Ironclaw: The Will to Power

Game Master UltraFennec

An Ironclaw: Squaring the Circle game set in the environs of Triskellian, with potential to expand further. Focused on the intrigue and violence surrounding the conflicts between the rising Guilds, with a lighthearted base tone.


101 to 150 of 1,052 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | next > last >>

Male Otter Marine

I thought it was an endearing nickname >:

=P


Male Raccoon: d6 Witch Finder: d6

It is! As a player I don't mind. I'm thinking James is going to end up being the friend that Delroy loves to hate. :P


Female Bat : Star Elementalist

And, of course, little Natalia is miffed that she's been ignored.
The waft of wind is just my local color, being an elementalist, things of that nature sometimes happen around Natalia when she's getting ready to lose her temper. (~_^) As long as the GM allows for the odd elemental effect, that is.
Thinking about it, since both Rozsa and Guillame know Natalia from earlier, they might recognize the warning sign of Natalia's temper tantrums.


Tiger Taoist, Sworddancer

Quinn doesn't even realize that James problem had anything to do with being nobles, in her land commoners would have been highly offended.


Male Raccoon: d6 Witch Finder: d6

It's suddenly pick on the otter day? Or is that every day?

@Natalia: All in due time. New player chaos and all that.


Male Otter Marine

lolz, it appears Ive created a character whos crassness is so amazing, it just inspires hate from noble characters. My work is complete XD


Male Raccoon: d6 Witch Finder: d6
James Reaver wrote:
lolz, it appears Ive created a character whos crassness is so amazing, it just inspires hate from noble characters. My work is complete XD

*High five.*


Tiger Taoist, Sworddancer

I think Quinn would hate James even if she was a begger. The only question is whether James has redeeming aspects.


Male Raccoon: d6 Witch Finder: d6
UltraFennec wrote:
A) I've been debating with myself whether to put the PCs into the "Heroic" chargen category or not. It would give you guys one better stat die, 5 more skill marks (and a higher cap on skills to start), and two more gifts. It might jive with the more lighthearted tone I'm going for, or it might make the game too easy.

Looks like that's been answered already. I don't mind the normal character level.

UltraFennec wrote:
A1) Are any of the other variant rules interesting? I'm not sold on most of them, but tell me if there's one you just can't live without, I'll consider its use.

None I can think of off the top of my head, except maybe 'Flaws'.

UltraFennec wrote:
B) Does counting each Adventure (essentially each minor plot arc) as a Chapter sound OK?

Sounds right to me.

UltraFennec wrote:
C) How much XP is too much to give out, and what rate is too quick for advancement? Now consider the other end of the scale.

I've been in an online Play by post for about five years (IC 1) and the advancement there feels really slow. I guess we'll wait and see how you handle it, because there can be such a thing as moving too fast.


Male Otter Marine
Quinn Hildring wrote:
I think Quinn would hate James even if she was a begger. The only question is whether James has redeeming aspects.

He's a pirate, the idea is that he's got no class, no respect, and ideas on who deserves respect that dont jive with the average person. But he has a heart of gold and is loyal to a fault.

You'll never see him give you the courtesy of actually using proper names and titles, but he will gladly die for you if you're a friend.


Tiger Taoist, Sworddancer

So he believes no one at all deserves respect?(Most people I know would find his behavior rude and not all of them come from upstanding birth)
Or he just doesn't care enough to show any. Besides Quinn is the one you need to convince not me. ;)


Male Otter Marine
Quinn Hildring wrote:

So he believes no one at all deserves respect?(Most people I know would find his behavior rude and not all of them come from upstanding birth)

Or he just doesn't care enough to show any. Besides Quinn is the one you need to convince not me. ;)

The latter. Rank and title mean nothing, you have to earn his respect before he will give you any. Very much a man of action who doesn't like mincing words and finds politeness to be too much of a bother either way.

In short, yes, he's just rude. But that doesn't mean he isn't nice at heart xD


Male Raccoon: d6 Witch Finder: d6

Delroy is trying so hard to allow himself to ignore the rudeness, As for respect, The raccoon and I are somewhat similar. Everyone he meets is shown a moderate level of respect. If they deserve less or more, he'll gladly show what's appropriate.


