Episode 5 Retrospective

So the big battle happened.  Sorry no real retrospective on that one.  Been pressed for time and it being a big battle against a Creature there really isn’t much to say. I hope you liked the idea of the Creature, and the fact that the Trees were actually part of a large underground web in case you didn’t quite get that.  My editing of that episode was piss poor though.  I started it, had it half way edited, but closed the file without saving it.  Fun fun.  Then I had my headphone shatter (a cat helped) so I was editing the whole thing with one headphone speaker held to my head.  That is my excuse for the repeated battle music.  It just goes on WAY too long. But alas I ran out of time and patience with it.

I bought new Headphones for editing episode 4.  Turtle Beach’s Earforce X12’s if you’re curious.  They fit great and are super comfortable.  But suck for editing.  They are analog in sound. My last headphones were straight USB and while they had a volume control it actually adjusted the volume the computer was outputting.  These amplify the computer’s output.  So it really makes it really hard to tell actual volume of background sounds and even if you are over modulated.   So if things are too loud with Episode 4 that is why.  Sorry still tweeking and adjusting.

Now on to Episode 5.  Call backs, is what I should have called the episode.  With a little bit a poor planning on my part.  When I came up with the encounter in Episode 2 where the women died from the Caravan.  It was off the top of my head. I was making up the encounter as I was describing it.  Like I said back in my Episode 2 Retrospective. I never expected the party to get that far.  I didn’t plan for it.  However I never meant for her death to be tied to the attack.  However I described her as injured.  She fell off her annen during the fighting I said.  However my players skipped over that detail, and I was fine with it.  It could have been a buy product of the attack and I could leave it at that.  It wasn’t until they started caring for the guy whose arm was injured did I get the idea that this was in fact Murder.  Now I had a vessel to tell a story with that I can shelve until I need it.  The guy was unconscious after all.  Injured quite badly.

The poor planning number 1 however came during Episode 4.  I knew then that Boslin was going to be my villain.  He’s a spoiled rich man who despises the people he is with even though he chose to be with them.  They are all beneath him and he cares little for their wellbeing.  Once I knew he was going to survive Episode 4, I should have planted evidence on his dead annen.  Have the players find the used injector then and not know what it was or for.  Hind sight is 20/20.

Instead the players were fumbling around wondering if they should believe this story or not.  Frankly it didn’t make for an interesting plot as it panned out.  I was expecting them to at least question Boslin.  Confront him even.  I knew the evidence was flimsy.  I could of I guess provided more but then I was thinking why would Boslin have evidence on this other Annen.  If there was still evidence he would have it on him, and the players never searched him.  I’m not quite sure that Boslin would have even denied he’d done it if asked. Since these caravan goers aren’t really people to him they are classes apart.  OK he would have lied but been really horrible at it.  However no one even asked.  Instead we get a GREAT botched roll that leads to Asura Tao being believe to be a murderer.  FUN!  However Lyulf then goes and undermines the man’s ranting with a great roll much to my dismay J. 

Poor planning #2 in my part was not having Cali in these scenes.  I meant for her to show up early in this episode.  Ask a ton of questions about the beast and other annoying things.  Try to endure herself to the party a bit more.  However I forgot. I had it in my notes and I forgot.  I got tied up with trying to salvage this murder investigation and I dropped the ball.   So her going missing later in the Episode has less of an impact.   As listeners though as soon as I started talking about a boogie man who steals children.  I bet most of you knew what was coming.   Telegraphed a mile away that one was.  Having her show up this episode would have made it even more so.    But she did need to show up twice before she became a plot focus.  It’s usually better that way.  Makes them feel like less of a redshirt. That’s where Star Trek Failed with the red shirt.  The one guy who’s only shows up right before they die.  If you had them in minor scenes for 2 or 3 episodes prior then their death has more impact but alas TV budgets and tight time constraints don’t allow for that.  I however don’t have time constraints (or a budget to speak of) so I should do better. 

Kadiv also made second appearance.  He likes Asura Tao so he has to play the nice guy in the caravan.  He also has a kick as staff bow thingy.  He probably won’t become a plot though.  You can’t have every NPC an adventure hook.

Obidark’s lair.  There is an inherent problem with anything of significant note in a game like this; a monolith, a mysterious cave, a large column shooting out of the ground, and that is; why hasn’t anyone else been there before the players?   Why are the players the first to find the opening?  Suspension of disbelief has to occur in games like this for this reason.   I can make up what absurd happenstance makes it this way all I want. But after the 4 or so newly discovered cave entrances or crash sites or what have you, it will get pretty transparent pretty quickly.  At least in this part of the Steadfast.  Once I get into the beyond anything goes.  I guess I can say that ‘no one that has ever entered has exited alive’ but then I would be forced to kill these tier 1 pc, because seriously if no one else has even left this place than it has to be super-duper hard inside. Right.  J

In the next Episode I tried to make things weird.  We’ve been sticking with some fantasy tropes for a bit I wanted to make sure this felt like Numenera and not some high fantasy world.

How’d you like my Obidark poem/song? Didn’t turn out quite as I wanted.  I wanted little children singing the chorus.  But alas my son is only 22 months so he’s out, and I had no other kids at my disposal.  So I left off the chorus.

Hope you guys are still enjoying the podcast.  Look for the next Episode Thursday.