Roleplaying chat (OG discussion)

[Jitter]

Hi guys,

firstly, I wanted to let you know I love following your discoveries inside the Vault!

Also I was wondering if you could explain to me how it works. I understand some of the descriptions the players make up when they go along. But how much comes from the gamemaster? Like today, Robin discovered information about a dramatic incident within the Vault from one of the terminals. Did you write it Songbird, or did Ragnarok provide it for you to post?

[thegreyarea]

Hi Jitter!
It's great to know that you're enjoying our adventure!
All the settings are defined by Ragnarok and adapted from the game (Fallout 4). He provided us with a (not very detailed) map of the vault, and gives additional descriptions as we move and/or we ask. All logs and info from terminals come from him, as many other things.
As an example, if I check a locker he will tell what I found. If I check a room I'll previously roll dice to know how good my perception of that space is, and add it to my character "base" value. If the sum is a high value I'll find more things.
We don't have much visual info (unless we decide to search the net for it) so a lot is each one's imagination at work.
We learn the rules as we play, and have a Discord server where we discuss things. Our posts are the final outcome of all that, written to reflect how our characters would act/think.
If you have any question just ask. I'll be happy to (try to) explain!

[Songbird]

Ragnarok is providing it and pretty much everything related to the world, like new rooms descriptions through discord. Although we read them in discord, so far we've been posting them here so the thread makes sense. The last one just happens to be in Robin's posts because she's scout-like and nosy, making her often one of the first to step into into a room. You might have noticed other characters noticing things about a room or finding loot after it's first described — that's because they got better Perception rolls or performed a more through search.

We have most autonomy over each of our characters (looks, background, reactions) and over descriptions of attacks and how successes and failures happen (eg character X missed because they weren't used to a specific gun). Critical success/failure descriptions such as Jay's unbelievable wrench throwing are courtesy of Ragnarok.

This is the first play by post I'm in that uses a forum + discord combo. Usually you keep an OOC thread for technical discussions in addition to the game thread, with confidential descriptions done through PMs. I like the combo so far, discord channels help to keep things organized. The only risk is forgetting to post the in-game info we got there. I guess the other downside is keeping it a bit more opaque for people following the game, as they didn't get to see backgrounds, sheets or character art.

(Hah, I got ninja'd by Grey)

[Ragnarok]

The 'use Discord for mechanical stuff' really arose because I didn't want to have to make a post Every Time Someone Did Something. I might have the longest time on this forum by a wide margin but I still have SOME semblance of a life, and even without that caveat the tutorial dungeon has already taken up 20+ pages last I checked.

[Jitter]

Thanks for explaining! I forgot the Discord, even though it is mentioned in the beginning of the game thread.

It is as I assumed then, and sounds really quite similar to traditional table-top playing. I used to both play and GM wayyyyyy back when (yes D&D mostly). I was a bit confused because sometimes Ragnarok posts directly here and sometimes it comes through one of you players