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[Anastasia]

Every so often I like to chat y'all up and see what's working and what isn't. Try and answer these before next session.

Character/Player

1. How do you feel your character has turned out the past so far? 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? Why? What are the adventures and situations you've not enjoyed lately? Why?
5. What could I do to get more of the good and less of the bad? Why?
6. What could other players do to get less of the bad and more of the good? Why?
7. What could you do to get more good and less bad? Why?
8. How's the tone of the game? Too dark? Too light?

Mechanics

9. How have the new initiative rules been working for you? Do they work as written or do you want to change them?
10. How have the monsters been designed for you? Are they interesting?
11. What about the bosses, and in particular the more complicated ways I set them up? Do you think this scripting is a good thing or bad thing? Why?
12. Any suggestions for new houserules?

Other

13. Anything to add that wasn't covered elsewhere?

[Nephrite]

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

I am enjoying playing my character both from an RP standpoint and from a mechanical standpoint. My only real concern is that I don't know if it's going to scale very well in comparison to the other characters later on.

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

I'd like to think the four of us get along fine both in and out of character. Santos charges in and gets his ass kicked, it's part of his character -- we got walloped by a boss, so now we'll all work together, better, for 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?

A lot of where he goes depends on the plot itself. Since he's a Geomancer, he wants to figure out what is going on with the earth itself that's causing all of these problems. So it's really an overarching story thing.

World/Plot

4. What are the adventures and situations you've enjoyed lately(Last 3-4 levels, say?)? Why? What are the adventures and situations you've not enjoyed lately? Why?

I really have enjoyed pretty much all of the adventures so far. I am rather curious to see where the plot takes us and how the Lucavi interact with the Chaoses. I really can't think of any specific criticisms to level on the world building or plot as of currently.

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

I'll get back to this later, but I don't think there's much to improve as of currently.

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

I'll think about these two.

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

I think it's appropriately Final Fantasy as of currently.

Mechanics

9. How have the new initiative rules been working for you? Do they work as written or do you want to change them?

Initiative seems fine right now.

10. How have the monsters been designed for you? Are they interesting?

Each monster has a gimmick and I like that.

11. What about the bosses, and in particular the more complicated ways I set them up? Do you think this scripting is a good thing or bad thing? Why?

I think HP Triggers are a great way to ensure a boss stays interesting and doesn't just open with "ha ha big attack now you all die."

12. Any suggestions for new houserules?

I feel like we miss a little more often then we ought to. Some sort of houserule to increase accuracy just a teeny bit might be nice.

In addition, I feel like we never dodge anything ever. I'm not sure what to do about that, though.

Again, I am just very concerned about my scaling in the later parts of things. I don't have a lot of ways to beef up my damage at current except to buy a lot of [Element] strike weapons and change them out.

Other

13. Anything to add that wasn't covered elsewhere?

I do feel like we've been at our current level for a while, but I'm not actually sure how long it's been relative to when we started.

[Iron Dragoon]

Dune Post:

Spoiler: ShowHide

Every so often I like to chat y'all up and see what's working and what isn't. Try and answer these before next session.

Character/Player

1. How do you feel your character has turned out the past so far? 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? What are the adventures and situations you've not enjoyed lately? Why?
5. What could I do to get more of the good and less of the bad? Why?
6. What could other players do to get less of the bad and more of the good? Why?
7. What could you do to get more good and less bad? Why?
8. How's the tone of the game? Too dark? Too light?

Mechanics

9. How have the new initiative rules been working for you? Do they work as written or do you want to change them?
10. How have the monsters been designed for you? Are they interesting?
11. What about the bosses, and in particular the more complicated ways I set them up? Do you think this scripting is a good thing or bad thing? Why?
12. Any suggestions for new houserules?

Other

13. Anything to add that wasn't covered elsewhere?

-----------------------Replies below----------------------------------
Character/Player

Spoiler: ShowHide

1) Well, since we just job changed and I don't have access to spells yet, I can't really say much about this. I *can* tell you I'm a bit underwhelmed by the engineer abilities. I think a fair bit of that has to do with my having a fairly low Force score, though. I think I have/had the second lowest at 2, and considering the first creature in the bestiary, a level 1 wolf, has a Force score of 3... Combined with my historically barely average rolling, getting the ability to land is difficult.

From an RP standpoint, all the characters feel a bit... Shallow. It might be because I only came in half way into the game, but I haven't really seen much character personality in anything. I'd like to see some development based off of the character goals.

As for pulling my weight... I think I do the lowest damage, but I always do fairly consistent damage. I always seem to hit for 30-31. Though I don't mind this as it seems you're letting me use tinker for RP functions, so I feel like I make up for my average-ish damage with utility. Over-all, I'm pretty happy with how my character has been performing, but with the advent of my dual wield, that should get a bit better, as well.

2) I think the group gets along pretty well. I haven't noticed any *real* issues, just some minor annoyances. I think any issues are all minor stuff and all the normal stuff. Delayed responses and people trying to accomplish the same goal in different ways in fights, but without talking about it. Which, inevitably, leads inefficient accomplishment of things, and occasionally gets people annoyed by having their actions ignored.

I feel this is a pretty common thing in IRC type games simply because it's harder to quickly talk things over in IRC than it is in person, and that it's just one of those minor things that's just always going to be there. I just think everyone needs to keep in mind that it *is* going to happen.

3) I think I'm going to have Lehko go through a period of maturing, in a sense. Up until now, I've tried to keep him with the mindset of being a new runaway, and being new to everything. The longer he's away from the village life, the more confident he's going to become, I think. Right now, he's been so focused on thinking his wives are coming after him and ending his little adventure, that it's basically all he's really concerned about.

