Rants and Raves (questions and suggestions)

[tooleychris]

Feel free to post suggestions here.

[tooleychris]

Hi,

Sorry, I'm a bit of a newb. Did you send me a campaign ID? I'll make an account at the dice roller now and then play around with it a bit before I roll my character.

One question: I'm planning on playing a mutant human. It says I can pick one physical and one mental ability. If there is a subset of that ability, can I choose the subset or should I roll for that?

Should I be posting these questions or is better by PM.

Steve

ANSWER

The campaign ID is on the character sheet I PMd you.
MUTANT characters roll 1d4 to determine the number of Physical Mutations then a separate 1d4 to determine number of Mental Mutations. The player may then pick 1 of each Physical and Menta mutations to fit their character idea. If this mutation has a prerequisite then that may be picked as well as long as you rolled at least 2 mutations to begin with. If you only rolled a 1 for number of mutations then you can not pick one that had a prerequisite.
I will allow taking 1 from either mental or physical mutations to compensate but will also probably add a defect to the character for doing so. So MUST have at least 1 physical and mental mutation.

[Rukellian]

I forgot to ask about the campaign ID for this. Care to send me a PM for it? Thanks!

-Rukellian

[tooleychris]

Hey guys just wanted to let ya know Argennian is hospitalized and that's why he's been out. I'll NPC Abel until he graces us again.

[Rukellian]

Hope Argennian goes through a speedy recovery. Though I'm not one to pray, I will wish good luck!

[Argennian]

Thanks for the well wishes guys. Feels good to be home and finally on the mend.

Looking forward to the upcoming fun!

[tooleychris]

Hey my beautiful mutated freaks (and patient alien). Not sure why but I have not been notified of posts from here so I've missed some action and put a flat tire on our warbot! I was actually getting depressed thinking you guys fell off. Lol. Won't make that mistake again.

[Argennian]

No worries, TC! I'm just happy to be here and back to it!

You know, I might reach out to ToniXX about the email notification thing. A couple players in one of my hidden groups have complained that they're not getting notifications when people post. I wonder if that has anything to do with the new hosting site for the boards? Anyways, I'll see if there have been others with those issues and find out if there's a fix other than turning notifications off and then back on again.

[Rukellian]

I just check the site every day, that's how I stay notified.

[Argennian]

Well, there is that...

[Argennian]

Yo fellas, I shot a pm to ToniXX about the email notification thing. He responded with the following:

Say you've got an action thread. Someone posts in it, and you get the message that there's a new post. Until you actually visit the forums, you won't get another email for any subsequent posts in that thread. A lot of people forget this. They get the one email. They keep that in the back of their mind, then visit the forums a couple hours later. By then, maybe there have been two more posts. "Why didn't I get an email for those posts?", they think. "There must be something wrong!" What I explained above is why. 99% of the time, that's the problem.

The other 1% is the email has been blocked by their email provider for some reason, or it simply got lost in the ether and will probably arrive, but maybe a few hours late. Email is the oldest protocol on the internet, and as such it is the least efficient.

So not sure if that might be the case but figured I'd pass it along!

Cheers,

Mitch

[tooleychris]

Hope everyone had a great Labor Day!

[Rukellian]

Sure did, thanks tooley!

[Argennian]

Cheers & thanks, TC. Best to you and the lads and hope everyone had a good one. I was on call and had to work like a dog. They kept sending me to SF while the Bay Bridge was closed!

But, I got a chance to get caught up in all my games yesterday, read more of my new book and was able to take a nice long nap, so no complaints there!

[tooleychris]

So it appears interest in this has petered off...
I Hope you'll honor me with why you, the individual players have lost interest?
I put a lot of work into it and am planning a lot of work for my fantasy campaign and DON'T want to make the same mistake twice.
I've really enjoyed watching how you all played your characters and thank you for the laughs!
Appreciate your input.

[Zhym]

I'm not sure it's worth killing just because of a couple of slow days. The lack of response to this post is a little bothersome (although it was just posted yesterday evening, so I should be more patient), but all of Unseen Servant seems a little slow over the past couple of days, judging by the games I'm in.

The reason my posting has been slow is that I've often waited to post until I've seen what others would do. If everyone does that, no one posts.

My only suggestion for future games, if this one is dead (and, again, I wouldn't call this one dead just because of slow posting recently) would be to make the story or plot clear from the start and start the group more or less together. Zengar and Elvis spent a lot of time wandering around for no other motivation than "Hey, something in the sky, let's follow it." The recruitment post for this game had a lot of cool background info about April 2031, but after five months of play that background hasn't come into the game play, at least in the threads I've been in.

Aside from that, I think it's down to the general question of how to keep PbP players engaged and posting frequently, which isn't always an easy thing.

[tooleychris]

I've been hearing others state that their games are slowing a bit as well, maybe just that time of year.
So I won't pull the plug just yet. It is open for posting and I watch from low orbit (just high enough to avoid radiation).
Thanks for the input.
I never liked DMs starting all the characters with "You all meet in a tavern with a treasure map." So that's the big reason I started you out apart, but yeah, it took a bit longer to get you all together than I'd hoped.
Your characters haven't really seen much in the way of back story because you haven't gotten to civilization yet. This ship crash is a kickstarter to 1. Get you together and 2. Show you the face of the enemy responsible for Earth's current fate.
Guess we'll see...
I am relieved the lag isn't because everyone was intimidated by my stunning good looks though. I can't fix that!

[Zhym]

I never liked DMs starting all the characters with "You all meet in a tavern with a treasure map."

Heh. Agreed. There's a tension there, though. On the one hand, that trope is old and tired. On the other hand, thirdkingdom has a good point here:

I have found that the first one hundred posts or so are the most crucial; even if you don't throw the PCs directly into combat, give them something to choose. These days, when I start a game I don't care, and don't attempt to frame, the PCs meeting. They know each other, period. If they want to go further in depth that's fine, but my default assumption is they already have common cause for whatever reason. I use my first IC post to set the scene using broad brushstrokes. Two paragraphs, max. And then hand out the plot hooks, so there is something right away for players to sink their teeth into.

Giving the players a choice to make and a reason to be where they are as soon as possible is crucial, I think. Time spent on the characters getting to know each other isn't terribly compatible with that.

[NJWilliam]

Just been a busy week here. I thought it was going well, just at a more moderate pace than some. Keep it going!

[Rukellian]

Goosh Goosh would certainly like to see this game continue. Id has so much id wants to do still.

You know my current standpoint on all of this, thanks to my PM

In other words, I am still all for this, and have not lost interest!