Hi all, excited to be aboard. Always good to be a part of a lost cause :)
As far as Chosen and Broken, I'm happy to go with your preferences. I imagine that with Shreya/Blighter/Render, we'll be focused on a very military-styled campaign? That sounds great to me, my other campaign is a Horned One/Blighter & Breaker campaign, which as you can imagine is about as supernatural and non-military as you can get with Band of Blades.
For special ability, I can definitely roll with Book of Hours, Asrika's Blessing, and Anointed. Not a fan of War-Saint (campaign actions are pretty scarce, and long term projects feel cooler than xp training). As the Chosen is the one main recurring character that the GM gets to play, you should get a lot of say in what portrayal of Shreya you are thinking about, and I think it would be awesome if the ability (and the favor) reflected that. For instance, a Book of Hours/Mystic Shreya would in my imagination be the charismatic crusader, an Asrika's Blessing/Mercy Shreya would be even more focused around corruption and how to fight it, and an Anointed Shreya would be the most inscrutable, complete with mysterious prophecies that seem to guide the Legion. From a pure mechanical perspective, I suspect Book of Hours will end up being strongest, though that is just guesswork.
As an aside, from the existing campaign that I'm in, the actions that takes the longest for the players to finalize are the team actions, and so I can see an opportunity (for a pbp game) in having a Zora, glory-seeking campaign long on boldness and short on teamwork. However, since we are a new group, it probably makes more sense to go with a Chosen that nods more to teamwork to nudge us to stay on the same page.
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Excellent!
Imma echo all of what Dean C is saying about all of the things. Book of Hours seems to work best...on our first playthrough. ^_^ If, after everyone dies and we wanna restart, we might have a better handle on things and wouldn't mind going for a more long-term direction.
Hey, any chance we can open up the gameplay thread? It's much more convenient if I can just a dot/delete and have it on my campaign page.
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I have a mild preference for Breaker over Blighter but I won't be unhappy with any combo!
I'll need to do a quick re-read of the special abilities since I've never played. Should have some better input by tomorrow.
I think I'll put together the chassis for a Sniper, an Officer, and a Heavy in that order. Some sort of demolitions specialist might be fun later on, too.
I will definitely look it over tomorrow; I'm learning the system and I have unfortunately gone under the weather.
I am considering making up an Officer first and then a Medic.
The choices for the Chosen seem good to me. I'm reading through their powers more now and getting a handle on it. I apologize for my slowness; my winter cold has been kicking my ass really hard right about now.
I'm also interested what roles we want to take as Marshal, Commander, Quartermaster, and the optional 4th role. I'm really liking the customization for this setting, it is very neat.
We should definitely aim to have one of each of the specialists types when we start up. Having coverage will help when dealing with secondary missions, which in some ways have the most impact on how successful the legion will be on its long march.
I am happy to make characters for any role, will wait a bit to see what others are deciding. If left to my own devices, I'm likely to make a sniper and/or medic.
We'll have time to decide on command staff roles till after the first adventure, but it certainly doesn't hurt to discuss it a bit now. In my other campaign, we've had a lot of fun with the command staff (the commander is called Commander Squirrel, our Marshall has zero sense of humor, our QM goes by the name "the Quartermaster" and is considered by most of the soldiers to be a penny-pinching bastard, and our Lorekeeper refers to rookies as "future annals records".
With the command staff roles, my personal preferences is likely Lorekeeper>Quartermaster>Commander>Marshall. I've already had a chance to be Lorekeeper though, so happy to take on any command staff role.
I'm fine waiting till after the first mission then and will focus on getting a specialist or two written up. Is there any kind of template I should use for a character or should I just make like...a general alias for this since we're going to be swapping characters a lot?
We'll have time to decide on command staff roles till after the first adventure, but it certainly doesn't hurt to discuss it a bit now. In my other campaign, we've had a lot of fun with the command staff (the commander is called Commander Squirrel, our Marshall has zero sense of humor, our QM goes by the name "the Quartermaster" and is considered by most of the soldiers to be a penny-pinching bastard, and our Lorekeeper refers to rookies as "future annals records".That sounds amazing! Is this tabletop?
