I'm also looking at the honor points system -- all the Mongol characters have to abide by the yasa of Ghengis Khan, the Persian characters would have to obey Islamic jurisprudence, etc. You get points for how much you do this, so it's an incentive to research your culture.
Here are Mongol Proverbs with which to flavor your dialogue.
I think a good name would be Mallika Emami.
Stats 13
9
11
17
12
11
Do you have a link for the Xoth stuff?
Hey Mallika is the the avatar icon you're going to be using because if so one of us needs to change. That will just get too confusing.
Zoroastrian names
Avestan
Old Persian
Parsi
Irani
I think this avatar is a bit better for my character anyway.
Should we do 4d6 or do we pick our stuff and what is the XOth link?
http://xoth.net/publishing/
I guess do 4d6 if everyone else is. I didn't get much input on that when I asked the group.
4d6 drop lowest for stats
=14
=7
=8
=14
=10
=14
Eh, could be worse.
An 11-point buy... Does that merit another roll, perchance?
More importantly, a question: I am building a Mongolian lancer, and I am having trouble finding out if they used their lances with two hands, or with one hand while carrying a shield...? Has anyone come upon a decisive source? My preliminary research suggests two hands, but I can't be sure...
If the DM gives me another roll, I'll take it ;) Or I could just do a 20-point buy (which I think is the Xoth default), but "if you drink the water, follow the custom" of the topic...
Well... urm.. I did good!
How about everyone rolls 4d6 drop lowest until you get a set of attributes you like?
Perfect! For the record: Samurai 1 + Mounted Fury Barbarian 5
For clarity, here is the list of (potential) submissions to date:
Erdne = Ranger
Seshen = Shaman
Mallika = Swashbuckler
Crystalseas = Persian ranger/scout
Decimus = melee-focused cleric
Tonyz = Mounted Archer
Alias Ad Tempus = Mounted lancer
Does that sound about right?
In that case...
Let's try that again...
Erdene's brothers are turning out to be a very average sort...
= 13 +1 for 4th level
= 14
= 16 +2 for race
= 12
= 11
= 13
OK, those I can live with. ;)
Deep into the rules... If your plan is to use armour as damage reduction, how does the toughening from Automatic Bonus Progression work?
It adds to your defense score instead of armor class.
Sechen isn't a Shaman, she's an oracle.
I'm thinking that the scout might be more of a rogue than a ranger at this point.
I'd advise a slayer or unchanged version of rogue
I still can't find an answer to my question, but in the meantime...
Deep into the rules... If your plan is to use armour as damage reduction, how does the toughening from Automatic Bonus Progression work?
I thought I answered it. You adjust the defense score instead of armor class, or I misunderstand what you're asking.
I think toughening applies to defense score and armor attunment to damage reduction. Does that seem logical to you?
Perhaps toughening and armor attunement are damage reduction, and deflection is defense?
My question was about lances: do they wield them with one hand or two hands...?
I'm seeing pictures of mounted warriors with one hand holding a fire lance and another a rein.
The Mongol warrior class I liked in the campaign info page has some interesting abilities with fire lances. You might want to consider converting it to PF by adding some features to dead levels.
A question: How far are you willing to go in adding magic to the game? For instance, would a fire warrior, aka a fire kineticist, push it too far?
How about a character with something other than a horse or a bird as a companion? (Still remaining sensible here by the way, so no dinosaurs or some such)
Give me a pitch and we can see. The important thing is that it fits the cultural milieu. Show me sources that justify whatever choice, like Mongol tradition about a specific mythological creature. One possibility is something like megafauna from the end of the last ice age that survives on the Mongolian plain.
The fire warrior could be a bon po or Buddhist who uses a fire lance, a technology taken from the jin conquests. However I would want you to do some research like find out what tradition the character specifically had training in like kalychakra etc. and how that makes sense for a kineticist.
I'd also be looking at giving my character a taboo name, a practice where parents gave their children odd names in order to distract evil spirits. This happened for instance after they had lost children before.
My character would be named Muunokhoi, which means something along the lines of "vicious dog".
After trying to quickly find something on mythical creatures from Mongol culture I actually decided I'd love to make a Totem Spiritualist. In that case his totem animals would end up being the wolf, the deer, the falcon and the horse, all significant animals in mongol storytelling. Not sure on which order and whether he'd end up with all of them.
EDIT: Actually, I'll look further into the significance of the deer as I'm thinking of making that one the primary companion and using the Megaloceros to further exemplify the strength of that spirit with my character.
I'll be working on it over the course of the next few days... Do you have a deadline for submissions? Also: how many characters do you plan to select?
