Derailer of Threads's page

About the last chapter, I'd like to make some clarification about the mark of Baba Yaga. (Dalindra will probably explain it better than me)

We had some players that had already told us that they might not come all the sessions. We had some players that might be joining later in the game. And, finally, we had some recruitable NPCs during the adventure (like Argentea) who could end joining the party.

We couldn't have such a big party all the time, specially when the game was written with 4 players in mind. So we needed to find a way to explain in game why, if we were so many people traveling together, there would be only 4 of us adventuring at each time.

Here, our clever GM thought that it would be cool mimicking the structure of Baba Yaga + 3 knights to keep the group limited to 4 characters.

We knew the mark theoretically protected the party from some things, so we didn't usually risk taking with us someone who wasn't protected by it. And the knights would be chosen each day so the group could change at the beginning of the day. That made sense inside the game, and out of the game everything remained mostly the same.

And what happened if the character with the main mark died? We didn't know at the time, but the mark passed on to one of the 3 active knights at random.

Choosing Kileanna as the bearer of the mark was... OK, somewhat imposed out of the game xD
I was the only player who didn't have to miss sessions (and in the rare cases I had, it was usually for a reason that made Dalindra unable to come too), and all the players thought that, being a witch, my character should have the mark. The fact that all the other players were like "I don't want it, it will surely screw us up" made the decission easier. I mean, I was also sure that the damned mark would really end screwing my character up too, but they left me no choice!!!

This reminds me a lot of how Kiani ended being Hurricane Queen in Skull and Shackles because no one else wanted too. Seriously, we need more power hungry players in our games!!! (Or maybe not xD)

Also, about the Geas. Dalindra hated it. It forced us to follow the path as written and he wanted to give us choice. Anything that we did should be made because we wanted to, not because we were under some powerful magic effect that forced us to do so.

So, no geas on us. That really made the difference, in my opinion, as all the questionable choices we had to make were on our own consciences. And at a given moment we finally decided to follow a completely different path. That surely made Dalindra's job as a GM harder, but the resulting story was so good and interesting.

Thank you so much! The character interactions will be pretty relevant during all the campaign and some of them will be pretty complicated, as a Wizard of the High Sorcery will join later in the campaign!

It was important trying to explain some rules of the setting at this point, as the fact that witches seem to break all the known rules of Krynn's magic and that nobody knows if patrons are gods or something entirely different will be really important later.

In the end we had a lot of setting specific stuff, and also a lot of interactions with characters from other stories, so setting the bases now seemed important.

Oooh! Who do we have here! My favorite talking lizard! Thanks for dropping by! I hope you enjoy! I tried to be more narrative in this one. Being a player instead of a GM allows to focus in some new things. I wasn't also very satisfied with using terms as AC and BAB in the story so I tried to go into something more immersive.

Sit here by the campfire and warm up yourself!

It was half because we liked her and half because she kept us alive!!!

I remember when she went on her personal quest, which was necessary to get a new player (who was an old friend and had been waiting for a good moment to join the game for sessions) into the party.

So we all were like: "OK, go, but come back soon"

Also, Argentea's "personal quest" ended being the source of most plot twists on all the stories as well as bringing a sort of political sub-plot that we all loved.

And we might have another reason to love her... Remember at S&S when nobody wanted the crown and you wanted to make Sandara the Hurricane Queen? We had a similar argument out of game later with Baba Yaga's mark (spoilers!). Assume it, we seemed to fear leadership and responsibility roles! We tended to get stuck taking decissions and Argentea was the kind of person who commanded us to take a course of action NOW, without taking the decissions herself. It was a good NPC to get us out of choice paralysis.

Ah, the lovely Talda'syn!
When writing the story I tried to bring the character to the original concept Dalindra developed for him rather than the terrible role-playing that the player did with him, while keeping his actions. I thought it would make a much better story like that xD

But the player was soo charming... I mean, you forgot to tell how he asked so many times to Cat's player, in a despective way something like "dude, why are you playing a chick?".

After his ragequit without a tableflip we were all like: "Thanks for coming, here's the door"

Anyway, his actions allowed us to realize the story was serious and lethal. We had almost a TPK in the Lodge and we would have to be very cautious. In the end it was all for good.

As we knew later, this guy had a reputation of joining and destroying a lot of role-playing groups. But we survived him bwahahahaha (witch cackle).

Thanks for the kind words! Sometimes I am even unsure if people is actually reading or I am just writing for myself, so any feedback is very appreciated.
Thank you so much for reading ^—^

It all started with very subtle changes, but the homebrewed stuff we added to make it fit our previous campaigns started to take over some parts of the story and building some new and completely different storylines. The two first books were mostly played as written with a few homebrewed things, but as we got back to Ergoth in the third book, a lot of things started to happen.
We got characters from old campaigns around, playing relevant roles, and they ended affecting the main plot.
I am really excited to write everything down.
Also, I am planning to make some quick sketches as illustrations. Suggestions for scenes to depict are welcome!

