Checking for Interest in a 3.5 homebrew game
KrataLightblade
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I apologize up front if something in this post seems unclear or unfinished... I'm a little fuzzyheaded today. Any questions, please, ask them and I'll answer them to the best of my ability.
I'm searching for players to join me and two others in a strong-RP medium-to-light combat D&D 3.5 game. It'll be run in a homebrew campaign world I'll likely be building as we go. The world will be medium-low on magic, meaning that magical items of any stripe, while not unheard of, tend not to be common. Powerful magic of any sort is the sort of thing kingdoms rise and fall for. Also, ressurection is not going to be easily available. As a counter to this, I will make the promise that except for suitable dramatic moments or terribly powerful enemies, the dice will not kill you outright. Incapacitate you and leave you WISHING you were dead, dead. A cooling, bleeding corpse, not so much. I've no intention on asking you to make me interesting characters and killing them off without a second thought, you know?
Ideally, I want about 4-8 total players, using only races with no level adjustment, core races preferred. Non-psionics primarily because I'm not familiar enough with them to allow them into my games. Most other classes are acceptable, although it will take some doing to work a monk into the setting. Interesting, somewhat fleshed out characters are strongly preferred, and thoroughly min-maxed characters will be rejected outright.
The focus of the story will be mostly character-driven. I will be working up a story and plot for the world to revolve around, but I will not railroad players into it if they find themselves fascinated with other facets of the world. You won't be able to escape it entirely, of course, but if you'd rather take over a castle somewhere and build a city around it to create your own sovereign nation rather than fight to turn back the evil or whatever, I certainly won't fight you on it if it's fun for everyone.
That said, "random" combat will not be the order of the day. I do not intend to populate the entire world with massive numbers of mooks waiting for you to walk up and kill. There's a certain level of psychosis required to attempt to commit complete genocide on entire populations when it's not really necessary, even if those populations are horrible monsters. This doesn't necessarily mean you have to agonize over the killing of a goblin band, but your default stance shouldn't be to kill anything you come across, as not everything will necessarily be an enemy or a threat. In short, the decision to enter combat will be just that... a decision, not a foregone conclusion. There will be opportunity for it, of course... D&D is at its core a combat system. But combat shouldn't be your default way of solving any and all problems.
Again I repeat that I want interesting, fleshed out characters. Handing me a standard fighter with max ranks in a minimum number of skills because you don't care and who's an uberspecialist in a massive greataxe is less likely to earn my interest than a character with developed flaws, quirks, and a more reasonable approach to skills.
The preferred medium for the game's actual sessions will be either AIM or IRC (of course, I'll have to get more familiar than I am with IRC first...), and will probably be run either weekly or bi-weekly.
I should mention that if I get a remarkable number of applicants and everything shakes out right, I might be willing to either run more than one group or take on an assistant/co-DM to hgelp run the second group and synch up the world they're in.
A few caveats. I am NOT an expert on the 3.5 system, nor am I an arseholic rules-lawyer. I tend to take a fairly liberal view of the rules to both reward creativity and punish stupidity. IE, you will not survive being thrown off a 500-foot high cliff, no matter how awesomely you roll your hit points. On the other hand, a creative solution to a problem is more interesting than dice rolls most of the time, and I hate punishing creativity with an unlucky die roll unless necessary. I do not, however, just throw the rules out the window at random. I promise, I've no intention of making your skills or statistics irrelevant.
I also have not run many games for people I do not know well. There may be hiccups. And as I am human, there may be inconsistencies and I will make mistakes, for which I heartily apologize. Feel free to call me on them politely and maturely, and I'll do what I can to fix them. Call me an idiot and scream your head off and I'll drop you without a second thought. I do this for fun, after all, and enjoyment, not to argue with pinheads who can't form an intelligent thought and express it without insulting me every other word.
I also realize that you all will want more informatino than I've given about the world before deciding if you're interested, for which I will say now that I am not entirely finished creating it. Actually, I've barely started as of right now. I'm working on a pantheon and a general idea of what the major factions and cities of the region you'll start in are like. Player input is absolutely acceptable. I can't promise I'll use anything I'm given, but I can promise that if there's a place for it, and it's interesting or cool enough, I'll find a place for it if there's one to be had.
