# Tales around the Campfire - OOC Discussion



## Sparky (Aug 4, 2004)

This thread is dedicated to light-hearted one-shots and short, pithy vignettes to divert the associated participants.

*Tale-spinners in the limelight:
*Hella na Haerad, played by doghead
Mustafah-al-Rasheed, played by DrZombie
Slate Vaslet, played by Ferrix
Elial, played by Wizwrm

*Tale-spinners in the wings:*
... played by Gnomeworks
... played by Otakkun
Stumbin Reck - The Badger of Arrowyn, Bearer of Sorrow, Thorn of Mishael, played by Sparky

*Retired tale-spinners:


**Theme, Adventures, Story and Characters:
*The heroes in these tales are travelling with a massive caravan of nomad traders headed to the fabulous Kingdom of the Vale. Each adventure is a story told around the campfire some night along the way.

Each adventure must have a Location, a Conflict/Villain, a Goal, a Twist and a Title. The first player (first by virtue of posting) kicks things off with...

Player 1: *There we were*, deep in the sewers under Varan... (Location)
Player 2: *Surrounded by* the minions of The Dire Count Suvaris von Kelpsucker... (Conflict and Villain)
Player 3: *As we* sought to rescue the Tavern Keeper's blind pet basilisk. (Goal)
Player 4: *Little did we know* that the basilisk wasn't so blind anymore. (Twist) 
Player X: *This is the *Tale of the Keeper, Count Kelpsucker and the Calcified Cloaca. (Title)

The bolded words will always be used, but the first Player is not bound to describe the location. That Player could very well have described the goal, "*There we were*, rescuing the Tavern Keeper's blind pet basilisk," and left the other bits to the other Players.

Any player who comes up with an alliterative title (all the major words start with the same sound - if not the same letter) that encompasses the adventure's elements will get an XP reward.

The DM is very much in-cahoots-with-and-at-the-mercy-of the Players. In a fun way. Like a low pressure, light-hearted round of Iron DM.

*Character Generation:
*For simplicity let's stick with standard SRD races and classes and a 30 point buy.

While I don't intend to be the only DM here, I'd like to lay the ground rule that Players make and post their own rolls and that we keep meta-discussion of character stats to a minimum. I've really enjoyed that in other games and I think it will help maintain a certain degree of mystery.

And away we go!


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## doghead (Aug 5, 2004)

Hey Sparky

I'm up for it. Need to reread the setup again. My first thought was a sprite (or another Tiny creature) illusionist. But I'll go with a small Gnome or Hafling - and a big dog. Humm.

How about a 30 point buy to keep in LEW compatible - just in case.


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## GnomeWorks (Aug 5, 2004)

Hmm... sounds fun. 

Bit of a bummer that it's SRD-only, as the last few concepts I've come up with that I like use other stuff (the one I'm itching to try is a gunslinger-type - if you've read the Dark Tower series by Stephen King, you know what I'm getting at )... but I'm sure I can come up with something interesting. 

I like doghead's idea of keeping it LEW-compatible, as well.  We should stick with 30.


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## doghead (Aug 5, 2004)

-- D Notice --​


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## Sparky (Aug 6, 2004)

If you read nothing else, read the portion in this color further down the post...

As far as spells, doghead, starting out I gravitate to the pragmatic spells that best support my image of what a sorceror is - a spontaneous caster whose powers reveal themselves out of need or stress - like _Resistance, Light, Mending... Shield, Feather Fall. _I won't say these are the best choices, just that I like them. 

And, yeah, sorry about the SRD only. It's not necessarily easy to come up with fresh ideas you're excited about with just the SRD, but I just don't have jack for books outside the core rulebooks and it's easier for logistics and communication to keep it nice and draconian. There are trade-offs, but I have heaps of faith in the general devilishness of players to come up with interesting PCs.

These PCs and adventures weren't meant to be ported over to LEW, so if you guys just _want_ a 30 point buy, that's fine by me. Changed shortly.

******************************

Some more thoughts on the campaign...

My vision is that the PCs as the story opens are a famous Band of Adventurers and know more about themselves, their world and each other than we do.

I think it's really cool for the PCs to reveal themselves to everyone (including the DMs and their own players) organically over time, in adventures, through their actions and behavior in an ongoing campaign. Much more immersive, in my opinion.