Female Weasel Dilettante
Delroy Callidus wrote:
May I inquire as to your character's origin? I'm still getting used to the Calabrian analogues of Real World cultures.

Delroy:

If you mean in terms of the book, the Lissemanteau appear on page 161, 162, 173 and 222 of the IC:StC book, and appear to have had some legitimacy at some point in the Avoirdupois' eyes (it's difficult to imagine them being permitted to become a minor noble house among the old-era Avoirdupois if they didn't, but it isn't expressly stated) but at one point a few hundred years ago they switched sides and went Doloreaux. Their lands are in the contested land of the Lyore river valley, which seems like it goes back and forth between the Avoirdupois and Doloreaux every so often. So they now have some reputation as turncoats and backstabbers, and it is suggested on page 22 that their current land is not their own, and is stolen, so they may be displaced. There are hints of this in Rosza's deeper background which may or may not become apparent depending on where we end up going and if some NPCs do or do not show up.

If you mean in terms of 'what real-world nation are they based on', I'm not really picking out a single, particular one, but the Avoirdupois certainly have a very chivalric French character, and the Doloreaux, I'm not quite sure...So if you consider her, oh...a border noble from a family that many are skeptical of, and whose loyalties are rather questionable (despite the fact that the big toe-heel-turn happened almost four hundred years ago...Familial and national memories run long). Perhaps (I don't know how deep your European historical knowledge runs) if you imagine a French minor noble of Calais (which was ceded to the English after the battle of Crecy by the Treaty of Brétigny) who enthusiastically went English-loyal (most did, it was that or die even if they hadn't in some way helped the English), perhaps that might be suitable...If the situation had continued for another four centuries instead of France reabsorbing Calais in 1430. So after four centuries nobody is liable to kill her just for wandering around Avoirdupois lands but she may well be treated with suspicion. On the other hand, noone would question her nobility unless they expected or desired a trial of combat, and even Avoirdupois nobles would support her against a commoner (Ironclaw is not a modern "medieval fair" where everyone is 'sir or ma'am' or 'my lord or my lady', but rather a setting where nobility means something, and commoners really don't have much in the way of rights against nobles)...So she's a a minor noblewoman from a family with a four-hundred year reputation for underhanded dealing, betrayal, backstabbing...

If you want an idea of character, then I tend to think of her as a cross between D'Artagnan and Vladmir Táltos in his younger days when he wasn't the big boss.

As to the current charlie-foxtrot,

James Reaver wrote:

He's a pirate, the idea is that he's got no class, no respect, and ideas on who deserves respect that dont jive with the average person. But he has a heart of gold and is loyal to a fault.

You'll never see him give you the courtesy of actually using proper names and titles, but he will gladly die for you if you're a friend.

...and...

James Reaver wrote:

The latter. Rank and title mean nothing, you have to earn his respect before he will give you any. Very much a man of action who doesn't like mincing words and finds politeness to be too much of a bother either way.

In short, yes, he's just rude. But that doesn't mean he isn't nice at heart xD

This could be a serious problem, and NOT simply in the sense of in-party relationships, because names and titles do matter in the Ironclaw setting, so much so that there are express rules laid out for their social effects.

Suggest you eyeball the sourcebook a bit more. Ironclaw is more like the real Medieval/Renaissance periods in that nobility actually means something, and a big part of what it means is that a noble is ONLY subject to the judgement of his/her peers - it's not QUITE as nasty as Japanese kirisutogomen (the right to kill a peasant because they are a peasant, even if your only reason is to test a new sword) but if Rosza (or Natalia, or Guillaume, or (probably) Quinn), murdered James at the table in cold blood, the only testimony in this room that would matter would be that of the nobles present. Twenty, thirty, or a hundred commoners wouldn't matter.

The tavernkeeper is liable to throw James out for fear of having bad noble attention come down on him...And any number of folk might happily beat the crap out of James just to try to curry the slightest bit of favor from watching nobles.

