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Started by Dracos, November 23, 2009, 05:02:20 PM

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VySaika

You bringing up Knight/Rogue combined with your current sig has me in a minor giggle fit.
All About Monks
<Marisa> They're OP as fuck
<Marisa> They definitely don't blow in 3.5
<Marisa> after a certain level they basically just attack repeatedly until it dies
<Marisa> they're immune to a bunch of high level effects
<Marisa> just by being monks

Anastasia

CARDCEST MOTHERFUCKERS, RULE 34 THAT SHIT.

Thanks Gate!
<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?

Anastasia

#1157
Drac

We butted heads a fair deal in game, so this one's probably going to be more negative toned than the rest.

Eva was a good concept but she died young. Kam? I think you retreated back to a safe character type after Eva's death, the strong barbarian build that reminds me of Gourash. I don't mind the concept as it stood and the routine about being an eternal travelers was strong. Sure, that worked, being exalted didn't. Maybe we don't fit on what exalted means and should be, maybe it's a tone thing. No matter what the answer is to that, I never felt Kam was an exalted character. Taking on that burden is a heavy one both in play and in RP, while you wanted something lighter. I continually felt you wanted a much more casual, popcorn and beer game than I was pitching. I wanted to test Kam's morals some and make his ethics a part of the game. He's a walking demi-exemplar of chaotic good, so let's put some challenges to him. It's great grist for the RP mill, but it never clicked.

This was reinforced by the fact that you always seem confused on what was happening in session, being corrected at least once or twice each one. It felt like you weren't paying attention to the details, but going along for the next chance to trip and stab a bunch of things.  This got worse later on which did not help anything, doubly so since your reaction to the lich scenario was negative. I never got around to talking to you about it - too much crap was going on - but this drove me Up. A. Fucking. Wall. There are times when I wanted to reach through the net, grab you by the collar and scream PAY ATTENTION. Shit, I almost wanted Yulia to break the fourth wall to do it once or twice.

Why I didn't I clear this up? It pissed me off in session, but I dislike stopping a game session to chew a player out. Unless someone is grossly out of line, at best you're wasting session time, at worst you're humiliating them in front of the group and ruining the entire night. Afterwords it usually got lost in the ether and I forgot to until next session. Then it comes up again and ASDF time.

There's the thing about Kam's build, but I should have deep-sixed that when you put him up. My bad there, we talked about this before.

So far I've been pretty damn negative! So let's be positive, since I don't want to sound like I think you're the next CuteKitsuneKaydee.

You invested a lot into the game and did a lot of out of character work. I really appreciate you doing the stats, logs and all the gruntwork.

No matter how I disagree with things, I do feel you had fun and wanted other people to have fun. That always shone through, no matter what.

Edit: On re-reading this, I think it's obvious that a lot of little frustrations built up here.
<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?

Carthrat

Dude, he was my brother!

You are correct on fantastical creatures. I'm aware it should work that way, and have run NPCs and had such NPCs run for me in the past that worked, the whole alien mindset thing. I can't put my finger on why I thought yours were so unsatisfying to deal with- I know they didn't all grate on me, although some did. I think 'IS EVIL' or 'IS CHAOTIC NEUTRAL' is not a good (hrhrhr) starting place for figuring out a cool supernatural being.
[19:14] <Annerose> Aww, mouth not outpacing brain after all?
[19:14] <Candide> My brain caught up

Anastasia

Quote from: Carthrat on November 26, 2010, 02:06:00 AM
Dude, he was my brother!

I remember you two close together, face to face in the rain in the Court of Stars. <_<

QuoteYou are correct on fantastical creatures. I'm aware it should work that way, and have run NPCs and had such NPCs run for me in the past that worked, the whole alien mindset thing. I can't put my finger on why I thought yours were so unsatisfying to deal with- I know they didn't all grate on me, although some did. I think 'IS EVIL' or 'IS CHAOTIC NEUTRAL' is not a good (hrhrhr) starting place for figuring out a cool supernatural being.

Yeah. I'm never sure why we failed to connect there.  I can't put my finger on it either.
<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?