Another facet of this is the way we will come up with what adventures - the Player-generated-Adventure-seeds. You will be laying out the skeleton of the adventures to me and I will be revealing the world to you all, and myself, as we go. I ask your patience as I do this (I haven't logged all that many hours behind the GM screen) and your flexibility, if you feed me an NPC that didn't exist before and you imagined a devious, crochety old human man and I portray a noble, buxom halfling lass... well. We'll roll with things as they come, hey? 

So - really - I want all of us to take this step together and embrace not knowing just what will come next or even, really, what has gone before. To that end I would like us - from here out not to discuss our characters, traits, abilities, skills, classes, races, gear, gender and trust that all will be revealed as the game unfolds. What is known (sorta) is that the PCs survived their adventures enough to 'tell the tale' and if one of them doesn't survive... well. We'll uh... roll with... yeah. We'll work it out.


This method also allows me to be a lazy bum and only craft bits of the world as needed.  Really, I love world-building and my 'campaigns' largely stall out in the world-building phase because love cultural, geographical and historical detail and I bog down. So, it's time for me to come out of my note-book and just run some daggum games! 

If everything works as planned (ha!), this should also allow us - or anyone - to share DMery of this campaign - because we'll all share similar levels of information.

And hopefully it will somewhat seamlessly allow PCs to come and go (and players too, though not necessarily). I'm not an especially experienced DM, so we'll see how this all works.

Oh yeah, and this...
Whee!


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## GnomeWorks (Aug 6, 2004)

I think I might be interested in playing my halfling monk...

She started out under a vow of silence, but - since she's helping to tell the tales - she had to be brought out of it somehow, right?  Provides an interesting hook... and I loved playing her.


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## Ferrix (Aug 6, 2004)

just seeing this thread every once in a while, it seems like what you guys are set up to do looks like a great deal of fun and a very interesting collaborative effort.  I like, if you ever want another person, I'd be happy to hop in, I'll be watching the playing the game to see the stories unfold.


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## WizWrm (Aug 6, 2004)

I'll be out of town, like I mentioned in the other thread, until a week from this Sunday - sorry to be leaving right before we get this started.


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## doghead (Aug 6, 2004)

Cool. I actually like it that way. I've removed the post full of crunchy bits above.

Once we have a character made up, would you like a physical description posted?


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## doghead (Aug 6, 2004)

Hella na Haerad is done. I'll post up a description if thats wanted.

Personally, I'm happy keeping it to the core SRD classes. 

The penny finally dropped on the setup. Do you want that posted in the ic thread? It would seem like the most logical place to do so, so ...


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## Sparky (Aug 6, 2004)

*Otukkun* - Please read the campaign setup above and craft a character (but don't tell us about it!). If you haven't responded in the week and a half before WizWrm gets back I'll put you on deck in front of me and put Ferrix in.

*Gnomeworks* - shhh!  Your character's a secret!

*Ferrix* - You're on deck. If Otakkun hasn't chimed in when WizWrm rejoins us, I'll put Otukkun in the wings and you in the limelight.

*WizWrm* - no problem. If we get really get rolling we can slip you in on the fly - since that's kinda what this campaign is all about. If you get this before you go out of town - post a name so we can make oblique reference to your character IC. 

*doghead* - cool! Glad you're into the idea. Physical descriptions are great - and I guess gender is okay. Hella!

For everyone, since these descriptions are all we know about eachother's characters - really dig in there. This will be fun!

EDIT: Just got back from the IC thread - nice start doghead! Very nicely kicked off! Yay, indeed.

EDIT2: Nixing that race is okay to mention...


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## WizWrm (Aug 7, 2004)

I'll go with 'Elial' for a name.


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## Sparky (Aug 9, 2004)

Exercising DMly discretion and jumping the gun a bit on subbing Ferrix in before my stated deadline.

Ferrix, GW, your audience is on the edge of their seats...


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## GnomeWorks (Aug 10, 2004)

Since I revealed a little too much about that earlier character, I'll go with something else...


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## Ferrix (Aug 10, 2004)

i'm in, give me a day and you'll have some storytelling going on.


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## Sparky (Aug 10, 2004)

Terrific GW - kinda sorry to see how we got a monk to break a vow of silence, but definitely interested to see what you cook up. Post here and IC when you've sorted out your concept.