One last thing on the vein of my not being an expert in 3.5. I may not be, but I know several people who are, and I'll be getting their help on some things. If I catch you trying to screw me over, I can tell you now I've got no problems cutting you out of the game. The fun of the game comes first, and when one player is trying to take advantage to screw things up, generally nobody has fun. Try to remember that it is, after all, a game, and will be treated as such.
If I garner enough interest, then we'll discuss character creation and world history. Feel free to ask me, here in this threat preferably, any questions that you might need answered about the world or my DMing style before you decide if you're interested. I'll respond as soon as I see the question if I can.
If the game gets going, I'll be sure to keep an OOC thread open here, possibly with a second thread for character interactions outside of sessions for roleplay purposes.
Thank you.
PS>> Again, if I've confused anyone, or if it seems like I'm jumping around a lot, I apologize. Ask for clarification and you'll get it if it's mine to give.
Summary: 2-6 additional players, heavy RP, relatively low magic, moderate combat, core races preferred, non core character to be run by me, interesting character concepts/backgrounds strongly encouraged, excessive min/maxing strongly discouraged and somewhat unnecessary.
Interested parties should feel free to post ideas or characters. Acceptance is based on what's best and most interesting, not first-come-first-serve. Concept primary, sheets come when we're ready.
I'm searching for players to join me and two others in a strong-RP medium-to-light combat D&D 3.5 game. It'll be run in a homebrew campaign world I'll likely be building as we go. The world will be medium-low on magic, meaning that magical items of any stripe, while not unheard of, tend not to be common. Powerful magic of any sort is the sort of thing kingdoms rise and fall for. Also, ressurection is not going to be easily available. As a counter to this, I will make the promise that except for suitable dramatic moments or terribly powerful enemies, the dice will not kill you outright. Incapacitate you and leave you WISHING you were dead, dead. A cooling, bleeding corpse, not so much. I've no intention on asking you to make me interesting characters and killing them off without a second thought, you know?
Ideally, I want about 4-8 total players, using only races with no level adjustment, core races preferred. Non-psionics primarily because I'm not familiar enough with them to allow them into my games. Most other classes are acceptable, although it will take some doing to work a monk into the setting. Interesting, somewhat fleshed out characters are strongly preferred, and thoroughly min-maxed characters will be rejected outright.
The focus of the story will be mostly character-driven. I will be working up a story and plot for the world to revolve around, but I will not railroad players into it if they find themselves fascinated with other facets of the world. You won't be able to escape it entirely, of course, but if you'd rather take over a castle somewhere and build a city around it to create your own sovereign nation rather than fight to turn back the evil or whatever, I certainly won't fight you on it if it's fun for everyone.
That said, "random" combat will not be the order of the day. I do not intend to populate the entire world with massive numbers of mooks waiting for you to walk up and kill. There's a certain level of psychosis required to attempt to commit complete genocide on entire populations when it's not really necessary, even if those populations are horrible monsters. This doesn't necessarily mean you have to agonize over the killing of a goblin band, but your default stance shouldn't be to kill anything you come across, as not everything will necessarily be an enemy or a threat. In short, the decision to enter combat will be just that... a decision, not a foregone conclusion. There will be opportunity for it, of course... D&D is at its core a combat system. But combat shouldn't be your default way of solving any and all problems.
Again I repeat that I want interesting, fleshed out characters. Handing me a standard fighter with max ranks in a minimum number of skills because you don't care and who's an uberspecialist in a massive greataxe is less likely to earn my interest than a character with developed flaws, quirks, and a more reasonable approach to skills.
The preferred medium for the game's actual sessions will be either AIM or IRC (of course, I'll have to get more familiar than I am with IRC first...), and will probably be run either weekly or bi-weekly.
I should mention that if I get a remarkable number of applicants and everything shakes out right, I might be willing to either run more than one group or take on an assistant/co-DM to hgelp run the second group and synch up the world they're in.
