[Meta thread] Lord Windos' PokeRole Adventure : Celadon City Vandels

[Dragonstrike]

Great to hear! Tell me how it goes, and maybe with your friend's permission we could help test out their game here in the Roleplay/Anything Goes section if its fun/easy enough to get a grip on!

GM's got some other games going on that are helping him playtest it, so I think he's got that covered.  The system is moreso designed for tabletop play as well, tbh.  Not sure it'd really work well in a play-by-post setting.

I'll keep ya posted, though.

[Dragonstrike]

Well, that first playtesting went...interestingly.  First thing we determined after we finished was that the number of attacks per turn needed to be reduced a little.  It was rather easy to overwhelm a single target with a barrage of attacks.  Some of the starting stats might need to be adjusted as well.

It didn't really help that us players weren't entirely familiar with the world's setting either, unfortunately, so there was some missing information that might have changed some of our decisions for what to pour skill points into.

Regardless, here's a very rough summary of what happened:

Details

Characters:
- My character was a selfish female thief who plays things straight and is always looking out for herself first and most of all
- We had a super buff healer who can punch people really hard.
- There was a ranger type character
- And then there was a knight type character

But what really defined the session was the decisions made during it, obviously.

- The group started in a bar, an agreed upon meeting point before heading to meet our mutual boss
- The healer has a really nice set of armor, and before anyone can get a drink or introduce themselves, said healer gets molested by a couple ruffians that like the look of those duds
- Bar fight breaks out.  Healer's armor gets rather trashed.  Rest of the party ends up completely unscathed because we killed/incapacitated all the ruffians
- Ruffians turned out to be a bunch of infamous bandits.  We get handsomely reward for taking them down.  My character also snatches a map that leads to their hideout (and presumably more loot!) and a very nice looking dagger for her to use.

Seems pretty normal so far, right?

- Boss asks us to deliver a package for him.  3 days to do it, but it's apparently urgent, so he loans us a vehicle.  Only the knight type character knows how to pilot it
- A massive, wyvern-like monster appears on the way to the delivery location.  The vehicle can outrun it, though, so the driver just speeds on past, ignoring the monster completely.  My character is primarily concerned about the map she picked up, though, as the bandit hideout's nearby
- Reach our destination, and find it completely abandoned.  It's rather clear something's amiss.  However, all members of the party except my character (who would like to get paid and isn't sure this will count as completing the job) decide that we can just drop the package off in the empty residence of the person we're supposed to be delivering it to and leave instead of trying to figure out what happened to the entire village.
- On the plus side, we get to head to the bandit hideout sooner!  That made my character happy.
-...and then we spent an hour hunting what were basically deer and talking about afternoon snacks.  My character attempts to get things back on track, but to little avail.
- When we eventually do get into the bandit hideout, we're confronted with a door.  It's obviously trapped.  Before my character can say anything about it, though, one of the other party members opens it.
- Trap is triggered, setting off a massive explosion.  My character is the only one NOT KOed by the blast.
- My character rummages through their things (nothing interesting besides currency which she knew they'd check for immediately), then proceeds to loot the bandit hideout by herself since nobody is conscious to oppose her or say they should get a share of the loot (which included a boatload of cash).  That, and my character has almost no medical knowledge, so there wasn't much she could do to help in that situation besides drag them indoors.
- After several hours, the rest of the group wakes up on their own after what's effectively a short rest or two.  As predicted, the first thing they check is their pockets.  Then the healer tries to go about patching them up (it wasn't super successful, but it was something)
- We leave the bandit hideout, only to come face to face with more creatures in the middle of the night!


....soooooo...yeah.  That was weird.  I was trying to play a more serious character, but everyone else decided to be more chaotic, so that's what ended up happening, I suppose...

My character did manage to get away with calling the rest of the group buffoons for spending too much comedic time on trying to kill and roast deer meat, though (and the GM agreed, too).  To say she's not looking forward to traveling with them for an indeterminate amount of time would be an understatement.

[Lord Windos]

Oh my. All of that sounds rather.....excitingly hectic. I'm tired right and need to get some sleep, so I'll save more detailed thoughts on the session for tomorrow, but I have to say that it sounds like it was both a good time (for you especially), yet a bit of a comedy act (except for you). Also, your PC reminds me of someone, but I for the life of me I can't remember who exactly. Hmm......

