[Meta Thread] Lord Windos' PokeRole Adventure 2: The Wild Lands

[Spiritmon]

Speaking of card games, a friend of mine has been teaching Magic the Gathering. Although I really hate WOTC, can't disagree I really like Magic, it's world and the art style. Specially Phyrexia. I really like the body horror, and Phyrexia/New Phyrexia is a interesting plane to explore.

[Spiritmon]

Huh. It seems  either Keldeo didn't read Kogeki letter or maybe the silent itself is his answer of rejection. That's okay though. I had the suspect he would reject. Gonna work twice as hard to Kogeki get stronger. And I excited to continue the journey after such long time!

Wrong thread, lol.

I also may have forgotten that part.  There's a lot of loose ends I need to wrap up, and I have some other things to do, so I won't be completely finished tonight.  Can edit things in since this is still a WIP!  Just leave me a reminder in the PS meta thread please!

Damn. Sorry, I forgot.

[Spiritmon]

Well, it was been a...while huh? Well, just wanted to say a few things. I am extremely worry for Windos been absent for quite a long time. Not just because of the campaigh, but because he is also a important friend of mine, so I wanted to ask how things are going and what you been doing. I also forgive everyone for my lack of interactions here in the forums. I doesnt wanted to sound a bad person in just talk here since I didnt felt I had anything important to say here, but I think now I want to talk a bit here, to not let these forums to die.

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Well, it was been a...while huh? Well, just wanted to say a few things. I am extremely worry for Windos been absent for quite a long time. Not just because of the campaigh, but because he is also a important friend of mine, so I wanted to ask how things are going and what you been doing. I also forgive everyone for my lack of interactions here in the forums. I doesnt wanted to sound a bad person in just talk here since I didnt felt I had anything important to say here, but I think now I want to talk a bit here, to not let these forums to die.

Windos is very VERY busy with handling pharmacy college, his job and life in general; and not in a good mood nor state due to it. That's all I can tell without spoiling too much from his side/from what he shared with me - I do miss my partner too, indeed, and thin about him fondly quite often, wishing him strength and best wishes. Though I'm certain that when things look a bit brighter, he'll return. I like to memorize his signature in times like this - 'coming and going like the wind, but always there to provide a comforting breeze'. He'll be okay and push through, I trust and believe in him on that.


Oh, that reminds me - didn't you send me some messages concering your last campaigns via discord? Quite a while ago actually - with me having completely forgotten to respond on these in between being busy, whoops. Anyway, I do enjoy hearing about your various rpg-adventures regardless, Spirit!

[Spiritmon]

Well, it was been a...while huh? Well, just wanted to say a few things. I am extremely worry for Windos been absent for quite a long time. Not just because of the campaigh, but because he is also a important friend of mine, so I wanted to ask how things are going and what you been doing. I also forgive everyone for my lack of interactions here in the forums. I doesnt wanted to sound a bad person in just talk here since I didnt felt I had anything important to say here, but I think now I want to talk a bit here, to not let these forums to die.

Windos is very VERY busy with handling pharmacy college, his job and life in general; and not in a good mood nor state due to it. That's all I can tell without spoiling too much from his side/from what he shared with me - I do miss my partner too, indeed, and thin about him fondly quite often, wishing him strength and best wishes. Though I'm certain that when things look a bit brighter, he'll return. I like to memorize his signature in times like this - 'coming and going like the wind, but always there to provide a comforting breeze'. He'll be okay and push through, I trust and believe in him on that.


Oh, that reminds me - didn't you send me some messages concering your last campaigns via discord? Quite a while ago actually - with me having completely forgotten to respond on these in between being busy, whoops. Anyway, I do enjoy hearing about your various rpg-adventures regardless, Spirit!

I do imagined. And I also worry for him. But I do hope things become better for him, and I pray everything work out and wish him the best.

Indeed I am! I did make some experiences there. I might share some here to better show the situation. A lot of things happened so you would enjoy see what I did send. I also been working in my own campaigh by giving my players some hard battles. Specially one I excited my players to experience a hard battle.

