I switched Yeldrid to a Gun Scavenger/Pistolero rather than a Musket Master.
I realised I was going to be reloading as a standard action for 3 levels and that is not something I want to worry about with an archer, and particularly given I have no idea when we might hit a shop again, so no idea when Yeldrid will start churning out alchemical cartridges. A move actioj reload is good enough for now XP.
"Yeldrid Thozosh. Travelling blacksmith, tool repaircat, inventor, apothecary and bounty hunter. Oh, and I suppose I'm also a 'gunsmith'. Though I reckon you don't know what that is. Nobody out here seems to know what they are, so I don't advertise that I make them. Bloody expensive, too. Need plenty of rare metals. Mine's made outta scrap and even that was hard to make."
"Loud like thunder and quick like lightning," Yeldrid runs his hands along the pipe and and wraps around the shaped handle, hefting it up for a better view, "No blade can outpace it. No arrow or bolt. But it is fickle. It bites and claws at its wielder like a wild beast. You nor I could ever hope to tame it. And it is good that way. Euingen made it to be wild, not to serve."
Yeldrid twirls the weapon on his finger, before sheathing it once more.
"'Course, all that aside, I'm not particularly keen on shooting. More about making stuff. And roaming, as Euingen intended any cat to do."
I'm having trouble getting in touch with a few of you, but I think I should probably chalk it up to general holiday hecticness. I'll resume my efforts after the 27th.
Happy holidays!
It is Christmas Day for me! So Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to all!
"Euingen is the storm, the wind and the dust. The rider protects this cat, roamers and people who go walkabout, though that's for followers of the old faith, and not for this cat. She might have been two gods once, as I hear, but now she's one. I follow her because my mum used to say she'd snatch my fingers from me if I didn't respect her and her powder. Can't take my chances with fate like that. So no reason to not worship her, I reckon.'
Yeldrid seems to ponder for a moment before saying "You sure are the inquisitive type, mate. Not that I mind, just that I'm the one that usually gets into other peoples business. You making sure I'm fair dinkum before you buy?"
Happy Holidays, everyone. You might think I'm late on this, but my birthday's tomorrow, and that's the real reason for the season, right? ;)
Also, updated the House Rules document. It now indicated the variant rulesets we're using. Later, I'll add in setting info on your characters' homelands.
Here is a map of Barlily and the surrounding region. It displays Barlily's relative location to the Styx, the Writhing Wood, the Elf Thicket, and other areas, as well as basic arrows pointing to distant realms mentioned in backstories. You might notice that Kamali'i's homeland is not shown, since she will have little idea where her home kingdom is at the start of the game. The hunting lodge, however, might contain the same individual who sold her painting to the tavern in Barlily.
This map was drawn by my super cool sister, who will be assisting in "behind-the-scenes production" for this campaign.
"Well, I've been asking all of these questions, I suppose it's only fair I reveal something about myself," he states.
Suddenly, fur sprouts from his exposed skin, his mouth lengthens into a muzzle, and a large, bushy tail sprouts out behind him. In just a few seconds, he goes from looking like a human to looking more like a humanoid fox.
"The truth is," he says, giving Yeldrid a vulpine grin as his transformation finishes, "I'm just glad to see someone else around here with fur on more than just the top of their head, and so I thought I'd chat for a while."
Yeldrid leans back for a awkwardly long time before twisting towards Isamu.
'Sorry, I...I don't meet many fox people who also look like non-fox people sometimes...That's to say, I haven't until right this moment. Reckon there is a first for everything.'
Oh, I missed the map link before. Cool! Your sister did a great job!
Okay, I have been unable to get into contact with KingOfAnything and The Pale King. Some royal troubles, it seems.
With the holidays largely behind us, I'd like to issue a roll call. Can everyone just post within the next couple days to confirm, first, that they are here, and second, just where they are with their characters—what, if anything, still needs completion?
A quick 'Here'.
Yepdrid is ready.
