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[OOC] What Thou Seest is action! Raph is up, followed by Janus, Richard, and Nicola
Posts
-Janus Portent, warlock/rogue, played by Horseshoe
-Klaus Harding, rogue, played by Fiaryn
-Raphael, fighter, played by Arasaki
-Nicola Giovanni, fighter, played by Helix09
-Francisco Demetrius, cleric?, played by zenpotato
And we've also heard from Dark_Side, who seems to be leaning towards a ranger. That'd be 6, and about as many PCs as I'd want to try to coordinate. So: I'm going to assume that this is the group. Assuming that my fever doesn't get any worse, I'll be putting up the game thread either tomorrow or Monday. Feel free to use this thread either to talk amongst yourselves or ask me questions until then, but when I put up the game thread, let's only use this one for OOC content, please.
edit: One more thing. What kind of game are you all principally interested in? I've got the first couple of "modules" written as far as major quests and important encounters, but if you all would prefer a more combat-oriented game, I'm happy to sketch out a few more encounters. Conversely, if you want more RP events, I'm happy to do that too. There are a lot of different directions I could take, but whichever way the game goes, I want it to be a direction you all enjoy.
Cheers
A middle son of wealthy landowners, Francisco Demetrius is both a scholar and a fierce advocate of the faith. While his early ordination can likely be tied to his family's wealth, his own passion for theological studies warrant it.
Francisco has a desire for glory and adventure tempered by his faith. His adeptness with divine magic and his worldly ambition make him potentially a fantastic ally or a bitter adversary.
Francisco is a just man; his sense of justice is not guided by reason, but by faith. The dogmas and scriptures of the divine outrank any reason constructed by mortal flesh. He is not without compassion, however.
As a boy, Francisco was trained in the arts of war with his brothers. Some of them excelled; Francisco was merely above average. Despite his years studying the accounts of saints and martyrs he has not abandoned the basics of the martial training his father's wealth has afforded him.
He would gladly take up arms, and has, in service of the faith and the law.
"Burn him! Burn him!"
The villagers of the small hamlet, just west of Santo, thirsted for the righteous fire that would purify the damned. Francisco was not yet convinced of the old man's guilt.
"Stay your hands! As a representitive of the Most Holy, I cannot allow you to burn that man. Not without a trial." The shouts of a priest slowed the small mob. Francisco watched the priest control the crowd in awe. A young acolyte, Francisco was to spend a year travelling with the priest, provinding ecclesiastical service to the countryside surrounding Santo.
The old man at the mercy of the mob was still being tied to a tree, dead wood piled at his feet, but the killing urge had left them. The priest was in control; he had asserted his will and they would follow him. Francisco was in awe.
"In the name of faithful of Santo, I will preside over this man's trial. What charges are laid against him?"
The villagers began shouting all at once, but after a moment two charges came forward. The old man was accused of consorting with demons under the light of the moon, as witnessed by several children. He also stood accused of witchcraft--using vile arcane energies to mend a ceramic jar a young village girl was carrying water in. The girl was on hand to testify. There was something about her words that reminded Francisco of the beginning of his studies of the arcane heresies.
Picking up a torch, the priest stood before the old man. "Are these things true? Have you consorted with demons?"
The old man wept, crying out his innocence. Francisco believed him. He did not have the taint of devils about him. Both charges could not be true; surely one who danced with demons under the light of the moon had better things to spend his power on then repairing ceramic jars.
"And the other charge? Did you fix her jar?"
The man continued weeping, but his denials took on a different tone. The priest pushed him, accusing him of heresies that made the old man a stained soul in the eyes of the Almighty. The mob began to scream for his death once again.
Despite the size of the small mob, the old man attempted some futile sorcery to escape what he thought must be his doom. The first words, esoteric and strange, sealed his fate. Francisco, who had believed in his innocence, recognized them for witchcraft.
Without hesitation, Francisco shouted a warning. The priest hefted his torch like a mace and smashed it against the old man's face. Rotten teeth flew from his mouth and the man lost whatever hold he had over the meager sorceries he was attempting to weave.
Villagers rushed forth, lighting a fire a the man's feet. As Francisco stepped back, he narrowly missed being hit by a cask of oil someone threw at the flames. Fire rose up to devour the old man, purifying the village of his taint. Francisco was both sickened and relieved. As demanded by his faith, justice had been done. The sounds of the man's boiling flesh was still horrendous.
It was only later that Francisco learned that the girl was the old man's daughter. She was blessed with faith that Francisco could only admire and despise. He would remember her tears for a very long time.
Edit: Character sheet (missing some stuff, but I have it written out on my other computer):
http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheets/view.php?id=104615
I think you mean she was the old man's granddaughter. :P
Cool character.
"Go up, thou bald head." -2 Kings 2:23
I'd enjoy something fairly middle of the road-y. At the end of the day, I think D&D is very much a system which caters to a fair amount of fightin'. It's no coincidence that 90% of your character sheet, no matter what edition you're playing, is related to killing things.
