Rangers of the Empire--HOMEBREW!! (Inactive)

Game Master Chainmail

All recruits gather here to be deemed worthy.

We will begin by making a bow and going through the endurance portion of the Trials.

I enter the hall with Mother and Sisters in hopes of becoming a Ranger for the king.

Morvas silently enters the hall, to stand quietly to one side until he is called upon.

Liam strides into the hall to take his place amongst the other novices awaiting the trials.

Ascan lingers near the back listening and waiting to see if he has what it takes to be a Ranger.

"Making a bow? I was never trusted with such precious tools, let alone a weapon. Can I not make a really long stick instead? It isn't as scry to see one like me with a stick as it is a real weapon."

Looking good.

To give a preview---you will be going through training. We will see who joins, but we have enough.

Chase rules will be used, so I have linked them below. It is a very good mechanic I see used much too infrequently.

Chase Rules

Having run chases tabletop I have much practice. My flowcharts are involved and you do not have complete knowledge of all the destinations. No one has been disappointed how they go, and others have joined me in using them much more often.

Social contract stuff:
Post daily -- I will try to update daily. If you see me get two posts in without one of yours in between, you are falling behind.

70% of my games I am in have failed due to attrition and lack of posting. The other game I GM I moved the updates from daily to every two days. Did it help? No, it caused even more lax posting and we have a spotty posting slow game rather than a spotty posting faster game.

If it is not working for you, let me know. I will not be offended if you drop. You should look forward to posting, not dreading it.

I KNOW this will be different from your normal AP. I BELIEVE it will be a blast.

Ok, ready to go!!

Hugging my family in anticipation tears running down the girls faces. I whisper to mother things will get better "You know I will always take care of you." I begin mentally getting prepared for the events to come.

I look around at the other would be apprentices and relax slightly. There are more non-humans than I might have expected, that's good.

There's more diversity amongst the recruits than I expected, maybe I won't stick out so badly after all. But damn, we would have to make our own bow. No matter Ascan, once we get going everything will fall into place, this is your only option.
Ascan looks around to the others for a clue as to where to start.

I plan to start Friday and kick things off with a big start.

I will post a last recruiting bump.

My family and eye look around. I smile to the non-humans and nod hello. My sisters huddle near to mother while my mother scowls toward the Half-Orc in particular. Whispering in my ear I look at her disapprovingly.

Morvas nods back to the human who seems to have brought his family along. While they seem friendly, he does notice the looks the older female keeps giving the half-orc.

A grey-haired woman strides into the room, followed closely by an ordinary-looking young man. She nudges him and fiercely whispers, "What are you waiting for, introduce yourself!" He shuffles timidly forward and says in a shaky voice, "I'm Harlow. Harlow Hornblower. N-nice to meet you all, I guess." The woman hrumphs, turns on her heel, and leaves. Harlow collapses into a chair like a puppet without a puppeteer, his mother's words ringing in his head. Come back as a Ranger, or don't bother coming back.

I hope I'm not too late. I'm not quite done with his profile yet, but should be soon.

Also, what languages can I pick?

Let us use common and the local for your home. We will call Kingdomspeech the language spoken in the kingdom and the 'dialect' for most local humans.

The elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes, goblins, and orcs have all developed a native tongue in their expatriate communities.

I was more interested in the languages of the surrounding nations, since I presume we will need to warn/interrogate intruders at some point in our careers.

I walk over to Harlow. Moving slowly away from my mother and say.

Hello Harlow didn't know you would be coming to be a Ranger. Haven't seen you sense our weekly temple visits.

Out of character. Role with it dude

OK, Gameplay up. Everyone is looking good.

Think bootcamp + hunger games.

so this is about half joking but does that mean we'll be killing our other recruits

When you fire your blunt arrows, the judges can call you out.

ok well that helps a bit. so we will be hunting our fellow recruits at some point...good :)

Adolpho wanders to the muster area languidly. Silent and waiting. Wathcing to see if he will be chosen.

Looks good. Adolpho is in. Will firm up the roster Monday late. Still time!

Note the current map now appears in the top of the page at all times. It will also be in the short campaign description.

Although it is a preview, there is a five sheet spreadsheet to represent a three-D chase. I will explain it when it happens, but just want everyone to be aware maps will be in google docs.

At times, cell phones may finicky opening maps. But, we will be using maps and tactical movement (when not doing chases!).

Hey how do you roll on this sight I haven't played a lot on this site.

Click on the how to format text. dice in brackets starts off the dice expression followed by /dice in brackets to end it. Spoilers work the same way with spoiler in bracket to start and /spoiler in bracket to end it. (dice=Perception)1d20 + 3; 1d6 + 2(/dice) This is a dice expression if you change the parentheses to brackets.

DM, in the gameplay thread. Do you want me to use the first result which is a flawed -2 short bow or the roleplayed second result?

Flawed -2 with help.

Ok

Are we proficient with the bow? Other than the minus two?

Categories for weapons are simple, martial, and exotic. Commoners are proficient with one simple weapon. Longbows are martial weapons. So normally, no. Elves are proficient with longbows thanks to their weapon familiarity racial trait, and it is conceivable that a human's bonus feat can give him this proficiency, or that a character trait can affect this.

Of course, the DM's thoughts on the subject may differ from my own...

I would assume non-proficient unless/until told otherwise.

I took alternate racial traits, so Adair has racial proficiency with an entirely different set of weapons . . ..

Does anyone have any preferences for which class they will take? If so, what? Is anyone thinking of becoming multi-classed?

I wasn't sure how much choice we would have in so much as if our scores dictated trak we would have access to or other narrative things would shape us to certain resolutions. I for one was thinking of looking at the ACG classes or looking at ranger/rogue type option for how I envision Adolpho's personality.

The sideline to Druid was passed on already!

I never saw anything that jumped out at me as a Druidic path. Seriously.

A lecture by a Druid on druidic religion :-)

Was the druid thread the one in which we started foraging? I also did not realize that that was a singular opportunity for us to begin studying the druidic arts. Will there be other opportunities to study magic?

Hey sorry had surprise visits from grandparents you know how family is I spaced.

Hopefully they were your grandparents. Welcome back.

LOL Hello There! We are so happy to see our grandchild!

Yeah, that's great but uh...who the hell are you?

Lol so is anyone else feeling the pressure to make the cut

So, we will start the race on Monday. You have some time to talk among yourselves. This is not your typical pathfinder adventure.

We are close enough to the holidays that I will resume in earnest on January 6. Weekends and holidays can be slow, so I want to allow you all to have time with friends and family.

The English have Boxing Day and visit people they haven't seen in a while the day after Christmas. Anyway, let us have free roleplay until January 6 when the race starts in earnest.

Apologies for not posting. I am currently very sick. I hope to be back posting in the next couple of days.

Happy Ho-Ho to one and all!

Hope everyone is having a good one.

Merry Christmas!

Returned tonight.

Post in the gameplay thread when you have returned. When everyone checks in or Jan 6 at the latest we start.

Merry Christmas.