Weekly shit, round 2 go!

[Anastasia]

Weekly will go on. There, I said it. We all let out a breath, right? Good, let's move on from this and get to the meat of the matter.

---

Re: Booting people.

First of all, let me say that I hope I never have to do this. It's the worst possible thing a GM can be forced to do, especially in a game with friends. So please don't make me do this. How? I'm getting to that now. As you may or may not know, there's been some private drama with certain parties in this game. I won't say who - if you don't know then it wasn't you so don't worry about it. The people invovled know who they are and I said my peace to them already. I don't want a repeat of this, people. This a game with friends playing with friends. This sort of drama, no matter who is right and who is wrong, utterly defeats the point of the game, as well as robbing me of most of the fun I have running it. Therefore:

If you have a problem with someone try to resolve it with them. If not talk to me before this turns into a dramafest and we'll see what we can do to fix it. If not and it swells up? I may have to remove people from this game. This is sincerely not my desired path, but I simply cannot and will not tolerate this any longer. I'd rather lose one or two PCs than suffer another few sessions of that garbage. I mean to say this to all of you yet none of you in particular. This is merely how it's gonna be on my end of things now. If you feel you can't work with someone in the group, we're gonna sit down and have a long talk about it, since that's a pretty big problem.

If it gets that bad I'm going to be sorely inclined to boot both parties if I have to boot anyone. Again, don't make me do this. Please.

---

Re: People leaving.

At this current time, it looks like Iddy will tentatively be sticking around. His scheduling should work out as it stands now. No one else is currently in a bad situation for this, are they?

---

Re: People being removed.

I note this seperately because this is a different matter altogether. I'd like to try to get to play every Sunday with a full crew. This is a weekly game and all these misses really, really hurt us. I'm getting tired of 'X has to fill in for Y' situations and setups. I don't wanna lose anyone this way, either, but I have to be pragmatic if somene's missing a lot of sessions. I'm not naming anyone at the moment - if you know you're missing a lot of time you know that you are and you know that I know.

We can theoretically move the gaming day again if we really must, but I'd rather keep it on Sunday for a lot of reasons.

---

Re: New players.

We have two reserve PCs, Ebiris and Corwin. If we lose a PC for whatever reason they have characters ready and willing to step in. I'm mixed, they're both good RPers but I don't wanna lose anyone, either. Anyway, heads up about that, as they're a nice insurance policy. I don't intend to add them if we don't lose anyone - we're at a good number of PCs, and adding another will only make coordination more difficult.

Ebiris is first and Corwin is second. This was done purely on a 'first ask, first serve' basis. Eb asked first, so there you go.

---

Re: Game direction.

1. Where do you want the game to go?

2. What do you want out of the game?

3. What do you like in Weekly?

4. What do you dislike in Weekly??

5. Are there rules that annoy you?

6. Are there any rules you'd like to suggest?

7. Do you want more RPing time?

8. Is there anywhere you'd like to go that you don't have planned or anything else you'd like to say?

Please answer these and be honest. I'll answer these myself tonight. Feel free to comment ont he first parts, too.

[Carthrat]

1. I want the game to reflect the world around us in some way. I don't really want to keep up with the isolated episodes that continue throughout; I want a series of events that are linked together beyond 'well, we were there, and it happened'. A core focus that's world-dependant, rather than character-dependant.

Some examples of what I mean...

1) Basing a series of adventures around a castle ruin that we capture and refurbish/rebuild.

2) The whole dragon thing you've hinted at.

3) War! And how we react to it!

4) Actually seeking our racial place in the world, or doing something about racial tension, rather than just saying it's there. Even seeing the effects of it; racism must exist, surely, and all the bad things that come with it.

5) Any kind of long-term adventure, that may or may not involve travel; for instance, a long journey through the underdark to recover a lost sword, or some such.

2- I want to do *epic stuff*. Not loot tombs or kill bandits or raid random ruins or whatever, I wanna crush armies, activate long-forgotten magics, stage a raid into the castle of some evil king. Hell, I want to accidentally release a great evil upon the world, and then go fix it. It's heavily related to number 2; something plotty and long-termish.

3- I like the other PCs, for the most part, and I like the effort that goes into building them up as individuals. I'm fond of the prose that goes into areas, and do like the way it feels we're making real progress.