Since it's been a fair amount of time and he's had no real sense of them being after him, he's going to start getting over the worry of it and start focusing more on how to accomplish his character goals. That means, combined with his branching out into magic, he's going to start in on research and finding information that will let him meld magic and technology. I'm not having him expecting it to be a resounding success, but his goal is to see if he can get it functioning at *all.*

Objectively, he understands he's no genius, and he's not going to change the world. But, if he can get the theory to function even in the littlest part, he's accomplished setting Mithra and the world on a 'healthier' path for technology, and he'll be happy.

World/Plot

Spoiler: ShowHide

4) So far, I've enjoyed the interactions with the Summons the most, and the multi-layer castle dungeon, to be honest. I like that the summons acknowledge that they need the help of us 'mere mortals' to keep things going. That sense of 'needing' mortals makes them seem less like Gods and more like parts of nature, I think. I'd like to see a bit more interaction with the summons we have, though. Not really as GM plot device exactly, but as characters.

5) Going through the world seems a bit like a mad dash to get to the next dungeon. That's sort of how the games are, but I'd like to see a bit more RP interaction with the world. You sort of got that going with the Prince and Feast, I think, but it seems like most of the places we just kind of blast through. It makes the events/quests/dungeons a bit less memorable than they could be, I think.

6) It seems like a few of the other players are hesitant to take lead. I wound up basically running the entire last dungeon, simply because no one else was speaking up to give input or make decisions on where to go or what to do. While I understand that taking 10 minutes to decide if we want to go right or left isn't anything *anyone* wants, and that overall going right or left is a small thing, it does get frustrating being the only one who does that. It makes it feel less like I'm playing with other players and more like I'm playing with people just controlling combat bots.

7) I myself don't really talk enough to the other players, I don't think. And I get frustrated with lags in the game play, and wind up just *doing something.* While I do this to keep the game going, I acknowledge that it's probably a bit overbearing and seems like I'm shutting others out. I don't mean for it to happen, but damnit, it takes five seconds to type a line of, "hold on, I've got something coming" in the OCC channel.

8) The tone is pretty good, I think. We haven't gotten into any real heavy stuff yet that's changed the tone at all, though. I'd like to see the tone, or some mention, of what we've accomplished tossed around once in a while. So it feels more like we're affecting the world instead of little bursts of micro-cosmic worlds that are separate, instead of one connected land.

Mechanics

Spoiler: ShowHide

9) I like the rules so far. They seem to balance everything out so that actions are fairly evenly split between monsters and characters, instead of everyone going in a block. Seems more muddled, which I like in combat.

10) Monsters have been pretty cool so far. It's slightly annoying that we keep running into things that have AoE, but that's also just how the game works, and I think it's a good way to balance out our party's burst damage potential.

11) Bosses have been pretty solid so far. I've been liking them.

12) Nope!

Other
[spoiler]
13) I think we need to, as a group, seriously start considering using items. So far, we've neglected that, and it's hurting us, I think. I have cooking, so I can make things that help with reducing in coming damage with Ward effects. Also, things like the bomb fragments got completely ignored. We need to make use of that stuff. Items are a potent source of potential power.

[Anastasia]

I am enjoying playing my character both from an RP standpoint and from a mechanical standpoint. My only real concern is that I don't know if it's going to scale very well in comparison to the other characters later on.

Hard to say from here. If someone does end up not scaling well, I'll see about doing something to help them catch up.

I really have enjoyed pretty much all of the adventures so far. I am rather curious to see where the plot takes us and how the Lucavi interact with the Chaoses. I really can't think of any specific criticisms to level on the world building or plot as of currently.

Indeed. It's still early, but the seeds of the plot here (X-Zone, multiple sets of baddies and factions) are starting to show. Along with the summons being another faction, Atma being possibly sealed away underneath Galimond and hints of other things, there's a lot of potential to play with. There's a lot going on, but I'm trying to present it in bite sized segments so y'all can build up to it.

Each monster has a gimmick and I like that.

This is something I've made a point to work for. Decent random encounters are memorable for something they do, even if it's just a quickie gimmick. The make up attacks system of FFd6 is a burden on the DM, but it does give a lot of freedom. Especially when you get skilled enough to ignore the guidelines and design as you see fit - especially when you can pay homage to previous games in the series. Take a glance at an FF4 Imp's item drop list (non US/Easytype) and compare it to the item drop list in FFd6. Not everything perfectly maps, but I'm trying to add gimmicks, nudges and references where I can.

I think HP Triggers are a great way to ensure a boss stays interesting and doesn't just open with "ha ha big attack now you all die."

Yeah, that's what I'm using destiny for with them. I've been making more and more elaborate AI patterns and they're a work in progress. Shiva's is more complex than the Dark Elf's and I'm sure I'll refine that from there.

I feel like we miss a little more often then we ought to. Some sort of houserule to increase accuracy just a teeny bit might be nice.

In addition, I feel like we never dodge anything ever. I'm not sure what to do about that, though.

The numbers are a little off. Accuracy's dicey but I think it's meant to have space to grab accuracy boosters without assuring near automatic hits. Likewise, I think the system is patterned after a traditional FF game. You can dodge, but generally taking damage is more common than avoiding something. I won't tweak these quite yet, as I'd rather try to address them through items and DM side changes first.

Again, I am just very concerned about my scaling in the later parts of things. I don't have a lot of ways to beef up my damage at current except to buy a lot of [Element] strike weapons and change them out.

Push come to shove, we're here to have fun. Someone falling seriously behind isn't fun, so I'll do something about it if that happens. Don't sweat it.

I do feel like we've been at our current level for a while, but I'm not actually sure how long it's been relative to when we started.

Probably. I'm not in a huge hurry for another level up, as 15 levels isn't a lot of space to work with. Unlike a typical FF game with a 100+ level spread that can afford multiple levels per dungeon, we have a lot less room. Conversely to that, I'm trying to integrate things in that allow for little bonuses to help make up for the slower pace. The PWR Source you got a little while ago is one, and possible spell-granting consumables is another, as are summons and limit breaks.

