A tale of two worlds (Inactive)

Game Master shrodingerscat

Here's the discussion thread, my players. Welcome!

Dotting thread.

Yo!

'sup?

So, I'm thinking Jonas graduated the same year as Miya and the others, he just was born right at the cut-off for the school year. Kind on like when my friends and I were all 15, and becoming sophomores, our one friend had just turned 14, but in the same year as us.

Understood, Jonas. I was a year younger than most people in my year at school. :) So, I have no issue with Jonas and Miya graduating in the same year. Actually looking at everyone's age, Jonas is the youngest at 18. Phillip is 21, Lydia's 20 and Lucian is 19 (like Miya).

GM, are the differing ages going to be problematic? Or we okay to go?

To the group: We're supposed to be close friends. Want to start making connections between all our characters?

@shrodingerscat: Which city are we (and the college) in? Asking for flavour sake. Or do we start off in no name college, in no name suburb/city?

Edeldhur here - dotting with my Avatar. Not 100% decided upon him (is that a ponytail? Lets assume its not, but instead something in the background), but looks good so far.

Checking in here too. Hey everybody!

Cool. Once we get Phillip to check in, we should be able to get the ball rolling and our heroes into the story. :)

@Miya (for everyone; good question btw): I was thinking one of the Community Colleges here in my town of San Diego, CA. I have one in mind that I actually went to many years ago. I'll throw up some info and a blurb after I get home from work.

In the meantime you guys can start working out some of the dynamic of your interpersonal relationships. What were the circumstances when you first met, etc.

Hi Lydia!

Thanks for the answer, GM. Are the differing ages of people going to be problematic or okay?

Okay, a rundown on how Miya is so you can get a feel for her so we can work group dynamics.

She has spent the majority of her life travelling around the world with her father and mother. She has been enrolled in different schools, had private tutors where necessary. But she has managed to retain a humility -- she isn't spoilt or a brat. But it's been hard always being the new student and having to make new friends.

People have stared at her -- her exotic Eurasian appearance attracts notice, especially her deep blue eyes (from her father's side of the family).

She dresses in jeans, tee, flats in main but can as easily don a pretty summer dress and sandals and can own her femininity. She's feminine with an edge of sportiness and fierceness.

She is into martial arts, music, calligraphy/art, books/reading. She's an only child, so she's had to make her own kind of fun. She's also a spiritual kind of person.

Miya is shy/reserved and quiet at first but is really engaging/warm/sweet and has a quirky, fun sense of humour when she lets her guard down. She is a very loyal friend.

She is rather observant and can simply sit without speaking for long periods of time. So it's made her into a good listener, with a keen intuition.

Well, that's a good start into Miya's personality and interests.

Re: the school/area: On second thought, it doesn't look quite the way I remember it, so maybe I'll come up with something else.

I guess it's not super important right now, except for the study hall/room. I'll throw up a map of that though sometime tonight most likely.

@Miya: cool rundown. Seems you're all the kinda folk that walk your own path, so it's good that you've found each other.

Another thing I'd like to note about the group's connection;
Not only are you friends, but in an odd way, you feel more comfortable around each other. It's more than that you have similar interests or humor in common, just being around your friends seems to make it easier to think, to breathe. You feel more "at home" is one way to put it. In some ways, and those of you who have had extended time apart would note, that you're almost a fish out of water when not around your friends. That might be a bit of an extreme analogy, but it's pretty close.

Edit: to answer your question, Miya, i believe everyone is between 19 and 21, right? Shouldn't be a problem.

Hm... actually i don't recall Lucian's age. and if Jonas, you could bump to 19 that would be cool.

Another thing to think about
I know it was only briefly mentioned, but there is a possibility of changing to a fantasy race after the transition. Is that something anyone is interested in, and if so, what to? Or would you like it to be a surprise?

Lucian is 19 (noted in one of my above postings). And yes Jonas is the youngest at 18.

Right...slipped my mind, re:Jonas, no need to change. I think everyone's age should be ok. Lydia may have started late, or is perhaps just a year ahead of the others.

I would be interested into changing into a different race once in the fantasy realm. If people want to know, I'll say so, if not, I can keep it a surprise. Well, it's going to be a surprise to Miya. ;)

Phillip is the oldest at 21. Lydia is 20. They each may have started late due to taking some time to discover themselves (like a gap year)? Just a suggestion.

