Yeah, I enjoy that direction because it's very different than how I generally see Marshals and other fighterly characters developed in Stonetop and DW. That said, it's fun to be a deadeye, also. :)
Wrt the polling question: You positioned this here in discussing the results as a vote for drama or none. But it was also (and was explicitly positioned in the end of the previous episode when presenting the poll options as) a vote for more Padrig vs skipping past it as “and they hunted and Padrig shot a scrawny rabbit and they’re cool now” in order to get to more Anwen and Vahid scenes. I think that, even if we grant the bias towards drama, that decision - to keep the focus on Padrig or move the spotlight to one of the others - would remain a useful audience poll. (It’s about pacing rather than drama level, though.)
On that note, you delivered on both the drama and the more Padrig fronts with this episode, and I don’t feel like I missed anything by having to wait a week to hear back from Anwen or Vahid.
I’d also rather this carry on than flame out, so if we get one scene but the story continues, I am all for that option that keeps you excited and engaged with this project. :)
Very good point -- we did have the option to hit FF on this and go straight to Vahid and Anwen's stuff. I think, framed that way, we might have had a different poll result. In that case, I might've started a "Sun-Spear Alliance" countdown (countup?) clock and then let all the different characters fill it or empty it in their own way, which would've spread out some of the narrative weight that Pad carries here. I'll keep that in mind if a similar situation arises in the future!
>The ‘one arrow left’ description is a bit of narrative sleight-of-hand — after running the combat, I know that Pad only shoots once before marking ‘all out,’ so we can envision it as a single arrow, which is a bit more dramatic.
I was wondering how he got to specifically one arrow, mechanically.
I BIG agree with Seth's posit, and have thought about it a lot over the course of my last several games (last several years). I think it's a direct function of DnD's looming shadow of gigaxian antagonism. Part of how many of us (who I think are now the old guard?) came up was from D&D 3.x and 4e, wherein "TPK" was bandied around pretty liberally, and a neo-gigaxian perspective of "fudge some rolls, but pretend like you're out to kill the party" was the norm. The tension was trying to "outsmart the encounter", rather than to tell an interesting story.
Another tributary, I think, is the preciousness that folks have about their roleplay time, and the idea that if their character dies or fails, they'll lose something material and personal - sunk cost, sure, but also investment protection. I get it, I participate in it, but I've become pretty wildly liberal when it comes to playing my characters, so I'd be happy to nix cautious v dramatic character decisions, and focus only on which _flavor_ of drama we're hankerin' for.
I voted for Situational Awareness - I like developing Padrig along the lines of a highly savvy and increasingly cunning leader of men.
Yeah, I enjoy that direction because it's very different than how I generally see Marshals and other fighterly characters developed in Stonetop and DW. That said, it's fun to be a deadeye, also. :)
Wrt the polling question: You positioned this here in discussing the results as a vote for drama or none. But it was also (and was explicitly positioned in the end of the previous episode when presenting the poll options as) a vote for more Padrig vs skipping past it as “and they hunted and Padrig shot a scrawny rabbit and they’re cool now” in order to get to more Anwen and Vahid scenes. I think that, even if we grant the bias towards drama, that decision - to keep the focus on Padrig or move the spotlight to one of the others - would remain a useful audience poll. (It’s about pacing rather than drama level, though.)
On that note, you delivered on both the drama and the more Padrig fronts with this episode, and I don’t feel like I missed anything by having to wait a week to hear back from Anwen or Vahid.
I’d also rather this carry on than flame out, so if we get one scene but the story continues, I am all for that option that keeps you excited and engaged with this project. :)
Very good point -- we did have the option to hit FF on this and go straight to Vahid and Anwen's stuff. I think, framed that way, we might have had a different poll result. In that case, I might've started a "Sun-Spear Alliance" countdown (countup?) clock and then let all the different characters fill it or empty it in their own way, which would've spread out some of the narrative weight that Pad carries here. I'll keep that in mind if a similar situation arises in the future!
>The ‘one arrow left’ description is a bit of narrative sleight-of-hand — after running the combat, I know that Pad only shoots once before marking ‘all out,’ so we can envision it as a single arrow, which is a bit more dramatic.
I was wondering how he got to specifically one arrow, mechanically.
> “Juba!” he bellows as he scrambles to his feet. “Strike now!”
I can see the mechanics like neo saw the code of the matrix 😂
Any time Padrig raises his voice, people just do better
That was my mom's philosophy about my grades, too.
I BIG agree with Seth's posit, and have thought about it a lot over the course of my last several games (last several years). I think it's a direct function of DnD's looming shadow of gigaxian antagonism. Part of how many of us (who I think are now the old guard?) came up was from D&D 3.x and 4e, wherein "TPK" was bandied around pretty liberally, and a neo-gigaxian perspective of "fudge some rolls, but pretend like you're out to kill the party" was the norm. The tension was trying to "outsmart the encounter", rather than to tell an interesting story.
Another tributary, I think, is the preciousness that folks have about their roleplay time, and the idea that if their character dies or fails, they'll lose something material and personal - sunk cost, sure, but also investment protection. I get it, I participate in it, but I've become pretty wildly liberal when it comes to playing my characters, so I'd be happy to nix cautious v dramatic character decisions, and focus only on which _flavor_ of drama we're hankerin' for.