On the Road (OOC)

Rezart: You can take the lead and show us what Rook finds and how he goes about looting and distributing the loot.

I'm a bit stuck, sorry. There seem to be a lot of things to balance, so each time I sit down to write a post I'm not sure what to do.

I can drop the whole plan to heal the bandit so they can be interrogated, if that seems too unwieldy. Maybe it's best to invite Asha over to search the bandit queen for clues.

Sorry. Feel free to talk them out here. They were not meant to be conundrums, just opportunities with cost.
It is not unwieldy, just needs Meht to decide what is important.
[*] There is the issue of how much of his --always limited-- time he is devoting to the taking care of the guards and how much he is spending on the bandits.
[*] Then there is the issue of how much of that 'bandit time' is spent on investigating vs medical. Does Meht take care of the injured bandit and possibly lose the clues on the 'queen' or focus on the queen's clues and possibly lose the bandit?

Afterwards: You have been warned that the others might need convincing to help a bandit, and the level of medical care they get will depend on that convincement. (I know this tidbit muddies the water now, but I don't want it to come as a surprise to the player later.)
Sure. She is with you anyway, but personally inviting her would mean the world to her.
Doing so does not mean you have to abandon the healing effort --bandit and guard-- decide how much your character is focusing on which, and also decide for yourself how much you want to put that onscreen. You can summarise either one of them while saying your character spends time doing it.

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If you still feel at all stuck we can talk it out here, in as much detail as you like. We can add or remove 'options' that don't feel right to you.

I reckon the bandit queen has a surprisingly arcane tattoo of a fantastic two-headed creature on her back, and a grimy map in her pocket, and that Asha finds both. Neither she nor Meht have ever seen anything like the tattoo; the map is perhaps a bit easier to make sense of.

Sure, Do you want to narrate Asha finding those (my, my, but she is thorough, no wonder she was embarrassed by the idea of your virtually strip-searching the queen:), you both being baffled by the tattoo, and the sense you make of the map and what Meht thinks it means?

FYI a couple of new players say they've tried to sign up today

When you say, tried? Do you mean to imply they had trouble or just that you don't know the outcome yet?

Watch the Welcome threads and feel free to chime in if they are your friends.

I believe people can apply to games before they are approved to 'speak' (via the confirmation email) so we should not worry about their being quiet after being accepted (unless they mention (somehow) that they are having problems).

Since this is a 'new users' game I still 'accept' everyone, even if I fear some of them are bots. :)

Okay, Gusset the Cleric is written up. As I understand it the party is travelling with a caravan, perhaps Gusset is walking the same direction?

I'll save a more florid description for his introduction in the story thread, but basically, I'm going for the Friar Tuck sort of thing, likes his drink, likes a good fight, takes happiness where he can. I don't know if you have any sort of pantheon of gods you want but Bast seems interesting- I came across the following describing Bast as both a protector, one who destroys 'failed' souls, and a party god, so there are some good options there for motivational stuff.

Bast, the feline-headed cat goddess, is a major figure in the ancient Egyptian pantheon of gods. Like many other deities in other religions, she was dichotomous in nature. In one role, Bast served as a protector for her followers; in another, she destroyed souls that failed any test required to pass through the underworld after death.

The goddess was allegedly the recipient of the Morning Ritual, a ceremony that required the burning of marijuana or hashish, along with other herbs and incense like myrrh. With the incense burning, her followers, mostly women, engaged in sex, the premise being that female climax produced good health [source: This Side of Sanity]. While this legend persists, it remains controversial and disputed, and may actually be based on more recent lore [source: Cass].

That said, Bast's followers were known to party. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote of pilgrims on their way to the annual celebration for the goddess held at her temple at Bubastis. Drunken followers assembled by the hundreds of thousands during the celebration, drinking wine and dancing [source: Seawright].

We don't have to put a lot of effort into it, but do you have ideas about the reason your Cleric joins the party? Do your current aims align or does one party have to change their plans? Why do they?
Nothing defined. That is up to the player. Bast sounds fine. You can fill out the details as you like.

Looks like a few have signed up, which is great!

I had someone ask me this morning whether there were more spots available, and wanted to check with you first, since I think we have maybe five players now and I'm not sure how many you're comfortable with. Should I send them along? If not, I should also close the Discord posts I put up. Let me know your thoughts!

12/99 so technically, yeah. :)

Taking on a lot of new players in one go can slow down the onboarding process, but I am happy to do it. Not everyone will stay, and, as you say, most of those 12 are not real (anymore), so this is a short-term problem.

If we get sufficient consistent numbers we may want to split the players into multiple, independent parties. If we do that, it is best done sooner than later.

Are these people specifically interested in this game, or in World of Dungeons? I can always run other games as well if there is demand.

I'm not sure what the party's current aims are, to be honest? I have the impression they signed up as guards for the money, but if it's more than that let me know. I think it's likely Gusset intended to join up with the caravan but overslept and it left town without him, so he's been hustling to catch up ever since.

Adventure? :)
I am sure the money was part of it, but they were not obviously struggling, or not more than most people. A desire to see more of the world probably played a role too? Mainly it was a way to get the game rolling.
We can do that. They left a day ago, so maybe make it something a little more important than 'overslept' that prevented you from joining earlier? Basically, you can tell us if you get into trouble for being late, or if it was sorta-arranged.

Is Gusset friends with anyone here? (PC or NPC.) Either way is fine.

I'm not sure, but I'd guess they were just interested in WoD. In any case I'll let them know they can join :)

Gusset would definitely like to get out and see the world. He's been stuck in the monastery of Bast for too long, and he's determined to see more of the world.
Yeah, I think Gusset is in trouble for being late with whoever was hiring the guards (caravan master?). He can end up getting the least-liked duties for ... well, until he redeems himself. Latrine digging, mucking out the animals, etc etc. As to why he was late, if you want a better reason he could have been sitting by someone's bedside until their fever finally broke and delayed for that reason, but perhaps he'll just say 'I slept in' as his only excuse anyway....
Not friends exactly, but Gusset did win a notable amount of coin off of either a player or NPC a few days ago in a gambling game. He lent some of the money back, the guy made up his losses and paid off the debt... He's not going to go out of his way for Gusset, but he'll happily share a drink with him.

We don't need a 'better' reason. I was just saying that it did not need to be something that makes your character look bad if you wanted something else. Maybe think on it and decide at the last minute --as you arrive-- once we know where everyone else is and what they are doing.
Cool.
Anyone think this was them?

Cool.
Anyone think this was them?[/quote]
This could be Rook, I could see him falling into some gambling now that he has a little jingle in his pocket.

Ha, nah I'm happy for him to look bad. A nice quick redemption arc where he proves himself a little as time goes on sounds fun.
Sounds good. :)
No problem, happy to wait, just throw me my cue when it's time to enter stage left. On the IRL side it looks like you have some other new players joining so I'll let you manage the pace.