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Post by WxMAN on Mar 10, 2013 10:52:48 GMT -6
Well, where to start without being redundant....
Friday was essentially fight porn (as Giger puts it). So judging the 'GMing' is quit different than on a more typical session as the only GMing during the session was in the fight management category.
As you pointed out Rigil, intent and reality were very different... and while I appreciate a good fight as much as anyone the time between turns was wayyy to long and the fight bogged down into a slow ticking off of HP.
Obviously part of the problem was a extreme number of combatants which meant most of the time between turns was spent by Rigil maneuvering /rolling all the enemies.
I don't disagree with Rigil's thinking in this encounter. Kobolds use numbers to overwhelm enemies and there is no good reason that once the sounds of major combat echo through the ruins that other Kobols don't come running.
Specific criticisms should be pointed out as being a "hindsight is 20/20" and "Monday morning armchair GM'ing"... It is much easier to sit back after your feet are out of the fire and point out issues, it is very difficult to realize and fix situations while your plans have shattered and are in the middle of a huge combat which is taking all your mental bandwidth...
Kobolds are relatively intelligent (average for human), had leadership in the forms of elite troops and a king, and we were on their territory (from what I remember they had essentially taken over the dwarven ruins). They should have absolutely destroyed us in those numbers (which I think Rigil had planned) but a few problems prevented this:
1. Our initial combat started with us in the hallway, the waves came before we were able to dispatch enough enemies to move out of that hallway. Furthermore that hallway was a huge tactical boon to us and we had absolutely no reason to move out of it.
2. The Kobolds should have been played a bit more intelligently, and kind of backed off of the hallway forcing a 'stalemate' while some of them looped around and began to flank us from the other side of the hallway, effectively performing a classic pincer. This definitely would have led to the aforementioned TPK feel.
3.The kobolds had no real range threat and the spiked chains weren't used to their benefit. The kobolds with spiked chains should have used them as reach weapons, allowing the 'normal' Kobolds to be up front while they smack us with reach. If alone, the spiked chain guy should have got to 10ft, attack, and 5ft step away (to be at 15ft) so that way we are forced to go through their threat space to even hit them without us having reach. Effectively giving us the choice of slowly being whittled down in the hallway or forcing us to assault them in more open territory...
4. Once it became apparent that this has turned into a slow slog, maybe it was time to have those skeletons attack.
5. Offloading some of the combatants would have really helped allow Rigil to not get bogged down by combat and figure out ways out of the slog as well as keeping the players more into the fight.
6. Once Uzi became effectively invincible the combat was essentially over, and it should have been treated as such (as was originally planned), bring in the zombies and have the kobolds just scatter.
7. Kobolds using numbers makes sense (as was previously stated), but knowing now how hard it is for a GM to keep combat clear in their mind is extremely taxing even with a minimal number of enemies, the amount of enemies Rigil ran was commendable and ridiculous all at once... Had he of told me to run that many, I would have broken down and started crying in the corner.... So the answer to what I would have done differently, besides all the stuff I've already stated is: I wouldn't of even planned that type of combat in the first place without planning on offloading a good amount of combat on someone(s) else...
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Post by Gigermann on Mar 10, 2013 15:27:11 GMT -6
Some thoughts on speeding up similar situations: - Do a single contest roll for the bard/kid fight, and use the result to determine how long until they fall without intervention, and then leave them alone
- Break up the mooks into per-attackable-PC groups and treat those groups as an individual attacker, rolling only once per group, considering the rest to be passively "attacking to aid"—if arbitrating a flat +2 per additional attacker seems unfair, maybe just cut that in half—giving the group a much better chance to get (only) one good hit in, and making it much easier to manage; each individual taken out of the group just lowers the to-hit number
- Not sure what to do about "grouping" vs mass spell effects (Grease)—probably just lowers the assistance, based on the margin of failure on the save
- One of the reasons my big fights didn't take so long was that the enemy didn't fight to the last man—as soon as it becomes clear they can't win, they rout; this is a very old, and extremely common problem with all GMs I've played under, the tendency to keep fighting until they're all dead (especially inappropriate with "animals")
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Post by Rigil Kent on Mar 10, 2013 20:31:15 GMT -6
Man ... lead balloon. And here I was, a bit more satisfied than last week...
