Clockwork Abattoir: A Cadaverous Earth campaign

[Steerpike]

I'm still available at that time, but I haven't had much of a chance to post and don't know if I'm in the best place to join into a group IRC game?

[Rose-of-Vellum]

Thanks for replying, Steerpike.

So far, Steerpike & FE have confirmed for today; TMG has likewise done so, but for 9 pm start. No word from Superbright (she sent me a pm last Wednesday saying she'd been ill). She might still be free, might be still ill. Either way, that's at least 3+ players, which is plenty to do a group session.

However, at this point, I'm not sure the plot progression warrants it. My long-stated goal was to do the group session once the PCs were joined up together (or most were -here's looking at you, Xavier & Mr. Nix). That way, we can all play in the same channel rather than me running separate 'rooms'. I had definitely thought we were going to get there before today, in terms of plots, and people are close.

To justify those expectations, consider this: in the last 10 days, we've had 3 posts from players total. Compare that to the 10 days prior when we had 19 posts from players (once again, excluding mine).

To clarify, I'm not upset. I'm especially sympathetic to TMG and Superbright who were/are sick. I also know I put FE on pause to let the other players catch up, and I know Steerpike has always been up front that he has limited time to play (hence the appeal of pbp).

Right now, I'm just trying to readjust plans and openly communicate our aspirations as a group.

At this point, here's what I'm thinking:

Cancel the group session. Resume pbp. Once 3+ PCs are ready (i.e., their plots have directly intersected) we can (re)schedule for a group IRC session. After that, players/PCs would be free to go their own route or remain playing together via pbp and the infrequent, as convenient, group session.

But that's just my preference. Alternatives could include:    

1. Have the session today. The goal would be to advance PCs who are 'behind' others in terms of being ready to meet up and tackle the originally planned 'adventure' as a group. This might be especially helpful to Catena's current situation, since combat-interactions are far more swiftly resolved via IRC than pbp.

2. Have the session today. The goal would be to run an 'adventure' with those PCs most ready to meet up together (likely Alisandre & Hadric, with Decarabia if Superbright shows). However, I wouldn't run the originally planned 'adventure'. This would just be a 'filler' I'd be creating last-minute (I have a couple of contenders).  

Neither is particularly ideal to me. In part, because both give at least 1 player the short stick. In part, because I'm not as ready for either.  I have the 'original adventure' all typed up, with room, attack, hit, & miss descriptions ready and waiting to copy & paste. Due to all that prep, and the nature of the encounters, I'd really like to run that 'encounter/adventure' as a group IRC session, so I'm fine with waiting till it actually works out for 4+ players and their PCs.

To summarize, we can (a) cancel, resume pbp, and reschedule when everyone is ready; (b) play today to catch up certain PC plots (namely Catena, maybe Hadric); or (c) play with those PCs most ready (Alisandre & Hadric, maybe Decarabia) in a 'filler adventure' I'll have to run with little prep time.

(a) is my preference. I'm happy to do (b). I least prefer (c) because it places the greatest burden on me as a GM, even if I'm willing to entertain it all the same.  

That said, we're a bunch of friends trying to play a game for fun, so please let me know what you think of the above options.

[Steerpike]

Your preference (a) sounds good to me.

My availability for stuff, including posting, tends to come in waves, depending on how much writing etc I have to do in a given week - last week I had lectures to prep ("I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream," Medea, Stross' "Lobsters"... lots of fun) and a writing group deadline and the ever-present dissertation (usually the only constant).

[False Epiphany]

I'm likewise down with (a) - whatever works best for the GM's plans. Here's to having that session sometime soon.

[Rose-of-Vellum]

Steerpike, I'm in a similarly wave-rocked graduate boat.

When the week's surf is particularly nasty, though, I would greatly appreciate players letting me know (via pm, OOC post). Keeps me from bugging you and helps me adjust things as necessary on my end. I'll try and provide the same courtesy to you all as well.

Now, since 2 players and the GM are good with option (a), let's go with that.

