After a long wait and much preparation, we finally kicked off our new campaign for Pathfinder, to tell the tale of the Carrion Crown. This is something that I have posted about numerous times, and it was the resumption of “normal” gaming in our Covid filled world. As planned, we had our full group of 10 players, which made for a rather crowded game.
On the technology side, the stream configuration was acceptable. Graphics and video quality were good, except for two of the side players being out of frame for most of the game. Some of the graphics could use some adjustment both in placement and scale to make them more functional, but that is purely cosmetic. Audio was however the challenge – although I was loud, many of the player were just too soft to pick up clearly. That was partially a function of microphone placement, and partially since I had turned down the gain due to the presence of a fan in the room. Unfortunately, it resulted in most of the group being difficult to hear – and some entirely inaudible. Definitely room for improvement, and will be working on some alternative options.
From the storyline, the challenge seemed to be mainly around getting back into the role-playing mentality. Since we have not gamed as a group in over a year, there was a bit of over eagerness to get into combat and have some action. This storyline however is more of a slow start, developing the background and history, and laying out the plot to build tension. Unfortunately the group (one or two in particular) quickly switched into deadly combat mode, and before they realized what was going on had murdered several of the locals whom they needed to help. We recovered, but it will likely take a couple of games to adjust back into the mood of the game.
We have the video archive of the session, which I was eager to see reached an audience of 3 concurrent viewers (which is typically 2 viewers more than I typically register). Hopefully with some improvements in the audio and formatting, as the story grows, so will the viewer count.
