OOC Chat

For out of character discussions.

Hey guys, apologies, but I'm going to have to bow out of this game. Hopefully this gives you enough time to find someone else. Scheduling is tighter than I thought and don't have time at the moment to world build, learn the rules, and do the game justice, esp with you all killing it so far! Swash those buckles, ahoy hoy mateys!

Sorry for not posting recently! I recently lost my job and the job hunt and various interviews (and preparing for them) has totally disrupted my schedule. I expect things will get back to normal in a few weeks, but given the chaos in my life at the moment, I think it best if I drop out of the campaign. My apologies, and I hope I can game with you again in the future!

No worries. Good luck on your job search!

Stunts are finalized and Bailin is ready to go!

I'll wait a couple of more days to see if we pick up a new player. Then I will launch session 1. Sound good?

Sounds great!

Sounds good.

We might have a couple more players joining us, but let's get started and bring them into the action soon after their characters are done.

Hi all!

Thanks to @Redcap for letting me join. Sorry for being late. I guess I probably have to workout/justify the magic I was thinking about for my character. I very much like the way the Session 0 chat was going.

Here's a rough idea of the character I was thinking of. I was originally thinking that she might be a storm/air mage, but I'm happy to go with something else rather than tread on someone's existing character's turf.

Is this visible? Seraphine, the renegade mage.

Air mage is fine, that player dropped for irl reasons.

It looks good, could you add the purpose for your final aspect?

Sounds good. My character is lacking a relationship aspect since that player dropped, but I guess we can leave it blank for the time being.

I'd be happy for my character to have a connection with one of the new PCs though!

For magic, look over the high fantasy magic system from Fate Core.
High Fantasy Magic

You generally roll the most appropriate skill. So shooting to blast someone with lightening, crafts to construct a barrier, rapport to charm someone, etc. If nothing seems appropriate, there is a default skill that gets used instead (typically Lore for a wizard-like character).

Great, If I'm not eating another player's lunch, I'll go with the idea of air/storm magic.
I thought it might be fun to go with a quirky aspect here. I'm always happy to negotiate on aspects or anything else about the character

The basic idea is that there's something about her appearance that just seems to work. Despite her youth, the eyepatch and scar give her a certain flair and gravitas. She looks like she's more experienced than she really is and can blend in with rogues, sailors and mercenaries.

As well as a bold fashion statement, the eyepatch is also a reminder of the painful mutilation inflicted on her by her keepers, where her left eye was replaced by the Eye of the Zephyr, an artifact with magical properties (see stunt All-seeing eye)

Invoke when: when she carries off her appearance with dash and flair

Compel when: when her roguish appearance might inspire suspicion or hostility, or make her memorable when she's trying to blend in.

I liked the eyepatch aspect.

I meant "Raised for a single purpose"

What is the single purpose?

Happy to have a relationship with Elwood.

Possibilities:
- Elwood help her during her immediately after her escape from her cult (that's in the character background now),
- there's a surrogate father-daughter thing going on with them
- Maybe she's become an apprentice of Elwood's
- something else?

Oops sorry I got the order mixed up when answering.

Actually I was changing my mind on that aspect. I was thing it might be a good idea to have an aspect that represented the mysteriousness of her past but also made a reference to the Eye of the Ocean (the magical artifact that replaced her eye).

How about Hidden depths as an aspect?

In many ways Seraphine is a ingenue in the real world. She had isolated and controlled upbringing, with little contact with the outside world. However, she was given very specific training in magic and the most arcane of lore. Also the mysterious Eye of the Ocean gives her access to strange knowlege.

Invoke when: she might know something or have a weird skill from her strange upbringing; ehe Eye of the Ocean might be useful to her.

Compel when: her lack of experience or limited upbringing might be a problem; the magical eye might cause an Inconvenience or problem.

Hi folks! Glad to be here! I'm gonna work on rolling up a character tonight after work if I can! I'll get one up as soon as possible.

The thought that jumps out to me is that Elwood would be fascinated by Seraphine's abilities—since they're meant to be rare in this setting and he's the curious intellectual type. That could probably work as an aspect on his end.

Then on her end, the apprentice angle could work. It could be like a mutual interest in each other's skills. And it doesn't have to be a carpentry apprenticeship either. I gave Elwood a high ranks in Sail and Academics as well, so maybe she's looking to learn about navigation, or she just wants a general education since she likely wouldn't have had one in the cult (now I'm wondering if she's even literate—it all depends on how the cult raised her).

There's no set turn order for combat. First-come first-serve initiative.

For the Aspect on Seraphine's side, what do you think of "I'm learning a lot from Elwood" to represent Elwood tutoring her.

@Redcap, are you waiting on anything in particular for Seraphine?

No Seraphine looks good. Let's say she starts in the brig on the patrol ship. Why is she there?

Should I explain that here or narrate in Session 1?

Narrate in session 1 sounds good.

Sorry to be a pain. It's been a while since I played on GP. I can't seem to post as Seraphine (rather than as 'dunderklumpen'). Does that mean that Seraphine has not approved for the game or have I just completely forgotten how to post as a character?

Thanks @Redcap!

Yes, I just approved her.

That sounds great!

Current scene aspects: element of surprise

Was my post explaining Seraphine's presence on the ship enough for you @Redcap? I wanted to keep the length about the same as the other posts, but I could go into more detail.

I thought this might be a good moment to ask: is there any particular style or approach you like for player posts?

For example: when a roll is made, do you prefer to see it resolved before the next player post or should we all post actions before rolls are resolved?

How do you make a dice roll?

