The Menu Screen [OOC]

Outta game? Got my taxes done on time, so pretty good.
In game? Glad I'm not poisoned

Doing well! How are you enjoying running the system so far?

There's one spider left, and one golem correct?

I'm liking it! It's simple and easy to understand while having a lot of customisability. How is it for the player side of things?
Yep, one spider and one golem.

I'm ambivalent lol. I like the simplicity of the system and mixing character classes. I'm not really a fan of all my abilities tied to resources. It's probably affecting me more but many of my abilities are hit or miss. I don't have much to do if I don't spend any resources other than basic attack. So eh, mixed lol.

I am liking the system, but my abilities too are dependent on other information that takes time to come by in a PbP. I can guard other PCs, but I have trouble keeping track of who is in danger of going down so the more efficient tactic is to just smash. Around the table I could just ask and get the information in seconds and make a decision.

I can see why that might pose an issue. To be fair, a solution I could think of there would be to have public character sheets which would let you check in on HP and not need to wait for things.

Public sheets always help. I do make in a point to remember what the other players have, player knowledge-wise.

System-wise I do get the sense the game is about spending those resources to achieve certain effects (and then recovering them thereafter), and for that again it simulates JRPGs pretty well, more specifically old-school JRPGs. I admit that feels fine when I remember playing those turn-based video games; translated to PbP on one hand it makes total sense, on the other hand it can feel quite mechanical.

I think the spending thing could be ok if the rewards were consistent. For example my two abilities allow me know an enemy trait or to make guesses about enemy weaknesses. The problem is the trait name doesn't really tell me exactly what it does so the info could be useless, and if I guess the wrong weaknesses, then I don't gain any benefit. So it is very much like gambling where me spending points doesn't often lead to me getting anything worthwhile in return.

I think, when it's not bosses, enemy traits don't have a huge gameplay effect. They just give you an idea of what the thing is and what it can do. It's more worth knowing weaknesses. Bosses, on the other hand, can invoke traits like you can bonds and backgrounds so knowing what they are gives you the opportunity to avoid putting them in a position to use them.

That might help narrow the focus of your spending, but it doesn't really avoid the gambling issue. Of course, when you consider it's 2IP to drop an elemental shard (consistent 10 damage jumping to 20 on a weakness) narrowing down the potential weaknesses and then lobbing a shard at one of the remaining ones does up your chances of doing more damage than a standard attack.

In that regard, I think it does replicate the tactics you can use in JRPGs (reminding me a lot of Persona) but it is a jump from the trends of a lot of TTRPGs.

@Nezzeraj, a soft reminder that it's your turn. Otherwise, I'll move on to the next turn on Thursday. :)

Thanks for the heads up, I completely missed that!

Hey all, I'm back from no internet now. Is there anything I can help with to move us on? (And is there still interest in the game?)

Still interested. Just waiting for you to return. Although I don't know how to get out of the room we are in.

Welcome back! Already posted for Velisse who's waiting on what I assumed to be some insight from the notes to crazybirdman and nezzeraj, maybe.
Because if not, then we can try something else to solve it.

The game is interesting but I don't think the mechanics are right for me. I'll stick around until this adventure ends though. Jez put her hand on the wall spot so I'm waiting to see if that did anything.

On that note, I'm also happy to play through this adventure as part of my commitment to this game system that I had the opportunity to try, thanks Ticketbror! After which I'd probably itch to play some other games, if that's okay.

Ah, yeah, I forgot we were waiting on that sorry. I've put up the response now!

Yeah, that's fine @Nezzeraj and @BedzoneII. It was great having an opportunity to play with both of you. :)

I'll ask for some feedback on my GMing, since I'm relatively new to being a GM on PBP, but if you want to hold off to the confrontation with Desdemona and the end of the adventure before giving it I'd understand.

Sure, no problem!

No judgement! We're all lifelong fans and players of RPGs. Yes let's play on!