I'll ask Phillip to be younger though. :)

edit: Nija'd!

I personally think, story wise, it would be good for Phillip to drop to 20 (in line with Lydia's age), but that's up to him. Shrugs. :)

Lydia lives with her parents while attending school, she simply can't afford to move out on her own. At home there is her mother, who works in the accounting department of a heavy duty equipment dealership, her father, the manager of the quality control department at a machine shop and her sister, Crystal, who is only 13 and still in high school. Her eldest brother Dennis lives in Texas, working as a geologist for an oilfield company, having attended college on a hockey scholarship. Her other brothers are away at the state university, Martin on a hockey scholarship and Graham, the youngest of the boys, on a wrestling scholarship.

Having failed to win a scholarship like her brothers, Lydia is a little older than the others in the group because she had to take a year off to save up money for tuition. Her parents help out where they can and did the best they could with what they had but money has always been tight in the Kaplow household. She learned at a very young age that if she wanted something she would have to find a way to earn it herself.

When she's not in school, Lydia works a lot however she enjoys her jobs so much that this is not a bad thing. Most afternoons after classes she spends her time helping to work on cars at "Otto's Mobiles", a garage owned by a friend of the family--Otto himself--that she has known most of her life and is like an uncle to her. In the evenings, she has her dog-walking enterprise.

If she's not busy with work, Lydia likes to play video games and play sports: basketball, hockey, frisbee, hackey sack, mountain biking, skateboarding, you name it. She likes to camp, hike and go fishing as well but it's hard to find time to get away now that she's in college. It's been on her mind to join an MMA gym lately; she misses rough-housing with Graham, who has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do as well as being an excellent wrestler, and would like to learn some of that cool jujitsu she sees on fight nights however money is too tight at the moment.

Lydia is a thick girl. That is, she is very fit, barely an ounce of fat on her but she is not slim at 5'8" 160lbs. As a result, she is fairly self conscious of her appearance and does not like to wear revealing clothes, definitely no dresses or skimpy blouses. She doesn't wear makeup and keeps her hair short so as to be easily manageable. She usually wears work boots, jeans and a T-shirt with a clever phrase or band logo on it. Every now and then she is mistaken for a boy but only by complete idiots as far as she's concerned.

Lydia, I hear you're playing a tomboy. But tomboys aren't generically one way ... in personality and/or behaviour. Can you please share with me (and the others) some of Lydia's personality and behaviour? Is she aggressive, angry, emotional, moody, isolated/withdrawn etc? It gives me something more tangible to use and play with. Thanks. :)

She's shy and quiet for the most part, very used to being just another face in the crowd, but since you guys know her, she will be more open. With you, Lydia would love to talk about martial arts, see your swords, maybe watch you practice sometime. She'd ask if you or anyone else watched the UFC fights on the weekend. If anyone in the group was interested, she'd talk about video games or movies and TV but no reality TV, also cars and motorcycles. She's pretty content to just listen if people are talking about other things.

Sorry but she's fairly bland socially. She likes to do stuff, not talk about doing stuff, if that makes sense. And she had a pretty average upbringing aside from some conflict with her mother and not being popular so she's a generally happy and friendly person. High school was hard on her so there's some baggage there but college is turning our to be better, she found you guys!

Hello, all. Sorry, a little late to the party. Looks like the discussion is well underway :)

As far as making Phillip 20, I'm not opposed, but it might make it hard to justify the Profession (brewer) and home microbrewing experiments...I guess he could be from somewhere with a lower drinking age...Canada maybe...or Mexico if we're going to be somewhere near San Diego...looks like both of those are 18 or 19...I'll have to think on that a bit...

Got it! idea below...Here's the background I have so far.

I'm down for transforming into a new race on the other side. Shrinking to a smaller sized race could be fun. Maybe a gnome to express his magical side, or a dwarf for his secret love of ale. Having it be a surprise would be fun.

Just edited my age and removed the extra language :)

As far as how we all met, maybe somebody posted a flyer for a study group. It would be fun if the person who posted the flyer never showed up, but we all met and became friends while we waited around for this mysterious stranger. Could be that we'd all bumped into each other one on one various ways before this and strangely we all found ourselves answering the same flyer.

