I found it helpful to think of what Eztil would be skilled at.
Yeah, I hate it when my posts are eaten. Piazo's forums are a bit unstable at times.
Alright, we've got Marjana's skills ready to roll. Nikolas, Alric, you still here?
Welp, that's a few days gone and no sign of Nikolas or Alric. At this point, I'm forced to assume they're dropping out...which is fairly lame. I'm going to check with a friend or two, see if they'd want to step in and play those characters, but in the meantime, I'll get to work on starting off the game. Expect a gameplay introduction tonight.
And by 'tonight' I apparently meant Monday night (what is now tonight). Sorry, had a totally crazy night at work and never found any spare time.
And by 'tonight' I apparently meant Monday night (what is now tonight). Sorry, had a totally crazy night at work and never found any spare time.
That's OK. I didn't read it until this morning and didn't look at the timestamp. So I thought you meant Monday night all along.
Sad if we've lost Nikolas & Alric, but that's a hazard of PbP games, especially with delays, even if they're unavoidable.
I assume you've PM'd them, in case they've just got out of the habit of checking?
Sad to loose them if they don't come back. Especially Alric since he drove up the price of Psyche :)
I assume you've PM'd them, in case they've just got out of the habit of checking?
I have now! Didn't think to until this moment, but I'm on it. Oh, and one of my friends seems to be biting at the hook, so we might at least get a replacement Nikolas, if he's truly out.
Sad to loose them if they don't come back. Especially Alric since he drove up the price of Psyche :)
Yeah, the Auction makes losing players (and replacing them) extremely awkward in these games. I'm hunting around a bit for folks who might want to take over the current characters since we haven't started Gameplay just yet - I'll be NPCing them in the meantime, unless we get lucky enough to hear from the players.
Let's rock, folks, Gameplay has begun. Please feel free to post over there about your arrival in Amber, whether it's just now or anytime within the last year, and whenever you feel comfortable, let me know you've arrived to the Council chamber. Assume there was sufficient pomp and circumstance - if you feel like you're going to stir up some serious drama, then chat with me and we'll play it out a little further.
If you believe you've already earned your appointment to a Position of Power, go ahead and claim it, as long as you're not too out there with your justification, I'll run with it. If you don't think your character has earned theirs yet, that's fine too, we'll get there shortly.
Are we going with our choice of Amber parent or will that be part of the story?
I've been saying Deirdre is my mother, but it was always subject to the needs of the story (and the GM).
Edit: If we've been local to the city for awhile, do we need to know anything particular to the present emergency before we get started?
My preference would to have been out-of-town for longer than the crisis, but I'm thinking about already being given the Sheriff position (having been appointed years previous to give me stronger ties to Amber), but having delegated the responsibility to a trusted subordinate while I journeyed Shadow for awhile.
What works better for you?
Eztil will just be arriving in Amber driven by visions, memory, and a search for his lost family. Don't know who his Amber parent is but maybe they arrange his position in the castle to keep him around.
I'm not sure about Drama, but I think I need to know how or if Marjana was contacted. As I said earlier here, I'm happy either way: Random's agents could have found her out or she could have heard rumors of the search through contacts in the Golden Circle and come of her own accord.
How that plays out and her paranoia level will depend on which happens and on how that first contact goes. Especially if she's met Random on arrival. I'm not comfortable with her first contact with the Family after avoiding Amber for centuries being completely off screen.
Mind you, depending on how it goes, I'm thinking of arriving last minute and unannounced for the Council anyway, pushing the actual first meeting to the start of the game.
I'm back. I just stopped reading regularly because nothing was moving forward and I hadn't gotten any response from some questions I sent a few weeks ago. If this is actually going forward, I'll re-engage.
I see we need skills, but I really want to know my parentage before I finalize background any further.
Welp, that's a few days gone and no sign of Nikolas or Alric. At this point, I'm forced to assume they're dropping out...which is fairly lame. I'm going to check with a friend or two, see if they'd want to step in and play those characters, but in the meantime, I'll get to work on starting off the game. Expect a gameplay introduction tonight.
Not dropping out, but I hope the players will get the same consideration as the GM if we drop away for a few days. I had sort of assumed the game fell off the GM's priority list and stopped checking every day.
It was not my intention to be 'lame.'
Glad your still with us!
Glad you are back Nikolas. Looking forward to more of your tales.
