/vx/ - Videogames and Paranormal

>>194181
But, again, I am open to changing this worldview depending on what role GM wants us to play in the story.

>>194175
>I'm just not a fan of extreme power scaling... at all.
>Superheros have just never appealed to me. Or any kind of anime that's the same thing.
>I'm supposed to believe that that's much more damaging than a bullet?
>Stop for a minute and think of how fucking awful it would be to be a warrior in such an army and such a war.

GM, I have noticed that this mindset has informed the way you run the game. I think that's a good thing, because it makes this game unique. However, I think what you're trying to do could work more smoothly if you used additional materials made for it, because nerds figured this out 20 years ago, particularly how to preserve that low-level gritty realism of early levels and reigning in caster supremacy. As a DM, I can sympathize with being uncomfortable with players leveling up too quickly, but in the d20 system individual heroic character progression is essential to the experience of the game. To solve this, some nerds developer the e6 variant rule:
https://www.enworld.org/threads/e6-the-game-inside-d-d.206323/
Read this link. It explains it easily.
What e6 does is cap real level progression at a point between the first two quartiles of play, at a minimum of lvl 6. However, players still progress as they level up through feat progression, and variant feats are made to accommodate numeric progression of character abilities without HP bloat and caster supremacy. There are also variant feats that accommodate for high level abilities being made accessible at the lvl 6 cap, such a a feat that allows a lvl 6 character to cast Flesh To Stone once per day with an expensive material component. Players don't progress in spellcasting, BAB, or features, but they get other perks more slowly as they level.

The benefits of this system is that it allows characters to progress, and it also creates the sort of grounded low-magic world with gritty realistic combat that you described, and monsters remain scary at all levels due to bounded accuracy and arrested HP because man is mortal.
I would actually recommend this system if this is the sort of game you want to run. There are variants to the system based on where power in the setting is supposed to be capped at, like e7, e8, or e10.
If you actually decide to do this, I would BEG you to use e8 or otherwise make the Dread Necromancer's class features accessible at lvl 6 through feats, because I built my entire character around the lvl 8 feature and I don't think I can keep playing this character if I can't keep up hope that I will get to cast Animate Dead with Undead Mastery.

If you want more grounded combat, particularly with guns, you can adopt the d20 modern massive damage threshold. D20 modern uses a Constitution-based threshold:
https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/MSRD:Death,_Dying,_and_Healing
This enforces the "get shot in the chest and die" aspect of combat. It's what makes combat realistic. It's actually one of many variant combat injury systems available for 3.5e, and probably the one to use to make even high level characters fear death. Unearthed Arcana has a few more combat injury variants worth looking at:
https://srd.dndtools.org/srd/variant/unearthedInjury.html

If you use constitution based massive damage thresholds though, you might also want to use Action Points, which are a default in d20 modern (and also Eberron):
https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/MSRD:Action_Points
Action Points are the "hero points" that allow characters to define themselves as the protagonists of the story even when the rest of the system enforces gritty realism and high lethality. They represent a pool of uncanny luck that allow players to modify dicerolls rolls (particularly the roll to not die after being shot) or use limited use abilities (Smite, Turn Undead, etc,) additional times. Action Points are a per-level resource, so they go well with e6 because the opportunity to refresh the pool gives an additional reward for leveling in place of actually leveling.

>That is what I wanted to capture. This feeling of historical crossroads, and a clash of ideologies and philosophies. Not a triumph of good over evil necessarily, but a definition of the terms.
D20 Modern has an optional rule to use Allegiances in place of alignment:
https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/MSRD:Allegiances
And d20 Arcana even presents options for paladin-like class features and feats to work based on allegiances.
You might also like the Eberron setting, which is a war-themed mileau made to be nuanced in the sense of d&d's alignment system.

Really, there are a lot of variant rules that represent what you are describing, and many of them are default rules in d20 Modern. Most if not all of them are accessible through the SRD:
D20 Modern (highly recommended)
https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/MSRD:Modern_System_Reference_Document
D20 Arcana stuff is more easily read here:
http://dmreference.com/MRD/Arcana.htm
https://spellbooksoftware.com/d20mrsd/arcana.html
Unearthed Arcana:
https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/UA:Variant_Rules

Maybe take a long look at the d20 Modern stuff or the e6 rules and consider using some of it when this adventure is over.

>>194175
>lower power scaling setting
Is it though? Lord of the Rings has much lower power scaling than the Silmarilion, because it's a world in decay, but the heroes involved are explicitly superhuman. We see the very best that humanity has to offer in the likes of Aragon, Boromir and Faramir, but aside from Legolas (who by elf standards is a youngster) elves are mainly in the background. The very few elf-lords left around are the stuff of legend, and orcs (who are the degraded descendants of elves and are stronger than men) mention them with trepidation. Read the Silmarilion and the power-scaling becomes much more extreme, with elf-lords living through hundreds of years of near-constant war and dying only in some climatic battle or to treachery. Only a couple of humans approach that power level and they are marked with especial destiny, the culmination of perfect breeding among warrior peoples and with determination that awes even elves.

It should be noted that Tolkien personally fought in WW1 and was intimately familiar with its dehumanizing horror, and deliberately structured his universe as a living contradiction to it. When there is war, some of his personal experience leaks into it, but there is focus on the heroic actions of individuals as the deciding factors, and a sense of meaning and fate behind every event. It's an interesting reversal to take fantasy campaigns and settings intellectually descended from his work and turn them back into a grounded, gritty, depersonalized world.

I know what you mean though. Superheroes stories and anime are notorious for maximizing spectacle in fights, so it's unfair to compare any genre to these. Some anime resemble a children's understanding of power scaling with absurd depictions being handed out nonchalantly. I hope it's not insulting to treat that as unserious but it is what it is.

>Have you heard of the Hegelian Dialectic?
pic related
Sorry, not sorry. I couldn't help but hear John Doman's voice when reading this. I do agree btw. It feels almost meaningless what side in these conflicts the PCs pick, outside of personal interest and risk. That's not a bad thing and I like the moral quandaries that come with it, at least for the mundane characters.

>That is what I wanted to capture. This feeling of historical crossroads, and a clash of ideologies and philosophies. Not a triumph of good over evil necessarily, but a definition of the terms.
I like that, though it's hard to get in the microcosm of OE. I can certainly see it in how the Fellow Traveler has seized on a definition of communism and twisted it toward its own ends, though that's not really a crossroads for the PCs to choose unless if we decide to not do our jobs and let Stalliongrad deal with it. I think it's best captured when navigating the factions in Baltimare itself: the Blackhooves, the ELF, the social democrats, communists, anarchists, and the Waterfront Gang. I made a joke about New Vegas earlier but that game had the same goal and it worked beautifully. The main difference is that in that game, the Courier is a nigh-unstoppable superhuman who absolutely has power to shape events in the region.

>>194179
>Conan
I swear everyone knows about that series but hasn't read it, myself included.
>You shouldn't think of HP as physicality, or you will frustrate yourself and break immersion. HP is a narrative device that represents how many near-misses and grazes a hero can take before their story ends. HP represents luck, skill and even divine blessings more than it does any measure of physicality.
The problem is that this is copium because it directly overlaps other game mechanics that represent this, most notably AC which represents either uncanny dodging ability or armor. And then there are various feats and whatnot that fill that role as well. If HP wasn't meant to be physicality, then physically tougher classes like fighters and barbarians wouldn't have more HP than weaker but more agile/divinely blessed ones. Also John Wick does get shot sometimes in the movies, but he is usually wearing armor and has insane toughness.
>Another question though: where does that leave us, individual heroes, as the protagonists of this game? What is our role in this world? If it's not about heroism and destiny, what is it about?
I can't speak for every character, but for most it's heroism or fulfillment in smaller ways. Cavaliere is good at a particular set of skills and he will keep using those skills in a way that follows his moral compass. Paladin in the TV show exists in the context of the Old West and although his presence affects many small locales, he never impacts history in any major way. I need to rewatch the series but he never arrests a governor, for instance, or does anything that would make history books. His deeds are small-scale and affect persons, not nations. Cavaliere might be different but doesn't need to be.
Amber is even more extreme in this regard and has done nothing heroic yet. It's impossible to imagine her rescuing a princess or couping a government. Yet, playing her is satisfying to me because it's living vicariously in this richly detailed world with interesting characters. Sometimes I don't want anything more than that.
This is hard to reconcile with a character intended to become a map-painter but I hope it's possible. It would be easier if said map-painter was a good-aligned idealist who other PCs can assist or at least coexist with, rather than be an embodiment of evil who will be hostile as soon as she reveals herself.

>>194181
>>194183
>scarlet king
Sounds like a fantastical Ted Kaczynski
>D20 Modern
>e6
>action points
>etc.
>Maybe take a long look at the d20 Modern stuff or the e6 rules and consider using some of it when this adventure is over.
I really want to do that because while this campaign is build around vanilla 3.5e it's obviously outgrown the possibilities afforded by that sourcebook. I've daydreamed for a while about collaborating to make this a fairly cohesive system, maybe even one that can be published and shared around. However, it's the sort of thing that would take several weeks at least of sitting around a metaphorical table to discuss and hash it out in committee. My hopes for that have dimmed since that's obviously not very fun, and we've had trouble with motivation just for the actually fun part of playing a campaign when these mechanics aren't that much of a problem yet.
Please let it be possible to incorporate some of this, but if it's not it's still acceptable to play with an incomplete and imperfect system.

https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/tag/e6
This blogpost about e6 opens with a few paragraphs referring to the struggle in mileau that GM referred to earlier:
>I felt that people were struggling with a dissonance between what they thought high-level D&D was supposed to be like (Conan or Lord of the Rings) and what high-level D&D was actually delivering (mythological demigods).
Tbh, not sure I completely agree with this take (and apparently commenters on his previous article had skepticism), but the blogger seems to agree with GM. He proposes e6-e10 as a solution.

