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.

Add a link back to the post in question so we can have context. After posting you can right-click on the orange header and select 'copy link address' (or whatever your browser calls it), then paste that in your OOC post.

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!)

So we're what? Adopted in? :)

Sure. lol

Hehe I figured that was a likely scenario :D

Just to be clear.
Roald wants to go to the inn where they are all staying.
I figured Albert is at a different place.
What was your intention Gen?

I assumed Albert was at your inn, but he does not have to be. There are people from the mob drinking in your inn [ref], but we can ignore them and wait for them to leave, or be distracted.

@TheGenerator, I think we might be waiting to hear what inn Albert's drinking at... You back at the place we were staying or somewhere else?

If we don't get an answer soon, maybe we should just assume there is only one inn in play. There are probably back ways in, or you could wait, or talk with Humphrey more and maybe have Roald decide not to travel with him anymore [ref]?

Ok. I'll post something this evening.

Hi all, sorry for the delay. Had a busy weekend.

I figured we were pretty much standing outside the inn where we're staying. So my thought was that it was the same inn. But I'm happy to change it to a different inn if that helps people.

(Ok. I don't have a particular preference where Albert is, as long as we can safely assume that at some point Ezme can go in to fetch/bottle her blood, which she left in her room....)

There might be a back door :)

I am thinking of making Humphrey lend us the carriage out of guilt.
It would help with the packages. But will increase the cost (fodder for the horse(s))

What do you think?

Some type of small cart/wheelbarrow might also do the trick?

Would be very useful, but can one of us drive a coach?

If possible I would like to leave town as soon as possible to get QuietPanther involved.

Agreed. I think we could probably figure out a coach if we had to. If we were to go with the wheelbarrow/cart idea... I don't suppose any of the NPC's are carrying an extra tent to sleep in?

(Apologies. I know the simplest thing would have been to say Ezme was carrying a very large tent, but that really didn't seem realistic to me.)

(To clarify what I meant by "completely ignored" [ref], Ezmaray thought Humphrey was suggesting that Roald leave Ezmaray and Humphrey alone together.)

That guy sure is sneaky.

Yeah, same.
As mentioned before, we don't have to play out the bar talk. Or when you all are ready to leave, just tap Albert's shoulder and he'll join you quickly.

No problem with that.
That seems unlikely, he does not seem to feel any guilt. This is his livelihood, and horses are worth hundreds of silver, and a simple wagon is similarly priced, a smart carriage would be very expensive.
Actually it would cost you less, any asking around would show you that Humphrey was ripping you off, inflating his prices and to 9 and then 10 silver for foder, and skimming off in inn bills he was handling. :)
Very possible. Though that might be a thing you need to get later. The addition of Ezme should help with the carrying too.
Agreed. We can maybe have you roll to see how well your 'sneaking in' went and that could dictate if you are leaving in an hurry right now, or if we will just jump to after you have made a decision.
That is precisely what he was suggesting. :)

Thanks for trying to hustle, everyone :) I am watching the threads like Lille watching for Ezmaray. Does Ezme have to go collect her tent from the woods or just drop off the bottle? Either way, that’s a place where it would be natural for Lille to catch sight of her and start following at a distance.

I hope everybody is OK with leaving Humphrey and his carriage and try to find a wheelbarrow along the way.
I would have tried to get something more out of it for us... but the man is a bastard.

so... an 8. since the intention was to hold back, I guess the holding back part is a partial succes? Roll for damage? Just want the guy to go down.

Figured it might be good for Albert to join the others. That'll make it easier to decide we're skipping town :P

Ezme is carrying her tent on her back, and she plans on giving Wankle their treat at sundown. That said, I have something else in mind that Ezme might briefly trek into the woods to fetch.

Sounds like the plan to me.
You are all together now, we can decide here what you ended up doing and skip to it.
If we are leaving him here we don't really care how much damage you did. We can assume a that single punch would not kill him, and the other details don't matter.

You managed the sneak roll masterfully, so the wife gives you a sympathetic smile and let's you pass without incident. You have a little time to get your stuff ready and leave.
As it turns out, your route out of here (though the group only has a rough idea of the direction they need to go) takes you near where the events happened last night, at about sundown, so you can detour slightly on your way out and leave your offering.

Lille can then catch sight of you (again?), with the adventuring party she was told to join, and start to follow.

Does that suit everyone? If so, you can jump to there.

Flashbacks aside, Lille had already assumed (or Jordash did?) that Ezme was an adventurer when she saw the foreign woman camping in the woods. Those glimpses were enough to establish Ezme as a "forest" person, which is all the recommendation Lille thinks she needs. Having a larger party along will both lend Ezme some legitimacy and give Lille the excuse to watch from a distance for the time being. Going to be an interesting time when she spots Ezme stashing blood in the woods and even more so if Lille finds Wankle following the group...

Ditto on what Gen said. Possibly with less Riker manspreading :P

Perfect!

Awesome. Does vagueGM normally set the scene during changes like this?

We don't need to RP it, but maybe you can tell me here, @Airshark -- How did Roald justify his actions? I ask because that could significantly influence Ezme's takeaway. ("That bastard Humphrey suggested that Ezme and I slept together!" vs. "Humphrey is a womanizer with ill intentions!" would lead her to two very different conclusions, for example.)

Lastly, I have a wedding to attend and will be vacationing in sunny California from Friday until early morning Tuesday. That will keep me pretty busy, but for QuietPanther's sake, I'll do my best to try to keep things moving so she can enter the story....