An illustration I made for Chapter 2.
Kileanna and Cat meet Indi. Kileanna is pleased to meet him, but Cat doesn't trust strangers.

Hey there! I don't know if someone is reading, but in affirmative case, I have a question for you:
I have 13 chapters written so far. Would you prefer me publishing on a daily basis until I am done with them, or would I better wait a few days between chapters so they aren't so overwhelming?

Anyway, I think the addition of this player was somewhat beneficial for the story. He helped me to define my character's disgust for her own race that would guide her into some decisions later in the game. I actually enjoyed him being somewhat aggressive to Kileanna, it depicted well how she was seen by her people.
And he also allowed the other players to realize that this story was serious and complicated. And that you were going to be coherent no matter what happened.

And yeah, the story was lethal. I counted today 10 deaths, counting relevant characters, not only party members. Two characters died twice. And all deaths made the story more intense and deep!

Damn! I loved this campaign!

Maybe Talda'syn's player was problematic, but I think that the character added an interesting point to the story, and it made a good function to the story. After his great... intervention... we all knew that the thing was serious. It set a new mood to the story. I have been writing that part today (not publishing it yet, though, you'll have to wait until chapter #10) and remembering how everything happened. It was a good scene.

But let's go with chapter #3 now. Talda'syn won't be around until chapter #4.

Elves in Dragonlance: Elves are divided into three different sub-races. The Silvanesti are reclusive and noble elves. The Qualinesti are the average elves from most settings. And Kagonesti are the wilder elves, who reject their cousins' civilized ways. They are pretty superstitious and spiritual, and often have tattoos depicting important events in their lives or the gods that they worship.

The Knights of Solamnia: they are an ancient and respected knightly order, mostly formed by humans of Solamnic heritage (they have started to accept half elves with Solamnic parents and humans from other heritage). They are lawful good at heart, but they are actually divided into factions and are somewhat paralized by political dissension. They don't accept any spellcasters who doesn't receive their spells from one of the gods they worship and they often fear and despise arcane magic. They have started allowing some wizards of Solamnic heritage to join their auxiliary corps, though.

The Endless Winter:A few decades ago, an almost godly white dragon took over the land of Southern Ergoth, home of the kagonesti elves, and turned it into a frozen wasteland. On a previous game, some heroes defeated the dragon and freed Ergoth from and Endless Winter. The land is still recovering from the damage, and seeing the first summer on decades. But the game is called Reign of Winter. Oh, damn.

Dramatis personae (in order of appearance):
Kileanna, a changeling vanilla witch who believes to be a kagonesti elf. Her patron is Time and she has a female snowy owl called Nina as a familiar. Her starting hexes were Evil Eye and Cackle.

Cat, a kagonesti vanilla slayer. She's an agile two weapon fighter who uses kukris as weapons, and also our scout and rogue-like character. She's an orphan who found Kileanna as a baby and raised her as her younger sister.

Indi, tempest druid worshipper of Zeboim, the goddess of the sea and storms. His mother is a Cleric called Jade who appeared on other campaigns. He doesn't want anybody to know that his full name is Indigo.

Talda'syn kagonesti ancient lorekeeper Oracle (he might claim to be a shaman, but that's his social position, not his class). His backstory is pretty interesting but I leave it to Dalindra to tell it when he think's it's the time (or maybe I will tell it later).

And with all the presentations made, let's begin with the story. Have in made that Kileanna is not a native common speaker. Her main language is elven so don't be too hard on her ;-D

This is the Reign of Winter adaptation that I played the last year. For those who know the original plot you will see that there are major changes into it.

We brought the story to our highly modified Dragonlance setting, and made a big mashup of things taking Irrisen beyond the Ice Wall. In our version of things, Winter Witches haven't changed the weather of a zone, they just rule over a frozen land.

We have also brought a lot of old retired and semiretired characters from other campaign into the game as secondary characters, who ended dramatically altering the course of the events. Even if the story starts mostly as written, changes start being evident in Mother, Maiden Crone and continue happening until the complete overwrite of The Revenge of the Witch Queen.

I was a player here, and I will be telling the story with the voice of my character, Kileanna. As it is my main alias too, to avoid the post from being confusing, I will use this one as my real voice, and Kileanna's alias for everything that is told in her voice.

Dalindra was the GM, and he will participate by sharing his GMing experience and some behind the scenes stuff that I might not know.

Even though it was a chaotic game, with players getting in and out due to crazy schedules and other issues, it was also the best gaming experience I had. It was my comeback to RPing after having lived a complicated situation, which makes this game somewhat special for me. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed playing it!

Of course, all feedback is welcome! I would love to hear anything that you have to say!

"BE BURNED BY THE LIGHT OF SARANRAE! CRINGE AND DIE FROM THE EVIL CLENSING LIGHT OF THE SU... oh not you honey."

