[Meta Thread] Pokerole Mystery Dungeon: Primal Shadows

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Okay, am home, fed and showered, so about time to respond on these points

(...)Let me start with the initial goal of Chapter 3: Finding the Legendary Beasts and defeating Shadow Ho-oh.  Open secret at this point.  No matter what you guys do, you'll need to work towards this goal to complete the chapter.  Simple enough, right?  

Well, here's the little snag I've been a little hung up on:

Scope.

My initial plan was to allow you guys a little more freedom in choosing where to go and when to tackle the main objectives, as well as start introducing side objectives to make things a little less linear.  I've already laid a bit of groundwork for that with the choices you've made to go to the Water and Mist Continents, as well as Darkula's various appearances up until this point.  I have other things planned that you might find fun, and a fair few of those ideas would also lead to story relevant rewards (which I will likely not elaborate on because spoilers!).  

I do realize this has been dragging on for awhile though, so I'd like to ask you guys how we should tackle this.  Do you want a little more freedom in choosing which missions you'd like to go on, or would you like a more guided, linear focus on the story (similar to how I ran Chapters 0-2)?
(...)

Hmm... I'd honestly enjoy more freedom on where to go and what quests to follow, aka  side objectives and going down a less linear route, for reasons of wanting to dive deeper into the world we're in without a looming dread of another strong Shadowmon at the horizon; as well as having sort of a breather in-game before it's to save the world again. I also generelly enjoy doing side quests and exploring Mystery Dungeons that are 'only' optimal, and me feels that'd be neat opportunities that will allows my PC to grow stat-wise and character-wise in order to be ready for the main quest aka the open secret of finding the Legendary Beasts and warding off Shadow Ho-Oh. I also remeber you stating that starting with Ch 3 we'll be allowed to split up and tackle various Dungeons simultaneously, I liked/like that idea a lot.

However I also do understand that this means awhooole lot more work for GMing things on your end, and I'd adapt and accept if you can't or don't want to put in that work. If you do however are willing and can find that extra-time + mindset to put in the extrawork, that'd be awesome; totally understandableand no hard feelings if not so however. Only thing I'd please ask for if going for the more linear route would be if you could throw in a chance for Kee to bond with Salazzle aka Skittles, in one way or the  other - it's a 'Mon from his human past after all, wohooo! Sounds doable, or does it?

(...)Similar to what Windos is doing in WL, I'd also like to ask if you guys want to run a more holiday-flavored adventure for this campaign!  I think I can cook up something for that relatively quickly.  In fact, I think I have a few ideas already.

This gets a definite 'yes please', sounds adorable and fun! Curious what you'll be cooking up!~

Man, seems like the holidays are going to be busyyy, but in a good way. \(^v^)/

[Spiritmon]

Spoiler

@Lord Windos @PhantomUnderYourDesk @Spiritmon @no one @Mikaruge108

As briefly mentioned in the Meta Thread for Wild Lands, I've been waiting for Windos to return from his impromptu hiatus before starting this discussion.  Now that he's back (however briefly), I'd like to talk a little bit about where to take the campaign from here.

-----------------------------

Let me start with the initial goal of Chapter 3: Finding the Legendary Beasts and defeating Shadow Ho-oh.  Open secret at this point.  No matter what you guys do, you'll need to work towards this goal to complete the chapter.  Simple enough, right?  

Well, here's the little snag I've been a little hung up on:

Scope.

My initial plan was to allow you guys a little more freedom in choosing where to go and when to tackle the main objectives, as well as start introducing side objectives to make things a little less linear.  I've already laid a bit of groundwork for that with the choices you've made to go to the Water and Mist Continents, as well as Darkula's various appearances up until this point.  I have other things planned that you might find fun, and a fair few of those ideas would also lead to story relevant rewards (which I will likely not elaborate on because spoilers!).  

I do realize this has been dragging on for awhile though, so I'd like to ask you guys how we should tackle this.  Do you want a little more freedom in choosing which missions you'd like to go on, or would you like a more guided, linear focus on the story (similar to how I ran Chapters 0-2)?

------------------------------

Similar to what Windos is doing in WL, I'd also like to ask if you guys want to run a more holiday-flavored adventure for this campaign!  I think I can cook up something for that relatively quickly.  In fact, I think I have a few ideas already.

------------------------------

Lastly, this question is directed more at Windos specifically: how are you feeling about your participation in the campaign so far?  If you need a break, I can put Platina in the background for a bit while you focus on other things.

------------------------------

Once again, Happy Holidays everyone!  Looking forward to picking up where we left off in both campaigns!

First of all: HOOORAY! WE BACK ON TOWN! Good Lord, you have no idea how much happy I am to go back to bussiness.

To be quite honest, I like to have a bit freedom about where to go and what missions we can take. Specially now since I wanted to enjoy some relaxing time before we return to battle. Specially since I wanted to have a opportunity to bond of Kogeki have a bond time with Keldeo for the reasons I mentioned I long time ago (I hope you dont forget the message Kogeki give to Keldeo since I really want a answer). We soon gonna need to face grand dangers ahead of us, specially against Shadow Ho-Oh, and we need to have a chance to reach at least in our second stage (or Final Stage in case of Kogeki, unless his Delta Nature have a third evolution?) so we must train to get stronger. Unless you have a Training Arc prepare in your campaigh for us to get stronger? That would be dope.