>>194185
>However, it's the sort of thing that would take several weeks at least of sitting around a metaphorical table to discuss and hash it out in committee.
I mean, it's not like we don't do that already in between advancements in the actually game.
E6 isn't hard. Neither are the d20 Modern mechanics I mentioned. We could talk about it.

>>194187
Yes but between everything else I don't know how I can find time to pore over sourcebooks and homebrews and think about how those mechanics can be incorporated. I don't know if GM pony will either. Just my response today took more time than I was comfortable spending, but that's a problem with me.

>>194184
>It feels almost meaningless what side in these conflicts the PCs pick, outside of personal interest and risk.
It doesn't have to be like that, imo.
>That's not a bad thing and I like the moral quandaries that come with it, at least for the mundane characters.
What is a "mundane character" to you?
>The main difference is that in that game, the Courier is a nigh-unstoppable superhuman who absolutely has power to shape events in the region.
That's what being the protagonist of an RPG means. It applies to most of not all games. Taking action that have consequences in the world gives meaning to a game.
>I swear everyone knows about that series but hasn't read it, myself included.
Iirc, Marvel owns it but would rather sit on the IP and do nothing with it. They would probably just fill it with trannies anyway.
>this is copium
It's literally what they tell you in the Player's Handbook:
>What Hit Points Represent: Hit points mean two things in the game world: the ability to take physical punishment and keep going, and the ability to turn a serious blow into a less serious one. For some characters, hit points may represent divine favor or inner power. When a paladin survives a fireball, you will be hard pressed to convince bystanders that she doesn’t have the favor of some higher power.
Just because it overlaps with AC doesn't mean it's not an abstraction. Even AC is an abstraction. Some games even treat AC as damage reduction.
>If HP wasn't meant to be physicality, then physically tougher classes like fighters and barbarians wouldn't have more HP than weaker but more agile/divinely blessed ones.
It can be fluffed any number of ways. Frontline fighters have higher HP because being in the meatgrinder is part of their job description.
>Amber is even more extreme in this regard and has done nothing heroic yet. It's impossible to imagine her rescuing a princess or couping a government.
In this world, Nightmare Moon was defeated by a librarian, a baker, a wannabe athlete, a seamstress, a pet-groomer, and a farmer, and those mares saved the world dozens of times since then. Idk what it is that makes you think that your horse isn't special enough to be a hero. Amber is a more powerful spellcaster than Posey, ffs.
>It would be easier if said map-painter was a good-aligned idealist who other PCs can assist or at least coexist with, rather than be an embodiment of evil who will be hostile as soon as she reveals herself.
I mean, part of the point of Posey is that she's supposed to present herself as a hero and a false savior. She wants ponies to follow her, convincing them that she can save them in these desperate times, even if she has ulterior motives.
>while this campaign is build around vanilla 3.5e it's obviously outgrown the possibilities afforded by that sourcebook
The DMG straight up says to refer to d20 Modern for questions concerning modern settings.
>>194188
>pore over sourcebooks
The e6 homebrew is only like three pages long.

Most of the d20 modern stuff is in the SRD. The only notable difference between 3.5e and d20 modern is that d20 Modern uses the aforementioned two 3.5e variant rules (Constitution based massive damage; Action Points) by default.

>>194186
>TIP: A lot of class abilities would work just fine as feats. Even more class abilities would be appropriate as epic feats (or as part of an epic feat chain). The DM is encouraged to be flexible in helping players achieve the effects they want, as long as they would normally be achievable for the level range that the DM is shooting for.
I could be content with never actually leveling beyond 6 if Animate Dead were made a lvl 3 spell (like it is for Clerics) and the Dread Necromancer's Familiar and Undead Mastery were both made into epic feats.
D20 Modern Arcana incantations can also fill the role for situationally limited higher level spell effects that require ages of research and hours to cast, like Create Undead.

Idk about the other player's ambitions though.

Some more easily-read e6 rules:
https://dungeons.fandom.com/wiki/E6_(3.5e_Sourcebook)/Rules

I also linked the PDF rules document. It's only a couple pages long.

>>194189
>What is a "mundane character" to you?
Non-caster characters and those who don't have grand ambitions. That applies to every PC except for Posey, Spark and maybe Tenebrous.
>Just because it overlaps with AC doesn't mean it's not an abstraction. Even AC is an abstraction. Some games even treat AC as damage reduction.
>It can be fluffed any number of ways. Frontline fighters have higher HP because being in the meatgrinder is part of their job description.
Ok. There's just no hard-and-fast definition.
>Idk what it is that makes you think that your horse isn't special enough to be a hero.
Good point. Maybe it's just reluctance on my part.
>The e6 homebrew is only like three pages long.
>I also linked the PDF rules document. It's only a couple pages long.
That's pretty good. I'm sorry if I've come across as disinterested. I'm just going through the middle of a productivity crisis atm. What you've shared is genuinely very useful.

Now that I finally have a day off from work, I just wanted to say that something I find really compelling about this game is the conflict between the ideals of heroism or "noble armies" as it's been called that is extolled by D&D and the ideals of ideology and "peasant armies" extolled by EaW. To use my characters as an example, Silver as a colt grew up hearing stories about heroes and adventurers from days past and he idolized them, to the point that he begged his father to train him as a warrior and when he grew into an adult he struck out on his own as an adventurer, only to find that the world had largely moved on from those stories and that the best he could hope for to be an "adventurer" was to basically be a bounty hunter and mercenary. Kira comes from a pre-industrialized tribal civilization in the wild savannahs and forests of Southeastern Zebrica, a caste society where each lamia has their role that they fulfill to better the whole of the tribe, where she was born not just as a hunter and trained as a hunter but also born into a noble hunter family where the expectations of her role was even greater, and how she struggles internally with some aspects of her role in that society despite how much she prides herself in being one. To me it's compelling seeing how my characters react to this world they're in, a world that makes them seem almost like characters out of time despite being from this time. It also makes missions like this more interesting in my eyes because these are cases where these characters can be something that is otherwise disappearing from the world: heroes.

>>194191
What would you describe as a grand ambition?

>>194179
>>194181
>>194182
>>194183
>>194186
>>194187
>>194189
>>194190
On a long car ride I’ve had some time to reflect. I’ve come to realize that it isn’t Posey’s world view, or power scaling in D&D 3.5, or the rule set, or power gaming/balance in general that I am concerned about.

There is one thing, and one thing specifically that feels like an issue with Posey. I started to write about it, wrote 1700 words, realized I wasn’t close to done and started to worry that the series of posts may be too mean. So I’ll just try to summarize it.

Posey is kind of non-responsive to the environment around her in general. But in particular, she never really seems like she believes that she is in danger, that her task is difficult, that there is a chance of failure, and just in general doesn’t seem to suffer or hurt from the conflict she faces. This is evident from her words to other characters, her body language, attitude, and how she choses to approach encounters. I don’t like that, and I think the fact that Posey consistently acts like she’s over levelled and too powerful for the campaign has lead me to believe that she is overlevelled and too powerful for the campaign.

>>194193
>I started to write about it, wrote 1700 words, realized I wasn’t close to done and started to worry that the series of posts may be too mean.
Oh.. I am sorry to waste your time.
>Posey is kind of non-responsive to the environment around her in general. But in particular, she never really seems like she believes that she is in danger, that her task is difficult, that there is a chance of failure, and just in general doesn’t seem to suffer or hurt from the conflict she faces.
This was by design. I made Posey hubristic and vain, and most importantly relentlessly confident to disguise her own insecurities. She believes that by acting as though she is great and powerful, she can wish manifest her dreams into existence. As a Sorceress, she believes that magical power comes from force of personality, so she puts on the persona of a great and powerful mage.
While other necromancers travel to Magehold, Posey was born there. In Magebold, there are no friends, only masters and slaves. Posey is a former sex slave to the vampire coven, and she has a deeply-rooted belief that weakness attracts violence. Her mother murdered her for reasons unclear, and to this day she still ponders why she was so brutally discarded in that act of wasteful violence. Her masters condemned her to a century of demeaning servitude after she failed to meet their unrealistic goals in creating a god of destruction. Her entire life and unlike has been a spiral of weakness and failure, but she is for the first time being given a real opportunity to make something of herself since coming to Equestria. She acts confident in her powers, but she is painfully aware that she is only capable of casting lvl 2 spells despite being over a century old, and so long as she remains weak she remains a slave to her masters, so she is absolutely desperate to grow stronger. That is the reason why she responds so viciously when her powers are called into doubt in posts like this >>192693 →
To put it shortly, she's as narcissist, intentionally flawed, except it's ironic because when Posey looks in the mirror she doesn't see anything at all...
>This is evident from her words to other characters, her body language, attitude, and how she choses to approach encounters.
Well, she did acknowledge the limits of her powers and was forced to flee on that last monster encounter we had: >>192857 → (pic related)
>I don’t like that
I did design her that way, but if GM thinks it's annoying I guess I could try to approach things differently.
>Posey consistently acts like she’s over levelled and too powerful for the campaign has lead me to believe that she is overlevelled and too powerful for the campaign.
GM, you do realize that Posey is only lvl 4, right? She has lvl 2 spells, just like Amber. Do you remember the last time she cast a spell in combat? It was Chill Touch, over a year ago. Her main class feature is her spellcasting ability, and I really don't think her spells have been disruptive in this game; almost all of her spells do some variation of the same thing, which is cause fear, deal pitiful damage with negative energy, or summon a minor monster. She is not "over leveled"; in fact, she is underleveled because spent two levels worth of XP in character creation making her half vampire because I autistically needed a mechanical justification for her corpse to remain sexy after death, and I thought she could earn that XP back quickly, but alas. She has ended half of every non-trivial encounter she's been in at single digit HP, surviving the fight with Luminous at literally 1 HP, whome she "honorably" handed the +2 Silver Sword to in an act of self-destructive confidence because she esoterically believed that defeating a paladin fairly would allow her to reach a new level of power.
Barely anything about the way Posey plays is related to her being over leveled; I have just been pressured to get creative with roleplay, tactics and desperate gimmicks (like summoning amoebas to counter an otherwise invincible hydra that she had to fight 1v1 while treading water) to try to represent the mighty sorceress I imagined in my head.

