'The Strands of Fate' Discussion.

[zipp]

Oh the pendant wasn't the plot spanning item I was referring to.

The pendant was something else entirely.

There were more strands of fate tied up in that game than I think you all realized ^_^

As for many fingered spiders, Adric's guess about others helping out was not far fetched... there was a lot of stuff in the game that I left like that, little things that you'd either notice or not, but either way wouldn't change the plot.

I don't appreciate games where you HAVE to notice the tiny little lever behind the sacred book in order to proceed. That kind of thing is always welcome in a game, but I've played enough RPGs now (and seriously, I haven't that many) to know that you can't rely on the players to go the exact path you want them to.

[Beowuuf]

Balgin, I don't think the group let you have the pendant at all! Moon Owl did, to keep the peace since he seemed to be fighting the affects best. But only the hand of the GM moving the story along meant you kept the pendant with everyone going along to keep an eye on you. IN a free playign session I'm certain Al aswell as Cat would have fought you tooth and nail. Cat at the very least doens't trust Adric's professional judgement afetr the Sayed incident, and thinks he acts without listening to anyone (which he does, as you have pointed out why) so Cat always felt he had to save Adric from himself!

Anyone have any subtle character beats they wanted to highlight by the way? I remember Cat possessing holy water and a holy symbol at the start of the game, as I thought Cat might be superstitious, especially if another buy back of him being older in yet younger out of the BCS was that he pulled a MArgaret Thatcher and barely needed any sleep, studying late into the night in a quite hall - where it would just be downright spooky.

So funny Moon Owl should be so strict about Cat taking the book and havign to leave money to show respect, as Cat had used sleight of hand when no one was lookign to place the holy water and symbol into the old man's hands as some form of 'help him on his way in the next life' thing. Plus of course Cat kept stealing one of Al's daggers, absentmindedly sleight of handing it to start with then forgetting to give it back the rest of the time. It's not that Cat is a thief, he just doens't think about personal boundaries too much - chatting where he shouldn't chat, sicne he's happy to listen, going where he shouldn't cause he's curious and thinks there's nothing wrong with learning, and also taking things that are needed somewhere else since he'd happily do the same with his own possessions (hence why he gave his gold to those he thought might need it between episodes 1 and 2)

[Balgin Stondraeg]

Apr 22, 2008 1:38:11 GMT -5 Beowuuf said:

Balgin, I don't think the group let you have the pendant at all! Moon Owl did, to keep the peace since he seemed to be fighting the affects best.

AH but I don't think Adric ever asked for it or claimed it. Someone asked him to look after it and he said okay, then took his word very seriously when others tried to deprive him of it (clearly they could feel it's tainting influence and wanted to gain it, of course he didn't want to keep it at all, it wasn't influencing him, oh no! He just wanted to prevent them from bringing harm to themselves ).

Anyone have any subtle character beats they wanted to highlight by the way?

If I knew what a subtle character beat was then maybe I could help you. I've worked out the rest of your typos in this thread but that one truly baffles me.

[Beowuuf]

Actually, not a typo - character beat as in a character moment, a small instance of them doing something.

[Balgin Stondraeg]

The boards are showing the wrong timezones again. It's just gone 1 in the afternoon, it's not 6 in the morning. BY character beat I thought it might be some crazy slang for having a bash at someone, beating them up, insulting them, making them feel bad.

[Beowuuf]

Nah, I think i've been listening to too many TV show podcasts where they talk about character beats!

Has your profile reset back to american time? Mine is still showing up fine, though if I log out it has the american time as default

[Al]

Apr 22, 2008 1:38:11 GMT -5 Beowuuf said:

IN a free playign session I'm certain Al aswell as Cat would have fought you tooth and nail.

100% true - Cap'n Al did not trust Adric at all - he was far too secretive about everything for Cap'n Al to trust - which is saying a lot given that Al was a pirate! Cap'n Al, given his nautical background, knew the importance of teamwork, and Adric was someone who did not work well in a team environment! If Adric had attempted to destroy the pendant, Al may have fought him.

Al was actually trying to manipulate Cat to get the pendant - he felt that given Cat hero worshiped him, that by bringing Cat into his confidence he could gain control over the pendant through Cat... although it should be noted, this was to ensure that it got back safely to the Guild IIRC.