4- I don't like the way the world seems 'static' to me, and nor do I like the villians, so far. They all seem to be mad, deranged, or just stupid. I like smart and sassy villians, personally. I'm not altogether fond of how certain details about the world are just skimmed over, either; I'd like the land more fleshed out, as it were, along with the relative places of organisations and countries within it (Waukeen and elfdom, respectively). One thing that sometimes bugs me is the actual free reign we get over ideas; sometimes it's cool to be able to make stuff up about the world and use it straight away, but other times it feels like I'm just free-falling through a world that's defined by 'how I want it to be'.

It's not really.. stable.

5- I'm not exactly fond of the way init works, but I can live with it. I don't like the way spellcasting is just auto-disrupted even at the smallest hit (though I'm aware the party fighters might >_>), and, well, yeah. Most of my complaints are more peeves that I can't be expected to take too seriously.

6- I want permission to BREAK the usual spellcasting rules in entertaining ways. Basically I want to design a whole bunch of spells that basically shoot the usual methods in the foot.  Barring that, I want to rip off concentration checks from 3e (yes, yes, I'm a whore). I dunno. If you get hit while casting a spell, you need to make a con check with a penalty of the level of the spell+damage taken? That can get pretty anal, but it does annoy me to get wasted by a slight breeze.

Still, it's not something I really care about so much. If I suffer with it, so do other magi. I DO want to work out some cool way for mages to duke it out with each other that becomes something other than an init war. It seems so very lame to make it a battle of 'who goes first'; we're not gunslingers.

7- Sure, why not? I want more NPCs to interact with that will be around on a more permenant basis...

8- I'd like to unearth ancient magical secrets. >_>

[Asrana]

1. See the world! Or something. Exterminate all trolls from the face of the planet. Fulfill my rtesponsibilities and obligations as I see them. >_>

2. Seryf's life? She isn't a very grandiose thinker, and it's rubbing off for this game. >_>; She mostly wants to tag along and help out what she (Or I?) finds interesting. I'd kind of like to go back to the wilderness some. THe whole set of isolated prosperous towns was interesting in their little intrigues, though if we could blend everything by adding nobility maybe we'd have some intrigue too.

3. El-chan! Or more specifically, when I can get bantering with her. The power mongering quests have been the most interesting so far I guess (<Saul> MY SPELL BOOK. MINE!). Just mostly the chat and talk. Though the energetic, high intensity and non-dragging fights have been nice (Hi, Mr. Red Dragon!). Oh yes, and Paxburg. It had everything! High class criminals, two bit criminals, elves, merchants, clerics, mages, nearby deep and dark forests with forgotten towns and fortresses, Fiera, history, a pseudo-base of operations, and we could actually take Serith into places.

4. Admittedly? Dungeon crawling. I don't like 'grinds' of any kind since they lose my attention, patience, and interest really quickly. >_>;

5. Not that I can think of off the top. Unless you tell me I can't make a lighter form of dragon armor, then I stab you.

6. Nope, nothing in my region particularly.

7. YES YES YES YES YES YES. Okay I'm done. I honestly don't make the transition in combat well. I like to be able to focus on it, tear through it, and then switch completely. >_>; Bad things happen when I switch at the wrong time (*Tickles El-chan*)

8. I'd almost like to make one drop in on the elven kingdoms, but that's mostly related to my family that I still need to flesh out. Otherwise? The outlaying duchies sound the most interesting. Just to get involved in war like nobility and such.

[Anastasia]

1. Where do you want the game to go?

Whatever lets us have fun. I like the more isolated, slices o' adventure style. I'll comment more in reference to this in my replies to Rat and company. I like a lot of the threads that are starting to develop(Dragon intrigue).

2. What do you want out of the game?

I'll go where the players want to go within reason. I'd rather avoid heavy international stuff like war, though.

3. What do you like in Weekly?

The PCs without a doubt. They're really good in general.

4. What do you dislike in Weekly?

The aforementioned bicvkering.

5. Are there rules that annoy you?

Not really, no.

6. Are there any rules you'd like to suggest?

No, since I'm the GM and if I like one I'l take action on it instead. <_<

7. Do you want more RPing time?

Sure, I wouldn't mind some more.

8. Is there anywhere you'd like to go that you don't have planned or anything else you'd like to say?

No at the moment, since I'm going to be writing a lot more in replies.

