Reflections in the Eyes of the Beholders (Inactive)

Game Master Terquem

WARNING

The following is a very long post concerning an inquiry into the possible interest in a new play by post Game. This game will include nontraditional rules, but be formulated within the context of the core Pathfinder Rules in most cases. This is not a RECRUITMENT per see, and I anticipate that the actual development of this game will take several weeks, and I intend to stick to this schedule. This game will not have a regular daily posting requirement. This Game will include a HOUSE RULE based upon a seventh ability score, COMELINESS, and there will be encounters that require the manipulation of your character’s comeliness in order to succeed. Having said this, please feel free to examine this material if you wish and I will be delighted to address your concerns or questions. Thank you, the Generic Dungeon master

A serious side to the not so serious Its “A” Dungeon adventures

Last year I began a few randomly generated Dungeon Crawl adventures set in an entirely new and made up setting called Its “A” Dungeon
The first of these games launched on March 26 of last year and even though there have been some bumps along the way, the game is still going (somewhat) strong

Many strange and silly things have popped up as explanations for the way things are in this adventure

Lately I’ve been day dreaming about doing something a little bit different, was inspired by some discussions in the Gamer Talk Threads, and have been reflecting the nature of the Its “A” Dungeon games and I’ve come up with this question:

How did Du’Orbna* come to be a city where a vast dungeon complex exists that entertains fledgling adventurers?

And this question led me to start formulating the seeds of a more serious adventure that would go something like this ---

The city was once called Rhandilinskenburg. It was a thriving city of thousands, situated on the banks of a wide and deep river where it emptied into a calm sea in a tranquil bay. The city was always the envy of other nations, powers, forces, due to its history of peace, good trade, and tolerance. At last, as could only be expected in a tumultuous world, catastrophe fell.

An alliance between the Goblin Queen of Korgin Rugg Mearoth (The Blue Cold Mountain) and the Necrodreagonomechadon (A mysterious aberration only once believed to be nothing more than myth, a huge beast part chromatic Dreagon**, part machine, and powered by the energies of the dark void of the negative material planes) threw the city into perpetual darkness and life draining magic. The armies of the Goblin Queen and the Necrodreagonomechadon poured into the city killing and enslaving everything in their path. The onslaught was swift and terrible and practically overnight the city of Rhandilinskenburg ceased to exist forever.

For centuries the remains of the city stood bleak and foreboding. Rarely did anyone ever venture forth into the city, for no one that ever dared to try to plunder the treasures of the ruins ever was heard from again.

Then, strangely, the city seemed to come back to life. Slowly, over several decades, trade caravans of reasonably civilized humanoids came out of the cities ruins, calling the city Du’Orbna, and establishing trade with surrounding communities and nations. At first cautious, other peoples tried exploring Du’Orbna, finding it mostly harmless, and a curious place to do business and hone the skills necessary to become a candidate for those difficult to join “societies” that send heroes out into the wide world for reasons very few people really understand.

But how did this transformation come about?

How did the ruins of Rhandilinskenburg become Du’orbna? No one has ever known. What is and has been well known for centuries is that a mysterious power, known only as the Lich Baroness It’Dupree MonStropidious is the sole real power behind the stability of Du’Orbna, and that her Dungeon, located below the city, is of unimaginable complexity and design. Trying to discover the secret past of the city of Du’Orbna has been impossible.

That is until recently. Hundreds of merchants from around the globe are sending representatives by the thousands to Du’Orbna to obtain copies of the new hard bound Auto Biography, “My Unlife and Times, the true story of how four, or five, brave children showed me the true meaning of Power and how I built a city that is a model of contemporary success in a tumultuous world of magic, mystery and interplanner misappropriation,” By It’Dupree Monstropidous, with illustrations by Lillith Von Construm, and Appendices by the senior staff of the University of Du’orbna, Reliquaries and Antiquities Department, Berenwyr Feladrannil President Emeritus Pro Victus
This prodigious volume details the almost unbelievable account of a group of students from the School of Advance Wizardry at Cadford upon Throud (an exclusive school that once stood within the city of Rhandilinskenburg and is known from the journals of numerous legendary Wizard of antiquity). In this book It’Dupree tells the story, in informative detail, of how these students survived the initial onslaught that brought about the downfall of the city, how they continued to survive as the city was overrun by monstrous creatures, and eventually learned of the existence of the Lich Baroness deep beneath the cities ruins. Further the book details how these children braved the mysterious catacombs of the Lich Baroness’s first Dungeon labyrinth and confronted her directly, asking for her help in driving the forces of the Goblin Queen and the Necrodreagonomechadon out of the city forever. The last four hundred chapters of the book explain, in a more graphic and formulaic process how It’Dupree, along with these children turned powerful wizards, built the modern city of Du’Orbna out of the ruins of Rhandilinskenburg, and how the infamous “A” Dungeon came into being.