[TheMeanestGuest]

If a. is your preferred option, then I think we should go with it.

[Rose-of-Vellum]

Sounds like (a) it is. However, I'll likely be online tonight if any of you are interested in a little of (b). Just let me know.

[Rose-of-Vellum]

Appropriately enough for the necromancer PC, the game -at least for Alisandre (as per False Epiphany's invitation)- has been "reanimated." I'll gladly do so for any of the other past players and their PCs. Or new ones for that matter. Just give the word. 

[Rose-of-Vellum]

After a month+ of silence, I assumed the game had died, Steerpike. That said, I'm happy to revive it all the same. Perhaps true to its setting, it lurches onward -not healthy or with any real vitality- but not fully claimed by death either. It's just 'mostly dead'. :)

[Steerpike]

It's a beautifully written game. So long as you keep posting I will play, even if my responses are slow.

[Rose-of-Vellum]

That's a mighty fine compliment, Steerpike, and well-appreciated.

Ironically, I started the game primarily to play-test the Penumbra rules, but that plan never really materialized (i.e., multiple players being run through a specific adventure) and has since lost its salience (as I've already used the rules to run about a dozens tabletop sessions with 4 different groups of players). In retrospect, I should have just run a one-shot IRL game, and/or run a pbp that better invited and tailored to players' interests (e.g., Erebh vs Skein, urban vs wilderness, etc.). Admittedly, I tend to over-plan plot and setting elements, particularly when tailoring individual PC plot lines that flexible connect with meta-plotlines. Even with most of those plot-lines sitting fallow with the loss of the other players, a lot of them remain viable.  

That said, Steerpike (as the last man standing), do you have any preferences related to the game? Specifically, do you have certain goals or objectives for Catena (beyond presumably finishing her contract with Guin)? For example, do you, as a player, want to play a primarily urban campaign, remain in Skein, travel elsewhere, advance a certain faction, etc.?

   

[Steerpike]

At the moment, no. I think that would depend on how things with Guin plays out. I like Skein quite a bit, but don't feel you need to plan out anything extensive.

How did your tabletop sessions work out?

[Rose-of-Vellum]

At the moment, no. I think that would depend on how things with Guin plays out. I like Skein quite a bit, but don't feel you need to plan out anything extensive.

Well, I have plenty of Skein material already prepped, so that works for me (just let me know if you want to jump city for a more drastic change of place).

How did your tabletop sessions work out?

Amazingly well. The players ended up being very varied. 14 total: 9 guys, 5 girls; 2 teens, 10 adults; 4 couples, 2 parent-child dyads. Previously, my gaming crew was nearly all 3e/PF gamers, but since moving (and doing the 'play-tests'), I've been playing with different folks. 3 of them had never played any kind of RPG before (excluding video games). 2 had only played PF. 2 were Iron Kingdoms devotees. 2 were 2e-3e gamers. 3 were 3e-PF-4e gamers. And 2 had played 1e-5e as well as Numenara. Diverse bunch.

I ran the first two groups through an identical adventure (with one group continuing to play). Another was a separate one-shot with some of my old crew during a summer trip, and the last group plays irregularly during holidays. The adventures were pretty varied as well: exploration/retrieval, classic dungeon crawl, murder mystery, urban espionage, etc.

Without exception, I got rave reviews -though it's hard to tease how much of the praise was due to the rules versus the setting (thanks once again), adventure, GMing, and inter-player dynamics.

Character creation still took a while, but no more than typical for 3e/PF/4e, but maybe a little more than 5e. Some of that time, though, was due to player unfamiliarity with both CE and the rules. The Penumbra Rules include a fair bit of flavor as well as crunch, so players grappled with (but then loved) learning about sheevra, shades, jatayi, etc. I also gave all the players a slightly updated/edited CE pdf (only format was edited; no content was altered) to read. A little less than half (6) actually read it, but that's pretty typical in my gaming experience. The other part that took a lot of time with character creation was having players come up with their own eldritch items. The Numenara players had no problem with it, but most players were not used to having that kind of flexibility. About half of them really loved it, though, and it helped flesh out all of their characters. Still, having a table of sample oddities and devices would be helpful, I think.

