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[Interest] Strands of Fate + Homebrew Fantasy

INeedNoSaltINeedNoSalt with blood on my teethRegistered User regular
edited May 2015 in Critical Failures
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  • simulacrumsimulacrum She/herRegistered User regular
    edited April 2011
    If you don't mind a role playing newbie, I'd be interested in taking part.

    simulacrum on
  • El SkidEl Skid The frozen white northRegistered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Have been thinking on this, but am unsure. I've used a version of FATE before briefly- playing with d6-d6 and some playing cards- but that was a while ago and I'm sure things have changed quite a bit since then.

    Really, though, I'd be interested if there was a strong...style associated with the game. The pulp-type games give you this, but I'm having trouble seeing what kind of style would go with this setting.
    MAYBE BECAUSE YOU'D LIKE TO HAVE YOUR PLAYERS GIVE THEIR INPUT ON THE SETTING ETC?

    I'd like to play something kinda wacky/zany/off the wall. If that's where this is going, I could probably be talked off the fence. If not...we'll see :)

    El Skid on
  • INeedNoSaltINeedNoSalt with blood on my teeth Registered User regular
    edited May 2015
    zzz

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  • El SkidEl Skid The frozen white northRegistered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Fair enough... What is the kind of tone/hook/genre you were thinking of?

    El Skid on
  • HorseshoeHorseshoe Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Me am hate narrative focus.

    Sorry, gotta turn off Bizarro Shoe.

    Ahem.

    Love narrative focus. And I am partial to the pulp-ish "sword and sorcery" angle of authors like Robert Howard, Fritz Lieber, and Michael Moorcock. Really like the idea of being a part of shaping a setting so that all characters are an integral rather than incidental part of the world.

    The idears off the top of my head (all of them for human characters):

    1) A thief, a reaver, a slayer, of great mirth and great melancholy, destined to trod the jeweled thrones of the earth beneath his sandaled feat.

    2) A sorcerer of Death and perilous connection to magic, playing with the powers of greater beings, aware of the hubris of his actions but thrilled by the power that is manifested in the use of magic.

    3) A bit of a combination of the two, one who has taken the dark path in the past and wishes to redeem himself by struggling against his previous ties to Death and Destruction, seeking to use his knowledge to forge the path of a hero.

    4) Some... other type of character that is more or less cribbed from sword and sorcery type fiction. All of my best ideas are stolen, Salt, as I'm sure you are aware.

    Horseshoe on
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  • SUPERSUGASUPERSUGA Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    This looks really neat, Salt. I'll be watching but my schedule doesn't really have space for playing at the minute.

    SUPERSUGA on
  • Abysmal LynxAbysmal Lynx Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    I'm interested, although I have had some trouble wrapping my head around the Strands of Fate system. I'm sure that's from inexperience though, and I am somewhat familiar with other versions of FATE.

    I've got two ideas for characters:

    1. A dwarvish loan shark.

    2. An elf refugee turned mercenary who was terribly burned in the civil war. His wounds and experiences have made him incredibly bitter.

    Abysmal Lynx on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • INeedNoSaltINeedNoSalt with blood on my teeth Registered User regular
    edited May 2015
    zzz

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  • El SkidEl Skid The frozen white northRegistered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Interesting stuff.

    I'm going to take some time to think of a character concept... I'll get back to you tomorrow, INNS.

    El Skid on
  • Super NamicchiSuper Namicchi Orange County, CARegistered User regular
    edited April 2011
    There are lands beyond the Empire, beyond the Worldgate Mountains, lands alien and strange and home to exotic folk.

    The Four Equally Divided Kingdoms of Yu Mandated By Heaven, ruled by the four siblings Hu-Lei, Pa Mao, Qiam-Lo, and Diao Wan. Jade, silk, and spices flow from the Far East into the heart of Takh.

    The Desert of Eternal Twilight ruled by the Caliph Zareekh Al-Hasadin, whose gem and capital is the great trade city Khazjarem in the Far Far East.

