Player Communication Archive 2022
2022 11 25 BOB
We are approaching the final third of the Searching for Alexandria story arc. You have already traveled over 625 miles from home at this point.
There are 140 miles of sailing upstream left to go to get to Borts Beach. There you travel overland to Drakes Head to track down Talwin's potential mentor. Then Talwin will have his adventure to prove his worth.
This should be happening as we cross into 2023.
We will wrap up at the end of that and the group will spend some time in Dryads Lair during training for Talwin (presuming he passes his test) and who ever else needs it. We can click off some of that time, or if there are small side quests we can roleplay those out also.
Then the wrap up for the story arc. At that point the group will decide how much travel time to simply click off and what to roleplay out as part of the experience.
Once everyone is back home in Dragon Fen it will be time to do the final preparations for Book Return. This is where all these adventures will have paid off. The rest of the group will have gained valuable experience, skills, and knowledge to make a stronger group. Some of that will be gained in the In Character discussions on the site by those who remained back at Dragon Fen.
When that is all completed the characters that remain (it could be everyone, there could be only a handful, it is a dangerous adventure) will do a full sweep for training, research, etc. to bring everyone up to full potential again.
At that point we will have a set of desert adventures. Given this full timeline I expect that this might be right around the time of the Thirtieth Anniversary Game in September.
A timeline of activities with no set time to accomplish them by. As always the goal is to have fun.
2022 09 24 BOB
I do hope that Carissa is happy with how Thistle's story has played out.
Much like Ilero being retired this does not mean she will drop from the stories. I am hopeful for new expanded stories like the A Trip to the Wildlands that everyone can participate in as they wish. We know the next part of Thistle's physical journey will be leading her new caravan through Drillian back to Dragon Fen. After that it could be Ghostwood Domain or just about any place in the world. Being a Gypsy means you have family and are supposed to travel. I do have concepts for how that population works on that page and we will all develop more along the way I am certain.
Part of the story arc development that I wanted to portray was the unintentional problems that lead to intentional discrimination. In this case a predisposition to distrust the Gypsy caravans. Add to that a caravan shows up and the rain starts a month later. Then (now that Thistle's portion of Searching for Alexandria is over) the gypsies move on and the rains go away. The actions that lead to the cause and the cure are seen very differently by different people.
I bring this up because I do not want Thistle's story to be focused only on how others see gypsies. I hope we get to create stories that develop a different culture and have fun with characters that are not the ones you play during our regular sessions. Maybe Lorie gets to contribute a young man who loves to cook and is a master of spices. Lisa creates a priest that favors traveling spells and creative ways to facilitate a life constantly on the move. Perhaps Sharif creates a young shy girl who has a gift of fortune telling and poetry. This might grow into a full shadow campaign played by post if it catches some people's interest.
2022 07 31 BOB
So we are here: Leg Two is all about boats, ships, aquatic encounters, and the adventures in Rivers Bend. The last time the group sailed the Chandler Cowles River was during Pirate Queens, Lisa and Marco (plus TMO) are the players who participated in that Story Arc.
Our next two sessions should be focused on Loosend and going over supplies, hiring a ship, etc.
This is your last place to do that sort of thing in a town or city until you arrive in Rivers Bend. Take your time with interacting in the city, Carissa has some people to see there and will get a spotlight for a bit, Zayden will have a small surprise (because Sharif has no idea about this city), I want to test out some other functions in Fantasy Grounds like the new Whisper extension, the stores, etc.
I expect that there will be several times that I will have to say "I will set that up, I will do that later" and it will happen later in the evening or on the site during the week if possible, or in the next session.
I am not rushing anything, or putting deadlines on your interactions and progress. You made it here in 8 days, a trip that I expect to take 9 days so you are already ahead of schedule in the shortest time you can accomplish this story arc. You have arrived and getting ready for sleeping in an Inn when we start 2022 08 05c, we will play out all of the things for the next day.
For those not paying attention to the calendar...(looks around for anyone who knows how that works)... in the morning is a Holiday, which means celebrations, etc. It is the beginning of Spring, two full moons, the first day of month twelve (Trallman 357 is how the naming work in game). You will get to enjoy what you wish, move forward as you can, and then have your first river encounters the second session of Leg Two or first thing on the third session.
So for the TLDR: two session in Loosend are expected with river encounters happening by the end of 2022 08 12c.
2022-07-17 BOB
BOB's thoughts on exploring.
