The Next Game Master Pt. 01

He looked at Raven wide-eyed, "I wish we had a class or two in that."

Raven shook his head. "It is not something you jump into. With as many new characters as you have in this group, you should have divided into groups of 2 and each pair formed new parties with seasoned players before it got this bad.

Metagaming is something learned over time. One build will work for me but will not work well for you. If you do not play it the same or in a very similar way. Then every gaming system has its own rules.

Some Goddesses; like Game Masters on Earth, merge rules together or create some of their own. It is not something that can be taught with so many variables."

He got nodding heads from everyone.

Raven sighed, "Here is what I can do. Next time you advance I can try and request the opportunity to work with you. Try and talk to the goddess to tweak your characters a bit, knowing what your skills are and where you want to go to it could make your characters more capable of surviving the next stage. I can sell the idea."

Ersa road out to us at this point, "What are you guys up to?"

He dropped it to a whisper, "Ways to improve your characters. Do you know what ruleset you are playing under? Will she adapt in a prestige class from another ruleset? If so, your next level should be sorceress with the level after going into prestige classes. Ultimate magus for 10 levels. You would have spells you study for and spells that you can spontaneously cast.

You see when I talk to Myssara I talk about each of you as well. Things I note that are missing or crippling a given character. Party balance. I see you're not a very experienced player so giving you an extreme build exposes you to 2 caster classes and a prestige class.

That one run through helps you to know which you like better spontaneous with fewer spells or study with more spells. These are questions you should ask. I will be asking them as well. I would like to help you solidify what you are playing. I do not know your skills.

For example, the paladin can choose a bond with a steed or apply it to a weapon. For flavor steed is best; in practically a weapon is way better. You do not always fight from horseback. Let me take the fighter here.

If he has the feats dodge, endurance, and toughness he could move into an advance prestige class known as Stalwart Defender. Based on the way you play your fighter so far that would be a great prestige class for you. The defender of your friends. Holding your ground and watching everyone's back.

Shia looked at Raven, "What about me?"

He smiled at her, "Feats of dodge, mobility, and combat reflexes would be required. The prestige class is known as a shadow dancer."

She smiled, "I am on that path already."

He smiled, "You play it well lover." She smiled while the others chuckled. He continued. "You and the barbarian are the next 2 more experienced players in the party behind me."

Ersa looked at Raven, "Hold the conversation I want to get her over here."

She rode off and came back with Lirana and she looked at Raven, "You think I am one of the more skilled players?"

Raven nodded, "I think Shia is more experienced than you. You have made a lot of great hits and your strategy for your character is spot on. There is synergy between us because of our nature aspect.

I have that with Ersa in magic and ranged attacks. I have is with Shia in stealth and setting up prey for her to attack from behind. I am the reluctant melee combatant. I can fill the role but not even close to that of the paladin, fighter, and barbarian.

I have 2 things in common with Flar. Women, and watching over the party's health. I just take it to the next level in helping to guide your careers. These two..."

He pointed to Shia and Ersa, "Were in heat last night or the first night. Horny as hell now they are both with twins. I enjoyed it and they enjoyed it. We deal with the repercussions of our actions. When I came to this world, I was told that women having children was a 'badge of honor in these worlds.'

I would ask the question, what does that mean? In those lives how many children did each of you have? If it is a badge of honor then what benefit does it provide you for doing so? This is a point where you could ask about getting traits or retaining memories so you know of your mistakes.

You will be in this world for a long time. THAT is to your advantage if the successes and failures that your previous parties have had. The same goes for the guys who father these children. Marshal you may need to look at becoming a little bit on the bisexual side to gain some small advantage in this world.

These are the kind of questions you should ask the goddess. Live through multiple lives here figure out which class you are best at. They are letting me talk to you about this. So please find time to relay that message to Flar."

Lirana nodded, "I will talk with the dwarf he enjoys my bed."

She rode off and the acid between her and Gardner was obvious.