Err ... I mean ... yeah! That was intentional so everyone knows what not to do!
This, my friends, is a perfect example of how target fixation can suck: I'm fairly certain that I was aware (at least subconsciously) that the session wasn't playing out like I wanted it to, but my brain was locked in on what I wanted to do and I wasn't able to adapt as well as I would have liked.
Amusingly, in my notes, I stated "Make this battle memorable." Well, I succeeded there ... just not as intended. LOL
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Post by WxMAN on Mar 15, 2013 18:00:06 GMT -6
Review for 15 March 2013: At least Giger bothered to show up
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Post by Gigermann on Mar 16, 2013 9:49:13 GMT -6
I found it to be rather light on content
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Post by thedefiantbudah on Mar 16, 2013 10:03:33 GMT -6
But was the content that was there meaningful?
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Post by Rigil Kent on Mar 17, 2013 11:37:19 GMT -6
Blah blah nyquil coma blah blah.
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Post by Rigil Kent on Mar 23, 2013 11:54:01 GMT -6
My initial thoughts are: Much Better. Yes, I did some vamping in the beginning that killed some time, but I actually intended to do that for the simple reason that I needed to get into the right mindset. I literally worked until 1800 and then had to rush to get some other stuff prepped that I'd overlooked after I'd made some last minute story changes. Plus, I knew Tom was going to be swinging by and didn't want to get started too early and then interrupt. With this, I wanted to do something combat lite to make up for the fight porn we did the session previous as well as play around with doing an investigation and hopefully make it more interesting than "you rolled X on Gather Information so you learn..." I also included some plot threads/notes in the GM section of the adventure synopsis because I thought that might be a cool idea. The Good:- I was fairly pleased with how the overall investigation went despite being worried. I had the high points of it sketched out in my notes - this is what's happening, this is the DC necessary to progress to the next Clue, etc. - but I didn't get into too much detail out of fear it would lead to me basically just talking. The fact that I was filling in the gaps (with the overall "what's going on" figured out) as I went along was probably obvious, but I didn't think it sucked too bad.
- Barlowe is actually fairly fun to play with and the hat thing actually plays into another idea I had for down the road. I expect you guys might quickly become his favorite customers depending on your next actions...
- We actually did a quick bit of WalMart d20 and managed to incorporate it into the investigation plot. Well done, guys!
- Everyone in the group appeared engaged (once I got my head on straight) at least until we all started to fade fairly late and I noted WxMAN nodding in approval when the Trinity broke out the knives to cut themselves. I hope he likes what I'm doing with his doppleganger plot threads. Everyone seemed genuinely interested in figuring out what was going on instead of just following the next plot point, which is always kind of cool.
The Bad:- I kind of skimmed over the aftermath in Falcon's Hollow, which wasn't intended, but ended up being necessary because of the late start and my own "get into the right mindset, dammit" fugue. For that, I apologize.
- Toward the end, when Walen was following the Thugs ("Football Guys") and Dick Undercutter, I didn't do as good a job of keeping it clear who was who and what was happening. Both Budah and LabRat were at least briefly confused over identities at separate points, and when Mysterious Woman took out Dick Undercutter, I'm pretty sure a couple people at least initially thought she was taking out the Thug. That was my bad, made worse by everyone starting to fade due to the lateness of the hour, and I'll endeavour to be more clear next time.
The Ugly: I jokingly said "I'm going to run 5 sessions!" before I started but never really intended to do so ... but I sincerely think that I will have to do 5 sessions. Hope that's okay. I hate scoring myself but I'd give this a tentative 7, 7 and a half. What I'd like to do now is award a bonus ActionPoint/Bennie/Wish/Whatever ... but I'm going to steal from the Saturday online group and ask that you guys assign it. Who do you think deserves it and why? Let's encourage more than just the GM. Hope you liked it.
