
Lost Souls |

Dooming: Scales and teeth is what I see in your smoke boy. Morr will come for you with scales and teeth. Just another victim to add to a long list of prey stretching over years longer than you have walked this land.
Vague enough, could be a dragon, or an orc wearing scalemail... we can make it fit a lot of circumstances if it comes up.

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"Not for you the slow death of age, girl. Your end comes in stinging smoke and flashing sparks."
(Finishing up Alex today or tomorrow)

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Okay, advances are chosen and in the profile, ended up spending my 70 xp on an advance each in Classical language and Heal, and two advances in Weapon Skill.
Shekels: 2d10 ⇒ (3, 2) = 5
Bandages: 1d10 ⇒ 2
Oh also, I decided I'd like Alex to be from Averheim, any objections to me swapping Lore (Reikland) to Lore (Averheim)?

Darkest Doomed |

This is Nathan. I might be missing a thing or two, but I think I've pulled the character together now. I'll edit the profile to fill in the remaining character blanks.
Edit: And...I somehow threw away all the background I wrote up. I'll have to do it again when I can find time.

Darkest Doomed |

This is all assuming that Landolf doesn't get eaten by a fish, but I've been looking at what it would take for him to reach Seaman, and I think it's something like the following:
5 advances in Agility (he has this already)
5 advances in Dexterity
5 advances in Fellowship (he has this already)
5 advances in eight of his career skills (he has 5 advances in all of them)
1 talent from his current career level (he has that)
So, if I wanted to go straight to Seaman, Landolf would need 125 XP to get the 5 advances in Dexterity that he's missing and 100 XP to go up one career level.
If I'm reading it correctly, the only downsides to progressing to Seaman quickly would be:
1. not spending the 225 XP on somewhere else that might be immediately useful
2. not being able to take the other talents from Landsman unless I go back to Landsman later (not likely)
I'm not seeing a purpose for the trappings listed at career levels higher than 1. Do you need to get the trappings for the next career level before advancing, or do you get them when you do advance?
If I don't focus on advancing to Seaman quickly, the main benefit would probably be being able to put XP into some of the skills Landolf has already advanced without waiting. If I'm reading things right, he can't (easily) put XP into the skills he advanced due to his race at character creation, only the skills and characteristics in his career. I know there are exceptions to that if you hire a tutor or something, but I'll ignore that part for the moment. Also, he'd be able to pick up the Landsman Talents if I want those.
Does all of that sound right?

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Sounds right to me. Not sure on trappings.
I'm not sure where to take Alberich...
I'm largely set to go to bronze buuuut I don't necessarily want to stay in the Outlaw career. It's not bad per se buuut not where I want the character to go.
Assuming I survive my current slew of horrible rolls then I'll be seeing what hooks the DM will have in the game for alternative career paths.

Darkest Doomed |

Landolf started out with pretty decent bow skill, but with no way to get a bow or advance those skills easily. The BS training and Bow Skill from Outlaw 2 is making me a bit jealous.
Seaman appears to be a melee-centric tree for combat purposes, but not a bad one once you reach Seaman.
Of course I could go to a different career as well, but Landolf's story so far is tied up with his Seaman career, so I shouldn't complain.
Regarding the Gameplay thread: realizing now that I should have used Landolf's dagger instead of a Brawl check. If he hits (definitely not assured), Landolf is both missing out on +2 to his Strength value and wouldn't have the Undamaging trait on his attack that his Brawl check will give. Something to look into next round, I guess.

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Oh, I didn't double check, so I'd just assumed it was the old thing where you had to have the trappings to move into the career.