Sort of. We do it through Zoom, the GM and one player is in Seattle, the rest of us are in Massachusetts. One of the things we learned in 2020. Lots of the banter is more for comedic effect than anything else, but it is fun.
OK, so I'm going to switch things up from what I originally said and go for sniper/scout, but happy to generate new characters as needed.
Sniper: Doyen Alister "One Eye" Rodano
Noble Connected Orite
Ability: One Eye
Stats:
Aim 1
Scout 1
Research 2
Rig 1
Shoot 2
Maneuver 1
Marshall 2 (from Book of Hours)
Sway 1 (from Connected)
Alister was wallowing in self-indulgent self-loathing. Wastrel and gadabout, he had already pissed away a promising career at the Royal Or College, fleeing to the Legion when he had managed to antagonize an even better duelist than himself. And now, as part of their first engagement in Aldermark, he was greeted with an arrow through the left eye, courtesy of a Black Oak scout. Without half of his keen sight, what use was he for the legion?
That was why Alister failed to notice Shreya until she put a hand on his shoulder. Opening his good eye, Alister saw the Chosen, who had a face of such beauty that it hurt.
"Rest well, soldier. We will need you soon to help the less fortunate."
Alister could feel a surge of warmth fill his body, and he could not help but fall into a schoolboy crush for the Chosen. After that moment, Alister turned from a taciturn loner within the Legion to someone less lost but still seeking. He observed how Shreya commanded the troops from afar and subconsciously started emulating her, becoming a true leader within the Legion and sharing his strategic mind with his fellows. He even got an Orite replacement for his lost eye so he could resume his sniper duties.
And when, much later in the aftermath of the Rout at Ettenmark Fields, Shreya's path coincided with the Legion, Alister could not help but feel that it was fate that put him at the service of his north star.
Shreya -> Alluring
Scout "Feathers" Turquoise Flowing Wind
Shrewd Traveler Panyar
Ability: Ready for Anything
Stats:
Scrounge: 1
Scout: 2
Rig: 2
Shoot: 2
Maneuver: 1
Consort: 2 (Book of Hours)
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Okay, Shreya is Alluring! Both male and female Legionnaires go weak in the knees in her presence. "An aura of warmth and comfort that leaves you cold and empty when it leaves. A beauty that’s painful to look upon. A voice that echoes in your mind." Let's say... all of the above!
Lord Doyen, I'm going to give you a four-clock: "Knight in Shreya's Service". You can ask for a a Devil's Bargain any time by focusing your mind on how amazing your Chosen is and how she inspires you. Then roll one die for ticks: 1-3 =1, 4-5 =2, 6 =3. If the clock is filled, you become an absolutely devoted servant to Shreya, superseding your loyalty to the Legion or anything else.
And once the clock is filled, does he get to show Shreya his...Love Gun?
Hee. Still reading up on Chargen. Gimme a sec. =3 Thinking Heavy - sniper. (If the close-range gets killed, then I should do long range, yeah?)
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So I'm assuming the answer to the Love Gun question is "Yes!" =3
Yes, let's go with a Heavy. I think I got it in mind, I just gotta type it up.
With that having been said...don't we also need a Medic? I mean, won't we all die of wounds without one? (I'm the kind of guy that thinks that clerics are the one thing you need to make a party work, so that might just be the paranoia talkin'.)
Q: What is the point of having something be 'Fine'? It doesn't seem to have any game effect. :/
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Heavy: Brother Attero Dominatus
Pious Stoic Bartan
Ability: Tenacious
Stats:
Anchor 2
Skirmish 2
Wreck: 1
Maneuver 2,
Marshall 1
Discipline 2 (Book of Hours)
Pious: Whenever you go on a mission, you may equip a Reliquary in
addition to anything else you take.
Stoic: When you resist with prowess, take +1d.
Tenacious
Penalties from harm are one level less severe (though level 4 harm is still fatal).
Level 1 harm does not penalize you, level 2 harm gives less effect rather than -1d, and level 3 harm does not incapacitate, but gives -1d instead.
