OOC Chat

I would still want to DM. This is mostly the desire for a change of scenery.

Imagine this as the end of Isle of Dread: Season One, leaving on a cliff hanger of the PCs battling each other. If the network decides to renew the show and we can sign the original cast again, then there could be a Season Two. But, I think it will be good for me to take a break from it for awhile. I don't really know how to get this back on track and distance and perspective will be useful for all of us.

In the meanwhile, I don't have any specific ideas. I'd be interested in running a game where we design the party first, and then create an adventure for that party in a specific setting.

Example 1: "Swashbuckling archeologists search for lost artifacts among the massive, floating iron cubes of the endless battlescape of Acheron"

Example 2: "Aundairian operatives work cloak and dagger missions against Thrane in the occupied city of Thailost" (Eberron)

Possibly easiest to start with general party concepts or think about our favourite settings. Details can be figured out later Is this sounding interesting to anyone? I know it's super vague.

I think I'm much more comfortable creating a character concept. It affords me enough flexibility so that any unfamiliarity with the setting can be massaged into place.

Just knowing it would be the same group, I'm already in ! As for party concepts, I'm the kind of guy who likes to fill in the gaps, sometime with unusual concepts... As for settings, be it something I already know and love or something unknown to discover, its all fun time for me.

I'm really open to any type of game, especially if it's with this group! Either way, I know it's gonna be great if we're all in it.

Guys, I apologize for not weighing in earlier. It's been a busy few days. I agree, it's gone in a direction I don't think anyone expected. But I blame no one -- from what I've seen everyone was simply playing their characters really well. So maybe we were doomed from the beginning.

Jarveena benefited from a certain level of detachment but similar to the story arc Deadpool envisioned for Moss I also wanted her to slowly come to trust and rely on the others. Might be difficult if she finds they've cut each other to ribbons while she and Moss were gone.

If it's to be a new game with you guys and Len in the DM's chair I would join in a heartbeat! Hey Len, how about a series of vignettes? :-)

Thanks for your votes of confidence everyone. And thanks for your honest feedback CancerMan.

CancerMan: that can be a good entry point too. What kind of character concept are you eager to play? I'll pose this question to anyone who has a concept that they are eager to play.

We can also broaden our brainstorming to types of games. For example, the gritty low magic nature of this game and mid-level character builds were probably what drew many of you here. Are people wanting a change from any of these parameters (gritty, low magic, 2nd tier characters) or a continuation of this?

Here are some broad constraints that I would like to suggest from the get-go:

* A game with fewer restrictions on character creation.
* A story with clearly defined boundaries. Roughly 1000 in-game posts (is post count a valid metric for game length in PbP?) or a few months of play time. More like a vignette like Jabes mentioned.
* A party that starts with an agreed-upon history rather than embarking on their first mission or meeting. Not everyone has to like each other, but everyone has a place.
* A world with a variety of sentient NPCs I can play with.
* Not Dark Sun because that's deapool_qc's baby.

Also, just to mention: if you signed up for Isle of Dread because you wanted to play Isle of Dread and anyone feels like all of a sudden they are getting switcheroo'ed into a different game, I will not mind at all if you abstain :) We all have a lot going on in our lives, and if this is a convenient stepping off point for awhile, no problem. I will still invite you back for Isle of Dread if it starts back up again and other future games we play. It sounds like most people are down for this game so this is probably not required, but i just wanted to make that clear just in case.

I'm up for any type of setting -- gritty & low magic, or high fantasy, modern, it's all good. A major draw for me was the mid-level starting point. :-) I don't have a character concept in mind yet but I'm sure I have a couple of shelved ideas lying around just waiting to be dusted off.

Please, don't limit yourself because I'm working on it. I'd be more than glad to play in a darksun game runned by you. It would be a good chance to see someone else's vision of the setting.

I'm with Jabes on this, any setting is good with me and I find that starting at least 3rd level gives more room for character concepts since you have more material to write a background.

I'm up for any sort of game. Here's some things I'd like to see:

1. Level 3 or higher to start
2. Lots of cool NPCs
3. A game with a sort of time limit/goal in mind, but with a possibility of running future games with these characters.
---3a. I'm currently running a game of Pathfinder where we are kind of hopping from module to module ("Sunless Citadel" to "Feast of Ravenmoor" to "Flight of the Red Raven") and the players seem to love the mission-based approach to the game. MoMo is in the game, and I think he'll agree that it's working out well :)

Absolutely. Though I'd say that, much like this game, my enjoyment is due in large part to the excellent players and GM. Plus I enjoy playing Nim a lot. :)

I think this Isle of Dread game has been the highest level adventure I've done in PbP. I understand the value of achieving a higher level through time and effort, but if this is just a "one-shot" of sorts, maybe we could experiment with higher level characters? It opens us up to fighting really interesting foes, which I enjoy, and may mean the characters have an even longer history together (though really it could be whatever we arranged). Even just being a classic group of dragon slayers sound fun.

