Luna's Command: The Wibbly-Wobbly Saga (Looking for No More replacement)

I'm going to go ahead and post results for checks already given in PMs, then I'll be giving Random one last chance to post (say, twelve and one-half hours?) before I post again. Maybe a little longer if I oversleep, but by midday tomorrow

We'll be moving on.

Hallelujah, right?

AProcrastinatingWriter wrote:We'll be moving on.

Hallelujah, right?

Does that mean I shouldn't break-out the magic siege engineering rules? Because I had some interesting thoughts on the use of magic to establish temporary food reserves...

You can

But I wuoldn't recommend it

BTW, before anyone says anything, I'm aware I forbid CC from making a History check to remember Lunar, but I did not make any such forbiddenments against him making Perception checks.

So maybe even a little longer than that thirteen-and-a-half, considering the possible misunderstanding that just occurred.

<DOUBLE POST>
Wouldn't recommend it because now you've done it without needing to roll!

Main topic's updated with final post of the scenario. No spoilers, but mechanics-wise you're all level three now.

Serious discussions time. First of all, boons. Decide on one as a group, please. You are level three now, after all!

Secondly, we've been playing for a while and the rules have undergone some changes. Please compare the talents and racial traits you have to those currently on the books and update them accordingly - replace the ones that don't exist anymore, alter the ones that have been altered, etc. In exchange for this tedious task, also feel free to change stuff that hasn't been updated: revamp the entirety of your combat talents, get different racial traits, whatev. Just make sure to let me know.

Lastly, the pacing of this game. This is the big, long one, and I'd appreciate if people chipped into the conversation. Serious stuff here now.

I'm aware that there are problems with my writing and with some of the situations that have come up. I think most of the major ones the party has already commented on thoruoguhly (especially my improper handling of Xel's temporary departure because oh my gosh did I not think things through with how people would react), and the minor ones we'll be dicsussing another time so as to not have both sides undergo information overload. But there is one major thing that has come up that I've noticed, and feel free to bring up other major things but please bear with me until a later date when it comes to the minor things. I want to discuss freedom of choice and railroading.

I've always felt that it makes for a more rewarding and worthwhile game when the DM doesn't assume anything about what the party will be doing next; he'll plan, certainly, but he'll let the party make their own choices and give them roleplay opportunities whenever the option would realistically come up. In live games, this is almost certainly the best approach. Play-by-posts, however, have the problem that not everybody can be on at all times, or will not want to post at that juncture, etc. etc. This has been happening a lot, especially lately for some reason, and I can't help but feel that the problem would be lessened by doing a little bit more of "Cutscene mode" - a bit of railroading at points when there aren't things left to do and therefore all we're waiting on is for someone to say "let's go to the next room!" In other words, less of me...expecting you guys to make the choices all the time, and waiting for everyone to post.

So, tl;dr, potentially one last question which do you guys prefer? A game that occasionally (or often) experiences some slow pacing in exchange for the maximum amount of personal choice, a game that sometimes railroads and assumes but goes at a much faster pace, or something else entirely I haven't thought of?

And as a side question, I note I've been the only one really complaining about the pacing. Tell the truth: am I the only one seeing it as a problem? Because if I am, screw the discussion and my personal feelings, we're continuing as normal, no complaining on my part.

Right, I'll go through my talents and such when I get a chance and update them. Items too. How much gold should we have, again? As for traits, I was thinking of Duelist and Staff of the Stars. Those sound good? I'm not great with the mechanical elements of the system yet .

Boons: are we using old boons or beta boons? If it's the beta ones, I'd suggest an Assistant with Heal. Some kind of summonable positive energy construct or something.

Pacing: on one hoof, yes, the pacing is rather slow. On the other, however, it's a PbP game and I don't think any of us expect it to go at ludicrous speeds. I would rather not have railroady cutscenes but I can absolutely see the value of them. Maybe a compromise, IE you say "Hey, you should probably move things along now" if we get stuck waiting for something to happen?

I'll save commenting on suggestions re:pacing till people have generally said their piece, but as to boons, I'll let you guys choose original or beta as you like, but once you make that choice, you stick with it.

You should all have 5500 gold to spend. Both those traits sound good to me; I don't know if they're optimal but they certainly seem like pretty good choices considering your build. That's just an opinion, though, not GM-objective fact.

EDIT: OH, forgot to mention: talents and effects that cause you to move in the initiative order have been taken out of the books! They are the one exception to the "if it no longer exists, replace it" rule; you can keep these ones if you like. Or go ahead and replace them. Whichever.

Good, I have quite a few changes in mind for Scorch...

Ding!

Anyway, I've been meaning to make a few changes to my combat build, though I'd been hoping to flavor the rebuild as having some long training sessions with Luna... nothing major, namely changing Syphon Life to the similarly-themed Brilliant Flare (as the latter has been reduced in effectiveness since I first took it) and changing Form of the Reaper to just Death's Scythe. I mean, Wandering Eye hasn't broken into Nightmare mode the entire RP!

As for Boons... I'm going to have to look through them.

Finally i can properly setup Iggy. When i first made him I had no idea what I was doing. Thankfully now after some time here i actually know what I'm doing

My opinion on boons (with the campaign themes in mind):
Most the old boons won't help us here, we'll be moving too much...
Build a Boon is Build a Boon. I don't think we'll need it unless someone can suggest three good utilities...
Team Awesome is always good, and might allow me to switch Awesomeness out for something else...
Unreliable Narrator can be good, but I won't sleep at night unless we spend all 10 uses on a single question...
We can troll Writer with Rewrite Memories. Next time we see the unicorn, BAM! Campaign over...
Assistant could be cool, but then we'd have to decide what it'd be, and you know I will demand something that loves dragons like a kobold or whatnot...
All Aboard is fun, although I am biased in this...

