Campaign Adjustments - Group Discussion

From the threads and document

Points not directly contained in the original document will be called out via italics.

Long Term Character and Story Planning

1. Players can have long term plans or not, but knowing what they are (or if they don't have any) would help everyone (and particularly the DM). There's no obligation to have a character arc.
2. Players can stop an existing storyline if it's not serving the group, and work with the DM/other players to wind it down if it's not a fun pursuit.
3. Similarly, players can take an interest in a new storyline and work with the DM/other players to make it something that gets some focus.
4. We have many plot threads that don't clearly connect together, and as a result some things feel like they're gathering dust while other items are being progressed. All progress seems excessively slow, possibly because it's too much at once.
5. Narrowing focus and/or linking existing plotlines would go a long way towards feeling like more things are moving forward.

Encounters vs RP vs Faffing About

1. Attempts by the DM to keep focus on the fun bits help, but are not fully sufficient to keep things moving.
2. Instituting some "next session [character] is planning to [action]" as part of feedback/wrap-up will help lessen the need for wide ranging preparation effort.
3. Planning in-town activities ahead of time (with input to the DM) would be helpful and not too burdensome.

Watson vs Doyle: How Meta Is Too Meta?

1. Generally folks are looking for more concrete details than have heretofore been provided.
2. Some of that comes down to world knowledge, which needs to be properly documented and made available to players.
3. When it comes to spells and combat, a bit more meta might be closer to the experience folks are looking for.
4. Overall, more description of what’s going on might address a lot of the concern here, rather than moving more towards Doyle.

Combat: Difficulty, Complexity, Frequency

1. The general thrust is toward combat that's more challenging from a "non-damage goals, environmental threats, and protecting noncombatants" perspective. Mechanically interesting instead of just a big numbers race. While straight up big nasty monsters can/will come up, they're not the main source of challenge.
2. "Legendary" creatures (as in, creatures with legendary actions or legendary resistances) have not yet been used in game. As DM I am committed to advising the players that this seal has been broken before the PCs encounter such a creature.
3. Eddy points out that running away or avoiding combat should always be a potential option, and it's often not considered as thoroughly as it might be.
4. As DM, I am not trying to blindside the group with an encounter beyond their ability to properly handle. This does not, however, mean I will water down an encounter that is properly telegraphed as being well beyond the group's capabilities.
5. The sweet spot for combat is usually 4-8 rounds. Longer combats for climatic battles could be good, but shouldn't be the norm. "Mopping up" a battle that's effectively won is not usually interesting, so it can be fast-forwarded or streamlined to keep things from taking too long (potentially via player/DM negotiation, possibly via DM hand-wave behind the screen).

Mystery vs Exposition

1. Giving the general outline of the state of the world with some low-resolution detail would be much appreciated.
2. Keeping the investigations and mystery elements to a smaller and/or more direct set of questions would be preferable.
3. Per Meg, more Scooby-Doo and less Agatha Christie. As DM that's less possible for pace and tone reasons, but she's leaning a bit more episodic rather than long-running lines. Heather's fine with long lines but they need to be a little closer to party scope.
4. Much of this ties together in a way that the group doesn't yet know of. Hopefully once the various pictures tie together it's more clear that the stories are linked in a way that makes sense.

Rolls vs Outcomes

1. There’s a concerted effort towards reducing the number of rolls that happen so things move faster.
2. There’s also a push towards more information provided by the DM about what the roll may result it.
3. A pair of flow charts have been put together to reflect the general “how a roll is handled” process:
   • Knowledge skills
   • Non-Knowledge skills
4. Skill challenges and group rolls can be leveraged as well, but the cost in preparation for this is often high and knowing what the players are likely to attempt is required, so it isn’t always an option.

Information and Lore Delivery

1. The various mechanisms in place to deliver lore work, but could be streamlined and/or centralized so there’s less bookkeeping.
2. Differentiating between levels of certainty would help greatly. Info can be:
   1. Certain - so sure that finding out it was incorrect would require significant worldview adjustment.
   2. Reasonably sure - this makes sense, but may not have the full backing of there being no other possible explanation.
   3. Surmise/Supposition - one step better than a hunch. It fits the available data but doesn’t really stand out for being solidly backed.
3. Making some lore/info directly accessible without the need of a roll would streamline (this is worked into the Knowledge skills flowchart).
4. Players can make a case for easier DCs or advantage on a roll if their character background/makeup would align with the roll. (This should be handled in such a way that not every roll becomes a negotiation.)

