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  #181  
Old Nov 30th, 2018, 02:19 PM
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Hey Giot! We'll, keep that email alert active. Maybe a miracle will happen and we can get the band back together.
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  #182  
Old Dec 1st, 2018, 01:31 AM
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”A Long One After a Long Time...”
Not a miracle, but I do owe you guys a bit of an explanation. First, I definitely deserve any animosity you have directed my way — I completely disappeared on you guys. Honestly, it has been eating me up ever since; I’ve had this game bookmarked and wince every time I see the favicon on my favorites bar.

I want to be absolutely clear: I did not leave because of any of you guys. Perhaps there is an atmosphere of insincerity behind kind words shared among cordial strangers… But I meant it when I said that this was probably the best damn group I’d ever gamed with. This game was probably the most long and enduring bit of fun I’ve had in my years of playing pen-and-paper RPGs. I loved our characters, their interactions, and the way we created complicated situations from essentially thin air. In fact, these were the many reasons I still feel guilty about dropping this game — you people were the last ones to deserve that.

The last to second-to-last post, I kind of melted down. Not the kind of “anxiety attack” or “panic” kind of meltdown, but something more akin to exhaustion. This stemmed from several factors that I was not able to handle very well at the time.

I don’t know if you guys kept tabs on the goings-on of the secret thread, but Cipher had actually returned around that time. He / She had reached out to me and was wondering about rejoining the game as a player — and I was more than happy to allow that. I even expressed interest in having him / her act as a co-DM, because I figured he / she would be able to catch me up on all of those juicy details that would have made my life a bit easier. I had even shared a Google Doc with him / her with the intent of us both contributing for your next post… I didn’t feel comfortable making one without taking any input, for fear of the ever-threatening toe-stepping. I even shared all of my plans (of which there are many) with Cipher around this time to help out. I don’t know what happened.. but weeks piled up into a month, and there was no reply from Cipher. And, I think you left around that time, Ungainly, which I took to mean I had finally run you guys away with my late posts. I have to be clear here: I don’t blame anyone — this is just the way my brain processed these things. Cipher had some problems that he / she had shared with me, and I figure they more than justified his / her absence. And I can’t blame anyone else for my own late-postings.

The trouble is — having shared my plans with Cipher — I took this to mean that my plans were just bad. They may have been. But I suppose it would have been better to let you guys decide that instead of me, heh. And that kind of thinking and paranoia had been plaguing me since I started DMing the game. Cipher left big shoes to fill, and I was constantly afraid I would run into a situation where I had not accounted for something you and he / she had previously worked out. The politics of Archaria have been a mystery to me, and remain so to this day — yet a large chunk of the story (and its notable NPCs) relied on an in-depth understanding of it. I have a cursory idea of feudalism (thanks to Crusader Kings), but it just wasn’t sufficient to help me piece together Archaria from the information that I had. I did try, though — even downloaded Cipher’s old Google Site to try and scrape away any details I could find.

So, you could say I was “running on fumes” when it came to writing the last few posts. Life didn’t help either… Not only did my health decline for a bit, but I ended up plugging holes in the schedule at work for a staffing crisis that is still giving me grief. My parents own a furniture store, and that is where I work. I couldn’t really decline the extra shifts — the place is my family’s livelihood. Even so, I certainly can’t argue that I didn’t have any time to myself.

Really, it was an amalgamate of all these factors that lead me to melt down. There are stronger people than me, but unfortunately it was me that was DMing this game. I don’t blame anyone for this but myself.

This game was truly one of the highlights of my life when I worked at Walmart. I was elated to find out that I’d been accepted to play in it — not only in such a fantastic game, with such fantastic players, but also with my friend, Crocartes. I remember constantly refreshing the thread on my phone at work, awaiting the next time the text would be bold with a new post. Cro was my roommate at the time, and I distinctly remember when we were both watching the thread and saw a post by Gadron appear. We both just shouted “Gadron!” I think that was around the time the party was having the meeting in the tent and Roland laid down the law on Vovia.

The first few months, I thought I’d be kicked from the game, because I’d missed a posting-cycle or two. The survivors were trying to keep the Dartmoore afloat with each passing cycle, clinging to the hope that the lifeboats would make it back in time to save them from hypothermia while their friends were besieged by moral-crushing sounds of creatures in the night. Mykara nearly disemboweled that Auren Tymaar bastard. I was sick at the time — it’s a chronic thing that I was discovering and was the same thing that caused my health to decline around my last post. I remember reading Avayar’s seemingly penultimate post with Aendal slipping into unconsciousness — before the one with the ice labyrinth. NomNomNom had posted the sea shanty, Leave Her Johnny!, and the moment was so goddamn powerful. Truly, a masterwork of role-playing.

