<Snipped quote by knighthawk>
I wanted to respond to Halvtand's post and yours separate, because I gave him a bit to read and didn't want to make things any more cluttered. When you refer to the DM, I assume you're saying that with awareness that the host of this isn't going to be the only person doing those duties in this role-play, correct? Basically, we have a posting order and whichever one of us is assigned to be your follow-up poster in that ordering would actually be the one doing all of your DMing, as opposed to Halvtand doing it for everyone like a conventional DM would.

Even better! :P

<Snipped quote by Shoryu Magami>

Even better! :P

As long as you realized that, no problem. I'll leave the rest to the GM when it comes to your profile, unless you have any particular thoughts you want to run by me or something. I'm multitasking, as usual, but if I get a moment I'll respond to you with my thoughts. I've run my own role-playing forums in the past, and plan to again soon, plus I've been noted by a lot of people as being an exceptional GM, so if I can help you out I'll do it. Unless it's something that I don't know Halvtand's intentions for the role-play on, I should be able to answer.

I was actually thinking of putting its power in the DM's lap. "Lets see what my good book says" Sometimes a phrase could be utterly useless now, but useful later. Kind of like Mama murhy's sight from fallout 4. or something as simlple as a note from an explorer on edible moss. I could always make it a magic 8-ball.

Well, as I won't have any more power over what happens in the game than anyone else I think the decision could go to whoever will resolve your actions. I do believe that it would mean a lot of unnecessary posts that are just focused on looking something up in the book and not really contributing to the story.
We could simply complicate the book itself, say that it is written in a way that will make it seem like nonsense to anyone who is not a discoverer, and so the whole thing is written in verse, hard to interpret, sometimes dealing with outright nonsense...
I don't want you to drop the book, just tone down the aspect of "all-knowing" to something that you can use in the game.

You slightly hit on a personal pet peeve of mine with the way that was worded

Sorry about that, I knew I took a risk and apparently blew it, will keep it in mind for the future.

I really get where you're coming from. My first forum quickly evolved into one where length, mass, quantity was idealised, but sadly quality was sometimes overlooked. I have dozens of characters saved from that time, sometimes pages upon pages of stuff and I really wonder how I had time for it all, because I usually wrote one in a day as well as the in-game posts. My first game here on the guild was in the advanced section and I truly had a blast, it wasn't until later when the slower pace of adv started to bore me that I moved down to casual, and it is a big leap! People in cas generally does not put in close to the same time and thought into their games, characters and posts as adv, even some "high casual" games can't even compare to "low advanced".

Limiting yourself, as a writing technique, is not for everyone. Not just because it can be hard, but because some people, like you, don't find it enjoyable. That's just a fact, if everyone liked the same thing we wouldn't have hundreds of different games running in all the different sections here on the guild. I really do not want to lose you as a player, because I really think that you can bring some interesting stuff to it. On the other hand, as a GM I can't justify holding a player back. If you feel that you can't play this game, then I think you should find one that you'll enjoy. You should give the advanced a look, there are some games that are truly worth the time.

Thanks for stepping in and giving Knighthawk a push in the right direction btw.

@Ailyn Evensen
Oh, sorry. The whole thing with the character-tab is... Ok, it's not new anymore, but I haven't GMed that many games since it was introduced so it hasn't become a habit to sent people over there. My bad, feel free to move your dudette to the char-tab.

<Snipped quote by Shoryu Magami>
Sorry about that, I knew I took a risk and apparently blew it, will keep it in mind for the future.

All good. It's refreshing to get an understanding response to my gripes for a change, honestly.

I really get where you're coming from. My first forum quickly evolved into one where length, mass, quantity was idealised, but sadly quality was sometimes overlooked. I have dozens of characters saved from that time, sometimes pages upon pages of stuff and I really wonder how I had time for it all, because I usually wrote one in a day as well as the in-game posts. My first game here on the guild was in the advanced section and I truly had a blast, it wasn't until later when the slower pace of adv started to bore me that I moved down to casual, and it is a big leap! People in cas generally does not put in close to the same time and thought into their games, characters and posts as adv, even some "high casual" games can't even compare to "low advanced".

Limiting yourself, as a writing technique, is not for everyone. Not just because it can be hard, but because some people, like you, don't find it enjoyable. That's just a fact, if everyone liked the same thing we wouldn't have hundreds of different games running in all the different sections here on the guild. I really do not want to lose you as a player, because I really think that you can bring some interesting stuff to it. On the other hand, as a GM I can't justify holding a player back. If you feel that you can't play this game, then I think you should find one that you'll enjoy. You should give the advanced a look, there are some games that are truly worth the time.

