Journey to Lands Far Far Away (OOC)

Out of character chatter about Journey to Lands Far Far Away can go here to avoid cluttering up the Roleplay thread.This is for longer questions and answers related to that Roleplay, general rules questions not answered in the Help! thread can go in General.

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Uh oh... I hope I get to meet Humphrey! He sounds like something of a rascal!

nevermore

Just some fluff 😉

.... Quoth the raven? I like dreams. They're cool to explore in stories!

The timing on Ezme's waking and arrival in the dining area is flexible. I'll leave it to you all if the boys are still down there when she arrives, or if they would have hurriedly run off to help their friend without telling her. (Woe is me!)

Oh hey, @vagueGM -- could you start a thread for Lille & Ezme's first encounter? We've just about finished writing it....

Sorry if this sounds blunt. If you have already written it elsewhere then it is not an RPG, we are not here to see your short-story. If it is part of the game it needs to be done in the game. Maybe you can keep it in the backs of your minds as we play, and draw inspiration from it as it becomes relevant? Don't hold too tight to what you have written outside the game if it does not fit what is happening, though.

If you want to go out in the mist-free daylight, with your bottle of blood (how are you stopping it for clotting or going dry?), looking for Wankle [ref], and meet Lille and briefly flashback to a previous meeting, you can do that in the current thread.

Else we can expedite leaving Olmsford and you can find that Lille has followed the party as we discussed. (Wankle may have followed too?)

If you want to spend time here, trying work out what to do with Wankle, we can extend the rest of the party's stay (so far you have not mentioned Wankle to them, so asking them to stay will need some other reason (which should not be hard)). That does complicate the meeting up with Lille, and we may have to find a different way to introduce them.

Oh, I'm sorry. I'd thought you'd suggested a new thread, but we started it in google docs because she wanted to be able to go back and edit before sharing, this being her first intro and all....

I'll keep your suggestions in mind. If @QuietPanther is okay with this idea, would you be comfortable with us sharing a google doc link so that anyone who is interested can read it? I assure you, there's nothing in there that should contradict anything that has been said or done... unless you are super opposed to the idea of Ezme crafting a ceremonial drum over the course of two weeks while she was in the woods outside Olmsford.

As for what we do next, I think I would rather stick with the plan and expedite leaving. Ezme's plan was to cork the bottle and leave it outside for Wankle next evening.

You are, of course, more than welcome to share it. But I can't promise it will get read (I can almost sorta promise the opposite); if it does not happen in the game, best to assume it is unknown. Show us what is important as we play, if it is from your past, show us that in a flashback, or have you character tell the other characters so they can know.

All we need as an into for a new character is a paragraph or two about who they are —or were before picking up the mantle of adventuring. The PCs are Fresh Faced Adventurers, and —while, no doubt, important to them— their past is uneventful and ordinary compared to the new life they have embarked upon and we only need to know the bits of that past that influence the current events.

The rest of the character detail can be discovered —by everyone— as we see the character in action.
It is not about contradicting things, as such, these pages did not happen in the game, there is (presumably) nothing in there that connects it to the other players' characters so expecting the other players to read three pages of backstory is unfair. As a general rule, most GMs will reject such a document, and I advise against them, even for personal use, as they can hamstring the character with details that can be hard to adjust to fit the events going forward.

This is an RPG, not 'creative writing' (yes, I know the irony of me, who teaches a high-school creative writing extra-mural using PbP RPGs, saying that:), the main focus is on playing the game with others, not on 'telling a good story'. Most of the 'story' that comes out of RPGs is only exciting to those who lived it, which is where the meme of 'trying to tell others about your game' 'being boring' comes from, it is a massive amount of 'had to be there'.
Presumably you had other gear at other times, but, since it is not on your sheet, we can assume it was a thing you used for that ceremony and that is no longer has sufficient relevance to be listed on your starting sheet.

If you take the time in the game to make something, then we add it to your sheet, but, again, this did not happen in the game, and the game rules say you start with what you start with, so if we don't see it in the game it 'did not happen' in any meaningful way.
Cool.
That will make an impression. :)

I get what you're saying. It's very easy to fall into the trap of sharing information or lore and forgetting how to make it feel personal and relevant to readers/listeners.

If this is your philosophy for your game, I'm down with that. Different GMs have different preferences. I was recently in a couple live D&D games wherein many of the players got very excited about doing creative writing to compliment the game. People wrote journal entries and extensive backstory pieces. (We're talking pages and pages of writing, and this wasn't even pbp!) It turned into a beautiful means of healing & self-expression for many of us. I loved it so much that I decided to explore the world of pbp.

The point being: an RP game is what you and your friends choose to make of it!

Anyway, I would like to put it out there that if any of you have interest in delving into your character's backstory or exploring your characters' dreams or what have you, I will be right there, greedily reading everything you have to share (especially if it's exploring human emotions!). I love this stuff, I'll love you all the more for your creative contributions, and I'm very curious to learn more about each of you & your characters! It can feel lonely being a writer in a world where everyone is used to bite-sized entertainment, but none of you are alone. That goes to you, too, vagueGM. ❤️
Oo, boy! Looking forward to it! ;)

I’m a little bit confused; I feel like I’m getting mixed messages from vagueGM:
Or am I misunderstanding you? You seemed to encourage a flashback scene and details but now feel differently? We can post it as a side-thread as you suggested, and/or do it in small chunks. Or post a short teaser and the link and let people read or ignore as they like? It’s not important for me to have it in any one format or have others read it. I just want to figure out what YOU want.

