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Rigo's could be grumble ;) through growl works too
And I shall be gravity as that is the law that will be affecting me while climbing buildings :D
All, note that - just for fun, I am colouring in your map of the Circus Macabre as you look around it... in terms of where we are in the story, I'm just attempting to give you a little bit of the flavour of the Circus before the story crashes down upon you once more.
Computer is down for I don't know how long and posting from my phone is questionable at best but I will try. Though please bot me if need to
So, I'm working my way through some of the suggested reading for the Blight - I had another flit through the Graphic Novel version of 'Neverwhere' and I am in the middle of discovering China Mieville - I read 'Un Lun Dun' over the christmas period (rather fun and some interesting concepts around 'abcities' which may have repercussions on our adventures) and have now started on 'The Scar' which has some fantastically evocative writing...
Any fun reads from you folks? Current or long-standing favourites?
Rereading the Shattered Star gameplay thread.
I've also been listening to the Way of Kings audiobook, though I kinda of got stalled on that one. Keep meaning to pick it back up.
Recently read the Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. It's pretty good and I want to get the other books in the series. Also, if you ever get the chance, read the Codex Alera by Jim Butcher. I recently finished it. If you never have seen him talk about how he got the idea for the book, I'd watch this. The fun stuff's about 2 and a half minutes in.
Sci-Fi :
Honorverse Series By David Weber
Kris Longknife Series By Mike Shepperd
Fantasy :
The Belgariad Series By David Eddings
The Ellenium Series By David Eddings
Modern Fantasy :
Mercy Thompson Series By Patricia Briggs
Iron Druid Chronicles By Kevin Hearne
Two really weird Old Ones from the decade I study:
"Citadel of Fear" by Gertrude Barrows Bennett (aka Francis Stephens), 1918. Very proto-Indiana Jones. What happens if you find a magic hidden city in Mexico (with attendant issues of early 20th C imperialist superiority complexes, beware). Vats of primordial ooze, dark gods, fleshcrafting wizardry. From "The woman who invented dark fantasy." I need to read more by her--she influenced Lovecraft, and was the first American author of scifi-fantasy to be widely published.
"The Night Land" by William Hope Hodgson, 1912. Influenced Tolkein and George Lucas--there is a scene where a guy wielding the grandaddy of the lightsaber minces an army of the grandaddies of Tolkein's orcs. Amazing in many ways but includes very disturbing scenes of domestic violence (it's that the narrator-voice condones the violence that makes it really bad. I dropped the book for over a year before finishing it).
Both have audiobooks on Librivox, tho "The Night Land" is dang long.
Marion Zimmerman Bradley's clingfire trilogy is one of my favorites really any if the Darkover stuff is brilliant.
I will second the The Name of the Wind and the Way of the Kings. Though I have never liked audio books.
I can recommend His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman. The movie for Golden Compass was horrible but the three books have become one of my favorites.
Also Grunts by Mary Gentle. That book is hilarious tho7gh not for the faint of heart. There are twisted halflings, orc marines, and of course a battle between good and evil. Though told from the or and making side of things so I can get a little dark. Also there is some mention of sex but it wasn't to graphic
And of coarse H.P. Lovecraft.
Oh and you all have been busy. There are a lot of posts for me to read. I still don't have my precious computer but I will try to get a post up when I wake up.
This region of Castorhage reminds me of a pulp noir series I read several years ago, The Joe Pitt Casebooks by Charlie Huston. It's vampires meets the mob. In the third book, Half the Blood of Brooklyn, Joe is sent to Brooklyn to meet with a rogue clan of carnival freak vampires. Given their powerful regenerative abilities, some of the acts were quite, uh, gruesome.
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Lordy. I see I have my work cut out for me :). It'll be tomorrow before I'll get a chance to sit down and flip through my latest issues of Dungeons and Drag magazine.
No worries... I seem to have set a bit of a challenge - and you folks have somewhat risen to it!!! Now that we are out of 'simply surviving', the characters are really coming to life... hope none of them die too quickly... [ooc]Oooops, did I say that out aloud?[/oooc]
I plan on doodling Audria over the weekend. I just didn't have time to go on an image dive tonight.
Suggestions for Audria's outfits. Based on the idea that she's not going to want to do bimbo armor or show off a lot of skin either formally or informally.
Daily/Adventuring
Formal/Dressy
Either/Or
I cannot do links on my phone! Curse the lack of a laptop! I am missing all the fun :( Saturday I will have access to a friends laptop so I will get a bigger post in then
Best luck with your computer situation, Alexis! I look forward to playing dress-up with you when you can!