Anastasia

Cid

Mari was the weakest concept of the group. She wasn't bad, but the rest of the concepts were really strong. So I wasn't sure what to expect with Mari! What I got was a whole lot of willing, in good faith chaos that helped keep the game moving.  I'll be honest, I really liked Mari and DMing for her. Her resilience and willingness to do whatever whimsy told her to made DMing a hell of a lot of fun. You got along well, RPed well and generally tolerated what I did to Mari! Even when she got a tail and nearly turned into a 'loth, or when her sister ended up a Baatorian fangirl. Thanks!

Despite all the bluster, all the noise and all the crap, Mari had fun and worked with what she had. Yay. I get along well with Cid as a player I think, so I have to give him high marks.

On the downside, since I don't want this to sound like a BJ of a review? I think you pushed Zeph a bit too hard OOC at times and Nik IC. This is hard to gauge, but I thought it went overboard at times.

Hell, I don't have a lot to say about you. You're good, I liked Mari. General like makes it hard to do much besides posting glowing affirmations, and there were no real dislikes to hit you on. After that Drac commentary, I feel guilty writing a nice one.

Ami is her own post later on.
<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?

Anastasia

Zeph

Two sides.

RPwise, you're great. You had some consistency and memory issues, but overall you hit Nikkolai well. Your RP was good, you were distinct and a lot of fun once you learned how things worked. Sure, you made some blunders, but that's okay! Your sense of OOC issues could use a touch of work - hi rust - but nothing was too terribly bad. You were fun to DM for as far as all of that went.

Gamewise...eeeeh. I'm not sure if D&D is the right system for you. It's possible one of us dropped the ball, be it me teaching you it or you learning it. More likely you're not suited to this sort of rules and dice heavy game. You don't think in terms of the rules and don't have a strong grasp of them. This held you back in D&D, as well as a general slowness learning the system. Near the end you were still struggling with basic things like caster level and that's pretty telling. Have you played in a rules heavy system before? Have you struggled with it if so, or with other systems?

You're good, learn this system or find a better one for you and go nuts. You're a fine player as far as RPing goes. If the system doesn't work, find a new system. There's nothing wrong with that. Don't be too negative on yourself. Learn from your mistakes and don't start thinking everyone hates you, wants you to leave and so on. That be the way of the EMO. Don't be that.

Anyway, Nik stuff is tied up too much with the Lich, so no comments there yet.
<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?

Dracos

ouch. :(    Sorry I made things miserable for ye ko.   I never really clicked that I was playing far off from how you saw exalted as needing to be played.  I knew I didn't click with how Rat saw it, but I didn't realize you had a problem as well with how I was playing it and didn't see that I was far off from how Adail or the NPC celestials were playing it.

If I was to give one feedback piece from my end on the DMing side, it would be that sometimes (often) it's good for the DM to give their own opinions on things, whether privately or publicly.  It felt like a lot of the clashes following how I played got filtered through mass feedback sessions which I think were frustrating for all involved (Not the least you not seeing me change much to fit the feedback).  I suppose it was my bad as well recognizing that there was discomfort in not going to you and saying 'how can we fix this', but man it was really hard to react sensibly like that when simultaneously being killed IC and tossed vague frustrations OOC.  I feel our general discussions that were of the phrase of 'There's a problem, let's fix it' went pretty well, and resolved things a lot more effectively than any of the feedback threads managed.
Well, Goodbye.

Sierra

Quote from: Anastasia on November 26, 2010, 01:03:54 AMI do disagree with your basic point here though. Tipping my hand as the DM spoils things and it's something I'm wholeheartedly against.

Just wanted to say that I agree with this principle 100%. Anyway, on to Mari stuff:

Quote from: Anastasia on November 26, 2010, 02:17:53 AMMari was the weakest concept of the group. She wasn't bad, but the rest of the concepts were really strong. So I wasn't sure what to expect with Mari!

I think this is pretty typical of the way I play/write anything, really. Generally I need a few sessions to sort out how someone talks and get comfortable with them. I could plan out a lot of elaborate backstory, but I never really know a character until I've had a chance to write them some so my only real concern is giving myself and the GM just enough to build something off of and trust that we'll each do our job. I figured the few loose ends I had in the backstory were enough for you to work with (and ultimately you did about what I expected with that, which is cool).

