as to what the next time milestone may be, in the current case it would be breakfast.

Secondly, Where PC's pose substantive motivation questions to the population as a whole it's really down to the PCs to respond. The NPCs will respond if there's particular relevance to them doing so.

and lastly, given the reaction to Cordelia's description of the effects of the Black Road, I was expecting some reaction to the flippant quip by a hither to unknown NPC, not complete silence.

In reply to GameMaster (msg # 74):


I assume you're talking about Kasimir, or did I mess something?

Speaking only for Rhiannon, her brain is drowning in new strange information. The idea of wiping out a shadow entirely would be so abstract to her that she wouldn't even process it.

As a player, it's really hard to keep track of who we've met and who we haven't. Conversations and situations take day to resolve through posts. When Kasimir appeared I literally couldn't remember if I was supposed to know who he was or not and I wasn't going to go back and dig through all the threads. I just tossed it on the growing heap of things I'm behind on. I was also confused by Cassandra being in two threads at the same time and was wondering if one of them was a shapeshifter. Rhiannon didn't know there was two conversations going on, so she didn't say anything. Anyway, it would be helpful if there was a GM reminder that a new person has appeared, and if we should feel the impact of a statement more than usual, I think it's okay for the GM to say something like... he suggested that an entire reality could be erased.

In reply to Rhiannon Erica Kerrigan (msg # 75):

Technically Cassandra isn't in 2 conversations.. whilst she's posting in 2 threads that conversation occurred before she arrived on the roof .. if you check her opening post in the post library meeting thread. I just couldn't fully resolve that conversation without holding things up in the post meeting thread, so they're occurring in parallel posting time but time wise they're not concurrent.

I stand corrected, thank you.

Meanwhile, Winter is likewise having trouble processing a lot of this - and as she mentioned, what she is processing is the part where her world could be annihilated by a random event.

(Also, I've been trying to keep the posting on as much as possible. But, real life has been keeping my rate down.)

Inversely, Machk is taking that all in stride (it's his nature) but seems to be vexed by the behavior of the host and a few of the other guests.

In reply to Machk Kikkenintiso (msg # 79):

Haha, completely the opposite in that too. Winter's at the point where talking animals are just, well, "we're in outer space now, these things happen."

Exactly.  But for different reasons... less "we're in The Twilight Zone" and more "Right, now it's proper talking dog story".

Spider Robinson would be proud.

Heya guys.

I think I'm going to bow out of this one. My first time with the setting and I think it's just a little too high fantasy for my taste.

I've let the GM know. Best of luck with the project. It was good playing with you.

Take Care Kenneth. I'm so sorry to see you go.

Sorry to see you go man.  Hope we meet in another game.

Just a quick side question GM, is Cordelia supposed to be coming across a complete and total asshole?

From my perspective it's Machk that is being the total asshole, because all it appears is he's deliberately trying to find out where her breaking point is, and from that perspective he's way past it, in reality she would just have rendered him unconscious and dumped him back where she found him. All he can see is himself and nothing else.

Machk is and has been perusing a line based on knowing nothing about her, what she's been through, what happened during the war, what has happened as a result of the war or since the war and when, or even the circumstances of the war, or anything else that defines what the current state of reality is, across Amber, the Courts, or anywhere else, nor what and who the family are actually responsible for.

If Machk chooses to ignore everything he's been told, and see things from a 'me only' centric perspective well there's nothing I can do about it.
Cordelia's perspective is the bigger picture, the whole shadow, whole city, whole corporation perspective, whole everything she is actually responsible for perspective, and everything she has said is based on exactly that perspective.

Every statement she has made has been to specifically counter every accusation both Machk and Kenneth levelled at her, yet neither seem to be able to see anything except themselves and what they think reality is, and Kenneth also didn't bother to find out anything about Mizzurian or exactly what it is has done on True Earth. He's also been completely ignoring the whole "what actually happened when Cordelia/Mizzuian did find out about him and his circumstances" or did you think the whole "Big Creek" element was for nothing. That in itself refutes most of both Machk and Kenneth's arguments, especially the ones about doing nothing, because soon as the family, as in Cordelia, did find out then something was done. But why let a few facts get in the way?
On which subject did anybody actually read the "Time Magazine" article? If anybody did then they're ignoring to obvious and working from yet another false assumption, one which Cassandra's statement clearly demonstrates, and one which Cordelia has previously commented on in the library meeting thread(#66).

Best I bow out as well.  It's clear we have communicative issues.

Have a great game everyone.

Why must IC disagreements spill out into OOC? Each character has their own point of view. Each player should not take it personally.

Is anyone else planning on going to breakfast? If not I need to know what you're planning to do with your day before I can get to the events I do know about Rhiannon's delivery and Cassandra's meeting.
One other observation.. none of the characters actually know what the "Black Road" that Cordelia mentioned is. She didn't say either what it is or describe it, just said it re-appeared..

I thought someone did mention that it was caused by damage to the pattern and served as a path through Shadow. Maybe it was Cathal that said ti to me, or something in OOC.

Cordelia said that it re-appeared as an indirect result of the attempted destruction of the Pattern, and that in the early days of the war is had a second affect in that it disgorged Abyssal demons.
She didn't say anything else about it, and Cathal hasn't commented based on what may or may not be in the books about it. She also hasn't indicated exactly how the attempt was made to destroy the Pattern, and again Cathal hasn't commented.
I should also note that anyone on Mizzurian Earth could have found out the same information as Cathal did, and Cathal has indicated what the source was. I should also note that to-date nobody has made that particular leap in any incarnation of the game.

FYI. I'll be really bust this weekend starting tomorrow. Expect few if any posts during the day. I can catch up a little later in the evening.

Noted.. but they we're all currently waiting on Edward...

Please welcome Alyse, who's taking over the character that would have been Nathaniel Horn, except they're now Natalie Horn. Given I didn't originally put them in Cordelia's intro in the Library thread I can now back track and do so.
Don't know yet whether I'll back fill the events following the arrival of the invite on Good Friday/Easter Weekend or not. It does add another angle in relation to the character, which is specifically relevant later (as per Rhiannon and Cassandra)

A reminder for Rhiannon and Cassandra, this was the 3rd character in the "Post Library meeting Meeting" with Cordelia, as they're the 'other' Trump user in the group..

Huānyíng. (Welcome.)

Hello, everyone! I have some catching up to do, in terms of reading, will dive into that this weekend.

Caught up for the most part, though I know more about everyone else than everyone else knows about Natalie. I jokingly refer to her home Shadow as Gorean Earth (a world in which Al Gore won the 2000 presidential election). She stands 5' 10" tall, has straight black hair, blue-green eyes, and pale olive skin. Natalie was born and raised in St. Agatha, a tiny village in northern Aroostook County, Maine. Her mother died giving birth to her, and she was raised by her maternal grandparents. She is a fourth-year Fine Arts student at the University Of Maine, Presque Isle and a winner of several local awards for her landscapes. She designed and manages northmainewoods.com, the website which serves as a gallery for her work as well as a sales portal for her art and other merchandise.

Not gonna lie, I imagined something rather different when you said "Gorean Earth." :P

In reply to Winter Li Mei (msg # 98):

Me too! :P

In reply to Winter Li Mei (msg # 98) and Rhiannon Erica Kerrigan (msg # 99):

Wholly intentional on my part. ^_^

I'm moving time forward.. Edward will have to play catchup/fill in the blanks....

He can do it on a Zoom call.

...I regret nothing.

At 10:30 I'll be in my room. Probably just done shopping as was in my post

My apologies, I am here.

I will play catch up.    :)

Is it Edward and the Ladies now...?     :)


Edward would like that, lol.
*
I agree, a shame arguments in game turn personal out of game.
It is, after all a game, and supposed to be fun.

In reply to Edward Pinmillion (msg # 105):

I understand being invested in one's character, but roleplaying games are collaborative. People seem to lose sight of the collective-storytelling aspect of the hobby. Communication, as in every aspect of life, is key to a pleasant and safe gaming environment.

Does playing this out serve some narrative purpose? Why not tell the three of us "The next two or three days are the worst combination imaginable of your worst hangover and your worst period. Summarize how you cope" and move things forward? Tell everyone else "Summarize what you do for the next three days while Rhi, Nat, and Cas are miserable". Because we've all more or less provided a summary: Rhiannon relies on medication, Natalie relies on training protocols, Cassandra relies on whatever she eventually decides upon. No shortcuts that I can see.

Time will move forward.. If you're not up to lunch then you can skip lunch.. don't know what Edward is doing..
There are things you may find out by trying to do other things.. you don't have to stay put in the mansion.. it's not a prison..
If you want to skip dinner then you can skip dinner..
how fast time skips forward depends on what you as characters decide..

Cool. I'm endlessly intrigued by other peoples' gamemastering processes, was curious about our pacing. The feel right now is more slice-of-life than I tend to play, so it's been interesting.

Part of the whole setup and staging for the campaign is to explore what happens when you throw a bunch of people who know nothing about each other into an environment they know almost nothing about, having had their whole world view turned upside down.
Basically standing the 'traditional' Amber campaign, where the character know everything upside down..
as I alluded to there is a whole load of stuff nobody has even raised so far, which has been well out in the open in previous versions and triggers 'other' events..

