AAR 1

I’m opening up this After Action Review (AAR) thread separately, to discuss interim issues, field some review, and plan for future Episodes. It is outside of normal Admin talk linked to an Episode, and after this is over I may delete it entirely from the Forums. We'll see

Also opening up an "Interim 1" thread probably later into next week. That will be more story and game discussion, a workplace for us to talk through and pin down a record for things going on in "downtime" and "off-screen" time before Episode 2 launch.

First off, I really want to say thanks. I had a really great blast during this whole thing. PBP is a new format for me, took a lot of getting used to, but hanging out with you guys through it all was so fun and something I always looked forward to. And still do.

Thanks for putting in the time with character development, for posting on the regular slave-driver schedule that I run, for buying into the concepts, for going along with the decisions even when they may have been controversial, for the cool depth that you put into the characters in the story telling, for bearing through my long soapbox overkill writing, and especially for the casual atmosphere that was both perfectly serious and perfectly comedic at the same time.

If I knew every single person on GP, I know I couldn’t have landed at the message boards with 5 better guys, so thank you. A hundred million.

J - Sincerity

So for the next week maybe, I'd like to have this forum set up to bounce ideas back and forth to review Episode 1, with 2 main goals in mind:

1) Making Episode 2 better.

2) Addressing any changes that we make in game practices, house rules, scheduling, mechanics, etc.

I'm going to throw a few posts out there today. My thoughts. Not required reading.

This whole thing is completely optional in fact. I don't want this to be "The Homework Thread".

I just want to open it up for some of the housekeeping stuff and also maybe to illicit some fun discussion.

Starting it off next...

What I liked best

1. The Player Characters.


That's the number 1 favorite thing for me. Y'all's characters were the best part about the game. Learning them and seeing them develop was great fun to me. Now I feel like I've known them for quite a while. It seemed like although you guys were building their present while in the moment of the game, you were also building up their past. I feel like I can look backwards now in their life and know quite a bit about them. And there is still much to see going forward and I hope to read about it.


2. The Gaming

As mentioned above, the jokes and gifs and pics and quips were a great setting for the game side of this. Admin thread was often more entertainment than the Episode thread and that was great.

PBP has obvious limitations, no reason to delve into them too far - we all know them. But this was I think as close as it can get to hanging out at a table drinking beer, talking shit, and rolling dice. Good show.

Next, I want to say that I was really blown away at the roller coaster of the story. And that is completely due to the choices and changes and spin that you guys put into the mix with the characters.

Unexpected outcomes of adventures are one of the best things about D&D from a DM vantage point if you ask me. This Episode didn’t disappoint in that department.

For the fun of it, wanted to share my top 3 surprises and weave in some "what if" scenarios that were in my mind as possibilies:

1) The sudden outbreak of combat and early death of Fingol at Old Island.

As crazy as it seems now, I really thought that Fingol was going to be a MAJOR NPC in Ep 1. I had really prepared a personality, style, and background for that guy. It all got bled out by Urdav’s 2-hander, totally didn’t make the cut for the final screenplay.
And I did not really see a fight like that happening, at least not at that time, at the witch house on Old Island. Round 1 of Mercenaries vs. The Hive. Wow. That was the game changer.

In truth, Fingol was a pretty terrified guy overall. Rutcranna was telling him that you guys were coming to kill him, so he was pretty scared about that but he wasn’t sure because he knew she could be lying. At the same time, he was also terrified at this point OF THE HIVE AND GLAAKI! After a bit more showboating, he was intending to let the group in, speak with them, and try to work a deal with them to help him escape. For that he was willing to lead them to the Black Ziggurat, but he had to make a show of force and control so that The Hive would back off and let him have some time with the newcomers.

Instead, you guys fucking wrecked his porch and attacked. Gimme a HELL YEAH!!! Thorn chops THROUGH HIS FUCKING WALL!!! Bitch freaks out thinking he really was being assassinated by Rutcranna’s resistance movement. Thorn chases him out. Seemed like she was telling the truth. The rest is history. Fucking awesome.

2) Rutcranna’s extreme closeness and integration with the party

Related to the above, I didn’t know exactly how it would all turn out, but I had thought about ways that Rutcranna could likely have escaped as soon as she could if you guys were brought in and had allied with an anxious Fingol, who obviously would have been against her. And he would have promised that he could take them to Sorcha Rhone once The Hive was away. He would have pitched Rutcranna as a saboteur and a liar. She would have really just been looking for a way to duck out once Fingol was distracted and The Hive had given some space. I knew she would be back in the story off and on, and almost certainly in a big way at the end while she too was going straight after Sorcha Rhone and The Throne.

