General OoC discussion

I echo Matmaisan’s words @spaceseeker19 😁

We doomed ourselves with a troop of head strong characters, maybe next time we will be more balanced 👍🏻

Yes, that was a great wrap up and I love playing in this game.

It probably doesn't need mentioning, but just in case, I want to encourage you all to consider figuring out ways for your new characters to want to take the actions that you as players know they should take: rests when they're out of resources (hit points, healing abilities, and spell slots in particular) and training to gain levels when they're ready. The characters will be very aware that the previous adventurers have all disappeared, which (in addition to the specific circumstances of the encounter) should give them a reasonable amount of caution.

You shouldn't find yourselves in the situation again where a higher-level PC's confidence in their ability to survive overrides the common sense of L1 PCs, but if there ever is that spread of levels again, know that I fully support your saying "<Your character> might be OK with this, but <my L1 character> is not. They're really badly hurt, and any one of the attacks that we saw in the last three encounters could take them out with a single hit now. They're not going along with this until they're rested/ready." Again, that's a hypothetical, given that all the PCs are L1 now (and equally vulnerable), but consider it advice for any game, PbP here on GP or real-time anywhere else, in which you find yourself in a similar dilemma.

My PC is going from the mountains to Dimgate as a caravan guard, and from there to Forestville then Hochoch as a wagon driver. I’d be glad to meet up with anyone while traveling this route (or another if it fits someone’s story better).

Ugh, I completely forgot to mention this, but I'll be out of the country from March 13 through March 22. Please NPC Amnestria is needed!

As for meeting up with the new PCs, I have to admit that I'm completely unfamiliar with the Greyhawk setting. I figured that Amnestria started off in Gorna as that's where her immediate family might reside, and she wants to travel to Hochoch by way of the road to Javan's Crossing and onward through Woodborough. In my head, she is not a seasoned traveler so her parents would likely pay for her to secure a seat on a merchant caravan or with other travelers headed in the same direction.

I think Antonius would talk his way into the escort for Amnestria being a capable fighter, and who wouldn’t want a Cleric to help in an escort.

I feel after the fight with the Skeletons he would seek to travel in company of others, safety in numbers and all that 😁.

We've already said that Dell and Amnestria met in Gorna, I believe.

Antonius and Berthold are both from Keoland; do you think they met during the journey from the Kingdom, or did they possible have some awareness of each other before they left?

Kazzak is coming out of the Crystalmist Mountains to the north of the Duchy, and we know that the Earthshaker Abbey is somewhere in the mountains. Where do you think the Abbey is? Do you think that Sora would have met Kazzak on the journey south to Dimgate, too, or is he coming east past the Hornwood from the mountains?

Sorry I just saw the new thread this morning before leaving for work so will post later today when I get home.

Makes sense to me, and I'm sure Berthold would enjoy the company of a man of the cloth.

Heh, I'll admit, I wasn't paying attention and thought Antonius was Dell when coming up with connections. If it's convenient for RP, we could say that Amnestria's parents went overboard in obtaining people and got in touch with Dell and Berthold.

As for the Earthshaker Abbey, I apologize for not being specific in its location. I only decided that it'd be in the mountains. Please feel free to nail down its location if it help your character's origins.

I'm fine with saying that Sora and Kazzak met up on the way.

@WhtKnt Sounds good to me. Do you want Sora to be one of the passengers on the wagon to Javan Crossing?

@spaceseeker19 what is the travel time (by wagon) between Forestville and Javan Crossing?

Let's say it's a week.

Works for me.

I am enjoying the role-playing of everyone meeting and traveling, but I also want to check in to see how everyone is doing. Do you want to continue role-playing your introductions and conversation during the journey first, or would you prefer to do that in parallel with another thread that takes place after all that, with the party at Hochoch and meeting Olpert?

I don't want to skip ahead and short-change your roleplay if everyone is having a good time, but I also don't want to delay the adventure/encounters part of the game if any of you are tired of waiting for those opportunities. So I'm checking: what would you rather do? Either way, you can continue playing out your PCs meeting each other. The only drawback to having two threads in parallel is the potential that updating both is more effort and you might taper off in the first one before you feel like you've finished the roleplay.

I'm inclined to continue with the introductions, if only to flesh out character personalities. I'm finding Amnestria's voice through these interactions, trying to play her like a headstrong teenager that hasn't found the balance between acceptance of her family connections and achieving her own independence.

Of course, if everyone would rather describe themselves OOC in order to move ahead to Hochoch, I'm fine with that, too. I already have the basic idea of Amnestria so introductory RP is just fine-tuning the character. I'm sure with this group, it will be easy to integrate everyone's characters to form a party.

I do understand that continuing the intro scene means Morton is left in the wings, even if there's a private thread going on that documents his return to Hochoch with Arya's body. That's another possible reason to skip ahead to where the group gets together.

A reminder that I'm out of the country starting Friday March 13 and won't be back until Monday March 23, so whatever is decided, Amnestria will be an NPC during that time. If we're still in the introduction thread, she'll be conversational but will try to keep her affiliation with the Raptor name quiet as much as possible. She doesn't want to be treated any differently than anybody else, even if it means difficulty for the group.

If there is a need for magic, Amnestria's only "attack" spell is Fire Bolt. She prefers battlefield control such as using Sleep or Fog Cloud to disrupt opponents, or Minor Illusion to provide distraction. Her favorite illusion is a 4-foot-tall halfling assassin suddenly appearing in peripheral view, while her second favorite is any type of concealment that can help a warrior/rogue get into position to strike. Otherwise, her character sheet is public so everyone can see her spellbook and prepared spells; use whatever fits the need.

I was wondering where Morton had gone to! I had the impression Wanderone had dropped, since he doesn't appear in the player roster for this game...

To be honest, I had not noticed that.

I prefer finishing introductions before starting a parallel thread, but I’m fine with whatever the decision is.

Even taking @CancerMan's absence into account, it feels like the introductions have tapered off. So I will start the next thread; as I said before, there's plenty of room in the Chapter 4.0 thread to continue in-character interactions concerning the journey to Hochoch and the first arrival, in parallel to the conversations with Olpert.