JohnnyBlack's Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition

Game Master JohnnyBlack

Welcome, and let's have a great game. Please introduce each of your characters to the others, so you start getting to know them. And if you want to tie up backstories, now is the time.
Later today or tomorrow I will open the Gameplay thread so you can do some "warm-up" before the start of the voyage to Sandpoint.

Hello I'm Etna Venus Van Ash

I'm originally from a Farming Family on the outskirts of Sandpoint, but went to Magnimar to help with Aunt Bessie at her tavern the Dragon's Horde.

I'm a tall lass at 6 foot 6, you will generally find me wearing one of 3 outfits pending events and things,
as a girl has to be dressed right for the occasion or job.
Etna_Adventure
Etna_Dance
Etna_Dress

I can make a group render (or a height reference image)
But I'll need a physical description and a height.

Thanks for the pick! And, wow, this is a big party.

Leif is not particularly charming, but he’s really friendly. He’s a devout worshipper of Erastil and he values community and tries to help and protect people. He was born in Varisia but he’s almost pure Ulfen, and looks like it. He also has a pet dog that’s trained as a guard dog. Mechanically, he’s a scout who can do alright in melee or ranged combat.

I came to Magnimar with a Varisian caravan a couple weeks ago and having been staying here with my sister and her husband since, if anyone has a connection with either of those things they might like to expand into is already knowing each other? In character, I’m currently planning to look for a job escorting a person or group to Sandpoint because I want to see the new temple dedicated. Full background and description are in my profile under the appropriate spoilers.

I saw in the recruitment thread some talk about maybe adding background skills... is that something we’re going to discuss or vote on or something? I love background skills and would be thrilled to add them into the mix if possible, for whatever that’s worth.

Right! Yes, please, add background skills to your characters.

Thanks for selecting me for the game! I’m looking forward to rolling into Sandpoint with this crew.

I wrote up an introduction and the board ate it (grrr), so here's the highlights.

Appearance: Zomeraand is an average-sized man of medium build (5'10" 165 lbs.) with a medium skin tone, grey-blue eyes and red-blonde hair. His hands and fingers are ink stained. He wears an amulet of polished bronze with a translucent, sky blue sapphire in its center.

Zomeraand has just finished his apprenticeship in the Kyver's Islet district of Magnimar. His mentor was usually drunk or intoxicated on some other substance, so he is largely self-taught. Because of this, his apprenticeship took over a decade. Being an avid reader with a good memory, he taught himself a remarkable amount in that time.

Zomeraand is ready to leave town and begin traveling to ancient sites he read about over the years. There are some ancient Thassilonian ruins near Sandpoint, which is relatively close, therefore he has decided to start his professional career there. He fancies himself a scholar as well as a wizard. He has heard about the dedication of the new Cathedral to be performed during the Swallowtail Festival, and is looking for any caravans or other large groups headed that direction to travel with.

Zomeraand is very intelligent, and is well aware of this. He likes when people compliment him on his intellect. As such, he tends to put his knowledge and expertise on display whenever the opportunity presents itself. He isn't a braggart, but can come across as pedantic and even condescending at times, though that isn't his intention.

So Delin is more fair of complexion than most Varisian, but still has a touch of olive to her skin tone. Her hair is a feathery soft sand color that is combed back and pinned on either side. She does have bangs coming down freely on either side of her brow. The contrast of her features and her lightly pointed ears mark her as half elf immediately. She stands about 5'6", which she considers average. More thin than most, definitely waifish, and not endowed with exceedingly noticeable curves.

Her normal outfit is an ensemble consisting of simple sea blue linen shorts and a matching short sleeved linen shirt. Both are short limbed, with the shorts ending at the top of the thigh and the shirt sleeves ending just over the shoulder.

Over those are a mix of garments. A quilted red tabard is belted at the waist, and a bandolier is sewn into one shoulder and clipped to her belt one her left side. Upon close inspection the garment has a few pockets seemingly placed at random under the quilting. It is open breasted and wider than her frame, acting part shoulder cloak and skirt. The stitching at the corner of the quilting is done with white yarn, and some are left with loose threads that are tied to small objects. A string of glass beads, a band of feathers, a mummified chicken claw.

She wears a mismatched pair of boots. Her left boot is an almost knee high laced sheepskin boot with an elevated heel. Her right foot is a shorter calf high boot of a slightly darker sheepskin. Her left hand sports an open finger working glove made out of the same darker sheepskin. Almost as if there was leftover material making the shorter boot.