Alberich Nägelein |

Trappings in higher ranks are for when you can purchase a higher level out the gate due to exp from retiring a character or dooming death. Also effects your ability to convince people you are whichever career you are.
I better set up my doom too come to think of it

Darkest Doomed |

OK, a bit more on me trying to get my head around this rulebook.
Now that I've had a bit more experience with and reading up on combat, I'm currently pegging Landolf's Seaman career as a solid, second-tier light fighter class. I say that because it has (at Seaman 2) WS, Melee (Basic), Agi and Dodge. That's a good setup to get the rolls you'd need to be a decent combatant. It's a light fighter, however, due to the lack of any Strength or Toughness characteristics, meaning that heavy armor will be outside of a Seaman's likely encumbrance range and its damage results will be less than many of the dedicated fighting classes. I call it second tier as a light fighter because very few of its Talents have anything to do with fighting. It doesn't have stuff like Warrior Born, Combat Aware or Hardy anywhere in its tree, although a few things like Strike Mighty Blow eventually become available.
I'm pretty satisfied with that: the whole game isn't about fighting, but (after some advancement) it means that Landolf will be pretty good in a scrap, so long as he doesn't wade straight into the middle of things, and he will be good at some other areas that dedicated fighters might not be. Does that analysis sound about right?
My current mental model for this is that Landolf is currently a deck swabber, but Seaman 2 will make him become more like a Marine.
Second, I've been looking at some of the talents more since that is one of the decisions I'll need to make earlier on. I think I understand the mechanics a bit more, but I'm not sure about some of the whys. For example, I'll use Strong Back and Strong Swimmer. Strong Back in particular confused me because its text talks all about opposed Strength Tests and Encumbrance points, but the Tests mention Row and Swim. After reading more, I think I understand: Row and Swim both gain +1 SL on Dramatic Tests (I think that's the right terminology?) but I think only if the test succeeds, making it a bit of a win-more mechanic. Opposed Strength tests gain +1 SL per Strong Back rank whether the check succeeds or not and Encumbrance goes up by one per rank of Strong Back (making it a back door into heavier armor if you want to sit around at Landsman for forever, I suppose).
Strong Swimmer confused me similarly since the rules text didn't have anything to do about swimming: it was all about holding your breath instead. Similar to Strong Back, though, it would +1 SL on successful Swim checks in addition to giving bonus Toughness for holding breath purposes.
If you had two ranks in Strong Back and one rank on Strong Swimmer, I imagine that means +3 SL on a successful Swim Dramatic Test?
What I don't know is how to evaluate all of that. It's not immediately clear how often Dramatic Tests would come up for Swim or Row. They don't seem like the sort of skills that would be used for Opposed checks. A bonus on Opposed Strength checks at least has obvious applications, and bonus Encumbrance is pretty straightforward, so I'm not as worried about those parts.
Any thoughts? I think my gut instinct is to go straight for Seaman 2, since that will open up a new & important skill set. I can see the Seaman 1 talents being decent in some situations, but probably not enough so given obvious needs. Talents are kind of spendy....

Darkest Doomed |

Same here. Are we waiting on someone to respond before the next combat round starts? Can Landolf tell if his attacks are hurting the fish at all?

Alberich Nägelein |

As you continue to dig the images become more clear. The creatures are brutish to look upon. Savage and gigantic with bodies shaped like barrels. They have triangular heads within which are set large singular eyes. The creatures are shown living in crude towers built around the edge of a large lake.
One of the creatures is much larger than the rest, and seems to feature prominently in the carvings. Judging from the creature’s pendulous breasts she is female. Whilst the other creatures are bald, her own hair hangs in long tatty braids.
One scene depicts some sort of war party, raiding a village of small, round huts and carrying loot and prisoners away with them. To the far right of this image the bloated female is shown brandishing the heads of slain prisoners over the waters of the lake. Above the waters, an indistinct impression of a monstrous horned head can be discerned.
The next row of images depict further raids and profane rites. A great beast — nearly four times the size of the other creatures — accompanies them, resembling a great lizard with four pairs of legs. Jagged, carved patterns like bolts of lightning emanate from its eyes, striking down hapless hut dwellers.
The final row of images depict the death and burial of the bloated female. The one-eyed creatures are gathered about her body, clawing the sky with their outstretched arms. She is then interred in the ground beside a great lake. A tall obelisk is erected to mark the place.
The outer rocks are much easier to topple and the final tall one remains...
VERY well written!