Sherwoodshire roleplaying (companion thread)

[choie]

Oh no, I suspect the worry is more regarding inter-party chat possibly slowing things down, vs. pushing too fast. Generally the exposition has cut such times short so the plot speeds to the next point. My instincts are always to go slow, so that's my problem. Since we do post more frequently, at least that's our inclination, maybe we'd just have to be careful not to get places before Saradoc (and possibly Marron if he becomes a PC again) has a chance to meet up with us, or not to go too slow so that the rest aren't hanging around waiting for us? It's a delicate balance really.

I'll be bound you're right about the ring. Although if the dragon ate the shepherd, I'm a little concerned about just how (and where) the ring showed up again. We'd better wash our hands very well afterwards!

[glee]

Thanks to Choie for suggesting a way to proceed that allows much more roleplaying.
I agree!
Please bear with me as I explain a bit first….

You’ll probably all have gathered that Tim P. and I have had combat-based adventures for decades (and it went jolly well, since we are still in touch. )
So that’s been my style here (along with the real concern that no player felt left out by others posting a lot.)

Now I know from face to face games that ping is good at both combat and roleplaying and clearly choie would be very happy to do both.

So here are two suggestions.

Firstly choie and ping (plus Tim P. if he wants) exchange e-mail addresses (or use the board’s private message system.) This means Aislinn and Walker can have proper discussions without having to post the full chat in the game thread until they are ready.
So the game would steadily move forward with actions, but be interspersed by lengthy (and interesting!) conversations.

Next I can pause the combats after each round (i.e. where each character has taken one action) to allow consideration of the next move (and let characters have brief shouted warnings / suggestions to each other.

Please let me know what you think of this!

P.S. As I’ve said, I’m very grateful to have a quality group of players and I’m sorry for one or two clumsy posts where I spoke on behalf of the characters – I will do my best to stop that.

[choie]

Please don't apologize, you've put together such an interesting setup and game world and I'm so grateful!

Your plan seems a good one for lengthy conversations (especially if we have a known destination and that there'll be time for the PCs to have had this sort of talk). For less involved discussions, could we do those in a few "live" posts? Things that wouldn't take up much time or keep others from doing something in the meanwhile, if that's feasible?

This way we'd be able to interact and react more spontaneously as suits the occasion (and the game will feel chronologically linear), while still saving longer in-depth conversations for when there's more significant downtime ahead? Like if we know we'll be stopping at an inn to sleep at night. What do you all think?

Edited to add: OMG I just saw Walker's sketches--those are awesome and hilarious, ping! Concise way to tell the story visually. Are we sure Walker isn't a bit of a Bard on the side?

[glee]

I'm relieved I haven't messed up! As you know, it's far easier in a face to face game to see if a player is amused or irritated than it is over t'Internet.

As for conversations, please feel free to have them any way you like.
Post in the game thread or have an 'off-site' chat first and then send in the results - it's all good.

I would add that there's always time to have a discussion between players (after all the game jumps around in time a lot ) - only in combat are things rushed. (So in combat, just stick to shouting a few words each round...)

P.S. I completely agree about ping's pictures - I hope there'll be a lot more.

[ping]

Sorry, it's been exam week so I've been mainly a slave to marking, but I'd like to comment on what's been said here:

I like the RP. As a player - as I said - I've not done text-based for many years now, and when I did it was RP only, no combat, and the opposite has been games either in person or on voice chat where we are rolling dice... so for me I think there is a slight disconnect between use just chatting (as Asilinn and Walker are doing) and then an entire combat sequence happening instantly, and also worrying that we are leaving our party behind and forcing Glee to NPC them to keep us moving onward.

I personally would vote for the RPing in between stuff happening, so that we might do inconsequential actiions like looking at something or gathering info, then waiting for everyone to be present if it's an actual event happening.

For example, I am happy to sit around/walk around/do whatever on this crag for the next week, but I don't want to do anything that would move the story onwards.

I'm not a fan of us sharing conversations via email. I would prefer to see the discourse that is taking place amongst the characters, even if (in character!) I wouldn't act on it.

Just my 2 pennies. I'm a newbie here so happy to go with whatever the consensus is.

At the moment I think there is myself, Aislinn, DM active, Saradoc intermittently, and Marron run by DM. So I'm happy to chat in RP with Aislinn and Maradoc (via DM) while we are out of combat....?