There probably will be a level up soon enough, but not quite yet.

[Merc]

Every so often I like to chat y'all up and see what's working and what isn't. Try and answer these before next session.

OKAY!

1. How do you feel your character has turned out the past so far? From a mechanical standpoint? An RP standpoint?  Do you feel you're pulling your load? Why or why not?
I like Santos well enough. I've actually not gone where I wanted with him initially, simply because avoidance is a joke and the problem with it much worse than I initially expected. I -will- keep griping about this for as long as we play this game and it remains an issue. Bad guys typically have accuracy of +4, so a character -designed- for high avoidance (Santos could get his avoidance up to a score of 13) is getting hit 2/3 of the time. My opinion that an avoidance build could actually work has died miserably.

That said, I took lemons and well, Neph pretty much covered what Santos' routine is, given what I've got to work with. He asks to get pounded, and the bad guys oblige. It sucks if a battle lasts much longer past my going down though, because then I just get to twiddle my thumbs. I'm not gonna play him smarter though, even if it means longer survival.

2. How do you get along with the other players? Good points, bad points, hangups, irritations, praise?
Lehko's wife thing amuses me. Mycol, just in general, amuses me. Morrie's the straight man, and that's okay. He needs to hit us with a paper fan on the head or something though.

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?
Mechanically, I'll just keep going with the current setup. Build up massive initial damage, get KO'ed halfway into the fight.

So I'll be grabbing stuff that lets me pile up quick damage at once. I am also going to stop using reliable weapons as soon as I get the opportunity to pick up different weapons, and dual wield huge weapons. Because even though it looks stupid, this is an online game, and we need a good way to neutralize enemy spellcasters and that gives me a 2/combat way of doing so easily.

I'm gonna go for First Strike first when we level up. Paradigm Shift[Commando/Ravager/Sentinel] will follow. Then Trauma. Then Cyclone. Then Unstopabble. Assuming we get that far, and hell, live to that far, Santos would probably job change to Entertainer and keep the Innate from Warrior. Then pick up Fashionable x3. Then just spend points into Skillful Hero until done.

4. What are the adventures and situations you've enjoyed lately? Why? What are the adventures and situations you've not enjoyed lately? Why?
I've enjoyed pretty much all of it, though I really would like for us to face more humanoids. So far we've fought a grand total of one of those, the dark elf.

5. What could I do to get more of the good and less of the bad? Why?
Fix avoidance, or give enemies less attacking accuracy. When I was a ninja, and I was getting hit 2/3 of the time and I had 6 more avoidance than the next highest player?

Well, that means the other players all got hit 100% of the time.

I've already said this before, I'll say it again, and I'll use our current AVD scores as reference. Right now, we're all in the AVD 5-7 range now.

With an enemy of accuracy 1:
- Morrie gets hit 92% of the time
- Mycol gets hit 83% of the time
- Lehko and Santos get hit 72% of the time

Enemy Accuracy 2:
- Morrie 97%
- Mycol 92%
- Lehko/Santos 83%

Enemy Accuracy 3:
- Morrie 100%
- Mycol 97%
- Lehko/Santos 92%

Enemy Accuracy 4:
- Morrie 100%
- Mycol 100%
- Lehko/Santos 97%

Enemy Accuracy 5 (Dark Elf):
- Ninja Santos with Image just used (+3 avd) and fighting a humanoid (+1 avd), for total avoidance 13...gets hit 42% of the time. Actually decent...until you realize Image got wiped out in a single round.
- Ninja Santos with avoidance 10...gets hit 83% of the time.

I'm not gonna repeat the rant about how it scales with leveling.

Avoidance is JUNK.

6. What could other players do to get less of the bad and more of the good? Why?
We could play more strategically, I suppose, but I've already stated that I have no plans to do so. Glass Cannon tempting fate is the role that Santos has fallen into, he's just gonna embrace it to the best of his ability.

7. What could you do to get more good and less bad? Why?
Nothing really. I know what Santos' problem is, he always goes for the most dangerous looking foe, and ignores other dangers. He's still going to do it though.

8. How's the tone of the game? Too dark? Too light?
It oscillates. It started light, went dark hard with Janus, went light again, now it's about midway with Shiva/warnings/etc since there's some obvious danger out there, but we're still not really questing towards "Saving the World".

9. How have the new initiative rules been working for you? Do they work as written or do you want to change them?
It's better than all of us going at the same time, though I still think we should get a bonus based on half our dexterity, or our finesse scores.

10. How have the monsters been designed for you? Are they interesting?
I like them, though I still feel contrary about imps being beasts instead of humanoids. And my complaint about their accuracy.

But I like the uniqueness, and they're all fun in that sense.

11. What about the bosses, and in particular the more complicated ways I set them up? Do you think this scripting is a good thing or bad thing? Why?
Well, we don't really have time to learn boss patterns like in a video game, but your current set-up is a reasonable facsimile and I think it's a cute mechanic. It works for the purposes of this game. The enemies themselves are fun and unique, same as the mooks.

12. Any suggestions for new houserules?
Nope.

13. Anything to add that wasn't covered elsewhere?
Nope.

[Anastasia]

1) Well, since we just job changed and I don't have access to spells yet, I can't really say much about this. I *can* tell you I'm a bit underwhelmed by the engineer abilities. I think a fair bit of that has to do with my having a fairly low Force score, though. I think I have/had the second lowest at 2, and considering the first creature in the bestiary, a level 1 wolf, has a Force score of 3... Combined with my historically barely average rolling, getting the ability to land is difficult.

