The Elder Games

Game Master wesF

Discussion thread.

School is now in session. :)

"The plan"

Over the next week i'm going to work on some initial introductory RP stuff for everyone. Some group and some individual. It'll include everyone's first day, room assignments, stuff like that. You won't need a complete character sheet yet, but do work on it when you can please.

I usually post from an iPad and it's a pain without a keyboard. Mine just broke so I ordered a new one and i'll be able to get more done when my arrives at my house.

If everyone would please put your basic character bio's somewhere in on your character sheet so I can reference them.

Also, everyone can have another trait for a total of three. I did it for one person I figured it's only fair to let the rest do the same.

Just some basics to help make it easier for everyone to follow the story line.

When your character is separate from the group please use a bolded title describing your location. for example Ye Ole Magic Shoppe then dialogue.

Speaking= "Did you see that?"
Personal thought= ::That guy looks like Cthulhu on a bad day.::
Telepathy= ::Do you think I should ask her?::

Also remember that tone is difficult to get across in type. Use descriptive terms to describe how you do things. Ex: "Say what?" TCG say's raising one eyebrow, clearly confused.

These are suggestions, not hard and fast rules, but it does help express yourself.

That's about it.

Also, put the following information into your gender tab please. It makes for easy reference

G Race class|HP:XX/XX|AC:XX|T:XX|FF:XX|CMD:XX|F+X| R+X| W+X|Ini+X|Per+X

G=Gender replace the "G" with F or M or O (other).
X = placeholder for whatever your values are
Race/class - Feel free to abbreviate. Ex: Tief Wch, Elf WIz,
HP = Hitpoint current/HP max
AC= Armor class
T = Touch
FF= Flat footed
CMD= Combat maneuver defense
F=Fort save
R=Ref save
W=Will save
Ini= Initiative
Per=Perception

So I made a whole long addition to the campaign info earlier and it got eaten by the internet. Poop. I'll have to re-write it as best I can. It was rather creative if I do say so myself.

I'm still learning how to do some of this. Could everyone dot the gameplay thread so I can add your characters to the campaign. I think that's how its done.

Here!

Oh we will need to find you a suitable nickname. :)

Oh we will need to find you a suitable nickname. :)

I was planning on calling him Aky.

Your obstinate chew toy is in attendance. Have a day out with my son today - but will get to the nitty gritty tonight.

That may do to start out with, Circe may decide on another one for him depending on what she thinks of him...

That may do to start out with, Circe may decide on another one for him depending on what she thinks of him...

works for me.

Your obstinate chew toy is in attendance. Have a day out with my son today - but will get to the nitty gritty tonight.

Works for me. I'll do introductory stuff as characters post their backgrounds. I'm not in a rush for the nuts and bolts just yet.

So I made a whole long addition to the campaign info earlier and it got eaten by the internet. Poop. I'll have to re-write it as best I can. It was rather creative if I do say so myself.

/Merlaine appears *cast Erase*

the girl giggles

/runs off

Dash is right here. Though you might not be able to see him...

You can call me Al.

edit: working on more complete bio and traits.

Rolling HPs here.

2d8 ⇒ (3, 2) = 52d8 ⇒ (3, 3) = 62d6 ⇒ (6, 1) = 72d6 ⇒ (1, 4) = 5

So 34. I guess that's not too awful.

Edit* Actually, 37. Forgot favored class.

I am thinking Masterful Demeanor might be a good trait for Al if you allow Campaign Traits.

Also, I might change things up a little in the feats department and go for Eldrich Heritage: Abyssal for more claws per day and some big boosts to Strength after level 11. Any way that I can switch the fire damage from those claws to cold damage instead for continuity?

Alabaster Boralis was born the third son of Keltashazic Boralis. As was family tradition for the last few generations, not one of the boys had the same mother. It seemed that under the radar, the Borealis family had been attempting to breed some interesting blood into the family, and finally with Alabaster, they had some amazing results. Growing up, he almost never spent any time with his father but was raised by a excommunicated cleric of Irori that was meant to drive him toward personal perfection.

The harsh discipline of his youth coupled with a lack of presence of both parents turned Alabaster into quite the rebellious youth. Faced with a son who was constantly pulling pranks and shirking responsibility, he had little recourse but to reconsider his education. Knowing that the young man wanted to make decisions for himself, he was offered three choices of how to deal with the problems he had been making and suffice it to say that he chose to come to this school.

To be continued/ expanded...

Hey TCG, I was wondering if I could use an armor special ability from a 3.5 source. It's called twilight armor, reduces the arcane spell failure by 10% for a +1 bonus. I believe it was initially published in the Book of Exalted Deeds and was also mentioned in the PHB2.

Hey TCG, I was wondering if I could use an armor special ability from a 3.5 source. It's called twilight armor, reduces the arcane spell failure by 10% for a +1 bonus. I believe it was initially published in the Book of Exalted Deeds and was also mentioned in the PHB2.