On Rigo's clothing suggestions for Audria, Moira would probably advise her young friend to consider Study in White, but would recommend sturdy boots over high heels. Rakish Rogue and Paisley Purple are nice, too.
No worries... I seem to have set a bit of a challenge - and you folks have somewhat risen to it!!! Now that we are out of 'simply surviving', the characters are really coming to life... hope none of them die too quickly... [ooc]Oooops, did I say that out aloud?[/oooc]
*Shivers*
My computer is returned to me! This is awesome!
Also my fandom might have gotten into the gameplay with one of my links but
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My computer is returned to me! This is awesome!
Good to hear it.... nothing more dreadful than trying to type long passages of text on phones!!!
And ooooh, I'm having a little bit of fun with Uncle Marren... and now he's taken a shine to Moira - fun times ahead!!!
Oh what fun! First Ammos takes a shine to Alexis and Audria, and now Uncle Marren is making googly eyes at Moira. We may need to get this over fast before they start proposing!
:D
I doubt marriage would be on their agendas ;)
I'm Alexis not Audria. Also my fourteen year old self was giving alcohol after a really long and stressful day so she might be a little mentally muddled. Plus I really like the mental image so :P
I've got the itch to run something, and run something I shall!
Can you solve the mystery behind the murders in Black Barrow before it's too late?
I've not settled on a deadline for applications yet. I have enjoyed playing with all of you and and I hope that you guys are interested. The plan is to keep it short, so the time investment shouldn't be that much in PBP terms.
Also, to those of you who are in multiple games with me, I apologize for the number of times you're about to see this.
Interesting! I'll she how my time commitments are looking and if I can squeeze it in I'll post over there. Thanks for the invitation!
Murder mystery you say? And all in a short little game? I will see if something jumps out at me to play. Thank you for the invite!
I'm happy y'all are interested. I've never run a mystery game, so this will be a chance to stretch my brain a bit.
Never played a monk before I think I would like to give that a shot
Just back from a long long journey from Paris (wi-fi wasn't working on the Eurostar so I lost myself in China Mieville's 'The Scar' instead)... exhausted and heading to bed, will move our gruesome little story onwards tomorrow...
Just when Moira started learning "Elven," too. I really really really want to go there someday.
To my games,
I'm on steroids and antibiotics. I've been cycling being well and sick since Christmas, and it appears my lungs were trying to develop pneumonia again. So bear with me and apologies for not posting as regularly as I could have, been a lot more tired/distracted than I realized.
I'm sorry to hear it!
Please do what you can to get healthy again and we'll see you when we see you.
To my games,
I'm on steroids and antibiotics. I've been cycling being well and sick since Christmas, and it appears my lungs were trying to develop pneumonia again. So bear with me and apologies for not posting as regularly as I could have, been a lot more tired/distracted than I realized.
Yeah, get well soon...
- it looks like their are a couple of conversations still trundling along so I'll let them come to an end before I raise the sun once more over Castorhage...
Hope that gets better Rigo.
One thing I noticed whilst I was giving you the information about Castorhage deities... not one of them was aligned as 'Good' (and certainly the ones that you are yet to discover as you explore this diseased metropolis are far from Good)... was I at all surprised?
I wasn't.
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Bleh, finally got a picture of Audria done. I'm so out of practice it's not even funny. Please, just ignore the hands and boots.
Even cuter than what I'd pictured... which was basically River from Firefly so, pretty cute. Although my mind is now adding balls of fire to each of her hands, and suddenly the smile is less carefree and more frightening. I am very fond of that Audria...
Do you have writing projects beyond PbP?
A novel that I need to get back to and a blog where I have some stuff and where I post after action reports of real-time games. Currently working on a far too detailed report of a game session of a Star Wars inspired game.
Defiantly a River vibe.
Also I love how chipper Salon is. Insane and adorable. Off putting and endearing.
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Thank you :).
Also Moira I failed to respond to your remarks about the mortomata! But we'll come 'round to that topic again very soon, I am sure.
I like how several of the characters (Moira, Aishe, Alexis, and even Rigo) are forming the conscience of the group. Audria still seems shell-shocked, but I look forward to seeing her "wake up".