-----
Something about Eztil is a bit disturbing... an aura of menace that he cannot shake despite being quite polite.
Welp, that's a few days gone and no sign of Nikolas or Alric. At this point, I'm forced to assume they're dropping out...which is fairly lame. I'm going to check with a friend or two, see if they'd want to step in and play those characters, but in the meantime, I'll get to work on starting off the game. Expect a gameplay introduction tonight.Not dropping out, but I hope the players will get the same consideration as the GM if we drop away for a few days. I had sort of assumed the game fell off the GM's priority list and stopped checking every day.
It was not my intention to be 'lame.'
Naturally, everybody gets a grace period, this whole thing is intended to have a casual rate. In your case - Sorry, missed your messages and hadn't heard from you in a couple of weeks. Wasn't calling you lame, just the situation. No offense meant, and glad to see you back!
Anyway, as to your parentage - Julian works fine, and I like your presumptions thus far as to his parenting skills. You'll find out his fate in the intervening years in a bit.
Are we going with our choice of Amber parent or will that be part of the story?
I've been saying Deirdre is my mother, but it was always subject to the needs of the story (and the GM).Edit: If we've been local to the city for awhile, do we need to know anything particular to the present emergency before we get started?
My preference would to have been out-of-town for longer than the crisis, but I'm thinking about already being given the Sheriff position (having been appointed years previous to give me stronger ties to Amber), but having delegated the responsibility to a trusted subordinate while I journeyed Shadow for awhile.
What works better for you?
Deirdre works for me. She's long presumed dead, of course, and this does place James fairly old in the grand scheme (of Merlin's generation), but none of that is earth-shaking.
That assumption of delegation works out just fine on this end, go with it. As for local knowledge, you know as much as anyone not truly in the know- which I'll be getting to the details of pretty quickly in game, so don't worry about it too much. For the moment, just assume the rumblings; rumors of disappearances in the Golden Circle and disturbances in the stuff of Shadow.
I'm not sure about Drama, but I think I need to know how or if Marjana was contacted. As I said earlier here, I'm happy either way: Random's agents could have found her out or she could have heard rumors of the search through contacts in the Golden Circle and come of her own accord.
How that plays out and her paranoia level will depend on which happens and on how that first contact goes. Especially if she's met Random on arrival. I'm not comfortable with her first contact with the Family after avoiding Amber for centuries being completely off screen.Mind you, depending on how it goes, I'm thinking of arriving last minute and unannounced for the Council anyway, pushing the actual first meeting to the start of the game.
You heard about the call before agents found you, being in the Golden Circle, but if you chose to wait for them to find you or not is up to you. If you've been actively hiding your nature (as I understand you have) it would take them a while to uncover you, if they succeeded at all. You could also have officially received the summons and told the messenger you would arrive when you were good and ready - the planned date for the beginning of the council was part of the message, so you would know when to arrive.
Eztil will just be arriving in Amber driven by visions, memory, and a search for his lost family. Don't know who his Amber parent is but maybe they arrange his position in the castle to keep him around.
I believe (if it works for you) you don't know just yet, but it will likely be addressed.
Marjana, I'm not sure if you want to wait a bit or jump in now - I'll be moving things onward tonight regardless (unless you guys get involved in a conversation/roleplay you want to play out amongst yourselves), you can retcon as necessary if you haven't checked in by then.
Everybody, some info - as the year went on, there were more and more arrivals, adding up to a couple dozen in the end.
Which of these are known Amberites, people whose names at least I'd be aware of?
Hey guys, we don't need details at this time, but Nikolas has been in and around Amber for 18 months (local time). If anyone has been around we had ample time to meet. Who wants to have bumped into each other previous to the conference. Marjana and Nikolas have met in Mist, but at the time he was unaware of her parentage.
I had considered changing the nature of my arrival from disembarking from a ship to crawling up on the docks in the middle of the night after his ship sank and getting arrested and tossed in the drunk tank. Yeah he has that kind of life.
It would rewind slightly before he goes to the castle but give him an opportunity to meet a few people. While nobody (including Eztil) knows he is an Amberite he does have the reality of one.
Eztil, if you want more interaction before entering, copy and paste this to your next post.
