General discussion

I'm saying Grizel fed and watered Alastor before leaving the Indrirovich mansion. Also, because Find Steed will probably not be needed today, Grizel prepared Aid instead during her morning meditation.

How are you feeding Alastor - rations?

I thought Ireena had straw for them. I went back through the thread and it seems I was mistaken. All she had was loose straw bedding. Oh well, Alastor is hungry then.

Yeah, horses eat hay and grains. Rations they would go through like 10 a day. There should be someone in town that has a few leaves of hay and a pound of oats for sale. Oats are like crack to horses.

@teaanddice, huge props for the way you are playing Justice. I really REALLY appreciate when players take communication difficulties built into PCs to the next level and really own it.

Yes, I hope to find something for Alastor in town. Depends what state Barovia is in I guess.

I really like the new characters too! Glad to have you guys on board.

I'm going away for the weekend, so will be unable to post. NPC Grizel, I guess. She can stay in a pensive mood. I'd like to be present for combat but if necessary, Biscuitfiend knows Grizel's style by now. Thanks!

Thank you. I have been waiting to play Justice for quite some time. Even though, I had no idea Grizel was a Paladin who spoke Celestial. That will add a lot to Justice's interaction with the group. A Human paladin who speaks Celestial and a Tiefling Sorcerer who speaks Infernal Baator (and little else). I think this is going to be great.

Yes, it will be very interesting indeed! Justice has nothing to fear from Grizel though. She's not one of those holy-warrior type paladins. She's just a regular girl who's been through some bad times. It just so happens she's a beast with that greatsword of hers. We'll see where the whole celestial deal takes us. :-)

Here's Grizel's story.

Hey hey you two, careful now. No mixing player and character knowledge. :P

No danger of that from me :-) And from what I've seen of teaandice's roleplaying, no danger of meta-gaming there either. But thanks for the reminder. :-)

I really need to warn myself of that. This is the first game I've played. I've always GMed so far, even off the site. It will be hard not to look at the bigger picture all the time.

Haha, yep. Literally same here. Before GP I've only ever DMd. Ever. It's tough way to start out, but in the end it's worth it. Seperating player and character knowledge is hard, especially since I'm always interest in the world and exploring, learning lore, but my characters are rarely like that.

I'm typically a GM, and to speak honestly and frankly, I never care if players "mix" knowledge.

It's never worth it to police (because doing so requires you to call players out for 'meta-gaming' and then I feel like a jerk for accusing a player of something, they feel like a jerk for stepping over a line in the sand, and everyone at the table feels awkward because now they have started thinking about what the player just said and are worried about that clouding their previous thoughts.. you can't go back, but the accusation forces everyone to try and pretend the thought never happened).

It requires players to complete excessive mental gymnastics (which you two, suddenly finding yourselves as players, are discovering first hand how awkward those gymnastics are). I'd rather focus mental processing on imagining the scene than on trying to keep separate two bodies of knowledge. Also, it makes players afraid to get into character for fear of getting it 'wrong'. If this is being enforced then getting it 'wrong' entails social awkwardness, which many players want to avoid. This is extra strange when you think about it, because it's the player who made the character so why does the GM get to decide what that character does and doesn't know? Which leads to the last point...

No character is so fully detailed that all aspects of their life and all things that they could be said to know can be specified. Which is to say, you can't specify all of the knowledge your character has and so how can you be expected to keep it separate from another source of knowledge. These characters didn't just appear here in this little town as blank slates, they have histories, exploits and backgrounds which are at best vaguely filled in.

... Sorry for the rant, it's apparently a soft spot for me.

In my last post I was just about to have my character call you justice and then I looked back and I'm like, oh, she never actually said her name. I don't probably know it yet. I also said your character didn't say anything to me the whole walk since we had met, so I certainly wouldn't know it.

... to add to that, "mistakes" (like knowing a character's name when, by all lights your character couldn't have known) can be an open door to unforeseen characterization. Those cases are great, because someone says "you couldn't have known that! How did you know?!" and the right response (in my view) is not to say "oops, lets rewind and make that not have happened" but to embrace it, take the first lesson of improv to heard, say "yes and..." -- maybe your character IS aware of the other character's past and origin in a bit more detail than has been let on.

Then again, this approach reflects some of my GMing style (that not everyone is comfortable with, and I get that and I'm not about to argue that my way is the right or best way -- I'm opposed to policing other people's fun), and requires a certain agreement between all players that fine details about your character's past are up for revision on the basis of other character's actions. Again, that's a style thing that you (and your players) need to be comfortable with.

Very true, that is also the style of DMing I try and do. Yes and.

I agree, I was going to build off what Victor said about meeting and was going to add you knew my name, but I didn't find the oppurtunity to introduce Justice to the group.

PhantomNimbus, I love the way you're role-playing Victor. Have you ever heard of the infamous gnome Jan Jansen of Amn, from the pc game Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn?

I have not but I've had this character idea for a while. Being my first time playing I've thought a lot about playing. :)

I've never played a gnome, but now I think that'll be my next character. That is, if I'm ever able to come up with those wonder quips.