Sweet! Thanks.
OK, guys, we are almost ready to start, I think. I'll kick things off as soon as we've got all the characters tweaked.
As I finish my own tweaks, I ask all of you a question. Does Lyrica know any of you better than mere acquaintances? It is small small town so she obviously knows all of you, but my question is how well? Are any of you near the age of 18? Would any of you been a bully to her in your childhood, or possibly a trusted friend? Her faith has been a secret for the most part, because she is not sure how others would take that information. I am wondering who she would have shared that with and who among you would have been accepting of such a forgiving deity as Sarenrae?
Good question! And it brings up this one:
What are your characters' ages?
Based on your storylines, Lyrica and Jak are among the youngest while Ezekiel and Marcus are older.
Jak is almost 21. It's likely that -- in a town as small as Dies Drear -- Jak and Lyrica would have been in the same circle of friends. He's not really a bully at all, so that's unlikely.
Let me put some thought into how they might have been as kids/teens.
Jak - 20
Lyrica - 18
I've got a buddy who grew up in the hinterlands of WA and literally was schooled in a one-room log cabin schoolhouse. So much of what I say here is drawn from his recollections of the reality of that sort of rough & rustic environment.
What limited schooling you received, augmented by your parents' instruction at home, took place in the town Assembly Hall. It was a single-room, single 'teacher' affair with multiple 'grade levels'. The older students would be expected to help out the younger children as de facto teaching assistants. Also, there were never so many kids to play with that cliques could really form. Kids that were 'close' in age would certainly interact more. So while Jak would be a closer peer to Allegra Strom (since they are even closer in age), he would certainly have known Lyrica. And given they are only a couple of years apart - socializing, flirting, and whatnot would be extremely likely.
Mind you - given Jak's reputation for trouble, it is possible the Strom girls (if they were squeaky clean) may have avoided getting entangled with him. I'll leave that to the players to decide. :)
The point where you'd start seeing enough of an 'interest gap' that you'd know but not actively socialize with the younger kids would be at differences of 6 years or greater - i.e. a 16 year old has so little in common with a 10 year old that they wouldn't mix most of the time. Doesn't mean they were hostile or ignored each other, just that they had different peer groups.
Regarding religion... folks that move that far into the wilds are fiercely independent, think for themselves, and generally hold to their own opinions. The Stroms worshipping Sarenrae is not, in itself, a secret or unknown. It is quite likely there are other Sarenrae worshippers in town and Lyrica's father as a lay priest likely presides over their worship meetings without anyone in town being upset. The majority of townsfolk probably worship more nature-aligned deities but that isn't a problem either. What wouldn't be generally known is the depth of their commitment to Sarenrae or Lyrica being a Paladin. The thing that would NOT go over in a town of fiercely independent and pragmatic folks is anyone proselytizing their faith as the 'true one' or appearing 'fanatical' in their devotion.
When I get the ages of all the characters, I'll be able to assign rough ages to everyone else in town and give you rough ideas of who your 'peers' are. As you get older and take on more 'adult' responsibilities, the importance of age lessens as your 'role' comes more to define who you are. For instance, if Marcus is 30 (picking a number), that would help to define who he schooled with and knew personally. But as he is a 'father' of two kids... that trumps his age. The other adults with kids, regardless of age, would consider him part of their 'group'. So everyone in town 'belongs' to multiple groups - peers by age, family, extended family by marriage, and role.
Marcus is 29, with a 12 year old daughter and 9 year old son
Aerik is 26
Thanks, guys. I'll assume it is OK to assign ages to your family members unless you specify them.
I see Ezekiel in the mid 30s. It would be possible for other PCs to be familiar with his niece (I'm thinking about 15ish for her at present).
Almost finished with Ezekiel. Working on traits and equipment at present.
Thanks, Ez!
This list is more for my benefit than yours. It shows your closest peers by age.
