We will be on tonight.
roll20, celtricia campaign.  Instead of the Intermezzos, we'll continue with a group session,. with the group still exploring their new quarters in Kravent hall.

Re: Celtricia, World of Factions-First Look, Collegium Arcana Online Game

Full session 26 last night, with INtermezzo, we are well over 30 sessions so far.  
AS with most of the ultra-involved RP game, time crawls a bit.  But this is due to the level of detail involved.  PCs know the setting is rich in detail, they do a lot of extra homework...and they are right, as I have never, ever had this level of detail involved in any game, but due to the interweaving of history, mystery, and active undead...there is a lot documented.
Here is a loo at the Roll20 page for the Attic in Kravent Hall where the young students have been moved to for their own protection.
http://celtricia.pbworks.com/w/page/83130988/3rd%20level%20attic%20area%20of%20Kravent%20Hall

We are one for session 27 tonight, a full group session.

The group has moved up to the attic area of Kravent, though there is work to be done in the cleanup.  The students are still picking through some of the interesting finds and items.
It is later in the afternoon of Fastak the 12th, with Red Gerin starting the nightly swing around her yellow partner sun, Tribin.  The Sampanese Celebration, the dance you've been talking about, is at 2 Hours Na Sui (after the suns go down).  The group has to decide if they are going.

Having all the conversation of the world building we've had lately..makes one hyper-aware of the effects of all the note taking and prep.  Session 27 was mainly working on the details, of mystery and the characters just existing in the setting.

On a book keeping front, the player info page is probably going to have to split up into parts soon, as it grows at the pace of the level of complexity of the game.  Even with all the links, there is getting to be too much information crammed on this page.

Player Info Page

Fun parts from last session...young students trying to figure what a magic disc they found does...

Bosh..."You guys have any idea what that disc does?"
Pholian Mar: "Not in the slightest, just a theory. You?"
 Bosh, "I'm late like Worter. No clue"
Pholian Mar: "Well, guess we'll have to do the usual and ask someone smarter" I chuckle
Vee: "I know how to work it, but I'd rather not without knowing what it does."
 Gregoir looks at Vee..."Oh, yes....good idea"
Pholian Mar: "Oh come on, what's the worst that can happen."
"I bet it just makes the spiders move"
 Bosh.." and grow to monstrous size and eat us"
Vee: "Generally, when somebody asks, 'What's the worst that could happen?', everyone ends up dying."
"Like in all the old stories."
"So I'm definitely not telling *you* how it works now."
Pholian Mar: "Hmmm...good point."
 Gregoir, "Look at the bright side, Pholian can avoid the dance"
Pholian Mar: "Well, if you get in trouble with the boyfriend again, some big spiders could be useful help" I retort
 Bosh, "well, we have a lot to discover. and Grfank and Christo have kept up the cleaning"
Gregoir..."and we'll need to clean up for going to the Godstraat"

and after that last night of political learning, we play on Thursday night, 8:45pm.  As the game grows and deepens....

Session 28 was an exercise in mood and group dynamic, with many students and faculty of the Collegium going to a Celebratory dance at a Church.  

Lots of socializing, some good social rolls (how rare) and good follow up with them, some issues with a few students and some wealthy socialites...and then there was the statue that sang to Vee.....

Player page with links here....

We are on for group this Thursday.  Last session (28) was a wild one, with us playing the Sampanese Celebration Dance at the Church of the Void's Music, after lots of fun, social hijinks, we end up with a student dumped in the punch bowl and an ancient statue singing to Vee.

9pm, eastern, on roll20, Celtricia.

we skip this session, since we have one player coming back from Okinawa, one with a Wife's Birthday, and the European one needing to be busy.
Looking to work on Our new Canadian player character, instead, on Thursday.

http://celtricia.pbworks.com/w/page/67725545/Collegium%20Arcana%20Play%20Notes

Session 30 last night, as the group deals with dinner and being spied on and their own tremendously inexpert attempts at countersurveillance.

Also, I saved the chat archive (since we play purely typed to stay in character, all text...)  we just hit page 1001 in the saved word document.  A thousand pages of gaming so far, and so much still to go.

we will be off this week, I will be out with my lovely wife for our anniversary.

31 sessions now, and adding in more players...which, in a very tight run game is it's own challenge.  
Group is settled in an attic dorm area, and, though with some mis-steps, they are building a social network in the school.  There is so much to learn for them.

http://celtricia.pbworks.com/w/page/67725545/Collegium%20Arcana%20Play%20Notes

We are running intermezzo this week.  
For people watching the game, that means that each player is playing solo with the GM, so as to work on things of interest to them and their characters, to develop their relationships and friendships, to study stuff they've learned in school.  
Also, for the GM to deepen their knowledge base and to connect them to the setting dynamic and the large history.

The time spent will cover Bowyak and Vindak, the 14th and 15th of Hisui.  Full session next week will start on Scaliak the 16th.

One thing that makes this game (and most of my games ) work is that the system is built to accommodate the type of game we want to play.  Especially in the Collegium game, where every game delves deeply into the inner workings of magic and combat and fighting are very rarely part of the game, the ruleset must match the game.

some of these design imperatives...

• Long term.  Games with really fast increases in ability are great for short campaigns, but they don't have veracity in terms of the power differentials between people.  My average game runs over a hundred sessions.  Longer, actually.  So I need a design built for continued, differentiated, continual progress.

• Low-Power.  Not just gritty, but high chance of critical, magic comes back very slowly, Hit points are very low, weapon damage is high, armor is needed to protect from damage often, high death rate for adventuring games especially for non-cautious players.

• Non-combat-centric.  What this really means is that the other parts of the game, magic, adventuring, social, and setting specific must be enlarged.  Having the players only increase combat ability as they gain experience means the game it built for combat.  Having a wide variety of paths of improvement, from dozens of types or disciplines of magic as well as research skills, dozens of social skills, language skills, etc means the characters can be good and improve in many different and original directions.

• Setting specific.  The game's rules are also built to underpin the setting.  This  means casters can get better in over a dozen types of spells, and can improve in how fast they get spell power back, in how successful their casting is, how much they can resist another caster, as well as using witchcraft to use ritual in casting spells beyond their normal ability.  Over 600 (currently) spells that have been created to fit the particular history and power curve and cultural development are on the list so far, for example.

What brought out this particular outburst?
Two things.  I've been working on the intermezzo notes and realizing, based on the way we are only gaining steam (and the way my games normally go) that we have a long, long way to go. The other is that I've been adding spells slowly.  
 The recent additions are :
Touch of Whisper
Plant Friendship
Greater Plant Friendship
Grass Sheer...(hey, it only makes sense, the Golden Quad is mown...)
Candle of Death
Greater Candle of Death
Fly on the Wall

I have to admire the level of fine tuning you are doing here.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;791575I have to admire the level of fine tuning you are doing here.

we all love fine tuning, mine is just all based on one game.  I have advanced rules and some simplified rules, but it it is all about creating the right game and feeding the feel of the setting.