I'm seeing pictures of mounted warriors with one hand holding a fire lance and another a rein.
The Mongol warrior class I liked in the campaign info page has some interesting abilities with fire lances. You might want to consider converting it to PF by adding some features to dead levels.
I'll have a look at the Mongol Warrior...
As for the lance, I too saw pictures of mounted warriors with one hand on the lance and the other on the reigns. Buts I also saw pictures of mounted Mongols with shield and spear and other pictures with warriors holding a lance with two hands! I'll look for video reenactments. Maybe documentary filmmakers will provide the answer!
I'll be working on it over the course of the next few days... Do you have a deadline for submissions? Also: how many characters do you plan to select?
At least another week. I need time to work on the campaign's beginning in Bukhara. I'm not sure how I'm going to select the party yet. Part of it will be posting history and quality of submissions. I'm not going to ball at having one more player if they have a great submission and posting history such that I think they'll stick around. I might only choose 4 if there are only that many good submissions, we'll have to see when the characters are finalized.
Updated our campaign page some more with some maps of Bukhara.
Avestan
Old Persian
Parsi
Irani
I meant to comment on this earlier -- I'm not sure if this was clear (and I'm going to be slightly pedantic on this point since this is something I've read a pretty good deal about and have been interested in for a long time), but the Iranians are not predonunantly Zoroastrians at this point.
The Avestan language is the language of the Zoroastrian Veda -- the Yasna, and a number of other religious documents like the Vendidad, which is a legal document something like the Manusmriti in Hinduism, or the legal parts of the Torah in the Hebrew Bible. It is the equivalent of Sankskrit in their tradition, and is a closely related language.
Old Persian is the language of the Achaemenian Empire -- who may have practiced some form of Zoroastrianism, though this is based on inscriptions.
The language in use during our campaign would be Middle Persian -- and the Iranians are mostly Sunni Muslims at this point. There are Zoroastrian communities in Fars that descend from the post-conquest non-converts, so there must have been Zoroastrians floating around at this point.
I'd have to more research, but given the other named individuals from the Khwarezmian Empire, who seem to have Arabic names, I think an Avestan name would indicate a Zoroastrian, and that would be something to explore in the character. I know a lot of really good works on Zoroastrianism if you end up going in that direction, and I'd find it interesting to incorporate some of that into the campaign.
What do you make of Razan Al-Amin as a name for a Syrian Nestorian? I'm thinking a descendant of Syrians who fled to Persia.
Also, these feats are covered by the feat tax house rules.
Weapon Finesse (Granted)
Power Attack (Granted)
Deadly Aim (Granted)
Combat Expertise (Granted)
What do you make of Razan Al-Amin as a name for a Syrian Nestorian? I'm thinking a descendant of Syrians who fled to Persia.
That should be fine -- did they flee persecution during the Christological controversies of Late Antiquity, or from the Islamic conquests of the Umayyads?
I should have my character finished in a bit.
What kind of weapons can we buy? I figure just Masterwork. Can I just skin my rapier as a shamshir?
I'm thinking from the Umayyads. With the forum up and down, I'll make no guarantee of getting a character in tonight.
We're not in a particular hurry -- the forums were pretty wonky!
In terms of posting expectations -- how would everyone feel about 4 posts per week, with the idea that it would be better to have fewer and be able to put some historical details into each, rather than try to move faster and have the game end up being like any other PF game? The goal would be to have some kind of historical details -- a cultural element, a date, a bit of lingo, etc. in every post.
Yeah, I'm further behind schedule than I want to be. I can do 4 a week. If I have something to reply to. I've run into problems from time to time that my character just... doesn't have anything to add or is in the wrong area.
I just read your back story -- that's some grade A fluff there! I can tell this is going to be a good campaign.
I'm up for fewer posts with a higher expectation of quality.
Trying to sneak this in while the site is up:
I'm going to have to drop out of this process for now. Real life has overtaken my ability to add new games. I'll be keeping up with the games I'm in, but getting ready for this one is just going too slowly.
I hope to be considered sometime in the future if you need a new player; until then, I'll be following the game thread like a reader of a serial novel.
And, as a quick look at the landscape, check this out
Russia takes a new look at an old enemy Genghis Khan
How's everyone else doing given the site issues? We won't start until they fix it, so like next week it seems, at earliest.
The site has made things a bit difficult! I'm still all in, but just so you know, my wife is going into labour in the next few days, so I may disappear for a few...
@CrystalSeas: That's unfortunate, but good luck!
@Sebecloki: I'm absolutely still up for this game, but I'm still pinning down the mechanics for my cleric. I'm hoping to have that ready in a day or so.
@Alias ad Tempus: All the best!