Remember that the concept is a dual one - the character as a storied hero after untold (literally) trials and tribulations (and multiclassings?), and the character as a green, unseasoned hopeful.

I added my PC/NPC Stumbin Reck and a fancy title to list of players in the wings. Feel free to make any such titles for your character bearing in mind that they may hold all, some or none of that title at the beginning of their adventuring lives.

I'm expanding the party to Five, though the adventure seed will remain in four parts (not counting the title).


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## Sparky (Aug 10, 2004)

Hey Ferrix - crosspost! - Welcome aboard!


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## Ferrix (Aug 10, 2004)

posted in the IC thread, characters name is Slate Vaslet.


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## Sparky (Aug 11, 2004)

Nice Ferrix!

Slate is forbidding! It will be interesting to see what he's like at first level. Hella too.


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## doghead (Aug 11, 2004)

Nice work Ferrix, I particularly liked the "a spiked chain of some dark burnt metal hung about his shoulders" image.

Off to see if what springs to mind for the next installment.


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## DrZombie (Aug 11, 2004)

This is very cool. If you're up for alternates lemme know.


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## Ferrix (Aug 11, 2004)

doghead said:
			
		

> Nice work Ferrix, I particularly liked the "a spiked chain of some dark burnt metal hung about his shoulders" image.
> 
> Off to see if what springs to mind for the next installment.




I really liked the way this game was set up, it makes it more of story telling than here's my stats roll the dice type games (which are fun) but a change is really nice.  Plus it gives me an incentive to write creatively since I didn't get into one of the classes I wanted this semester 

On with the show.


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## GnomeWorks (Aug 12, 2004)

Hrm...

Well, I think I'm going to pass on the first adventure, everybody.  I've got an idea for a character, but it feels too similar to one I'm playing right now.  I think this is a really neat idea, but I'm not able to come up with what feels like a decent and unique character concept...

I might be able to come up with something later, though.  But for now, I'll pass.


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## Sparky (Aug 13, 2004)

Awww... Rats. I'll put you in as an alternate GW.

DrZombie - you're up.


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## DrZombie (Aug 13, 2004)

kewl,


i'll post asap.


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## Sparky (Aug 13, 2004)

A link for this page to the IC thread.

EDIT: Oh, and GW, when you come up with a name, let us know.


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## doghead (Aug 16, 2004)

I jumped back in.   

I played a bit fast and loose with the writing guidelines.   

I called the DM's character an ornery old troll.


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## Sparky (Aug 16, 2004)

doghead said:
			
		

> I called the DM's character an ornery old troll.



Noted.

Good work - now folks - you're all welcome to come up with a title for this first adventure - with an XP award for alliteration (multiple submissions accepted)! 

Don't forget Elial will be joining us - WizWrm's character  - about whom we know nothing.

I'll be getting things together for the adventure!


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## Sparky (Aug 17, 2004)

Hey hey - WizWrm has joined us in the IC thread! And given us a title to work with as well -* The Undead's Umbra* - 100 XP to Elial! Only two alliterating (alliterating?) words, but one of them Latin! 

The same to any of the rest of you who come up with something. 

Ok, now that everyone's here I'll finish cobbling together this our first adventure - check back soon!


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## Ferrix (Aug 17, 2004)

latin eh? should i be busting out the ancient greek?


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## WizWrm (Aug 17, 2004)

It's borrowed into English, too. 100 XP, eh? I haven't even written his character sheet yet.


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## Sparky (Aug 17, 2004)

Bust away, Ferrix!  

Though I guess, as WizWrm says, it's borrowed into English. But what isn't?


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## DrZombie (Aug 17, 2004)

Sparky, you want us to email you the character or something? Lvl 1 30 pt buy SRD if i'm not mistaken.


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## Sparky (Aug 17, 2004)

No you're not mistaken and nope, emailing the character is not necessary, DrZombie. Is there anything you wanted to run by me or were you just offering it up for record? If the latter, feed me crunchy bits as needed. I like crunchy bits in a bowl with whole milk. 

Hey, there's something - if the need arrises how do you all want to handle secret questions/information? PMs? Emails?


Oh yeah, forgot to say - nice entrances to DrZombie and WizWrm. Very nice indeed.


Thanks for the great kick-off guys - this is going to be fun.


