GM Spardan's Curse of the Crimson Throne (5e)

Game Master Spardan

At this stage, I only really require answers to the following questions:

1) Background - Give me a bit of info regarding your character. I don't expect a novel; remember we are 1st level here and have had pretty limited experience as far as adventuring goes. A hook linking your character to Gaedran Lamm is a definite must (check out the CotCT Players guide for more info if you are unfamiliar with this module).

2) Character role - Just a brief overview of your planned class choice, background and role within the group.

3) Combat maps preference - Would you prefer we use Roll20? Google Docs? Theatre of the mind? or do you have another rad suggestion to help out a new GM?

4) Your playstyle - Why do you play the game? Do you love rolling a character with wicked stats and a huge sword who is a total combat badass? Do you prefer getting to know the other players and the world, and enjoy connecting to the setting? A mixture of both? Help me tailor this game to your tastes, so we can make sure that eeryone has a good time.

5) The first character you remember playing in a tabletop game, and a memorable moment you had. This can be as detailed as you want it to be; I would really like to get a feel for why you have continued to play this crazy game. Plus, everyone like to share old gaming war stories, right?

Gudrugg Irontooth:

Background: Gudrugg was raised in the temple of Torag. His parents and older brother lost their lives in a Forge Fire, and his uncle knew he was unable to raise the young dwarf on his own, so he arranged for the infant to be dropped off at the temple in Korvosa to be raised. Gudrugg showed both a skill for working metal, and a strong connection to Torag, and began his training to be a priest of Torag.

There was a young girl who was brought into the temple as a favor to a local noble, who was a bastard child of said noble. The girl grew up in the temple from a young age, but unfortunately had a bad stutter, and was thus made great fun of. Torag being somewhat of a misfit himself made her his friend, and in fact got into more than one scrap in defense of her. At first he didn’t suspect anything at her disappearance. She was often sick, and perhaps just could show up to her normal serving duties, but when three days passed without hearing from her, he began to ask around… nobody had seen or heard of her lately.

Race: Mountain Dwarf
Class: Cleric (The Forge)
Background: Acolyte

Tie to Lamm:
Gudrugg asked about town, and found out that several other children in this neighborhood had recently gone missing… and all clues let to one man Gaedran Lamm. The young girl had enough challenges in life, no reason for her to suffer this evil man. Gudrugg didn’t shirk his duties, but every spare moment he spent walking the streets looking for clues to her whereabouts. He would find her…

Party Role:
Gudrugg sees himself as the “Moral Compass” of any group he is with. He follows the tenents of the church of Torag… perhaps to a fault. He is slow to pass judgement, but once judged can be very inflexible. He will provide healing to those deserving, and is steadfast in the face of the enemy with his heavy armor, shield, and Warhammer dispensing justice with weapon and spell. &

Combat Resolution:
I prefer “Theatre of the Mind” for PbP, but am comfortable with any of the above. I also have D&D Beyond with all books.

Gaming Style:
I’m all about the story. Character development, and story evolution are most important to me, but well timed and strategized combat instances are fun as well. I find that PbP tends to make for slow combat, so sometimes just hand waving when the outcome is probable is good for me. Developing relationships with the other PC’s is also fun, but not if forced.

First Character Adventure memory:
Well I’m going to show my age here. This was back in the early 80’s so memories that remain from there must be well entrenched. My half elf Fighter/MU/Thief touched something that he shouldn’t have and it ended up that metal passed right though his body…which made his metal armor and weapons challenging. I don’t remember any particular adventure scene that stood out, however the final rendition of the character is what I remembered. Tall and thin, leading the charge into battle in his blue quartz armor, with one of his two magical bastard swords. (Anger and Ire) swinging with lethal force… followed by his troop of wives. Yes, wives. He married 33 different ladies during his adventuring career, from healers, hookers, and amazons he had a … challenging existence. This was back during the days of “Arduin Grimoire” which made things a little fantastic, compared to today’s balanced game systems.

