[OOC] Out of Character Thread

[Sir Alex]

I agree, GLM. We should split up our pairs of social charismatic types, physical combatants, and awkward contemplatives into two groups.

Also, I have a midterm this Thursday and then will be going on vacation for a week starting on the 10th of March. I'll do my best to post as often as possible, but Bulbaquil please feel free to nudge Prissela along if my absence starts slowing down the flow for everyone else. Sorry, I'm usually a very frequent poster, but these couple weeks may be the exception.

[bulbaquil]

Yeah. Narsis hasn't posted anywhere since just after midnight Thursday night/Friday morning (my time) and hasn't been online since just after midnight Saturday night/Sunday morning, but the indication from his last post is that he's busy with school. And yes, it is midterm/spring break time, so I won't blame anyone if they slow down posting.

Marik, Anders, Prissela - Birch and Bud

Thom, Granavin, Toren - I will roll d9:
1, 4, 7 - Bumbling Bull
2, 5, 8 - Shimmering Shrike
3, 6, 9 - Golden Glaive

Dice Tavern:

d9

1

[Sir Alex]

Hey bulbaquil, let me know if I'm ever taking too many liberties with the plot or environment. I'm still getting a sense of the flow of your game. I just had Prissela take her cat to the back room and then return to the front. But what if there were henchmen in the back room, or a strange clue concerning smuggled goods, etc? It probably goes without saying, but please feel free to overrule me if you ever need to.

[bulbaquil]

There's not, but if there was I would have basically rewound time to when the critical event occurred. Say there were henchmen in the back room, I would have been like "Prissela enters the back room to put Tallow out only to walk in on a top-secret meeting of Shiber's henchmen who are not very happy to see an intruder. Roll for initiative". If there was something to be seen in the back room other than what you'd expect to see back there, I would have rolled a spot check for you and, if you passed the check, pointed it out.

The main issue would be if you left the room and interacted with others but that could be worked out.

[Baxder]

BTW, Granavin changed into much plainer attire before leaving the estate, and has his flail strapped to his back. (How does one carry a flail, anyway?) I wanted to mention it in the post I just put up, but forgot to and don't want to edit a post with a roll in it.

[bulbaquil]

It's safe to edit a post with a roll in it.
1. If you don't edit the original roll, it's fine.
2. Even if you do edit the original roll, I can still see the original roll. Heck, I already responded to it. (Properly, this time.)

[Sir Alex]

Hey guys. I'll be flying out tomorrow for a week of vacation. I should be back around the 19th and will have limited internet access until then. Feel free to jostle my character along until then, to keep the game flowing if I'm just not posting. Sorry for any inconvenience.

[bulbaquil]

All right. I have no trouble DMPCing Prissela until the 19th if I want to move things along before you have a chance to post.

I'm also giving Narsis until either the 19th or the end of the first combat of the game (that would involve him), whichever comes later (probably the second of those), to return.

[Baxder]

Indeed, I was hoping on employing Toren in the next phase of Granavin's plan. But I don't think anyone wants to wait that long...

I'll be updating soon.

[bulbaquil]

Fortunately for those who are going to be away this week, I have discovered Skyrim, which might keep me less active. But it's a rental and I'm only going to have it for another couple of days, so it's not as if I will have dropped off the face of the earth.

[Stozzy]

Skyrim keeps my interest in and out... I'm tearin through Mass Effect 3, now... annnnnnd it's pretty much my whole day now. It's taken over my WoW time, which is a feat in itself.

[bulbaquil]

What Skyrim is useful for is giving me an idea of what these places are supposed to look like. And it's fun to walk about with my level-12 greatsword specialist and see what dragons I can destroy.

[Stozzy]

The only thing i dont like (and im boned cause you cant free mod Skyrim on xbox...) is the fact you have to use a free hand for spells, no casting with a shield and they like...... And how with smithing and enchanting you can overpower your character to the point of god hood... the game is already without challenge.

[bulbaquil]

My initial adventure in Skyrim and review of Skyrim (remember, rental, and I will return it tomorrow) is as follows:

 

Before delving into Skyrim, I had already played Zelda (all major-console games from Ocarina of Time on) and Final Fantasies 9, 10, and 12, Baten Kaitos, a little of Baldur's Gate II, and a tiny smattering of other RPGs, but was effectively a total newbie to the Elder Scrolls series apart from a few articles read online, most of them well after Skyrim's release. But without further ado.

It is the 12th of Heartfire aka September 201. I am Bracks the level-14 Breton Barbarian (I use a greatsword and before that a battleaxe, with mostly heavy armor. This despite the Bretons being the equivalent of "Favored Class: Wizard"). After escaping Helgen I pretty much went straight to Riverwood but not with Ralof, backtracked and explored/completed Bleak Falls Barrow (not realizing I would eventually have to do that), then went on to Whiterun and completed "Before the Storm" and "Bleak Falls Barrow" (the latter requiring me to travel approximately a total distance of twenty feet).

