Want to play Dungeons and Dragons 5E?

Post by **Leisher** » Mon Mar 05, 2018 12:25 pm

GORDON wrote: To be clear,. nothing morally ambiguous has happened in BD's presence, so far. You guys in different parts of the house stealing things... I had no.awareness.

As stated, I didn't steal a thing in your presence until the situation turned it into using weapons available, and not stealing. Everyone else is indeed out of your sight. Never was an issue there

GORDON wrote: I pulled a sword.on the.priest,.and suggested we burn down the windmill? I have no memory of that.

Yes sir you did.

And let me point out that I'm not judging anyone or bashing them. I'm simply trying to understand this all myself. If alignments don't matter, then why have them?

*Waiting for our DM to weigh in...*

Stranger · Post by **Stranger** » Mon Mar 05, 2018 12:41 pm

Leisher wrote: Literally, every single character we met...

Mordigan has some anger issues. He's seen shit none of ya'll been privy to, haunted dreams and shit. So yeah, he's gonna be a little on edge. But i digress, i think i was getting a little too big in the britches to soon, i can reign that in. But don't expect Mordigan to have to many highly intelligent conversations with people along the way, his way is going to be the way of the enforcer.

And i do agree with everything you said Leisher, 100%. I guess i just don't want it to become the topic of every conversation if someone does something that doesn't necessarily fit their alignment. But i do support the idea of playing your alignment the best you can.

Post by **Troy** » Mon Mar 05, 2018 12:53 pm

Stuffs:

1) Mordigan: Your character background has the "Heart of Darkness". It basically means if the common man talks to you for more than a little bit, they see the darkness within you and feel sorry for you. They might make requests for you to help them, because you've been in and seen some shit. It even says that if given the need, the common man would be more inclined to shelter you and help you. You may be using a stick when a carrot would be better off

2) If BeeDee doesn't ask to/want to make his perception roll, he doesn't have to.
"Do I see that?" "How much can my character tell about what Koban is doing behind me".
None of that was asked. Instead Ismark and BeeDee had what I thought was a really nice time together. The rest of BeeDee's actions have been Lawful Good to me, so far. He's a dick but he's also checked into the church and found out he might be the highest ranking member of his Order within the town. He got a little freaked out + paranoid - which seems about right given the circumstances. Further, he had to make a decision about his future at the church. Last I remember he had agreed to meet Donavich at the church before dawn to perform some Morninglord business.

3) The dark warrior and wild woman loot the secret study, and split the bag of coins discreetly. I love it. They haven't had time to decide what to do with the other items.

Post by **Troy** » Mon Mar 05, 2018 1:12 pm

I set the next session for Friday at 9EST/6PST again. I think we should try to keep it short and focused if possible to offset our marathon session. 2 - 2.5 hours.

Post by **GORDON** » Mon Mar 05, 2018 1:45 pm

My.head wasn't in a great place.. I don't remember the aggressive actions.

Post by **Leisher** » Mon Mar 05, 2018 2:47 pm

Stranger wrote: But don't expect Mordigan to have to many highly intelligent conversations with people along the way

You had everyone laughing when you kept trying to converse with the "dulls".

Stranger wrote: I guess i just don't want it to become the topic of every conversation if someone does something that doesn't necessarily fit their alignment

I agree with that, but I want clarification on it from the DM. I want to know how far we can go before shit changes.

GORDON wrote: My.head wasn't in a great place.. I don't remember the aggressive actions.

Figured. No worries. I just don't want your alignment changing and your character being fucked. (Unless playing a Fallen Paladin is cool?)

Troy wrote: I set the next session for Friday at 9EST/6PST again. I think we should try to keep it short and focused if possible to offset our marathon session. 2 - 2.5 hours.

Can't wait. I do think we need to cut some of the chatter down to maintain that focus. I think our least vocal member was completely drowned out by all the talking. Plus, I think everyone asked Troy to repeat himself multiple times. Before anyone gets crotchety, I admit to doing more talking than I should have last session, so I'm not above this.

Post by **Troy** » Mon Mar 05, 2018 2:57 pm

Leisher wrote:
I agree with that, but I want clarification on it from the DM. I want to know how far we can go before shit changes.

It'd take a lot more than a single action, unless that action was particularly evil or out of character. Committing cold blooded murder, turning away from your faith/gods, signing a contract with a dark power? (I'm spitballing).

Alex has come the closest of anyone to prompting a discussion, definitely not enough for a change. Alex let me know what his internal thought process was, and I'm entirely satisfied. He can take it from there.

Stranger · Post by **Stranger** » Mon Mar 05, 2018 3:26 pm

Leisher wrote: You had everyone laughing when you kept trying to converse with the "dulls".

that was roll playing...??.. yep just playing my roll there..