You know the rest of the alternate story though: once Rutcranna saw that you guys were ready to fucking rock – a direct attack against Fingol and the Hive right then and there, she said "Fuck it. I’m in." Great opportunity to for her to see where that could go, and take an early shot against Glaaki right off the bat. The rest of the integration after was sort of ad-lib for her, but she never really saw a reason to break away from you guys. Very weird for me at first, but then gradually it seemed so obvious and eventually inevitable that it was going to stay that way.

As an NPC, she just got so exhausting to manage. And the tension and threat of deceit both ways was sometimes overwhelming. It was fun in a way, tiring in another, extremely unexpected, but I think pretty realistic and became probably the major driver of the style of this story. I just really can’t see how we would have seen so many other developments (Thorn and Rutcranna’s electricity, Kray’s and Rutcranna’s constant grudge match/trust match dichotomy, at least part of Maeriks’ depth and relationship to the broader Bat Hannoc story, Ivor and Doirind’s verification of their inner hatred of witches and druids, Kray’s revelation about his history with Ithaqua, bits of info about his dead family, and even their possible release to final peace?! Whoa.). Rutcranna becoming in essence an NPC party member changed everything for me and for all of us.

3) The Throne Room

Related to the above in many ways, but not in others. The Throne Room scene could have gone so many ways. I had it in mind as an endpoint – obviously it is in some ways the iconic scene to set the stage and even the name of Dark Thrones - but I left it completely open with multiple ways to really explode. I just did not know how it would go until the very very last moments.

Here’s the big one: ANY PC COULD HAVE ENDED UP ON THE DARK THRONE OF DAGAN and WOULD HAVE TEMPORARILY BECOME THE HIEROPHANT. That was something I built in that you guys could have explored on your own in many alternate paths. I even pushed it right up to the edge on purpose with Rutcranna faltering at the end and needing to be carried the last step. That would put someone right there with the ability to take the Throne themselves. It ended up with Maeriks right there. The dice pretty much closed or at least hid that option from further clarity because CB only pitch one successful Save that was only a match for Rutcranna’s own single save. If Maeriks had made 1 more save, the writing would have actively changed to promote the idea of Maeriks needing to take the Throne for the sake of saving everyone.

And even though Maeriks ended up being the one there at Rutcranna’s side, I thought there was a strong possibility that Thorn or Kray would have been there instead. Thorn motivated by love (haha X, calling you out) and Kray motivated by suspicion and a desire to control – I thought both of those guys might take the Throne at the last minute right at Rutcranna’s side. Other opportunities and limitations had already been made by the dice. The whole story of who was tripping out unconscious on the madness time loop had already been set up by those "Mentality/Sanity" rolls that I made you guys make at the beginning. Mixed with Sorcha Rhone’s mental boost to Maeriks who allowed it, but not to Ivor who rejected her offer.

So it was all a huge swirl, one thing leading to another, then your guys’ interpretation of things and the choices you made, plus crazy shit from the dice – all ended up the way that it did. A wild ride, but that was purposefully the biggest X-Factor built structurally into the Episode. It was weird and unstable for me, but I enjoyed how it turned out and it made sense in the end.

Also from the beginning, there were options for both Fingol and Gorolach to have been used as possible NPCs either competing for the Throne at the end or used by you guys as pawns on the Throne. Long story there that never happened, so no need to explore. But if early on I had to pick one person that would have been on the Throne as The Hierophant at the end, on the percentages in Dark Thrones Vegas I may have put some bold money on Gorolach. What a bust.

Man, I love how there's so many paths and possibilities. Imagining the alternative of Rutcranna being behind the scenes and us working with Fingol... good stuff that it was possible. Being 'on the rails' is just a sad state of affairs.

And the blood bath on Old Island was a dope scene. I remember how Kray was almost put down like a rabid dog in round one when he got blitzed hard off the top. Damn initiative.

Wicked scene... hazy, wet. On an island so escape options are limited if shit goes wrong. Like a damn match in a UFC cage lol. Again, wicked scene. Steep price, though. (Pours some from his 40 into the ground)

What I liked least

1) Difficulties on communication and game management

In PBP, you don't get to have a conversation. You can't hear tone. You can't see body language. Everything is typing. Writing. No writing is silence. And silence is hard to read. And then silence seems to take on a meaning in itself. So the only solution is more writing. Then too much writing is annoying. A vicious circle.