    The civilization of Durand lies to the South, nestled deep within the heart of the Black Jungle, where the roads are paved in silver and the waters grant eternal youth and beauty.

    i think this is pretty cool swords and sorcery is neat so we should do that also i would like to play a guy who is a horseman and an archer and a swordsman and probably also a bandit

    thank you

    Super Namicchi on
  • Abysmal LynxAbysmal Lynx Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    1. A dwarvish loan shark.

    2. An elf refugee turned mercenary who was terribly burned in the civil war. His wounds and experiences have made him incredibly bitter.

    These are both neat ideas. An angry bitter elf sounds pretty awesome, and I think it kind of works really well with what I was going for with the civil war -- I wanted something to contrast with the idea that elfs are pretty and harmonious and very good, and brutal, kin-on-kin violence seemed to fit.

    I could see a loan shark, too. Important though is to ensure that the character has a reason to do adventuresome stuff, which I guess depends on how involved the loan shark is (vs a shark who just sits on a pile of money and has thugs do everything for him.)

    Even if the game were to wind up never leaving Takh (which isn't something I expect, especially if people want a Sword and Sorcery kind of flavor, in which case it might not even start there or deal with the city much), characters who are willing to get into trouble and do things are going to be necessary -- part of the reason I wanted a huge city was so that if the game demands it, the city itself can provide lots of hooks and places to explore.

    I do like the elf better and I do agree the dwarf doesn't really have much incentive to travel. The best thing I could come up with for that is he wants to expand out into weapons dealing and sort of become a merchant of death.

    Abysmal Lynx on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • HorseshoeHorseshoe Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    II think the idea that there is some magic, and some of it is really powerful, but it's not a regular/day-to-day kind of thing for most people fits in with sword and sorcery kind of flavors.

    I agree!
    Is your first concept here basically just Conan? It sounds like it's just Conan. (That is fine with me.)

    It's almost word for word part of the intro to Conan stories. So yes.

    I'm glad this is acceptable :)

    Horseshoe on
    dmsigsmallek3.jpg
  • El SkidEl Skid The frozen white northRegistered User regular
    edited April 2011
    So it looks like the group has the fighting thing down pretty pat. Shoenan will be all bulging muscles and steel, and likely have an additional mercenary type for support.

    A couple ideas:

    - A young sidekick to Shoenan- roguish sort who is prone to sneaking around, pushing large red buttons marked "DANGER do not push!!!"; has an adventuresome spirit to go with big puppy dog eyes that help him to finagle his way out of trouble.

    - A buxom young firebrand who has been saved from certain peril by the AbysmalElf, and fills the role of almost-but-not-quite love interest to Shoenan. Certainly not the fighting type, she uses her feminine whiles and intuition to make it through the world, though her viperish tongue often will get her and those acquainted with her into trouble.

    El Skid on
  • Super NamicchiSuper Namicchi Orange County, CARegistered User regular
    edited April 2011
    well, if you end up going with either of those, i'll go ahead and take the resident Magical Person spot instead. because damn, we need someone to be able to tell if the Golden Idol is cursed.

    Super Namicchi on
  • INeedNoSaltINeedNoSalt with blood on my teeth Registered User regular
    edited May 2015
    zzz

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  • El SkidEl Skid The frozen white northRegistered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Sure, I like the players and GM enough that I think this would be a suitably epic game.

    I'll need quite a bit of handholding around character creation, though. :)

    El Skid on
  • INeedNoSaltINeedNoSalt with blood on my teeth Registered User regular
    edited May 2015
    zzz

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  • Super NamicchiSuper Namicchi Orange County, CARegistered User regular
    edited April 2011
    he means #darktimes

    Super Namicchi on
  • INeedNoSaltINeedNoSalt with blood on my teeth Registered User regular
    edited May 2015
    zzz

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  • INeedNoSaltINeedNoSalt with blood on my teeth Registered User regular
    edited May 2015
    zzz

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  • El SkidEl Skid The frozen white northRegistered User regular
    edited April 2011
    I guess that's not such a bad idea! Not going to post stats and stuff as I'm still mulling things over, but here are the high-level details:

    My character is a teenage street urchin- through his pickpocketing and information gathering skills he's been noticed by the local crime lord in Takh and is being groomed to take over whenever the crime lord bites it.