Quote from: Anastasia on November 26, 2010, 02:17:53 AMOn the downside, since I don't want this to sound like a BJ of a review? I think you pushed Zeph a bit too hard OOC at times and Nik IC. This is hard to gauge, but I thought it went overboard at times.

I admit to some OOC impatience with him, yes. If I had to characterize Zeph in one word, it would be young. This isn't a positive or negative judgment, just an observation that sometimes he's going to miss the point or do something impulsive and you might not be able to talk him out of it. Given who I was playing, I tried not to criticize too much for this. It was amusing making fun of Nik IC, though. None of that should've been read as an OOC jab.

As far as Knight goes, I tried whenever I had an opportunity to get her to open up and do new things, although it seemed like the net result of this was usually Knight going "Oh god I'm never doing that again," and lately there hadn't been too many chances anyway. Too bad. I was really looking forward to setting Knight up on a date.

Never felt like I quite connected with Kam/Adail, honestly. Eva might've been different if she'd lived, hard to say.

Anastasia

The lich, eh?

Yeah, she was the focus of the Lich Arc. Ursagel wasn't, the plague wasn't, the Skyfather wasn't. The last arc is best understood when you realize that all of this arc is ultimately a part of the Lady's story. The key to victory didn't lie in defeating Ursagel, though doing so needed to happen in any event. Nor was finding a cure to the plague necessary to true victory. The Lady of the Green Kirtle can be best understood as a moral challenge, one to be explored, discovered and overcome.  Everything in this scenario was built around this conceit.

Imagine a young girl. She's sharp and sarcastic, but she's lucky. She has a natural knack at magic, then she fell into a group of adventurers and they became fast friends. She's happy but the adventurer's life isn't for her, so she retires to open a magic shop while the others continue on. While she sits there and makes piles of gold, the others come by occasionally to buy magic.  This young girl...she has everything. Money, magic, power. But not friends, you say? The Lady could never be sure where it started, but a distance formed between her and her friends.  Perhaps it was because they stayed together while she left the group. Perhaps her biting words were less tolerable when she wasn't saving their lives regularly. It hardly matters why and how, does it? All that matters were the arguments with her former friends, and the eventual falling out between them.  The Lady found herself with everything she could dream of except friends. She was rich but yet lacked the bonds that she craved, no matter how she lied to herself.

Were the Lady a better person, perhaps amends could have been made. If she could have put aside her hurt pride, friendships could have been mended. If she was wiser, she could have understood that other friends could be made.  Yet...the angry cycle of blaming others for her failings took over. The all too human arrogance, a refusal to admit she was as wrong. She was a success, damn it! She had money, she had power, she had magic! Surely she was correct here as well, and her friends were at fault!

Through this her loneliness became bitterness, blaming her friends for abandoning her. In time bitterness steeped into despair, which lead her down dark paths. Paths she was hoping to salve the pain she held within her, but that only dragged her into excesses. In what a nightmare she found herself in - damned to horrible places, her emotions suppressed with a mask of ice, lost a personal hell. She withdrew from the world entirely, soon happening to obtain a useful child named Nikkolai. To her now, Nikkolai was nothing more than a resource to be used.

Time passed. The Lady understood her fate well enough - the pits of Baator or perhaps Gehenna. Age was creeping onto her, robbing her of beauty and life. While her beauty was nothing more than vanity, she clung to it out of reflex. More concerning was her mortality, something which she chose to abandon. In part to avoid her fate, certainly, but in part out of a small hope that undeath would kill the humanity in her and free her from her suffering. Of course, things did not go according to plan. Nikkolai escaped with her phylactery, a bothersome thing.

Clad in a mantle of eternal death, the Lady began to scry on him. At first she watched dispassionately, content to plan and prepare her revenge.  As she did, something changed. Nikkolai grew closer to his companions, and in this old feelings emerged. Vivid anger overtook the Lady - this thief of a child had what she lost!  Sharp and vicious as he was, yet he had what she wished for. What she gave up her life for! A cold fury overtook the Lady. This could not stand. No. Simple revenge was not good enough for Nikkolai. A grand revenge, one for all time was the only correct answer. As for the others? Nikkolai didn't deserve friends, she did. She'd give them power, money, support and make them her friends. Yes, she would befriend them...and make them hate Nikkolai for it.