James checked in at the mirror, nodded at his reflection (thankfully back in the proper colors after a steady uniform of black), and left for the Palace. As was his habit, he Trumped directly to his rooms there and then stopped by the nearest stationed guard to let them know he was in. Family etiquette required each to announce their presence to the Guard if the regular doors were not used, to prevent any 'mistakes'.
Looking relieved, the guard said, "Sir, I'm glad you're here. We have a 'disturbance', a, a 'special guest', you could say, at the front gate that may require a Family member."
"Very well, I'll walk by. As back up, of course."
Turning back to the guard, "And let His Majesty know I've returned."
Then run with it.
If he wants to do this, does anyone else want to join us?
Nikolas--Roy's also been in Amber for a while by my concept. Probably around the same length of time in all honesty, although perhaps a little more or less. It's quite possible they would have met in that time period: Roy's primarily been serving as an acting Sheriff/deputy, so he's been around the whole city and has met most of the movers and shakers by now. I'm up for anything as far as the context of that meeting goes, so it's up to you as well. I think you (as well as most of the players) know more about the setting than I do, so you can choose a location that seems fitting.
I'll put up a post shortly James. Could draw in one or more of the admirals since he will claim a shipwreck. And Roy was acting sherif.
Posted hooks for anyone who is interested in having some interaction over the past week about Eztil's claim of a shipwreck or his time in the local prison.
Or meet him at the gate. He has a legitimate invitation from the"chamberlain" (who may have been ordered by someone else) to come to the castle.
Eztil
Sorry, I didn't get anything up last night.
Today is a busy day as well, so you can add something or wait till (at least) tomorrow when I can do a post justice.
I'll follow your lead on the meeting.
james
I also got too caught up in other stuff to get anything up sooner.
Marjana's deliberately showing up near the last moment, so there won't be much chance for interaction before the council.
James (or someone else?) might get called in by the guard when she arrives.
At least that was her plan. It would be somewhat amusing if someone's intelligence service was good enough to meet her at the docks.
I had a case of the stupids just now - I was in a hurry, and I didn't bother to back up the post I just tried to make. Bah. I'll have something up again sometime this morning.
Marjana/everyone else, there aren't currently any outside forces that'll stop anyone from noticing your arrival, so unless you're taking steps to dodge them, then anyone who's been monitoring the situation can take notice as they desire (especially those with positions).
To be clear, I'm not being called by the guards officially (I've been out of town and am not in charge of palace guards anyway) as much as being available at the right time.
Anything in the city earlier would have been dealt with by the guards present or passed on to Roy.
I'm going to make an error when I go to see what's up at the palace entrance, so we'll see where it takes us.
I'm taking some steps, it's just a question of whether they're enough.
We didn't take the normal Trade routes in and avoided the fleet and I came ashore incognito. Unless the Raven was recognized coming into the harbor and linked to me.
Or if there's some kind of magic monitoring such things.
Until I announced myself at the castle, of course.
I'll let y'all play out your past stories however you feel like - just know I'll be proceeding forward as if you had all arrived without too many complications, so don't make too many waves in your 'prequel' meetings, and let me know if there's a conflict I need to adjudicate.
Hm. Actually? Let's do this instead. Here's a new thread, call Flashbacks; let's keep anything outside of the 'present' - i.e. arriving in the council chamber (or at least the Palace proper), there. That thread I'll mostly let you guys run wild in - tell stories, roleplay side scenes with on another that I jump over for time's sake, anything that I don't need to play GM at. I may chime in from time to time as it amuses me, but let's mostly just use that thread to get your RP jollies in when we need to move the plot along elsewhere. Sound like a plan?
A slight question that isn't too important, but worth asking for Roy with his Western tones: are cigars or cigarillos are anything like that available in Amber? Or is it closer to the fantasy staple of pipes as seen in Lord of the Rings and that sort of thing?
I'll let y'all play out your past stories however you feel like - just know I'll be proceeding forward as if you had all arrived without too many complications, so don't make too many waves in your 'prequel' meetings, and let me know if there's a conflict I need to adjudicate.
Hm. Actually? Let's do this instead. Here's a new thread, call Flashbacks; let's keep anything outside of the 'present' - i.e. arriving in the council chamber (or at least the Palace proper), there. That thread I'll mostly let you guys run wild in - tell stories, roleplay side scenes with on another that I jump over for time's sake, anything that I don't need to play GM at. I may chime in from time to time as it amuses me, but let's mostly just use that thread to get your RP jollies in when we need to move the plot along elsewhere. Sound like a plan?
