The Eye of Anubis: OOC Thread

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Then casting Recitation on the party. All party members gain a +2 luck bonus to AC, attack rolls, and saving throws. If you convert now, your bonus goes up to +3! Very Happy

Wow, not many religions can offer a great and immediate deal like that! Sign me up, oh great Varuna!

[Nathan of the FoS]

w00t! Massive demon smashings!

We love sound Lance, yes we do, we love sound lance, how 'bout you?

[NeoTiamat]

Okay, quick announcement.

Basically, I'm a little overwhelmed by Real Life just now to post. Or do much of anything except collapse in bed and listen to Monty Python's "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" on my few moments of free time. There are also... other issues.

Long story short, I'm going to put EoA on hold until Friday night, possibly the weekend. If I have the mental energy to post before then, I will, but right now I'm just very burned out and depressed.

[Kaitou Kage]

Take it easy, man. Rest up, get your head back on. We'll still be here when you're ready.

[DocBeard]

Hope you feel better, man. It's a rough time of year, don't worry about taking time off.

[NeoTiamat]

Well, it's over. To put things into perspective, since Saturday I have done...

Two exams
Two essays, totaling 20 pages.
A take-home essay worth another 4 pages.
A project prospectus for next semester.
Six requests for official transcripts to be sent out. (I would like to thank Isabella for her help here).

Oh, and all this while packing so I can leave before a giant blizzard hits the state.

Anyways, I'm back, it's winter break, so let's see if we can actually finish this Book sometime this year?

And to welcome me back, my monsters don't roll more than an 8 all round. I swear, someone up there doesn't like me.

[Kaitou Kage]

And to welcome me back, my monsters don't roll more than an 8 all round. I swear, someone up there doesn't like me.

I think it's someone's way of encouraging you to let us win the book already

[DocBeard]

Hey, you still kicked my ass, Neo.

Welcome back, and I'm glad you got through that college stuff sane. Well, relatively sane.

[NeoTiamat]

Well, that's more or less that for Book Eight. Because it's almost Christmas, I'll let the Book drag on a bit in various fluff-RP for the next week or two, since I somehow doubt starting a Book smack dab in the middle of holidays is the wisest thing I've ever done. Besides, you've still got a half-dozen open mysteries in this Book, such as oh... who killed Professor Pelletier. Basically, a chance to catch up on your side-RP.

So, feedback. As usual, some random prompts, and you get paid, hmm, 500 XP for the answers.

-What did you think of the Book as a whole? What worked, what didn't?

-Any comments on the mysteries and copious lying and conflicting viewpoints? Was it even very noticeable?

-NPCs? You get to meet Night-Terror, and the Lorelei, and Tharivas, and the Abbot, and lesser folks such as the Venerable Agatha or more Ianthe.

-Combats? Two combats, both of which seemed to end very quickly. Thoughts?

-Most importantly, pacing. The Book seemed to drag on forever, and very low post count despite being the longest book to date. Any ideas on how I can improve here? Or, conversely, what was it about this Book that made it so much slower?

[DocBeard]

I really enjoyed this book. I didn't mind the pace because, frankly, if it had been our normal pace I'd have ended up dropping out of the game around Thanksgiving, or at least not doing anything worthwhile, thanks to life. Seriously, it's a rough time of year, and I don't think that's anyone's fault.

It seems a little soon to be facing off against a demon again-one reason I ignore the 'no dragons and no orcs or nothin' rule of thumb when I run Ravenloft, because demons and undead every adventure gets old quick-but at the same time, I really dug the whole process of dreaming ourselves inside the monster's body, fighting through its throat, and making it to the heart. Very neat, and you did a good job of keeping the whole experience menacing.

Most of the mysteries have yet to be solved, so I cannot really comment much on them, can I? You threw an interesting loop with the Abbot, even if it is not yet confirmed that we were wrong about him. I hope so, in a way, it's nice to see an enigmatic authority figure who is not corrupt for once.

I think more time could have been spent with the monks proper, perhaps with us helping rebuild the damaged monastery and only afterward learning that Cavendish's attack did more than blow up some rock. They were an interesting group of people, though, and maybe we'll see them again.

Pacing, honestly, felt like a combination of two things; you getting used to our going up a 'tier' combat wise, and the time of year. For the latter, it's the holidays and the end of a semester. Work, college, high school or whatever, everything's busy. I know I didn't feel dragged out.