There's shades of it happening now, but it's more her emotions getting the better of her. The hardest part about writing for Audria is that I'm trying to leave Zed room to maneuver while keeping her interesting and engaging. Shell shock is a big part of it, but I, the player, do not know what Zed has come up with for her past. I'm being patient, though. I'm sure what he works in will be worth the wait.
I asked Zed if I could play an amnesiac that woke up in Wicken and if he could come up with how she got there and reveal it in game. I know that's a lot more work on him, and I am grateful that he allowed me to play Audria and coming up with something based on the end point I gave him. He's a champ and deserves far more thanks than I can give him since this is the second character of mine that's woven some new plot threads into what's there. So are the players in the Shattered Star game because of how much I feel Joanna tends to take over the plot at times.
Really, the only things that I've come up with are how badly injured she was when she first came to Wicken and the bubbly personality that she had before the village got crusaded all over the place. The self-doubt is a natural result of not knowing who she was a year ago, and anything beyond those few things are just vague implications to leave the doors open for Zed. To be honest Audria is going to almost be as much his character as she is mine.
That said, Zed, if you want me to start nailing things down, I can. Like I said, I know I put a lot on you with Audria's concept and not wanting to know myself so I could roleplay her better. I'm grateful that you've let me get away with this much. :)
There's shades of it happening now, but it's more her emotions getting the better of her. The hardest part about writing for Audria is that I'm trying to leave Zed room to maneuver while keeping her interesting and engaging. Shell shock is a big part of it, but I, the player, do not know what Zed has come up with for her past. I'm being patient, though. I'm sure what he works in will be worth the wait.
I think, for the purposes of expectations management, right now you folks are (to most of an uncaring Castorhage) little more than some strangers who happened to wash up on the shores of Festival... frankly, you are still 'nothings' - and whatever / whoever it was in Audria's past that led her to arriving, damaged and without memory, in Wicken - the group have not made enough ripples to alert them to the fact that Audria has returned...
TLDR; it's in my plans to do something fun with Audria's past... just not yet :)
Hi all,
Feeling better, which is good, because I leave on vacation today. Getting sick the week before vacation sucks.
I'll be driving all day today, but will begin vacation posting Thursday. Going to be a bit of a boring vacation (visiting in-laws in the boondocks, so not much to do). Should be able to post frequently.
MDT
I clicked "For the Curious" and then immediately closed it again after reading the first two sentences. Looking forward to following that storyline! Hope we live long enough for it...
So, I think I'm going to need a little guidance from you folks now... are you planning on heading to a temple / shrine to Torag now? Or are you heading straight up to the Great Fayre on the trail of Grace Spindleshanked? Either is cool...
I thought the temple to Torag for Rigo, then onto the Fayre.
Either is good with me--I think touristing to Torag sounds fun, and we may well decide that hunting Spindleshanks will be easier a little later in the day (I don't think ghouls sleep, but...)
I'm fine either way. Audria's not really driving any action at the moment.
I noticed Rigo and Moira are using Lithuanian for Dwarven. Since we've been encountering new languages, and since Moira plans on Linguistics, should we decide on which languages represent which for consistency? We needn't reinvent the wheel. I have seen this list used in other PbP games. If you want to continue using Lithuanian for Dwarven, that's okay too.
Abyssal = Gujarati
Aklo = Bengali
Auran = Sinhala
Azlanti = Latin
Celestial = Armenian
Draconic = Chinese
Drow = Tamil
Druidic = Telugu
Dwarven = Russian
Elven = Finnish
Giant = Icelandic
Gnome = Yoruba
Goblin = Hmong
Halfling = Dutch
Hallit = Mongolian
Infernal = Tajik
Kelish = Persian
Orc = Klingon
Osiriani = Arabic
Polyglot = Swahili
Shoanti = Maori
Skald = Danish
Sylvan = Bangla
Terran = Welsh
Thassilonian = Greek
Tien = Japanese
Undercommon = Khmer
Varisian = Romanian
Vudrani = Hindi
Alexis, I read your thread about that dragon fight you're planning--I don't have any ideas but I wanted to say: whoa. That should be fun.
I am super excited about it. I am getting some brutal suggestions. This is to give me a chance to practice with a Dragon and to see how ridiculous things get at higher level. Like a genius I decided my very first campaign would be going to level 20 and be mythic, shooting for tier 5. You know cause I love to suffer.
Yeah that's ambitious! But cool. And at least you're able to tap into the collective experience (and cruelty) of the forums.
I have never even looked at mythic. I've never had a game last past 12, either. I guess starting at the top will make everything else look super simple.