Hey, guys. Steve M. here, or Bald Steve or whatever you prefer. (I try to keep last name and most personal info the hell away from the internet.) Noticed how much conversation was happening over here and figured I'd register.
Sunday was awesome. The game was hours of investigation and story and jokes and frantic combat and character development and aspect suggestions. Monday I played in my regular D&D game, and it was literally a single four hour combat that didn't really matter story-wise. Guess which one of those I loved and which one was kind of dreary. Working my schedule, it's incredibly difficult to find a regular game, so I'm really delighted by what we have going here. I hope everybody else had fun too, but especially newbies Ashley and Mark. This hobby can be kind of a lot to take in if you're jumping in the deep end.
Although we have some kinks to work out, it seemed to go pretty smoothly. I apologize for, in retrospect, being a bit of a spotlight hog. With this many players in the group, I definitely like the idea of players making their way to the sidelines when necessary while they RP out conversations. Also, Ian, since a lot of what Marty does involves contacting potentially helpful people, would I be able to make some rolls for that in between games or before the game officially starts or something so as not to take up actual game time by, f'rinstance, seeing if I can reach the were-gator swamp folk?
It seems like we need to work on incorporating our aspects more into the game. They're a new concept for me, at least in practice. I've got to try to find more opportunities for compels, especially. Did we manage to compel at all? My PC definitely seems the type to get into lots and lots of trouble (compels) and who then needs to really struggle to get out of it (spending fate points). And, as others have stated, we've got to integrate some of the PCs more thoroughly into the plotline(s). Love the idea of Ashley's photographer being a clued-in CSI, but then again she's not my character.
Anybody else feel the need for some serious central-repository-type database? Whether through Google Docs or Obsidian Portal, I think an investigation-heavy game like this with as many PCs and NPCs and locations as this has could really use it. I like the formatting of Obsidian Portal, but don't really know what Google Docs might have going for it, not having used it before. What are the high points of using Docs? To that end, though, I've got a
fillable forms character sheet 90% filled out that I'd upload to G-Docs if I could figure out how. Tess? Little help?
I'd like to cast a vote for Obsidian Portal, though. I think Ian would have to open the campaign page itself, but after that I believe everyone else would be able to take it from there. The "wiki" section isn't the only one accessible by all. We could set up a listing under NPCs for Marcy Railsback, to give a limited example, and list everything we know or suspect about her (unfortunate mermaid princess of the sea, pint-sized speedy bugger running from her apartment, etc.), put in links to known associates/relations (Martin Railsback, Marius Vulpas), and we already have a picture of her, ah, demise. Also, we can more readily access what one group of players learns while the others are chatting on the sidelines. Mark could put up the newfound (and wonderful) picture of his PC as part of Brian Moman's page, I can throw up a character sheet, background questions and some investigative notes, Tess can throw up her business card and pictures of her swanky car, and Ashley can post a blog entry or two. Any takers? We don't need participation from everyone, and it needn't take hours and hours; I know we've got busy lives. But I'm willing to put in some time, and think we could really use something like this. The link from my original email to the New Orleans campaign is
here. (I'm still willing to be sold on Google Docs, though, despite some obvious bias.)
I've got more I'd like to say, but it's way past bedtime for me. I'll get back here later on.
-Steve
AKA Marty Holbrook, Miami's premier clued-in fixer and smart-ass.
