[Play-by-Post] Tales from Fourtower Bridge

[ERYFKRAD]

Spoiler

Yeah, more than to learn something new, I would do that to try to determine who's legit and who reacts suspiciously. It probably won't lead anywhere, but it won't hurt. And if the spy is a hot chick I might switch sides.

Say, what if we got proofs of a local Council member corruption and connections with Thalen, enough to expose him to the magistate of the Four Towers. That should put some embers in their underpants, eh?"

"One would wonder why we had not spoken of such a thing before, master dwarf. Perhaps we should instead brag and bruit about that we found out who Thalen really is and that we will be catching him soon. Even if Thalen doesn't believe it he cannot risk not finding out what we know."

Spoiler

I'm trying to limit Kilur's reasoning, coz with his stats he's not supposed to be a thinker.
But if one could question why we have not revealed our "corruption proofs" earlier, he could as well question why we have not exposed Thalen yet.
The answer to both question is - we did not, coz we did not know whom we can trust; and that why we want to "leak" our desire to speak directly with Commander.

So there's no difference between two options from this point of view in my opinion.
But we can't be certain if it's important for Thalen to keep his identity hidden.
He might not care at all, if all the power figures already know him personally.
For all we know, he might wear mask as a fashion accessory or coz he has disfigured face, for example.
But council members would certainly want to keep their chairs, just like Thalen would like to keep his pawn in position of power.

But my dorf won't care either way, as long as he get to shoot some bastards, such particularities are over his head.

I also agree with NJClaw, the higher social status of a spy, the more autonomy he might have.
Who knows, maybe some upstart leutenant got ambitions to replace Commander and would decide to act on his own to prove himself before Thalen.
Oh, and if the spy is a hawt dwarven gal, I might will switch sides! >

Spoiler

Better yet, rumour has it that one of the Council is wanting to turn on Thalen so he's exposing everyone involved. That'll rile them good.

 

[Nortar]

Just in case, I'll be away till Thursday. Don't kill all Thalen's agents without me.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Just in case, I'll be away till Thursday. Don't kill all Thalen's agents without me.

No problems, I see you have no objection to us killing Thalen directly.

 

[Nortar]

It's been nearly a month since the last message here.
Catacombs can we have a kind of post-game debriefing?

What was the real plot?
What were Thalen and Co trying to find in the ruins of the prison?
Who is Thalen, how is he connected to the Brotherhood?

Did we miss any hooks you made for us?
Did we do anything you were not expecting us to do?

Oh, and if anyone plans to have another D&D based game, I'd be up for that.

 

[Catacombs]

It's been nearly a month since the last message here.
@Catacombs can we have a kind of post-game debriefing?

The game kind of fizzled out because, to me, a decision on what to do next never came to fruition . I could be wrong and, maybe, people were waiting on me to move things along. With that, are people still interested in continuing the game? Or, is this the place to end it? I'll agree to the debrief if the latter is the case.

 

[Kalarion]

I wanted to keep playing, personally. I was actually about to post wondering if we were still going

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Yeah, still in. I believe we agreed to go with Nortar's plan.

 

[Nortar]

I'd like to continue too, but it looks like we've lost half the players.
To be honest the prospect of playing through the tedious bits of organizing the ambush does not sound very exciting to me either.

It would have been cool at the table (or online) where players could discuss stuff in real time.
But in forum mode it takes way too much time and energy, especially in complex situations with lots of nuances and variables.

I'd rather have some quick skill cheks behind the scenes (persuasion, bluff, sense motive, what have you) and moved onto the next part - either succesful ambush on our terms, or failed ambush if our bluff backfired somehow; or something completely else, like our tavern talk being interrupted by town guards barging in to arrest us or something.

I believe that's the main downside of forum slower-paced games, - people start burning out and to keep the momentum you have to keep moving from one action(-ish) scene to another.

 

[Kalarion]

Well, let's try a ping and see if we can jog memories. NJClaw and Scroo, yall still in?

But on the whole I like your idea a lot Nortar; setup and so on are just general strokes of ideas from us, with roll assignments and interpretation left to Catacombs. In normal circumstances I'd be wary of the DM's discretion doing it this way, but I trust Catacombs' judgment at this point.

I reserve the right to talk for my character however; that's been a lot of fun so far

 

[vazha]

I'd like to continue too, but it looks like we've lost half the players.
To be honest the prospect of playing through the tedious bits of organizing the ambush does not sound very exciting to me either.

It would have been cool at the table (or online) where players could discuss stuff in real time.
But in forum mode it takes way too much time and energy, especially in complex situations with lots of nuances and variables.

I'd rather have some quick skill cheks behind the scenes (persuasion, bluff, sense motive, what have you) and moved onto the next part - either succesful ambush on our terms, or failed ambush if our bluff backfired somehow; or something completely else, like our tavern talk being interrupted by town guards barging in to arrest us or something.

I believe that's the main downside of forum slower-paced games, - people start burning out and to keep the momentum you have to keep moving from one action(-ish) scene to another.