    He's incredibly curious and adventurous, and only his speed and cunning (and puppy dog eyes) have helped him survive this far. And probably alot of luck too.

    I'm thinking that around the time the story starts he's heard a rumour through the criminal grapevine of a powerful prince from a neighboring kingdom passing through the city with some sort of wedding gift... He pulled off an amazing heist, and obtained...something I haven't quite decided what it is yet, but it's incredibly valuable and/or sentimental for him. And probably quite worthless to my character. Still fleshing out the details on this one, but feel free to interject any details in here that would help your own character development, or help tie together our characters.

    I was thinking Shoenan resucing my character from this guy's guards or something, but we should talk about that.

    Must go back to housework, but that's the core of my character anyway. Mechanically he's talky, stealthy, very fast, and has moderate combat capabilities.

    El Skid on
  • Abysmal LynxAbysmal Lynx Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    I suppose no progress will be made if I don't actually make the character. Since the setting is pretty nebulous so far and I don't have a good grasp on Strands yet, this is going to be a bit rambley, but I suppose that's alright.

    For a name, I'm thinking Drascal Amrista Des Le'mu'ra. I'm thinking Drascal is basically his first name, Amrista is his clan, while Des is sort of an equivalent of "the," "of," or some combination of them. Le'mu'ra is sort of a combination descriptor/surname. It's more of a description of his family and the characteristics they have then a surname, but it serves the same purpose. It's also some sort of shorthand for something that includes the region they come from and their standing compared to other families in the clan.

    Personality-wise, Drascal is bitter and a little sarcastic. He can be kind in his own way, but he tends to be cruel to his enemies. As for his appearance, he's very wiry, even by elf standards do to a combination of malnutrition and pushing himself too hard. The left side of his body is covered in burns, including his face. Both his burns and his unburned skin is very pale. Drrascal's hair is a very light orange, while his good eye is purplish. He tends to wear well made, if rough looking clothing with a preference for the color gray. He tries to cover up as much of his body as he can, as he's ashamed of his appearance. He wears an eye-patch over his left eye, as although he can still make out shapes and how bright or dark it is with it, it also looks pretty bad.

    He comes from a large elvish town called Muranalan that was attacked by another clan. Muranalan had previously seen very little bloodshed, but after the murder of a prominent member of the Larunas clan that itself was the result of a minor squabble with an up-and-comer in the Amrista clan. The murderer and his family was killed in revenge and their house was burned. Unfortunately the fire spread and killed most of the Amristan's in town. The fire killed a lot of other people to and pretty much devastated everyone, so many of the survivors left to find a better life, including Drascal, who was the second cousin of the man who killed the Larunan.

    I'll flesh out the background more and do a good writeup when I actually make the character. Right now I'm also interested in seeing what everyone else thinks of it and what they come up with for their characters so I can make it better.

    I'm thinking he'll fight with a saber and use a scutum (one of those Roman shields). As for armor he'll probably wear a brigandine because it grants him mobility and because he's poor. I suspect his outfit will look vaguely Scottish.

    As for his stats, I think he'll be more on the physical side, favoring Agility and Endurance over Strength. I don't know whether he should have good Perception because he's an elf and a mercenary, or whether it should be horrible do to his burned face and ear. For his other Abilities, I think his Willpower and Reasoning will be decent, but everything else will probably be terrible.

    I'll need more information about character creation before I create my Aspects and assign my Abilities and Advantages and such, but otherwise I think I know what direction he's going in.

    Also, here's some advice: Do not look up burn victim on Google image search.