Down at the bottom on "Quick Reply" or "Advanced" is an Option to add a new roll. The options are: Basic, Star Wars FFG, Fate, Feng Shui

Thanks for the help!

I like your first post, it was perfect. I'll give you 1 fate point for the self-compel of chosen one on the run. You choose to be hogtied with a guard instead of just locked up in the brig.

Either way of rolling is fine.

I'm really enjoying everyone's characters but I can't see Bailin Rohmner.

@Squadfather44, it's cool if you don't want to make your character public, but I suspect it's because you just haven't added him to the library.

If you want to make your characters visible to other players you do that from the "All characters" section and click on the 2nd last icon "Add to Library" so that it's red (enabled).

I'm trying to think of ways to speed up Fate for PbP games a little bit.

How do you guys feel about rolling the defend actions for the NPCs?
Then you can decide if you want to spend a Fate point right away instead of waiting for me to respond.
I can post char outlines for the NPCs at the start of any contest/conflict so you know what to roll.

@Dunko

Make an overcome with Rapport against a +4 to convince the jailor to free you.

Whoops I thought it would roll as fate dice automatically

I got it. My bad! Silly me missed the dropdown.

I'm totally fine with that. Another thing you could do is to make more use of passive defence (ie no defend rolls for NPC). That would also help speed things up.

A couple of things I've tried in different Pbp Fate games is to do the following:
- if a player attacks, then the player rolls attack against a passive defence
- if a player defends then the player rolls defend against a passive attack value.

With fate, there's always going to be discussion and negotiation for rolls given that the GM can spend fate points on a roll. So, maybe a separate thread for roll resolution (the discussion).

For Pbp, I have tried moving fate to be more "Apocalypse World (Pbta) like" where the dice rolls are always from the players reacting to GM actions. It kind of works for reducing dice rolls, but may not be your cup of tea @Redcap.

Love it. This is what I do at table too, :P I love one roll to rule them all style.

Could we also set the PC sheets to public so we can see each others Aspects for compels? What do you all think of that?

I love it. I am OK with foregoing rolls and running more like PBTA. I like your suggestions all around.

I will create a new thread for current scene information so you don't always have to ask me what the target is.

Everyone still here? Are you waiting on me for something before posting?

Maybe I missed this, are we narrating our failures or are you?

Feel free to narrate your failures, but if you don't I am happy to.

You make rolls as usual. I dont roll anymore. Instead I set static targets. That way you can decide whether or not to invoke right away instead of waiting for my result.

Nice @Dunko. Nothing like spending a fate point to re-roll and getting a result +4 better.

I had this feeling it was going to be worse! But it was just the first roll jitters :P

Bailin gains a boost from succeeding with style on his defense.

You get a free invoke on your next action.

The enemy concedes in the conflict. What were you hoping to get from the attack?

Is anyone on the crew going to respond to Marcos or Seraphine?

I wasn't going to at first, but I figured someone ought to.

@squadfather roll rapport against a +3 to get the crew to back down.

I forgot to mention that both Bailin and Seraphine got a FP for the compels.

Does anyone have any plans for what they want to do next?

Or should I move us straight on to the "hostage exchange scene?"

Me and Marcos are just watching to see what happens, so I'm good moving at any point.

I’m also good to move on to something else.

I'm also good to move on, but I am going to ramble in Session 1 as long as everyone lets me.

I'm happy to ramble as well :) We can move on at any time though.

As for the ransom, let's first agree on the particulars of the exchange. Here's what I'm thinking: we'll return the crew but keep the ship. We'll give them a location at sea to meet us—close enough to land that there are landmarks nearby, but far enough away that they can't sneak up on us. We'll be there in the Mare (or I guess whichever ship is faster). If they send a ship close to us, like within artillery range, we run and the deal's off. They have to send one man in a rowboat to bring us our ransom and pick up the captives, ferrying them back to the main empire ship a few at a time. So the questions for me are where is a good place to meet and what is a good price? Both answers require some setting knowledge.

As experienced pirates you would know of a good meeting place. 1,000 imperial shillings would be a reasonable asking price.

We are playing story game rules, so feel free to add in details as you need them.

If you add something unusual that gives you a significant advantage I may ask for a fate point to make it true.

What skill would be needed to ensure a proper ransom note is written?

It doesn't need a skill roll. We can skip the note if no one wants to write it.

Do you take the Mare and the full crew to the meetup location?

With no roll needed, I say we head to the meeting spot.

At the moment the crew is split up. So, do we want to say that we left the Trenton in a friendly port and just jump to the exchange? I can't think of a reason to stay split up—unless we want a team to guard the Trenton.

I will get a post up shortly, sorry for the delay.

Seraphine's create advantage succeeded.

Elwood can make a sailing overcome (target 2) to establish favorable conditions.

Sorry, I'm a little slow posting during the holidays. I will get something out soon and pick things up again once the holidays are over.

I'm more or less in the same boat.

My holidays will vary between insanely busy, and being at a complete loose end.

Happy to stay chill over the holiday break.

I'm very sorry everyone. I don't think I have the bandwidth anymore to keep running the game.

You guys made amazing characters and it was fun playing with you for the brief campaign.

Thanks for the effort and time Redcap--I know I was not the most contribution heavy fella for this one, but I was really enjoying everyone's posts and characters and enjoyed the posts I did interact with!

No worries, you ran a great game.

I appreciate the effort @Redcap. Sad to see this game end.

Sorry to hear that, Recap. I had fun with this one. Hopefully we'll play together again sometime.

No worries, I've been through that myself. Thank you for the game.