1) Background – yes, this is a version of batman
PC = Male Wood Elf to be named later (MWEtbnl)

MWEtbnl can not remember his father who passed away long ago. He was raised by his mother among her family in the small wood elven community within Korvosa. A decade ago, his mother was knifed to death in a dark alley one night when they were returning from the theater that was playing Zorro. MWEtbnl felt helpless to save himself and his mother from the murderer who also stole his mother’s ring, besides her purse. He watched her bleed out.

Since then, MWEtbnl dedicated himself to self-defense and learning about the Korvosan underworld, in order to search for his mother’s ring and killer. While his family wanted him to study the magical arts, MWEtbnl practiced the martial arts. He would consistently detour away from errands within the city to familiarize himself with the seedier neighborhoods and local gangsters. One day he would get his revenge.

Recently, he found the ring for sale at a local merchant. Although, to his great frustration, MWEtbnl did not have the coin to buy it back, the merchant did tell him from whom he purchased the ring: a man named Gaedren Lamm. It seems likely this criminal is the one who killed his mother, or at the very least knows who did. The only problem is finding him.

2) Character role - Monk. Probably Urchin. Stealthy melee combatant. City guide

3) Combat maps preference – I’ve played with Roll20 and Google Docs. Both work well. I would suggest you pick the one with which you are most proficient, because the GM real life time is often critical path to campaigns.

4) Your playstyle – Escapism. I’ve one real life game due to real life time commitments. I play many Play-By-Post (PBP) to satisfy my gaming addiction. I enjoy many different characters and build them reasonably optimal. I enjoy good stories, but the most important success criteria for PBP is pace and momentum. Good stories can bog, so please pay attention to the length in real time that each encounter takes, whether role-playing or combat. Stalled games lose players. Losing too many engaged players kills PBP games.

5) My first character was a dwarf using the original red box rules, because I had read the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.

I’ve many memorable moments in gaming. Some of my coolest gaming experiences were playing in Living Arcanis Battle Interactives at Gen Con & Origins where hundreds of gamers played a different part of the same game with the results of each encounter affecting the story.

1. I'd probably go with the 'Framed' hook from the player's guide and sort of improv it during play. I tend to care more about what happens during the game, writing backgrounds isn't that much fun for me personally. But one idea I had as a personality quirk was that he/she was cursed by a god for something that happened while drunk, and that the curse manifests itself in funny ways (like a stick of butter being on the ground at an inopportune time).

2. I like playing rogues and wizards most, and reading through the player's guide definitely makes me want to go rogue. Human pirate!

3. I like google slides but I'm fine with theatre. I very much dislike roll20 however, it is too much of a hassle to load up just to check map positions imo. I also have all the unlocks on DnDBeyond and its amazing. Kudos to you for offering this up to players...I imagine most do not realize how awesome that is.

4. Honestly I don't care much about plot and character backgrounds, at best the quality is a cheap fantasy novel (I do love cheap fantasy novels though). Clever tactics in battles are fun and addicting, engaging in the moment but pretty forgettable. What I really love about these games is the humor. The ridiculous thing that just happened that makes everyone laugh outloud uncontrollably crying. Thats the primary reason for me, and what I remember years later. Secondary reason would be problem solving. I love being creative with stuff.

5. Well very first game I was running and playing simultaneously in this silly game called Dragonstrike (actually a TSR thing now that I look it up on wiki lol, I actually had no idea it had anything to do with D&D) in high school 25 years ago or so. I think there was a moment where we all realized we could try to do anything, and it was a portal to a new dimension. Fighting the dragon (it came out on a stupid countdown timer thing every game) everyone just started trying more and more awesome things, going way past the "roll to attack" and letting our imaginations go completely wild. I can seriously remember that very instant we became aware that was what RPG were about. Good times.

- Valor (known alternatively as Devil-kid, Hell-Scum, or Fork-Tail) was one of the Little Lamms, criminal kids kidnapped and raised by Gaedrin Lamm. A small, wiry child who stood out due to his curly horns and deep violet hair over solid red eyes, he snuck into places to pilfer items for Lamm, and more than once he was told to kill a small animal - a cat, dog, or other pet, usually - for reasons unknown to him.

Then, one day, he infiltrated a Temple of Iomedae on Lamm's orders. The holy symbol he saw, hanging from the wall, intrigued him. He took it, kept it secret, and resolved to find out what it meant. It seemed to him to be a talisman, some sort of magical symbol, and it inflamed his curiosity. Returning to the temple during a service, he perched up in the rafters and listened in.