[ping]

Sorry, that was incoherent.

* RP is great, I want to chat with the other characters and it's amazing to do that when fighting isn't happening and it's not actually making the story move on
* story should move on when we've heard actions from all present characters
* the rest of us can piss about and chat in the meantime
- [personal preference] probably via email, if there's a killing blow or something epic, it would be great to be able to narrate that, eg. Glee says "and with that blow...." ............ and whoever struck it gets to say how it went down This isn't a Thing for me, it's just a bit of fun, so I'm fine if Glee prefers to narrate how his monsters die

[glee]

- I'm happy for the chat to happen any way players prefer

- N.B. as ping said, Aislinn, Walker and Marron are most active, so I expect they'll do most of the talking!

- I'll try having the next combat one round at a time (but if it slows the game down, I reserve the right to revert to doing the whole battle in one post)

[glee]

To answer ping's question about what minor items the characters have, I refer you to post 16 in this thread.

N.B. I'm quite happy for a character to produce a small (non-magical!) item during the game.

[ping]

- I'll try having the next combat one round at a time (but if it slows the game down, I reserve the right to revert to doing the whole battle in one post)

Oh, I didn't mean one round at a time necessarily, I just meant the killing blow hah! Round by round by text would be quite slow!

There is a live game I watch and their DM's trademark phrase is "How do you want to do this?" when someone gets the final hit that takes down a monster

But you are the most experienced here with how text-games work and flow so you narrate what happens the way you know works best to keep things moving.

[glee]

OK, that helps. So I will run the whole combat in one go - and alert the player who strikes the final blow. Then their character can have a suitable description.

[ping]

For info, the Magical Underpants of Wonder are a Thing. They exist, and I won't hear otherwise. I'll leave it up to the DM to decide what they might do. Thankfully - whatever effect they have - Walker left them behind and isn't wearing them today.

[glee]

For info, the Magical Underpants of Wonder are a Thing. They exist, and I won't hear otherwise. I'll leave it up to the DM to decide what they might do. Thankfully - whatever effect they have - Walker left them behind and isn't wearing them today.

I assume this is because ping read the post about characters having minor items.
It seems that I have opened the Magical Cursed Can of Worms.

After careful thought, I have decided that Wonder wants his Magical Underpants back.

[choie]

OK, that helps. So I will run the whole combat in one go - and alert the player who strikes the final blow. Then their character can have a suitable description.

Need it be all or nothing, Mr. GM sir? If a battle's short/straightfoward enough, certainly one round makes sense and there's no need to regroup if our original plans are all that's needed. But if you think we might benefit from some rethinking/reacting/changing tactics, maybe we could pause a bit to let our characters make the choices? At your discretion of course. This way the PCs have agency and can show some strategy (and maybe indeed some roleplaying if whatever happens in the battle might offer that opportunity).

[glee]

OK, that helps. So I will run the whole combat in one go - and alert the player who strikes the final blow. Then their character can have a suitable description.

Need it be all or nothing, Mr. GM sir? If a battle's short/straightfoward enough, certainly one round makes sense and there's no need to regroup if our original plans are all that's needed. But if you think we might benefit from some rethinking/reacting/changing tactics, maybe we could pause a bit to let our characters make the choices? At your discretion of course. This way the PCs have agency and can show some strategy (and maybe indeed some roleplaying if whatever happens in the battle might offer that opportunity).

Fair point! Therefore I won't commit myself, but will assess each combat as it comes.

P.S. As a keen chess player, I do like the use of strategy and tactics.

[ping]

OK, that helps. So I will run the whole combat in one go - and alert the player who strikes the final blow. Then their character can have a suitable description.

Need it be all or nothing, Mr. GM sir? If a battle's short/straightfoward enough, certainly one round makes sense and there's no need to regroup if our original plans are all that's needed. But if you think we might benefit from some rethinking/reacting/changing tactics, maybe we could pause a bit to let our characters make the choices? At your discretion of course. This way the PCs have agency and can show some strategy (and maybe indeed some roleplaying if whatever happens in the battle might offer that opportunity).

Fair point! Therefore I won't commit myself, but will assess each combat as it comes.

P.S. As a keen chess player, I do like the use of strategy and tactics.

