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.


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Tiger Taoist, Sworddancer

oohhh! Booty, I like glittery and pretty booty and I like kicking ugly booty, I guess I like booty. :)


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

I'm trying to provide booty for everyone of many stripes. Hopefully we can resolve our differences, at least temporarily, so we can get on with the business and get everyone some Gifts for completing this Goal. Because it's a Goal. I'm sure I forgot to say that, now that I think of it.

This job is a Goal: Find the missing shipments!


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

And I've just noticed that a few of you players don't have your starting Goals listed in your character sheets. Might wanna fix that. ;)

Don't make it anything too terribly difficult to manage. They're there for you to quickly pick up an extra boost after all.


Male Raccoon: d6 Witch Finder: d6

My gimme goal was the same as this, technically, can I make it "Find an adventuring party without getting killed?"


Female Weasel Dilettante

I think RJ's goal is adequately achievable.

And she's willing to move out once Natalia seems as if she's at least finding James' apology adequate, and James has posted, since he hasn't in a bit.

Is everyone in a 'quick, get on the road, let's tromp off to find bandits!' mode, or should we, say, check around town to see what else has been stolen on the V.Salutis lately? Might be extra rewards!


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

@Delroy: Your goal isn't quite the same as the one presented. Succeeding in your first job may or may not include successfully finding those shipments. Videliei hired you to find out what happened to his stuff, and if that includes bringing it back to him, cool. If not, well things happen.

ie-the two are fine as is IMO.


Male Raccoon: d6 Witch Finder: d6

Excellent, very good judgement call and clairification. We could find the shipments and not know what happened.


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

;)

It's entirely possible that the group could find the missing shipments and have no clue what was going on as a whole beyond what they already know, so I have to make such distinctions.


Female Weasel Dilettante

Tripped across this (totally work-safe) art by "EvilKitty3". Wrong gender and colorscheme for RJ, but this fellow would qualify in a heartbeat for one of her hangers-on!

Have we heard anything out of James since Friday?


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

No, but the main thrust of things are waiting on Ceallach, and he's suddenly being very careful about his wording...:\


Male Otter Marine

anything I say is going to cause more inflamatory crap, and I want to get the actual mission on the road. Ive thought about posting but I wont say anything that doesn't prolong things longer =P


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

And to think I didn't want the first two adventures to take a long time...XD/le sigh.


Female Weasel Dilettante

I think the question becomes 'Are we having fun?'

If you're having fun roleplaying your character the way they'd act, that's fine. I'm sure you understood what you were doing when you created the character and I'm totally cool with that.


Tiger Taoist, Sworddancer

He may not of realized how much of a problem he might be for some though. :)


Female Weasel Dilettante

I seem to be having some weird problem posting to the game forum. Not quite sure what's up.

EDIT: That worked fine. Wonder what the deal is with the gameplay forum?!


Male Otter Marine

As far as setting went? Yeah I knew it was going to clash with how things worked, and the nobility would find him revolting. Really I thought it would be funny and go with the supposed 'light-hearted' tone UltraFennec was aiming at. I didn't expect immediate threat of bar fight though, no. XD


Female Weasel Dilettante

Grr. Noscript was flipping out over something in the text of my post, of all things, and not permitting the POST to go up, as if it involved some kind of XSS. Bizarre.

James, sorry that's not what you were expecting, I didn't imagine 'light-hearted' would mean discarding significant social elements of the world/setting in that sense.

I tend to think of 'light-hearted' more in terms of 'expect humor, dramatic craziness wins out over gritty tactics, and we won't be traipsing through the middle of a Plague unless it's somehow funny rather than terrifying and horrific.'

As opposed to, oh, dark fantasy, like anything involving The Black Company


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

Just because I think of one thing when I make the game up doesn't mean it'll get to be that way. I'm only one player of seven total, after all.

My aim is to have room for both of those possible event interpretations to happen, tempered as necessary by the realities of the setting.

Think Redwall but written for contemporary adult readers and you'll have a decent idea of what prompted me to set the tone for the game. That things happen outside that idea enriches the game, not breaks it.


Male Otter Marine

It's no biggy. When I think light-hearted, I think Saturday morning cartoon stuff. I don't expect your character to change at all really, and that sort of back and forth was fun to me. I was more referring to Quinn who almost did take a swing. XD

But no harm no foul, in context wont change all that much, I'm just being more careful as to when I post right now so that the story can continue beyond a point where I'm about to be group pummeled :3


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

If Saturday morning cartoons are what you're thinking, think of the various and sundry fantasy/sci-fi/comic adaptation cartoons from the early 90s to about...oh, 2003. The average one of them contains plots and character elements that, while written with a young audience in mind also contains deeper bits for the enjoyment of parents who may or may not be forced to watch alongside the kids.