Roald was not planning on sharing Humphreys words. It would only cause for an awkward situation. 😉
Something like:
' I can not repeat what he said, it was insulting and repeating it would not make it better'

OK, so mental space: confused and curious. Gotcha. lol.

Usually, if you ask you get the choice to do it yourself.

Ok. I'm cool with our GM (or someone else) leading the charge. :)

I'm happy to wait for vague to send us to the next scene.
Have fun at the wedding! :)

Ezme may have to keep up the offerings so Wankle can keep following. We can see how that plays out.
It very much depends on the scene, in this case I did indicate that you could jump us there, but I am always happy to do the scene framing if you want to wait for me to be available.
Maybe say just that, so we can have it on the record. We can see you on the road as I set the next scene with Ezme and Roald getting their moment to talk after hasty preparations?
Have fun, thanks for letting us know. We will try to keep (get) things moving for our newbie. :)

Oops I forgot to post as Lille. I know you try not to go back and change things. Should I repost correctly and delete that one?

You can just change the name with the edit button

Whatever you do, DO NOT SCRATCH!

😁

Congrats on your first RP post, QuietPanther :)

---

I was going to ask about the dagger here. I don't think it was ever mentioned explicitly what happened to the ritual dagger. But then I thought, why not ask it IC? So Airshark, if it's ok with vague, you can decide what happened to the dagger. :)

It happens all the time, don't fret about it. :)
This does not 'change' anything, and you will see that the software did not even mark the post as 'edited'.

The rule about not editing is about changing the content of what was there and what others have already read (once you post it to the internet, you have to assume others have read it, no matter how fast you think you can edit it). Just as you did, make your posts clear enough that there is no ambiguity that it is from Lille's perspective, then it does not matter who you 'post as', and changing that should also not affect how people read it.

I find it can help to try use more explicit names than one would ordinarily do, to make things clear. Pronouns can get confusing. For instance: it might take a minute to realize that 'the woman calls the group to a halt' did not mean that Lille as calling for them to halt, but that it was Ezme, the rest of the sentence made it all clear, but it could be less clear at other times. :) I get that Lille does not know the names, so something from her perspective feels weird using them to describe others actions, so there are times when such tactics don't work as well.
Definitely not. That is much worse than editing clearly, it hides the fact that an edit was made, and leaves people searching for the second post that they were notified about. Some GMs disable the ability to delete posts, but I suspect that is because they fear people cheating and deleting posts with 'bad rolls'.

Indeed. Very nice.
By all means, you are welcome to have ended up keeping the knife. Probably 'by mistake', and talking about it and without any confidence about how long it will keep working.

I usually ask myself "Does this change create a narrative difference between people who have already read it and those who haven't?" If it's a no, I'll edit the post. If yes, I make a new one.

If you really need to change something that's significant, you can make the change and then post in OOC what you changed. But that rarely happens.

Is Daryl still with the group? Is there a description of Theo somewhere?

I will post for Lille later. She would be keeping a general watch as they walk, since she’s concerned about the mists. But she wouldn’t specifically expect anyone to be following the group. Should I include a roll to spot Wankle or others?

Sorry, yes he is. That was never in doubt for the others, so I completely forgot to mention him for the new players. /whoops :(
Slightly more of a nerd than a jock. Spoiled son of a village mayor, ran away with the group to get some adventure and to get away from his dad. After spending most of that adventure locked in a cage while some crazy women planned to sacrifice his sister he decided to leave his home and go to university in the big city. For reasons of plot convenience the university required 'references' and an 'essay about his life accomplishments' so he is trying to accomplish something with his life by staying with the party a bit longer.
All woodsmen would. We assume your character is doing the sort of thing that it would make sense for such a character to be doing. If something comes up that you feel your character would have already taken steps to counter, even if we have not mentioned it, speak up, we can go back and see how well your skipped over actions worked out.

I tend to use phases like 'if you entered the room you would find ...' rather than 'you enter the room and find', this is deliberate, it avoids your character being forced into any action, and avoids me taking control of your character's actions away from you, while still allowing the story to continue if you want to take the mentioned action (and tells you that you don't need to to 'look for traps' just to enter the room:). I trust my players to not use the information they would have found until they actually find it, but it also tells the players where they could find more information of that sort (unless things change in the living world:).
No.

If rolls become relevant we will see this in the fiction first. The fiction always comes before the rolls.

If we need for your character to interact with Wankle we can engineer it, but that is currently a mystery that we will need to wait to have unfold.

... Do we only have the one three-person tent for the five of us?

... Oh, okay... I guess I'm just gonna presume someone must have introduced me to Daryl at some point....

I have no idea, I don't pack your gear for you. :)

The others have been on the road for a while, so I assumed they were sorted. Maybe the weather has been particularly good and you all will have to make a plan when it turns wet?

Where do you get that it is a three-person tent? I sorta assumed it fitted one, it is the same price as a waterskin, after all. Maybe it can cover more if you spread it out (turn it into a rain cover with no sides?) or get really close.
One would hope so after you barged into his room and had a punch-up. :)

It was my intention to do so. But then things got sped? Up.

We can pretend it happened, we can take the time to talk more with the NPCs (and other PCs) now that we have settled.

Well, I took the liberty of describing her 2-person tent in the story earlier [ref]. I considered it reasonable for her to carry a tent of that size, but nothing larger... Three was only if people got super cuddly. But if you think that's too much to ask, maybe three people would actually require the tent being used unconventionally, in the manner that you described in the quote above.