Her plan came from that. Ursagel's ploy was a convenience, giving her a cudgel to beat the party into submission with. She would become their supporter, their patron, their...friend. She would make Nikkolai the scapegoat for it all, ruining his own friendships and sealing him into the despair she knew all too well. She would leech away his very feelings, except an overwhelming despair and melancholy that would overtake him completely in time.

---

Defeating the Lich was uncovering this in the game world.  If you understood her, could call her on it and crack through her mask, a few powerful words could leave her defeated, prone and broken. For all her power she was still a lonely woman who desperately needed friends, to silence the ache within her. Understanding this allows you to compare and contrast Nikkolai to her - they're two sides of the same coin, the Lady at 21 was similar to Nikkolai at 21.  Ideally this would allow an awesome denouncement to the arc, a way out of her service and a lot of growth all around.  For Nikkolai it was obvious, for Adail and Kamvakua it was dealing with a mortal evil, one that is almost pathetic despite all it's alleged grandeur and might. For Knight it allows her to see another type of human and how they react, and see how important bonds can be.  Mari was the odd one out here, so I integrated in her sister story.

---

Finding out how to defeat the Lady could have come from a few sources. The most likely one is was to have freed Estamont from Gullivet's Dive. This would have required going there against all logic of being in a hurry. To reach that conclusion would require paying attention to the Lady, seeing how Estamont was one of the few things to crack her mask at all.  If you did some more mental work, you might remember that Estamont was a part of the Lady's band and start drawing your own conclusions. They weren't lovers - though this wasn't an unfair deduction - just close friends. If you wanted a leg up on the Lady, that was an obvious objective to go after.

More information was littered about as well. GIing the Lady in Amlyn could have been useful, as well as seeking out other sources of information. The angels of Lathander would have dropped a few clues to help, as would have some more notes and materials found as you tracked down Ursagel. In general figuring out the Lady took work and thought beyond the obvious objective of ending the plague.

Best case scenario? You guys figure out what was going on and confront her. With a good speech she'd fold up, her mask shattering to show her misery. Nikkolai in particular could be hyper effective. If he grew enough to make a speech calling out the Lady and showing how he was superior, it would simply devastate her. Leave her on her hands and knees sobbing, that sort of devastated. She needs the validation of friends and having those she so desperately and misguidedly tried to befriend is a hell of a gutshot.

Then what? Leaving her as a completely broken wreck is a viable option. A long period of depressive catatonia would result, essentially removing her as a threat. Attacking her while she was down would be effective, as she wouldn't rally any counter attacks immediately. The most ambitious project would be trying to salvage her as a person and perhaps even save her. This would require tremendous effort and work, especially on Nikkolai's part, but it might be possible.

Worst case scenario? Submitting to the Lady or attacking her. The former would result in her eventually converting the party into undead servitors - even Adail, there is such a thing as lich fiends though they're rare and obscure. That vision on the Abyss foreshadowed this and the ghost Mari incarnation the Gestaloth promised, by the way - and converting them to twisted servant-friends. Bad end, especially for Nik, who'd she'd make sure was loathed by all concern and locked in a devastating depression.

Alternately, fighting the lich was not a winning proposition. In her lair she is almost invincible and more than capable of TPKing the party in short order.  Tackling the Lady as purely a combat problem was never the desired or intended outcome.  For all the talk of combat solving most of your problems, I wanted one where combat was not the way to victory. There was a concerted effort to show her power off from the beginning, so you had ample warning if you chose to fight her.

---

I think there were a lot of meaty RP chances to be had here, it's a shame the game didn't make it through this arc.
<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?

Anastasia

Ami was pretty obvious on the surface. She's a Baatorian conscript and full of that sort of brain washing. She gets taken by the Lady and Mari has a chance to save her sister. Sounds nice, right?

If you guessed that the Lady engineered much of it, you're correct. Don't get me wrong, she didn't have Mari's family killed nor did she know about them until Nik fell in with her. She's not psychic.  What the Lady did do is get in contact with Ami's superior, made nice and offered some shiny bribes as well as the location of the demon outpost her regiment was sent to attack. In return she bought Ami, as well as having her superior program her to believe Mari was Mari and to go along with the entire thing.  If you wondered why Ami adapted so swiftly to the concept of being gated in, that's why.