I have a lot of memories of this game — they are interwoven with events in my life. Thank you all for providing me with that. And I am so sorry that I let it end the way it did.

~ Adam (A.K.A FernStepper)
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  #183  
Old Dec 1st, 2018, 10:17 AM
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Hey Fern/Adam!

You are carrying around a lot of stuff for nothing, my friend. I'm not sure what happened with Cipher, but it seems to me that a game this great just kind of collapsed under its own gravity. The pressure of keeping up the amazing quality was just too much. I always personally wondered if I killed the game with Gemmell's antagonism. I was definitely not easy on the other players or the GMs. So while we are exorcising demons, I'd like to apologize to anyone for whom I made their experience less fun.

We owe you our thanks, not ire, for trying to keep it going and you did a great job!

I'm sorry that your life got to be too much and that it mixed up with other doubts to give you grief. I left for no other reason than I had been abandoning other aspects of my life in favor of pbp and I needed some balance.

Hope you're well now and that one day we may game together again.

UF
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  #184  
Old Dec 1st, 2018, 10:52 AM
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Fern/Adam,

I 100% agree with Ungainly. Do not carry this around with you. I felt terrible for stepping away from this game for the few months that I did, and I was so happy to see that it was still going when I returned. I was not expecting anything of the sort, and that was entirely your doing. The last few posting cycles were a small miracle and I definitely cherished the entirety of this game.

I've taken a stab at GMing, so I know the pressure that comes with it. You did a phenomenal job and stepped in when the game would have come to an abrupt halt without someone like you. Even as a player, this game was both immensely fun and incredibly stressful to take part in. The quality of everyone's posting was in a league of its own compared to the rest of the site, and it was always a daunting task to try and match the quality. I submitted no less than 3 posts from this game for consideration in the PotM contest, at least one from you Fern (would have been at least two but you can only submit 1 per month), and would have gladly nominated the game for hall of fame status had it lasted long enough (minimum 1 year).

While this game is unlikely to pick up again... I have been feeling the D&D itch a bit recently. I wouldn't be opposed to starting up something new or picking up where we left off; Reza has SOO much backstory that needs exploring!

- Giot/Josh
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  #185  
Old Dec 1st, 2018, 06:51 PM
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Fern, Giot and UF (and anyone else lurking about reading),
As a new player to both RPGX and DnD, not to mention being brought in as a second wave of PCs, I found this game immensely fun and enjoyable to take part in, even if it was for a few short months. The quality of everyone's writing was/is exceptionally high. I appreciated that everyone took the time to think over the DM's post and write a thoughtful and very well structured reply that anyone else to reply to and incorporate into their own response. I was quite intimidate when I was first invited to join the game as I wasn't sure I would be able to live up to everyone else's writing. But I found a very welcoming environment from all of you here in the OCC thread.

I think the downfall of this game came down to the quality of writing we were all trying to maintain. This should fall on no one's shoulders. The depth of backstory all of our PCs had, the detail in the world Cipher and Fern were trying to build was amazing and I don't many games on here could rival it. I know we all wanted the game to continue but between everyone RL and the time we were all committing to this game I think led to the game going silent more than anything else.

To Cipher and Fern,
Thank you so much for bringing this game to life and giving us an all an avenue to express ourselves. Do not blaim yourselves for this game being unable to continue. No one thing/event/post or character was the ultimate cause.

I too have picked up the DMing bug and have started a published campaign. I finding it both a joy to lead the party through the plot, but also feel the pressure to maintain a good level of writing. It is harder than I thought but I am glad I am starting small before try to do too much more.

I would absolutely play another game with any or all of you again without hesitation.

Thank you and Happy Holidays,
Silver/Kelly
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  #186  
Old Dec 3rd, 2018, 08:18 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by UngainlyFool View Post
Who all is still around?
I'm watching you... #observant

I don't really have much to say about activity (partly because I was having a rough patch of it myself), and I realize I'm being a bit terse here, but I will say this: my flux was not because of anyone here either. Change is hard for me, and it takes time for me to reconcile it. January 2018 kind of set the tone for the year of "Things Happening" in terms of personal life (I didn't land an internship I was hoping for), so it all kind of came in one go and I had a hard time coping over the year to the point of falling further and further behind.

