Gregorotto Posted February 5 Clone Share Posted February 5 There's life here... it lives! Hi everyone. I experimented with Baldr here before I moved here. Now that you're all here, I won't be leaving, with Belle's blessings. If anyone needs help navigating MW's new format here, I'm happy to provide support and spy on you all. Name xDiceName xDiceResult xDiceString xDiceRolls Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mildly_competent Posted February 5 Author Clone Share Posted February 5 I have a question, grego. How do I good GM? Name xDiceName xDiceResult xDiceString xDiceRolls Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregorotto Posted February 5 Clone Share Posted February 5 u roll dice, but not listen. u make story good by making pleyars think all random. really string cheese master, pulling cheesy puppet strings. Does that make sense? Name xDiceName xDiceResult xDiceString xDiceRolls Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mildly_competent Posted February 5 Author Clone Share Posted February 5 I gathered that being a good GM involves cheese, which is a pretty solid way to improve pretty much anything. So I think I can take it from here. Name xDiceName xDiceResult xDiceString xDiceRolls Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allefgib Posted February 6 Clone Share Posted February 6 Lol! Name xDiceName xDiceResult xDiceString xDiceRolls Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paro Posted February 7 Clone Share Posted February 7 Hmm, maybe I need to be a more cheesy GM. Name xDiceName xDiceResult xDiceString xDiceRolls Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paro Posted February 7 Clone Share Posted February 7 I need to get cracking on porting more content to the new site, but finding it hard to be motivated to do so this week. Name xDiceName xDiceResult xDiceString xDiceRolls Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mildly_competent Posted February 7 Author Clone Share Posted February 7 Understandable. I imagine that there still might be some posting in the current thread on the old site. But given that it is going read-only in April, I felt pretty motivated! Name xDiceName xDiceResult xDiceString xDiceRolls Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mildly_competent Posted February 7 Author Clone Share Posted February 7 I posted this on the old site, too. But I just realized that the next destination is already decided-- y'all brought Odd along explicitly because they were going to show you to Ragnar's goal. As a result, I won't post the new thread right this second, but hopefully very soon (within the next few days?) I'll get a thread posted here to start at least RP, and possibly move things along. :) Name xDiceName xDiceResult xDiceString xDiceRolls Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mildly_competent Posted February 7 Author Clone Share Posted February 7 Hm. So, throughout the last combat with Vorimeraak, there were some moments where I was kind of chuckling about how there were potential opportunities to end the combat and sort things out and yadda-yadda. And, frankly, there were moments where I was thinking of the "AreWeTheBaddies.gif" meme. But I was chatting with some friends about how the setup, how the combat went, and how it ended. And it kind of revealed a lot more complexity to the situation than I had initially had in the front of my head. A LOT of big story reveals and whatnot in pre-published adventures kinda fall flat if just run as written, I find. It's all the extra and the RP that really makes them shine, I feel. And that's really worked well with the Luohn/Umbra situation. But there was also a lot more buildup to that. I changed things and added some buildup to Gaius situation, too, but I'm not sure how that came across. So I'm going to spoiler some things below, and if you want to read (I'm pulling back the veil a bit!), go ahead. Thoughts on the Gaius and Vorimeraak situation As you've learned, Vorimeraak was the creator of a ritual to turn unwilling mortals into demons. A Childhood Gaius was a victim of this ritual, but it was interrupted at the last moment. Vorimeraak's work was partially incorporated into the plot to destroy the wardstone, which would have not only broken down the protective barrier of the world, but also turn countless mortals near the border into demons, who would have immediately unleashed slaughter on the unsuspecting populace. That much, I think, you all know in-character. As written, Vorimeraak is just supposed to be another bloodthirsty demon that you slaughter, etc. And that's... pretty much all the encounter is supposed to be. She's mythic, so the relevant character gets to go up a tier and all that. It's very "You need to get X experience to gain Y level so that you're ready for Z encounter." And I don't really like that. So, for the last chapter or so I've been building to all of this, by having Gaius change ever since the exposure to the rift in the Vescivore canyon. The RP argument being that whatever was interrupted in the ritual was being completed in some perverted way by exposure to abyssal radiation. Or whatever. Additionally, I didn't like the idea that Vorimeraak would be both a bloodthirsty murder-demon and also a tinkerer who develops spells. Since a major theme of this campaign is redemption, you've redeemed characters throughout, and you've tried to redeem others, I wanted there to be an earnest, real possibility to redeem her. So I made her instead a kind of jaded tinkerer, a mechanic. Someone who's got ambition and whatnot, but doesn't care how much evil comes of her work. Someone evil, but who might be reasoned with. So it was initially a bummer to me that there was a lot of attacking, demanding that she drop her defenses while y'all unleashed full rounds of attacks on her. And the demand for immediate conversion at the point of a blade was jarring to me, too. I don't think that most people change their hearts on a