Brother Attero saw Shreya once, long ago. It was at the muster at HardWheat. He was actually thinking about not joining. About staying on to farm. Sure, he wanted to stand firm in the face of Darkness. But his heart quivered at the thought of death. Of pain. Of overwhelming odds.
He was trying to avoid people, to dart across the street. But she was in the crowd--you couldn't miss her. His eyes met hers. And he heard it. Words. No, THE words. The words that steeled his resolve, that cut away the softness, BURNED away the weakness. The heard them as clear as his own thoughts. Never has he strayed.
'They shall be my finest warriors, these men who give of themselves to me. Like clay I shall mold them, and in the furnace of war forge them. They will be of iron will and steely muscle. In great armour shall I clad them and with the mightiest weapons will they be armed. They will have tactics and strategies so that no foe can best them in battle. They are my bulwark against the Terror. They are the Defenders of Humanity. They are my Heavies and they shall know no fear.'
Shreya -> Serene
So I'm assuming the answer to the Love Gun question is "Yes!" =3
Yes, let's go with a Heavy. I think I got it in mind, I just gotta type it up.
With that having been said...don't we also need a Medic? I mean, won't we all die of wounds without one? (I'm the kind of guy that thinks that clerics are the one thing you need to make a party work, so that might just be the paranoia talkin'.)
Q: What is the point of having something be 'Fine'? It doesn't seem to have any game effect. :/
So, not sure this should apply necessarily for this campaign, but normally even someone as deluded as Alistair would not think of trying that. Setting aside Shreya's pre-Chosen highly public romantic life, which would normally be enough to dash Alistair's hopes, but most Chosen do not have, how should I say this, human-styled emotions. At least canonically, romancing a Chosen would be about as effective as trying with a turtle. More likely, he would end up sharing some stories he had written perhaps, to which Shreya could respond with "I don't see how this will help with our mustering plans. Plus, this reads like fan fiction, and that Doyenne Allison seems like a real Gary Stu."
Nice to see the Heavy. We'll want a Medic, but more because Medics (as are all specialists) are awesome, and they'll be useful for religious missions. In Band of Blades, there isn't the normal sort of healing in other games. Harm goes away slowly (mainly through off-mission campaign actions), and mostly we try (emphasis on try) to stop harm from occurring by succeeding in conflicts without rolling consequences (roll those 6's!), using armor (which is ablative per mission) and resisting consequences, trading stress for incoming harm. Unlike lots of other games, you don't take damage then heal it in the course of a mission. Instead, you have a limited set of resources (stress, armor, harm) that you use to be able to be heroic, but there is a bit of a race against time element, where you try to complete the mission before your resources run out. Then, in the between mission phase, the Quartermaster can (if he chooses) take actions that will restore some of those resources (stress, harm). This is partly why the Legion has so many characters-- we'll usually rotate characters in and out to keep them fresh.
About Fine equipment, Fine means that it is a level of quality better than normal. For weapons and armor, this increases the Threat level, which directly impacts damage taken and dealt. For other equipment, it affects Position and Effect. Band of Blades uses what I consider to be a "middle road" approach (contrasting on one side tradtional rpgs like Pathfinder and powered by the apocalypse games on the other hand), where the fictional situation impacts the mechanics without directly setting target roll values. The GM, for each conflict, will take into account what we are doing, including the equipment we are using and the quality of them, for determining Position and Effect, where Position translates to consequences (i.e. potential damage incoming) and Effect translates to effect of the action (i.e. potential damage dealt). You'll get use to the terms in time, and come to appreciate Controlled/Great, and fear Desparate/Limited conflicts.
Brother Dominatus sounds truly hard core. I like the choice of intimidate, where he imposes his will through strength of will rather than bravado or anger.
Not sure if we want to use this, but Band of Blades associates particular real world nationality people and place names with Band of Blades cultures. So typically Bartans would have south Asian names, Zemyati have Russian or possibly Baltic names, Orites have Italian names, Aldermani have Eastern European names, and Panyar have... weird names. I'd recommend that we name the rookies this way, to make it easier to tell their cultures at a glance-- that said it is less important to worry about that for specialists.