Yo.
I think you can tell Isamu is ready. :D
Holly days are indeed hectic.
Alright, and I received a PM from YoLlama (who's dealing with some major problems but is nonetheless ready to go) so we're left wondering where The Pale King is. It looks like he hasn't been seen since the holidays started to amp up, so hopefully Krampus didn't get him.
That's unfortunate :O I hope everything is alright.
"Well, mate, I hardly have a choice what face I wear, so you're preaching to the choir."
Yeldrid taps his nose, "But I'll keep your secret safe. I reckon we beast fellas need to stick together. Since we seem to be so rare around here and everything. So, for however long you're in town, just give us a shout if ya need anything. Or just, I don't know, catch up or something. I'd suggest the pub, but alcohol will literally kill me so I'm not much of a drinking buddy."
So a couple general things to discuss. First, I just wanted to remind everyone of the expectations listed on the Recruitment thread, as well as underline some basic campaign preferences. None of this is urgent—just some stuff to think about.
One post per day is expected. If you go longer than two days without posting at all, make sure there's a reason. Even just an in-character prompt for other PCs can help keep the PbP going. ... I want players who roleplay proactively, who start conversations with one another without always needing a GM's nudge.
Life happens. I know that sometimes our own scheduling gets the better of us—I deal with a lot of stress and anxiety, and I know what it's like to procrastinate on a game without meaning to. But roleplay is an important component of this game. Because this is a journey, the best roleplaying subjects your characters will have will be other PCs. It's important that interactions be fluid and frequent.
Playstyle: Relaxed, with a heavy mix of roleplay and combat. Expect a rough 50-50 split. And I don't run a murderous campaign, but I would rather players worry more about roleplaying their characters than keeping them alive. I'm not out to screw you over, and if a character's death doesn't match the story, there will often be other options for you. Don't be afraid to let bad things happen.
50-50 was a fairly loose estimate. There will be a large number of non-combat encounters, and there might be encounters you can't possibly defeat—not without losing someone, anyways. Just as dying will not always be the end in this game, killing will not always be the answer.
Party Behavior
Party infighting is not disallowed, but I don't foresee it coming up in this party without some very good reasons (or in a more casual sense, like friendly sparring). On the flip side, splitting the party is not necessarily discouraged—I might even put you in situations where it's an advantageous option. We will be using a light sandbox approach to the game, so you'll always have some limited choice in how to proceed. I'll try to use character backstories and behavior to inform later adventures. Just give me material to work with!
Rules and Storytelling
I favor flavor. I'm not going to throw the rulebooks out my window ablaze like in that scene from RENT, but I'd also like to worry a little bit less about the minutia. Tactical maps will be simple visual aids, and rules and balance will take a backseat when something is cool. I won't use that to screw you guys over. In turn, don't use it to game the system. :P
Setting
It's a weird world. Just take that and keep it in mind. Your characters can react with wonder, confusion, skepticism or laissez faire, but they're going to meet weird creatures doing weird things. It doesn't mean the world is going to be silly (though it might be sometimes), but the range of things you might encounter is vast and hard to track, especially as you enter new regions.
Init
Finally, what system do you guys think you'd prefer for initiative? I've run it in several styles, each with a catchy name I made up on the spot.
Traditional Free-Form: Everyone rolls separate initiatives, but they can post their actions in whatever order they like. The actions are then sorted out after the fact. So if Lanuola goes first, Yeldrid goes second and Nakano goes third, Yeldrid and Nakano could post their actions while waiting for Lanuola to post hers. Pros: Arguably the fastest system and maintains some order to how things happen. Keeps people posting. Cons: Sometimes leads to people wanting to change actions when they see what someone else did. Kinda chaotic as a result.
