welcome @Ezekiel_III to the cast! had a blast today, hope everyone enjoyed the first episode of this new direction for the show!
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Hot damn! What a start to the new season. Loved the new characters and seeing where Berg is at after recent events.
Pumped to see how Ramus will affect the team dynamic. Amazing as always!
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I swear @AdamKoebel , did you really just set up the encounter with the Immortals with us, the audience, knowing Berg can “probably” kill them? This is too much for an theorizing viewer!
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Really enjyoing the new setup of the show, intense RP but it brings so much more. Even though there was time for RP earlier but it has been so much more immersive, will be interesting to see how they set up their goals & quests in there future so we can see how progression works.
Either way this seems to be a great continuation of Court of Swords with a chance for us to explore deeper into the world and not just be stuck in dungeons and fights all day, even though I enjoy the high stakes I just want to dive DEEP into that lore!
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It was honestly really refreshing. I wasn’t worried about character’s dying as much as I was being enveloped in the story. The RP from everyone was great today, Zeke’s slave song was really a highlight and Sali saying “No.” when Kali asked him to let him do the talking. What a great end and next tuesday could NOT come fast enough! Love the throwback to Kukrit and really think this Arc is going to be fantastic. I feel like Ramus should just be getting drunk somewhere close by and hear Kali calling for guards and decides to investigate to make sure Berg is alright (Maybe he’s slowly starting to regain his soul but still is an asshole?) LOL just a thought.
Amazing episode, strong RP all around. Can’t wait for the bantz between Zeke and Dan.
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An awesome start to a new arc. Tons of amazing RP moments.
Did you have the immortals planned for tonight’s session?
Holy shit, this episode was amazing.
Really great show today! Best CoS has been in a while RP wise. Also cool we got a glimps of the immortals and got some hints about why they are immortal.
Thank you so much for all the feedback, y’all - we’re in some new territory with Court of Swords right now, so it’s cool to have thoughts. TELL ME EVERYTHING!
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My immersion is getting fulfilled with good chunks of character interaction and world revelations, will be interesting how the goal/quest/challenge system is going to get put into play to see how characters will get some of that lovely progression/xp!
One thing that I found interesting was how much more one got out of the episode compared to a full on fight session, not just taking smashing everything but now we actually get to see them consider what to smash and what not to.
I believe if we would be running on the CoS 1.0 we would’ve seen Berg smash through all those fools, but now since combat doesn’t give any xp rewards they get to choose their fights more wisely! Either way loving it so far but we will have to wait to see what the future holds so we can see how the new mechanics will be used!
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Watching the show now and Zeke’s character name is Kalimat Alfida. it is pronounced more like Kalimat Alfitha though that is not 100% correct since the letter (ض) does not have an English equivalent. Litteral translation for the name is Words of Silver. Silver tongue would be Lisan Fithi.
Sorry don’t mean to nitpick, but since it is my language I felt I should correct this tiny thing <3
edit: I do think your name now Zeke fits better with Arab culture especially since we don’t say silver tongue. We put a great importance to words. Before Islam, the greatest of our poetry was written in gold and hung on the Holy Kaaba in Makkah. Our greatest heroes are warrior poets. After Islam, The Holy Koran is our most sacred text & the biggest miracle of Islam.
Edit 2: I blame the early morning when I wrote this for making me forget all about grammer. If anyone is actually going to write the words of silver/silver words in Arabic it would be Alkalimat alfithiya (الكلمات الفضية -Kalimat is a feminine word)
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Awesome episode for sure.
One thing I am worried about is that the “3 goals per player and then some” system might introduce too many simultaneously active but very different objectives to the game, making it difficult to keep track of all the different motivations with which players are (or should be) acting. I already forgot half of the goals the players picked this week. Perhaps they could be posted somewhere or integrated into some of the stream’s graphics (the attribute listings?).