Additional Discussion

Leaders and leadership

Matt raised the point that a designated party leader is probably too burdensome, but that when folks want to take a hand in organizing something so it goes faster that's to be encouraged on an ad hoc basis. There was general assent from the players and DM.

Leveling speed

James mentioned his desire to level more frequently than once a year, ideally to get to level 10 or greater. Several folks chimed in that they're not chomping at the bit for high level play, however. John mentioned much of this has to do with pacing - it's easier to make something challenging if the party isn't at really high level. Matt proposed that perhaps this has to do with being planned too far ahead, but John indicated that beyond a relatively short window directly in front of the party, most of the grand arc is not planned to the level of detail that would cause issues with this. The proposed streamlining should actually contribute to faster leveling, if it's properly applied.
Some of the speed problem could come down to signalling whether folks are expecting to roleplay scenes with NPCs. As DM John tends to prepare NPCs for potential roleplay but if players aren't looking for that in a given interaction we could absolutely move to summarizing instead of speaking in character. There's also some concern about skipping things without knowing if they're going to be fun.

Player long-term plans for characters

Matt

Saf wants security through power, generally in the form of cash but as the group is powerful in other ways she's happy to be around. She's likely to set up a power base for herself at some point in some form or fashion, perhaps even to the point of becoming a deity. Definitely live in comfort and luxury for as long as she can. On the line between the Mandalorian and Doc Holliday from Tombstone.

Eddy

I mainly wanted to play someone who wouldn't know their purpose or what's going on. A character that leans significantly on the GM. I'm enjoying, more than anything with Harb, that he wants to know more but not knowing is his means of coping. So he's in a bit of a wishy-washy position. Hijinks with the group are good, too. He has a lot of concern both for himself and anyone else around him after some of the recent revelations, so he's trying to find a way to uncover things at a more steady rate if that's possible.

Heather

I created Sunny with Ted "Theodore" Logan in mind - I wanted to play a himbo good boy. His whole deal is that he's been ferried around from one main lifestyle to another (on the road with parents, to the farm with his uncle, to the circus) and he's wanting to experience the world on his terms. This is to gather the most novel experiences possible so he can write the best music possible and start his band with Moon. He hit a bit of a wrinkle over the course of the story when Nock got kidnapped, since that was his first friend out on his own.

James

Maya's home culture is very isolationist, but he's discovering that the world is huge and potentially threatening, so if they don't open up and branch out it's likely to go bad for them. Maya's eventual goal will be (ideally) a peaceful change of power, but it may take some bloodshed. He's going to recruit the party to change the hearts and minds of his people for the purpose of opening Hearthstone to the world at large. Maya wants to be a hero to his people and bring them into the larger world so they're better prepared for external threats.

Megan

Leucis wants to spread the word of Selune and grow the base of followers. He also wants to restore Ironmere and maybe try to save some along the way now that he knows they might be curable.

Jeremy

Kol was built out of my tendency to play healers and tanks, so paladin fits pretty well. His motivation now (which has shifted from "scout the Sun Temple in Stonebridge" since the start of the game) is to look for holy relics of Pelor out in the world and recover them or commit them to a better purpose, protecting the innocent along the way. Pretty loose on specific details but in general along for the ride. Kolvonnin spent a long time as a caravan guard - those are established routes, and he's along for the ride to make sure everything went well. He was never really in charge of picking the destination, so you won't get a lot of that out of Kol - he has some goals (he'd love to see Sunhaven, and the sooner the better) but as we come across other things in our path that mean the betterment of the area and protection of others, he's definitely on board. As long as we're on the up and up, making the world a better place, he's in. As for lofty goals - make things safer, squash the evil, cool holy relics, and so on.

Overall

Jeremy noted that a lot of this developed through gameplay; we didn't come in with a lot of what we're after now.