- Ashara -'s page

I'm very sorry to do this, but I've decided to step out of the Alkenstar campaign. I'm very busy with school and the pacing of posts is making it hard for me to keep track of what's going on. I've also lost the sense of who my character is following the long break of a few weeks ago.

I hope everyone continues to have fun with the campaign.

Best wishes!

Ashara is ready.

"What did it do here? It left behind a skin, but did not take another, despite having the chance. It took some clothes, but what good are they without a skin."

Ashara examines the corpse to see what might make it unsuitable for a skin. Did any of the others have wounds? In what way do they look like they have been put on/removed?

Ashara comes running up, her rifle over her shoulder. Her eyes narrow upon seeing the "skin-suit" and her hands keeps wandering over toward her rifle.

"Hmmm, I wonder how much we can get for whatever the hell this thing is."

Ashara begins running toward Mumbar, slinging her rifle as she goes.

I'll deal with legal troubles when they crop up. 8)

Ashara takes the shot if she's got a target.

Ashara looks for a place to get some height so that she can keep an eye on the running miner.

She will shoot at the first opportunity:

Rifle shot at miner: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 4 = 21
Damage: 1d10 ⇒ 3

I'm fine with taking him to the surface and assume we will do so.

Where do we stand vis a vis "City Astride the Storm?" It seems we only have two of us now. Should we post a new recruitment thread to try to gin up more excitement?

I don't want the lag to go on so long that I forget the excitement I initially had for the character.

I was surprised that more people didn't send in apps for the adventure. Perhaps another recruitment thread would change that.

I apologize for posting on this topic late. The unique nature of Tark's discussion threads caused me to miss the conversation and my recent exam schedule drove it home.

This campaign has not gone far enough for me to develop an opinion on the players but based on my previous experiences, the only thing I really judge people on is participation. In that regard, both Jelani and ReckNBall are good companions.

It has never occurred to me to guide another in deciding which character to play. If I were you, I would play a character that fits in well with the setting - which I have envisioned as Ravenloft meets Mad Max. I am trying to play my character as tough while also roleplaying fear as this is supposed to be a horror campaign. Make a character that fits in with that setting and you should be golden.

It doesn't matter to me if our characters like each other or hate each other, as long as it's fun. I don't like party conflict that degenerates so badly that it is abusive, but that's a pretty low bar to fall to anyway.

Play what you like and we'll have fun. That goes for Tark, ReckNBall, Jelani and even me.

Ashara takes her spot behind him, satisfied with his decision.

"If he's still here when we return this way, it seems no loss to take him back. If he's not, or we don't make it back, I guess that's just how it goes."

I apologize for missing three days of posting. Those were some nasty exams but they are over now and I passed all four. I'll be here daily until the next set, probably in 4-5 weeks.

I'm waiting to give Mumbar his opportunity to speak. I figure it's his due for the risk of walking point.

"We get paid by what we kill. The money has to be in whatever is killing everyone else and the money is why we are here. I say we go left at every opportunity where one direction is as good as another. We can deviate from that if we see a body and then go back to turning left if we can't find what killed it. I'll mark walls with this piece of chalk as we go. I will reverse the arrows so they point the opposite way from where we are going in case something clever tries to follow us.

Ashara drops the peice of chalk back into her belt pouch. Looking at Mumbar she says, "I don't know how you fight, but that's a mighty big pig sticker you've got there. If you keep things off my face, I will fill them full of holes with this rifle. I can keep fighting if something gets in my face but I can't choose targets if I do. If you keep that spear between me and anything that wants to eat me, I'll make certain that whatever tries to eat us gets lead poisoning.

Ashara waits to see what everyone else thinks of her plan.

I have midterms all next week. All of my tests in medical school are do or die. I will post as much as I can during breaks over the weekend and next week. If I have not posted something and you would like to move the game on, please take any reasonable action for my character.

I apologize for this, but I have to get past these tests or $200,000 and five years goes down the drain. I will be back to regular posting next Saturday.

I have never heard of ERP before but am now afraid of it.

Roleplaying romance makes me uncomfortable, as does vulgar language or going into detail with gore/evil. If my wife can't read a post, I don't post it.

I've found most of my friends don't really understand evil anyway. We played an evil campaign and they would walk into town and randomly kill everyone. We'd then go into the wilderness to adventure and they'd kill all the animals. I'm sure that once the entire planet was depopulated, we'd be killing the rocks.

