TIME'S CHAMPIONS: Finale OOC thread

[ian_scho]

This IC pause has come at exactly the same time as my revived Baldur's Gate I addiction. Only another 200 hours to go though! (I barely have enough time to play .5 hour a day)

[raixel]

Yee-hee! I recently got a Planescape Torment re-addiction, but had to quit due to some weird unfixabe compatibility error that made it so maps would crash out. Weird thing is if you re-installed the game, sometimes they would load properly, but then another one would do it. And once it started happening there was no way to stop it.

[beowuuf]

Lol, it seems my pauses are a zero sum game then!


Edit: Sorry, lots of chores to catch up on, etc. Plus work was weird today. Will get update done before I unsuccessfully catch up on sleep, won't be able to post for your game Raixel. And Ameena I'll be on reduced posting over the weekend for a D&D game, probably just me being tired on Sunday eveing by the looks of it right now.

[Ameena]

Well, hopefully we can get at least one session done this weekend, even if it's small . You can go and see Kargak and get your lovely new armour and find out that the knife you looted from the necro dude is cursed and causes anyone who touches it to drop dead and rise as a zombie within three days of touching it .

[beowuuf]

Will be! And yeah, armour! And woohoo, undeath!

Holding back for money/Raixel, but will probably update before I go to bed even if not for the two points and let the two of them retcon anything they wanna do.

[ian_scho]

Will be away this weekend, at the beach. Rain predicted but who cares!

[beowuuf]

I hope the rain stays away for you! And so noted, I will be busy with work and a birthday thingie for someone this weekend, so updates would be slow anyway!

(And yes, as you might have spotted, I fell asleep last night, which at least meant Raixel got to post, and I woke up early enough to update. Should go in to work early just now though to get a jump on a shipment that needs to go out by 3pm )

[beowuuf]

Weird day at work tomorrow with an early start, so might not post an update tonight - depends if ian weighs in soon or not. Cool to see LB throw in an argument to the kling. Petal may not get her Trolin-free room after all! See if Haynuus can captialise on it or not, (or Falkor, if money gets unexpected time)

[Lord_BoNes]

LOL! I said I'd be around.

It's just that because I've been absent so much, Aurek's been pretty damn quiet most of the time... and he just sort of goes with the flow of the story. And to keep with that sort of feel, I only really jump in where I see that it's critical (like he does). I'm on here pretty much every day keeping up with everyone else's posts.

[beowuuf]

My style of Gming is to always try and challenge you guys, and to make sure your actions matter. So it's always best if you indicate, even withotu Aurek taking direct actions, where he is aand what he's doing there! It might help the group in ways you dont' suspect, even if you haven't time to do something detailed. Standing in the right place with quiet menace can always add some nice intimidation, for example.

Obviously, the other side of it is that I don't want to kill you in absense if you are away, so it's a little unfair if Aurek is in a protected bubble while others get injuries, etc, if you are around to help out.


Glad you are still keeping up up and contributing! Just as money, it's cool people who have needed to take time out have still managed to stay in the game and you guys are all together for the finale!

[oh_brother]

What have you guys done to my Trolins? You scared them away, just because they were nasty, suspicious violent monsters.

Just catching up now on what has been going on will update tomorrow!

[beowuuf]

Wow, it's that time already? Welcome back! How were things? Things good? Wedding go ok? Honeymoon romantic? Etc?

Yeah, the rest of the guys have stuffed your Trolisn a little. If I hangfire on an update tonight then you can have the opportunity to run after the king or weave some Westian magic on Pullack if you desire.

[Ameena]

Lol heyyy, it was Petal who fooked it all up, mainly - Ameena and Falkor were off in the spirit world, Haynuus seems to be friends with (or at least trusted by) half the named ones, and pretty much everyone else (except Farel and Ardur, who seem to have secretly buggered off) was busy faffing around with the altar trying to get it to work .
Wb Westy anyway .

[Lord_BoNes]

YAY! Westian's back!! w00t!
More seriously though... how was the wedding, and the honeymoon?

