Fantasy A Nation In Havoc OOC (2.0)

[Caffeine Freak]

The bandit wasn’t supposed to be alone. There was a plan damnit, there wouldn’t be any running to camp. Of course the goon wouldn’t wander far. From his boss! The bandit leader, his loyal massive Orc, and one human lacky we’re going to be there too. Damnit I had a plan.

I probably should’ve told you the plan I suppose. I need to remember this isn’t a game of D&D, it’s multiple people spread across the globe, all doing separate things, with absolutely no plan other than do stuff. Why did I agree to Co-DM this? There’s nothing to DM! I have almost no control here! I can’t interject and say “as you walk in the direction specified by the boy, you see a Half Orc, a Giant Orc and a human standing over the wriggling body of a human” over posts! Damnit!

Damnit this is going to be tedious. I can feel it already.

I've GM'd tons of roleplays. Completely given up trying to get players to stick to events, since everyone has their own ideas on what's going on. Just keeping it ambiguous and rolling with whatever dudes post is pretty much the only way to solve it.

Playing GM is always pretty darn tedious, but sometimes roleplays you want to exist just never happen if you don't create them.

 

[Caffeine Freak]

MagicPenguin TheCountryWarrior

Seeing as you guys have some sort of plan for how this event is going to turn out, could you kindly iron out a couple of things so we don't end up with another 'no lol that makes no sense' moment?

• Are these bandits 'killable' or do you have a specific plan for one of / all of them? They seem pretty fleshed out for characters that get mushed in a couple of posts.

• Are there any more bandit dudes lurking around or is it just these guys?

• What is the plan for the guys trying to find Rae?

I apologize if I'm missing something obvious by asking this. The only opportunities I get to post on weekdays is rather late and my vision's way too blurred to scan for details.

 

[MagicPenguin]

-Whether or not you wish to kill them or save them to appear later is up to you, I think. I can't think of any reason to keep them alive unless you want to do something with them later or it's uncharacteristic for someone's character to kill their opponent. I could be wrong about this if TCW has longer term plans for them; I'm sure he will correct me here if that's the case.

-The only bandits in the forest near you guys are the ones who left their camp to deal with the wolves, minus the elven huntress. By the time our group is in the area, the wolves should be dealt with and now they're looking for their escaped prisoner. You have the boss, his giant orc bodyguard, and two other grunts, so four. Some of them may be injured or dead as a result of fighting a pack of wolves, but that's up to whoever ends up writing them approaching your group. The mage is knocked out and the huntress is fighting with Raimi. No other bandits that I'm aware of.

-What's the plan for our group, you mean? Well, initially the plan was for me to post the first half of my post, then the kid to go back to camp and grab the group by telling them Raimi was in trouble, then have them run out into the forest to try and help her. While they were out, they were supposed to encounter the bandits who were fighting the wolves, namely the boss, orc, and henchmen. It was assumed, though this wasn't set in stone or anything, that because of its size, the giant orc would make a good opponent for Decius while the boss would fight Armandio. Samuel could either deal with the remaining henchmen or help one or the other character with their fights. Once your fights were underway, I would post the next part of mine with Raimi fighting the huntress. Once all the fights were taken care of, the group could reunite with Raimi. If this hadn't gotten stale yet, we could have the mage pop back up at the camp looking for the prisoner so she could scuffle with Nia, Jenny, Ambrose, and the sorcerer kid back at the camp while the others were away.

I could just go ahead and post mine now, but I'm not sure if TCW wanted to do the bandits finding your group first. I think I'm going to just go ahead and throw it up here soon just to keep things moving.

 

[TheCountryWarrior]

Sorry, I’ve been busy. Penguin is right on all counts, kill the bandits if you want. That’s how the stories of the world work. Maybe this is how their stories end, maybe not. That’s up to you. You hold their fictional lives in your fictional hands. But they won’t go down without a good fight.

Penguin, go ahead with your post at your convenience. While the events of your post happen, the Attack Crew can deal with the bandits.

 

[Duke of Doge]

I feel dead inside

 

[The_Omega_Effect]

I feel dead inside

I would feel dead inside too if I was ever alive.

 

[Duke of Doge]

I really want to post. But I just can't find the right words. L it's annoying me greatly.

 

[MagicPenguin]

What do you want to post about?

 

[Duke of Doge]

At this point I'd just be responding to what's going on but my post would be short and lack very much depth. And I'm tired of posting like that.

 

[MagicPenguin]

If you want depth, try giving a good description of the new kid who's just joined them. He's been a prisoner for who-knows-how-long held by bandits who probably didn't feed him much, bathe him, or allow him any kind of comfort. For all we know, they spent their time beating him on a regular basis just for kicks. Try thinking about how a person would look and act under those circumstances and then just put down whatever comes to your mind on paper. Those can be Nia's first impressions of the newcomer.

You can also think about Jenny and what she's doing. We know from Randomfella's last post that she doesn't trust the kid and she's wary of him; he wrote that she was glaring at him with the thought that humans are apt to betray one another given the chance. So Nia is in between a new kid fresh from imprisonment at the hands of bandits who may or may not actually be a bad guy (for all any of us know) and Jenny, who is, perhaps rightly, openly distrustful of him. How do you think it would feel to be in between one person who looks like the kid probably does and another person who is probably giving him dirty looks and eyeing her crossbow in case he tries anything? Think about it and again, just put down whatever comes to mind about a hypothetical situation like that on paper. Those can be Nia's thoughts about the atmosphere she's currently in.