Before I say anything else, it's good to know you see where I'm coming from with all of this. Like I've mentioned before, one of the reasons I joined up with this RP was because of its unique narrative and trope-orientation, but I also did it because the more casual nature would prevent me from needing to invest large amounts of time that I need to give to my main story project instead. If I was going to invest that much time into an RP on this site, I'd GM my own. That's not even taking into account that I have an RP forum on the way on my own end based on my project too, so pretty much from the moment I joined this site I've been wondering if I've created a distraction for myself that I can't afford. I've really only stuck around because I've met some decent people.

You've mentioned that you think I can bring things to this game a few times now, both when I first joined up and now, the first time citing my existence as an advanced role-player as the seeming basis for the belief. I'm actually a little uncertain what exactly it is that you think I can bring to this. I appreciate the fact that you don't want to lose me, because it means you recognize my worth (in terms of the kind of person I am, and my capabilities as well, presumably), and in all honestly I don't particularly want to leave either, both because I think the more free nature of how you want to GM this allows me to contribute a lot of ideas even without being the GM (like I said, I always have a lot of ideas for characters/plots in mind that I wouldn't use in my main project, a few of which I built Emmanuel around), and also because I actually think you're a good person to work with.

My only concern stems from this whole concept of being held back or limited, which naturally is unavoidable to some extent, since I'm obviously already limiting myself due to the fact that I can't (or rather, won't) use my story project ideas in this RP extensively due to wanting to keep them as my own personal and unique thing, even if some of the themes or "tropes" that I would bring across to this story would reflect elements of them (this is only natural, every writer has a style and all their works usually embody it in some way). I think if I had a better idea of how much you want to limit characterization in this story, I would have a better idea if it's for me or not. If I need to avoid making anything but one-dimensional characters, whether they be my own or my fiancés primary characters (you might have noticed, but Ailyn's character had a fair bit of depth too), or they be the NPCs I introduce, then I don't think I'll be able to give you what you want for this story. It's just not in my nature to make characters that don't feel like characters. Like I said before, I'm happy to limit the length of my posts, since that just means I need to invest less time on this site, but I'm not able to limit the depth, or quality, per se, of my work. I did that too many times on other forums that weren't based on my project, and I've had enough of it.

If you'd prefer that this conversation continue (if it does) over PM instead of here, feel free to let me know, @Halvtand, because I wouldn't want to make you uncomfortable by bringing up a controversy involving this game on a public section of the "OOC" tab, though, admittedly, I feel like everything being discussed here is something that anyone whose thinking of joining the game would benefit from seeing, since you don't want to end up encountering more people who create similar dilemmas to the ones I have. I guess what I'm trying to say, in the long run, is that I only think I can limit myself to a casual level in terms of my post length. I don't believe I'm able to go down from advanced level in terms of my depth without not enjoying what I'm doing, though I never intended to go as in-depth as my own story project is (there's a very strong argument to be made that I couldn't find another setting where I could, to be honest with you).

Thanks for stepping in and giving Knighthawk a push in the right direction btw.

No problem. Like I've said multiple times, I'm basically a GM by nature. This particular RP was something of an exception because you had an interesting narrative concept with the unorthodox GM system and I felt like it would be a shame to not see it happen, as I've mentioned in this "OOC" tab before. That's one of the reasons I stepped in, alongside the idea of building the characters around archetypes (repeat, building, since my primary issue with this RP is if I end up feeling forced to be "bound" to archetypes without developing them as characters, not merely "building" characters and plots from them, which is potentially where my biggest misunderstanding with the nature of this RP might lie simply because I didn't believe a story could work without characterization so I assumed we weren't going to be one-dimensional). This is a challenge I don't think I'd have any difficulty doing, but I don't believe I'll enjoy doing it, and there's no point role-playing if you're not enjoying it. I'm not at the level as a writer where this sort of challenge would be useful to me either.

@Shoryu Magami Replied in PM.

Well, as I won't have any more power over what happens in the game than anyone else I think the decision could go to whoever will resolve your actions. I do believe that it would mean a lot of unnecessary posts that are just focused on looking something up in the book and not really contributing to the story.
We could simply complicate the book itself, say that it is written in a way that will make it seem like nonsense to anyone who is not a discoverer, and so the whole thing is written in verse, hard to interpret, sometimes dealing with outright nonsense...
I don't want you to drop the book, just tone down the aspect of "all-knowing" to something that you can use in the game.

