The Menu Screen [OOC]

This is a place to talk about anything out of character.

This is actually incorrect. Book says it's "Level + [Might X 5]" So its 5+(6x5) instead of (5x5)+6.

Also, I'm surprised that there are no gunblades in the weapon list.

Oh, yeah, that’s a mistype. Thanks for pointing that out.

As for gun blades, this is just the base weapon list. I’ll add other more fancy weapons once we’re settled on the magic/tech balance.

Umm, are we allowed to discuss ideas in The World Map or it should be one post from each player and we roll with what we'll get? Because I'd appreciate feedback on my ideas there.

Discussion is fine! I'm not strict on anything like that, after all communication is the key to a good group dynamic!

In that case, I'm awaiting communique about this part:
Since it's clearly not the most optimistic detail ever.

I think that's OK, its a bit dark, but not too dark, and it's your character's backstory ( and thus, your decision) right?

I don't think we need to pressure people to do things like that, if Nezz wants to respond I'm sure he will. With that said though, I have set up a discord here.

Sounds good!

Just a quick update, I've reached out to a few people regarding a replacement player but have yet to receive a confirmation. In the meantime feel free to fill the space with some character posts in our downtime!

Hi everyone! I'm the replacement player! :D Happy to be here, thanks for the invitation GM. I'll get straight to submitting a PC. Gonna speed read to see what the rest of you have picked, not intending to overlap.

Cool, welcome aboard. Seems really hard to overlap in this game.

Is there a character sheet somewhere I can use?

There should be one in the custom game sheet list.

I notice that Velisse doesn't have an origin set @BedzoneII, but I'll let you get to that when you want to. Otherwise, I'll try and get into the headspace for a continuation / her introduction but I'm playing L5R irl today so I may not get the chance. :)

Will do! Yeah I was browsing here to see if we've established any lore or back history, to see if I ought to fit an origin in. I'll complete it today.

We could always use more lore. Like, do unicorns or dragons exist in this world?

No, but there could be unidragons or dracocorns!

Happy to use the previous player's historical retelling of the Kirin-Dunova conflict. Velisse D'Artois was a former knight of the Kirin empire, now that the empire is gone, she finds herself at a loss regarding the direction her life ought to take, as she is no longer in service to the crown (a masterless ronin so to speak).

Hmm, I figure the most expedient way to insert Velisse in would be that the crew find her at or near the crater. Or if there's supposed to be an upcoming encounter near there, the crew could find her trying to hold off some enemies. Just a suggestion.

There will be an upcoming encounter there soon. It would've involved the players heading down into the crater proper, but I can shuffle things around a bit without affecting the plot. I should have our continuation up soon.

Just checking in, are we all good over here? We're past the half way point in this combat!

Oof so sorry if I held us up a bit, I could've sworn I posted!

should we try to find a place to rest?

I've finally gotten around to uploading the map. I think I've got everyone's territories on there, but I'll make some touch ups as I go so I'll find up soon. Hopefully by the end of next week I'll have numbered / labelled everything! (PS. I hope everyone can see the numbers on there?)

Look great! Did you make that?

Yeah.

Sorry if I missed it, but how big is this crater we are in? And is everything in it ruins, or did we see anything that looked lived in? Or any signs of life besides this merchant?

Maybe I missed explaining it properly, so no problem! So the crater itself is big, think of it around the size of a small town. There are some signs of life (mainly monsters) but no fully intact buildings. You have seen repairs made from modern tech similar to the metals used in the Elonian knights, mainly around the central building. Hope this clarifies things!

It does thanks! For some reason I got it in my head that this merchants shop was in the crater. My fault, you explained it well

On the note of how clocks work in a dungeon crawl, got it!

Sounds good! Do we want me to put up the clocks now or have some time to prep/discuss?

I never plan ahead! Although I guess my character would 🤔

Okay, I've added the clocks. have at it!

I was thinking of tacking Treasure and Exploration and Environmental Hazards. Does it matter what order I do them in?

That's assuming there's no purple magic laser machine to disable yet

Yeah, there's no specific order. It's entirely up to you all how you want to do things.

Everyone still around?

yup, just waiting to see if we are resting first, or going in full steam ahead. I'm fine pressing on, although Dazed and Shaken it's clearly a bad idea :)

To be fair, if it's the status conditions that are a concern you do have IP to use remedies. :p

hey man, stop trying to trick me into learning the rules! haha

Ok, so I'll use 4 IP to make myself a couple tonics to remove my negative statuses, then start dungeoning the dungeon.