Take the wonderful X-Men or Batman: TAS cartoons for example. While they deal in a lot of violence and rather serious subjects, at their core they're adventure stories where at the end of each plot arc things are generally A-OK...until the next bad thing comes along anyway. That's kinda what I was going for.

I expect the game will go deeper and become less literally light in tone as we go on by virtue of the needs of dramatic storytelling in communal mode, but that's OK too. As long as we don't end up in serious land for serious people with no funny bones, we'll be good.


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

Aaaaaaaaaaand I'll put in my 2 cents in Gameplay once I've slept and can read the rulebook again, cause we might finally need it for something.


Female Weasel Dilettante

Aaaaaah, every other gaming board I've ever been on, if you 'preview' a post with die rolls in it, it acts like you edited the post...And in either of those cases that causes the forum to upchuck a bunch of 'These rolls may have been edited!!!' nonsense.

James Reaver wrote:
that sort of back and forth was fun to me. I was more referring to Quinn who almost did take a swing. XD

Oh, I think that RJ was about as close as Quinn was, although RJ wouldn't have been trying to kill James, just humiliate the heck out of him...Which by her lights she did, at least in the amount of deliberate insults and aspersions seemed to fly right past him.

And fear not, she actually (ICly) has a clever plan(tm) to keep James from being pounded on by half a dozen varied weasels out to 'defend the Madonna Vieuxpont's honor' the next time he opens his mouth.


Male Otter Marine

Ah, I'm not worried, murdering James is a lot harder than his demeanor would make it seem ;).

And humiliation attempts are pretty much what I did expect. It's completely in character for a noble to try and put James in his place. Whether or not that place contains him at first is another matter all together.

I might post something in a bit if I can think of a way not to make tables thrown with the party on edge as it is.


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

Is this, ah, a clever plan like Edmund Blackadder has a clever plan, or something truly clever?


Female Weasel Dilettante

Only one way to know for sure, hmmm?


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

Just waiting for everyone to confirm what they're doing. Rushing about takes a bit of time, so your GoI gossips will have your results at the gate when they meet you there.

And then we'll cue next scene, and everyone will get their first bit of XP because this feels like the end of a Chapter to me.


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

And as of 11.59 PM EST last night, Book of Jade has been funded via Kickstarter. YEY!

Meaning that sometime this month I'll have my PDF copy in my hot little hands (figuratively speaking, hardcovers come in July) and I can start combing it for useful things to add to the game, Quinn can decide if she wants to alter anything to reflect her Zhonggese origin, and I can plan that second game in earnest.


Female Weasel Dilettante

Yay! Book of Jade!

Hm.

Have we heard from Natalia this week?


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

I don't think so.

And yey, Book of Jade! I'm so excited I'm recruiting for a Book of Jade campaign on the Sanguine forums, though I'm specifically aiming for new(er) players with that one since there's a bunch of new interest showing up there.

@Everyone: Poast MOAR so we can start real adventuring! I want to give you XP!


Female Bat : Star Elementalist

Still here, I just don't have anything I want to say at this time. We can contunue on with the game.


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

@Natalia: Understood, though sometimes a random descriptive post can galvanize people into action.

Game continues...as soon as people actually leave the bar.


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

Random thing I feel a need to note: technically the northern gate's road connects to the Via Salutis...I assume the east one does eventually too, but it's kinda pointed in the wrong direction. Or I suppose the west gate (not actually on map as far as I can tell).

Also, if you DO manage to find art for your characters, feel free to post them or link them inside your profiles since obviously Paizo ain't putting custom avatars in anywhere.


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

And I just realized I didn't post the results of Rosza's big ol' Gossip roll. DERP.


Female Weasel Dilettante

I was going to ask today if I needed to make a series of "assist" rolls on the gossip thing, but if you want to treat the GoI roll (since it is gossip based) as the overall gossip roll I certainly will not complain.

And hooray, we're in Chapter Two!
===================================

Kicking things off:

So far I'm enjoying this immensely. I am a little worried that Rosza has been the dominant force in several places, but we have mostly been in town and Rosza is a 'social' character rather than a fighter (as will be eminently noticeable when that Gossip roll gets contrasted to her first time in combat...She's meant to be survivably 'adequate' but she doesn't bring nearly the melee capability to the table that our pirate, our outlander, and our atavist will (She does bring between two and seven flamboyant weasel fops, but they're all 'stock' NPCs and roll on 2d6 at best, using only racial and career dice. They don't replace a heroic PC -- particularly as we start advancing and picking up more and larger dice that can 'outroll' a d6 (it only takes 1 roll of 7+ to make all those 6s insignificant)).

