OOC chat

Hey,
Sorry for the long silence, a lot has happened lately. The strange part is that all the games I'm involved in as a GM or as a player have gone quiet at about the same time. This, combined with IRL requiring quiet a lot of energy resulted in two things here :
- first, it was hard for me to find the time to be active in all these games
- second, I got a little disheartened by the general slowdown as well as the loss of many players

Now, I'm very sorry that you have to suffer from that because of my lack of activity. And I'd like to revive the game and see it move forward, but for this I'll need a proactive group of players. Not that you caused the slowing the this game, I know I was the one who was late to answer.
Still up for this? :)

I'm still in

Still here.

TL;DR
IRL is a bitch. Sorry that I couldn't push the game. I should be back on tracks by monday. Feel free to jump to the Back in tracks! section.

Want some details?
I'm been working for the past 8 months on a pretty big project, and recently became one of the main lead software engineers on that project. Which is awesome, but also tiresome. The project if very demanding, and even if it is getting better, there still is a lot to do.
On the personal side, I'm pretty busy as a father (and stepfather) of 4 and... [breaking news] well, soon to become 5. Yeah, I know how it sounds. It's just not that crazy.
Anyway, the current rush is coming to an end and I should be back on tracks by monday. Like many here I do most of my posting at work, which means that my workload has a direct impact on my posting rate. I hate it, but that's a fact I can't deny.


Aftermath:
I should have notified you of my inability to keep up to my own posting rate. That's on me, I'll do better next time.
Now, I'm adding some houserules in my other games to skip turns when someone take too long to post. Including me. But that doesn't help a lot in a political game where action will rarely be happening in rounds and turns. So I'll try to come up with something for us too...

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Back in tracks!
Now, the game kinda paused when I asked what you wanted to do. We're not at a point where I can push event on you and you react to them. Not yet. That time will come, don't worry ;)
So I really need you to discuss and choose what you want to do as a group. Here are some ideas/reminders:
- you think you've spotted a spy and drove him away ; who was he, who was he working for?
- what about that orichalcum?
- why did Ser Feleki miss on the meeting?
- there's this disposable page boy doing some research on Lord Cobhall's behalf
- and Bradley Exadius's potential health problems that Theobold mentioned
- the Moonfest is approaching
- and so is the big meeting organized by The Flaming Tree Trading Consortium


Reminder: you'll have to get Moonbeam's character in (and Moonbeam needs to finalize/submit it).

I really think we need moonbeam in before moving forward as we will then know what the character can or cannot do to be able to make the necessary plans to move forward.

I'm working with Moonbeam over Discord to get character details and the like worked out. Quick question, will Moonbeam's character be getting magical items the way we did?

Yes he will. Feel free to send me your draft or ask questions : I'm here to help :)

I have already posted my latest draft in the character creation thread. I'm looking forward to hearing your response to it, as I do have some follow-up questions once you've weighed in on that concept.

Bump.

I have submitted my character. Waiting on Ornux to accept it.

Hey there. While I agree with the basic concept you described, your character sheet is too empty to be approved ATM.
Needed :
- Spell selection
- Items
- Personality traits
Better if added :
- racial / class features
- anything useful

Here's how I organize my own character sheets, if you want some inspiration : https://gamersplane.com/characters/dnd5/11822/

I am quite aware that the sheet isn't finished. Most GMs will approve characters while they are still being finalized. I was awaiting some sort of response from you so I could ask more questions about what sort of spells are likely to be useful in a game where combat is so de-emphasized.

I am not a beginner player. To be very frank, I would have been done weeks ago if I could have had timely responses to my proposals and questions. I've been perplexed and frustrated by what feels like disinterest in getting me onboarded. The very long delays in responses have made me reluctant to proceed until I heard from you.

This post probably sounds more aggressive than I intend it to. I'm just trying to be direct so that I make my feelings clear. I'm still interested in joining the game, but I don't want to wait days or weeks for responses to questions.

I'll answer point by point, not to defend myself or confront anything, just because there's a lot in your post :)
I appreciate honesty, especially when we only communicate in writing.
That, I'm completely guilty of. And I probably hate it even more than you guys. Combined.
I'm picking things up right now, and am eager to get you onboard! I'll try to make it feel like a fresh start with some commonly written backstory, because the original momentum died with my lack of availability.
I don't use approbation as a control mechanism but rather to avoid mistakes from being made during the character creation process. And I fail to see the point of pre-approving a character, especially as we're in between two chapters.
While combat will probably not be the first approach like in most D&D game, I'd like to reemphasize the fact that this is a D&D game, and that combat or other forms of confrontation will be central to the game. Because that's what the system is about. But the first chapter of the game doesn't show that much, and was more of a chit-chat to get in the game and provide the first handful of incitements to action. I hope that point is clear to everyone.

I'll be a lot more present to answer questions now. But if you want to chat in a more direct/natural way, we can use Hangouts/Whatsapp/Whatever ! Just remember that I'm at GMT+1 ;)

By the way : I've the the magical item forging itch, so I'll go back to the item you asked and craft you something right now :)

I'll be able to devote time to finishing my character sheet tomorrow evening. I'll send a pm when it's done

Damn...

I've been thinking about it for a week now and I'm still not comfortable with that decision, but I'll have to let the PbP gaming go.
There are two mains reasons to that:
- first, I hate being unreliable and I've been very inconsistent in my posting rates in the last couple of months and I don't see any good way to avoid it from happening again
- second, while allowing me to play every day, PbP actually requires a lot of time that I'm sometimes struggling to find. One reason for that certainly is that English isn't my native language, but I also spend a lot of time checking references and other stuff that add up

I've started to feel increasingly frustrated regarding the games I'm trying to push because PbP games moves so slowly and are so easily killed by losing momentum, something that happens no matter what you do because some players or GMs will bow out. And while I've loved playing here for almost two years, I think I'll put that daily gaming hour into another project.
I've hired a map artist some time ago to draw maps of the Oakfall realm, and I'm completely in love with his style. With the free time I get by stopping PbP, I'll actually learn how to publish actual RPG material and start working on a fully fleshed out Oakfall setting. Yup.

Anyway, I'm extremely sorry to stop the game so abruptly, but it feels like the right thing to do. Don't feel bad about it, go check out the tavern and start playing another game.
For those who want to stay in touch, I'll read my PMs for a few more months and I think I've put a gmail address somewhere in the OOC thread.


Happy rollin',
Your (former) GM

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TL;DR: PbP takes too much of my time, I have to bow out. Sorry about that, I liked playing with you guys. Keep having fun!