Freebooters on the Frontier Homebrew Funnel

Game Master Branding Opportunity

GM: I haven't heard of that particular issue before, but if you havent done so already, you might try clearing out your cookies. I know that some of the bigger issues with the boards in the past have been resolved that way.

Thanks, Tareth, I have tried that but it didn't seem to make a difference. Strangely, I am now able to access the website if I use a VPN to make it think I'm Canadian.

We're also still waiting to get introductions for a number of folks. So far our "Dramatis Personae" are:

* Benoit de Bar, the devout town crier with the flat face and the peg leg.

* Syrina du Shay, the relative newcomer who turned out to be a considerate bounty hunter

* Candace "Bones" Macdougal, one of the many daughters of the local baron who has taken up falconry.

* Janusz Ereben, the young, attractive-looking herdsman and his pet goat Alex

* Felix Marcel, the lantern maker with the long beard.

That means we've gotten two from Elbow, one from Edeldhur, and two from Tareth, but are still missing one more from Edeldhur, two from "Today is a good day to ...", and two from kdtompos.

Mathilde is a piss poor bounty hunter. Unlike Syrina, Mathilde has yet to actually capture a single bounty on her own.

Well, that's not entirely true. The young woman has actually managed to apprehend a small handful of marks, but is such a soft touch that she's always let them go out of pity. The one bounty she actually collected on was killed by wolves and Mathilde happened upon the corpse a day later. Using her hacksaw she removed the man's hand as proof (especially since most of the rest of the body was unusable).

She's a short woman, with a soft heart and a peculiar stride -- smooth but awkward, as if slightly inebriated. She smells of lilac, which she thought would be a wonderful calling card... can you imagine the fear it would strike in a mark when they begin to smell it, knowing she's nearby and about to pounce? But again, she's never become infamous enough for it to matter.

She's heard of Syrina before, but is rather envious or her success.

Remy has lived a long, solitary life. Never married, though he's had a few flings when he was younger, but never found a good enough man he was willing to put up with for the rest of his life (or would put up with him). Instead, he has his bees.

Bees are reliable, predictable, and works excessively for order and efficiency. That's what Remy loves about them and why he's devoted his life to caring for them.

Rather aged now, with thin grey hair that still manages to cover his scalp, a fastidiously maintained mustache that curls at the ends with beeswax, and a gentle smile that stretches a well-wrinkled countenance, he says very little any more. But something has been upsetting the bees. A dozen colonies have already been lost and when his friends are in need even a man of Remy's years cannot sit back and watch the entropy unfold.

His father was a religious man, friar of a forgotten religion and practitioner of the old ways. Remy remembers pieces of stories when he was young, but little of the details. Figuring he could use all the help he could get, he snatches up his father's prayer beads of amber and polished oak, as well as his own hooked staff for hanging smoking censers, and sets out in search of whatever is causing this unrest.

And we've gotten two more, great!

In the meantime, I'm going to randomly roll up some features of our village that we can all begin to flesh out. Anyone may contribute, but be sure it copy it over into the GOOGLE DOC.

Our village:

* Is defensible (due to terrain)
* Has a noted landmark (a barrow/burial mound)
* Has an idiosyncratic aspect (clothing)
* Has problems with unrest

Forgot to roll for Syrina ammo.

Crossbow bolts: 1d4 ⇒ 2 Ha! Better make 'em count.

Hey GM BrOp and everyone! I have to admit this does feel like an amazing initiative, but I will have to drop out.

I just find it very time consuming (between developing and playing two characters, personalities, histories, posts, the setting, the background, hooks and motivations and NPCs :D), and unfortunately incompatible with the games I am already running/playing in.

If this was the only game I was involved with at the moment, or if I had more free time, then I would be happy to continue on. Otherwise I don't think I will be able to keep up.

So thank you for inviting me, and I wish good luck going forward!

Most likely going to drop the first villager while keeping the second and third.

Got to make 2 last rolls for them; Undertaker: 1d100 ⇒ 54 and Watchman: 1d100 ⇒ 32.

Both will be female, it looks like.

Undertaker switches Wis for Int; adds +1 to Con and Int.

Watchman switches Int for Str; adds +1 to Dex and Str.

Since we're now down one player due to Albion/Edeldhur's departure, why doesn't everyone bring in their third character. Just to make sure that at least one survives the funnel adventure!

