Tales of the Shadowscales

Game Master Plume

If we're all *loyal* to the Shadowscales for some reason or another, does the majority of the group have to be Argonian? Maybe we're some special, odd-ball, elite team of mongrels. :)

Been sick for a couple of days; will try and finish my Shadow-Scale tonight

ZenFox: That depends on who you ask! The racial makeup of the party is certainly going to be a plot point...

Think I've finished her stats [not counting gear]

My plan is to do an Argonian... If I can figure out a concept. I've been thinking about it for days and, while I've figured out that I want to be a warrior-mage type caster (likely leaning heavier towards magic, but some melee type skills as a backup, though I'll probably not specialize in destruction, since there are already two others with that skill), I haven't figured out the story hooks involved. And, for me, the story hooks are what keep me interested. :-)

What's the deadline for applications?

I can certainly change the character I've submitted if it makes things easier. I would be making a casting focused character regardless of what race, so I could just as easily be a "burn things to the ground" argonian caster.

ShadeKyubi - I'm curious, how'd you end up with 19 skill points, when the max is 15? And I'm assuming that no skill went over its linked attribute.

Fobok - what do you mean by story hooks? Maybe if you described what you're looking for, Plume can oblige...

Rolling for my Birthsign :
Birthsign: 1d12 ⇒ 10
The Serpent?: 1d12 ⇒ 10

So, yep, I'm a Serpent : Characters with this birthsign can make a bare-handed Touch Attack to magically poison their target with the equivalent of Knockout Poison (see page 88 in Savage Worlds Deluxe). But immediately afterwards, the attacking character must make a Vigor check at +2. On a failure, they themselves are instantly knocked out. On a success, they are Exhausted. On a raise, they are merely Fatigued.

That's just not worth it - I doubt I'll ever use that in gameplay.

You can have 19 skills if you put your 4 points from hinderances into them.

Fobok, the deadline will be within the next few days, just because I'd like to start soon. It depends on what comes together with regard to the player characters. I'm still familiarizing myself with Savage Worlds' rules as a DM as well, so I'll need another day or so to look it over to my satisfaction.

ShadeKyubi - I'm curious, how'd you end up with 19 skill points, when the max is 15? And I'm assuming that no skill went over its linked attribute.

Because I miscounted, need to drop 2 points from something [Only the points from the minor hindarances are going into skils; the major one went to my Alchemy Edge]

Fixed it

Fobok - what do you mean by story hooks? Maybe if you described what you're looking for, Plume can oblige...

I mean the background elements that hook me into - and help define - the character's story. For example, a character I'm playing in another play by post: A half-orc Paladin who wholeheartedly believes (as it's what his mother told him) that his father had been a good orc, converted by his mother (a cleric of Apsu) into fighting for the side of good. As a result, he believes any orc (or other monstrous humanoids) can be turned to good, if only they can be made to listen and think beyond what they've been taught. It helps me define his personality, and the actions he takes.

Anyway, I'd be happy for suggestions, since I don't know Argonian lore very well, but really it's my own responsibility to come up with a background that appeals to me. :-) Hopefully I can come up with something by the end of the day.

Okay, I figured something out. I'll try to write a small background tomorrow, I'm just too tired tonight. But, the gist is an overly curious Argonian, a Shadowscale who has taught himself magic from books stolen from his targets. He is the kind of character who would be out exploring the world - seeing the sights between finding new libraries of books to read - except for the fact that he is totally loyal to the Shadowscales.

Fobok: You can learn a lot about Argonians here, but here are some cliffnotes

1) Up until very recently, Argonians were a slave race in Morrowwind. There was an uprising and a retributive race war called the War of Accession.

2) The Shadowscales as an organization have seen better days - though many insist that they are back on the rise

3) Black Marsh, their home, is a strange and foreign land filled with sentient trees known as the Hist. Argonian lore says that the Argonian people exist to provide the Hist with knowledge of the outside world, since they can't experience it for themselves. This connection to the Hist grants Argonians powerful regenerative capabilities.

