DM Nagging: It's pretty much my job

[Anastasia]

Like Celestia but with three layers, yes.

Sounds good.

[Anastasia]

I'm laughing but I feel bad for Moore right now.

[Anastasia]

I think the spell lists and related accessories post of the Spell Collection is about complete. Let me know what you all think. Is this helpful? I'll sling one up for corrupt spells sooner or later, for all like 3 of them. We use enough duskblades to warrant one for them too, I think.

Epic psionics at this time doesn't need one, but if this changes, I'll make one.

http://www.soulriders.net/forum/index.php/topic,103075.msg1050497.html#msg1050497

[Anastasia]

Auril added to divine text emporium. In the least surprising revelation ever, Auril's color tag is [.color=snow].

[Anastasia]

From the bureau of miscellaneous news:

- No Weekly Roundup for the past week. I was a zombie most of the weekend so it just didn't happen. Chalk it up to work being brutal, I was about out on my feet Saturday evening.

- Due to yesterday being a disrupted day and next week being vacation, I may run on Saturday. More on this later in the week. So just a heads up if it helps reveal any scheduling blockers in place for it.

- My dog's continuing to be old and having bathroom issues, so expect continued, sudden and unannounced aways. Sorry about this, but when she has to go, she has to really go. Otherwise I end up with cleanup and that's never fun.

- Vacation goals are as follows. 1. Post Beezlebub. He's about 90% finished. 2. See about clearing up some odds and ends C&Ms to post. 3. Spells, spells, spells. Epic spells in particular, though I may get a few non epic spells out of it. 4. Clearing out more of the todo list. Conversely, anything y'all want done, post here and I can add it to the todo list. Check that list first in case it's already up there.

- Football season starts this week. While this primarily impacts Sundays and is thus not relevant for us, it has a few knockons. There's football on Monday and Thursday nights, which means possible disruptions there. Mostly in the event if the Redskins play on those days, but heads up. Odds are if the Redskins play on MNF or TNF, I'll cancel that evening anyway. Known problem days: Monday, October 8th; Monday, December 3rd. It's possible another could arise due to flexible scheduling. They also play on Thanksgiving this year, but odds are that's no session anyway that day.

- Holiday interruptions will be posted in later September or early October. These could be more variable than usual this year, due to the job hunt and all that may bring.

[Anastasia]

Oh, and I forgot to say. I expect to take a week off once every four months or so. So expect a vacation around January, though it may be a little earlier and rolled into the holidays.

[Anastasia]

Oberuth reaches level 31.

- Fighter 31 and Dwarven Defender 21.
- Max HP per HD, so 35 hit points and a grand total of 1065 hit points.
- +1 BAB for a total of 31.
- Gains favored enemy: (outsider (beyond))+2.
- Gains another daily use of defensive stance, now has 11/day total.
- Skills go up as normal.

[Anastasia]

DM work schedule

Going to try this, see if it helps.

Saturday Night: Weekly roundup, along with a more in depth commentary on how I think the game is going (spoiler: it's going good).
Sunday: Day off since it's week 1 of the NFL season. I might do a smidgen of something but that's purely optional.
Monday: Empty out the todo list as much as possible.
Tuesday: Finish Beezlebub. This may run into Wednesday, depending on how things go.
Wednesday- Friday: Spells.
Saturday: TBA, it may be a catch up day if needed.
Sunday: Not much, any cleanup and mostly football.

Last call for todos and requests during the week. I shall get grumpy if I get any mid week.

[Anastasia]

Weekly Roundup

Alicia

The bit with the descrate casting Sharran was minor but nice - showing how deities deal with little things and I think you nailed it there. Shar won that verbal spar thereafter, but that and the reactions to it with Sharess were both good and funny, so I think it was strong character work. Likewise with Martin afterwards, it's the sort of little thing that helps fill in characters. Finally the Consortium stuff was nice, I think everyone suspected something or another would happen here after the Fall of Bel interludes.

Moore

The riddle stuff was fun, if only for the moment when you figured out the pun of your topic title. Total honesty, I was wondering if having that around would help subliminally at some point, put the right words in your head. Shar throwing weight around is pretty much Shar making trouble, but that's y'know, normal.  Beyond that it felt like something of an odds and ends week? I'd decided earl in the week I didn't want to pop bigger plot things until after vacation, so like with Alicia you were knocking out small things and lining up post vacation adventures.