    Abysmal Lynx on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • El SkidEl Skid The frozen white northRegistered User regular
    edited May 2011
    So is this not going to be a thing?

    I know arc and I had mostly-done characters, sounds like Lynx has at least a good start...shoe, are you still interested?

    El Skid on
  • HorseshoeHorseshoe Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    i'm still here

    and still interested

    although i should warn you skid

    sidekicks of big stong barbarian types very rarely survive more than one issue of Strange Tales

    honestly it would be cool to have a guy who big strong barbarian could see as an equal

    a king of thieves, a prince of rogues, etc

    as in

    "wait... you're the guy who stole the statue of the crocodile god from the temple of a thousand deaths?"

    Horseshoe on
    dmsigsmallek3.jpg
  • El SkidEl Skid The frozen white northRegistered User regular
    edited May 2011
    Yeah, my concept was originally to have this be a young rogue who showed tons of promise and had started doing that stuff, but wasn't really well known yet (though he would be through the adventure). Plus the minor hero-worship stuff doesn't really work when you're the king of the thieves already, and I thought that would be fun.

    Yourself and Arc are making epic amazing characters though, so I dunno... do I need to go there, even if it's not really what I was feeling for the character? Or maybe I should go back to the drawing board and do something more up to the level of the campaign...

    El Skid on
  • INeedNoSaltINeedNoSalt with blood on my teeth Registered User regular
    edited May 2015
    zzz

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  • HorseshoeHorseshoe Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    El Skid wrote: »
    Yeah, my concept was originally to have this be a young rogue who showed tons of promise and had started doing that stuff, but wasn't really well known yet (though he would be through the adventure). Plus the minor hero-worship stuff doesn't really work when you're the king of the thieves already, and I thought that would be fun.

    Yourself and Arc are making epic amazing characters though, so I dunno... do I need to go there, even if it's not really what I was feeling for the character? Or maybe I should go back to the drawing board and do something more up to the level of the campaign...

    man screw the first level babytime adventurer model

    grow your dude up like... ten years or something

    this world is already built on your existence

    there's songs about you in the smoky taverns of shanty towns

    perhaps your name is a curse in the temples of reptillian gods

    or yous is the unseen hand that has felled kingdoms without a sound

    you've already got a good start

    Horseshoe on
    dmsigsmallek3.jpg
  • Super NamicchiSuper Namicchi Orange County, CARegistered User regular
    edited May 2011
    Name: Zalera White-Eyes
    High Concept: Sorceress Desert-Born

    Character Aspects
    The Magic's In My Blood
    Where I Walk, Death Follows
    Oath-Breaker
    Practical Mind, Soft Heart

    PHYSICAL
    Agi 1
    Endurance 2
    Perception 1 (Mana-Blinded Eyes)
    Strength 3 (Trained In Swordsmanship By The Caliph Himself)

    MENTAL
    Craft 0
    Knowledge 2 (I Have Studied Most of the Ancient Texts)
    Reasoning 2
    Willpower 2

    SOCIAL
    Deception 1
    Empathy 3
    Persuasion 2 (I Betrayed The High Priest of Jahara)
    Resources 1 (The Twin Fangs of Jahara)

    ADVANTAGES
    Experienced
    Dervish
    Control Magic (Affinities: Mana 1, Elementalism 3, Necromancy 3, Vitamancy 1)
    Iron Will
    Mounted Warrior

    STRESS
    Physical 5
    Mental 7
    Social 3

    STUFF

    Akir, a horse
    Ancient books of spellcraft and lore
    Three pouches of ritual and medicinal herbs
    Two blades from the Caliph's personal collection (Twin Fangs of Jahara)

    actual fluff shit later

    Super Namicchi on
  • HorseshoeHorseshoe Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    hey so for ze purposes of ze character creation

    what campaign level we at

    Horseshoe on
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  • INeedNoSaltINeedNoSalt with blood on my teeth Registered User regular
    edited May 2015
    zzz

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  • HorseshoeHorseshoe Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    yep that be the one

    thanks man

    Horseshoe on
    dmsigsmallek3.jpg
  • INeedNoSaltINeedNoSalt with blood on my teeth Registered User regular
    edited May 2015
    zzz

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  • Abysmal LynxAbysmal Lynx Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    Mythic Hero you say? I'll try and get around to creating my character soon. My brother has been a computer hog the last couple of days.