[Lord Windos]

Hey, it's been awhile, huh?
...

*Sighs*

As you guys know, I've been busy with my academic career for the longest time, to the exclusion of all else but my part time job and what hours I could square away for relaxation. This, unfortunately, meant I had to cut out running my campaign for that time to focus my time and energy on what matters. But that isn't the full story. 

I....really don't want to get into details, but suffice to say returning to my classes last year was not something I was looking forward too. Enough that it sent me into a mental slump and turned me into a rather.... unpleasant to be around for awhile. I didn't want that sort of energy and attitude to infect my game and spoil my interactions with any of you, and I honestly didn't think it would do anyone any good trying to interacting with me during that time. Perhaps that was a mistake in retrospect, but I believe I needed time for myself at...well, the time, and as things progressed I had more and more reason to stay away, as it were.

 I apologize for keeping you guys in a lurch, for being so radio silent, and ultimately keeping you in the dark on things. I don't know if I can make it up to you, but I will try if you let me.

Now, if you have been reading between the lines you've probably cottoned on now that things have changed for me to come back and shine a light on why I've been gone so long. That....is also something I don't want to get into too much, but in sum: I have resolved things with my school and working to get my priorities and life back in order. This will be a rough few months ahead of me full of uncertainty, to say the least, but...I can honestly say I feel better than I have in awhile (if still miserable about certain things, though that is more manageable now too). I have time to get things done - so much that I want to restart my game.

If, that is, you'll humor me after all this time...and the changes I'll be making going forward to make things more manageable for me.

See, another reason why I didn't want to come back to resume my campaign is that, as things are, I pretty much couldn't run it the way I like since I put so much detail into every little thing. I didn't necessarily want to scale things back drastically, however, especially when I had a dozen of other plates spinning and in a bad mood. I've had time to think, however, and I came to the conclusion that if I didn't make SOME changes to the way my campaign is run then things would take way too long to get through it without it taking the better part of a few years of daily posts. So, here are the changes I will be implementing going forward....


-------

The Encounter Slot System

This is getting a complete overhaul, to account for the sheer number of players and to put some sort of stop-gap measure to prevent me from overwriting things to death.

First, everyone will now get the following: Two Moderate Encounter Slots, Two Minor Encounter Slots, and Bonus Slots.

Moderate Encounter slots denote the following: I will be putting in a moderate amount of effort into every aspect of it, be it fleshing out battles, events, Captures, Special interactions, and what have you. Essentially you'll be getting the sort of Encounter you've come to expect out of me. Given the time investment for all parties these will be just as reward as they have been previously - if not more so since everyone will be getting half of what they used to get under the old system.

Minor Encounter slots are, by contrast, what I consider to be the simple, 'filler', or low priority option for both player and me. These will be more in Iron's style of DMing - straight to the point, but with just enough detail for you guys to go off on if you want to dig into things. Any Encounters done 'Minorly' will generally be expedited to completion ASAP, bar unusual or Fortunate circumstances, and I reserve the right to cut things short if I believe things have dragged on long enough. Rewards will be less or lessed version of what you could get out of a Moderate Encounter, but you'll get them more frequently by contrast.

Bonus Encounters are just that - stuff you can just *do* without taking any Moderate or Minor Encounter Slots or just about anything that pops up. For Seddi, he'd get 1 Training and 1 'Research/Odd Job' Bonus Encounter that would more or less auto resolved when invoked, to give an example, while Bernard could get 1 Bonus Encounter for general Magic Upkeep and Art Stuff. Every PC gets 2 Bonus Encounter they want, and they can be whatever you want *within reason* - keep in mind, though, that once you've selected the types (or type, if you want to double up) then they're set in stone for the unforeseeable future. That, and you won't get a bunch out of them - expect 1 post per Bonus with minor rewards for them.