I think the table-meet-and-greet-catastrophe was a spot that a few of us enjoyed, but I think some of us may not have. Frankly, I like roleplay > rollplay, and Rosza's head is an amusing place, particularly since I have to keep shoving bits of inconsistency in to be properly weasely without simply being chaotic/arbitrary.

Although she didn't ask to roll the Personality die for it, I think that Rosza's best 'Fortune Favors the Audacious' moment far and away has to be bearding Cedric in his own office and pretending to not only know a hell of a lot more than she did but also to be something of a 'designated' troubleshooter for her House -- when technically Guillaume got the invitation and she's sort of invited herself along to take charge of it. That could have gone quite badly indeed (it still could have rather interesting repercussions depending on how everything turns out). Lying through your teeth to and threatening your employer with dark and nasty repercussions during what amounts to a job interview? :)


Male Raccoon: d6 Witch Finder: d6
UltraFennec wrote:
And now I think I'll move us on to the actual adventuring part! This constitutes our first Chapter (the prologue as it were), and since it took awhile I think it's about time for a debrief. Please use the Discussion thread to point out anything that bothers you, could be done better, lobby for your motto XP, what have you.

Personality is Curious.

I think I did a good job of being curious rather than cautious especially there in the beginning.

Motto is "Secrets Lurk Everywhere."
We're off to find if there's secrets somewhere!

Interesting Chapter, though I came in late, I had fun, especially with the near brawl we almost started at the Wand and Flagon.
I look forward to seeing more of your characters, and more of the story.


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

@Rosza: Since you sent the others off to do the search and didn't yourself participate, I'd say you rolled the right dice. And you got amazingly lucky on them too! The meet-n-greet was a disaster I expected honestly, so no worries there IMO. I'm already planning some object lessons so everybody can learn to deal with each other in-character, though some of them aren't coming along for a while yet.

I think Rosza and James's will be intertwined just to see what happens. Yes, that sounds appropriate and not evil at all.

So that's +1 XP for everyone for the Chapter. Everyone who's thus far lobbied for motto...I think you guys lived up to it, go ahead and take the XP.

Anyone think their Flaw(s) played a significant part? There's that Learning Experience up for grabs...Oh, and then +1 XP for the Debrief since we're doing that now.

So 2 XP base, possible +1 for motto, possible +1 for Flaw.


Male Raccoon: d6 Witch Finder: d6

My Duty has called me to this mission?
It's a stretch.


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

Well, you weren't hindered by it, really, so probably no.


Female Weasel Dilettante

So, 3XP, it sounds like. Rosza's flaw has certainly not come into play yet. There will be no mistaking when that happens.


Male Wolf

I suppose if one counts insulting Triskellian culture in favor of Phelan culture, then I may have shown my motto in action.


Female Bat : Star Elementalist

I don't think I've come close to my motto yet, but it was the first game.
And I haven't picked a flaw yet... although she does have flaws, I don't know if Natalia has "Flaws".

So 2 xp for me.


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

Everybody has a defining character flaw IMO. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. The question is which of Natalia's flaws could be large enough a problem to become a Flaw? So far you've played up her inner monologue involving rapidly escalating anger, so that's a clue right there methinks.

I wouldn't say it proved a hindrance though, so no XP for that. Your motto...no, probably not. It'll be coming into play here in the new Chapter plenty methinks, and probably most of them after that. I like surprising things, so I think you'll have plenty of "new" to see.


Male Otter Marine

The game so far has pretty much gone as expected on my end. I think being bold and showing his own form of honor has given James enough to live up to his motto. I think hes also lived up to his flaw of "Crass" incredibly well, as his crassness nearly caused a brawl. =P

4 xp is what that comes to if I mathed right?


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

It did actively hinder you from making any sort of general friendliness it seems, so I'll OK the Learning Experience.


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

Is there anything I'm doing/not doing that I should not be doing/be doing? Or too early to tell?


Male Raccoon: d6 Witch Finder: d6

Too early to tell.


Female Weasel Dilettante
UltraFennec wrote:
Is there anything I'm doing/not doing that I should not be doing/be doing? Or too early to tell?

So far, it seems like you've been doing fine? Admittedly better than half of what's gone on so far has been inter-player character interaction. Provided you can balance all the dice and more multiple-character interactions as things progress, I think you'll be fine!


Male Raccoon: d6 Witch Finder: d6

I'll be gone for a couple of days, though I'll see if I can get here on my phone to post!


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

OK. I'll try not to throw any important clues about supernatural witchery out while you're gone and can't respond...no promises though. ;)


Male Raccoon: d6 Witch Finder: d6

I'm back!

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