    Abysmal Lynx on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • INeedNoSaltINeedNoSalt with blood on my teeth Registered User regular
    edited May 2015
    zzz

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  • HorseshoeHorseshoe Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    First pass at a character sheet:
    Jotunn the Barbarian

    Character Aspects
    - Noble Savage
    - Born in the Wilds
    - King of the Arena
    - Mercenary Captain
    - Terror of the Seas
    - Yields To None

    Specialty Aspects
    - Death Defiant (Endurance)
    - Savage Berzerker (Strength)
    - Temple Raider (Agility)
    - Nerves of Steel (Willpower)
    - World Traveller (Knowledge)
    - Natural Leader (Persuasion)
    - Heart of Stone (Empathy)

    Abilities (26 pts)

    Physical
    - agility 2
    - endurance 4
    - perception 2
    - strength 4

    Mental
    - Craft 1
    - Knowledge 1
    - Reasoning 2
    - Willpower 3

    Social
    - Deception 1
    - Empathy 1
    - Persuasion 2
    - Resources 3

    Stress Tracks
    - Physical 8
    - Mental 5
    - Social 5

    Starting Gear
    - Battle Axe
    - Heavy Shield
    - Chain Mail
    - Dagger
    - Horse

    Advantages (12 pts)
    Juggernaut
    Experienced (1 character aspect, 2 specialty aspects)
    Strategist
    Weapon Expertise (Heavy Blades)
    Linguist
    Fearless
    Mounted Warrior

    Horseshoe on
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  • INeedNoSaltINeedNoSalt with blood on my teeth Registered User regular
    edited May 2015
    zzz

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  • HorseshoeHorseshoe Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    he had a pirate ship for a while raiding the southern kingdoms. worked out okay for a few years. ships unfortunately get wrecked sometimes. i already said "mercenary captain" so "pirate captain" was too... captain-y.

    anyway on aspects i stayed away from specific people, and basically i tried to keep aspects to just a few words for brevity

    death defiant: could invoke/compel this as as someone who remembers Jotunn from his time as a mercenary or pirate captain as "what the fuck i thought i saw you die a few years ago!"

    savage berzerker: could invoke/compel this as as some who recognizes Jotunn's particular race or remembers an event involving his freak strength

    temple raider: are you a thief, priest or temple guard? remember that one guy who stole that snake idol with the eyes made out of rubies? yeah.

    world traveller: almost writes itself

    Natural Leader: "hey aren't you that guy who ransacked the City Of Towers with a band of ragged mountain bandits?" followed either by "awesome!" or "GUARDS!"


    Jotunn is probably the kind of guy who has heard people screaming "GUARDS! GUARDS!" a lot during his life

    I could probably write a ton of stuff dealing directly with each aspect if you'd like. It just makes for an unweildy character sheet trying to turn them into sentences, and keeping them general seems to make for more interesting "compel" scenarios.

    Horseshoe on
    dmsigsmallek3.jpg
  • descdesc Goretexing to death Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    Oh man strands of fate? I just bought this and am in love.

    If a slot opens up, you know ... Just sayin'.

    desc on
  • Abysmal LynxAbysmal Lynx Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    Sorry I basically fell off the face of the Earth there, I had a pretty rough couple of days. My character is basically done, I'm just having trouble with equipment. My guy is really poor, but tower shields are expensive as fuck. Should I just start with a buckler for now?

    Oh, as for his weapon, I took a machete because that's basically what his sword is the elvish equivalent of.

    Abysmal Lynx on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • INeedNoSaltINeedNoSalt with blood on my teeth Registered User regular
    edited May 2015
    zzz

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