Dromus (One) OOC Thread

[Jolmo]

I hardly even know whether you lot are enjoying the game or harboring secret thoughts of nasty-wishing toward me.

I'm really enjoying it so far, and hope it will keep going.

I don't like killing people.

Well I don't particularly like dying, so that should work out well enough

I'm okay with merely beating you to within an inch of your life.

Hmnph

I think of Dromus as having elements of a less-sinister Delta Green sort of game. Any given situation will have layers and conspiratorial elements, but it's not my intention to make the whole game dark and furtive with these aspects. I don't know how well I pull off my goals in this area.

I don't know anything about Delta Green, but the rest pretty much fits the image I've gotten of Dromus.
---
For some more general comments, I really like the action parts. How much the scene changes with every round; how they aren't just about standing about swinging swords and slinging spells until someone wins; and how they feel challenging enough that a bad decision might well be fatal, but balanced enough that we should be able to overcome, unless bad luck starts playing tricks on us.

The only things I've thought of as negative are when it feels like we have too little to work with, like the very beginning of the adventure where we tried to come up with ideas for what to do with the amulet (before you made those big idea posts) or after the first fight when trying to get to the Sheets. I think what made it worse for me was that, from a meta-gaming perspective, we couldn't really fail. I mean the game just wouldn't make any sense if we didn't come up with any plan or get to the tavern. Those situations didn't last long though, so this is really a limited complaint, but it's honestly the only thing I could complain about at all.

Combat, I think, work much better now that we're not playing them a full round at a time as it doesn't require as many contingencies. And you rolling all initiatives should save some time, in fact I think you should make all rolls where everyone will make the same kind of roll and we cannot know the results ourselves just from seeing the number; like perception rolls and such.

Overall, I very much like the game, the speed is good most of the time, there is a balanced amount of combat, there has been plenty of descriptive text, both before and during the game, so, while I wouldn't mind reading more, I don't think anyone could expect it.
---
In the current situation, the reason I didn't make that attack was actually that I didn't think anyone was close enough after having backed up to the gap, Cagthail isn't really reluctant to hurt them, but there wouldn't be any honor in killing a bunch of street toughs so he won't hurt them more than he has to. They seem to be mind controlled or something, and he does consider himself a hero after all, even if it is more important that others do so.

 

[Kelleris]

Heh, whups. Delta Green is a Call of Cthulhu setting - basically Majestic 12 - Greys - Illuminati type conspiracies with the addition of the Mythos in the background. One of many inspirations, though I've never actually gotten to play it.

Glad you like the fights, Jolmo! This one should be getting equally messy in a round or two. I'm not a fan of the "wearing them down" method of encounters, so most of them are going to pretty painful, if all goes according to plan. It never does, but that's the goal. That's why I like the reserve points thing, despite some weird interactions - you don't need to stop right away even if one battle goes pretty badly.

The only things I've thought of as negative are when it feels like we have too little to work with...

Yeah, that's the most common problem I have with my tabletop games too. I can just never tell how many ways you could put the pieces together. Everything pretty much is a conspiracy, of course, but it can be hard making it difficult, but not too difficult, to unravel.

Maybe I could try to have three or four fairly clear possibilities for this sort of thing, but leave you guys to pick which one you'd like to pursue? I'd like to just let you go and see what happens, but I can see that would be frustrating with limited knowledge. And I can't really expect you to reread the thread looking for clues, eh?

What do the rest of you think about this stuff, and the game in general? Particularly interested in Isida and Zerth's opinions, since I can always annoy Hatter and Demon in person...

 

[Mad Hatter]

I feel so utterly loved, Kell. Anywhoosle, I pretty much echo Jolmo on this one.

 

[Zerth]

That was indeed a great post by Jolmo. I really don't have much to add and agree on every point he brought up. For my part, I like this game a lot. Your DMing style is very different from the most PbP DMs and that's different in a positive way. I really like how you constantly give each one of us players personal information, that we can choose to share with the others or not. That requires effort and I appreciate it very much. Helps to build up that "aura of conspiracy" feel, that you seem to have fallen in love with.

