#anvices

[ajani]

13th Age Plot Outline

So explaining first things around the immediate time of when the campaign ended

The Tiefling Kid situation was essentially a sort of possesed by a “sleeper agent” spirit for almost entire life, part of a plan by Peuchin the Deciever (who is a different plot point that arose from something Hunter made)

Basically the entire thing around that time period was that asshole and The Black Rose working together to lead to people that they want dead anyway to do the dangerous task of unleashing the 72 demon lords from that one book thing. The desire was to basically ramp up rampant destruction and chaos, making the people of the world more desperate in many ways. Pechuin wished to gain power and a following, taking a sort of approach similar to what happened with Kohanea and The Blade Commander, basically becoming a vessel of faith of a new god, gaining that faiths power so that Pechuin could free themself and the other 2 horror beasts from the island the Akero temple was on.

This in it of itself was an idea given to Pechuin by Flagg, basically in a context of him approaching them and giving enough info for pechuin to come to the that conclusion.

Flaggs end goal is basically a world reset, one way or another. This is what he tried to do with The Colossus, and what he succeeded to do with when the ritual went awry the first time.

The ritual going awry was actually the result of Flagg manipulating the Archangel. The Archangel, like any angels that were once in Anvices, was a planeshifted being who ended up being trapped on Anvices and wished to return to Aasidesh. At the time, she was desperate, and Flagg gave her a solution. His explanation was basically that as the ritual drew all the magic and spirits out of this world and poured it into Aasidesh, she should be able to go through as well. Turns out, that was wrong, and almost all sapient life on the planet died instead. The Archangel isolated herself in the Moon for the next... very long time, as civilization started to develop. When she saw civilization return to Anvices, she saw this as a second chance, to make good for her incredibly massive fuck up, and basically was a paragon of goodness, peace, health, all that. 

While in the moon though she did have time to develop things and make shit and all, so theres some infrastructure there, and a series of constructs that she had made (she did enter a world that had technologically ripped open the space between worlds so she had a lot of material to salvage)

Also as it should become apparent from this info, the Archangel Island was The Moon. This is why the elves were investigating the moon, and kidnapped Arianna to try and find out HOW to get to it without having to take the space travel route. The rocket system development, based on old elven weapon plans from the collossus, was an effort to reach the moon. Archie’s investigation of the moon and rockets was for the same purpose, as they found out about it as well. Kha agents eventually intercepted enough information to understand that the elves wanted to reach the moon, thoguh they didn’t know the context, but they and the humans were going to be entering the space race.

The Merfolk place where Arianna was going to be in basically was the nearest location of an enchanted closet that acted as a teleportation spell to the moon, she was trying to reach the Archangel. There are few of these transports, and one is here because of the interesting case of a merfolk priest who is a devout supporter of the Archangel and on the same level as Arianna, though his existance isnt shared to human followers because potential societal implications. 

And because I dont want to go into full detail RN bc im just a bit tired, I will leave this portion with saying that in my notes the term “SQUATCHES ARE A UNIVERSAL CONSTANT” was arch defining

Also Chobanni was slated to become the most OP antagonist and the person most likely to wipe the party even 1v6

[ajani]

@13th age ppls

Honestly after a few more cooldown weeks I might consider DMing again, but it would have to be a new setting and story because a lot of the hardness and baggage was dealing with the accumulation of story telling mistakes that I had to keep. I still would vastly prefer to be a player character but I think I might be able to handle a fresh campaign free of my mistakes and the disconnect that I have between Story Telling Desires and GMing desires.

[ajani]

Anvinces and the Curse of the GM

Hey 13th age folks, I have a big thing to say, and honestly I dont think any of you will be surprised by this given how recent things have gone.

You know those shows that are great, and then become kinda mediocre, and then end so terrribly that you wish they ended sooner to not ruin the memory??

Thats how I feel about GMing recently with 13th age. Ive loved it, the chaos of the party, the challenges of adapting, of making new fights, trying to blend new mechanics, crafting story...