Going to put together a statblock for Ashora Kail, a Zemyati Sniper
I will also try to get a Medic secondary so we have that base covered :)
I'll probably have a relatively slow ramp up, sorry--new system plus I already GM three PBP and a Roll20 game on Saturdays. I'll get caught up ASAP!
Alrighty, I have my Officer made at the moment. I will get my medic up and running in a bit later. Let me know if there are any changes that need to be made to the character.
I think that the Grinning Ravens are likely most appropriate, as we have to position ourselves to get the Good Stuff to where it will do the most "good". I wouldn't object to Ember Wolves, though I hope it doesn't end up as a desperate position over the Tigeria River.
I am also between the Grinning Ravens and the Ember Wolves. The former is good for holding a position and we need to hold the bridge until the bombs are placed. The latter will be exceptional if the situation turns bad and we have to fight off the hordes or a powerful enemy.
I am fine with you picking between either one of those two, Mr. GM.
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couple thoughts.
1) Id go with Mercy over the alchemist just because getting a guy back sounds good, and I dont know how one gets more alchemists. maybe we do have a choice to get one, but that might mean not getting something else, so there is an opportunity cost as well. All things equal, it seems like just pocketing the Mercy and calling it done seems the more solid play.
2) I too like the Grinning Ravens (how does a raven grin, Attero thought) but...it seems that my Heavy can provide some good holding power, but if we face a non-physical threat, that might blow up the whole thing. In that case, I'd want the Star Vipers, so we could handle the unexpected.
couple thoughts.
1) Id go with Mercy over the alchemist just because getting a guy back sounds good, and I dont know how one gets more alchemists. maybe we do have a choice to get one, but that might mean not getting something else, so there is an opportunity cost as well. All things equal, it seems like just pocketing the Mercy and calling it done seems the more solid play.
2) I too like the Grinning Ravens (how does a raven grin, Attero thought) but...it seems that my Heavy can provide some good holding power, but if we face a non-physical threat, that might blow up the whole thing. In that case, I'd want the Star Vipers, so we could handle the unexpected.
After the first mission is over, the Quartermaster has a bunch of decisions to make, one of which is to choose between either a starting Alchemist and a starting Mercy.
The Quartermaster can use one of their campaign actions (they usually get 1-2 free, and can spend a supply to get another) to try to get various assets, including alchemist or mercy. It is a tough roll though usually, if you don't quite get the roll, you usually get one with some sort of drawback or penalty, such as a mercy that begins wounded, or an alchemist that starts with corruption. Regardless, they are best recruited in one of the larger towns on our journey, in the Commander locations on page 120, under the places where supply is available. From the starting position, the closest candidate location is Plainsworth.
From what I've observed, alchemists are the high risk/high reward option. Their projects can change what the legion is capable of, which is pretty darned cool. But they will corrupt out, especially fast if you don't work hard to get a critical mass of them. So starting with an alchemist likely means committing to getting to Plainsworth ASAP, and getting together an alchemist posse as the first order of business.
Mercies have a more subtle mechanical impact, making rest and recuperation a bit better (this takes into account that they are only available for half of the rest and recuperation actions).
It is true that it feels very flavorful for a Shreya campaign to start with a mercy.
I usually think of the Star Vipers as the team to send when you know there will be weird supernatural stuff, which are often in religious missions. Keep in mind that the way that clashes work in Band of Blades, it is often the whole of us fending off even more of them, and so often we'll have a squad go in support of a Heavy, rather than just rely on a single Heavy, no matter how awesome, holding out alone. Not saying that desperate single stands don't happen, but that usually we'll try for a more coordinated "combined arms" approach, rather than divide roles quite so explicitly. And in the case of the bridge, we'll need to split up to place our "charges" in multiple different locations, so won't necessarily be able to rely one one person to hold all the positions that we need to hold.
I assume that Silver Gale is leading the mission, as the only officer assigned to it? It is a pleasure to serve under you, sir.
I'm happy to either RAW or flexible for gear. RAW does slow things down, but interacts better with some of the other existing mechanics such as Officer's Channels, Scout's Scrounge, and Intel questions.