Sometimes I've been a little lost as to what to do. It's both you not giving clear alternatives and me still trying to figure out this wonderful setting you have created. Yes, we definately don't want to go back and check what's been said earlier in the thread. Throw us sorry players a bone once in a while - PbP is slow by nature and sometimes it's hard to maintain focus even without the DM keeping you guessing most of the time.

But all in all, I'm enjoying the game very much. Easily one of my better PbP games ever and I've been around for some time, you know.

 

[Kelleris]

Sorry for the accidental mini-hiatus, I got lazy yesterday and busy today.

I see you guys have mastered the twin motivations of the DM, though: vanity and sadism.

As for the common complaint here - the confusion I sometimes inflict on you - I can think of a few things that I could do about that.

One, I could post some purely OOC ideas of what to do on this thread to help you get your ideas together and organize the information you get in character.

Two, I could go back over the thread at some time in the future (probably early-middle March) and write up a little summary of the action you could use, and try to highlight significant details you may have overlooked in it.

Three, and this is the one I would prefer, you could simply tell me when you're getting that what-the-hell feeling and I could field questions in this thread. In fact, if you've got any right now, I'd be more than willing to have a go at them.

EDIT: Woo! 700 posts! That feels like a milestone for some reason...

And there's something else I thought of. How do you actually feel about the conspiracy-type stuff? My goal is to keep everything behind the scenes consistent and throw in details that you can piece together for leads. I don't know how much anyone besides me likes doing this, though, since the whole premise pretty much precludes the obvious sort of clues (such as the Awfully Convenient Journal) that I'd employ if it was critically important that the party get something.

 

[Mad Hatter]

Three is the only one of those options that I like, Kell. The other two kinda make me feel like a tool. And more importantly, it would feel like you're doing too much.

 

[DemonWolfZero]

I am enjoying the game immensely, though my usual complaint applies: You know your setting better than we do. However, in some cases, our characters are as familiar with sections of your setting as you are (atleast in their own circles).

For instance, Adinal is a somewhat adventurous fellow who has Feiran as a semi-regular associate. He might understand what your two most recent clues to me were. But I unfortunately can't. If there's one thing I'm horrible at, it's the Sherlock Holmes schtick.

I need to be beat over the head with the clue stick before I get what's going on.

Hmm...what's the netiquette for discussing IC clues in an OOC thread? Do I put em in spoiler blocks?

Cuz I'd love to discuss my clues with y'all and keep it OOC until I can discuss it with everyone IC.

 

[Kelleris]

Uhm, okay. So I need to make up some rules for this stuff?

Okay, there are a couple of sorts of discussions that can be had here, so that's the best way to organize this.

If you want to discuss IC clues with the rest of the party that were just out there for everyone (say, the boogeyman's limp) just throw it out there and I'll make some comments if it seems like a good idea.

If you want to tak about stuff that was in a spoiler with the rest of the party, like the explanation of the boogeyman's symbolism I gave Adinal, put it in spoilers like so: Your Character Name (OOC): [sblock] [/sblock]. You can optionally direct it at just the people you want to talk it over with, as there are some dissension-spurring bits I've given out.

And there's another tricky part, too. I'm already trusting everyone not to read spoilers that don't belong to them, so I'll open the field to metagame questions as well, like "is the boogeyman Kyra?" I have no idea whereyou wouldget that idea, but just for example. Think about these and ask yourself if you really want to know the answer. I'm willing to let you metagame if it'll make the game more enjoyable for you to have some special insight into the situation, within limits - there are any number of sources of inspiration I can attribute it to in-game anyway.

Does all that sound okay?

 

[Jolmo]

Cagthail, Illira, and Feiran are up next!

Isn't that Feiran, Adinal, and Cagthail? Or did I miss something? I've assumed it was so and waited for those before me as well.

As for the common complaint here - the confusion I sometimes inflict on you - I can think of a few things that I could do about that.

Three sounds good to me too.

How do you actually feel about the conspiracy-type stuff?

I do like it, as long as we aren't required to figure too much of it out. (Which you kinda said wasn't your intention anyways.)

 

[Kelleris]

Isn't that Feiran, Adinal, and Cagthail? Or did I miss something? I've assumed it was so and waited for those before me as well.

Gah! Thanks for the catch. And I typed that twice, too! Dang. Well, yeah, of course you're right.

And I was wondering why nobody had posted in the IC thread...