Tryll

BRR!

Really, I like how you're proceeding through the ice dungeon. The anti flight measure is harsh but you're managing it, surviving it, enduring it. You've done well with the encounters so far, surviving them and keeping going. It's a solid party, one that should be fine for the coming challenges. Just keep Rocket Squidding all day long.

Alyssa

Ding-dong, the assassin is dead-er stopped. The assassin is stopped. That was nice for that looming headache to be removed and really that was the week, but it was a rewarding week. The rest of the stuff was good, chatting and feeling out the mood and limits of your node. Choosing not to be the ones to talk to Brannold's interesting, though I respect the logic involved (and honestly, those things require a PC being on board with it, so that was the right call if you weren't IC).

Seira

The Zaaman Rul chat was fine and advanced your goals nicely. It's worth nothing how games are colliding here - some things in B3 have influenced B6. This wasn't truly planned, just the result of organic events leading to me realizing that yeah, this would be a concern. It's a complication but one I enjoy, one that I think has added to events rather than subtracted from them. That aside, everything else has been good, including the mercane chat. I won't repeat myself there from Alicia's round up, but movement there's a start.

[Anastasia]

Sunday morning status update.

Saturday Night: Weekly roundup, along with a more in depth commentary on how I think the game is going (spoiler: it's going good).
Sunday: Day off since it's week 1 of the NFL season. I might do a smidgen of something but that's purely optional.
Monday: Empty out the todo list as much as possible.
Tuesday: Finish Beezlebub. This may run into Wednesday, depending on how things go.
Wednesday- Friday: Spells.
Saturday: TBA, it may be a catch up day if needed.
Sunday: Not much, any cleanup and mostly football.

[Ebiris]

The bit with the descrate casting Sharran was minor but nice - showing how deities deal with little things and I think you nailed it there. Shar won that verbal spar thereafter, but that and the reactions to it with Sharess were both good and funny, so I think it was strong character work. Likewise with Martin afterwards, it's the sort of little thing that helps fill in characters. Finally the Consortium stuff was nice, I think everyone suspected something or another would happen here after the Fall of Bel interludes.

I'm not sure I'd say Shar won the verbal spar. I mean she certainly distracted things but Alicia got a good zinger in before Shar just went 'lol lets fuck!' and how do you even respond to that one? Still, it gave a nice excuse to chat with Sharess and after that and her appearance at our party before it brings her a bit closer to our node in a more real sense than her just being Syala's former boss.

For the Consortium stuff, trade isn't really Alicia's interest and no way would she be dumb enough to hand intelligence services off to an outsider so we're at least pretty safe from infiltration, so we're just giving them a foot in the door and seeing what they do with it basically. Even without the stuff we know OOC from that interlude, the mercane are just too neutral and mercenary for Sylica to actually want close ties with, even if we've got no real reason to exclude them either.

Otherwise yeah mostly just puttering along. Things are going well in Sylica so we don't really have that much impetus to go looking for trouble elsewhere. Shar doesn't tend to have big evil castles floating around the planes waiting to be knocked over, and even if we're picking fights with Malcanthet we don't want to push her into a corner before we're ready to really capitalise on that.

[Corwin]

My goals are progressing, although slowly. I'm just knocking off both necessary things and trying to match the pace of said progress.

I like the interaction with the friendly deities. It's a bit weird, like I've graduated to stand on the same stage but as a junior member. Still, it's cool! I did my time as Robin, and now I'm Nightwinging it up.

Amaryl, Donald and Elle better do cool anti-Sharran stuff off screen. It's their node goals and they have a nice hook! It'd go a long way towards feeling like I don't have to micromanage everything for my node. I don't feel like much got done thus far without my direct involvement, and since I can't grab everyone for everything, it leads to me thinking that those from the node I don't involve in a current plan just sit back home and twiddle their thumbs. Whether that's how things go as a result of some oversimplifications that the game's format requires or if it's just a misconception on my side, I figure the only way to really deal with it is to give them nice hooks and see if they can solve those themselves.

[Nephrite]

Things feel like they're progressing in the right direction. Now we're prepared for anyone who tries to Time Stop and then escape on us, so that's a good thing.

I'll be curious to see what information Melia can get for us, since I really enjoy the strike raid aspect of our group a lot.

