[Information] End of a Chapter

[lukedk987]

Well, that is the end of the adventure, which I inherited from zerglin' with a note saying, "This wasn't really planned out, good luck!" Since it was a new player game, I did want to take the characters from 1st to 5th level, which I came close to. I did write another hook into the storyline, deciding to keep all options open, but decided to await feedback before beginning a whole new chapter in this story.

Also, since this is my first real DMing experience on PbP, critique would always be welcome, since it helps assess whether or not I would want to try this again. I can take whatever is thrown at me, so don't feel bad about pointing out what I did wrong (or right for that matter). So, without further adieu, let us begin the player feedback:

[Adorios]

I really liked the hook about the doppleganger, that was not anything like what I expected.

Mostly I think the tenor of this game involved very short posts, and while I participated, they are not really my usual forte on this site, I prefer a bit more detail. When you typed out longer posts (like the last one) they were good, and you managed to keep them from being boring. As DM you also get enough creative license to easily make decent length posts without becoming obscenely obsessive over everything (as, admittedly, I am guilty of).

Inheriting a game is difficult (I know, I'm doing it as well elsewhere on the site), but I think you have the ability to keep going as a DM if you want to. The hardest part I've found with being a DM is the need to plan, although a normal campaign-style game is easier than the ones I DM.

You were really good at throwing in hooks like the enemy surrendering instead of fighting to the death.

The only complaint that I had is that you would not always respond to the players (specifically me) when they tried to bend the NPCs around them. Specifically, when I was trying to recruit the thief, the one I eventually killed, to switch sides or to see if he was reacting at all to the presence of Alexis the doppleganger in any way, you did not respond. Now, I understand the desire to not overflow with superfluous information, but a simple "nothing happens" or "he keeps his mouth shut, his face impassive" works if you don't want to bend the character. But I do encourage you to let your PCs pull off stunts like manipulating an NPC who hates them to fight for them (which is what I was trying to do) or similar activities. If it makes them too powerful, arrange for the NPC to be eliminated by something, like a crossbow trap killing the thief before he could actually do any fighting. That would also make the player feel virtuous (because the perception is that the trap would have hit one of them otherwise, even if it did not exist before).

[lukedk987]

Excellent point, thank you for bringing it up. I think the main problem was that I had a hard enough time building a plot around what there was for the story already, I was afraid to deviate from it. However, flexibility is a great quality to any campaign, and, looking back at some of my posts, I wholeheartedly agree with you that I could have done that better.