Preserved Topic: The Dragonhunt -- Ozone Asylum D&D Campaign Logs & Commentary (Page 2 of 3)

OK, so it looks like tiki isn't going to be able to make it(just spoke with him on Q), so the session is probably going to be a wash. I'm not sure what my schedule is going to be for today--if I was positive that we were playing, I would have kept it open, but it doesn't look like any playing is going to happen. I may end up being around anyway, but don't count on me.

[This message has been edited by Suho1004 (edited 02-08-2003).]

Sorry, I can't make it. I'm on a real big deadline for a Flash demo this week(kind of an emergency thing at work). I'll be on ICQ all weekend but I don't have time to play.

Next week all?

Damn...oh well, PT, you and I can go over some calculations for my character. I've got his history and stuff down, it's just the actual character stuff I need a slight hand with

Well, I've ended up staying up later than I expected (went out to see Shanghai Knights -- weak in spots, but redeemed admirably by Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson, who between them could charm the pants off things that don't even have pants).

Since it's just you and me, Skaarjj, how about we skip the 1100 GMT (since it'll be too early for me now) and I just catch you on ICQ before long? And of course you can email me any time -- signal@IGNORE_THIS.alanmacdougall.com.

Mins, mins! Glorious Mins! Get your personal Mins here! D & D Miniatures.

This message brought to you by the Min maker...hehe...

In response to public demand, I've finally written up how Luck works. There's also a new section on death and dying; the details are a little bit different from usual. Not by much, though, and the changes are generally more generous and forgiving than the PHB version. Check the submenu of the System page.

If you're curious, I've written a bit more about the criminal underworld, such as it is. Read the very bottom of the Organizations page (part of the Setting section).

Oh, and the Logs page also has brief teaser blurbs for upcoming adventures. Huzzah!

What else are people curious about? I'm taking requests...

edit: erm, the website is still at http://www.alanmacdougall.com/dragonhunt/ of course.

[This message has been edited by Perfect Thunder (edited 02-11-2003).]

Thanks for that bit on the underworld. I will be looking into it, hopefully I can get a background going for it. From there would it be possible to get working togeather towards entering the campaign?

For the moment, pencil yourself in. The idea is that if we can get on a regular gaming schedule, but maybe not everyone can make it for every session, we can at least have three or four people per session. That's where you (and possibly another person) might come in. But for the moment, I'd want to finish WS's prologue, then play Tikigod's and Skaarjj's prologues, and then play at least the first "real" chapter... if we get that far, which I hope we will, then we'll have a solid base to include other people.

The idea is that we end up being able to play every two weeks, on average. In practice, we might end up just playing with laborious slowness, and lose interest in the campaign entirely. That's my main fear. (Hasn't V's campaign been in the works for a year now, with only 4 real sessions played? edit: then again, interest there is still plenty high.) So I'd rather have "proof of concept" before I lead you to get too excited.

[This message has been edited by Perfect Thunder (edited 02-11-2003).]

Okay! Skaarjj, sorry I got your message too late to play with you and Tikigod; I would have been able to do it, too, I just didn't have Trillian up out of sheer forgetfulness.

So, how about we play the exciting climax of WS's prologue this weekend? Everyone is welcome. And then, if Skaarjj and Tikigod happen to have a few hours once we're done with that, we can consider bulling through to Tiki's prologue, which I'm pretty excited about, too. It'll be one of those really freeform adventures, where you get an objective, a city map, and a time limit, and then we play fast and loose from there. My second-favorite type of game!

My favorite, of course, is the big dramatic semi-scripted sequences, full of revelations, internal character conflicts, and solemn martial arts showdowns, that form the elemental set-pieces of the Dragonhunt campaign philosophy. Sequences like the end of WS's prologue! (/me bounces up and down in his chair)

Avengers, assemble!

I'm good for this weekend preferably Friday night or Saturday morning, before Mrs. Tiki gets back from Baton Rouge.

Wahoo! That means that even if everyone else dies of pneumonia between now and then, at least we'll get to play something!

It also means that we could potentially schedule WS's prologue for one day, and run Tiki's prologue on another.