Last session (20220715c) did not turn out how I had envisioned. I had wanted a quick combat encounter to go along with roleplay so we could test the new update and move the story along a bit. I did not expect the combat to take four hours long to go through 8 rounds.
Things that I think we can do better.
- Watch what is happening with the map
- Do not just drag your icon across the full map in one long piece, you will be stopped when you get to a wall.
- Move in a natural to the landscape way, around objects, etc.
- Make it a point to either move through a door or move to block others from entering leaving and announce that in chat.
- When you move do not just hit done right away if you are exploring new areas, if you hit done I take that as you do not want any information about what your character sees.
- Keep the conversations focused in FG and not Discord so that everyone's eyes are hopefully looking there.
- Utilizing the IC and OOC in chat, along with Whispers
- Encouraging others with ideas both IC and OOC {as Youtargim did with Bixi and the scarecrow in the garden}
- Knowing what you will want to do when your turn comes in the round.
I think we are doing many things very well, the interactions with Lemon for the sword as an example, or everyone using the multiple languages options
Things we are going to focus on over the next couple of sessions
This week (2022 07 22) we will only have the Combat Tracker, the Party Sheet, and one map (Leg One) to help keep everyone focused on the story and moving things forward in a narrative way. All encounters will be roleplay driven, if combat comes out of it, that can all be done on the Combat Tracker
We will be bringing in Marco's new character as one of the encounters.
The following week one of the encounters will be a focus on a small map again so we try again with movement, interactions, etc. That will hopefully get everyone ready for encounters on the ship in the river that will happen in Leg Two. When you only have a small area to move around in, and you PUSH forward you risk knocking someone off the deck into the water.......
I plan on getting to Loosend that session also. So our session on 2022 08 05 will be Leg Two in Loosend and then onto the river heading downstream towards Rivers Bend.
Leg Two is all about boats, ships, aquatic encounters, and the adventures in Rivers Bend. The last time the group sailed the Chandler Cowles River was during Pirate Queens, Lisa and Marco (plus TMO) are the players who participated in that Story Arc.
2022-05-20 BOB
I added a new section to the Story Arc pages called Story Arc Concept to give everyone a bit of insight to what I was thinking when I come up with these ideas.
I do want to encourage everyone to also contribute there your thoughts in the Feedback & Recollections portion how the story arc felt to you, if I achieved what I intended, etc.
2022-05-08 BOB
Updated plans for the next few sessions:
2022-05-13
- BOB prep - Apply Story Arc XP awards, and go over character sheets to check for training
- FG Testing - After people log in we can see how the new theme feels and if/what we want to change fonts to to match it.
- Note this would involve loading with a new font, showing the font, closing, loading a new font, etc. So this will take a bit of time but we can do that this week with fewer players in easier than other nights I think.
- We start with catching up everyone on training needs, planning how we will divide up things, explain Dragon Fen more fully this time fro Lorie & Lemon (Sharif will not be in so we need to say somethings out loud for him to read later. Then we roleplay back home, using Home Stories as the bridge between story arcs.
- We will set up the next story arcs. Branwyn searching for information about the library she needs to return the book to, laying out what you know, what you need to do, how to accomplish, etc. Talwin researching what he needs to do to convince his new mentor to do the Mastery training.
2022-05-20
- BOB prep - Have maps ready for new story arc, NPCs ready, etc.
- The next story arc starts with Branwyn and Talwin the lead characters but everyone contributing.
4-23 BOB
My plan for the next sessions:
2022-04-29
- BOB prep - Determine XP awards for the events in the Steading, award XP
- We start with roleplay about the escape from the Steading, settle in for the night in the cave, click to morning and roleplay the meeting with the goddesses. Plane Shift home as the final scene for the night most likely.
- Everyone will please key in on practicing IC and OOC so it becomes more natural
2022-05-06
- BOB prep - Apply Story Arc XP awards, and go over character sheets to check for training
- We start with roleplay back home, using Home Stories as the bridge between story arcs. Players can switch characters if they want (Lorie, Sharif, etc.) We move through into the next story arcs. Branwyn searching for information about the library she needs to return the book to, laying out what you know, what you need to do, how to accomplish, etc. Talwin researching what he needs to do to convince his new mentor to do the Mastery training.
2022-05-13
- BOB prep - Have maps ready for new story arc, NPCs ready, etc.
- The next story arc starts with Branwyn and Talwin the lead characters but everyone contributing.
