Feedback time!

[Anastasia]

It's that time of the year again. Answer away and be completely honest. Repeat, be completely honest. I've felt like there's some poisonous undercurrents lately and it's hurting my enjoyment of running this, and I suspect it's doing the same to you guys.

EDIT: Make your own reply to this post. Don't start replying to the other feedbacks until all three are done and I post again. Thanks.

---Character/Player---

1. How do you feel your character has turned out the past several levels? From a mechanical standpoint? An RP standpoint?  Do you feel you're pulling your load? Why or why not?
2. How do you get along with the other players? Good points, bad points, hangups, irritations, praise?
3. Where do you see your character going? How do you see that enabling them to get where you want them to go, both mechanically and RP-wise? Do you feel you can reach this as it stands now?

---World/Plot---

4. What are the adventures and situations you've enjoyed lately(Last 3-4 levels, say?)? Why?
5. What are the adventures and situations you've not enjoyed lately? Why?
6. What could I do to get more of the good and less of the bad? Why?
7. What could other players do to get less of the bad and more of the good? Why?
8. What could you do to get more good and less bad? Why?
9. What parts of the world/plot do you want to see more of IC? OOC?
10. What parts of the world/plot do you want to see less of IC? OOC?
11. How's the tone of the game? Too dark? Too light?
12. How's the content level? We average around a PG-13, with a light R whenever succubi or Ysgard shows up, is this where you're comfortable? Would you prefer higher or lower levels?

--DMing--

13. How has my DMing been? Good? Bad? Consistent? Inconsistent? Why? Give examples if possible.
14. How do you feel I've handled everything, both IC and OOC-wise? Have I been pushing for gaming too hard? Not enough? Has there been any friction you'd like to air out?
15. Is there anything you'd like me to stop doing as a DM?
16. How have my rulings been? Are they reasonable and fair? Do you feel I'm staying reasonably impartial?
17. How has my encounter design been? Are the fights doing it for you?
18. Are there enough quests and hooks going around? Too few? Too many?
19. How's the loot distro been? Do you guys feel like you need less or more loot?
20. How's my dungeon/area design been? Tips for improvement?

--Misc--

21. Anything else to add that wasn't covered?

[Corwin]

I really didn't want to go into any of this because while some of the following can be an irritant at times I've clearly enjoyed the game or I wouldn't be playing. I didn't really want to start any pointless arguments. I'm not trying to pick any fights, but I feel like it'd seem that way despite my best efforts. Still, Dune wanted me to post, so here it is.

Dune told me we would all need to compromise in order to do group stuff, and I've been fine with that. But if possible, I would like that to apply to everyone, and if it does, for it to be visible to me. I don't mind doing a couple quests that either bore me from the description or don't sit well with me for other reasons if one of the other PCs or both of them feel like doing it, if I feel that in turn it would be reciprocated. By that, I don't mean others coming along and complaining, but for them to try and find the good parts of those quests. The whole glass is half full thing, just as I'm trying to do with things that don't draw me in. Besides, I trust in the GM to have an opportunity for all of us to shine, regardless of the initial situation. A good example would be going exploring past the mountains and running into a tarrasque, but it is hardly the only time we did something mundane and ended up with plot hooks/neat things to fight.

On planes and why I don't like them in general. That's not actually quite true. I only don't like the Good/Evil axis, so stuff like Fire is just fine. I originally liked the concept very much, but continued exposure to them changed my opinion. The evil is Always Chaotic Evil, even the devils, and any dealings with them (including killing them) feel pointless. The good is Good via Informed Ability and while I approve of their actions, unlike those of the fiends, I don't enjoy spending too much time with them. I'll get into the why later. The neutrals... just want to kill me, and their laws say it's okay. I think that's enough said. More directly, Planar Evil is endless and infinite, and killing some Evil figurehead merely causes a change in administration. I see that as pointless. Planar Neutral is bland and its rules are not geared to Good by any definition (bad pun, I know), I see little reason to help it. Planar Good clashes with my Good (again, more on this following), and as such, I'm trying to avoid friction between myself and the Planar Good since we're still on the same side even if I disagree with many of their attitudes and actions and approaches to things.

At times, I'm just not sure if my opinions are seen as acceptable. I know that on several occasions, while discussing alignment/ethics-related things with you, Dune, you told me I was reaching (which was true enough on some of my arguments, fair enough) and close-minded. I honestly don't mind being told that the gameworld doesn't work the way I think it does/should, it's not a problem whatsoever. What is a problem for me is when I feel that I might be getting dismissed altogether. There's a world of difference between an alternate but acceptable/possible interpretation of things and just being this weirdo who doesn't 'get' it. More often than not, I'm not evil or naive or stupid but just see some things differently. If they don't work IC, I can live with that. If I start getting the feeling my fellow players and my GM think it was obvious and I'm one of those for not acting 'appropriately', it can get depressing for a while. I'd really like to know how you and the other PCs see me here.

D&D is about combat, yes, but I like to think there's a world-building, friend-making element of it in Balmuria. We don't just get stronger so we can face stronger opponents, we also do it so that our initial goals of protecting a just society could be realized. I'm extending that to the world at large, to make a more perfect society, and while not the focus of a game it and interaction with others remains an important element for me. I view it as very important to try and help others, simply because we can, and that can happen in many ways. I viewed Alicia's speech to the Kelaran council, Demedais in Mechanus or I and Alicia's investigative mission in Malmuth as important and a part of this, in some form, to just name a couple examples. It is my hope that this element of the game remains, even though we are too stong for most low-key villains to have a prayer. Even if we don't do it ourselves, as long as we remain involved in some way, perhaps by deploying the second string team and provide diplomatic support, say, it would be fine for me.

This bears repeating. I like the game a lot. The above are irritants that are minor at best. If it may seem otherwise at times, it is because people don't complain about things they like. If you need any examples, Dune, all you have to do is recall how I constantly bug you about this person or that, this element of the world or that, this future quest or that. Trust me, I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't like them or didn't find them interesting or engaging or any of that. Quite a lot of them aren't just things that apply to me personally, but to us as a group. The same applies to Tai and Eb, even though I talk to them about the game far less. It is nevertheless true.

So where are we? I like the game, I enjoy the game, I like all the PC and recurring NPC characters without exception, I like the world as a whole, I like our global goal and I like where we're headed. I'll handle the specfics, too, if you'd like, but first I need to see that I didn't just piss everyone off and killed the game or something sad like that. Due to a pretty hectic day, I'm not sure I have all my thoughts in order. I might've even rambled. Apologies.

[Ebiris]

Man, this reminds me of my yearly appraisals at work... hokay.

1. How do you feel your character has turned out the past several levels? From a mechanical standpoint? An RP standpoint?  Do you feel you're pulling your load? Why or why not?

Well, I had to rebuild my character because she was too good. Fortunately the new look Alicia isn't that huge a divergence, so it's been pretty seamless, and thus far has held up well to the few battles we've had since the change. To be honest it might even work out better since I'm no longer married to full attackan, although once everyone grabs dire charge in epic that may start to hurt.

2. How do you get along with the other players? Good points, bad points, hangups, irritations, praise?

To be honest, I've lately been thinking that Alicia doesn't really mesh with the party that well. Her high and mighty morality often causes hassle, and she's neck deep in planar stuff that Cor and Tai hate. Admittedly, I happen to like the planes myself, but I could easily play a character with no particular interest there. Unfortunately I'm rather fond of playing Alicia, so barring her untimely demise, there's no real solution in that direction.

3. Where do you see your character going? How do you see that enabling them to get where you want them to go, both mechanically and RP-wise? Do you feel you can reach this as it stands now?

Alicia's all about the killing dudes. I was really banking on getting access to Limited Wish so I could contribute more to the Sim City aspect of building stuff, but as things stand all I can really do on that score is toss money at shit, which isn't terribly satisfying.

4. What are the adventures and situations you've enjoyed lately(Last 3-4 levels, say?)? Why?

Infiltrating Kesse was lots of fun. I really enjoyed the sneakiness of covering my tracks and integrating myself into the population there, spying on the castle and working towards creating a long term base of operations and ring of informants that would put us in perfect position to knock over the evil royals when the time came. Things kind of got wrecked by events before my plans could come to fruition, but it was fun while it lasted.

Fighting the Spawn of Jormungandr was cool, since I had to do it with none of my equipment - I like the challenge that represents, forcing you to improvise stuff and make the best use of your innate talents to win the day. If we'd done that adventure normally no way would I have done stuff like improvising a pick from a hunk of wood and a monster fang, or having Anty bash together a bigass ghetto-sword of cold iron. And then once you win without all the usual conveniences and buffs, it feels so much more satisfying.

Winterwight prep (although the fight itself was rather underwhelming). I liked that it was such a badass threat that we had to scramble around for any advantage we could use in the time we had before confronting it - we haven't really done that since Kondrux.

5. What are the adventures and situations you've not enjoyed lately? Why?

The shocker lizard cull was pretty dull, sadly. Even with their cheating electrical death blasts, there was no meaningful challenge there. It led up to finding the Earth Elementals and more important stuff happened with that, at least.

Digging to find the Kesse temple was also something of an exercise in tedium. I get that you wanted us to go there via Shadow Walk, but the place just felt so illogical in that it required their highest level dude to use his most powerful spell to act as a taxi for every random loser cultist.

The whole Neve affair was something of an annoyance, since I enjoyed interacting with her and then she got taken off limits. I'm leaving it alone in the interests of party harmony, although it'll suck if she shows up later and asks pointed questions about my position on all that transpired.