Liberty indeed. :)

Given your size, your 1-person tent is another's 2-person tent. It might be sold as a '3-man tent', but if you have ever used one, you will know that they lie, and all tents only actually accommodate half the persons they claim. Many a new camper has been caught out by this trick.

:)

Ooh, boy! Learning 'foreign culture rituals' by assuming significance to misunderstood actions... that is a recipe... but we won't say what for. :)

I don't think we ever used a tent. It was sleeping under the stars or in a bed.
Since this will be a long journey, some kind of protection will probably be in order.
Setting up a shelter for 4 people to stay dry should be doable if we stop in time to make camp.

Yeah, you have been lucky. Maybe you can find inns and a way to pay for them, or maybe you risk the weather and we deal with it. :)
Agreed. Though you were bargaining on the carriage and Humphrey's arrangements, so you may find that you are under-prepared and need to make a plan. (Lille could prove useful in that regard once you get desperate enough and finally connect).
If you have the time, absolutely. If things go wrong on the trip you may have to sacrifice that time to 'traveling a little further', just as you did tonight. It is something to play with while you journey.

Yes. Remember though, that it is not really a 'Wild roll', as such. The Special Ability allows you to attempt a social roll where others would not even be able to try, it opens the door and gives you permission to do things in the fiction.

Logically this seems like a roll +CHA, but you can motivate for another Attribute if you think it fits the fiction better (or add to your description (in a new post) if you need to justify some other Attribute (but you did not describe any 'use of body language' or anything in your post, and bears might not respect DEX:)). Your roll outcome would set the bear's disposition towards you and the party, but currently it does not seem 'hostile' so even a 6- should not lead directly to a fight, it would depend on what you do next.

A 7-9 would see things mostly go your way, but you may have to compromise or take more actions to fully get what you are after. A 10+ would see the bear readily accede to your reasonable request (boring:), and a rare 12+ would provide a boon that we can talk about if you are so blessed.

You can edit the post and add the roll to the post, that does not change anything about what was written (and the site won't even mention the 'edit'). Let us know here when it is done, and maybe the result and any desired extras that may come with the result.

On a 10 or 11 you can just go ahead and narrate the outcome the way you wanted it.

Remember that we’ll be up to six: Alfred and Roald, Theo and Daryl, Ezme and Lille. Plus gear, plus packages that probably ought to stay dry. Between Ezme and Lille, I’m sure we can rig up something with a few more supplies.

Indeed.

Correct, but Ezme has the tent and Lille is not in the picture yet.
I think I wrote that ooc in character 😂

Ugh, that’ll teach Lille to try to chat with bears first thing in the morning :P Well, only the second worst roll.. hardly an auspicious beginning. I saved Dex for in case things went poorly, and here we are... time for bear charades!

3... What character would you like to play next?
😁

Would you prefer to have this be a 'failure of Wild' and an inability to 'talk' to the bear as suggested above? Or should be go with your being able to communicate (somewhat) but the bear having its own problems that need to be dealt with.

I don't have any ideas yet, we can come up with something appropriately fun once we know what sort of complication we are wanting. We don't want to make it so big that it distracts from the current story, but it may disrupt your plans to to go hunting for instance.

Bear Problems sounds like the most interesting to me. At the height of summer, bears should be reasonably well fed but other issues could come up. Fear of the mists, displacement from regular territory, too many bee stings in the last honey raid, group camp is right next to the bear’s fav feeding spot... just a few things that came to mind.

One part of me wants to utilize that epic Dex score as often as possible, but I will have to wait until later to think up a way to do that, if possible. Loss of hunting time/space is a reasonable complication. "Sorry I didn’t bring any dinner tonight, I was busy with bear therapy and cuddles" :P

We can run Lille's scene from the morning [ref] concurrently with the scene from the night before [ref], they should both end around the time everyone is ready to move on with the story.

Awwww, I made a friend....

Humphrey should know by now, you want a classy lady, you gotta treat her classy.

Wow I guess I just had to "shout" at the bear. Even just as a Cha roll that’s 11, quite the opposite roll. Maybe I won’t have to start rolling up a new character... yet ;)

Or... what you have just determined is that 'the better way to talk to animals is through body language and acting'. This makes sense, it is a key component to how they communicate with each other. It is also embarrassing if your friends see you, and that can be the (ongoing) cost for the earlier 'Miss'.

What do you think? If this is the case, then we can use this roll to resolve both, and your 12+ provides you with some benefit.

I feel like the narrative supports something different. After I failed at Lille’s "normal" communication, you said that there was a strange buzzing in the bear’s mind. To me, that suggests that the mental trick was only failing because of extenuating circumstances. Under other conditions, it would probably still be normally effective. The no hunting penalty still makes sense, because loudly whacking the tree scared off all the game for a mile. If it need to be severe, she can fail at hunting both food for the group AND herself as well.

If the high result gets me an extra benefit, either Lille could have successfully removed the buzzing, or received some clue about its source or the mists or whatever.

Agreed. That was originally part of it, I was offering a simpler option if you wanted it. We still know that body language is better, but not necessarily the only way.
Yes. All hunting would be affected by your spending time helping the bear... but the 12+ may lead to alternate food... if you can solve the problem. Assume you have establish basic communications, talking is hard but you can 'talk' without needing more rolls (until you do).