[Dragonstrike]

...it's done.

It's time to end this campaign.

[Dragonstrike]

Oh my. All of that sounds rather.....excitingly hectic. I'm tired right and need to get some sleep, so I'll save more detailed thoughts on the session for tomorrow, but I have to say that it sounds like it was both a good time (for you especially), yet a bit of a comedy act (except for you). Also, your PC reminds me of someone, but I for the life of me I can't remember who exactly. Hmm......

It might be because I went for a very stereotypical thief-like build with that character, both personality and stat-wise.  I wasn't really trying to go for anything crazy detailed with her, particularly since I didn't know much about the world initially. A lot of characters can fit that kind of basic description.

The GM and I were quite exasperated with all the various shenanigans the rest of the party got up to, tbh.

And yet for one of the other players, that was a somewhat toned down version of the chaos their used to in TRPGs they participate in.  And I thought my character was going to be the most morally ambiguous one...ay yi yi...it was definitely fun though. I would actually like to play things a little more seriously next time, however.

[Spiritmon]

....It's just...unfair. As much understand why Weavile left, it's still unfair...Reiner pass thought as much shit as Arial, and more than anyone deserves peace. And a happy ending... Can't help but feel....*sigh* I can't even begin to describe how I feel....

[Dragonstrike]

[....Actually, Weavile wouldn't have left at all if you hadn't inquired about his business. He'd never have come to that explosive realization, and just followed along with his then partner, his resentment and unhappiness with everything that happened/was happening bubbling away deep within him and far away from his partner's Empathetic reach. However, what you told him is perhaps for the best, as we don't want Reiner to fly off the handle at us like the fair weather feline.]

I clarified this already, Windos, but let me say it again for good measure.

That aside in the parentheses was meant to be from Reiner's perspective, not mine specifically, since Reiner very well knew that Weavile wouldn't be merely relaxing, and Reiner himself would have wanted to know what Weavile had been doing when he checked up on the feline.  It was nothing more than another misunderstanding...*sigh*...what's done is done now, though, I suppose.  I'm not going to ask for a retcon, even though one would probably allow us to end things once and for all without too much more nonsense.

[Lord Windos]

[....Actually, Weavile wouldn't have left at all if you hadn't inquired about his business. He'd never have come to that explosive realization, and just followed along with his then partner, his resentment and unhappiness with everything that happened/was happening bubbling away deep within him and far away from his partner's Empathetic reach. However, what you told him is perhaps for the best, as we don't want Reiner to fly off the handle at us like the fair weather feline.]

I clarified this already, Windos, but let me say it again for good measure.

That aside in the parentheses was meant to be from Reiner's perspective, not mine specifically, since Reiner very well knew that Weavile wouldn't be merely relaxing, and Reiner himself would have wanted to know what Weavile had been doing when he checked up on the feline.  It was nothing more than another misunderstanding...*sigh*...what's done is done now, though, I suppose.  I'm not going to ask for a retcon, even though one would probably allow us to end things once and for all without too much more nonsense.

.....Well, if you want a retcon, it can happened, but it ain't going to change the fact that Weavile still feels like that deep down and is just was repressing it for his partner's shake. Eventually, he will snap under the pressure and drastic change in his life/all the defiance towards his goals, and whether or not that will go down any better than what happened when he's stuck with the party who knows when and where is a hypothetical situation I really don't want to comtemplate . If anything, Weavile blowing up now and leaving is the most ideal scenario, as at least he won't be going off and causing CHAOS in a less stable/generous instance, and can at least prevent TR from trying to find out they're alive/maybe throw Reiner a bone or two if possible. 

That's the rub of things. Retcon, and deal with an secretly angry/unstable Weavile that could explode at any second, or don't and handle the fallout of a post blown up kitty cat. That's all I will say on this.

[Dragonstrike]

...okay, I'm a actually having a LOT of trouble with reading that text, Windos. I barely managed it the first two times.

[Lord Windos]

Ack! Sorry about that! Here's the site that I made the text that way, as it can translate it back to plain version for easy reading!

https://lingojam.com/GlitchTextGenerator