All Comments on 'Champion of the Goddess Pt. 05'

Well... I think he may have gotten her portfolio expanded again. Its certainly appropriate. Something intrinsic to her from even their their first real encounter. He laid out truth as best he could. Sometimes people just refuse to learn. Sucks majorly when its someone you love that seems unable or unwilling to look at something through your eyes.

Nothing wrong with raids or hyper death quests. They can be loved stylistically by those seeking the challenge. But... if that's all there is, alongside a Master vs Player mentality. Well, I for one certainly wouldn't have any fun. I doubt I could scrounge by, but I certainly wouldn't intentionally put my group through that situation, unless that just so happened to *be* the situation. Sometimes it is what it is.

Glad to have started on these series. Love me some of that DnD esk sort of stuff. I would only offer real arguments on one of his terms. He's not a metagamer. He's a powergamer. At least from my perspective. A metagamer would be if he had used his knowledge gleaned as The Raven in order to manipulate that first human royal situation while insisting his character was not The Raven. That he was playing as a Goddesses champion, he should have access to all knowledge he's acquired when playing that role. ~A powergamer on the other hand, is more of that min-mixing, find all the loopholes and all the crazy knots and combinations you can do. At least to me. Nothing wrong with a good powergamer imo. And he most certainly has shown himself to be a good one to me. Being able to solo a crazy encounter, doesn't mean one should. And so a good one will try to balance what they're capable of, versus what makes it the most fun, or most realistic for their group. I for one hate breaks in verisimilitude. So, as insane raid stomping bloodbathy as that last portion was... technically... I approve. It was a horrible idea that the players had. They were given advice of the likely consequences and chose it anyway. So yeah... as painful as the experience would be for both the powergamer and their companions getting butchered, knowing that taking the stupid route plays out with stupid consequences is perfectly fine.

His goddess having a bent towards that... is its own thing. As are the consequences for a group following through on a bad plan. The others all chose to follow along. He chose to give away his agency to them, but the others also chose to not exercise their own agency to refuse. That everything gets retained and resets can be fresh is pleasant. Mostly though, it feels more like this confrontation that we have been left on cliffhanger for wasn't for the divine lovers. Not really. Sure, it has been traumatic for both of them, and I do hope they make it through this. I would wager this is more about someone else being held to task and called out on it by the powers that be.

I feel for the guy, but I'm right there with the girl too. Sometimes you're just lost and crying and don't know what you've done wrong; while others you just can't see straight anymore and the things that bother you seem to break your control. Like I said, I hope they are able to work things out. They seem like they could be good together, even if both of them can be too passionate and stubborn sometimes, for ill or otherwise.

Looking forward to what's coming next. Be well.

Your writing style is what it is, and I enjoy your stories. Just wanted to leave a PS in that I am 100% behind what he managed in the starter story. Being made an into an intractable enemy? "You have chosen death, then" I say it again to really make clear my point, but I don't seem him and his goddess as enemies. An enemy doesn't weep for the loss of their other, or wonder how wrong they've done. I'm just looking forward to getting some insight into his thought process for that finale he just did. Sure, we saw the buildup and the release. Some of the narrative whys for it, but where was his head really at, and what was he trying to do? Where will they go from here? Big questions, important questions.

Well... I think he may have gotten her portfolio expanded again.

>>Raven is looking at this from his perspective of those he is trying to train. What she is doing with all of the other parties are also a factor. He cannot dictate a change in her portfolio, just what he sees happening to her portfolio on the rode she keeps putting him upon.

She has been especially adversarial with him because of the 2 universes they lived in. She grew up in the game while he grew up on Earth. Things will get revealed in parts already written and part 6 is already in the queue. Before him Goddesses were the top of the order, where they surrender free will to Mother, Champion don't surrender it as they are not Gods. That makes them new and difficult to control, as they cannot override their free will.

The upcoming sections provides some details on her own scaring background. What did she learn about herself when past lives were restored? About things she did vs things done to her? We are all a product of our environment and sometimes an outside eye can get others to see what they are doing. Everyone has baggage, it is how they carry it, deal with it, or lock it way that defines them and in some cases they are doing all 3 of them. Even Raven...

---

Glad to have started on these series.

>>I am happy to hear it when people enjoy the stories.

---

He's not a metagamer. He's a powergamer. At least from my perspective.

>>He is but he dials back a notch or two because he has to run gestalts. I would not argue that point, he just tries to keep it at a metagamer level. Until he is forced into action or reaction. He wants others to succeed on their own merits and willingness to learn. He wants to do his role, throw a few surprises, and make it fun for them all.

---

>>verisimilitude.

Your vocabulary astounds me. This was just one word I had to look up to in your reply. Not a criticism. I worked vocabulary with my kids to the point when they finally met one of their cousins, she was 18 and they were 12-14 at the time. She asked, "Why do they both talk so funny?"

I used big words on my children and they would ask, "what does that mean?"

I would smile and tell them, "Look it up." Always forcing them to learn more. So they had a vastly larger vocabulary than she had growing up in rural SC.

---

Mostly though, it feels more like this confrontation that we have been left on cliffhanger for wasn't for the divine lovers. Not really. Sure, it has been traumatic for both of them, and I do hope they make it through this. I would wager this is more about someone else being held to task and called out on it by the powers that be.