My understanding is that -- because we initially wrote our posts in a separate forum -- he now prefers that we rely on flashbacks to insert the most critical elements of our narrative into the story. Might be a little awkward, but we can make it work! 👍

In a game, we don't have 'readers' or 'listeners'. It becomes personal when all the players are involved in the process of creating the story.
This is true, and can be awkward at first.
I have done that in games, but it needs to be agreed upon beforehand, and I don't think this is that group. I have had groups where such things were done between a few players, but they still are not events that 'happened in the game', we occasionally ran into problems where the events of the game contradicted this outside fiction and had to deal with some impedance mismatch. It is best to keep this sort of extra-curricular stuff general enough and flexible enough that it does not cause conflicts with the way the rest of the group sees the world.
I did kinda worry about that during your introduction thread, PbP RPGs are not Creative Writing, they share some overlap, and some people use RPGs to direct their writing. But playing a game is not about the writing, it is about the game, good writing helps, but we don't exclude those who are not good at writing or struggle with the language or with expressing themselves.

I don't know what you two wrote, but I assume you were interacting with each other, bouncing ideas off each other, and modulating what you wrote next based on what had just been written? That is an RPG, but we were not involved in that process, what you wrote may be beautiful, but it is not part of this game and the other players (which includes that GM) don't have your emotional connection to that material and don't have a good reason to read it.

Creating a thread and having you regurgitate it to us (as spectators) is not how the rest of the game is being played.
Please do that, in the game. If you want opportunities to dig deeper into characters I am thrilled to play that out in the game. We can set whole scenes around such things, involving the other characters in the scene (RPGs are collaborative). I am sure you noticed that we don't do much 'combat', we care more about everything else, and have only had a few fights that called for more than one roll to resolve them.

Sorry about that. It is always hard when first communication with a new person. We all come with our own assumptions and that can have interesting outcomes when those assumptions don't align. :)
Clearly we have differing views on what 'quick' means. :) I meant a few back and forth posts of a few paragraphs each, not three pages.
The operative term there being 'play that out'. If you ended up generating three pages while playing it out with everyone involved that would be OK... surprising if it ran that long, but OK.

Writing it up outside the game is not 'playing it out', though.
I thought we had agreed on flashbacks, but then that was based on my assumption that you did not want to establish the meeting and joining till after we were on the road again. Sorry if that added to the confusion.
A flashback scene is a scene that you play out in a flashback, not something you write up outside the game and present to us fait accompli. You would still play it out as you would any other scene, just with a few limitations on what can happen based on knowing where you end up.
This is not about 'format', except that an RPG is a Game (that is what the G stands for) and games have rules that need to be followed, what you wrote outside the game framework did not follow the assumed rule or everyone being involved, and the less important written down [ref][ref] rule of the GM guiding the flow and calling for rolls as needed.

I don't know what you wrote, so I am not saying it would be a problem to have that be truth in the world, but I am saying I don't know what you wrote, and that is fundamentally not how an RPG works. You broke the basic rule of RPGs and that can cause problems.

If you want to play out a 'first meeting' scene that may still be an option. We can talk about if that happens in a separate thread (where you need to be cognisant of the other players not being involved and therefore keep it short), or it can happen slowly as we play the 'main story' and we see flashes of what happened as they become relevant to the other players (who are only sorta 'involved' but that tames 'boredom'). But I worry that you already have the course mapped out and we will but heads when the dice or my rulings about how the world works conflicts with what you have already written down.
If people have the option of ignoring it then it did not happen. If you are assuming things happened in the fiction, then we need to have seen it in the fiction, so everyone is on the same page. An 'optional' piece can not be canon,

As TheGenerator says, if you can condense it into a summary of one or two paragraphs (each?) we would be be delighted to read it. That is sort or what we were expecting from the interspersed flashbacks.

It is less about flashback vs some other method of sharing than it is about material written without the input of the game. The fact that it is already written makes it awkward as it is not part of the narrative flow of the game. I don't know that this will be a problem, but it often is.

Thanks for the clarity. The other PbP games I’ve played were different, so it is good to learn how you run things here. I will keep all that in mind for the future, and we can decide as we go if and when any of our past interaction would make a fitting flashback.

We've had this discussion before. I find it unfair to say something like: '' oh yeah Roald shouted at Daryl when he was up in his room getting his sword''
We clearly forgot to bring the NPC's so we should deal with that. I know that you don't mind bringing them after the facts Vague 😉.

There is also always such a thing as NPC's thinking for themselves and tagging along without being asked. Or at least Theo would have said something like '' where are you going?''.

Difficult for me 😉 but I won't dispute the outcome.

Aside from the fact that Theo is leading you to the problem so is clearly there, it is fine for you to say Daryl was sleeping in the same room as you when Theo work you. You are the one why set up the scene with Theo waking you up [ref], so you have the freedom.

When I ask such questions it is mostly about whether you, the players, want them with you. Having a shiny-armoured 'knight' with a sword sends a stronger message than just you guys with sword and staff.

Putting on armour does take time, but then you had to take the time to go back for your sword, so it is quite feasible for have an armoured Daryl with you... or arriving soon.

There are always prices to pay, so just say the word and Daryl can be there with you (and not guarding your cargo, for instance) or he can be asleep in the room (and only vaguely guarding the cargo:).

Whatever you want.

Prices... Got it 😉.

Let's see what the rest thinks.

Nice move Karabooo!

I am very much hoping to resolve this without a fight. So hopefully we don't need Daryl there. Then again, his armor might intimidate the 'mob'.
Im fine with leaving him out.

Nice one, Kara! And very appropriate for Humphrey.

PS: can I call you Kara? It's shorter 😁
I go by 'Gen' for short.

Hm. It might take a little getting used to…..

I’m pulling your leg. Lol. Kara is my actual name. Call me by it all you like. ("Kara-boo" is what my mom’s side of the family calls me!)