Natalie would probably ask a lot more questions, but as a late addition I didn't want to stall things. At some point I really need to flesh out the effects of the Rodian War on her home Shadow. The only thought I've given it was the severity of winters in the immediate aftermath and the gradual decrease in global temperatures. It's on the verge of another Little Ice Age, but not a major one.

Triggering an ice age even a minor one is actually quite difficult. Even True Earth which suffered a full Yellowstone Eruption, has returned to a global warming trend, although the first year after the Eruption saw a global average temperature fall of more than 10C and effectively a 70% reduction in sunlight across the whole world for most of a year. Once the ash cloud disperses then things return to their previous trends although at a significantly reduced rate.
The last mini-ice age occurred in the mid to late 1600's (1645->1715) and coincides with the Maunder Minima, which would be the only real mechanism to trigger one.
Asking questions at this point won't actually stall things as such, given that finding out the new 'world reality' is, is somewhat fundamental to things at this point.

The Little Ice Age beginning in 536 was definitely kicked off by the 535 eruption, though it wasn't just a single eruption - more like several years of sulfate-heavy eruptions, and the cooling from those in turn increased the size of the ice caps, which cooled things more, and basically we got a century-long drop of between 3 and 4 degrees F. The decreased solar activity didn't come into play until the 600s.

As I understand it, the Little Ice Age in the 1600s started well before the Maunder Minimum, and the current science says it was kicked off by volcanic activity as well. However, I'm not as familiar with that one.

Natalie: Would you like me to meet you trying to climb the stairs?

In reply to Winter Li Mei (msg # 114):

Sure!

Replying here rather than the Trump Thread as I don't want to disrupt things..
Moving Natalie to her room will make her worse initially.. especially as you co up onto the second floor and past Alana's room (Saphire).
The further towards her own room she gets after that the better she will feel.. you're also potentially likely to run into Jade coming back from Cassandra's room if you take this option.

Just to re-iterate something I've said previously, time moves forward when the characters indicate it should do so..
So finishing conversations, returning to rooms, going exploring, etc, basically outlining what the character is doing until the next 'event' which I usually indicate in advance .. but in the absence of anything else will typically be Breakfast(8:00=>9:00), Lunch(12:30=>13:30), and Dinner(19:30).
If there are things that 'interupt' character outlines, then I'll post an 'interupt' when time reaches the interupt. Sometimes it will just be as simple as expected deliveries arriving..

A quick update on where I think we are..
Cassandra and Rhiannon are in their rooms, attempting to stay sane, and block out Trump whilst potentially studying their rooms.
Edward is mid conversation with his assistant
Winter and Natalie are in Natalie's room discussing the Balls as a distraction from Natalie's headache cause by Trump energy.
The rest of the NPCs are either in their rooms or elsewhere.

As a partial hint to everyone.. having your own things in your rooms sort of makes them unique. A further hint to the Trump Artists... you are used to visualizing places! You need to do this to draw a Trump.. Even if you can't actually drawn one currently drawing a picture as if you were drawing one works just as well.

So to move things forward, the Natalie/Winter scenario needs to move forward in some way (and yes I'm aware of Natalie's current situation)
and the Edward scenario needs to move forward (although I may just move forward without any further input from Edward as he's been very erratic so far).

I may have another player taking over one  of the NPCs .. waiting for conformation..

That's why I ordered those unique sculptures.



Yes, but I wanted to be clever and certain.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:30, Tue 02 Aug 2022.

In reply to GameMaster (msg # 118):

While she has an excellent memory, Winter is not used to personalizing her room. She's not even used to having her own room.

Still, she'll probably get a sword rack soon.

Welcome Rob Harris who's taking over Cathal, who now becomes a PC. If there is something Cathal knows at any given point that's relevant then I'm likely to post on Rob's behalf, but otherwise Cathal is now Rob's character.

Hello everyone, very happy to be here.  Game looks great, I'm ready to jump on in and see what's in store for everyone.  Pleasure to meet you all - happy gaming.

Allo allo.

Hi Rob/Cathal. Welcome.

Welcome aboard, Rob. ^_^

Hiya!

A quick note .. I deliberately haven't replied to Cathal's last post because I was waiting for people to catch up.. if you're going to dinner then you're likely to walk into the middle of the conversation..

So it looks like Edward still has IRL issues, so we'll just have to move on as best we can without him and he'll have to catch up as and when.
Is there likely to be a reply further questions from Cathal to Cordelia's answer or should I move to calling dinner?

As some of you may know I have been running another (the previous) incarnation of this campaign on RPGCrossing. To to various IRL circumstances this now looks to have come to an end, but I still had one player, who'd taken over one of the characters, half way through where we ended up getting to.
I have therefore offered him a place here, as a character swap. So I'm swapping out Harris Kane Rhodes for Cormac Camilleri (in terms of powers its a like for like swap).
He should be joining us next week (as the original game start version of the character)
His original introduction by Cordelia was
"Cormac Camerilli, originally from the Isle of Man, but on his shadow Earth that was hit by a Tsunami, so was evacuated to Florida. Currently a resident of Tampa, where he's studying Anthropology at Tampa State University."
Basically his Shadow Earth had a version of the very destructive version of the Cumbre Vieja(La Palma) Volcano scenario.

Cool. Always good to get more players


Is that to just Cathal or to everyone?


This message was last edited by the GM at 09:36, Sun 14 Aug 2022.

Natalie may have questions of her own, once she realizes the topic of discussion.

Rhiannon has lots of questions, but that seems to be a one on one conversations. Does it feel like we can interrupt? If not I'll wait for dinner or a cue that it's an open discussion.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:31, Sun 14 Aug 2022.

Technically after she answered the question Cathal asked she could be interrupted, although having answered the question it wouldn't be so much as an interrupt but more of a natural break.
The dinner announcement will occur when it occurs.. which is not quite yet...
Hence my earlier question...

Hello all. I'll be bringing Cormac on shortly after I get a chance to read what has been posted before. Until recently I played him in the same game on another site after adopting him. Previously player had abandoned him on the side of the road so I'm still kind of a blank slate for what is going on game wise. Hope to post with you all soon!

Welcome Cormac! We're glad to have more players

Welcome, Cormac!

Allo.

Thank you for the warm welcomes.

As an aid for everyone to get a better mental picture of Cormac I've posted him registering with the house AI and purchasing some clothes to fit in. Included in that is a bit of a physical description. Am still skimming all the old threads you good folks have posted in and trying to get a feel for the game as it has progressed here.

If I'm missing anything or get any of the facts wrong just send me a message and I will adjust as necessary.

Thanks again!

Am back home but dealing with symptoms of what may be long COVID... fatigue, brain fog, palpitations, malaise.

Some positives in there, so nice to have to back and hope things rapidly improve.

Yes, being home surrounded by love and affection has done a lot for my mood. Wish I had even an iota of my usual energy, though. Feels at times that I blink and hours have passed.

Hope everything works out for you.  I just had a mild positive case myself over the weekend, and the brain fog & fatigue are the real deal.  I was lucky, otherwise it was just like a bad sinus infection.  Get well.

Side note: Welcome Cormac!  Sorry I didn't say hello earlier.

Have we lost Winter and Rhiannon? Neither have posted anything in relation to either breakfast or their plans for the day..

I fell under an avalanche of paperwork around Labor Day is what happened.

Is the ball tonight btw?

I'm still here. Sorry. I do look at the posts and then I think about what I need to write and then I get sidetracked and then I think about how I have to catch up and then I get sidetracks. If you're getting the sense I can be an airhead, well....

Anyway, I thought I did mention that I would be memorizing and working on blocking trump headaches. I'll post. I was also going to spend some time at the pool, but I didn't post that yet. I'll put out a post now

No.. Today is the 5th .. the ball(s) are not until the 18th .. which is quite useful as it's generally going to take 7 to 10 days local time for the dresses/tuxedo's you may/may not have ordered to arrive

The schedule of events is Msg#9 under "Zou Yan and Your Personal Assistants"

If anyone wants to role play a bit they can come join Cormac in the gardens while he reads the Zelazny books. Consider it an open invitation. Otherwise I'll just hang and wait for the next day.

Aside from Cathal's adventures in town, the next nominally scheduled event would be dinner. Other than Winter and Edward I think everyone's movements are accounted for until then.

In reply to Cormac Camerilli (msg # 147):

Or, you can come to the pool and read next to me. I'm not suffering up here. :)

Sorry, ended up busy all weekend.  I'll get a post up today.  Cathal doesn't really have a specific purpose, just sightseeing so I'll make it quick so we can get to the action the next day.

In reply to Cathal O'Donoghue (msg # 150):

That would depend on a) what you do and b) whether anybody else has any questions or things they may want to discuss at dinner..

I've had another busy week, so I'll show up at dinner. But really, Winter has very little she needs doing before the Pattern walk. :)

Okay, Cormac. I give in, I came to visit.