Anyway, Ami is a confused young woman with loads of devil propaganda filling her ears. It would take a lot of work to chip through this, but progress was possible. The Lady ultimately wanted Mari to succeed, at least enough to further bind her to her service.  There's a whole lot of thorny free will issues with this entire fiasco, which would possibly trip up Mari's chaotic side down the line. How they resolved was a fair question. Beyond that I was mostly winging it with her - I know enough about the Nine Hells to do that.

Incidentally, Ami had a half-fiend child while in Baator. Normally this kills the mortal mother, but her superior - who ordered her to spread her legs - intervened because he needed skilled soldiers due to politics. This wasn't too likely to come up and Ami considers it irrelevant. Could have been a quest later on, both for revenge on her superior and to perhaps save the child. If that was Mari's thing, anyway.
<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?

Anastasia

So what about the plague?

On the micro level, Ursagel is a fanatic who stumbled on forbidden yugoloth lore. In reality a yugoloth agent ensured he got it, having selected him as a perfect thrall. See, except for the two resident powers, there's very little planar interference in Nikkolai's world. It took a direct action by the Oinoloth to get that far and why only a few people truly grasped what a danger the Oinoloth is.

Anyway, Ursagel gets this lore and becomes a powerful priest of the Oinoloth. He forms his coalition, trains fanatical servants and does all the normal bad guy stuff on the quiet. He then launches massive and effective surprise attacks on the realm's heroes while letting loose the Oinoloth's plague.  He makes sure his servants have limited knowledge and are spread out, all trying to avoid the typical bad guy mistakes.  He had his shit together, anti scrying headquarters and lots of protections. He was ready for bear. If not for the Lady's interference - and who could expect a lich like her to bother caring about the people of Amlyn - he would have resoundingly won at least Amlyn, if not more.

On the macro level this is planar politics. The Oinoloth opposes Lathander, who is a deity of life. Taking a stab at an important world to Lathander is subtle yet obvious attack on him. All of this got into some pretty heavy world and planar politics, none of which the party needed to get deeply into. They could if they desired to or wanted to make the Oinoloth an enemy. Also, this was a test run for a nasty new plague he'd cooked up, so it had all sorts of benefits, including the reason this world is as it is.

It did have the downside of pissing off Bane, who is more than willing to take a swing at the Oinoloth. You'd have seen some loyal agents and devils in the service of Bane going after Ursagel too. This is half Bane's sandbox and hell if some 'loth trash is going to interfere.

Ursagel was mechanically a cleric/blackguard. I had him written as about level 13-15, depending on how strong I wanted the last fight to be. I hadn't statted him out yet.
<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?

Anastasia

Short answers!

What was Granny Tam? Answer: A bored shapeshifter with ties to the Court of Stars. She found a home in Hardsoil. There's no great story to her, she was what she was.

What the hell was up with that old guy who left Mari jewelry? Answer: A yugoloth starting a looooong scheme to try and screw over a bunch of people, using Mari as bait. Didn't work out, he moved onto other pieces of bait.

What the hell happened to Mari's family? Answer: Got in the way of some yugoloths, got killed. Yugoloths are assholes, boys and girls. Mari was missed and Ami was sold into Baatorian slavery for profit.

What does Adail taste like? Answer: Like chicken and sunshine. Mostly chicken.

Xorn king? REALLY? Answer: Yes and? It was funny, it lead to some amusing plot and everyone had fun. If you guys didn't get entangled in stuff after the lich arc, I was going to have a message from Granny Tam steer you back to Hardsoil. Dealing with the Xorn King was on the agenda.

What was with that dying githzerai monk in Air? Answer: Random stupid Limbo and slaad crap. Limbo leaked and spread it's batshit randomness to Air. Pursing this could lead to a quest or two as well as some loot. Not a huge miss.

What was with that bitchy spirit who gave Mari and Zeph axe skills? Answer: You know how prophecies have holy sites, waiting ghosts and all sorts of shit lined up for the chosen one? What happens when random people stumble on them? That. Sometimes a random encounter encounters something not a part of your story.