If me roleplaying her as a cocky brat and a glory hound is actually what's preventing you from letting me level up, I will amend that. Often in milestone games you only level up after the GM decides you've done feats that are sufficiently sufficiently "cool enough" to warrant a level up to represent your character, but I guess in this game it's the opposite.

>>194194
Well, I did not get across what I needed to in just a few words. I’ll either use some of what I’ve written, or I’ll just drop the whole matter.

>>194193
>Posey is kind of non-responsive to the environment around her in general. But in particular, she never really seems like she believes that she is in danger, that her task is difficult, that there is a chance of failure, and just in general doesn’t seem to suffer or hurt from the conflict she faces.
Do you feel the same about how I roleplay Virgin now? Should I tone down the silliness?

>>194196
I like Virgin Flame

>>194192
>What would you describe as a grand ambition?
Taking over a territory and commanding a large force of hundreds or thousands, or otherwise influencing geopolitics to a measurable degree
>>194196
>>194198
I like her too, and we need silliness. Amber has had silly moments too.

>>194199
What are your characters' goals?

>>194200
Cavaliere just got into the game and has no long-term goals. He's seeking employment of the kind he's good at and otherwise lives for himself.

Amber still wants to make enough money to support her family back home and to get into music school. On top of that she also has a longing for adventure and to develop her relationship with Mustard Trim.

>>194199
Would Kira trying to bring her people over into Equestria as refugees count?

>>194195
Is there anything else you want to say?

>>194198
>>194199
Thank you, guys c:

>>194196
Well, look at it this way. A game like this is basically a collaborative writing venture. Basically I write several parts of a story, you write another part, and the other players write respective parts. The point is to produce a hopefully decent piece of literature. But to do so, we kind of need to be on the same page.

Ponies are cute. I like the cuteness. And silliness is fun too. Is Virgin too silly? Uh... I'm not sure? She can be silly, just be sure that... at least some things that happen around her are responded to sometimes. I can work with silly or crazy. But moderation is probably best, at least for now, as the world around her is very serious. Her being silly in a serious world isn't necessarily a bad thing. We all have heard of and seen the "crazy guy/straight man" comedic duo where the contrast is a part of the joke (like Spongebob and Squidward). Just... Be mindful. But silly on. Virgin Flame is a cute character and I like her.

>>194205
I try to roleplay Posey as silly too. Sometimes I break her glorious/serious demeanor by making her do silly things like fall down the stairs, forfeit the element of surprise to knock on doors, or demand that ponies rub her tummy for attention. Posey dreams of being a supervillain, but as of now she's just a lowly apprentice mage trying her best, and is very much still a silly cartoon horsie.
Being out-of-touch with the mileau is also part of Posey's character, because she's a member of the Dread League, which is a D&D faction in a WWII setting. Posey is a Victorian era character with Medieval ideals. I was originally going to have her only speak in middle English like Luna, but I decided it was a bit too much effort to be worth it because when I did test chats I thought it came off as annoying.
>But moderation is probably best, at least for now, as the world around her is very serious.
I don't think so. I think your character is fine just as she is.
She could have some interesting development as a martial artist action hero, but she would need to enter combat for that to happen. Just wait for the situation to become serious and react to it accordingly.

>>194201
>He's seeking employment of the kind he's good at and otherwise lives for himself.
If he were just seeking employment, he would be better off making Profession checks in the city than risk life and limb doing secret mercenary work on a desert Island in contested territory. Maybe consider what he wants to acquire so much money for.
>Amber still wants to make enough money to support her family back home and to get into music school.
She should just roll Perform for this. Not only does making Perform checks earn you enough money to live off of and then some, it also has a chance of attracting patrons who are impressed by your talents.
>Great performance. In a prosperous city, you can earn 3d10 sp/day. In time, you may be invited to join a professional troupe and may develop a regional reputation.
>Memorable performance. In a prosperous city, you can earn 1d6 gp/day. In time, you may come to the attention of noble patrons and develop a national reputation.
>Extraordinary performance. In a prosperous city, you can earn 3d6 gp/day. In time, you may draw attention from distant potential patrons, or even from extraplanar beings.
You can make a perform check in a hour, depending on the context. Once you hit that DC 20, money and plot developments will come to you. Use your spells to buff your skill checks and cast an illusion for a circumstance bonus to performance.

>>194203
Too much.

>>194205
>Just... Be mindful. But silly on. Virgin Flame is a cute character and I like her.
Aww, thank you.
Also, I think I'll play her more reactive in the future as you wanted. That way we are both satisfied. I get where you are coming from. ^^

Btw, you haven't replied in a while, which you obviously know. I'm just worried that I have caused this in some way but since you didn't make a statement about that in your last post and said tht you like my character it seems unlikely.
But I'm not here to stress you. Take you time. Like, I'm the last person to criticize someone for procrastination or whatnot. ^^
Just know that I'm ready when you are again.
>>194206
Also, thank you for liking my character. ^^

>>194216
I meant "reply" in the game thread for the game.

>>194205
>A game like this is basically a collaborative writing venture.
It's not ERP, it's "collaborative erotica"
>We all have heard of and seen the "crazy guy/straight man" comedic duo where the contrast is a part of the joke (like Spongebob and Squidward)
This is sort of the dynamic between Amber and Mustard. I hope we get to see more of that, as well as more of Virgin Flame.
>>194206
>Posey dreams of being a supervillain, but as of now she's just a lowly apprentice mage trying her best, and is very much still a silly cartoon horsie.
Invader Zim would be a nice inspiration for that kind of character. Have you seen that show? You could combine that with the Addams family for a more gothic approach.
>If he were just seeking employment
Not his only motivation.
>She should just roll Perform for this.
Having her be a busker is an option I might go for, but it has more risk from both hooligans and the law. What am I saying, that's a great idea.

>>194203
Alright, I have quite a lot I want to say, and I am going to put it into words. I hope that what I say will be understood rather than dismissed, as I believe I am saying it in good faith. I am saying it because I want the Posey character to succeed and become better, not because I hate her and want her gone or replaced. I assure you that if I wished that, I could accomplish that in far fewer words. I have absolutely no idea how much of this is Posey as a character or you as a player. I would assume that it is some combination of the two, but I don’t believe I will ever know the answer to that. I am going to approach this as being my problem with the Posey character, given that everything I have to comment about are her in-character actions or inactions. I don’t know how much of my issues are actually based on recent observations. I know it’s the same issue I had more than a year ago now. I’m not sure if it has gotten better or worse. The vast majority of the examples I will be giving are from more than a year ago. Maybe that means that there are not so many issues in the recent past and things are better now. I hope so. All the same, I think I have at the very least finally figured out what bugged me a year ago, and I am now putting it into words. Why? Because it’s stuck in my head, and I think that typing it out will, if nothing else, allow me to move past it.

So, I think I should start the same way as I did with the Vir character. What is this here? This is a collaborative writing venture. We are writing a story together. You have one character, I have several characters and most of the world, and then a few other people have their own characters. Everyone is a writer, and what everyone writes is important to the whole. It is all important. It cannot work without me, and it cannot work without you.

But above all, what we are doing here is writing a story. It isn’t quite textbook story telling, given that the ending and length are a bit unclear, and so structure doesn’t work in quite the same way. All the same, any story of any kind definitionally needs at least two things. It needs at least one main character – a protagonist. And it needs a conflict. But what exactly is a “conflict”? Something that the main character needs or wants or is trying to prevent, some main goal to obtain or avoid. Something that is desired or needed is absent for at least part of the story, some good thing is at danger of being lost, or some object of aversion either may come, or is here and needs to be removed. Quite simply, the main character experiences something bad. Want or fear. They are not in a state of perfect goodness the whole story.

Every work of literature requires overcoming adversity. It doesn't matter what it is. There are no exceptions. None. It's definitional to what a story even is. It's about the struggle. It's about the pain and the problems. The philosopher Hugo Weaving once said that humans, as a species, define their reality through misery and suffering. I am not certain to what degree that is true of the normal human life, but I can say with certainty that that is what defines all storytelling. Stories are about struggle, conflict, and in most but not all instances, overcoming the adversity. In doing so, something is proven or demonstrated. Your main character(s) don't need to win in order to have a story. There are stories where the main characters fail and the story is functional. You don't need your main character to be at all heroic for the story to function. There are stories with villains as main characters and they are functional. Your main character doesn't need to be an actual conscious person in order to function. There are stories with villages or nations or other impersonal things as main characters. But every story of any kind must necessarily have the main characters suffer, or otherwise experience problems in obtaining what they want.

And now, what is a player character? A player character is a protagonist of this story. Posey, thusly, is a protagonist.

So. Now that we’ve established that characters must be subject to adversity, how do you show that in writing? And let’s say in the context of adventure, fighting, or fantasy especially.

Well, you can kill off main characters. This shows that the danger and adversity faced by the main cast is great and that the stakes are high. It is generally advisable to kill off a few main characters to show that you are serious, and this is why Boromir or Ned Stark are killed off relatively early in their respective story’s runs. But the problem is that you cannot simultaneously kill your characters and have them there to serve as characters in the story. Well, you can see Gandalf and John Snow, but still, you can’t have your characters there for development and be dead. You can kill them at the end, sure, but that leaves most of the run time that you need to show the audience of the danger faced by the protagonists.
You could have the main characters be defeated or inhibited directly in their immediate short-term goal. This is advisable. However, it is still limited by the needs of the plot, as at some point, the action must advance.