I think the point is that we are all giving our intentions at the start of the battle, but in a real-life game that would take more than one round. So things could change in between rounds with our tactics. I think that's the point that is being made, that we can RP or change plan when we see what happens. If all goes well in our first round then by all means just tell us that we absolutely killed the thing, but if it's a monster who might be using its own tactics if would be good to have some time to re-plan and RP in between rounds. (I know they're 6 seconds but 6 s is a long time in combat!!)

[glee]

In case anyone thinks I'm confused , I should point out that Marron and Farmer Giles do indeed have opposing views.

This is because Marron is an Arthurian Cleric and identifies strongly with Count Percival (who is an Arthurian Paladin.)
Farmer Giles is a local who accepts that the Count owns Sherwoodshire. However Giles is far more concerned with nearby farming matters.

[glee]

I did think about having a Sherlock Holmes impersonation ...

Marron examines the ring with the bloodstained hair.
He announces "This ring belonged to a left-handed young male shepherd. He liked his work and was good at it. He was attacked by a young Red Dragon, who had not yet acquired any treasure."

[glee]

Two important points:

- please feel free to have discussions amongst the party in the main thread now, since there is ample time to do so. You are welcome to either post something, or agree something by e-mail and post that result

- the next post in the main thread will deal with the party arriving at the farm; the memorial, the smoking room construction and the party staying overnight.

N.B. Nothing happens to disturb any of the above.

[choie]

Thanks glee. I was composing/posted after you, or while you were posting, or summat. Can we consider the first half (Aislinn's reaction to Saradoc and the Farmer's suggestions) before they start out, and the next stuff with Saradoc during the journey?

[glee]

Thanks glee. I was composing/posted after you, or while you were posting, or summat. Can we consider the first half (Aislinn's reaction to Saradoc and the Farmer's suggestions) before they start out, and the next stuff with Saradoc during the journey?

No problem!

I wanted to make time for characters to chat...

[ping]

Chat time is good

[choie]

(Emphasis mine!)

Walker instinctively looks up to Eye circling above.

He adds quietly, intended only for her ears,
"Anyway, Giles here, he's a good guy. Family have been here a long while, I've met most of them on my travels in this area and though I don't know them all well...

Considering Giles and Marron heard him, Walker needs to use his 'inside voice' a little better. Or did Giles/Marron have incredible hearing stats?

[ping]

@Glee Would Walker have knowledge of the Lizardfolk settlements, having wandered this area for a long while? I'm not sure how far away they are or far his wanderings take him. I have just assumed so far that he has a fairly good knowledge of the local area from roaming and meeting the people of the villages and towns. I don't know how far you are suggesting he would have roamed. (Email me if you need to keep it secret (and keep it safe!))

[choie]

Hopefully Walker and Saradoc will be able to get a word in edgewise once Aislinn STFU already. Sorry for the monologue there, everyone.... and a two-parter at that! The Wolf concept as she understands it (which ain't much) needed me to explain it to myself, much less Aislinn.

[glee]

(Emphasis mine!)

Walker instinctively looks up to Eye circling above.

He adds quietly, intended only for her ears,
"Anyway, Giles here, he's a good guy. Family have been here a long while, I've met most of them on my travels in this area and though I don't know them all well...

Considering Giles and Marron heard him, Walker needs to use his 'inside voice' a little better. Or did Giles/Marron have incredible hearing stats?

I think Giles and Marron were using the conversation below, plus Walker's evident distress.

Walker watches the exchange then shakes the farmer's hand, bowing his head.

"I am so sorry for your loss. I feel responsible in part, as sort-of-caretaker of this Crag and - as you know, wanderer of these area - that I did not know of this evil earlier and help your family and livestock... I am sorry. Anything I can do at all to help... let me know."

[glee]

@Glee Would Walker have knowledge of the Lizardfolk settlements, having wandered this area for a long while? I'm not sure how far away they are or far his wanderings take him. I have just assumed so far that he has a fairly good knowledge of the local area from roaming and meeting the people of the villages and towns. I don't know how far you are suggesting he would have roamed. (Email me if you need to keep it secret (and keep it safe!))

Absolutely Walker would know about such stuff!

Note that the Scouts got a decent briefing on Sherwoodshire from their trainer (a senior Scout called Lestrade) in post 2 of the main thread .... well Lestrade learnt all this from Walker (at Count Percival's request.)

