Talk, if you dare. This is for random chatter, DM questioning, etc.
I by the way, will always be watching. Posts can come at any time.
Anyhow, the finalized rules will show up sometime today. No major differences are gonna be there. We're close to ready to go, so I'll probably start sculpting the worldspace now. *gets out his sculptor's gloves* It has been a long time since I ran a game, so I thank everyone for joining in on this warm up venture. :)
Who's that liar who didn't do finalized rules yesterday? So lazy. Anyhow:
Remember to put finalized sheets in the char sheet topic!
Will post hopefully-final character sheet later today. One thing I want to change regarding the tentacles: if I put a rule stating that, if one or more tentacles are severed, Ika can forego hit point recovery overnight to instead grow them back (I.e. she gets back either tentacles, or hit points, but not both), is that okay?
(They're not exactly that hard to sever actually, going by the source material.)
Sure.
Generally (while the game may be quite fatal), there won't be significant effort to remove Traits from players. Because really, that's less a deadly campaign and more just meanspirited DMing.
I think we have all our sheets. If anyone else is joining, please get it in tonight. I will be plotting tomorrow and starting the next day. =)
Question regarding backstory: Is my character in this game due to having assented to it, knowing what the prize is? Or do I assume (current working theory) that she has been snatched out of the ocean by Q without any explanation, just to spice things up?
It's been stated that we all agreed to bargains to get this far.
Yup. While disoriented on where you are and how the heck this applies to the challenges, you are all aware some omnipotent (or close enough that you can't tell the difference) being has made a bargain, promised that whatever happened in it, you would end up being returned without harm, and should you get/find the ribbon, you would be granted 1 wish.
And we now have our first Energy Point usage and on thinking about it, I decide how I want to handle it:
Please update your sheet when you spend Energy or lose hp.
So if you have 45 EP and you spend 5, edit your sheet to be 40/45 EP.
Will do (as soon as I hear how much energy I used up on reading those materials).
2 EP *nods*
Sorry for the shorter round today. Wasn't quite my day.
I should note, for the record, that Alberto has no knowledge of the plot of Moby-Dick.
El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, yes. But not Moby-Dick.
My expectation is that virtually none of the cast has any knowledge of the stories that are being used as the basis. Alberto is probably one of the few that might have encountered a wood boat before (as almost all of you are a Sci Fi Future background).
Bolt's setting is all over the place. I expect he'd get wooden boats alright.
We can discuss OOC things in the OOC thread. ;)
That way people outside of your thread can comment without looking ... odd. I think I agree with Cy -- Bolt's character in general is really somewhat detached (being as he generally serves as witness/PoV character/Deus ex Machina for his given plotlines). It makes sense that he's somewhat passive when not pursuing whatever his motivation in the great game is.
My suggestion is to have the Captain (possibly unsure of what else to do), loop the navigator in and get his opinion on things, since the navigator should be mentioned as a ranking crewman, right up there with first mate.
Also, I had a flashback to the pirate theme and 'Swabbie Jon' back in the day. Drac, you bastard -- I JUST got that joke. :p
Quote from: Brian on December 12, 2011, 05:33:29 PM
My suggestion is to have the Captain (possibly unsure of what else to do), loop the navigator in and get his opinion on things, since the navigator should be mentioned as a ranking crewman, right up there with first mate.
Oh, I figured out an idea for what to do... hehe...
Noted. was assuming folks would just grab what they did get and clash where they didn't, thus starting with something that would be obtuse and exotic to all characters, providing a shared lack of understanding to build off of.
Also =)
Also:
If you don't make a post doing something, it doesn't happen. Even if you make a post presuming something got done. This is really something I am a stickler on. I will play along with a lot, but one shouldn't be surprised at all if you declare something to have happened without doing it and the scenery turns the camera over to that not being the case.
Specifically answering, no, nobody posted tying up the first mate, so he is very much not tied up. Unconscious as he's sleeping heavily for his shift, yes, but tied up no. Would he be hard to tie up? Probably not at all, but I find that when I start playing off of 'actions that never happened', things get incoherent real quick.
QuoteNot-quite fitting decent clothing is still a step up from these rags, so Alberto puts it on. And then binds the man hand and foot for good measure.