[Anastasia]

1. I want the game to reflect the world around us in some way. I don't really want to keep up with the isolated episodes that continue throughout; I want a series of events that are linked together beyond 'well, we were there, and it happened'. A core focus that's world-dependant, rather than character-dependant.

That I'm working on some, yeah. I like to keep it moving to your next adventures unless the group settles down somewhere. On the other hand, I've said from the getgo the world is simply nice frosting for the characters and adventures, so I don't want to get too deep into the world itself.

Some examples of what I mean...

1) Basing a series of adventures around a castle ruin that we capture and refurbish/rebuild.

Heh, that's a fine idea.

2) The whole dragon thing you've hinted at.

Yes. No comment here since I'm building that up.

3) War! And how we react to it!

I'll be honest. War is a gigantic pain in the ass to GM, as well as having realistic issues. (Gavin would probably be called up, for example.) It may happen in the long run, but we'll see.

4) Actually seeking our racial place in the world, or doing something about racial tension, rather than just saying it's there. Even seeing the effects of it; racism must exist, surely, and all the bad things that come with it.

Yeah, somewhat. Probably need to work that out more.

5) Any kind of long-term adventure, that may or may not involve travel; for instance, a long journey through the underdark to recover a lost sword, or some such.

A long term goal? Sure. No comment past this since it may be in development/already developing.

2- I want to do *epic stuff*. Not loot tombs or kill bandits or raid random ruins or whatever, I wanna crush armies, activate long-forgotten magics, stage a raid into the castle of some evil king. Hell, I want to accidentally release a great evil upon the world, and then go fix it. It's heavily related to number 2; something plotty and long-termish.

Sure. Works for me as a rule, working up towards that stuff.

4- I don't like the way the world seems 'static' to me, and nor do I like the villians, so far. They all seem to be mad, deranged, or just stupid. I like smart and sassy villians, personally.

Mmmm. Quick recap, mainly for myself.

Volte - Arrogant, idiotic, schemer.

Elf Bandit Leader - Cocky, dragonfood.

Jeras - Cut short due to circumstances going weird. Was meant to be a sneaky son of a bitch. Carried parts of this off well, but the entire thieves thing was a mess.

Ankiroth - Nasty, scheming, barely seen for now.

Aalan - Mysterious, a little creepy, odd.

Pireth - Utterly insane spirit.

So yeah, point there. Jeras was in that direction but he didn't last long. Aalan is a work in progress(Rat can guess some stuff here OOC that hasn't been confirmed IC.)

I'm not altogether fond of how certain details about the world are just skimmed over, either; I'd like the land more fleshed out, as it were, along with the relative places of organisations and countries within it (Waukeen and elfdom, respectively). One thing that sometimes bugs me is the actual free reign we get over ideas; sometimes it's cool to be able to make stuff up about the world and use it straight away, but other times it feels like I'm just free-falling through a world that's defined by 'how I want it to be'.

Mmm. Okay, that's workable. I need to settle in and work on that myself. A few gutshot thoughts:

I see the Waukeenar as being sort of an international force for money. It's in their interests to keep trade going, so that work a lot of that stuff. Sponser trade routes and toll roads, have a presence in hubs, ect.

The Knights I'm not sure about. There's a lot to be said here but that's going to wait for after Gavin replies.

Countries? To the southeast are the Wastes of Serel, where Darius is front. Think semi arid glasslands with elves and some humans. Further south is the elf stuff, probably.

East is the big nasty frozen wasteland. Anything past it isn't too well known.

West is dwarven stuff and mountains, as well as the sea. I don't think it's a big sea, and it's been hinted that the last wars had a strong naval element. This makes sense as Almekia is slightly isolated, relatively.

5- I'm not exactly fond of the way init works, but I can live with it. I don't like the way spellcasting is just auto-disrupted even at the smallest hit (though I'm aware the party fighters might >_>), and, well, yeah. Most of my complaints are more peeves that I can't be expected to take too seriously.

Done! <_< I think it's reasonably balanced.

6- I want permission to BREAK the usual spellcasting rules in entertaining ways. Basically I want to design a whole bunch of spells that basically shoot the usual methods in the foot.  Barring that, I want to rip off concentration checks from 3e (yes, yes, I'm a whore). I dunno. If you get hit while casting a spell, you need to make a con check with a penalty of the level of the spell+damage taken? That can get pretty anal, but it does annoy me to get wasted by a slight breeze.