Lunar's new build... Is going to be very self-heals and pay life-ish... Well not totally...

combat build data:

When it comes to boons I'm fine with whatever. I'd think maybe All Aboard might be the best for us cause we do travel and junk or I figure we'll be traveling a good deal. Other then that, I'd suggest we take Team Awesome or Assistant. Those are the only good ones we got.

OK, Brilli is updated! Wasn't much to do, actually. I swapped Crescendo for Heartseeker since the new Crescendo is a healing move and the damage-equivalent is way worse. Took Duelist and Staff of the Stars as traits and, since that gives me a better weapon, traded Granite Axe for Midnight's Blade. Talents were all fine, but the d12 result of Be Prepared lost one die from its total.

I was going to get a Spellbook but some genius had the idea of making it a weapon, meaning I can't use it and Spellblade at the same time, so I got Hawkeye instead for more single target damage. Now, you said we could keep things that had "change your place in the initiative order" so can I keep old Spellblade instead of taking the new one?

As for boons... I agree with Assistant (a summonable spirit with Heal or something) or Team Awesome. Or we could always be terrible and take Rewrite Memories to crash the plot into the abyss. Seriously, what were they thinking?

Xel: 5500 gold total, not 5500 extra. Sorry.

Retro: You amy keep the old spellblade.

In order to account for the sheer brokenness of rewrite memories, that unicorn and he alone will be immune to the effects. Believe it or not, there's actually already an in-story reason for him to be so!

*points to trait gold is power*

Also the way Hawkeye is worded... I can trigger for AoEs too...

AProcrastinatingWriter wrote:In order to account for the sheer brokenness of rewrite memories, that unicorn and he alone will be immune to the effects. Believe it or not, there's actually already an in-story reason for him to be so!

So you'd have no problems with us taking it and, say, convincing Celestia we're all actually part of the Grand Council of Equestria that she takes orders from?

Retrokinesis wrote:

AProcrastinatingWriter wrote:In order to account for the sheer brokenness of rewrite memories, that unicorn and he alone will be immune to the effects. Believe it or not, there's actually already an in-story reason for him to be so!

So you'd have no problems with us taking it and, say, convincing Celestia we're all actually part of the Grand Council of Equestria that she takes orders from?

Not really, no.

Xel Unknown wrote:*points to trait gold is power*

Also the way Hawkeye is worded... I can trigger for AoEs too...

*points to trait DM is a dumbface*

Fun fact about my build... If I'm lucky I can self heal for 15 HP... If I get a 12+ damage output from a 1+3d6 attack.

Fun fact about my build: I basically made it up on the spot by picking things that looked good .

Well, if we can mind control Celestia, I think we should consider our options here! Clearly, the best option is to make her think we're the leaders of a secret conspiracy she established in the wake of her sister's banishment to run Equestria in her place. Now that she's back, though, we are simply extremely important ponies she always listens to. That gives us quite a bit of power while also being far more subtle than "She wakes up and makes us the new rulers".

I am also musing that at level 5 I'll upgrade my self-heals to the healing Trinket (free actions ARE SPAMABLE if you can pay for them) with getting me another Gold is Power. (In thoery I could do that now... But I want Rabid Recovery and Engery Armor more)

Why Energy Armor, exactly? It doesn't seem particularly useful. I don't think I've fallen unconscious once yet.

We should probably start giving some thought to Destinies as well. They seem to have axed my original plan (reflavored Dragon Disciple) for some reason so I'm currently thinking Archlich (reflavored to "obsession with ancient crystal magic" instead of necromancy), Mind Sculptor, or Planeshaper. What about you? Of course, I really wish there was a Magecraft-specific destiny .

I like not having to lose pips when getting KOed mid-fight... Sure it's unlikely, but trust me when it happens it feels awesome to have thougtht ahead... Besides I work with self-vul... So yeah... I think Lunar will BECOME A SEER!

Okay, I'm updated and leveled (not sure if I had to lvl 2 before, in any case I don't have it).

I feel a little guilty at taking "Many tongues", since from our cliffhanger ending that looks like that might be immediately useful- but I'm pretty sure that's the talent I would have taken anyways (I double checked to see if there was anything else I wanted as much).  Writer, I won't be upset if you don't let me have it if you think I'm taking it in reaction to your spoiler or if it derails the plot or something (because you didn't think we'd have it- although I suppose Shimmer could've just used element of Magic to get a temporary use of it anyways)

Boons- All Aboard actually sounds fun, I'd say that's my first choice, although I'd also be fine with another (Assistant would probably be a close second)

Pacing- Sometimes a cutscene is necessary.  I think how you've handled it in this arc has worked fine- when things needed to get moving again- but giving everyone time to decide if they were doing anything else.

Upcoming Destiny- Definately Rockstar- mildly reflavored of course.

Many tongues is fine. I believe you when you say you wanted it and it just happened to be useful. I don't think plot-derailing will be taking place either way.

You were at level one before, not level two - this is our first leveling session.

Oh, okay, that makes sense... *was boggled by simple maths*

Thanks to Animal Epenthy no longer being a thing... I get to take two utitlty talents... Those two new ones are an upgrade to flight. And I'll take Arcane Eye. Headcanon: Lunar Gains Arcane Eye's skill from having been sent into the weird trip he's been on...