Umm... I assumed the first mate was tied up based on this bit.
^^^^^
(Edit: He beat me to it.)
Sleepy GM was sleepy?
Apparently. My botch. I kept looking up for a post where he tied or bound the man and just wasn't seeing it, so was rather confused where it came from. Sorry about that Jon.
I know it was uncomfy getting there, but that sort of clash is exactly what I'd hoped out of the starter: Both of you are now aware you're fellow contenders in the game, and your starting roles have provided a bit of friction and doubt, a lack of evenness that causes question to your strategies.
Again, I'd like to apologize for the slowdown these past two days. I've been very distracted and that's definitely affected the game.
I fly out tonight, but starting tomorrow we should hopefully start building back momentum toward getting these two starter sections through.
Cy, you're seeming really quiet/removed. Do you need help? Are you feeling stuck or is this just your strategy at the moment?
All of the above? As I mentioned in #sr, I've been doing some job hunting and if I get an interview that takes me to Toronto. Bolt is somewhat going with the quiet approach until he figures out more, and he's stuck driving the boat. He can't go exploring the boat unless we want to go off course. :)
Well, you can stick someone else on it, or let it drift. It is the middle of the ocean :)
But I just wanted to check.
Jon/Arakawa:
Just waiting to see Alberto's reaction before I write on.
I replied to Bolt in PM. Ocean seems to be having a bit of a stumble, but I assume we'll get moving on it tonight.
Arakawa:
Yes, you don't have to worry. The crew appears incentivized to find it.
Okay, I'll assume at this point if Alberto has a reaction, it's sufficiently delayed that Ika can just leave the room in the meantime.
Yeah, sorry; I'm just having a bit of RP block at the moment.
Quote from: Dracos on December 14, 2011, 01:23:43 PM
Well, you can stick someone else on it, or let it drift. It is the middle of the ocean :)
But I just wanted to check.
Well, Bolt tends to take his 'job' pretty seriously. The questions often are 'Who's truly paying him?' and 'How literal is the job?' :)
I've been rereading the manga for some inspiration as well. Should have put '+2DCV vs projectiles' as one of his powers. Catching bullets in your teeth is just that cool.
Polite request to DM -- might be good to have a bit of detail as to what's on the maps. Even if it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things.
Sure, I'll give you something to yammer on :)
I hear tell that brian is a bit fuzzy. DY do you want to take the lead getting you two to the festival, or would you guys prefer the friar to take a more meddlesome role at moving the story along?
I can't speak for DY, but until the ^%#& hits the fan, I think both Tylor and Vash are more reactive than active. >_>;;
Yea, I agree with Brian. I don't mind the friar moving the story along.
Alberto:
I sense quiet over there. Need any help getting out of that scene and up to deck to do things?
Bolt/Ika:
Considered adding detail, but really it seems conversational focused, so I'll let that fly a bit more before moving things.
I'm mostly looking for some minor info on stuff lying around. Gear and/or weapons. Bolt sometimes tends to eat anything that's not nailed down.
Wondering what everyone's status on Ocean is. (Sort of wasn't expecting Alberto to hang around downstairs for so long that the DM would send a sailor to out him...) Also, if Jon / anyone else wants to point out anything I did wrong during that previous interaction, I'd welcome any feedback of that sort. As stated, I'm not an experienced role-player and I'm worried I might have exerted control over that situation out of proportion to what my character should be capable of.
You did fine, Jon though has lost interest a bit and sounds like he's dropping. I talked with him offline today about it as yeah, was trying to get him back in the swing of things. I think he wanted more of a command setup at the get-go.
Mostly I feel a made a mistake picking Alberto. I'm not a fan of PvP in rpgs, but there's nothing else at this point that's plausible for Alberto to do, except for disappearing and then coming back 'at the turn of the tide' like a malevolent Gandalf.
Sorry, guys; my fault.
Edit to add: Basically, I see Alberto as being a bit like Magneto, in that he's a noble villain, and so it's not out of the question for him to team up with a group of heroes to accomplish some larger goal (defeating Galactus, say). I had the idea that this would be a feasible approach here. I didn't do enough checking that Dracos's plans in the matter matched mine.