Raven looked at Gardner, "Find a lovely bar wench and have fun with her. Get your head on straight. You burned a bridge with her. You can either work slowly to rebuild it or leave it alone. Jumping the chasm is not recommended. You have to at least forge a protective friendship."

Gardner nodded, "My mistake, I will figure it out."

Raven looked at him, "I know you will. You are determined. You set your mind to something and you drive toward it. Here is one other thing you need to consider. You have to separate the player from the character. You grew up and formed your own opinion on things.

When you are a character you are taking as an aspect of who you are and then build a personal persona for the rest of it. In my prior life, I was no 'ladies man.' I was looked down upon in some cases because of my love of the game and general knowledge. Being overly smart was a bad thing for a lot of people growing up.

While I did not spend a lot of time in the wilderness, I had some great trips and learned a lot from that. I also learned about it from others. Sex I watched tons of it. My imagination is imbedded with a foundation but it was not my life. Understand?"

Marshal nodded, "There will be times we do things that we would not do, but our characters would."

Raven nodded. "That is why I said you could be a bit on the bi-side as it is not you but is it your character. How you look now is not how you appeared when you enter with a birth name. You forged this appearance. That is a part of what the goddesses do is to shape the character.

Over time that helps to shape the player into a master of the game if you will for males. Game masters who are the goddesses in these worlds. I give you the same advice I'm giving Gardner. Nail a bar wench.

Hell, do a couple of them with the 2 of you. Then who knows what you might discover. You find a couple more female players at the next inn who wish to join us on the next leg of our travels and your beds. By the way, your estimates for travel to the final destination sucks.

It is based upon riding a horse for fourteen hours a day and no attacks. As soon as you added a wagon for the dwarf or for walking, you needed to adjust that up. Then there are the attacks. You are talking a full month or more to get to the destination. Depending on how bad it gets."

The guys laugh at this miscalculation. "Your best bet is to expect caravan travel rates with daily attacks. Double it and you can figure out how long it will probably take us to get there. That is a good 6 weeks if not more. Add 5 weeks minimum. Look at it this way, all the more training I can give you about the nature of the game."

They smiled at that. Raven turned his horse, "Time to eat!"

He rode off and some followed on foot with others on horses, He breathed out and thought, "My love, I know you heard that. I will not have to repeat it."

He heard her voice in his head, "I heard it and those are some of the things I will talk about with each of them. Your idea for Ersa and the Fighter intrigued me."

He thought back, "Good they should. Some believe the ultimate magus is overpowered. In the hands of an experienced player that is true. In the hands of a novice, they are looking at a lot of the controls they have available. Then wondering, 'What if?' That is what these players need.

AO mentioned something about a single world for when new talent is brought in to train them up. That is exactly what you are doing except you have a trainer fucking his way through the game and teaching."

He heard laughter from her and AO, "Yes my love. I am understanding what these women are feeling about their children being taken away. That bothers me as well now that I have one coming. I may give them the option or at least the ability to visit with their offspring when they sleep."

He smiled, "I will leave you to tell them that. Myssara when this new universe is created you and I will have another child. A boy. He will not become a god directly but he will grow up in your world. Knowing who his parents are, Myssara and Ralph Bronson, the Raven. His ascension to being a god is his for the taking. When and if he ever desires it AND he has earned it.

Same as our daughter. I am also not opposed to having more than one god or goddess over a world within reason opposing pantheons. A game of chess. Sometimes working together and sometimes going after the followers of the other. They would have to be evenly matched of course; and willing playful adversaries."

She chuckled, "I am the goddess for this world and I have to take on all the other personalities of the other gods and goddesses they worship. This, however, is me. The player who ascended. What I believe in is what this persona is. In a way that is what drove me to want you in my world. You value the same things I do. All of me. You saw it. I have an added task for you tonight. We will discuss that when you see me."