Today is a good day ..., please join us in the Gameplay thread once you have finished your characters. Don't feel obligated to post as much as the others have, btw, we can do with just a quick summary. I'm not saying that the very long posts aren't appreciated (they are! they are!), just that it's not a requirement for this game.

Hey GM BrOp and everyone! I have to admit this does feel like an amazing initiative, but I will have to drop out.

I understand, Albion, although writing a short novella was not a precursor to playing in this game, but you've been mentioning that you were busy. You're welcome back any time if your schedule clears a bit.

Since we're now down one player due to Albion/Edeldhur's departure, why doesn't everyone bring in their third character. Just to make sure that at least one survives the funnel adventure!

Sounds good. Will get something for Stitch up tomorrow.

Still waiting on some characters to join us ...

Today is a good day ..., please join us in the Gameplay thread once you have finished your characters. Don't feel obligated to post as much as the others have, btw, we can do with just a quick summary. I'm not saying that the very long posts aren't appreciated (they are! they are!), just that it's not a requirement for this game.

Much appreciated, GM BrOp, and will do; admittedly, I do tend towards a few days in between posts as a FYI.

For my undertaker- who most likely works under the town cleric/church- I'll go with Hagar Renault as her name. For my town watch-person, I'll go with Zini "Motherbear" Apertaux as her name. And since we're likely to go with 3 characters per person, I'll have my town miller preemptively chosen as Male who will be named as Tibault Grandoir. He switched his initial Con score to Int and has +1 to both Int and Dex with a hp of 2 and capacity of 16. ;)

PS. choosing avatars and altnames soon done...

PPS. Hagar Renault: Hailing from the Marches of Calaway, this middle-aged, devout worshiper of St. Ignys serves as the town Undertaker under the auspices of the cleric of St. Ignys for many years now. Ever willing to lend a kind word to those that are bereaved, Hagar holds a special contempt for those that would go against the faithful of the church.

Zini 'Motherbear' Apertaux: Growing up nearby the foul, swampy Snobbig Moors has done little to quench this stout Watchperson's sense of compassion and protectiveness despite her heavily scarred exterior. Nicknamed 'Motherbear' by the townsfolk, Zuni possesses a sweet-tooth habit and is rarely without her daily supply of honey.

Thibault Grandoir is a Young man who works in the town under the town's head-miller. This ferociously Just apprentice Miller zealously seeks to regain the town's honor by seeking out the missing relic of St. Ignys. His ancestry partly from the frozen cold lands is most apparent in his family keepsake, a lucky charm of sorts.

PPPS. hmm, the spellchecker seems to prefer Thibault to Tibault; may just ultimately go with Thibault to forestall any troubles with misspellings. ;p

PPPS. Likewise Zuni versus Zini too. May as well go with Zuni then. ;)

Having decided that going up against the spellcheck gods/fairies is a losing proposition at best, I may as well make two more d100 rolls to see where Hagar and Thibault fall upon the St. Ignys gender debate. ;p

Hagar belief: 1d100 ⇒ 43. Believes St. Ignys=male.

Thibault belief: 1d100 ⇒ 96. Believes St. Ignys=female.

PS. And since I've a WWE Undertaker reference for Hagar,

and a Watchmen comics reference for Zuni,

I think I'll have Thibault be a small beers enthusiast in reference to

All, I'm so sorry for my absense! I just had to travel for the week for an on-site residency for this new school year. I assumed I would have more time (I'm out of town, no familial obligations), but was sorely mistaken.

I have not left, however, and am catching up now. My most sincere apologies once again!

Sorry for the abrupt disappearance, this move has taken longer and much more effort that I had originally planned for but be able to get a post up for Felix and more out of Benoit this weekend.

Finally got all 3 profiles filled out for Zuni/Hagar/Thibault.

Thibault probably knows Stitch from his employment with Gregory; given Stitch's profile, the two may or may not get along with each other personality-wise?

Zuni definitely knows Candance [friendly/employed by her father/council], Remy [friendly], Benoit [fellow Town employee], and Stitch [by reputation]?

Hagar would know of Remy and Stitch [both by reputation] plus Benoit [from the church; friendly- depending on where he falls on St Ignys gender divide?]

Syrina seems to be a recent arrival to the village/town. Any other recent arrivals?

Sorry for my absence this week as well. Busy RL issues.

On a side note, I am assuming that everyone who is from the village knows each other. It's just not that big of a town.

So Zuni was able to score some armor for the rest of the group.