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Post by LabRat on Mar 24, 2013 8:36:38 GMT -6
I liked the introduction of Dame Lynda and her purpose as liaison. Now, I realize it didn't make sense for the PCs to report directly to a general. So I am glad that you wrote her into the story.
I literally LOL'd when you decided to name the shopkeep Dick Undercutter. Brilliant!
The clue hunting went rather well, I think. You gave us a bit of a push when we appeared to be a bit stuck in the end, but overall, it didn't feel like you were dragging us along. And you left it on a nice unresolved plot hook, so this entire week I am going to be sitting here wondering what is going to happen.
Interacting with Barlowe was great. He will probably be made into this delightful NPC that we are going to cherish as players. And you are right, very few times have we done Walmartd20 that actually tied in with the plot. That was pretty cool.
Honestly, you touched on the only critique I could have mentioned, and that was the final scene with the woman, thugs, and shopkeep was a bit confusing in regards to what was happening. In the end, it wasn't a big deal as it only required simple clarification to fix.
Overall you were extremely engaging during this session. I know we kind of sandbagged the beginning, but once we got into the meat and bones, you seemed to be really wanting to give us a good session, and I think you pulled it off. This is really the first session where you seemed to be enjoying yourself as well. So ultimately, I think that is the reason why Friday night was so successful.
I think the 'atta boy point should go to Walen. He had the balls to go off and investigate by himself and remembered he had a scroll of disguise which was insanely helpful. Not to mention he tried to show the party where he was going, even if it was largely ineffective, it was still good role playing.
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Post by thedefiantbudah on Mar 24, 2013 18:09:48 GMT -6
I really enjoyed how things started to flow (after the initial social hour ) and kept things going pretty good and kept us going and engaged as far as the 'atta boy...IDK honestly (thanks LabRat for the nod) I'm doing good to keep my thoughts straight this past week with the move and everything as far as how I played Walen ...I'm trying to incorporate some of the "scout" into the way he reacts, as well as keeping with the "bard" face man....
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Post by Rigil Kent on Mar 24, 2013 19:31:45 GMT -6
as far as how I played Walen ...I'm trying to incorporate some of the "scout" into the way he reacts, as well as keeping with the "bard" face man.... Huh. I hadn't even thought of it like that - makes a lot of sense. Good job!
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Post by Gigermann on Mar 25, 2013 9:24:22 GMT -6
Chris RPd to his own (potential) hurt; my vote. Good job. I have little complaint about the session. The "chase" was a bit confusing—perhaps some better visual cues might have helped—some area screenshots or something, or maybe using minis to represent the different parties? On a related note: we've got images for the recurring NPCs, but I think we need some "establishing shots" of the recurring locations- Thatchers' place
- Barlowe's shop
- Guard HQ?
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Post by WxMAN on Mar 25, 2013 12:00:28 GMT -6
First off, the vamping was fine.. especially considering Tom was stopping by and the hectic work week... In general I'd kinda like to eliminate as much vamping as possible but from time to time it is unavoidable and not a big deal...
I agree the Falcon's Hollow seemed a bit rushed for the reasons you described. I'd kinda also like to spotlight that maybe Falcon's Hollow in general hadn't been really well described.. Until you had said something, I had no idea we were dealing with a NE town alignment - it never really felt that way... I guess it was inconsequential to what we were doing, but it was a surprise to me...
I know its mid-stride in your run, but so far Falcon's Hollow seems like a 'sidequest' with little consequence to the bigger picture (this may or may not be the case). If it was just a diversion, there really isn't anything 'wrong' with it, but as we are all running very short snippets of the campaign that little diversion essentially ate up half your run, leaving the other half to deal with the bigger campaign issues at large... this may lead to a bit of a 'disjointed' feel during your run that could be tightened up a bit to better fit this format - as a sidequest in a major storyline with 1 GM wouldn't feel this way...