Except the minotaur. He had to eat everyone.

It seemed to me that if you thought that was what constituted evil, you were pretty naive. My character was an illusionist. Unhappy with the world as it was, he tried to drive everyone insane such that they would come inhabit his hallucinatory world. Even evil characters have to have goals.

I disliked Forgotten Realms for a long time because my friends had read all of the novels and I hadn't. It seemed every other session someone would be telling me, "You're not playing your character properly, that's not how a cleric of Dumathoin would act" or something similar. In the end I made everyone agree that unless they could get R.A. Salvatore to play, I could play my characters any way I wanted.

Then I found a DM who only ran Forgotten Realms and was really passionate about it. I don't know if I suddenly learned how to play FR or not (I've still never read any of the novels) but I had a blast in his game.

My cleric of Dumathoin

What was the setting anyhow?

Ravenloft. I will do just about anything for a chance to play Ravenloft.

I first came across the setting thirty years ago with the first module. I ran it for my friends and fell in love with it.

As they expanded the setting, I bought every 2ed product released and over the next twenty years I built a good reputation for running extremely difficult, very roleplaying intensive Ravenloft games. Of the thirty-five years or so I've played, Ravenloft is really the only thing I've ever run. I've really personalized the setting, mixing Masque of the Red Death and Ravenloft together, but I still utilize all of the canon information.

I ran a murder mystery where one of the PCs was a plant and the party had to catch her. I ran a game where I dressed as Dr D'Honaire, decorated my gaming room as an office and ran every session as a hypnosis session in a psychiatric hospital. I've turned about half of the players that have ever run through my games into NPCs who future PCs have had to fight. I even ran one game where I turned the party undead and hunted them throughout Darkon with adventuring parties.

I never get to play Ravenloft however. I love the setting more than any other and have only ever played it once, for two sessions. I was the only roleplayer in a hack and slash party and wasn't invited back after the second game.

I will generally go way out of my way for a chance to play Ravenloft, but I should still pay attention to that nagging voice.

I need to listen to that nagging feeling in the back of my head that tells me when I don't want to apply for a game. I applied to one the other day only because it was a particular setting that I love. I should have been leery going in because there was this complicated die rolling scheme for stats, the DM wanted the E6 rules to curb player growth and drastically limited both classes and races.

I figured what the heck, it's the setting that first brought me to these boards, that I've yet to get to play, and I'll do anything to get to play it. I made one of my typical characters, RAW by all of the rules and then submitted it. I chose an unlisted race to represent some of the events that happened in my human character's backstory. All still RAW of course.

I spent five hours making the character and submitted it. I got a post the next day saying - the rules were core + three other races and you choose outside that. I have not read your character because you didn't follow the rules. You are welcome to start from scratch and make another.

So here's the thing - it's my fault, not theirs. I know that I don't have fun playing games where the DMs limit everything, trying to force you to play their vision of the party instead of your own. I know that I don't like games that keep everyone inside the lines for fear that someone might do something temporarily out of balance. I also know that as a forty-seven year old medical student, I don't like being told to "follow the rules or else" like I'm a child.

I should have listened to that voice. It would have saved me five hours of work and another two being pissed off. Game applications should never be something to get angry about and I can only blame myself for that.

Ashara is ready to move forward and indicates such to Mumbar.

Lurching back in surprise, Ashara asks, "What in the Nine Hells were those things? If there are more about, I'll regret bringing the rifle and not a shotgun!"

Ashara hands her torch to Mumbar and draws her rifle. "Better burnt than in me. You will do the honors?"

Ashara follows.

Ashara holds the torch in her right hand, it's flame off to one side and slightly above her head. [b]"Left's as good as any."[b] Indicating that he should lead, she steps up to second in line.

"I'll bring up the rear. Don't suppose anyone's got a light?"

Ashara joins the group as the third in line. Her rifle is on her back to keep her hands free.

"I do not have a light as my rifle takes both hands. If one of the others doesn't have one, perhaps we can grab that one over there." She points to one of the numerous lights illuminating this large room.

Any particular reason not to just put her character sheet into her alias?

It takes me about 30 mins to make the stat block and I don't have that right now unfortunately. I will try to get to it tomorrow.

However, I also make cool character packets and as I put a lot of time into them, I like to use them.