In one of the later games I GMed I had a cleric of Sarenrae and a dhampir. The cleric channeled energy to harm undead. Oops! (And he was aware of the dhampir's peculiarities)

Silly note: the title if this thread says tha this is a voluntary questionnaire so... how could it be not voluntary? What would happen if someone created a thread with a compulsory questionnaire?
Silly mode off.

Why?

(Yup, we probably should)

I have read this as "derailing general"
I want to be that!

Nope... just to bring more aliases...

*Hangs head in rack*
Don't worry, it wasn't my own.

You ARE an enabler!

What's wrong about derailing?
Some topics demand to be derailed before they explode at someone's face.

Sorry, got late to this one.

I still can make all paladins in this thread fall, if you need of my services.

We are targeting derailers now?
*Shudders*
I'm afraid I'm getting all my posts deleted.

I never had clear what this thread is about so I'm unsure of what I am doing here.

You cannot derail what doesn't have rails...
I am out of here, then. I am of no use.

Another typing mistake:
Derail for Detail.
Food for Good.
Cook for Cool.
That's 100% me.

Mission accomplished!
Another thread derailed to food!

Why? Embrace the derailment!

Oh, OK, I'll use my powers for good, only in alignment conflict and falling paladins threads, where any derailment is a good thing.

This is Derail This Thread, not Anagram This Thread!

Now that I think of it, this is a good derailment for this thread!

Good job!

I am evil. It's my nature. Forgive me for doing what I was created to do.

Now, who likes ice cream?

It has already happened.
Sorry Keedo.
I still want to help if you need some advice.

I've read Grapple hottie... so disappointed this thread isn't related to Succubus in a grapple.

Sissyl wrote:

Please don't derail the thread, Max. Kileanna

FIFY!

My grievance:

Feel the power of derailing...

I regret nothing.

NobodysHome wrote:

So... unbelievably... tempted...

...to utterly derail this thread.

But, no; I'll be good.

I'll just tempt Captain Yesterday with it.

That's not evil, is it?

In fact, it is...

... but we shall let it slide this time, in light of your other hypothetical good deeds, such as wearing Hawaiian shirts at a goth Disney festival.

Eh. We do not wear mortal clothing, anyway, and are clothed in naught but the darkness of shadows and the chains of our sins - both ours and others.

Derail it. You know you want to.

I made cheesecake the other day. It was so good that I'm planning to do it again soon.

I was lucky because the cheese and the jam were a gift, so I almost did it for free!

Who doesn't like getting free stuff?

I'm Hiding In Your Closet wrote:

Given that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father, and that he also built C-3PO, does that make C-3PO...Luke's brother???

That certainly adds a new dimension to the slashfic I have been writing.

You derailed the derailing!!!

*****
Wow, look, stars!

.this thread is off topic...

*grumbles*

What's wrong with it?

I cannot get a pair of socks to last more than a few weeks, I'd need a Mending spell to fix them.
People tend to get crazy about high level spells, but I really like cantrips.
Prestidigitation and detect magic are some of the best spells ever.

I have a younger brother. He's about 18 years younger than me, imagine.

But I don't care a lot about age differences. I have many friends who are much younger or older than me, in fact.

I usually find older men attractive. And bearded men. I like beards.

You fell asleep, I woke up.

Good morning, everyone!

We have some good candidates here to inherit my title! Let's see who wins now!

Uhm... speaking of winning. I've not being a very active poster on «Last one to post wins» but I like the menagerie The Big Bad Wolf has there.

Have you ever been to a zoo?

Oh, I know the feel. I am sometimes afraid of the same thing with my car.

I'm mostly a safe driver, but when I'm tired I cannot focus.

Uhm... I'm probably always tired, then.

I'm going to sleep. Good night, messageboards!

Of course I am good at this. I am a cosmic spirit of enthropy created with the sole purpose of thread derailing.

Squirrels were never my thing. And with that I mean that I have never owned a squirrel. I had some budgies and they laid eggs. Then I had baby budgies. They were completely bald.

I wouldn't like to be bald.

Edit: 4 different topics on the same post! Definitely I don't know what focusing means. (And this would be the 5th topic)

You know, I never liked Elvis as much as some people do.

It's funny how Elvis and Elvish are almost the same word, don't you think?

I've actually played a lot of elvish characters, even though I never thought ot them as a favorite race or anything similar.

What is your favorite race?

I'm being summoned...
Your starting post should deal with some important real life issue, because we already have too many posts about RPGs but not enough real life posts.
Said that, I really enjoy telling RPG stories, you know.
I could tell you about it, but tell me first about something cool that happened in your last gaming session.

The first post had to be MINE!!!

I'm so sorry. This has gotten out of our hands.

But not having the original question makes difficult to provide an answer.

Death ward is a must have, I think.

And this has got out of hand because things often get out of hand here.

It's just a matter of time someone brings alignment conflicts or paladins to the equation. I hope I am wrong.

Derailing done for the greater good.