Discussion (out of character thread)

[scarik]

Voros is still trying to figure out how to court Arianne; neither of them have figured it out yet. We have a decade or so before Rodrik and Adelaide start talking openly. He needs to improve his station and she's busy learning the sword and washing the mud out of her harness.

Not sure what Gurav and Magarra have planned, but wishing them well.

Voros and Arianne are Shakespearean Spares so they best get it together before next year because they are getting hitched then regardless!

The Dawi have to retake Kraka Grak first or Mag's father will bring his army over to take her back.

[Leitz]

Apologies, life is both stressful and crazy at the moment. I did want to answer at least one thing:

I'm not sure what is being asked here. I suspect its a miscommunication. Dramm is a Knight of the Law and a Paladin of Springvale. He is a questing knight and not part of the standard militant order but he is still a knight. He holds no rank but he's held in very high esteem by his fellows.

Yes, Dramm is a knight of the church, but IIUC not a knight in the "standard" sense. Barnaby is a noble, and if we can ennoble Dramm as a knight then he can more easily gain Lawful knight aspirants and inspire them, even if they may not yet be ready to make oaths and assume the mantle of paladin. Barnaby wanted, at least originally, to improve his family fortunes and reputation. Well, that assumes my memory is correct. While Dramm is perfectly fine as a knight of the church, being a regular knight also may open doors and options for both of them.

It also reminds people that someone can earn knighthood, so they are inspired to excel. Given the orc-to-everyone-else ratio, inspiring others is useful.

[tibbius]

Apologies, life is both stressful and crazy at the moment. I did want to answer at least one thing:

I'm not sure what is being asked here. I suspect its a miscommunication. Dramm is a Knight of the Law and a Paladin of Springvale. He is a questing knight and not part of the standard militant order but he is still a knight. He holds no rank but he's held in very high esteem by his fellows.

Yes, Dramm is a knight of the church, but IIUC not a knight in the "standard" sense. Barnaby is a noble, and if we can ennoble Dramm as a knight then he can more easily gain Lawful knight aspirants and inspire them, even if they may not yet be ready to make oaths and assume the mantle of paladin. Barnaby wanted, at least originally, to improve his family fortunes and reputation. Well, that assumes my memory is correct. While Dramm is perfectly fine as a knight of the church, being a regular knight also may open doors and options for both of them.

It also reminds people that someone can earn knighthood, so they are inspired to excel. Given the orc-to-everyone-else ratio, inspiring others is useful.

Dramm's vows --- afaik — are not compatible with "standard' knighthood or personal ownership of really anything other than his arms and horse.

[scarik]

Yes, Dramm is a knight of the church, but IIUC not a knight in the "standard" sense. Barnaby is a noble, and if we can ennoble Dramm as a knight then he can more easily gain Lawful knight aspirants and inspire them, even if they may not yet be ready to make oaths and assume the mantle of paladin. Barnaby wanted, at least originally, to improve his family fortunes and reputation. Well, that assumes my memory is correct. While Dramm is perfectly fine as a knight of the church, being a regular knight also may open doors and options for both of them.

It also reminds people that someone can earn knighthood, so they are inspired to excel. Given the orc-to-everyone-else ratio, inspiring others is useful.

Ok that makes sense.

A knight is a knight for the most part. There's some complicated stuff that won't matter to most characters. Of the named ones only Fylla and Kyl are in the position to be both religious and secular. Kyl is an ordained priest and a member of a secular order as its chaplain as well as being a secular knight himself. Fylla is filled with conflicts as she is a secular knight, a member of a highborn house and a sworn paladin. I do not recommend trying to thread that needle as a PC.

Dramm's vows --- afaik — are not compatible with "standard' knighthood or personal ownership of really anything other than his arms and horse.

Moreso than most Paladins. He is a knight, just not one who will swear to a mortal lord or order. He of course can join the other paladins to defend the region, but his oath comes first and it could require him to leave them to handle things themselves.