I'm throwing an idea here... How about a group of adventurers (around lv.8-12??) that just created their own adventurers guild with every player having 3 characters (like the dark sun character tree). We receive a request for our services, each player chooses one of his own characters that he thinks would be well suited for the quest and lets go !! Then wash, rinse and repeat ...

Could even be based in planescape, that way we could go on any setting we'd like and there could be VERY different and interesting backgrounds and interaction. And since we already created the guild, we can assume that everybody at least found a way to tolerate each other...

I'm not sure why but in my experience starting at 10th isn't as fun as I imagined it to be. Personally, I've found starting at 3rd-5th has been best. If we're building a pool of characters as Deadpool suggests, I would suggest having different level characters. Maybe one at 3rd-5th, another at 8th-10th, and another at 18th-20th.

Thanks for your ideas everyone.

Naatkinson: your idea about episodic adventures sounds cool. Probably avoids some of the pitfalls of PbP, which is awesome. I would love to play in your game some day if you run 5e!

MoMo & Deadpool_qc: I'm not entirely opposed to a game involving high-level characters, but there are some dangers I can see:

1. My experience in higher levels is low. The highest level party I've DMed for is 8th level, and we worked our way there from first level. There are all sorts of spells and gotchas that I am not prepared for and would have to learn about, possibly the hard way.

2. Encounters are harder to balance. I have a good feel for how hard I can push 1-7th level characters. After that, not really sure. For example, The diviner wizard polymorphing a BBEG into a slug, nerfing their saving throw with a portent die, and then disintegrating them - I'm sure you can think of lots more. In compensating for powerful PCs I might tip the balance the other way too far. Might be some fights that turn out super easy, and might be a TPK as I find my footing.

3. Stories are hard to balance. If you can Teleport back and forth from the dungeon to the town, how does one maintain the tension without nerfing teleport? There are a bunch of other things related to that.

4. Analysis paralysis tends to set in on players and DMs alike. Maybe this isn't such a problem for PbP where you can think about your turn all day, but at the table when a character has dozens of potential options it can be overwhelming. Already with 5th and 6th level characters we have our share of "oh yes, I meant to do this, let's retcon that" type of moments.

I did think of a 3rd tier game (10-15th level) involving playing divine agents (in story, not necessarily character class) clashing with Ulupoka's worshippers in the Lands of the Dead who are trying to free their God from the Isle of Dread from the outside. But, my above concerns are still rattling around in my brain.

At the end of the day, I won't get that experience unless I run those games, so I'm not against it. Just wary.

Oh gosh, don't tempt me! I have a severe problem where I run way too many games :P

Think I'm running like 9 right now?

For me personally, one thing about starting with a high-level character is that I don't have the opportunity to grow into their personalities and quirks. It's easy to plot out the attributes and abilities, but I often start with a one or two-line blurb about the basic character, often based on the PHB's background suggestions and alignment interpretation.

However, it's the roleplay with the other characters that helps me flesh out my own. Usually it's because a situation will come up that I never thought about, and RPing the reaction in a "what would my character think?" way. Or it's the bouncing of ideas off of each other. One of my other characters started off as a simple-minded farmboy/blacksmith Fighter with a Folk Hero background, but it was through RP that I developed him to have a happy-go-lucky, albeit straightforward, approach to life.

I think when starting at a high-level, I become more wrapped up in my character's abilities and trying to figure out what they would do and why they'd choose X skill over Y, and then sometimes I get caught up in "showing off" the new stuff. When interacting with other characters, I've always thought that higher-level individuals are more set in their ways because they're supposed to have so much experience, and it's harder to adjust to other personalities in the group.

I do think that for a group to be more successful in the campaign, we should start out together before the dice are rolled. I think it's easier to forgive conflicts in personalities when there's a reasonable allowance that our characters know that "that's how he/she is" and we can adjust expectations. Compare that to meeting someone for the first time and they say something offensive or insulting; yes you might try to stick together because they're another player in the group, but RP-wise would your character tolerate that from someone that's essentially a stranger?

Of course, that's just the type of player I am and how I like to play. Others will experience it differently.

As you like, everyone! Our Starting Level isn't a deal breaker for me.

Deadpool_qc: Regarding me not running Dark Sun, it is for my own selfish reasons as well. I'm looking forward to playing in your world and don't want to get too much of a good thing. By the way, did you see this homebrewed Dark Sun 5e conversion doc recently posted on the Dark Sun facebook group? I haven't read it for balance, but it might help with your own homebrew conversion!

9 is such an awkward number. 10 sounds much better :)

Just kidding. I have no idea how you do it. I suppose if the post frequency is fairly low on those other games I could see it, but still! I know that it takes me around an hour a day to run Isle of Dread, plus idle time for thinking about future developments. So, I am in awe of you!