Walker is the Ranger with general responsibility for Sherwoodshire and has spent a long time roaming around it.

P.S. If the party approach certain areas of Sherwoodshire, Walker will suddenly reveal more detailed knowledge of those areas.

(N.B. I didn't want to send you a large document full of stuff at the start, so I will e-mail you with some information each time the party travel to such an area.)

[glee]

Hopefully Walker and Saradoc will be able to get a word in edgewise once Aislinn STFU already. Sorry for the monologue there, everyone.... and a two-parter at that! The Wolf concept as she understands it (which ain't much) needed me to explain it to myself, much less Aislinn.

No need to apologise for anything!

Aislinn did indeed start as a laconic character - but sometimes such folk need to express themselves in a rapid burst.

I wanted to get the players used to my style of DMing and the campaign setting, so we had quite a lot of story and action at first.
But I always wanted to make time for characters to discuss things (and even reveal things about themselves if they felt like it.)
Please feel free to keep talking - this makes for a well-rounded adventure.

P.S. Just as Walker will get a private briefing when appropriate, I'm sending you soon a personal Mellophant message about your Wolf (and associated concepts. )

[ping]

Well Walker just managed to get a wall of text in for himself haha. I hope GLee doesn't mind me making up some backstory there.

[glee]

Well Walker just managed to get a wall of text in for himself haha. I hope GLee doesn't mind me making up some backstory there.

Walls of text are jolly welcome. (It's great to look at the thread and see players enjoying themselves!)

As I've said, feel free to add backstory. General detail is fine, but if you want specific knowledge, please check with me first. I'm always happy to reply (and there is a lot of background to this campaign. )

[glee]

Here's an answer to a question in the main thread.

If you speak a language, you are fluent in it. (So you don't need any check to converse.)
You may be also able to detect an accent i.e. where the speaker is from.

To read or write a language that you can speak, you need the Read/Write proficiency (this ability would then apply to all languages that you speak.)

[ping]

I hope it's ok that I just used for flavour the idea that a person can pick up a couple of words without being fluent? Eg. I can, in reality, walk into a bar in most places in Europe and a couple in Asia and ask for a beer or say thank you. I am most certainly not fluent, but I can say "pivo, prosim!" "takk fyrir", "danke", "cerveja por favor", "diolch yn fawr iawn"... the sort of very basic yes, no, please, thank you, beer etc. phrases that one would pick up if you travelled around I'm not saying that Walker is in any way fluent in these languages, just that he would recognise enough to know what language it is, if he's visited there and spent any time. Enough time to ask for a beer and say thank you, at least! Nothing to materially affect the game, just that he would recognise what language is being spoken if he's visited. It would, however, be a nice addition if he could (probably badly mispronouncing them!) say basic greetings. To me it would seem odd if he's travelled to many places and seen many peoples, that he would not know at least "hello" and "thank you", which is why I included that he recognised the language.

[choie]

Thanks for the confirmation of Aislinn's mad Lizardfolk-speaking skillz, glee! Just wasn't sure if it had to be established "in-game" as it were. And ping, not that I have any say in the matter, but I think it sounds perfectly reasonable for Walker to have heard and recognized some phrases, being so well traveled and clearly curious about other cultures, people, etc. Makes total sense to me.

Even my pathetic self who can speak but a single language (typical USAmerican, sadly), can still pick up some basic words/phrases in German, French, Italian, Spanish and Yiddish. Admittedly the latter is fairly easy for any New York Jew, but still. Not a language I'm conversant in. Oh and Latin, but that doesn't come up all that often strangely enough.

[ping]

Oh and Latin, but that doesn't come up all that often strangely enough.

Well, it's doing Latin and ancient Greek in school that means I can pick up a newspaper in most of Europe and at least get the gist of what's being said! Very useful language!

[glee]

I completely agree that a person can pick up a couple of words without being fluent!

In my time as a keen chess player, I visited many countries and learnt two useful phrases in all their languages:

- do you speak English?
- icecream with whipped cream, please

The Netherlands were my particular favourite and I not only could say a few things in Dutch, but even write them:

- spreekt u Engels?
- het ontbijt is klaar
- enkele reis, Beverwijk

(do you speak English? / the breakfast is ready / one way ticket to Beverwijk)

[glee]

I'm not saying that Walker is in any way fluent in these languages, just that he would recognise enough to know what language it is, if he's visited there and spent any time. Enough time to ask for a beer and say thank you, at least!