He got to the smaller camp and the Wagon Master came up to Raven, "We got this road repaired. Your smokers and the other are both going. We are using mesquite in yours and the hickory in ours. We will have two different flavors."

Raven smiled, "Mesquite is much better for beef. Hickory is really good for boar. My preference."

He looked at Raven, "The horse and remains are gone. This bundle was left behind with your name upon it. He opened the bundle and there was a wand and a pair of bracers. A note was attached.

This is an apology for the wolves attacking your camp this morning. Their death was regrettable but the one who suffered was your mage. Please give these to her. They were taken off of a destructive mage a while back. He did not last long. You have done well and have been generous with our great bear. Safe travels. We will be watching it.

He took the bundle and handed it to Ersa with the note. He smiled at her and walked away while she read through it and identified it.

She walked over, "These are a medium enchantment! The wand is a wand of magic missiles level five. Almost full!"

He looked at her, "If you accept the apology and are really grateful. I would suggest looking over at the woods and telling them, 'Thank you.'"

She smiled and walked over to the woods, "Druid, Thank you for these items. I am sorry it came to that end. These are really, REALLY appreciated."

She came back and hugged Raven, "Thank you for being so generous with the bear."

He shrugged, "We have enough meat that I do not need to hunt for the rest of the trip. Better it was not let it go to waste. Selling it in town would be wrong after the deal we made with the druid."

She smiled, "I never would have been able to do it without your guidance. I am going to talk to her."

He smiled and ate, "Give your old set to the cleric." They finished just a bit after midday, got the wagons moving, and they changed the wagon order.

Raven looked at the Wagon Master, "You moved your cook's wagon to the front."

He nodded, "Right behind your cleric's wagon. By request of my guys. They like riding into the smell of the smoked meat in front of them. It also puts our cooks at our next camp first."

Raven smiled, "With no hunting for the rest of the trip you do not slow your progress."

He nodded and Raven rode upfront, "Scout road."

Every time the raven came back telling them it was all clear he fed it some beef scraps that he saved for him. Then he would send him off again. He repeated the process until they came to a good known campsite. The Wagon Master looked at Raven, "Another two days to get to the inn."

Raven nodded. They set up camp. He enjoyed a lovely beef dinner. They knew they would be eating well from what they had smoked after the morning meal. The Wagon Master's crew seemed in really good spirits and enjoyed the food. He looked at his well-fed raven, "Camp watch."

He headed into the trees. Raven slid under the wagon and crawled into his bedroll before the ladies arrived but he left arms outstretched for them.

He went off to sleep. He entered into his dream near the serene pool and blankets were on the ground. Myssara walked over and he kissed her and rubbed a perfectly shaped pregnant stomach.

He looked at her, "I want her to have your hair and pre-pregnancy body when she is an adult; I leave her face to you to decide. I want her to be stunning like her mother. I want her to have my violet-colored eyes.

My persona as the Raven, not my original eye color. I want others when she is growing to know she is different, but not to know why. She will be the fantasy of every man and woman as she approaches her eighteenth birthday. You can do that right?"

She smiled, "She sounds gorgeous. Yes, I can do that."

He sighed, "As she is a child of this universe, I want to give her name a new First and Last name. Lomharae Corcra."

She looked at him puzzled, "Goddesses do not know everything do they?"

She shook her head, "It has a meaning?"

He nodded, "I will tell you and her that tomorrow night."

She smiled, "A secret that I don't even know. Very well it is her birth name and she will have many character names. He walked over and she stepped into the pool. She reaches down between her legs and without so much as a grunt brought forth their daughter. She brought her up from the pool. She was wrapped in a towel.

He told her, "You know how her face will end up." She smiled. "That is your surprise for me."

She smiled and kissed him. Raven sighed, "Nowhere near that easy for women on Earth."

She nodded, "Had several who told me the same thing. All women in this universe recover quickly with painless birth."

He looked at her, "Except Kerria. A litmus test."

