Elton's Curse of the Crimson Throne

Game Master Elton

Use this thread to discuss the campaign. Everyone, feel free to discuss everything about it: from my GMing style to suggestions to the setting to what you think is going to happen.

Congratulations for those auditioned and made it! So, in a few short days, you will embark on a journey that takes place in the Republic City of Alalea. You will be stopping riots and crime, and rescue political prisoners. Check in with your aliases here. If you wish to expand and intertwine your character backgrounds, this is the thread to do it.

So, it's time for further Production Design. But before we do that, lets get some things straight. The rules for playing on the boards are as follows.

Use bolded text in quotation marks for dialogue
Italics for for inner monologues, Italic text in quotation marks is for telepathic dialogue (I'm sure that's going to mess things up for some people.)
Bigger text is for shouts!
smaller text is for whispers

PRODUCTION DESIGN

The purpose of Production Design is to help you get the milieu. In Alalea, the feel is of one of the Orient -- as in Middle East or Near East instead of the Far East. Unlike the land of Varisia, which is geographically close to Casmar, Alalea is a mixture of at least four different cultures: Persian, European, Levantine, and Indian.

There are three major sources to go to in order to get yourself in the zone of playing your characters. They are: Moving Picture Media, Paintings, and Still Shots.

The Lay of the Land

Alalea is built around a Cataract Waterfall. Since in Real Life no city is built around a waterfall, the building of a city around a waterfall is really unprecedented and mysterious. The question is: Why would anyone in the right mind build a huge city around a waterfall? A mystery that can be discovered later in the campaign.

I was impressed by Iguazu Falls, the grand waterfall between Brazil and Argentina. There are at least ten falls, and I imagined great idol statues of Zeus and Buddha carved in between them. In Pathfinder, I believe Iomedae and a Vudran deity would be appropriate.

Orientalism
One of the biggest inspirations for the City of Alalea is the tales of One Thousand and One Arabian Nights. Particularly the Additions of Sinbad the Sailor. But also, Orientalist painters during the 19th Century went down with Napoleon to record life in the Orient. The paintings are so timeless you can swear that they can represent nearly any age.

From Wikipedia: Orientalism is a term used especially in art for the imitation or depiction of aspects of Eastern cultures in the West by writers, designers and artists. In particular, Orientalist painting, depicting more specifically "the Middle East and North Africa", was one of the many specialisms of 19th century Academic art. Since the publication of Edward Said's Orientalism, the term has arguably acquired a negative connotation.

The Khorasani and Levantine Districts are represented by these paintings and Photos:

-- The Reception of Ambassadors

-- A Street Scene in Cairo; The Lantern-Maker's Courtship, 1854-61

-- Luis Richardo Falero's The Enchantress (NSW).

-- Mehdi Yasamin's photo of the nterior architecture of the Nasir al-Mulk mosque.

-- A painting of my ancestor wooing the Elamite Princess Thamar (NSW).

The Epic Slave Market. (NSW)

The Hellenic Quarter

Another big inspiration for Alalea is the Hellenic Age -- or the age of the Greek Empires that Alexander the Great carved out of the Persian Empire. As their famous Mythological cycles tell, the Greeks loved Adventurism. However, rather than force you to watch a movie about Alexander the Great -- because my brother didn't want to watch it -- it's probably better to refer you to Hercules: the Legendary Journeys and to a lesser extent, Xena: Warrior Princess.

-- the fan club has probably the best collection of photos from the T.V. show.

I envision the Hellenic Quarter as pseudo-Greek. Not exactly Greek as in costuming and so forth.

The Vedic Quarter

The last big inspiration. The real cradle of Oriental Culture is in India, while the cradle of European Culture is in the Fertile Crescent and Egypt. I already gave you a link to the Ramayana -- Bollywood goes way far out with their productions.

Costuming can range from the barely there to fully covered and arrayed in resplendent robes or Chitons and Himatons. Adventuring clothes, however, should be practical and allow you a lot of movement. You don't have to go around like Hercules in the myths wearing a lion skin, but then few Roman Senators in History actually did any adventuring. Your characters should be dressed for the climate.

Finally, for the Psychic powers of the whole city. The best anyone can really do is to ask you to watch Star Wars. Especially Episode I: The Phantom Menace and to watch Star Wars: the Old Republic LPs on Youtube. Episodes IV-VI don't really get into the whole "What Jedi can do."

I think that's it. Anyone have any questions?

Checking in.

I think the hardest thing for me to get used to will be using italics in quotes for telepathic speech. I'm so used to denoting it with double colons ::like this::
I'll do my best to remember, but please forgive me if I occasionally forget. :)

Ok happy to be here, will retune to fit the Arabian theme a little better. A nice twist for a character who may follow the style of dress and attitudes of the quarter though she physically doesn't look it. She would definitely adopt the culture since it would be the one in which she was raised.

Maeneta will certainly fit into the Hellenic Quarter. I see him as something of a hero from the tales of yore, such as Hercules, but with a troubled past. Having some issues with getting the alias set up due to the new avatar selection screen but it should be ready soon.

Alias should now be good to go. Mind if I dot in the gameplay thread so that it shows up in my campaigns?

Alias should now be good to go. Mind if I dot in the gameplay thread so that it shows up in my campaigns?