Well, I'm not sure if my NPC is in any of the upcoming sessions, but it doesn't look like I'll be able to play this Friday--I could probably swing an 1100 GMT Saturday time, though. But don't change schedules just for me--after all, I'm only an NPC. If you happen to play at that time, I'll happily join in. If not, then maybe next time.

Okay, there's now some information up about magic, although it might not be of great interest to anyone except Skaarjj.

What are you folks still curious about? Just tell me and I'll get to writing.

Okay, I'm hearing from Skaarjj that he's okay to play in Tiki's prologue; I hear from Tiki that he's okay to play in Tiki's prologue (a relief!); anyone else? WS, got a time slot free?

edit: And as for Skaarjj and Tikigod, when would you like to play? I'm up for anything, so it's up to you two to hash it out.

[This message has been edited by Perfect Thunder (edited 02-20-2003).]

I'm fine with the usual saturday at 1100 GMT if we aren't doing then already.

Oy, turns out I won't be able to make it on Saturday... maybe next time.

Works for me. I do have to go when my wife gets home that afternoon.

Okay, excellent, we'll do Prologue 3: Grey Light at 1100 GMT on Saturday.

WebShaman, how does your crystal ball look? Got any gaps in your schedule coming up? We can put your prologue in the can given another two hours.

[This message has been edited by Perfect Thunder (edited 02-21-2003).]

This weekend is out...got my daughter...next weekend?

Good for me, provided it doesn't cause an uproar with the other campaign.

New information: read the section on Ilium. If you're Tikigod or Skaarjj, the information is particularly important, since we'll be using it in the next game session (a mere five hours away, and hideously early in the morning for Tikigod and me, so it might not be entirely reasonable, I guess.)

You think it's hiddeously early in the morning for you? It starts at 10 pm for me, and one session didn't finish until 3 am...so

Or judging by last nights session....5:30 AM....It's 6:30 PM now...and I only got up about an hour ago.

edit: The corrollary to the following is that I'm apologizing to Skaarjj. From now on, we won't be doing the super-long sessions. I'm going to set an eggtimer or something.

Yeah, I'm going to start revising my estimates of how long things take to play. So far, I'd been saying that if I think something should take a half-hour to play, I'll allow an hour for it. From now on, I'm going to allow an hour for each fifteen-minute segment. If we need to go down to an hour for every five minutes, we'll do it. And I'll start setting an exact time limit for each session, and I'll break the adventures up into suitable chunks.

So in this case, for instance, we'd have had Cortes enter the city; someone kills a bystander to get his attention; he chases the killer into a building; the killer takes a potshot at him and then the cops chase Cortes out of the building... end of session.

Next session, Cortes goes to a new neighborhood, following a note left by the killer. A murder attempt there is foiled by Skaarjj's character, Dannyl. Cortes and Dannyl follow another tip, and go to a bar, where there's another assassination attempt. This one is too close for comfort, and one way or another, they end up talking to the City Watch. The Watch captain can't catch the assassin unless he uses Cortes and Dannyl as bait, so he gives them what they need to help out: a camera to catch the assassin's face. If they can prove who the assassin is, the Watch can intimidate the assassin's boss into calling him off. End of session.

Next session, Cortes and Dannyl plot and plan on how to take the vital photo. They have maybe twelve hours of game time. They're warned to consider all factors, since even a slight slip-up could nix their chances. They execute their plan; if they get the shot, they have to race across town to the Watch headquarters, while the assassin tries to strip or destroy the camera. End of session.

At our current rate, each of those sessions would have taken about two hours. And knowing how scheduling works, it would probably take a good two months to set them up.

This really isn't so bad. This isn't the focus of my life or anything; I'm quite willing just to say "okay, so we've got a campaign that could take a good four years to play out completely." Whatever, you know? If I get really impatient, I'll recruit a local group and play a different game with them. This is Milwaukee, home of Dungeons and Dragons, and I'm right next to a major university. If I can't find gamers here, then geez.

I just want to know if you're all okay with the idea of continuing on this basis. Limited-length sessions, an acceptance that we can't get a whole lot done in one session, and an acceptance that scheduling will always be flaky.

[This message has been edited by Perfect Thunder (edited 02-23-2003).]

Black Hole, by Purgatory. Pretend it's better, of course. I made it myself, and I suck.

Yeehooo! I'm up for the weekend!

