So with every passing game, we're steadily learning.
One of my currently longest running players has decided to sit out next week.
After getting what he wanted, which was to get in close to kill a baby, Ivor made the calculated decision to snatch a baby from the church Pinnacle Garden and soared away. Never go full gargoyle.
Though he hasn't said in asmuch, Joe enjoys his 'rivalry' with Curtis' character and has put a great deal of obsession into the baby thing for 'reasons.'
Unfortunately, Vane didn't want to play with Ivor, he wanted to go play in the tree. So he did, and he took all his friends with him.
So the party is on and bumping, while Ivor pouts in his office, because his friends are all playing hide and seek but Ivor's got real adult responsibilities.
Life Goes on Around Us
So there's this massive tree in the centre of the city, and the cities houses are gathering forces, they get together, the assault the tree.
Good times. Meanwhile, the party (sans Ivor, who is awaiting his 'chance to strike') moves into the underworks and finds themselves approaching the underground sections of the Brightwood compound. Map in hand, they spend the entirety of the session (2 hours) dealing with a single combat.
Crosstalk.
Last session was really really bad. Three separate times I was telling people to stop talking over each other.
It's getting fucking brutal and I'm personally getting fed up with it.
Every single person save Curtis and Mitch were guilty of yammering at a not quiet volume, overtaking other players.
Centralized Character Sheets
There needs to be an easy central method of managing ones character sheets.
This is where again, D&D Beyond would step in.
The tablet Curtis provided was decent, but not good enough I think. The browser is six years old software and the platform is no longer supported at any level, so seeing an upgrade is very unlikely.
Too much booze is too much.
There needs to be a moderation, methinks.
Last session, I had drunk girls on my right, and drunk boys on my left.
People gotta understand, I may drink a lot during game, but I am very moderated.
Each of my drinks is 4 ounces of alcohol mixed with a full can of RedBull.
I have one of these every hour, consuming a RedBull approximately every half hour. I'm a 210+ pound guy.
What I am not doing, is chugging off a bottle of wine, and I've stopped with the beers as drinking bread juice just makes you sleepy and that's decidedly bad for game, all in all.
So there is strategy to my drinking,
According to a BAC calculator..
Your BAC of 0.234 g/100 ml means:
If you were awake at this point you'd have very little comprehension as to where you were or what you were doing. You might pass out suddenly and it'd be hard to wake you up.
..oh, well shit.
Injections are finite.
I had said that the baby would sort itself out, as all injections do eventually.
The game being a game, I just don't sweat the injections. If they work out, they work out; you can't win them all.
They are part of the canon, for better or worse, but this is a game with wild magic. If Vane were a different sort of sorcerer, we'd see people turning into potted plants if he so much as had the hiccups. As it is, the players are becoming more and more powerful and as business picks up there are more and more people coming into the mountain city (remember, this is a distant northern place, but in a world full of airships).
Injections lead a finite existence; they all fade into history as the game plays on.
You know how you make an injection last longer? Give it attention. The more attention you give it, the stronger it becomes.
Curtis did the smartest thing he could do. Give the baby to the NPCs and let Pelor sort it out.
Look at that! It's no longer Curtis' problem! Injections sort themselves out yet again :(
Time and a place.
When the groove is on and the injection fits, the injection will happen quickly. The injections play out really well. If there's a lot going on, it's easy to find a spot to stick nearly any injection.
When the mood is stricken, when the game is dragging and there's not a lot going on, it can be really difficult to fit an injection into the mix, let along bust off a maccarena fog.
I hate when it takes me as long to fit something in, but sometimes you've got to find the right time and place.
My interpretation skills will get better with practice and in due course I'll have a firm mastery of rolling injections into it all.
"Fix the injections."
I wonder if maybe my ranting to Joe about my "need for specificity," was just me projecting my issue with viewers onto Joe.
Cam frozen is easy. Tells me all I need to know and I fix that shit quick.
But I see those messages for 'Fix the injections' and I cannot see what is wrong with the injections. Moreover, I can't take the time to detective that shit.
I sincerely appreciate the effort to alert me of these things but folks, I'm clearly not seeing what you're meaning.
Change the language. Instead of fix the injections, let's say, injections are frozen or injections are missing. Then I'll know what to look for and can address it while trying to operate the game for 7 players present.
The bug hunt at large.
I've written extensively about my intentions with this upcoming encounter. Here's hoping I don't bugger it up. haha.
I intend to do a bit of Resident Evil meets Aliens (the second one, not the first one, that was Alien; the James Cameron one, not the Ridley Scott one).
Unfortunately since I don't have any Echelon miniatures, it'll be Berholdt and his troops that make their way in :D
Good Cinema vs Good Story? Why not both?
The game play should lend to some good injection opportunities.
Broad Strokes.
I need to simplify my deliveries. Ugh. I feel I need to read more. I have a good delivery for description, but I need to whittle it down and I need to ensure I address the facets that need addressing. I've said this before, and worded it the same way.
I really need to focus on keeping description light on things that don't need repeating.