I'll second your comments about Engineers being underwhelming. Your force (and PWR I think?) score is a touch too low for what you want to do, and getting that chemspill rifle was a nod to the problem. The other problem is that some monsters and basically any notorious/boss is likely to be force/finesse heavy, which only exasperates the issue. This issue should level out in due time. Y'see, monsters stats only rise 1/level past the initial allotment. So they generally don't develop fast and don't get the benefit of equipment boosts like PCs.

If you want to fiddle with your baseline values, I'm fine with that. Talk to me if you think rejiggering them can help.

From an RP standpoint, all the characters feel a bit... Shallow. It might be because I only came in half way into the game, but I haven't really seen much character personality in anything. I'd like to see some development based off of the character goals.

Somewhat, yeah. It's not the RP-heaviest game, but rather a videogame styled game. It's followed the pace of a typical retro FF game right now - fairly on the rails, a focus on combat and the characters aren't as deep. That's not to say that there hasn't been good roleplaying, but I'm staying reasonably close to the source material.

As for pulling my weight... I think I do the lowest damage, but I always do fairly consistent damage. I always seem to hit for 30-31. Though I don't mind this as it seems you're letting me use tinker for RP functions, so I feel like I make up for my average-ish damage with utility. Over-all, I'm pretty happy with how my character has been performing, but with the advent of my dual wield, that should get a bit better, as well.

Indeed. Plus it involves explosions, and those almost invariably make sessions more interesting. Just carry a lot of phoenix down.

4) So far, I've enjoyed the interactions with the Summons the most, and the multi-layer castle dungeon, to be honest. I like that the summons acknowledge that they need the help of us 'mere mortals' to keep things going. That sense of 'needing' mortals makes them seem less like Gods and more like parts of nature, I think. I'd like to see a bit more interaction with the summons we have, though. Not really as GM plot device exactly, but as characters.

Yeah. The summons are clearly another faction, not a divine force that can solve everything themselves. Plus they really need to make pacts to do much of anything anyway, so helping the party makes perfect sense. Speaking of summons interactions, I've been PMing Mycol impressions from Titan when appropriate. He doesn't usually tip these directly IC, but they are happening. It's more in the style of this:

"You get the impression that Titan is wary. That's Shiva's FREEZE 'EM AND SLICE 'EM OFF face!"

Or something like that. The nature of the summons means they don't usually come out and have conversations with you once they've made a pact. Anyway, I do enjoy playing Shiva or expressive characters. A typical random encounter isn't, though I do try to add a little something to each one. Bosses usually have something distinct personally-wise going on, such as the Dark Elf's screaming and ranting or Shiva being Shiva.

5) Going through the world seems a bit like a mad dash to get to the next dungeon. That's sort of how the games are, but I'd like to see a bit more RP interaction with the world. You sort of got that going with the Prince and Feast, I think, but it seems like most of the places we just kind of blast through. It makes the events/quests/dungeons a bit less memorable than they could be, I think.

Yeah, I've been focusing more on plot building, encounters and keeping things flowing than deeper world interaction. This is a style choice based on the material I'm drawing from.

7) I myself don't really talk enough to the other players, I don't think. And I get frustrated with lags in the game play, and wind up just *doing something.* While I do this to keep the game going, I acknowledge that it's probably a bit overbearing and seems like I'm shutting others out. I don't mean for it to happen, but damnit, it takes five seconds to type a line of, "hold on, I've got something coming" in the OCC channel.

For me, it depends on the circumstances. In a rapidfire dungeon exploration, I want quick replies so we can keep things going without risking tedium. Less demanding or more RP focused scenes are more relaxed, as it takes time to write out good lines. This touches on something I want to address when I answer my own questions later. (I do that as an exercise and to show what's going on in my head regarding the game.)

10) Monsters have been pretty cool so far. It's slightly annoying that we keep running into things that have AoE, but that's also just how the game works, and I think it's a good way to balance out our party's burst damage potential.

Basically. I've been favoring multitarget effects more after the Janus thing. Makes it a little harder for the PCs to die fast.

13) I think we need to, as a group, seriously start considering using items. So far, we've neglected that, and it's hurting us, I think. I have cooking, so I can make things that help with reducing in coming damage with Ward effects. Also, things like the bomb fragments got completely ignored. We need to make use of that stuff. Items are a potent source of potential power.

In defense of the bomb fragments (and VSM here since he's sorta the item boy with dimensional pocket+quickening) not being used on Shiva, VSM was using the bag from Neph's sheet. This wasn't current and didn't have the bomb fragments in it. I do agree overall. Lemme get right to the point: Dungeon drops elemental items that are obviously useful, like fire items around an ice themed esper. Take the hint. This is Final Fantasy gaming 101 here, folks.

[Anastasia]

I like Santos well enough. I've actually not gone where I wanted with him initially, simply because avoidance is a joke and the problem with it much worse than I initially expected. I -will- keep griping about this for as long as we play this game and it remains an issue. Bad guys typically have accuracy of +4, so a character -designed- for high avoidance (Santos could get his avoidance up to a score of 13) is getting hit 2/3 of the time. My opinion that an avoidance build could actually work has died miserably.

Agreed unless you really item/sell out for evasion. It isn't really practical yet, as +AVD accessories and weapons/armor are just becoming possible. I said this in Neph's post and it applies here too:

The numbers are a little off. Accuracy's dicey but I think it's meant to have space to grab accuracy boosters without assuring near automatic hits. Likewise, I think the system is patterned after a traditional FF game. You can dodge, but generally taking damage is more common than avoiding something. I won't tweak these quite yet, as I'd rather try to address them through items and DM side changes first.

That said, I took lemons and well, Neph pretty much covered what Santos' routine is, given what I've got to work with. He asks to get pounded, and the bad guys oblige. It sucks if a battle lasts much longer past my going down though, because then I just get to twiddle my thumbs. I'm not gonna play him smarter though, even if it means longer survival.