Already nearly three million copies of the book have been exported from the City, and thousands of copies continue to be printed every day at five printing houses around the clock. It seems the demand for this book is greater than anyone could have imagined and it is conceivable that it will out sell Freda Poppengort’s best selling cookbook of 3327, “Ninety Nine ways to Serve Conjured Aboleth Tentacles without offending your friends and relatives”.

Here is what I am proposing

If you were brave and/or bored enough to slog through the 900 some odd words above

A game, more serious than the Its “A” Dungeon adventures I am currently running, but with some elements of humor, set in the immediate aftermath of the invasion of Rhandilinskienburg (a huge city in ruins associated with a non descript campaign setting) that details the exploits of the young apprentice wizards/students who survived the catastrophe and went on to build Du’orbna.

1) Number of Players: Player Characters will be four or five Adolescent Wizard’s Apprentices

2) Player Character Races: Each Player Character must be of a different race (Races available will include all core races, and supplemental races found within Paizo Printed Materials as well as the availability of a created race upon negotiation amicable between the player group and the GM)

3) Player Character Classes: Each Player Character will be a “O” level Wizard, will have 4 hit points, and know only 4 Cantrips. You will attain first Level status after accumulating 400 experience points, at which point you must take a Level in one of these classes; Wizard, Bard, Cleric, Witch, Sorcerer, Magus, or Rogue. Progression after first level is at the discretion of the Player Character

4) Player Character Ability Scores: Each Player Character begins the game with a Base intelligence score of 16. This score can only be modified (at the start) by racial modifiers. The other ability scores will be assigned from a fixed list of ability scores presented below and can be assigned to the ability of the Player Character’s Choice, with this caveat:

other than Intelligence and Comeliness, no two player characters may share a similar ability score in the same ability

The scores are; 19, 15, 14, 12, and 10

Once the ability scores are assigned to a specific ability, they can be modified by racial or other character building modifiers.

Comeliness will be defined as a “Seventh” Ability Score, or more appropriately, an Attribute and will be calculated according to the following formula:

Charisma + Strength Modifier + Dexterity Modifier +Constitution Modifier – (Player’s Choice of Intelligence or Wisdom Modifier) + Racial Modifier*** + Player’s Modifier (a number between -8 and +8) = Comeliness

5) Alignment: Player Characters may be of ANY alignment with the following caveat – regardless of your character’s alignment, you must be prepared to work together as a team at all times throughout this adventure. Your Characters may have strong opinions and even arguments with one another, but a part of each character’s core personality must be a unique driving desire to cooperate for the purpose of the stated missions of the Game (side quest that are derived from the desires of the Characters themselves do not necessarily need to be cooperative efforts, but permanently splitting the party will not be allowed)

6) Equipment: Characters will begin the game with basic attire, a spell component pouch, and a shoulder sack with up to nine items selected from the following list of items:

A Dagger
A Masterwork Silver Mirror (6” x 4”)
A Wooden Holy (or Unholy) Symbol
A Loaf of fresh bread
A Folded large Canvas Sack (will hold 2 cubic feet)
A Torch
A Piece of Flint
A Masterwork Flask
A Pint of Lamp Oil
A Vial of Holy (or Unholy) Water
Four Small Candles
Pocket Watch
Masterwork Thieves’ Tools
Alchemist’s Fire
A Sunrod
A Disguise Kit
An item not listed here, but agreeable to the GM (no weapons of any kind will be allowed)

7) Missions: the Game will begin with “1” stated Mission, and the Characters must work toward achieving this goal in addition to anything the Players feel the Characters would want to accomplish. Additional Missions will be assigned as Missions are accomplished. The First Mission is:
Mission 1, obtain enough experience to be useful at something (the class you choose at level 1, AND find the home of Hokum Vizleeq, Principle of the School of Advanced Wizardry