Interestingly, Triskellian is the only place in the world where if James killed a noble he would be tried by his peers, rather than simply sentenced by a magistrate (who wielded by extension the power of the Don, a noble). And Triskellian is the seat of Rinaldi power, and the Rinaldi are more sensitive than most households to the idea of their power being undermined by commoners. This isn't modern America.

James is behaving in a way that, as a commoner, asks for him to be killed out of hand...By any noble, or by commoners who want to curry favor with nobles. The Rinaldi are in a position where they're plugging holes in their hereditary respect and power and are quite able to understand that if they let the commoners get too uppity, they will get an engraved invitation to the feast of Madame Guillotine.

Going to wait for UF to weigh in on this, because things could go quite badly.


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

For anyone who cares, I know we just started the call for the demo game...not actually sure where/when this is going to end up streamed...it's supposedly happening somewhere though.


Male Raccoon: d6 Witch Finder: d6

I'm interested in watching.


Female Weasel Dilettante
Delroy Callidus wrote:
I'm interested in watching.

Same!


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

Well, it's gonna be on Rafferty's livestream channel whenver he stops getting DC problems.

LINK!


Female Weasel Dilettante

Oh, hey, James, on your next post could you perhaps tell us a bit more what we SEE? Other than 'otter'? Attitude, age, armor, weapons, hat, whatever...


Tiger Taoist, Sworddancer

Well darn I guess I didn't get home in time to watch, and it's not in the library either. Am I missing a way to watch the channels history?


Male Raccoon: d6 Witch Finder: d6

I hope not! I wanna see the archive. If we all demand it, they'll have to post it! Mua ha ha ha!

Rosza Juette de Vieuxpont wrote:
Oh, hey, James, on your next post could you perhaps tell us a bit more what we SEE? Other than 'otter'? Attitude, age, armor, weapons, hat, whatever...

I hope I did well enough? In old IC, he'd be 6 stone of weight, and 12 hands high.

84 pounds
48 inches = 4 feet high.

He's a little guy.


Male Otter Marine

Nope, he's not big but he's quick. Very young and would look green if not for a few scars from obviously having lived a lawless life. Hes basically in a world he does not belong to on land.


Female Weasel Dilettante
James Reaver wrote:
Nope, he's not big but he's quick. Very young and would look green if not for a few scars from obviously having lived a lawless life. Hes basically in a world he does not belong to on land.

Okay, so he's scarred. Is he dressed as a sailor? Hat? Visible weaponry or armor?

Sorry, but I occasionally use visible details about other peoples' characters in considering reaction to them or interaction with them.

And yes, Delroy's entrance was very descriptive, thanks!


Male Otter Marine

visible shortswords and a crossbow strapped to his back, dressed a bit raggedy but is in sailors garb.


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

Well, technically the game still uses stone for weight and hands for measurement, but since I haven't internalized those you'll probably see imperial system measurement more often, or the odd metric one on my off days.

On one hand, the differences in weight and height can be amusing and interesting to a degree. On the other hand my brain consistently portrays characters as human sized no matter what I tell it (this makes halflings in DnD a very odd thing), and so I've learned to leave out height measurements from descriptions because they all end up being the same two or three sets of numbers, lol.

@Quinn: I know Rafferty said he was going to archive it while we were talking post-game-stream, but I also know that he was running out of cache space near the end there, and some problems may have cropped up. Also, he's frantically working on the last bits of things for Book of Jade so he might have just forgotten it.


Male Otter Marine

so as you can tell that roll didn't matter at all. But for the future how does dice rolling work on this board, as it apparently isn't like the vBulletin dice rolling extension to bb code.


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

You can find the die rolling coding in the "How to format your text" spoiler below the posting box for future reference. You actually did it right, but sub in "dice" for "roll."

And because the board is setup default for Pathfinder, you will have to enter each die separately or separated via semicolon to make sure they aren't added together.

Only other note: I believe Misfortune is not readily perceivable, so without supernatural you probably wouldn't actually be able to detect it at work. Strong suspicion would be appropriate, but you're outside the edit window for the boards by now.

Really hope they add in a bigger edit window for the PbP boards one day. I could make a lot of use of that.