Some party tactics around that would be a good idea. Like say using a Glorious Armband for SOS-Shell+SOS-Protect, someone casting Protect/Shell, Iddy using Cover or whatever. Phoenix downing is battle is tough unless you have that and healing coming back to back, since they pick you up with 1 HP.

So I'll be grabbing stuff that lets me pile up quick damage at once. I am also going to stop using reliable weapons as soon as I get the opportunity to pick up different weapons, and dual wield huge weapons. Because even though it looks stupid, this is an online game, and we need a good way to neutralize enemy spellcasters and that gives me a 2/combat way of doing so easily.

Right-o. You'll start to see them in shops then. Incidentally, if you want to switch weapon types, tell me so I can account for it in the game world. If you want to start on them right away, you can always get Morrie to synth you a couple of Tier 2 huge weapons.

I've enjoyed pretty much all of it, though I really would like for us to face more humanoids. So far we've fought a grand total of one of those, the dark elf.

Fair enough.

Avoidance is JUNK.

See above here. Not that I dispute your numbers or anything. If you want a boost right away, why not try and synth some +AVD items? A +1 boost is a tier 2 property.

Nothing really. I know what Santos' problem is, he always goes for the most dangerous looking foe, and ignores other dangers. He's still going to do it though.

It's pretty fun to watch him run his mouth and smack/get smacked. As long as you're enjoying it.

It's better than all of us going at the same time, though I still think we should get a bonus based on half our dexterity, or our finesse scores.

I've been seriously considering that, but I haven't brought it up yet since no one else said anything. I'll be talking about this more in my post, but I was toying around with something like you proposed.

[Merc]

I feel like we miss a little more often then we ought to. Some sort of houserule to increase accuracy just a teeny bit might be nice.

In addition, I feel like we never dodge anything ever. I'm not sure what to do about that, though.

The numbers are a little off. Accuracy's dicey but I think it's meant to have space to grab accuracy boosters without assuring near automatic hits. Likewise, I think the system is patterned after a traditional FF game. You can dodge, but generally taking damage is more common than avoiding something. I won't tweak these quite yet, as I'd rather try to address them through items and DM side changes first.

***

I'm not in a huge hurry for another level up, as 15 levels isn't a lot of space to work with.

In two levels, Santos should typically be providing +1 accuracy to everyone through Paradigm Shift: Commando, which will likely be his default stance. Though given the comment about leveling speed, that may be a bit of a wait.

I like Santos well enough. I've actually not gone where I wanted with him initially, simply because avoidance is a joke and the problem with it much worse than I initially expected. I -will- keep griping about this for as long as we play this game and it remains an issue. Bad guys typically have accuracy of +4, so a character -designed- for high avoidance (Santos could get his avoidance up to a score of 13) is getting hit 2/3 of the time. My opinion that an avoidance build could actually work has died miserably.

Agreed unless you really item/sell out for evasion. It isn't really practical yet, as +AVD accessories and weapons/armor are just becoming possible. I said this in Neph's post and it applies here too:

The numbers are a little off. Accuracy's dicey but I think it's meant to have space to grab accuracy boosters without assuring near automatic hits. Likewise, I think the system is patterned after a traditional FF game. You can dodge, but generally taking damage is more common than avoiding something. I won't tweak these quite yet, as I'd rather try to address them through items and DM side changes first.

It's worth noting that in a traditional video game, characters also have more HP and combat lasts more rounds. I don't think it's fair to excuse it with "It's patterned after a traditional FF game".

Tabletop gaming requires a faster pace of combat, but it'd also mean that dodging should be more reliable, or it should just be done away with as a mechanic. If you want to have it as a mechanic, then just have characters have a base percentage avoidance rate based on their class, and modifiers from items increase it by 1-10% depending on the rank of the item.

Avoidance as a mechanical stat is just very badly handled in the system currently.

So I'll be grabbing stuff that lets me pile up quick damage at once. I am also going to stop using reliable weapons as soon as I get the opportunity to pick up different weapons, and dual wield huge weapons. Because even though it looks stupid, this is an online game, and we need a good way to neutralize enemy spellcasters and that gives me a 2/combat way of doing so easily.

Right-o. You'll start to see them in shops then. Incidentally, if you want to switch weapon types, tell me so I can account for it in the game world. If you want to start on them right away, you can always get Morrie to synth you a couple of Tier 2 huge weapons.

I believe I just told you! =p

I'm in no hurry. I'll wait until we see components, as I don't feel like spending gold on weapons yet. I'll save money and aim for tier 3 weapons if it comes to gold spending because we don't have components for tier 3.

Avoidance is JUNK.

See above here. Not that I dispute your numbers or anything. If you want a boost right away, why not try and synth some +AVD items? A +1 boost is a tier 2 property.

I just dropped my avoidance by 2 points going to Warrior. I don't really -care- about spending any points into avoidance at this point.

If my avoidance goes up, it'll go up because I level up my dexterity score from time to time or equipment happens to give it. Purely through incidental means. I won't spend any effort into boosting it purposely from this point on, however.

As I said, I've given up on avoidance being viable in any sense.

Nothing really. I know what Santos' problem is, he always goes for the most dangerous looking foe, and ignores other dangers. He's still going to do it though.

It's pretty fun to watch him run his mouth and smack/get smacked. As long as you're enjoying it.

I am! For all that I'm bitching about the system, that's because I think the system has faults that need fixing. I will probably post comments in the system thread regarding my thoughts, though not until this game ends or I feel we've played this system enough to give a detailed analysis in general.

I'm still enjoying the game.

It's better than all of us going at the same time, though I still think we should get a bonus based on half our dexterity, or our finesse scores.

