OOC Chat — "Hoshihige Most Auspicious Inn"

[Starbeard]

Once again having trouble staying on top of the games, but I just want to ping them all and let you know that I'm trying to catch up this weekend or at least by Tuesday. In all likelihood 1-2 weeks per update will be the norm for me at least for another 1-2 months, so I will do my best to ensure that each update has as much plot-pushing meat as possible.

[GreyWolfVT]

perfectly fine by me Starbeard. To come out and be straight with you I've not exactly been feeling my character lately. After a while I have started to feel as if he is slightly out of his element.

[Starbeard]

Sorry to hear that GreyWolf. Hopefully this next bit of action will bring things back into his ronin swordmaster element, if not we can talk about giving him/you more to do.

[Starbeard]

Post is up. I think the obvious options are probably limited and straightforward enough that I can move things forward right away if we get a couple of PC actions in quickly.

[GreyWolfVT]

I think it has more to do with me than anything Sean. I can get into the mindset of a exiled warrior but the other talking and all the other stuff I have trouble wrapping my mind around how a Ronin would respond. Perhaps merely keeping quiet, or with few words if he does know something relevant.

[Rex]

That is exactly what I have been doing Ed, I tend to play the quite type anyways as the role playing conversations isn't my strong suit, even less so in a culture I am not real familiar with.

[Captain Kinkajou]

Getting to grips with the culture is pretty much a perennial problem with L5R. I'm actually enjoying playing this pbp because one of the things that works really well is, unlike face-to-face, it gives me a lot more time to think about how to respond to things. I also think Sean is GMing it really well and doing a lot of the heavy lifting for us. You only need to express an intent and he will translate it into something appropriate for the character given the setting. This is unlike, some other L5R GMs I've played with in the past, who would effectively penalise you for breaking etiquette that you didn't understand but your character would. So, this game is great because it's a bit like being on a bike with training wheels on. You can't really go wrong because Sean will convert your intent into something suitable.

All that said, stoic and quiet works well. Certainly, Osaru as the stoic mentor/swordmaster, centred, silent and watchful, choosing his words or actions wisely rather than leaping in; and Kenta as the gentle, quiet, protective giant is very much on-point genre-wise. I really like both characters and how we've all developed and bonded through our adventures together.

[GreyWolfVT]

OH by no means was I saying our GM is bad at this at all if anything more commenting on my lack of doing my part or so I feel.

[Rex]

Agreed, Sean is doing a great job and I enjoy the game. The rule mechanics are also interesting, I wish I had a better understanding of them, but I have the basics down anyways.

[ffilz]

Yes, this is an awesome game. Thanks Sean.

[Starbeard]

Thanks for the vote of confidence, guys! It's always good to hear when you're doing something not wrong.

What Kinkajou says is part of why I wanted to try a PBP of L5R. I've had the same experience from L5R GMs in the past, and I was definitely guilty of that myself. But after coming back to read the original rulebook after so many years, I was surprised at how little of the setting overload you really needed to play. If you cut past the commentary and setting fluff that permeates everything, the core rules pretty much already do that heavy lifting for you.

I've got a big deadline for Thursday night, so I likely won't get a chance to post the next combat round until the weekend.

[Rex]

I am going to visit family and will most likely be off line until Sunday as my only internet will be my work laptop and I don't know if it will connect to the Unseen Servant (it doesn't at work). No matter what I will be less active. Please feel free to NPC my character.

[Starbeard]

Just FYI, I missed last weekend's update since work is still hectic here, so we'll have to wait until this weekend for the next round.

[Starbeard]

I was not expecting that round to take as long or be as lengthy as it was!

There were a couple of crunchy rules things going on so I tried to state those as the round progressed. Apologies if it makes the reading difficult to follow.

Because we're not playing face to face, it's impractical to go back and forth with me giving you "TN quotes" while you decide whether or not to spend a Void Point or make a raise. So in this case I gave everyone the benefit of the doubt. If you clearly rolled high enough to have made a raise, I gave you the raise. Also, if you failed a roll but might have made it if you spent one of your bonus Void Points, then I just had you spend the point to boost your roll and (hopefully) avoid disaster.

Kenta ended up spending 1 Void Point (down to 2 + 1 bonus point), which saved him from being thrown into the river.

Osaru was less lucky and spend 2 points (down to just his normal 2 daily points), but still ended up getting thrown and stunned.

[Rex]

I am OK with that, sometimes we need to make changes to get pbp to go more smoothly

[GreyWolfVT]

as a new card game I got is called "stuff happens" and that is my opinion here.

[Starbeard]

as a new card game I got is called "stuff happens" and that is my opinion here.

That's good to know because right now you're gargling ice water!

Just FYI, I'm traveling for the next couple of weeks. I think I'll be able to keep a once-a-week rate for this PBP but I'll keep you posted either way.

[Rex]

Enjoy!

[GreyWolfVT]

have safe travels Sean

[Starbeard]

Hope everyone in the States had a good holiday. I'm back from trips, but now working on deadlines over the next couple of weeks—so we're still in the sporadic Summer months for posting.

I was expecting at least one more round of combat, but you shut things down with some lucky rolls there! At the moment you see nothing to suggest further action, but of course with illusion magic you never know.

Osaru's lost sword may be a problem (I'm thinking an automatic -1 Rank loss to Honor unless retrieved).