The wardog talk / discussion should have been sidelined for discussion on the boards as it became apparent early on it was going to take quite a bit of time to look at all the rules and figure out what can and can't happen and completely derailed the campaign for quite a bit of time... It wasn't something that needed to be addressed in that session as it wasn't going to come into play and only affected one person in the party...
I did enjoy the doppelgangers coming into play and will admit it gave me a little bit of a "fizzy sensation" that you used one of my plot threads... It'll be interesting to see where you take it... The smirk was more of me considering the references to DS9 and the changelings and whether or not the doppelgangers could get around the blood tests in the same way Sisko's dad suggested - absorb blood into their body and "spit" it out on command (onto the candle in this case)... though Shelley and I don't think they could (yes we discussed it)
As far as the investigation and chase, I actually had no issue figuring out who / what / where things were going, but since others did, I guess their complaints will help fix more than me saying it was fine by me...
Also, doing an investigation story is very ambitious featuring I don't think we as a group have become very proactive yet in doing things without the GM's prompting and without a proactive group it may feel like you are dragging us along by a leash to get the "who dun it" figured out... though the mystery is definitely a very cool one... (I still haven't figured out how to best incorporate my interest in the plot vs Bruno's "less talk, more smashy" desires)
Now it may seem like I just ripped into the session - but I want to make a point that most of these are tiny nitpicks to just tighten up the campaign a bit... It is so much easier to write a lot about very little things... It is kind of like critiquing a steak meal, I can say it was slightly under seasoned or maybe cooked just a tad too long with too high of heat, etc etc... but if you bring me a chicken salad all I can really say is "it isn't a steak" so the review is much simpler and less wordy since there were fundamental issues that need to be addressed before I can even get down to the details... As such you brought a delicious steak meal that could have used maybe a little less salt... overall a good showing with minor niggles
Point to ChrisIII for being all scouty like and probably getting himself arrested on suspicion of murder
....mmmmmm steak.....
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Post by Rigil Kent on Mar 25, 2013 14:33:39 GMT -6
On a related note: we've got images for the recurring NPCs, but I think we need some "establishing shots" of the recurring locations- Thatchers' place
- Barlowe's shop
- Guard HQ?
Good idea. I will start working to include that sort of thing in the PP. I agree the Falcon's Hollow seemed a bit rushed for the reasons you described. I'd kinda also like to spotlight that maybe Falcon's Hollow in general hadn't been really well described.. Until you had said something, I had no idea we were dealing with a NE town alignment - it never really felt that way... I guess it was inconsequential to what we were doing, but it was a surprise to me... I know its mid-stride in your run, but so far Falcon's Hollow seems like a 'sidequest' with little consequence to the bigger picture (this may or may not be the case). If it was just a diversion, there really isn't anything 'wrong' with it, but as we are all running very short snippets of the campaign that little diversion essentially ate up half your run, leaving the other half to deal with the bigger campaign issues at large... this may lead to a bit of a 'disjointed' feel during your run that could be tightened up a bit to better fit this format - as a sidequest in a major storyline with 1 GM wouldn't feel this way... Wholeheartedly agree. I consider the entire thing something of a misstep on my part. Sadly, we do that all too frequently. You are correct - I should have tabled that for later. Heh. Maybe we're unleashing his inner detective and he's discovering he likes mysteries? ... mmm ... steak ... No worries. Good constructive criticism. Thank you kindly. Extra Bennie to Budah.
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Post by Rigil Kent on Apr 1, 2013 7:48:25 GMT -6
Frak. Where did the weekend go? I blinked and it was Monday ... comments forthcoming...
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Post by Rigil Kent on Apr 1, 2013 8:29:15 GMT -6
Overall Thoughts: Could have been better, could have been worse. Bizarrely, this was the second session in a row without any combat in it. The Good: Biggest takeaway was that no one seemed bored. - Everyone appeared engaged and interested (or at least faked it nicely.)
- I managed to cover most of the things I wanted to cover.