The discussion thread does not seem to link to where it ought so I'm putting an update here. Ashara's equipment and spells have been chosen and a fifth sheet added to her packet. It can be found at the same place.

The file got a bit bigger and I'll see if I can do something about that later as I've got a test tonight. She mostly bought 30 bullets and the miscelaneous stuff adventurers have. For spells she has color spray and ray of sickening memmed.

Ashara needs no light but will not advertise that fact, assuming that at least one member of the band requires some. I need no preparations but will have to finalize my equipment tonight. My wife is still on the warpath and I have a quiz in Pharmacology tomorrow. If anyone ever asks you if you want to be a doctor, be smart and just say no.

A rather plain garundi woman, more pretty than beautiful, looks out from under a dusty hood, her ragged clothing contrasting the soft look of her skin. With her red coin spinning between her fingers, she approaches the group. A faint smile twitches the corners of her mouth as she examines the gathered men.

Hmmm, nobody here I know, which is probably a good thing. They don't necessarily look like rapists, for whatever that is worth. Two anarchists and a mercenary maybe? The one in dun is scared though, so maybe he's taken a step beyond plotting and is now wanted by the marshals. Everyone saw the pulls though, and they were random sure enough. God's help me that I have enough witnesses to that.

Opening a belt pouch, she drops the coin inside amongst others of it's kind with mixed colors. Adopting a determined countenance, she meets your gaze, holding it for a few long seconds.

"Greetings. My name is Ashara. Not Ashara bin something or another, not Ashara, Who will pass on her share or even Ashara, Who won't shoot a rapist on his first pass. Hopefully we can earn some gold together but I tell you now that no man can see my draw and every potential rapist is a larger share for the rest of us. If you protect my behind instead of spending all your time watching it, we can all come out of this healthy, wealthy and wise."

Pointless no doubt. Every criminal and lowlife seems okay at the start. I wonder how many of these I'll bury by day's end. Here's hoping they don't already know each other so maybe I only need to shoot one and not all three."

Ashara?

I will post in an hour or two. I apologize but I had a test yesterday that I didn't expect and some other deadlines I was rushing for. I will get a post up asap.I promise that this is very rare for me.

ReckNBall wrote:

Ashara, Curse you for the link. It does add a flair. Now I am adding a new set of videos to watch. Like I have time for that.

Whatever you do. Don't looks for their character sheet. You are likely to burst into tears.

I was in advertising and web design for twenty years before starting medical school, so the character sheet isn't really all that difficult. I pretty much do them all that way and have for about ten years or so.

The only part that was hard was the girl in the tank. She was covered in quills like that planar race in 3.5 (who's name I have forgotten). I had to repaint a good deal of the picture to remove them but even that wasn't too hard. It's kind of a blurry, swishy piece of art to begin with and so Photoshops smudge tool went a long way.

It took me maybe thirty minutes for the picture and four-ish hours for the character sheet total. The writing takes the most time although I do it all in one go. I also let the writing take me wherever it wants rather than plotting it out. I like the surprises that it gives me sometimes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGzghUQRVk8

I found this today. It reminded me of this campaign so I thought I'd share.

Edit: Looks like Ashara beat me to the punch as a Spellslinger submission, so I wanted to add that I have no problem with the idea of having two spellslingers in the party (if that was something you'd consider). I've always found that having two characters of the same class in a party can actually be very complimentary and make for interesting role playing experiences.

Despite my paying a lot of attention to crunch, it's not my main focus, especially in PBP. Background, personality and role are what I focus on. Ashara is meant to be a sniper and I looked at Magus Myrmidarch, Spellslinger/Arcane, Spellslinger/Divine and Gunslinger/Rogue to get there. The Gunslinger/Rogue concept would work really well as a companion to Ashara and would not overlap as she isn't much of a skill monkey. So, if someone else wants to play a sniper, there are non-overlapping mechanics that will give you that.

With that said, if there are only four finished applications on deadline day, I can easily swap Ashara to a Gunslinger/Rogue and keep my entire character concept intact. It would be worth it to me to have another sniper to play with.

I want Ashara to be a sniper. What class she is doesn't really matter to me. 8)

My character concept is evolving and I have started the packet. I will have something by Sunday.

My character is complete excepting equipment and her spellbook. I have a question which I will cover in the spoiler. She can be found here.