Interludes Q&A / Discussion

[Jeff]

You had me look at the character sheet to see the armor, and it reminded me that there's still question marks next to those pouches.

Yup, but Kal only has a few moments to briefly assess the pouches, not examine their full contents.

I strongly advise you to look at your character sheet more often. I know you're lazy, but it behooves you to do so.*

Some of you will have noticed on the new sheets that I've added some blue text...which is essentially me putting in your specific numbers. For those who don't want to know the formulas and such, it at least helps me in the middle of a battle to be able to have those numbers on hand.

*Also, I just wanted to say "behooves."

[Darren]

If someone gets turned into a horse, have they been behooved?

[Joe]

I would LOVE to access my character sheet, however when I do so, this is what I get:

We're sorry, but [e-mail] does not have access to this document.

You are signed in as [e-mail], but that email account hasn't been granted permission to this document.

Please sign in as a different user or request access to this document.

[Jeff]

Okay, Joe. I think I fixed it. I sent you an email about it.

[Josh]

I'm feeling at a loss for what to post. Jeff, do you have something specific in terms of flow that you're looking for us? It feels like everyone's spinning wheels, PCs and DM included. It sort of feels like the only thing for us to do is to start being jerks and riling up the council just so something happens. As usual, we'll get kicked out of where we are, lose potential allies, and wander off. I don't think that's what the real point of this encounter is.

[Jeff]

Hmm. No, nothing specific about discussion flow. Just as much participation as anyone's willing to give. Plotwise, this Interlude is obviously very expositiony. My whole point in this, out-of-game, is to stop and take stock of where the story is at, who are the players involved, and what the next step is. What the next step is precisely the part we're at now, I think.

I do my absolute best to not make this game linear, which many published adventure modules aren't good at avoiding. I don't want to force everyone down a predestined path: you go here, then you go here, then you fight these guys, then you fight these other guys, then you go here...and so on.

In the past, back when we had Cutter, and Pel, and Oss, and Goran...when there were multiple options for the PCs to choose from, there was a lot more party in-fighting and a lot more in-character and out-of-character discord. So at times I just had to set a clearer path and usher everyone down that linear path. Despite this history, I've been trying to allow for more choices. Where we're at in this Interlude is an example of that.

I think the group is getting along a lot better than it used to. I think we've made progress. But it seems whenever more than one direction is offered, complaints arise.

Do you guys WANT to just be told what to do, where to go, etc? Really, fill me in. I kind of need to know...

It feels like everyone's spinning wheels, PCs and DM included.

Not sure about this one...I don't feel I'm spinning any wheels. Maybe you guys do. The fey council is most certainly not like a gathering of normal people, so yeah, its pacing is quite out of whack, deliberately.

It sort of feels like the only thing for us to do is to start being jerks and riling up the council just so something happens.

Well, heh, that wouldn't be very helpful...unless it was natural for your character do so something like that. Kal comes close sometimes.

Hey, I thought you liked role-playing and dialogue more than combat and dungeoncrawling, Josh!

Another reason I haven't been hurrying through any of this is that Marcy said she might be rejoining us the first week of June (next week!). I'd like her to be able to weigh in a bit more.

[Ken]

Jeff,

I think part of the frustration and/or confusion comes from posts where the Emissary says something like, "There is someone who can provide you with more information," and that's the end of the post. It's very Yoda-like, but it leaves us to shrug and say essentially, "OK, who?" a lot.

I'm enjoying the role-playing aspect of this, especially with the Wood Mistress and the Agent, but I think the Emissary can ease up on the cryptic stuff. I'm not saying he has to tell us everything he knows, but if he's volunteering that he does have information he intends to share with us, things'll go a little faster if he actually tells us that information without waiting for an invitation.

[Jeff]

I understand that. But at the same time the Emissary is deliberately not as forthcoming (1) for reaons he's not explaining and (2) because he's not like a regular human diplomat.

I'm trying to make this encounter a give-and-take situation, not merely an information dump (which history has shown doesn't work with this group, either). This is why I keep a list of NPCs and have tried to create some synopses posts, because few players like to ever look stuff up.

But if this Interlude is giving everyone a bad taste, then we'll just have to move on quickly.

I would also recommend you guys make use of this thread, which was your idea.

[Darren]

I'm enjoying this thread, but I understand what both Ken and Josh are saying. There have been several moments where one of the fey has said something like, "I will now tell you what I know." And the only logical response has been, "And that is....?" Except then he doesn't really say it. But I understand what you're going for, too, Jeff, so it hasn't bothered me, yet.

[Jeff]

Just trying to break things into digestible chunks. I hope I can trust that all the exposition will be remembered, and you won't say, "I'm too lazy to check" later.

[Darren]

I think we all know the answer to that.

[Joe]

And would someone please remind me who you people are again please? Jeez....a little courtesy, huh?