- The group came up with some very unique ways to test me, some of which I obviously wasn't expecting or quite as prepared for.
The Bad:- My time management sucked. I did not get to the ending I wanted because of this. Yes, we ended a little early, but I had anticipated us being further along by 2300, which was again, my fault.
- Budah's phone is starting to creep back into the game.
- I was totally not expecting the whole "test the gates by firebombing it" which probably showed in my response (and further slowed things down), so that could have gone a lot better.
The Ugly: That poor cart driver...
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Post by WxMAN on Apr 1, 2013 10:27:42 GMT -6
Overall I think the session went fine. Being that this session (as was the last) is a more 'investigation' styled one it is very difficult to know how I would have done things differently as I haven't even tried to run one... It is also a likely impossible balance to get everyone happy with the time allotted for the PC's to figure something out vs the GM giving more and larger hints until he just breaks down and draws us a picture of what we're missing... I doubt everyone will agree on where that line is, but I thought it was handled relatively well... It was challenging but never felt like we were just going to sit and wait for you to hand us another clue... There is also a big risk of failure that I don't know how you are handling... That is another very difficult balance to make it so if you miss one clue (or it comes down to one roll) you 'fail' the investigation irrecoverably, but where there is still a concern of failure if the right path isn't chosen/figured out... Unfortunately a lot of that is background stuff that we as players never see so it is almost impossible for us to critique unless we have your notes/mindset on each decision point.... Regarding time management: As discussed after gaming, I think during an investigate style session especially there is no real way to go from point A to point B all the while allowing your PC's to drive the action and do so on your time scale. I don't think you should be as hard on yourself about it and I think you shouldn't try and 'force' things to get to your predestined point at specific times. Just have multiple places that are good for ending the night and be done with it so that way it never feels like your are 'hurrying' the PC's or the story... I actually feel you handled the firebombing really well as we were planning while you and ChrisIII did some bardy RP.. You never tried to shut down our plans and seemed to handle the improv'ing very nicely... I was actually very impressed with it. You may of been like a duck... feet going crazy under the water, but to the observer on the shore all was calm and cool.... Budah's phone is starting to creep back into the game. Yes, and while it was likely good natured, telling the GM "no" when he asks you to put it down is disrespectful My choice for bennie goes to Giger for the firebombing idea
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Post by Gigermann on Apr 1, 2013 10:58:32 GMT -6
You may of been like a duck... May have, not may of. Friends don't let friends be wrong… ;D
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Post by Rigil Kent on Apr 1, 2013 10:58:51 GMT -6
You may of been like a duck... feet going crazy under the water, but to the observer on the shore all was calm and cool.... QUACK QUACK!
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Post by Gigermann on Apr 1, 2013 14:37:40 GMT -6
There was a good "energy" about it—hard to put a finger on where it came from, though. I know all about player-blindsides, though in my case, it usually results from my own tunnel-vision; the knee-jerk solution is more prep or more improv, neither of which I have the temperament for these days—my intended solution for ATE is die-rolls, but that will undoubtedly fail from time to time, as well. We'll see…
Time management is really difficult. I'd bet most game sessions could be run in about 30min, if you remove combat (obviously the biggest time-eater) and the "lag" between decisions/etc. (the issue at hand). Without video-analysis of the game, it's hard to nail down the cause of lag, but I'd love to see how a game might go without it one day.
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Post by Rigil Kent on Apr 4, 2013 19:56:44 GMT -6
Sorry for the delay in updating the adventure log - as Giger can attest, I have been, once again, swamped at work. Ugh...
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Post by WxMAN on Apr 4, 2013 21:07:03 GMT -6
Its fine... it isn't like Buddah or Labrat have even left a review.... FOR SHAME!
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Post by Rigil Kent on Apr 5, 2013 9:33:25 GMT -6
If their week has been anything like my week, they're lucky to remember to breathe...