I don't mind at all, let me get the scrolling text up first, though.

Edit: Okay, you may all dot in the 'Elton's Curse of the Crimson Throne' campaign thread. Although I haven't officially started. I'm waiting for jhpace to check in with Ioseph Dalen. :)

Checking in with my Alias.

Trying this again.

Changed the visuals to match the theme of the quarter. Will update profile a bit and finalize equipment.

Thren'ody Headshot

Thren'ody

Updated background and added more flavor of the city sector.

I've been adding flavor to my character's Background and Story Hook.

A waterfall? No problem, GM Elton - cities were typically built around and for water. Usually for trade, however, and a waterfall does make that problematic. However, your waste removal is a cinch now. I can easily see irrigation tunnels built for city farms and gardens, as well as sluices and gates to water different parts of the city. It's New Orleans with a big cliff.

One of the lessons I learned in Iraq was that the natives didn't trust "well water" or "standing water" because of the arsenic and other heavy minerals coming from the deep ground. "Moving water" from the Euphrates River was "trusted" because it was moving.

And I've gotten used to "Talking", thinking internally as well as telepathy, and ::Link or collective telepathy::.

So, does anyone have any questions before we start?

Oh by the way, the first post is up. :)

Everyone has received Harrow Cards that doesn't fit their alignment, but their backgrounds.

Okay, guys and gal, that was a perfect start.

You guys are doing what is essentially a play test for my fantasy city. Yeah, It's ironic that I had to come here, but my original play test wasn't going anywhere. My loyal player and I were getting frustrated with the high turnover rate it was having.

Today, I said, enough was enough, and stopped my live online play test.

Lessons learned:
a. If you have a play test of your setting, don't do it on OpenRPG.

b. High turnover rates produce unreliable results.

c. We headed into a mire when we hit 6th level, and then everything went downhill because it got chaotic.

-------------------

I am grateful for you four that have joined me in this adventure. Play by Post isn't the best, but as far as I know, all of my friends have families and other priorities and are sharing D&D with their families. My cousin, who is also single, isn't always available. So, I'm happy for you to have found me.

:)

Lets see this to the end, alright?

I'm up for that! Love the city so far!

So far so good.

The visuals are amazing

The visuals are amazing

Well, since I'm at a loss to over describe today, I use pictures to help. :)

Background Music --

* Scheherazade, 1st movement by Nikolaj Rimsky-Korsakov

* Conan: The Riddle of Steel

Battle Music

* Conan the Barbarian Theme

If you want to suggest some background music tracks, add them to this thread.

Here's a nice picture of a city on the edge of a river/waterfall (anime).

Here's a nice picture of a city on the edge of a river/waterfall (anime).

The people who have that image you linked too think off-site linking is somehow rude. I click on the link and it says -- "NO HOTLINKING." I don't get it, it's impossible to steal bandwidth on these boards.

Edit:
I think I found the image that GM_Pace has linked to. Also, the Nubian capital city of Theed from Star Wars: Episodes I, III, and VI is also built around a waterfall.

Here is a picture of the Academy of the Will and the Way.

I hope everyone's Valentines Day went without a hitch! I'm still single and my GF is thousands of miles away, so we didn't get to do much other than communicate. :)

Okay, it has come to my attention that the Greek House links aren't working. I hope these sets of links provide you all with what a Greek House can look like:

--- http://khsancientgreece.pbworks.com/f/ancient%20greece%20persons%20house.gi f

--- http://blog.richard-potter.co.uk/2009/06/the-greek-house-another-update/

Hellenic Iomedae

Hellenic Iomedae

Which is cool to look at. :)

Ioseph eyed the card shuffling dubiously. "I...suppose." he concluded. "I'd prefer a Seer from the Academy tell us what the night would bring, but it can't hurt."

I love this! :)

Still here, will catch up over the weekend. Unfortunately I've had a busy week and things going on personally that have made posting impossible.

It's been a rough week for me too, with a "working weekend" coming up. I should be able to get home and post from home instead of work, just in case.

Chainsaw chains should last longer than 2 hours on ash, black cherry, and oak. Just 2 hours is annoying. It's 2012, where's my atomic beam cutter or my laser saw...

Alright, that's cool. :)

Hope you're not waiting on me - I'm just looking at the cards on the table!

Hope you're not waiting on me - I'm just looking at the cards on the table!

I don't have to.

I had to play catch up on some homework and I'm just resting from that before I do some more. :)

Is this game just on hiatus or is it done?

It's on Hiatus. A bit too long if you ask me. :)

Well, I hope that it resumes again soon then. :)

IS everyone ready to continue the game? It's May, the lusty month of May, and the first of May has been over for a while now. :)

I'm good to go.

Me too.

I'm here

Still checking in...

then lets go. I'll post the next part in that meeting after my test today. :)

So nothing since?

Still waiting, still hopeful.

I sent a PM to Elton asking for an update. Hopefully he will reply soon.

Got a PM back. I asked him to let us know for certain whether the game was still going. After more than a month I got a reply.

"I will. :)"

That was the whole reply. So frustrated. Anyways, not that we didn't already know the game was dead, but even if it starts again, I'm out. Figured I would let you guys know.