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A couple of announcements.

The chapter is nearly over. Horizon and Chris have ended their scenes, and the chapter will end when we hit page 30 or everyone else also end their scenes.

I also wanted to discuss time, and the passage of it. There has been some confusion about it, and I have been working on a new mechanic for it. I've tested out in the last few chapters, and it's worked out pretty well. So I think I'll keep it up, and go ahead and share it.

Normally in my games, time passes based on the party's action. They get into a 5 round battle, then five minutes pass. They travel 120 feet in a dungeon (with a movement rate of 6), then 2 minutes pass. They wait as the thief searches for traps, then 1-10 minutes pass. And so on. Time elapses when the party isn't doing anything; like when they go to bed at night or if they travel a long distance without encounters.

That didn't work for this game, because there is no 'party.' The PCs each have their own separate agendas and goals which sometimes match up, but most often do not. (The last time the whole party was actually together was the iron mines, back in chapter 2.)

This made it very hard to keep track of time. What if Player 1 travels across town three times in a row (with a movement rate of 6) while during that same time, Player 2 has a brief conversation with a friend? Did a couple of hours pass or a couple of minutes? This caused all sorts of difficulties.

So this is my new system. As you know, each thread is 30 pages and lasts one day. This wasn't something I set out to do, it just sort of happened that way over time. But nevertheless, that is how things are now. So every 2 pages, time advances 1 hour. So the thread begins at 7 AM. At page 2, it becomes 8 AM. At page 4, it becomes 9 AM. At page 6, it becomes 10 AM. And so on and so on. This means curfew is announced at page 26 and you have until page 28 to get indoors.

This system has worked pretty well so far. It keeps people from wasting time (if you spend several pages just going, "What do you think we should do?" "I dunno, what do you think we should do?" "I dunno, what do you--" then time keeps moving forward anyway). Threads shouldn't go too long any more either, since by the time we reach page 30, it's already 10 PM and most of your characters can't be out past that hour anyway.

It's not a perfect system, but I think it works well for this type of game.

Thirdly, I wanted to discuss character goals. Short-term, long-term...these sorts of personal goals can help me build story ideas for each chapter. This is what I have so far: if there are others I've missed or any of these are werong, let me know.

Haahqae
1.) Put on a show for the baaz
2.) Romance Ismene
3.) [Classified]
4.) Plan a heist on the army's treasury some time after said performance
5.) Get the baaz to reconsider paying taverns for drinks again

Kendra
1.) Nurse Sadron back to health
2.) Sell a ring from the jewelry store
3.) Free Norris

Gregeddin
1.) Get out of prison
2.) Romance Miriam

Tulbas
1.) Take and survive his Test.
2.) Kill Magnus
3.) Find his sister

Arulia
1.) Keep her family alive
2.) Get her father out of prison
3.) Start a revolution against the occupation
4.) Get Cassilda away from Una's abuse

Grubnick
1.) Start a revolution against the occupation
2.) Cultivate Tulbas' trust in Sirrion or maybe Gilean

Felran
1.) Make some coin

Ne-Chanz
1.) Make some coin

Shima
1.) Make some coin
2.) Recover his weapons
3.) Find out what happened to Gregeddin
4.) Kill some Baaz

Shima:
Recover his weapons & find out what happened to Gregeddin. Find a way to get some Baaz dead (but without being suspected in the process.)

Grubnick:
Cultivate Tulbas' trust in the Old gods, potentially help him kill Magnus (albeit all as part of the revolution thing )

That list does list most of Haahqae's main goals, but he's also got:

4) Plan a heist on the army's treasury some time after said performance

and

5) Get the baaz to reconsider paying taverns for drinks again.

That little #5 was one of the 2 things he wanted to do this evening before the curfew bell tolled after he had his dinner.
Both things required baaz to be in the inn.

It looks like his plans, once again, will have to be forestalled.

That's about it, yup.

In the long term Tulbas wants to find his sister.
In the short term survive the discussion with Magnus with Tulbas attitude

Chris1234 wrote:Find a way to get some Baaz dead (but without being suspected in the process.)

Baaz, specifically? Or soldiers in general?

TristenC wrote:Cultivate Tulbas' trust in the Old gods

The old gods in general, or Sirrion specifically?

Haahque wrote:Get the baaz to reconsider paying taverns for drinks again.

Baaz specifically? Or soldiers in general? Also, any idea how he might do that?

spyguy1503 wrote:That's about it, yup.

Okay. By the way, I think Tristen is waiting on you and chese to post.

BishGada wrote:In the long term Tulbas wants to find his sister.

Any idea how he might do that?

Draconians I think (Orc-replacements), I'm pretty sure we put something like that in his background..
But soldiers would do I guess provided they're on the same side as the draconians.

JadedDM wrote:Baaz specifically? Or soldiers in general? Also, any idea how he might do that?

Well baaz will be his target, and yes, I have a very good idea of how he plans on doing it.

I was going to do it this post if I had got the performance done (last post) and the soldiers had remained in the bar afterwards.

Now, with the soldiers gone, there's pretty much nothing that I can do in this chapter.

Chris1234 wrote:Find a way to get some Baaz dead

Chris1234 wrote:Draconians I think (Orc-replacements), I'm pretty sure we put something like that in his background

What I meant is, does he only want to kill Baaz specifically, or is he looking to kill other types of draconians (like Kapaks and Bozaks), as well. Or does he just want to kill soldiers, whether they are draconian, goblin, human or otherwise.

Because not all draconians are Baaz. Baaz are just one type of them, the type that mostly serve as foot soldiers and guards.

You seem to be using the words 'Baaz' and 'Draconian' as interchangeable, and they aren't (hence my confusion). All Baaz are draconians, but not all draconians are Baaz. Like how all Duergar are dwarves, but not all dwarves are Duergar. Or all Avariel are elves, but not all elves are Avariel.

draconian mostly principally, but they're all similarly tainted.
TBH I was targeting draconians as you'd said they replaced orcs and traditionally dwarves have it in for orcs.

Sirrion preferably, but if he isn't receptive to that Grubnick might shift to Gilean since he is the head of the neutral gods (like Sirrion) and might match what Grubnick thinks Tulbas would be gravitate towards.

You can add save Norris to Kendra's list.

Arulia's list looks pretty reasonable. She also wants to get Cassilda away from Una's abuse.

Hmmm... I'm not sure. Long ago I thought our adventure would go past Haven, but in one post I think you wrote all our adventures are bound to Haven. So it makes things difficult.
I assume if Tulbas will have to accompany Magnus somewhere or go on a mission outside Haven or if he meet other Old mages or elves when he is going to have The Test, he will try to ask around about Maelana.