You can break a Moderate Encounter into 2 Minor Encounters, and break up a Minor Encounter into 2 Bonus Encounters. You can also 'carry over' 1 Minor Encounter per day : what this means is that you don't use one of your Minor Encounter Slots (Leaving you with three Encounters for that day) to get 3 Minor Encounters the following day. Generally this is for when you want to get a lot of time sensitive but not too important things at once, in theory, but their is another use case for them: Trading Up.

Trading Up is what the name implies: converting 'low' Encounter Slots into a higher tier one. You can combine 3 Minor Encounter Slots to make a Moderate Encounter Slot, giving your PC 3 Moderate Encounters for a given day. Once you do this, however, their is an additional cost: you forfeit the following day's Minor and Bonus Encounters for your PC. To give you a example of what this looks like

You carry over a Minor Encounter from Day X -> You have 3 Minor Encounter Slots for Day Y, and Combine them to make a 3rd Moderate Encounter to use that day -> The following day you only have 2 Moderate Encounters.

Expect to have some sort of other costs and penalties too for trying to cram as much stuff in a single day as possible. 

Finally, you can combine 3 Moderate Encounter Slots for a Major Encounter Slot. These are what could be consider Big Things - MEs take a whole day to complete and turn whatever they're used on in a somewhat epic to actually epic 'quest' to gain major rewards AND have significant event of the broader narrative. An example of this, if we covert an old Encounter from the Old System, is the Super Boss Fight with the Wandering Hurricane. Yeah, that Big. 

There are some heavy caveats to these if you make them, however: You're effectively locked out of everyone elses Encounters for that day UNLESS they choose to join and Forfeit their own Encounter Slots for the day (Their WILL be Player Limits to these), your PC will Lose the Entire Next Day's worth of Encounters after the Major Encounter, and will suffer various consequences depending on WHAT is done. Expect epic adventure, and get more than you bargained for.

There can only be ONE Major Encounter active at a given time; however, you guys could combine multiple Major Encounters into one Mythical Encounter. These would require at minimum 3 Major Encounters to be combined (and these can include ones that I will just drop in the game for a given group to do, fyi/spoilers). I will not go into anymore detail about them, other than this - expect an adventure beyond Fortune's Keen.

====

The Fortune System

The changers made here, by contrast, are a lot more simple yet nuanced than the ones for how I would run Encounters. I'm not going to change how Fortune works in Battles. If a move Misses, Crit Fails, or something happens that deserves Lady Luck's and Miss Fortune's intervention, then shenanigans will be had.

As for how it will interaction with Encounters: I will total everyone's Fortune Costs and add them to a 1d100 table. I will then roll a 1d100 to determine if a Good or Bad Fortune Encounter occurs. Depending on how high your Total Fortune is I will add a Multiplier to your score before adding it to the table. To keep things simple for now, Seddi, Bern, and Akemi have a 2x Multiplier while the others have a 1x. Moderate Encounter Slots add a minimum of + 5 to the table, and further Bonuses/Penalties can be assessed depending on what kind of Encounter you're trying to take on. If multiple PCs are taking the same Encounter then their Fortune Totals are combined and then multiplied once with the highest Multiplier 'available' . 

You can still pay will to Reveal the results: for now I will say it costs 2 Will to see your Results for the Day for each Encounter, which will include what 'number' you fell on the table two ones surrounding it. To give an example: You Rolled a 3 on the Table, and it is a Bad/Major Fortune Encounter, but you can see 1,2,4, and 5 on the Table. You can spend Will to Change Your Fate if the table is Revealed: this can include Rerolling (1 Will, One Time) or spending various amounts of Will to get to a different number. Or get Will and other Bonuses if you chose to let Fortune 'Guide Your Path' , as it were: be it taking something that is 'offered' for nebulous ends of Fate, or deliberately choosing a Bad or worse destiny for Events to challenge yourself, garner Miss Fortune's amusement and favor, or simply just because. 

For every time a PC doesn't get a Fortune/Strange Encounter, I will either add Rerolls to increase the odds of them from happened, increase your presence on the Table of Fate (calling it now!), or just flat out force a Fortune Encounter if you've managed to dodge the dogged forces of Destiny you've been courting intentionally, invariably, or not. 

