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Post  Ao Thu Oct 02, 2014 11:09 pm

Hey guys,

So I did something silly. I've been telling all of you to take actions that move the story forward, but I don't believe I've demonstrated exactly what that means.

You see, you're all roleplaying so damn well that most of your posts are spent musing on the situation, and playing off each other's personalities. It's actually incredible, I've never witnessed it being done this well.

That said, we need to make sure every day there's some part of the story being moved forward.

Let me explain.

The biggest offender of post rotations that dont move the story forward are NPC interactions. Conversations can literally take a week to resolve sometimes, if we let them. Between skill checks (intimidate, insight, etc.) and questions/statements, it's a cluster.

We can sometimes get stuck if there are several options put in front of you (travel to waterdeep, mount a griffon, slaughter the zombie hordes to the west) and we spend an entire rotation discussing it without anybody making a decision.

So, to make it a little easier to understand what I need from everybody on a daily basis, I've put together some sample "intentions" that you might have during your post rotation. In fact, I would recommend that everybody have a little intention section at the bottom of their post, to describe what they intend on doing.

[........]

(I.E - Post rotation where character 'Jaina' is interrogating a Kobold as to the location of her friend)

[Intentions: Jaina is going to do her best to intimidate the Kobold (see result below, I rolled a 20!). If the Kobold refuses to speak, she is going to waste no time and leave him tied up here in the basement of the burned out inn, and go back to the Black Crossing to look for footprints. If he does give her some direction or indication of where (her friend) might be held, Jaina is going to go back to King's Hollow with the Kobold tied up as a prisoner, and look for adventurers to join her to rescue (friend)]

(I.E - Post rotation where character 'Ribald' is asked to help a cleric of Oghma rescue children from an evil temple of Lolth)

[Intentions: Ribald is going to accept the mission, and see if the temple of Oghma can afford him any supplies. Then, he will head out the north gate of Kanstowne, toward the temple]

(I.E - Post rotation where character 'Neville' is asked by an Orc chieftain to come have supper with him, and a creepy masked humanoid is staring into his soul)

[Intentions: Neville is going to follow the Orc into his cave. He's going to keep a look out for all exits, and keep his hand on his weapon at all times, closely watching the masked man]

[.......]

Alrighty guys. I hope this makes it a little easier to know how to end a post. Again, I'm more than in love with the roleplaying thats going on. I just want to make sure "scene changes" (when we make a big decision and move on to a new encounter) happen more and more frequently.

Cheers
-Ao


Last edited by Ao on Fri Oct 03, 2014 7:12 am; edited 1 time in total
Ao
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Post  Shorjahl Thu Oct 02, 2014 11:22 pm

That makes sense, thanks Ao!
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Post  Custer Thickett Fri Oct 03, 2014 12:30 am

It makes some sense, but I also feel like it takes some of the fun out of it. I like the suspense of not knowing what is going to happen, and I also like to keep my DM on his toes in that he does not know what I am going to do in a situation. If I am mapping out my intentions every post, then the DM and other players will be able to anticipate my actions before I make such a decision. I understand that most good gamers can separate meta from roleplay, and will not use the intentions to change their actions, but it will take some of the sizzle out of a good post if you already know what I am going to say or do.

I understand that you are concerned about things being slow since you can only post once per day, and that this can really bog things down when we need to have NPC conversations and the such. I for one am not worried about this at all. I'm in this for the long haul and would much prefer the story be rich, engaging, and surprising than slicing even a little of that off in a lot of OOC text just to keep things moving forward. Beside, it can't be much slower than combat.

Just my two cents, take it for what it's worth. Smile
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Post  Ao Fri Oct 03, 2014 6:57 am

Hmm I'm not sure what you mean Cuss. I think perhaps you and I are differing on what I mean by stating your intentions. I Don't need you to plan far in the future or anything. Rather, I just need described specifically how you intend on reacting to the current situation. It has nothing to do with spelling out your motivations in the meta or anything.

Another way to say it might be, specify your actions that could complete the current "scene" so that we can get to the next situation. Nothing needs to be revealed from a character standpoint.

As another example, it's the difference between:

guardsman; "Custer! I think pie sucks! Especially lemon!

Custer: *writes a post about his deep seeded offense to the guards disdain for lemon pie, and questions the guard about his life choices

Custer: *writes a post about his deep seeded offense to the guards disdain for lemon pie, and questions the guard about his life choices, and then states he will leave the guard in a huff, and go to the stables to investigate the bloody pie bandit murder scene that the guard told him about a few posts ago

One creates another post rotation where not much can happen except me answering about the guards life choices, and the other moves the scene forward. Theres a bit of player intuition required. If the scene isn't "done", and there are an abundance of actions that require being taken, then that's fine. But if all thy is left is a few footnote questions, I'd say state your intentions for the scene change, to wherever you want to go next.

Does that make sense?
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Post  Custer Thickett Fri Oct 03, 2014 11:31 am

Yes, this makes more sense to me. I think I originally misunderstood.
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