QuietPanther, there are some Doby level clues in that last post. :)

Remember that Wild is not 'telepathy' it is being able to talk to animals. You can't 'read their minds', but they also don't use language like humans do, so you may be interpreting your understanding of all your senses as something like ESP: you understand the meaning of the bird-song and the pheromones and scents of a bear, and the that can be hard to translate into mere words.

I noticed my character doesn't have any sort of blanket/bedroll on her itinerary. This was an accidental oversight on my part. She definitely would have been carrying one of these. May I add that and subtract... a silver? ... from my savings?

Is the bear headed towards the mists, or where they occur at night? How close to sunrise are we now? Do the mists end at the first sign of daylight or at sunrise? I missed those details, but Lille would likely know them.

By all means. We can always fix such oversights if they have not played an important role in the story.

I don't see blankets or bedrolls in the Equipment section, though. Maybe they are assumed to be part of the 'tent' and camping gear? Maybe most people use cloaks that are part of their clothing? We don't pay for clothing, and you are an outdoorsy person, so we can just assume you have what you need already.

You tell us if you use your cloak or if you have blankets, or if you make do in the pleasant summer night air.

We have traveled for hours [ref] since leaving the area of the mists, consider them a thing of the past (though your characters can't know the extent, so they may still be worried).

@karabooo, by 'Bhavanti' [ref], did you mean 'bacha posh'? Theo would not be any more familiar with that term either, but I am unfamiliar with 'Bhavanti' being used in this context.

It’s a made-up word for a made-up culture. But it’s basically the same as bacha posh, yes. I just added a couple small differences for flavor.

Gotcha.

It is a real Hindu word, though. Has some 'wife' connotations but in mainly about 'time'. We can ignore that if that has no bearing on our situation.

Yeah, I noticed that when I was making up the word, but I thought to myself... you know what? It kinda works. They are to be regarded as male "at present," but will ultimately play the role of female/wife.

Cool. :)

For me it is ok to have an uneventful night, giving Lille a chance to resolve the mystery.

Btw if Lille ends up near the cultivated fields or orchards, she will try not to be seen by any early morning workers. Old habits die hard :)

Well, we’ve reached the point where I’m out of ideas. Perhaps I’m missing something? Lille could stick around and try to learn the habits of these things; figure out their likes and dislikes to repel them or draw them into a trap, then figure out how to destroy them. But even just some of that trial and error would take quite a long time. As much as she wants to solve this problem, she definitely doesn’t want the group to leave without her.

One option is to warn some of the locals who tend the fields and orchards, and hope for the best. Another is to go ask the help of the adventurers. The first one is near to giving up on the problem - would they really have any better chance of solving it? The second is quite the opposite of what Lille wanted; she was going to prove herself useful to the group to help in their tasks, not ask them to help her solve a new and separate problem with no clear personal gain. It is not in her character to step away without saying anything, so those are the two options I can see.

This has definitely been more involved than I expected. One of the aspects I enjoy most about this kind of gaming is the cooperative element. While each character still needs to take their own actions, make their own decisions, and sometimes work independently, the group strengths can help make up for all our various deficiencies, both as characters and players. If I’d known that delaying in joining would mean this kind of solo problem solving, I might have chosen differently.

So is everyone ok with Lille joining now? Or is there some other way for her to reap the benefit of that very high roll? She’ll suffer the no-hunting penalty for the low roll either way. Also open to other ideas if anyone has them :)

I'd prefer Lille joining as soon as possible. For now we're kinda stuck waiting around. (Technically we could continue without Lille, but it would be nicer to interact with her as well.)

One easy way to join the parties together right now would be if Lille chooses to destroy the infected trees to protect the other ones. She could use fire (using a 'controlled burn' (now mostly called a 'prescribed burn')) and the rest of the party could see this and come to investigate?

This would sorta set the stage for the nature of the meeting, but there is still plenty of room for everyone to shape how that meeting happens and how Lille comes across to the others.

This is just the first idea that comes to my mind. We can workshop it as needed.

I'm sure nothing bad has ever happened with this tactic. *6- roll incoming* :P

Why not just run to the adventurers for help?

Well, yeah, that is why we don't call it a 'controlled burn' anymore, the media has a field-day when it gets away. :) 'Prescribed burn' is a safer term since it just means 'we planned to burn something today' and does not imply any level of 'control' over the fire. :)

If we want to engineer a meeting we can skip rolling and just say it works. With a little prep it is not that hard for an experienced woodsman to prevent a fire from spreading from where they want it. The weather is still and quiet, ideal for such an activity.

Hehe. Alright. If we can do it that way I have no objections :)

Lille and I are also hesitant about fire. That was one thought I had for destroying that would take too long, because she would never set a fire without proper clearing first, which would take time. But much less time if she has help :)

If it’s ok, I will post about her approaching the camp, then make a Stealth roll. On a good result she can materialize somewhat magically. On a bad one, get caught by the morning’s last watch. I’m between… we’ll figure it out. Should be interesting either way.

Go for it, QuietPanther. You are welcome to roll or to choose any of those options.

Do you have a preference as to who is standing watch at that moment? We know it is probably not Roald (first watch), but the rest of the watch order can be anything you like. You can also set this when they are about to rise (last watch), making ready to depart (after last watch), or even on a middle watch, since you arose earlier than they might have. I am sure the rest of the players will happily slot into your fiction.

I think Ezme had second watch, so that leaves Albert, Theo, and Daryl. I can just say "the man on watch". During last watch is when I imagined this happening, but it can be any time during that 1-2 hr period.

If you want Ezme to be on watch then we can easily make that so.

