OOC

A home for banter

I had a family emergency come up over the weekend (my dad had a heart attack and is having surgery tomorrow), and I thought I was going to be able to stay on top of posting this week, but I realized this morning that I need to step back from things until we get past this. As such, I probably won't get my character created or get anything posted IC until at least this weekend. Thanks for understanding.

I wouldn't stress too much over your character. You have more pressing concerns than this game. If you have to drop the game it's really not a big deal. All the best to your family.

I posted up a backstory. Its bit loose, but I wasn't sure how much detail was desired. If there's a consensus for a greater level of detail, just let me know and I'll write it up.

I just realized I hadn't submitted my character after dropping the game a few weeks ago. Submitted it again.

Cool. I didn't see Icon Relationships or recoveries Qralloq, but otherwise the quick glance looked good.

Can everyone go ahead roll icon rolls?

The Elf Queen (2 positive)
The Emperor (1 negative)

Icon Rolls...

Icon Rolls - 3 conflicted

Added in an icon, and an OUT, plus the recoveries.

Icon rolls

"The General"? I'm not familiar with this icon. Is this in one of the supplements?

You're right, I meant the Crusader.

I've been swamped by life lately and will be taking a short vacation to try to recoup. I'll be offline until 4/18. Feel free to play forward without me.

Cool. Thanks for the update, njohn.

I thought Crusader was where it was going, but I wanted to be sure.

So it's been 6 days since the last post... Is this game going anywhere?

Not sure. I'm still here and ready to roll. My last post was an NPC asking a question, but no one answered. Regardless, I'm good to go.

I was going to jump in a couple days ago, but it seems like calendonian is the one who asked the NPC a question.

I didn't read the NPC comment as being a direct response to my question hence I didn't chip in either.

Ah, ok. That explains the confusion. I thought it was a general statement to anyone listening.

Swarley has no intention of letting them just walk away, but I'm going to wait a little while in case others want to jump in to this scene.

Sure thing. I assumed something like that was going to be the case.

Question, since we'll likely be entering combat soon, does anyone have any preference how initiative is handled? Combat is always a lag on the games in PbP, so I've been toying with ways to speed it up and I have a few options, but am open to others.

1). Run initiative like we would normally, and just take it one turn at a time.
2). Everyone rolls initiative, posts all at once, and then I put up one big post summarizing everything.
3). Go the ADD way, and have initiative rolled for sides. Group goes, then the NPCs/foes go, then the next turn.

I'm up for other ideas if anyone has one.

I've seen GMs roll Init for everyone, posted openly, and then you're either before or after the foes. As a GM, I don't worry about order among the players.

In my PbP experience, I've tried all three variations, and I think #1 probably keeps the most consistent pace, especially if the GM rolls for absent players. #3 might go a bit faster, but there's greater risk of leaving players behind (and/or the GM rolling for them more often). I don't see there being much of a difference between #2 and #3....

#1 tends to pace the game the best, but can be sloooow.

I saw the difference between two and three being where and how the enemies get an attack. If use the old ADD way, there's a chance the mooks (weak foes in 13th Age) get taken out before really having a chance to attack. If I have everyone just roll initiative and their attack all at once, then the mooks may be more of a threat because they get woven into combat in a random order. It's true I may end up having to roll more for players though.

I have everyone roll initiative, but lump people into initiative groups, so it doesn't matter who goes first within that group. Anyone who doesn't roll initiative gets put last in the order. Anyone who takes a ridiculously long time to post and is holding up the game gets skipped and can jump into the order when they get back.

In my FFG games, it's a very different initiative system.

I'm open to whatever is decided. I agree with what you all are saying; #1 is the best choice, granted everyone is paying attention. #2 and #3 would be fine as well to keep things moving swiftly.

To keep the game in the hands of the players as much as possible we'll go with #1 for now. If it looks like it's not working we'll trying something else.

It appears two of us beat the initiative of the foes. Should we leap into action, or did you have some setup planned first?

Go ahead and go. I was holding out to see if our missing player was going to cast a (virtual) die, but I haven't heard anything.

Bundle of Holding

So as expected, we lost a player. And thanks for the link to the 13th Age material. It looks like the same bundle I picked up a couple years ago. I have no regrets. I highly recommend this deal for anyone interested in the game. It's not everything that has been published for the game, but it's a majority of the content, and the most essential stuff.

Sorry for my absence here the past week or so - I started supervising an intern at work and it's taken more time out of my days than I had anticipated. Also, I'm headed out on vacation for a week and won't be back until after Memorial Day (May 29).

If the initiative tracker gets back to Bog in the meantime, my intent is for him to find the Captain (or whomever he reports to) and raise the alert to what's going on in the battlefield.

ok, thanks for the info. If that happens I'll take over Bog with those intentions in mind.

MoldyNolds left the game. Do you all want to continue this or should I just go ahead and let this one go?

Hmm. Tough start. Seems like we didn't really get into any kind of groove.

I still want to play, but would be understand if you want to restart or shelve this one.

I don't t know that there's enough interest to keep this one going. I think I'm going to shelve it, and maybe try again at a later date. Thank you for signing up.

Sometimes games just don't take off the way you hope. Thanks for the attempt though - it's nice seeing some more 13A games being played here!

Thanks Phil for the attempt!

Yes, thank you! Please let me know if you decide to run another one. I would definitely join.