6. What could I do to get more of the good and less of the bad? Why?
7. What could other players do to get less of the bad and more of the good? Why?
8. What could you do to get more good and less bad? Why?

C'mon, I'm already saying what I like and don't like. Extrapolate a little.

9. What parts of the world/plot do you want to see more of IC? OOC?

Since I'm in a minority on liking the planar stuff, I think we need more 'epic' stuff on the prime material. The fact is, most of the big bads are out in the planes, so that's what we'll typically be fighting if we want an appropriate challenge.

It's easy enough to just unseal random epic liches and dragons and whatnot, I guess, but should we end up competing against equivalently levelled humanoid foes, I think it's very important to build them up properly. I get that Shar and Secrecy go hand in hand, but it was a big disappointment with Kesse that we were taking down the hapless inoffensive royal family, as far as everyone else was concerned. If they'd been villains with good publicity it's one thing, but to the rest of the world they were pretty much non-entities. Considering how our personal lives are matters of routine gossip for a thousand miles around, I'd want to have any prospective rivals be just as renowned, so that our confrontations with them can carry some real dramatic weight.

10. What parts of the world/plot do you want to see less of IC? OOC?

I think there's an important balancing act that needs to be done with the rest of the world. It's disheartening to visit the kingdom over the hill and discover that they're super awesome and way better than us in every manner, but at the same time I feel deeply uncomfortable with 'bringing civilisation to the savages' type encounters. Kesse and its surrounding environs worked well in that respect in that they feel like legitimate civilisations with their own good points and bad points, full of normal people that wouldn't be out of place back home.

11. How's the tone of the game? Too dark? Too light?

Tone's fine. We laugh, we cry.

12. How's the content level? We average around a PG-13, with a light R whenever succubi or Ysgard shows up, is this where you're comfortable? Would you prefer higher or lower levels?

Yes, even when they're not slutting it up, the succubi still manage to raise our rating purely through profane language. I think we're fine in this regard.

13. How has my DMing been? Good? Bad? Consistent? Inconsistent? Why? Give examples if possible.

It's good enough that we keep playing. Really, it's better if you just look at the answers to the next few questions, they all cover pretty much this, anyway.

14. How do you feel I've handled everything, both IC and OOC-wise? Have I been pushing for gaming too hard? Not enough? Has there been any friction you'd like to air out?

Gaming is about all I do, so definitely not pushing too hard. But I'm sensitive to your occassional burnout, so I wouldn't say you're not pushing hard enough.

15. Is there anything you'd like me to stop doing as a DM?

Banning or nerfing stuff I want to use! More seriously, I'd actually like to see save or dies allowed back in. We're getting to the point where rezzing isn't that out of reach, and also where stuff can maul us to death with hp damage in one full attack, anyway. Maybe nerf them a little and say a failed save puts you at -9 and not stabilised so there's a chance for rescue?

16. How have my rulings been? Are they reasonable and fair? Do you feel I'm staying reasonably impartial?

I mentioned this to you in PM the other day, but it bears repeating. Spellgems. They're horribly broken, and I find their inclusion all the more baffling when you ban stuff like runestaves and rings of evasion, citing a dislike for anything that allows you to gain extra spells or class features for cash.

17. How has my encounter design been? Are the fights doing it for you?

I think stuff is pretty appropriately challenging, for the most part, but I get the feeling you sometimes treat us with kid gloves and ease off, either by having an enemy abruptly change tactics/switch targets to ignore a heavily wounded PC, or not use abilities that it plainly could and even should be using.

18. Are there enough quests and hooks going around? Too few? Too many?

There's plenty of stuff on the go right now, so I guess we're fine here.

19. How's the loot distro been? Do you guys feel like you need less or more loot?

Loot is a necessary evil. I think we have more than we need, to be honest.

20. How's my dungeon/area design been? Tips for improvement?

I think it's something you're really good at, to be honest, so I'd be hard pressed to offer any useful pointers. The dungeons often have lots of interesting things to find and figure out.

21. Anything else to add that wasn't covered?

No, that was exhaustive enough, I think.

[Corwin]

Since you asked....

1. How do you feel your character has turned out the past several levels? From a mechanical standpoint? An RP standpoint?  Do you feel you're pulling your load? Why or why not?

Sometimes. After Alicia's rebuild, I no longer feel like she can solo everything without a plan, which makes me feel useful since I can be part of things. My save DCs and chances to pass SR are sucky as hell, and I'm saying it as a wizard with Int 33. We just face awesome opponents, I guess. I'm trying to do something about the SR, saves might balance out in epic, but I'd appreciate doing something for my breath weapon. Maybe after my dragon quest I could be counted as fully draconic for purposes of HD? I dunno.


2. How do you get along with the other players? Good points, bad points, hangups, irritations, praise?

I don't generally have a problem, but I do worry a lot whether the other players respect me and my opinions.


3. Where do you see your character going? How do you see that enabling them to get where you want them to go, both mechanically and RP-wise? Do you feel you can reach this as it stands now?

Defending the world Mortal Kombat-style? I'm fighting to save it from Daa-vid, and once the world's been saved I'll try on keeping it safe from threats from within and without. I'll try to help society as a whole to rise, with my distant goal the establishment of a First Age, except one that doesn't require epic heroes or mages to keep running properly. Essentially, you could say my perfect world has no need for me. I'll be there until it's at that point, however.

I'm also always interested in rescuing/helping others in trouble, which extends to celestials, whatever my disagreements with them.


4. What are the adventures and situations you've enjoyed lately(Last 3-4 levels, say?)? Why?

Plane of Fire quest, Arondaaq sealing, control base 4. Some of the world-building, friendship-making stuff.


5. What are the adventures and situations you've not enjoyed lately? Why?

Not lately, but anything that reminds me of one failure of mine or another. Like demons coming and telling people whose opinion I care about that they work for me and causing them to doubt me, however briefly. Any situation which negates my opinion or beliefs or places lower value on them than those of others, particularly if its an in-your-face case.


6. What could I do to get more of the good and less of the bad? Why?

Be honest with me. I don't know about softening the blow in combat, but you tend to avoid telling us straight out when something doesn't work until you're at your limit. There's nothing wrong with being upfront about things long before that. In fact, I would very much like to see it. Related to this, I would like to purchase the Common Sense trait from the White Wolf system, as I've told you before.


7. What could other players do to get less of the bad and more of the good? Why?

I think I've covered this before. It's important for me to be involved in decisions, it's important for me to be seen and accepted as equally valid even in cases of disagreement, and I don't want to feel like I compromise more, or that even when I 'win', the 'victory' comes with an ashen taste of having forced another to agree rather than having them honestly compromise and wish me luck, while counting on me to give up on other matters later, and so on.


8. What could you do to get more good and less bad? Why?

If how much time I spend on things that interest primarily me bothers people, I'll start cherry-picking through things I want to do and bug Dune more about the rest OOC. If playing an often rash and impulsive character is a bother, I could tone it down.


9. What parts of the world/plot do you want to see more of IC? OOC?

The other parts of the world, because they're out there.


10. What parts of the world/plot do you want to see less of IC? OOC?

People who are on my side but expect me to bow down to them based on reputation and status. That's bullshit.  >_>

Earn it first by fixing the damages of random fiend attacks or secretly offering resurrections to their victims or something, I'll grovel endlessly.


11. How's the tone of the game? Too dark? Too light?

It tends to be consistent and then someone gets raped or horrible torture occurs. It always seemed jarring and sudden to me in transition. I'm not sure how to fix it, or even if there's a need to fix it.


12. How's the content level? We average around a PG-13, with a light R whenever succubi or Ysgard shows up, is this where you're comfortable? Would you prefer higher or lower levels?

As long as we don't go into X and make me cry, I'm fine with any level of content.


13. How has my DMing been? Good? Bad? Consistent? Inconsistent? Why? Give examples if possible.

Consistently good? There is no single example, because it's both consistent and good. I could only point to it if you were inconsistent or sucky.


14. How do you feel I've handled everything, both IC and OOC-wise? Have I been pushing for gaming too hard? Not enough? Has there been any friction you'd like to air out?

Uh, yeah? First post?

I'll just restate my need for you to be more direct, and if possible in private, because it can be humiliating to be called an idiot in public.


15. Is there anything you'd like me to stop doing as a DM?

If you joke about Deme's harem or Alicia's admirers, you can't say anything when I joke in the same vein OOC. Just saying.  >_>


16. How have my rulings been? Are they reasonable and fair? Do you feel I'm staying reasonably impartial?

Since, as I've mentioned before, your outlook is much closer to Eb's than anyone else I can think of, and you consult him on D&D matters quite a bit, it sometimes creates a feeling of impartiality for me. I don't, however, think there is actual basis in it. Still, it's hard to be rid of at times, as I'm sure you've noticed from how I asked you a couple things, Dune.

There are things of disagreement, but you asked us not to respond to each other, and if I copy/paste my Spellgems argument it'll likely be that. I'll just wait on it.


17. How has my encounter design been? Are the fights doing it for you?

Mostly. Some just don't work through no fault of yours. Winterwight was a bit of a letdown on many levels, for example. The series of fights to get the mystic fire of Kossuth, however, have been immensely enjoyable, and I both got Slowed and couldn't SA shit.


18. Are there enough quests and hooks going around? Too few? Too many?

I'll put in a request for more alignment-neutral planes, more Prime-quests, more nation-building/society-improving stuff?