- Marcus
- Mira Howell-Braun
- Staz Odenbrand
- Nyssa Odenbrand
- Gavin Finiose
- Rowan Ruske-Finiose
- Beax Rallo-Guthwite
- Thom Rallo
- Tobar Zirk
- Riva Zirk
- Mara Zirk
- Lyrica
- Trev Guthwite
- Connie Marthuon
- Selwyn Odenbrand
- Pence Rallo
- Rina Ruske
- Renata Ruske
- Allegra Strom
- Bell Wynn
- Jak
- Stix Guthwite
- Marisol Howell
- Onivaar Marthuon
- Selwyn Odenbrand
- Lyle Rallo
- Renata Ruske
- Ellie Wynn
- Lohegrin Zirk
- Aerik
- Sara Howell-Balatin
- Eluon Balatin
- Mira Howell-Braun
- Rose Odenbrand
Ezekiel - I think you may have shorted yourself a couple skill points.
4 for Alchemist
4 for INT
1 for Human
1 for Favored Class
2 for DM Bonus?
Skill-wise, I think you guys have all of the important bases covered.
The only possible omissions I see are in the Knowledge skills area...
not surprising at 1st level.
Your current distribution looks like this:
Aerik - K:Nature
Ezekiel - K:Nature, K:Arcana
Jak - K:Local, K:Arcana
Lyrica - K:Religion
Marcus - K:Nature, K:Dungeoneering, K:Geography
Stormy, I like having the list of Lyrica's peers. Can you kindly add a one sentence description after each name so I can connect them to the characters. For example,
Lyrica
Jak
Stix Guthwite
Marisol Howell - 4th born daughter of Mattin Howells and younger sister of Jak.
Onivaar Marthuon
Selwyn Odenbrand
Lyle Rallo
Renata Ruske
Ellie Wynn
Lohegrin Zirk
I did indeed short myself. I'll see about getting them distributed. As far as knowledges go, not sure what to add on my end. Maybe history (though I'm only basing that on being older than most story-wise). I'd have to find a trait that adds it as a class skill. Or local actually. Local might make more sense. I'll see what I can do. Still have one trait open anyway.
No worries, Ez... and I wasn't suggesting you should spend your points on Knowledge skills. Spend them any way you like. Those were unrelated thoughts. I was making sure you had spent your ranks and it occurred to me that I hadn't checked out the balance of the Know skills.
Not sure I can do them in one sentence. :)
- Jak - (male 20yo) local troublemaker & apprentice merchant. Related by marriage to Marcus.
- Stix Guthwite - (male 17yo) 2nd of 7 children in the Guthwite family, grandson of Merl Guthwite the thorp's oldest living resident.
- Marisol Howell - (female 17yo) 4th in the Howell line, Jak's younger sister and a good friend to Lyrica. Related by marriage to Marcus.
- Onivaar Marthuon - (male 16yo) 'Middle child' in the Marthuon family and son of the Thorp's Hetmon (Headman) Elias Marthuon.
- Selwyn Odenbrand - (male 21yo) Youngest of the four Odenbrand children.
- Lyle Rallo - (male 19yo) 2nd son and 1 of 5 kids in the Rallo family. The elder Rallo boys (Pence and Lyle) are/were tight with Jak Howell and often got switched for the same offenses, though Jak was clearly the leader. The Rallo boys' shenanigans have largely been eclipsed by their youngest sister - the notorious Ritti 'Red' Rallo.
- Renata Ruske - (female 18yo) Youngest of the two Ruske girls - less out-going and buxom than her sister. Probably Lyrica's closest friend (outside her family) along with Marisol Howell. The Ruskes are related by marriage to the Druiminn/Finiose family (Ezekiel).
- Ellie Wynn - (female ~yo) A close friend to Lyrica and youngest sister of Aerik, would have been 16 this year had she not died from Swamp Fever three years ago.
- Lohegrin Zirk - (male 17yo) Eldest of the four surviving Zirk children. Has a longstanding (from his perspective) crush on Lyrica.