For the combat, I think the combats were quick because you were trying new things, and because the toughness of the combats before that left us more paranoid. Which is to say, we upped our game while you were experimenting-which is good, I think, because you got better data, even if the combats might feel quick by the looks of it. Speaking for myself, both fights made me honestly nervous about my character's fate for the majority of the experience; in retrospect, they might seem fast, but the important thing is the moment in an RPG.

Finally, it's nice to see a potential new recurring adversary. It feels very Doctor Who-y, with us going, "Oh snap, the Cybermen!" every once in a while.

[Nathan of the FoS]

There must just be something about strange semi-abandoned edifices out here in Sebua...seems like all of 'em have a demon in the basement.

This reminded me a bit of our last demon encounter back in book 5 in that I get the feeling there was a lot we didn't see; we took a back door straight to the end. (Rather as we did in our last fight.) The whole "signs on the walls" thing, the dreams (?) walking the corridors of the monastery, and so on and so forth--I think there were a lot of clues there that we just didn't really get into. Which is fine from our point of view, but might be a little frustrating for the guy who laid them all out in the first place.

I was not super-hot on the Lorelei appearing and playing "20 Questions" to give us our course of action on a silver platter, although given that we were going pretty slowly (time of year problems, as DocBeard mentions) means that it was probably the best strategic decision for keeping us moving forward. So, I would probably have done the same thing as DM. From a PC point of view it felt very passive, but, uh, we were being rather passive ourselves, so I guess that would explain that.

Unless we get something odd here at the end with the Abbot, well, he (?) seems like a pretty good guy. Which means that our main mystery figures who have been polite and pleasant to us have, in fact, been good guys (Marilena, the Abbot). Funny how that works. It won't work, NT! You can't lull us into a false sense of security! We'll just be doubly paranoid next time!!!

...

*ahem*

I think the Skill Challenge idea is solid, but it needs some polishing--when can we chip in with Aid Another, does everyone have to make a check at some point, when do we decide what to do, etc. It worked out OK on our ad hoc basis, but I think it would be more exciting (and difficult) if we had to do it blind. (I.e., Andre says, "I'll make the search check!" and then we have to decide whether to do something else or Aid Another, without knowing, "Oh, Andre failed by 4, two of us have to pitch in.")

The fights were both fine...not super climactic, but there's no reason they all have to be (especially since book 7 was, essentially, all fighting). Nothing wrong with diplomacy and/or speediness ending it quickly. (I guess we got pretty darn lucky in that last round--if the critters had rolled really well instead of really badly, or if Charles had failed both saves, it could've gotten ugly pretty quick.) But it was really nice to feel rewarded for picking a course of action and dedicating all our resources to it, and seeing it succeed in high style.

We had a new wrinkle in PC interpersonal conflict, too, when Charles got huffy with Tomas, but shared endeavor has healed the rift. A happy ending!

NPC-wise the book was a little thin, from my point of view. Tharivas seems determined to be a jackass, which reduces interest in interacting with him; the Lorelei remains an un-favorite; Night Terror is, uh, very mad at us? The last two really only have "relationships" with Andre, I think, and I for one am fine if it stays that way (sorry Andre! You will have to entertain the mad fey and eldritch horror on our behalf! )

The Abbot is pretty intriguing. I'm hoping we get a chance to find out a little more about him before we leave.

[Kaitou Kage]

The book was slooooooow and here's why, in my opinion. First, it was an investigation book and investigation books always take for-freaking-ever. Second, there was way too much investigation to do. Basically, we had investigation, got back together, then things got completely derailed with Pell's death. Then we got back together. More investigation. Then we got the goal spelled out to us. There was too much going on, and I think the amount of investigation stuff we did could've easily been cut by half, especially when we completely got derailed by Pell's death. That, while very creepy, even terrifying in its own right, stood rather off the beaten path and took us away from the main plot of the book.

Plus there's the matter of doing lots of discussion periods among players. Suffice to say, it always takes forever, some players never post or post rarely, and nobody's sure if that means they're not interested or they just don't have anything to say at the moment. And the nature of PbP means that five minutes of conversation can take as long as five days to play out when we're all together.

Finally, when things seem slow, I think that's the cue for when the book's plot should've been pushed another step. If we're not getting something, it's okay to drop it on us a different way -- Players don't have to find out everything on their own, just some highlights, and weave the rest in while advancing the plot. I'd say if you shot for more event-based storytelling, you'd get faster results. I seriously recommend looking at published adventure modules, large and small alike, to see how the stories play out. It'll give you a better feel for game structure.