4/23 Carissa
I likely won't do summary this past session or next two. Anyone else can feel free to take care of them.
And yes, I could post this in Discord, but people need to know the site. :)
3/13 Lisa
- Which brings up: Do we leave the icons on the map like I did with Talwin so we remember the last place they were when the player was in? Or removed them from the map totally? Only when we know the player will miss the full session?*
If a player will be out for a whole session, I think it is easier to just remove the icon to save any confusion.
- What was happening on the player side that we should discuss? Both FGU mechanics and tactics?*
We are using the measurement on the map for spells but not combat still. E.g., Raelynn’s curse needed to work on the spatial area on the map, but when Tiberius was fighting the giant, the giant icon was in the 4 squares of the doorway and Tiberius was in the square next to the doorway, i.e., 20 ft away? I think the enemy icons are overly large and I have a tendency to not try and get on top of the enemy but if we are going to measure properly we are going to need to do that and it will likely affect, especially for Indigo, how many enemies he can hit in a round, But conversely, how many can realistically hit him without moving. To me, it’s just one more thing I will have to pay close attention to in combat.
Measuring confirmed that fireball was not a great option and I was glad in the end I didn’t burn a spell on it. Originally I was worried about blowback, but when TMO did the math and said a fireball was only going to hit 4 squares, it meant that if Bran did unleash, maybe she kills 3 – 5? And with the place being made of stone, the fire would dissipate and possibly send a rush of bugbears out into the corridor.
The lighting is not working for all characters and for me, if we’re in combat and things have been such slow going, if I think I can keep going without bringing the game to a grinding halt, I will. Posting screenshots in Discord #fgu-implementation to show the difference between when I click on N’laea and when I click on either Branwyn or Indigo. I thought the lighting was automatic, but if I need to adjust settings, let me know.
Tactics? I’ve already expressed my opinion of the NPC rebellion that occurred. If we made a bad plan and we screw ourselves over, then fine, we made a bad plan and we all go down with the ship. But going rogue *before the plan has either succeeded or failed* is often what gets characters killed. One instance, I am thinking of the giants we were outrunning in the Macbeth adventure that killed Miranda and made Fritz’s character walking wounded for the rest of the time trying to save her. All because someone didn’t follow the plan.
My thought was, we have 3 fighters, one who is heavily wounded and one was well on his way there. We wanted to go behind a secret door. If I owned a secret door, went to investigate, and I wasn’t the smartest tool in the shed (giants/bugbears), would I immediately think that the intruders had magically found the hidden, secret door or would they keep looking around? So the plan was to try to keep people from getting further injured, save spells, and hide in the manticore room, which we thought was the best looking room of the ones we’d seen for finding the chain. Once we saw and heard down the corridor that many more bugbears were stirring, I said forget the ones in the Tiberius room, let’s book it to the secret room and shut the door. And then the night unfolded the way it did and we have 2 heavily wounded fighters out of 3. It could have been worse, but it also could have been better.
3-12 BOB
I think that overall we are getting more in tune with FGU now.
Things that I noticed during the extended combat:
- I need to use the slider on the combat tracker more. It is easier/faster to just 'click' to the next icon that will take an action than click next next next
- I need to practice targeting more
- I like the crown on the map to show what icon is up next
- We had people get lost in the round advancements, Sorry Spring I did it to you twice, and once to TMO that I noticed.
- For things like the chart Carissa needed for her spell, those can be put on a notes tab on the character sheet until we get the spells properly added into FGU
- For that I had an idea that we need to create smaller modules/books that are the spell caster's actual book. It will make it very easy to find the spells that way, we can add the missing ones into that, and you can do customized effects, etc. that are saved there in case the character sheets need to change or an FGU update changes one of the official books.
On the players side I think you did well. Not going into tactics but there was only one full round that Lorie missed being able to heal Indigo because of the confusion on which icons are which.
Which brings up: Do we leave the icons on the map like I did with Talwin so we remember the last place they were when the player was in? Or removed them from the map totally? Only when we know the player will miss the full session?
What was happening on the player side that we should discuss? Both FGU mechanics and tactics?
3/6 Lisa
Things I noticed from the 3/4/2022 chat and my to-do list that I don’t want to forget.
- Changed the story chat for combat. Kept it blow by blow but changed it to text. I noticed I had some typos – sorry. I really don’t want to spend a whole lot of time every week writing flourishing descriptions, but I also don’t want to summarize too lightly so that people’s actions in combat are not recorded. This was me trying to include everything that happened but keeping it simple. Thoughts or suggestions?
