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Hey both, welcome to my game of Charnel Crown! I hope this discussion thread will help us all put the campaign together. I have some thoughts that I will set out as I find time to do it.
Mainly I am planning to use some Insanity rules. I don't like the ones presented in Horror Adventures, they take away plaeyer agency too much. I like the Shadow Corruption rules from the LOTR game Wastrel and I are playing so will addapt those as follows.
If you encounter something particularly distressing you have to make a Will save. If you fail, you can gain Insanity points (I'm convinced Wastrel and I will end up calling thme Shadow points but let's at least start with good intentions). You can also accumulate Insanity points voluntarily. Why would you do that? Well, I'm glad you asked. One of the only ways to learn about a Haunt that you encounter is to open yourself up to it, which allows you to make a knowledge roll to try and guess how to dispel it. The more you open yourself up to it, the more you learn about it - BUT the more you open up to it, the more Insanity points you get. ALSO, some of the more sentient Haunts will grow in strength if you open up to them, so you have to be careful.
If you have more Insanity points than half your Wisdom score (so 6 Insanity with Wis 10), you are Distracted. You get to decide what form this takes: depression, mania, delusion, whatever. You take a -2 penalty to ALL dice rolls, and this stacks with any other modifiers (shaken, sickened and so on).
If you have more Insanity points than your total Wisdom score you become an NPC under the GM's control* you become Erratic. Again you get to decide what this looks like. Penalties increase to -4, and for social skills you have to roll twice and take the lower restuls, because people tend to back away from the loony on the bus.
You lose Insanity points by taking a day of bed-rest. A successful Will save lets you remove d4 Insanity. If you fail, you remove half (minimum 1). If someone uses the Heal skill to administer long term care, you get to roll the d4 twice and take the better result.
More as and when I have time. Post questions and I will answer
*Paizo: for future reference, no. Just no.
Just popping in to dot the thread for now!
Dotting in.
I like what you've done with the Shadow rules, looking forward to trying them out!
I especially like what you've done with haunts. I'm sort of wishing I'd run them that way.
CHARNAME has a name now! Alexi Alaro, at your service.
Hey big bro, looking forward to playing with you! XD
Likewise!
GM, what are our build guidelines? 20 point buy? Drawbacks? Background skills?
Good questions.
You can use the focus/foible system: pick one stat at 18, pick one at 8 and roll d10+7 for the other four.
If you odn't like the results, you can choose a 25 point buy instead (this is a tough campaign when there's only 2 of you).
Three traits, and you must pick a drawback. Make sure it's a drawback you'll roleplay.
We will use Background skills.
We will use Feat tax rules (I can't find the link, but it eliminates power attack, combat expertise and weapon finesse as feats so you can take something more interesting).
Cathyriel: In addition to the insanity rules above, every time you use your summoning power you will also gain 1 insanity point. We will see how it goes and if it is making the game less fun then we will drop it. (It mainly means that when Alexi says "I'm not sure you should do that, you're messing with things you don't understand" it's not just RP).
Yuck, 8 Con is brutal. I’ll do point buy. Will put together stats in the morning.
Cathyriel: In addition to the insanity rules above, every time you use your summoning power you will also gain 1 insanity point. We will see how it goes and if it is making the game less fun then we will drop it. (It mainly means that when Alexi says "I'm not sure you should do that, you're messing with things you don't understand" it's not just RP).
Interesting idea! I'm down with giving it a go.
Str 8
Int 18
Oh, I can definitely work with that :D
I need some uninterrupted time to put my character together, which I probably won't get until the weekend. But I will keep reading this thread and answer any questions.
Alexi Feel free to make it a 30 point buy, we can't have the younger siblings outshinig us!
Cathyriel weekend is fine, I have to sort some things out anyway.
30! You spoil me! <3
Okay, my character is almost done. Crunch is in profile. I just need to buy gear and choose one more trait. GM, how much starting gold do we get?
Cathy, would you be interested in taking the Tight Bonds trait? It seems appropriate.
I've also added a few lines at the end of my backstory referencing the professor's daughter, Kendra.
Sure thing, that sounds useful and thematic. Now I just need to find a trait that gives me some social skills (I'd hoped that Arcanist would acquire Bluff from the Sorceror, but not even). Oh, and a drawback. Currently thinking Hedonist but there are several that might work.