Maybe the men-folk were hesitant to wake her before? Maybe they forgot the order, or something changed it, we are not beholden to earlier suggestions we did not see happen in play.

It’s not important that she be the one awake. Maybe better if someone like Albert is up so someone else gets to interact with her. Or everyone, if things get loud fast :) Lille wants things to be convenient, but I want things to be interesting, which often means inconveniencing my own characters. I’ll leave it neutral.

Albert is a fine choice. Make it so.

I agree with all of the above.

Hmm, a middling result. Probably wouldn’t wake the whole camp immediately, but perhaps there’s some small cost? Maybe she can slip around to where Ezme is sleeping but get spotted before Lille wakes her up. I’m open to other ideas on how to interpret that.

I can give a good description of Lille when we decide and I reply.

Yeah, without proper stakes in the scene it is hard to say what a 7-9 means. Getting 'caught' in the middle of the camp seems worse than getting spotted as you approach, no?

Why don't we internet at Partial Success as your being able to sneak up close, but then realising that you can't get all the way in without risking being noticed and making a bad impression, so you choose to reveal yourself before the 'ideal tada' moment. Still making your woodsmanship clear but not so much that you make the others look bad by comparison. They will see that you are good out here, but may not be immediately convinced that they need you.

That works for me. Here comes the fun!

Hope I'm not being too difficult for you QuietPanther 😅. Albert will surely help if the situation is explained to him. I promise! :)

Also, being a grumpy old man is kinda fun :P

In other words: "Here's my CV." :)
Give a shout if you want me to wake an NPC and bring them into the scene, but I think this awkward conversation is great and don't want to disrupt it until I have to.

Yup. Albert states his street cred. (Or forest cred?) :D

I thought about waking up Daryl, but I think it's probably better to keep the NPCs out for now to speed things up. The more PCs we have, the less active the NPCs need to be, right?

Pretty much, their mechanical utility goes down as the numbers go up, and their in-fiction utility changes from 'helping flesh out the story and dialogue' to 'filling in conversation when all other players are otherwise engaged'. So we can let them fade to the background when they are not needed. Often they can server as the vehicle for GM Moves when you roll 'badly' or provide Golden Opportunities.

"69".... Ezme is apparently having erotic dreams! 😂

No worries, Gen, I love for people to play in character - the drama is part of the fun! Besides, Lille started it, so I think she deserves at least one good talking to. Grumpy Old Man is a good persona to have in a group, glad to have both you and Albert :)

<3

I'm having a couple of busy days. I'll try to post asap, but that might be Thursday 😔

Ssshhhh. Roald is sleeping! 🤫

If you want to leave Theo and Daryl here with your camp and the packages, they can prepare breakfast. [ref]

But the job could take hours, and having two more hands could make the work lighter. You can also pack up and move all your gear to near the burn site, you can all try keep watch over your stuff while you work and someone could prepare food so you can all take a break partway through.

Assume the NPCs do whatever you think best.

I think the latter is the way to go

Do I need to make some sort of survival roll to see if my traps caught anything last night?

Next few days are a bit busy for me. I’ll do my best not to slow people down too much. (You can safely assume Ezme would check her traps and serve up whatever is caught, help break down camp, and go with you guys to help out.)

(Accidental duplicate post)

Let's rather say that Lille's miss that prevented hunting and lead to this early awakening and bear-faced shenanigans also means you don't get food, else that consequence is a bit reduced. Probably you know you set the traps way too late last night; and this was not a good place, as we have observed, the wildlife around here was disrupted by the mist problem back there?

You all left Olmsford in a hurry without proper planning so you did not get extended provisions for the trip, you have the scraps left over from the bread you brought yesterday, but will need make a plan going forward.

@Airshark, can the others hear what Roald says or is he just saying it to himself?

Does someone else want to fast forward or montage/summary us through this a bit? I’m not sure how far we should go, but at least getting through packing the campsite. Maybe further? I’m not particular. Just so we get to a point where there’s something folks want to play out.

Everyone can hear it.


Packing up is just a formality I guess. If Lille leads the way, we will follow.

Oh, I misread what's been said here about packing up. Going to make a change to my last post.

Done. Is that forwarded enough?

Didn’t Theo sleep in the tent? Also they’re both still asleep, unless you meant to add a part about waking them up.

EDIT: Oops, never mind, just saw the correction about waking them.

Yeah, I meant it like they leave packing up the tent till last, so Theo and Daryl can sleep maybe 15 minutes longer. If that makes sense.

Will we need any kind of roll to get the bear clear of where we want to work? If not, I’m happy to fast forward some more.

Hey all, I want to give Kara a chance to respond tomorrow, when I’m fairly certain that her busy week will be over. I know it’s ok that we dragged Ezme this far, but I don’t want to launch into any exciting bear awakening plans without the input of our other nature expert. Hope that’s ok with everyone!

Sure

Sorry for the delay, folks! 3/4 of my household had a birthday this week! :-P

No worries.

That's funny. I had 4 birthdays this week 😀

Wow! 4 years older in 1 week :O Sounds rough.
Happy 4 birthdays, Airshark!! 🥳️
😜😜

Oops. I started on my latest post before vagueGM made his last one. Maybe Ezme knocks the stinger out in the process of applying the garlic to Albert's sting? She certainly doesn't realize we're all gonna be swamped by bees soon....

I'll leave it up to Lille to say whether she took the time to see the stinger.

If so, we can assume you brushed/knocked it out without noticing, or Lille can stop you and make sure it is properly removed before all the poison is pumped in or pushed in by garlic.