19. How's the loot distro been? Do you guys feel like you need less or more loot?

You're generous with loot, sometimes incredibly so. A lot of the things I purchase (many of which together with Deme) cost in the tens of thousands, however, and I still haven't really recovered my loss from having my loot nastily sacrificed to Shar. Although I've adjusted! But 28k for a return trip, 10k extra for communications, maybe 5k or so for a temple here and there... that's even without financing the npcs who need it. I think that you're handling it well by providing us with sponsors who pay some or even all of the relevant costs (in theory, since we've only started doing that recently). Unrelated to my spellgem argument of why they're cool and not game-breaking for us, if the elves decided to give us some they've cherry-picked, it'd be pretty awesome since we get showy if largely useless SLAs for free. I've even managed to find a use for my pointless if nicely thematic Locate Object ability, it'll no doubt be fun thinking up uses for Erase and such.


20. How's my dungeon/area design been? Tips for improvement?

It's hard for me to visualise things. This is not new. I always appreciate visual aids. That aside, the dungeons have been overwhelmingly fun.

[Taishyr]

---Character/Player---

1. How do you feel your character has turned out the past several levels? From a mechanical standpoint? An RP standpoint?  Do you feel you're pulling your load? Why or why not?
  From a mechanical standpoint? Um, fairly okay? Been kinda at a point where he has to reinvest in another class for more tricks semi-consistently in order to keep bringing something useful to the table, definitely feel least useful of the three as it stands but that's just because I'm more of a fighter in a mage's world at this point. RP standpoint, working out okay; he's gotten over some hangups and is generally getting better, my own issues are probably more to blame for any hang up there.
2. How do you get along with the other players? Good points, bad points, hangups, irritations, praise?
  Cor and Eb are fine; my bad moods tend to accentuate my flareups and I'd just request patience/understanding re: those. Really sorry about that as it's not fair to ask you guys to deal with them, but.
  (I'll explain a bit more in chat if you guys want, though I think you've all heard at least some of it.)
3. Where do you see your character going? How do you see that enabling them to get where you want them to go, both mechanically and RP-wise? Do you feel you can reach this as it stands now?
  Frankly, I have no clue; partially this is because I'm not 100% sure what the question is asking, but presuming I read it right (what do you want them doing in the future/how will you get there?), I don't honestly have a clue.

---World/Plot---

4. What are the adventures and situations you've enjoyed lately(Last 3-4 levels, say?)? Why?
  The resort quests for the fourth (time land!) and the first (Gnomish MITHRIL HAX.) Kinda wished Time Land had stayed around, I wanted to explore the city some more. Maybe it got deposited all somewhere else? That was the implication, at least, but Deme has no good way of finding it so.
5. What are the adventures and situations you've not enjoyed lately? Why?
  Winterwight fight. The prep to it looked like it would have been fun, Plane of Fire being somewhere that I've no opinion on/might enjoy and all. The fight pissed me off on multiple levels and I somewhat just went AFK during the entire fight as a result. Seriously, when the fight probably just could've been handled with Sword of the Sealed Gate + Greater Invis + Greater Mirror Image, and despite all preparations I could reasonably take I pretty much didn't die by sheer luck? Despite defense being my strong suit? Rubs the wrong way. While I understand quite well that their abilities/defensive tricks need to have some use, it's just sort of "uh" on my end to see that a ninth-level mage could have done the tanking job far better than an seventeenth level cleric/fighter HP/AC buffer hybrid could.

  This isn't getting into the questions of mobility, which was brought up as something I need to work on - I simply cannot compete with Dimension Door/Teleport abuse unless I deliberately invest all my financial resources toward being able to duplicate these, Fly, and a bunch of other things, and that's a shitton of resources to pour toward this. Going to get something that at least makes my move speed 30', but even that doesn't compete with flying speeds/capabilities. IOW I'd really rather not pour all my money into being able to pretend I'm a shitty facsimile of a arcane spellcaster thx. >_> (I know, this really isn't what you guys are insinuating, and I'm not angry about the mobility part of this. It's simply just kinda impractical for me to try and keep up like that as it stands, when I can improve what I actually -can do- a whole lot more cost-effectively.)

6. What could I do to get more of the good and less of the bad? Why?
7. What could other players do to get less of the bad and more of the good? Why?
8. What could you do to get more good and less bad? Why?
  Don't really know how to answer these; in some ways I'm not sure much can be done except "let's play the game and see what happens from there, fine-tune if something seems to really be hitting sour and run with whatever hits sweet". I think the best I can say here is maybe Alicia can figure out some non-G/E planar stuff to invest in, Deme can make sure he comes with when she does want to run on either of those? I'm willing to give - believe me - but I'd want to know that it's going somewhere and not just be having to roll with whatever.

9. What parts of the world/plot do you want to see more of IC? OOC?
   World of Balmuria! Yes, I know, this is obvious. Since I know Alicia likes the planar stuff more... Well, honestly, Deme wouldn't be averse to visiting Ysgard, and that seems to be a popular one with them? Really, though I'm not inclined toward "exploring" the E-type zones or doing much with them unless it's, say, trying to eliminate Agares or such, I'm willing to accompany Alicia/Seira on whatever planar travels do happen (and I think I agree with Seira in the non-G/E planes being pretty okay, at least thus far!). I will very rarely suggest it myself, but that doesn't mean I'll not go with by any stretch of the means.
10. What parts of the world/plot do you want to see less of IC? OOC?
   Well. I think my answer's pretty obvious, but bluntly it conflicts with Alicia and I can live with the devil/demon fighting. I just -really- don't want that to become the entire focus. Iunno, see my grouped 6-7-8 response in part. Personally (and after some thought) doing stuff with the elemental planes via the four portals and repairing them would be cool, and Alicia seems to have some interest in that as well. Yes I realise I just wandered back to the previous question don't judge me! ;_;
11. How's the tone of the game? Too dark? Too light?
   ...eh. Iunno, on this one. In general it feels like most of what new changes occur in Balmuriaworld are darker (world beyond mountains is Tarrasque-festered, Kesse-area is pretty much a bloodfield waiting to happen unless Seira/whoever assists (Deme's fine with trying, but isn't holding his breath) manages to pull off a miracle. I mean, the wastelands make sense, but Kesse/tarrasque lands both seem... to not be tied to the gnomish issues, so both of them being emo's kinda odd. I mean, from a pacing standpoint I get it, there has to be something to do in general, buut... eh. Iunno, five tons of flax.
12. How's the content level? We average around a PG-13, with a light R whenever succubi or Ysgard shows up, is this where you're comfortable? Would you prefer higher or lower levels?
   Content level's fine to me? Wouldn't care if we went higher or lower, just don't expect me to do anything other then segue into fadetoblacks whenever Deme gets it on with Polly.

--DMing--

13. How has my DMing been? Good? Bad? Consistent? Inconsistent? Why? Give examples if possible.
   Let me put it this way. If I haven't complained about it on here? You're doing fine. This means that 98-99% is just fine.
14. How do you feel I've handled everything, both IC and OOC-wise? Have I been pushing for gaming too hard? Not enough? Has there been any friction you'd like to air out?
   Honestly? I'd really just like to get a schedule going. Hate not being 100% sure if we're gaming or not/what time/beginning to plan other stuff and suddenly getting prodded into #e because apparently why yes we are gaming today but where is Tai? I realize part of this is my fault for not just saying no, but I usually end up feeling like I'm dragging everyone else back if I'm not there every time you three are.

   This isn't an issue that the "Won't be here" topic will/can fix because that only covers unexpected timing issues and whatnot. I'm probably alone in this, but I don't really like gaming 6 days of the week, so whenever that ends up happening I get kinda stressed after a point.
15. Is there anything you'd like me to stop doing as a DM?
   Not really, off the top of my head?
16. How have my rulings been? Are they reasonable and fair? Do you feel I'm staying reasonably impartial?
   Will avoid commenting on things others have brought up... In general, yeah. I mean, we've definitely hit the point where Deme tends to be just barely keeping up, but that's not an issue with anything but Deme being more fightanswinger than the rest of the cast in a system where magery's rewarded. *shrug* I'll make other comments later based on what Cor/Eb have said, but.
17. How has my encounter design been? Are the fights doing it for you?
   Sometimes. See the Winterwight comment.
18. Are there enough quests and hooks going around? Too few? Too many?
   At this point, yeah, especially if the group as a whole can generate interest in more than one. Part of the issue is that some hooks just kinda hit me as solo interest which is kinda hard to follow up on in a group game.
19. How's the loot distro been? Do you guys feel like you need less or more loot?
   You're asking PCs if they need more loot? ...Seriously, however, it's been pretty okay? Wouldn't mind seeing some more, wouldn't be miffed if there was less, but there's only so much you can do unless we go back to creative ways to upgrade weapons/armor and stuff, like you guys were apparently doing before I stepped in. >_>
20. How's my dungeon/area design been? Tips for improvement?
   This has been just fine, honestly. Usually like the areas, esp. the gnomish ruins/similar.