That said, I was going to mess with Gemmell's head some more in different ways. There is also something I have here about spoiling a certain dog with braided fur. I can even tell you what a future legend lore casting would have looked like too... and the song that inspired it.

The other thing I will say, is I still have notes just sitting here about other things that would be nifty to use here (but will probably transmute into other writing projects). A part of me is still definitely interested in things continuing (and means I have catching up to do, but I'll cross that bridge if I get to it), but regardless of the future, I greatly enjoyed how things went.

I may or may not have been on the verge of trying to hide behind Brother Casimir half the time as well. He was on The Plan(tm) (for character interaction) by the time the cabin events and birds occurred.

Regards,
-A/I

Last edited by Avayar; Dec 3rd, 2018 at 08:36 PM.
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  #187  
Old Dec 17th, 2018, 02:19 PM
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All,

I'm glad that nobody is blaming anyone for this petering out. I too would blame nobody, and it appears to me that rather than a consequence of the game's own quality, this was a consequence of a convergence of unfavorable times for all involved.

As for my own disappearance, I don't remember if I mentioned it to you guys or not,m but essentially, the day after I graduated with my bachelor's, I had to leave for 2 months. I was under the impression that the first 2 weeks would be sporadic internet, and then the last 6 weeks would be busy, but with internet access.

The first two weeks was me doing field work to continue some research, and I ended up with hotel wifi every 3-4 days. Not too bad, but I was too exhausted from returning to do anything. The last 6 weeks was field camp, where I believed I would have internet. On arrival, I was informed that the internet was not only abysmal, but was limited to 2 gb of data a month between something like 40 people. Once I returned it seemed like things had come to a stall, and I admittedly didn't have the heart to start prodding people. Additionally, all the other games I was in happened to stall out or die in that time, and I was absolutely crushed by losing all 4 of the games I was in.

I really have enjoyed this with all of you. So many great characters and great moments, and I truly second Fernstepper's assessment. We were indeed roommates and even when moving into the apartment I feel we probably neglected to help his brother (who was the pour beautiful soul who cleaned everything for us while we huddled around the computer screen refreshing for updates and news). There were many great times, and I don't think I've ever been as excited for any work of fiction I've ever encountered. While I am biased because I view Linus as the ultimate and most living character that I've ever created for anything, I also view many of your characters in the same light. So many real, visceral, and absurdly lifelike interactions went into making this such an amazing experience and I simply cannot thank you all enough for that.

I'm not sure if or how it would work, but I would certainly be interested in trying to rekindle this beautiful experiment of ours if there is a way, though that is a decision that would need to be made by all of us.

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Last edited by Crocartes; Dec 17th, 2018 at 02:24 PM.
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  #188  
Old Dec 18th, 2018, 06:01 PM
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Well, I wasn't lying when I said I had gotten the D&D itch again! I've decided to make another go at DMing. This time in my homebrew world with a dungeon concept I have been working on for well over a year. I plan on posting this officially the day after Christmas, but I'll open it up to you guys first. Any and all of you have more than proven your capabilities as phenomenal writers, storytellers, and world-builders, so I would be honored to accept any of you into the game. I would still want to see an application, of course, but just to begin the process of fleshing out your characters.

My hope for this game is to continue well past the dungeon crawl phase and evolve into a world exploration and some degree of world-building if that is what the players are interested in. I have a lot of outlined material for the world, so I'm more concerned with getting through even a fraction of it given the play-by-post format than I am of running out of material.

Merry Christmas, Happy (belated) Hanukkah, and Happy Holidays to everyone!

 
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Last edited by Giot; Dec 19th, 2018 at 09:04 PM.
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  #189  
Old Dec 18th, 2018, 07:47 PM
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Well, that's exciting, Giot. Looking forward to trying my hand at an app!
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  #190  
Old Dec 26th, 2018, 11:31 AM
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The advertisement has gone live! Ungainly will be joining up, but there is plenty of room for the rest of you if you are also interested . Otherwise, I hope you all had/are having a great holiday time.
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  #191  
Old Jan 10th, 2019, 12:55 PM
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There is still time if anyone else wants to join. We actually have a few pretty high caliber applicants, including our own UngainlyFool, but if anyone else is interested let me know! I have set the deadline as Monday so I would need to know before then.
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Last edited by Giot; Jan 10th, 2019 at 12:55 PM.
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