8) Comeliness: Each character will be assigned a trait called Comeliness, this is a number that expresses how physically attractive your character is by the standards of beauty of the society of Rhandilinskienburg before it fell

(we can, as equal participants of the creation of this game decide exactly what that is, but for my part it includes the following:)

Body Mass is not an immediate indication of beauty, and proportionality (of limbs to body/head) is held as beautiful regardless of weight
Bi lateral Symmetry is considered beautiful
Mechanical Appearance (wearing makeup that suggest gears/crystals/manufactured body parts is “in fashion") is considered attractive and a sign of sexual curiosity

9) Familiars: Player Characters should have unique (from one another) Familiars, and will be able to replace their Familiars with new ones in a HOUSE RULE to be explained later

10) Undead: Necromancy is traditionally frowned upon, however, Secrets of the Society of the Necromechadons were widespread in seedier parts of the city before it fell. Animated corpses that incorporate mechanical parts were often known to be used in ways too improper to discuss here

11) Technology: Before the city fell its technology could be compared to western Europe of the early 19th century in many ways (oh, let’s just call it gas lamp fantasy and be done with it – I will be stealing many tropes for this game)

12) Magic: This will be a HIGH magic setting and magic items from the mundane to the dangerous will be lying all over the place

13) Knowledge Necromechadons (Skill): You may choose this as a Skill, it is not a class skill for any class, and you may have one rank in it. This will allow you to make a roll the first time you encounter a Necromechadon for the chance to have some insight to the nature of the creature. Having this skill implies you, as a student at the Advanced School for Wizardry, asked a few question, and after getting yourself into some minor trouble and punished for some awkward conversations with a couple of teachers on the “fringe” you learned a little about the Secret Cult of the Necromechadons

14) *Dreagons: this campaign setting has Dragons (Traditional Pathfinder Dragons) and a creature type known as Dreagons, who are Dragon like beings who have come to this plane of existence from an Outer Plane that is poorly understood. On this Plane they resemble, most of the time, Humanoids with distinctly Dragon-like features of the chromatic variety (if there are metallic Dreagons, no one knows for sure). However, Dreagons have unique characteristics, many of which you will learn as the Game progresses.

That is the bulk of the stuff, for now, more may occur to me, or come up, as this thread expands.

Anyone Interested?

Why are you gimping wizards?

Forcing intelligence to remain at 16 but allowing a 19 wisdom or charisma means that anyone that takes their first level in most of the classes you are allowing will have a higher DC, and more initial spells.

Flavor

I am extremely interested in the idea. I have always wanted to start out as a 0-lvl character and build up from there. Your game idea is magnificant and that isn't just flattery. Its well thought out and you have a solid idea of execution. It will take a bit of coordination on player's parts but I am definately interested and wish to participate.

Thank you very much. I hope you stick around in the event that some discussion about the particulars comes about. Oh, and that comment I made above, Flavor, yes I realize that doesn't address the original posters comment very well, but I have to admit I really don't understand the comment.

Also, I am curious to see how a small group of players would go about deciding who gets what stat in what ability, the builds might be interesting to watch.

Since most people walk into a game with an idea of a character they want to play so they would have an idea where they want their stats to go. Especially casters, that 19 will go into the casting stat of anyone I am guessing. If someone wants to play melee specialist or ranged then it will most likely go into Str/Con or Dex/con Respectively.

Jazzai pointed me in the direction of this thread. We've got a concept going for a pair of Twin's one aasimar, the other tiefling that would go very well with this campaign concept (aasimar a good oracle once the levels started the tiefling an evil witch) A whole lot of ying yang synergy and angst heh

Thank you for showing interest. I have a suspicion that the introductory material was overwhelming, and may not garner the interest I was hoping it would, but again, thank you.

Need sometime to digest.

Seems to me that the intention here is to show wizards beyond the norm of high intelligence. You maybe smart enough to make it as a wizard's student but maybe just maybe, you'll find yourself better suited for other things. My gut feeling tells me that.

I'm interested as well, and yes, I read the entire intro. Very well written, and very interesting and intriguing.