--Misc--

21. Anything else to add that wasn't covered?
   After rereading through all this I have an image of Earthbound, except instead of Dungeon Man it's Dungeon Ko. >_>

I'm avoiding one set of things I'd like to say and that's just because you've said not to respond to other people's posts so I'm waiting. >_> <_<


EDIT: Additional comment to 6/7/8:
In fairness, part of this? Whenever devils/demons/NEs come onto the scene, they are always a Large Threat that Must Be Dealt With Immediately. This isn't Eb or Alicia, this is the very point of what they are. And part of what we've dealt with for a long while? A large, tense/overwhelming devil threat. That the game's felt slanted toward them of late doesn't surprise me as much, after having gone "durr that makes sense" on this. (This also means that I realize now why Alicia's been so focused on them; yes, it's been one devil, but it's been spread out over multiple levels/whatnot, and it has been a constant threat. My mentality has been just to deal whenever he showed up, but if you're any more proactive than that it's hard to not make that a pressing force.)

[Anastasia]

I'll do Deme first since he's the only one awake/around at the moment. Once I do all three replies, feel free to reply to others and get into it if you want, everyone. I wanted everyone to have a chance to speak before it got into finer details.

---Character/Player---

1. How do you feel your character has turned out the past several levels? From a mechanical standpoint? An RP standpoint?  Do you feel you're pulling your load? Why or why not?
  From a mechanical standpoint? Um, fairly okay? Been kinda at a point where he has to reinvest in another class for more tricks semi-consistently in order to keep bringing something useful to the table, definitely feel least useful of the three as it stands but that's just because I'm more of a fighter in a mage's world at this point. RP standpoint, working out okay; he's gotten over some hangups and is generally getting better, my own issues are probably more to blame for any hang up there.

Mmm.  That's probably some of it, though I'd also contend it's because your damage has fallen behind the curve.  More to hit will help fix this, since that means more PA and more damage.  I'd consider looking into something like wounding to help accelerate your effective damage output.  

3. Where do you see your character going? How do you see that enabling them to get where you want them to go, both mechanically and RP-wise? Do you feel you can reach this as it stands now?
  Frankly, I have no clue; partially this is because I'm not 100% sure what the question is asking, but presuming I read it right (what do you want them doing in the future/how will you get there?), I don't honestly have a clue.

One thing of note is that while you don't have to have a grand map of what you want to do, some goals can help you do things you want to do and influence the game. This also reflects mechanically; knowing what you're going to take and having your mind made up lets you focus on bringing out the best that you can in what you're taking. You can make better choices that way.

---World/Plot---

4. What are the adventures and situations you've enjoyed lately(Last 3-4 levels, say?)? Why?
  The resort quests for the fourth (time land!) and the first (Gnomish MITHRIL HAX.) Kinda wished Time Land had stayed around, I wanted to explore the city some more. Maybe it got deposited all somewhere else? That was the implication, at least, but Deme has no good way of finding it so.

Does this indicate a preference for dungeon-esque scenarios, or is that just coincidental?

5. What are the adventures and situations you've not enjoyed lately? Why?
  Winterwight fight. The prep to it looked like it would have been fun, Plane of Fire being somewhere that I've no opinion on/might enjoy and all. The fight pissed me off on multiple levels and I somewhat just went AFK during the entire fight as a result. Seriously, when the fight probably just could've been handled with Sword of the Sealed Gate + Greater Invis + Greater Mirror Image, and despite all preparations I could reasonably take I pretty much didn't die by sheer luck? Despite defense being my strong suit? Rubs the wrong way. While I understand quite well that their abilities/defensive tricks need to have some use, it's just sort of "uh" on my end to see that a ninth-level mage could have done the tanking job far better than an seventeenth level cleric/fighter HP/AC buffer hybrid could.

To be fair, with it's charging and the mage's damage output, it would get through MI sooner or later and once a hit or two lands, the rape train begins.  In it's way, taking that abuse was proof of how good a tank you are. Most PCs of the same level would've sputtered away and died under that onslaught, let along the blight-fire that followed. Not that this is much consolation to you or even really addressing the fundamental point you made.  I mean, yeah, you helped enable a decent defense with the ghost touch armor spells and went full defensive and it didn't really work.  Contrast that with how you reacted when you managed to shut down the Mithral Golem and it says all that needs to be said.

This isn't getting into the questions of mobility, which was brought up as something I need to work on - I simply cannot compete with Dimension Door/Teleport abuse unless I deliberately invest all my financial resources toward being able to duplicate these, Fly, and a bunch of other things, and that's a shitton of resources to pour toward this. Going to get something that at least makes my move speed 30', but even that doesn't compete with flying speeds/capabilities. IOW I'd really rather not pour all my money into being able to pretend I'm a shitty facsimile of a arcane spellcaster thx. >_> (I know, this really isn't what you guys are insinuating, and I'm not angry about the mobility part of this. It's simply just kinda impractical for me to try and keep up like that as it stands, when I can improve what I actually -can do- a whole lot more cost-effectively.)

I do think mobility will help you, or at least mobility denial. At this point in the game, flying's common enough where you either need to be able to fly or have an effective ranged game. Not being able to fly inhibits Deme further, since it interferes with him getting close and tanking. Wings of Flying are within your expense range and I think would help. As for teleport? I mentioned in chat that the Sword of the Sealed Gate might help. Alternately, look up feats like Spellcasting Harrier in epic, or a weapon enhancement that does something to prevent things from easily teleporting away from you.

I'd see it as not blowing all your money to mimic an arcane caster, but making sure you can continue to do your job well. It doesn't matter if you improve if they can still just fly/teleport right away from you, y'know?

Also, if there's not a splatbook spell that addresses this, maybe you could look into designing a spell to help you here?

9. What parts of the world/plot do you want to see more of IC? OOC?
   World of Balmuria! Yes, I know, this is obvious. Since I know Alicia likes the planar stuff more... Well, honestly, Deme wouldn't be averse to visiting Ysgard, and that seems to be a popular one with them? Really, though I'm not inclined toward "exploring" the E-type zones or doing much with them unless it's, say, trying to eliminate Agares or such, I'm willing to accompany Alicia/Seira on whatever planar travels do happen (and I think I agree with Seira in the non-G/E planes being pretty okay, at least thus far!). I will very rarely suggest it myself, but that doesn't mean I'll not go with by any stretch of the means.

(More on world of Balmuria stuff below when you bring some other points up.)

For a mostly good aligned party, there's not too much to do in the evil planes but fight evil there. You're essentially right there.  And yeah, the non good/evil planes are interesting in their own ways. Elemental Fire was fun, Ooze was an amusing cameo(What does an erinyes that doesn't eat throw up?) and Mechanus was fun all the way around.

10. What parts of the world/plot do you want to see less of IC? OOC?
   Well. I think my answer's pretty obvious, but bluntly it conflicts with Alicia and I can live with the devil/demon fighting. I just -really- don't want that to become the entire focus. Iunno, see my grouped 6-7-8 response in part. Personally (and after some thought) doing stuff with the elemental planes via the four portals and repairing them would be cool, and Alicia seems to have some interest in that as well. Yes I realise I just wandered back to the previous question don't judge me! ;_;

Okay. This ties in somewhat with the bit about having a plan. Work these things out so you have an agenda to pursue. If you're reactive, you're going to go along with what happens and what other people make happen instead of your own ideas and interests. This isn't a problem if you're a follower, but if you want to do your own spheres of interest this is important.

11. How's the tone of the game? Too dark? Too light?
   ...eh. Iunno, on this one. In general it feels like most of what new changes occur in Balmuriaworld are darker (world beyond mountains is Tarrasque-festered, Kesse-area is pretty much a bloodfield waiting to happen unless Seira/whoever assists (Deme's fine with trying, but isn't holding his breath) manages to pull off a miracle. I mean, the wastelands make sense, but Kesse/tarrasque lands both seem... to not be tied to the gnomish issues, so both of them being emo's kinda odd. I mean, from a pacing standpoint I get it, there has to be something to do in general, buut... eh. Iunno, five tons of flax.

I'd say the changes to your home area are lighter - you guys run the show pretty much - but the expansions vary. For example, Telerath was fairly ordered and positive. As for Kesse? It is what it is. You're also right; it isn't really tied to much else you're doing. There's no impetuous to fuck around in it's affairs if you don't want to. Ditto with past the eastern mountains. I realize this rings a bit hollow when both of these are the big frontiers of the land. You're also right, some of it's a matter of making scenarios to challenge you guys.

If you're curious, I designed past the mountains and Kesse independently of each other. The fact that both are dark is coincidental and not meant to discourage you from searching about.

12. How's the content level? We average around a PG-13, with a light R whenever succubi or Ysgard shows up, is this where you're comfortable? Would you prefer higher or lower levels?
   
Content level's fine to me? Wouldn't care if we went higher or lower, just don't expect me to do anything other then segue into fadetoblacks whenever Deme gets it on with Polly.

Ditto. It's about right where I wanted it. Something like Alicia's trip to the Abyss was more graphic than I'd prefer. Going past a light R(Not counting nudity when reasonably situational) isn't something I'm enthused about unless it's absolutely required. It was in Alicia's trip, so...eh. As long as you don't make the fate of the world hang on how you get Pollyanna off, we're golden.

--DMing--

14. How do you feel I've handled everything, both IC and OOC-wise? Have I been pushing for gaming too hard? Not enough? Has there been any friction you'd like to air out?
   Honestly? I'd really just like to get a schedule going. Hate not being 100% sure if we're gaming or not/what time/beginning to plan other stuff and suddenly getting prodded into #e because apparently why yes we are gaming today but where is Tai? I realize part of this is my fault for not just saying no, but I usually end up feeling like I'm dragging everyone else back if I'm not there every time you three are.

   This isn't an issue that the "Won't be here" topic will/can fix because that only covers unexpected timing issues and whatnot. I'm probably alone in this, but I don't really like gaming 6 days of the week, so whenever that ends up happening I get kinda stressed after a point.