Nn amber colored silk scarf is tied loosely to her neck to hang across her collar. It bears Thassilonian runes in slightly faded black. A wide-brimmed leather hat sits either atop her head or hanging down off her person by a chin strap cord. She almost always has a journal and pen on her person, though what pocket she hides it might be difficult to surmise.

(Don't get me started on her mess of a backpack.)

Okay, so that's her general appearance in her Dilettante’s outfit. I kind of got into it. Now, as to her general demeanor I'm not going to go into detail on that here so much. In general she is taciturn and as far from boisterous as possible. Very straightforward and curious to hear stories about others.

She likely came to Magnimar with her Varisian extended family. Lief you might have even come with them. The Yondabakari caravan route travels to Magnimar along the river. The Kaspakari heads north and is likely the route to take to get to Sandpoint. If you traveled with them you might have been pointed her way. The last few days of the trip she would be pouring over paper and parchment, putting the finishing touches on her resume and obsessing over the details of the numerous examples of her work.

Edit: I take that back, looks like you come from the north. That would turn things on their head, and she would likely be pointed your way to the caravan headed north.

Background skills are fun. Also, most of my skill are "background" skills, so it basically just gave me extra skill points. Now I have craft calligraphy and perception.

The Background skills system is great to fill in some less then used skills or fill in background fluff.

I put both of mine into profession(s)

I'll try my best at Varisian skin tones, as I don't have much choice in my options with my Daz studio Library.
If you find a close or perfect outfit or character model in the Daz store, point me to it so I get a better idea, if luck has it, I have it already.

Hey, all! Excited for this crazy group! Anton's background is in the profile. Short version: bright, talented, athletic small town boy signs up to see the world and finds out military life wasn't for him. After his very dry time is up, he heads back home to Sandpoint, dejected and longing for something more.

Good-looking with a spark of rebellion in his brown eyes, Anton has taken advantage of civilian life by letting his lank hair grow, and what could one day be one hell of a beard started. He prefers bright clothing and garish patterns, again his fierce individuality being on display. He 's big: 6'5" with shoulders like a champion swimmer. However he moves with surprising grace, quickness, and efficiency.

What he needs is something to challenge more than his patience.

Took Knowledge Engineering and Artisty Playwright as background skills, remnants of his "talented child" upbringing.

I wanted to make his stats well-rounded while still letting him do his role effectively.

As he grew up in Sandpoint, any other characters from there may have some history.

Legitimately super interested how this party fits together. Three full BAB with rather different builds ...arcane casters galore ...not to mention two of the fighters are named Anton hahaha

For those overwhelmed by the prospect of checking 7 different profiles for descriptions, here’s the tl;dr version for Lief- six foot one or two with broad shoulders and an athletic build (sort of like Chris Pratt in the first Guardians of the Galaxy); long blonde hair with a matching beard; bright blue eyes; fair skin that’s pretty weathered. He wears studded leather and carries a longbow and a greatsword.

For background skills, I took handle animal (which I was previously taking as a ‘normal’ skill) and knowledge [geography]. With the ‘normal’ skill that opened up I realized that I had forgotten to take perception (which would have been a disaster) and fixed that.

@Delin- I haven’t been to Sandpoint yet, so I’m assuming I took a circuitous route to Magnimar. I was thinking probably a small caravan that hits a bunch of little settlements and villages across the open plain on the way to Wartle, and then either we connected with another caravan to follow the river west, or I switched caravans to do so. I think that would actually work with your route, right? The only thing is that I’ve been in Magnimar for maybe 1-3 weeks visiting my sister who lives there, would that work with your timing?

Hey, glad to be aboard! I'll admit, I was surprised at how large it is though.

As to who Livia is, the descriptions follow:

Appearance
Livia is slightly taller than the average Varisian woman, and is lean, lithe and wiry in build. She possesses shoulder length raven black hair, deep blue eyes and fairly pale skin, a sign of her Chelish ancestry. She is lovely, and carries herself with a quiet dignity and grace that is common among many of Shelyn's followers.

Livia typically wears light and airy clothing, the kind found commonly among Varisians. Most often she favors a bright sky blue blouse, simple form fitting leather pants and an elaborate scarf. In colder weather, she has a warm fur fringed cloak.

Personality
An extroverted personality, Livia is a person who speaks freely and easily with all manner of folks. She loves to entertain and sing, and seems to draw great energy from the praise and cheer of the crowds. While singing is her passion, it is also her calling in the worship of Shelyn.

