OOC

[Dogma]

For the record, I have exchanged PMs with both Vargr and Mithrandir. I've indicated to both that I have no ill will towards either and they are both still welcomed to continue playing in the game.

I'm going to leave it at that.

[Alethan]

Back to the adventure!
Blood in front of the door means safer, definitely old school thinking! Woot!

Honestly, I'm still slightly confused by this thought.

I see blood, and I think danger, not safety.

[mithrandir138]

I see blood, and I think danger, not safety.

Too late now! The mage flung the door open!

[thirdkingdom]

Back to the adventure!
Blood in front of the door means safer, definitely old school thinking! Woot!

Honestly, I'm still slightly confused by this thought.

I see blood, and I think danger, not safety.

Alastor's bet is that, like the crossbow trap, this is evidence of a trap that has not been reset.

[NJWilliam]

Could we tell how old the blood is?

[mithrandir138]

Ok, I am going bring up an unpleasant subject one more time, and hopefully this is the last that is said about "The Incident":

I want to publicly apologize to you all for causing a ruckus and for breaching vargr1105's trust. I have always felt that PMs were more like Personal/Direct Messaging more than Private communication (these things aren't even encrypted), but I will be more careful in the future. I did not take into account that he might view them differently than I did.

This incident should not have escalated to the point that it did, and I feel that I am to blame.

I have apologized to vargr personally via PM, and hopefully we can put this behind us.

[riftstone]

I see blood, and I think danger, not safety.

This is my thinking as well. Just in case, I think a dwarf should open it. If there is another crossbow, it might be aimed over their heads!

[thirdkingdom]

I see blood, and I think danger, not safety.

This is my thinking as well. Just in case, I think a dwarf should open it. If there is another crossbow, it might be aimed over their heads!

I have no intention of having Alastor open any more doors, honestly, although his sobriquet is "the Bold". I was just worried that things had stalled and wanted to push things along.

[Alethan]

I have no intention of having Alastor open any more doors, honestly, although his sobriquet is "the Bold". I was just worried that things had stalled and wanted to push things along.

I say embrace your appellation! What's the worst that could happen?

[mithrandir138]

Re: Alestor and his mule -- I so wanted to find a clip of Sam letting Bill go when they reached Moria, or post a quote or something, but it required too much effort -- so just picture it in your mind.

[Vargr1105]

Ok, I am going bring up an unpleasant subject one more time, and hopefully this is the last that is said about "The Incident":

And since I have to "drag the corpse from its grave", so to speak, my apologies.

I want to publicly apologize to you all for causing a ruckus and for breaching vargr1105's trust. I have always felt that PMs were more like Personal/Direct Messaging more than Private communication (these things aren't even encrypted), but I will be more careful in the future. I did not take into account that he might view them differently than I did.

This incident should not have escalated to the point that it did, and I feel that I am to blame.

I have apologized to vargr personally via PM, and hopefully we can put this behind us.

We did. And in hindsight I lament that I made an issue of mithrandir138's post in the first place and some of the posts from others that followed. I might do better in cultivating a thicker skin.

I want to make it publicly clear that mithrandir138 is no longer considered persona non grata by me. He's free to join free slots on any campaign I run, and I will play in a game he is a player of without issues.


Alas, as I got rid of Unferth the Valorous I won't be joining this group in their explorations of the Lost City. I also won't be lurking; in the off-chance that someone else will run this module in the future I do not wish to blow a second chance to having prior knowledge of the adventure.

You folks have fun now...

[Makofan]

What is the Campaign ID we need for the dice roller?

[Dogma]

Campaign ID is 90

[mithrandir138]

Is it safe to assume that we are going dark for the holiday? I am stuck at home (thankfully!) but I realize others have to endure travel and inlaws/outlaws/general family engagements.

I am totally cool with hitting the pause button on this game until after the chaos.

[Dogma]

I was just going to play it by ear and see what happens. I figured it would be slow going because of the holiday.

[Alethan]

Sometimes people get upset when the game moves faster than them. I've been known to push game speeds.

So I'm working on NOT doing that.

Unfortunately, the end result seems to be (at least on several of the games I'm involved in) that they're now dragging.

In this game, I see high interaction/activity by about half the party and pretty much zero activity by the other half. When I don't move the game forward, it's because I'm quietly hoping some of the non-active types will step in and take an action or do something...

Dogma, if you want to keep the pace at 3 posts/week, I'll be happy to start dragging people along at that rate.

[riftstone]

I am fine with the pace moving faster. The only reason I don't post more is not wanting to push the action past anyone else.

I'm still kinda new to the whole Pbp thing, so not sure how much I should be posting.

[Dogma]

I'd like for things to move a bit faster, but I also realize with the holidays and such people have other priorities right now. I don't want others to feel that they're being left behind if they don't post.

Personally I'd like to post once per day, but with end of year work stuff and family holiday commitments it's not always possible. Plus I find myself waiting for someone to post something I take action on. I love some of the RP going on, but I need some action statements to work with... otherwise I feel like I'm just railroading the group forward.

Maybe I need to rethink how I'm DMing this...offer choices in my posts rather than just descriptions...

[Alethan]

I agree that probably has its place in some instances.

One possible result of that, however, could be you get players who don't do anything but the two or thee obvious (and provided) choices. But I suppose that is the players' fault.

I think posting rate is one of the biggest challenges in a PbP game. The GM who can get that squared away properly... needs to share that secret with everyone else.

[thirdkingdom]

I assume that if my PC is not leading the marching order, there is no need to post "Noodles follows the guy in front of him" every day; cool?

I would think not, but you should still add input into what is going to happen -- do you want to go down the corridor or through the door.

So, when I am GMing I use a 50% rule. Once 50% +1 of the PCs have agreed to a specific action I go ahead and post, even if the rest of the players have not contributed. Of course, this is predicated on the expectation that players will post decisive intentions. In other words, if the GM states "the group walks down the corridor. Eighty feet down you come across a door on the right-hand side, while the corridor continues in front of you as far as you can see", the assumption is that the players will respond, unprompted or not, if they will continue down the corridor or try the door.

I have found that the biggest problem with waiting for everyone to post is that it slows the entire group down, people lose interest and drift away. I would much rather have a couple of player who contribute less because they simply don't post that often than an entire group that bogs down because you're waiting for one or two people to post.

Todd