Rhylis's page

German is indeed my first language. It's all a matter of practice, really -- I like watching movies/series/etc. and reading books in their original language, and I've been roleplaying online in English for years now. My spoken English isn't as great as I'd like it to be, alas.

Err. Anyway, thanks!

I'm still not sure what you're trying to get at. My point was that I don't think anything but straight text is necessary (or desirable, for me personally, as I prefer a novel-like style).

I'm not sure I understand what you're saying. Do you mean to say it's easier to remember to use bold speech rather than ... not using it and just writing as you normally would in a story? I'm confused.

I agree with Boomer that bold (or italics) used for speech, with everything else in normal text, is sufficient.

Alas, it looks like this format is popular with people. I can't really understand the reason for it, myself, unless people are looking to make it easier to skip everything but dialogue to respond to. That's the only use I see in it and ... well, that's not much of a use, since I'd rather my posts are read, not skimmed, and afford others the same courtesy. But maybe I'm missing something.

Valaerdrel wrote:

Just got Hero Lab and love it - very user-friendly and seems complete, best character developer I've seen. Thanks for the recommendation, Rhylis and Kornin!

The Arthfell forest used to be far greater in size than it is today, but has not been home to Elves since elder days. It is told that old and fey power still gathers in the northern, Darkwood groves near Falcon's Hollow - which are now sundered from the larger forest to the south. The fate of theses unique forests might interest an elven traveller. May I devise a plothook for Valaerdrel along these lines?

This would actually be very interesting to Rhylis, as well. She might well be interested in where she comes from (even if she won't admit it to others), having grown up in human society.

Good roleplaying is has its own rewards. I can't judge how well you play your character. I hope you play the way you like without worrying about how I feel about it.

Maybe I can award something for "style". Just for fun. I have to think about that.

But I can reward your character's success or failure to meet a challenge.... It will not be all combat, either.

I plan to start action by Friday. I will open a thread even sooner to introduce the characters.

Thanks for your patience. Hope it's not too slow for you.

That it has. By rewards for roleplaying I'm not refering to playing in a specific style or to please someone in order to get rewards, but rather for ... well, it's hard to describe without going on at length. Rewards for getting involved beyond just a superficial level of interacting with NPCs and other characters, for reacting in an understandably human (elven/dwarven) way or just for particularly well-handled and described scenes. It's largely done in Storytelling games like the World of Darkness games (which is where my main roleplaying activities are focused: Vampire the Masquerade, Mage the Ascension, etc.).

But that may not mesh too well with D&D and the modular level system, I suppose.

If I can get my home computer working properly tonight when I'm back I'll see about writing down Rhylis' history and personality proper, not just the cliffnotes from before.

does anyone else have a different opinion?

I have to say I am not very fond at all of these format differentiations.

They just seem lazy to me -- it's done in neither books nor novels and I personally see no reason why they should be used in roleplaying. To differentiate between inner monologue, dialogue, feelings or expressions should be done the same way it is done in novels: by making it clear, in writing, that they are one and not the other.

Sure thing, Valaerdrel. I'm hoping that'll be up to the players themselves, as I like to change whether I include inner monologue, feelings, etc. depending on the scene. It does enrich both story and text passages by a pretty big amount, though.

I'm usually a strong proponent of giving XP not for combat or beating monsters, but for completing stories, quests and specifically for good roleplaying, but I can live with that.

I agree on abilities not magically appearing. Heh.

So, any idea when we'll get started?

I think it's brilliant, myself. It lets you create characters a lot faster, automatically incorporates all the class skills, etc. It's just a shame that you have to buy stuff separately -- it would be nice to just pay for the basic program and get the license automatically if you bought the book yourself. But that'd probably only work if the program was made by Paizo themselves.

You can auto-generate character sheets, too, and it allows you to apply all sorts of battle conditions, extra modifiers, etc. to your character to keep track of everything during combat, too. You can effectively manage your whole party, in theory, with one install -- the extra work is minimal (you're the one who has to keep track of things since you have the program license, after all), but it's really easy and convenient to do.

All in all, I recommend it. Largely because I'm lazy and hate to keep track of everything myself and this is perfect for me. The only flaw I'm seeing so far is that in the sheet you can read out into bbcode it says 'Spells Known' rather than 'Spells Memorized' for the Wizard and doesn't actually list the spells in your Spellbook.

I'm European. Vienna, Austria, specifically. I'm operating on a GMT+1 timetable.