A few caveats. I am NOT an expert on the 3.5 system, nor am I an arseholic rules-lawyer. I tend to take a fairly liberal view of the rules to both reward creativity and punish stupidity. IE, you will not survive being thrown off a 500-foot high cliff, no matter how awesomely you roll your hit points. On the other hand, a creative solution to a problem is more interesting than dice rolls most of the time, and I hate punishing creativity with an unlucky die roll unless necessary. I do not, however, just throw the rules out the window at random. I promise, I've no intention of making your skills or statistics irrelevant.
I also have not run many games for people I do not know well. There may be hiccups. And as I am human, there may be inconsistencies and I will make mistakes, for which I heartily apologize. Feel free to call me on them politely and maturely, and I'll do what I can to fix them. Call me an idiot and scream your head off and I'll drop you without a second thought. I do this for fun, after all, and enjoyment, not to argue with pinheads who can't form an intelligent thought and express it without insulting me every other word.
I also realize that you all will want more informatino than I've given about the world before deciding if you're interested, for which I will say now that I am not entirely finished creating it. Actually, I've barely started as of right now. I'm working on a pantheon and a general idea of what the major factions and cities of the region you'll start in are like. Player input is absolutely acceptable. I can't promise I'll use anything I'm given, but I can promise that if there's a place for it, and it's interesting or cool enough, I'll find a place for it if there's one to be had.
One last thing on the vein of my not being an expert in 3.5. I may not be, but I know several people who are, and I'll be getting their help on some things. If I catch you trying to screw me over, I can tell you now I've got no problems cutting you out of the game. The fun of the game comes first, and when one player is trying to take advantage to screw things up, generally nobody has fun. Try to remember that it is, after all, a game, and will be treated as such.
If I garner enough interest, then we'll discuss character creation and world history. Feel free to ask me, here in this threat preferably, any questions that you might need answered about the world or my DMing style before you decide if you're interested. I'll respond as soon as I see the question if I can.
If the game gets going, I'll be sure to keep an OOC thread open here, possibly with a second thread for character interactions outside of sessions for roleplay purposes.
Thank you.
PS>> Again, if I've confused anyone, or if it seems like I'm jumping around a lot, I apologize. Ask for clarification and you'll get it if it's mine to give.
Summary: 2-6 additional players, heavy RP, relatively low magic, moderate combat, core races preferred, non core character to be run by me, interesting character concepts/backgrounds strongly encouraged, excessive min/maxing strongly discouraged and somewhat unnecessary.
Interested parties should feel free to post ideas or characters. Acceptance is based on what's best and most interesting, not first-come-first-serve. Concept primary, sheets come when we're ready.
LEVEL 50 SWORD JUGGLER/WIZARD!
KrataLightblade on
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"Go up, thou bald head." -2 Kings 2:23
Now, as a secondary post, I want to present a few possible options for settings to get people thinking about things. None of these are set in stone yet, because I'm trying to be flexible enough to give people options while still providing SOMe level of direction.
First, there's the Megacity approach, where the players are primarily adventuring in some sort of massive Sigil or Ravnica style super-metropolis, with labyrinthine under-city areas and several "districts" to the overcity that'd basically be like a denser version of the regions and terrains of a normal campaign area.
The second approach is the Small World concept. It would begin in a relatively large, isolated valley, and slowly move outwards from there, exploring first the regions within the valley and moving on at later levels to the larger world and how different it is from the world you know.
The third is a sort of "Wild World" scenario. This is where "civilization" is spread far and wide, with large untamed areas between them, a world where leaving a major road means you could theroetically be lost for weeks, months, or even years before finding a major trade route again, but also rife with adventure and "lost" peoples, and whatnot.
Fourth is a more standard fantasy world, like a sort of lower-magic FR without as many uber-characters running about (although a few would, obviously, be present as plot devices and the like).
I'm absolutely open to other ideas, mind you. This is just a sampling for inspirative or conceptual purposes. and of course, there's always the possibility of mixing a few of these or even having different parts of th game world represent different settings or whatever.
Looking forward to hearing from y'all.
Now: I need to figure out if I can justify a half-orc wizard to myself. This will be difficult.