>>194203
>>194222
So, the best thing to do is to have the main characters act like they are in danger or facing adversity. See in Lord of the Rings the Fellowship of the Ring (movie), where a few characters want to leave camp and cross the river. Legolas, who doesn’t emote much, tells them sharply that they must not cross the river until nightfall, as the orcs that have been following them will see them cross and will be alerted to their presence. That would place them in unacceptable danger. This is how danger ought to be written. When we see the main characters kill orcs and Uruk Hai by the score, it’s easy to think “No, orcs are not that dangerous.” But when the main characters take orcs seriously and think they can be a danger, its easier for us in the audience to believe that they are, in fact, in danger. The fact that its shortly after this scene that Boromir is killed by Uruk Hai just adds to it. And we see this again and again. The forces of Sauron and Sauromon, despite consistently losing and being repelled, are always taken seriously by the main characters, who go out of their way to avoid being in pitched battles with them when they can.

Could you image what the Lord of the Rings would be like if Legolass just said “nah, the orcs will be fine”? The orcs would be a joke and the audience would be bored. How can we think the main characters are under threat if the main characters don't think or act like they are under threat?

In Occupied, the character who does this best is Cavaliere. Cavaliere always takes the forces he fights against very seriously and acts like they can be a danger to him. Before fighting them, he always first asks himself the question “is it necessary?” and “can we actually win?” Posey, however, doesn’t seem ever to act like the opposing forces against her are actually dangerous. I get that she’s supposed to be bloodthirsty or something, but I’m trying to write a story where the main characters are in plausible danger. Could she maybe play along?

I remember you once said OOC that “players are supposed to win.” This statement is true. But it’s impolite to say aloud. I heard that Gary Gygax was once quoted as saying something along the lines of “Players should win 70% of the time. But it should feel like they are going to win 40% of the time.” We’re kind of all engaged in a collective suspension of disbelief here. I mean yeah, the players are probably going to win (probably), but like… this is a show. The illusion of danger is the point. It’s why we are here. There is a reason people like to play souls-like games, or set games to the hardest difficulty. The challenge is the entire point.

There is another way that characters can show that they are suffering adversity, and that is through the expression of emotion. This can be actual fear, pain, sorrow, or anxiety. They can express it through screams, crying, facial expressions, or their words. In The Lord of the Rings, expressions of fear, doubt, and adversity are absolutely everywhere. Legolas before the battle of Helms Deep is concerned and speaks about it with the other characters. Frodo wears a thousand yard stare almost the entirety of the last two movies. Aragorn expresses skepticism of the chances of survival in the diversionary battle before the Black Gate at the end of the Return of the King. When Aragorn thinks he’s lost Pippin and Mary, he kicks a helmet and screams admittedly partly from fracturing a toe kicking the helmet. The otherwise indefatigable Sam expresses uncertainty of the likelihood that he and Frodo will survive Moroder. Sauron is described as experiencing “doubt” when the heir of Isildur returns and he does not know the location of the One Ring. Even Galadriel is troubled by the One Ring. It’s constant fear, doubt, and pain all around in The Lord of the Rings, and I do not think that it is a coincidence that both the books and the movies are so fondly remembered.

But no one agrees with my interpretation of Lord of the Rings, so let’s forget about that. Let’s talk about another series where the protagonist character is constantly emoting. In Kitchen Nightmares, chef Gordon Ramsey must go into a failing restaurant, observe its bad practices to try to understand what is wrong, then attempt to correct the bad practices so that the owners may place the restaurant back on track. In order to establish that Gordon Ramsey does indeed have a hard task ahead of him, it must be established that the current state of the restaurant is quite bad. How do you do that? Well you can just show what is on screen, and they do that. But more than that, chef Ramsey reacts to what is on screen. And he reacts very strongly to what he sees. He yells at poor quality food. He makes insulting jokes. He curls his lips back in disgust when he sees a dirty kitchen. If Gordon Ramsey had kept a stiff upper lip when he, for example, saw cockroaches in the basement in Dillon’s, rather than reacting with the visceral disgust he did, I think the episode would have been poorer. I believe that chef Ramsey’s strong reactions are very important to why the series is so fondly remembered today.

Posey will react physically and emotionally to running water, and I believe a few other things. This is fine, I just wish she would occasionally react a little to other things as well.

>>194215
>>194194
>I made Posey hubristic and vain, and most importantly relentlessly confident to disguise her own insecurities.
Okay, let’s explore this. What is the difference between someone who is just entirely out of touch with reality on their own abilities, versus someone who puts on a façade in order to hide from themselves and others that actually, they believe they are fairly weak? The answer, of course, is that the latter actually believes themselves to be fairly weak. Now how does anyone know this? Obviously, we can’t see inside the head of another person. The only way we could possibly know that this is so is when we get a glimpse behind the façade. So then there must be some kind of look behind the façade. This may be small acts or expressions of emotions that may be noticed by no one except for the audience. This may be a complete nervous breakdown all at once. This may be the character’s confession to a confidant, or even when speaking to herself, or writing a letter to no one.

For an example of a small expression of emotion, I think of Breaking Bad, where the character of Tod, after shooting and killing a 14 year old kid, holds onto the tarantula in a jar that the kid was carrying. This shows his guilt. I will go into nervous breakdowns later. For examples of confessions to confidants, think of Tony Soprano in The Sopranos, speaking to his therapist. Or the main character in The Good Shepherd confessing that actually, his father killed himself, when he is confessing a secret to the Skull and Bones Society. Occupied has a good example. Kubana Kirafiki is afraid that she may be too soft, weak, and generally too much of a precious cinnamon roll to accomplish her task of saving her people. She confesses this insecurity to at least one other character, I believe it was Mala Mata.

You posted a picture of Flawless Sparklemoon from Tamers12345’s series. I don’t think that that is a coincidence. I believe you are trying to draw a parallel between that character and Posey. Flawless Sparklemoon is introduced as a sort of magical creation spawned between two characters. When she is first met, she is an antagonist who absolutely insists that she is superior to the two protagonist characters and is immediately hostile. She is defeated at the end of the episode, but returns later, hostile again. She eventually has an emotional breakdown where expresses that she has no identity as she is a sort of Frankestein’s monster. Like the monster she has no given name. “Flawless” was a fan name. Look at that picture you attached. Look at her eyes. Those are not the eyes of a pony who is completely confident in her abilities. Those are the eyes of someone who has been defeated. By her third appearance the other characters are outright treating her like a scarred or confused child.

Flawless Sparklemoon is explicitly very heavily based on a similar character from My Little Pony Friendship is Magic: Trixie. Trixie, like Posey, is bragadocious and tries to put on the appearance of being strong and powerful. When she is first met, she acts an antagonist to the main six, talking herself and her act up. The first time she experiences danger, she breaks down, screams, runs away, and admits to being a fraud. In her second appearance she is also an antagonist, continuing to be proud, but also showing signs of mental instability from an artifact she is using as a source of power. When she is defeated, she acts somewhat humble and is obviously much weaker. I’ll get to what happens when she is brough back to be a main character later.

Something that both Flawless and Trixie have in common is that when they are introduced in their first two episodes, they are antagonist characters, who only later become protagonists. It must be emphasized that the rules for antagonist characters are different than the rules for protagonists. The only thing an antagonist must do is to create trouble for the protagonists. Unlike protagonists, there is no requirement that an antagonist suffer or experience trouble. They do not need to suffer. They do not need to show weakness, flaws, or vulnerability. They do not need to be morally right or wrong. They do not need to win and they do not need to lose. They do not need to be conscious people. The protagonists do not need to be able to fight back against an antagonist. A hurricane, for example, can be a perfectly fine antagonist in a story, just so long as it creates problems for the protagonists.

Both Flawless and Trixie start off as proud and powerful in their respective stories. That is fine, because both are in the role of antagonists. Even as antagonists, both are defeated, and both suffer nervous breakdowns of one kind or another. They are both humbled and show the audience that they have been humbled. More importantly, when both are brough back later to act as protagonists they drop the act. Flawless is like a child, but Trixie gets it worse. In Trixie’s third appearance, the first time she is seen, she is complaining about how bad things are for her, and she is confiding in Starlight. And then later in the episode when Starlight abandons her, she has a full-on suicide attempt. A suicide attempt. In the entire 219 episode run of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, there are only two suicide attempts, and Trixie in “No Second Prances” is one.

>>194194
>>194224
Let’s try another cocky protagonist. Puss in Boots of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. He starts off afraid of nothing and extremely confident in his abilities. Within 15 minutes he fucking dies. Sure, he gets better, but he’s on his last life now. Then less than 15 minutes after that, he gets defeated in a fight. He then withdraws into hiding, painfully aware of his weakness. Later in the movie, we see him suffer a full-on panic attack.

Or consider Walter White from Breaking Bad. That protagonist is certifiably a villain by the end of the show, and is also very arrogant generally and confident in his abilities, and unlike the other examples he remains so throughout the course of the show. He seems to genuinely believe that he is at least smarter than almost everyone around him, and usually believes himself to be more dangerous, that he is the one who knocks. I don’t want to give a full summary of that show, but that show, from beginning to end, is full of Walter White suffering. Walter cries, sits in silence of how his life has fallen apart, throws a pizza on the roof in frustration, and has a tantrum with a police officer pulling him over that results in him being thrown in jail. His son hates him, his adoptive son hates him, his wife hates him and cheats on him – the entire show is Walter White suffering. I think that the fact that Walter White so visibly suffers so greatly in the show is a strong contributor to why so many people sympathize with him and remain on his side by the end of the show, even though he is clearly the villain.

Imagine if you had a cocky, arrogant protagonist who never showed any kind of vulnerability or flaw. You couldn’t say that the protagonist is simply hiding insecurities, because there would be no evidence for that. We have a name for this kind of protagonist. They are called a “Mary Sue,” where they do not serve as characters in a story, but the story serves only to make the protagonist look good. These are not good protagonist characters. But a Mary Sue exists in a sequence of words – it cannot properly be called a “story” – only when they actually win. What do you call the same when they remain arrogant, never express vulnerability, but also don’t have the strength to back it up? “Stupid” is the only thing I can think of.