This. I d love to do this online, with a real session, if everyone's up for it and Catacombs wants to dm.

 

[NJClaw]

Yeah, still in. I believe we agreed to go with Nortar's plan.

Yeah, I though we were waiting for Catacombs to determine the outcome of the plan.

I'd rather have some quick skill cheks behind the scenes (persuasion, bluff, sense motive, what have you) and moved onto the next part - either succesful ambush on our terms, or failed ambush if our bluff backfired somehow; or something completely else, like our tavern talk being interrupted by town guards barging in to arrest us or something.

I feel like this is the only way to reasonably move things forward a while playing by forum. Otherwise it's almost guaranteed to get swamped.

 

[Catacombs]

To be honest the prospect of playing through the tedious bits of organizing the ambush does not sound very exciting to me either.
I'd rather have some quick skill cheks behind the scenes (persuasion, bluff, sense motive, what have you) and moved onto the next part - either succesful ambush on our terms, or failed ambush if our bluff backfired somehow; or something completely else, like our tavern talk being interrupted by town guards barging in to arrest us or something.

I'd rather have some quick skill cheks behind the scenes (persuasion, bluff, sense motive, what have you) and moved onto the next part - either succesful ambush on our terms, or failed ambush if our bluff backfir

I feel like this is the only way to reasonably move things forward a while playing by forum. Otherwise it's almost guaranteed to get swamped.

But on the whole I like your idea a lot Nortar; setup and so on are just general strokes of ideas from us, with roll assignments and interpretation left to Catacombs. In normal circumstances I'd be wary of the DM's discretion doing it this way, but I trust Catacombs' judgment at this point.
I reserve the right to talk for my character however; that's been a lot of fun so far

Thank you all for the feedback. I hear you loud and clear: Let skill checks and rolls handle the tedious shit and move faster into the actions (or situations that require more player interaction). I'm still learning how to run the game, and initially, I thought would be interested in diving into the nitty-gritty process of planning stuff. I didn't want to jump from battles to battles and bore people with fighting. However, if that's what you all want to do, I can incorporate more of that.

In all, I support "fast-forwarding" things.

I d love to do this online, with a real session, if everyone's up for it and Catacombs wants to dm.

Unfortunately, I'm not interested in doing voice chat or real-time right now. I do not have the bandwidth to plan and host hours-long sessions. Forum-based posting works for me because of its time flexibility and pacing. I'm also more comfortable expressing my thoughts in text instead of voice.

I wanted to keep playing, personally. I was actually about to post wondering if we were still going

Yeah, still in. I believe we agreed to go with Nortar's plan.

I'd like to continue too, but it looks like we've lost half the players.

vazha also sounded like he was interested in continuing. The only person missing in action is Scroo. If she doesn't want to participate anymore, I'm open to bringing someone in to replace her.

Yeah, I though we were waiting for Catacombs to determine the outcome of the plan.

From reading through the posts: We are back at Brookhaven, either working to expose a potential mole in town and/or planning a return to the prison to confront the occupants, both to be done with potential help from the garrison commander and his resources. It seems like people were inclined to join the garrison in exposing the suspected mole.

***

For continuing the game, how do you all feel about jumping back into it the first week of September?

 

[Scroo]

Heyy yall sorry I haven't been on the codex at all for months basically since irl and work is ironically getting more and more busy the shittier the gas shortage situation in germany becomes. I would love to jump in again but I don't know how much time I will find / get my head free enough to participate. If you are up for it we can try it again but I totally understand if you guys need someone who's more reliable atm.

Again sorry for this shitty situation I'm just extremely busy preparing for when shit hits the fan here both in my job and privately.

 

[Kalarion]

I just finished re-reading this and man, it made me miss it.

Catacombs are you still interested in running it (assuming we could get most of the others back onboard)? And if not, I'd really love to get that AAR Nortar asked for.

 

[vazha]

Mumbles mumbled in approval.

 

[GrafvonMoltke]

I remember the part where I disappeared for ages.

 

[Catacombs]

@Catacombs are you still interested in running it (assuming we could get most of the others back onboard)?

IRL has slowed down enough to let me possibly pick this game back up. I see you, vazha, and Norfleet are interested in continuing. NJClaw and Scroo: Any interest?

 

[GrafvonMoltke]

@Catacombs are you still interested in running it (assuming we could get most of the others back onboard)?

IRL has slowed down enough to let me possibly pick this game back up. I see you, vazha, and Norfleet are interested in continuing. NJClaw and Scroo: Any interest?

What about me huh

 

[ERYFKRAD]

@Catacombs are you still interested in running it (assuming we could get most of the others back onboard)?

IRL has slowed down enough to let me possibly pick this game back up. I see you, vazha, and Norfleet are interested in continuing. NJClaw and Scroo: Any interest?

Ahem.

 

[Catacombs]

Ahem.

And ERYFKRAD, our favorite, neighborhood barbarian. How could I forget?

What about me huh

It depends. Has things IRL calmed down on your end?