Oh gods, Hedonist. Iomedae preserve us! :)
Oh well now you have to take it! (joke, take whatever drawback you like as long as it's one you'll roleplay)
Affable, Influence and Extremely Fashionable all offer social skills.
Starting gold is maximum. Professor Lorrimer employed you both and paid generously.
I'm going to be using spoilers in this game quite a lot for both of you, and I need you to be good about not looking under the other person's spoiler, starting now.
If you're ok with this, I want to re-write your history with Kendra slightly, to push it back a bit in time. Can we say that when Cathy moved to Professor Lorrimer's that you came by then? It would have been about 3/4 years ago, which is when you were at the Worldwound. But even in a perpetual war, there are periods of leave for soldiers at the front.
The Professor was interested in hearing of your experiences, and maybe marked you then as someone he might want to recruit later on. For whatever reason, he offered you a minor bit of work, and you spent a few weeks on an expedition with him before heading back to the Worldwound. While you were at his house, you met his daughter Kendra, and the teenage hormones did their thing (although how far you went is up to you). You're fairly sure Professor Lorrimer knew and didn't really approve, which is one of the reasons you agreed to go on his expedition, to get you away from temptation. You haven’t seen Kendra since and you never said a proper goodbye, or wrote to her afterwards. Whether this was at the Professor's request, or simply due to the fact that you're truly a guy underneath the externals, I will leave for you to decide.
Incidentally, Cathy doesn't know about your history with Kendra, although you can of course tell her.
Your time at the Worldwound was horrific, but it has hardened you in ways most people simply couldn't imagine. When you’re faced with danger, you can remember tough times that you got thourhg and it will bolster you. You may choose to add a bonus to any of your dice rolls, turning a miss into a hit, confirming a critical hit, or making a save you would otherwise of failed.
The penalty is that by reliving your experiences, you are re-traumatised. You take 1 Insanity point for each +1 you took as a bonus (so if you added +3 to a Will save, you would take 3 Insanity points).
Your intellect marks you out as one of the great potentials of the age, with the ability to become a magic-user of the highest degree. Professor Lorrimer recognised this in you, but not before you had begun exploring the path of magic by yourself, an experience which opened you up to a morass of external forces. The powers of good and evil are both interested in you, and you were able to readily make contact with their emissaries. Professor Lorrimer did his best to untangle you from their influences, but even he cannot undo everythign that has been done. The pwoers are all vying for your soul, but none has yet prevailed. You must start the game with a Neutral alignment, although you can make choices thoughout the game to bend towards good or evil as you prefer.
In addition, each of the powers has marked you as their own, in a series of sigils on your skin. They might look like tattoos, but there was no ink involved in their creation. The sigils are in Celestial, Abyssal and Infernal, forming a ring around your waist, just above your hips (you can bare your midriff – if that’s your thing – without them showing, but if you remove your skirt/leggings then they’re clearly visible). If they have a meaning, you haven’t been able to decipher it, and they change over time (although not whil you’re looking), which you discovered when you tried to make a copy. You can draw on the raw power contained in these symbols, up to three times a day, to gain an extra Arcane Pool point. Doing this means you take 1 Insanity point. This stacks with the summoning power, so if you draw on the sigils to summon something you are up 2 Insannity points.
While you were studying with the professor, you got to know his daughter Kendra slightly. She was friendly enough to you, but the age gap at the time (she’s about the same age as Alexi) meant that you didn’t have a lot in common and so you both pretty much did your own thing. You haven’t seen her for a year or two, since you started travelling with Professor Lorrimer.
They might have gotten to second base but never went further than that, due to Alexi’s insecurities about his body. He will still be a virgin at the start of the game.
I'm glad you liek. If you want to write something up to make it 'canon' then go for it (my talents don't lie in that direction)
That's all fine with me. I will include something about the markings in her description. Full character should be up later today for your inspection.