The idea that you speak of for Posey is a pretty good idea. An apprentice who probably still technically ranks as a slave who needs to prove herself and is afraid of showing weakness. I don’t think her actions and scenes quite mesh with that, however. I don’t recall her confiding with anyone. I don’t think I’ve seen a nervous breakdown (aside I suppose from her fear of water). I don’t think she will occasionally briefly widen her pupils, pull her lips back, and lower her ears when a new threat arises, only to catch herself and return to a stoic expression. I don’t think I’ve seen her run away from anything in fear (except as a clear tactical retreat). I don’t think I’ve seen her laugh nervously, or look for excuses for why she’s trying to avoid engaging in a specific fight. I think it would be good to add some emotional reactions to show that while she likes to pretend that she’s a mighty sorceress, she’s still a scared little slave girl underneath.

> GM, you do realize that Posey is only lvl 4, right? She has lvl 2 spells, just like Amber
I made that remark because when I insisted that Posey be nerfed, I think what motived me had far more to do with the absolute refusal of Posey to act like anything could be a danger to her, than it did with her character actually being overpowered.

Did you notice that when you insisted that your character is weak, you had to refer to math and actual results of battle? You can’t refer to roleplay, because she’s always roleplayed as if she’s way overleveled. Here is what you would do very well to understand. I don’t always immediately see the math. I don’t always see the spell list or the numbers. And I don’t always care. I don’t care if your character has 2 hp left or 32 hp left. What I care about, and what I notice, is the vibes of the combat as a whole. I am trying to create a story, an experience, and a world, where some things in the world are no threat at all to the player characters, some are a low threat, some are a medium threat, some would present a great challenge, and some are such that the player characters would be best off avoiding them. This is about the general emotions and tone and atmosphere. I’m trying to create a sense of danger. I’m trying to, sometimes, create a spooky environment. Or unease. Or of a heroic fight. If I can do that with Posey being level 7 then I’d probably do that.

>>194203
There is one thing that Posey did that stands out to me as especially bad or insulting to me. It is the worst thing that she has done that I have not already covered, but also representative of a pattern. It happened more than a year ago, and it still lives in my mind. It is her aside to Gloomy in this post right here: >>176099 →

>"I hear Baltimare has some excellent diners; we should visit them before they're gone."
Where do I even begin with this one?

If Posey were saying this line to the Kaftar priest, or to any of the Kaftar present, I could just say that she’s trying to puff herself up or to reassure them. A false display of bravado. But she isn’t. She’s remarking this to Gloomy, whom she has no real reason to be dishonest to. It really seems like an honest expression of her inner feelings. Posey is making little quips about how super easy it is to conquer Equestria. Like it’s a foregone conclusion. No uncertainty, no doubt, no real challenge. It’s like waiting for a check in the mail. No more complicated or interesting. This is after a year of me trying to craft an experience to show that conquering Equestria is not easy and it absolutely should not be boring.

Could you imagine if any character – anyone – from Lord of the Rings spoke about defeating Sauron that way? Could you imagine if Luke Skywalker talked about defeating the Empire this way? Harry Potter of killing Voldemort? John 117 about defeating the Prophet of Truth? Twilight Sparkle about defeating Nightmare Moon? Walter White of Killing Gus Fring? Gordan Ramsey about fixing Amy’s Baking Company? No writer would ever have their main characters discount the difficulty of the task, unless that character were very quickly proven disastrously wrong, or the character is very obviously lying to himself as cope, and neither is obviously the case with Posey here.

This line is the exact opposite of the “One does not simply walk into Morodor.” The audience is supposed to think that the main goal of the main character is hard. That’s why they are reading/watching/playing. Because they want to see the struggle in the process of accomplishing the goal. If the main character doesn’t think that the process of accomplishing the main goal is any less certain or more difficult than waiting for a check in the mail then is the main goal actually interesting?

What am I supposed to do with this line? I had spent an entire year crafting an experience for Posey showing what has become of dark and evil magic in a world where light and the good guys have already triumphed. That was the whole point of Posey’s grand tour of Baltimare in the first year.

>>194226
The idea behind Posey's grand tour of Baltimare was to show the fate of dark magic in a world where light and goodness has already triumphed. Every new faction met has a different approach to the problem. All have failed. The point was to show that Equestria is and was extremely powerful, especially in resisting dark magic. With the defeat of the Alicorns and the withdrawal of the armies that defeated them, there is an opportunity. However, even just the existing forces of the ELF and the New Mareland Revenue & Customs force are shown to be powerful enough to continue troubling dark magic users.

The first character that Posey meets is Lament, and Posey can see that he hides in the shadows and has in large part stopped partaking in the occult. Mostly he lives a dissolute life, and in fact, to some degree he is trying to blend into normal society. Then there are the true occultists who tried to carry on with their practices, but do so in secret. These are the voodoo zebras, the Crocutta, and the Kaftar. They failed. Customs agents discovered them, and sent in mercenaries to kill them, and now their strongest magic practitioners are dead. The Kaftar and the Crocutta are both boxed in in a ghetto where the military maintain a cordon. They sit waiting until a final push expels them from the country. Then you have the approach taken by the last vampire. He practiced his deeds in the open, and as a result, he was tracked down and destroyed even more quickly. This last example is probably the closest foil to Posey, given her lack of discretion.

The very last set of dark magic practitioners that Posey encounters, or was supposed to encounter, was the licensed necromancers of Jim Haykins. In my mind, it was like a xenofiction film, where the main characters were wild animals resisting the encroachment of humans on their land. They meet with the domesticated household pets of the humans, who explain to them the benefits of having quality, free food delivered to them in great quantities, and of sleeping in cushions in air conditioned buildings. You’re still getting your balls chopped off by your masters. The necromancer Ersatz Orgone was supposed to be a necromancer perhaps the equal of Posey’s master, but so lost to harmony that he may as well be counted like a Paladin. Diligent Debride was supposed to speak with a lisp, have an odd baby craze and just generally be weird.

When Diligent Debride gives her speech hyping up the Licensed Necromancers of Equestria, I had hoped Posey would respond to that with revulsion, or rejection at what Debride was suggesting. Instead it was “poor little pony must be tired after that.” Just “too long, didn’t read.” I remember I made that long post on the same day that I went with a friend to the movies to see ISS. I remember thinking “What was the point of writing that? Why did I post that?” When I had better things to do with my time. At least Cavaliere’s player responded to it with some praise. So there is that.

Not terribly long after the line I dissected above, Posey decided that she was going to sacrifice the very obviously ill diamond dog bitch that she has captured in an earlier mission. Posey never expressed any curiosity about her illness, it was just another unimportant detail. What Posey did not care to find out was that she was infected with a fungus of a monstrous nature. When Posey tried to sacrifice the bitch, the fungus transformed her into a monster that Posey had to fight. Posey dumped all of her offensive magic into the monster to kill it. The whole fight was just annoying to Posey, because it got in the way of the task at hand. The purpose of the fungal monster was to show that there are older, more dangerous things in Equestria that you can’t simply fuck with. You can compare it to Shelob or the Balrog in the Lord of the Rings if you like, the point is that I was trying to see if I could get Posey to just take Equestria seriously. She did not. There was an OOC remark about too much HP on enemies or something. I was defeated in my goal. This happened when I stayed up until 3 AM local time in my hotel room, simultaneously doing a session for Amber that went worse than the session for Posey, and knowing that I had a flight back to the United States leaving in just four hours. I was left knowing that I had accomplished nothing good and that I was the idiot for staying up and doing that, when any intelligent person would have not run the session and would have just gone to sleep.

>>194215
That isn't all I had to say, just all I could write down so far

>6+ posts about how the character I made is annoying and out of place
Give me a while to read through this...

>>194229
Awwwwwww...I need to head to work right now, but once I get the chance I wanna type out why I personally like Posey. It probably won't be 6+ posts but don't take that as an admonishment about her, I'm just limited by time and availability.

>>194222
>I am saying it because I want the Posey character to succeed and become better
What exactly do you mean by "succeed" in this case? I made a villain character, knowing full well that villains are supposed to lose while still wanting to contribute to the plot of the game. My idea of a successful character arc was contributing to a long and brutal mass-combat military campaign and liberating Equestria from Changeling occupation before Posey's own greed and lust for power eventually led to her own downfall (something like the ending of Game Of Thrones, but less sausage). Now, I'm getting the sense that the mass combat military campaign isn't going to happen, so idk what success is.
The other idea I had of a successful character arc was the "redeemed villain" arc, where Posey's alignment becomes non-evil after leaning the value of friendship. Thing about being a redeemed villain though is that it requires prior villainy, and so far the only truly evil things Posey has done is sacrifice a couple diamond dogs for power.
What is success to you? I am willing to go along with whatever plot developments you have planned for my character.
>what we are doing here is writing a story
I am very much interested in being part of the story. I'm just not really sure what that story is right now. I thought it was going to be an EaW-inspired military campaign, but now I am not so sure. Seems more like a location-based slice-of-life daily world-building project that isn't really story-driven so much as it focuses on describing whatever scene it falls on.
>And now, what is a player character? A player character is a protagonist of this story. Posey, thusly, is a protagonist.
Maybe I'm replying too soon, but didn't we just have the discussion about how this game was supposed to subvert the "heroic" expectation of d&d where characters decide the fate of the world? Maybe I am reading too much into it.
I think I get your point though.
>you can’t have your characters there for development and be dead
Well, you can also have the memory of deceased characters appear in flashbacks, or refer to those characters when dealing with relics or other objects they left behind, especially when one character is trying to follow a deceased character's legacy.
I get the point though.
>>194223
>In Occupied, the character who does this best is Cavaliere. Cavaliere always takes the forces he fights against very seriously and acts like they can be a danger to him.
Cavalier's player also often seems the most concerned about being ineffective or underequipped. Idk though.
>Posey, however, doesn’t seem ever to act like the opposing forces against her are actually dangerous.
I mean, she had all of those monologues referring to her training as a cerebrant and how the Intruder constituted a planetary threat if it wasn't dealt with swiftly.
I also usually describe in detail how her body falls apart and the flesh melts off her bones as she gets to low HP, and also stated that the apparent condition of her body is tied to her confidence and sense of self.
>I’m trying to write a story where the main characters are in plausible danger. Could she maybe play along?
Okay, I will try to play along. How would you like me to roleplay her engaging with the danger? Do you want me to make her act afraid? Or do you want me to make her hesitate before major decisions instead of acting confident?
I struggle with PbP roleplay, so any suggestions are welcome.
>I remember you once said OOC that “players are supposed to win.” This statement is true. But it’s impolite to say aloud.
I said that to another player who was spending weeks being paranoid about the next encounter to a degree that was drastically slowing down the game. I didn't mean to give the impression that I wasn't taking the threat seriously, but at the time I was frustrated that the paranoid tactical discourse was taking the plausibility too seriously, and the weeks delay was breaking my immersion.
>“Players should win 70% of the time. But it should feel like they are going to win 40% of the time.” We’re kind of all engaged in a collective suspension of disbelief here.
It's felt very close to me so far. The fight with Luminous, the Hydra, and that last monster all ended with Posey at single-digit HP.
>There is another way that characters can show that they are suffering adversity, and that is through the expression of emotion. This can be actual fear, pain, sorrow, or anxiety.
I mean, I tried to express Posey's fears in whatever ways I could. Her fear of stagnation, fear of failure, fear of her dark masters, fear of facing the reality of her own powerlessness and the possibility that she might just be condemned to another century in the obsidian mines if she doesn't succeed. I tried to illustrate part of that with the seal skull scene, although it seems like you didn't really like that.
As for pain, and also fear, I could roleplay that, but Posey isn't supposed to be a living character but instead an undead character, which is what I usually take in mind when roleplaying her interactions with fear and pain. She's also a masochist, which is it's own discussion, but the point being that on top of her torturous upbringing pain is a welcome experience because it reminds her of what it was life to feel alive.
>Posey will react physically and emotionally to running water, and I believe a few other things. This is fine, I just wish she would occasionally react a little to other things as well.
I will keep this in mind. Are there any ways in particular you would like me to approach her?