But, for me at least, its hit that point of mediocrity. I don’t look forward to planning, and I often do not enjoy it. I like the story and the characters, but mechanically everything feels frustrating trying to put together. I feel my performance as a GM has been decreasing, and that its shown (see: the last 2 sessions). Im just tired. Every time I go to work on it, I try to put it off because its a chore. Its a chore that leads to a fun time for many, and it used to feel worth it, and less like a chore. Even when it first started to feel more like a chore than a fun thing, I still always felt a session was worth the planning afterwards, that it was good, and that I made people happy, and that I did well.

It doesn’t feel like that anymore though. It is a chore that I do out of momentum and obligation (sorry if this sounds guilt trippy im not trying to do that)

This, on top of the other massive problems the entire narrative, plot, and game system itself have, makes the idea of me continuing to GM seem like it would just be a disaster.

I love this story, i love these characters, and I love this setting. I want to keep it that way. The longer I go on, the more I ruin what we’ve made.

I am having to step down as GM I think. I originally planned on rushing the narrative through a blitzed 12 session plan, but honestly, at this point I dont know. I dont think I could even do that.  So moving forward, we have a few options.

1. Someone steps up, takes the mantle of GM, I give them a few story notes so that they know what things have already been set up and should be addressed, and let them have a lot of freedom with the rest of the plot, characters, and world building, and I join as a character.

2. I continue as GM, and feel shitty doing it. The quality deteriorates as expected, possibly as part of a self fulfilling prophecy and lack of self worth. I feel dead inside working, and even narrarating is more painful than fun 

3. 2 but not as melodramatic and sad and just mediocrity

4. We drop 13th age’s plot and characters all-together, perhaps We move to a new story, a new GM, possibly a new system. Setting would have to be time shifted or an AU probably, characters could be the same but if they should is a different question. Basically, start a new campaign.

5. 4, but We can make a few end game plans and narrartions, I can write up some uncharted realms esque things to describe the events that come to pass, so we can experience an ending of some form. We turn it basically into a short term collaborative writing project so we still get the satisfaction of an ending.

I am sorry, but I just... I am tired. I am discouraged. I am sad.

I also anticipate being busier next semester, as I plan on being more involved with PRISM and hopefully Transaction, as well as hopefully being in a lab or shadowing a vet. I also have a doghter now, my beautiful Nami, and she is a bit needy. I don’t know if I will even have the time to GM well, if at all.

I know this is non ideal, and that this is not so great, but I feel at the moment it is the best way to handle it. 

I really like spending time wiht all of you, and honestly im sad I haven’t been able to do it as much recently. I love all yall, and yall are great, but, I dont think I can do this.

reply if you see this, and we should make a groupchat on skype so we can have an ongoing discussion of where we want to go from here

[ajani]

13th age folks

heyo sorry to do this but I dont think there can really be a session this weekend. Tuesday-Thursday were all very bad days and im really just [Out of It], so I dont think ill be able to make a good session. If one of you wants to throw together a quick sandbox/fireside type session that uses any BS way to start making your way underwater feel free! Really sorry about this again.

[ajani]

13th age folks

So ive gotten a bit disenchanted with DMing the 13th age campaign. I fucked up shit early on IRT pacing and it STILL is haunting me and just really making things feel weird and stressful and makes DMing more overwhelming more often. 

I am not cancelling it of coz bc 1. I started this (well I mean technically I didnt lol) so im gonna finish it and 2. I still enjoy DOING it a lot of the time, just planning gets really stressful.

So, the result of this is that I might try ramping up the pace of things a bit. Theres a lot of story I want to get through, and maybe if I do that I will be able to get past the mistakes ive made and give myself less time to pull a hussie and needlessly complicate things by thinking of new ideas for plot halfway between things. 