Like many Varisians, Livia is passionate and more than a little hot blooded. She sometimes loses her temper, though she possesses more wisdom than most folks her age, and knows when to step back from an argument or a bad situation rather than let her passions guide her into danger.

While outwardly Livia appears very confident in herself, inwardly she does harbor some self doubt and insecurity.

Role
Liv is a support character. While she can hold her own in battle, I built her primarily to provide party buffs, and healing. One question: is variant multi-classing a possibility? I thought a variant Bard build would work well for this character, eventually gaining the Inspire Courage class ability to go along with her singing skills. I'd consider taking a level in Bard, but regular multi-class generally isn't worth the sacrifice of spell casting ability in one's primary class.

....

As he grew up in Sandpoint, any other characters from there may have some history.

Etna's originally from Sandpoint.

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@Livia Taviskin
Since I have an idea of your character's looks based on the picture and text
Would any of these outfits be a good match?

Well the listed ideal was six, and between people being flaky and casters having small hit dice eight might be a good starting number. :D

@Lief- That sounds fine. I'm sure she would have taken time to meet up with the new caravan, get settled in with the new group, say goodbye, ect. We could agree to meet at a time/date and that way you won't miss the caravan. Not a huge hook, but we would be familiar with each other to start.

@Livia- If you can't get inspire courage you can always bless and aid another. There is even a feat for it in APG here.

@Delin- I think I was unclear about what I meant... I think from Wartle on, all along that big stretch of the Yandabakari, we could have potentially been in the same caravan, if you want? That only works for me if your caravan is stopping in Magnimar for a week or two (because I need time to visit my sister), but it would make a lot of sense (I think) for the caravan to spend some time in the city buying/selling/performing/whatever. I don’t know, what do you think? If you want to have just met getting ready to leave that’s fine with me too.

Still waiting to hear from Anton Chauvelle and M'ara.

So, instead of starting the adventure at the Swallowtail festival at Sandpoint, we will start on the travel there. On one side to warm up to the adventure, and on the other to let your characters meet, know each other, and meet some NPC's that can become important later in the campaign.

So, one question. Who wants his character to work his way to Sandpoint, as a guard, and who wants to go as part of the caravan. The pay is not much but is well-earned money. On the other side, if you go as part of the travelers, you will have more free time to meet people.

@Livia Taviskin
Since I have an idea of your character's looks based on the picture and text
Would any of these outfits be a good match?

Oh neat; upon first inspection, armored I'd say either the Champion or the Alicia (the last two), though unarmored I'd lean towards the Dragon Sitter.

As for Bless, will definitely do that. I just thought variant VMC to pull in some Bard to support her Shelyn performance aspects without sacrificing utility. Mind up, all that would come much later anyway.

So, one question. Who wants his character to work his way to Sandpoint, as a guard, and who wants to go as part of the caravan. The pay is not much but is well-earned money. On the other side, if you go as part of the travelers, you will have more free time to meet people.

Zomeraand would definitely be a traveler. He has very little experience with actual combat at this point in his career.

Etna Venus Van Ash wrote:

@Livia Taviskin
Since I have an idea of your character's looks based on the picture and text
Would any of these outfits be a good match?

Oh neat; upon first inspection, armored I'd say either the Champion or the Alicia (the last two), though unarmored I'd lean towards the Dragon Sitter.

...

Those picks were completely based on your armoured image,

I really like variant multiclassing in theory, but I wish they had executed it better. Something like barbarian is consistently good across its abilities (and maybe a little too useful for a lot of melee builds) but then you have stuff like the wizard gaining a single cantrip at 11th level or the druid getting a gimped companion for 4 levels (an animal companion isn’t any more powerful than a cohort and you can get that with just the leadership feat, so why gimp the VMC companion?); the gunslinger might be the worst though... you get a feat at 3, 7, and 11 that you could have taken at 1, 3, and 5 (or 1, 1, and 3 for a human). [/rant] That said, I have no objection to allowing VMC as an option if our GM wants to.

Regarding traveling to Sandpoint, I’ll take a guard job.

Sorry, had a busy night last night. Halloween party.

Personality - An excitable young man, Anton is quick to make friends and enemies alike. He likes telling stories almost as much as he likes a good pint, and an excuse to practice with his rapier about as much as either. Definitely an extrovert, Anton prefers to take situations head on, having learned from childhood that those who don't act first often don't get to.