Common is widely spoken, but here are some typical phrases that represent the mood of their communities:

- Sherwoodshire 'how are your crops doing?'
- Tsarinan Forest 'May your trees endure'
- Freeport 'Where is your Consulate?'
- Empire 'inferior foreigners'
- Naugrimshire 'All hail Dupperda Junior'
- Ocean Barbarians 'That's an impressive weapon'

[glee]

Just to let you know what happens next:

- the party will arrive safely at Giles' fam (feel free to keep chatting on the way!)
- there will be a short memorial service, where Giles and Marron will speak

After that Choie has suggested an interesting piece of roleplay (N.B. Players are welcome to arrange this stuff with me ) and I look forward to that.

[ping]

Walker will continue to make up random $%&* in response to anyone talking to him. He doesn't get to talk often. Some of it's probably true.

[ping]

(Otherwise, in terms of the story, Walker doesn't have anything to add)

[glee]

(Otherwise, in terms of the story, Walker doesn't have anything to add)

Not to worry - once I've agreed an interesting short story with Choie, thungs will move along!

[glee]

Here's the current situation.

I haven't heard from Tim recently, but of course he is always welcome to return.
N.B. I can certainly carry on with a party of Aislinn, Walker and Marron.

The party have done jolly well in roleplaying and combat, so will soon be going up a level.
In this campaign, the Gods automatically provide the characters with all level gains. (This saves time over players having to find a trainer.)
When going up a level, all players get extra hit points. Fighter types always get better at fighting, whilst spell casters gain new spells. Every few levels, characters can get a new non-weapon proficiency (or improve an existing one.)
I'll send players updated sheets so they can see exactly what has happened (and make any choices that their new level gives them.)

[ping]

Oooh, exciting!

With your permission, of course, are we allowed to flavour our characters on level-up? For example, I have just walked into a pre-made character and would like to be able to give some flavour and background to make RP more interesting. I've slipped in a few things already (like wandering around villages and having a basical - and poor - grasp of languages) but I wondered if with your permission I might be able to flesh out a bit more of Walker's backstory so that he feels less like an NPC

[glee]

Oooh, exciting!

With your permission, of course, are we allowed to flavour our characters on level-up? For example, I have just walked into a pre-made character and would like to be able to give some flavour and background to make RP more interesting. I've slipped in a few things already (like wandering around villages and having a basical - and poor - grasp of languages) but I wondered if with your permission I might be able to flesh out a bit more of Walker's backstory so that he feels less like an NPC

Yes, absolutely!

I've sent you information and some suggestions in an e-mail.

[ping]

In case anyone was wondering (first draft only!)

[glee]

In case anyone was wondering (first draft only!)

Just how I imagined Walker!

[ping]

I will do a proper version later, I was just messing around updating my Bard portrait for Dr C's Sunday morning group and thought I'd have a quick crack at Walker. I have a vague idea in my head (hence this image) but I need a proper portrait which will include his bow (of course) and Eye!

I have only one small stumbling block and that is a lack of artistic ability, but I always love to at least try to draw my characters I have several folders'-worth of bad sketches of D&D characters hehehe.

[choie]

Whoa, you made that image and you don't think you have artistic ability?! It's fantastic!

Sorry I've been absent for a couple of days. Friday my PC died. I woke up and found it unresponsive and cold to the touch, so seems like there's nothing for it but to get a new one. It's disastrous, at least it will be if I can't get the data off it. Cross your fingers please!

[glee]

Ping, that was a jolly fine picture.
My artistic ability is more arthritic... (...which is why my maps show stick figures!)

Choie, I'm very sorry to hear about your computer. (My local computing business say it is often possible to recover data...)
Do let me know if I can help in any way.

[ping]

Oh no! :O

I don't know what I'd do if my PC died! I'm not personally a religious person but you can take solace in every single character I have giving their respective gods an earful to hope you get your data back.

[glee]

As referred to in the main thread, here's a rude vegetable :

https://tse4.explicit.bing.net/th?id...LH&pid=Api&P=0

[glee]

I'm soon off to Las Vegas for a long holiday, but will try to keep the campaign going!