I really struggle when I don't have the closeness of the game table, being able to see if everyone is having fun or understanding. Clarification can be quick. It is pretty clear when the DM should intervene and maybe take over parts of the game or blow away smoke or reexplain, figure out what needs to be done to keep things rolling. In PBP, that shit is REALLY difficult. So I find myself not knowing if things are getting across the right way, and I find myself guessing on what is being received and how. So I have a tendency to write more, then probably write too much.

I'm still trying to figure that shit out. I know there are times when I'm probably taking over the game too much, but my overall goal is to keep things moving. I want player agency to be unchallenged and supreme, but sometimes I intervene for the sake of restating things or just to avoid stall out. And I can't see if either of those things are even a problem in the first place.

So I would just say thanks for bearing with me. I think of this as a "win some , lose some" challenge. I'm probably screwing up quite a bit. Just hoping to keep my completions-to-interception ratio as low as possible (do you fucking Canadian rugby aficionados even know what that means?) before I get benched.

Not sure the solution on this. I'll just keep trying to improve, and hopefully you guys will have mercy when I'm not making every call right.


2) NPC Mission Creep

This was a complicated story. The NPCs had a lot of baggage. They just claimed so much presence and voice. I know this problem and am pretty familiar with it, but wrestling it and guarding against it in PBP proved to be a new kind of challenge. Rutcranna, Zaituc, Sorcha Rhone - they all just became bigger than I would have preferred.

But realism is a bitch. Sometimes it is cool and sometimes it is annoying. The realism we were going for kept driving that these NPCs would keep weighing in as the situation demanded. Then they were imbedded as huge parts of the story and so many of the player interaction.

For the record though, and I think you guys know, I really REALLY don't care anything about any NPCs. I am a fan of none of them. I don't want to manage a character in the game as my own. I can't stand NPC vs. NPC fights. My least favorite circumstance in the game.

I can't try to make LESS REALISTIC NPCs, but in future Episodes my hope is that NPCs have less spotlight magnetism. I will have to keep an eye on stories that necessarily drive excessive writing about NPCs in this PBP format. We'll see I guess. But thanks for bearing with me if that part of the game was a little off.

Thanks, Ez. I too LOVED the Old Island scene. I would call it one of the most memorable scenes that I have been a part of in all of my gaming, in any format.

I also loved the chaos of it. It totally CRACKED the predictable plot, so it elevated the story to such a higher level very early on.

Thanks overall for listening to this shit y'all.

And thanks for the compliments. You guys say you liked the game and I appreciate it, although it is always awkward receiving compliments. I know I don't respond to all of them. It's just my nature.

But I would now step back and see if you guys care to post anything that can help out on improving things. I always take it seriously to try to learn how to put out better games and improve as a DM. And when you are trying to do that, it means you need feedback.

You can write whatever you want, but here's a possible format that would help me as I try to finish design on Episode 2. And I really hope you guys want to keep going to Episode 2. (If not, we can talk about that at some point too - no problem)

1) Name a couple of things that you liked best. "I would like to see more of this________________"

2) Tell about a thing or two that you liked least, or think could be improved. "I would like to see less of ....." "I don't like anything but combat" , "There was too much fucking combat." , "I couldn't understand the descriptions. You should try...."

3) Where do you want to see the episodes going? What regions would be coolest? What kind of stories do you think would be best? What kind of scenes do you envision?


Again, this isn't required. Completely optional.

Also, if you would feel better sending it to me by PM, I'm completely fine with that too.




That's probably it for me on driving the discussion. I'll bounce back with responses as necessary.

Right off the top J, I gotta say that I really felt the balance between narrative and combat was well balanced. For me, the big thing was stated in the above: that I really felt that we had tremendous freedom, to the point where our group could have decided, after getting the advance coin from Zaituc, "Fuck all this and the contract. Let's get out of this damn swamp, take the money and run."

I have a very keen interest in where we're going, though. My top choices, in order of interest:

Arkaddi culture (modeled loosely after Nubia, Kush, and Central Africa) because jungles, mountains and tribes sounds like fun. Love the idea of jungles, caves, ruins etc.

Otessite culture (loosely on Egypt).

Seetan, modeled loosely after India would be cool as well.

Voldruv (Romania) but not now. Need to lay low from Zaituc.

Kauvi (Russia) sounds mysterious as shit.

Haha. Actually, something going through the back of my head as Thorn was putting one last argument for going north was seeing Shen Lain again, now that Rutcranna's finally out of his head. Think she would like a sky-gem or two?

What I liked best

1. Great DMing. No, seriously. What Ez said above, the balance between narrative and combat was excellent. Beyond that, I am blown away by your knowledge of your world and the life you breathe into the NPC's, which I never once thought were overpowering or stealing spotlight.