Killed Mirmalnir or however you spell it, joined the Companions and did a few of their earlier quests before setting out on the main quest again. Read somewhere on the Internet that Ivarstead had its own guards, which I figured meant it probably had its own jail (and somehow, by misreading the map which I hadn't quite mastered yet thought Ivarstead was High Hrothgar) and als, and I was getting really annoyed from following the long and winding path from Whiterun to Ivarstead on foot (I hadn't bought a horse yet), so I trespassed onto Sarethi Farm (which was not overly far away from Ivarstead), deliberately stole something while not sneaking, got caught, and was then transported to RIFTEN (!) Jail having never been anywhere near Riften. (I hadn't discovered the concept of "holds" yet. At this time I also had yet to discover the fast transport utility.)

After sleeping through my sentence, I found myself outside Riften Keep, explored Riften for a little while and then it was time to sleep IRL. This was all about level 7, I think. Not wanting to have to backtrack all the way to someplace I knew, I finally discovered fast travel and "teleported" back to Sarethi Farm, where I continued on to Ivarstead and took on the barrow there. I then put the main quest on hold and did a few more Companions and miscellaneous quests, which brought me up to level 11 and earned me more gold in my personal quest to afford Breezehome in Whiterun from then-still-Jarl Balgraaf (guess which side Bracks is on - or just read the next paragraph).

At about this time I finally decided it was time to take sides in the civil war. Given that I followed Ralof, I of course had the "Join the Stormcloak rebellion" quest sitting in my quest list since roughly the 17th of Last Seed, so I finally went about doing that. On my way to Windhelm, I was trying to fight off wolves (or something) but struck an innocent bystander in the process (remember, I use a greatsword and might have had zero stamina at the time), which got me a bounty, so pretty much as soon as I got to Windhelm Stables, the guards arrested me. I was still saving up for Breezehome at the time, so I elected to go to jail rather than pay the bounty.

The difference between the Riften and Windhelm jails cannot be starker. Windhelm's jail cell is roughly the size of a horse stall and you sleep on a hay pile. Riften's is bigger than my RL bedroom and comes complete with a bed, dresser, and some food - my feeling is that the Thieves' Guild has something to do with Riften's Luxury Prison Suite. The more interesting thing about this scenario was that because the Windhelm jail is inside the Palace of the Kings area, which just so happened to be where my quest objective (i.e. meet with Ulfric Stormcloak) was, and because I fast-traveled away when done there, I managed to bypass Windhelm city proper for quite a while and upon return had to fast-travel to the stables rather than the city.

But I digress further. After I did that, I took care of some various quests - finally discovered how to use the carriage because there was no way I was going to walk to Winterhold to get to the Serpent Stone. Joined the Thieves' Guild in Riften, swept away a bunch of Silver Hands for the Companions, bought Breezehome, learned "Ro," but not all necessarily in that order. When it came time to do the Battle of Whiterun I was actually kind of concerned about the status of my ownership of Breezehome, but it turns out that you still own the house even though you get de-Thaned. (In fact, I made a little visit to it. During the battle of Whiterun.)

Most recently? Learned "Dah," killed a couple more dragons, and liberated Falkreath Hold from the Imperials... and that'll probably be it for Bracks (at least Bracks I).

Overall impression: Beautiful. As I said, it really helps give a feel of what a high-fantasy town, city, etc. should look like, of what the people should look like, and even of what barrows and dungeons should look like. Several rather nice touches - NPCs actually sleep, shops actually close at night, and merchants actually don't have infinite money (though this gets annoying at times - COME ON, BELETHOR, WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO GET MONEY AGAIN? I STILL HAVE CRAPTONS OF STUFF I CAN SELL YOU). The fact that even the jails aren't cookie-cutter is also very clever.

I think the guards could have done with a bit more improvement in their situational statements. I think that, particularly after you've just gotten out of jail, they should use their sterner statements more often and their "Hi, welcome to _____. If you're looking for _____, talk to _______" less often. Now, maybe this was partly because I was a Breton and they're one of the less-discriminated-against races (though I probably should not have been able to ask Belethor "What's a Breton doing in Skyrim?", being myself a Breton... in Skyrim) - had I picked, say, Khajiit maybe I would have gotten more flak. I don't know. Breton starts with B.

Things I don't like - most of them minor:

- It's too easy to steal accidentally, especially in shops (having your cursor slightly in the wrong place turns "Talk to Shopkeeper" into "Non-Sneak Steal Wares"). There's no confirmation "Do you really want to steal?", and you can't un-steal such an item, even if you drop it immediately without leaving the room/building. This is probably my biggest beef of the game.

- For the love of Talos, Brynjolf, why must I traverse the Ratway every time you want me to talk to you?

- Fast travel can't be used within intra-city/town buildings even when there is no chance of hostility (like your own house!). If I need to go to the Jorrvaskr Living Quarters from a distance for some reason, I must fast-travel to Whiterun (one loading screen), enter Jorrvaskr (second screen), then enter the living quarters (third screen). Despite no hostiles!

- A random giant out wandering can kill a level-12ish character (admittedly a Breton, but in heavy armor) in two hits. Should random encounter giants really be more powerful than random encounter dragons?

[Baxder]

Kinda waiting to see if Numen wants to respond to the bell being rung; I feel like I've been hogging. I'll have something up tonight either way.

EDIT: OK, then. I don't feel so bad now...