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## DrZombie (Aug 18, 2004)

What we did at the "game of trust" was use windings or such. Makes it easy and doesn't require mails. Since you're the only one actually paying for this BBS you're the only one who can private message, so that won't work. (yes, I know, I'm a cheapo basterd, but hey, I've got a family to support  )

Like this, I mean, you really gotta make an effort to cheat by reading it, and personally I don&#146;t care if anyone reads secrets meant only for me, it&#146;s a bloody game for chrissakes.


Btw, y'all can read this message


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## Ferrix (Aug 18, 2004)

that only works if your browser wants to even bother trying to deal with fonts it doesn't have loaded... thus what you posted in wingdings was completely legible to me.  ;-)


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## Sparky (Aug 19, 2004)

Duh...

There's also the Spoiler Tags.

Message below:


Spoiler



If you can read this, go post in the IC forum.


 

Tee hee. 

IC


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## Sparky (Aug 19, 2004)

Secret knowledge, information or communication is more about immersion than about secrets. It's much cooler to me if you come to rely on the elf with keen senses, or the trap savvy rogue, based on IC interactions than filtering meta-knowledge.

I usually can't help myself and read blacked out stuff anyway...


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## Ferrix (Aug 19, 2004)

i like e-mail


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## DrZombie (Aug 19, 2004)

I don't mind e-mail, you can use the link through en-world, for those to lasy to bother : 
maartenkuppers at hotmail

cheers


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## doghead (Aug 19, 2004)

The Windings came up as Palatino or some such for me.

Spoiler tags work for me. I use them in my game sometimes. I'm not that fussed if other players read them, so long as they remember that their character doesn't have the same knowledge that they do. 

Email is fine as well, but I don't check mine much - once a week or so. Perhaps an ooc note to go check? doghead206__at__netscape__dot__net.


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## Ferrix (Aug 20, 2004)

Sparky... e-mail?  I've got a tidbit of a secret that needs to be worked out at some point.


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## DrZombie (Aug 20, 2004)

Oooh whatissit whatissit tellme tellme Iwonttellnoone cmon cmon itssafewithme aaahpleastell.


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## DrZombie (Aug 20, 2004)

Sparky:
Sparky I kinda switched rapier for scimitar as a weapon proficiency. Crunchwise it's the same weapon except that I can't use finesse with a scimitar :\ . Anyway, an arab with a rapier looks silly. I hope that's fine with you.


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## Ferrix (Aug 20, 2004)

zombie, put that in spoiler tags ;-) it hurts my head


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## DrZombie (Aug 20, 2004)

LOL i'd put it in spoiler tags if I knew how


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## Sparky (Aug 20, 2004)

*DrZombie:* Highlight your text and hit the 'Hide Text' button. It will wrap the highlighted section in SPOILER tags. Spoiler tags look like this - swap the {} for [].

{spoiler}Secret message here.{/spoiler}

It will black the message out and make it readable only when highlighted... not unlike the black text, but better. You can also just type the tags.

And... (highlight the following)



Spoiler



Rapier is fine. It doesn't have to be a swirly, foppish, I-wear-stockings-and-satin-spats rapier, it can be all cool and arabian looking.


 
*Ferrix*(and anyone else)*:* sparky at crucibleworlds dot com.


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## DrZombie (Aug 20, 2004)

Sparky : 


Spoiler



You mean all arabian looking so that it's allmost but not quite like a scimitar? I'll try to find a pic of what I mean later tonight


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## Sparky (Aug 20, 2004)

*DrZombie:*


Spoiler



Precisely.


 
 Maybe the 'no-meta' rule is a bit excessive... Hey, for secret stuff... what about IM... who all uses (or doesn't use) what? I use Yahoo IM.


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## Ferrix (Aug 21, 2004)

i've got yahoo IM and AIM
lindyferrix is my name
drop me a line and let's game

---alright enough of that


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## doghead (Aug 21, 2004)

Sparky said:
			
		

> *DrZombie:*
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> ...




Yahoo Messanger as well. doghead206


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## DrZombie (Aug 21, 2004)

don't use it, but you can allways mail me.


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## DrZombie (Aug 31, 2004)

Vacation notice : I'll be doing some swimmingpool and mountainclimbing action in southern france with the missus and the kid from sep 4-11.

Cya


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## Sparky (Aug 31, 2004)

That's cool. Have fun and make sure yer boy isn't on belay.