@Rhiannon:

Oh, ok. Sorry, I haven't been on much in the last few days due to stuff at home and work. It's been a bear of a week but is calming down now. I'll go take a look. Thanks.

Please Welcome IkeEsq who is taking over Alana Mcfarlane.
Aside from her needing to catch up on threads/events, I need to write up a whole raft of stuf for her.. which I'll try and get to over  the weekend..

Welcome aboard IkeEsq.

Hey everyone!  Took a little while to get through all of the posts and the background sites but I think I am caught up.  Got an avatar and a description, ready to roll!  You'll probably be seeing and hearing a bit more from Alana going forward.

Welcome to the game, IkeEsq! ^_^

Welcome IkeEsq. \o/

Welcome.

Please also welcome Plot_device who's taking over, well playing since Blake is currently mostly an empty shell, Blake Hemsworth.

Welcome Blake!!

Welcome, Plot_device.

Welcome plot_device/Blake

Welcome aboard plot_device. Gotta say I like the name.

I had hoped for another post from Cathal to either round out his trip into town or in further continuance. If nothing occurs by this time tomorrow then I'm going to move time on, and get to dinner on day 2.

Before we get to walking the Pattern I really do need Natalie's character sheet and backstory!!!

It would be useful if I had Blake's, but as Plotdevice/Blake only joined yesterday, then I can't justify turning that particular screw yet, but as soon as you can please.

In reply to GameMaster (msg # 166):

So am I to assume that other than those who've already posted in the 'To Dinner and Beyond' Thread nobody else is interested in continuing?

Sorry, been slammed at work.

Likewise, it's been a busy couple weeks for me.

It's gotten awfully quiet again.

<Cheep> <cheep>

I'm here but without player responses, even its just an acknowledgement of attendance at dinner or not, it's very difficult to continue.
If nobody actually has any questions for Cordelia so be it, but that does actually require people to post.

Before we get to walking the Pattern I really do need Natalie's character sheet and backstory!!!
If Blake is still intending to play then I need Blake's as well

In reply to GameMaster (msg # 173):

Working on it after recovering my research notes.

I have been a bit tied up today with work. Will get a post up in the new thread tomorrow probably.  I've been looking forward to the pattern walking part of our program.  :)

Very busy with work this week, sorry!

Cordelia will depart breakfast as indicated in msg#1 in the thread..
You may therefore assume that the time is approaching 10am and post accordingly..

Please welcome Tom. He's taking over Kenneth. He's both an Amber and a PBM novice so help make him feel at home.

Welcome Tom, or Kenneth!

In reply to GameMaster (msg # 178):

Welcome Tom NewKenneth. Please, feel at home. We're about to do something life altering and mind bending and it probably has implications for the multiverse, but.... no pressure.

Welcome aboard Tom. It should be a hell of a ride.

Great to have you aboard, Tom! ^_^

Allo, allo.

Am I not a Princess elect? I'm sad. :(

In reply to Rhiannon Erica Kerrigan (msg # 184):

You are in our hearts . . . I mean, not Cordelia's, apparently, but the rest of ours.

In reply to Rhiannon Erica Kerrigan (msg # 184):

Don't worry, you can still act like a princess if you want. Throw a tantrum about it!

That's why you need somebody else to proof read..

fixed

Heh. And here I was trying to figure out why she was snubbed? So much for picking up on a clue to a plot....lol.

In reply to Rhiannon Erica Kerrigan (msg # 184):

At least your name wasn't misspelled. Perils of having a name similar to an NPC's.

So the limit of the reaction is OOC to find grammatical and spelling mistakes in the post made by the GM, or the character so overawed both by the spectacle before them and the security in getting here, including the fact that Cordelia is carrying her sword for what should be a simple task, that they're completely stunned into silence?

In reply to GameMaster (msg # 190):

Correct.  Actually, working on a rather longer post but it requires a bit more uninterrupted time.

Well, I, for one, am glad to have my Disney princess fantasies restored. Silence is just the side affect of my inner glow... that and a busy RL. And it's dark. I'm not going to be the one to shatter the still by asking about her sword. But I'll post some inner dialog.

I'll be posting a little early on this one, as some Uni work requires my utmost attention. It has also been delaying my responses as well, so apologies for that.

Okay Executive decision time..

I had hoped for a post from Kenneth in the Pattern Walking thread but as we've not had one, I'm moving things on..
You will find things you need to observe in the GM Prompts Thread - If you have any questions please PM me.
Otherwise there is a new thread to post in..

I'll also note that this time nobody decided to go AWOL, although one person thought about it then chickened out..
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:06, Tue 08 Nov 2022.

Let me guess. In your last campaign someone decided to appear somewhere other than their room just to see what you'd do?

Not quite.. their first thoughts as they wrote them down, or spoke them in the FtF campaign were not of their room. In one particular case they thought about their Grandfather who disappeared in 2004......

Sorry GM I didn't notice you were waiting on me. I'll follow on once equipped by my assistant.

In reply to Kenneth Eday Elgrim (msg # 197):

Your 'equipping' by your assistant would have been completed some time on day 1

So we should wait and post waking up in order?

In reply to Cormac Camerilli (msg # 199):

It may avoid complications if to run into one another if you do..since you won't have to go back and re- edit posts And I won't have to add prompts to get you to do so

Sounds like a plan. I will wait my turn then.

I suggest Rhiannon posts as it looks like Winter is busy.
It's worth noting Blakes post if you decide to go down to breakfast as part of your post

I have made a further update to the rules, which are now version 1.9.3
Main updates are in relation to Magic and the affect that the ability of a Shadow to support magic has on the Casting of Sorcery and Conjuration spells. One of the things it does is tie all 3 forms of magic into "Fatigue" properly, and sorts out all the requirements including 'magical energy'(Mana) in a more contiguous way (no odd disjoints in 'Fatigue' between casting a 10 minute and 20 minute difficult level spell). It also should logically fix 'Mana' sources. The only elements left that need work are the 'rate of decay' of hung spells and the use of spell processors(and possibly the Spikards)
There are some other updates and fixes in other areas, one of which is the Trump Divination Trump Trick.
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:32, Sat 12 Nov 2022.

Doesn't Cathal have to go before I do??

Cathal hasn't been on since September. I think it's safe to call him absent.

I think we can safely assume at the moment that we have lost Rob Harris (as Cathal).

Current state of Play

Edward
In a hiatus having recently got out of bed circa 03:30. I need to know if Edward is going to get or order food , and if so when, or whether he's going to wait till breakfast..and what's he's planning on doing till then..

Winter
In a hiatus circa 03:50 .. waiting on food which depends on what Edward does (primarily)

Blake/Rhiannon
At Breakfast.. and in the future as we've not got there yet..

Alana
Also in the future.. watching the sun rise .. just need to know when she and/or if she goes to breakfast, but no rush

Cassandra
In a hiatus circa 04:07 .. thoughts expressed.. just need her to act or not on them.. but Edward/Winter/Cathal are also a factor here

Kenneth
Needs to sort the previous post out and post in a consistant manner with the 'chararacter' (which I suggested last weekend). If he's going to breakfast he also need to recognize that Blake was already there, and that now Blake AND Rhiannon are now there before he gets there.

Cormac/Natalie
On hold -- waiting for time to catchup to them..

NPCs .. I'll sort out as and when I need to..

Here, but fighting off a bad cold. Am soooooo done with respiratory infections this year. >_<

I figured I would sit and react if anyone showed up but will otherwise show up for breakfast.

Amended the post as requested

It is almost impossible to move time forward if people do not post intentions in situations where there is potential for a long timespan where they're unlikely to interact with any other character or an NPC.
For 'events' and gatherings like breakfast/dinner where there is likely to be interaction then short span posts are logical, especially if your post would logically require a response from others.
I'm doing my best to keep things moving...

I would suggest that Cormac posts and then Natalie, which will take us further towards breakfast.

I'll get it in the morning then. Just saw this after I got home from long road trip and I'm pretty well tapped out at the moment.

Left it a bit vague till I'm sure where everyone else is at the moment Cormac comes wandering into the kitchen.

This message was last edited by the GM at 14:18, Thu 24 Nov 2022.

I did:  T h i s m e s s a g e w a s l a s t  e d i t e d b y t h e p l a y e r a t 16:10, Mon 21 Nov. (Spaces added because the system gets upset if I quote system message.

Edits are struck out for removals and italicized for additions.

So you did .. I just missed it..
And now I need to think up a suitable response from Natsuki..

I was quick and sneaky.  :D

I thought that I had posted earlier in the week but don't see any sign of it now. Either I posted it in the wrong place or closed the screen before it posted. Don't mind me, I'll just sit over here and be embarrassed for awhile... *doh*

Almost none of you have contacted me about spending the CP that were available to spend..
I have a vague idea from a couple of you as to what you might want to do..
Depending on how you spend your points, the spend may have an impact on the time it takes you to successfully manifest the Pattern after your first run..
The time taken per run is the total elapsed time to create a successfully manifestation, and takes into account all the times you fail because you get distracted  or make a mistake, or any other factor that causes the image to collapse meaning you have to start again. The actual time to manifest it ismuch less and will be come clearer as you become practised at doing so.
Manifesting the Pattern, when you're not used to doing it, is exceptionally tiring, initially both mentally and physically, but as you get more practised more so mentally. Your first run will leave you almost as exhausted as actually physically walking the Pattern for the first time, and you will need 5 or 6 hours to recover..just think of it as a really heavy day at work on steroids

Sorry, sorry. I forgot about that. It's late. I'll do it tomorrow

So we can start practicing now to try and summon the Pattern? If no one takes Cormac up on his offer to talk that is what he will probably be doing in the library if it's ok to begin.