Male Raccoon: d6 Witch Finder: d6

Let's hope I can continue accessing the site.
I just now remembered, looking over my last post, that rather soon Delroy will be meeting one of those Phelani 'savages' he just spoke of. That just makes it funnier.


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

Speaking of which, Ceallach can make his entrance any time he wants to. I don't feel a particular need to impede his progress, and I'm sure he can think up any number of grand entrances.

Also speaking of things, I put links in the Campaign Info tab to the official Sanguine Games website and their forum, where you may be able to poke the people who love and/or write this game about things.

You should also check out the other games Sanguine makes, because they are uniformly awesome, and if your friends balk at "furry," tell them to check out Noggle Stones after you're done laughing at them for being ignorant.


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4
Natalia Ivanova wrote:

And, of course, little Natalia is miffed that she's been ignored.

The waft of wind is just my local color, being an elementalist, things of that nature sometimes happen around Natalia when she's getting ready to lose her temper. (~_^) As long as the GM allows for the odd elemental effect, that is.
Thinking about it, since both Rozsa and Guillame know Natalia from earlier, they might recognize the warning sign of Natalia's temper tantrums.

As long as you don't try to get mechanical effects out of your color/fluff text, we're all gravy.

Now if you were to start smacking people with an elemental weapon, that might be different...


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

Random notes:

1) Authorizing the use of Flaws for people that want to use 'em, which honestly should be everybody because THEY GIVE YOU XP FOR RPING CHARACTER FLAWS.

2)If you find/have art that represents your character better than the forum avatar you possess, feel free to link or post it in your profile so we can see it. I will recommend Jason Greywolf's Ironclaw RPG page to people who just want a general idea of what this stuff tends to look like, feel free to use the stuff for portraits if you desire.

3) The Book of Jade Kickstarter is over with in a week, and Sanguine would love you forever for supporting their stuff. Also, if you pre-order the supplement via pledging to the Kickstarter, you don't pay postage for your physical books if you order one. ;)


Male Raccoon: d6 Witch Finder: d6

Well this picture here is a drawing of a different character that also happens to be a raccoon and Thaumaturge (Also a Cognoscenti.) So instead of drawing another raccoon wizard, I'll just present this one.


Female Weasel Dilettante

Hmmm. In regards to flaws, I think I've already handed you a list of enemies for Rosza Juette, so 'enemy' is probably the shoo-in. I don't think 'code of honor' applies to her very well, nor 'chivalry', and she seems the sort to twist 'duty' to her advantage whenever she can possibly get away with it (and undoubtedly tried to a few times when she couldn't get away with it).

The girl does seem to make enemies easily. You can add to the list any number of members of minor noble houses whose brothers/cousins/nephews/beaus have ended up holding the bag for some of Rosza's escapades.

Also, Delroy: Awesome! Neat origami there, too.

Huh. I haven't drawn a damn thing in about a month. I should uncrate my tablet and try my hand at RJ.


Male Otter Marine

Delroy is having a bad day lolz xD


Male Raccoon: d6 Witch Finder: d6

I'd ink that picture in GIMP if I could get my Bamboo Crap tablet recognised by the program, the new edition of GIMP has much more powerful tools for brush dynamics and pen tablets, but it's being really flaky in that I can't figure out how to adjust the settings.

I'll keep working on that.

James, It's even funnier than you think…


Male Otter Marine

I actually don't remember character flaws being in this edition. If I recall properly, it was something from first edition that was dropped. Its been awhile since I looked at the first few pages of the book though, so I may have missed it.


Female Weasel Dilettante

They're under the optional rules.


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

It's pages 338 and 339, the last two pages before the index I believe.


Female Bat : Star Elementalist
Delroy Callidus wrote:

I hope I did well enough? In old IC, he'd be 6 stone of weight, and 12 hands high.

84 pounds
48 inches = 4 feet high.

He's a little guy.

Actually, everyone ends up being 'little' in Ironclaw.

Looking at the various sample character sheets, you can see that 15 hands high is tall, and smaller people of 6 hands high (and less, for Natalia) is not uncommon.