I've been seriously considering that, but I haven't brought it up yet since no one else said anything. I'll be talking about this more in my post, but I was toying around with something like you proposed.

Good!

That said...I did mention it once in chat, back when Gate/Tai were still playing. <_<

So nyah! =p

[Anastasia]

Answering my own questions as applicable.

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

I'll answer for the PCs first and then NPCs.

Santos is doing good from a mechanical and RP standpoint. He has the cocky hothead thing down and is playing it just fine. He's pulling his load by being the direct offense and having a chance to evade attacks on occasion. Reliable+dual wield helps hold the wrath of Hatbot at bay, which is invaluable.

Morrie's leading the way mechanically right now. Group healing plus heavy wind damage has more than taken the lead for thumping heads. This is balanced out by the fact he has to do the healing groove rather than attack at times. RPwise he's turning into the straightman of the group. It works for him.

Lehko's had some mechanical struggles. My opinion about why's largely in my reply to his comments. He's pulling his weight anyway and Gillionare+explosions carries out of battle aid. As far as RP goes, his wives thing does take the stage. That's not a bad thing, but I agree with Iddy that it's time to diversify a little bit.

Mycol's mechanical base isn't bad. I would advise him to use items and magic (when he gets more spells) as much as double maracas beats. His low innate ACC means that even a double chance has a non trivial chance of whiffing twice. Shiva's 9 AVD in particular made his hit rate plunge to 41%. If you wanna beat things up with maracas that's fine, but grab something to boost your ACC. RPwise he's a hoot and I got a good laugh out of the entire Prince thing.  He's a straaaaange shroom.

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

I like all of you. I'm not going to focus on superlative praise and instead give constructive commentary. Y'all largely rock.

Santos: A few less /aways in session would be nice. I understand you're getting home from work so I don't hold it seriously against you.
Morrie: A little too fond of pure dialogue lines with no descriptions. Adding a little more to your lines could help.
Lehko: You nailed what I was going to say about the wives thing.
Mycol: Try and check the board a few times a week? There's often communication or activity there, as well as things that may require replies.

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

The ImpImpImp, Shiva, the black glass fragments, Titan. Basically anything with interesting characters. Bosses are a lot of fun too, since they combine that plus developed boss battles.

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

I'm aiming for typical Final Fantasy. It's generally light on the surface, even when bad things happen. Janus was extra-super dark and hopefully an anomaly. Let's just say that one didn't go as planned and leave it at that.

9. How have the new initiative rules been working for you? Do they work as written or do you want to change them?

They're okay. I've been seriously considering factoring in finesse or dexterity into initiative rather than a flat 2d6. Something to reward those characters who have a lot, y'know? What do you all think? Needed? Wanted? Good idea? Bad idea?

10. How have the monsters been designed for you? Are they interesting?

Since I'm making them all, they'd damn well better be interesting to me. Mutter, mutter, mutter. I'm trying to make then fun to run and fun to fight against. I get the impression I've succeeded so far.

13. Anything to add that wasn't covered elsewhere?

Only one. We have 4 hours a week, everyone. I'd prefer not to waste it on petty delays and fumbled handoffs. Try and reply as fast as reasonably possible to keep things moving. Likewise, when I ask for a volunteer to do something, step up. I can start assigning these to people if you'd prefer less ambiguity, but in any case I infinitely prefer less slowdown during our game time. We're having fun gaming, let's not waste that time.

[Merc]

Santos is doing good from a mechanical and RP standpoint. He has the cocky hothead thing down and is playing it just fine. He's pulling his load by being the direct offense and having a chance to evade attacks on occasion. Reliable+dual wield helps hold the wrath of Hatbot at bay, which is invaluable.

Well, I'll be losing reliable once I pick up Huge weapons, but dual wield is awesome anyway. I don't fault Iddy for the ninja-stop in the least.

Santos: A few less /aways in session would be nice. I understand you're getting home from work so I don't hold it seriously against you.

Mondays could be worse than Tuesdays for that! Fair warning! >_>

The ImpImpImp, Shiva, the black glass fragments, Titan. Basically anything with interesting characters. Bosses are a lot of fun too, since they combine that plus developed boss battles.

ImpImpImp was hilarious.

9. How have the new initiative rules been working for you? Do they work as written or do you want to change them?

They're okay. I've been seriously considering factoring in finesse or dexterity into initiative rather than a flat 2d6. Something to reward those characters who have a lot, y'know? What do you all think? Needed? Wanted? Good idea? Bad idea?

You know my thoughts. <_<

13. Anything to add that wasn't covered elsewhere?

Only one. We have 4 hours a week, everyone. I'd prefer not to waste it on petty delays and fumbled handoffs. Try and reply as fast as reasonably possible to keep things moving. Likewise, when I ask for a volunteer to do something, step up. I can start assigning these to people if you'd prefer less ambiguity, but in any case I infinitely prefer less slowdown during our game time. We're having fun gaming, let's not waste that time.

I will always pass on making decisions regarding direction/moving on once we hit a dungeon. ALWAYS.

Towns or whatever, I don't care, but anything that involves a choice of going somewhere, I'll just pick something random, and half the times I've suggested something, it's been immediately timed with other people suggesting other stuff, and then we have to discuss doing/not doing stuff, so I usually just have Santos shrug and say he's fine with choice #2.

So yeah, don't expect me to contribute there.

[Anastasia]

In two levels, Santos should typically be providing +1 accuracy to everyone through Paradigm Shift: Commando, which will likely be his default stance. Though given the comment about leveling speed, that may be a bit of a wait.

Meant to ask this earlier, but how do paradigm shifts work? I'm familiar with the concept from FF13 (insert snarky line about FF13 sucking here as you desire), but I'm not up on how they implemented it in FFd6.