Well, that's fair. I guess it wasn't clear, but I did want to set the seed early that you guys weren't necessarily working together and see how you'd handle it as only one of you guys were going to be able to win in the end.
Just in case it wasn't clear: Your omnipotent meddling Q has retcon'd the presence of Alberto out of the story. It was as if he was never there.
I assume the procedure for hunting a whale (as would have been explained in Ika's notes) is basically -- chase the whale, get out to it in boats, harpoon it (the harpoons are attached to a line so that one can track where the whale resurfaces), harpoon it again when it resurfaces, repeat procedure until the whale is dead.
This is based on the premise that whales come to the surface to replenish air supplies, which takes them a while, when they're low on air they are unlikely to swim away deep from you, so you can attach a rope to them and wait until they need to come up again.
At least that's what I vaguely remember from Moby Dick. Wanted to double-check if this is how things go down (and that Ika does know all this from the notes) before I make another post.
Yup, that's fine. And also to head off at the pass:
You guys aren't actually required to play along entirely with the plot. I see Ika wondering about not fighting the whale. Well, that is an option.
Same if say, Tylor wanted to for whatever reason pantsie the sheriff.
Game is going a bit slow. DMs fault there.
For Bolt/Ika, you're in the middle of a conflict scene, so no real moving.
For Vash/Tylor: I could move things along, but checking first: do you guys just want to go with the friar's pitch?
Yea, I was going to have Vash agree to the friar's plan.
Feeling a real lack of motivation to game at the moment, RE: Lame RL stuff.
Understandable.
<_<
>_>
*gets some posts in before his players hang him up to dry*
*pulls some clothespins out of Bolt-space* Who's got the water? Can't hang him out to dry otherwise.
So since I've returned to work I've gone from a Slow DM to a terrible/shitty one.
That's not good and not really leaning well toward wrapping this up by end of January. Given that, I'm leaning toward just wrapping this up with an Epilogue and calling it. It's been a pleasure gaming with you all, and should I have the attention to properly devote in the future, I'd be glad to run some small game for you all in the future. I'm sad I let it die before getting folks back together and having a good rush for the ribbon, as well as before Tylor and Vash got their wind going leaving the folks confused.
Arakawa, sorry for a short first game. I think you've got a lot of talent in the area and I hope you look to join games in the future as I think you'll have fun and many will have fun gaming with you. Sorry as well about getting isolated at the end. My intent was actually for them to find a player as Maid Marian. Originally, this was to be filled by Iddy, but after he dropped, and with a sudden finish from the Moby Dick crew, I figured it'd lap in nicely to have them find an irritable squid-girl as the 'princess to rescue'. I half expected actually Ika to just force her way clear (which would've been funny in itself), but them finding you there would've been good either way.
Cymage, was good having you back in a game. I think that first role I gave you was a bit of a mistake, but I think you were more on a roll with the petulant goblin and the others and the whale fight. Good pushing outside the scenario with the bombs.
Brian, good to DM for you for...Possibly the first time? Ever? Not sure. Anyhow, of course welcome at my tiny table again. Liked where you went with Tylor when you decided to go start bringing girl hunting comedy antics into the Sheriff. Had it proceeded, I was entirely ready to enable and see how you guys could bamboozle the nobility with flirting antics to open the road up to Arakawa in the tower.
Jon: Sorry the game didn't mesh with your expectations. I was thinking that placing a traditional Commander character into the bottom-most role on the ship would provide good conflict for the early scenes to work off of, but that didn't quite hook for you it seemed.
DY: Was a pleasure having you at the table. A bit passive as a Vash, but still enjoyable to game with and would gladly have you at a table again :)
On the negative side of things I really should've hashed together a much firmer connection set for it. I hashed together a handful of opening scenarios to use, intending for the Ribbon to actually manifest as a reward for whoever made the most entertaining game of it, an ephermeal object to collect that wasn't actually physically collectable as the lot of you guys were being used as Interdimensional Television for a group of overpowerful omnipotents (The Q continuum). The Robin Hood sketch was taken mostly from canon ST:TNG power abuse for an idea seed there. I hope some fun was had,
Thanks to everyone for being tolerant with my get back in the DMing seat Foibles. It has been many months (even possibly a year) since the last time I gm'd anything and clearly I am rusty as all get out at it. Thanks for playing.