Actually, scratch this cause I'll probably just go for a wand of mage armor for now. No reason to blow half my starting gold on armor.

Also, two more things. 1) What's the deal with mundane gear? Do you want us to bother spelling out all our bits of rope and such? And, 2) I've taken extra rogue talent as a feat, but listed it as extra ninja trick. Just wanted to let you know what's going on with the feats.

I am thinking Masterful Demeanor might be a good trait for Al if you allow Campaign Traits.

Also, I might change things up a little in the feats department and go for Eldrich Heritage: Abyssal for more claws per day and some big boosts to Strength after level 11. Any way that I can switch the fire damage from those claws to cold damage instead for continuity?

Can you post/link Masterful Demeanor please?

The feat changes are find and you can swap the energy type if you want.

Dasheel Kai wrote:

Hey TCG, I was wondering if I could use an armor special ability from a 3.5 source. It's called twilight armor, reduces the arcane spell failure by 10% for a +1 bonus. I believe it was initially published in the Book of Exalted Deeds and was also mentioned in the PHB2.

Actually, scratch this cause I'll probably just go for a wand of mage armor for now. No reason to blow half my starting gold on armor.

Also, two more things. 1) What's the deal with mundane gear? Do you want us to bother spelling out all our bits of rope and such? And, 2) I've taken extra rogue talent as a feat, but listed it as extra ninja trick. Just wanted to let you know what's going on with the feats.

Twilight armor is fine if you change your mind.

You will be in a metropolitan area. You won't necessarily need 50' of rope, for example. However, it's not improbable that you'd have some traveling gear in your footlocker.

This item plus rope is something I make sure all my characters have, but it's not required.

Contains: Backpack, Bedroll, Belt Pouch, Flint & Steel, Hooded Lantern with three pints of Oil, Trail Rations for seven days, Sack, Waterskin, and a Whetstone
Cost: 16 gold
Weight: 27 lb.

Masterful Demeanor

There you go. I'll get the feats changed around in my description a little later. I've got to do breakfast first.

Masterful Demeanor

There you go. I'll get the feats changed around in my description a little later. I've got to do breakfast first.

Ahh. That's cute and approved.

Seeing as how this a school, maybe we could think up some rumors (including not so nice ones) that may be circulating about our character?

Seeing as how this a school, maybe we could think up some rumors (including not so nice ones) that may be circulating about our character?

I'll leave the initial details to you. Ill Play off whatever hou start. I'll have some NPC's for things like that. :-)

I think that this crew's tie that binds will be the fact that they're all sort of misfits and outcasts. Breakfast club/ferris Beuler meets Harry potter.

Masterful Demeanor

There you go. I'll get the feats changed around in my description a little later. I've got to do breakfast first.

this is something what would fit a tsundere character XD

So who gets to sing Danke Schoen?

But for rumors, the usual sort of thing. Sleeping with her teachers and that she's really just here as an oddity to be studied and not a real student type thing...

So who gets to sing Danke Schoen?

I do, of course.

But for rumors, the usual sort of thing. Sleeping with her teachers and that she's really just here as an oddity to be studied and not a real student type thing...

Got it. I can work with that.

Everyone I should have some time this weekend to do some writing and my iPad keyboard will be in tomorrow, so I can actually get some written at work too. Thank you for your patience while I get everything situated. I plan to start introductory sub-plots next week.

I don't know why, but I built this guy using 20 point buy instead of 25 point buy. So, his intelligence and con got a boost, and because I get Draconic for free as a language now, I will still use Noble Scion, but this time it will be the part of it that switches Charisma for Dexterity in regards to initiative. I switched my Armor trait to Reactionary as the armor trait really doesn't do me any favors, and reflects his childhood better.

---
Alabaster was not treated well as a child by his brothers. Being that he was the only one of the generation that exhibited any promise of a more potent bloodline, he received special treatment. His brothers really resented this and used whatever means at their disposal to harm him. Their father knew what was happening and did nothing to stop it so that his youngest would grow stronger and at times purposefully would make the situation worse. He learned to be quick and anticipate the trouble and often would end up making a break for it, especially at an early age.

One thing that gave him a respite was swimming in the family lake at their estate. His oldest brother never liked swimming and his other brother, who was only a year older tried to drown him once but found the tables turned on him as he wasn't as accustomed to the different environment and quickly left the lake alone after that. He spent quite a bit of time swimming as a child and grew stronger and leaner. In just a few years his brothers learned not to take him lightly and would only attack him together, but just a little while after that he was able to take them both together.

To be continued...

I will work on Akydi over the weekend. I sort of have a backstory in mind, but it was never anything I gave too much thought to.

As for rumors, he's more or less a gypsy fortune teller, so anything that can be said about either and both could be said about Aky. Some are probably even true.