- Chat doesn’t capture movement like Klooge did. So if we want to have it recognized in chat, we will have to type it in as well as move.
- I thought daggers did 1d4 damage. Branwyn’s said 1d3. Think I need to fix that unless I am mistaken.
- Need to fix Magic Missile damage automation.
- Carissa – I missed the healing question from Raelynn at the end of the night. Yes, Indigo is in need, but I’m thinking maybe wait until we do this last batch of bugbears. He’s down so much he’s going to need the full orison levels that can’t be done in combat.
2-3 BOB
Updated Lorie's story date on the In Character threads so anyone can join in as you wish.
To refresh everyone dates go Day - Month - Year so 2-8-351 SKR for the second day of the eight month of the year 351 Small Kingdome Reckoning.
Calendars has a lot more information including the cycles of the moons etc. as well as links to Historical Timelines There is also the list of the name of each day of the year so you can refer to a date as Kosowde 351 SKR instead of 2-8-351 SKR.
1-29 BOB
So I programed a macro in Word to handle the automatic formatting for us. The first sample is 2022 01 28c.
With this set up it should take about 90 seconds to process the raw html chat into the basic chat 2022 01 28 and then into the cleaned chat with session styles 2022 01 28c. Then there is the spell check to run after that.
1/16 Lisa
Looks good. Saw your note on Discord about how long spell check takes. Yes, that's about right. I added most of the character names so it goes a bit faster. The only things I'm seeing in the latest draft is that some IC is bold and some isn't. As long as IC is on the left, I don't think it needs to be bold. Also, people logging in and out should be OOC. I always used ENV for rolls, calendar/time changes, and story events.
I forgot how to make a new page on the site. If you make me one for the 20211217 chat I can put up what I did with the chat for you to look at and see if it was what you were thinking.
1-15-22 BOB
Looking at the formatting chat this morning it seems wrong/hard to read. Something happened that maybe reversed the environment and OOC? I will look over it again later today and see what went wrong. There is the basic chat there and I am saving the chat in three versions right now locally. Raw chat, chat with added breaks that gets posted here, and the formatted chat that gets posted here.
More work to be done. Suggestions welcome please.
1-12-2022 BOB
I double checked and the character sheets are NOT automatically correcting to the 10% bonus in XP. So I went and added it in for everyone.
Characters that will have to look at some sort of training: Bixi - Illusionist level gained Lanek - Thief level gained
I know it sounds insane but Branwyn looks to be the next person to advance, she is only 13,000 away from leveling again.
1-9-22 BOB
For the Misc XP awards I did want to make a small clarification for everyone.
I deeply appreciate all the work that Lisa and Carissa have done here on the site. That does not take away from anyone else, I just want to recognize that the two of them have edited a tremendous about of pages, created new lore for us all, helped everyone keep track of all the things over the years, etc.
With our new Chat Log formatting it might give others an opportunity to do some of those things as well. In particular the Story Form of the chat logs. Takign what we have there in the formatted chat and creating a more narrative version that would be recognizable as a story rather than a chat log. Zero pressure or commitment on anyone to actually do that. We shall see how it evolves over the next few years.
1-9-22 BOB
I have added all the XP for the previous story arc (Complicated Emotions) and the Change Over XP award (actual medals still sitting here waiting to be mailed ) and the End of Year 2021 awards for attendance and editing (Lisa and Carissa). Everything is accounted for as far as I can tell, several characters are ready for leveling etc. All this and more in the Players Communication for you (writing that here).
Everything should be updated now on all the character sheets for XP awards. It was supposed to update correctly for the bonus XP as well, I am not certain that it did. We will have to go over that in detail this next session.
Starting this session in Home Stories we are doing better longer introductions for the new character(s) (Lorie in particular) and looking at both game mechanics and building chat interactions more naturally. We are going to try to make sure that everyone is as comfortable as we can with the character sheets as they are, interact with the characters as is, and work In Character and Out of Character towards two goals.
- - Finding out where and how to return the cat(s). You did bring 4 of them back.
- - Branwyn in particular reading, learning, testing how to recalibrate the Amulet of Planes to a new plane.
- - Just as important, finding out which plane you actually want to go to.
- - Plotting out probable training, research, learning, etc.
We have no time limit on these things, it can take one session or two sessions to organize. I do expect that there will be good roleplaying to start off once most people are in.
