Welcome to the Discussion Thread for Dungeons, Drive-Ins, and Dives!
Discord link HERE!
The party for this one consists of:
Klyto Ememar, armorsmith who works better in the dark
Takesh, whose elegant song summons Dad Jokes
Basil Yamamoto, Antiques Road Show consultant and garage sale connoisseur
Edie Squire, typical retailer
Katrina Wendell, typical retailer
Belladonna Silvertree, goth retailer
There are three things I need from each of you while we work on setting up; namely, a possible connection to one or more of the other party members as well as a few adjectives to describe your fighting style. This will allow me to write combat a little more personalized-- whether your character is "brutal and deadly" or "defensive and reserved." I don't need a full paragraph .
The third is something that I was a little unclear about earlier, and some of you may have already gone ahead with: background skills! I waffled on whether or not I'd include these, so I've decided to settle this in your benefit. Anyone who hasn't already included background skills, please feel free to do so.
I don't anticipate I'll start this in earnest for another while yet (approx. 1-2 weeks), but I didn't want to deny you guys the chance to discuss in the meantime!
Possible Connections: Edie works at the local Gem Crabbies (a combo 'drug store/supermarket').
She could easily know anyone that shops there, and she's rather distinctive in appearance with her stunted wings, clawed appendages, neon-pink scaly skin and a mobile spaded tail that sometimes telegraphs her emotional state despite her best efforts.
When Edie starts fighting, she tries to be defensive and protective and try to shut down the fight before it starts, trying to prevent it from coming to blows... but if folks don't let up, then she finds herself falling into the red maelstrom of combat and her style goes from reserved to 'death to all the things' that look threatening.
I hadn't done background skills, but will do so now.
EDIT: Background skills added. Craft(Alchemy) because of peripheral info she's picked up from the pharmacy.
Possible Connections:...Well Edie's and Katrina's and Bella's place of employment could all be in the same mall.
Bella(or her girlfriend Crystal) and Kylto could know each other via goth culture....
Since Bella is a traditional witch( I.E. she does not use apps on a phone to cast spell) means she might have met Basil while shopping for things a traditional witch may need.
I don't have anything for Takesh yet...
Adjectives to Describe Fighting: well right now excited and scared...probably will change when she gets more experienced.
Backgrounds Skills: I did not buy any...till now.
Also I missed the part where you said we get average starting gold if we rolled below average...which I did so I have 123gp to start with.
Possible connections
- Basil could have come into contact with Kylto while looking for equipment to care for his great-grandmother's sword.
- Getting into contact with Bella over casting equipment should work. Basil himself also is an app-less caster as his magic comes from his collections of old trinkets(somehow).
- Edie and Katrina, could be that he met them at the mall. In Bella's case it could be that he was a nice customer that actually didn't even seem to notice she was a Tiefling. Another possible connection is that they are both native outsiders (though as an Aphorite Basil is more misunderstood than maligned, if people know what he is at all).
- Takesh, no idea.
Fighting style At the start of the game Basil will look kinda silly, trying very hard to incorporate the stances and swordplay he was taught by his father. He is less than elegant though.
Basil already has background skills.
Takesh is now Zika - sorry for the late name change! And I already have background skills as well.
Possible Connections
- Klyto and I could have had a couple of classes together at college before he dropped out.
- Could well know Edie from the shop she works at.
- Takesh's band being more goth fits with the skald archetype she has, and may give her and Bella a connection?
Fighting Style
Zika herself will be more reserved, cautious, and fairly inexperienced. She won't like violence and will try to avoid it or shut it down quickly in non-violent ways when possible. The protective spirit will of course be more aggressive.
Was this a deliberate play on words or complete accident with the name change? Not complaining, just curious.
Pure coincidence! The alias actually predates the Zika Virus coming to the US.
|
Background skills are in place.
Zika College classes
Edie The obvious outsider heritage of the clerk makes her the preferred person to approach while shopping.
Belladonna Friend of a friend, mutual friends/acquaintances pointed them toward each other after hearing both were looking to start adventuring.
Basil Either as a consultant, judging the quality of the antique arms and armor or as a customer notorious for only browsing the weapons and never buying any
Katrina Not sure
Fighting Style
Klyto prefers to be right at the front of the engagement. How else can he put his various modifications to the test? His companions may be confused at first by how he doesn't clank with all the weapons he seems to pull out.
Hi all! Hoping I can join you all. Sorry but I did have to glance at CS's to try and find connections.
Possible connections:
Hmm.... Well, I'm a college student at Norfolk State U, and a tech support guy with Geek Squad, and finally a firm believer in Cayden Cailean's philosophy of freedom and enjoying a good drink! (Or at least that's how I understand it! I'm not a priest or anything like that....)
So:
Klyto Ememar, armorsmith who works better in the dark - Fellow outsider? What college?
Takesh, whose elegant song summons Dad Jokes - Now Zika. - Can't find your CS. What college did you attend? Your shop? Band? Maybe you performed somewhere and I was there drinking heavily?
