Illiam Taal's page

Creating discussion thread...

As each of you is leaving the tent after your audition, you are stopped by an androgynous young man with long, red hair who sits outside smoking. He looks back toward the stand, as if waiting for something, then hands you a wooden token with a stylized S carved into it. Congratulations, he says, disinterestedly, you made it to the next round. Come to the ring at the north end at midday. As he says this, he gestures over his shoulder, where a large roped-off area sits between the tents and the treeline. As he pulls a drag from a hand-rolled cigarette, you can just make out small horns on his head in the glow from its tip.

When you arrive the next day, you find the ring empty aside from any other player characters who arrive before you, gathered in the center. The ring is roughly circular, enclosed by ropes tied to stakes in the ground. At irregular intervals, strips of cloth that were once brightly-colored are tied to the rope, though most have faded in the sun. Stands have been built roughly at the north, east, south and west edges of the ring from planks laid between stacked bales of hay.

Please describe your character arriving. Unless you want your character to be particularly early or late, we'll assume you arrive in the order you post, so go ahead and react to one another. Nobody else is there to meet you at first, so your characters can discuss among themselves. Feel free to also describe how your character spends the intervening time.

You start out in Vliasport, the Tiered City. It is built on the western face of Mount Cyeris and extends to the sea, where it houses one of the largest trading ports in this part of the world. You have come across a poster for the Sirensong Traveling Carnival, which is currently set up a short way outside the northern gate. At the bottom of the poster, it says that open auditions will be held tonight, after the carnival closes. You are a performer, or at least think you would be good at it, and you are looking for work.

You arrive in the evening (hopefully not TOO late), after the carnival has closed for the day. You are directed to the big-top tent, where you wait your turn to show them what you can do. Only a few seats in the hastily-constructed stands are occupied, and the spread-out figures there are cloaked in shadow, but you can make out a few oddly-shaped silhouettes.

Every few minutes, a deep, assertive voice calls out from the stands. Next! One performer leaves the center ring, and another enters. Some aren't even given a chance to finish their act. You might spend this time watching the other performances to check out your competition, or perhaps you are distracted by mentally rehearsing your own. Are you ready?

The line ahead of you dwindles until you find yourself at the front, and again, the voice calls out. Next! Perhaps you've been counting the seconds, or perhaps it takes you a moment to realize that your turn has come. You can feel the adrenaline pulsing through your veins, making your heart beat faster. This is it. What do you do?

Background: Ok, so this is not your usual dungeon crawl. This is a game that I've been preparing for an in-person group, but I've been doing a lot of prep and having trouble scheduling sessions, so I thought I'd try it here. This will be my first PBP as a GM, but I've been GMing in person and playing in PBP games for a while. As the title suggests, PCs will be new recruits to the Sirensong Traveling Carnival. I want this to be RP-heavy, and skills will play at least as big a role as combat.

The setting is homebrew (read: I'm making it up as I go). If you are selected, you will travel with the carnival. Most of the action will take place at the carnival or in the cities that the carnival visits. Some of the combat will be performance combat, but not all of it (I don't recommend taking performance combat feats). I'll use a simplified version of the performance combat rules, and will let you use any type of perform check for a performance combat check, as long as you roleplay it appropriately. Some of this performance combat may be player-vs-player.

Character creation: All characters will need to be trained in at least one Perform skill, but I don't want a party made up entirely of bards (though I certainly won't fault you for multiclassing into it). We will use the background skill system, and you will start at level 3, with 3000gp to spend on gear. You'll probably also want decent a decent score in Stealth, and Profession: Sailor may also come in handy.

For ability scores, I like characters with clear strengths and weaknesses (and you will be expected to RP both) and unusual race/class combinations, so everyone will start with one ability score that is an 18 and another that is a 6, neither of which can be modified by racial modifiers. Your backstory should include some characteristics explaining these high and low scores. For the other 4 ability scores, you can either roll 2d6+4 four times or use a 10-point buy (if you choose to roll, you have to stick with that choice).

HP is max at first level, average rounded up (half your hit die + 1 + Con) for each subsequent level.

Your alignment should be any non-lawful (evil alignments ARE allowed).

Core races are allowed, as well as any Paizo race with no more than 10 race points, but if you can't pass as a member of one of the core races, you will have to deal with prejudice in some locations that the carnival will travel to. Shapechanger races will not have access to racial feats that enhance their shape changing, because I've seen a lot of abuse of that recently.