I am adding the heroin addicted badger to the list of encounters in the Wastes for you. Do not tell anyone, tell them to come read it here. :)
12-27-2021 BOB
I updated the Roll Call page for the end of the year.
I am very much looking forward to this upcoming year.
We will have at least two very different story arcs, we will all learn to use Fantasy Grounds better, and most likely wrap up Cosmological Quandaries and being a new Era near the end of the year.
Also we will see some milestones for players.
- Michael will pass 250 games played. And be part of our game for 8 years.
- Carissa will likely pass 300 games played. And be part of our game for 6 years.
- TMO will pass 450 games played. And be part of our game for 11 years.
- Lorie will likely pass 500 games played. And be part of our game for 18 years.
- Lisa will pass 600 games played. And be part of our game for 13 years.
After the last three months of me having a heavier hand in deciding when stories would start and finish we go back to the players being in charge of the pace of the sessions and story arcs.
We are fully ensconced in Fantasy Grounds but that only means we are all learning more over the next six months to a year. I fully expect to find tweaks we want to make for many months to come. As we all learn together we need to remember to have patience with each other and ourselves. Myself in particular, fully admitting to how frustrated I have been.
For the upcoming year of stories, I have a plan :)
We start with Home Stories and everyone gets things ready to finish your goals from Complicated Emotions and get ready for Cloak Check. That will be two or three sessions. Then we dive into Cloak Check with a visit to another new Plane.
After that story arc is finished we do another bit with Home Stories to clean up, wrap up, and make sure everyone is ready for Book Return.
That will be the big frightening story arc that everyone has been anticipating/dreading/looking forward to.
When that is all completed we will do one more Home Stories wrap up.
At the end of all of that we will go to the next Era which will be one single long adventure.
We pick up on 2022 01 14 with everyone freshly arriving at the Inn of the Lost Eagle as Branwyn has Gated a bunch of people, some friends, some unkknown, and four cats from Pandemonium back to Dragon Fen.
12-15 BOB
I continue to tweak the session styles. I have now have 24 changes that I have semi automated to make the text more readable.
Two more things we can change for Effect and for Cast if we want those to show up in a different color/font/style etc to help them stand out in the Environment section.
I have not found a way of highlighting the Whispers yet as they are the same formatting code as all the other environmental pieces and do not have the extra wording that Cast has for example that can be used.
12-12-2021 BOB
I am working on having the chat logs look better for us with more automation.
If you look at the Session Style Visible page you can see examples of what we currently are using.
What my current work flow looks to be is:
Open Chat Log file in Word
Remove Session header from Date to first ##660066 {the chat log file generated by FGU is one long html file, each session simply appends to the end of the existing file}
Using Replace: <br /> with ^I {hard line break}
Copy and paste to Chat Log for the session
Then Replace:
##660066 with game mechanic formatting %env% ##000000 with BOB formatting %BOB% ##000066 with In Character NPC formatting %NPCIC% #005500 with Out of Character formatting %ooc% ##261A12 with In Character formatting %ic% [Elvish] with %Elvish% [Dwarvish] with %Dwarvish% [Goblin] with %Goblin% [Gnomish] with %Gnomish% [Giant] with %Jotun% [Halfling] with %Hin% springdew with Spring seyfert with Carissa MadamePsychosis with Lisa mharmon1 with Michael Master TMO with TMO LemonyLemon with Lemon
Note that the translations as shown in 2021 12 10c may not be clear? How to change that?
Save in Word
Copy and Paste into Formatted Chat Log for the session.
With practice (and develop a one pass macro) I think I can do this most nights right after the session ends.
There are a few more options we can add in now.
Font color code for:
418C12 - dice roll, success 6106D1 - dice roll, failure 880000 - In Character emoting 660066 - Whispers from BOB to a character
Do we want dice rolls to look different than the other environment entries? How to show emoting? Italics?
What about Whispers? It is the same color code as all the other environment lines
We can also change some of the actions that are in the environment too. [Effect] - show by? [CAST] - show by?
Finally I had the thought of changing the log in names to our common names. MadamePsychosis to Lisa LemonyLemon to Lemon etc.
One thing that I can change is adding in the Player Icon names to the auto formatting for OOC so that it shifts like the other when it is only the login name.
I want to note that this does not bring us back to all the work that Lisa has done over the years with the formatted pages of the chat. This does not include any spell check, grammar, or checking to see if OOC comments made IC get formatted properly.