In Swan Song the goal system seemed a bit awkward with the players frequently forgetting their own personal goals and goals generally not being resolved very often (compared to how often xp is awarded in normal DnD). I hope it works out smoother this time. Perhaps, with less focus on fighting, the need for xp and level-ups is much lower anyway.
I’m glad you now want to resolve goal xp immediately instead of at the end of the episode. That will surely help with goals drifting on as parallel side quests for extended periods of time.
However, together with “you can change your goals anytime”, this change makes we wonder, what the point of declaring any goals beforehand is. Do longer-standing goals inherently merit more xp? Why wouldn’t players just update their goal as soon as they have an idea for how a scene should end?
I feel like most player goals could either be restricted to a few subsequent scenes (“I want to try resolving conflict X with character Y.”) or could just as well be (longer-term) goals for the whole party, as they require effort from the whole party (“I want to find/unravel/slay/topple X.”). This excludes one-person side quests such as “I want to obtain parts to upgrade Pi.”, but I’m not sure I’d miss those much. In return, one could significantly cut down on the number of simultaneously active goals that need to be remembered and kept track of.
Anyway, I hope my worries are unfounded and the new system works out. The storytelling and roleplaying certainly already do!
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THIS IS SO GOOD.
Noor, thank you so so much for sharing this. Arabic is such a poetic language, damn.
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This isn’t strictly the case, goals can only be changed at the start of a session.
Was it on purpose that you didn’t hand out XP at the end of the session or did you handle that on the patreon video?
He clarified on the Patreon video that he would give out XP as soon as a goal was met. I’m not sure anyone met their goal yet.
His words, specifically, were “If you think you have completed a goal, just tell me right then and I will just give you the XP there” which Zeke seemed to take as ‘now isnt the time, I’ll just remember to call it out next episode’.
As a side note, how much is ‘too much’ to say when someone asks about Patreon content? A full transcription is absurd but would bullet points on the general questions raised sans the answer be acceptable?
For example; (Obviously way outdated for safety)
- What the Lycan Curse could have meant for Berg
- Thoughts on Živa’s encounter with creature circling the tower
etc
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They talk about the process of handing out XP in the patreon video, but didn’t actually do it. They decided that the players tell Adam as soon as they think they’ve achieved a goal and they’ll get XP immidiately if Adam thinks they have indeed achieved that goal. The goal slot is then empty until the end of the session and a new goal can be formulated at the start of the next session. I assume they might talk about whether any goals were achieved in episode 51 at the start of episode 52 
Edit: Oh, and as for the feedback for this episode — sooo good! All the people that are on the show now are so good at RP’ing their characters that I can’t wait for the next episode. I feel like all the world building Adam has done will come to full fruition now. Dare I say it, this brings back feelings of Swan Song, even though we’ve only seen one episode with the new format. It’s astonishing how much more I personally gravitate to the RP side of things instead of the combat-tactics-minmax-powergaming side.
@AdamKoebel When you described the priest of death, you mentioned his scars that covered his skin. In a German scifi book I read years ago, an immortal man had the same features — scars covering his whole body from all the minor injuries he had accumulated over his lifetime. That’s why at first I thought you were describing one of the immortals, but I assume with how the episode developed it’s safe to say he isn’t immortal?
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I missed the first hour, but from what i saw the episode was some nice RP. It was clear that the players were feeling out the characters and the interactions between them and it added a bit drag to the play, but i’m sure it will get better.
I must say i was a bit confused that there would still be people chasing Berg just as an escaped slave as hasn’t there been several years after the first incidents? I hope there is a bit more than meets the eye to this as it starts to feel like an origin story that is told in the start of every new superhero franchise reboot. Levels of epicness do not meet with the fact that these guys are dealing with immortals and problems in heaven.
Special thumbs up for Zeke for noticing the outcry for Alert in chat and explained the character changes he had made. Good indication that he actually has put some taught to the character and how the mechanics work for Rogues and where he gets what ability.
It’s also nice to see that mr Turtles has defined characteristics right from the start. Makes the audience more committed from the start as the can be sure that the player is committed to the character.