Not to say I want pure combat, just reflecting on the nature of D&D. We've still got a plenty interesting setting to roleplay in and discovers the intricacies of it looks like.
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
:winky:
Cool; that's definitely doable. Thanks for the input!
Haha!
I suck.
I’d prefer 50/50 RP/Combat.
Feel free to change the real life Dark Ages references to something appropriate.
Character Changes:
Name: Nicola Giovanni
Changed some equipment:
Sold :Scale Armour, Sunrods (2) (as per restrictions); Climbing Gear, Sling, Sling bullets (20), Daggers (3)
Purchased :Chainmail Armour, Shortbow, Arrows (30)
Character Basis: Italian condotta (militiaman/mercenary)
Third son of a cartwright from the city-state of Genoa, Raphael knew there would be no inheritance waiting for him. So he made his way from a very early age. Joning the city militia was one way for a man to prove his worth, so he defended his city with both bow and sword. Wars did not last long, however, and the thought of sitting down with a trade after slogging through muddy battlefields piled with corpses seemed beneath him. So he signed on with a mercenary company which sold its services to whichever princeling was paying the highest price. Along with warcraft and wenching, Raphael would spend time at the city universities, trying to understand concepts and ideas he could not even spell.
In another life perhaps, he would have taken up the book and become a scholar, had he the money.
Recently Raphael became an independent mercenary and came to Santo, since this looked like a likely spot for war to break out. He is looking to sell his services to the highest bidder, which very well may be the Santo government if they get desperate and offer enough gold. He is not averse to being paid to join the Dutchy of the Two Island’s army either.
In the meantime this little ‘wolf hunt’ as he likes to think of it should pass the time.
Metaphysical Views: While not a dogmatic follower of the Holy One, working seconds from death as a mercenary has instilled a certain non-doctrinal core faith in him. He sees no problem spending a Sunday [or whatever holy day] morning at the Temple piously praying and taking confession [or whatever rites], then spending time with women of negotiable affection in the evening. The second thing he does every morning (after prepping his weapons) is to spend a few moments with his prayer beads.
Otherwise he is more skeptical than the norm. He is not one to believe in witches or demon-dogs based on some individual’s story, expecting most tale-tellers to be either drunk, credulous or both.
Raphael does maintain a healthy respect for practitioners of Astrology, as he has heard (but didn’t fully understand) many conversations by learned men universities speaking on the influence of the stars.
In general, folk magic is seen as peasant foolishness.
Hey Helix:
It all looks good (and yeah, when I'm less looped up on cold medicine I'll change the European stuff to world-appropriate stuff) except that we already have a fighter named Raphael, played by Arasaki. Do you have another name you'd favor?
Is scale armour allowed now? I thought it was only chainmail.
Yup, chain is the heaviest armor available at the beginning of the game. I think Helix was indicating that he had "sold" his scale mail from his original character idea, and had replaced it with chain.
That's fine, please try to get it in today, though; I'd like to get started.
Edit: Thread here.
Edit edit: Dark_Side, please post your character concept in this thread so it doesn't clutter up the main game thread.
Having OOC and IC in the same thread is a pretty bad idea if you are going for storytelling and a good amount of social interaction. pages full of spoilers or ((things that are typed like this)) are straight up annoying.
You've already got one thread here that has discussions about the game world, and I'm sure there will be many more because this is a custom thing with a lot of in's and outs. Most PbP games have MUCH more OOC discussion than IC posting simply because there is a lot to arbitrate between players and GM.
Your IC thread is going to be a busted-up discombobulated mess, I strongly suggest just retitling this as your OOC thread since we already have plenty of discussion going on and leave IC actions and dialogue up to your new thread.
I'll edit the posts to reflect that.
And actually, I'll ask your advice, then. The reason I set up 1 thread is that, from the game threads I've read, when there are two separate threads it can be hard to tell which IC action corresponds with which OOC action. Or do you consider "IC" to contain stuff like skill rolls, combat, etc. as well?
Well I dunno about Horseshoe but I do.
An IC thread SHOULD contain skill rolls and the like or it's a mess, yeah, the OOC thread is more for discussion of those rolls and the like. Rules corrections, etc.
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
Ground Rules
(1a) If something's not fun for you, or could be more fun, let me know. I've got my idea of how I want the adventure to "feel," but if my idea isn't fun, then it's a bad idea. I'm pretty good at shifting things around on the fly, and I'll be happy to do so.
(2) Please try to post at least once per day. If you can't, please let me know as soon as possible. If it's going to be an extended absence, we can discuss how to handle the situation. On that note, forewarning: I will be out of town from Friday, February 13, through Tuesday, February 17. I'll be able to post out-of-combat stuff, but will not have access to my rulebooks or to the combat maps. Thus, I'll do my best to make sure that we're not in combat before I leave.
(3) Speaking of combat posts, I'll be making those when I get home from work, which is usually around 6:30 PM, EST. Outside of combat, I can usually post a couple of times per day from work, and I'll try to keep the out-of-combat game going as quickly as I can.