[Iron Dragoon]

Weekly Roundup

Alyssa

Ding-dong, the assassin is dead-er stopped. The assassin is stopped. That was nice for that looming headache to be removed and really that was the week, but it was a rewarding week. The rest of the stuff was good, chatting and feeling out the mood and limits of your node. Choosing not to be the ones to talk to Brannold's interesting, though I respect the logic involved (and honestly, those things require a PC being on board with it, so that was the right call if you weren't IC).

Yeah, it was an issue that never really went anywhere. I kept poking at it but my fucking terrible rolls (lookin' at you 2-7) just crippled the effort every time. Not going with the whole interrogation thing was primarily because Alyssa doesn't have any experience in that sort of thing and I can't imagine a group of arcane researchers has someone specialized in it and I didn't want to let inexperience with it cost us finding the souls (and whatever other info he had).

Mechanically/meta, it was because my diplo/intimidate/bluff stuff isn't as high as someone specialized in it and I'd have to blow Cunning Knowledge for it. Which would have been fine if it was just one or two checks, but I can easily see it being way more than just a couple and, well, my dice history ain't fantastic.

IC-wise, yeah, I can't see Alyssa the explorer/researcher going all Guantanamo Bay at the drop of a hat. She knew what was going to happen, vaguely, and was pretty okay with it, though. The whole turning him to our side wasn't really anything she expected to come up, and she honestly doesn't expect it to pan out, but Amaryl and Seira have way more experience with doing that sort of thing than she does. Honestly, if Amaryl had pushed it on her, Alyssa's solution was going to be to try to use that Programmed Amnesia spell to edit the guy's personality/memories to be a double agent for her so he'd be willing to report. That said, she knew that was a fairly bad option to suggest in the presence of Amaryl and Emily, and it's not really the sort of thing she actively *wants* to do, but without the experience of breaking/turning people before-hand, it's honestly her highest probability of success.

That said, I'm not really sure what Emily's thoughts on Alyssa are. I think she had lofty ideas and while Alyssa hasn't *failed* to meet them, not exactly, I don't think Emily really understood how Alyssa operates when she threw her hat in. I'd like to get some sort of feedback on that, if possible. Same with Jarem. Nothing like super OOC/Meta break-down or anything, just like if Alyssa's meeting or missing what they expected and how/why, just for personal insight.

I did like the part when I blew the smoke away and he went "Damn." =)
The fact that I know her heard Emily talking about dropping the cage and hoping to use it as a chance to escape, only for me to derail it is even better.

[Anastasia]

I'm not sure I'd say Shar won the verbal spar. I mean she certainly distracted things but Alicia got a good zinger in before Shar just went 'lol lets fuck!' and how do you even respond to that one? Still, it gave a nice excuse to chat with Sharess and after that and her appearance at our party before it brings her a bit closer to our node in a more real sense than her just being Syala's former boss.

I'd say it won it for her. It changed the entire pace of the conversation, countered Alicia's shot back and put Alicia on the back foot. I think summing it down to 'lol let's fuck' undermines that it was an effective gambit.

Quibbling over that aside, it was nice to develop Sharess some more. That went well overall and helped fill her in beyond 'cat'.

For the Consortium stuff, trade isn't really Alicia's interest and no way would she be dumb enough to hand intelligence services off to an outsider so we're at least pretty safe from infiltration, so we're just giving them a foot in the door and seeing what they do with it basically. Even without the stuff we know OOC from that interlude, the mercane are just too neutral and mercenary for Sylica to actually want close ties with, even if we've got no real reason to exclude them either.

Pretty good observations all around there. The mercane are just too useful to be spurred by most sides, even if it comes down to using them as part of the games of diplomacy and spying and little else. Not many people have deep ties to them, but most have some ties.

Otherwise yeah mostly just puttering along. Things are going well in Sylica so we don't really have that much impetus to go looking for trouble elsewhere. Shar doesn't tend to have big evil castles floating around the planes waiting to be knocked over, and even if we're picking fights with Malcanthet we don't want to push her into a corner before we're ready to really capitalise on that.

Pretty much. I've been winding up for events to happen the last few weeks, I decided a little while ago to clear out things, settle things down and prepare for shit happening. The way vacation timing worked out meant I'd use the vacation as a buffer, so I wanted to get in some nice little things and have fun before shit hits the fan.