Lol @ ears 😁

Yeah, good one :)

No... that should be a fairly simple task... if Albert allows you to do all that stuff.
Sounds like a plan?
Good to know. Outside conversations are completely natural, but can leave the others feeling a bit worried sometimes. In this case I would not have had any concerns —and just assumed you were handed the item you asked for— but would have spoken up if it looked like you were dictating another characters actions and spontaneous decisions.
Heal is not one of Lille's Skills [ref]. So this operation may not be very gentle nor appear very professional, but it is completely up to you guys how (much) you want to play this.

I definitely left things a bit open and unfinished to give characters a chance to react and change direction. I’m happy to have Lille react to anyone deciding they aren’t going along quietly with her idea of what should happen.

Lille is most certainly not a healer, and knows the most basic first aid at best. I figured that keeping poison or venom from spreading would be very much in her area of interest and knowledge, especially with a slightly higher WIS. And she is certainly not being gentle - could be interesting to see Albert react to that.

I don't think this is a heal action as it's not trying to make anything better. Only trying to stop it getting worse. Or am I seeing that wrong? It seems like basic house-hold knowledge to me.

No problem with this being forced onto Albert. However, bare (pun intended) in mind that Albert will remember this. Reference for Ezme :D

Poor Albert, getting ordered and pushed around left and right by strong women! lol.

I kid you not -- I had it in my head that this was what Ezme was harvesting before poisoned bears, bees, and honey entered this story at all....

I don't know how we managed to get in a mess again, but I'm enjoying the PC interaction a lot. 😁

… I don’t suppose we’re traveling along the coast?

Agreed. So no need to roll for it.

But it is a bit past 'house-hold remedies' with the arterial pressure to stop bloodflow.
As with all Skilsl, they mainly soften the worst outcomes. Not having a Skill does not mean one can not try that action, one can still roll for such things (would be little point in making the 6- result better if one could not roll:).

However, having a Skill does provide fictional positioning to describe things in a way that makes the character seem competent and suggest their chosen action is the 'generally accepted method', so not having Heal here might make Lille's actions seem strange or extreme.

I’m also curious if we’ve been following the coast. If so, we can just say that the stream is the nearest water and it might take a little longer to get down to the sea. Or perhaps there’s a cliff the road follows, or whatever.

Ah, I forgot to follow up on that. It seemed to be that we were going inland, but if we want to be following the coast for some reason we can easily make that be true.

Always tell us why you are asking these sorts of things so we can know how to answer.
Are we wanting to hide in the salt water rather than a river pool? We can force a cliff jump if we want, but do we know if everyone can swim? :)

If Lille is about to jump off a cliff, Albert will be going the other way :P We're in enough trouble as it is, no?

Whoops, I apologise that my hasty post lead to confusion. I definitely did not intend for two rolls, but it did sound like that is what I asked for. [ref] :(

I was noting that that combination of Skills applied well to the scenario, so Ezme may be well suited to taking the lead. We don't 'roll Skills', so there is no such thing as a 'Survival Check' or 'Stealth Check', those Skill apply to rolls that are made when that sort of action is relevant to the story we described.

I was hoping for in fiction actions that we could use to base rolls on. Don't roll till you know the possible outcomes and are happy with all of them.

The fiction that happens would dictate what we roll (and whether Skills applied). What is Ezme doing to justify rolling? How does STR (the +2) apply? [ref]

---

@karabooo: Describe (in a new post) what Ezme does and we can try work the roll results into what happens.

I am not sure how you would turn these into +STR rolls, but they also probably are not +CON (your only +0 stat). So you probably got a 6 and a 7 unless you can justify using STR. It is always tricky to handle 'Stat selection' after the dice result is known, and when we know that STR would succeed but anything else would miss.

I don't usually ignore rolls once made, but we may need to do so, this time. I take the blame for posting in a hurry and not taking the time to talk about it, and for the foul language that lead us here, (and for skipping the coastal route question that I meant to answer). Don't post when rushed, folks. :)

That sounds like a roll with WIS? (The parkour bits are easy for you, so we don't need to roll for them, but the other two are the concern.)

On a 6- you are lost and have to deal with the shadow-bees without water.
On a 7-9 your lack of familiarity with the outdoors (excepting the last few weeks that have been a bit more hectic than ideal for learning new skills:) sees you go the wrong way (or not fast enough?) and you have to find another plan or turn around and head back past/through the swarm to get to water.
On a 10+ your recent experience with the outdoors leads you to water you can use for cover.
(On a 12+, some boon that we might work out after we know what happens with the others?)

Sigh....

It's gonna be a looooong day for Roald.😆

For Roald? Try Albert, who’s been stung by a mysterious creature with unknown poison, dragged off into the woods, and will be unceremoniously dunked in a pool, if we can find one(sorry Albert). And all before dawn! No one is gonna forget how Lille joined the group, that’s for sure :P

Albert had it coming, no pitty there!

I did kinda bring this upon myself, it's true :P
Haha!

I, too, posted in haste before bed so as to not hold folks up. I didn’t mean to use the strength stat, so yeah… subtract 1 from those rolls. I’ll attempt a new post soon as I can. Headed into another busy weekend. This time we’re camping and unfortunately I’m out of data on my phone. Maybe there is campground Wi-Fi? We’ll see.

Watch out for bears! Have a nice trip.

No worries, Kara. Enjoy your trip.

Thanks! I head out tomorrow, but lots of packing/prep today.

