General Chatter

[Rex]

I couldn't either so I looked at someone else's rolls to find it. It is 1020.

[Urson]

Thanks

[sulldawga]

Am I blind? I can't seem to find the campaign #

You are not blind; I posted it back in the interest thread, not here. It's 1020.

[Leitz]

sulldawga, when you say "going back east is off-limits", it's still okay for us to use Ket as a home base, correct? Where we restock on supplies, drain a flagon, spend a night in a soft bed, and then head back west. It will take some time for the settlers to get things going, they will be focused on clearing the land and planting crops.

Adventuring can be lucrative, or it can lead to financial ruin. Here's my thinking about Nicholas, and he'd certainly welcome the other PCs into the conversation.

Arrive at Ket about three months prior, before winter, and establish himself as a physician. He's more of a trauma surgeon than a general practitioner, and would chat with the local peers to let them know that he's happy to help, but he's also transitory and not trying to take their business. That should allow him a chance to build an income that pays the bills and builds his medical supplies, as well as begin to see how things are run and who is in charge of what. It would also let him meet the local herbalists and find out what is available and how they are used.

Question to the DM: Has Nicholas, or any of the PCs, had a chance to meet and interact with the Lord Mayor, and the Fort Captain? If so, what are those relationships like? It could involve a surgical need, or just a social event, however you feel best.

At some point we'll need a permanent shelter, either homes in Ket or across the river. Depending on the difficulty of the local winters, we need stocked food and solid shelter settled within six months. Some of the settlers may not succeed, and some may do well. The more we help them do well, and build the expectation that they can "pay" us at harvest, the more we can focus on adventuring, and maybe clearing out an old ruin or something. That should take care of the food and shelter bit. We'll need to figure out water, if the ruin doesn't have a good supply.

While I can make guesses about the second year, my real bet is that things will develop that we don't plan for. So we plan for what we can, and what we need, and adapt from there. For example, if the ruin is in a good location, we could help build a town that the farmers could bring their harvest to, and the merchants could bring their wares to sell. Or maybe the ruin is a dungeon somewhere, and a PC wants something more open and airy. The group helps establish that, and by working together we can probably accomplish more.

Re-reading all that, it fits how I think. Not sure it's interesting to anyone else, thoughts?

[sulldawga]

You all can go to Ket whenever you want for however long you want. But if you wanted to go further east, to the capital city or wherever, I'd just abstract it out, no roleplaying. There's a reason why I haven't even given the capital city a name!

It will be easier to hire a "factor" who can help you buy and sell things when the Ket markets are too small. I'd honestly prefer you didn't travel east at all.

There is a physician in Ket already, and the two faiths will also help with healing, but there's nothing stopping you from selling your services. Ket is growing rapidly, and soon there will be hundreds of farmers on the west side of the Moche who will need help as well. I am fine with anyone working a job during "downtime" between adventures. A mundane physician makes 10 sp a day. That's the equivalent of Level-0 skill in Heal.

That being said, I'd prefer we start the game with all of you meeting on the road to Ket and deciding to adventure together. If we get going in the next day or two (in RL), then you will have missed the Market Fair but it won't matter because all of the merchants who traveled to Ket for Land Grant Day are staying through the Spring Festival.

[sulldawga]

These are the traveling merchants who are currently in Ket for the Land Grant Day festivities. This list will change over time as merchants travel back and forth for Ket's Market Days (there are Market Days every eight days between Spring Festival and Hunting Moon Night [beginning of April to beginning of November]):

• Tools
• Books and maps
• Religious idols and blessings
• Jewelry and gems
• Medium and heavy armor and shields
• Animals (mounts and pets)
• Weapons
• Leatherworking
• Food and animal parts
• A strange shop claiming to traffic in "enchanted items of wonder and puissance"

[Leitz]

If we're going to start in the next couple of days, I'll make a basic fighter and set Nicholas aside. Lemme go run an errand, and I'll have the new guy in process.

Addendum Actually, let me admit that I've over-extended myself and back out now, so someone else can run what they prefer. I've been avoiding my studies while working on Nicholas, and I realize that's not fitting my long term goals.

[sulldawga]

Actually, let me admit that I've over-extended myself and back out now, so someone else can run what they prefer. I've been avoiding my studies while working on Nicholas, and I realize that's not fitting my long term goals.

That's a bummer but feel free to circle back if you get some more free time and the game's still running.