Tsleen - I think you have too many Edges, Skills, and Powers. You have 18 points in Skills, when the max is 15.

First Strike and Two-Fisted, along with each of the 3 Powers, must each be bought as an Edge. Your Hindrances gives you 3 points (you could take another Minor Hindrance to get another point), and each Edge costs 2 points. So as it is, if you took another Minor Hindrance, you could have any 2 out of the 5 things listed. Also, the 3 Powers you've listed don't all belong in the same "school" as defined by the Elder Scrolls PDF referenced above.

I suspect Hero Lab isn't set up to do magic the way the Elder Scrolls does it, so it gave you 3 Powers for "free".

Fobok: You can learn a lot about Argonians here, but here are some cliffnotes

Thanks! That should be very useful. I'll read through that before I write my background. (It'll probably be short, though, my voice isn't up to much dictating today.)

Tsleen - I think you have too many Edges, Skills, and Powers. You have 18 points in Skills, when the max is 15.

First Strike and Two-Fisted, along with each of the 3 Powers, must each be bought as an Edge. Your Hindrances gives you 3 points (you could take another Minor Hindrance to get another point), and each Edge costs 2 points. So as it is, if you took another Minor Hindrance, you could have any 2 out of the 5 things listed. Also, the 3 Powers you've listed don't all belong in the same "school" as defined by the Elder Scrolls PDF referenced above.

I suspect Hero Lab isn't set up to do magic the way the Elder Scrolls does it, so it gave you 3 Powers for "free".

Aha, you're right. I forgot to account for the fact that I don't get the free powers, I just manually edited out the arcane edge the PDF mentioned wasn't needed.

As for the extra skills, two of those points come from the free swimming skill that Argonians get. I'll have to do the math on the rest, but Hero Lab says I'm only those two points over (not accounting for the mistaken free powers). But, I'll be reworking the sheet anyway since, without those free powers, he no longer fits the concept with what I have.

As for the spells not being in the same school, I know that. That's why I had skills in different schools. He's someone who scraped together whatever spells he could find, not a studied specialist. The reason I had conjuration higher than the others was I figured he'd use summoned armour more than the others. So, I think I messed up there as well, since I was swapping powers so much in figuring things out that I ended up with a skill I had no power for. Not that it matters now, anyway. :-)

Anyway, thank you! I'll see if I can get that fixed up.

Actually, I think I'm going to have to back out. I jumped on this game because I love Elder Scrolls, and I have lots of spare time in the day, every day. But, today has reminded me that the reason I decided to start playing play by post was to be able to role-play even on days that my voice (which is very prone to laryngitis) wasn't in shape for dictating a live session like on a MUSH. (Typing just isn't possible due to disability.)

If I add any more games in, unfortunately, I won't be getting the rest for my voice that I was hoping for.

I'm very sorry. This looks like a fantastic game and I really wish I could take part.

Do let us know if you ever change your mind, Fobok!

Everyone else: I wanted to update you that I'm feeling just a little bit intimidated with the Savage Worlds system, and I might fall back on Dungeon World due to having so much more experience with it. If that reduces anyone's interest level, I understand, and I haven't dismissed Savage Worlds entirely, I'm just not certain I'd be as good at DMing that system as I would be for DW.

I just wanted to share that because I know people are putting effort into their Savage Worlds character creation and I don't want to create any unnecessary stress for anyone.

I'd like to chime in that I'd much rather this game go forward with the system the GM is most comfortable with, if only because that should put a lot less pressure on him to keep things flowing. I'm not that picky if we get to play in Tamriel.

I found this hack from 2011 for Dungeon World that could be a good starting point.

I also found some classless options that people built, but they're for different settings.

That's fine. If you want to change the system Plume, let's go ahead and do so. I would second that you should run the game system you want to run.

I'm familiar with both SW and DW, but by far prefer SW. However, the GM's in charge, and I can play in DW...

(Just a P.S. - if you decide you want to give SW a try, I know it so well that I'd be glad to help out in any way I can, maybe even running a mock combat to show you how it's done, or answer any questions you have about how the system works...)

