A Lonely Path: a Shackled City Story Hour (the old version, see last post)

[Richard Rawen]

Huzzah ! Glad to see you back in action Jeremy!

Kudo's Solarious, thanks for saving one of my regular reads from an ignomious end =-)

 

[hbarsquared]

Okay, here's the plan. In the next few days I will post summaries of all the updates between February and May - a quick rundown. After that, I am considering a reformat of this Story Hour.

One of the reasons for my sparse updates are finding the time to run the simulated combats and making all of the necessary rolls. I understand that part of the allure of this story hour, however, might be just that: the only one to really show the game mechanics behind the curtain of the narrative. The issue, however, is that I don't believe I have the time or the energy to keep it up, especially with multiple characters now involved, as well as the higher-level abilities.

I would still include obvious references to the game mechanics in the narrative. Specific spells and abilities will be recognizable, and most likely named, as well. I will still lift text directly from [smallcaps]Dungeon[/smallcaps] as well in white for those following along at home.

I am posing this question to all of you, however, my readers. How important are the mechanics, how much do you enjoy reading them, is it worth it? If you would still like to see them, I will continue. If they're not that big of a deal, I will focus on the "story" portion of the story hour. Let me know what you think, and soon I will get this SH back on track!

 

[gfunk]

The mechanics were nice, but if you dropped them they would not detract from my enjoyment of this SH. An occasional interesting roll such as a natural "1" or "20" at a particularly critical moment would be nice to see if you don't mind.

 

[Richard Rawen]

Okay, here's the plan....
I will still lift text directly from [smallcaps]Dungeon[/smallcaps] as well in white for those following along at home.

For those of us using the SILVER background scheme, (the black bothers my eyes for some odd reason), the use of the White for Dungeon text is frustrating as we have to highlight often to make sure we do not miss something. If you could please change that to, say, a light blue or something easily distinct, I (and likely others), would greatly appreciate it.

As to the question of mechanics, I believe that gfunk expressed my feelings very well, even the occassional mention of a natural 1/20 and such.

Thank you for taking the time to post your story, it's been fun to read and I look forward to it continuing in whatever format you post it.

 

[hbarsquared]

How is the color slategray for my OOC comments? And would this color, cyan, for [smallcaps]Dungeon[/smallcaps] text suffice?

 

[Richard Rawen]

How is the color slategray for my OOC comments? And would this color, cyan, for [smallcaps]Dungeon[/smallcaps] text suffice?

I can read that just fine. How about you "Dark" theme readers?

 

[Torack]

I can read it just fine.

And while I am a big fan of seeing the numbers, I'll third gfunks' suggestion, regarding the critical miss/hit rolls.

 

[Phyrrus]

While I know that any NPCs may come from the module only, it is a shame your clockwork man can't help out in this adventure. I was a fan of him while you played him in the first version of the game on the boards and would love to see him relive in your writing here. Even if only in passing.

Looking forward to when you do resume, and for my tastes all narrative works just fine.

 

[Solarious]

THe mechanics are nice, but not really neccessary. Maybe keep a character sheet on hand, keep track of powers or abilities used, miss or hit when it makes sense, and crit about once every 20 blows (or it makes for a better scene).

The scene with our wonder-falling cleric is a good example. There was a chance for her to simply die of falling damage... Interesting to see her splat over and over, but gets boring after a while.

In the meantime, this is your story. Do it in whatever way you feel is most comfortable; it will make a better story for us all.

 

[hbarsquared]

Hehehe. Splat goes the wonder-falling cleric. Although it was boring, one must admit, it was kind of funny...