>>194224
>What is the difference between someone who is just entirely out of touch with reality on their own abilities, versus someone who puts on a façade in order to hide from themselves and others that actually, they believe they are fairly weak? The answer of course, is that the latter actually believes themselves to be fairly weak? No how does anyone know this? Obviously, we can’t see inside the head of another person.
That is a major flaw in my character design, now that I think about it... I had hoped that posting Trixie reaction images alongsude my posts to suggest dramatic irony would be enough, but alas.
>This may be a complete nervous breakdown all at once.
Well, Posey does throw hissy fits whenever her powers are called into question, the last one being the conversation with the Intruder through the corrupted soldier body.
>Flawless
Yeah, I did make the reference on purpose. Posey is also a Frankenstein's monster driven by hubris and vanity, and has little sense of self outside her delusions of grandeur.
>Those are not the eyes of a pony who is completely confident in her abilities. Those are the eyes of someone who has been defeated.
I posted that gif to illustrate Posey's expression after having been turned into Swiss cheese in the last encounter.
>humbled
I can do that if you want, but consider it from Posey's perspective: Posey hasn't even been in Equestria for three days. The past 2.5 years irl have been 2.5 days in character. It's a bit early for drastic changes to her core beliefs, isn't it?
I could do a 180 on her character, but it would feel a bit forced.
Posey's priority all this time has been proving herself, as aa leader and as a war mage, with the purpose of growing her powers to complete her apprenticeship and end her enslavement. That's the reason why she's facing the Eldritch God instead of just fleeing. It's not because she doesn't recognize the danger, but because she believes that only by showing confidence in the face of danger can her powers grow.
>>194225
>The idea that you speak of for Posey is a pretty good idea. An apprentice who probably still technically ranks as a slave who needs to prove herself and is afraid of showing weakness. I don’t think her actions and scenes quite mesh with that, however.
I had really hoped scenes >>181808 → , >>192693 → , >>192857 → served to characterize her shortcomings, but idk.
>I don’t recall her confiding with anyone.
Realistically, who does she have to confide in? She a monster and a spy.
She has Gloomy, but I left him at home during this adventure.
>I don’t think I’ve seen a nervous breakdown
There was the scene where she freaked out a when the Intruder called her weak.
>I don’t think she will occasionally briefly widen her pupils, pull her lips back, and lower her ears when a new threat arises, only to catch herself and return to a stoic expression.
In that same linked post, and a few others, I have described the appearance of her lips ears and teeth, and the way she appears more like a bat or a wolf when she loses her composure.
(For the record, characters with vampiric heritage have bat-like or wolf-like features if they have low charisma)
There's also posts such as >>191449 → >>178502 → >>190343 → >>172882 →
I'm not trying to minimize your criticisms, but I would like you to appreciate the efforts I make to roleplay her when I actually try to.
>look for excuses for why she’s trying to avoid engaging in a specific fight
GM, in what scenario is it appropriate for Posey to run away from an encounter you wrote? Would that not be frustrating? Call it metagaming, but I approach every encounter and obstacle as content you worked hard for me to engage with, which is why don't run away from fights except when they're against obviously-impossible odds (like when she was met with a giant machine gun aimed at her after the close fight with Luminous).
Was I supposed to run from that Hydra fight? I barely made it. I wasn't confident in my ability to flee while it attacked me underwater, but it did feel like a fight I was supposed to run from because it was such an overleveled encounter. I fought through it anyway because Posey had previously expressed wanting to fight a hydra some day (because they make very good zombies) earlier in the story, and there was her chance.
She did crawl away from that last monster fight:
>"...B-B-BUCK...!" she gags, as she finally sees the limit to her strength.
...
>You can’t refer to roleplay, because she’s always roleplayed as if she’s way overleveled.
Okay... See, I think I have fundamentally misunderstood your approach to milestone leveling. I thought my path to leveling up would be acting glorious and confident so that my character would come off as "deserving" to level up, like 1v1ing a Paladin nemesis or howling in glory on top of the corpse of a dead hydra, but I see that my roleplay was counterproductive and annoying to boot and instead of leveling led to my character apparently needing to be nerfed. I see that now

>>194226
>Where do I even begin with this one?
I'm just going to say that that was not my proudest moment in roleplay. I was trying to be silly by casually talking about her apocalypse-cultist ambitions while also trying to illustrate the perspective of an old necromancer with vampiric who sees life as a transitive thing to be consumed and enjoyed in the brief period while it lasted,as well as a means of expressing her utter confidence in the eventual victory of the Dread League, but that didn't go well. I thought it would make me look edgy and cool, it it was just sausage. I was sausage. I am sorry. I'll try not to do it again.
If it's any consolation, I have in the years since revised Posey's nihilistic outlook on life.

>>194227
>They failed. Customs agents discovered them, and sent in mercenaries to kill them, and now their strongest magic practitioners are dead.
See, I interpretted that as a list of potential NPC contacts and powerful mage that Posey should aspire to out-do and eventually raise from the dead. The gnolls in particular seemed like potential allies who would sooner lash out and join the Armageddon than go quietly into the night, which is why I brought back their head priest as a ghoul and instructed him to do the same to his rival.
>Instead it was “poor little pony must be tired after that.” Just “too long, didn’t read.”
That was rude of me. I'm sorry.
>What Posey did not care to find out was that she was infected with a fungus of a monstrous nature.
Well, it's only been like 20 hours since Posey encountered the fungus, but I assure you that if she discovers mold growing on her she would be very, very, very alarmed.
>This happened when I stayed up until 3 AM local time in my hotel room, simultaneously doing a session for Amber that went worse than the session for Posey, and knowing that I had a flight back to the United States leaving in just four hours.
GM, even though I do act impatient to roleplay, please don't be pressured to stay up late if you don't want to. My roleplay capacity withers when I have to post late at night anyway, and it results in me making posts that come off as standoffish and rude because I made them past midnight after my normal-pills wear off.

All I can say is that I will try harder. Almost everything in this post really just refers to instances of me being a bad player. Sometimes I suck. Oftentimes even. I have no excuse.

>>194231
You don't really have to do that. It's not necessary.

>>194232
>What exactly do you mean by "succeed" in this case?
Uh... be a good and memorable character, I guess? Mostly what I mean is that I want you to keep playing and stay around.

> I made a villain character
I think that this right here is the source of all of the problems. This. You wanted a villain as your player character, and so you looked to archetypes of mage-villains. The trouble, I bet, is that you looked to antagonist characters as a model and then tried to replicate worked well for antagonist characters. The problem is that Posey is a protagonist. The rules for protagonist characters - even villain protagonists - are not the same as for antagonists. A villain protagonist may be a villain, but they are still a protagonist. As I said, the main difference is that a protagonist must suffer, while an antagonist need not. Most antagonists cannot simply be placed in the role of a protagonist without major modifications to their characters and experiences.

I would recommend looking at examples of villain protagonists in media. Walter White from Breaking Bad, Tony Soprano from The Sopranos, Arthur Fleck from the 2019 The Joker, Yuri Orlov from Lord of War. I'll repeat that the key is that the villain protagonist character must visibly suffer under adversity.

>Now, I'm getting the sense that the mass combat military campaign isn't going to happen
Well it's a neat idea, but when I suggested mass combat it was an unpopular idea... so maybe not.

>Thing about being a redeemed villain though is that it requires prior villainy, and so far the only truly evil things Posey has done is sacrifice a couple diamond dogs for power.
I promise you, everyone knows that you are going for Posey as a villain character

>What is success to you? I am willing to go along with whatever plot developments you have planned for my character.
I mean, mostly I just want Posey to... how do I say... exist within the world as a reactive part of it? I want her to pretend like she feels like she's in danger when I place her in danger, I want her to interact with NPCs, and I want her to notice things in her environment. Basically I want her to play the game. The problem I've had is that I feel like she doesn't respond to things around her, and it is most obvious and problematic with regards to danger.

