OOC

Time for some new players? :)

Probably, i think that there were some people in the recruiting chat that were interested in the campaign🤔😅

Alan is staying quiet for 2 reasons:
1. You don't usually speak during the briefing.
2. He believes that the tabaxi is better at talking and knows her craft, so he will only speak up if there's any uncertainty left after she finishes talking.

I sent Jack a PM checking in. I'll give it until Tuesday before I make any firm moves one way or the other. For now, we'll keep on with them trailing along and find a logical way to write them out if that's needed.

Can we put OOC stuff in OOC please?

Hey guys sorry Bout the radio silence just life got in the way still interested in this tho.

Heyo everyone! Just wanted to do a pulse check and such on where the game is for everyone currently. I apologize for my slowness in posting through the start of this.

How is the pacing for everyone? Want to make sure we're all on the same page as we push forward.

Milly, are you joining the rest of the group in pursuing the orcs or going off to do your own hunting of things? Seems like currently Alan, Atticus, Auras, and Radiza have all chatted with one another (or in the vicinity of one another at least) during the Council meetup.

I understand everyone has different amounts they can commit to a game (myself included) and different ideas of ideal playstyles. If anything isn't holding up to your expectations, it's 100% OK and no hard feelings. :) We're all here to have fun and I think it's a big part of my job as the DM/GM to make sure we're all having a good time as players (characters can have feelings hurt and be bored, but I prefer if the players are still enjoying the game at that time).

yeah, I will follow them, I already said it in previous post, when you asked, I do not like splitting the group. Thats why I wrote new friends, I meant to find the group to rp, so I can team up with the rest of the party. :P

Im here! just got a bit occupied with my research report.

Alright, I waited for a while to see what came up but it seems we definitely lost Jackwolfking.

The reason the DM is asking is because I approached him on what's happening with the game. At this point I am quite simply pulling the entire narrative from the player side. You know it, I know it, everyone knows it. Bubbles and Jackwolfking occasionally come up with a one-liner to nod along while up until this point Millyk was hellbent on engaging npc's to get some sort of private adventure off the ground which anyone can see is just counterproductive. In the meanwhile the period between posts is increasing because players can't be bothered to show up and reply.

So as for pacing? I want daily posts or as close to it as we can manage. Remember, that was in the actual recruitment thread (1 post per weekday). I want them from everyone, and I want posts that people put actual effort into. You don't need to go as all-in as me, but at the very least make your character interesting enough for the rest of us want to have a conversation with. If all you can manage is to show up once a week for a one-liner from your walking piece of cardboard lacking any form of personality, I don't have an incentive to engage your character. Nor does the DM. All we're waiting for at that point is you bothering to show up and stamp your reply so the game can move on. Doesn't make you happy, doesn't make us happy.

If you can't commit for whatever reason no one blames you for dropping out. Sometimes a game isn't what you wanted. But dragging the entire game down because you can't be bothered to put in the effort is something else. That's how games die and I told Dramasailor as much.

Alright, i got your point of view. Now let me tell you mine.

1. English is not my first language (its the 4-th-ish) so it's a bit hard for me to be as lirically adept as you are - if you get me. So I'm sorry that i am not able to make the dude to be morally precieved like you want to.

2. The whole one liner thing is called "not taking away the spotlight" idk about this place, but where I'm from when player is having a fun moment not interrupting is considered good manners. If you feel like it's not enough spotlight from others maybe approach the problem diffently for example by asking "is everything alright? Am i not hogging the spotlight?". In my experience that works the best. (Though if i saw it as a problem myself i would approach it. Currently i didn't see any hogging going on... So that there's no misunderstandings.)

3. My post frequency is mostly dependant on DM, i could do 'gazzilion things' all the time before the DM posts anything, but chose not to for a couple of reasons. Firstly, respecting the DM and, secondly, i don't want to be seen as "електровеник". I don't know how to translate it. I do check in every day, if theres no movement i don't post unless a situation like this one happens, was planning on approaching the DM about it this Sunday, i guess your bubble bursted a bit sooner.