OK, here is the entire Thorp as well as their ages, broken down by family:
Dies Drear Pop:65
Balatin, Eluon (Husband) 30
Balatin nee Howell, Sargiva 'Sara' (Wife; Connect to Jak/Marcus) 29
Balatin, Umbril (Daughter) 14
Balatin, Cassita 'Cassi' (Daughter) 12
Balatin, Bernal (Son) 10
Balatin, Ryal (Son) 8
BRAUN, MARCUS (CHAR - Husband) 29
Braun nee Howell, Mira (Wife - deceased; Connect to Jak) 28
Braun, Heather (Daughter) 12
Braun, Eras (Son) 9
DRUIMINN, EZEKIEL (CHAR) 35
Finiose, Aerhart (Uncle) 55
Finiose, Prudence 'Pru' (Aunt) 55
Finiose, Gavin (Cousin) 36
Finiose nee Ruske, Rowan (Cousin's Wife - Ez's lost love) 34
Finiose, Olivia (Niece) 15
Guthwite, Merl (Grandfather) 78
Guthwite, Beren (Grandmother - deceased) 63
See Rallo, Elsbeth 42
Guthwite, Jode (Father) 40
Guthwite nee Rallo, Beax (Mother) 39
Guthwite, Trev (Son) 19
Guthwite, Stix (Son) 17
Guthwite, Uller (Son) 15
Guthwite, Hanna (Daughter) 14
Guthwite, Martin (Son) 10
Guthwite, Anka (Daughter) 8
Guthwite, Lil' Jode (Son) 5
Howell, Mattin (Father) 50
Howell, Vianca (Mother - deceased) 48
See Balatin, Sara 29
See Braun, Mira 28
HOWELL, JAKWIN (CHAR) 20
Howell, Marisol (Sister) 17
Howell, Eulalia (Sister) 13
Marthuon, Elias (Thorp Hetmon - Father) 44
Marthuon, Lena (Mother) 42
Marthuon, Constance 'Connie' (Daughter) 20
Marthuon, Onivaar (Son) 16
Marthuon, Dru (Son) 12
Odenbrand, Orl (Father) 48
Odenbrand, Milla (Mother) 47
Odenbrand, Rose (Daughter) 28
Odenbrand, Staz (Son) 26
Odenbrand, Nyssa (Daughter) 24
Odenbrand, Selwyn (Son) 21
Rallo, Zozar (Grandfather - deceased) 72
Rallo, Thom (Father) 40
Rallo nee Guthwite, Elsbeth (Mother) 42
Rallo, Pence (Son) 21
Rallo, Lyle (Son) 19
Rallo, Rilithane (Son) 17
Rallo, Margot (Daughter) 15
Rallo, Ritti 'Red' (Daughter) 12
Ruske, Napoli (Father - deceased) 56
Ruske, Beatte (Mother) 51
See Finiose, Rowan 34
Ruske, Rina (Daughter) 21
Ruske, Renata (Daughter) 18
Strom, Harmon (Father) 47
Strom, Delanor (Mother) 43
Strom, Allegra (Sister) 20
STROM, LYRICA (CHAR) 18
Strom, Melodica (Sister) 16
Wynn, Cole (Father) 50
Wynn, Annika (Mother) 45
WYNN, AERIK (CHAR) 26
Wynn, Bellavia 'Bell' (sister) 22
Wynn, Ellie (Sister - deceased) 16
Zirk, Tobar (Father) 38
Zirk, Riva (Mother - deceased) 36
Zirk, Mara (Aunt - Tobar's sister) 33
Zirk, Lohegrin (Son) 17
Zirk, Salenford (Son - deceased) 14
Zirk, Nala (Daughter) 10
Zirk, Tindel (Son) 8
Zirk, Kindel (Daughter) 7
OK, folks, it looks to me like aside from some minor tweaking and equipment purchasing for Ez (which can be done as we roll) we are set to go.
