State of the Games
Exalted: It's been a while since I reported on this game. The group had returned to Gem. Two circle members left.
In return, we get an abyssal. "Sorrow" for short (sorry, I don't remember his full sobriquet). Heavily armored, with a soulsteel steed and a personal army of sorts, he arrived in Gem to pledge himself to those who had slain the First and Forsaken Lion. This is grand in theory, but pretty much no one in the group trusts him. They don't have much reason to. The help is accepted, though, and he made an Eclipse-bound oath to work with the circle...
So they depart on their way to Thorns, with plans to cure/release and enlist the aid of Juggernaut (giant being with city on his back, etc.) for the actual push against the Mask of Winter.
The group stops at a swamp on the way. Why stop at a swamp some 200 miles short of their destination? Umm... I'm unclear. We didn't realize it was so far at the time. They cross on the back of a giant spider spirit after enlisting its aid. They beat back a horde of lesser spirits that were hostile out of hunger. They totally passed up any opportunity to actually do much in the swamp - and without it really occurring, I would say. As the Storyteller pointed out afterward, useful poisons could have been rounded up there. That's great, but I look at the group members and the only one I see that would even think about poisons is Vee, who tends to eat them so she can spit them at people on a personal level rather than using them over a large area. It's just not something the group members do.
So... spiffy. After that, stars are seen falling from the sky and a missive is delivered asking the circle to remain clear of Yu Shan for a while to avoid the ongoing conflict there. Yay, guilt over causing revolt in Heaven!
Then they moved on, reaching Juggernaut through magical flight (which again begs the question of why they stopped to cross the swamp on the ground). The group splits up to accomplish multiple goals with the main PCs doing to destroy the "worms" infecting him and such. Minor combat ensues, it's learned that there are necromantic devices that might be good targets to destroy to cause the worms to lose focus.
And then Sorrow accumulates enough Resonance to go all "I'm possessed by a Neverborn for the scene" on the group. The combat didn't last too long, as the others were able to knock him out, but... eh... even if it's not entirely his fault, that doesn't make him real trustworthy.
So, the circle regroups and presses on for now...
WoW: Level 80 priest, level 77 paladin (and climbing). Trying to keep up with some daily quests to build up reputation as well as trying to keep up with research on my Inscriptionist character (so... many... glyphs). Just doing some dailies has been pushing my paladin toward level 78, though I keep thinking about all that level 80 gear. Mmm. Epic. ... In time, though, since I'm doing "real" quests with others as a group there.
Alas, the big drawback is a lack of guildmembers at present. Admittedly, I miss out some by working nights every other week, but it seems rare of late that we have five people on for any length of time, much less more. Our druid tank has been scarce since marrying our wasn't-on-a-lot-to-begin-with warrior. I've seen a little more of one hunter lately. ... I don't know. It's going to be hard to get into dungeons with a guild group at this rate, but I can't say what the problem is. We lost some people when changing servers, but they were already pretty inactive.
What's wrong with the Exalted game?
Party composition for one. We've had some people come and go, which makes it harder for the characters to bond. Currently, it's a bit of a stretch for the group to continue to accept Sorrow. As evidenced by the poison plot thread, the group is seriously lacking in a roguish "Dusk-like" perspective, which means certain routes and options are completely closed because none of the characters will think of them.
Pacing. This is haaard online anyway. It might just be worse in Exalted in general. In a single combat, it can take ten minutes or more for a person who knows what they're doing to resolve an attack. We don't all know what we're doing so well. And on a bigger scale, the events with deadlines are pushing things a little too fast (we have to return the crown, so we have to take care of Thorns... oh, and Juggernaut is about to die if we don't do things right now anyway). One would think this would lend excitement to a scene, but it usually seems to just frustrate, particularly in a game where it may take weeks to learn a new ability. Alexi would love to establish some sort of actual power base, but the circle is too busy flitting over Creation and beyond to patch what needs doing *now*.
WTF moments. I'm not sure what the source of these even is. Inadequate communication between Storyteller and players? I still don't have any clear idea of what happened in the big "cut scene" when the FaFL was trying to invade Gem. I can't see why the circle should have stopped to go through the swamp on foot, save the Storyteller had a scene there he wanted to run. Moments like these make me sit back as a player and think "What just happened? And why?" That's a big disconnect for me.
Player interest/involvement. I know one player's been iffy on the system from the get-go, and hasn't really picked it up since. I can't judge much beyond that, to be honest, but I often (not always) have felt like I was the only one keeping up with things and trying to plan what to do.
What's wrong with the Star Wars game?
We don't play?
Okay, there's more to it than that. Getting thrown off by the holidays hurt, but we could be getting back into this. Unfortunately, I find my own interest has faltered and I don't feel much enthusiasm from the players save the occasional "are we going to play again?" which is different from "man, let's get together and play!" (especially when followed by "well, maybe you could run something for just me?"). So when I can't psyche myself up about it, I don't feel much like GMing. And there's exterior factors, too. Tonight would be a night we might play, but I'm tired from walking and grumpy in general - not a good mindset for it.
I may have started too slow, too. I'm not sure on that. We got through... three sessions thusfar? We're still sort of in prelude/scene-setting territory. That may have been poor planning.
But... I have trouble pinpointing what's actually gone wrong thusfar because I haven't gotten much actual feedback. After/between the sessions, no one talked to me about the game. That makes it difficult to adjust and mold to player preferences and it makes it harder to maintain interest myself. :/
In return, we get an abyssal. "Sorrow" for short (sorry, I don't remember his full sobriquet). Heavily armored, with a soulsteel steed and a personal army of sorts, he arrived in Gem to pledge himself to those who had slain the First and Forsaken Lion. This is grand in theory, but pretty much no one in the group trusts him. They don't have much reason to. The help is accepted, though, and he made an Eclipse-bound oath to work with the circle...