Appearance - Anton has an angular face, framed by shoulder-length locks of hair the color of ripe wheat and anchored by large brown eyes. He has a strong but very lean build, with a ropy scar extending from the back of his hand halfway up his forearm. His current attire is a light travelling outfit, with an off-white quilted shirt (with vest), green breeches, and dark brown leather boots. When wearing his travelling pack, Anton has his bow and quiver fastened on the right side, and his bedroll inside, with it sticking slightly out of the top of the pack. At his left hip is his weapon, its basket hilt scuffed from frequent use.

Hook - Considering his skills and motivations for going to Sandpoint, Anton would probably hire either hire onto a trade caravan as a guard, or join a Varisian caravan headed to the festival.

"Hello, my name is M'ara" the woman standing before you says with a formal dip of her head, her voice heavily accented, revealing her Shoanti heritage.

Tall, she stands about 5'10", spare of frame and small breasted. Her limbs are lean, her movements smooth and sure.

The gaze of her hazel eyes is as direct as that of the plains hawk that chooses that moment to alight upon her shoulder, the leather there reinforced for just that purpose.

As the bird pokes at some of the feathers, pieces of colored leather and shaped bone tied to M'ara's clothing, she idly grabs a small piece of dried meat from her pouch and holds it up for the hawk to nibble.

"This is Shivi...my spirit guide, my friend. He guided me here, well really everywhere I've been since I left my clan. It remains to be seen what trouble he will get me into." she says, her face splitting into a warm, generous smile.

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M'ara is instantly recognizable as Shoanti, and makes no attempts to disguise that fact.

As she's crossed Varisia, she's become more used to people, more open to the 'experience' of people....mostly due to the harrowing act she's taken up; initially involuntarily but now she quite enjoys the interaction.

As fierce as her familiar, she's no warrior, relying on the powers granted to her by her mysterious patron.

She will be a passenger on the caravan.

Height Collection for quick referencing

Delin 5'6"
Livia 5'8"
M'ara 5'10"
Zomeraand 5'10"
Anton C 6'0
Lief 6'2"
Anton I 6'5"
Etna: 6'6"

Edit Updated

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@Livia, can't use Dragon sitter as a unarmoured outfit as it is a G8F outfit, as your armour outfit uses a G3F character model.
So your need another outfit choice for unarmoured; Peasant, Healer, Fantasy Thief, and a others I've not listed yet.

Livia, First draft.

He's an even 6'

Lief's actually an inch or two taller than 6 feet. Normally I don’t stress about an exact height (since it’s not like they typically have super accurate tape measures in fantasy settings) but if you’re going to go to all the trouble to do group ‘photos’ let’s call him 6’2”.

Anton Ionescu, First Draft

I'll likely use a similar set of morphs and materials from Anton for Lief's character model.
And I think I found Lief's armour, as it has his name on it.

Anton Ionescu, First Draft

I'll likely use a similar set of morphs and materials from Anton for Lief's character model.
And I think I found Lief's armour, as it has his name on it.

Only note I have is his hair and beard are a darker brown than that. He looks like a ginger eeeeek!

Anton didn't have a hair color listed, so I could only guess, and it did add some colors to his appearance...

Edit: Updated the first draft.

Dang, you're right. I thought I mentioned it but I didn't. Anton's colors are in his weird pattern-on-pattern clothing style, but I don't expect that to exist in this format, heh.

Updated First draft to have brown hair.

When I get to group rendering I hope my poor computer can handle it,
as I can easily see rendering it consuming beyond the 32 GB of RAM my system has with the texture maps as is.

Or I might be force to do a swimsuit special for the Height reference.

@Lief- I honestly don't see her making fast friends on the caravan trip . She tend to keep to herself and has a lot of work to finish. I can certainly see them meeting up when it's discovered they will be on the same caravan headed north.

I think the same holds true for most of the group. If you're looking to be part of a varisian convoy like her she could make introductions and such. For those who aren't varisian.

First round of rough drafts....

Delin 5'6"
Livia 5'8"
M'ara 5'10"
Zomeraand 5'10"
Anton C 6'0
Lief 6'2"
Anton I 6'5"
Etna 6'6"

Looking good! The face and body are spot on. Zomeraand isn’t sporting traditional wizard clothes though. He’s wearing traveling clothes (tunic, loose pants, cloak, boots, belt with pouches).

@Livia, can't use Dragon sitter as a unarmoured outfit as it is a G8F outfit, as your armour outfit uses a G3F character model.
So your need another outfit choice for unarmoured; Peasant, Healer, Fantasy Thief, and a others I've not listed yet.

Livia, First draft.

Right, I understand - in that case, the healer outfit is probably the better choice.

As to the armored image, looks good so far; that said, is it possible to scale back a bit on the physique? I had picture this character as more wiry and lithe, though I understand your customization options might be limited at which case it looks fine as is.

