RAAMtentacles says:
I would have liked to have known more about the rituals taking place, but I suppose that I didn't really ask too much either.
So the festivals were a little add-on to make the city feel more alive. I read a bit about it and found they have a temple to the Frostmaiden in Luskan, so I thought it could be used for a little foreshadowing. It's related to the overall arc, but it's not a major point. So in OOC, they are called
wet parades ; a ritual were the participants run around the city with their clothes full of ice to climb six sacred pillars (the Kisses of Auril). Completing the ritual is believed to assuage Auril's wrath, bringing an easier winter, which, is rumored to be harsher and earlier this year.
RAAMtentacles says:
I simultaneously enjoy the loose magic system and find myself a little confused on just what I can do with it. I'm hoping that clarifies as we proceed.
testlum says:
I'm also puzzled by why Magic needs to have its own unique subsystem. I think it'd be nice if players can choose which skill to roll for their abilities.
Magic is free-form, but because it is a big part of D&D classes, I thought we would start by grounding it to something. There is actually nothing stopping a druid from casting eldrich blast in this game, but I thought starting with a limited amount of spells would make it easier.
Players can choose the skill to roll for their abilities; however, this has to be defined in the ability. For example, Force of Nature will only work with intimidation and strength, because that's the bonus it gives you. Magic is basically an ability, but I split it up to highlight it to make it clear every "class" can be a spell caster. I'm not entirely sure which sub-system you mean. The only subrule I can remember is that magic allows for multiple targets with the other skills (in principle) don't. But maybe you mean something else didn't notice?
testlum says:
I chose this because I'm not sure how the strange deliveries will come into play.
Yeah, the deliveries are basically an encounter of the week plot hook to get you north to the real adventure. As written, they are meaningless, but I'm using some of them as important events that you may, or may not come to realize in character. For example, Maccath's delivery is planned to have major long term plot consequences. You won't see it immediately (in PbP it might take months!), but it is there, working in the background.
testlum says:
Not enough exploration. I think this is because we're still in the city, so it's not a big deal.
Yeah exploration is a tricky one with many different interpretations. I'll try to keep this one in mind. Once you make it to Icewind dale, the adventure will briefly turn into a sandbox, so that might help :D
testlum says:
It's simple but doesn't work for some things. It's quite easy to understand which is nice. However, I'm not sold on the success range mechanic vs. the standard PbtA 2d6. What does it do better?
That is a good question. Me and Bowl were playing around with making a PbP system before we found PbA (the truth is I was too lazy to read D&D rulebook again). So we kept playing with it, mostly because of the character flexibility the system "promises" (we did have someone playing as an sentient artifact...)
I think the rolling and probabilities are very comparable but there are minor differences at the leveling system, which are probably just personal taste ( also, success range feels much more exotic 🤣 as is not roll under or above 🤯). With this leveling up system, I don't need to spell out the max level is 6, because you won't be rolling a double 7, or the max range is 5-12, because you can't roll more than two 6s. I think PbA is not self bound like that. Ideally, this means more freedom because I don't need to define 5 or 6 abilities to limit the character progression, so no need to define classes or abilities before hand (originally, there weren't even skills lists!). On the other hand, its a "level by using system", so you can't really customize or plan your character ahead. Overall, this one is probably more on the free-form side of the scale than PbA (it was intended to be a one page system!) but they are very similar.
testlum says:
My last point is fairly pedantic. The terms "ability" and "skill" aren't clearly differentiated. Maybe "ability" could be renamed to "power" or "knack"?
It is a good point. Naming things is like the hardest part of actually 😅
testlum says:
I noticed moments where I had no idea what the others were talking about, which threw me off a bit.
Ahah yes, I noticed there some confusing moments that, I hope, were due to the private notes. I'll drop them and, since colors look a bit weird (on my screen at least), I'll just fall back to the regular notes.