Sounds like an objective .. as Cordelia said .. it's all down to you.. As far as anything else happening outside the defined schedule.. you'll have to wait and see..

1000 posts!  Who hoo!

I'm aware that Natalie has some issues at present that make it difficult for her to post, but I was hoping that she'd be able to get further in resolving them. It's been over a week now and I would like to move things forward, so I'm going to have to put Natalie into NPC mode which means she does the same as Cathal and Edward. I'm putting Kenneth in the same box.
This means I need input from Winter as everyone else is mostly accounted for at least until lunchtime.. (more later)...

And I was waiting on Natalie to see if she wanted to do anything, which means I'll have to come up with an idea.

I hope you all had a nice relaxing Christmas..
I was half expecting a post from Cormac..
Is anybody else going to lunch or are we done with lunch?

Cormac will post at lunch momentarily but we don't have to dwell on it if you don't like.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone.

Are we waiting on anything in particular to move forward?

People to finish lunch an move on...

That's a sort of prompt for Winter and Cormac ....
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:09, Tue 03 Jan 2023.

Cormac has posted, though I said the kitchen instead of the dining room by mistake. Sorry about that. If no one is going to reply to him I could post him finishing his meal and going back to his room to try and summon the pattern image again before dinner. Was just waiting to see if he would get a reply.

Alana is, as noted, arriving late ~19:40.  She’ll do her best to sneak in.

Yes .. already noted .. and do you really think you can 'sneak in' ;)

Nope!  :D

I should have a post up for Cormac's arrival later today. No rest for the wicked as they say and my family is particularly needy this weekend. >.<

It looks like due to IRL issues Winter is going to have to withdraw from the game so I'll move the character to NPC mode for the time being.

It also looks like Natalie hasn't been able to progress a workable solution to ease her problems so I suspect that she has had to withdraw as well.

Are we going into the lunch segment also?

We, as in Cassandra and Alana, haven't got that far yet.Neither Cordelia nor Siobhan will be at lunch any way, just your peers, whether PC or NPC. Lunch will be served in the dining room at the same time as on previous days.

I suspect that Alana will be missing for lunch.  No need to embarrass herself further as a result of not having accomplished anything since the prior night!  :)

Blake is eating lunch alone in his room again.

I think we have reached the 'end' of the Alana/Cassandra scene, so if anybody wants to do 'lunch' then do so otherwise indicate what you're doing (for those that need to) post 'lunch'.
If Rhiannon wants to try another 'run' today she's going to have to get some sleep first.

Nudge for Alana and Cassandra..
I think all the lunch conversations are now over, so I need to know what you're planning on doing post the lunch period up until dinner, then I can move to dinner.

I didn't check the site for a couple of days and ya'll have gotten a big bunch of posts in. Cormac has come in a wee bit late and is keeping quiet for the moment until I find a proper moment to jump back into the conversation. (and till I have more caffeine in my blood too.)

I think almost all of the posts, prior to dinner relate to in-character conversations, that Cormac wasn't around for..

Please welcome Malakan who has taken over Winter.. there might be a slight delay whilst they get up to speed..

Welcome!  Hey, according to the groundhog, 6 more weeks to go!  Well, 5 now.

Hi all - glad to be joining and look forward to a good game with you!
This message was last edited by the player at 23:29, Sun 12 Feb 2023.

ahimsa there!. Welcome

FYI:  Alana is talking about Amber.  Being a Princess of Amber is not of much use if you can't get to Amber, as per Cordelia/Siobhan.

In reply to Alana Macfarlane (msg # 250):

I think Rhiannon realises that.. as does Siobhan...

Sorry I've been out of the loop for a few days. Will try to get back into the swing of things....and big welcome to our new victim.  ;)  Welcome to the game!

A reminder .. time will only move forward when the PCs cause it to move forward by their actions..
So if you're at dinner and you don't post that you're leaving dinner, and going to do something else, for a period of time, then time will not move forward until I know what everyone is doing, unless I have a good reason to move time forward or the delay becomes excessive..

I currently have Alana, Rhiannon, and Cassandra mostly accounted for most likely until breakfast. I have a vague idea of what Winter is planning, that currently leaves Cormac and Blake unaccounted for.

I have updated the Calendar on the Campaign Background Information Page in relation to the trip to Elysium... it should make it easier for you to calculate the relative times and make planning a little easier.

Did the in-game discussion cover a way to contact family at home?  Or are the PCs entirely cut off for now?

Nobody has asked any specific questions in respect of your question.. the nominal assumption is the latter

I'm going to take the fact that Blake logged on Yesterday and didn't post anything to mean that he's just takin his turn with no additional interaction.

Therefore I suggest that Cormac can go ahead if he chooses to post anything, and after that Cassandra or Alana, depending on who chooses to go first.
Your NPC peers will be handled 'last'...

If it's not obvious, anything that you do or say prior to activating Cordelia's Trump is public, anything that happens afterward should be posted as Private, and any response will be private. Any discussion with the rest of your peers pertaining to what happens will have to wait till the end of the day.
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:31, Tue 28 Feb 2023.

Alright. I'll get to that shortly. Am still at work but should be able to take a break and post sometime soon.

I kept it simple for the reasons mentioned above. Also I couldn't remember off the top of my head how to make text 'private' on this site. *doh*
Is it anything like the secret text on RPG Crossing? Either way it seemed prudent to move the plot along a bit.

In reply to Cormac Camerilli (msg # 259):

There is a difference between Secret and Private.. it's a bit technical, so if you want to know then it's in a thread in "RPOL Technical" if I'm  remembering correctly.
The simplest way to insert private text is to use the "Insert Private Line" wizard when replying, then tick the relevant recipients. If you want to make a large insert then use the line insert with a single word then edit the inserted text.

Sorry folks but I don't really feel like continuing here.  It is getting a little tiring having NPCs pick apart everything I say and tell me I am wrong and useless.  If I felt that we were heading anywhere maybe it would be worth it.  Instead it seems like we are just part of a rotating cast on the Cordelia Chan Channel.  I hope this all works out for the rest of you.

xoxo
Alana

Personally, I thought Cordelia was right on the mark, but I'm newer and may not have the full context of history of why you feel that way.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:58, Thu 02 Mar 2023.

It's very difficult for me to comment specifically.

The introduction says not to rely on what's in the books as gospel. None of you as players know anything about what has happened since what is nominally the end of the Merlin Saga, nor about the Rodian war and it's consequences. There are reasons why the characters know nothing about Amber or what has happened, one of which is that I then don't have to spend vast amounts of time trying to explain something a character may know that the player doesn't, which would have a significant bearing on how the character would react which may be completely different to how the player thinks they should react.

The characters, or at least most of them know nothing about Amber, or the reality of where they find themselves. Alana because of Kasamir knows some things, but Kasamir doesn't know everything, and a lot of what he does know is historic, and several Amber years out of date. Kasamir is also not a useless prop.

Cordelia provides information relating to how things are now and what has happened historically, as do several of the other 'primary' NPCs, Siobhan amongst them. Cordelia is also there to provide the basic introductions to 'things' that as Amberites the characters need to know about.

There is a saying that "if you don't want to know the answer don't ask the question", and if you ask Cordelia a specific question, most of the time she's going to give you a straight answer and not sugar coat it. So if you ask her if she can kill you at the drop of a hat, then since she can, that's the answer you're going to get. She is however neither omnipotent nor all powerful.

If this were an AD&D game then you're 1st level characters and Cordelia is a 15th level NPC, except you're all Amberites and not human, so none of you are actually 'useless' in any respect. I have no idea where the major inferiority complex Alana developed came from. It's not in her background.

As to where things are going, I'm not saying, but you have barely even started to scratch the surface, despite all the clues. I am not going to force you to follow up on any clue, I could have done it multiple times already via a number of your peers who have become NPCs. The choice of what to investigate or whether to investigate or follow up on anything is entirely down to you.

Remember also that we're only on 'Day 7' in game.. if you started a new job in a new country that you weren't familiar with that requires a complete new skill set, how much could you assimilate in 7 days?

So is anybody planning on doing anything else other than just eating lunch? Or do I just pickup with Cordelia's return after lunch?

If I don't get a post in before tomorrow, then that works!  I'm enjoying Cordelia's explanations of how trump works.

BTW Kenneth is not channelling Alana.. he's just being his completely out of his depth self, especially when it comes to all the mental exercise he's having to do, he's just not used to having to do anything like it...

He's being a downer, but he is what he is. It's all part of the story I suppose.

