Just wanted to say I'm super looking forward to our next session. I haven't had a true D&D itch in a while, and I'm sitting here wanting to play right now.
I want to try to force myself into RPing a little bit more. Maybe I'm still used to having lag, or maybe it's the mental block of playing a female character, but I do feel like I'm holding back a bit. I may need some of you (most likely Adia) to push me a bit to RP more. I'm coming across as a loot/numbers person, when I really would like to flesh out Serin a bit.
I think for the most part, it's the mental block of being expressive-- There's this stigma of getting into something a little too much. RPing consistently implies that you "care" too much or are getting too "expressive" about something-- which for a female is expected and allowed, whereas for a guy, it's a bit feminate. I've actually found myself thinking that if it weren't for Julie, I wouldn't care to RP or have an interesting character at all. She sort of "allows" the RPing for me.
Sounds odd, and it's a bit of a tangent, but that's my view on things. Summary: I'm having a hard time allowing myself to RP a female character, draw me out some.
For an example-- I do like the idea of Adia and Serin being more or less friends (despite Serin not completely caring for how psychotic Adia can be), and back in the Kobold den I liked how Adia engaged Serin and asked her opinions and whatnot.
BTW: This isn't a "Pay more attention to me!!" post. This is just me saying that I want to try to RP more, and could use a little nudging if you people care to nudge.
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Also, I had a thought about Rituals-- As I'm sure Gusto knows, and I think Saryon has the Ritual Caster feat as well, rituals are very expensive to cast. Rituals can be extremely handy (or extremely quirky and purely for RP), but their cost makes them almost always not worth the casting. (In this game and Dave's, I've yet to see a Ritual used for this reason.)
So my thought was that, since Rituals usually help the party, by accomplishing some goal or whatever, should we make it a custom that anytime someone wants to cast a Ritual or is considering casting one, we split the cost evenly betwixt the 5 of us?
This would make the "Not-All-That-Expensive-But-Still-Too-Expensive" Comprehend Language Ritual go from costing 10gp to cast to 2gp per person. Where the first might hurt our still-developing wallets (at least in terms of worth), none of us would have a problem parting with 2gp so someone can understand what that Ogre just said, right?
And I was just looking at a really entertaining ritual (already forgot what it was) that cost 80gp to cast. 80gp?? Really?? I would NEVER cast that! (Granted, Serin doesn't have Ritual Casting. But if she did! I would never cast that!) However, taking it down to 16gp per person is quite reasonable.
I don't know if it was already the unspoken decision to help the Ritual Casters out financially when they wanted to cast something, but I wanted to see if you'd all like to make it "official" that this is our practice. That way, instead of Errik or Saryon going, "Hmm, I could get this Ritual.. It wouldn't be too bad if the others helped pay.. But what if they don't? Eh, screw it," it'd be more like, "Oh, awesome. I can make us all water walk for 5gp!" or whatever the cost is.
Votes?
PS: Buying the ritual is another matter-- I'm not saying we should help pay for the initial purchase, as a wizard buying a ritual is akin to a fighter buying his sword, and it's a personal transaction.
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Added again: The same could go for Alchemy, though the difference there is that instead of benefitting the whole party, Alchemy sort of creates items that might be used as a weapon, or give a bonus, or something like that. So each member of the party paying 5gp each so a character can throw an acid vial at an enemy makes less sense than a character using a ritual to Ward Undead from the party. Although, items such as Alchemical Silver, which makes a weapon ignore a creature's Insubstantial status, might be seen as "benefitting the whole party," in which case it would make sense to split the cost. Nobody here has Alchemy as far as I know, but what are thoughts regardless, in case one of us were to consider taking the feat? (Personally, I was considering taking Ritual Caster as well, but then we'd have 3 Ritual Casters. Though it wouldn't matter much if each character had different rituals.)