I understand, I just thought that the idea of a god of common sense's holy book would be a book full of practical common sense, advice, life hacks. "As the good book says: 'Smoke the bees before you take the honey.' Perhaps we can use it for goblins?"

But, as it was said earlier, playing a cleric just to play the healer, it a bit of a forced niche.

We have a black knight, big guy, classic mage, thief, elven archer. What else is there to compliment the party?

Perhaps a bard?

We have a black knight, big guy, classic mage, thief, elven archer. What else is there to compliment the party?

Perhaps a bard?

There's likely a significant change in the party dynamic coming shortly. After discussion in and out of this particular thread, I more than likely pulling out of this role-play, and since one of the other people here joined primarily because they're my fiancé they might not stick around either, especially since our characters were actually connected (so her character might not work as well without my presence). The latter is a little more uncertain, because she's willing to play a bit more casually than I am, but she only joined the site because I did and only looked into this role-play due to me telling her I was joining it.

With the present dynamic if you include me and @Ailyn Evensen in the group, a bard is probably a fairly logical choice, though I can think of a few other options as well that could work (if you're interested in hearing them), but, like I said, the classic mage and elven archer are probably out, one of them more likely than the other. With Emmanuel, and possibly Faerveren, leaving the board, your options open up a lot more.

I realize this might inconvenience a few other people, since there was the chance my presence here would've contributed to a lot of ideas that could be implemented with your characters and build on them, but don't let it dissuade you from getting involved in this. It's a good idea for a game; just too simple for me to work with it as a role-play.

I understand, I just thought that the idea of a god of common sense's holy book would be a book full of practical common sense, advice, life hacks. "As the good book says: 'Smoke the bees before you take the honey.' Perhaps we can use it for goblins?"
But, as it was said earlier, playing a cleric just to play the healer, it a bit of a forced niche.
We have a black knight, big guy, classic mage, thief, elven archer. What else is there to compliment the party?
Perhaps a bard?

To be clear. I don't dislike the idea of the book itself, I think it's a wonderful idea, but perhaps not for this game. Do hold on to the idea for other games though, I can imagine that an artefact like that can be really useful and fun in the right setting.

Like Shoryu said, he's most likely on the way out. This game simply isn't for him, which is a shame. We may end up losing Ailyn as well because she only rally got into the game because of him.
Without them we have a big guy (demon), black knight and a thief. We may have an elf archer as well.
A bard might work, or a mage... It really depends on what direction you'd like to steer the game in as a player. The three set characters are all on the slightly evil side, so we'll probably cause some havoc, you may try to babysit or go even deeper.

The three set characters are all on the slightly evil side, so we'll probably cause some havoc, you may try to babysit or go even deeper.

Lol, yeah, in all honesty, I actually get the feeling that babysitting the three of you would've been my job if I stuck around, like I mentioned in a previous post here. That would've been interesting but also wouldn't have had the same comedic implications as a lot of other dynamics like that; my character was significantly more powerful of an archetype that the other characters so they would have every reason to be afraid of him, but he also wasn't stupid enough to fall for tricks like a more stereotypical heroic character might be.

I've pretty much got the update on @Ailyn Evensen now, since we discussed the possibilities and variables a bit over the last hour or two. She did express some interest in still playing the game a bit for the sake of a challenge, but as I expected she doesn't really think it's going to work due to the aforementioned dynamic of the characters.

Her character, Faerveren, would neither have been intimidating enough to play babysitter (unless she relied on being the heart of the team and reasoning with them), nor would she actually be comfortable associating or travelling with them in the first place. The demon would've scared the hell out of her (unless she got to see he had a heart) and even if the black knight is afraid of women he would've intimidated her. Emmanuel is also intimidating, mostly due to being intelligent and staggeringly powerful, but he shared her sense of morality and was not physically imposing, alongside the fact that she already trusts him due to her history with him. Keeping this in mind, she would have left the current party very quickly anyway without my presence.

As for Ailyn herself, she is less comfortable about trying out this role-play as an experiment without having me here with her as a sort of insurance, per se, so even without those character-based issues there is still a problem, which I expected there would be. With that in mind, she is currently not going to get involved, but did express interest in seeing where it all goes.

So yeah, @knighthawk, just go under the assumption that the classic mage and the elven archer are off the board.

@Halvtand If it should turn out necessary or at least really helpful I could adjust my big guy to a more 'benign' implementation (that is... changing race). Since Shoryu Magami's mage is gone I wouldn't spoil myself from interesting plot potential in this direction.

If it should turn out necessary or at least really helpful I could adjust my big guy to a more 'benign' implementation (that is... changing race). Since Shoryu Magami's mage is gone I wouldn't spoil myself from interesting plot potential in this direction.