Alana is now officially back to being an NPC for the time being, which means she reverts back to her original archetype - historically she was created as a PC, and her basic preoccupation with passing her exams was part of the original character makeup, except the player in question, without any prompting from me worked out how she could use the relative time differentials to her advantage - so basically no massive inferiority complex ( and yes there was a lot of Alana is useless compared to everyone else) and no giving up and finding any excuse not to do anything.

I haven't gone far. Got a post up (not one of my better ones but it's there...I'll get my head back into it soonly) and will catch up.

Who are the two Chaosite peers with this relevant training?

So without wishing to appear rude.. you don't know which of your cousins are Chaosites, despite one of them laying out the relevant histories in the 'After the Library Meeting Thread'? The subject has come up several times and Cordelia has said they possess the relevant training..

Once we get to the end of the Trump session then you can all talk about everything that happened during the day.. I was just posting information, partially in advance, to save having to post it multiple times.

And with all due respect, this game has been going on a long time and not everything sinks in. So, no, I don't remember that. There's nothing wrong with asking for information. In the time it took to say that, it would have been easier to put a reminder.

I went back to that thread and I think I figured out that Cathal and Machk were the two but Machk isn't here anymore. I only vaguely remember that conversation after reading it. And that mention hardly stood out. I'll assume that Cathal has some training, but I didn't gather that from that thread. Please be a bit more patient.

Okay. I apologise. Maybe I was a more than a little harsh.

There is a lot of in-game history and information that lies behind everything, and it's only going to get worse as the game progresses.

Yes Cathal is one of the 2, and if Machk hadn't decided to air personal grudges in game by deliberately creating an antisocial character that existed outside of society and then tried to blame society for all his ills, then likely it might not have resulted in him throwing his toys out the pram and leaving, then there would have been 3 Chaosites.

The other one is Edward, but since he's been absent since the start he is the one that you might have missed.

As to whether or not they have or have not had training, you wouldn't have found it in that thread. Elements have been mentioned in several threads, although Cordelia has never mentioned anyone specifically by name. The most recent was in response to Alana's questions in the Trump thread.

First: Thank you for that apology. I will try to read more carefully.

And Cathal is my Irish countryman, so now I'm his fave cousin!! But he may not know that yet
This message was last edited by the player at 02:21, Tue 14 Mar 2023.

Can you edit your posts and indicate on which side of the corridor, right or left you take a guest suite. It makes a difference as to the view out of your windows.

Also if you're going exploring I need to know approximately where you intend to go..
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:26, Sat 18 Mar 2023.

Just pointed us in a direction. I hope no one objects. My room will be on the right side of the corridor. I'll edit the post

I've edited mine to show that Cormac has chosen one on the right.

Apologies for being way behind everyone - I am planning to put in an effort to be more on track this coming week.

If you choose to go exploring a rabbit warren then you are actually going to have to make decisions as to which direction you go in..

As nobody apparently wants to ask anything I'll move time on later.

I think we need more of an icebreaker. It seems rude to just start unloading questions on our cousins after some name introductions.

I can break the ice. As I was complaining to myself, I thought of something.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:09, Fri 31 Mar 2023.

Given that Cordelia was given the task of locating you all by the 'Council' and that most of those there are 'Council' members.. they might know considerably more about all of you than you do about them.. if that's not too much of a hint.

That's a great hint. I want to know what they know about me. But maybe that's not lunch conversation. ... or maybe it can be. Why not, after all.

Just a quick word to let y'all know, we have a power outage where I live. Cormac will post soon but it has to wait a bit. I can only get online with my phone and my fat fingers have trouble posting that way. >.<

Noted. I find it really difficult to make any form of complex post from my phone, so I totally understand.

Power came back on late last night. Central Wv go hit by a large wind storm and down trees cut off internet and power to thousands of folks in the county I live in. Luckily it only took them about thirty six hours to fix it instead of the four days they originally expected. I would have gone into withdrawls if I had to wait that long to get back on the internet....  >.<

Welcome ClockworkOrrery who's taking over Kenneth..they've got a bit of catching up to do so may be a while before they are in a position to post.
In the meantime Kenneth will continue to progress in the same manner as all the other PC/NPCs..

Welcome new Kenneth!!

Hello folks!

I'm reading and re-reading, trying to get a grasp of what has happened, what Kenneth has been present for, what he hasn't. Wrapping my head around some things that were written.

Oh gosh. If you're coming into this cold, your brain is going to hurt so bad.

I'm familiar with Amber, having read the ten book series and two or three of Betancourt's novels (they didn't grab me). But the combination of family name changes, undetailed campaigns which have taken place since the canon, homebrew changes to metaphysics and systems, in addition to the myriad threads of conversation/interaction with the current PCs... it's a lot to take in and try to sort out.

People have barely even touched on most of the metaphysics yet, and what does and doesn't work where.. The only thing most of the characters are aware of is that time runs at different rates in different Shadows.

That's GM for "Ain't seen nuthin' yet!"

Welcome ClockworkOrrery.

Hi everybody.

Joined today and have taken over Cathal. I try to play him in the way I feel the GM was presenting him.

Hope for a good time with you all.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:03, Wed 26 July 2023.

Yay! Welcome Cathal!

just a reminder..
When we're in a sort of open ended scene, much as we are currently, then it is up to the players to move the scene forward.
As it happens I do have the capability to move the scene forward which I will do in a bit.
If you feel you don't have sufficient information then in the current scenario you have the means to find out, as referred to in Msg#18 in the "Day 9:1 11 Juvax 45 - Carnelian" thread.

Well back in Carnelian, Cathal will do some looking around in the computer.

Can you post such exploration in the Zou Yan and your Assistants thread.. it's primarily what the threads purpose is.

As an initial NPC, Cathal will have already set up his avatar, and will be as familiar with the virtual Shopping Mall as everyone else. He'll also have ordered Tuxedo's/Suits as necessary for the Balls.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:23, Tue 01 Aug 2023.

I'm slowly updating the Mizzurian and it's history thread. As the updates are generally edits to the 'block' they don't show up as new posts so you'll need to keep an eye on the thread to see what I've added - I'm mostly adding, with the occasional correction.

Welcome timpantallroth who's taking over Edward. He's new to Amber so make take a little time to get up to speed.

Hiho.

It's probably worth me pointing out at this point that none of the characters have seen either Cathal or Edward actually shapeshift. They have seen various Choasites in various 'Chaosite' form on the short trip to Elysium, but individual Chaosite forms are pretty unique, much like human forms are. They also won't know that Chaosite's can also assume forms other than Human or Chaosite.
You can also assume that the same applies to your personal assistants, but not to any of the NPCs or household staff.

Welcome, new Edward!

Just to let everyone know, as I am playing catch up, I'll be placing Cassandra in the activities she was supposed to be in retroactively, I should be up to speed with everyone by tomorrow.

Sorry by the way for just vansishing, life can be really rude at times.

Need some input as to what you want to do ..
1) Aside from Cassandra, the majortity of non-dancers are NPCs.. so I could do with a non-GM decision over dance classes, but this does sort of depend on your  plans for the 14th..
2) 14th .. Expo opens 08:00 local 09:00 Earth.. is anybody actually planning on going.. if not then anybody have any specific plans..
3) Winter, Edward, and Kenneth have now reached the point where they need "Rhiannon's" Pattern lesson

Depending on the answers to the above, then in theory, we could move to the morning of the 15th which is the next planned event.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:33, Sun 27 Aug 2023.

Do we  have an option to skip the Expo. It's interesting-ish, but studies are far more important, unless some can explain otherwise. I'll get the dance practice and go to the ball, but instead of milling around a game convention, I'd rather study.

I will hold another class for the next group.

In reply to Rhiannon Erica Kerrigan (msg # 307):

In theory you have the options to do what you want.. nobody has said you have to attend.. you could of course ask during dinner..

So why is it when I don't explicitly set down an event you need to attend nobody posts anything.
You nominally have a whole day, well actually about 32 hours as the next event is breakfast on the 15th, in which to set out what you're doing.
If you're going to the Expo then you need to determine when you're going and when you're back.
If you're going to go back to Elysium then the same applies
In both of the above cases you need to factor in the differences in the flow of time and what the times are in those places.

The only nominal events that are taking place, are the dance class in the afternoon, and nominally a Pattern class. If you want or need the help of one of your peers then you need to actually talk to them, otherwise they just talk amongst themselves.

Ok, don't want to sound disrespectful, but can I shapeshift, my default appearance, given that's an ability this character possesses?

Serious question, does everyone read the entire document?

You don't need to read the entirety of the rules. Just read the bits that may be currently relevant.
Reading the game threads relevant to topics are actually much better.. that's the whole way the game is setup, to introduce how things work..
So one very crucial element is the whole 'Introduction to Trump' thread.
After that it would be the Excursion to Elysium thread and Rhiannon's Pattern class thread.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:06, Sun 10 Sept 2023.

I had hoped for some form of posts from Edward and Cassandra, but with nothing forth coming I'm moving on.
It really does spoil any impact when people end up posting after the event.

Hint: There was slightly more to the exchange between Charlotte and her mother than appears to have been picked up.