Groupings: Everyone rolls initiatives, and is then sorted into groups. So if Lanuola rolls a 6, the goblin rolls an 11, Baylily rolls a 16 and Rex rolls a 15, the init order would become Baylily/Rex ==> Goblin ==> Lanuola. Pros: Fairly expedient, preserves some order. This is kind of a middle ground. Cons: Still slows things down a bit, can still get a bit confusing.
Binary: Each side has its members' Initiatives averaged into a single roll. So, if the party's average init is +2, and the enemies' is +4, I would roll those and see who goes first. Pros: Very fast, very simple. Cons: Can be very rough on whichever side loses initiative, especially since PC parties tend to be more mixed and usually have at least one low Dex character dragging them all down.
I really like groupings. I don't mind the GM rolling for everyone before combat, because that really speeds things up. Post the whole initiative order and bold those PCs who can act.
Agreed, that seems like a good method to me.
Agreed. I usually go with groupings.
Proposed system: Enemy Grouping/Free-Form
Enemies are all grouped together in one block. Those PC's that beat their init go first (Kind of like their own surprise round). Then all the enemies go. Then order goes back and forth between PC's and enemies in a free form style. DM puts us in order of post or whatever he feels will be more effective. No one should be waiting on anyone else. Always slows things down.
"I swore off drinking a while ago, myself, so I'd rather not be meeting in a pub, either. So I'll just say that you can always ask me for help, as well, whenever you might need a listening ear or a friendly blade."
He gives Yeldrid a small bow. "But for now, I think I'll take my leave. I hope you enjoyed our little chat as much as I did, Yeldrid. I'm sure we'll see each other again before I leave town."
That system sounds interesting, Rex. It can make things nasty if the enemies beat everyone in Initiative, but I suppose that's always a risk.
We haven't heard from the Pale King yet, but otherwise, I think we're all ready to go. It might be wise to just start with five players and leave the spaces open should TGTG and The Pale King turn up. I don't want us to have to wait to wrangle yet another new player.
Would not take much to convert Zyxebrax from a level 2 to a level 1 if you really feel you need someone, but ya'll should be fine with 5.
Yeah, I'm definitely considering it. I think it might work better if we let Zyxebrax join the party at the end of the chapter.
Regardless, does anybody have an objection with starting, say, Monday?
That would be fine!
Sounds good.
No objection
Ready as ever.
Cool. We'll plan on Monday, assuming that works for the llama. :)
Well, let's see how this goes.
The game has begun.
Hey KoA, how tall is Baylily? Because I'm not sure if I should be saying Yeldrid looks up at her since he's a real shorty.
Yeldrid is a solid 5' I think I told KC at one point.
I have to head to bed (I'll give Rex a bump forward in the morning if YoLlama hasn't posted yet), but I just want to say, I am loving the character interactions here. I can't exactly go favoriting every post on the thread, but I sort of want to. These are some delightful PCs. I can't wait to see how they handle what I throw at them. :)
I take that size back for Yeldrid because I wrote it in his sheet. He's 4'9". Even shorter than I had thought he was, but I knew I had written it down somewhere. XD
There. Gave Rex something to respond to.
A Happy New Year to you all! I need to offer a heartfelt apology to everyone for disappearing like I did. It was an amalgamation of things that led to it. A rough finals season, traveling, holidays, family drama, my older brother's wedding, and a shocking and much too young death of a family friend. These are just excuses, but ones I offer with a plea for forgiveness over my absence. I would still love to be a part of the game, but I would understand if the extended absence before the game even started was too much.
No, it's definitely not too late—we've only just barely started. The holidays seem to have been a rough time for many of us. How soon can you get a basic character written up?
That's quite a varied series of events. I'm glad you can still join though!
Ouch! Hopefully things are calmer now.
Looks like the painting went back to sleep.
I won't be able to make another post until tomorrow, but how are the split scenes working? Are they easy to track, or are they confusing?
I haven't had any trouble.
Sorry, today was unexpectedly exhausting. I'll get back to posting tomorrow.
Here's a request: Would you guys mind including your Perceptions in your Classes/Levels headers?