So, in summary, non-core classes should be asked about before assuming, but in most cases you'll probably get a yes, and PrCs you're unlikely to qualify for at game start and will have to actually work to attain in game but aren't out of the question (Unless they're blatant twinkery of course).
I've been told that I should probably announce what books I'm allowing, and I'll go ahead and do that. The books I actually have access to and will probably okay most things from are the PHB and DMG I and II each, and the Arcane, Mage, Divine, Warrior, and Adventurer books from the Complete line. Any books with drastic changes from the core information (For example, I'm told that the Tome of Battle drastically changes melee combat, and Complete Scoundrel includes something called Skill Tricks that I know nothing of) should probably not be used, however, primarily because I'm still very new to the whole running 3.5 thing at all, and throwing major wrenches into my works will only make that worse. *L* That said, if there's something specific you're totally Jonesing for, feel free to bring it up and I'll review it on a case-by-case basis. After all, I'm going for the fun here, not necessarily the perfectly balanced group (Although a certain level of group equilibrium is pretty much necessary!)
Anyhow, I'm stopping now before I get any more tangential.
I think I will make a beguiler, assuming Krata's comfortable with the class and the sheet when it's all done up.
In regards to character classes, that is.
I love the Incarnum system, but I never really get a chance to run a character using it. I would probably play a Totemist, which is like a Shamanistic animal-magic guy.
Well, let's just assume you won't do that, yes? *L*
The only real things you shoulf know about the setting is that magic isn't excessively common (although it's not unheard of). It's not like every village has a pet healer and mage's tower within easy reach or anything. If there ARE any sorts of mages' guilds, they generally won't be huge compounds with hundreds of wizards so much as a small number of powerful mages taking on apprentices and the like.
As for the pantheon, I'm working on that, because I don't really like the "standard" ones. A few examples are Verweren, for those of you who remember my short stint in Myth, who's the god of protection and guardians, The Stranger, a neutral god of endings, including death, and Aura, the goddess of compassion and healing. Of course, there's also Scirakh, god of hatred, and Balsam, god of wisdom and learning. So if you care to make up an interesting deity, you're free to do so, although I cannot guarantee I'll use the one you give me if I've got one I like better.
In addition, I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's safe to assume that there was at least one, possibly more, "elder races" that no longer exist (or at least, if they do, nobody really knows of them), as well as a few empires and such now fallen to ruin and not rebuilt yet by the current world.
I'm strongly thinking that a while back (somewhere between three and seven hundred years ago, maybe longer?), there was some sort of massive upheaval or something that reshaped pretty much the entire world. Which'll both mean there's established societies (You can do a lot in a few hundred years) and budding nations still growing, as well as isolated pockets of calm in seas of chaos farther out. It'll also mean that some of the more long-lived races might actually recall events prior to the event, but none of the PCs are likely to be this old.
Mind you, I'm coming up with a lot of this off the top of my head, and some of it may have implications I haven't entirely thought through just yet. But for the most part, go with what I've said here and consider the possible settings i've outlined above and you'll have a decent idea of what possibilities there are available.
And, of course, if someone submits something that simply won't work, there's always the option of working with them to find a way to fit it in or alter it so it fits, yes?
Now's a good time, I suppose, to include my contact info.
AIM: KrataLightblade
MSN: Shadowman30@hotmail.com
Feel free to bring questions to me if you want to, but also remember that the more we can do publicly in front of people, the better everyone will be able to work together to come up with a party that won't self-destruct in two sessions... *L*
No kidding.
"And then they all went to a bar. The end."
Hm hm.
I like the look of this class.
Out of curiosity, what's a good way to run a DnD game over AIM?
AIM is terrible. But it supports chats, and the chatrooms have a built-in dice roller. The chat function is extremely unreliable, though.
//roll-dice2-sides20 !
Just when I start getting better at this "using the internet" thing, turns out I'm still retarded.
AIM's disadvantages are the unreliability of their chat server lately, as well as the fact that there's a text-limit per message, so you may have to write three to five messages to get a longer point across.
IRC's is primarily that it's uglier and I'm not as familiar with it. *L*
I give both as options because some people dislike IRC, others have never used AIM. I'll be goin' where the gamin' is, myself.