2nd Hint: Although not explicitly stated.. before you walked the Pattern none of you could understand the household staff because they spoke in a language none of you were familiar with. After you walked the Pattern you found you could converse with them and understand them if you were within a few feet of them...
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:03, Mon 02 Oct 2023.

I hadn't picked that up. Interesting. So does that mean their speaking in Amber pattern?

The 'Patterns' don't have languages.. the clues are ever in what I write..

Okay well after looking again, I think it's too subtle for me.

Just to know that I have not to wait for someone to post.

In the moment it is Cathal and Rhiannon as active players?

Cassandra is still playing but snowed under by University work..

Other than Cathal specifically wanting to dance with Siobhan is there anything either of you want to specifically do?

I can generally keep on inventing, well defining since I know into roughly what occupations/tiers the attendees are from, partners for Rhiannon to dance with, and should Cathal so desire, remembering in most cases he will need to find, partners for him.

Otherwise I can deal with Cathal and Siobahn and then move things along slightly..

I just want to dance and have a good time. And of course chat with the attendees and learn from those conversations. And, if there's some super charming guy, making a friend would be good too.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:02, Fri 01 Dec 2023.

Cathal just want to have a good time, enjoy dancing and leave a good impression, have some conversations, small talk to get a better feeling for Carnalian and about their opinion of the family.

When his slots are empty he will check is tablet and pick someone with a free slot.

Best wishes and a very merry festive season to you all..

Yes, Merry Christmas everyone.

 Happy festival days.

Merry Christmas!!!

Happy New Year for 2024.

Thank you GM and Happy New Year to you and all the players as well

Happy new year.

Prompting Cathal ... Cathal started the meeting, it's his meeting, he needs to drive the meeting..

That looks like an end of scene

Then you need to post you're wandering off to do what ever (unless you want to cover/do something else), cover lunch maybe, the afternoon, and then pickup at pre-dinner/dinner..

Shoot. I totally forgot we have that option to go to a modern city. I want to go!

Hmmm .. City or town...???
There is a rough WIP progress map on the website, and there is the "Two Towns" Thread..
I am in the process of updating the map to add the Mizzurian Construction site, the Council Depot, Aparment Blocks, Mocking Bird Club construction site, and something else that I know I needed to add but can't remember at the moment..

Also read the 'Modern Town' Excursion thread .. Cathal has been into town before...


If you're going to go into town with Cathal then you're going to have to 'bump into him' on the stairs or similar, either when he's on the way to Hou-Jin's office to get the car keys or when he's on his way down to the garage.. I'll leave that up to the pair of you. (If you want a recap thread Day2 from msg#28)
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:03, Fri 05 Jan.

Cathal, do you mind? I can post bumping into you at the stairs as I head out to the garden

Sure no problem. Hop along

Rhia is Cathal's favorite cousin and but he is already in a relationship :)
This message was last edited by the player at 21:34, Fri 05 Jan.

Are we doing the kissing cousins thing? LOL I might have to give the other boys another look. :)

Okay I'll post it.

Please welcome Sarah Williams to the game played by jaberwok.
She will hopefully be joining you when we get to dinner, assuming we've got through enough of her induction by then..

Yeah cheers.
The more the merrier.

Hi Sarah. Welcome to the game

Thank you very much! It'll be good to meet you soon.

From my perspective, I am not going to poke things as far as what is happening in Carnelian.
It suits me currently not to do so because it means I don't have to 'jump' Sarah forward to do things 'out-of-order' as it were so that she covers things I need her to before we get to dinner.
If Rhiannon wants to go do something else then that's down to her. Yes Cathal knows a few things she doesn't but that doesn't mean she can't go find those out on her own...

I believe everything you need is either in the "Two Towns" or "Day-2: A Modern Town Excursion" threads..
I had thought there might be something else Cathal wanted to do...

I've been working on how to write this post pretty much since last night when Rhiannon announced her intention to withdraw from the Game.
Its been on the cards for some considerable time and I've done what I could to mitigate things.
As I've said I cannot control Real Life, therefore I cannot control players leaving, lack of players, or posting rates.
Her main complaint was "lack of meaningful social interaction, and slow/lack of progress". I should add that Rhiannon has had almost no interest in any of the history or anything else going on in the background.
So where does this leave the game...

Well from my perspective with a major problem.
The game is designed for at least 5 players, primarily to ensure an adequate spread of skills. Charlie's excursion has a couple of purposes, aside from the obvious. The fact that neither Rhiannon nor Cathal were willing to get involved, to the extent that were completely risk averse, didn't give me any sort of warm feeling for what is likely to happen once you get into Shadow, nor some of the later scenarios.

The decision I'm now facing is do I fold the game here, and put everything into storage for perpetuity, or do I persevere in the hope that I'm miraculously going to recruit players to take over some of the existing characters. It is the only way that anyone will be able to start with Pattern.
Sarah is a special case because that plan/possibility has been there for a while, all I'm doing is executing it. Anyone joining going forward, which would mean they would have to be found by the players in Shadow, would start from exactly the same place the original players did. This is inexorably tied to the history and background.

So that's where I find myself, with a major problem, and yes if I fold the game that will be it. I've tried for 15years to put a FTF/online group together without success, and this is the second attempt to run the campaign PBP, and I have no inclination to restart, only to be in the same position in 18 months.

I tried to play my character on the trip with Charlie and wit was not the take no risk it was the take no risk for someone who was unwilling to explain anything.

I asked around at the guys I play with in other games with and either they do not want to take over an existing character or they have played in the game and left.

I too felt a bit lost on the trip with Charlie, was not able to follow what this was about in many parts.

If Rhia is still around hey I like the interaction with you and I would miss you.

Aside the trip with Charlie, I have a bit of problem to get grip what I'm supposed to do, aside learning about pattern.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:58, Tue 23 Jan.

I also want to add that I do enjoy playing and I would go on. I deeply would regret if Rhia leaves.

It is difficult two play with just the two of us.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:09, Tue 23 Jan.

Hi there. Yes, I'm still around. Thank you, Cathal, and thank you GM.

I agree with Catahl. Charlie never made us feel like anything more than a chore, and did nothing to inspire us to take that risk. In fact, she was demeaning and rude.

As for me. It's not that I was uninterested, it was that I never felt like I mattered. We've discussed this. We were left to go discover everything on our own. That's hard to do when you have no sense of priority and little ownership. I didn't always know what to ask and if I asked the wrong thing I was scolded for it. The NPCs always had their own things going on and very few showed any warmth or even interest. We were outsiders and were never made to feel like insiders. In fact, the only conversation where I felt like the person I was talking to gave a damn turned out to be Cordelia's husband just doing his duty(which did hurt, by the way).

Obviously there has been a lot of work that's gone into this. It's impressive, but I can only feel at this point that this wasn't built for what I like in a game. I need that slice of life element. I want other characters(PCs or NPCs) to be interested in my character. If any were, I didn't feel it (Other than this Cathal). I want to be made to feel like a heroine and not supporting cast. And yes, I like relationships, friendships and romance. Action scenes are great, but I want to feel the stakes and the importance to the moment or the plot.

Please don't suggest that I wasn't trying because I wasn't getting into the background. Geez, I went out of my way to read all that background and all those scenes on your website. I tried to make Rhiannon's posts rich with detail. I was trying make Rhiannon interesting as a person and keep her engaged with the training. You may not think so, but I have. I've been here from the very beginning. Who else has? I don't even know. Anyway, I tried. It may not have been good enough, but I tried. I told you my concerns and what I wanted, and the game never got there. So. I don't know what else to do.

From my point of view Rhia did some good RP in the scenes with Charlie. Charlie behaved really obnoxious brat toward the new cousins. So both Rhia and Cahtal reacted accordingly. Treated us like shit and explaining nothing and she got the appropriate reaction.

It is nice to know that you have much stuff planned out which is waiting for us.

As I said I too feel a bit lost to what I should do aside follow along. I do not see where you the GM has things for us to do on our own. I feel lost as why we went to the ball on earth and the Expo, was it cover was it to give us time to get into our new live.

The trip with Charlie was also more feeling like being luggage, I failed to see where I should have acted, should have done something. Charlie gave orders, we followed up to the point where she dragged a bunch of non-combatant into a war-zone literal. Her constant 'if you do not like then leave was not helping' but I took it as her character and reacted accordingly.

What do you the GM expect us to do in the moment?

Rhiannon is/was sort of the only original player left. I say sort of because Cassandra was/is being played by my daughter as a favour to me, mainly because I couldn't play Cassandra, at least not initially. My daughter is snowed under with her Masters degree, but I do discuss what is happening with her such that I have a guide as to what Cassandra is likely to do. And yes I'm very aware of the effort that Rhiannon has put in just to stay around this long.

In a lot of ways everything up to the point you start learning to Shadow walk is just the prelude, a rough introduction to what your future life may have in-store. Getting you to the point where you can mind walk the Pattern is a necessary pre-cursor to everything else going forward. It's the tedious/boring bit, which is nominally why it's broken up with all the other things in the agenda. There is also the element of trying to get everybody to the same approximate level of knowledge, both with the background and with the rules. What's not in the agenda is spoon feeding everybody with everything that 'lies beneath' or exists outside of the 4 walls of the Mansion. I may allude to things in what I write, but I'm not going to railroad anybody into going to investigate it no matter how important it may actually be.