4. About pacing, dependant on the DM, in my case at least. And here where's the benefit of short posts comes handy, i usually consider a single post out of combat equivalent of 1-10 min irl time for multiple reasons, makes it easier for the DM to manage and if needed interrupt. It also makes the roleplay feel more organic. There's Also the thing, if the DM wanted to increase the pacing then just saying "comon guys let's move it" usually does the trick, at least irl.

5. I agree when it comes to the lost comrade and mylk just waiting for her own personal adventure. Currently none of us have any initiative to approach the lil dudette. At least i don't see any.... It also comes to the game dragging, it is a serious problem that should be approached.

oh well take it or leave it Khulod.. I enjoyed my rp and the campaign... yes it took a little bit of time to set off and now we are stuck...but all these negative assumptions Khulod...I simply disagree and I do not want to reply, as politely as bubbles replied to you, so I will just leave it like this.

@millyk if i understood correctly, you plan to join. So we probably should start putting ideas on the table. How to get you into the party so noone goes too ooc.

At this point my character sees yours as a one he would rather avoid (he's true neutral and your girl kinda asked for pay for not doing anything...) Or too much trouble than worth. So, I'm sorry but i don't see Alan approaching you out of the blue. 😅

Do you have any ideas? Rather ones that don't involve mugging.

its easy, now I need help killing orcs, so I will approach you, by asking you to join, because orcs are messing up with my ''business'' :P


btw Khulod is pissed off, because another campaign and dm we are playing together is retired and not responding...so I think thats why he is like that here...

If that's the case then blowing off steam on other people is just low, i would suggest going on a jog or playing a shooter.

Alright, you are right, this one should work.

Well, it might surprise you, but I didn't learn English either until I was 12 years old. Along with French and German, which I did my utmost best to forget ever since. ^^

But what I'm asking for is to put in a bit more effort into your posts. Lyrically adept or no, you know your character. Give some insights on their thoughts, or a little quirk they do or simply their movements as things go on, how they are behaving in the moment. You did that wonderfully in your first posts with the crow and raw meat and all that. Just keep doing that. Everyone who has a conversation in real life looks at the receiving party and can see what they're saying is received positively or not simply by the feedback they get from body language. If you look at my posts, most of it is simply stuff about my character doing little things that tell a bit about what kind of person they are; paws on the table, rocking the chair, scratching the chin fur while listening, a mercenary, someone who loves meat, a certain lack of etiquette. All these things I offer up to paint a picture of the character, and all of those can be used by other players to act upon.

There's also feedback on how Radiza perceives things, telling a bit about her past experience which IC the other characters don't know about, but is for the benefit of the other players so they get a mental image of what kind of a person they're dealing with. Like her contemplating the ale choices, her campaign in Sembia, her thinking on where and when to set up her tent. I'm sure you can do the same by just imagining your character's place in the world and telling a bit more.
That's considerate of you, but we're in the introductory scene were no one is supposed to be in the spotlight except for all of us to introduce our character and decide what we're doing. Radiza is brusque and spirited so she will call out something how she thinks things will be and what she'll do in the way gruff warriors generally act. Don't mistake that for me as a player taking charge of the adventure. Any other character can call out something like 'Nah, hunting orcs is stupid, here's why' or 'how about we go deal with both the orcs and the bandits?' Or you can agree and then participate in the planning, giving your own input and spotlighting your character's view on the matter.
електровеник = Electric broom. Thanks google translate.
Do not worry. I do not see you as an electric broom. ^^
Well, I don't want to speak for our DM, but I think like me he's probably waiting for at least half the party to reply to his posts before moving on. And he's too sweet to call us out.
No offense is taken.
Not a very nice assumption Millyk. I can't help but notice your entire tantrum to go look for your own adventure seems to be sparked by Radiza's actions so by now I get the impression you don't like me. But no, I've had plenty of games fall apart and I don't let it spill over to other games. In that game I wasn't even playing a very serious character that I got attached to. So just no. The reason I'm calling you folk out directly is because I'm Dutch and when we have an issue with someone, we tell what issue we have with you to your face so it can be worked out. As shown above.

Alright, i will take that into consideration, will try to add more descriptive context.