Basil Yamamoto, Antiques Road Show consultant and garage sale connoisseur - As a fellow outsider I would have been drawn to you if I ever saw you.
Edie Squire, typical retailer - Hmm.... I'm not seeing any connection here. Wait? Native outsider? And where do you work? Do you dislike the customers that you have to support?!?
Belladonna Silvertree, goth retailer - Well, place of employment could be in or near the mall. ?? And we both speak Sylvan?
Fighting style: Avoidance? I try to be quick and get out of the way, and if I notice things getting out of control I have a strange luck that seems to help me.
I can't do Discord at work but will link it tonight.
Welcome aboard, Keeyan!
A quick question: Is anyone here not from the USA? It's not a problem if so, but it'll be good for me to know if I need to explain what a K-Mart or a Five Guys is.
Kopps > Culver's > Everything Else
Five Guys > In-N-Out
This is accurate.
I'm not American, I'm Dutch. That said, I do know what Five Guys is, we have a few of those here as well.
Gotcha! I’ll provide a brief description of locations as we come upon them. For more details, feel free to ask here or in Discord! (Or Google, but Google won’t tell you that Five Guys fries are basically grease, for better or worse, but they will completely fill the bag if you ask for a Small and load up a truck if you ask for a Large.)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
As far as I heard you only go there for the burgers.
If I'm looking for good fries I won't go to a fast food chain at all but instead visit a smaller, local shop where they sell handmade fries.
As for the portions thing, over here they are at most half of what US portions are.
I'd appreciate a bit of a description for most typically US stores and the such. Then again, Basil also still isn't all that familiar with the variety of stores, having grown up in the UK.
TIL how widespread Five Guys is. I thought it was a much smaller chain.
Can't find your CS. What college did you attend? Your shop? Band? Maybe you performed somewhere and I was there drinking heavily?
Sorry Keeyan, I updated my alias!
I'm pretty flexible on which school it was, and I'd have been going for just Liberal Arts stuff so we could have always met in a Gen Ed kind of thing. But I am also definitely good with you knowing me through my music, I like the idea of you being really drunk at a show.
Kopps > Culver's > Everything ElseNo Kopps here, but you can't be far if you're throwing around Culvers
Wisconsin born, Florida schooled, Virginia married. I’ve been missing cheese curds and custard for 11 years...
...though I never have any trouble figuring out what to eat when I go back to WI to visit family.
Born in Iowa. Graduated High School and left. #1 export from Iowa used to be well educated kids.... Well, that and pork, corn, soybeans, etc.
Retired Marine currently living just outside of Raleigh, NC. Been all over the little blue marble except for Europe. Someday I intend to remedy that lacking, but for now I'm pretty content in this place.
Still have family in Iowa and load up on the cheese curds every time I go back and take some time fishing in the Mississippi around Prairie DuChien.
Five Guys fries? My only gripe is they are too salty! Burgers are pretty good though. Not as good as homemade, but nothing in a restaurant is!
New Jersey all my life....
We have us a regular midwestern round up. Split the difference between Milwaukee and Green Bay to find my start, though I'm down in Iowa now after time in Indiana and Ohio. No matter where I've lived, though, I'm Hawkeye til I die.
Not far from my former stomping grounds at all! Maybe a touch West, though—when I moved, I got the heck out of Dodge ;)
Massachusetts to Florida to Illinois to Pennsylvania and back to Massachusetts for me.
Klyto, You're a Hawkeye and staying in Iowa? I love visiting, but the snow gets too deep for my liking! And Zika, Mass? My step-daughter lives in Boston. We visit in the summer.... (late spring maybe) Raleigh gets cold but we usually only get ice, not snow. I laughed years back when Raleigh broke the centennial record for snowfall with 20" in three days, and shut the city down for almost a week. 20" of snow back in Waterloo IA would've slowed us down for a day or two, but that would've been it.
And Zika, Mass? My step-daughter lives in Boston. We visit in the summer.... (late spring maybe)
Oh cool! How do you like it? I've been in Boston for about... 9 years now.
The RL equivalent of Gem Crabbies
As one might guess from that, I'm from the Chicagoland area. After I graduated I did a stint in the Navy, had Basic in Orlando, then was assigned to a sub tender out of Goose Creek Naval Weapons Station (It's up the river from Charleston, or at least was, SC).
Then we had a homeport change to Guam, went through the Ditch, stopped in Cartagena (Columbia) and had a week stop at Pearl Harbor (HI). Did forward deployments to Sasebo (Japan), Chin Hae (South Korea), and Hong Kong (British Commonwealth).
After I got out, headed back to the Chicagoland area, and have been bouncing around a bit since.
I was not impressed with Five Guys in Indy last year, nor In-n-Out when I went to LA for a con. Culvers is overpriced and their food has been less than edible the last couple of times I ate there.
We have a nice sandwich shop in town and a decent burrito place, that's where I usually eat. I try to avoid mass retail chains whenever possible, due to dietary concerns.
