Smart Jason

Throwing it out there: $7.50 each. (Lowest it's ever been individually is $8.75.) I want a copy to play Secret Hitler. As I've been getting deeper into Roll20, I don't know that it's necessary for Pathfinder - although speaking of which I have been murmuring to some about starting a game of it on Saturdays. Something lighter and more casual than what I'm doing with Chronicles of Darkness.

Here's a spoiler-free Players' Map for the game so far (with location descriptions). There'll also be a non-interactive one in the Roll20 game as well to reference. I think I'll also devise some kind of Players' Screen for Roll20 just so everyone can keep a few fundamental things in mind (rules for failure, rules for Conditions, etc.). SuperBiasedMan is due to make a character tomorrow if all goes well. Coax and Cleinhun, how are we doing? Remind me if we've already spoken.

So this is a list of people who are, at the moment, ostensibly playing in the Hunter group: 1. Twig 2. Fingus 3. Lansbury 4. Coaxmetal 5. SuperBiasedMan 6. Cleinhun (?) I welcome other volunteers and other suggestions from those above on who else I could personally invite. (Regarding anyone besides Thumbs, Andre was going to join the hunters after quitting the mage group, and even made a comprehensive character, but it turns out he can't make the sessions; Corey, I think, I am going to speak to tomorrow and push him toward some other, more casual game with me in the future and lead him out of this one. There are several reasons why. For all intents and purposes, this is now a Thumbs-only game, which I'm fine with.) At this point, though, because everyone's so universally busy, only the first three on that list have actually made characters for the game. Coaxmetal and SuperBiasedMan have explicitly told me he won't be available for the next session, which, at minimum, will run with Twig, Fingus, and Lansbury (assuming those three can make it). If anyone else would like to play this Sunday, please PM me on Slack - that's the best way to get in touch with me. I'll be around all day tomorrow, Saturday, in order to make characters with people. aight bros?

So, the last thing I'm going to do is give anyone more homework, but in the midst of the good news of one (or two) new people joining the Sunday group, I homed in on exactly what players should read when preparing to make a hunter. I'd like to place it here for reference and just in case any of our current hunters feel like taking a look at the bolded bits (and possibly reallocating dots now that they have some play time in). So, with the perfect vision of hindsight, this is what I wish I'd said to all of you weeks ago before I'd bogged you down with the general direction of "the first three chapters." Totally my fault (I've excised any parts of the conversation with Lansbury where I said the players made their decisions in haste for fear it sounded unwarranted and cruel) and, as I said, you are totally free to check the books now and redo your Merits, knowing what horrors are lurking out there for you. Likewise, while the section on combat in the Chronicles book may look overwhelming at first (I'm getting better and better at committing it all to memory so I can simply function as a flash conduit between your impulse and the mechanics), the Combat Summary Chart (PDF 92) and the General Combat Factors section (PDF 93) are useful, not to memorize, but to give you an offhand idea of what's built into the system (know the value of dodging, going into cover, doing an all-out attack, charging at your opponent, aiming at a specific body part, etc.) - or learn it so that you know precisely why your character would rather avoid combat altogether. Finally, Twig, Fingus, forget about the questionnaire. I trust you guys.

If we've got four people who don't own it now, do we want to pitch in on buying the four pack for $60 and splitting it between us? It'd be $15 each that way, but it bears saying that we could also wait for a sale where the game's gone down to $9 individually or the four pack's gone down to $30.

Likewise, Twig and Fingus, let's take tomorrow off as well. I'm still trying to prod at Saturdays to see if there's something to do there (another Hunter group, a game of Pathfinder, etc.) or see if Andre from the mages wants to join the hunters by next week. Sorry for any undue pressures in the meantime; everything OK until then?

Yeah, consider this evening done for now, but I still hope for something to work itself out down the line.

It's all good. I hear you. No hard feelings and I would love to play with you again down the line, whether it's bringing you back into this game when things are simpler or playing in a more casual game of Pathfinder that I'm feeling we might see get set up sometime soon. So listen, one of our other mages, Andre, has also had it with his character/the mage template. Right now it's kind of vague on whether he'd ever be content with anything but another Sin-Eater. So Reyturner, it sort of falls to you as the mage group folds in on itself: do you think you'd be into joining the hunter group, if you're still down to play?