Thanks for your advice on traits - there are sooo many. Influence doesn't really fit, and although she likes to dress well (and expensively!) it's not what you'd call high fashion. Affable works nicely, thank you :)
I'm moving away from Hedonist drawback: she is absolutely without question a thrill- and pleasure-seeker, but it's on her terms rather than something she's compelled to do. I might go with Oblivious: her Wis is reasonably high, reflecting her determination and willpower, but she's not that insightful. She finds books much easier to read than people.
I see you've added something in your background about Kendra - is this something Cathy can safely tease you about, or is it something even she knows is off-limits? XD
Let me answer that: you have no idea that anything happened between them. How Alexi would respond to your teasing once you do find out, I leave up to him.
Some more things have occurred to me
I really like the way Wastrel tracks hit points and so on, which makes it esy to tell who is in trouble. I will be stealig his Status spoiler, which means you don't have to worry about updating your stat-bars each time there's a fight. It will also track Insanity points and expendable resources (lay on hands, arcane pool points and stuff)
I am slightly concerned that neither of you's got quite enough hit pints to survive this game, at least at lower levels. I plan to use the Wounds and Vigour optional rule. (Since I'm tracking this, you don't need to worry about the complexity. All you need to know is that vigour = minor damage, bruises, and after that you are taking Wounds = more severe damage, possible death.) Based on current stats, Alexi would have 34 Wound points and 10 Vigour which means you can take a LOT more punishment before dropping. If Cathy has Con 10, she will have 20 Wound points and 6 Vigour. When you've lost half your Wound points, Bad Things happen and it's time to run away. But at least you'll sstill be up and moving.
We will also be using Automatic Bonus Progressoin: I so don't want to have to keep remembering to give you rings of this, belts of that and headbands of I can't even. Magic items should be special, and they will be. Also rare.
The technology level of Ustalav is equivalent to Victorian Britain (with the exception of firearms: guns exist, but are not commonplace). Towns are lit by gas lamps, and even in rural areas the posher houses will have indoor plumbing and hot water. Elastic exists (it was invented in 1820) so bras are a real thing.
The GM answered the question about Kendra for me, in the same way I would have. :)
The optional rules all seem cool. And it’s good to know I’ll have to suffer through the embarrassment of having to wear a bra. :/
Not necessarily. Unless you're planning on going for Seoni type Absolute Cleavage (I get that this game is mostly written by males, mostly for males, but come on guys, do better), you can bind them up. That's efectively what a modern sports bra is doing, anyway.
EDIT: removed some overly-gloomy thoughts
Yeah, I was just joking. Sometimes tone is hard to convey on the forums. Binding is a more optimal solution while wearing heavy armor I would imagine.
On an utterly unrelated note, I really like that both of you have gone for flavourful feats over powergaming.
Cathy: it looks like the only thing missing from your profile is spellcasting and equipment. Everything else looks fine
Alexi: you still need your equipment, plus a description of some sort. Fell free not to write quite so many words as Cathy :P
Yes, I’ll do my description and equipment when I have time. Weekends are usually busy for me but I will have it done by Monday morning at the latest.
The GM answered the question about Kendra for me, in the same way I would have. :)
Awwwww :(
I guess it is the Oblivious drawback for me, then.
Hrm, I don't remember using the Wounds & Vigour system before. I look forward to trying it out. From a brief play around with the numbers, it looks much, much better at lower level and then at higher level the hit point system gives you slightly more if you have a good Con bonus, but there's not a lot in it.
For a squishy like Cathy the VP/WP system is better at every level so I'm in favour!
Cathy is now ready to play, I think.
@Brainiac - you always find the best character portraits, I'm jealous!
@GM - if we're using feat tax rules, can my summoned monsters use Power Attack?
@Cathy, thanks! I can look for one for you later if you’d like.
Yay, I like! XD
Equipment and appearance added to character sheet. Should be all set now! I'll look for some portraits for Cathy.
EDIT:How about this one?
The angry Cathy one is good, and the last one captures her youngness. I like the acctual avatar picture you have, too. The wolf/raven thing is VERU Carrion Crown gothick (with a k).
I have had some free time this weekend so i have a gameplay post ready to go. It wil be up in a momemt or two
Edit. And we are go. Alexi, I hope youd on't feel short changed by lack of detail. We will make up for it later, i promise :)
Yes, all of them are good choices. Pick your favorite!