[Marullus]

@Lietz - Awww.... I was really looking forward to playing with Nicholas. I hope we can accomodate and have a reassuring post-rate.

@sulldawga - Probably should have asked this earlier...
- What's your expected post rate?
- What is the tie between RL time and IG time? Why does kicking off in the next day matter for what the IG calendar is?


Other thoughts... Lietz I love the stuff you posted. My comment on several points is, "YES! WWN has rules for that!"

Arrive at Ket about three months prior, before winter, and establish himself as a physician. He's more of a trauma surgeon than a general practitioner, and would chat with the local peers to let them know that he's happy to help, but he's also transitory and not trying to take their business. That should allow him a chance to build an income that pays the bills and builds his medical supplies, as well as begin to see how things are run and who is in charge of what. It would also let him meet the local herbalists and find out what is available and how they are used.

A principle often included in West Marches or WWN is "play is at the table." There are skills (like Connect and Administer) that are only relevant in Ket and are good for these circumstances. To your story setup above, I would just 'say yes' and its fine that you have established a your general actions. When it is time to actually FIND someone who knows the local herbs, that's when you roll Charisma+Connect. Based on the results, the GM says if:
a) You find the needed person
b) You find the needed person, but they currently dislike you
c) You cannot find the needed person in the timeframe available

Same with meeting the Lord Mayor - probably is an Administer roll, or maybe a Connect roll, too.

For example, if the ruin is in a good location, we could help build a town that the farmers could bring their harvest to, and the merchants could bring their wares to sell. Or maybe the ruin is a dungeon somewhere, and a PC wants something more open and airy. The group helps establish that, and by working together we can probably accomplish more.

I am hoping that @sulldawga allows us to use the Faction system. That's fantastic for what you're describing here. "We rescue a ruin and invite settlers there" is an IG action that justifies establishing a small faction at the ruin. Read page 322 for "Factions Created by PCs."

...factions are a great way for the GM to simplify, organize, and track the changes in the gameworld, the interests of third parties, and what happens in the macrocosm to create new adventure hooks. The GM can run a Faction Turn in the background (each IG month, maybe?) and let us know the visible activity happening in the gameworld around us. It also allows you to have a framework for starting your market-square at the ruined keep, grow it over time, and have it compete for resources with the other factions off-camera. (My groups always have fun with this system precisely because we do love changing the macrocosm gameworld with our PCs successes and adventures.)

Nicholas is more philosopher than worshipper, following the "die and let die" style.

Don't you mean, "die, and raise dead, then die again, then let die?"

[sulldawga]

Expected post rate is once every two days, at worst.

The other party (over on rpg.net) has started their game. They arrived in Ket the day before Market Day, they made it through Market Day, and now they're on the first day of the Market Festival. I'd like to keep the two parties somewhat close to each other in "game time" so I can better adjudicate what happens when one set of PCs makes it to a location before another one. But there will likely be some separation. Hopefully we won't run into a situation where Party A and Party B are going to the same spot and Party A is behind in game time but ahead in real life time.

These are the instructions I gave the other group for Spring Festival:
I would like each player to tell me what their PC wants to do in the next five days, here in the OOC thread. This includes:

• Visiting any of the traveling merchants, who are staying past Market Day and will be there until at least the end of Land Grant Day
• Visiting any of the permanent Ket stores
• Visiting any of the seedier establishments in Downeast
• Talking with the Lord Mayor, Fort-Captain, Elder Visant, or the High Monk of the Temple of Pem
• Talking with random people on the street or random soldiers to get rumors
  If you're talking with anyone, feel free to pre-emptively throw in a Connect/CHR or Trade/CHR roll in case I need it
  Depending on what you're doing, I might also allow a WIS or INT bonus
• Participating in any of the Spring Festival competitions
  Fishing
  Strength
  Archery

I will resolve all of these actions in IC. Then we will "fast forward" to Land Grant Day.

So when we get going, I will have you start on whichever day you want to arrive but we'll play through to Land Grant Day in 2x speed mode so we can get to crossing the Moche and getting the game started.

As for Factions, they are probably a ways down the line but I expect we'd either use those rules or the domain rules from An Echo, Resounding, or some combo of both.

[Marullus]

Expected post rate is once every two days, at worst.

Glad we're talking about this, and with apologies, I'm not sure if I can do daily (or "at worst two days") posting. Most of the players that I know on the site are busy adults fitting things in and we usually set on a 1-2x week commitment with faster-when-possible.

