Shemeska's Planescape Storyhour (Updated 29 Jan 2014)

[Clueless]

Consider what's coming to be karmic retribution for Clueless backstabbing that Nycaloth in Elysium, who had bargained with them truthfully and wouldn't have dicked them over, for once for a fiend.

And he would have been fine too. If the party hadn't let things slip at the table that it was really best didn't get out to his superiors...

Though wow was FH ticked at me for that - just about took my head off when I nailed him.

 

[Clueless]

Of course, what came after this wasn't exactly all that comforting to the characters either, but certainly did become quite a popular spot later in the game.

Well - the Jester's True Palace was just generally popular for many reasons.

Going back some, why the hell did they run away from tentacle dwarf boy? Do you, like, freak your players out, outside of the game as well because I'm not seeing any sense in a group of planar travellers running away from that thing!?

There's a great deal of atmospheric elements from the day that are missing in the write up actually. Shemmie built the tension up a good deal more than he did in the story here and the pair came of as genuinely malevolent while at the table. He conveyed a feeling of being toyed with - slowly stalked and nipped at just to see which way we'd run. All of this before showing the actual Little One, or the Jester himself. That build up is honestly one of the only sections of the story hour that I'd say really needs a rewrite - just to make sure that the build up works for the reader as well. We've had a few years of dealing with the creepy - so for *us* the mention of Jman and the Little One is enough for a good response (as you'll see later in the game towards the very end when speculation about him ran wild) - but this is not so for most readers.

Also in that room full of statues what gave there? Our group would have probably gone, 'mmmmmm, XP room, right I'll touch it and you lot get ready with readied actions.'

An awareness that we are killable characters - why ask for trouble when you already have plenty on your plate.

Also, these are vastly different playing styles, Shemmie doesn't bother telling anyone what their XP totals are. We tend to just get told at the end of a session: "Ok guys, level up." We level when it seems right, or when we need to to deal with what's next. Which works perfectly fine for us. It means we don't bother worrying about what we fight or trying to build up XP just because we want power - we worry about making it through the story, getting the goals laid out before us and playing the character personalities.

I think if Shemmie had been the sort to tell us what XP we got for each encounter - then the game tone would be very different and this storyhour wouldn't exist, probably because the game wouldn't have lasted as long or been as well played.

 

[Darmanicus]

An awareness that we are killable characters - why ask for trouble when you already have plenty on your plate.

Also, these are vastly different playing styles, Shemmie doesn't bother telling anyone what their XP totals are. We tend to just get told at the end of a session: "Ok guys, level up." We level when it seems right, or when we need to to deal with what's next. Which works perfectly fine for us. It means we don't bother worrying about what we fight or trying to build up XP just because we want power - we worry about making it through the story, getting the goals laid out before us and playing the character personalities.

I think if Shemmie had been the sort to tell us what XP we got for each encounter - then the game tone would be very different and this storyhour wouldn't exist, probably because the game wouldn't have lasted as long or been as well played.

That's quite a cool way about going about things ie. levelling up. Saves a bit of time and at least keeps everyone 'equal'.

I've gotta ask, are you guys/gals in character throughout the session? What I mean is do you do voices and personality?

 

[Clueless]

That's quite a cool way about going about things ie. levelling up. Saves a bit of time and at least keeps everyone 'equal'.
I've gotta ask, are you guys/gals in character throughout the session? What I mean is do you do voices and personality?

The leveling method certianly works - keeps people focused on the story not the numbers. For being in/out of character... we waver a lot actually. It's like carrying two conversations at once.

On the one hand - out of character we're making jokes (Or Toras's player is stealing Lewis Black jokes) - and we're socalizing around the table as a group of friends. That's for the entirely out of game conversation though.

When we are in dealing with the game though - we approach it from an in character perspective. The only one of us who does voices is Shemmie (because he can - see the mephit recording from earlier). The rest of us - personality. A lot of personality.

We rarely do anything like "Clueless tells so and so he'll be dead if he doesn't..." we cut right to the chase and just hold the conversation directly. But some of us have a strong tactical sense - so once a *fight* starts we switch into 'combat mode' - that's when you'll see the most metagaming in the group for coordinating attacks and the like.

 

[Darmanicus]

A LONG time ago we used to do the voices and personality for all apart from when OOC and parts of combat. I really used to enjoy that however with the group we have now it hardly ever happens which I think is a shame because it's SOOO much fun. It's only ever me DM's who do this now, (inparticular our DC heroes DM does a wicked Joker).

I suppose that's what happens when ya 'grow up'.

 

[Gez]

The leveling method certianly works - keeps people focused on the story not the numbers.

I'd use that too, if it weren't for item creation and other things that cost XPs. So I don't just level up the characters, but give XP. Otherwise, it's the same, since XP is utterly disconnected from encounters, it depends only on my estimation of how clever they were and how fast they should progress for the story's sake.

 

[Clueless]

Or grow down.

You could always start doing it again - usually the DM likes to interact with an IC personality... when you start getting attention for it - maybve the others will follow? Raise the bar yourself? For example - Shemmies game, you wouldn't know it to tell it, but the majority of the players were *completely* new to Planescape. And at least half of them relatively new to tabletop gaming and 3rd ed. They picked up on the roleplaying lead really quickly though so by now with the new campaign - we have a whole colelction of strong personalities.

I'd use that too, if it weren't for item creation and other things that cost XPs. So I don't just level up the characters, but give XP. Otherwise, it's the same, since XP is utterly disconnected from encounters, it depends only on my estimation of how clever they were and how fast they should progress for the story's sake.

I think Shemmie does keep a private count of such things, but he doesn't tell us. And since most of us didn't get heavy into making items (with a few notable exceptions) it didn't cause too much headache.

 

[Shemeska]

I'd use that too, if it weren't for item creation and other things that cost XPs. So I don't just level up the characters, but give XP. Otherwise, it's the same, since XP is utterly disconnected from encounters, it depends only on my estimation of how clever they were and how fast they should progress for the story's sake.

I gave out XP for about the first two months of the game, then I stopped doing so cold turkey just because I truly feel that giving the total to players runs the risk of some of them viewing it as a fairness issue or a contest to level up the fastest. And that's not something I want to promote in the game. So I make it a case of you level up when it's appropriate based on what you've done/encountered and having adequate time to make it based in some sense of reality.

That said, if people picked up item creation feats and gave some warning about planning to make items with them, I'd have an XP total for them if needed, and if you started using wishes or other spells that had XP componants, I'd take it into account and you wouldn't level up at the exact same time that everyone else did.

 

[Shemeska]

I've gotta ask, are you guys/gals in character throughout the session? What I mean is do you do voices and personality?

Assuming I don't go off on a tangent OOC, I'm IC for handling NPCs. I don't go as extreme as Seamusxanthuszemus for all of them, but I try to change my voice and mannerisms to match the character I'm trying to come across as. Shemmy comes off as a vain b*tch, Shekelor as arrogant and power hungry, the Marauder's eventual apprentice Nerath ap Jerran comes off as a ponce, etc.

Flavor is good

 

[FyreHowl]

*grins* of course, then certain unintentional themes start popping up....

Such as all raksashas are apparently british....*grin*