If Mari and Knight got together, would you enjoy it? Answer: Not really. It was a fun gag, but the chemistry wasn't there. Despite thinking Mari was into women, Knight wasn't. I don't know why I thought Mari was, but I got that impression early on.

Was that Zeph Knight/Mari fanfic creepy? Answer: Eeeh. I thought it was fine within reason but the rest of the group thought it was creepy. Fair enough, I do have thick skin.

Why did the Abyss foreshadow possible ghost Mari and zombie Adail? Answer: It's the Abyss. It's spiteful, it knows things, it just is. Trying to understand the Abyss is a path to madness, so accept it on face value and move on.

What was up with Quinsalus? Answer: Quinsalus is a yugoloth. If he doesn't betray you and steal all your treasure, he's a supremely useful guide. 50/50 odds of him doing so, especially if anything unfavorable to his reputation happened. Can't have a bad rep if all the people who found you vanished without a trace.

What the flying batfuck was up with Balance? Answer: Balance was screwed up from Limbo, hyper-devoted to its cause and had near cosmic power with Star. Yeah, that entire test was a big flashing 'HEY HE'S FUCKING UNSTABLE GUYS!'. The irony of Balance being unbalanced from Limbo is most pleasing to me.
<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?

Anastasia

Opening the floor up to questions, comments, feedback, anything. Get 'em out now that the game's over. I'd rather you post here than PM me on IRC, it's better for record keeping and not answering the same question three times.
<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?

Carthrat

#1169
I feel the Lich scenario could have gone in more ways than 'either you talk her into a crying heap, or you all lose'. Was that really the only way to 'win'? Was genuine companionship literally impossible without breaking her first? Did she actually want friends herself, or just to screw Nikki?

I can't help but think that IC, she never showed clear signs of being horrible or evil, and even your OOC description doesn't do much more than hint at her true badness- so it's hard for me to accept it was actually there. Likewise, it's hard for me to see her as a villain that must be overcome at all costs- or even a true villain. Indeed, I intended to work honestly and openly with her, if firmly. Would that have not got any good result, in the end?

I want to say that I really liked the way it was going, which is why I wanted to play it to the end- I also foresaw a party split, and that and other reasons lead to me saying I'd leave. Possibly a mistake in retrospect, but what can you do. I am somewhat disheartened, though, since I now have the impression there was only one good way to end the scenario, and it's of the sort that I'd never have come to on my own (certainly not IC and probably not OOC), and must admit to having doubts that others would as well.

<->

We touched on this earlier, and... look, I'd be able to take the whole 'the people you face are crazy nutjobs, you can't apply normal methods to their thinking!' if we also faced some people who weren't. Were any enemies intended to be, if not smart, at least somewhat savvy or sensible, and without crippling personality flaws that make them unable to function as people, let alone capable antagonists?

<->

You need to have less rape, implied rape, and weaponized babies in your games. Unless your goal is this! in which case go ahead by all means, but I don't think it was. The subject matter requires some gravity, you know? Otherwise it will reduce me, at least, to either fits of laughter or the rolling of the eyes. I think you can evoke horror, or at least grimness, without resorting to that sort of gorn. If you're gonna play such harsh atrocities, it's imperative you don't do so in a way that's funny (gestaloth) or tacky (Ami's thing, though since it didn't happen IC I have no idea how you'd have presented it.) If it might be, I think it's better to skip it.

What did I like? There were things I liked, believe it or not! I liked Rogue, and it saddened me greatly to see him on the 'most hated NPCs' list. I like the way you handled my mount acquisition. Bell's death was unfortunate but hardly out of place. I liked parts of Arborea- the visions of the future in particular. I liked unique locations- Stratusburg and Shivra spring to mind- I think they can be improved more if you give context to their existence, but still! I liked opportunities to develop as a person (thank you, Mari! I would've gone for a date if you set me up on one, too..) I liked how the situation on the Elemental Plane of Earth developed, though I'm saddened we didn't get to stick around to see the results.

Actually, that's a good question- how did all of that go down?
[19:14] <Annerose> Aww, mouth not outpacing brain after all?
[19:14] <Candide> My brain caught up