Shroud of Mist: Sidereal P.I.

[johandenerad]

If this game were to happen, how many players would it need?

In typical adventures, where a lot of what is going on might be goal driven and require a bit of combat, you probably need someone: combat focused, social focused, investigation-y and research focused, and maybe an all rounder or two. Which comes to 4-5 people.

For a game where combat and exploration wouldn't be much of an issue, and nearly all the game is investigation, do you really need more than 2? A mental focused investigator and a social focused investigator?

I ask this because typically a game is more fun and moves better if it has around 4-6 players, in my experience. Any less and you can get periods of nothing, any more is just too much.

I suppose you could tack stealthy physical investigator onto the above 2 to make 3, and that might well be enough for a campaign built around so much NPC interaction and needing to split up to cover more ground (given you won't be in danger all the time). Taking more players would probably involve splitting areas of expertise, and create a fair bit of work for the ST to make sure everyone had their niche.

It feels to me like Shroud of Mist: Sidereal P.I. would be awesome, but probably couldn't involve the lot of us. What do people think, esp. O and BR?

[bravesirrobin]

Shrug. I think this is a good point in some ways. Though I think any campaign should probably have opportunities for all aspects of a setting. I have a concept I'd like to try out, don't know how well it would work, but would be fun.

[oneiros]

Was thinking about this on the way into work and I think I've come up with an idea I'd like to try, taking a leaf from BSR's book.

JD's right in that a predominantly mystery game doesn't need more than 3 players really. But BSR has a point that a well-rounded campaign should encompass all aspects of a setting where possible.

So, what I propose is two teams of 3 either:

A) 2 teams of Sidereals based in Yu-Shan working together but separately with niche specialities and possible team crossover; or

B) 2 teams of Sidereals working at cross-purposes (e.g. Gold vs Bronze or some such) and actions of one team affects actions of other. This would require quite careful control of game information flow OOC and there would be no direct PvP unless absolutely warranted; or

C) 1 team of Sidereals in Yu-Shan and 1 team of Solars/Lunars/Terrestrials in Creation who are effecting the Creation-based plans of the Viziers and reporting back to their 'mentors'.

Which of these options sounds preferable to folk?

[johandenerad]

I'd still like to play in a heavily non-combat campaign, due to Sid combat borkedness. Obviously there'd be less Sid combat if they were confined to Yu-Shan, but still.

Option C) gets my vote, modded to all Sids, especially if we were to unravel linked mysteries in Creation and Yu-Shan. This is mainly because there could be easy exchange of PC's between Creation and Yu-Shan if we were all Sids, and also because the two types of investigation would be so different. Charms and RD's galore in Creation; a much more subtle and social approach in Yu-Shan.

[bravesirrobin]

I am certainly intrigued. I actually think option 3 sounds the most interesting in some ways, but I agree that option 1 would possibly best in order to facilitate group crossover.

I'm kinda allergic to PvP in any form, so I would vote against that option 2. Others may feel differently.

[bravesirrobin]

So having done a lot of work on character creation I am now hugely excited about this.

The character is so incredibly different that I have decided to rename him, he is no longer Navion Starlight, instead meet Icaron Dromadae.

He is now the character I originally wanted to play (I just read through the old discussion thread). He'll still be decent in combat thanks to his artifacts, but no longer borked (I hope). He has lots of dots in craft, lore and occult, and ended up taking investigation as his last favoured, so he is book learning and library research boy, and plans to start taking specialties in transport artifacts soon.

He's even taking Terrestrial Circle Sorcery. Sadly after loading up on excellencies he only had space for one spell - incantation of effective restoration seemed the most appropriate. To get him where I wanted I had to give up on essence four.

Will also mention here that Oneiros told me and JD last night that character creation would be as AIP but with 55XP instead of 37.

Bring on the S:PI game!

[Learned Hand]

Is there continuity between this and the 'one-off?'

If not, I think I may bring back Silent. I liked him; he was a sensibly built all-rounder with a leaning towards social and bureaucracy which he never got to use. I think he'd work for a PI game.

If there is, I'll just create another character.

(Also, O: thanks for doing this. Can I play?)

[oneiros]

I'm afraid this *will* have a continuity with the *ahem* one-off

And Silent's passing will be noted...

But yes, of course you can play. Thank you for asking so nicely

[bravesirrobin]

Sept 30, 2008 19:14:27 GMT oneiros said:

I'm afraid this *will* have a continuity with the *ahem* one-off

And Silent's passing will be noted...