I will admit, Rogue being an allowed class kinda surprised me, especially considering Summoner, Druid, Paladin, Ranger, Inquisitor, Alchemist, all seem to be better fits thematically.

Not criticizing, just honestly curious why Rogue vs one of the other classes I listed.

I like the proposed Oracle/Witch duo above as well.

I'm honestly not sure which class I will select just yet, but I am leaning towards one of the other arcane casters, though likely not Bard.

I'm leaning towards either Rogue or Cleric.

While I am still making my way through the initial post, I've skimmed through quite a bit and this sounds intriguing. Though I have to agree that it seems odd that Alchemist is not on the list of initial class choices.

Edit: I'm kind of looking at a Dhampir Cruoromancer (Wizard). The mixed heritage and his specialized knowledge would help explain why he was able to survive the initial onslaught.

Captain Fremont - good choices, interesting thoughts for twisting the setting a little bit.

Why Rogue?

I've sort of got this anime trope in mind where the four or five starting characters are all very different types and the "rogue" choice is more for the sneaky one in the group than anything else. These adolescents should be people who really don't know what it is they will eventually turn out to be, and Ranger, Summoner, Paladin, Inquisitor, Alchemist and Druid, in my opinion (even at low levels) seem to reflect more focused intention sorts of characters

Fair enough and that makes sense. As I said, was honestly just curious.

I wouldn't mind playing a marital type Sorc or Magus, since that seems to be something we're lacking.

Am considering the Following:
Goblin
Kobold
Ifrit
Oread
Sylph
Undine
Hobgoblin
Suli

As for Class Sorceror or rogue.

This is picking up some interesting ideas. Thanks, also, how do you feel about an in game effect that drives a character to become an Oracle?

I am definitely interested in playing in a 0 level wizard dungeon crawl. I remember comeliness from 2nd ed and would applaud it's return. that being said, I would love to have the 19 cha (assuming no-one else already jumped on it). stats would be 15 12 14 16 10 19, so comeliness would be 19 + 2 + 0 +2 –0 + -1 (half-orc) + Player’s Modifier (a number between -8 and +8) = 22 +/- 8.

I think I would like to steal the idea that I had for another thread that didn't get taken and have him be the chosen of the orcish god of magic and trickery (actually, he'd be a sorc with the false priest template) who is trying to recreate his deity's weapon (actually a post retributive strike staff of the magi, but what does he know about magic anyway?)

if you like the above character, I can get to work on him.

additionally, my familiar would probably bet something small enough to hide on me, quiet enough to whisper in my ear and not be heard by others, and sneaky enough not to be seen by others.

Well cha being an Oracle stat I would also ask for a high cha. I was thinking a true Seer Oracle, the archetypes and during the fall the spirits of the dead come to haunt her but I would LOVE an in game effect that makes her become an oracle

I'd definitely love to join up in this. I'm thinking a Gnome and maybe making him a rogue or wizard. I have a few ideas about how guy ends up as an apprentice that I'd pass along in a PM if you are interested. Despite the lower int, I think the Wizard could still be fun to play and would work well with the ideas I have about how he ended up there in the first place.

You will attain first Level status after accumulating 400 experience points, at which point you must take a Level in one of these classes; Wizard, Bard, Cleric, Witch, Sorcerer, Magus, or Rogue. Progression after first level is at the discretion of the Player Character

Do you mean we can choose ANY class after 1st level? Or does it have to be one of the classes listed?

And I don't understand your formula for Comeliness(by the way, that's awesome old school stuff right there). How does it work?

Ok i had better lay claim to the following stats first

Str - 19
Dex - 10
Con - 12
Int - 16
Wis - 14
Cha - 15

Dragon Sorceror or rogue
Race unconfirmed though I think hobgoblins, goblins and kobolds are on my list.
Lol if no one objects.

I think we should wait until he chooses the players. Then we can talk about where we want stats and such. It keeps arguments in this thread more to a minimum and also lets people flesh out their ideas after the fact knowing what will be in the group.

I LOVE KOBOLDS.... hehe, but that's just me :P

Yes, you may choose any class after 1st level.