For this mission, One Eye would like to take medium load, to be a bit flexible on whether he'll be in a fire support position or helping with the positioning. He will bend to the wishes of the leader of the mission as necessary. Note-- we don't all need to choose the same load, so some of us can be light while others of us are medium or even heavy load.
For the record, if doing RAW, I would choose Fine Long Rifle as my armament and a Climbing Kit and Lenses for my optional loads.
I think I will also be going with Medium for my load, speed and positioning could be really important in this initial mission. As for my standard items, I am thinking I will be taking Black Powder and a Reliquary. I know BitD but not really this; this make good sense for an Officer to take? I don't see him climbing really unless s~+# goes really downhill fast.
I think I will also be going with Medium for my load, speed and positioning could be really important in this initial mission. As for my standard items, I am thinking I will be taking Black Powder and a Reliquary. I know BitD but not really this; this make good sense for an Officer to take? I don't see him climbing really unless s@#* goes really downhill fast.
Honestly, there is a bit of guess work in taking items, partially affected by what sort of actions you (or the team) will want to make. Black Powder definitely makes sense. Reliquary, that depends on whether we face corruption spewing enemies, which is a definite maybe-- we'll know better with experience against these particular broken. I can see a case for a wrecking kit or climbing kit-- I took one just in case.
As an officer, you can also use channels to get something as needed as well, so you have some flex capability that will allow you to not sweat it as much as the rest of us.
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Going up: remaining two rookies (Monique and Tabita)
Wait so setting up the explosives to take down the bridge involves going "up"?
In my mind's eye for some reason I kept thinking that it would involve going 'down', like, to put them on the support beams...but I've never blown up a bridge myself so I'm probably wrong about that. ^_^
Also, I mean I take some small alchemical hand charges from my own personal wrecking kit to set up a mine. (I really should give them their own name to keep them separate from any other Alchemical charges.)
Also also, my own joke seems to have backfired. Originally I was trying to come up with a different pun, but now I have Detroit Rock City stuck in my head. =p (Sometimes I wonder if the drummer is really an introvert, and during stage set up he keeps saying "No no, move me farther back. Farther!")
As to the fifth specialists for the legion and given the established foursome of current specialists, I think for mission balance we could actually choose either of medic or officer so that we would have at least two specialists who are appropriate for religious missions. Counterintuitively, an officer actually would end up with a group that is a bit more "balanced", in the sense that we would end up with exactly the same number of specialists for each of the four mission types as we would if we had one of each specialist types.
If we are going to strategize it out even more, an officer or medic who has the "strategist" special ability from the officer playbook (medics can take it through using one of their two opportunities to take an ability from a different playbook) would both be helpful from a metagame standpoint and would also make sense narratively as the specialist who is quarterbacking the bridge mission back at camp.
Oh man! You guys are a lot more active on here than I was anticipating. I don't want to slow the game down since I'm working, recovering from being sick, and taking care of a kid.
I'm going to free up my spot for someone else if you folks have ideas for people. It is just a bit too much for me to commit to, it seems. Sorry :(
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I am extremely sorry, but I'm going to have to follow KingHotTrash's lead. I was hoping to be able to make this work but I don't know the system knowledge to keep up, nor the bandwidth on games to get caught up in a reasonable amount of time.
I hope you have a great time, and maybe when I have fewer active games I could join you again! Happy gaming.
If you don't have time to play, that is all right, I totally understand. At least for my sake, I'd actually prefer a fairly sedate rate. I tend towards shorter, more frequent posts as, I don't have too much time for more than a sporadic number of long rp-styled posts. In short, I'd be perfectly satisfied to play with on the team who cannot post more than once a day.
As far as working with the system, I am happy to facilitate that as others ramp up, to point out options for those who are still learning Band of Blades so that they have a more streamlined experience.
If either of you do decide to step away for good, it was nice meeting you, and I hope to run into you again.
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Do we want to take a pause in the action while we invite the others from the Recruitment? It wasn't that long ago so I'm sure they'd be down.
It looks like there were three others. I'd council to invite all three of them, for the reason we just saw, in that a new system like this tends to have a bit more attrition, and if we had 5 total, then we don't have to halt if we lose one, the way that we would if we had only four.
(I've ever said that accepting more PCs is better, because of attrition.)