Stranger · Post by **Stranger** » Mon Mar 05, 2018 4:45 pm

By the way, i still want to go back to that lake that had the carriage at the bottom of it. Yes, it did have a big tentacle monster in it but that was the place in my dreams. I saw lights hovering above the lake and i'm thinking that there might be something special down there.

Post by **Troy** » Mon Mar 05, 2018 10:36 pm

Zelda has a conflict on Friday. She thinks she can make it home by 7 PST.

I'm thinking she could tell me her openings moves or strategies and i'll implement them. Not sure if there is another option.

She asked if there were any other nights this weekend that might work for everyone?

Post by **Leisher** » Mon Mar 05, 2018 11:34 pm

Stranger wrote: By the way, i still want to go back to that lake that had the carriage at the bottom of it. Yes, it did have a big tentacle monster in it but that was the place in my dreams. I saw lights hovering above the lake and i'm thinking that there might be something special down there.

I want to return there as well. I think someone in our group might have an idea on how to get the cart.

Although, the lights were just the ghost I thought?

Troy wrote: She asked if there were any other nights this weekend that might work for everyone?

I could do Saturday or Sunday.

Post by **Cakedaddy** » Tue Mar 06, 2018 2:23 am

I can do Saturday but not Sunday. Am also fine with a late start on Friday.

On alignment. We all picked an alignment before really playing the game, or perhaps, getting to know our character. I picked neutral because I didn't know how I was going to be playing and it gave me the most wiggle room. However, since picking my alignment, I have given a lot of thought to my back story and how that's going to translate to playing Alex. I don't regret my alignment choice, but I may not be playing truly neutral. And I fully expect the DM to adjust my alignment as needed based on my actions. So, play your character however you want, and we'll trust our DM to adjust alignments as needed. And we as players will have to deal with the consequences of our characters' actions. Ultimately, the burden lies on Troy to decide exactly what chaotic good, lawful good, is and how (if at all) we are warned of a change.
Personally, I don't think a lawful good paladin can be a dick. Never attempted to perform last rites on a corpse. Didn't even want to touch it. Would have left it in the swamp even. Stole a knife when he heard he would have to give up something of his own. Open contempt to a member of his own party because she's a woman. I see major conflicts with both lawful (stole the knife), and good (is a dick). I'm not trying to pick on Gordon either. Play your character however you want. I just see him as really pushing the boundaries of what I consider, the most restrictive alignment choice in the game (except maybe chaotic evil). When Alex first met BD, he thought his name was a play on words about his manhood. Now he believes it's an accurate description of his personality!

The out of character chatter. Being full on honest, my first reaction is, it has to stop. Was completely out of hand the last session. By the time we left the swamp, I was completely out of the game and couldn't wait for the night to be over. I had fun before we got to the swamp, and after the fight started in the house. Everything between, in my opinion, was a train wreck. It was to the point where I had no idea what was going on in the house, or what we were there for. SO much chatter, jokes, people declaring their character was going to do something that made no sense and was a huge distraction, etc. I just tuned it out. Couldn't participate because of all of the chatter. I would try to add something in character and would have to yell to try to be heard. I stopped trying. Was just sitting and waiting for it to be over. Once the fighting started, it was very controlled and ran smooth. I understand we are there to have a good time, and sometimes jokes are funny. But we are mainly there to play this game, and in my opinion, we didn't. Three people have declared they want to go back to the swamp because none of us feel like it was played correctly. To me, that's a problem. It's one thing if we missed something, but that's not the case. We didn't play it at all. It was just a loud cluster fuck and we just moved on.
So, I vote we stay in character as much as possible and keep out of character one liners to a minimum. I would also vote for the opportunity for us to have an out of character discussion. I feel sometimes that Troy pushes for a fast answer, and takes some of our out of character chatter as our 'final answer'. I think we should be able to have a conversation next to the water to discuss options and come up with a plan. I felt a little too much pressure to do something. But that could also be his way of saying "Cut the bullshit chatter and lets keep the game moving".
I think we should be able to have group discussions about situations when not in combat. And when in combat, we shouldn't be able to talk strategy at all, other than to maybe bark short command/statements. But if a fight breaks out, we can't, OOC develop a battle plan. But, we can say "I'm hitting this guy and could use some help!" or "I got this one, you get that one". They would have to be short, 6 seconds worth, of information sharing.
Just my thoughts.

Spoiler alert! Yes, I know I went through the second floor to get to the third, but I completely forgot there were 4 suits of armor down there. I had planned on making a break for the second floor so I wasn't alone up there. But not now!! But, yes I will. Going to strike it from the records. I really like having fog of war and not (visually) knowing what's happening on the other floors.