Cordelia is not only a veteran of a war that carved its own scars on her but she is also trying to hang together a multi-dimensional corporation on which several realms depend, thus she has to be present at the Expo when it's open, in fact like a lot of Execs long before the doors open to the public till long afterwards, she therefore predominately operates on Earth Time not Carnelian time. So yes she very much has her own agenda, all of the major NPCs do to one degree or another, and they all have to fit everything in around all their 'other' responsibilities that come from being who they are, members of the Royal Family of Amber.

The Balls were very much designed to emphasize that people were not so much interested in you as a person but in what you could do for them, and Cordelia's husband wasn't only dancing with the female members in the group out of duty. He could very easily have ignored you all, there were very much more significant/important people in the room from a 'Governing Carnelian' perspective, which he deliberately pushed down his dance card to dance with you all, he could get away with doing so where Cordelia couldn't.
The Balls were also not a significant part of the story, and neither was the 'pool party', just interludes in the boring training program. The 'Pool Party' was also there as a counter to the supposed 'straight-lace/stuffy' atmosphere engendered by the balls, if there's a swimming pool then there is going to be a 'Pool Party', not that I'm leaning on any trope here. And the pool party had nothing to do with Charlie what so ever.

Yes Charlie was very much annoyed at having to take you all out and demonstrate what you could do with the Pattern, Winter said as much (did it even occur to anybody why Winter could understand what Charlie said to her mother yet nobody else could, yet you've all walked the Pattern?) The scenario was never about explaining what she was doing, it was just about demonstrating how  the Pattern could be used. Most of you encountered Charlie before Cordelia even collected you, I had Kenneth say as much, and as with everything else there is/was a lot more going on than first appearances suggested, and there was a clue in her 'rude' retort (not saying any more because Sarah gets to meet Charlie in entirely different circumstances).

And as Rhiannon has read what's on the website she does know what in theory is coming, we're just not there yet. Whether we will I currently have no idea.

I am the newest player, so I don't have much of a hook to hang a hat on, but I will say that I've enjoyed things so far. Having said that, I do recognize that the rest of you have been through a lot more than I have. I will say that it does feel like there is a ton of stuff going on and a lot of background/supplementary information to digest, but I'd been assuming that I would find my feet with time. Then again, I've also been having computer issues, so perhaps I have not been as attentive as I would otherwise be.

That's great that your daughter is going for her masters. That's so amazing. Good for her. You must be so proud of her. \o/

-----------

I think it's awesome that all these characters have such rich back stories. I love that they're so deep. I do. And they don't all have to be nice. It's totally okay if we rub each other the wrong way, or if we never get along at all. From a story perspective that's all great stuff. I think I and Cathal are just explaining that we respond to them based on how that act towards us. Even if they're totally justified in another context for being annoyed, if they come at us with attitude and we don't have the whole picture, then we're going to react based on how it affects us. That's especially true when we already feel like wards of the state. In our own worlds and communities, we were leaders, now we feel like add ons. And there's been no real opportunity for us to shine. We're just plodding through this and the standouts are the mistakes we make.

This isn't my only game and I've seen GMs do this all the time. They know everything and they see everything. To the GM, everything is obvious. But not to us. There is so much going on and we have incorrect assumptions from our own experiences. As an example, When Cordelia and Charlie spoke in that language, I didn't think much of it because we have no idea if there are exceptions to the basic powers or other levels. To be honest, I had no idea that Winter could understand it. Maybe I missed that in the text, or maybe I read it and it didn't register, maybe I was in a different head space. But that just goes to my point. There is so much information and we miss stuff. It's exhausting to mine every statement for clues or meaning.

The balls and pool party might not have been significant events for the overall plot, but they could have been opportunities to give the players (and maybe just me in particular) some fun game play. Character development is an important part of the story. We can't all be just a collection of powers and ancient knowledge in pretty wrappers. I enjoy the social interactions and the personalities. I like the slice of life. I want to live in the world, not just operate in it. So while those events might not have been important to the plot, they could have been important to us a players.

We can move forward to whatever lies ahead, but the journey is as important as the destination. I'm not happy about giving this up after all this time invested, but I haven't been able to get much satisfaction either. I told you what I'd would make me happier and what would keep me interested. If you don't want to do it, then that's fine, but then there's no payback for me continuing to put in the effort.

There might be many interesting things outside the mansion to explore but we lack the impetus to do so.

The only reason for the group to stay at the Mansion is pattern class.

So in the moment it is breakfast, pattern class, lunch, pattern class, dinner, night-time.

Aside this why should we do anything else? We got no reason to do anything right now. No NPC who tried involve themselves with the PC, no conversation that would make a PC say oh I have to poke my nose into the orange warehouse in the modern city because something is going on there.

The NPC are living there live in this game, but do not make the PC part of it. The PC are still the guest on the mansion to learn pattern. Nothing more, nothing else.

I too have no clue why Winter could understand and we not. I would have asked if you clearly had said 'after you walked the pattern you are able to understand every language'. But I have no idea if that is so in this game or not. If you have important information for your player then give the info to them. Because I have no clue. All is equal. Nothing stick out as this might be important and this not.

You think that there is a clue in Charlies retort, a clue that none can understand and with all her behavior only feels like she looks down on the cousins from the beginning on. That is no clue sorry. The whole scene said - I do not want to play babysitter for this useless bunch of them.- That is the felling you give to your players in the moment. As long as we lack the info that we should have understand her but did not why should we go and ask why we do no understood her. And when Winter said she spoke ill of us you had the chance to give/tell us all she said. But you did not.

There might be a ton of stuff going on but no NPC tried to make us part of it or gave us a reason to become part of it.

Again in the moment  it is breakfast, pattern class, lunch, pattern class, dinner, night-time. The only thing I see here for my PC to do is to nod, eat, listen, sleep, repeat. The way you played your NPC so far does not encourage player to ask questions. Most often they are belittled.

The PC had no chance so far to connect. It is all MEGA impersonal without any reason for the PC do to anything aside nod, eat, listen, sleep, repeat.

That is what Rhia is asking for an impetus to do RP and there is none. We do not get any. You say there is a ton of stuff outside the Mansion but you never gave us ANY reason to go outside the Mansion. Freetime is no reason.

You had the chance to let something happen during Rhia and Cathal trip to the town something that would spark their interest to look into it, but nothing.

If player get no impetus to get something to do they will wait till the GM drops the next lesson.

And that is what is happening:

Breakfast, pattern class, lunch, pattern class, dinner, night-time. PC reaction nod, eat, listen, sleep, repeat.

So again what do you as the GM think we should in the moment do else aside nod, eat, listen, sleep, repeat.

We the player are just waiting for something to happen because we have NOTHING to do aside waiting. And the things you set up in between. I was feeling a bit lost about what I was supposed to do it felt more like another thing to make a check mark on then getting the chance of some RP. So smile and wave and wait.

I you gave us any reason to do something else than waiting for the next lesson it was so covered and invisible that I failed to see it.

You think you dump a lot of info on us but  most often you but it in a way that we have no clue what it means.

And then the trip with Charlie, Rhia and Cathal did RP and you interpreted it as we shy from risk. We again and again played out our growing dislike and distrust of Charlie and now you tell us that why shied from risk.

Charlies could have taken the group to a shooting range to get them the basics with the weapons but you represented her as a uncaring arrogant adrenaline junkie.

Please do no get me wrong here. I like what the lessons. I liek what you write. I can feel the living background. I want to be part of it but I lost how to do.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:58, Wed 24 Jan.

Yes, at least she hasn't suffer the catalogue of disasters and Admin screw-ups that has beset my son's path through the education system, although the last screw up was of his own making. Assuming nothing else goes wrong he should get his degree in June, and he's 4 years older.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm not going to go over old ground in relation to discussions I've had with Rhiannon so I'm princilally going to cover points Cathal raised.

Up first is Winter and language. In the day 1 opening I made it very clear that none of you could communicate with any of the household staff. Winter could talk to one or two, but they were very much in the minority. After you walked the Pattern none of you had any issues, and again that is clear in the wakey-wakey thread, talking to anyone.
The whole coverage of language is also in the rules under Pattern Imprint - Bable Fish option which I explicitly state I use. Now if Winter had been a PC at the meeting where Charlie first appeared the chances are the subject would have come up then, but I try and avoid using the character NPCs to railroad the story unless I have to. It was logical in the post Chalie scenario for her to bring it up. So all the information has been there in plain sight, not hidden in any obscure clue.

As to Charlies 'rude' retort, Kenneth brings up having met her at breakfast on the morning after the Opening of the Expo. Cordelia is surprised by this. All of you have encounters with her in you backgrounds. Not only this when she turns up at breakfast, she alludes to the fact she also knows everything about you, and very much in relation to Cathal to whom she gave a very detailed reply to his question.
Again the information was all there in plain sight.