All Paizo classes are allowed (even Paladin, I would LOVE to see a fallen Paladin build), and you are particularly encouraged to choose from the hybrid class list. Gunslinger is allowed only with the Bolt Ace archetype (no guns, though I'm not guaranteeing that they won't show up at some point). Summoners must use the Unchained version, and can't use the Synthesist or Master Summoner archetypes.

Every character gets three traits and one flaw. Traits and flaws are one of my favorite parts of the game, because of how they allow for character customization. These should drive roleplay, and all of them should be explained by your backstory. If you choose a flaw that will probably never come up, I may assign you another one in addition.

How to apply: Create an alias with an appropriate avatar. If you have a familiar, animal companion, etc., you should have one for it as well. Each character should have a character sheet on myth-weavers. The profile for your alias should include a link to the character sheet and at least a few paragraphs of backstory.

When all that is ready, post your audition in this thread. This should be an in-character post, and should describe your character performing the act you have prepared for your audition. It should include at least one perform check. The quality of this post will be the biggest factor in character selection.

Posting frequency: I'm looking for players who will be able to check in at least once a day INCLUDING weekends. This doesn't necessarily mean you will need to post that often, but you should at least be checking in to see if you need to post. I understand that stuff comes up and life happens, but I hate it when games grind to a halt over the weekend because there's one person who doesn't touch a computer two days a week, and part of my reason for starting this is to have game that I can play when the players/GMs in some of my other game evaporate over the weekend. So, if you know you will regularly be out of contact for the weekend, sorry.

Deadline: I'm not sure yet, but I'll give a couple of days warning before I close recruitment. I may also open auditions again at a later date, giving the carnival a rotating cast of characters.

Any other questions? Don't hesitate to ask.

Day one, Falcon's Hollow.

Arrived in town today. This place is a dump, not where I was hoping to land. The pancakes at the Jak'a'napes are amazing, though. Everybody and his brother from the ship was there too, though, and asking a lot of questions. I had to get out of there. Gonna need to come up with a plausible story about how I got here. Something about the road, or maybe fudge my arrival time so nobody suspicious about not seeing me on the boat.

The gnome who runs the general store is friendly, and more magical than he lets on. Brickasnurd Hildrinsocks. Gonna have to keep an eye on him. Other than him and the local magistrate, I've gotta be the only adult under 4 feet tall in this gods-forsaken town. So much for blending into a crowd. I'm definitely in the wrong place.

A bit later...

Everybody's sick here. And I keep screwing up. Curse the luck. I tried to get the healer's book so I can figure out what's going on, but I the do-gooders from the boat showed up, and she kicked me out. I managed to sneak inside and eavesdrop, but some local bumpkin spotted me. I'm really off my game. Nothing I couldn't talk my way out of, but getting spotted was sloppy.

Don't know why I'm screwing up so much today. Maybe I ate too much?

Nah.

Later still...

Necromancy?! Well, at least things are getting interesting. Sounds like the crazy guy in the tower on the hill, Sharvaros Vade, is behind the sickness, but the people around here are too blind to see it. I got a look at the book and found a recipe for a cure. The do-gooders are gonna need my help to get the ingredients, though. I might be immune, but don't want to take the chance. Well, I said I wanted to go adventuring, I guess this counts. There better be a reward...

Finally got that drill, on loan from the local blacksmith. Cursed guards wouldn't let me though, so I couldn't get a look at Vade's tower, but the redheaded pyromaniac turns out to be the blacksmith's apprentice. I suppose there are worse jobs for someone like him.

They dug up a body, and now everybody wants to rush off to the logging camp. Right-damn-now. I wanted to try to get some more information out of Brickasnurd over drinks--I mean getting him drunk to loosen his lips, obviously--but now I'm going to have to settle for the abridged version.

End of the day...

Wow, whirlwind day. Brickasnurd gave the a magic item! We barely made it to the camp before dark. Found one of the rangers, and got some more intel. Doesn't sound like it will be too tough. Lots of walking punctuated by dealing with a snake or a wolf. He says the woods play tricks, but it sounds like stories. Could be fey stuff, but nobody said anything about running into them, which surprised me.

Still can't believe I ended up out here with ALL THREE of those guys from the boat, but at least they have more important things on their mind than how I got here, now.