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Post by LabRat on Apr 5, 2013 10:39:35 GMT -6
Its fine... it isn't like Buddah or Labrat have even left a review.... FOR SHAME! Looks like we got ourselves a hall monitor But seriously, a thousand apologies. I was told earlier this week I had to do a presentation regarding a series of experiments that I am currently working on by Thursday. I haven't analyzed any of the data since I was in the middle of the experiment. I was already swamped Monday and Tuesday so on Wednesday I had to calculate, do stat analysis, organize and graph out over 1200 points of data. It was insane. Of course in the 11th hour when I was trying to get everything done, essentially on the verge of tears, I was informed that the presentation was cancelled (42 minutes before I was supposed to present) because they wanted me to go to a scientific supply vendor expo instead. So that was essentially my week...wOOf! Anyway, I thought last session was rather good. I think that it was engaging and everyone was having a good time. I think that investigation is somewhat a risky venture for the GM because there is a very fine line to walk between letting the players figure it out and leading them along. I believe you have successfully pulled it off during both sessions. You mentioned yourself being tested by some of our more creative problem solving solutions. I just wanted to point out that, on the outside, you hardly skipped a beat in determining how as a GM you were going to allow us to proceed. As N8 and Giger, said before, it is really difficult to determine time management while doing an investigative session. We might be one the ball and fly through it, or we might have had a night where we weren't making much progress. I wouldn't beat yourself up too much if we didn't get to a particular point in the story. You can always trim the fat or heck, just run an extra session to get everything in. ChrisIII might thank you I agree about the phone becoming more of an issue as time progresses. Granted I was answering texts from my mom concerning Easter weekend, so I do apologize for that. I tried to be discrete so hopefully it wasn't too much of an interruption. Overall it went very well. I think we were all satisfied and it sets us up for an encounter right off the bat. So yay for that! Bennie should go to Bruno for being...well...Bruno
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Post by Rigil Kent on Apr 6, 2013 0:08:53 GMT -6
More remarks/comments later, but first, I want to apologize for the rushed ending. I had too much in mind and ... well ... rushed things. With the group's permission, I would actually like to retcon the end of the session to simply stop when Sir Brighton plunged his blade into the Queen, thus leaving a far more manageable cliffhanger for a newbie GM to deal with. We can just pretend the rest - the ship, the fight, the likely broken magical weapon - never happened.
I would like to award the entire group a bonus Bennie for putting up with my nonsense.
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Post by thedefiantbudah on Apr 6, 2013 10:22:40 GMT -6
I'd much rather go forward with the ending as it was...mainly because that would require a large rewrite on my part and not sure I could have that accomplished within the week...it wasn't your best work, but it was still enjoyable finish all the same...but that's my biased input
strike my last...lets go ahead and retcon that ending...because...I have a Plan...
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Post by WxMAN on Apr 6, 2013 12:06:55 GMT -6
Retcon is fine with me. Actual review and entire run review later....
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Post by Rigil Kent on Apr 6, 2013 18:16:23 GMT -6
Initial session review is thus: First half was decent, second half was too rushed wherein I tried to do too much in too little time. More below. The Good:- I thought the opening warehouse battle actually went well. It was intended to be a challenging one (and FYI, I used the Changeling race from Eberron for those guys) and it was definitely that right up until my dice decided that was enough, and it was time to shaft my NPCs. The "Blastoff" crit fumble by the warlock was especially memorable.
- Everyone put up with my nonsense quite nicely and I appreciate that.