So.... did we abandon our large packages by the bee hives?

....

Sounds like it. We can call ourselves the Useless Package Service. UPS 😅

Presumably you stashed the packages somewhere 'safe' for while you worked.

Ezme's out of ideas, folks. Time to pray.

Lille: Let's see how quickly you can get this done. Would you be willing to endure a few stings to finish the job or are we rolling to see if you can get smoke/fire before the shadow-bees get here?

One option sees you getting stung (except on a 12+, maybe) and we are rolling to see how badly, but you get a smokey fire no matter what. The other option sees you avoiding stings on anything other than a 6-, but only getting a fire going properly on a 12+. You can propose other rulings if you prefer.

I will take the first one, and hope for minimal stings but get a nice smokey fire. Here we go!

11! So close! :)

Describe how you get a fire going and how the smoke gives you some (ironic) breathing room. You take a sting or two, but they don't seem that bad... for now.

Careful what you wish for 😏

Hoping to see some smoke when reaching higher ground.

Back. Didn't see any bears. But I found the tower!

(For the record, I did not conquer the tower. It was far too high, too open, and too windy for this adventurer. Only got part way up and then chickened out.)

Wow that's a nice view! :) Welcome back

Wauw..very nice indeed.

Pity :)

So vagueGM described the smoky trio as a bundle of blankets and such but Lille is uncovered. Albert had a blanket from before, and Lille gave him her cloak to double up. Ezme has a blanket, but Lille never covered up. Otherwise, she would have been more protected from the stings she got.

Roald & Co. would see her lying on her back, occasionally poking the fire.

If Roald signals team Smokey, I have an idea for a next step. Gotta get us moving again, Lille is not loving these bugs.

Calling out to each other can quickly get the two groups working together.

Yeah I’m not sure Lille would notice them. She’s looking up at the bugs or at her smoke buddies, and I’m not sure her Awareness covers noticing people at a medium distance. But she’ll certainly spot them if they call out first.

I was actually thinking of letting Roald pray (for rain. To rainor of course) . Because he has no idea what to do about the wasps.
Another option is to get back to the hives and start the fire Lille wanted to in the first place. But that could spiral out of control quickly.

I'll do the praying and try to get into contact with the others.

Oops I got distracted while writing my post and didn’t see the other posts ahead of me. Still works, I think, as long as Albert got his torch from someone besides Roald.

Hehe, that happens sometimes :D They work together still.
Yeah, that's why I didn't specify. Makes it easier to work with later on.

I love how Daryl is complaining about his armour. So I'm tempted to give him 2 stings. 😁.

lol. That could work. I don't mind taking a sting either.

Or let him get back to his armour and then get bees inside it while you do the burn. :)
That offer was mainly for the trio involved in the rolled action, but I am a fan of laying consequences for rolls at the feet of other players (when it makes sense in the fiction).

I thought about that too. But since they lose the stinger the effect is probably the same.

Scary though. :)

Maybe I interpreted the roll not right.
Thought vague was going to choose what it was for.
Do I need to specify? In that case it will be burning bees.

Gotcha.

Let's spare Daryl (already has 2) and give Roald 2 too

@vagueGM do you need to know the exact amount of stings everyone has? I think by now everyone will have at least one.

It will probably suffice to know who has been stung a lot, and who has not been stung. We probably only care about the extremes.

So maybe it's more interesting (story wise) to have 1 or 2 people without stings and 1 or 2 with many.
What do you all think? Seems more fun than everyone being (about) the same

So far I think only Theo and I have been spared. Would you like it to stay that way?

On one hand, I don’t want to miss out if you guys experience cool visions or something. On the other, I wouldn’t mind an opportunity to bond with Theo over trying to help you all and/or figure something out…

So if our new sting count goes like this:
Lille:2
Roald:2
We could add
Daryl:2
Albert:1
For a total of 7.

With old stings, that should make the count:
Lille:4
Roald:2
Daryl:4
Albert:2
Theo:0
Ezme:0
If we want to spread around the stings to everyone we could do a different distribution. Or swap Daryl and Albert? I feel bad for abusing Albert’s lungs. I’ll make things vague, and hopefully we can montage through the work a little.

Looks good. You can decide on final numbers once the work is done, we may have to add to the tally.

I ignored this the last time [ref], even though it worried me. Obviously, in this situation, you are trying to wake the bear in a calm way, so whatever you are doing to try to do that might seem like 'projecting into its mind' but this language is slipping over the edge into magical abilities that can be abused at range and in private.

We could work on learning to do such things, but that would be a new Special Ability.

---

It is hard to define how you 'talk' to animals, and all your senses (and your Awareness) are involved, but this is not telepathy, you are not reading its mind or projecting into its mind. The Special Ability merely allows you to talk to and understand animals, it does not give you control over them or make them friendly or even willing to talk to you —so you need to treat it like any conversation with a simple person— and it does not let you place suggestions in the minds of animals while they are sleeping or if they are not paying attention to you, not any more than the ability to talk to humans would let you do such a thing.

Treat the bear like any other NPC and your Wild Ability like any other ability to converse. You obviously don't use normal language words, and it may seem like you are communication on another level, but it is not telepathic and does not work in situations where normal communications would not operate.

It is hard to describe it, but it is just 'talking'.