The comeliness formula is very straight forward except for two factors, race and player's factor

I think race will be negotiated between me and the players, with some consideration for general ideas about what the setting is and what the standards of "beauty" are decided upon

Now the player factor is there for the player to arbitrarily drive their character's comeliness up or down as they imagine the character to be (do you want your character to be "considered attractive" by most people in the city or not?). I am working on some test rules for encounter reactions and how comeliness will factor in to that, so you can put that choice off until last. Basically some monsters you will run into may react favorable to you at either high or low comeliness score depending on the monster.

I think there are enough interested players, I'll try to ask a few questions and see what players are best candidates, but mostly I am looking for payers who will stick around even if the gameis very slow, unless iI have some seriously life altering challenges, I'm not going away from this site unless they make me

Thanks!

I am here and ready to answer question!!!!

Seriously ready.

Ready or jazzai will have my hide lol

List of interested players at this time
Jazzai
Ravenica
Monkeygod
Captain Fremont (this is an alias)
Nightdeath
Vrog Skyreaver
Vucub
Javell DeLeon

Now that is eight, which I had not originally considered, and to be honest I am not sure how I am going to choose who can play and who can’t.

Also, please remember my initial warning that this will probably move slowly, and I know that a lot of people want to get started right away as soon as they see a game come up that they are interested in, but please, I really want to give myself time to make sure the development is solid before we begin.

Here are a couple of things to think about.

The adventure will begin exactly 18 hours after the Drop of the Shroud* occurred. The Player Characters have been in the basement of a dormitory like building under the protection of Miss Penelope Pirinweather, the House Mother of the building.

*The Dropping of the Shroud is the expression people who survived the initial invasion have come to refer to as the time when a semi sort of twilight-ish darkness fell upon the city.

This game may push certain boundaries regarding the way some of the monsters (on other npcs) address the Player Characters. Thematically I will be going over the top at times, even making suggestions that certain terrible things are happening within the city that even I am a bit uncomfortable hinting at.

BUT, I am going to try to do my best to do this with as much maturity as I can. If I mention such very delicate topics as rape, or sexual deviant behavior, I will try to do it with some degree of vague obscuration. Things that I will not tolerate will be any PC discussing children in what everyone should already understand is unacceptable ways (I will not go into detail, I hope you all understand what I am talking about). It might be suggested that children of the city are in great peril, but I will not detail it beyond that. Okay?

I mention these things because this adventure, which I have already hinted will use comeliness as a thematic component, will be a mature game, one in which sexual orientation, sexual attraction, and seduction may be regularly occurring themes.

Monsters and npcs may approach the characters with lewd proposals.

Does that bother anyone?

Player Questions

Jazzai and Ravenica – can you tell me which of you will be which character type, and if you are going to be doing a Raistlin/Caramon sort of thing, or if you have another idea for what kind of sibling relationship you will have?

Javell – do you understand the Comeliness formula now?

Everyone – Can you throw at me some ideas you have for what should be some basic components of the norm for what is considered beautiful by the cities citizens given the following bit of background

The city, before the Drop of the Shroud, was primarily inhabited by a human race (we won’t define a stereotypical race of earth to compare them to, is that okay?) but there are large populations of demi-human races as well, and small populations of orcs, gnolls, and lizard folk.

Being “Good Looking” had sort of become a serious problem for the city, in that good looking people dominated politics, and business, to the point that powerful people who were not good looking hired good looking people to be the “face” of their plans and schemes (think of it as a Hollywood idealization of Hollywood, I suppose).

Prostitution and satisfying fetish behavior was a huge underground industry, publicly decried, but everyone knows it was going on among every level of society.

The city, before the fall, could be considered affluent, with only a small portion of the population being classified as “poor” or “down trodden”, but, some of this lower class lifestyle was all a ruse by individuals fulfilling a particular niche industry in the satisfying of those fetishes mentioned above.

What should be physical features that attractive people aspire towards? Big Hair? Short Hair? Body Art? Angular features, or rounded features? Big Ears or Small Ears? Let’s set down some ideas.

Finally, I may increase the beginning player characters to 8, given the general drop out rate I have encounter before.