dime, much less under duress. But I've definitely reconsidered that. To make some real-world analogies... this was a Nazi who experimented on children, knowing that her findings would be used for a lot more evil. And who was making clear that she would serve you, but only because it would cause more destruction. Sure, you might have turned her with time. But this creature is clearly evil, potentially immortal, and crafty. Allowing her to come in and help could very easily have been a Operation Paperclip situation. Let alone the fact that Gaius, specifically, was violated by this foe. Forgetting the reward of being cleansed of demonic influence, there's... probably a lot going on in Gaius' head around all of this. And Gaius is, after all, LN, not LG. So there's not the same driving alignment pull to be a stereotypical Lawful Stupid Paladin. This was as much about his own bodily autonomy being robbed as anything else. And when it comes down to it, it may still very well tie in to the campaign theme of redemption. Of how far one can go to give that opportunity, and of who is worthy of it. So, I dunno where I'm going with all of these thoughts, exactly. I guess that I've really got two thoughts here... 1) I wanted it to be clear that this whole situation had a lot more depth than just "Kill the demon, get the loot and XP." That was definitely clear with the Luohn / Umbra situation, and I didn't want it to seem like I was half-assing other character moments. 2) If any of this is stuff that you would like to be explored in-character in some way, that can be arranged. Name xDiceName xDiceResult xDiceString xDiceRolls Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoverfrog Posted February 7 Clone Share Posted February 7 The problem with just having an NPC the party is supposed to kill is that players like to talk. I'm running a game with my real life group and they met a bodok who had an eye missing (another group had tricked him, recovered his eyes and escaped the vault. He caught one of the thieves and got one of his eyes back so he wasn't exactly trusting). It was guarding a vault and the only way past it was to kill it. Inside the vault is the clue to the next part of the adventure. I made him angry and growling at everything the party said but not attacking because he was guarding and it wasn't in his remit. They got round the language barrier (the bodok spoke only infernal) and promised to recover his other eye if it would let them in the vault. Bodok agreed but he wants his eye first. The problem being they don't know where to go to find the eye because the clue is in the vault. They're just supposed to kill him. Now the party don't want to kill him. They want to get his eye back and get into the vault that way. What to do, eh? I liked how the encounter with Vorimeraak went. Just slaughtering her seemed wrong but she was so damned annoying because she refused to stop fighting us (I suppose we were no different). I'm just glad she didn't teleport away. Name xDiceName xDiceResult xDiceString xDiceRolls Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubblesmcprather Posted February 9 Clone Share Posted February 9 Hey! I'm here and a person too! I'm really glad we're moving to Baldr now! Been a bit of a struggle logging in to Oldr. Yeah, it's the non-scripted stuff that's so fun :) In another group it always felt like some players approached the table like a video game and just went a->b, but I appreciate this group's desire to explore the in between as well! Name xDiceName xDiceResult xDiceString xDiceRolls Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paro Posted February 12 Clone Share Posted February 12 I thought it was run great, mc. Yeah, our characters like to talk in combat demanding surrender but unwilling to actually use mechanical actions to make a serious attempt. It is an unrealistic thing about D&D/Pathfinder that limit action economy when something like talking and social skills should not take away from physical actions simultaneously. But that is the rules. It was perfectly in the bad guy's rights to call us out on it, though for being hypocrites. Though, when a foe's morale breaks, then those Free Action talking to demand surrender should not need Skill Checks either. Name xDiceName xDiceResult xDiceString xDiceRolls Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mildly_competent Posted February 12 Author Clone Share Posted February 12 I'm glad that it came through well! So, I've gone ahead and started a game thread here. It turns out that copying over the current effects into the character info table here is a challenging thing. I believe I will have to type things out individually the first time. I'm going to hold off on that for now, and will probably only copy over the things that have a relatively long time remaining, if anything right now. It's relatively easy to rename threads here, so if the current title is a bit too odd, I will change it. I know that I was just saying above that I wasn't trying to half-ass any stories, but I do worry slightly that this arc might not hit as hard, if only because I've had less RP time to actually build up Ragnar's story! We'll see how it plays out, though. Feel free to start RPing and playing here! I'm going to try to start copying other information over this week, as time allows. I think the biggest thing I'd like to get moved over eventually is the wiki, which will probably involve a lot of fiddling. But because support for everything old site is being phased out, I don't want to lose what we've built there. I also need to update it, but I don't want to get too ambitious and burn myself out. Name xDiceName xDiceResult xDiceString xDiceRolls Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thot Posted February 12 Clone Share Posted February 12 No rush here :) Name xDiceName xDiceResult xDiceString xDiceRolls Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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