I'll apoligise if I was getting shitty there towards the end...I'm not used to being up so late, and the fact is was late coupled with how long everything seemed to be taking, and how we seemed to be going over the same things three times was getting up my nose.

Important thing to rmember about Dannyl Nailo...unless oyu want to be locked in place for a while, never, ever call him Danny

Well, right at the very end, I was double-checking your plans and actions to give you a chance to reconsider. If you'd had Cortes lure Greylight away while Dannyl set up the traps, I would have given you the win. But it was too late in the session for you to be concentrating, or really engaging in any creative or critical thinking at all. That's not an insult, it's just another problem with playing for so long. We were all pretty tired. If the last part had been its own session, you probably would have been able to win on planning and inventiveness, instead of the entire adventure coming down to a single toss of Skaarjj's cursed dice. (By the way, Skaarjj, have you read the page on luck? Next time you've got something that critical coming up, spend a luck point to make two rolls. I admit that I'd forgotten about it too, or I would have suggested it.)

In general, the more thought and creativity you put into your actions, the less you'll have to rely on luck.

By the way, my lurker friend whispered his plan to me: tell Greylight that you've already got a picture and are willing to bargain for it, then get a snap of him when he comes in to negotiate. I wasn't expecting that, but it would have been perfect.

WS: Awesome. I keep taking lessons away from these sessions... if I'm lucky, the last session of your prologue will be just right, and we can all breathe a sigh of relief.

Since Veneficuz is going to be absent after this weekend, we'll give priority to his campaign. WS, if you feel like playing the Dragonhunt some other time this weekend, post away. Otherwise, we'll just finish up prologues in Veneficuz's absence.

1100 GMT Sunday is the only time available for Ven's campaign as Master uho will not be available on saturday (it's a holiday over in Korea)...so do you want to do saturday at an 1100 GMT again..say with a limit to playing until 1330 GMT?

That's good enough for me.

Good for me! 11:00 GMT on Saturday...

I'm about to start recruiting locally for a tabletop version of the same game. It wouldn't have any effect on you gentlemen, except this: I'm rearranging the website to obscure the logs, since obviously they contain plot spoilers for my hypothetical tabletop group.

So once I make the change, the Logs pages will seem to disappear, and the Characters pages will revert to their pre-game state; you can access the current stuff for the Ozone campaign at http://www.alanmacdougall.com/dragonhunt/ozone.php -- that's right, it's just the base Dragonhunt URL with "ozone.php" at the end of it. Hope it's not too inconvenient. And yeah, security by obscurity is weak like a small child.

Hey, Skaarjj... what kind of adventure would you like for your prologue? Intense combat, exploration, mystery, diplomacy? I've got some vague ideas burbling around, but nothing solid, so I figured if you've got a preferred type of adventure, I could indulge you.

Mystery is good...With a hint of diplomacy...Intense action is not really Dannyl's kind of thing, and the time needed to cast some of his transducer spells makes defense a big issue for him.

It's up to you...but I do love a good mystery, and I'm not that bad a diplomat if I do say so myself (does this mean the watch can't come after me? *prays for diplomatic immunity*)

Tell you what, then... I'll make your prologue a pleasant segue into Chapter One. You might have read about the Spring Festival in the Ilium guide? Well, it turns out that the City Watch wants to do a little spring cleaning before the Festival... just to make sure that the many wealthy visitors who attend the festival won't find Ilium's back streets too "dirty." There's a particular series of unsolved murders that the Watch would love to clear up ahead of time.

Watch business is Watch business, of course. They have to get pretty desperate before they start relying on outside help; and it's not like Dannyl has any particular reason to get involved in the first place. That is, until he gets a telegraph from Ander Kurtzweil. The Psychic Investigator has a lead on a problem of special interest to Dannyl... and the mysterious murders in Ilium are of special interest to Ander. Quid pro quo ensues. Dannyl gets to bluff or bargain his way into the murder investigation; then he gets to investigate.

He might not like what he finds, though...

Dannyl doesn't like much of anything, except food and staying alive...

The lights suddenly dim and a disco ball begins sparkling in the middle of the room...

"Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk,
I'm a woman's man, no time to talk."

Oh, sorry, I thought this was the disco party...

*Does the Saturday Night Fever "Point Dance"*