Hey Phillip, according to the game set up in recruitment, we're all supposed to know each other through high school and then in college we have this study group of known people. ;)

Maybe Jonas, Lucian and Miya were in the same year in high school and Lydia and Phillip were a year above/ahead of us.

Perhaps Jonas invited us all to a movie club viewing (via a flyer - taking Phillip's idea) and that's where we met and forged friendships (throughout proceeding movie club get togethers), irrespective of which year in school we were? How does that sound? The GM did say that whenever we come together, we get that "coming home" feeling and feel good around each other.

I like it. What do the rest of you think about that?

(that's the way, ahuh ahuh, i like it.) :)

Just looking at each alignment:
Phillip: LG, Jonas: CG, Lucian: CG, Miya: NG, Lydia:N.

(So far, Phillip and Miya have stated they don't mind changing race once in the fantasy realm. Anyone else have an opinion on this?)

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Jonas, you around? I think I read on your initial recruitment submission that your character had self-defence classes? That could be another tie-in with Miya (who is into martial arts) and Lydia.
Phillip, Miya loves books and reading, too.
Lydia, a connection through martial arts is possible for the girls.

~ Miya comes from a well-to-do family. She lives at home with her parents and does not work - she studies, works out at the dōjō and with her Sensei one-on-one. She has a fine hand and is into the art of calligraphy. She occasionally helps her mother at the museum. (Some more background, since the other characters so far have part-time jobs and professions, on top of studying.)

Just dropping a note to let everyone know I am around - just a tad pressed for time due to some insistent illness within my household.

Could it be that Lucian was a friend/acquaintance with one or some of the others, but he left high school to enlist the army.

Now that he is back home for a leave, and hearing about the event taking place, decides to drop by?

I'm still here. I just had a busy day with my dad trying to get him onto a new schedule since he just got back from the hospital. Also, for the time being, I work at night. So, I'll be around more in in the mornings. Give me a little bit and I'll work something up on connections and more on personality.

How about instead of a generic movie club we all attended a Bruce Lee film fest? He's only got 5 films so it couldn't have lasted too long but enough to make for a good movie marathon with smoke breaks so folks have a chance to socialize between showings. Lydia would definitely attend that sort of thing. Miya and Jonas have a connection to the martial arts as well. Plus, I don't think I've ever met anyone who didn't think Bruce Lee was bad ass even if they aren't into martial arts (Phillip and Lucian?).

Miya: Oops, I missed the part about us being in high school together. I'll have to rethink my background a bit...I guess he didn't move out of state to go to college, but just moved out of the house.

Lydia: Bruce Lee sounds good. I'm sure Phillip would be interested in someone who was such a groundbreaker (figuratively and possibly literally :)

Maybe the movie club is a regular thing and each person gets a turn to choose a movie. Actually that would be an interesting way to define our characters by favorite movies.

Lydia, to be honest I wasn't that concerned about it being a generic movie club vs. a specific one. But if Bruce Lee tickles everyone's boat, then that's fine. (Should tickle Miya's Eurasian side.)

Phillip, no worries, and I think having each of us take turn to choose a movie (new one each time we get together) is a great idea. Re movie club being a regular thing, I alluded to that in my previous post. So, the club meets 1/Week, 1/Fortnight or 1/Month?

Jonas, good luck with your dad's recovery. When you get the chance, that's fine.

Lucian, In your backstory you had said that Lucian left for the military at 17 and returned at 19. In my mind, I had him get to know Miya when she started junior high with him and they've had a couple of years of friendship before he enlisted? Is that okay? And may the illness be gone from your household soon, and, nice choice of avatar.

I'm okay with all of that. Jonas would always happily recommend one of his three favorite films, "Indiana Jones and...". I would think we try to meet up at least 1/week. And probably sometimes between periods or for lunch in the commons.

Miya likes Asian cinema: whether from Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan etc ...

Her choices of movies to watch would be: "Shinobi: Heart Under Blade", "The Hidden Blade", "Hero", "The Twilight Samurai", "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", "The Last Samurai", for eg.

In regard to Swedish movies, she enjoys the original, "Let the Right One In" and "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" series.

(She enjoys Foreign Films.)

