Welcome

[Vardaen]

You were in jail Shurijo? I believe that you were going to be sprung from jail by a man that wanted your tallents. I'll send you a PM about it.

In general however characters are going to be rather poor, better to make you want to take a job for coins.

[Wargie]

*shrug* I arrive in Port Royal on a piece of wood and with only one shoe...so yeah...exepcting to be kinda short on cash.

[eldritchknight]

I will begin looking at the book today, V!

[Vardaen]

Alrgihty, I have three characters in hand.

Wargie - Johan Crowe a Swashbuckler
Shuijo - Franklin Swift an Archeologist (Wanderer)
Wayloss - Erik "Thet Hound" a Brawler (Barbarian)

Anyone else that wishes to play needs to get me their characters before the end of the week, I would prefer soon as I will be starting this game possibly today or tomorrow and with thread people in as we go.

[Vardaen]

I have remade the player's group for this game and added everyone. If you have trouble posting let me know right away.

[Vardaen]

MadVlat will/should be back tomorrow (Wed Oct 18th) I'm going to delay this game until his return so he gets a chance to RP in this situation.

[Vardaen]

Due to obvious lack of interest in this game...

eldritchknight already dropped.
Wayloss just PMed me wanting to drop.
Shurijo's comment about not being able to get into character.
Wargie's move to Sweden and general lack of posting.

I'm going to close down this game. I know MadVlat will be pissed at me for this, but I think its the best move. I will be able to dedicate some effort to other games. I did have some good ideas, but really, who are we kidden, no one wants to continue with this other than Kraken Jack.

Comments, complaints, appeals to keep it going....

[Wayloss]

I think a more cohesive group would help, like all ship mates already. I'm not sure, I like the character of Erik and had alot of fun with him in the solo but afterworlds his communications issues make it far to hard to RP with the others.

[Trogdor]

FWIW, after years of playing in a variety of table-top, PBEM, PBP, and convention games, I think the single most important thing to getting a game started off right is to give the characters connections to each other. They don't have to all be connected. But it helps if most of them have some history and actually want to stay together.

Probably the best example of that I ever experienced was a Justice Inc. game with five players. The five each had a different kind of link to the others. The characters were: Louisiana "Louis" Smith (the archaeologist), Senator Longfellow (senator from Louisiana), "Flash" O'Mally (newspaper photographer), the Ragin' Cajun (ex-prizefighter), and Mama Jambo (voodoo witch doctress).

Louis was the seantor's nephew, was friends with Flash since HS, was always side-by-side with the Ragin' Cajun when we got into fights, and had studied Mama Jambo's voodoo practices in his career as an archaeologist.

Senator Longfellow was Louis's uncle, employed the Ragin' Cajun as his bodyguard, had been trying to get Flash away from his nephew since the two met as kids, and thought Mama Jambo's voodoo was all claptrap.

Flash was Louis's sidekick, had a terrible rivalry with the Ragin' Cajun, thought that the senator liked him since they first met, and was scared to death of Mama Jambo.

The Ragin' Cajun was the senator's bodyguard, respected Louis's ability to fight, had a rivalry with Flash, and believed in Mama Jambo's voodoo as only a Cajun can.

In the end we spent a good long while coming up with all those links and picking characters that fit together well. All of us modified our initial character concepts at least a little bit to fit them in together. And it paid off in spades. Being able to write in a history that goes back years made the group a whole lot tighter and allowed some very awkward situations to stand.

- The senator really disliked Flash. But he knew that Louis and Flash had been buddies since they were kids, so he had to put up with him.

- Flash continually screwed up and got us into all sorts of difficult situations (as any good comic relief does). But Louis had been getting him out of scrapes for so long, that it hardly seemed like a problem anymore.

- Flash and the Ragin' Cajun had a very strong rivalry, but since Louis and the senator were traveling together, they knew they had to make nice, at least on the surface.

There was also a femme fatale, Vivian Starr, whose player, alas, had to drop the game. She was the love of Louis's life who years ago suddenly abandoned him (for good reason, but he never knew it). Once she settled her reason, she was too ashamed of what she had done to come back to him. She was now working as the senator's 'secretary,' though none of the three knew what was going on until the first game. It made for some great tension as Louis and Vivian kept their distance, the senator liked her company, but wouldn't do anything to hurt his nephew, and lots of dramatic tension arose.

All in all, we were able to have situations that would have broken apart a new group. The shared history saw us through the difficult bits, since we all now had something to lose.

It's sort of like when you have problems with your girlfriend. If you've been going out for three years, you probably try and work through the issues. But if serious trouble crops up in the first month you're dating, you're like as not going to decide discretion is the better part of valor and just let the relationship die. I mean, if it's trouble now, what cna you expect after a few years?

It's the same with RP. By building some history among the players, you automatically invest them in staying together, despite difficulties.

It also fits most genre's better. Few fantasy novels I read start with everyone meeting in a tavern. More often you have people who've known each other for a long time. Yes, some new people get added in. But you generally have a core of people with a shared background. Whgy not do the same for a game? People do it from time-to-time (playing brothers, etc.) But more often everyone makes up their character and the GM figures out how to get them together.

In any case, that's all just a long-winded way of saying that I'm a huge fan of building a group with a shared background that goes beyond just a few days or weeks. It's a bit more work, but it pays off in the end.

[Vardaen]

I agree, shared background help greatly. In most of my games I enjoy for people to have some background tided together, Mahasarpa is a nice example of some history going a long way, while Mahasarpa 2 is an example of it turning sour as various pairs of Friends just team up against the other pairs and the one guys that are alone get screwed.

I also however like to watch characters build those relationships. I don't feel like the group not having a history is the demise of this game. I attribute other factors to it, since everyone is farily congienial and for the most part have some interest in what Liberty is offering. None of the party are asses, or are evil, some are a bit scallywagish, but you are mostly pirates and swashbucklers so that's the point.

I am attempting in the game to make you all members of the same crew, with the same patron, and vested interest in her, each other, and the plot as a whole.

I attribute people's in ability to post within the time limit. When a game starts to stall due to inactive players it effects the other players that are interested or are leading the group. Perhaps the group needed some combat sooner than it was getting (my next post) to help bond you all or to care about your characters more. I find battle often helps peak interest and bond groups a bit as well.

Are we still interested in this game, or in this first combat to test things out? Or should I save myself the trouble?