What days/how many days a week do you prefer?

19. How's the loot distro been? Do you guys feel like you need less or more loot?
   You're asking PCs if they need more loot? ...Seriously, however, it's been pretty okay? Wouldn't mind seeing some more, wouldn't be miffed if there was less, but there's only so much you can do unless we go back to creative ways to upgrade weapons/armor and stuff, like you guys were apparently doing before I stepped in. >_>

I can do this on occasion, but it's segued more into giving you powers and letting you guys use loot to buy what you want. You guys were overlooted for a long while, but I think NPCs getting more money and levelling up as helped bring this back down to earth. Not all the way, but a good ways down. Seira's capture also made a serious depression in the retained party loot. I was really hoping none of you would say more loot with a serious face.

20. How's my dungeon/area design been? Tips for improvement?
   This has been just fine, honestly. Usually like the areas, esp. the gnomish ruins/similar.

Thanks. I really try to put a lot of work into making interesting dungeons and areas.

EDIT: Additional comment to 6/7/8:
In fairness, part of this? Whenever devils/demons/NEs come onto the scene, they are always a Large Threat that Must Be Dealt With Immediately. This isn't Eb or Alicia, this is the very point of what they are. And part of what we've dealt with for a long while? A large, tense/overwhelming devil threat. That the game's felt slanted toward them of late doesn't surprise me as much, after having gone "durr that makes sense" on this. (This also means that I realize now why Alicia's been so focused on them; yes, it's been one devil, but it's been spread out over multiple levels/whatnot, and it has been a constant threat. My mentality has been just to deal whenever he showed up, but if you're any more proactive than that it's hard to not make that a pressing force.)

They're called Yugoloths, Tai.  Ultroloth, Arcanaloth, ect. The being known as Sammael is possibly one, but that's in the level of mentioned once and is a cosmic mystery. They reside in Gehenna, the Four-Fold Furnace.  It's also where Zetsubokou apparently got into the multiverse. It's also NE with lawful leanings, so the devils have some sway there. </lesson>

Yeah, for a while things were slanted to them. The invasion+Antenora's touched off a ton of devil related problems for you guys. It gets said in game sometimes and it's really true. Your names are beyond mud in Baator; you've foiled Hell several times and committed a high crime or two. Of course, when someone gets the attention of the devils, other devils look to move in to take advantage of twist things and...well, you know. It all tends to snowball. If you compare how Gurlan has acted vis-a-vis Hell? He's made a few pests of himself but that's it. Hell is persistent. Hell hates you from the lowest lemure to the highest pit fiend. It's what makes Hell so terrifying and dominating.  It also makes them spotlight hogs. <_<

Alicia understood that, but paradoxically it makes things worse. The more you resist Hell, the more it tries to snuff you out like a candle in the night.  I do hope, that besides whenever you guys go along to help put out Agares for good, that there's a downplay in deviltry for awhile.  You've smashed the threat and it should take some time to rebuild. Hopefully.

[Anastasia]

1. How do you feel your character has turned out the past several levels? From a mechanical standpoint? An RP standpoint?  Do you feel you're pulling your load? Why or why not?

Well, I had to rebuild my character because she was too good. Fortunately the new look Alicia isn't that huge a divergence, so it's been pretty seamless, and thus far has held up well to the few battles we've had since the change. To be honest it might even work out better since I'm no longer married to full attackan, although once everyone grabs dire charge in epic that may start to hurt.

You do have a good mobility game without quite so much nearly unlimited damage.  You're definitely still the cannon of the group. This makes you and Antenora even more alike. <Flavor with your own twins/lesbian joke of choice>

2. How do you get along with the other players? Good points, bad points, hangups, irritations, praise?

To be honest, I've lately been thinking that Alicia doesn't really mesh with the party that well. Her high and mighty morality often causes hassle, and she's neck deep in planar stuff that Cor and Tai hate. Admittedly, I happen to like the planes myself, but I could easily play a character with no particular interest there. Unfortunately I'm rather fond of playing Alicia, so barring her untimely demise, there's no real solution in that direction.

Agreed to the last part.  For the rest? I think Alicia meshes in her own way well, but...mmm. You know how in Baldur's Gate 2 the party constantly banters, argues and the like? Even if you have incompatible PCs, they can get along for awhile as they're working towards greater goals. It's like that. Even if you are not meshing(Which I dissent with), going along and getting along is important. I think that you're feeling like Alicia doesn't mesh because you feel a bit offput by the disagreements and it's like being rejected a bit. Some of Cor's stuff touches on the same thing.

Oh yeah, don't try and kill Seira when she picks up the half drow template.

3. Where do you see your character going? How do you see that enabling them to get where you want them to go, both mechanically and RP-wise? Do you feel you can reach this as it stands now?

Alicia's all about the killing dudes. I was really banking on getting access to Limited Wish so I could contribute more to the Sim City aspect of building stuff, but as things stand all I can really do on that score is toss money at shit, which isn't terribly satisfying.

Yeah, I need to post on Limited Wish soon. I'll do that...tonight. No, seriously, feel free to call me a lamer if I haven't.

4. What are the adventures and situations you've enjoyed lately(Last 3-4 levels, say?)? Why?

Infiltrating Kesse was lots of fun. I really enjoyed the sneakiness of covering my tracks and integrating myself into the population there, spying on the castle and working towards creating a long term base of operations and ring of informants that would put us in perfect position to knock over the evil royals when the time came. Things kind of got wrecked by events before my plans could come to fruition, but it was fun while it lasted.

Fighting the Spawn of Jormungandr was cool, since I had to do it with none of my equipment - I like the challenge that represents, forcing you to improvise stuff and make the best use of your innate talents to win the day. If we'd done that adventure normally no way would I have done stuff like improvising a pick from a hunk of wood and a monster fang, or having Anty bash together a bigass ghetto-sword of cold iron. And then once you win without all the usual conveniences and buffs, it feels so much more satisfying.

Winterwight prep (although the fight itself was rather underwhelming). I liked that it was such a badass threat that we had to scramble around for any advantage we could use in the time we had before confronting it - we haven't really done that since Kondrux.

You really seem to enjoy using your noggin for puzzle solving and working outside the box. All of those were situations where you had to adapt and work outside the norm to achieve your goals.  It strikes me that you like to be challenged that way. It helps that you're also good at it and it shows.

5. What are the adventures and situations you've not enjoyed lately? Why?

The shocker lizard cull was pretty dull, sadly. Even with their cheating electrical death blasts, there was no meaningful challenge there. It led up to finding the Earth Elementals and more important stuff happened with that, at least.

Digging to find the Kesse temple was also something of an exercise in tedium. I get that you wanted us to go there via Shadow Walk, but the place just felt so illogical in that it required their highest level dude to use his most powerful spell to act as a taxi for every random loser cultist.

The shocker lizard cull was meant to be setup for the scenario and a chance to do something cool. You guys waded into a small army of the fuckers and helped clean house. That's pretty cool even if it wasn't challenging. As for the temple? It was meant to be sealed away. Goddess of Secrets and all that. It's not 'logical' in the sense that we would think of it and it's a pain the ass.  But it fits and it probably gets Shar's black balls all tight and heavy, so whatever.  I also thought the way you guys blasted in was cool and not tedious.

The whole Neve affair was something of an annoyance, since I enjoyed interacting with her and then she got taken off limits. I'm leaving it alone in the interests of party harmony, although it'll suck if she shows up later and asks pointed questions about my position on all that transpired.

I think it's best for everyone if we let that sleeping dog lie.

9. What parts of the world/plot do you want to see more of IC? OOC?

Since I'm in a minority on liking the planar stuff, I think we need more 'epic' stuff on the prime material. The fact is, most of the big bads are out in the planes, so that's what we'll typically be fighting if we want an appropriate challenge.

It's easy enough to just unseal random epic liches and dragons and whatnot, I guess, but should we end up competing against equivalently levelled humanoid foes, I think it's very important to build them up properly. I get that Shar and Secrecy go hand in hand, but it was a big disappointment with Kesse that we were taking down the hapless inoffensive royal family, as far as everyone else was concerned. If they'd been villains with good publicity it's one thing, but to the rest of the world they were pretty much non-entities. Considering how our personal lives are matters of routine gossip for a thousand miles around, I'd want to have any prospective rivals be just as renowned, so that our confrontations with them can carry some real dramatic weight.

Yeah, I agree. The need to focus on the outer planes awhile was a flaw of the game design. You guys dealt with all the threads in the area and there wasn't much left that could deal with you. The planar focused helped me largely ignore that. Evil outsiders make good baddies and can compete with your power level. I've been doing some of that with the planar baddies, but yeah, not so much otherwise. I get what you're saying.

10. What parts of the world/plot do you want to see less of IC? OOC?

I think there's an important balancing act that needs to be done with the rest of the world. It's disheartening to visit the kingdom over the hill and discover that they're super awesome and way better than us in every manner, but at the same time I feel deeply uncomfortable with 'bringing civilisation to the savages' type encounters. Kesse and its surrounding environs worked well in that respect in that they feel like legitimate civilizations with their own good points and bad points, full of normal people that wouldn't be out of place back home.

I have some thoughts on this one but I'm having trouble manifesting them. I'll come back to it later.

12. How's the content level? We average around a PG-13, with a light R whenever succubi or Ysgard shows up, is this where you're comfortable? Would you prefer higher or lower levels?