I've been tempted to pick up Tabletop Simulator in order to play Secret Hitler. Pathfinder would deffo be a bonus. (Would anyone be into Secret Hitler, by the way?)

Players, send me your questionnaire answers or prepare to face the most deadliest, spookiest consequences imaginable by man or mage... OK, to be serious, I know the questions get challenging by the end, but be as brief as you have to and definitely get me the stuff that I for sure need to know (principally, your immediate living situation). Basically this is just prep for after these first modules/chapters end, which the mages' will on Saturday. The tutorial is over after that and the open world begins. People can essentially go anywhere*. I'm literally mapping out Philadelphia for the game - I want it to feel like a place with story hooks tendrils constantly at the ready for you all, and that sort of thing is helped exponentially by this kind of backstory preparation and character introspection. *Having said that, there's likely an elephant in the room that needs addressing, as some of you may currently feel directionless, disconnected, or (to continue the alliteration) dicked over for various reasons. The idea of the world opening up to fewer explicit objectives and me piling more homework on top of you without really having given you any incentive to care about the game itself is only going to contribute to that discontent. (Hey, that's another D word, I should have used that.) I get that. I'm sensitive to that. (I'm possibly making all that up in a growing fit of self-conscious paranoia, but I doubt it.) I just ask that you bear with me. I ask that you sympathize with my inexperience and the challenges of running two groups, two game systems, etc. Anything I do that frustrates you, let me know. I can take it, and I'd rather hear it than not, I promise. My goals are probably bare to see by now. I want to run a long, roleplay-heavy game in an open world. I want to collaborate with players to ensure they're on an arc, that they reach moments of pathos, catharsis, unity, betrayal, and so on. I am idiot for casting my ambitions so high, but I'm bound to keep from giving up because I'm streaming the game publicly - so if I fail it will be spectacular, rather than with a quiet fizzle like so many other tabletop games. If this doesn't sound like the thing you wanted when you just saw a cool thing and signed up for a thing, let me know. If you think I genuinely am wasting your time, it's fine if you want to leave now. Dramatically, now's the perfect point for some bodies to drop - deaths now be much better in the long run than any other contingency. For the record, though, I believe in the longevity and creative and dramatic potential of all of you and all of your characters: don't quit just because you don't want to answer the questionnaire and think it'll be easier on both of us. If you think there's something specific we can talk about now, maybe we can do that instead. Let me know.

I'm so mad I didn't call it that first. Thanks, I was going to wait to ask for feedback until I finished with the Hunters, but yeah, as always, please, tell me what you thought worked best, what had you the most engaged. I had a long conversation with Andre after we finished last night about why he hates being a mage and gets distracted. Even though he thinks the problem's unsolvable it's still good for me to know so that I can try different things with him in the future, or something. And I promise, promise, everyone that the rules are going to get easier and easier to deal with. The momentum's going to get faster and faster as we go. I know progress seems slow on your end, but I'm seeing it on mine running all the sessions and prepping them and how much I'm committing to memory what I wasn't before and this is really good for me, so I beg you to not be discouraged. Everyone's homework for next weekend is to review their Merits. These are powers just as much as your rotes, mages. Make sure you know when they apply.

I'm definitely picking this up.

You can psychically summon your wolf to come running to you at any time if shit gets heavy, or have it tag along if you know you're not somewhere very fastidious and full of Sleepers. The thing with the Innocuous Numen (-2 to Perception) is that it doesn't make something that people can obviously see less conspicuous, it just makes them better at not being noticed at all (hence why example familiars are cats and rats and shit). That's not to say it doesn't apply to your wolf - it's easy to imagine it watching you from a guardian vantage point on top of a building or hiding in an alley ready to flank an attacker - just that you can't bring it along with you in a car ride and into a museum in broad daylight and tell people it's a dog (unless you want to throw a bunch of points into Subterfuge or some relevant Mind rote). I like the wolf familiar a lot (you should name him or her, by the way), and I think it will definitely add to your character. Remember: you're bonded: whether or not the book explicitly says this, consider it a house rule that he can (if not obstructed) race to aid you with a thought.