EDIT:

...Ameena has dedicated the last few days trying to get you back and alive again...

In game, it's only been minutes... maybe hours (remember that each "real-world day" is only meant to be worth 6 seconds of game-time).
Definately not into the days yet

[beowuuf]

Maybe getting in to the second day. Each year of real time seems to be about a day of game time, madly enough!

[Lord_BoNes]

@Beo: There are 86,400 (60 seconds * 60 minutes * 24 hours = 60*60*24 = 86,400) seconds in a day. If you divide this by 6 (the number of seconds per round) then you get 14,400... which is the number of rounds in a day. I don't really think that we're anywhere near that, given that it'd take almost 40 years to do a single day (14,400 / 365.25 = 39.42)!

At my guess, we've only gone through about an hour (except where you've jumped the story ahead minutes/hours in time... to get us there faster).

[Ameena]

Yeah, time seems to be deceptive in an PbP where the action (for the posters) happens a lot slower than it would in a real-time game (whether over tabletop or some kind of online chat function like Skype), so I find I'm getting confuzzled over how long it's been (in-game) since stuff happened as well. I do know it's not been "days" since Helm died, though, but when I read that last night I was soon-to-go-to-bed and couldn't be arsed to point it out .
I suppose that's one problem with a PbP - stuff is so drawn-out over such a long time that I just end up forgtting half of what happened, or when it happened, etc, and then can't be arsed to trawl though all the many pages of posts to try and find whatever it is I wanted o remind myself of .

[oh_brother]

Thanks folks, and yes all went well! The wedding was a fun day (I decided that I was not going to stress, just go with the flow and enjoy it!). Honeymoon was great, I want to go back.

@Beo: There are 86,400 (60 seconds * 60 minutes * 24 hours = 60*60*24 = 86,400) seconds in a day. If you divide this by 6 (the number of seconds per round) then you get 14,400... which is the number of rounds in a day.

But remember that is for combat. Each post in combat might be 6 seconds, but out of combat they can be many more. Especially when you think of all the travelling posts, and the sleeping ones.

[Lord_BoNes]

Great to hear the wedding and all went well, OB! Glad to see you back around these parts though. Westian's just sorta been standing around since you left

[beowuuf]

He's said a few things, hopefully nothing too OOC for him! And he's been looking to the altar to get it working with Deephold.


Anyway, as everyone else has pointed out, combat time only happens in action packed situations. Resting, long walks, searching, etc are all going ot have time jumps, plus the narrative goes as fast as the narrative goes. Just that with one thing and another, it's been at best two days. I've done a jump or two recently to line everyone back up, so I'll need to recheck where the time is.

Still, time and space are fluid in a PbP game, all bending to the power of the artistic license generator and plot devices every character possesses sewn in to their clothing

[raixel]

Omg, my cat jumped on my keyboard last night and turned on 'filter keys', a feature of win 7 that I didnt know existed (and see absolutely NO purpose for besides to annoy the living shit outta you). I had to spend half an hour on the net figuring out why the f**k I had to hold down a key for at least 3 seconds every time I wanted to type a letter and pressing any key made a really annoying clicking sound. Let me tell you typing with the on screen keyboard isnt fun, but thank god it exists.

It seems like a bunch of people dont know about this loely "feature" cuz most of the responses to people with the exact same issue were 'go update your drivers'. But I finally found someone who explained what it was. GOD what an annoying useless feature. If you are such an idiot that you cant type and have to hold down each key for 3 secs, you dont need to have a computer. *rant, rant* *annoyed*

/endrant

[beowuuf]

Ok, that sounds useless. Unless it's an interface for the disabled, so you can have slow inexact typing. Though surely it would say if that's what it was, and have a better name?

[beowuuf]

Oh, just to explain, I'm leaving the weekend free from update to let Westian and of course LB and money poetntially react. Will update tomorrow evening. The fact sleep has been weird and I've been in to work both days this weekend is the reason I haven't put any minor nudges or follow ons!

