OOC Discussion

[jemmus]

I'm going to emulate the esteemed DM Inferno's rule, which I think worked very well. People get busy, forgot that they read but didn't post, etc. But the game has move forward twice a week to keep it going. "Sorry, jemmus, it's been three and a half days. Going to move the game forward." Moving the game forward in 24... 23... 22... hours.

[jemmus]

On the journey to Kofu…

Jonsei traveled down foothills of a majestic Japanese mountain, a sense of awe and tranquility overcoming him. The air was crisp and fresh, infused with the invigorating scent of pine needles and damp earth. The forest surrounding him was alive with a vibrant tapestry of greens - from the deep emerald hues of the towering conifers to the delicate shades of the ferns and mosses carpeting the forest floor.

The path meandered through the dense foliage, dappled sunlight filtering through the canopy overhead. The rustling of leaves and chirping of birds provide a soothing melody to the journey. The deeper Jinsei ventured, the more he become immersed in its enchanting embrace. The trees towered above him, their trunks adorned with knotted roots and lichen, casting intricate shadows on the ground.

The rustling of leaves, the hum of insects, and the soft patter of raindrops on the foliage reminded Jinsei of the beauty and power of nature.

The preceding was brought to you by ChatGP, with the prompt describe walking through Japanese woods. Soon whole modules will be produced such.

I was thinking what to award Jinsei for excellent RP, but then you revealed to the ChatGP.... That's pretty impressive text. I've done a few tests for "four ninjas adventure," and they came out like this.
-They have to retrieve some valuable item from inside a defended building. (Hmm, sounds kind of familiar....)
-The start in a mountain village and go through a forest. One test had a nice description of crickets singing and mushroom on the forest's floor.(Check)
-They enter an evil lord's castle or fortress on a mountain. It's dungeon-like, with dark, narrow corridors. (Maybe, kind of.)
-They sneak past some guards, but have to fight some and defeat them. Everything looks good.
-They're about to get the item, but (plot twist), a powerful boss appears.
-Through bravery and valor, they defeat the boss.
-They return to the village with the item.
-They become famous and people talk about their exploits forever. Two of three ChatGP runs assigned the ninja group a legendary nickname. The Act 3 wind down was pretty hurried, over the top, and unimpressive, I thought.

To me, overall kind of like a Hollywood script as if written by a 13-year-old. My IT friend says, "AI is a misnomer, you should think of it as "machine learning." Think of it as a very smart 8-year-old who has read a lot of dictionaries and encyclopedias, and can look up and read a lot of things very fast." But I have to say, ChatGP's descriptions of moving through nature are very impressive. I'd even say, some very artful poetic prose. And it came up with the same idea as our first Bushido mission.

But, it repetitively came up the same mission theme three times. That's not going to happen with you guys.... Not by far.

[jemmus]

Got a great deal on this from Noble Knight Games. Mint condition, looks like nobody every even turned the pages. The hard copy rules book is pretty intimidating. A lot of text per page, and a lot of pages that go on and on.

[Rex]

Nice find.

[jemmus]

This doesn't have anything to do with feudal Japan. But it's the perfect crime, and this is stealth and kind of crime game, so I sort of have an excuse. These photos are from a restroom at a Walmart where my friend works.

Got a brand new outfit!


But wait, there's more!

Walked out with new threads and a good buzz going too!

[Grognardsw]

[jemmus]

Posted in Kaida's and Minoru's private threads last evening. Will do the same for Fuma and Jinsei this evening. This cloak and dagger game is all about hyper pseudo-realism. If the PC isn't present to know it, the player also doesn't know it.

[ffilz]

I’m going to be spotty over the next 10 days while we’re on vacation.

[jemmus]

OK, thanks for letting us know. Have fun!

[Rex]

Enjoy!

[jemmus]

Just an FYI that we're all actively posting, but by PMs specific to what the PC is currently experiencing and observing. Fuma and Jinsei are currently up to date with their posts. Need posts for Minoru and Kaida, when ffilz is back at the keyboard. Game on! - Wayne and Garth ( Sorry....)

[jemmus]

Another player/players protest about a perfectly well-reasoned GM call.*

*The first one was about what has became referred to as "a poop saving throw." Pilgrims on Mount Fuji must not leave any bodily eliminations on the sacred mountain. For that, all that was needed was a Will saving throw. Just Will attribute/3. No big deal, right?.

[jemmus]

What do you guys think, is this private threads and PMs thing working? Is it interesting and enjoyable? The goal was to make detailed "the player only knows what his PC knows," for a tactical stealth ninja spy ops game. But if it's too much bother, we can go to regular open posting and everyone can RP what their PC can see and hear and what they know and don't know. The latter would be easier for me, and the GM posts would be more frequent-- which doesn't necessarily mean that's my vote. Bushido is a very tactical and sometimes pretty brutal OSR RPG, so I'd like to keep of that unforgiving ruthlessness in this band of ninjas campaign. But on the other hand, if it's too unwieldy for PBP (or otherwise) to keep a story going, that's just not interesting or fun. And fun and interest in "what happens next," in addition to challenges, are what make things, I think... fun!

[Grognardsw]

I vote for an open topic thread for Jinsei/Fuma and Minoru/Kaida. I won’t read the other. It simplifies and speeds things.

[Marullus]

My thoughts:

• Private forums are fine but I really dislike play by PM. Managing and tracking the content of PMs is inherently disorganized and difficult to go back and query or re-read. I end up copying all PMs to Private Forums for this reason.
• I prefer open play, where players separate their IC and OOC information. As we tell a shared story, I enjoy watching the parts of the story that I'm not involved in.
• I think it depends on the OOC goal. Blind or double-blind play works in experiments or war games, but my view here is that we are enjoying storytelling as a community, not realism simulators. That may not be a shared goal - Bushido is more experiment/simulator like. If we're using the system to see what realistic conclusions come out of the simulation, then blinding is good. Depends on what's the fun.
• If we want to use blind play to enhance the fun, I'm cool with not looking at the other thread as Grognardsw said.
• I like to use private forums for OOC discussions on stuff nobody else cares about - sidebars with the GM on understanding your character, discussing future arcs of your character, or rules that only apply to your character (like discussing the parameters of Kaida's magic outside of play so we don't have OOC sidebars in-play).

[ffilz]

I think I'm falling in the camp of open play, though sometimes it might make sense to split threads, and that can make it easier to either not read at all, or if one does read, easier to separate knowledge.

Also with all of us really still learning the system, being able to seek input on how to use the system is valuable and works best if we're all reading.

[Rex]

I agree with Marullus here. I have a strong dislike for play by PM for the reasons stated.

[jemmus]

That's a good point about PMs. There are things buried in mine that I've never been able to find. OK, so the overall preference seems to be to play an open text game. I think we're all advanced enough RPG players separate what we know as players from what our characters know. Feel free to still use the private forums whenever they might be useful.

I'll create Fuma-Jinsei and Kaida-Minoru threads that we'll use until if/when the four characters are together and are seeing and hearing the same thing.

[jemmus]

Fuma and Jinsei have a thread with posts. Kaida and Minoru will also soon have a thread, also with a post. I'm going to post the individual PCs' perspective maps to their Private Forums. I think open forums for posting is good for storytelling and ease of gameplay. But visual diagrams of things your PC hasn't seen is too much of a spoiler of the adventure and challenge.

[Grognardsw]