Should it be scaled up to mass combat? I don't know. Maybe? I think I'd kind of like to keep things smaller scale but at the same time there is an appeal to leading a small ary of undead in a raid against a base, or something like that. Its not a terrible idea. The main thing is that Posey is going to be a protagonist character in the lead up to that, and she needs to emote to show that she is experiencing adversity during the lead up. A villain needs to be threatening. A protagonist, even a villain protagonist, needs to be threatened. These are not the same thing.

I'll admit that I'm not super into the whole acts of villainy thing. It would be very easy to, for example just do unethical things with the prisoners taken in quests like the current one, like take the Kostroma survivors and sell them into slavery in Nova Griffonia, or keep the zebra mare as a sex slave. I wouldn't really have a problem with that. But I don't think that that is what you have in mind when you speak of villainy. Just going out and terrorizing the general civilian population of the Equestrian population centers just because lol evil doesn't really appeal to me.
>so far the only truly evil things Posey has done is sacrifice a couple diamond dogs for power.
You literally just said "all she did was kidnap and murder a few people in an occult sacrifice." What does a person have to do to qualify as "evil" in your mind? I don't have an analogy for this. It is a race to the bottom. I will admit that while reading the Epstein files I have thought "oh, this would be a good idea for a villain. But at the same time it's kind of... draining and unfun. I get the definite impression that you/Posey would read the Epstein files the same way that Patrick Bateman looks at Paul Allen's business card, like it's a challenge that you have to outdo in a race to the bottom. Edge is one thing. A race to the bottom just does not appeal to me. I do not want to see that, I do not care to see that. I stopped watching Tamers videos, and it is mostly because his videos wanted to just kill random people in the world and present it like it's some kind of joke. Just killing random people is horrible. I hate it. It isn't funny. I don't want to watch a show about an extremely unlikeable, asshole serial killer. It is unpleasant to me. It isn't for me. I liked his videos better when they were about fart jokes.

Personally I'd recommend acting as the token evil character of the party, wherein Posey is sufficiently """good""" or allied to the party such that the party tolerates her presence, but she's very obviously not actually completely reformed and is certifiably evil. See my gal Trixie. I absolutely love her, and while she isn't liked enough to be allowed to be a part of the main cast, she would be the token evil character if they let her. This is also more or less what I did with my older Blue Skies character, and to some degree, what I still do with characters like Neela or Mala. But at the same time, my standard of what constitutes "evil" is very different from yours, so maybe that isn't satisfying.

>Seems more like a location-based slice-of-life daily world-building project that isn't really story-driven so much as it focuses on describing whatever scene it falls on.
Uh... I'm working on that

>>194239
>I think that this right here is the source of all of the problems.
Well, I guess that's what I will focus on.
To be a bit more specific, what I was actually going for was a false hero who would play the role of a hero and only later be revealed to be a villain, but that's just nitpicking.
>antagonist
I don't mean to be an antagonist at all. An antagonist, by definition, opposes the protagonist(s). I don't mean to get in the way of anyone else in the party. Quite the contrary. I was hoping the whole party would be interested in squashing bugs and liberating Equestria from Changelings. Idk though.
> I want her to pretend like she feels like she's in danger when I place her in danger, I want her to interact with NPCs, and I want her to notice things in her environment.
I can work on that.
>Just going out and terrorizing the general civilian population of the Equestrian population centers just because lol evil doesn't really appeal to me.
Posey would know better than to do that in Baltimare, or any other civilized area. You don't shit where you eat. Posey is trying to build a reputation and bide her powers, so she can't just be killing ponies at random. If that's what she wanted, she would have done it already.
Would be interested in trying it in Changeling-occupied territory or no-mare's-land though.
>What does a person have to do to qualify as "evil" in your mind?
Not a lot.
I'm not contesting that Posey is evil, just that her actual villainous acts, or actions in general, have been few so far. Then again, she has only been in the universe for less than a week.
>I get the definite impression that you/Posey would read the Epstein files the same way that Patrick Bateman looks at Paul Allen's business card, like it's a challenge that you have to outdo in a race to the bottom.
Nah. I originally wrote a version of her that way, but edge for the sake of edge is just boring. I also thought I mentioned that Posey isn't fond of vampires, because they remind her of where she was born, which isn't that different from Epstein Island.
What Posey wants is to conquer. Not just edge for the sake of edge, but evil for a higher purpose. To be the fail of fate. A mighty conqueror.
>Personally I'd recommend acting as the token evil character of the party, wherein Posey is sufficiently """good""" or allied to the party such that the party tolerates her presence, but she's very obviously not actually completely reformed and is certifiably evil.
That's kind of what I have been going for so far, actually.
>Uh... I'm working on that
It's not really necessarily a bad thing, but if you want us as players to be engaged with your plot you might want to make our roles in the plot and expectations thereof a bit more clear.

Gonna throw in my two cents addressing the two of you simultaneously, because I think both of you make good points. So many, in fact, that it's impractical for me to quote what I like and say "I agree" so just assume I do agree with just about everything not mentioned.
>See in Lord of the Rings the Fellowship of the Ring (movie)
Let me reference the book for something that Tolkien did poorly. He made very few missteps in his storytelling so this one stood out to me. Also, spoilers, but if you're a GM you should have read the books by now. There's a certain enemy/steed that keeps being referred throughout Fellowship as a dire, unearthly threat that's in pursuit of the fellowship. We don't see it directly in that book (which is a smart move) but along the river Legolas shoots it with a bow from the sound it made and it goes down in one hit. While it would have messed up Tolkien's plot progression for a standard encounter to take place, this diminished the apparent threat in the eyes of the audience.
>“Players should win 70% of the time. But it should feel like they are going to win 40% of the time.”
Also keep in mind that Gygax was considered especially brutal in his quest design. A 30% loss rate sounds generous, but consider it can take only one loss for a player character to be killed, or a total party wipe if retreat isn't possible. This quest we're on is hard by the standards of the campaign, but we still have something like a 90% win rate even if you count Kira's and Cavaliere's disastrous sortie.
>This is about the general emotions and tone and atmosphere. I’m trying to create a sense of danger. I’m trying to, sometimes, create a spooky environment. Or unease. Or of a heroic fight.
>Maybe I'm replying too soon, but didn't we just have the discussion about how this game was supposed to subvert the "heroic" expectation of d&d where characters decide the fate of the world? Maybe I am reading too much into it.
These are solid points and therein lies the problem with writing a campaign according to "vibes." It works well until there is a misunderstanding. GM Pony wants a campaign where the PCs aren't terribly significant on a global scale, yet has given a quest where the outcome of what the PCs do is just that. There is an intrinsic conflict to what the intent is here. I know that's ancillary to creating an environment of fear and urgency, but other misunderstandings have arisen because of that too. I've kept pushing for us to get quest objectives done, to the neglect of certain details and worldbuilding, because of these "vibes," but that creates a perception of wasted effort on GM Pony's part.
In fact, it seems like every major delay we've had in the game is because of these misunderstandings some of which are my fault, because even though we all want to move forward one of us gets sad and loses motivation to keep writing. I get it, it happens, but this has been such a common occurrence that it has seriously stymied progress for months at a time. If all this time and effort spent writing OOC had gone into the actual quest itself, we could already be a quarter of the way through the Kostroma at least. Still, it's better to square away this conflict if it's at all possible so we don't keep coming back to this. I hate having to write in this thread if it's not about future plans.
>Posey hasn't even been in Equestria for three days. The past 2.5 years irl have been 2.5 days in character. It's a bit early for drastic changes to her core beliefs, isn't it?
>I could do a 180 on her character, but it would feel a bit forced.
That's a problem too, the difference between in-game and real time. We've spent so much time at the figurative table that it feels like we should have more progress and character development, but it makes no sense from a narrative standpoint. I was initially against time skips but that would be the only way to resolve this issue.
>GM, in what scenario is it appropriate for Posey to run away from an encounter you wrote?
This is a common problem in DnD. How does the GM make it clear that an encounter is meant to be fought or to be fled, without outright telling the players as such? In video games it's a little easier because game mechanics can do that job for you (in OFF, the Batter also explicitly tells you that running from Enoch is the only option), but in tabletop it's more obtuse. You can make the enemy ridiculously powerful, but if we're dealing with unknowns like the Fellow Traveler's summons that's less apparent. Posey was given some encounters she was meant to flee from, but that wasn't apparent and she won by the necrotic skin of her teeth.
>Well it's a neat idea, but when I suggested mass combat it was an unpopular idea... so maybe not.
It's just not something our characters are written for. I don't mind being left out if you go forward with it.
>Patrick Bateman
"American Psycho" is one of the best books with a villain protagonist ever written. Fun fact, I pitched the idea of a PC who would be a serial killer in the same vein, but GM pony quickly shot that one down.
>This is also more or less what I did with my older Blue Skies character, and to some degree, what I still do with characters like Neela or Mala.
They also are not totally evil but have skewed moral standards to favor an end, with that end not being the destruction of all life. Neela's different, but is just a lovable rogue slut.
>Would be interested in trying it in Changeling-occupied territory or no-mare's-land though.
GM pony mentioned the world having changed and this is a factor. These powerful nation-states are in a tense stand-off and neither is in favor of a border flare-up which would very quickly be brought to the attention of either side's leadership. It's more akin to the Cold War than WW2. Neither side wanted to start an overt war so they stuck to covert missions and proxy conflicts.