Yes I understand all that, and I think my desire for brevity here is the source of the confusion. If Lille were talking to a normal human, the way this would look is that she touches their shoulder, and when they show any sign of stirring or awakening, say out loud, "Hey, I think you should get moving." This is a suggestion, but not in any magical or telepathic way. That is all I was intending for Lille to be doing. I was just trying to avoid typing it all out since I had done so previously and don’t want to subject the group to longer (especially repetitive) text than necessary. If you prefer, I will always be specific about her exact "words" when speaking to animals.

No, no. Especially since you often will not be using 'words'. I just wanted to make sure we are all on the same page about things like 'suggesting in its mind'.
Exactly, and since it is sleeping, and we know from the first encounter that it does not communicate with 'words and sounds' [ref], there is not much communicating happening yet.

I'll accept that logic.

You rolled an 8, which of the options do you want to go with?

You can wake the bear and deal with it being unhappy, you can then try to corral it away from the fire area.
Of you can leave the bear, risk it waking with the fire blazing and have a bigger problem on your hands at a bad time, but maybe gamble on having it sleep through and not be a problem at all.

Your call.

I’ve been thinking that it might be useful to have a name for the way Lille speaks with animals when she’s not using actions or normal spoken language. So far the best I’ve come up with is Wildspeak. If there are no objections, I will use that henceforth to clarify, and add sensory details as appropriate.

That seems right.

If Lille and Roald want to add intimidation rolls to those posts (probably +CHA) we can see if you hold or scare the bear off.

Does Roald want to invoke some holy fire, or should we just light these normally?

Let's not use Raynor's power too freely 😉.
Roald will just use his electric lighter this time.

Does Albert want to bring the cleansing light of holy fire into play?

I wasn't planning on it. Regular fire will be Raynor-y enough :D Albert will do a prayer, but not in the way of asking for extra power.

I'm fine with going for this distribution if there are no complaints :)
Not sure if it would ever make a difference, but it could make things more interesting.

It sounds like we are accepting Lille into our party. [ref]

Do we want to do anything before we camp for the night? Else I will skip us forward. We can refer back to any conversations we had along the way, of course. We can do a 'montage roll' to see how well you eat before you sleep, then move on to the next thing (and blame karabooo).

I think Kara still wanted to have more conversation between Ezme and Lille. But we also want to get moving, so perhaps on the road would work for that. Just want to make sure we get time for some good character interaction :)

That's fine. We are not in a hurry.

On second thought... nah, let's not accept Lille. :P
Kidding of course :)

Albert has nothing extra to do atm, but if there is a conversation he will likely join in.

We can jump ahead if you like now, Vague.

Lille wouldn’t let a little thing like rejection stop her :P Even if everyone had rejected her, she would have kept following you. As it is, I’m also ready to jump ahead now.

Kara, I think the part that I put in bold are thoughts, right? You can put thoughts in italic. That's the go-to formatting on GP (as far as I know). :)

That is the go-to formatting, but don't rely on formatting, make it clear with the writing that it 'internal thoughts'. So:

So, she doesn't want money. She doesn't want to fight dark forces. All she wants is to "Learn About the World" by joining a semi-random group of individuals she hardly knows? Ezmaray thinks as her brow furrows suspiciously.

That's a minimal change and a bit clumsy grammar-wise, but adding the text in red makes it clear what is going on. Formatting should be an optional afterthought.

These are Ezme's impressions, but not her thoughts word-for-word. I generally prefer to avoid spelling out a character's thoughts and typing them out verbatim. I think this is because, much of the time, our thoughts are not spoken word-for-word in our heads. They are wordless flashes of realizations and observations. That is what I'm trying to capture with my writing.

Has my avoidance of using italicized expression of thoughts been confusing? If not, I'll likely stick with what feels right to me....

I didn't think so. I did not notice any confusion with that post and had to go back and look for it to see. I think it was pretty clear that this was what she was thinking, adding italics should be optional, and not a thing we rely on, but being somewhat consistent does help.

The fact that someone found it unclear enough to ask does suggest it could have benefited from a clause like 'Ezme thinks to herself'. That does not imply that it was word for word her 'thoughts'.

Being clear is more important than writing 'the best prose'. Especially if others might think they need to respond to something that sounds like spoken words but was internal monologue. I have seen many games where people completely skip the "quote marks" or any mention of the character speaking and rely on the boldness to show they are saying something. This has gotten confusing. Use proper grammar, is my rule [ref]. :)

Crap... Proper grammar. Does that mean I have to start using Google Translate again?
To clarify:
I'm usually writing on my phone, which makes looking up the correct spelling and/or grammar sometimes difficult/cumbersome (in the past I used to look up the word cumbersome to make sure it is used in the right way, I stopped doing that because it delayed my postings.)
Not being a native speaker I am aware I make mistakes but I quit looking up every word to make it more fun for me to play.
If this is bothering anybody, feel free to say so 👍

I also don't mind being corrected and educated 😉

Never been a problem.

You’re fine, Airshark! Had no clue you weren’t a native speaker! Is it invasive of me to ask what your native language is?

Tx!
Dutch (Flemish/Belgium)

Awesome! I’m just a dumb American who barely speaks a little Spanish in addition to English. You have my respects!

It wasn't confusing as to what the words were meant to say. But I had to read it 2 or 3 times wondering 'is this a thought or a narration?'. Because I was doubting if I read it correctly.
I see. So somewhere in between those 2 things? 🤔

My comment was merely a suggestion in case you didn't know. :)

I’m in the same boat(rarely literally) as Kara: American with only a little Spanish on top of my English. And also had no idea you were not a native speaker! I am equally impressed with your skills :)