DM Nagging: It's pretty much my job

[Anastasia]

No. Wallop increases weapon damage, which doesn't tie into CMB/CMD.

[Anastasia]

I didn't get a chance to do another deific writeup this evening since the internet was down, so I'll work on those this weekend.

[Anastasia]

Weekly Feedback

My feedback isn't going to be person by person this week. No, I'm going to talk about something else instead. So far this week, I've begun to introduce little side stories and segments where various worshipers go about their lives and catch your attention, at which point you can watch or intervene. This sort of thing is a part of divinity, as well as a way for you to get in touch with your followers more directly. Right now I'm largely feeling out how I want to pace and pattern them, so some unevenness is unavoidable. Between that and the first steps to flush out the personalities of various worshipers, this week was somewhat experimental on that front.

As far as PCs go, there's been some curiosity on how a PC should handle these segments. This is fair enough so lemme go into this a little bit. There's really no wrong way to handle a situation - but bear in mind oftentimes the answer is to do nothing at all and let events play out. This isn't a question of negligence, but merely that direct intervention is rarely unresponded to in some way, as was seen a few different times. Balym's second death in Seira's thread is the most obvious, but I'll spoil a bit and also note that Shar nudged that armor Araseis ran into in her direction to counter Alyssa's intervention.

Other deities are not inactive, even if you may not detect their hand in matters. Or if they necessarily detect yours in a particular incident for that matter. This is the sort of thing mortals rarely see directly, as most deities are more subtle in their interventions for a variety of reasons. Likewise, the response to such interference varies from deity to deity. Balym's second death was a pretty good example of a measured response by Malar. He merely moved to counter Seira's maneuver and didn't escalate the matter further. No deity wants to lose, but few deities want to provoke a feud that will do a lot more damage to both sides, either.

In other words it is politics and it is complicated.

As a side note, Alicia and Demogorgon's spat wasn't really related to this. They were both merely looking at the same mortal event and Demogorgon got nasty. It wasn't over any interventions, merely the demonic personality involved.

Finally, sometimes mortals simply die. Heroes reach that one moment where bravery, skill and luck fail them and eternity comes to grasp them. This week saw Balym's moment and Seira handled the aftermath of that well. It's worth keeping in mind that as long as soul theft or similar measures don't happen, a slain worshiper merely travels to your divine realm and joins you for eternity. This is Creation working as designed so bear that in mind with what you do. Moreover, when a mortal dies, they're largely removed from any chance that you'll lose them. No longer are they mortal and (relatively) easily susceptible to changing their allegiance. It's rough to see a worshiper die, but when they do, they're heading for something far better. Worth keeping that in mind for divine philosophy, too.

[Corwin]

While I like the scenes and find them interesting, I did find it irritating that I was the only one who got a scene where one of my guys was outright murdered at the onset before I could act, and a 'high' roll meant he was rekilled and the party eliminated. Other high rolls didn't seem to result in either character death or TPKs for their parties.

[Anastasia]

While I like the scenes and find them interesting, I did find it irritating that I was the only one who got a scene where one of my guys was outright murdered at the onset before I could act, and a 'high' roll meant he was rekilled and the party eliminated. Other high rolls didn't seem to result in either character death or TPKs for their parties.

Your roll was a 98, by a decent margin the highest roll I saw this week. It was just bad luck, so I used it to be illustrative (and why I used a new character rather than one you produced and wrote up) and show how these things can happen. Normally I don't start with 'X character dies', moreso the written up ones since y'all put effort into them. Lemme frame this another way that you may find less irritating: I saw the roll I thought 'Yeah, I trust Cor to handle this well and demonstrate to others how this might work when bad things happen'. You did handle it well, incidentally.

In the interests of transparency I'd be worried about any roll that's 80+ since that could be really bad, and 95+ is where death is more likely than not.

[Ebiris]

Worshipper side-stories have been fun so far. I feel like when they came up earlier on in the game I was a bit heavy-handed in straight up buffing some guys with spells and the nudges for attention or little things like helping the log hold steady for a few seconds work better for being a meaningful supportive presence in a world where gods are real and tangible, while not just reducing the choices and abilities of said followers down to irrelevance. Can call it early instalment weirdness from getting used to how this all works I guess.

[Corwin]

Now that Eb's mentioned it, I also like that it allows us to express ourselves according to how we see our place with regards to our followers. Level and means of intervention, and all that.

[Anastasia]

Worshipper side-stories have been fun so far. I feel like when they came up earlier on in the game I was a bit heavy-handed in straight up buffing some guys with spells and the nudges for attention or little things like helping the log hold steady for a few seconds work better for being a meaningful supportive presence in a world where gods are real and tangible, while not just reducing the choices and abilities of said followers down to irrelevance. Can call it early instalment weirdness from getting used to how this all works I guess.

I do agree for most things, and pretty much. Learning to be a deity means you feel out what you should do and how, too. It's entirely reasonable Alicia may look back and think she went in too hard in earlier cases. Live and learn territory.

[Anastasia]

Now that Eb's mentioned it, I also like that it allows us to express ourselves according to how we see our place with regards to our followers. Level and means of intervention, and all that.

Pretty much. Not every deity reacts in the same way to the same thing, and individual variances do happen. While most deities are going to do something if you openly intervene against their interests, not all are going to react the same way, let alone the same across different worshipers.

[Nephrite]

I agree with the point that we've given the opportunity to respond to each situation as we'd see fit, and I appreciate that the "more involved" we get, the more likely it is for there to be resistance, or some counter balance depending on how much we decide to 'take the field,' as it were.

[Anastasia]

I agree with the point that we've given the opportunity to respond to each situation as we'd see fit, and I appreciate that the "more involved" we get, the more likely it is for there to be resistance, or some counter balance depending on how much we decide to 'take the field,' as it were.

Yeah, I like that the unspoken threat of counters adds a tactical element to it.

[Anastasia]

I didn't get a chance to do another deific writeup this evening since the internet was down, so I'll work on those this weekend.

These will resume tomorrow evening, life interfered.

[Anastasia]

Reviewing and updating nodes. Any changes to existing goals are noted here.

Old

Cresiel: Loyal, Determined. ("The wheel will be ours.") Reason: It's going to be a long, long, long goal to the point of absurdity, so it may be best to let his focus adjust to what's much more on his mind now.
Bastian: Interested ("I want to travel on one of these seed quests.") Reason: He mostly missed that boat so I won't have him be stuck on it forever.

New:

Cresiel: Loyal, Determined. ("I will prove that I belong here now.")
Bastian: Interested ("I really want to cut loose with what I have now.")

[Iron Dragoon]

Reviewing and updating nodes. Any changes to existing goals are noted here.

Old

Cresiel: Loyal, Determined. ("The wheel will be ours.") Reason: It's going to be a long, long, long goal to the point of absurdity, so it may be best to let his focus adjust to what's much more on his mind now.
Bastian: Interested ("I want to travel on one of these seed quests.") Reason: He mostly missed that boat so I won't have him be stuck on it forever.

New:

Cresiel: Loyal, Determined. ("I will prove that I belong here now.")
Bastian: Interested ("I really want to cut loose with what I have now.")

Uhhhhh.... Didn't Bastian do a whole thing with Jessica and also went with us to the Beastlands? I feel like that's completing it, not missing it.

[Anastasia]

That's a good point, actually. Okay. Remind me of that tomorrow in PM and we'll see about resolving it.