Don't want to do this live on stream, but I always asked my old groups after every session for feedback on how the game went, what worked and what didn't, what could improve, etc. Would love some of that.

There's actually a part in the book that talks about that exactly (Sanctity of Merits, Chronicles of Darkness PDF 44), which says that if you lose Merit dots through the course of the story they should be reimbursed at the end of the chapter in equivalent dots of a new Merit that makes sense. My own house rule corollary to this would be that I'm typically willing to give out freebie Merits as the story goes fairly generously, but expect the ones which you get for free to always be potentially subject to sudden loss. Jeff, I want to send you a PM to make sure I'm totally clear on your backstory.

So, would anyone find it cheap of me if I started both games with a module? (A pre-written custom game.) My biggest weakness as a GM is coming up with beginnings of plots (also, middles, and sometimes ends) and starting things out with something pre-written (into which I could obviously not only slot your characters but recurring supplemental characters) might help me out considerably this first week, and maybe some players as well.

Wait, so if you quit your job, then we need to talk about your Resources Merit, because (as per the house rules) this implies an ongoing source of income. Hence why Jacob's character, despite not being destitute, has none. If you want I'll just let you say you have a certain amount in savings (give me a figure) and reallocate the dots. Meanwhile, speaking of reallocating dots, Hunters, since it was pointed out to me that you don't actually need a point in Drive just to use a car (or Computer just to use Facebook, likewise), if you want to reassign a single dot from those skills, let me know.

You guys can watch the other group's streams, since even if I said you couldn't I don't have a way to actually stop you. Just keep that in mind while playing vis-a-vis information you might want to relegate to the Roll20 chat. I should note, of course, it'll be a long time before you guys actually come into contact with one another. So, anyone who hasn't given me Aspirations of a sort (Reyturner, Vulpes Absurda) please read PDF 29 - 30 of the Chronicles of Darkness book and give me two short term Aspirations for your character and one long term. Remember, these aren't necessarily from your character's point of view, they're what you as a player want to see happen to him.

Whichever you'd prefer. I doubt there's anything which constitutes intrigue at this point, but if you're planning something secretive then certainly keep that to PMs.

Of course I won't contradict anything you gave me. But please, now more than ever that your characters are solidified, drop some posts in here about what you actually want to do in the game. This goes double, triple, for you academic types. From day one aspirations to year ten ones. Character motivations as well as the sorts of things you enjoy doing in games, tabletop and otherwise.

I think you were fine as well. If you have a headset (I think you were trying to get one to work originally?) please switch to that next week, as it would definitely improve your audio. And get a PDF reader, please! The one Jeff recommended, or PDF X-Change, which I use. So, to anyone in either group, speak up between now and session one if I'm missing anything you consider crucial about your character's backstory. Expect to have your gaps filled ( ) between now and then if not - homes, families, friends, neighbors, acquaintances. The places you work. The places you drink. Your first hunt. Your Awakening. For simplicity's sake, I will be taking charge of all of this so that we can have engaging, compact sessions on Twitch. I would once, and academically still do, consider this anathema. Ideally, all of this should come from you, so that it has maximum emotional resonance with you - as both character and player. But we didn't make it in time. The story can't wait on the details of the prelude. Those of you who want to endear yourselves to me know exactly how to do so: adopt these backstories as your own. Love them as you would NPCs you birthed yourself. Ultimately, players who come to my games to actually play roles will find themselves very richly rewarded. This is about storytelling. I'm excited for Saturday.

Nah, don't be. I'm sorry it has to be like this and I just offer the game entirely altruistically without tying it to my Twitch and therefore requiring cameras.

OK, then I have to pose the question to my Hunters, Twig and Fingus: could we move our sessions to Sundays instead of Saturdays? You might be able to infer what I'm getting at: get the late night stream (8PM - 12AM) off of Sunday, which is essentially a work night. It was short-sighted of me to schedule each of these on the days that I did. So... Mages: Saturdays at 8PM - 12AM PST (5AM - 9AM CET) Hunters: Sundays at 12PM - 4PM PST (9PM - 1AM CET) How does this make us feel?

Saturdays?

What if we played on Fridays?