[Josh]

I like the role-playing stuff way more than dice rolling, for sure, but like I said, I'm not finding any place to PLAY in the current scenario. It just feels like were asking questions that don't get answers and that there's no problem-solving going on. Also, we're standing in the center of a bunch of characters that aren't asking any questions of us, and in-game none of us really know enough about them to ask any pointed questions.

I don't know. Looking at the DE Notes page (which I just learned exists), there's obviously some information being gleaned, but it still feels like there is no place for conversation, and I really don't want to keep posting one-liners.

[Jeff]

Darren wrote:

Jeff, would Kal know the approximate travel time from where they are now to Fairhaven? I don't remember how long it took us to get here, and I think we left from Passage, anyway....

Kal doesn't really know where the PCs are within the Whisper Woods (especially since after everyone fell asleep, clearly they were moved). But if he was at the sourthern edge, facing the rest of Aundair, it would probably be:

A few days on foot
A couple days by horse
Less than a day by airship

This is assuming you know precisely where to go.

[Ken]

I guess we should find out if Captain Ralsor is still alive...!

[Darren]

Interesting....given that, I wonder if we couldn't afford to wait a little while before leaving. Assuming Ralsor is still out there with the airship, anyway. I guess we'll have to wait and see what the fey say.

[Ken]

Marcy! Hi there!

If you want a quick recap of the past couple of weeks, here's the updated entry on the DE Notes thread.

[Darren]

Hey, Ken. I was trying to think of an in-game way to ask, but nothing is coming to me. If Belarin doesn't have a particular use for Skyfang, it'd be awesome if Kal could have it. He can use it as am implement now, but in-game he doesn't really know that cause he's never had implement use before....

[Jeff]

Darren, after Kal's recent "relevations," it's okay for him to know in-character that he now use small blades like daggers as a focus for his spellwork. It's up to you how you want to have him explain that, though. Be creative. Roleplay.

[Ken]

Funny, I was actually thinking about this earlier today. "Hey, shouldn't Belarin give Skyfang to Kal?" Yeah, let's roleplay it out!

[Darren]

Alright, I'll try to come up with something. I was going to wait for a moment when Kal went to cast a spell for him to realize that it was possible, but I brought it up here because I also figured I'd probably forget.

[Marcy]

Hey, all --

Not sure if this is the best place to post this, but I got my copy of the new Eberron Player's Guide yesterday, so if anyone wants anything looked up, just let me know.

[Jeff]

Yeah, I was going to point this out. It's not officially out until Tuesday, though.

Marcy, did WotC send this to you? *sigh* Jerks. I always had to pester the heck out of Mark S. to get a book or two.

[Marcy]

Jun 14, 2009 17:03:43 GMT -4 Jeff said:

Marcy, did WotC send this to you?

Yeah. This is the first thing Erin has sent me, though.

[Jeff]

So since the dice roller is screwy right now, I'm trying out Invisible Castle. Here are some tests. I might have us give this a whirl for the next fight. Please feel free to create your own login (there's a delay in receiving the confirmation email) if you'd like to give it a try.

I'd REALLY like to try and get more of you to roll your own dice, even if I still do the calculations. Just having you prompt the roll is one step closer to the real thing of doing it at a tabletop D&D game.

Some tests...

Belarin test (1d20+1=3)

Belarin's rolls

[Ken]

I'm cool with that. I've used Invisible Castle as my dice roller for other online gaming.

[Joe]

1d6+3 ¨ [2,3] = (5)

Okay...this works....as long as I know which dice I am supposed to roll...haven't done this before...hehehe...but I think it'll work!!

___________________________________________________

Like this?1d20+3=11

[Jeff]

Hmmm. Doesn't look like any links have appeared, Joe.

Here's what I'd like and/or suggest: Whenever possible, make your roll using this site. If a roll is needed and you don't know it, I'll make it for you. But if it's in the middle of combat and you state what your action will be, provide me with a d20 roll and I'll handle the modifiers. (Unless you're Ken, in which case you probably like doing the formula yourself, which is great.)

So you'd go here: invisiblecastle.com/roller/

- For Character Name, just type in your character's first name. Please always be consistant.
- For Campaign Name, just put DE.
- For Number of Rolls, just put 1.
- For Dice, just put 1d20. If you know the relevant modifier, go ahead and add it. If you get that modifier wrong, I'll correct it.
- For Note, just briefly summarize the action (such as a power name and nothing more).

So for example, I entered:

Character Name: Tarrasque
Campaign Name: DE
Number of Rolls: 1
Dice: 1d20+34
Note: Bite

When I click Roll the dice, it brings up a page of the result and URLs to various things. The last URL provided says BBCode. If you just click on the actual URL, it should copy it. Then just paste it at the bottom of your post and it'll look like:

Bite (1d20+34=37)

So that shows us the roll result and a link to it, to show we're being honest. ;D

What do you guys think? Can we try this?

[Ken]

The DMs in most play-by-post games I've done in the past (mostly on RPOL) have done something similar, so I'm used to this. Fine with me, Jeff.

[Joe]

Edited post above...got it working!!