Pathfinders of Pelligrew's Pinnace [OOC 01]

Very nice, Mike!

Danke! I thought it was time to update the pics, since it's been a LOONNGG time since Auron and Leaf were actually in the party. And I thought I'd try to learn a little about lighting by way of adding in some spell effects.

I updated the OP home page as well.

Speaking of long time...shouldn't we be like Level 2 by now or something?

And we're walking . . .

I've been trying to think of a few ways to cut some of the dross from this game and make it a little more focused; sandbox style is awesome in that it allows the group to have almost complete say-so in where they go and what they do, but it requires, I think, more focus and initiative on the group's part than is typical for PbP.

It also requires that the GM post more frequently to help the group maintain that focus, which I have most definitely NOT been doing with this game. I've struggled with the change in "cast" in both of my AP games, I think.

Before I actually put a LOT of effort into this, let me ask your preference:

Assuming I can/will put more effort into a higher posting rate in either case, would you all rather keep the total sandbox approach of this part of the AP, or would you rather me take a more "railroad-y" approach and push it along?

Mike,

Got up a little late this morning but wanted to say real quick that I'll respond this evening.

I'm the newcomer to this game, so I defer to the long timers, but I won't let that stop me from throwing my 2 coppers in!

Sandboxes are cool, but when crossed with a PbP I think sometimes a little prompt or nudge can be warranted. In a face to face game if we spend a session tackling something that is irrelevant to the game as a whole it is a few hours spent on that. In a PbP if that happens it could be three months of time that didn't really move the game forward much (not that it wasn't fun).

So I guess I would say, a gentle nudge here and there to keep us from getting *too* far off course which can result in months of play via PbP without necessarily putting a big flashing sign that says "Hey, over here, you want to go over here!".

Just my thoughts, I am fine with whichever route the long timers choose.

I'm with Iron Wolf. I like the "sandbox" feel, but some gentle nudges along the way would be most appreciated. Especially given the large scale of the island we are exploring.

IronWolf hit the nail on the head with his comments.

I really like the pbp but it's tough to remember what our goals are when long periods of time have passed. Like he said, we could spend months on something that was not even in the plot line and it might seem like it is an important story arc to us because of the time spent with it.

I know you like using Obsidian Portal for a lot of the stuff related to the game and I try to look there before asking you a question. However, and this is nothing against you, it's probably just my not using that site enough, but I get frustrated when I go looking on the OP site for something and spend a lot of time there poking around the tabs. I try and post pretty regularly but my time is limited so it's a little unnerving when I spend what I consider too much time there.

For me a few things that would help would be:

• Organize the OP page a little more logically. I know not all the maps are under maps. Maybe make more tabs so things are easily accessible from the home screen?

• Put a tab for our goals so that we can refer back to it to keep ourselves on track

I know I've resisted using the OP page in the past but I see it's usefulness with the gaming and though I hate to have to refer to another site to jog my memory, I think if we all use it and you update it, you might not have to post more - of course all that time saved posting will be spent updating the OP site. But if you really want to keep the sandbox type game, it might be just the thing.

Thanks for asking us for our input and I do love my character and hope we can continue on.

No worries on quitting the game - I'm starting to get back into it now. Thanks for your feedback, everyone.

mleibrock said:

For me a few things that would help would be:

• Organize the OP page a little more logically. I know not all the maps are under maps. Maybe make more tabs so things are easily accessible from the home screen?

• Put a tab for our goals so that we can refer back to it to keep ourselves on track

Click to expand...

I think I see the problem(s) now. Rather than re-organize (which would entail MAJOR effort), let me try explaining the logic I used in laying out the site.

First, forget the actual "Map" tab on OP - even with a paid subscription you're limited in how many maps you can put up there. I'm not using that one at all. Second, I don't actually have any controls over the tabs - those are set by the site owners. I can - and have - scattered links liberally on the pages under those tabs.