As far as Edie and 'liking' the customers she works for at her drug section of her grocery store? It's a mixed bag. For every saintly customer that understands things aren't always going to be 'in stock' or that there was a pricing error there is someone else who WANT IT ALL AND WANT IT NOW! and tend to be horrible people with a lot of money.
Because of her circumstances, she's considered a native outsider. And she gets a lot of crap from a certain subset of customers that think anything with less-than-'normal' bodily configurations are inferior beings.
It's rather fun and a bit odd to see you guys talking about all kinds of things and places I have no ideas about.
I live in the area around Amsterdam, in the Netherlands as I said before. Since the country is quite small everything is close by by American standards (from the south west end to the north east end, not counting the isles, is just over a 4 hrs drive).
All the big fast food chains here are from the USA and are, with the exception of Five Guys, the usual suspects (Mac, BK and KFC). There also is a national chain but that has been dwarfed by the massive inflow of Macs and BKs and almost a third of the places are in Amsterdam alone.
As for Basil and being a native outsider, he doesn't really care. He has golden skin so the ignorant assume he's an Aasimar, as Aphorites are relatively rare and as such not as well known, and that suits him just fine.
Ah, Chicago! My second home for my school years in the Corps and my favorite road trip for work! Lou Malnati's pizza and there's a really great burrito place on Irving Park just past the airport. The burrito is too big to eat in one sitting but I always stayed in a hotel with a fridge and microwave in the room to reheat the next day.
Have really enjoyed the visits to Boston too. Found a great restaurant that had a piano player that would lead the room singing old songs. Lots of fun if you aren't shy! The place closed though after a fire. I think the name was Jacob Wirth.
Since we are talking about places to eat...
Well NJ is the land of Diners...
But I and my friends tend to go to Shannon Rose or Chilles.
The best place to get a burger...is a place called the Fireplace, in Paramus I believe on Rd 17 N...it is a historical landmark.
The best place to get a hot dog is Hirams in Fort Lee...
The bars I got to mostly are The Poitin Still(sp?)...and the Grasshopper...
So is the a ETA for the start of the campaign?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
We’re looking at some time in this upcoming week, or the weekend at the latest.
That said, I’ve been fighting illness for about two weeks and it just started rolling 20’s, so we’ll see!
Have really enjoyed the visits to Boston too. Found a great restaurant that had a piano player that would lead the room singing old songs. Lots of fun if you aren't shy! The place closed though after a fire. I think the name was Jacob Wirth.
Oh man, yeah, Jacob Wirth was awesome, it was such a bummer when they had the fire and had to shut down shop.
|
|
Keeyan, Klyto would have been at Old Dominion for mechanical engineering. He would have been picking up some inorganic chemistry/ metallurgy to broaden his materials knowledge.
Wayang are humanoids, but Klyto has an especially strong connection to the shadow plane that causes him to register as a native outsider.
Understood Klyto. I'm a native outsider too, but doing my best to pretend to be human.... So there is no easy connection between us unless it is within the six degrees of separation!
unless it is within the six degrees of separation!
You both know Kevin Bacon?
All right, I'm going to start moving some things into place this afternoon. It'll be a bit of a slow start, though-- I'm still winding down a few PFS scenarios, working on the other campaign, and dealing with what appears to be some sort of upper respiratory infection (though the Z-Pac seems to be helping already, one day into it).
Thankfully, the first post can and will be copy-pasted! I fully expect both campaigns will take different paths (based partially on choices made and party composition-- the other group seems a little more inclined for less-than-legal shenanigans, for example), but you'll start in the same place.
Gameplay thread is here!
Just waiting on Zika at the moment before we move on (but don't let that stop the rest of you from posting)!
Sorry about that! I had surgery a few days ago and the recovery is taking a bit more than I expected.
Hopefully all is going well otherwise, even if the timeline is a little slow!
I don’t mind waiting on folks (keeps my bandwidth manageable), but I also want to be open as a GM—if there’s something I need from you guys, I’ol try to let you know!
Do note that Basil doesn't actually have 30 gp left to buy things. So he's still stuck with the cheap, crappy stuff.
Main reason for that is that he couldn't make a craft or profession check before the start to add extra coin. He can craft but that's not his job and what he does do for a living is actually covered by a selection of other skills (Appraise, Knowledge [Arcana], Knowledge [History] and Knowledge [Religion] mostly).
No worries! I don't anticipate you'll make use of every deal-- I also made sure to give the option of the common tools rather than the masterworks.
Zika, do you have an image I can use for dear ol' dad? (If not, I'll find one!)
Peace to you and yours. We’re not in a rush so I won’t bot you; take your time and return when you’re ready.
Just a reminder here as well that I will be out of town at a convention from tomorrow morning until Monday evening. I will try to post regularly but I can make no guarantees and I'll be working from a tablet.
So It Turns Out Your Favorite Fox Is In A Splint For 3 Weeks
It will definitely continue, but expect the occasional typo, and my pace will likely slow until I wind down some PFS sessions. Unless I discover I can't play video games, in which case you'll see a LOT of me.
Do what you can and we'll try to keep up! Be sure to take the required time to heal! (CLW anybody?)