[beowuuf]

Hmm, come to a sort of crisis of DMing right now that I need you guys' help with.

The way the end area is constructed is supposed to echo the original dungeon again - just like I#'ve been echoing the start of the game and high points through - for the finale. Of course, part of that is that you guys are going to come to decision points that are just corridors. They are all important choices story wise but a little boring in a way. Especially if some of you are busy right now. Then again, I can see if you guys are busy right now, some simpler updates for a week would be easier.


What do you want me to do? Kinda steer you aroudn one or two of them to the important tactical one, constructing a building narrative? Where if anyone wants to go the path least probably you retcon a divergence?

Or do you want a few nice easy updates just to let your characters interact with each other and the NPCs around (where you aren't getting pushed around by circumstance and antagonism )and let yourselves build up your own narrative?


My personal preference is to do the former, but realise that means a lot of text where your characters are being guided throguh like a cut scene. Which seems the wrong way to go for the build up to the end, where some incidental comments can lead to nice charascter moments, or of course give you a chance to work out some tactics..

[ian_scho]

Ohhh we've been plodding on for over a year now so I'm in no hurry

The narrative (the former) gets a thumbs up from me, as you probably would enjoy this approach more yourself!

[Ameena]

I suppose it depends what the journey's like - I want a bit of time to be able to have a look at that stuff Ameena looted from Dolo's chest, and preferably to show it to someone like Falkor (since chances are it's magical stuff and someone like Falkor might be able to work out what it does if he didn't already recognise it) but without the trolls around because they might start kicking up a fuss or something. But if all we're doing is walking and then we get to the big end place where it'll all be a confrontation and stuff, I won't ever get a chance to do that because to keep up with everyone, Ameena needs to use all four feet and besides, she's staying close to Helm right now, as she said she would when he was dead .

[oh_brother]

I suppose if we are heading in a roughly defined direction we can breeze past most of the minor turns? Unless there is anything that would attract our attention (e.g. a corridor made of solid gold would probably be investigated even if it was not on our route).

[Lord_BoNes]

I agree with OB here. If it's a critical location, then we should stop and look around or whatever... but we should breeze through alot of the tedious corridor after corridor areas.

[beowuuf]

I'll go with my instinct then, and steer you guys on the way you wished to go towards the main area with all the baddies. No real poitn in being too coy about it, the other decsion points were a re-consideration on going towards Dolo's lair, the ability to go explore the old end of level 12 that leads to the edges of the old Hallf of Chaos and beyond, and of course the fact there will be some RA locked doors that are some of the Grey Lord's personal little areas.

Probably best not to get too sidetracked ,but feel free to retcon someone exploring one of those ways. Or, as Westian tried, perhaps steer the Trolins down another way to not have them with you. OB, if you wanted to make it more deliberate the suggestion Karda explore the way that the sound of battle was comign from, go right ahead and be more direcrt, roll some diplomacy, etc.


@Ameena: Don't wait for me to create the chace for you, especialyl if it's supposed to be some real time IC conversation btween you and Falkor. If Ameena needs to speak to Falkor, and wants to do it without the Trolins seeing, she needs to be active. Get the Trolins to go another way (or suggest Haynuus/Westian suggests it to them) or roll some bluff skills to try and hide your showing items to those who might know more!

There is a chance very soon to perhaps divine items properlties, but it is not guaranteed. But because of thsat, I'#m not goign to do anything as a DM in that regard. So you'll need to elbow your own opportunity I'm afraid :p

[raixel]

Personally, Im all for exploring every corridor. But mostly thats cuz I have an alterior motive due to the fact that beo and my game is proceeding WAY slower than I thought it was and it might be another month before we're done, maybe longer. If this game ends before we are done, I guess I can start dropping in everyones chars and then when this little adventure so everyone knows each other and then do a *3 years later* sort of thing.

Petal wants to go down Truth, but will go down Reason if thats what the party decides. She wont go down Light, however.