Lastly, would like to thank and commend Troy for the OUTSTANDING job he's doing. Beyond expectations. I can tell he's really putting a lot into running this for us.

Post by **GORDON** » Tue Mar 06, 2018 8:49 am

Not sure how much "everybody shut up" is going to improve the fun.

Post by **Leisher** » Tue Mar 06, 2018 9:45 am

GORDON wrote: Not sure how much "everybody shut up" is going to improve then fun.

Absolutely a fair point.

However, (and I don't know if this is supposed to be public information, but fuck it...) one member of the party was completely ignored and talked over, and thus was livid and basically tuned out the rest of the night. Another just posted a rant detailing how he did the same thing.

So that's two out of 5 people, not including the DM in this, who tuned out because of the chatter.

A third, me, was annoyed that the DM had to repeat himself multiple times and re-answer the same questions over and over because people weren't listening to him. Not sure if you're aware, but Troy isn't just reading from a book. He spends hours of his own time prepping the campaign for us to play through.

I talked a lot that night. I laughed at one liners. I'm as guilty as anyone else of ruining the evening for 2 other folks, and myself.

I don't think it's out of bounds to suggest folks need to zip it for a gaming session where listening is the key to success. Being able to accept criticism for our words and actions and correct them is what separates us from the Malcolms and Trumps of the world.

Back to the action, and this is really for Troy: Did you make Gordon roll when he threw the knife into the basket so it stuck? I think you should have. He probably would have succeeded anyway, but if he failed, it would have been hilarious to hear the butler comment on it. Or worse, it he had crit failed, like our fighter in the closet, maybe he would have killed/impaled the butler by accident, which would have been hilarious and completely changed the scenario, possibly for the worse?

Also, I didn't realize Gordon "stole" the knife, although I think it was probably more that his character just grabbed something nearby? However, I thought the intent of the basket was to show good will or something and put an actual weapon inside? More importantly, for people to put a weapon they will need later into it... That's why I was adamant about putting that extra sword I had into it. See what I'm saying? I thought the basket was an attempt to disarm us a bit.

Stranger · Post by **Stranger** » Tue Mar 06, 2018 11:11 am

Leisher wrote: Being able to accept criticism for our words and actions and correct them is what separates us from the Malcolms and Trumps of the world.

Hey, i will be the first to admit it. I know i was THE problem last week, and i apologize to all of you for it. I don't want to be the one to ruin others enjoyment of the game and i won't let it happen again.

That being said, i'm ok if we start later on Friday or Saturday for that matter.

Post by **Troy** » Tue Mar 06, 2018 12:04 pm

Thoughts on issues posted so far:

1) Talking - this one is hard. Even in the best D&D podcasts I listen to the DM/PCs struggle with it early on. Talking over each other, out of game chatter, etc. They all seem to rear it in, which I'm left to believe will either happen naturally at some point, or the players work out a system. We're all pretty new, so we'll see how that goes.

2) People answering for the party before the rest of the party has their say. Another problem common to the podcasts. A lot of the weight of this is on me to sort out. I didn't do a great job of it on Friday. I had a lot of material on my mind, and was taking the party through a break-neck tour of the countryside and first town - you were railroaded hard. We didn't stop and smell any roses. The good news is that, like I told Zelda, "it's all still there". There might be new things that appear, but it's not like the old stuff timed-out.

3) Alfred had a lot on his mind. Should I have made BD roll? Sure. But I liked the solution to that particular situation he had. And Koban's, too. I had people pushing through, trying to Intimidate Albert, etc. I was mentally moving on to more important things happening in the house. When people shoved there way into the foyer I had to be ready for someone to stumble into the dining room first and what that would have meant.

4) Zelda can do 7p-9p on Friday. 10a-3p on Saturday. All day Sunday. All times pacific.

Post by **Leisher** » Tue Mar 06, 2018 12:19 pm

I can do 10 pm EST Friday. That Saturday time slot might be tough as I'm heading to a dinner Saturday night (I'd be free after the dinner.) And I'm also free Sunday.

Post by **Cakedaddy** » Wed Mar 07, 2018 12:10 am

Stranger wrote:
Hey, i will be the first to admit it. I know i was THE problem last week, and i apologize to all of you for it. I don't want to be the one to ruin others enjoyment of the game and i won't let it happen again.

I appreciate and respect this response from you. Thank you for taking my feelings into account. Looking forward to playing with you again!

Post by **GORDON** » Wed Mar 07, 2018 8:31 am

If you two.roleplay getting a room while in game, I'm out.

Post by **Troy** » Wed Mar 07, 2018 12:45 pm

I think a 7-9 Pacific session on Friday is still the best bet. I''ll push Zelda to get home by 7.

A 2 hour, focused session is my plan.