Also, I think based on her current armor, maybe the Alicia selection would be more accurate, as Livia is suited out in a Chain Shirt (my bad, should have been more decisive earlier)

@Delin- fair enough, I’ll meet you on the road

@Etna- that’s pretty cool. I don’t know how customizable your models are but I was definitely picturing Lief as having narrower hips than that (more of the classic “V” shape). Also, it’s awesome that there’s ‘Lief armor’ but imagine his armor actually looking a lot more like this.

My guy would definitely do guard work going back home.

@Zomeraand
Didn't say what your wearing and had to guess, so something like what Anton C is wearing in his render..

@Livia Taviskin
I guessed physique based on stats, Also when I tend to see STR > DEX,
I tend to give more muscle to the model to show the higher strength the character has.
I'll switch armour to Alicia tomorrow when I got some time.

@Lief
The "Classic V" as in good old Arnold Schwarzenegger is a rare morph shape,
and I do have a few Classic V type morphs but they don't always play nicely with outfits and or posing.....
Only other choices for outfits that match are;
Adventure Knight
Convergence
Rogue Hunter
Striker

Now I do have some shaders for changing materials of outfits but it's not always the best move.
As I do know I have a few interesting leather shaders for armour.

@Etna- I’m definitely not thinking Arnold sized! Closer to Chris Hemsworth as Thor, although honestly that’s still too bulky... maybe like somewhere between Thor and Michael Phelps?

First round of rough drafts....

Delin 5'6"
Livia 5'8"
M'ara 5'10"
Zomeraand 5'10"
Anton C 6'0
Lief 6'2"
Anton I 6'5"
Etna 6'6"

Impressive, really nice!

How do you say are doing those renderings?

@Lief How about Captain Rodgers?

@Etna- I’m definitely not thinking Arnold sized! Closer to Chris Hemsworth as Thor, although honestly that’s still too bulky... maybe like somewhere between Thor and Michael Phelps?

That is more of a subtle V, not the Classic V.

Etna Venus Van Ash wrote:

First round of rough drafts....

Delin 5'6"
Livia 5'8"
M'ara 5'10"
Zomeraand 5'10"
Anton C 6'0
Lief 6'2"
Anton I 6'5"
Etna 6'6"

Impressive, really nice!

How do you say are doing those renderings?

I'm using Daz Studio

@Zomeraand

Didn't say what your wearing and had to guess, so something like what Anton C is wearing in his render..

That's it, but instead of a white shirt, something like a gray or khaki/brown color, plus a cloak.

No Cloaks

@Delin- I only have 14 Str, so Steve is probably still a little too beefy.

@Etna- sorry, I guess I wasn’t specific enough.

@GM- any idea when you’re going to open the gameplay thread? Even if you’re not ready for us to start posting yet it would be super helpful to be able to ‘dot and delete’ so that this gets added to our campaigns tab.

....

@Etna- sorry, I guess I wasn’t specific enough.
....

It's OK everyone has their own definitions for things

Adventure Knight
Convergence
Rogue Hunter
Striker

Well... none of those look particularly like studded leather, but I’m hoping to upgrade to a chainshirt as soon as I can afford a masterwork one, so the striker outfit will be a good fit (until I can afford a mithril breastplate, but that’ll be a while).

@GM- any idea when you’re going to open the gameplay thread? Even if you’re not ready for us to start posting yet it would be super helpful to be able to ‘dot and delete’ so that this gets added to our campaigns tab.

Probably tomorrow...

Updated the images for those that requested some changes.

Delin 5'6"
Livia 5'8"
M'ara 5'10"
Zomeraand 5'10"
Anton C 6'0
Lief 6'2"
Anton I 6'5"
Etna 6'6"

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If you want a good start with Daz studio, there is currently a Genesis 2M starter bundle in the free bin.
I do recommend running Daz Studio on a system with 8GB or more of RAM, and a Nvidia GPU with 2GB or more of video Memory.

Updated the images for those that requested some changes.

Delin 5'6"
Livia 5'8"
M'ara 5'10"
Zomeraand 5'10"
Anton C 6'0
Lief 6'2"
Anton I 6'5"
Etna 6'6"

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If you want a good start with Daz studio, there is currently a Genesis 2M starter bundle in the free bin.
I do recommend running Daz Studio on a system with 8GB or more of RAM, and a Nvidia GPU with 2GB or more of video Memory.

Cool stuff. Though M'ara needs some hair.

Thanks