The Bad: Oh, man, where to start? This session was a perfect example of a GM trying to cram way too much stuff into a single night - as mentioned before, I should have stopped midway through the wedding scene, wherein the (false) Queen was murdered in front of the players, and then left the whole discovery of the Princess being possessed/evil/whatever and Drago being behind it all for my next cycle. Ironically, I recently read a gaming article (don't remember where) in which the author cautioned against trying to cram what amounts to (using television terms) an entire season of plot development into a single episode, which makes it all the more damning on my part. My "target fixation" - end with the explosion on the ship - once again reared its ugly head and I pressed on, faster than before, when I should have simply stopped, took a breath, and re-evaluated how I wanted the session to end. Frustratingly, as soon as the session ended and I left the building, I knew where and how I had screwed up ... which sadly doesn't really help the players who had to sit through a partial catastrophe. So I want to apologize for that mess. So, some background on my intent: the second night of the investigation (last week, not this session) was actually not intended, but everyone seemed to be having a bit more fun than I expected with the investigation and we actually hadn't gotten as far as I wanted to, so I added the second night, expanded it a little bit, and intended to end the session with the warehouse fight (that started last night) and the revelation that the dopplegangers appeared to have penetrated the palace. Thus, last night's session would pick up and complete the wedding and the pursuit ... but, as we saw, the warehouse fight ran long and then, the wedding stuff was rushed through without the care I would have liked. I think that, if this had been my Crimson City game, I would have felt a little less bothered about just stopping with the queen getting ganked and then picking up the next week with the aftermath and pursuit, but with me having already gone over the established "three to four sessions", I tried (and failed, IMO) to ram too much through. Expect some additional thoughts in the GM section of the Adventure Synopsis over on the Portals today or tomorrow. The Ugly: Bruno falls! That crit against him was unexpected and definitely had the potential to change everything. Overall session thoughts: Sadly, because of the second half being just a rushjob and mess, I can't give myself a grade higher than a C (or 5 out of 10). Overall Run thoughts: A disjointed mess that really needed some sharpening up. My original intent was: - Quick dungeon crawl following previous GM. This was expected to take one session, but ran long (common occurrence) into two.
- Session 2 brings PCs back to Kingsport where the investigation begins.
- Session 3 leads into the wedding. Ends with the Queen getting ganked.
- Session 4 has the pursuit and final encounter.
Unfortunately, due principally to my fumbling of the ball (I'd like to blame other elements and must admit that my workload outside the game no doubt contributed to the inconsistent feel of the game, but that can be no excuse), things got all screwed up and I did not not adapt (in an overall fashion) as well as I should have. So I have to give myself (if I'm honest) a low C for the entire run - tried to cram too much into too little time and did a craptastic job of pacing myself. Well ... at least I'm honest, eh?
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Post by Gigermann on Apr 6, 2013 18:27:28 GMT -6
I agree with the GM's assessment. Really not much more to add to that.
The "wedding," though, brings into light another of those awkward RPG moments: the social gathering. For years, I have been trying to figure out a way to run an event like that without it feeling like a guided tour of the latest NPCs and their machinations. Thoughts?
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Post by LabRat on Apr 8, 2013 11:00:59 GMT -6
I wouldn't be so hard on yourself. It wasn't a bad set of sessions, but it was apparent that you weren't up to your usual standards. I guess the one thing that concerns me a bit is that this seemed to be an issue from essentially the start of your run. Instead of making an apparent effort to try to fix it, you would just continue on and then beat up on yourself on the boards. Granted I don't know everything that was going on behind the screen, but if I knew I was having problems with time management then I would have put multiple places for cliff hangers throughout and then figured out where you were going to end in game. Its all about relinquishing control and try not to fixate on a single ending scenario.
Another thing that might have been the problem is that most GMs aren't used to sharing a campaign. They have this need of getting all of their plot points and character development covered instead of leaving a few loose ends for someone else to pick up if they want. I think this is harder for the seasoned vets than for the newbies. We don't know any better so we don't get tripped up if we leave a plot point dangling.
Overall I can't remember a time where I wasn't having a good time or when I was bored. Granted there were times I was really tired and zoned out(usually after 11 pm) but that didn't have anything to do with your ability to run. There were some really good moments with the only down side was that we didn't get to experience all of the stuff you planned out for us. Was it up to your usual standards? I wouldn't say so, but that doesn't mean that it was a bad run (or worthy of a C-). The good news is that you seem to have one main thing that you've identified you need to work on, and I would agree with that assessment. Once that's fixed then you're essentially perfect.
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