Barnaby I think could be a knight some day, but only when he's ready to retire and settle down. To him it seems like a lot of boring responsibility. It may be necessary some day to raise the stature of his house, but he's not looking forward to it.

[Leitz]

One of the things we've talked about is that JJh and I seem the main ones intent on doing army stuff. The plan thus accounts for that; PCs and their minions can be in the army if they want, or they can be with the smaller adventuring groups. Or you can be in both; go with the army for the planned short fall campaign, then work with a smaller group at other times. If the campaign is successful then it should give more time for Springkeep to prepare defenses and for the smaller groups to do their thing.

[CarrieVS]

I just want to clarify that it's not so much larger-scale battles that I'm not keen on, so much as the looming threat that the game's focus is going to become more about administering a region than having adventures.

[tibbius]

Meanwhile, neither I nor Dramm are keen to be generals. And Barnaby utterly lacks the right stuff for that role.

[Leitz]

How do you all feel this is balancing out so far? How can things be improved?

[CarrieVS]

I think it's been balanced fine so far, I'm just afraid of it scaling into higher-level organisation, instead of higher-level monsters.

I'd say, for me, a good balance would be:

• At least half of our adventures are on more or less an adventuring-party scale (or at least we are acting as an adventuring party, even if there's often an army adjacent to us.)
• I have no problem at all with there being decisions for us to make about politics, alliances, government etc, that determine the parameters of our adventures (especially if they're relatively closed questions), if that's something we answer relatively quickly and then get down to playing the game. I'd like it to stay the exception rather than the rule that that is the game we're playing. (Though even I'm not completely averse to a little of that kind of thing, once in a while.)

[Leitz]

I'm happy to game the political and larger military stuff on my own, assuming scarik wants to run it. I don't exclude anyone who wants to be involved, but am also happy to solo it.

CarrieVS, I'm not sure what you mean by a "closed question", can you expand on that?

For political stuff, JJh supports the Margrave of Vizmark (Sir Kelemer) and the Abbot of Springvale (Elder Tomas), as well as their various domains, henches/family, and underlings. He will also support Gurav and Magarra in Kraka Grak, and the Hill Dawi if/when they join the party. So there are no political rifts there, it's mostly decided. We do have the various groups in the eastern woods, as Earnan discovered, and that seems to be an interesting political stewpot. Multiple groups of elves, druids, weres, giant demon spiders, hags, etc. JJh has one person in that mix presently, but it's iffy on whether he will live to tell the tale.

[CarrieVS]

CarrieVS, I'm not sure what you mean by a "closed question", can you expand on that?

Closed questions have a defined answer, like "do you do X or Y?" as opposed to open questions where the answer is whatever you can think of. Closed questions are generally a lot easier and quicker to answer (and even people who don't really know the field can often hazard an opinion.) But that was a casual aside, don't worry about it.

[scarik]

As DM I want to say that forum games have the main advantage that you don't need all the players to always be together on any particular adventure. I have no preference at all as to how you decide to handle the various threats that emerge. The world will keep turning, its up to you how you stay on top of it. Allocate your resources to play the game the way you each wish to do so.

Jiho is a leader who wants to play the Domain Game. He has a bunch of followers, helpers and allies that will help him carve out his kingdom. He wants to deal with regional issues and administration.

Morwen has already won her version of the Domain Game. She has her tower and everything else is an imposition on her research. She wants to solve things expediently and get back to being a nerd.

Dramm and Earnan are both only concerned with their personal contributions. They aren't putting down roots or raising armies. They want to adventure.

Magarra, if she returns as a PC, is like Jiho. She's looking to rule, but instead of making a country from scratch like Jiho she already has one, she just has to go take it back.

You can all pick and choose here. PM me if you need suggestions as to how.

[scarik]

It is Easter weekend and I am traveling so I do not expect to get an update done.

Happy Easter to you all.

[Leitz]

Works for me, I've gotten behind due to work. Should be able to catch up and move forward, so you have something to read in a few days.

[scarik]

I am away again until Sunday.