Hey all, thanks for the open discussion on the topic so far. I want to be very clear that I do not want this to turn into an attack on any player for whatever reason. We all have different life situations coming into the situation and if we can all work together to reduce inflammatory rhetoric, I would personally appreciate that.

Next, I'd like to apologize for not doing more, earlier to drive the adventure forwards. Provided you want to stick around, I will be actively working towards doing better on that front, including more "alright let's wrap it up" type direction. I tend to like players to decide when they are done with a scene because AS a player it annoys me when I was waiting for a particular interchange to end so I could jump in with something only to have a DM do mystical fingerwaving and then my chance at engagement went away. The unfortunate side effect there is that it can make some scenes (like talking with townsfolk about the orcs) last much longer than some others in the game may like.

In regards to the pacing and post frequency, I would like to return to a more robust cadence (or really get to it to being with). There are times that a daily post pace will 100% result in one-liner or two-liner posts, especially as Bubbles mentioned, players are wanting to not hog the spotlight. There was significant engagement by Radiza with the townsfolk and I can certainly see valuable RP opportunities for another player to sit back and kind of allow the dialogue to continue without immediately jumping on top of it, especially if they are keen on gleaning information on the side. In those cases, the short posts of "Alan sips his beer and watches with interest as the tabaxi and the dwarf woman argue over the payment for bandits" can go a long way towards showing you're still at the "table" and engaged instead of leaning back checking football scores on your phone (to lean heavily on IRL type examples).

@millyk - where my second asking came from was that there were a few times the scene-setting had it so the NPCs had left or broken off into private areas and was hoping that Milaki would use that "planning time" when the group was largely together to meet up with them and kind of integrate with the team. However, we're past that and we'll just have to find a different way for her to see someone in the morning and jump in with them, but definitely she seems a bit off from their demeanor so she'd have to make the first move (especially as I see it with a few trained fighters, they would need to be convinced of her usefulness to a planned operation). At least that's how I see it from the outside looking in.

@jackwolfking messaged me yesterday letting me know he'd be out until likely Thursday. I can understand the need to have an off day here or there, but it is hard to progress with the story along with the group if it is happening consistently. I appreciate you still having a heavy interest, but participation is definitely something that is required.

---

The plan moving forward from here as far as I'm concerned:

I will give everyone until February 18th at 20:00 EST to reply in here with their thoughts on ability/willingness to do the following:

1. Maintain a close to daily weekday posting rate. The occasional missed day is understood and understanding that in some cases it may be waiting on me to post up so you can react to the world. But weeks of no posts isn't maintainable.

2. Actively engage with one another across the party as a group working together. Likely will mean compromise on both sides. "Stick in the mud" character traits don't make for fun gameplay, especially in a play-by-post environment where there isn't any body language or visual signs of engagement that can still make the playing experience fun for everyone at the table.

Anyone/everyone that replies with an affirmation that they are in for the above two points, we will continue on with the orc hunt at that point (I'll start writing up the next post in that vein at that time).

Anyone that hasn't responded at all I will drop from the game and make a decision on what, if any, replacements we will have at that time. Any new characters will be roped in organically so we can start the orc hunt (thankfully chances abound for prisoners there).

Anyone that feels they aren't willing or able to work on those two ends, there are zero hard feelings at all if you'd like to step away from the game. As I've said in the past, this is meant to be something that is fun for all participants (players and GM) and if this isn't your idea of fun, perfectly ok!

btw I like Dutch people. ik spreak NL, Ik was 5 jaren in Belgium ...and I dont dislike you Khulod...its just the attitude and how we need to be as you think and you like... I am a direct person too... just chill out, that's it.

Anyhow, @Dramasailor I'm on board captain!

Though i wouldn't want to stretch nr. 2, cuz if a player wants to play a 'stick in the mud' they should do it in a way that it doesn't drag down the others.(For example i am playing a hot-headed paladin in another campaign, he's a self proclaimed founding priest reincarnated. Roleplay wise he throws tantrums and Is a snob, but he doesn't put others in danger with it and i keep the lil episodes short ad rare enough so that it doesn't get on other players nerves. Once every 30-60 pages, if others don't provoke him.)