Yeah, I regret the fact that I can't contribute those ideas for you, since you definitely seemed interested in what I could contribute to the character's story arcs, but, as I mentioned over PM, I'm glad to see it hasn't prevented you from remaining interested in the game itself, even if the potential for that specific character has weakened. Good work suggesting the adapting if it helps too, though whether it's needed will be for the GM to think over instead of me (though if something does come to mind, I might pass my thoughts across; just because I'm no longer playing doesn't mean I don't want you all to enjoy yourself).

@Halvtand@Fetzen@FickleSickle@knighthawk
I'd just like to say all the best to all of you, and while this game isn't for me, like the GM just mentioned, I still think it's a really interesting idea and the reasons it didn't work for me were only due to one facet of it (the whole steering away from depth/characterization thing), so don't feel dissuaded from continuing due to my decision. I think you'll all have a lot of fun if you play your cards right here. I just don't think I can contribute to that as planned.

@Fetzen
I really don't think that will be necessary. You have a good character and we have something like a theme going, so we should be fine. Knighthawk just need to figure out a good character for the group.

@Shoryu Magami @Ailyn Evensen
Yeah, sort of expected that. Thanks for sticking around and for giving the game a much needed kick in the backside. Feel free to check back to see what happens in the IC, hopefully we'll have a really strange adventure :)

Yeah, sort of expected that. Thanks for sticking around and for giving the game a much needed kick in the backside. Feel free to check back to see what happens in the IC, hopefully we'll have a really strange adventure :)

No problem. I think I mentioned right from the beginning that one of my primary goals for joining was that it'd be a shame to not see how this experiment plays out, so I joined up without being certain if this was going to be for me anyway, since I wanted to see it actually happen. Now that my presence isn't as needed, I can go my own way. My work is done, per se, even though I would've stayed under more ideal circumstances.

I've already mentioned I usually only role-play using my project's setting, especially these days, so this was different for me from the beginning, but, as usually does happen, I ended up getting flooded with a tonne of inspiration for fantasy genre characters and plotlines, including ways to enrich the stories of the characters the other players had been registering, many of these ideas coming to me within a very short space of time. I plan to take this inspiration with me and use my ideas elsewhere if I find a good opportunity, whether it be something I create or something I find, so I actually got something from this too.

When I have a moment, I'll check out the "IC" tab to see where it all ends up going. Feel free to message me through PM if you want to, whether it be just to talk or to inform me about a particularly noteworthy moment that happens in the "IC". Our conversations were good regardless of whether or not I ended up sticking in the game.

One final comment from me, I think, since I was meaning to say it ages ago...

I don't know how you did it, but somehow the picture you found... I've never seen a guy fulfil the spirit of the insult "wanker" more than he.

If I hadn't been so preoccupied with helping Ailyn get her character out, I'd probably have commented on this too, probably with similar wording on the whole "wanker" part. I like the outfit design of the character in that picture, but his face really reminds me of Gaston from Beauty and the Beast, who technically fulfils that spirit even better.

@Fetzen@knighthawk@FickleSickle
I hope you've all had a nice weekend.
It looks like we'll be able to start fairly soon, we're only really waiting for Knighthawk to decide on what to play, so I've been thinking about where we should start.
As we're playing tropes and stereotypes I think it's only fitting to start in an equally stereotypical place/manner, such as in a tavern, by a campfire or travelling down a road and spotting smoke in the distance. Do you have any suggestions or preferences on how/where we should start?

A warm tavern on a dark and stormy night in a kingdom in trouble, sounds like the most stereotypical place to begin.

A warm tavern on a dark and stormy night in a kingdom in trouble, sounds like the most stereotypical place to begin.

That's great. And a great place to start an adventure.

I'm currently poking @knighthawk about a character. Either way we should be able to start this weekend, mark your calendar @Fetzen.

@Halvtand Calendar ? What calendar ? Calendars are for people who are controlled by time instead of controlling it.

*marked*

@Halvtand Calendar ? What calendar ? Calendars are for people who are controlled by time instead of controlling it.

*marked*

Sorry doctor.

Update. Gave Knighthawk some tips on character, will get game going tomorrow and KH can jump in later. Want to get this going.

@FickleSickle@Fetzen
First post in IC. I was thinking something along these lines for posting order:

Me - Brillliant captain of the seven seas.
Whoever writes the next IC post.
The poor bugger who has to follow that sod.
(Knighthawk will be inserted at the end here when he gets his character in).

Sound good?