I think the damage=lose spell rule is reasonable as it is. It's a nice balance and reason for the wizard to stay out of danger.

Still, it's not something I really care about so much. If I suffer with it, so do other magi. I DO want to work out some cool way for mages to duke it out with each other that becomes something other than an init war. It seems so very lame to make it a battle of 'who goes first'; we're not gunslingers.

Probably stoneskins, protections and those spells. See Baldur's Gate 2 and how a lot of the liches tend to auto protect, I reckon.

7- Sure, why not? I want more NPCs to interact with that will be around on a more permenant basis...

Sure.

[Anastasia]

1. See the world! Or something. Exterminate all trolls from the face of the planet. Fulfill my responsibilities and obligations as I see them. >_>

Troll hunting is fun. But yeah, I'd like to and I'm starting to build more on the Corela stuff and the obligations Seryf inherited.

2. Seryf's life? She isn't a very grandiose thinker, and it's rubbing off for this game. >_>; She mostly wants to tag along and help out what she (Or I?) finds interesting. I'd kind of like to go back to the wilderness some. THe whole set of isolated prosperous towns was interesting in their little intrigues, though if we could blend everything by adding nobility maybe we'd have some intrigue too.

*Nods* Like little pockets of interest surrounded by vast wilds?

3. El-chan! Or more specifically, when I can get bantering with her. The power mongering quests have been the most interesting so far I guess (<Saul> MY SPELL BOOK. MINE!). Just mostly the chat and talk. Though the energetic, high intensity and non-dragging fights have been nice (Hi, Mr. Red Dragon!). Oh yes, and Paxburg. It had everything! High class criminals, two bit criminals, elves, merchants, clerics, mages, nearby deep and dark forests with forgotten towns and fortresses, Fiera, history, a pseudo-base of operations, and we could actually take Serith into places.

I kind of liked Paxburg myself, really. That I'll agree with and I wouldn't mind going back to it sometime. In reference to the fights, what do you mean by dragging/non dragging? I'd like some examples here.

4. Admittedly? Dungeon crawling. I don't like 'grinds' of any kind since they lose my attention, patience, and interest really quickly. >_>;

Okay.

7. YES YES YES YES YES YES. Okay I'm done. I honestly don't make the transition in combat well. I like to be able to focus on it, tear through it, and then switch completely. >_>; Bad things happen when I switch at the wrong time (*Tickles El-chan*)

Yeah, that's something I'm getting from a few of you. I'd like some time to flush you guys out a little more under less stress. 'specially since Seryf goes all mother lion in combat a lot.

8. I'd almost like to make one drop in on the elven kingdoms, but that's mostly related to my family that I still need to flesh out. Otherwise? The outlaying duchies sound the most interesting. Just to get involved in war like nobility and such.

Generic nod here for now. But yeah, ties into what we're going after a lot.

[Dracos]

Good to see you're sticking with it.  Unfortunate that it seems to bring such misery :\

Re: People being removed.

I note this seperately because this is a different matter altogether. I'd like to try to get to play every Sunday with a full crew. This is a weekly game and all these misses really, really hurt us. I'm getting tired of 'X has to fill in for Y' situations and setups. I don't wanna lose anyone this way, either, but I have to be pragmatic if somene's missing a lot of sessions. I'm not naming anyone at the moment - if you know you're missing a lot of time you know that you are and you know that I know.

We can theoretically move the gaming day again if we really must, but I'd rather keep it on Sunday for a lot of reasons.

Not naming, but I'll answer anyway.  I've felt like a real streak of bad luck there of late.  I'll be there for two-three weeks every day including game day and we'll end up lacking enough people to actually play until I'm actually gone for a weekend  X_X.  Real frustrating given I actually have been looking forward to a decent dungeon that wasn't "New room+new saving throw trap".

Re: Game direction.

1. Where do you want the game to go?

I think Rat hit most of those with the exception of having no desire whatsoever to get into a racism campaign.  I live in Virginia.  If I want to hear about racial tension, I can walk outside.  Hell, got an hour long spiel about it while touring with gin today.

