OOC Chat II

[sulldawga]

Keehnelf, are groups in town now stuck waiting for others to get back for the Harrowing festival, or can we go out on another mission and retroactively adjust for anything that will have happened on Harrowing?

I don't mind waiting around, especially since it's the holidays, but if it's ok to go, I may try to have Quirin organize another trip.

[sulldawga]

If we want to engage the mercs, should we do that in their thread or the Town Business thread?

[Keehnelf]

I've been doing some more thinking about animal training while sick and have what I think should be a fairly flexible and reasonably comprehensive and useful animal training system.

I still need to flesh out a lot of details, but basically any animal that's domesticated (either naturally or by training/breaking) gets a number of training points. I'm considering making it a standard 2d3 no matter the animal type, but am still considering the ramifications for that kind of decision across all possible animal types.

There will be a wide range of "trainings" that can be attempted to add to an animals arsenal of behaviors, broadly broken up by category (combat, travel, utility, environmental) and animals of a given species will have bonuses or penalties to being trained in certain areas (like, training a horse to take a rider is much easier than training it to attack on command).

Individual training a will also have a base training time and check modifier. A trainer can spend the base time to earn a check to add the training to the animal. If the check is successful, the animal loses one training point and learns the skill. If it fails, the trainer can spend the training time again to attempt another check on the same ability, or abandon the training to do something else or attempt to train a different ability. If this happens, the animal loses one training point but gains nothing in return except a resistance to training in general because it has succeeded in resisting! (Thus the loss of a training point)

Basically any creature with an animal intelligence can be trained using these methods, which are based on wisdom and charisma.

I just realized I should toss this out since the horses have also finally arrived.

Also, to add one more layer to this mini-game, individual training a also need to be learned by trainers. If an individual participates in the entirety of a training period (one check), they can then make a Wisdom check to learn the training skill being employed, with a -2 bonus if the animal learned the training. Then, in the future they can use it to train animals themselves.

My plan is to use a similar system (stats and some other details may gary) for any non-class-related skill an individual is looking to learn.

[Keehnelf]

If we want to engage the mercs, should we do that in their thread or the Town Business thread?

The note on the bulletin board says come to the tavern!

[sulldawga]

However, where Naila sees only the danger of a pair of spiders, Orrin also sees the unmistakeable glittering of at least two or three gemstones lying near the water's edge among the spiders.

Will you gather more coins first, or proceed as soon as the spell has taken effect?

I read this as "Would you like to hang yourself now, or do you want the DM to give you a little more rope?"

[Keehnelf]

Haha, your reading comprehension is good

[GTan_Baq]

Zirina- available
Rates: 5/30/full share

Mormoth- available
Rates: 5/25/half-share

Jord- available
Rates: 4/20/half-share

ok, I understand what 'full share' and 'half share' means but what is 5/30...5/25 ...4/20?

[Keehnelf]

You'll have to chat with the mercs for more details! I'm just getting my own record-keeping in place

[GTan_Baq]

Merry Christmas to ALL!!!

[hedgeknight]

Merry Christmas everybody!!

[AleBelly]

Merry Christmas Tree!

[Keehnelf]

Happy holidays to all--hope those who we celebrating and those who are not are enjoying a good day with family and/or general relaxation!

[OGRE MAGE]

Happy Holidays to one and all!

Thank you for being a blast to game with!

Now, go drink some nog.

[Scott308]

Merry Christmas everyone!

[AleBelly]

Happy Holidays! I pledge to drink as much ale and whiskey as Varas would today. I hope you do the same if you're so inclined.

[Scott308]

I play a dwarf, so if I tried to drink as much as Dorvar, my blood would be flammable!

[Spartakos]

Merry Krampus Christmas!

[Keehnelf]

A Holiday Update

Because it's the holidays and I'm feeling a bit reflective, and I have a few minutes to think this afternoon, my thoughts drifted (as they often do) to this game. I was thinking of it in the context of a brief conversation I had a couple of weeks ago with one player in which I referred to everything up to Harrowing as a sort of informal prologue to this game, and it's true: it's about establishing common practices and expectations, giving you an opportunity to get to know my style as a GM and my intended approach to the game, etc. I feel like we have a pretty solid base to work from going forward.

I also understand that we've been at this a couple months and it's odd to think of a period that long as a prologue , but bear with me for an analogy and an explanation:

First, for those of you who played the first Final Fantasy game on the NES, the prologue was surprisingly long. You didn't even realize you were in one until you crossed the bridge east of Corneria and suddenly were treated to an actual game intro. By that point, you had a pretty solid handle on the game, at least mechanics-wise...but there was still a LOT left to come, built on that foundation. SO MUCh, in fact, that when the first boss turns out to be the villain behind it all you're like, "wait, I seem to dimly recall this dude..." I imagine this as a long, long term game.

To explain: my vision for this campaign is about STORY. That is, the story that is created when you give a bunch of characters a backdrop and ask them to make it their own. There's a lot of background story drifting around in the setting, some of which will unlock riddles and can help guide choices (both toward profit and toward peril) for those who care enough to investigate their mysteries. But that story is far less important than the story of what your character do from this day forward.

Through that lens, I break down the campaign mentally into the following major sections:

Prologue: learning the ropes and figuring out some broad sketches of the existing landscape
Chapter 1: building the power needed to pursue shorter-term goals
Chapter 2: leveraging short-term success into long-term impact according to individual or group agenda
Chapter 3: dealing with the consequences of actions in Ch2
Chapter 4: dealing with consequences of actions in Ch3

And so on.

That's not to say that the later chapters don't also have their fare share of agenda-setting and goal-reaching. But by that time, the conditions under which those agendas are set will be more and more influenced by the decisions made and actions undertaken in earlier sections.

So my eye in the early stages is set toward providing information and to tracking how early actions can influence the playing out of those middle stages. I imagine this campaign being one (if it lasts long enough) that stretches across years of in-game time: across generations, even. In which adventurers find their fortunes in a land that only dimly remembers the legend of The Wendall and his basement full of carrion, or the tale of the black wolf that ate the brains of elves for breakfast. The landscape of which is indelibly marked by the passing of the PCs of previous generations.

Anyway, the landscape is currently well-populated by lots of stories, some of which will require more strength than the PCs have now to bend to their will. But that's what they're there for: to provide a canvas against which your exciting stories can be told. So feel free to dive in, full-force, and don't be discouraged when I toss challenges in your way--they exist purely for you to show off your mettle when you succeed despite them.

Thanks for coming along on this ride with me. Happy holidays.

[OGRE MAGE]

Wow, this just keeps getting better and better.

Tis us who should be thanking you good sir!

[Zorroroaster]

It's one thing to have deep ideas about something.

It's quite another to take those ideas and use them to craft a robust, richly layered and flexible structure upon which a wide array of people with ideas of their own can hang the fabric of their own stories on.

You inspire me to play better, and knowing how much thought and planning goes on behind the scenes is awesome in the original sense of the word. I'm in awe.

Best wishes for the holidays!