It's worth noting that in a traditional video game, characters also have more HP and combat lasts more rounds. I don't think it's fair to excuse it with "It's patterned after a traditional FF game".

Do they? Random encounters are usually over in a few rounds. That's about right for a video game, barring games with longer random battles (example: FFT) or games where a single multitarget move can wipe out randoms instantly. I'm sure either side can produce examples and counter examples with the size of the genre, so let's get to the point here. I feel it's reasonable based on the desired random battle style I'm going for.

Agreed with bosses not lasting as long as I'd like. This is mostly due to the tabletop issues you mention below.

Tabletop gaming requires a faster pace of combat, but it'd also mean that dodging should be more reliable, or it should just be done away with as a mechanic. If you want to have it as a mechanic, then just have characters have a base percentage avoidance rate based on their class, and modifiers from items increase it by 1-10% depending on the rank of the item.

Avoidance as a mechanical stat is just very badly handled in the system currently.

I don't disagree with AVD having problems here. Lemme frame this with the system and what's trying to emulate. In most FF games, evasion happens but isn't too common. It is usually possible to set up a high evasion character and this works, but it requires working towards it. This goes hand in hand with the point I made above: If you want more evasion, go for more evasion. Equip things that boost it and work to raise it up.

I'm not trying to say your complaint is invalid. I'm just saying, y'know?

As I said, I've given up on avoidance being viable in any sense.

Go go go reading this line after writing all that above.

I am! For all that I'm bitching about the system, that's because I think the system has faults that need fixing. I will probably post comments in the system thread regarding my thoughts, though not until this game ends or I feel we've played this system enough to give a detailed analysis in general.

I'm still enjoying the game.

Ooooh yeah. I've done some behind-the-scenes surgery here. I redid the weapons system, ignored a good half of recommended monster generation and synthing rules and so on. It's still an imperfect homebrew, albeit an impressive one that deserves praise.

[Iron Dragoon]

I'll second your comments about Engineers being underwhelming. Your force (and PWR I think?) score is a touch too low for what you want to do, and getting that chemspill rifle was a nod to the problem. The other problem is that some monsters and basically any notorious/boss is likely to be force/finesse heavy, which only exasperates the issue. This issue should level out in due time. Y'see, monsters stats only rise 1/level past the initial allotment. So they generally don't develop fast and don't get the benefit of equipment boosts like PCs.

If you want to fiddle with your baseline values, I'm fine with that. Talk to me if you think rejiggering them can help.

Well, RES and PWR are used to figure Force. I've got 9 RES right now, but it gets averaged against PWR to make the Force score. So if I want to retain decent ranged damage, I basically have to have three primary stats; PWR, RES, and DEX. There's just not enough meat on the stat bone to support that, as opposed to melee characters who really only have to focus on RES and PWR for their damage.

As the build is now, I need to have RES/DEX/MND for my build. I just don't have enough stats to put anything in PWR, too. As it is, my MND stat is where I've chosen to take the hit in the form of low MP. I think it's half my fault; I chose to be ranged/DEX based. But the system seems to *heavily* supports melee characters landing effects, as the same two stats that are used to calculate their damage and HP are the same ones used to calculate Force.

I'm not sure there's much I can do about it at this point. I've pumped RES, so I have pretty good HP, which I'm really glad of since I'll be using Cover and such, but as it stands I do average-ish damage with my super pumped DEX. If I drop dex to pump PWR or RES to get a better Force score, my damage will disappear like smoke in the wind. At that point, I might as well go for broke and become a status application whore, but I haven't put any thought into how that would actually work out.

Somewhat, yeah. It's not the RP-heaviest game, but rather a videogame styled game. It's followed the pace of a typical retro FF game right now - fairly on the rails, a focus on combat and the characters aren't as deep. That's not to say that there hasn't been good roleplaying, but I'm staying reasonably close to the source material.

Eh, I get that it's based off a FF videogame system, but I think that may need to be relaxed a bit. Don't forget, FF videogames are single player. This isn't a single player campaign anymore.

Indeed. Plus it involves explosions, and those almost invariably make sessions more interesting. Just carry a lot of phoenix down.

Heh. Yeah, but I'm okay with that happening. I ain't scared!

Yeah. The summons are clearly another faction, not a divine force that can solve everything themselves. Plus they really need to make pacts to do much of anything anyway, so helping the party makes perfect sense. Speaking of summons interactions, I've been PMing Mycol impressions from Titan when appropriate. He doesn't usually tip these directly IC, but they are happening. It's more in the style of this:

"You get the impression that Titan is wary. That's Shiva's FREEZE 'EM AND SLICE 'EM OFF face!"

Or something like that. The nature of the summons means they don't usually come out and have conversations with you once they've made a pact. Anyway, I do enjoy playing Shiva or expressive characters. A typical random encounter isn't, though I do try to add a little something to each one. Bosses usually have something distinct personally-wise going on, such as the Dark Elf's screaming and ranting or Shiva being Shiva.

Ahh, cool. It'd be neat, I think, if there were some mechanic in place to get a bit more interaction out of them, though. Something like an etheral, midget version we can have show up to interact with. Dunno, just would like to see them as a bigger part of the game once we get them in the group.

Yeah, I've been focusing more on plot building, encounters and keeping things flowing than deeper world interaction. This is a style choice based on the material I'm drawing from.

Coo. You're the GM!

For me, it depends on the circumstances. In a rapidfire dungeon exploration, I want quick replies so we can keep things going without risking tedium. Less demanding or more RP focused scenes are more relaxed, as it takes time to write out good lines. This touches on something I want to address when I answer my own questions later. (I do that as an exercise and to show what's going on in my head regarding the game.)

Yeah, I got that, and out of the dungeons, RP and interactions do open up more. But since we're, like you said, sorta on rails going from one place to another, we spend a lot of time in dungeons. Which winds up with people not really talking.