>>194241
>Also keep in mind that Gygax was considered especially brutal in his quest design. A 30% loss rate sounds generous, but consider it can take only one loss for a player character to be killed, or a total party wipe if retreat isn't possible. This quest we're on is hard by the standards of the campaign, but we still have something like a 90% win rate even if you count Kira's and Cavaliere's disastrous sortie.
It was also for a conpletely different version of the game, where there would be twenty players, and one "referee" for every four players, and each player was playing three characters, and each character had fifty henchmen. Proto D&D was very much a mass combat military campaign style game where characters got deleted left and right.
It was also before d&d games had linear story progression or standardized leveling processes. The creation of 3.5e is what led to the four-person party standard.
>I know that's ancillary to creating an environment of fear and urgency, but other misunderstandings have arisen because of that too. I've kept pushing for us to get quest objectives done, to the neglect of certain details and worldbuilding, because of these "vibes," but that creates a perception of wasted effort on GM Pony's part.
For me, quest objectives getting done is important just for the feeling of having accomplished something.
>If all this time and effort spent writing OOC had gone into the actual quest itself, we could already be a quarter of the way through the Kostroma at least.
This.
Tbh, I kind of regret making the OOCthread sometimes. It feels like ever since then we've spent more time talking about the game than actually playing it.
>That's a problem too, the difference between in-game and real time. We've spent so much time at the figurative table that it feels like we should have more progress and character development, but it makes no sense from a narrative standpoint.
I've said it before that drawn-out pacing really complicates immersion. It's difficult to develop character when your character has been in the country for less than a week. Strong-willed characters don't have existential crisises or moral epiphanies after only a few days travel.
Tbh, when all of this is said and done, we need to figure out a way to fix the pacing in these quests if we want to be able to keep doing them. I really want to do more quests like this, so I think it's important to try to figure this out so we can keep adventuring together. It shouldn't have to take this long. There must be some solution to this.
Less than half a year ago I started one of my own campaigns, and I'm three and a half chapters through it already; my PCs leveled up six times. I don't mean to throw stones, PbP games always take longer, but I'm trying to put it in perspective when we're talking about just a single adventuring day (about 8 hours in universe) in twice as much time irl.
The unannounced weeks-long hiatuses don't really help either, tbh. I shouldn't complain, but it would be nice to know when/if the game is actually active. Just telling us "sit and wait for a few weeks" would make it better, so I'm not constantly refreshing /vx/ for updates.
>I was initially against time skips but that would be the only way to resolve this issue.
I'm going to want to take a few months of downtime after this quest. I have to blockbust a property, defraud a realtor, get a grant from the university, move into a new lair, pay back my patron, open a shop, start a business, enroll my son in school, etc.
I think everypony else could use some downtime too. With no overarching plot to keep us busy, there's nothing to stop us from grinding downtime activities for several months while we can.
>It's just not something our characters are written for.
I specifically wrote my character with mass combat in mind.
>These powerful nation-states are in a tense stand-off and neither is in favor of a border flare-up which would very quickly be brought to the attention of either side's leadership. It's more akin to the Cold War than WW2. Neither side wanted to start an overt war so they stuck to covert missions and proxy conflicts.
Posey doesn't work for any of the factions involved, so unless she were to intentionally stage false flag operations, there's little reason it would affect the relationships between nations.
And even if it did... Aren't we the protagonists? Changing the world through our actions and choices is what protagonists do.

>didn't we just have the discussion about how this game was supposed to subvert the "heroic" expectation of d&d
Merriam Webster's dictionary defines a "protagonist" as
"(1): the principal character in a literary work (such as a drama or story)
(2): the leading actor or principal character in a television show, movie, book, etc. b: an active participant in an event"
It adds this fascinating detail
>Struggle, or conflict, is central to drama. The protagonist or hero of a play, novel, or film is involved in a struggle of some kind, either against someone or something else or even against his or her own emotions. So the hero is the "first struggler", which is the literal meaning of the Greek word prōtagōnistēs. A character who opposes the hero is the antagonist, from a Greek verb that means literally "to struggle against".
Maybe the stakes are world-ending high-fantasy or maybe they are not. Either way, the character that a story focuses on must suffer some kind of adversity. Changing the scale or the themes of the story does not change that fact.

>I also usually describe in detail how her body falls apart and the flesh melts off her bones as she gets to low HP,
This is true. I just wish she'd emote more

>How would you like me to roleplay her engaging with the danger? Do you want me to make her act afraid? Or do you want me to make her hesitate before major decisions instead of acting confident?
Well, I tried to give an exhaustive list of possible ways to show adversity. If I really had to give a recommendation, it would be to start with facial expression. Horses have ears that mostly stand up, but will flop back in moments of fear or annoyance. Pony characters have massive eyes and lips that can convey quite a bit of emotion, then you have the ability to lower the head, move the tail, paw at the ground - there is quite a lot you can do with non-verbal expressions.

She can also use her words. Think of Emile at the end of Halo Reach saying "I am ready. How about you?" after he's been run through by an energy sword and before he stabs the elite in the neck. He knows he will die, but he's making sure that he's taking the elite with him. This statement does not convey fear. It does convey an acknowledgement of the danger. Or consider Gimli's remarks before and during the battle before the battle before the Black Gates in The Return of the King. He says "Small chance of success, certainty of death? What are we waiting for?" and at the Black Gates, "I never thought I'd die fighting side by side with an Elf." Both of these statements likewise do not convey fear but they do convey to the audience that Gimli is in danger.

I know that when I've had an especially stressful day (or just morning) at work, I'll go into my car and just sit in silence, or listen to music.

>tried to illustrate part of that with the seal skull scene
I recall that it was weird, but not much else. I think I was still upset about the tiara at that time, but I am not sure.

>Posey isn't supposed to be a living character but instead an undead character, which is what I usually take in mind when roleplaying her interactions with fear and pain. She's also a masochist, which is it's own discussion, but the point being that on top of her torturous upbringing pain is a welcome experience because it reminds her of what it was life to feel alive.
Just do something that makes her seem like she's doing something dangerous and she knows that she is doing something dangerous

>>194234
>I could do a 180 on her character, but it would feel a bit forced.
The "humbled" was in reference to example characters. I just want Posey to seem like she's experiencing danger or adversity.

>Realistically, who does she have to confide in?
I do not know

>GM, in what scenario is it appropriate for Posey to run away from an encounter you wrote?
The only one where I really wanted her to move away was the machine gun. I had thought earlier today of writing up everything around the killing of Luminous, but that is many words.

The reason I mentioned running away was because I wanted to attempt to be logically exhaustive with possible ways of showing that a character perceives that the adversity against them is great. I thought of Cavaliere avoiding fights as one such way. But I did say weeks ago that Cavaliere avoiding every fight was somewhat frustrating, so I can't really have it both ways.

I don't know and I don't really care. I just want something to suggest that Posey knows that she is on a battlefield and not in a library. I just want interactivity with the environment.

>She lost a battle and was close to losing a couple more
I know

>misunderstood levelling
Just look at it this way. When your organization is spending more money than it is taking in, and another person in the organization says "Hey, let's spend more money" are you going to agree to that? No, you decrease spending and increase income until the problem is solved, then you look at increasing spending. Likewise, Posey has in many cases just kind of seemed to not take the world very seriously, and that was a problem to me. So I wanted to solve the problem, and it seemed it was because the character was strong enough that she didn't really need to take the world seriously.

>The gnolls in particular seemed like potential allies who would sooner lash out and join the Armageddon than go quietly into the night
The Kaftar stand out as being the faction Posey most connects with. I was thinking of making a post but decided against it

>>194243
>I just wish she'd emote more
Well, Posey has the "Paralyzed Face" taint symptom, and I was roleplaying to honor that, which coincidentally matched the aesthetic of the expressionless stoic goth bitch I was feeling horny for when I wrote her. I could fix it to fit your tastes better and engage with the content more proactively though.
Just fyi, it's also not always easy for me to roleplay my character's emotions or expressions through this medium. It's hard enough for me to roleplay irl, let alone through text. It's just a shortcoming of mind. I can try though.
>start with facial expression. Horses have ears that mostly stand up, but will flop back in moments of fear or annoyance. Pony characters have massive eyes and lips that can convey quite a bit of emotion, then you have the ability to lower the head, move the tail, paw at the ground - there is quite a lot you can do with non-verbal expressions.
Got it. This part is fun, and I have been working on it.
>She can also use her words.
Not as easy for me, but I will pay more attention to how I phrase her dialogue.
>Take threats seriously.
Understood.
>>194244
pets the pony
This is a fixable problem, GM. Let's figure out how to progress the story together and figure out the pacing. Pacing is a thing I struggle with too, even when I'm just reading off of a pre-written module. It's no reason to feel ashamed, but maybe we could discuss how we could work things out in a productive manner.
Or we could shelf that for now and just focus on continuing the game as is and keeping things moving. I am really interested in seeing what awaits aboard the Kostroma.

>>194238
I want to, though. I really do like Posey, how weird she is and how out of place she seems, since she very much is. I like her backstory, her colt, her overly ambitious plans for Equestria. I like many of her eccentricities and quirks of how she interacts with other characters. Honestly the only issues I've had with her have been a couple of...interesting RP decisions (vomiting several quarts of blood was actually kinda funny and silly in a Posey sort of way, it was just not the best action at that current moment) and her current cover story for her powers, but even then I still don't really mind because I've been thinking of ideas relating to it for interactions between Posey and Silver. I don't know what you think of the idea, but I think there could be a good dynamic between the two that could lead to a genuine friendship between them. I feel like they're similar in a lot of ways. They both have similar ambitions for the whole of Equestria (Silver would deeply desire to see Equestria liberated from Hegemony control), they both are a bit out of place in this world and in this time (Silver less so than Posey, but he still based much of his early life off of old stories of heroes and adventurers and continues to use a greatsword in an age of rifles and machine guns), and both went through pretty intense training as foals (again, Silver definitely didn't go through anything like what Posey did with her descriptions of honestly torturous training, but he was drilled pretty relentlessly by his father as a young colt). In addition, while Posey is a dark character with a bit of light inside her that could be nurtured, Silver is a light character with a darkness inside him that could be exposed. I could see them getting along, with it starting slow with the truth of Posey's true origins being told to him and gradually growing stronger as they talk and start to influence each other, with either Posey being pulled into the light or Silver being pulled into the dark.

Also I do want to say that I personally wouldn't mind the mass combat.