More clearly, I'm good for short stuff and for midlength arcs.  I think you've been doing a better job each session on such anyhow.

2. What do you want out of the game?

Fun?  That's kind of what I come for =p  Epic stuff is fun.  Dungeon crawls are fun.  Getting to exercise abilities and narrative in the game world is fun.

I guess I'm bad at answering these on the spot, but  I think i've been pretty straight forward in giving feedback when I find something fun or an idea neat.

3. What do you like in Weekly?

This is asking for it.  But  I do like dungeon crawls when they're not separated by weeks of null space between each thing.  I did like the dragon fight.  I like the executing of plans to answer challenges/puzzles.  Jeras' capture for example.  I'll second rat on liking the PCs and more missing getting to play with them.  Before the bar scene I can't remember the last time Gavin's gotten to sit down and chat it up with the other PCs.  Probably rat grabbing me for his familiar and before that some training scenes with Elaine.

4. What do you dislike in Weekly??

The weeks of not really playing mixed with not getting to conclude one segment before searching the next.  I tend to like to deal with one thing at a time if I can when gaming, while keeping track of what various things are out there.

 More seriously, I think I've elaborated on this greatly to you in pages of logs.  I want the notion that I'm working for something noble and not 'nobles pocket books'.  The feeling that we're in a land of adventure and not a corrupt oligarchy with a king as figurehead.  I think you've been moving toward fixing that, and I appreciate it.  I liked the scene in the bar.

5. Are there rules that annoy you?

6. Are there any rules you'd like to suggest?

Not that I can think of. =p  I tend to bring them up directly when they do so...

7. Do you want more RPing time?

Yes, but I've been working on the understanding that I'm about the only one with consistant free time and that half the party is in the sm game that runs every day (not bad mouthing).  Thus been trying to stay out of the way as I've not wanted to cause an attention fight bringing more stress between the two games.

Really, this is about the only game I don't worry about GMing in some vein and I've no desire to hunt for more to fill the time, so pretty much anytime I'm there and not exhausted, I'm up for some gaming.

Aside, rat's line sounds good too.  I like *gestures to list* having known people I can talk about or to.

8. Is there anywhere you'd like to go that you don't have planned or anything else you'd like to say?

Not that I can think of to the first.  I think I've elaborated all my ideas and well, I tend to keep my thoughts in the goals thread when I have 'em.  I'd like more chances to flesh the knights with stuff but I'm not pushing it because the intent is an adventuring party and I don't want to rip that up.

I'll second Hotaru.  While I've pretty much despised how the capital felt, aside from the kind of absence of knight presence, I liked Paxburg and cup o' orial a fair deal.  And don't explain, I know why there and don't blame you.  Adding 5-10 characters to a fight scene can be chaotic and even if there's other ways of handling it, I understand why things turned out that way.

I hope things are less stressful for you, Dune.  I don't really like bringing that about. :\

Dracos
Sorry if this is incoherent.  Been out in the sun much longer than I like today.

[Merc]

1. Where do you want the game to go?
Towards something more epic-ish would be cool. Linked adventures are fun, though individual 'side quests' are nice here and there.

Admittedly though, I don't particularly think that the current gaming format lends itself too well to epicness, given we only meet once a week and either cancel or do a mini 'side quest' thing with the available players when someone is absentee, and that gets a bit jarring in the face of epicness.

Still, something epic would highly appeal to Elaine's sense of adventuring and storytelling.

A bit more related to our backgrounds would be nice to see as well, people and events from our past are always great to deal with. I enjoyed dealing with Elaine's mom (even if she was a bit more mother hen'ish than I would have considered), and as an example, I also enjoyed the side quest to Kethean's home town in Rat's game (even if I did die as a result) and the drama that ensued there.

There's a lot of material to use too. Saul's old merchant troope, Gavin's knight buddies (he can't be the only one adventuring to get experience), Darius' tribe, Elaine's dad (who could also be Darius'), etc.

2. What do you want out of the game?
Fun, pretty much. Some recurring NPCs, like a rival adventuring outfit or a recurring villain (which I suppose you're doing to some degree with Aalan?). More background'ish stuff as mentioned in (1).

3. What do you like in Weekly?
PC interaction the most, especially bickering with Darius, even though that role has kinda been usurped in the past few weeks by Seryf (which is a bit weird).