No problem! I typed up my description yesterday on my phone which, as you can imagine, was a pain so it was shorter than I would have liked. I plan to flesh it out a bit more tomorrow.
I’ll try to post in gameplay later on today.
Angry Cathy it is, then (although I should have looked for Hungover Cathy apparently)!
Interesting way to start an AP and I look forward to seeing where you're taking this :)
going to their room makes leaving much easier than having to kick someone out of her room). She grimaces. Even if she could remember which room it was, returning is almost always a bad idea. And asking for stuff back - especially clothes - has always struck her as tacky.
OK never telling you stuff from my life again. I'd forogtten how good your memory is :/
Her parents are still alive and - nope, she gave up on that one before she was even eight.
Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww :(
Don't expect this posting rate every day, btw!
Ack - I have a good memory for stories, I can often remember them almost word for word, but what I can't remember is who told them. I'd honestly not remembered that was your story, just like I'm still partly convinced that it was you who threatened to cook and eat that militant vegetarian.
Sorry! Memory is a strange thing.
That first dice roll had better not set the tone for this campaign, and that's all I have to say on the matter.
Ha! Alexi wins the first round! :D
Cathy's right, though. That was MEAN :(
Edit. and if I've understood Cathy's (very, very long) description right, Alexi can always win.
Alexi will apologize later if it truly hurt Cathy's feelings.
Edit. and if I've understood Cathy's (very, very long) description right
Everyone's a critic :P
(It's been a few months since I built/played a PC of my own, so I may have had a bit of pent-up creativity to let out)
But yes, I deliberately built her with a "that's enough" button - different people have different levels of tolerance for brattiness and in PbP you can't pick up cues from expressions or tone. Also, having them be competitive siblings makes no sense given they excel in completely different areas. This takes it in a different, but hopefully still fun, direction.
@Alexi - ah, she'll get over it. She has some very recent evidence that people still find her attractive :D
Okay, let me know if I ever get too harsh. Basing the back and forth on my own jibes with my sister growing up.
Ready to move on as well.
Oh don't worry brother dearest, Cathyriel can give as good as she gets; as I'm sure you'll discover (esp. when she finds out about Kendra ^_^)
Alexi: my turn to be mean sorry not sorry :P
Ouch. :o
I think the meanness baton is going to get passed around a fair bit. But right now, GM has ownership for sure :D
(see, it's funny cos it's not happening to me)
EDIT: I hope the "penny dropping" bit in brackets is ok. I haven't read under the spoilers but I did see the bit in Alexi's backstory. Trying to be good about separating player and character knowledge, but even for Oblivious Cathy this is a fairly big hint of... something.
Aw, that's cute. But this is Carrion Crown. I wear the meanness tiara, but I might occasionally let one of you play with it.
"penny dropping" bit is fine. Thanks for being good about this.
To answer Cathy's question, Kendra is not a GMPC (blech) but she's not exactly an NPC either. You don't need to make rolls against her, unless you want to, like Cathy did to bluff Alexi aobut what she'd got up to the previous night. She's a foil for interacting with via roleplay.
Also, and again I should have got to this before: teh Professor is used to having guests, not all of who are 'front door people'. The house has a guest annex on the ground floor, you can get to it from inside the house but it's a bit separate. It has a number of rooms and a communal bathroom (Cathy, this is where you're headed to now). It also has its own door to the outside, so you can get into and out of it without having to use the front door.
Cathy was there long enough that she has her own room. Alexi tended to just use whichever room was free, but currently they all are unoccupied.
I reliase I've overdone it slightly with the spoilers :/
You both are writing some great posts and they don't actually need to be hidden.
From now on I will only put stuff in a spoiler if it has to go in there, and I will mark it private so you know not to open it unless it's for you.
You only have to put stuff in a spoiler if I spcifically ask you to.
Cathy is free to go back and read all the spoilered posts EXCEPT for Alexi's letter, which she never got to read.
Alexi is free to go back and read all the spoilered posts EXCEPT for my most recent posts to Cathy and her reply post.
Copy that! :)
Hi both
I have labs for the next couple days so posting might not be as regular. Really pleased with the pace we have though, thanks so much for your great writing. I'm learning loads (and some of it is about D&D!!!)