2. Creepy as hell, both in narrative and in images, which I thought did a great job at giving me an idea of scenery and mood.

3. Group seemed pretty cohesive to me. A little disagreement here and there, but nothing dysfunctional.

What I liked the least

Really, the only things that frustrated me were beyond anyone's control. Someone's busy day at the office meant the rest of us had to be patient, but that's part of PbP, and I'm happy to be patient to get more of the good stuff mentioned above.

The other thing is the format of these boards. I've mentioned it in one of the main threads on the site: I wish we could have a better search function for the forums. For a while I was copying and pasting Episode 1 into a google doc so I could search it for past posts, but it got too long and wasn't loading right once we got past 50 pages. I noticed this most when I wanted to reference something one of us had done or said, but couldn't remember exactly when it had happened. This meant clicking through pages and searching each one for a phrase, which was painstaking and annoying. I'm not sure how we could bypass this frustration going forward, but I'd love to hear some ideas.

True.
"Kray, I know there is a chance that the Longhouse COULD turn out to be a death trap, and maybe Sorcha WOULD end up in demon slave pit summer camp, but do you remember how SMOKING HOT Shen Lain was? And so responsible and ORGANIZED! I really think we should go."



Will Thorn get a chance to see Shen Lain's big titties again?
That is still part of an ancient Alijanian mystery.

If he does, hopefully he won't choke like he did with Rutcranna at the private Tcho-Tcho luxury wig-wam!



OK. I'm not stopping there, X. Can't resist.

True. I also wish you could have a search function. At the very least, I wish we could have a sidebar or pop-up of some sort available where we could quickly navigate to ANY numbered page from a complete list. Right now, you can only choose between 3-5 consecutive pages to jump to, with the list at the very bottom of the screen. If you are trying to click backward or forward, it turns out that you can only shift 2 pages per click, scrolling all the way down each time!

I have thought about breaking Episodes up into Chapter Threads, to lessen the size, but I don't really want to. I want to keep the number of threads extremely limited on our active gameplay locations.

Not sure if there is a tech solution on this though unless the site changes it on the programming, coding, whatever. Maybe computer-expert CB can come up with something and speak some Nerdese with Rohit or Keleth the site manager(s). (Are those 2 the same (real name and handle) or is it 2 guys?)

I can't think with Shen Lain's tits in my face. Seriously. I'm not kidding.

Firstly, hats off to you, J. That was one of the fucking greatest RPG experiences ever (and I've been around the block!)! It amazes me even more now that you've given us a glimpse under the hood and shown that the story could have gone literally in any direction if the PC's had acted or thought any differently. That's what this game's all about if you ask me.

Speaking of PC's, I love this team! Both the original line-up and the current one. Everybody just has something different to bring to the table, and we didn't even have to have dwarves and elves and warlocks to achieve that!

(to be continued, as my recuperating girlfriend just woke up)

Jabes, how's she doing? Steady good recovery?

Love this team too:

-Bryn the Treasure Hunting (Archaeologist) Rogue
-Ivor the Savage as Shit Ex Arena Death Show
-Kray the Calculating Merc Lord
-Maeriks the Natural Wrecking Ball
-Thorn the Zen Sword Master

A small set of House Rule adjustments added.

What I liked best.
I wanted to throw out praise for J, since he is so good at receiving it, but you have done a great job incorporating each characters desires for growth in a very satisfying way. You've also done this even with the limitations that are inherent to PBP. You have also been very good at shining the spotlight on each character, as any good DM should, but it's still worth mentioning.

The old island scene with the hive was absolutely fucking epic. Even with my character death (who didn't even get a chance to use his healer feat!) I loved every post.

What to Improve
I'm happy with where everything has been going.

Player Option

Wondering about this: Is anyone interested in "followers" or "henchmen"?

A classic part of the old 1e and 2e versions of the game. I would be glad to revive if anyone has interest in it. There are some NPCs already in the mix (Doirind, Thabo and Balungile) plus some Danneins nearby at Low Creek, probably meeting people in upcoming travel. I think it is definitely up in the air right now on who, if anyone, is going to be traveling with the party.

And plus, full transparency, I'm definitely game for pawning off NPC management if anyone wants to take it on.

At the same time, I don't want it to be a burden assignment. Not a requirement at all. I'm fully capable and motivated to run all NPCs necessary.

Let me know if anyone wants to explore. We can design something custom that you like, or even break out some retro charts and roll that for random generation of follower attracted. Nostalgia factor.