On 19 January 2017 at 19:15, David Shaw <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
> Apologies for the late response - I've been having major connection
> problems. Anyway...
>
> As usual, Timothy, you're being far too hard on yourself. So, you made a
> couple of 'mistakes'? Name me one GM who hasn't. It sounds to me as though
> you handled it pretty well.

Thank you.

It's not that I don't expect to make mistakes (I could dream...), but
I was cross with missing something that seemed as obvious or
fundamental as that.

> There's only one metric which matters when
> judging a GM's performance - did the players (and the GM) enjoy themselves?
> On available evidence, the answer in your case is a resounding 'Yes!'

Thank you - yes, that's the one I try and remember at the end of the evening!

>
> Anyway, how would I have handled it? In the case of the farmer not warning
> the PCs about the anolas, I would have assumed that he was so familiar with
> them that it simply never occurred to him that the PCs *wouldn't* know about
> them and then have played him as totally astonished at their lack of
> knowledge.

Hmm, I do quite like that.  Although at the point when the wretched
things are tagging along back to the farm, you'd have thought he at
least then say something... if only I'd left him back on the ship...

(I see more clearly now why the great Steve E when thinking about
running TTA at TravCon always prefaced the word 'anola' with a swear
word!)

>
> As to why the PCs had to rescue their comrade, it's been a while since I
> last read TTA but I seem to recall that a) the order has no real interest in
> spreading word of Mother Pysadi off world and b) it's something of an
> article of faith that no anola should ever be allowed off world, so you have
> two options.

Yes, I think you've got their thinking right.

I just wanted to see if I could reward some really excellent thinking
by the players taking up the priest's own logic.

>
> Option 1 - a flat refusal to even consider the idea of letting the PC go,
> with or without accompanying priests.
>
> Option 2 - that's an interesting idea. We shall put it to the next synod. It
> convenes every 5 years. Oh, terribly sorry, you've just missed the last one,
> it was 4 months ago. And it will probably take several sessions to reach
> consensus. And in the meantime, you'll have to remain on planet, of course.

Oh yes!  And in fact I did something similar when the Captain made an
excellent case for being allowed to go all the way back to Sadi (which
you may recall is a 3 day trip) to say 'farewell' to the crew.  (His
family).  The PCs were hatching a plan to kidnap him *then*.  Although
the priests aren't stupid and say he *will* be accompanied by three
salvors.

So Captain gets on with his incarceration, walks in the garden,
fitness walks around the church building (scoping it out of course)
and the crew go back to Sadi, do their trading, receive the wreath of
roses from the Vargr crew in commiseration for the death of Hogan (the
roses because they weren't *quite* getting human culture) and when
they're ready, contact the church to say its time for the Captain to
come say goodbye.

At this point the elderly priest, on the comm but struggling with the
technology and shouting at it because he swears he isn't deaf (etc!)
and isn't even sure it's on... says "oh yes, no problem, I'll just go
and look up train times".  he come back and reports there's one in
five days, so they'll be there in eight.... ("well played" said the
Traveller old-timer realizing that meant they really needed to revert
to the fly to Itzeny plan...)

But in fact the *players* pretty much did my work for me and had
worked out it would probably be some years before the training etc
made a mission trip a possibility.

> And then you'll have to train as a member of the laity, at least, if not as
> a fully ordained priest, which is going to be another 1 to 4 years. But yes,
> that's certainly a good suggestion and we will take it very seriously.

But it's certainly a great idea!

cheers!

Tomorrow I start _Into the Unknown_ with a subset of the players in
our lunchtime sessions.  I'm looking forward to it (as it's already
written and a known quantity), but intrigued to know how different it
will be in 55 min segments rather than 4 or 5 hours straight and how
different it will be with three players rather than 6.  But
 - handouts are ready,
 - I'm brushing up on playing the the Melissa NPC at the start (I even
have a photo of her now having met her since I wrote the thing),  :-)
 - have sent them all a quick guide to UWPs which will be new to them,
 - and have warned the lady with a _Central Supply Catalogue_ to bring
it along as a traditional way of starting adventures is for the PCs to
tool up!  Still no grav belts though...

tc