What this means for you? Not entirely too much. The main thing I am going to TRY and do is to make combat be much more “Swingy”, glass cannon style. Keeping fights to under an hour seems like a good goal to reach for, and I feel a good way to do this is to make enemies easier to kill, but increase the threat by making them do more damage. So, don’t be entirely surprised if theres an enemy that gets close to oneshotting you sometime soon. An exception exists for a few particular battles in mind, namely any major “Boss Battles” that are WORTH over an hour, and would attempt to be interlaced with more narration and a dynamic setting. Ex. If you ended up fighting say, Big Dire Wolf, THAT would be a fight that could take longer, and would probably happen over a dynamic setting to maintain interest.

I made a horrible mistake when I started this (not the starting of it, just starting it how I did), and it really fucked everything up, and I feel like if I want this to feel right, I am going to need to ramp things up, make things have larger immediate splashes instead of having long term plans for 15 sessions down the road like I kept on doing before. Some of these were fine, like Perf Gal’s vengance that came over a year after she died. But a few other things, like Nihahn’s Amulet, details of the Civil war, the intensifying effect of the positive feedback loop of spiritual power, whatever the fuck is happening with chobanni, and the armor subquest. And now the 72 demon lords from Earthworm Jerrys Tubular Tunnels. ALL of these have been taking WAY too long to work out and the way I tried to set up the campaign simply does not work entirely the best with this. A session that I wanted to be happening around now probably wont happen for at least another month, THATS the type of pacing problems that I am running into.

tl;dr becoming disenchanted with how ive been running things, want to accelerate the story, battles will be more glass-cannon approach and most likely stay under an hour or at least try to, and also be less common, only attempt them for story important events instead of occassionally being used as buffers that end up having a story contribution in the end.

[ajani]

13th Age Peoples

Idk if this post went through so ill do it again

@autisticnarset @clothinthesand @slagethor @ i still dont remember kotas URL im sorry @malachiteosprey

I found out something that I thought was happening next week saturday is actually happening this week sunday. it starts... at 4... and you have to be there at the start. This event is hella important and hella cool so I am sorry but i’m gonna have to cancel sunday :(

For the Magic playing among you tho like hey SOI Prerelease sunday?

[ajani]

I still need to decide on the Mechanics of Devil Reefs

they are semi-migratory, but bound to specific regions. They are rare as they were a tribute system used by Gods well before the time of Kaventor’s independence, working to Gods of VERY early elves. 

The one you met last time that demanded tribute for Girem, a supposed god of manslaughter and bloodshed.

Other ones exist and have been spotted elsewhere, iuncluding places where corals would not normally grow?

[ajani]

@ 13th Age People

So I have an idea for Icon Dice.

Roll at a start of a session. 6′s mean you can use ONE die to pull off stupid BS. Other 6s and the 5′s go into a pool at the end. From that pool, you can get “tokens” to give smaller benefits and can be cashed in at any time. For example, spend one to get advantage on a roll, or to automatically save, etc etc.

Ways to get the points from the pool would be:

1. Good, Great, In character Roleplaying, or acting out good player development moments. Ex. Cassandra intercepting an attack on a citizen even though she was at low health would be very in character, a detrimental risk that was taken to stay honest to the character instead of mechanics. Kelin doing something horrible without asking the party if its a good idea that ends up making something go incredibly wrong (caveat this doesnt mean do chaos everywhere bc thatd just ruin some things)

2. Good Explanations or Outthinking the GM

Examples of this would be like that one time you guys thought of a super cool solution to a puzzle that I didnt even think of being interpreted, or when you called out the merfolk on their logic not being so hot last session (tho that would have also been a good in character moment for faye rgardless lol)

3. Creative Interaction with the setting

Example: Thinking of a good Magitech creation after finding components in Archie’s wagon, thinking of ways that how spirits mechanically work could lead to certain things

tl;dr dice go into a pool of tokens to be earned that is emptied at the end of session. Doing really cool shit in the session can let you win your tokens.

HOWEVER, that does not mean that if you dont roll 5 or 6 that you wont have incentive to act well. Each session theres a “wild card” point that can be earned by anyone, with a tie breaker giving favor to people who never had a chance to win points.