I still want to play, but if I can't meet speed, it is okay to NPC me if you need to move forward. If slower post-rates will be unacceptable, I can step out, too.

The other party (over on rpg.net) has started their game. They arrived in Ket the day before Market Day, they made it through Market Day, and now they're on the first day of the Market Festival. I'd like to keep the two parties somewhat close to each other in "game time" so I can better adjudicate what happens when one set of PCs makes it to a location before another one. But there will likely be some separation. Hopefully we won't run into a situation where Party A and Party B are going to the same spot and Party A is behind in game time but ahead in real life time.

If I can offer some friendly, unsolicited advice... I ran the now-second-biggest sandbox ever on this site, with West Marches style, for several years (before my post-rate dropped due to IRL changes) and I also stole all the best practices from the long-running West Marches game that ran before mine, too.

• Trying to keep two play-by-post groups synched continuously leads to madness. A good practice was to establish an "official game time" that you record somewhere (its own thread, or in the "main tavern") - that clock is always the furthest-forward timestamp of any party. Parties adventure in their own time while out on-mission, but jump forward to "official time" the moment they set foot in Ket upon their return. Time across groups is always messy, but this was the best compromise we found.
• (More applicable if running multi-parties where the reorganize before the next outing, but...) PCs split up and do different things while in town and running a group-thread when they're acting as individuals gets confusing. We set up town locations as their own threads in a "town sub-forum" and players could go post actions in the "shop" or location, letting you roleplay consistently with the Blacksmith in the Blacksmith, or the Tavern being the Tavern... it also allowed player-driven crosstalk that you don't have to arbitrate in places like the tavern where groups mix between adventures. (The fact that you're running only two groups, and those on different boards, makes this less important. But it is worth thinking about.) For your game, just make a Market thread and post it as an Announcement so it seperates and is persistant and let that be its own "adventure thread."
• The best thing, IMHO, about West Marches / Sandbox is that it minimizes how much of the world you really need to prepare in advance. As long as you have a broad idea of regions (this forest has wild, xenophobic elves; this mountain contains an insular dwarfhome) you can populate the "main feature" of each 8-mile hex when the PCs approach it and otherwise use random encounters to flesh out in between. Don't overdevelop yourself into burnout.
• The good news is, if you actually do want to run simultaneous parties in a West Marches style, Play-by-Post is actually very accomodating. I think past attempts at this have been wildly successful and the best games on the site. (Just decide how many adventure threads you're willing to run simultaneously and hold to that.)

[sulldawga]

Once a week is not going to work. I don't expect daily but I expect 2-3 posts every 7 days. We're talking 10-15 minutes every two or three days.

I am totally cool with people who miss a post here and there and don't mind me nudging their PC along with the invisible GM hand. I just don't want to be chasing anyone all the time for posts. This game should be fun and people should look forward to posting. If it's work, you might as well drop out now and find something else that's more fun for you.

I have been playing PbP games for over a decade as a player and a GM. I get how they work. Life situations change, people burn out, the game becomes uninteresting. Shit happens. The main thing I ask of everyone is to keep the lines of communication open. I will be super flexible with everyone if you just let me know where you're at.

Thank you for that unsolicited GM advice! At first glance, it all looks spot on and very wise. Will digest and put into effect.

[Rex]

I am good with 2 to 3 posts a week most of the time. Occasional I will be out of touch for a week or so but can give notice on stuff like that.

[Marullus]

...being a player is easier with shorter posts than a DM. I appreciate your response and will work to continue with the faster posting rate.

[sulldawga]

Leitz is out and ybn hasn't yet posted in the game so I added enoch. Welcome!

[Rex]

Welcome Aboard Enoch!

[Marullus]

Wooo hooo!

[sulldawga]

Also did you look at my scores and decide if they are good the way I have them? I currently have 2 -1's and 3 +1's.

First off, my apologies for posting here vs in the Character Generation thread.

Second, pick one of STR or CHR and change it to 8 so you don't have two attributes with a -1.

Third, strongly recommend you take Marullus' advice and change that Notice-0 to some sort of combat skill.

[Rex]

Thanks. I will up Str and switch notice to stab.

[Rex]

My new sheet is posted. I switched to warrior/healer and tweaked a little bit. Feels like a decent character now. Someone please check my numbers, particularly my weapons as I am not confident they are correct. She has a staff to trade/give away if anyone needs one.