What he heard amazed him. A group of people who fought against the kind of mistreatment he had suffered for his whole life. A Goddess who taught that courage was a virtue, that strength was to protect the weak, and that anyone who dared could be a hero. He attended several times before he was caught.

When Lamm found out, he smashed the symbol, cursing the Gods and spewing vitriol at the young Tiefling, calling him hellspawn and unclean, laughing at his feeble protests. Unable to take it any longer - and, more importantly, unwilling - he took the virtue name of Valor, proclaiming what he wished to become to the world.

- Valor can serve as a stealthy character, thanks to his Dex focus. He also serves as something of a Rogue-lite in combat, using his two weapons to good effect, especially when combined with Smites. Against the main enemy of an encounter, he will go nova, spending everything he has an in attempt to bring it down quickly. He is good but doesn't always understand exactly what that means, and will preferentially defeat evil over protecting innocents, as he sees Lamm in every evildoer's face. Also, he will have proficiency in Intimidate and Deception, making it possible for him to serve as an alternative or secondary Face when needed, and his criminal contacts might prove useful in this setting.

- I have no preference, though in another game the GM is using Google Drawings, editable by all, to great effect.

- I play to write collaborative stories. As an author, storytelling is paramount, and I love watching the characters interact in fun, new ways. I try to stay in character and keep meta-knowledge out of the game. I've never played this AP, so I have no idea what's coming, and that's exciting. I'm playing a Tiefling Paladin for the RP drama that I'm hoping to milk out of the role :)

I remember a wizard I played in 2nd Edition AD&D. He was a wizard named Tolmar, and he became an emperor. The reason he was so much fun to play was he acquired a Ring of Regeneration, and it became a running gag that his attendants, on realizing that attack was imminent, would rush in, cut off his hand, and run off with it to save his life. It was a lot of fun.

1) Background - Born as fourth child of a minor noble family, Antonio learned that his good looks and charm would take him far in this world. But being fourth in line meant that he would need some other skills to get by latter in life. He was already skilled with music, singing and playing many instruments. His family was also able to get him a private teacher for his schooling. The teacher was a spell caster and taught Antonio how to use his music to create magic effects. Growing up he knew how to find people. And learned who to talk to and some skills of those that live in the underworld.
Antonio’s long time best friend Hector who was well on his way of becoming a knight with in the Korvosan Guard. Hector was kill by a crime lord named Gaedran Lamm. Antonio has sworn himself to avenge his friend and bring Gaedran Lamm to justice, by bringing Gaedran to justice or to an unmarked grave.

2) Character role - Bard with Urban Bounty Hunter background.
Thinking skill monkey, Diplomat, and maybe as a back up Rouge.

3) Combat maps preference - Have played with and liked all. I have the book but never played on D&D beyond. I have a preference with maps of some type, just easier with combat.

4) Your playstyle - I am all for having a good time, I enjoy the RP but with PBP combat is slow. I like to see how the game flows and just go with it.

5) The first character you remember playing in a tabletop game, and a memorable moment you had.- Well to mark my age, it was back in the late 70’s. I had a Dwarf, yes that was basic years. I remember going through Keep on the Borderlands . The only thing I remember from it was going in and hitting everything looking for magic weapons.

Background

Born of a settled Varisian father and Shoanti mother in a small hamlet in the outskirts of Korvosa, Tania was sold for gold as a “Little Lamm” when she was but a young child. She grew up on the streets of Old Korvosa and The Shingles under the tyrannic patronage of the rake Lamm. Life was as hard as it got, though Tania did not know better. She dreamed that things would improve as she grew bigger, as bigger boys tended to fare better, but they only got worse. Real worse. Her only ray of sunshine was her friend Raffi, another urchin. The two girls learned to survive as a team. Their friendship grew as they did and turned to love as they matured.

Until the day Lamm caught the two of them in bed, together. Raffi stood up to him, as she always did, while Tania ran away, as she always did. But Lamm’s fury that night was beyond anything they had ever seen. He was as possessed. The next morning, Tania returned to Lamm, as she always did, but saw from a distance Raffi’s corpse lying in the mud in an alley near Lamm’s hideout.