"Breakfast, pattern class, lunch, pattern class, dinner, night-time. PC reaction nod, eat, listen, sleep, repeat."
Yes this has been the Pattern, but learing to use the Pattern appears to have turned off any and all natural curiosity.
Cordelia has regulalry spoken about 'The Castle' and 'The Medieval Town', so has Siobhan. Wyatt when he turns up, Cordelia says he's "Senschal of her Fathers Castle". Has anybody raised any questions relating to it or tried to find out anything about it. No.
In the 'Introduction to Trump' you were also given another set of 'lessons'. Those with Trump ability were also given an additional set which most of them have been working on. So there has been no lack of things to do.
Also very specifically in relation to Cathal and his meeting with Siobhan, she suggested at least one thing he should do, and who to talk to, and where to find her. I had assumed that that was part of his reason for going into town.

And yes I make assumptions based on character actions. Yes I'm aware that both Cathal and Rhiannon reacted very negatively to Charlie. I don't actually have a specific problem with the way they behaved or the way the scenario was roleplayed, you as players have the freedom to play your characters in the way you choose. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to make assumptions about potential future behaviour, nor does it mean that NPCs are not going to jump to the same conclusion. That doesn't mean you have to undergo a sudden personality shift. May be some of the things NPCs keep refering to may have/have had some relavence?

There were a whole stack of clues about Charlie, and no I did not telegraph them, and yes it does mean you may have to read what I write several times, and read several posts, to work it out. One of the precepts of Amber is Intrigue and Trust (or lack of), so if I just tell you everything about everyone, including their mood, objectives, and personal life history, that removes all those elements, and would make things very boring from my perspective. Oh and Charlie was on a schedule, so she wasn't going to do anything other than what she needed to do. You're free to interpret that as you will. The fact she got shot did scupper a few things, or at least alter what she did (and yes there is a clue there for Sarah, although that is a 'future' event in relation to where she is currently).

I will go on and I will poke my nose around.

I hope that Rhia stays and I  will try to drag her along.

That depends on the GM. I just read how we weren't engaging the story of the NPCs and the world. There was not a word about how the game was going to engage the PCs aside from providing information for us to uncover. I've been digging for over a year. If this is just going to continue as it has, then I will say my goodbye with a heartfelt thanks.

Given you've read the website you know what's coming. I am not going to reveal the plot to everyone else in advance of it happening even if you know what I might have planned.
You know what the premise of the campaign is. I/"The Council" have said repeatedly that until you can shadow walk you can't really do much, which is fundamentally true of any Amber game. As characters you have gone from knowing nothing to be able to manifest the Pattern in 16 days. The fact its taken the best part of 2 years to get here I can't retrospectively do anything about. I try to move things on as fast as I can, and then get shot down for fast forwarding through things that are not part of the story to try and get to the more interesting stuff. Heads you win, tails I lose.

The perennial problem for any GM is having to 'invent' NPCs on the fly because the players did something that they hadn't planned for as part of the story. If it happens to be an inn that the party happen to come across in the middle of no where that they will never return to then it isn't an issue. If it happens to be a ball where all of those present are potentially likely to be encountered again then that gets far more difficult, especially when you want a romantic liaison. Heads you win, tails I lose.

Seems I can't win no matter what I try and do.

I think I've already said that it's not the plot that's been lacking. It's the day to day. You say it doesn't matter, but I disagree. If having a rich cast of NPCs is not something you want to do, that's fine. It has to be fun for you too. I'm not attacking you for it. I'm just saying it's important to me to have some people in my character's life that make her feel special and wanted (and not necessarily romantic, though I do like that), even if it's only for a time. If you don't want to do that, I understand. I'm not trying to win. I'm trying to have fun. That's all.

I'll ask another question then, if a plethora of 'interesting' NPCs to interact with is important to you, why haven't you engaged with any of the PAs? They've been there in the background, since day 1. And I do have 'other' NPCs about.. just *not* in the Mansion..there may actually be some in the grounds, where some of the others are, I think I've hinted at that already.

Fair question. I mean, there have been moments where I was in a mood and thought about it. But that's really not the same thing is it. They're obligated to serve, be a conversation or have sex. That's not the same thing as having someone interested in me. Coming to me to talk and appreciate who I am. Believe it or not, girls like that. We don't want to be chasing, we like to be approached.

I can appreatiate a number of things, however..
Your in a place that, in effect, is in the middle of nowhere..
No one other than those in that place know you're there..
You are Royalty.. Lords of the Manor..
The Ball, at least the Carnelian one, changes some things.. you're now a named face but nobody knows you. The only people that are likely to come looking are those that think you can do something for them..
You've been there 16 days. If you have a new staff member join at work how much interaction with them are you likely to have had if you're not directly working with them. Unless they have reason to they genreally won't come talk to you.. it doesn't stop you going and talking to them to introduce yourself.
The PAs are people to, as are the household staff, no matter what their jobs are. There is nothing to stop you engaging them as people.

So, it's lonely at the top? LOL

Is this where I bring up that the one person I did try to engage at the pool party, who not only didn't engage back, but the entire event was dashed through right after with a summary ending. And this was after the event was described in detail to the point of giving names to characters. Edward was there and they talked to him just fine.

Please understand that from my point of view, this is what I have to look forward to: I have to continue to drown in information that it's on me to understand what's important and remember every detail. I have to mine conversations for clues to questions I haven't asked yet. In between there is the slower than real time cycle of study and meals, and I have to go out of my way to find my own social engagement or else be isolated and alone. And if anyone does come to talk to me it will be because of what I can do for them politically without so much as a credible compliment. Even those two merchants I danced with didn't actually ask for anything. I had to ask them who they were and what they did and then they just dumped more information on me without any request to go along with it as if I knew what to do about it.

Yes, this overarching plot is interesting, and some of these NPCs are interesting characters, but for me, that's not enough motivation. I'm expected to engage, but I also what to be engaged back. There have been opportunities to do so but I got nothing from them was more information. I'm telling you that I'm dissatisfied, and all you're telling me is that it's realistic for the situation. Not only do I disagree, but I'll point out that I'm not really living in this world. I have my own dreary monotonous and somewhat isolated life. I game to experience more than that. Unfortunately, I'm not getting what I need from this one, and you're telling me that I shouldn't expect it.

Again. It's your game. You can run it any way you want to. You care about all this magnificent plot and setting you've created. You filled it with characters that you find interesting and exciting. I thought I could be a part of it, but it's been over a year and still feel like the world doesn't care if I'm there or not. It may be realistic for this world but it's not fun for me.

So, again, without some hope of a change, I would bid you all a fond farewell.

I seem to recall I gave you cartblanche to write what ever outcome you wished for Rhainnon at the pool party because I had nothing planned.
I named eveyone in the hottub, because otherwise Edward couldn't have introduced them.
With Edward being an NPC, and the pool party being very much what he was used to, given his multi-millionaire parents, I didn't have to write anything for him. He was going to pick up a couple of the girls. End of anything I needed to decide for him.
Re-reading the thread two of the others in the hottub I'd decided were already paired or pairing off. Beyond that I think I'd decided that one of the other guys was chasing one of the other girls who wasn't interested in him, because she was also angling after the guy who'd paired off with the other girl.
I had no need to write anything for any of them. They were all just set dressing to convey an atmosphere.

Things will implictly change once you're no longer confined, for what ever reason real or otherwise to the Mansion. Whether that will provide you with what you seek I can't answer, but people may just be looking to kill you rather than talk to you.

I don't want to write my own outcomes. That's writing. Not gaming. I want to game. And again, all that explanation still left me in the same place.



Well... at least they'll be interested.

So You give it a bit more time Rhia?

Yeah. I suppose I will for a bit.

Cathal as you're in the driving seat so to speak, where are you planning on going next and how?

There is no Sat nav in Carnelian on account there are no Satellites. There are no maps either but that's a moot point.
Additionally the Auto-Drive feature of the car doesn't work outside of the 2Km city grid.

Stopping by shop buying  a plain old paper map hoping Rhia knows how to read it. No offence Rhia.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:29, Thu 01 Feb.

As above there are no maps digital or otherwise.. nobody needs one.. but make the post about stopping by one of the shops (general store may be? or the fuel station?) to buy a map, not finding any, then having to ask..

:) where are we in dark ages. No paper maps. I'm really shocked.

Do I not already have a Mizzurian ID?

No. You have to explicitly go collect them from the Main Mizzurian Office and you technically only need them if you go certain places, one of which is the Mizzurain office, and another being the Council office, which is why you were given a Visitors Badge when you went there.

Cathal had his because he went into town on Day 2 and having parked in the carpark, couldn't get back through the gate because he didn't have a Mizzurian Staff ID card. He was therefore forced to go around to Main reception and ask, where upon somebody from the Security office came out and gave him his ID.

There is one other thing to note about your ID's and lanyards in comparison to those warn by other staff. Your badges have a slightly different Pattern on them to other badges and your lanyards are purple with gold lettering which reads "Mizzurian". The standard employee lanyards are red with white lettering which reads "STAFF".