I will post a ruff draft of the comeliness encounter rules soon

I plan to be playing The teifling witch, insanity patron. Our attributes will be arranged to reflect opposites with the exception of the 14's (no opposite) I'll be aiming for the low end of the comeliness and be playing lawful evil. If drawbacks are allowed I'd be taking family ties to represent our reason for staying together and my siblings ability to counter my aspect (all she has to do is ask) Though we don't plan to overly abuse it. Appearance we would be close to identical but share some aspects (heterochromatic eyes in mirror reflection arrangement to each other) My character will be played as something of a reject who does her best reject the idea of "traditional" beauty, kind of a punk (except in this case I'm imaging the traditional trappings of punk to fit into the idea of beauty thus she will be a soft colors and whites, with lace or whatever is considering unfashionable) I'll be playing as a mid range debuff/controller caster. We discussed it in detail earlier but that covers the basics. I made up some concept images for how I picture our characters appearing, although this has not been "approved" by my partner in crime yet. They can be viewed Here

I imagined that alongside the steampunk aspects of comeliness that piercings, tattoos and body modification would be considered "attractive".

Yeah I got it now. The choosing of the +/-8 threw me off. I was expecting a set formula and figured I was reading it wrong.

Thanks for the clarification.

While I find this interesting - the whole comeliness bit is just fun to see again in a game - I think for now I'll just keep an eye on this one. That way, you don't have to stress too much about having 8 players. Just 7. :)

Well, that is of course, if no one else shows up. :p

Thanks, for the feedback. Yes I think that the "Goth" look would probably be in the more accepted main stream ideas of Beautiful in this setting.

I'd still be very thankful for any input you want to bring to the table, Javell

Ravenica, remember, the 16 int can be modified (as all ability scores can be) after they are assigned if there is a racial modifier, and the rule that no two PCs can have similar scores in any ability scores (other than int to start) only applies to those scores before they are modified, so it is possible some PCs will have some similar scores after modification. I'd love to see the two of you take a shot at those pre racial modifier score distributiuons

Also, a bit of an update on development progress. The city ruins will be modeled on Dublin, Ireland (including several bridges, and a northern and southern part of the city). I downloaded a simplified "tourists" map of Dublin and I will begin a CAD drawing of our city tomorrow.

updated the concept images slightly to reflect the better understanding of fetish appeal affecting character appearance updated

How are we not going to put the same stat number in a stat with 7/8 players since their are only 5 stats to chose from

I think it would be interesting if gender standards for fashion were pretty open, for example guys could wear dresses or make up but they would probably be styled different than what women. I guess I'm kind of talking about how girls wear "boy shirts" but in reverse. I'm not suggesting outright crossdressing although it sounds like that would exist in this city. Maybe people like big ears so they have more room jewelry. Might be fun if people had enchantments cast in order to have outlandish hairstyles that wouldn't normally be possible and maybe strobing colors. I'm really just throwing stuff at the wall at this point, seeing what sticks.

How are we not going to put the same stat number in a stat with 7/8 players since their are only 5 stats to chose from

that, essentially, was the reason for limiting to 5 players, and it may be that I decide to make a hard decision about the number of players, or my fascination with diverse ability scores.

the available arrays, as initially defined are

Str - 19
Dex - 10
Con - 12
Wis - 14
Cha – 15

Str - 10
Dex - 12
Con - 14
Wis - 15
Cha – 19

Str - 12
Dex - 14
Con - 15
Wis - 19
Cha – 10

Str - 14
Dex - 15
Con - 19
Wis - 10
Cha – 12

Str - 15
Dex - 19
Con - 10
Wis - 12
Cha – 14

If we are stuck using those arrays I call the 3rd or 4th (prefer the 3rd for 10 cha but if we have a wis based character i can settle for the 4th)

None of the arrays really worked for my idea. And the second would work for me best for casting. I initially thought we would discuss who would get what per stat second array would be backup

Yes, this is true, a discussion was what I was thinking would happen, but ultimately, it works out like the above arrays - BUT the basic premise of the game is what I was stuck on, and this ability score thing was a secondary thought, it is not cast in stone

Btw Caquix is Vucub if that wasn't clear. I'm new to these boards and I was messing with the alias stuff.

The array I had thought of is different from the ones above but are we using the arrays or discussing? With so many players there will be overlap. Either way I'm good. Helps a little when I get home ill throw my half of the concept up

Hey GM, did you ever get my PM? If so, do you plan on responding?