When Cat took off, it was my intention for Cap'n Al to punch him in the nose upon his return, but I never got a good chance.

An interesting side note, was that before Satori left, she was Al's favourite, it was a cross between a brotherly affection for a sister and an attraction to her. He knew she was a cat creature before anyone else, as he noticed it on the ship. I also think she hero worshiped Al as well a bit.

Al was obviously modeled on Depp's Jack Sparrow, the honourable rouge.

Al liked Moon Owl, and had a great deal of respect for him. He thought Berkos was a bit too by the book, but had no issues with him (he knew that Berkos thought he was someone else entirely)

Al did not know what to make of Akono or Tyrste, although he enjoyed hanging out with Tyrste.

I am not sure what the rest of you thought of Al, I was trying to play him as a fish out of water in the forest (no pun intended!), and I think it came across well, and tried to keep IC as much as possible, even when Al the player knew better.

[Bewildered Badger]

This all makes for fascinating reading!
For the record, here is what Moon Owl thought of the others at the end of the first adventure. Again I must stress that these are in character views.
Firstly, it must be stated that, although he was too polite to explicitly state it, he did not regard everyone as a 'team'. Circumstances had forced them together to save the city. Whilst he recognized everyones abilities, and was truly appreciative of what had been done, he thought such matters should be resolved by professionals. Hence his initial attempts to find and alert any Kai Lords who may reside in the city.
Whilst he would certainly have liked to see the others again in social situations, he would not have considered working alongside them if the BCS hadn't sent them on the current mission. Not out of any elitism, but simply because he thought that tasks important to Sommerlund should be handled by it's own people. He was willing to accept the Guild's orders though, as he respects their judgment.
His attitude to Tyrste was one of cautious respect. Though impressed by her skills and courage, he didn't know enough about her to accept her completely. Much the same can be said about Akono. Whilst the Kundi seemed to mean well, the acquaintance had been too brief for Moon Owl to form more than a rudimentary opinion. Still, if genuine, his visions may be an important tool against the Darklords.
Cap'n Al's actions in the battle contradicted Berkos' description of him. Moon Owl finds himself liking the pirate (IIRC, Al had a high CHA), but keeps a wary eye on him. Al seems to Moon Owl like the kind of man you could trust with your life, but you'd be a fool to let him watch your money pouch.
Moon Owl does not wish to introduce Al to his sisters.

At the battle Adric has shown himself to be a steadfast warrior, and quickly earned the Kai's respect.
Cat has completely confused Moon Owl. Having met Brothers of the Crystal Star before, the Kai finds it difficult to imagine any connection between their quiet dignity and the noisy novice. Put simply Moon Owl does not know what to make of Cat, and finds that somewhat unnerving. He does not dislike the trainee wizard, just would rather be somewhere else when he's attempting magic.
Berkos, as already said, has confused Moon Owl with his actions in the battle. In fact, Moon Owl believes he would not have suffered his near fatal wound if the Squire had accompanied him into battle. Yet Berkos applied the Laumspur that saved his life. As a result Moon Owl has conflicting views, leading to a rather ambivalent attitude. In the game I tried to express this by avoiding Berkos where possible, and being icily polite when not. For example, when the team approached the village on horseback, I described how Moon Owl deliberately kept as far from Berkos as possible, claiming that the rattle of chain mail was stopping him listening for suspicious sounds.

Right, that's enough for now. Next time, how the second adventure has changed some of these views, and a thought on how we could restart things.

[Balgin Stondraeg]

Apr 22, 2008 7:33:11 GMT -5 Al said:

Cap'n Al, given his nautical background, knew the importance of teamwork, and Adric was someone who did not work well in a team environment!

OH Adric worked perfectly in a team, it's just that it was a team of one because the others didn't know what they "should already know" about how to operate as part of the team . He didn't boss people around much (although sometimes he did). He just expected them to know what he was doing, why he was offering support in a particular area, and to compliment his actions (and then they'd go off doing daft things like trying to slap a stinkbomb on a doomwolf's snout without letting go of it ).

Although it's unlikely, did anyone ever twig that Adric was mercilessly hunting down a traitor/deserter and attempting to do so with the utmost secrecy?