From the GM's perspective, the rules are a blast. The intuitive nature of DCs and simplicity and flexibility of 'monster' and trap crunch is fantastic. Whenever I GM'd in 3e-5e, I spent a ton of time working on the crunch of the monsters/NPCs/traps. It was a major time-sink, one that inevitably prevented me from spending more time on flavor, plot, and setting.

Actual gameplay was similarly terrific. It's so swift. Players and GMs were allowed to focus on role-playing, while still being able to enjoy rolling dice, having strategic and tactical choices and the thrill of luck -good or bad. There was never a single rule that caused a game to grind (unlike what happens in 3e). The players also all thought the rules were fair, and it didn't seem to produce unbalanced PCs. People especially loved the way dice exploded (1s, 5s, and 6s).

The play test did reveal one flaw (and quick solution): the reduction of DCs was onerous for about half the players (adding is inherently easier than subtracting). So we changed it to bonuses to the rolls (e.g., expertise grants +1 to your d6 roll). Everyone was happy with the change, and it sped up gameplay without any actualized (or at least observed) drawback.

Besides that one easily fixed issue, the only other minor criticism was that several of the players missed rolling their other dice, particularly the d20. Said feedback was more sheepish than sincere, but it is true that people have an attachment to the d20, and there is a certain joy at having a beautiful set of dice. Penumbra doesn't facilitate that.

All in all, it was like running a randomized clinical trial (RCT) and having all your hypotheses supported with statistical and clinical significance. Which is rare, but an awesome feeling.

Of course, all those games were set in CE, so there's a confounding variable. :)

[Steerpike]

That's great!

I know what they mean about d20 attachment. I'm playing in a game right now that uses 2d6 and it's a little weird.

Were all the adventures set in Skein?

[Rose-of-Vellum]

Perhaps surprisingly, none of the games (save this one) have been set in Skein. Instead, all of them have been set in, from, to, or near a home-brew town called Sarantos.

Also known as the Vagrant's Asylum, Sarantos is a nascent flash-pan settlement nestled at the confluence of Dour Erg's dunes, the Firesong's saguaro-strewn scrublands, and the obsidian plateaus of the Shadeglass Steppes. Populated by deserters and quasi-heretics of the Branded Crusade and other outcasts of the Twilight Cities, the region serves as a caravanserai for zerda and mantid nomads, a trading post for Crepuscular guilds and Macellarian cartels, a miasma depot for Skeinite dirigibles, and an irresistible temptation for genie-sworn banditos, fetch-hordes, and worse. Sarantos is built atop, beneath, and around the ruins of a thrice-damned city and the fumarole-riddled caldera called Trephine Hill. It lies a half-day's ride to Rheumwood, a parasitic dock-town along the River Stye that provides Sarantos with a tenuous connection to the Gland's riparian trade.

Sarantos is ruled by a violently fluid oligarchy known the Consortia, a collection of bosses that vie for dominance over the Barrios, including the geist-blossomed opulence of Blackbriar; the cestoid-carved depths of Neverwick; the raw, rough-hewn saloons, knackeries, and bordellos of the Splintered Bowery; the slave-ghorfas and gleet-forges of the Termitary; and the pestilential masses and flaystorm-buried porphyry of the Red Palimpsest. Numbered among the Consortia are the Viceroys, a pair of shade representatives from Erebh's Penumbral Ministry; the Triumvirate, a trio of Crepuscular tortiloquists who run the Blatherskite Carnival; the Schismarchs, a sectarian melange of Yzch-worshipping hierophants that include the Manged Papess of the Sarcoptic Communion and the mephit-tongued Archimandrite of the Lugent Cauldron; the Skeinite merchant companies that run the thaumoindustrial Blisterwerks; and more.