Are y'all ready to take those fateful footsteps into Mylhaven? >:)
Jak does one final visual check of his HUD readouts. Seeing all greens, his voice crackles over the radio signal, "Wing 3 is locked and ready to rock. Jak is green for go." He taps twice on the side on the fighter's canopy, giving his flight crew the thumbs up as it slides closed.
"Let's kick the tires and light some fires!"
squawk! "Roger that, Wing 3. Catapult Alpha is at Ready. AA is spooling up. Be advised, we have three Tangos inbound, course 157 at 20 miles. Good hunting, Lieutenant. Launch in 3, 2, 1..."
Just a warning - the first Gamplay posts will be text heavy to convey the scene and pertinent info but I promise they will thin out as we go along.
Stormy, you are awesome! That was exactly what I needed. This gives me great stuff for role playing! I appreciate your time and effort you put into that!
Ready or not, Lyrica is ready for launch!
BA-BOOOOOM.... the trigger has been pulled. Check the Gameplay thread.
Also, check the World Maps link in the Campaign Tab - Dies Drear now has a face.
just finished "gearing up" Aerik. hey SR, i gave Aerik a scroll of CLW for 12.5 gp, assuming he had crafted it himself. if that's not acceptable, just lemme know and i'll remove it from his gear. thx.
Nah, that is fine. You're gonna need it. :)
I am in the process of beating my head against a desk at present.
Alchemist's max gold: 180gp/3 for 60
Alchemist kit (for class abilities): 25gp
Healer's kit (RP Appropriate): 50gp
Anyone got some advice on this one?
You can take the healer's kit for free.
Thanks Stormraven!
Thanks, Jak.
Tell your clients they'll be charged a Paizo Fee for denying you valuable play time. :)
:kicks rock and mumbles: 'stupid jobs..'
I am in the process of beating my head against a desk at present.
Alchemist's max gold: 180gp/3 for 60
Alchemist kit (for class abilities): 25gp
Healer's kit (RP Appropriate): 50gpAnyone got some advice on this one?
Lol. Tell me about it. My starting gold was 40!
My improvised healer's kit is my holy symbol and my spells. :)
40 GP! You could buy small countries with that kind of fabulous wealth!
And by 'small countries' I mean ant colonies. :p
40 GP! You could buy small countries with that kind of fabulous wealth!
And by 'small countries' I mean ant colonies. :p
Lol. Fortunately Aerik is a minimalist. And more fortunately, cantrips are his friend. ;)
Between Mending, Spark, Light, Purify food and Drink, and Create Water, he's pretty set as far as basic necessities are concerned.
I saw the rule about spontaneous casters getting their caster stat bonus for spells per day AND spell known.
Shouldn't Jak have 3 level 1 spells known instead of 2, or am I misunderstanding that house rule?
Nope. You have it correct. A 1st Bard with 17 CHA would know three 1st level spells and able to cast twice per day. Good catch!
Oh, excellent! I had completely forgotten about that. Good catch.
Now i gotta find another 1st level spell.
Charm Person is thematically appropriate, but is that going to see much use in this style campaign, SR?
Also, on a review of our skills, here's what we have:
arcana 2
dungeoneering 1
engineering 0
history 0
local 1
nature 3
nobility 0
planes 0
religion 1
Does it make sense for any of the three of us who has a rank in Nature to drop it in to Planes instead? That would at least cover our monster ID'ing bases.
It's not really something that makes sense for Jak's background, but I could switch a rank from Arcana over to Planes if no one else can/wants to switch over a rank.
im going to take a rank of k. geo at level 2, but it wouldn't really be too helpful for me to take k. planes, cause its not a class skill.
it looks like Jak is going to end up being our knowledge guy for most of the monster id-ing. :)
Hmmm.. I hadn't considered that no one else had it as a class skill.
As for ID'ing most monsters, Jak only currently has 2 knowledge ranks (local and arcana). I could lose arcana for Planes, though I'm scratcing my head as to why he'd have this knowledge.