(4) All dice rolls will be on invisible castle. The name of the campaign should be "What Thou Seest". Please enter that phrase verbatim, with that capitalization, so I can more easily check the rolls. And please don't cheat, mmmkay?
(5) Character sheets will be on Myth-Weavers. Please try keep your character sheets updated as far as hit points, action points, available powers, etc.
What Now?
Richard Swiftfoot, Human Ranger
Init +2 HP / Bloodied Healing Surge ( used /)
AC 2 Fort Reflex Will Speed
Str 16 (+3) Con 12 (+1) Dex 14 (+2) Int 11 (+0) Wis 13 (+1) Cha 10 (+0)
[OOC='[STRIKE]Hit and Run[/STRIKE]']Hit and Run
At Will[/OOC], [OOC='[STRIKE]Twin Strike[/STRIKE]']Twin Strike
At Will[/OOC], [OOC='[STRIKE] Offhand Strike[/STRIKE]'] Offhand Strike
Encounter[/OOC], [OOC='Offhand Parry']Offhand Parry
Daily
[/OOC]
Notes
http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheets/view.php?id=104394
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
Not to have a big head about this, but I suggest you take a look at my Clone Wars game that I've been running for over a year now.
IC posts consist of narrative with a spoiler underneath that is used to track what is happening tactically. Things like attack rolls, tracking HP, which actions were used, when force points were used, maps, and all that stuff goes in that spoiler so everyone knows what happened.
The OOC is used for discussing what's happening in the game and clarifying the situation. It's the type of place where you can ask "hey, how do I do this in the game?" or perhaps the GM wants to see what the players' take is on a certain roll.
I've found that it works out pretty well. The OOC also provides players and GM the chance to make jokes and goof off a little, which helps build camraderie in the group too. Socializing at the table is an important part of IRL gaming, and an OOC thread helps you do a bit of that in a PbP game.
Also: I like to post enemy statblocks in the OOC... or at the very least things like what their defenses and HP are. This way the player knows the consequence of their actions and they don't have to wait for the GM to say "okay you hit it". You might not like that practice much but I find it does wonders for the game and has very little impact as far as "metagaming" goes, because when you extend that trust to players, good players will return that trust in-kind in the way that they portray their characters.
Richard Swiftfoot, Human Ranger
Init +2 HP 29/29 Bloodied 14 Healing Surge 7 (0 used /7)
AC 4 Fort 6 Reflex 4 Will 2 Speed 6
Str 18 (+4) Con 12 (+1) Dex 14 (+2) Int 11 (+0) Wis 13 (+1) Cha 10 (+0)
At Will: Hit and Run
At Will: Twin Strike
At Will: Careful Attack
Encounter: Offhand Strike (From Martial book)
Daily: Offhand Parry (From Martial Book)
Notes Human +1 to Fort, Ref, Will
Ranger +1 to Fort, Ref
Items: Leather Armor (25gp), Long Sword (15gp), Long Sword (15gp), Adventurer's Kit (15gp), Sling (1gp), Sling Bullets -20 (1gp). 72 gp total, leaving 28gp for hookers and blackjack.
Bio:
HP in 4th Edition is X + Constitution SCORE, not modifier. You have 24 HP, not 13.
Edit: Furthermore, your Ranger fighting style is TWF yes? You get Toughness for free, so 29.
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
You lost me on the TWF and toughness bit though, Two Blade Ranger, but I don't see anything about toughness.
You are either a Two Blade Fighting Style Ranger, Archery Style, or Beast Lord. The Two Blade style lets you use non off hand type weapons as though they were off hand weapons and grants the feat Toughness for free. This means you could use a longsword in your offhand weapon without any penalties to efficiency despite it not being an Off Hand type weapon, also.
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
Nicola, as suggested in the IC post (coming soon!), is going to see if there are any hunters or trappers in the Seven Stars and engage them in conversation. He is trying to find out about the local wildlife and what the hunters think about these odd stories. I figure if anyone is going to have a heads up about something unnatural outside the town, be it beast or whatever or even just a feeling, the experts at woodcraft would know.
Which is fantastic.
I think Janus would either be played by
a) someone completely rad, like a young Gary Oldman or
b) someone completely awful, like Skeet Ulrich.
Downside number 2 to being sick: the pile of crap on the desk doesn't get shorter while you're out of the office.
edit: I'll also be updating the first page of the IC post to put in Arasaki and Dark_Side's mythweavers sheets.
edit edit: Also, has anyone really figured out the whole Obsidian Palace deal that's gotten love around here lately? I had a look at it, and maybe I'm missing something, but I kinda don't get it. I mean, I get that it's a wiki for your campaign, but I'm not really certain what the utility is. That said, if anyone's interested, I'd be more than happy to poke around this weekend and put something simple up.
Oliver Reed as shown in Oliver!
I'd watch it
White FC: 0819 3350 1787