But yes, of course you can play. Thank you for asking so nicely

I love your definitions of "one off".

I am eager to find out what happens to Navion, even whilst I take the reins of Icaron instead.

[oneiros]

Yeah, I've got to get a new dictionary

Oh and we can now move these to the proper campaign section courtesy of LH

[Blackrat]

I disagree. With all of you

I don't think "a game is more fun and moves better if it has around 4-6 players". I think groups of 5 or more lead to a lot more general faff, as well as long stretches where individual people have nothing to do - e.g. combat for non-combat characters. While Oneiros dealt with this very well in the final combat in AIP by having the non-combattants doing other stuff, I don't think it's necessarily that easy and would quite happily just have RP sessions with fewer people in general. (Some of my favourite sessions have been those with 3 PCs, or even one-on-ones - including in AIP.)

I also think Exalted is particularly vulnerable to skill-overlap, and with 5 or more people it starts to really hit home I think - and *especially* if the campaign is directed at a particular skill set, of course, as is the case here.

I also don't think "any campaign should probably have opportunities for all aspects of a setting". If I'm told (for example) that a campaign is directed at investigation, I'll build an investigatory character and will be annoyed if we spend ages doing other stuff instead. If an ST writes a campaign aimed at a specific type of activity / character that you're not interested in, you don't have to sign up

Therefore I would agree (see, I'm not just obstructive) with O's 2x3 suggestion. I think option 3 sounds really cool myself - either with Sids & non-Sids or with two Sid parties - although as JD says, investigations in Yu-Shan and Creation will be very different, and I'd quite like to experience both. I don't know how that would fit in if there were two Sid parties.

Character info to help group characters: Mist is a PI, basically - he gets his information mostly by talking to people and also by doing a little bit of spying. He has Connections, Backing etc. to help him find people to talk to (both Yu-Shan and Creation) and a set of amusing RDs to boot. He lacks library-research-type skills to any great degree, so would be well partnered with someone like BSR's character above. He's also not an expert sneak so would benefit from someone like that in the party (poss. e.g. Succour - I forget how stealthy he was).

[bravesirrobin]

I am actually enjoying the whole groups of 3 thing at the moment and I really like the idea of the 2x3 split for this campaign too. I also thing groups that are too big get bogged down easily.

I think that there is certainly a question of campaign emphasis, but if we're talking a genuine campaign, rather than say a series, then i think sooner or later there should be the opportunity, if not the necessity for most types of interaction.

My character sheet is already up so you can see how I'm designed, but yes my plan was to create someone who would complement mist well. And I agree that a good third would perhaps satisfy a stealth type roll.

[Blackrat]

Oct 1, 2008 12:16:08 GMT bravesirrobin said:

I think that there is certainly a question of campaign emphasis, but if we're talking a genuine campaign, rather than say a series, then i think sooner or later there should be the opportunity, if not the necessity for most types of interaction.

Ah yes, I see what you mean. I had been assuming that SoM:PI wasn't going to be a hugely long-running campaign - so probably would count as a series, I guess. (Just a terminology clash, I think.)

If it is going to be a really long-term campaign, I'll have to think more carefully. I'm generally trying to broaden my RP experiences, rather than just having a small number of things that I keep doing long-term.

Oneiros, perhaps you could clarify?

[bravesirrobin]

Oct 1, 2008 12:23:12 GMT Blackrat said:

Ah yes, I see what you mean. I had been assuming that SoM:PI wasn't going to be a hugely long-running campaign - so probably would count as a series, I guess. (Just a terminology clash, I think.)

If it is going to be a really long-term campaign, I'll have to think more carefully. I'm generally trying to broaden my RP experiences, rather than just having a small number of things that I keep doing long-term.

Oneiros, perhaps you could clarify?

I always assume that any game I enter is potentially a semi-infinite campaign. People can always leave a campaign, or draw it to a close if it seems appropriate.

[oneiros]

Um, not sure how much clarification I can really bring. But thank you for providing input BR - much appreciated.

I'm inclined to say at the moment it's probably going to be fairly episodic rather than integrated web-style campaign (e.g. the fifteen interwoven strands that PCT has at present *sigh*). So prob more 'extended series' than actual 'campaign'. Makes it easier to have a convenient 'stop point' if we so wish.

That said, I'd still like to build in ambitions and such from your characters but I think we might all appreciate a different slant to GO, so it's less about effecting a long-term plan and more about getting the job done in the here-and-now as things crop up.

So, Ep 2 is going to be "The Case of the Missing Moment"