For you guys, your "first stop" on OP should always be the Wiki tab. I'll always have the area map for whatever part of the AP you're currently in on the first wiki page, and where I can figure out how to do it and make it fairly useful I'll number and key encounters as you do them. Also on that first page is a sidebar with links to your most useful pages. Among those is a "Current Tasks" link where I've got your #2 request taken care of. There's also a link for "Story Arc Clues," where I'll put those little tidbits of info that you run across that you'll want to remember later.

Under that are links to the ENWorld threads, then links for the PCs (as well as links to the pages I've set up for each of you to "take notes," or whatever else you need to do. There's a "Swag List" link there as well; I'll keep an updated list of the loot you've gotten here. Next are links to some general information pages on important people, currently the only ones there are muckety-mucks from the Pathfinder Society and info on the society itself.

The next section is for places. There's a link for maps (this is where you'll look for those, though encounter maps for individual fights will be in the IC threads on ENWorld. Countries, Cities and other areas that will play a part in the story will be here, as well as a list of the encounters you've completed.

And that's it for the Wiki tab. If you ever get lost in the links, just click the tab itself and it'll take you right back to that main Wiki page.

Though I've not updated it recently, I've been using the Adventure Log tab in a (maybe not so) clever experimental way to keep some history for you guys.

All of the major NPCs have their own page on the "Character" tab, so if you need a refresher on what you know about any of them that's the place to look.

Those are the major places I use on the OP site, and the ways I use them. Hopefully that'll keep you from thrashing around so much on the site and make it easier to find what you need. I'll try to be better about updating it, though things have been moving slowly enough for a while now that there's not been much to add. My last Adventure Log "journal" entry was in January RT, but was only last night in game time.

OK, here's a solution I think will move us along without sacrificing too much of the sandbox and RP. Rather than go through every painstaking detail of every day of exploration, I'll ask for your general plans for the day, then do a summary of the day's events. I'll make the rolls for fatigue/exhaustion, disease, etc. and include anything that becomes apparent to you in the summary post. I'll also assume (unless you tell me otherwise) that you're foraging along the way for supplies and I'll make Survival checks in the background for that as well. Where I can I'll try to work the results of these rolls into my post, usually without specifying that I rolled. For example, in today's post Sasha is dismayed by the encounter with skeletons on the wreck. What I didn't post is the 'behind the scenes' mechanics - that this is a result of her failing her daily Morale check by 5 or more, and her morale dropping from "Normal" to "Shaken."

Much of the role play will then take place in the morning and evening around camp, and you can toss bits about events of the day into your conversations.

For example, your stated plan for today was to move south along the beach. I'll take that fairly literally, and assume you didn't foray more than a few hundred yards into the interior of the island in the course of foraging for supplies. If you want to range farther afield than that few hundred yards on any given day, just let me know when you post your plans for the day and I'll adjust the shape of the area you cover to be "shorter" and "wider."

In most cases, if you encounter other inhabitants (either of the "placed" or the "wandering" sort) I'll play those out with you. On some occasions (such as today's post) these will be 'nuisance encounters' and I'll just put up a summary of the encounter along with the rest.

I'm going to play fast and loose with distances as well, since we should be able to cover more ground in a RL day/week/whatever this way. For example, today you covered only about 2½ or 3 miles of beach but you also took the time to explore 2 shipwrecks and were foraging along the way.

You guys should all get e-mail notifications today that I've made changes to a couple of pages on Obsidian Portal - I added the locations you've discovered to the map on the Wiki front page, and added their descriptions to the "Encounters on the Shiv" page that serves as a key to the numbers on the Wiki map. The link to the "Encounters" page is at the bottom of the sidebar on the Wiki front page.

Any time I make changes to the OP site I'll try to remember to use the site's e-mail function to send you these notifications. That way you won't have to be trying to remember to check the site all the time.

I'll also try to remember to include links in the IC post to any Obsidian Portal pages that changed as a result of the days events.

Let me know what you think of this method, and about any fine tuning you think might be helpful.