Miya is alright with meeting 1/week for Movie Club (at lunch time in the commons or film room). She uses her free periods to privately practice her martial arts at school.

Cool, looks like we're coming along nicely. Met in high school, became friends through a weekly movie club, found that you had an odd chemistry, and over time became good friends. *That the jist of it?

*continued into college

Final addition to your group (npc);

Adam Nicholas Durgan, was born in Ireland, but his parents moved here when he was very young. He's slightly shorter and wiry, and interested in drawing and animals., particularly anatomy. He has dark brown hair, kept short but messy, and surprisingly few freckles for his lineage. He's a bit of an odd duck. He tends to enjoy the stranger cinema. He's easy to get along with once you get past his initial social awkwardness, and enjoys talking with his friends about just about anything. Senior year he had a nervous breakdown, and had to be taken to an institution for a while, and though none of you were able to visit him, he has been emailing you all for the last year.

Like the sound of Adam. Miya would probably be protective of him, especially after his breakdown.

Yes, that was the gist of it. Four of us in one year (Miya, Lucian, Jonas and Adam?) and two (Lydia and Phillip) in the year above us. Lunch time movie club and discussion brought us together and even though some of us were pulled away at some point (due to military or hospitalisation, for eg), we never lost that connection to each other. Martial arts and books seem to be a big draw for us all, as well.

Alright, well, please continue the discussion, and unless there are any other questions or comments, I'll put up the first Gameplay post on Monday. (pacific time, PM)

Lucian, In your backstory you had said that Lucian left for the military at 17 and returned at 19. In my mind, I had him get to know Miya when she started junior high with him and they've had a couple of years of friendship before he enlisted? Is that okay? And may the illness be gone from your household soon, and, nice choice of avatar.

I agree with that one Miya - Lucian wouldn't have many friends back then, and she would be one of them if you are fine with it. Most likely, he would try to get in touch soon after being back, and most likely know of the movie marathon through her. No one in their right mind would ever refuse to go and see a Bruce Lee movie :D

And he would likely be eager to meet some of his older acquaintances, even though he would never admit it.

Phillip, since we are the same age perhaps we had a class or two together in high school. Maybe you helped Lydia out with Math or Physics and she helped keep your car running?

@Lucian: I have no issue with how Miya and Lucian became friends and corresponding with one another after he enlisted. She would fill him in about life in town and yes, about the movie club. :)

Phillip, since we are the same age perhaps we had a class or two together in high school. Maybe you helped Lydia out with Math or Physics and she helped keep your car running?

Sounds good. His old white Camaro definitely needs it's share of tender loving care. Especially with his tendency to end up wrapping it around phone poles. His "unique" driving skills paired with a beefed up engine he asked you to modify have made every car ride an adventure. This would be fun to translate to trouble with riding horses :)

So, just to flush things out, I think Jonas would make some money and hone his skills performing on the street on the weekends when people are out going to the bars and clubs. He'd do juggling, minor magic tricks, escape artist stuff, etc. That is when he's not in rehearsals, in a show, or hanging out with the friends.

First post is up! Let the games begin. :)

And Jonas gets ninja'd by Miya!

I guess it makes sense due to how close they are. ;)

Ha!

Hey guys, it's been a busy day. I'll post something tomorrow morning. Or tonight if work is slow and I get out early (which probably won't happen).

Hey guys. Sorry for the lack of posts this weekend. Hat a bit of a busy one. I'll have some responses for you tomorrow, and we can get back on track.

Thanks. Kudos on all the cool rp so far!

GM, I have updated Miya's sheet/profile page with her heroic level. Just one question, I did not include armour and any armour bonuses to AC as she hasn't got any armour at the moment. Is this correct?

Oh, and regarding hp when levelling, I took average (rounded up) plus CON mod. Is this correct?

@Miya: yes, you are correct, no armor bonus to ac at this point.

@Everyone; With regards to hp, I'm gonna have everyone get maximum for level 2. After that, we'll go to 1/2+1 (and CON mod).

Yep, you guessed it...reaching into the basin and retrieving your "object" is what initiates the change. As soon as everyone has their transformation and you all leave the cave, we'll be getting past the "prologue".

Again, cool posts from everyone. Looking forward to seeing more. :)