Well, I think I should probably issue a closing statement about this game.
This was the second forum game I've run, and it's been an improvement over the previous one. When Avery came back and posted, I immediatly got to work on a new update having found passion once again, but as the day ended, I realized the real reason why I let this game die. It became too much work for me. The passion was there but when updates literally take hours upon hours of your time, you better pray that the game you're updating is as good as
escape from motel hell, and in my opinion, I don't think was.
I let the early success get to me and I ended up upping the ante to a point where I couldn't handle it anymore (it also didn't help that cutting a ravine through the arena derailed some of my initial plans). There were also some design flaws that I never addressed such as a needlessly complicated magic system (why do you need a d20?),my poor interpretations of die rolls (Avery should have died when Atrius punched him), environmental hazards (all they do is add arbitrary save or die moments and rob a player of kill), and finally too much prose.
My previous game was also killed due to design flaws and I don't regret the decision. On the bright side, I did better this time, I improved! The art was better, the scope was tighter, more players joined, some guys definitely had fun. If I run a game again, it will probably using a premade ruleset such as D&D or minimalist RTD. That way, I won't have to worry about my competence at designing rules, only my competence as a writer (which could use improvement, I use too much punctuation) and my competence as a GM? That last sentence didn't come out right. What I mean to say is that badly designed rules wouldn't be the sole, insurmountable cause of my failure (I still need to work on interpreting die rolls).
Anyway, I had fun, and I hope you guys did too, but I think it's time we say good bye now