But for rumors, the usual sort of thing. Sleeping with her teachers and that she's really just here as an oddity to be studied and not a real student type thing...

Well if it makes you feel any better, everybody knows that my guy is really just here as an oddity to be studied!

Why is there no trait that makes Diplomacy a class skill? Also, why must traits be limited to one per category?

Why is there no trait that makes Diplomacy a class skill? Also, why must traits be limited to one per category?

New trait:

Practice: You've got a lot of practice using a skill that other's of your profession don't. Pick a skill. You get +1 to that skill and it is a class skill for you.

Not sure about the reason for the 1/category thing. I'll never double check that.

There are a number of traits that give Diplomacy as a class skill. Have spoilered three of the six or seven available below.

DM TCG,

This is Dave. Working on Hemlock here, the Half-elf Alchemist and I have a few questions. Hit me up on Skype or in email so we can discuss. I think I have everything ready to go just need to polish up a few points.

Hit points Rolls

Level 1 2d8 ⇒ (5, 4) = 9
Level 2 2d8 ⇒ (7, 3) = 10
Level 3 2d8 ⇒ (6, 6) = 12
Level 4 2d8 ⇒ (6, 2) = 8
Level 5 2d8 ⇒ (6, 1) = 7

So looks like 30 +2 per level, so 40 hit points.

Example for dave

Heh, that was supposed to read: "Why are there no Social Traits that make Diplomacy a class skill"...

Will the school be purely academic or will there be various extra-curricular activities? Like sports and such?

if it is like Japan and some other nations, there may be a requirement to join at least one club for activities

Will the school be purely academic or will there be various extra-curricular activities? Like sports and such?

I'm sure they do, but it's not the primary focus like with many "football schools" and what not. Many of the sports are ways to improve magical talents. I'll try to think of something specific, but fireball tossing is the first thing that comes to mind. Though that'd be more of a hobby for hot headed young mages.

if it is like Japan and some other nations, there may be a requirement to join at least one club for activities

The setting is not Japan. It is not Anime. And will not be run as such.

Since some may be in training to be "court wizards", perhaps there'll be classes in manners and such like?

Merlaine wrote:

if it is like Japan and some other nations, there may be a requirement to join at least one club for activities

The setting is not Japan. It is not Anime. And will not be run as such.

I didn't say it is, but you already stated there are such activities.

In many other nations Homeroom is not even serious, is nothing like what there is in Hungary, and you can skip it. Maybe skipping isn't even a big deal while in other places you could get into serious trouble after 3 missed classes. Some nations also split PE so that girls and boys don't share classes or go to the same fields/do the same workouts.

In some nations you have to run around switching classes, while in others the teachers go to the classes of the students.

Harry Potter classes/story borrows a lot of how British school system works, anime obviously uses Japanese ones (most of the time, a few cases it represents German education), I assume you are an US citizen and thus will borrow from the US system.

What you assume as obvious on how a school should/would work may for the players be foreign and new. It may require clarification.

I was already in 3 other school-centered games, one normal, two magical. All three got later problems because things weren't clarified from the go. Things like how many classes per day there are, how dorms are handled, all these on first sight minor things can break the flow of the game.

Since some may be in training to be "court wizards", perhaps there'll be classes in manners and such like?

There will be lots of optional classes. Even if there's not an official "courtly manners" class I'm sure you can find a mentor for such a thing. Though in that case "court mage 101" is probably popular enough to be an official class. It teaches manners and what is and is not appropriate for a court wizard classically trained at the Academy.

This is definitely a "students go to the teachers" system. Many of the classes will have specialized equipment, etc.

This is definitely a "students go to the teachers" system. Many of the classes will have specialized equipment, etc.

I see, well this I wouldn't have known myself, as when I still went to school we only ever had to go to the Lab for Chem classes :)

Maybe you think I am poking at you or messing with you, but I only want to have things like this clarified as soon as possible because I experienced how these details can break apart a good game.

DM TCG wrote:

This is definitely a "students go to the teachers" system. Many of the classes will have specialized equipment, etc.

I see, well this I wouldn't have known myself, as when I still went to school we only ever had to go to the Lab for Chem classes :)

Maybe you think I am poking at you or messing with you, but I only want to have things like this clarified as soon as possible because I experienced how these details can break apart a good game.

Merlaine, with respect. If the players express confusion I'll clarify. Plus the game hasn't started, so I haven't had opportunity to explain certain details.

I don't mind you lurking, but please refrain from commenting on other peoples games. It's bad form.

I am sorry if you feel offended, I expressed my concerns exactly because it is at the very start of it, so you can avoid any such mentioned problems and not let players argue over it for days :)

You know that I still wish to play too, so clarification on the matters would also benefit me, and all other lurkers who may get in. XD
/casts Invisibility