Basically. I've been favoring multitarget effects more after the Janus thing. Makes it a little harder for the PCs to die fast.

Yeah. It's not too bad, just a bit annoying is all.

In defense of the bomb fragments (and VSM here since he's sorta the item boy with dimensional pocket+quickening) not being used on Shiva, VSM was using the bag from Neph's sheet. This wasn't current and didn't have the bomb fragments in it. I do agree overall. Lemme get right to the point: Dungeon drops elemental items that are obviously useful, like fire items around an ice themed esper. Take the hint. This is Final Fantasy gaming 101 here, folks.

Yeah, I admitted this. Everyone is bad on it. We have a ton of stuff in the bag, but no one really carries anything in personal inventory. I mean, I think everyone has at least one potion on them, but when was the last time someone used one? It's something we need to work on.

[Anastasia]

I will always pass on making decisions regarding direction/moving on once we hit a dungeon. ALWAYS.

Towns or whatever, I don't care, but anything that involves a choice of going somewhere, I'll just pick something random, and half the times I've suggested something, it's been immediately timed with other people suggesting other stuff, and then we have to discuss doing/not doing stuff, so I usually just have Santos shrug and say he's fine with choice #2.

So yeah, don't expect me to contribute there.

Fair enough. As long as all of you are content and it stays moving I don't care how that sort of thing works out.

[Anastasia]

Well, RES and PWR are used to figure Force. I've got 9 RES right now, but it gets averaged against PWR to make the Force score. So if I want to retain decent ranged damage, I basically have to have three primary stats; PWR, RES, and DEX. There's just not enough meat on the stat bone to support that, as opposed to melee characters who really only have to focus on RES and PWR for their damage.

As the build is now, I need to have RES/DEX/MND for my build. I just don't have enough stats to put anything in PWR, too. As it is, my MND stat is where I've chosen to take the hit in the form of low MP. I think it's half my fault; I chose to be ranged/DEX based. But the system seems to *heavily* supports melee characters landing effects, as the same two stats that are used to calculate their damage and HP are the same ones used to calculate Force.

I'm not sure there's much I can do about it at this point. I've pumped RES, so I have pretty good HP, which I'm really glad of since I'll be using Cover and such, but as it stands I do average-ish damage with my super pumped DEX. If I drop dex to pump PWR or RES to get a better Force score, my damage will disappear like smoke in the wind. At that point, I might as well go for broke and become a status application whore, but I haven't put any thought into how that would actually work out.

My quickest advice is to try and score the next stat boosting source item that would help you. They aren't reliable as of now, but they do exist and can help smooth over those issues. Beyond that, see how things work out with paladin and tweak from there.

Heh. Yeah, but I'm okay with that happening. I ain't scared!

It's all fun and games until someone gets exploded in plot and dies for real.

Ahh, cool. It'd be neat, I think, if there were some mechanic in place to get a bit more interaction out of them, though. Something like an etheral, midget version we can have show up to interact with. Dunno, just would like to see them as a bigger part of the game once we get them in the group.

There may well be in the future. I've been coy here since I'm still plugging some options.

Yeah, I got that, and out of the dungeons, RP and interactions do open up more. But since we're, like you said, sorta on rails going from one place to another, we spend a lot of time in dungeons. Which winds up with people not really talking.

Agreed. See above with possibilities with the summons. I was using Ebenezer earlier to try and keep conversations flowing. It's a bit of a kludge but it can help.

Yeah, I admitted this. Everyone is bad on it. We have a ton of stuff in the bag, but no one really carries anything in personal inventory. I mean, I think everyone has at least one potion on them, but when was the last time someone used one? It's something we need to work on.

Effective use of resources in general is always good. VSM's the most capable with items. If he's game, maybe you'n'him can get together and make some plans with that? He basically has access to the bag with his dimensional pocket as well as his own inventory. Alternately, a few essential items each as a disaster kit on each PC may be wise too. Like a phoenix down, hi-potion, remedy and whatever. That's too expensive for y'all now but the idea's there.

[Iron Dragoon]

Lehko's had some mechanical struggles. My opinion about why's largely in my reply to his comments. He's pulling his weight anyway and Gillionare+explosions carries out of battle aid. As far as RP goes, his wives thing does take the stage. That's not a bad thing, but I agree with Iddy that it's time to diversify a little bit.

Yeah, I admit this. But at the same time, I've only been in the game for a few sessions, so I/VSM are behind in character establishment and development. As it is, I'm just now starting to get comfortable with Lehko's personality and what direction I want him to go.

Lehko: You nailed what I was going to say about the wives thing.

I figured =) Like I said above, I'm just getting through the intro couple sessions of the character, so I'm just starting to get a really solid idea of what I want out of him.

They're okay. I've been seriously considering factoring in finesse or dexterity into initiative rather than a flat 2d6. Something to reward those characters who have a lot, y'know? What do you all think? Needed? Wanted? Good idea? Bad idea?

Hmm.. Either would work. Finesse would probably be the way to go, as since it's a derived score, it's lower. I think using the lower score as a bonus would help to keep things from going crazy and having a bonus in excess of your possible rolls. Lehko's a good exampe with 11 DEX. It'd be hard for him *not* to go first everytime, I think. But when you put a 4 finesse in there, it's a bit more reasonable.

Only one. We have 4 hours a week, everyone. I'd prefer not to waste it on petty delays and fumbled handoffs. Try and reply as fast as reasonably possible to keep things moving. Likewise, when I ask for a volunteer to do something, step up. I can start assigning these to people if you'd prefer less ambiguity, but in any case I infinitely prefer less slowdown during our game time. We're having fun gaming, let's not waste that time.

Yeah, this. Like I said, this seems to be something that causes issues in *every* IRC game. It's easy for people to get distracted while sitting at the computer.