What would Nia, a positive person by nature who trusts easily and dislikes inter-group conflict (as I understand her), do in the face of two people like that? Whatever the answer to that is, THAT can be what actions Nia takes in your post. You don't really have to get flowery, just think about what words could describe the situation and the people around Nia and try working with your gut reaction about that. Like, how would YOU feel and act in situations like these? How does Nia?

Those are some possibilities to think about if you want to add depth or be a bit more descriptive, but alternatively, if you just want to stick to a short post that moves the plot forward, the kid is still a pretty big question mark. We know nothing about him, not even his name, so it makes sense for Nia to be curious. Maybe she just asks him his name and you and TCW, the person who's writing the kid for now, can spend some back and forth posts having a conversation that tells us more about him and his situation?

 

[Caffeine Freak]

At this point I'd just be responding to what's going on but my post would be short and lack very much depth. And I'm tired of posting like that.

TBR making a post longer when you can sum up a character interaction in a few sentences is just filling your post with air. It's pretty difficult to be deep if nothing's really going on.

Like legit my most recent post could've just been "Samuel stole some dead dude's purse then followed the random guy he met lol" and the interaction would still exactly the same, I just made it look a lil prettier by extending it.

So like, dc;dr: dw it's fine

 

[TheCountryWarrior]

Damnit I was so close...

 

[TheCountryWarrior]

Well fuck the hard work. Time to fucking improv.

 

[TheCountryWarrior]

Man, fuck trying to have Encounters. I’m sticking to world building. You can all jack around for all I care.

 

[MagicPenguin]

Deep breaths, buddy. It's going to be alright.

 

[MagicPenguin]

That was a really good fight scene, The_Omega_Effect . Well done.

 

[Randomfella]

TBR making a post longer when you can sum up a character interaction in a few sentences is just filling your post with air. It's pretty difficult to be deep if nothing's really going on.

Like legit my most recent post could've just been "Samuel stole some dead dude's purse then followed the random guy he met lol" and the interaction would still exactly the same, I just made it look a lil prettier by extending it.

So like, dc;dr: dw it's fine

Yeah, there's a balance to be met to optimize a post, but in general just post however much you are comfortable with. Adding a few descriptive terms can help to fill in a post tho.

 

[Duke of Doge]

But not posting longer like all of you have makes me feel REALLY shit...

 

[MagicPenguin]

You don't really have to feel bad. As long as you get the job of moving the plot along done and you're happy with what you're writing, then you don't have to be worried about what anyone else is doing or what they think. You just do you, man.

That said, if you want to challenge yourself and perhaps try to grow a bit as a writer, maybe try little things at a time. Like a tad more detailed description than what you're used to doing, or more focus on Nia's thoughts and internal monologues. The more you do stuff like that, the easier it becomes and the more comfortable you'll start to feel with trying something just a little bit more intricate than what you did the last time. If you just push yourself a little further outside your comfort zone each time, you can get better at it just a little bit at a time.

Like I said, though, that's only if you're interested in trying to challenge yourself to do a bit more than you're used to. If you're satisfied with what you're doing, you have no need to hold yourself to anyone's standards but your own. You can, and should, do whatever you need to do to have fun, no more and no less, because this is a game and at the end of the day what matters is whether or not you're enjoying it, not the length or depth of your or anyone else's posts. We're here to have fun, not write Shakespeare.

 

[TheCountryWarrior]

Hopefully mine isn’t too terrible.

 

[MagicPenguin]

I hope augmentedspartan is still with us. Ambrose has a lot of work to do with all these injuries accumulating.

 

[Duke of Doge]

I'll post later tonight or tomorrow.
Busy atm

 

[Caffeine Freak]

But not posting longer like all of you have makes me feel REALLY shit...

Don't skress about the word count. I came to this site to get away from such shenanigans that tarnish the joy of writing.

 

[Caffeine Freak]

Legit just realised:

Armandio unsheathed his blades and stared the Half-Breed down.

Samuel was already pillar-spined, staring down the grunts

The Orc’s eyes shut as the particles made their way into his eyes. He rubbed at his eyes with one hand and swung his axe around with the other. Armandio plunged his dagger into the bandits knee, and stabbed his sword through his stomach. The Half Orc collapsed as his knee gave out, and Armandio wrapped his arm around the Half Orc, dagger against his neck.

In an instant, Samuel drove the vial into the ground, crushing his eyelids shut. The bandit, unfortunately, did not have the same intuition, and had his vision engulfed by a scorching white void.

Rolling under the arc of the blinded grunt's flailing sword, Samuel came up behind his target and buried his second syringe right into the back of their neck

Uh... plagiarism not intended I promise.

 

[MagicPenguin]

Legit just realised:
Uh... plagiarism not intended I promise.

Funnily enough, both TCW's and Omega's post also have their characters dodging their opponent's head-on charge by sidestepping and then cutting into them right afterward. Great minds think alike, I suppose.