I also enjoy the very dynamic feel of the game. It's very easy to get sucked into the role of Elaine because of it, and that's fun to do.

4. What do you dislike in Weekly??
Elaine sometimes feels like nothing more than a cheerleader, especially lately, with her seeming to be falling behind the others. Considering this is with her having the most magical items (not counting Saul's scrolls anyhow) and experience...

While I do appreciate the amount of freedom we get, it's also gotten to be a bit of a pain to some degrees. We've made so many customizations to the game that it's hard to keep track of where things need balancing at times.

5. Are there rules that annoy you?
None that haven't been addressed already for the most part.

6. Are there any rules you'd like to suggest?
We still need to finalize what to do with Elaine and the suggested blade proficiency options or see about other options (though I think you were tentatively okay for now with the suggestion).

7. Do you want more RPing time?
I'm fairly happy where we're at right now, the occassional missed session aside. While I do admit I wouldn't mind more RPing time, the question of whether I could -afford- to have more RPing time...

*sigh* Stupid job.

8. Is there anywhere you'd like to go that you don't have planned or anything else you'd like to say?

When do we get to encounter a mage that'll polymorph Gavin into an elf?

>_>

<_<

^_^

[Anastasia]

I lost most of my reply in a tragic Firefox snafu, so I'm just going to hit the salient points this time.

Re: Drac and people missing.

Yeah, this hurts a lot. Remember that spiel I did back when the game started, about not missing sessions? Honestly, I have to give credit to Rat and Hotaru, they've been best about showing up every time.

Shit happens, though.

Re: Elaine and balance.

Yeah, I approved that one style, El-chan. Feelf ree to roll with it. That's why looking to in game performance is best here, it's easy to see if someone's failing.

---

CONCLUSIONS:

- Epic=good. This is something I'm building up to so this coincides with myp lans well.

- NPCs/setting=good, with some specific nods to Paxburg. People, do you want to go back there?

- Goals=good. Working on this some, we'll see where we stand on it in awhile.

- More RPing=good. I'll start gnawing on people more.

Thoughts/comments?

[Dracos]

I liked paxburg...but I don't want to go back there right away.  I think that'd be very against an epic adventure arc and well, from an RP perspective, I'd have trouble playing Gavin towards it.  He goes from wanting to go see the world and adventure and earn a reputation to going and hanging out around paxburg.  The easiest RP reason for gavin to come back is being called back by his commander.

Beside that, what gavin sees right now is lots of neat stuff off beyond the horizon that I know of.  It'd suck to just drop that.

Dracos
looking forward to being gnawed  =p

[Asrana]

In reference to the fights, what do you mean by dragging/non dragging? I'd like some examples here.

The undead fights were...eh. They were well done, but as a type, I dsiagreed with them. It fits into how I don't enjoy dungeon crawling at all barring rather heavy mystery angles. It becomes this sorta "Okay, move on to the next...go back and find the level piece to finish this stage...right right, what's next? Kick in the next door..." And I honestly get bored and tired, especially when we start at 8am on weekends. >_>;

And then compare it to the frantic, relatively short but intensely brutal fight with say...the dragon, the Troll Lord, Seryf's fight with that group of trolls on her side-adventure or even each of the individual bears leading to Demetrius.

*shrugs*

[Dracos]

I can understand that view... though I hope we don't constantly face things that are 'our power level only'.  Yes hordes can be silly/gopher whacking but I've always seen the converse as really kind of exhausting after a while.  They feel fine in a super heroes game, but if it's all major encounters it well...  Feels like a tournament.   *shrugs*

Dracos
Adds a second thought to it.

[Carthrat]

Hordes make nice backdrop, but I don't feel they make particularly exciting encounters.

Seeing as we've owned everything we've fought so far (albeit closely, sometimes) with no friendly casualties, I'd hestitate to say that what we've been fighting is our power level. Mostly, I'd like to not fight individual tanks of awesome or great hordes of useless, but other, similarly-sized and similarly-leveled (not party-2 levels, that's just stupid) opponents who we must fight intelligently to outwit.

I mean thinking beyond the immedaite fight level, too. Initiating the fight on our terms, dealing with what they try... nobody has used an invisibility spell against us in an effective manner, yet, nor has anyone had the tactical advantage over us (except, perhaps, the dragon, who we STILL owned.)