[zipp]

Just to note that if we do start up the game again, I'll be doing all the rolls, and it will be more description and action based than rules based. Obviously abilities, stats, and skills will still govern the character actions and the play, but I found a lot of time bogged down (and motivation destroyed) by the constant refering to the rules I was having to do, when my main goal was to give everyone an interesting story with some fun and dire situations that they'd have to use both skill and brains to muss their way out of. I'll be making a lot more statistical decisions based on how I want a situation to be, rather than formulas taken out of the book.

[Al]

Apr 22, 2008 11:53:30 GMT -5 Balgin Stondraeg said:

Apr 22, 2008 7:33:11 GMT -5 Al said:

Although it's unlikely, did anyone ever twig that Adric was mercilessly hunting down a traitor/deserter and attempting to do so with the utmost secrecy?

Al the player figured it was something like that, but Cap'n Al had no clue.

Also, I forgot to mention earlier, you know how Moon Owl said he would trust Cap'n Al with his life, just not his beltpurse or his sisters? Cap'n Al was really p***ed off with the town merchant - so he was going to rob him after the mission was taken care of! LOL

[Beowuuf]

I'm just amazed that I not only managed to have a member fo the supposedly straight laced BCS mages steal from a pirate, but that I managed to successfully do it

Cat's attitude to Cap'n Al, he didn't hero worship him like I think Satori really did, but Cat certainly admired him as a like minded free spirit and lateral thinker. And, of course, Cat was charmed by everyone who was goign to be charmed. Poor Al though, you tried to play him as Jack Sparrow and everyone was treating you like Barbossa to begin with!

However, Cat knew Al had succumbed to the pendant's effects after a while (which, of course, was only happenign to other people!) and was very saddened but fully ready to ditch Al for his own good the second he had the pendant. Sad to say, even if Al was unaffected and the two had paired up, Cat might have talked himself into ditching Al later due to paranoia. But to start with, Cat was genuinely relieved to have Al on his side.


Interestingly, Cat felt the group had worked well together, ad despite tensions he thought they were starting to be a group. In reality, I don't think the group weren't a group yet, and I loved that. You could see the dynamics in place, but also the natural divisions and ambivilence.

I wasn't sure if Berkos had swapped too quickly from his view, but of course the pendant (and Al/Cat's own interests regarding parallel matters) might have changed all that back again for a while!

[Al]

Apr 22, 2008 15:36:21 GMT -5 Beowuuf said:

Cat's attitude to Cap'n Al, he didn't hero worship him like I think Satori really did, but Cat certainly admired him as a like minded free spirit and lateral thinker. And, of course, Cat was charmed by everyone who was goign to be charmed. Poor Al though, you tried to play him as Jack Sparrow and everyone was treating you like Barbossa to begin with!

I was looking forward to seeing how Cat and Al's relationship would turn out - Al did have a big brother attitude towards Cat due to Cat's obvious (to him) naivity, but much like a big brother, he wanted to deck him a few times! LOL

I do not think we had 'jelled' as a group yet, but that was what made it interesting and realistic - you cannot just throw a group of people together and expect them to work together, especialy a group as diverse as this lot!

With regard to Adrics comments about working as a team - yeah, I can see how Adric could be a good team-mate, in a military environment were people are trained the same and would have a rough idea what each team member would do. It was just this was about as un-military like a group of people one could find! (By that I mean that we were so diverse!)

LOL This was a fun game - all three that I was in were really enjoyable

[Beowuuf]

Heh, yeah, Cat could be quote Cat at times, couldn't he. Sadly, more often than not dice rolls or Zipp meant he was a little more bungling than helpful. Then again, stink bombs against doomwolves rule

And yes, that's exactly what I loved abotu the group dynamic too. It wasn't all 'aha, fellow warrior, well met' and it wasn't all'i hate you, i hate you more' it was just a real complex evolving mish mash of personalities forced together who had the potential to make a great group due to their diversity.

Although i'm still surpirsed everyone on the ishir's breath didn't die!

[Al]

Apr 22, 2008 16:01:46 GMT -5 Beowuuf said:

Although i'm still surpirsed everyone on the ishir's breath didn't die!

I cannot believe I lost my boots!