And I'll use 2 for a tonic to remove mine, not enough damage yet to make a Remedy worth it.

Everyone okay? I may move us on by the end of Easter if I don’t hear anything!

Yep going good. Thought we were waiting for resolution of rolls.

We still have two moves up for grabs, I figured I'd resolve them all at once.

Yeah, I figured everyone would take two, but if someone wants a third, go for it.

I'll take one more then since I only did one.

If no one wants to grab the last slot I'll move us along tomorrow!

Just to discuss accessories. I think one of the strong melee people should get the gloves to prevent weakness, either Velisse or Ail. Whoever doesn't get that should get the ring. Pinion or I could get the boots since I think we are both high Dex characters. Thoughts?

That's what I was thinking as well!

Works for me. We can roll for the boots, ornyou cam take them, and I'll get something next time.

I like the idea of rolling for loot, just like in an MMO lol. Let's say d100 and highest roll wins? :D Edit: Well shit lol my luck is just as bad as it is in MMO loot rolls it seems haha.

Furmyr, if it's okay to leave it to the dice to decide, I'm rolling off for it - 1 for gloves and 2 for ring. Edit: Velisse takes the gloves :)

Hahaha, oh man. Well, I guess I technically have to roll so. . . .

So the loot's been divvied out, anything else I can help with?

I do have one quick question, I might be overthinking it, but to equip the boots do I just wear them as boots or do they have to go in my accessory slot? The rules say we only really have the four spots: armor, each han,d and accessory.

Other than that I'm ready to move on. Are we still in the dungeon?

Yeah, the boots would have to go in the accessory slot. As for where we are, we've just finished the dungeon but we're in a room with 2 spiders and a big old door.

Ok. you guys handle the spider, I'll take a look at the door, lol

sorry, i forgot, do you want us all to take our turns and then you'll sort it out?

Yeah, it makes things faster. I don't mind doing initiative but it could hold things up if we do.

How're we doing, everyone okay?

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!

How're we doing, any takers for the last three clock sections?

Not sure what to do. Pinion only has bad theories, lol

I mean… never say no to bad theories :p

We're very close to finishing up, anyone want to poke us over the line?

I guess I can do it and use another action?

We're not in combat time now, so actions are fair game I think.

Okay, I decided to conclude us since I had the perfect opportunity. Thanks so much for playing!!

As I mentioned before, feedback would be appreciated. I mentioned two stars and a wish, but whatever format you'd prefer works just as well. I'd much rather know what I can improve on than what I did well, honestly, but I'll take what I can get. :)

Thanks for running it! What a way to end haha. I think you did a great job with NPCs and making the game feel like an anime/video game. I don't have many ideas for improvements since its a new game system for me. Maybe the way goals were set up with needing a certain amount of successes so it felt like clocks in other games? It was good to have a way to track progress and feels like a video game, but it slowed things down to progress in PbP.

Yeah without knowing the system a little bit better, I'm at a loss to see how you could improve, or what you could have done better. You did everything very well. Good NPCs, excellent descriptions of the scenes and settings making it clear what's around it what available options are.

Thanks ticketbror for running this game, and for allowing me to jump in later than everyone. I missed the initial worldbuilding part, so I was a little concerned I might have been less able to immerse my character, but that turned out okay. The rules simulate a video game well, and your creativity very much enhanced the look and feel of it. I could definitely get the video game sense of moving from one location to another, encountering enemies, solving puzzles, meeting an end-stage boss. Loved the maps, they were insane!

I wish I knew better how to integrate my character more, or for that matter, the rest of the party. It wasn't as easy to find connections between party members, or with the scenario itself. But that's probably because we only played chapter 1; a longer game would provide more opportunities for development. And also because that's how a video game would be like anyway.

Again, thank you for running this!

Will this game be retired?

Yeah, I was just leaving some space in case Furmyr wanted to give feedback.

Sorry. It ended while I was recovering from surgery. Thanks for running. It was fun, I would love to try the system once more. Possibly another character. Would love to see how characters evolve over time and if the system holds up as the levels increase.

Yeah, I appreciate that IRL took your time at the end, and I'm sorry you didn't have as much of a chance to be involved with the conclusion. I would like to run more on the system and see how advancement holds up. Hopefully I'll get the chance to run some more in the future!