Patrick's Going to Run a Skype Game

[Setherick]

Just started re-listening to the AP of our session, and something occurred to me. The primary reason we didn't investigate any of the side offices or meeting areas was due to the fact that the server room - which was Ross' objective and quickly became ours - was so easily accessible. Yes, the printer room was right in front of it, but that was the only real dangerous thing to deal with.

Perhaps if the servers were hidden away in some offices - Perry Morgan's, maybe - or the room was simply moved - perhaps into the northwest corner, across the building from the secondary entrance - it would be a damn good opportunity to throw more of those crazy bastards/traps at the PCs. Seemed like a lot of cool, creepy stuff was missed simply because the servers were dead set in the middle of the building.

I noticed that as well. I'm working on that in v2 of the notes. The servers are still accessible in terms of space, but now it takes three PCs to get them operational. Also, all of the pregen characters now have specific drives so that players that have specific motives other than the orders given to the team will have to negotiate with other players to accomplish those motives.

[Mckma]

Also, all of the pregen characters now have specific drives so that players that have specific motives other than the orders given to the team will have to negotiate with other players to accomplish those motives.

I think this will make a huge difference.  I know at least personally I went with the flow because that's how my character was built.  It also definitely felt like others were kind of doing that (though I don't want to say that incorrectly).  Having some motivation that may or may not be tied to the others' could easily force more exploration and more of that inter-party paranoia that was so much fun...

On a side note, I'm so glad that everyone seemed to work well and have fun with that.  I know one of my friends had great difficulty when his character died as a result of another's actions (it was CoC).  He's grown out of that and it would be fine now, it's just that I've had a few bad experiences and I'm glad this wasn't one of them...

[Salkovich]

Also, all of the pregen characters now have specific drives so that players that have specific motives other than the orders given to the team will have to negotiate with other players to accomplish those motives.

I think this will make a huge difference.  I know at least personally I went with the flow because that's how my character was built.  It also definitely felt like others were kind of doing that (though I don't want to say that incorrectly).  Having some motivation that may or may not be tied to the others' could easily force more exploration and more of that inter-party paranoia that was so much fun...

Absolutely. I basically played my character's motivation as: "There are a lot of injured people in here, and we have a team member quickly growing irrational, so I'm going to save everyone I can and make sure my team gets out okay."

[Setherick]

Also, all of the pregen characters now have specific drives so that players that have specific motives other than the orders given to the team will have to negotiate with other players to accomplish those motives.

I think this will make a huge difference.  I know at least personally I went with the flow because that's how my character was built.  It also definitely felt like others were kind of doing that (though I don't want to say that incorrectly).  Having some motivation that may or may not be tied to the others' could easily force more exploration and more of that inter-party paranoia that was so much fun...

Absolutely. I basically played my character's motivation as: "There are a lot of injured people in here, and we have a team member quickly growing irrational, so I'm going to save everyone I can and make sure my team gets out okay."

What's interesting is if you guys would have followed Charlie's lead in securing the building first, you'd have seen everything. Also, I could have been a giant dick and just started sending waves of employees at you, but I wanted to see how the structure of the game worked before pushing players to breaking points.

[Salkovich]

Also, I could have been a giant dick and just started sending waves of employees at you, but I wanted to see how the structure of the game worked before pushing players to breaking points.

I was honestly expecting this to happen - one of the things that struck me was how quiet the building actually was. It was actually creepier that way.

[clockworkjoe]

I had hoped that if employees attacked en masse that they would go after the loud PCs (i.e. the rest of you) giving me time to complete my mission

[Salkovich]

I had hoped that if employees attacked en masse that they would go after the loud PCs (i.e. the rest of you) giving me time to complete my mission

Yeah, as it was we all got attacked separately. More chaos.

[Charlie72]

I had hoped that if employees attacked en masse that they would go after the loud PCs (i.e. Charlie72) giving me time to complete my mission

Changed for accuracy.

What's interesting is if you guys would have followed Charlie's lead in securing the building first, you'd have seen everything. Also, I could have been a giant dick and just started sending waves of employees at you, but I wanted to see how the structure of the game worked before pushing players to breaking points.

I think that plan went to hell the minute Ross shot that guy in the head.That is the exact moment where the team started spiting off and doing there own things.

Also, I based the plan on how police do raids in real life; you don't want to start collecting evidents until you know the building's cleared.