So they depart on their way to Thorns, with plans to cure/release and enlist the aid of Juggernaut (giant being with city on his back, etc.) for the actual push against the Mask of Winter.
The group stops at a swamp on the way. Why stop at a swamp some 200 miles short of their destination? Umm... I'm unclear. We didn't realize it was so far at the time. They cross on the back of a giant spider spirit after enlisting its aid. They beat back a horde of lesser spirits that were hostile out of hunger. They totally passed up any opportunity to actually do much in the swamp - and without it really occurring, I would say. As the Storyteller pointed out afterward, useful poisons could have been rounded up there. That's great, but I look at the group members and the only one I see that would even think about poisons is Vee, who tends to eat them so she can spit them at people on a personal level rather than using them over a large area. It's just not something the group members do.
So... spiffy. After that, stars are seen falling from the sky and a missive is delivered asking the circle to remain clear of Yu Shan for a while to avoid the ongoing conflict there. Yay, guilt over causing revolt in Heaven!
Then they moved on, reaching Juggernaut through magical flight (which again begs the question of why they stopped to cross the swamp on the ground). The group splits up to accomplish multiple goals with the main PCs doing to destroy the "worms" infecting him and such. Minor combat ensues, it's learned that there are necromantic devices that might be good targets to destroy to cause the worms to lose focus.
And then Sorrow accumulates enough Resonance to go all "I'm possessed by a Neverborn for the scene" on the group. The combat didn't last too long, as the others were able to knock him out, but... eh... even if it's not entirely his fault, that doesn't make him real trustworthy.
So, the circle regroups and presses on for now...
WoW: Level 80 priest, level 77 paladin (and climbing). Trying to keep up with some daily quests to build up reputation as well as trying to keep up with research on my Inscriptionist character (so... many... glyphs). Just doing some dailies has been pushing my paladin toward level 78, though I keep thinking about all that level 80 gear. Mmm. Epic. ... In time, though, since I'm doing "real" quests with others as a group there.
Alas, the big drawback is a lack of guildmembers at present. Admittedly, I miss out some by working nights every other week, but it seems rare of late that we have five people on for any length of time, much less more. Our druid tank has been scarce since marrying our wasn't-on-a-lot-to-begin-with warrior. I've seen a little more of one hunter lately. ... I don't know. It's going to be hard to get into dungeons with a guild group at this rate, but I can't say what the problem is. We lost some people when changing servers, but they were already pretty inactive.
What's wrong with the Exalted game?
Party composition for one. We've had some people come and go, which makes it harder for the characters to bond. Currently, it's a bit of a stretch for the group to continue to accept Sorrow. As evidenced by the poison plot thread, the group is seriously lacking in a roguish "Dusk-like" perspective, which means certain routes and options are completely closed because none of the characters will think of them.
Pacing. This is haaard online anyway. It might just be worse in Exalted in general. In a single combat, it can take ten minutes or more for a person who knows what they're doing to resolve an attack. We don't all know what we're doing so well. And on a bigger scale, the events with deadlines are pushing things a little too fast (we have to return the crown, so we have to take care of Thorns... oh, and Juggernaut is about to die if we don't do things right now anyway). One would think this would lend excitement to a scene, but it usually seems to just frustrate, particularly in a game where it may take weeks to learn a new ability. Alexi would love to establish some sort of actual power base, but the circle is too busy flitting over Creation and beyond to patch what needs doing *now*.
WTF moments. I'm not sure what the source of these even is. Inadequate communication between Storyteller and players? I still don't have any clear idea of what happened in the big "cut scene" when the FaFL was trying to invade Gem. I can't see why the circle should have stopped to go through the swamp on foot, save the Storyteller had a scene there he wanted to run. Moments like these make me sit back as a player and think "What just happened? And why?" That's a big disconnect for me.
Player interest/involvement. I know one player's been iffy on the system from the get-go, and hasn't really picked it up since. I can't judge much beyond that, to be honest, but I often (not always) have felt like I was the only one keeping up with things and trying to plan what to do.
What's wrong with the Star Wars game?
We don't play?
Okay, there's more to it than that. Getting thrown off by the holidays hurt, but we could be getting back into this. Unfortunately, I find my own interest has faltered and I don't feel much enthusiasm from the players save the occasional "are we going to play again?" which is different from "man, let's get together and play!" (especially when followed by "well, maybe you could run something for just me?"). So when I can't psyche myself up about it, I don't feel much like GMing. And there's exterior factors, too. Tonight would be a night we might play, but I'm tired from walking and grumpy in general - not a good mindset for it.
I may have started too slow, too. I'm not sure on that. We got through... three sessions thusfar? We're still sort of in prelude/scene-setting territory. That may have been poor planning.
But... I have trouble pinpointing what's actually gone wrong thusfar because I haven't gotten much actual feedback. After/between the sessions, no one talked to me about the game. That makes it difficult to adjust and mold to player preferences and it makes it harder to maintain interest myself. :/
I'm very interested in continuing to play. I've plotted out what I want to do, I'm looking forward to what you've got planned, and I'm waiting to get more involved with the setting!
ReplyDeleteIn response to Star Wars, yes, holidays buggered things up, but I am of the learning that it's the GM who ropes in the players if there's been a down time. That the GM pokes people in advance with notes, "Hey, game today at 6. (Tomorrow, next week, etc)" Not to say that the players are completely responsibility free, but some (like myself) have the RPG training to let the GM handle organization unless ahead of time it was made known the players have the individual responsibility to try to wrangle. Basically, all I heard was early in Jan that you were down because you 'could have' run game once it was late in the evening and you were winding down for bed. >.>
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