My character's idea looks like this: http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheets/view.php?id=32351
Much to Krata's dismay, I made the sheet with zero background first.
Might be somewhat disappointing, but after trying to read thrioyugh the Incarnum book, I've determined that as of this moment, I'd really rather not teach myself even more of the system just yet. This is, after all, my first time running 3.5. Later games, I'll likely open more books to the game.
One other thing I wanted to mention was training style. I'm not going to require anyone to go through any costly or lengthy training between levels for the most part if they're sticking to one class or if the class they're moving to is a natural progression from the previous one. however, switching to a class that gains abilities that are a significant departure from your previous class to the new one will require you to put some level of roleplay effort into actally learning the new ablities and skills. IE, going from Fighter to Barbarian isn't that much of a stretch, nor would be Ranger to Fighter. On the other hand, Fighter to Paladin, or Rogue to Wizard, or Wizard to Ranger, those aren't things that are natural extensions of your skill set.
The same applies to prestige classes if your ability set suddenly gives you access to abilities that aren't natural extensions of your base classes. For example, the Arcane Archer has to be both a decent archer AND a magic user to get theri abilities, but their abilities are all a natural extension of blending the two classes. On the other hand, a Rogue becoming a Shadowdancer, a class that revolves around a series of semi-magical abilities that are supernatural, rather than natural, extensions of his class (Sorry, throwing illusions magically isn't a "natural" extension of sneakery!), would require said rogue to invest some roleplay time into attempting to learn how to do those things. You don't just wake up one day and realize that you can throw illusions.
The exception here, of course, is the Sorceror class. However, I will require anyone who intends to take any Sorceror levels (or wants the option open to them) let me know privately and include something in their background, however minor, that might allow for them to spontaneously develop magical power. Without meeting those two conditions, you can't take the Sorceror class without some major roleplay reason for it, such as exposure to some huge magical energy or something.
I want it made clear, this in no way is telling anyone not to shoot for a cool prestige class they like or an interesting sety of abilities. It is, however, requiring you to actually roleplay such an interest, rather than spontaneously waking up one day and suddenly you're a wizard even if you've never expressed an interest in magic up until right now.
Only problem might be finding a timeslot that works, but that bridge has yet to be crossed.
I'm still about, however.
Any further questions, comments, or whatnot?
You posted lots of possible scenarios that might work for the game you want to run -- do you have any in mind that you're planning on using in particular?
How large of a party are we lookin' at?
As for settings, since nobody seemed interested in weighing in on that point, I'll be using a variant of the Wild World approach.
A few notes on setting... Long distances will ususally be measured by "day's ride" or "day's march". A city that it will take approximately one full sunup-to-sundown to get to by horse will be considered "one day's ride".
The starting location for everyone will be the Free City of Arris. A rather lengthy preliminary description follows.
Arris is a large self-ruled city on the edges of the civilized world. The lands claimed by Arris will extend about one day's easy ride outwards from the city walls, but are not heavily patrolled outside of the roads and the like. Arris is well known as a place where, if you look hard enough and have enough coin, almost anything can be found and acquired. Arris maintains four major temples, detailed below, and several smaller shrines to various deities. Some of the darker deities tend to be worshipped in secret, though it is not illegal to worship them so long as one's practices do not endanger other citizens.
Arris is ruled jointly by a Council of thirteen elected members and the Guild of Wandering Souls, a merchant’s guild known for their forays into dangerous territories. More than one prospective adventurer has earned a significant amount of coin hiring on as a caravan guard into the lands beyond.
Arris is divided into seven major districts, though there are no walls or demarcations delineating them. The districts are primarily for ease of use in conversation or documentation. These districts are, in no particular order, the Temple District, the Council District, the Guilder, the Open Market, the Commons, the Highgarden, and the Wall.