Yes, even when they're not slutting it up, the succubi still manage to raise our rating purely through profane language. I think we're fine in this regard.

The best part is thiniking up insults like 'gurgling balor piss'. It's fun!

15. Is there anything you'd like me to stop doing as a DM?

Banning or nerfing stuff I want to use! More seriously, I'd actually like to see save or dies allowed back in. We're getting to the point where rezzing isn't that out of reach, and also where stuff can maul us to death with hp damage in one full attack, anyway. Maybe nerf them a little and say a failed save puts you at -9 and not stabilised so there's a chance for rescue?

I banned instant death for what's two reasons. Firstly, a no easy ressing game is anathema to these. Losing a PC you've played for months on one failed save is hideously unfair. Secondly, I think they're lame.  The PCs can use them to have a chance to mow down big threats unless they're protected, which means it's another thing I have to make absolutely sure they can handle. For baddies, it's rolling the dice with your PCs lives. Yeah, that's a lot of what D and D is, but c'mon.

Cor and Tai, what do you two think?

16. How have my rulings been? Are they reasonable and fair? Do you feel I'm staying reasonably impartial?

I mentioned this to you in PM the other day, but it bears repeating. Spellgems. They're horribly broken, and I find their inclusion all the more baffling when you ban stuff like runestaves and rings of evasion, citing a dislike for anything that allows you to gain extra spells or class features for cash.

They're a relic of when I wasn't all that hot at 3.5 design. I don't think the concept is broken, I think the problem is buying them on demand. That was a bad move on my part and one I regret. I was talking about this to Cor last night and we went 'round and 'round with it. I don't think one or two dropped by the DM are all that problematic since that's fully within my control to deal with. But yes, they very easily become what you say.

Also, I think I cling to them a bit because I'm fond of the idea and stubborn, no matter how bad it might be.

17. How has my encounter design been? Are the fights doing it for you?

I think stuff is pretty appropriately challenging, for the most part, but I get the feeling you sometimes treat us with kid gloves and ease off, either by having an enemy abruptly change tactics/switch targets to ignore a heavily wounded PC, or not use abilities that it plainly could and even should be using.

From chat:  There is one point I want to address offhand. The bit about enemies holding back? Take the winterwight - it could've iced Deme, but it was getting drubbed and doing so would've left it risking death. Do I play it as a smart creature who wants to try changing up a strategy that's not working, or as a mindless killer who exists only to try and kill PCs and die? If the former, it may look like I'm holding back. If the latter? The enemies are fighting stupid/suicidally.

Also, as an addendium? Sometimes I do miss things or a monster is changed so they don't have that particular power. These things happen. I know this sounds defensive, but...eeeeehhhh.  I don't hold back on you guys. God only knows I spend enough time trying to find ways to kill you fairly. <_<

[Anastasia]

Note that I didn't reply to some parts of this, as it's stuff that fundamentally inter-PC.

On planes and why I don't like them in general. That's not actually quite true. I only don't like the Good/Evil axis, so stuff like Fire is just fine. I originally liked the concept very much, but continued exposure to them changed my opinion. The evil is Always Chaotic Evil, even the devils, and any dealings with them (including killing them) feel pointless. The good is Good via Informed Ability and while I approve of their actions, unlike those of the fiends, I don't enjoy spending too much time with them. I'll get into the why later. The neutrals... just want to kill me, and their laws say it's okay. I think that's enough said. More directly, Planar Evil is endless and infinite, and killing some Evil figurehead merely causes a change in administration. I see that as pointless. Planar Neutral is bland and its rules are not geared to Good by any definition (bad pun, I know), I see little reason to help it. Planar Good clashes with my Good (again, more on this following), and as such, I'm trying to avoid friction between myself and the Planar Good since we're still on the same side even if I disagree with many of their attitudes and actions and approaches to things.

You're hitting against the divide of fighting evil versus the immortal problem and concept of evil in the multiverse. Killing a thousand-million balors won't win the Blood War or destroy the Abyss. You're only killing symptoms of evil, not the root causes. Yet these are battles that have to be fought, lest evil goes unchecked. Killing the true figureheads might do so, if you somehow gain that amount of power. But even then, there's still the evil planes drawing evil souls to itself.

When you start talking about Planar Good, you're talking about something that works on different levels than you do. Planar Good does fight evil and has it's times and chances, but fundamentally, it's tied up in the cosmic battle. For example, you seem to dislike that celestials prefer to have mortals do the heavy work and encourage them on. It's not about letting evil run free or letting harm be done. It's about fostering Good in mortal souls. It brings souls to them and saves them from other fates. It's not a matter of one being the correct Good, it's simply that they're focused on the problem of Evil, while you're dealing with the symptoms of evil. Lowercase very intentional.

Deme may have some comments here, as I know he doesn't like outsiders much and this touches on some of why.

(EDIT: I freely admit I'm also trying to make this a discussion by taking that particular stance.

At times, I'm just not sure if my opinions are seen as acceptable. I know that on several occasions, while discussing alignment/ethics-related things with you, Dune, you told me I was reaching (which was true enough on some of my arguments, fair enough) and close-minded. I honestly don't mind being told that the gameworld doesn't work the way I think it does/should, it's not a problem whatsoever. What is a problem for me is when I feel that I might be getting dismissed altogether. There's a world of difference between an alternate but acceptable/possible interpretation of things and just being this weirdo who doesn't 'get' it. More often than not, I'm not evil or naive or stupid but just see some things differently. If they don't work IC, I can live with that. If I start getting the feeling my fellow players and my GM think it was obvious and I'm one of those for not acting 'appropriately', it can get depressing for a while. I'd really like to know how you and the other PCs see me here.

Well. Hm.

You have a tendency to see things in a black and white.  A certain...mmm. A monovision? This can blind you at times to things that you should probably catch. As the DM, I can't really tell you when you're missing something. It was pretty painful to watch how that scene with Neve degenerated and it felt like you kept doing the worst possible thing...but I couldn't intervene. It's not trying to be too dismissive, just...mmmm. More on this later, I suspect the others will have their own comments here and I'm mulling this over.

Even if we don't do it ourselves, as long as we remain involved in some way, perhaps by deploying the second string team and provide diplomatic support, say, it would be fine for me.

This is happening already. There's very much a second tier of the guard - Xavier, Morund, Darill, Pollyanna, Abagail, Eudard, ect, that deal with some of the things you're not.  

This bears repeating. I like the game a lot. The above are irritants that are minor at best. If it may seem otherwise at times, it is because people don't complain about things they like. If you need any examples, Dune, all you have to do is recall how I constantly bug you about this person or that, this element of the world or that, this future quest or that. Trust me, I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't like them or didn't find them interesting or engaging or any of that. Quite a lot of them aren't just things that apply to me personally, but to us as a group. The same applies to Tai and Eb, even though I talk to them about the game far less. It is nevertheless true.

Tangential, but sometimes I ask one of you if you PM each other much and the answer is usually no. I wonder why you guys don't chat/plan together more? Maybe this ties into some of the feelings of separation between the three of you?

Questions from Cor coming in the next post.

[Anastasia]

Hopefully this one will be short since I've covered some of this already.

1. How do you feel your character has turned out the past several levels? From a mechanical standpoint? An RP standpoint?  Do you feel you're pulling your load? Why or why not?

Sometimes. After Alicia's rebuild, I no longer feel like she can solo everything without a plan, which makes me feel useful since I can be part of things. My save DCs and chances to pass SR are sucky as hell, and I'm saying it as a wizard with Int 33. We just face awesome opponents, I guess. I'm trying to do something about the SR, saves might balance out in epic, but I'd appreciate doing something for my breath weapon. Maybe after my dragon quest I could be counted as fully draconic for purposes of HD? I dunno.

Yeah, your breath weapon DC does need help. No argument there.

You guys fight a few CR above your level which means higher saves. This hurts and compounds the issue of SR and saves even more than they already are, which tends to cycle into giving your spells problem. So yeah, basically you guys fight awesome opponents.

4. What are the adventures and situations you've enjoyed lately(Last 3-4 levels, say?)? Why?

Plane of Fire quest, Arondaaq sealing, control base 4. Some of the world-building, friendship-making stuff.

Yeah, you really seemed to enjoy sealing Arondaaq. It was pretty cool and you got to do something awesome and save an entire area of the world.  You really felt like an archmage there changing something incredibly powerful with just her knowledge and skill.

5. What are the adventures and situations you've not enjoyed lately? Why?

Not lately, but anything that reminds me of one failure of mine or another. Like demons coming and telling people whose opinion I care about that they work for me and causing them to doubt me, however briefly. Any situation which negates my opinion or beliefs or places lower value on them than those of others, particularly if its an in-your-face case.

Demons are assholes, story at 11!

Seriously, yeah, that makes sense. That's a lot of why Neve stung so hard?

6. What could I do to get more of the good and less of the bad? Why?

Be honest with me. I don't know about softening the blow in combat, but you tend to avoid telling us straight out when something doesn't work until you're at your limit. There's nothing wrong with being upfront about things long before that. In fact, I would very much like to see it. Related to this, I would like to purchase the Common Sense trait from the White Wolf system, as I've told you before.

Okay, if you like, I'll try and be more up front.

What does Common Sense do in White Wolf?

9. What parts of the world/plot do you want to see more of IC? OOC?

The other parts of the world, because they're out there.

I remember your idea of a flying ship and just going around mapping the fuck out of the world. Something like that could be fun, there's still lots of lands to the west of Kesse and who knows what beyond the oceans?

