The Peanut Gallery

Oni · Sep 12, 2009

"Bell looked back and forth between Martelai and Veruzak. She had read this scene a hundred times before and it almost always played out the same way. What seemed like polite conversation between tow masters of their trade was really a parlay of subtle verbal blows. She knew what would come next. . . Wizard Duel!"

This made me laugh.

CaBaNa · Sep 12, 2009

It was hilarious! I'm excited for this little group, especially Catein, it's going to be a blast!

fireinthedust · Sep 14, 2009

back on track...

basically we've gone through a lot in our group. Hadarai the Warlord has been living up to his Charisma 8, which is hilarious (I think), especially that he has it as a dump stat

Anyhoo, we're basically being monitored by a crowd during our (at this point mis)adventures, kinda like reality TV. my character, Emral, is the 18 Cha sorcerer, so the crowd loves him (and I as a player am really going to have to nurture the love).

Ken is really doing a great job with his posts; I know that if it takes a day he's working on something to throw at us, and that includes dialogue. Here's a recent sample:

A crowd is WAITING for you as you round the bend. Many of them bear signs encouraging the party to victory, while there seems to be a significant (but small) group with signs describing all sorts of anatomically impossible things that Hadarai should do to himself. The crowd cheers. You hear...

"Hurry! Hurry! You have to save Drivan!"

"Say something awkward, Finnian!"

"***** you, Hadarai!"

"We love you, Vaunea!"

"They took Marco and the kids!"

"I'm glad you're stuck in a catatonic state, Hadarai!"

"Why did you pick armor, Emral?"

"Do you think Drivan would father my child?"

"Don't you know you're being followed? And not by that ****-hole, Hadarai!"

"Drivan's in trouble!"

As an aside, I think PBP is its own form of game. Dialogue is as important as descriptions of locations in RL games, and a poster can do more with it than a person normally can when being stared at by RL players.
I wonder if a PBP module could be written, with pre-generated descriptions to cut-and-paste at certain scenes (ie: open door 26a: the throneroom). Combat would be different, keeping in mind that it takes so long to get anything done, that having say Minions (one-hit-kills) would save a lot of energy and keep up the pace.

Maybe the DMG3 could keep that in mind!

Kalidrev · Sep 14, 2009

Ken Hood said:
"So how 'bout we just set aside all this foolishness and cement our friendship in the time honored tradition of all adventures, by murderin' some hapless evil-doer and ransackin' his belongings?"

Good god, I think I like this guy even more than Palindrome! (no offense KH). He's almost likable in a twisted, a$$h*lish sorta way.

KenHood · Sep 14, 2009

fireinthedust said:
back on track...

Yeah. The three-way party split was not the best idea I've ever had. Let that be a lesson to anyone else who attempts it in PbP.

TwoHeadsBarking · Sep 15, 2009

KenHood said:
"No, really," says the man in the midst of the crowd, "I'm certain you're supposed to take off your armor before you go for a swim."

Man, someone needs to tell that guy that your shield is generally giving just as much if not more of an armor check penalty that your armor does. Swimming in scale is easy; fish do it all the time.

Seriously though, that's a nice little scene that's playing out. I hope nobody drowns.

fireinthedust · Sep 15, 2009

KenHood said:
Yeah. The three-way party split was not the best idea I've ever had. Let that be a lesson to anyone else who attempts it in PbP.

I disagree. I think it could work, and can only work in pbp.

RL games I've been in saw me waste two sessions waiting on the GM to let me attempt to get out of a chair. I got poisoned, rolled a save natural 20, GM said I'd failed. I got to watch another character fight on a monitor, but I and the GMs roommate both were tied up. I realized Wait, I scheduled my work around this game, am missing hours, because you want me to be a seguay?!
Considering the eventual escape could have been accomplished in, like, five minutes of game play, and we had six people around the table, yeah it was annoying.

As long as the other players not only have something to do, but are actively trying to find something to do, that's good. You as GM can only give them something to do, you can't make them do it, you can't make them post, you can't write their dialogue for them.

I think pbp is a genre of game with the weakness and strength that it goes whenever players and GM find time to sit down and write it. RL happens.

so, for our game, you clearly had something for every party member to do during the split. While we did have some posting lag (I had a couple days there myself) having the party split allowed us to cover more ground.
Even Drivan tied up was involved. Personally I'll take away from those scenes a design structure for making tied-up challenges. Can we have a clear list of objectives? Can he succeed at those without becoming frustrated and giving up? Is there information he can get from the kidnappers about where he is? Yes, and he did those. I would give him a prize for this RP, as I think he's earned it.

KenHood · Sep 15, 2009

fireinthedust said:
I would give him a prize for this RP, as I think he's earned it.

Yeah. He's definitely getting an RP prize for that. He managed to turn an awkward wait into an interesting event.

H.M.Gimlord · Sep 16, 2009

fireinthedust said:
I disagree. I think it could work, and can only work in pbp.

I agree. I've often thought of starting 3-5 different single to two-player intro adventures, and have them come together at the 'beginning', just to give each PC a different perspective on the game. Doing this in RL would be a nightmare to DM because you would have to meet with each PC individually ahead of time, but if it would work anywhere, it would work in pbp. [/sblock]