The mysteries and stuff, I'm not sure who to believe between the Lorelei and the Abbot. Kuzan is more sympathetic to the Abbot, obviously. As Nathan said, Tharivas isn't worth the time it takes to have him sneer at you, so not terribly interested there. The Abbot was neat, and the Lorelei and Night-Terror, however entertaining and angry respectively, are basically Andre's show. Agatha was fun to talk to, charming old hag in her own right!

The combats went fine, I believe. They were short, but that's okay. They each had a sense of alarm that made them worthwhile. For the first one for me, it was when Dieter went down. For the second, it was the pervading sense of urgency on the overall mission. "We need to break through this and stab his heart quickly before they eat us!"

As for atmosphere goes, the whole monastery was pretty spooky, kind of in the way an abandoned building that's supposedly haunted is -- only this one was haunted! Sort of. For me, the real omg D: moment was when mirror-Ronoph smooshed mirror-us. THAT was highly disturbing.

[lostboy]

Hmm I agree with a fair amount of whats been said before, althopugh overall I did like the book there were some bits I thought didnt work so well.

In terms of pacing I was kinda happy, between work and goign away I havent had the time this boook to dedicate as Id want. So form my perspective it was nice to be able to catch up pretty quick with what was gogin on. However Im sure for those here all the time it was frustrating at points......

The overall atmosphere was excellent, the place did feel creepy, claustrophobic, and just generally a spooky old place. But I would say the size of the place and the sheer amount of stuff going on meant we only scratched the surface of so many mysteries. I think it would have been better scaled back not only in size and complexity but streamlined in terms of plot.

Having said that the plot was cool, and there were nice moral questions raised. But as Nathan points out we were told our course of action with little actual work which felt a bit cheap. In future dont be afraid to drop clues or simply make it easier to deduce these things as its much more satisfying to work them out ourselves. I supposes Im kinda looking for a middle road between this and Book 5....

The fights were, atmospheric and really had a sense of urgency about them which was nice. But they were both pretty quick. I think the first one was fine but the climatic book scene felt somewhat anti-climatic, perhaps one more round and had a few more people on the verge of death would have been better? I kinda came away thinking, "that wasnt so difficult, so why couldnt the Abbott or anyone else have just done that?"

NPC wise, aprt form the Abbot none of them really made any impression at alll. Tharivas although interesting intially seems far too one dimensional in his superiority thing, and as Nathan points out the other two key ones are Andre's province alone which is fine but doesnt leave much for the rest of us to say. However the nature of the place itself more than made up for the lack of the npc's as it made us interct with the environment, which we hadnt really done since Dezbar.

I detested the Skill Challenges, don't get me wrong the mechanic is nice and the cooperative element forces us to work together which is good. But the downside is that it all seems well too mechanical, as that entire section was driven by dice rollign and not roleplaying. Sorry but when the mechanics are laid bare like that, it takes the fun out of it for me.

Finally props to Docbeard for acting as Paladin should when it comes to a friends blood coming under the door.

[The Whistler]

Ack! My internet vanished for a good bit of the weekend...Write-up after I buy Hanukkah presents for my whole dang family.

[The Whistler]

Hm. Mostly, I agree with what everyone's been saying, so in no particular order:

-It was easy to feel left out of the Lorelei bit, even though that was largely due to Otto's not wanting to screw with someone else's religious experience...I actually do like her as a character, though (albeit in small, not-as-murderous doses). That said, it's precisely *because* I think she's pretty cool that I wouldn't want to see her relegated to the role of Answer-O-Matic Machine. If you're going to use her, she should have something interesting to do.

-Tharivas was meh, Ianthe faded into the background, but I'm with the others that the Abbot was very intriguing. My guess is "Exiled Illithid that grew a conscience", which is probably off-base, but the fact that I've taken the time to think up a hypothesis is probably a good sign.

-Pacing...I'm not sure whether the Info Dump At The Very End strategy is happening because the group of us tends to dither around a bit while investigating, but I'm sure there are ways to ratchet up the tension a little more steadily. However, I did quite like the bit of library research we did: it was a lot of plot details at once, but since it was about the metaplot as opposed to the story structure for this book, and since we *have* been figuring out that metaplot at well-spaced intervals, it felt both natural and appropriately in-depth. Danged good writing on that, too.

-Battles: They *did* feel properly tense and life-threatening for as long as they lasted. This is definitely a good thing, since it seems pretty easy to ratchet up the *duration* of a fight in comparison to, say, atmosphere or thrill-inducingness. I mean, give the heart of Ronoph a few more hit points and the climax would have played out to a T.