Fortunate will have its own unique interactions with Major Encounters; I've said my piece already concerning the Mythical.

===

Reset/Reorient

I'll be nullifying everyone's most recent Encounters and starting a New Day for everyone under the New System. I'll be looking at what your PCs were most recently involved in and will compensate you accordingly at the Restart, among other things. This will be felt In Game by the PCs - have fun with that and take it as you will when precisely how that will be. 

This is simply to get everyone on the same page after a looong hiatus, and give me the opportunity to...well, Restart and reset the stage of events to come.


-----

For now, that covers anything. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to share them. I'll do my best to answer them.

Lastly, once again I apologize for keeping you guys waiting and in the dark. Hopefully this won't happen again....and hopefully you'll still want to have me around.

[Dragonstrike]

Who says we don't want you around?  I know I've been anxiously awaiting your return, because I've been holding off on posting both here and in PS specifically because I wasn't sure what to do without one of our regulars!  That description probably isn't very fitting given recent events, but that's besides the point.  If you're well and truly back, that's motivating.

I hope things continue to get better for ya.  And I also hope that we can help ya get through this slump with some good ol fashioned fun!

As a minor update on what I've been doing in the meantime during this hiatus, I've actually been playing a ton of PC games with Spirit lately.  Introduced him to Wildermyth, and we had a blast playing through that.  Now we're on to playing a more recent release in Sunderfolk.  Slightly off topic, but Spirit was floating the idea of maybe trying to arrange a larger game session with more of the forum crew (if scheduling and individual interest allows, of course).

[Redstone]

I agree with dragon, I'm just happy to see that your situation is improving and ya got time for stuff again. 

Welcome back to the forums!

[Pokekitty2]

Hey, Windos! Welcome back. I'm glad things are going better for you, and I hope we can help keep up the upswing momentum.

For an update on my own life: I'm just about finished with my first year of college. If you would have me back, I might be able to rejoin - only with your and the group's permission, of course, and I'd need to think a bit regardless.

Either way: I'm glad you're feeling enough to reach out, and I hope things continue going better for you.

[Spiritmon]

First of all: Welcome back my friend! I was very worry about you (still am but I gladly things are a little better now). Secondly: Like Dragon said, who wouldnt want you around? You are our friend, and of course we want you around. Truly. I really found interesting the mechanic changes and I curios/excited to try them out in the next day in-game. I also hope things get better for you mate. We are here in case you want to someone to talk mate and you feel comfortable to share them.

Like I said in the past: Thats whats friends are for. Both for the good and bad moments.

And in being a little offtopic, like Dragonstrike said he and I been playing quite a lot of PC games lately. He introduce me to Wildermyth and I simply fall in love with the game. I even buy the game later for my friends and they been enjoying too the game. And been playing with Sunderfolk too with him. Interesting game. And been GMing my own campaigh too, Abomination Vaults a Pathfinder 2e campaigh. Tons of aberrations, undead, blood, visceras, body horror and some human experiments. Pretty nice. And I also been playing some other games too: The campaigh I been playing with pathfinder 2e system we finally reach level 20, a acomplishment I never imagined I would be able to do it.

And as Dragonstrike mentioned I thinking in GMing in the future. Maybe do something different instead of Pokerole. Maybe PTU (Pokemon Tabletop united) who uses some mechanics of DND 5e and adapt into a pokemon system. Or even maybe Pathfinder 2e since its been the game I been playing the most time, or maybe Tormenta 20 since its a tabletop from my country and could be awesome to show you people and traslate to you. Phantom even gave a idea in me GM a Call of Cthulu campaigh. I would need to adapt the rules to post by post or maybe even try to use Discord with voice channels. English is not my native language due to be Brazilian and we use Brazilian portuguese here, but I could take english course to learn more how to speak english personaly. After all, writting english is one thing, speak is something entirely different.

Anyway, I gladly to have you back mate!