She felt the bite of that comment even though it was not directed at her. She looked at him with a puzzled expression and he looked at her. "Those who are born here would expect that. Those who were not would be expecting hours of labor and contractions.

A test I can ask each woman privately and they will know if they are from this universe; or from Earth. I can do that with all the guys as well. However, I know the guys in my group are all from here."

She nodded. "There are two who were not born in this world or this universe for that matter besides yourself. They know like you know. Any players you add will be NPC's if you just add players. I don't mind that you're training this small group who have had a rough go of it. This is a trial run of what you can do. What would happen if we put them with a person who was a great player but also a mentor in-game mechanics."

He smiled, "I told you what I would do to a party NPC members. That still stands. What did you think of my idea of traits? Most are numbers that they will never see but you will.

There are a few exceptions to that though. For me, a gifted adept would be appropriate based on my background. How good were the backgrounds these guys wrote, especially after 84 failed attempts?"

She sighed, "Not great. Their first ones were better but nothing like yours. It is one of the things I want you to address."

He nodded and looked at the little girl between them, "She is beautiful. When will they come to steal her from us?"

She looked at him, "Not my rules. I am actually looking forward to the point when you create this universe. Prepared to be mauled in the morning. Especially from your barbarian. She loved the idea. Your 2 liked it as well."

He smiled, "It is important. Knowledge the parents gain can be taught to the children. I would set it up when you do it that it is not necessarily one-on-one all the time. Let them have play dates with the children born in the party at the same time or siblings. Some women may have 100 children with your system. I bet they do not know they have a sibling unless they are identical twins."

She shook her head, "They do not know as no twins are identical in appearance."

He smiled, "If I took a guess Marshal and Gardner are brothers."

She looked at Raven, "How, I mean, what makes you think that."

He looked at her, "You just confirmed it. There are studies on Earth about attraction to siblings who were not raised together. They love each other, they just do not know the source of it. I know before you say it, I cannot tell them. My question is do you interject in the children to ensure no genetic defects."

She nodded, "We can only do that so much."

He nodded, "Which is why you bring in new bulls to your world to add new genetic material."

She looked at him, "Yes that is part of it but it happens to both sexes. Yes, more males play the game than females on Earth. Speaking of which your discussion on character versus player was very interesting. That does explain a few things about you that are different.

When we are alone like this and how you are in the world. It would help if Marshal generated a few children but you are correct we do not bring in gay-only or lesbian only gamers from your world. We need them to help maintain a healthy population."

He looked at her, "On average how many players do you oversee? Just adults."

She looked at him, "Players who are adults will swing from a 100-200 on this world."

He looked at her, "How many starter locations?"

She looked at me. "It varies with the population. One for every 20 players, roughly. I am not happy with the level of education or if they are getting it in the right things. By this time, they should be well on their way of at least being good at multiclassing or prestige classing the characters. At least for this rule system if not for the different rule systems.

They are handled differently when they move to a new world. Especially if they use a different ruleset. The second edition rules are early on but one of the most complex so it is one we save for last."

He laughed, "I started with the red box, then second edition, then adding different supplements until I had them all down. Then we got into version 3 as it became 3.5. Then pathfinder because just reviewing 4 made me want to vomit.

Version 5 is ok but only when you include some of the supplements or get approval for the homebrewed stuff. I have tried to avoid talking about any of the homebrew stuff. I have talked about the 3.5 ultimate magus. Which brings me back to traits. If you allowed a couple of subtle changes to their frustrated background they could benefit from traits.

Something else missing from their education. For example. Ersa, she takes her next level in sorceress a great trait to add to that splash of a class is magical knack. Then ten in ultimate magus and the last five back into wizard or sorceress; whichever line she likes better."

She nodded, "As to your trait. You have already hit level five and your story supports it the question is I have to approve the spell it is applied to. Nobody gets to the second inn at level 6. They are level 5 groups but you will be getting close to level 6 given all of the optional items I threw at your group.