If we do play DW, here will be my character submission:

ZenFox, I'm going to go with what I know for now since I'm already dealing with the unknown factor of never having run a game in the Elder Scrolls universe before. I usually do homebrew universes.

So I'm doing Dungeon World for now, but my intention to learn and one day run a Savage Worlds campaign remains!

Are we going to use any of those fan rules?

The hack that Lazyclownfish suggested will be very useful for setting some baseline interpretations for Dungeon World to Elder Scrolls with regard to Magicka and other things. I of course, will reserve the right to change things if the group has consensus or personal DM fiat!

I'm liking the submissions I see so far. Be also thinking about other player characters' backgrounds, and see if you can establish pre-existing relationships, as they tend to benefit RP.

I'll be posting a starting scenario tomorrow. Much like in Skyrim, you're going to be dropped into an action-heavy scene right from the start, so expect the unexpected.

Ok, I'll look into Dungeon World and build a character. I'm guessing my concept is probably going to end up being a Cleric. Should we just use the rules from that hack for now?

Yes, we'll discuss any deviations as we come to them naturally.

The DW version

So, here's my attempt, using the "Prisoner Monk" class (note, some things still need to be picked) :

Please let me know if I've missed anything, it's been a while since I created a DW character. Much less an Elder Scrolls character.

Also : my weapon has "reach", and I ran into some confusion about using a reach weapon against non-reach opponents in a previous game, can you please explain to me how you'll run it?

Also also : Invisibility says "ally", but it's been confirmed on discussion boards that that includes yourself. Do you agree?

Looking good! So far we have:

ZenFox's Redguard Monk
Geetra-Na, Argonian Ranger
Hisstla, Argonian Immolator
Tsleen Cayssius, Argonian Spellcaster (needs to be ported to DW still)
Lazyclownfish, Argonian Cleric

Also, we have character sheets here, and additional class options here. Let me know if you have trouble viewing any of the documents!

Regarding "reach", per the SRD:

Hand: It’s useful for attacking something within your reach, no further.
Close: It’s useful for attacking something at arm’s reach plus a foot or two.
Reach: It’s useful for attacking something that’s several feet away—maybe as far as ten.
Near: It’s useful for attacking if you can see the whites of their eyes.
Far: It’s useful for attacking something in shouting distance.

I realize that doesn't adequately explain what you're asking about, so let me go into greater detail: Whomever in combat is using the weapon at the range that is appropriate will be able to act without hindrance. It will inform the fiction if a situation comes up where, say, an orc using Hand range daggers tries to get in close under a halberd-wielder's guard. It may require a Defy Danger roll to successfully Hack and Slash, it may simply make failure and partial failure rolls more harsh, it all depends on the current context. If you would like to provide an example, I can tell you what I'd do.

And Invisibility can absolutely target yourself, as long as you are your own ally. That won't make a difference except in marginal cases involving demonic possession, illusionary emotion, or mind control.

I've created a gameplay thread, feel free to dot. First post will be Monday. I don't usually post on weekends because I have custody of my son then.

It will inform the fiction if a situation comes up where, say, an orc using Hand range daggers tries to get in close under a halberd-wielder's guard. It may require a Defy Danger roll to successfully Hack and Slash, it may simply make failure and partial failure rolls more harsh, it all depends on the current context.

Yes, please, I would like an example, because it's my understanding that in DW the DM never makes any rolls, so how could his Orc ever get past my halberd's reach, when the Orc can't roll Defy Danger?

okay, example scenario: you have a long axe wth reach squaring off against an Orsimer dual wielding daggers. If you attack first, you roll your hack and slash. Your advantage would inform the fiction of what happens as a result of your roll. If he attacks first, you would roll defy danger, but he would only get in under your reach if you were to roll a 6 or below.

In simple terms, weapon tags inform me of what should logically be happening in the action. A lot of it is held in partial successes and failures, on a case by case basis. It isn't as rooted in mechanics that are the same in every single scenario like in other systems, it's contextual.