And as for flaws, I'll have to look at them. Although Natalia's actions and manners suggest at least two (or one interrelated one) right off the bat.


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

I just have a bit of trouble taking an entire world of people who average halfling size seriously. It's irrational, but it's there. Thus why I tend to avoid the measurements, or put down ones that are more human-sized. I did the same thing reading Redwall books. Having one character be nearly an order of magnitude smaller/larger than another creates a huge cognitive dissonance for me for whatever odd reason.

*shrugs* It's not like it impacts the game all that much, and as long as I try not to specifically describe things in ways at odds with character descriptions.


Female Bat : Star Elementalist

As to Deloy's last post, Natalia isn't wearing Dunwasser's robe currently. She's opted for armor and a dress (since the benifit of wearing the robes is a higher level Gift she doesn't have yet).
She does carry her dioptera and a wand, though. Definately the marks of a Dunwasser elementalist.


Tiger Taoist, Sworddancer

Yeah for foreigners and their unfamilier garb! :D
I can't wait to see his suprise when I cast, hehe.


Male Raccoon: d6 Witch Finder: d6

Just so I don't screw up farther, what doe Messer mean?


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

Messer is usually a title for artisans and well-to-do merchants. Rosza posted a pretty good explanation of typical historical titles from Renaissance Italy somewhere in this thread, which is nice because I'm pushing that angle for Triskellian.


Female Weasel Dilettante
Delroy Callidus wrote:
Just so I don't screw up farther, what doe Messer mean?

Sorry, I keep tossing languages in. It's meant to be a flavor-thing, not a 'what the f*&~ are you saying?' thing, so I hope most of it is fairly easy to read from context. I'm sort of operating under the assumption that the Avoirdupois more-or-less speak French, general Calabrese ("the common tongue") is English, and UF pointed up the idea of the Reynaldi (and by default, Triskellian) as Italian.

"One of the learned class of scholars, lawyers or notaries may go by messer, while an artisan may be maestro or maestra. A degreed scholar is a dottore or dottora."

Posted more medieval italiano stuff earlier in the thread here.

Bonus Ermine Title Silliness:
(since it has no real context to figure it from, Rosza's silly title is actually somewhat redundant: Esquire, from the Old French escuier (modern French écuyer), derived from the Late Latin scutarius ("shield bearer" or in medieval or Old English "a scutifer"). The Classical Latin equivalent was armiger, "arms bearer".) and an epee is a type of sword (in Ironclaw as well, viz. "epee de Alumen")(while the English 'esquire' means a member of the gentry, 'écuyer' (female: écuyere) in French is specific to hereditary nobility), so "a noble of the sword" (as opposed to "a noble of the court")...Which is a sort of way of saying her house expects her to get into a certain kind of trouble occasionally, preferably in a legal fashion and on their behalf...Though of course they can cheerfully wash their hands of anything stupid or illegal that she does...She has no legal rights other than those accruing to the nobility in general.)


Male Raccoon: d6 Witch Finder: d6

I figured it was analogous to 'Mister' via context, but I'd rather be 100% certain before commiting to a post. Then I end up handling it in a way that makes the knowledge a moot point for the time being. :P

So, yes, we can call Delroy Messer once he's completed this assignment. As a commoner, he feels he must earn his title.


Female Weasel Dilettante

You people are going to make poor Rosza have to be the one to say something about maligning the poor, misunderstood rats, aren't you?


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

As an aside, it is totally awesome that you guys have suddenly clung to the Phelan atavist over two people considered at least marginally "civilized" by your peers. It is hilarious. +1! XD


Female Weasel Dilettante

Hope everyone has had a happy long weekend?

And I think it's because the Atavist hasn't been quite so obstreperously blatant about 'challenging the peerage'. ;)


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

Ooh, obstreperous. Great word.

I've been having a pretty darn good time, and I hope everyone else has too! Hopefully we can get things truly underway soon and start some real investigation...and possibly kick some deserved booty.

101 to 150 of 1,052 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | next > last >>
Community / Forums / Online Campaigns / Play-by-Post Discussion / Ironclaw: The Will to Power Discussion All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.