The pain, and the shame, tore at her guts, and again she ran away, like an animal, frenzied. Since then, Tania has been seeking redemption for leaving her only friend behind. The experience had transformed her, she felt a rage she barely controlled. As well, she had found a path to redemption in the worship of Iomedae, the Inheritor.

It had been five years since Raffi’s murder and Tania had transformed from a scared urchin into a street vigilante, her tongue as sharp and deadly as her sword, when she found her strength that is, which was rarer than she wishes, except when she lost her temper that is.

Living life on the fastest lane, torn between anger, righteousness, and shame, Tania stumbles her way on a line that, she hopes, leads to finding inner peace, though the line proves tortuous on the clearest of days.

Character Role

Human, Female, Barbarian (path of the Zealot), Urban Bounty Hunter. Melee and Face (Social Skills).

Combat Map Preference
Theatre of the mind, ok with maps otherwise Google or d20.

Playstyle
I like games that mix DM direction to move the plot forward, while allowing players to change things or to run after things they care for. I don’t like when a player tries to think of another way to deal with a problem, or start a project/problem of their own, only for it to be dismissed because it falls outside of the usual way of dealing with things, for example killing all the bad guys.

First Character
That would be a paladin in Against the Giants. Fun times, until he got sliced in two by an invisible Jarl, which made for a good exit. I’ve played DnD because that was pretty much the only game at the time. It was a great mix of adventure and strategy for me, and made for fun afternoon around a kitchen table in a friend’s basement. We moved to Vampire, drawn by the many contrasts with fantasy roleplaying, such as the simple mechanics, roleplaying explorations, contemporary setting with a twist. I moved to PbP because I didn’t have the time for extended regular games, plus I enjoyed writing more than acting. I like the strategy of the game, but the real gem for me is when we can explore, to an extent, not running the script. What I mean by this is that modules and APs should allow for a fair bit of exploration outside their scripted boundaries when the players and DMs are into it.

1)Tazsiel or Taz as everyone called him, was born to a Halfling clan that made it living form going for city to city trading it wears that the made or ‘aquired’ along the way. As Taz got old enough he became a skilled woodsmen and hunter trapping and fishing for his clan and for sale at the towns they visited. Taz would stay in the woods by himself and meet up with the clan at a camp site when they left the cities. But one day while Taz fell asleep fishing, his little Halfling clan was attacked and the survivors rounded up and taken. When Taz woke up and headed back to the camp sight to find his family and friends either dead or missing. Taz felt hopeless, he had no Idea who or why this would happen. For days he wandered the woods and when he was about to just crawl into a hole and die he was found by a group of elf rangers that was keeping an eye on Taz and how good a woodsman his was. The rangers took in this Halfling and made him one of their own. The rangers came across the attack a few days after it happened and figured out who did the attack. But they refused to tell Taz saying that he was not ready and until he was trained and ready they kept quiet about the attack no matter how much Taz wanted to know. Since Taz was already a woodsmen and highly motivated, it only took less than 30 days for Taz to learn the elven rangers fighting styles. He was fair with a sword, but the short bow was where he shined. So when the time came they told him what happened. That a minor crime lord named Gaedran Lamm, who wanted his people to sell as slaves. Where his people are they didn’t know, but did know that Gaedran Lamm could be found in the nearby city of Korvosa. So in a ceremony the elven rangers gave Taz some gear, some gold, and most importantly a purpose to track down Gaedran Lamm.

2) Character role - Ranger (archer) with Outlander background. Range fighter with wilderness skills.

3) Combat maps preference - Have played with and liked all. I have the book but never played on D&D beyond. I have a preference with maps of some type, just easier with combat.

4) Your playstyle - I am all for having a good time, I enjoy the RP but with PBP combat is slow. I like to see how the game flows and just go with it.

5) The first character you remember playing in a tabletop game, and a memorable moment you had.- Well to mark my age, it was back in the late 70’s. I had a Dwarf, yes that was basic years. I remember going through Keep on the Borderlands . The only thing I remember from it was going in and hitting everything looking for magic weapons.