Game One

[John]

Gentlemen! Let us conduct running game commentary for the benefit of immortal posterity.

Good: Very cool plot and we are into it by the end of game one. We know what the conflict is, what some of the parties are, and something of where they stand. All characters featured and introduced and some relationships established. It was a game one that did a game one's job: the ball is rolling.

Bad: Really slow start. I attribute most of this to being a first game in a new wonky format. I attribute some of it to a lack of opportunities for action/challenges - there was a brief bit of 'social combat' but it was rather trivial, and there were hints of unknown magics and beast attacks but we never really saw a puzzle or a fight.

Observations: So far it appears we have a group of players who doesn't have that guy who is foaming at the mouth to seize control of the plot direction (Chad and Phil historically in our tabletop games). At least for the first game, this required a lot of repeated jamming the ignition to get people together and the adventure/plot moving. It will be interesting to see how a group works when there are five players and their general personalities with regards to aggression and extraversion, in a group setting, range from middle of the road to usually-dead-quiet.

Once again it looks like I am going to become, or have become, the authority figure within the group. I am comfortable with that but I don't want anyone to feel like I always have to be the boss-guy in the PC party (I am the captain of the battletech company) so I'll just put it out there to consider that I could be the leader of this group, but I don't have to be. This observation is of course made in conjunction with the observation that we have a very quiet group of players and I'm probably the least or second-least quiet person.

[Johann]

I'm fairly OK with being "boss-guy" but from an IC perspective it just doesn't fit yet. Corwyn really has no reason to seize the reins yet, in my mind.

Maybe that will change. In fact, it has a decent chance of changing, as it seems the primary conflict is going to be within his realm of knowledge/expertise. But I didn't want to jump on that saddle yet, and tried to get "talking-least-guy" (usually Pat) to talk whenever possible, rather than jumping in myself. ::shrug::

Give it two more sessions before that becomes a worry.

[Pat]

I...tried to get "talking-least-guy" (usually Pat) to talk whenever possible, rather than jumping in myself. ::shrug::

It's funny that on at least two separate occasions we actually both started talking at the same time and I then yielded to you, Capt. Big Voice!

I enjoyed last night's game. As John already knows, my favorite part of the game was the iron ingot discussion. Heady stuff man!

I think that I have decided to switch my character over to a war cleric. I think with the awkwardness of this style of play coupled with the fact that this hybrid class is completely new to me would just make it untenable.

[Chris]

It was a good session last night even if I was fading fast at the end there (long day at work, plus not much sleep).

Dan's approach was a bit different than what I was used to in regards to doing a "prologue" of sorts with John's character (which was cool), then lots of spotlighting, though my character was treated a bit differently, which was fine.

Still finding my footing with my PC, but I attribute that more to being far away from her, and still getting used to the setting than anything else.

John is right that the start was slow, and I do think it had to do with the medium more than anything.

One thing I did not like one bit was not being able to see anyone else. I was the only one with a webcam that was working (or chose to work). Not being able to see non-verbals made things a bit tougher.

I did immensely enjoy cheating Wayne out of 4 silver though.

[John]

I will attempt to find my cam Chris

[Pat]

One thing I did not like one bit was not being able to see anyone else. I was the only one with a webcam that was working (or chose to work). Not being able to see non-verbals made things a bit tougher.

Oh, I will give you some visuals Chris...

[Chris]

One thing I did not like one bit was not being able to see anyone else. I was the only one with a webcam that was working (or chose to work). Not being able to see non-verbals made things a bit tougher.

Oh, I will give you some visuals Chris...

Why do you think I was so upset we didn't have any?

[Wayne]

I'll agree that it was a shaky start, but the session quickly came together and ended strong. Early on I didn't bite on one of Dan's plot hooks because I thought it was something that would derail the session not push it in the direction he actually wanted it to go.

I also was afraid that we had lost Pat at one point because I realized he hadn't talked in about an hour.

All in all we managed to get some personalities into the characters and that is a pretty good start in my eyes. It's been a while since I've been in such a plot heavy game and I'm glad to see it. It is campaigns like this one is setting up to be that makes Dan an epic GM in my eyes. The big mysteries where everything that happens are somehow tied in and nothing is quite what it seems.

[Dan]

My observations line up pretty much with all of yours, so I don't have anything new to add. However, like John, I'll see if I can dig up a webcam for the next one. I agree that seeing each other would help quite a bit.

[Johann]

I don't think I have any webcams laying about any more. I had one floating in my trunk for months, but I think it finally got thrown away a few weeks back.

I'll check, though.