10. What parts of the world/plot do you want to see less of IC? OOC?

People who are on my side but expect me to bow down to them based on reputation and status. That's bullshit.  >_>

There's a difference between bowing down and showing the proper respect. I mean, you really should be respectful to a being that's fundamentally holiness given flesh, like Romiel. It's just good manners, it doesn't mean you have to grovel before them. When you start to bicker with someone like that - in front of poor Latha no less - it makes you look like a rude cur.

11. How's the tone of the game? Too dark? Too light?

It tends to be consistent and then someone gets raped or horrible torture occurs. It always seemed jarring and sudden to me in transition. I'm not sure how to fix it, or even if there's a need to fix it.

Yeah, I hit this in chat, but it's about where it should be.

12. How's the content level? We average around a PG-13, with a light R whenever succubi or Ysgard shows up, is this where you're comfortable? Would you prefer higher or lower levels?

As long as we don't go into X and make me cry, I'm fine with any level of content.

Aw, does that mean Amaryl can't ask you to use Locate Object on her clit?

*Runs*

But yeah, no intent of going that far.

15. Is there anything you'd like me to stop doing as a DM?

If you joke about Deme's harem or Alicia's admirers, you can't say anything when I joke in the same vein OOC. Just saying.  >_>

>_>

16. How have my rulings been? Are they reasonable and fair? Do you feel I'm staying reasonably impartial?

Since, as I've mentioned before, your outlook is much closer to Eb's than anyone else I can think of, and you consult him on D&D matters quite a bit, it sometimes creates a feeling of impartiality for me. I don't, however, think there is actual basis in it. Still, it's hard to be rid of at times, as I'm sure you've noticed from how I asked you a couple things, Dune.

There are things of disagreement, but you asked us not to respond to each other, and if I copy/paste my Spellgems argument it'll likely be that. I'll just wait on it.

It's compounded by the fact that Eb's really good at 3.5. Asking him something is normal since he's better than us...though yeah, I know where you're coming from.

17. How has my encounter design been? Are the fights doing it for you?

Mostly. Some just don't work through no fault of yours. Winterwight was a bit of a letdown on many levels, for example. The series of fights to get the mystic fire of Kossuth, however, have been immensely enjoyable, and I both got Slowed and couldn't SA shit.

Yeah, Alicia critting and getting her spell through(Natural 20 got the SR on the damn nose) really neutered that fight. From there you were able to deal with it's stalling attempts. Ah well, it happens. Glad to hear you enjoyed the fire fights, though!

18. Are there enough quests and hooks going around? Too few? Too many?

I'll put in a request for more alignment-neutral planes, more Prime-quests, more nation-building/society-improving stuff?

Okay.

Whew. Reply away now guys.

[Taishyr]

On planes and why I don't like them in general. That's not actually quite true. I only don't like the Good/Evil axis, so stuff like Fire is just fine. I originally liked the concept very much, but continued exposure to them changed my opinion. The evil is Always Chaotic Evil, even the devils, and any dealings with them (including killing them) feel pointless. The good is Good via Informed Ability and while I approve of their actions, unlike those of the fiends, I don't enjoy spending too much time with them. I'll get into the why later. The neutrals... just want to kill me, and their laws say it's okay. I think that's enough said. More directly, Planar Evil is endless and infinite, and killing some Evil figurehead merely causes a change in administration. I see that as pointless. Planar Neutral is bland and its rules are not geared to Good by any definition (bad pun, I know), I see little reason to help it. Planar Good clashes with my Good (again, more on this following), and as such, I'm trying to avoid friction between myself and the Planar Good since we're still on the same side even if I disagree with many of their attitudes and actions and approaches to things.

You're hitting against the divide of fighting evil versus the immortal problem and concept of evil in the multiverse. Killing a thousand-million balors won't win the Blood War or destroy the Abyss. You're only killing symptoms of evil, not the root causes. Yet these are battles that have to be fought, lest evil goes unchecked. Killing the true figureheads might do so, if you somehow gain that amount of power. But even then, there's still the evil planes drawing evil souls to itself.

When you start talking about Planar Good, you're talking about something that works on different levels than you do. Planar Good does fight evil and has it's times and chances, but fundamentally, it's tied up in the cosmic battle. For example, you seem to dislike that celestials prefer to have mortals do the heavy work and encourage them on. It's not about letting evil run free or letting harm be done. It's about fostering Good in mortal souls. It brings souls to them and saves them from other fates. It's not a matter of one being the correct Good, it's simply that they're focused on the problem of Evil, while you're dealing with the symptoms of evil. Lowercase very intentional.

Deme may have some comments here, as I know he doesn't like outsiders much and this touches on some of why.

(EDIT: I freely admit I'm also trying to make this a discussion by taking that particular stance.)

Quick reply to this before I focus on something else for the night. First, just C+P'ing what I told Dune in PM:
[20:05] <xorntoroispunchingouteveryone> right. (general response is that's sorta like saying hippies fight crime by improving cosmic vibrations while the policement actually have to do shit.)
[20:05] * Kotono laughs.
[20:05] <Kotono> I suppose that if the cosmic vibration shit is true, then yeah, sure.
[20:06] <xorntoroispunchingouteveryone> well, yes, but you aren't getting any support at all from the policemen who actually have to get their hands dirty. but as i said, i'll comment later.
[20:08] * Kotono nods.

Secondly, this is like saying that Evil has effectively double the potency: not only do its minions pretty much get and ream Prime Materials a new one while Good is "fostering Good in mortal souls" by letting them do all the work, they also get to pretty much force Good at bay just by uh being there.

First issue with this will be addressed with a comparison: Which boss do you like more, the one that occasionally comes by while you're busy shoveling shit and praises you on how well you're doing before wandering off, or the one that actually helps you in shoveling shit? For the most part, all that we get is the former; a few celestials have actually seen fit to join us, but by and large it's effectively the former result. http://www.viruscomix.com/page477.html 

IOWs, the Heavens effectively just act as cheerleaders; there is no noticeable effect or change or even any evidence of what they're doing, and it's handwaved as, as I put it, "improving cosmic vibrations". This is my biggest issue, both IC and OOC; it's why Deme's got a fair league of disdain for the Heavens on average. They came down to deal with a devil fortress, yes. Great. Then they, by and large, left, despite us having cleared out multiple devils and demons during that time period.

I also note that the human contingent, while likely incapable to have penetrated the fortress alone, was all but key in actually doing anything from most appearances - it was us breaking through and sealing the gate with one angel (who tends to work with us anyway!) acting as backup.

I guess what I'm mainly trying to drive at is that Good is Good because it's Good, and this... is a very annoying concept to have hovering above us, so to speak. "Okay now go kill this stuff please" "...uh, won't you help?" "Nope, sorry, too busy being Good"

I'll address more later. Right now, gonna go work on stuff.

(Will also deal with questions directed to me at that time)

[Corwin]

Cheerleaders? Bah, they're Starfleet. Or Ancients, depending on your favorite geeky scifi analogy. They've got their Prime Directive of valuing free will and letting people make the right choice without interference, but it doesn't fly for me when they do it while fiends actively intervene and fuck up the fairness of the choice to tilt it their way.

After a fairly long series of chats I asked you in PM what a Solar would do when witnessing a guy being tricked by a fiend out of his soul. Would he help? Would he cheerlead, to use Tai's expression? Would it make any difference if the fiend successfully tricking the person will directly result in human casualties? If he did help, would that be the right choice according to his superiors, or would he get chided for breaking their Prime Directive? I get that he'd feel very sad and heartbroken if the guy makes the wrong choice, although it doesn't seem to matter that a fiend would have an easy time winning social kombat against a regular dude.

The answer I got was that there were different levels of understanding what is good. And I can't speak against it, because Good gods just know better. Faced with this situation, I'd rather try to help the dude and ignore the celestials until they need my help against a common enemy.

Amusingly, the one angel who is helping us got promoted. Even though I was there for it, I like to imagine it went this way: "Congratulations, Latha! For all the good that you've done on Prime we're rewarding you by, err, sending you away. Yes, it's totally a promotion!"

[Corwin]

Well. Hm.

You have a tendency to see things in a black and white.  A certain...mmm. A monovision? This can blind you at times to things that you should probably catch. As the DM, I can't really tell you when you're missing something. It was pretty painful to watch how that scene with Neve degenerated and it felt like you kept doing the worst possible thing...but I couldn't intervene. It's not trying to be too dismissive, just...mmmm. More on this later, I suspect the others will have their own comments here and I'm mulling this over.

Sometimes. But this is a bit insulting when used for that case. I realized there was a high chance for failure in that case. I also misread some of the signs. In the end, I miscalculated. You present it, however, as if I was blinded by my focus and couldn't have possibly drawn the conclusions I had. As if I had no reason to expect the 'worst case scenario' to be different, since there were more than the two options of 'bow down to my will' and 'fight me'. I'll accept that I missed some (most?) of the signs. I won't accept no reasonable person could've drawn the conclusions I did from the situation and bet on a chance for success, or considered the consequences of failure at that junction to not have been that total. I didn't expect more than a setback, perhaps her cutting off all ties with me, but not more than that, and I think I had good reason to. You dismiss all of the above, however, and I dunno whether Eb or Tai do.