The Temple district is primarily composed of four large places of worship. The first is the temple to Balsam, god of Wisdom, patron of learning and education. Second is dedicated to Tulkas, the god of Justice, patron of crusaders and magistrates. The third is to Aura, goddess of compassion and love, where healing is most readily available. The fourth temple, to Verweren, god of Guardians, seems almost more like a miniature fortress keep than a temple, but a temple it is nonetheless. Anyone can claim sanctuary within its walls, although those whose crimes were violent may well be turned over to the Tulkans for judgement. A fifth shrine stands in the exact center of the Temple District, but is rarely directly referred to. There are no worshippers and few would ever call it a temple. It is dedicated to the Stranger, the god of Endings, a god who is accepted in Arris as a necessary force, but rarely loved save by the suffering and dying.
The Council district is where the government sits, and is where all administrative tasks are handled.
The Guilder is the smallest of the districts, and is really more of a large compound dedicated to the Guild of Wandering Souls’ commercial interests. There is a private market here where the Guild members are allowed to do business… in truth, it is the only place the Guild allows their members to do their business within Arris. The Guilder is patrolled privately by the Guildermen, a large private guard force that is allowed to detain those within the Guilder district, but may only kill in defense of life. The Arris city watch tends to thoroughly investigate suspected corruption amongst the Guildermen.
The Open Market, however, is where all other commerce in Arris takes place. A large amount of silver and gold flows through this district every day, and thus it is the district second most heavily patrolled after the Council District by the local Watch.
The Commons district is primarily composed of the homes of the various citizens.
The Highgarden is another residential district, composed of estates owned by the wealthy and noble-born. Many nobles in exile from their nations of birth find homes in the Highgarden. The Highgarden, much as the Guilder district, has its own private Watch, although unlike the Guildermen, is still a part of the City Watch.
The final district, the Wall, is just that, the large wall surrounding Arris and the adjoined barracks. Most heavily patrolled to the south, the direction facing the Wildlands, the Wall surrounds the entirety of Arris, and anyone passing into the city advances under the watchful eye of the Arris Militia.
To the north of Arris are several nations of varying sizes and compositions. To the east is an open plain, primarily claimed by the Republic of Tulta. The westerly direction remains plains for almost fifty miles before it becomes a large, thick forest. The forest is well known to be extremely dangerous for travelers. To the south are the Wildlands, a long expanse of unclaimed, uncivilized territory that has never been fully explored. Occasional monster raids extend from the Wildlands, as do both peaceful and aggressive nomadic tribes. No one has ever successfully claimed any swath of territory south of Arris for more than three years, as far as anyone knows, save possibly bands of monsters led by a particularly strong leader.
For the most part, those who are obviously merchants are left alone by the tribes, but are not safe from the bandits or monsters along the southern trade routes. Eventually, if one travels far enough, they find themselves in the Scorched Expanse, a massive desert with its own odd peoples. Little is known in Arris about the Expanse-dwellers, as few of them find their way this far north.
There are small towns that dot the Wildlands, of course, and the many ruins of previous failed attempts to “civilize†them. These towns tend to be distrustful of outsiders, though they accept merchants, and their folk tend to keep weapons close at hand, just in case.
Currently we have:
Alisus, god of War
Portfolio: War, Battles, Warriors
Aura, goddess of Compassion
Portfolio: Healing, Love, Passion
Balsam, god of Wisdom
Portfolio: Clear-thought, Wisdom, Learning
Scirakh, god of Hatred
Portfolio: Hate, Violence, Murder
The Stranger, god of Endings
Portfolio: Death, Endings, Mercy
Tulkas, god of Justice
Portfolio: Justice, Honor, Judgement
Verweren, god of Protection
Portfolio: Defense, Protection, Guardians
Other possibilities include four Elemental deities, which would be a pantheon mostly worshipped by tribal cultures or those revering primal elements more than concepts.
I need to dig out that Player's Handbook I've got lying around.
When Krata posts the numbers we're using, I'll see what I can put together that I like that'll work for the setting, I think.
I admit I'm definitely not the best at 3.5 (having never actually, you know, played it before), but I have access to the core books and learn pretty quickly.
Character right now is the same I was gonna use for Goum's, but he said he wanted more serious ideas or something. I like the more light hearted/comedic type characters and had an idea for a Half-Orc Barbarian that wants to be/thinks he is a wizard.
If that's not cool I can come up with something else pretty easily.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
Nothing much beyond that (at this current stage of creation, anyway).