Oh, and do me a favor, just for continuity's sake - if you continue anything you've already been posting about in regular Gameplay over there, copy/paste the relevant bits of the older stuff so it'll make sense if we go a-browsing.
A slight question that isn't too important, but worth asking for Roy with his Western tones: are cigars or cigarillos are anything like that available in Amber? Or is it closer to the fantasy staple of pipes as seen in Lord of the Rings and that sort of thing?
They're available, imported in. Not incredibly common, but several of the previous generation found themselves fond of cigarettes in their time on Shadow Earth, and the fad made its way to Amber proper.
A slight question that isn't too important, but worth asking for Roy with his Western tones: are cigars or cigarillos are anything like that available in Amber? Or is it closer to the fantasy staple of pipes as seen in Lord of the Rings and that sort of thing?They're available, imported in. Not incredibly common, but several of the previous generation found themselves fond of cigarettes in their time on Shadow Earth, and the fad made its way to Amber proper.
Cool, thanks. It's a fairly iconic part of the gunslinger's image, so I figured I'd ask and see if it could be incorporated.
Erg. Guys, somewhere along the way my private spreadsheet with the final rankings and your point spending went awry, and sorting through the Paizo messaging system to find this stuff is a royal pain in the butt.
If you wouldn't mind, send me a PM one more time with your final points, one last time, noting specifically any secret Attribute buyups or selldowns.
Names and titles as you would present them to the steward, please. Feel free to be as verbose as you want (nobody's gonna tell you no), but like the man said, brevity is the soul of wit.
Viscount, James and I can continue our meeting in the flashback thread. It could be the day of the grand gathering or earlier. Maybe he has time to meet with whomever arranged for his invitation or not.
I'll be able to post something substantial later tonight. Have to take the wife and kiddo to the inlaws in prep for construction on the roof of our house tomorrow. Kiddo has some anxiety issues and can't be here for a couple days.
Posted in the flashback thread.... interesting its basically a separate campaign. Wish they allowed multiple rooms/threads in the one campaign. Bit more used to RPOL than Piazo for online games.
Don't worry about it, Reckless, no rush.
And yeah, Eztil, I very much wish that myself. If you have a way of making these forums do that, let me know, I got nothin'.
Yeah, I don't know of any better way. Maybe a link on the campaign info page to any sub pages so we can find them later.
The letter grants Eztil entrance to the castle with instructions to meet in Faiella's Garden at 11 bells.
I can take you to the garden for the meeting, but not do the meeting itself (that would be V.K.'s side).
Is that what you're after?
Its up to V.K. if his Amber parent wants to reveal themselves. They might just be quietly arranging things behind the scenes. Eztil, as Varick von der Drachenburg, was thought to be dead and now someone comes around asking about the Drachenburg family (he looks different than the lost 16 year old boy). The parent would probably want some answers.
Possible the parent knew he was alive but he was in a prison shadow that makes people appear to be dead by trump and other means. Would require a pretty good reason (or a total dick of a parent) to have left a kid where he was.
Often wonder how much members of the Amber family resemble one another. In one of my games we assumed a family appearance passed on from Oberon's side of the family. One game had a joke we all looked and posed alike... mainly because we had the same artist do all the trumps and everyone separately described their character in a similar pose (everyone was pointing off in some direction).
If you wouldn't mind, send me a PM one more time with your final points, one last time, noting specifically any secret Attribute buy-ups or sell-downs.
Names and titles as you would present them to the steward, please. Feel free to be as verbose as you want (nobody's gonna tell you no), but like the man said, brevity is the soul of wit.
I admit to some confusion.
Did you want the names and titles as part of the PM about final accounting or do you want us, in the game play thread, to enter the council chamber after an announcement of our names and titles?
Yeah, I don't know of any better way. Maybe a link on the campaign info page to any sub pages so we can find them later.
An excellent plan. Let it be done.
I admit to some confusion.
Did you want the names and titles as part of the PM about final accounting or do you want us, in the game play thread, to enter the council chamber after an announcement of our names and titles?
Ah. Sorry about the confusion there. I'd like your names and titles as your characters would present them to the herald at the door, either privately or here, so I can announce your entrance. If you like, you can even simply announce your entrance in gameplay, with the understanding that the herald will announce your presence as you give your name to them and allow you entrance to the room.