Also, I think that you can and should tell me when I'm missing something when I directly ask you if I am. Interrogating Neve got me, among other things, the knowledge that she hates on other fey such as unicorns. I did not know that. When she was going about that sort of thing, it seemed like her usual 'I'm better than you' fluff. You could tell me it's my fault. Or you could agree that giving me, say, a knowledge check or an int check might've helped deliver that information to me properly, and I might've reconsidered my course of action. We do things like that plenty. The most recent case I can think of was when Eb wanted to use water on the fire critters. There was no harm in letting him have a check to see what his character would think of the idea, but when I asked you during the Neve scene you kept telling me I should decide for myself. To me, that tells all the options are open and valid. I then asked you if you were giving me an IC way out, you again didn't tell me. I can't recall any of the NPCs telling me it might be a bad idea to visit unicorns with a winter fey, or telling me during the scene itself that it might be one of the factors. I might be hanging onto it more than I should, giving it inappropriate weight, but it's still a factor and it's a good example.

So to summarize, I don't get the sense that you even see that my view was possible. You call me defensive, which is entirely true, but I get defensive because I feel you don't accept my interpretation of the situation and events leading up to it. I accept that I was wrong, since it's kind of hard not to. It's the reasons leading up to me being wrong that I dispute, and I get offended when I'm called blind in that situation. My reasoning clashed with yours, trying to buy a clue didn't succeed. Other than changing, what else can I do?

And it would be impossible for me to take if this view was expressed IC in the game. Congrats to those who caught on, but I don't want to be needled about it.

[Corwin]

Spellgems. I see two basic approaches for them, and I'll try to briefly outline both.

One is that they are essentially SLAs granted to us by our friends, the elves, for friendship and aid and good service and as medals if you'd like. Replace our friends the elves with our friends in heavens, and it's much like what happens now. This relies heavily on the GM to decide what to give and how, but again, it is no different from what goes on now, except the source is different. Why would I personally care, then? Because I see it as an achievement of mortalkind.

The other is to, yes, sell them. First, a brief note. There has been no selling of spellgems thus far in the game. Everything that existed, existed in the form of what we found. Meaning, what the GM left for us to find.

That said. Let's avoid direct combat spells, and go with utility. Dimension Door is a very handy lvl4 spell. It gets more useful as effective CL rises, but for virtually all uses of it, the basic version is enough. A cloak of DD 1/day at CL9 is 10k. We've been using between x2.5 and x3 for slotless items rather than the standard x2 SRD guideline, and unless Dune doesn't want a slotless 'cloak' of DD for 25/30k, I can have a precious gem of DD 1/day at CL9 that I keep in my pocket.

When would that be different from a SLA? If I get taken alive, since slotless items are hard to sunder from within your pocket, or if some pro rogue steals it from me. I fully accept that both cases could happen, as each has happened to me in the game so far. Therefore, I would argue the utility of a gem you can eat is higher than a gem you keep in your pocket. I would be willing to pay x4 price for it, but not just for the extra utility, but also because I agree with Eb that innate awesome is cooler than awesome in a sock.

Where does this get us? We could argue a spellgem of DD 1/day is too good to have. In that case, however, the GM can arbitrate, and quite likely wouldn't let me have my slotless item of DD in the first place. We could argue the cost increase isn't enough; I view both cases where a spellgem works but a slotless item doesn't fringe and exotic, and probably wouldn't pay x6 normal price, say. However, I would want someone who does have the money to have the option to, if they feel like it.

When Eb says in the above post that the spellgems are horribly game-breaking, it's much like what he said in #ed that Persistent DMM'd per round spells like Divine Power are horribly broken. And they normally would be, but is that really the case for us? I think I made a decent argument to the contrary. I also see things slightly differently, by which I mean I'm not baffled by Dune banning rings of evasion but allowing this. A spellgem is a cooler, more innate way of casting a spell X times per day (usually once). It is still a spell in a jar, however, and not a class ability, which is what Dune has repeatedly stated he hates to see replicated with cash. Since we're on the subject, however, I do think that runestaves are more like spellgems and items containing spells (boots of stoneskin, amulets of shadow conjuration, etc). I wouldn't mind seeing them in principle. As with spellgems, as long as the player doesn't expect to buy anything out there as a given, but can submit requests to the GM to arbitrate, it'll work out.

[Ebiris]

I guess I'll chip in my tuppence on some of the stuff that's been brought up.

Regarding the planes, I'm honestly as fine with the elemental ones as the alignment ones. What I like about them is that they provide challenging foes, and larger than life fantastic environments. We can have the former show up more on the prime, but the latter is really hard to pull off in the 'real' world.

Also, I'm not really bothered at all by the fact that we can't 'win' against the fundamental forces of evil in the cosmos. Hell, I don't even really care about making our world into a perfect paradise nevermind fix everything everywhere. It just feels kinda weird that we're so special and unique and brilliant that we're able to fix endless problems that have plagued the world for all of history, and I far prefer a 'passing the torch' type ending where, having done our bit and made things a little bit better, we let the next generation take things up, as opposed to a 'job well done' ending where we kick back having dealt with every challenge.

This might be why I like Celestials more than Cor/Tai. I think they're getting an unfairly bad rap. Just because they're not in our faces and dealing with everything we see, there's a lot going on that we never touch on. If Latha could have a job of running around and fixing fiendish interference, I'm sure there's others doing the same thing, and all the ones that we might accuse of 'sitting with their feet up' in Heaven are running/contributing to their societies just as everyone does down here, and everywhere else. I mean, if you're gonna castrate some random angel for not helping us fight X, you might as well complain to everyone else, too.

It's not like they even tell us what to do by saying 'go kill that'. In every case they've simply volunteered information on a threat that we might want to deal with, and then we've gone off and dealt with it. Because that's what PCs do.

At the end of the day, though, they're unfailingly nice, and I guess that carries a lot of weight with me. Even soul-sucking fiends can get a lot out of Alicia if they're at least pleasant and courteous.

Anyway, moving on. Spellgems? Well, Spellcasting is a class feature. It's the best one there is, even. To get it you have to make trade-offs, and spellgems let you neatly sidestep all of that, which I resent after having carefully built a character that made said tradeoffs. SLAs are even better than spells since they're automatically stilled/silent. And they're better than items (in addition to the whole 'can't be stolen/broken/left at home while out or in a bag while sleeping' bit), since they have scaling caster levels, and typically higher DCs (unless you have low charisma, which no one in this game does).

[Anastasia]

Quick reply to this before I focus on something else for the night. First, just C+P'ing what I told Dune in PM:
[20:05] <xorntoroispunchingouteveryone> right. (general response is that's sorta like saying hippies fight crime by improving cosmic vibrations while the policement actually have to do shit.)
[20:05] * Kotono laughs.
[20:05] <Kotono> I suppose that if the cosmic vibration shit is true, then yeah, sure.
[20:06] <xorntoroispunchingouteveryone> well, yes, but you aren't getting any support at all from the policemen who actually have to get their hands dirty. but as i said, i'll comment later.
[20:08] * Kotono nods.

Secondly, this is like saying that Evil has effectively double the potency: not only do its minions pretty much get and ream Prime Materials a new one while Good is "fostering Good in mortal souls" by letting them do all the work, they also get to pretty much force Good at bay just by uh being there.

First issue with this will be addressed with a comparison: Which boss do you like more, the one that occasionally comes by while you're busy shoveling shit and praises you on how well you're doing before wandering off, or the one that actually helps you in shoveling shit? For the most part, all that we get is the former; a few celestials have actually seen fit to join us, but by and large it's effectively the former result. http://www.viruscomix.com/page477.html  

Yeah, but to run with the analogy, a boss can't do all your work for you. The celestials do help you and the world in their ways, but they don't do all your work, either. I mean, having someone who does your job for you is awesome, but you don't learn the job or get any better at it. You just sit around and let someone else carry the burden. The Heavens aren't a work or police force to solve everyone's problems.

IOWs, the Heavens effectively just act as cheerleaders; there is no noticeable effect or change or even any evidence of what they're doing, and it's handwaved as, as I put it, "improving cosmic vibrations". This is my biggest issue, both IC and OOC; it's why Deme's got a fair league of disdain for the Heavens on average. They came down to deal with a devil fortress, yes. Great. Then they, by and large, left, despite us having cleared out multiple devils and demons during that time period.

I also note that the human contingent, while likely incapable to have penetrated the fortress alone, was all but key in actually doing anything from most appearances - it was us breaking through and sealing the gate with one angel (who tends to work with us anyway!) acting as backup.

You guys were the spearhead that pierced the heart of the fortress. Did you know that the metal tip of the spear is only about 10% of the spear?  But if the shaft isn't there, the spearhead is never going to pierce anything. In other words, you guys got the glory, but there were plenty of celestials fighting elsewhere in the fortress, both outside and on the paths you didn't explore.  I mean, yeah, I could've just said you guys scuffled outside while a group of planetars and a solar slaughtered everything, but what's the point of that?

I guess what I'm mainly trying to drive at is that Good is Good because it's Good, and this... is a very annoying concept to have hovering above us, so to speak. "Okay now go kill this stuff please" "...uh, won't you help?" "Nope, sorry, too busy being Good"

I'll address more later. Right now, gonna go work on stuff.

(Will also deal with questions directed to me at that time)

I think there's a disagreement on how much the Heavens should do. They've certainly been active, from sending Latha and having her help the guard directly, to fostering good about, to coming in when there was a real threat that the world couldn't handle, to sending you guys aid when you need it. I try not to have them be a fix-it-all up brigade. Evil dominates and tries to destroy/rule mortals, while the Heavens are more hands off.