So yeah, I more open to have freedom to explore more of this world.

As for the christmas campaigh, my answer is the same as in Windos campaigh: Count me in!

[no one]

So... this is a kinda interesting conundrum to me.

On the one hand, freedom of where to go and what to do is really cool from a roleplaying perspective but running my own campaign and toying with how much freedom to give players made me realise that giving them more and more freedom means that the campaign gets stretched a LOT. While this is really cool and fun for the most part, it can definitely take away from major plot points the GM wants to work with. To counteract this, I'd suggest that dragon railroads us a little to get us back to a steady footing and then start giving us a bit more freedom further down the line.

As for the holiday-themed thing, sure, I'm always game for something like that!

[Dragonstrike]

Sounds like we have a consensus on that holiday adventure!  I've started thinking about how to expand on my initial ideas and should be able to get that started soon.  Have some old ideas I wasn't sure where to place that I can repurpose, so it shouldn't take too long to get this started.

Definitely going to be a bit more linear to begin with during this upcoming Special Episode.  Let's get eased in with that while I think about how best to do progression for Chapter 3.

As long as you think you can manage the workload, Windos, taking a little extra time to post should be fine.  Just don't feel pressured to go all in on every post, and if you need a break, feel free to let me know.

Now to find some time to clean out my PM inbox...

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Looking forward to what you'll be cooking up with that Special Episode, yes I am! Depending on when the updates in your AND inWindos's campaign are going live (do take your time though, no hurries) responses from my side however will be delayed because I'm off to a trip into the near big town on Saturday. It involves a short aka 2 to 3 hour irl-session of Cthulhu, yippee! I'm completely unaware of the plot bar it being mildly holiday-themed too since it's meant as a special suprise by the fantasy-store's owner.

[Dragonstrike]

Looking forward to what you'll be cooking up with that Special Episode, yes I am! Depending on when the updates in your AND inWindos's campaign are going live (do take your time though, no hurries) responses from my side however will be delayed because I'm off to a trip into the near big town on Saturday. It involves a short aka 2 to 3 hour irl-session of Cthulhu, yippee! I'm completely unaware of the plot bar it being mildly holiday-themed too since it's meant as a special suprise by the fantasy-store's owner.

Ooh, exciting!  Call of Cthulu is always a fun time.  Try not to die or go insane!

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Looking forward to what you'll be cooking up with that Special Episode, yes I am! Depending on when the updates in your AND inWindos's campaign are going live (do take your time though, no hurries) responses from my side however will be delayed because I'm off to a trip into the near big town on Saturday. It involves a short aka 2 to 3 hour irl-session of Cthulhu, yippee! I'm completely unaware of the plot bar it being mildly holiday-themed too since it's meant as a special suprise by the fantasy-store's owner.

Ooh, exciting!  Call of Cthulu is always a fun time.  Try not to die or go insane!

I rolled pretty well on all the Stability Checks, so my occultist made it out just fine. Only or 'only' got wounded by the icebear-like monsters, nothing too bad. Still waiting for a campaign of Cthulhu where I actually die or become insane, lol.



Also have you people seen my new son that I impulse-bought from the store?

Image

Now you have (^v^) Completely handmade by the artist!
That's Bernhard from now on

[Spiritmon]

Looking forward to what you'll be cooking up with that Special Episode, yes I am! Depending on when the updates in your AND inWindos's campaign are going live (do take your time though, no hurries) responses from my side however will be delayed because I'm off to a trip into the near big town on Saturday. It involves a short aka 2 to 3 hour irl-session of Cthulhu, yippee! I'm completely unaware of the plot bar it being mildly holiday-themed too since it's meant as a special suprise by the fantasy-store's owner.

Ooh, exciting!  Call of Cthulu is always a fun time.  Try not to die or go insane!

I rolled pretty well on all the Stability Checks, so my occultist made it out just fine. Only or 'only' got wounded by the icebear-like monsters, nothing too bad. Still waiting for a campaign of Cthulhu where I actually die or become insane, lol.



Also have you people seen my new son that I impulse-bought from the store?

Image

Now you have (^v^) Completely handmade by the artist!
That's Bernhard from now on

What a cutie that doll! Very cute! 

Cthulhu games can be very deadly. But it could depend from the system. My players almost die many in the Pathfinder 2e campaign I currently DMing. And they fight quite a bunch of horrors. Good thing they have 2/3 good dedicated healers, because in the contrary they would probably die a quite bunch of times. Pathfinder 2e is a game more balanced 4 players, but since they are 6, I can turn up the battles to be a bit more deadly. I do like to scare my players with battles, so I pretty sure your dm might make deadly fights in the future.

[Spiritmon]

Said creatures waiting for my players to give them a bad time:

Spoiler

This probably gonna be the hardest battle they ever had. And I enjoy challenging battles.

[Iron]

My DM screwed up the difficulty calculation and sent a challenge rating 8 encounter against our level 3 party. Two player characters died.