That's weird, I didn't have that problem with my Ranger's Animal Companion.

That's a hard question to answer straight up. While it gives higher numbers for levels, it's also relevant to know how much XP you're planning to award, and for what. Just for monster encounters? Are you going to reward good roleplaying, or give extra XP for 'solving' a situation non-violently, or for trying to find a better solution than the easiest one?

And yeah, Herolab is pretty neat and easy to use to keep track of everything. I just got it for Christmas. Oh! If you guys want, I could enter all of our characters so that we can all have the same profile format for stats.

That's quite alright! I copied it from Hero Lab, after all. (And it would be okay if it wasn't, too.)

HP at first level are maximized as normal, I believe. At least that's how I did it. I don't remember if there was any explicit directive to do so.

Ohh, I'm mysterious. Awesome!

So we have a party of ...

2 elves, a gnome, a halfling, a human and a dwarf. Don't see that every day. Pretty interesting. (Beware, Giants!)

And, yes, the Feat IS pretty awesome. You should absolutely get a compass and one of those cartography sets, too, Valaerdrel.

If you do want to fill a more martial role, Doug, I'd suggest your original pick -- Ranger. We're a little short on people who actually know how to survive out in the wild.

Well, he does have 16 Strength. Perhaps his line actually is one of Eldritch Knights, and that sword has been wielded by his father and his father before him. And he is, of course, expected to fall in line?

(Yes, wield that big sword, you nice other Wizard, you! I'll just be staying right here, back behind my big summoned minion! Oh, and here, you don't mind carrying my spellbook for me for awhile, right? It's just so heavy!)

*cough*

Cameric: that bastard sword will make a clumsy melee weapon for your abjuror at level 1. (-4 without martial proficiency) But you probably wish to wield it anyway as your bonded object. I don't think the heirloom trait ought to stack with the +1 masterwork quality it already has as a bonded object. It is a bit hard to make sense of it though. How does a wizard bond with a sword he has no training to wield? Why a sword? (or maybe you should start his career as a fighter?)

He's correct with his stats there, I fear. The Heirloom Trait gives Proficiency with the specific Heirloom (but not the weapon in general), so he can wield this particular Bastard Sword as if he is proficient. And Masterwork stacks with a Trait Bonus.

Essentially, he's picking it because he gets +2 to attack with it due to MW and the trait AND it counts as proficient AND he can later enchant it at half cost (weapons are the most expensive magical items to enchant). The main risk here is that it could get sundered. Or stolen. And, poof, all the nice benefits are gone; that's why it's more powerful than most other traits, which can't just be taken away.

I'd guess that he wants to go the Eldritch Knight route later. I'm definitely staying a Wizard, myself ... well, maybe Loremaster is an option later.

The main draw about online games is, I think, its narrative style. Written in prose, a roleplaying game is just a marvel to read -- not to mention that you have some more time to think about how your character would react to something, rather than just play straight out of your gut and often misrepresent what your character is supposed to be and represent.

Incidentally, if Rhylis gets picked, that's just a little tidbit of the background I had in mind. Though I also like to work with the GM and add in some potential plot hooks -- one's already plenty evident in the short part I posted, specifically that she's been sent in secret by Chelaxian officials and is hoping to slow her mission down to such a crawl that the humans might forget about her ... or presume her dead.

Obviously, it'd be really boring if that were to actually happen. It'd be great if someone comes for her at some point. Then she'll have to be all conflicted about her former (more or less abandoned) loyalties and staying true to her new friends, before of course opting for the group and betraying her country (or not. Edziza could totally use illicit means to pressure her, after all), which could lead into many further developments. Yay!

Disregard post, just testing if the Google Reader extension on Firefox and my cellphone are working.

Phew, managed to edit the character description in just in time, I think. Responding nevertheless because, I believe, RSS feeds won't catch up on the edit ... at least mine usually don't.

Y'know, it's rather curious that Hero Lab lists your Memorized Spells as Spells Known and ... doesn't actually list the spells in your spellbook.

Von Doom here.

So long, then, Talomyr -- maybe we'll meet in a different game sometime. I totally wouldn't mind those stat rolls, by the by, t'would allow me to have a decent Charisma to go along with the character concept and not suck at being a Wizard. Though I doubt they'll actually be transferred, so I'm pretty much kidding. Unless they are, of course. ;)

Yes, I know, I included equipment. 'tis Hero Lab's fault. It's just so goshdarn convenient.