Two leather Armor and a Shield, all considered as fragile.

Who among the party wants to use them? Don't be shy, they may help to keep your villager alive for the journey. ;)

Candace will take one of the leather armor, if no one objects.

GM: I'm not exactly sure what equipment Candace was able to get from Florian or if we need to spell it all out at this point. Perhaps everyone gets one Adventuring Gear as defined in the Equipment Table?

GM: I'm not exactly sure what equipment Candace was able to get from Florian or if we need to spell it all out at this point. Perhaps everyone gets one Adventuring Gear as defined in the Equipment Table?

I think that is reasonable. Let it be so!

GM: If you had a different Agatha in mind, well then Candace can just be wrong about her assuming it was her sister.

Apologies about not being able to sign in much more sooner; ended up having to deal with some RL stuff that came up earlier this month. ;)

Candace will take one of the leather armor, if no one objects.

Sounds good to me. Still one more fragile leather armor and fragile shield up for grabs; I figured that despite one's character profession, presumably anyone could use any armor or weapon, bought/given/found/etc., as if they were proficient in them.

Apologies on my own absence this week. I took last weekend off and then got a new COVID booster which knocked me on my butt for two days now, but I'm back now!

GM: If you had a different Agatha in mind, well then Candace can just be wrong about her assuming it was her sister.

I'm happy for the PCs to drag the story off in any direction that seems interesting. I have a number of "encounters" planned, but those could happen anywhere!

Totally understand that booster downtime. But they are worth it. My boss got Covid back in August and is still wrestling with some after effects. Can only imagine what would have happened if she hadn't been fully vaxed and boosted.

Heh, all this talk about covid boosters does reminded me that I'll have to take this latest booster shot since they've recently got something added to them to account for the omicron variants out there in the wilds. ;p

I've found that taking some Zinc vitamin with a single meal could be helpful. They usually come in 50mg tablets although it might be better to split the pill and take them in half a dose since there's supposed to be a limit to how much Zinc you can take in a day- or so I've heard. ;)

Thanks for the info!

Seems we are down to 2 active players. Are the others still around? Have you lost interest? Is there something we could do to bring you around again?

I apologize if there hasn't been enough "action" this far, but I swear, we'll get there!

And if it might be the case that my habit of 'favoriting' all the gameplay posts [besides that of my own] happens to be off-putting to anyone else participating in this pbp game, please feel free to let me know, via public post or private messaging, so I can change things. :)

And if it might be the case that my habit of 'favoriting' all the gameplay posts [besides that of my own] happens to be off-putting to anyone else participating in this pbp game, please feel free to let me know, via public post or private messaging, so I can change things. :)

I'm fine with it. It's nice to be appreciated, and think it improves the esprit de corps of the game.

I've got a couple of ideas for this undead arm. Have to get through a couple of a.m. work calls and then I'll get something posted.

GM: I'm not exactly sure what moves needs to be rolled for Stitch's plan. Maybe Candace does an Acquire to gather all the items. Most seem like pretty reasonable items for any manor except the holy water. And then maybe it is a Give Orders (this might be better done by Zuni or Hagar) to get Agatha to set the rope. And finally a Fight move to yank the arm off (Syrina with help from Stitch and Zuni?).

GM, it's been awhile. I thought I would check and see if this game is still active?

Heh, we did leave at bit of a conundrum for GM BrOp to work thru; bet the author of the scenario never saw Stitch's solution coming. ;p

I suppose that Thibault's suggestion might help to prevent Agatha from getting choked upon while Zuni's off to get more firewood. Hagar probably might have to roll something to get anything useful out from the other gathered villagers?

Heh, we did leave at bit of a conundrum for GM BrOp to work thru; bet the author of the scenario never saw Stitch's solution coming. ;p

Ha...maybe so. I also thought of sending folk back to the church to gather a bunch of holy water to dump on poor Agatha or spray on her using waterskins or something. Ah well. It's been nearly two weeks, so it looks like this one is done. It's too bad I was interested to see how the system would play out as we went along. I might have to try my own PbtA/DCC adaptation maybe using the Dying Earth or Lankhmar materials.

Been nice gaming with you C_C, hope to do so again sometime. Cheers.

Thank you kindly, Tareth, and likewise it was good to game with you as well. :)

Also, to GM BrOp, hope you are doing well over on your end of things and thank you for the opportunity to try out Freebooters as well. :)