Monkeygod - yes I did, and I am going to respond

Caquix - I didn't catch that at first, thanks

I plan on playing the Aasimar Oracle, Seer Archetype, Lore Mystery Haunted curse. As Ravenica stated before our stats would try to be opposites for the most part. I will be aiming for the high end of comeliness and playing Chaotic Good. Being very protective of her older sister, she is often the one trying to beat on bullies for picking on her and so I was going to give her the Attached Drawback if drawbacks were allowed. She would protect her sister. I was thinking of being a melee oracle. Will be a first one I have done as melee and sounds like fun to play. She prefers the blacks and golds, finding a simple solace in the color more than its actual gothic appeal, but because of her mother’s sensibilities tends to dress with the fashions. They both know they are two sides of a coin and hold great attachment for each other. They may get into bitter arguments but don’t step in or they will both snap at you type of thing. She actually thinks her sister’s style is quite dashing as is her own so her concept of “beauty” is that everything is beautiful in its own way.

Let me come back here for a minute and say that I really should have slowed down and thought about that ability array question better, boy was I wrong.

That list of arrays is only ONE possible variation, there are a great deal more

so for instance
10 12 14 15 19
12 14 15 19 10
14 15 19 10 12
15 19 10 12 14
19 10 12 14 15

The above assumes the scores in order, but they do not have to be
they could look like this

19 12 15 10 14
12 15 14 19 10
15 14 10 12 19
14 10 19 15 12
10 19 12 14 15

and there are many more, it comes down to establishing the first array, and then placing that into a matrix that establishes all other arrays that are possible from that order without resulting in a duplication, so here is another

10 15 12 19 14
15 12 19 14 10
12 19 14 10 15
19 14 10 15 12
14 10 15 12 19

SO, there are more possible variations in the arrays, but it is always limited to only 5 arrays in any group

Hmmm I'm thinking of a goblin Rogue who'll go into arcane trickster as soon as he can with multiclassing, and he'll be smarter than the average goblin and because of that he'll be look upon as less than goblin like especially since he got picked to be wizard's apprentice.

Being born with small ears made him 'ugly' in goblin standards, normal in human standards. He's much rather be seeking chances to push himself up higher in the social ladder except he has no idea how to do so despite being selected. He's sick of being look upon as some pet or exotic hanger on.

That's what I have in mind for now. A little incomplete but then again players have yet to be chosen and thus can't exactly get a clearer picture in mind.

I'm going to be hard pressed to allow a Goblin character after all, I know I originally said okay but I've been having second thoughts.

I kind of want to make all Goblins enemies of the PC's in this scenarios and in other games I'm running (and have run) I've run into problems when I try to create a setting that has both dangerous and non dangerous goblins, so let's talk about this a bit. For this adventure I am sort of leaning toward there being no chance the player characters have of being wrong about any goblins they run into, if they encounter Goblins it is because those goblins are part of the invading armies.

So right now, I am thinking Jazzai and Ravenica are in this game for sure, and that will be a Tiefling and Aasimar.

I've never had to say no to a player wanting to play in a game I've run on these forums before so I am struggling with how to do this.

Easy I can play something else. So no goblins. I'm still looking at a rogue, just need to decide race then.

I see that its possible to build a custom race. I'm thinking of some sort semi draconic race. It wouldn't have the dragon type, as that would negate my ability to become a Dragon Disciple, but it would have some features in common with dragons.

If this isn't acceptable, I might just go human.

As for ability score arrays, 19 12 15 10 14 could work for me.

OK to be clear, this game will take place in Rhandilinskienburg shortly after the initial invasion and will be the events that lead up to the eventual establishment of Du’Orbna? I misread something somewhere and thought this game took place later in the timeline.

Yes, that is correct, in fact it is only hours after the fall of the city of Rhandilinskienburg, armies of bizarre undead creatures and savage goblinoids roam the streets (the original "order" of the invasion has deteriorated into mobs of monsters roaming the streets, fires, skirmishes, slaughter, and mayhem).

BUT, someone knows the way out of the city, someone must know, because the number of the cities dead does not equal its population. Where did so many people go? Maybe the principle knows?

Cool, are we locking in classes now or will that happen when we actually hit level one? If I had to pick now I would say Wizard. Since we are all having familiars, would a wizard be locked into bonding with the familiar?