Also - regarding your comment in IC:


			
				Mustafah said:
			
		

> "I've got some undead arse to kick."



 Boy, are you going to be surprised. 


I can't help but feel I've confused you guys in a bit with this first scene, the upshot is - I meant it to be chaos... but if anyone has any questions feel free to ask/email/Yahoo. And let me know where you want your answer, here, in the IC thread, in an email, whatever.


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## doghead (Sep 18, 2004)

I'm going to be gone from the 20th til the 4th of next month.

Feel free to ghost *er, ... which game is this? must be about the 6th one of these I've written. oh yeah, its at the top of the page* Hella. Just charge scream and swing. That oughta do the trick.

have fun.

the head of the dog


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## Sparky (Sep 30, 2004)

Thanks for the heads up, doghead. 

And nice flashback (forward?) DZ.


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## DrZombie (Oct 1, 2004)

Thanks. Just experimenting with the format. It's kinda funny, the in-game out-game comments. If I were an arty-farty geek I'd go all wild talking about how this medium allows for extra-narrative character development of the main characters without interrupting the flow of the story or similar nonsense  .


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## doghead (Oct 4, 2004)

Yeah, its nice. 

It also assumes that you live. Not doing so might pose some awkward continuity problems.


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## Sparky (Oct 14, 2004)

Ahhh... but what is LIFE really? 


I'm wondering if Ferrix and WizWrm are still around?


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## Ferrix (Oct 15, 2004)

Yeah, still around... it's been a busy week or more lately... trying to get a bunch of stuff in order (including a game I will be running).  Will hopefully post tomorrow.


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## WizWrm (Oct 16, 2004)

Sorry, I've been really busy and haven't had much time for my PbP games. I'll go update now.


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## Sparky (Nov 2, 2004)

Hey folks - some of you will probably already have seen that I'm going to be in this fall's Ceramic DM contest. We'll get this combat going, but if I do well in the contest, it will probably take an even longer while.


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## doghead (Nov 28, 2004)

A Heads Up.

It looks like I'm going to be away from the keyboard for about a week. At this point looks like it will be from the 9th to the 14th of December. During this time I suspect that my internet access will be minimal.

On a different, but related note, I was wondering who is still here. I have accumulated a rather large stable of characters and feel I should trim it down somewhat. Not really wanting to drop any of them, or the games in question, I'm looking at the slower games. Its the inactive characters that sadden me the most. 

I've been keen to play in a game run by Sparky, and I really like the potential of the whole 'tale being told' approach. I know Sparky has here hands rather full with the Ceramic DM contest at the moment, but what is everyone else thinking at this point?

the head of the dog.


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## DrZombie (Nov 28, 2004)

still interested


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## Sparky (Nov 30, 2004)

*Pulling the plug*

Hey folks - you might have seen this coming. I'm gonna go ahead and stop this game. I appreciate the time, attention and creativity that you've given here and I still really like the concept, but I can't prioritize enough attention to properly (or even half-heartedly) run a PbP game. 

I really appreciate your contributions and will keep a sad little candle burning for all of your orphaned stories.

[repeated in the IC thread]


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## Sparky (Nov 30, 2004)

Hey didn't see that you all had posted here, sorry to have posted without reading.

doghead, the very reason you're looking to trim up your games is why I'm dropping this one. 

I hope to run something in the future. Who knows when. Maybe something less ambitious at LEW. Thanks for all of the interest shown - it was cool while it lasted.

EDIT: The Ceramic DM is over for me, out in round 2. I rather liked my second round story and the first round well, it's not easy to write anything under the conditions of CDM, but this was definitely weak. My opponent bailed, which gave me a free pass to round 2 where I was bumped out by a good opponent who I hope to see crush all opposition so that my loss is justified.


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## doghead (Dec 1, 2004)

Hey Sparky

I think that it right decision if you don't feel you can really give it the attention you feel it needs. Better to pull the plug than leave a game to limp along on life support.

As I am trying to trim things back a bit, this does make things a bit easier for me.

After seeing your characters in action, I would like the chance to be in a game of yours. Starting a LEW game when we finish Rivenblight's Castaways would be perfect timing. 

I think its gutsy just to give the Ceramic DM contest a go.

thotd.


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## DrZombie (Dec 1, 2004)

Bugger. Saw it coming. Too bad. Aaah well, I'll live.


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