OOC chat

Here's a thread to talk to each other out of characters. Be it about the game or not.

If any of you want to chat with me (about the game, the rules, some of my choices...), here's my GM Google Hangout address: i.ornux@gmail.com

I've updated most of the existing sections and pushed a lot of content within the last 24h. Still need to finish some of the factions' descriptions, then I'll start listing some of the known sources of tension in the realm.
I think you have enough to start brainstorming with each others about the party. Tell me if you need more of something :)

Ok one thing I want to know are we outside these factions or are we to pick one to be in. Also if we are picking factions do we all need to be in one or can we all be in different ones. Lastly I think we need to know how we are going to be one party, Diversity is great but we need to know how we know each other and kind of what roles in the party we are going to take so we can develop our characters accordingly.

Okay, it's Wednesday already and we haven't gone anywhere yet. You should start throwing you concept ideas in the CharGen thread and see how you can form a decent group with that. I'd like the game to get started next Monday, which means that your character should be done and approved by then. If anyone need my help to build their character, I'll provide all the help I can.

Also, I haven't heard from Squadfather44 since I accepted him in the game. I'll PM him and leave him an additional day or two to show up, then accept someone who's more actively trying to get in.

PS: I know I still have to publish some details about two factions. I'll do that ASAP.

Squadfather44 just told me about the post I missed. So he's around!
But he's been swamped at work lately, so we're trying to see if he can make it into the game in the upcoming weeks or if he'll have to pass for that time.

Hey, I've issued a lot of posts in the CharGen thread in be as transparent as possible on two things so that everyone has fun :
1) the mechanical impact of Gritty Realism on different classes
2) the focus and tone of the game (more options for you!)

Todo list if you need help to see what needs to be done:
- decide what character concept you want to play
- pick a class that lets you play that concept, fill the character sheet
- tell me what your magical items should be like
- answer the following questions to refine your character:
* Who are you?
* What are you known for, in the city? As level 9 heros, you are paragons in your field of expertise: if people don't know you, they know of you.
# How well are you known in your field?
# How well are you known from the public?
* Why do you three work together, what ties you to each other? You need a strong, durable connection
* Is your group already tied to one of the factions of the city?

I will try to post more Sunday or Monday due to fathers day. I work 14 hour Saturdays so you want be hearing from me tomorrow.

Thanks for the heads up!

Just out of curiosity, what's your rationale for using "Gritty Realism"?

The pace of the game.

D&D's whole balance revolves around the famous Adventuring Day, which consists of 6 to 8 encounters that slowly drain some of the characters' resources: spells, HP, limited features, consumables, time... They don't need to all be fights, but they are here to make sure that you players can't just blow everything up with your most powerful abilities, as you know that more will come.
In our political game, I know that I won't be able to smack that many meaningful encounters into a single day. Politics take time. The very nature of the campaign makes it slower. Hence some adjustments to maintain some kind of balance. It's not a real adventuring day because you won't be able to take a long rest every 6-8 encounters, but that's why I've insisted so much on getting ressourses back on short rests (= overnight). And why I'll keep a careful eye on it.

I'm sorry to tell you that Squadfather44 had to leave the game. Due to personal issues, he couldn't keep up with the pace of the game and was very sorry to slow it down before it even started.
So DarkReaver1998 should be joining us right now. Please help him fit in and tie his character with yours so that we can start the actual game this week.

Hello all! Thanks for letting me in, Ornux. I already read through a good majority of the posts, so I'll get a concept posted and see what you guys think.

Welcome, looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

Welcome and good to have you in another game with me.

I'm sorry to announce that I won't be able to start the game today. I had a lot to do at work to make up for others mistakes, and just couldn't finish the game opening I wanted.
So our game will start on Monday.

Please, make sure to answer the question about why you'd work together as it'll be important to me.
And enjoy your week-end. Happy 242th Independence Day to the Americans among you!

OK, mine does not rang top on the dwarf targeting insult chart.
But seriously though, those are straight insults. Calling them stone diggers can sound reasonable to someone who doesn't know much about them while it is very culturally disparaging.

Calling a dwarf a beard-goblin is on my D&D bucket list. It doesn't have to be this character, but some character of mine will do it at some point!

By the way, I'll be on vacation with the kids and everything for the next two weeks. I'll do my best to keep the game rolling, but might not be able to write the big verbose messages you are used to.
Anyway, feel free to post as much as you want, especially to RP with the other players.

Ok I'm back.
Last week left me with little time to post, but now let's see how this negotiation goes.

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...

---

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

---

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!