Now I have a concept I like. I really do hope that the timeslot for this works with me.
EDIT: For the record, I work 5 P.M. to midnight Sunday-Thursday (Eastern time, I'm pretty sure), although I'd prefer to keep my Friday and Saturday free. Yeah, not an easy schedule to work with.
Also, what play style (game pace) are you expecting? Is this going to be a lot of RP, and very little combat? Do we have to roll agility every time we walk through a door? (is everything going to be according to strict rules? Are we going to calculate the weight of items into movement, etc?)
Either way I'm still interested. I know it's overplayed as hell, but I rolled a pretty decent theif/pirate style rogue I'd like to see brought back to life.
Finally, any chance of the game going epic (past lvl 20) or blending with the new 4E rules when they drop?
Dichotomy: Feel free to hit me up on AIM to check your scheduling. On the other hand, your characters, botyh of them, seem like good possibilities.
INNS: I'm entirely down with that. You remember Verweren pretty well, I think.
Blackjack: I'm nervous about the idea primarily because I'm not sure if it's a character that'd be good for more than novelty purposes. If you genuinely think he can be an interesting and useful addition to the party, we can discuss it, but in my experience, characters of that sort tend to stop being fun once all the jokes have been played out.
Powerslave: I haven't been given a full reading on Factotum yet, as I lack the correct book. That combined with the reaction I got when I asked a few others about the class make me very nervous about it. It has a lot of potential for extreme abuse, and it has even more potential to overshadow other players to a worrying degree. For those reasons, I'm going to have to say no to the Factotum. You can probably make a similar concept with some other combination of classes, however, so you're free to try that.
Goose: I haven't compiled a final list of players yet, so there's still room, yeah. I can't get a full accounting until I know who's available when and all that. We also haven't permanently decided on IRC, but that's where it seems to be leaning. In any case, feel free to hit me up or post ideas or questions or the like.
Amateur: I've got no issues whatsoever with a swashbucklery type, either with or without the actual Swashbuckler class. *L* Mind you, there isn't a lot of open water close to Arris, so an actual pirate would be landlocked for awhile (at least until we start exploring some more!), so if you decide that he's a sailor, you're going to have the challenge of being out of your element. Not that I discourage it, mind you, I happily encourage taking characters out of their comfort zones. As for epic rules, I think I'll worry about those when we're a little closer to time. I can say with some surety that should the game actually last long enough to make them relevant, they'll probably come into play. 4E, I don't know, because I'd have to actually get the book before determining whether I like it. As for play style, it's going to be pretty heavy on the RP... medium to medium low on combat. As for the strictures of the rules... I prefer to play it by ear most of the time. I won't be making you roll for every minor actions... only an action where there is a realistic chance of failure will require a roll. Example: Strength 20 beats Strength 6 in arm wrestling. Period. Dex 10 might have some trouble catching the rope hanging halfway over the chasm to prevent himself from falling.
Now, some additional background info on the Elemental Gods.
The four elemental gods will be Zephyr, god of Air, Solum, god of Earth, Maritimus, god of Water, and Exuras, god of Fire. They are alternately referred to as Elemental gods or Primal gods. None of them have any particular alignment attachments... or more accurately, they are worshipped in differing aspects by different people, so it's somewhat hard to tell what their actual alignments would be. They're primal deities, representing the very core of what makes up the world in the same way that the more "civilized" deities represent the core of what makes up sentient races. For game-mechanic purposes, they're True Neutral, but worshippers can be of pretty much any alignments so long as they revere the primal element that god represents. A bloody sacrifice with a heart thrown into a burning brazier can appease Exuras just as well as a circle dancing and giving devotions to a bonfire, and vice versa. Worshippers of these Primal deities tend not to approve of "civilized" religion, considering it to be blasphemy to raise "men" above their gods. Of course, the more civilized worshippers find the elemental gods to be savage, near-mythical, distant, and uncaring of mortal plight.
The Stranger tends to be an exception. Primal worshippers will never, ever speak of the Stranger, nor do they worship him. But they know him just the same, and generally have a healthy respect for him. Why this is isn't entirely clear.