>>Will be answered in days..it is in queue.

---

Looking forward to what's coming next. Be well.

I say it again to really make clear my point, but I don't seem him and his goddess as enemies. An enemy doesn't weep for the loss of their other, or wonder how wrong they've done.

>>I would agree, more 'adversarial' in this part. He loves her too much and does not want to hate her. Answers are coming. You be well in these difficult times.

Again the whole use of the term "free will" from Raven comes off very child-like and simplistic. Being given 7 or so "meh" or even bad choices for a caravan doesn't mean he has no "free will"... he could have used his free-will to wait, he could have used it to steal, he could have improved a caravan with his trademark craftiness, etc... Instead he just bitches... imagine having that guy playing DnD with you in real life... that would be miserable. And he was being such an asshole by page 6 that I was firmly on Myssara's side. Is she a perfect DM? No, but she's okay. Is Raven acting like a petulant child wining about not finding his favorite sword after the first encounter? Yes, he is.

I think what they should do is cut him off. He's gotten to influential and he thinks he's the de facto DM and a player simultaneously. They should throw him into a city and cut him off from communication and a dream state for a while. Let him send them his notes by "carrier raven" or something until he learns to act like an adult.

LOL Biglazydog.

I read your reply to part 4 as well but will reply only once to both parts and this is going to get rambling, I apologize.

To the characters 'wife or wives' is a very loose term in this world when they last for 3 months. (a Single gaming session generally to the players.) The concept of family is not taught to the players growing up in these worlds, no brothers or sisters, no family units of any kind.

He finds it all very frustrating as this is not the world he was born into and he is still adapting after 20 years of hell in the first world. (Spend 20 years trapped in a dead-end job doing something you hate [his first world] then being told by mother that she wants more gamers like him. He plays like he would play. He was not asked to play it down or to adapt to the same style as the others. He was asked to teach new players to play like him.

To do those things that stump DMs at times as he thinks outside the box. He is pushing boundaries, to make better players and a better DM. He should be able to marry a character and live in a town for 50 actual years if he wanted, but he is not allowed to do that. No actual players are allowed to do that…yet. Maybe in the future if he can work changes they will accept. Not likely...but still.

In his case, he is trying to make the best of a bad situation. You have to realize all of the NPC's are personas and personifications of the Goddess. She can seize control of them at any time, but he is looking ahead. For a world with a couple of hundred players, she is struggling. Myssara is new at the Goddess game.

Just like some Goddesses, like the first one who threw free-will out the window and changed the rules. He cannot simply get up and walk out of the gaming group...he is stuck here. Like life here, except he knows how to force a Goddess to break his contract and thus destroy a world again.

I have worked with 'baby DM's' those who are new to that role. As a player and as an observer not in the game. I have taken them aside and pointed out the pitfalls they are likely to run into with a gaming group.

I helped to train many and not all of them had the same style, in fact, most of them varied widely, but core game mechanics is something hard to avoid and keeping a balanced world.

Some are alright with it out of balance, some just make bigger things the parties end up getting and then get stuck on what to do...it is all learning. The 'sword of annilation +1,000. Just don't roll a fumble with it.'

One of the issues Mother has alluded to is issues controlling the population, as far as keeping them alive and reproducing. High suicide rates, gamer frustration, lack of self-worth, or in some cases perceived or actual racism. He is helping to reverse that, but what happens to a hands-on DM who goes from watching over a party of 9 and is suddenly trying to balance 100-200 parties of 9-24 at the same time?

He does not know all of the mechanics in this universe...yet. He could learn them by using that device, then spin off the world he is on and be like Mother. He does not want to do that though. He is teaching players and he is teaching DM's and not just Myssara but others who are watching him. He went through and trained new players on how to look at a caravan, to make the decisions for themselves.

He is playing a cleric to a goddess of love, lust, magic, the hunt, and procreation. As a 'cleric' following those tenants with the abilities he has for fixing fertility it is not him working to cuckhole a married couple of personas. It is him playing his character. What he is seeing here is her trying to give free-will to personas who don't act the way she wants them to act even. She gave them free -will with no training in how to use it while getting the results she wanted.

Now your comment about page 6 and a new sword completely threw me. He asked for no equipment on page 6. Page 6 was all about Myssara feeling she needed to challenge him one-one because he was leading the group. Make it a challenge, fine.

Making it an unbalanced slaughter to just kill the players…bad form. Unless the players do something stupid like take on an ancient dragon as 3rd level characters. Then by all means kill them.

In the later part of this leg he did not unload, he let another lead it, let them choose, and make the bad choice on the next caravan. He kept alive who he could. He held back on sex, frustration, and anger he was having...until he let it go.

Those in the party who knew he was the champion knew that to run with him in the group was a disaster on the road. She did not challenge the other players in the same fashion, she just did it to him and those who went with him. That reputation will hurt her in getting others to run with a champion over time. He is trying to get her to see this.

I hope you find part 6 better.

Sorry, the sword comment wasn't meant to be literal. I just meant that sometimes it feels like he's complaining about his lot (having choices he doesn't like) and veiling it as a matter of infringing on his free will.

But, it doesn't matter. You write an awesome story. I hope you write many, many more. I don't mean to be critical just to discuss.

love this story