Stormraven, does the land from which Jak's mother came have an emphasis on Lore of the Planes? Might she have told her little boy stories of angels, devils, demons, and other extra-planar creatures as part of his bed-time routine?
Metawise, if it is an undead-heavy campaign, knowledge religion would be helpful. That way me and marcus can handle animals and other nature stuff (fey i think?), and you and Lyrica can handle undead and whatnot.
if eze takes arcana that works for what, magical beasts? and dungeoneering is aberrations right?
Yep, adn all of those are handled by at least one person. Planes is the only one that's not. I'm not sure if we'll see many opponents of that ilk, but I don' think devils and demons would be out of place given what we know of our adventures. Maybe not common like undead, but certainly not out-of-theme for a horror game.
And that's what i'm trying to remedy. :)
This doesn't help with Monster IDing, but I have Know (Geo) as well right now.
I can't really help in the Know (Planes) department, though.
Yah, i think i'm the only real solution there short of making someone else take a trait... which is lame.
I'll wait to haer Stormy's thoughts on Jak's mom telling him stories of otherworldly entities to fill the gap. If we can come up with something there, I'll switch a rank from Knowledge :Arcana to Knowledge: Planes.
Hmm...
As this is a sandbox game I haven't planned fifteen steps ahead because I anticipate you guys will wander off the basic storyline. In fact, I've built this thing to enable you to easily wander off and come back when you choose. So it is difficult to say how useful Charm Person will be. Depending on how/where you choose to roam from the basic story, CP could prove useful - definitely in its non-combat applications but periodically in combat as well.
If you focus on the basic plotline, there will be less benefit to Charm Person. In the early stuff I've got planned, CP will probably get little to no use.
Don't feel that you have to limit yourself to thematically appropriate spell choices. It's a dangerous world and as frontier people on the ragged edge of civilization, you'd arm yourselves pragmatically and as best you can.
Story-telling is a typical Mylhavian leisure time activity when people are buttoned-up for the night or sitting out the long winters in-doors. Mostly, these stories revolve around the very real threats in Mylhaven (a variety of creatures) and parables. Jak's mother in particular would be able to spin many, many tales about earthly and unearthly creatures of all sorts so K:Planes would make sense.
I know the optimization mindset inclines players to stick to their class skills to get the most bang for the buck. But there are benefits to taking non-class skills, particularly ones that can't be used 'untrained'... Having a 15% chance of making a critical knowledge check is better (to my mind) than having no chance whatsoever.
How to put this...
- I bore easily, SO...
- Variety is truly the spice of life for me as a DM, AND
- Players should worry when an evil bastardy DM sprouts a cheshire grin.
Yes, you will be encountering a good load of undead as opposed to a standard campaign where you may encounter undead only 10% of the time. Undead-Heavy to me means '>15% undead'. You will also be encountering evil fey, outer plane creatures, inner plane creatures, demented constructs, fell beasts, vicious killers, insidious traps, combo platters with all of the above, and anything else that my diseased brain comes up with that makes me chuckle.
Now you may be saying to yourself (Meta Hat firmly on head):
Realistically, we don't need K:Planes at 1st level because there really aren't any demons or devils that can bounce into the Prime Material to raise a ruckus. At least there are none that are an appropriate encounter for 1st level characters. Right, Mr. Evil Bastardy DM?
That is pretty much true... if I were limiting myself to what's in the Bestiary. Unfortunately, for you, you have a DM that likes to scribble outside the lines... particularly where the Bestiary is concerned.
>:D <-- Note the cheshire grin
well, and beyodn that, I don't like the idea that Jak would -- at some point down the road -- suddenly be inspired to leran about the creatuers of the planes without having a reason. I'd rather just build in a backsgory reason for him to have had it all along.
So I'll drop Arcana for Planes.
Oh, you and your 'character consistency' arguments...
Fie! A pox on both your houses!
:D
Wow... Lyrica played the dead mom card... harsh. :)