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[PbP] Godbound: There Came A Time When The Old Gods Died!

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Posts

  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    I mean, maybe your guys age.
    Mine doesn't.
    As soon as I have time to sit down and type.

  • AustinP0027AustinP0027 Registered User regular
    When I asked the question I was planning on aging but after writing Zane’s description, I’m actually thinking he won’t.

    He’s essentially a 19 year old physically, but I like the challenges that will add in that people won’t really listen to him. Plus, as his death side grows, I think it’s kind of funny/creepy to have a 19 year old avatar of death

  • InvictusInvictus Registered User regular
    edited June 2020
    When I asked the question I was planning on aging but after writing Zane’s description, I’m actually thinking he won’t.

    He’s essentially a 19 year old physically, but I like the challenges that will add in that people won’t really listen to him. Plus, as his death side grows, I think it’s kind of funny/creepy to have a 19 year old avatar of death

    Just as a heads up, Austin, and @Dex Dynamo you should correct me if I'm wrong, but you have two Words that adjust your Constitution. Surely those stack? Surely one makes your Constitution a 16, then the other makes it an 18?

    EDIT: also, i'm less confident about this, but I think you get your Dex bonus on top of your AC gift, giving you an AC of 19, not 17.

    Invictus on
    Generalísimo de Fuerzas Armadas de la República Argentina
  • AustinP0027AustinP0027 Registered User regular
    I meant to ask that on Con, actually. I assumed no stack.

    I honestly didn’t think about dex on top of AC so that would be good to know about too.

  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    The bonuses should stack.
    And I thought Dex goes on top of natural AC, just not armour.

  • InvictusInvictus Registered User regular
    discrider wrote: »
    The bonuses should stack.
    And I thought Dex goes on top of natural AC, just not armour.

    The way I read it, natural armor class doesn't stack with armor or shields (usually, as most gifts make that explicit), but there's nothing in the AC rules (p. 13) that I can find that says armor limits Dex bonus to AC at all. I'm used to that rule from various D&D 3.5/PF kinds of rules, but I'm pretty sure 2nd ed didn't have any "wearing armor means restricting dex" rules, and this ruleset seems closer to 2nd ed to me.

    Regardless, the only drawback to armor I can see in the rules is the penalty to saves, which honestly seems bad enough to me.

    Generalísimo de Fuerzas Armadas de la República Argentina
  • Dex DynamoDex Dynamo Registered User regular
    I don't have the rules in front of me, so my ruling is based strictly on "this makes you cooler, so fuck it" but go ahead and take the Higher AC.

    The drama of this game to me is rarely going to be "does this thing hit you," so I'm cool with it.

  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    edited June 2020
    Invictus wrote: »
    discrider wrote: »
    The bonuses should stack.
    And I thought Dex goes on top of natural AC, just not armour.

    The way I read it, natural armor class doesn't stack with armor or shields (usually, as most gifts make that explicit), but there's nothing in the AC rules (p. 13) that I can find that says armor limits Dex bonus to AC at all. I'm used to that rule from various D&D 3.5/PF kinds of rules, but I'm pretty sure 2nd ed didn't have any "wearing armor means restricting dex" rules, and this ruleset seems closer to 2nd ed to me.

    Regardless, the only drawback to armor I can see in the rules is the penalty to saves, which honestly seems bad enough to me.

    Sorry, I meant I thought natural AC feats allow Dex bonuses but not armour bonuses, rather than what I wrote

    discrider on
  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    Burr


    As filled out in the PDF


    Bur has always considered himself thrice cursed.
    He never knew his family. Instead he spent his youth bouncing from household to household.
    But between the raids, and the droughts, and the fires, it seemed no sooner than he had found a home, he was evicted from it.
    The most acceptance he found was on the streets, but then the authorities were always moving him on and sending him away.

    So he stayed away.
    He walked.
    As he grew older, he attempted to stay one step ahead of the misfortune that always dogged him.
    And so he would enter a town, help who he could and then keep walking.

    It's unclear when he started his ascent.
    The walking became shorter, as his feet stopped hurting.
    He became tireless, and his hands never failed him.
    He could feel the Earth beside him, and the pains of his past fell away.
    There was now, and he was now, and he could do anything he could put his hands to, as he had both the motivation and the time.

    Occasionally he'd meet another wanderer, and then they'd talk and share a secret or two.
    And so the rumours have spread of the master of the Empty Way.
    He appears out of the wilderness to aid, and then slips away into the dust.

  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    ... this character is dislocated from the setting we've built.


    .. maybe he just hates magitech, and has vowed to avoid it, while restoring the damaged environment which it has torched?

  • AustinP0027AustinP0027 Registered User regular
    It doesn't even have to be hate as much as just doesn't trust it. Or, could feel that it causes the people who have it to be worse than how they would be if they didn't.

    There's tons of angles on why someone would live in a world with magitech and not use it.

  • Dex DynamoDex Dynamo Registered User regular
    discrider wrote: »
    ... this character is dislocated from the setting we've built.


    .. maybe he just hates magitech, and has vowed to avoid it, while restoring the damaged environment which it has torched?

    Honestly, there are probably huge swaths of the world that simply aren't interacting with Magitech at all, be they outside the cities, from humble villages, that sort of thing. I had pictured a lot of the more Magitech-y aesthetics were pretty clustered, and a lot of the world being cut off from that, personally.

  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    Yeah, okay, nothing much changes, but the destruction wrought by the cataclysm and blamed on Magitech has caused Burr to distrust it.
    He can only rely on his own two hands to mend the damage that has been vented on his previous homes and the earth time and time again.

  • Dex DynamoDex Dynamo Registered User regular
    Do we have all our characters?

  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    I think we don't have @admanb 's character.

    It also looks like Invictus and AustinP haven't included all their Word stat bonuses (16 or 18 to an attribute depending on Word), unless I've done my character wrong (who has 3 stat bonuses, the array 16, and the Excellency power for three 18s :/ )

  • InvictusInvictus Registered User regular
    edited June 2020
    discrider wrote: »
    I think we don't have @admanb 's character.

    It also looks like Invictus and AustinP haven't included all their Word stat bonuses (16 or 18 to an attribute depending on Word), unless I've done my character wrong (who has 3 stat bonuses, the array 16, and the Excellency power for three 18s :/ )

    None of my Words give stat bonuses; the Word power for Artifice is produce any carryable object on an action; the Word power for Sword is can't be disarmed, can summon any melee weapon I've ever used to my hand as an instant action, all my my melee weapons count as magic; and the Word power for Luck is a d20 I roll at the beginning of the day I can use to replace any roll I know of.

    Austin didn't realize, I think, that the stat bonuses stack and I think he hasn't updated his sheet with the 18 Con he is therefore entitled to, given Dex's ruling.

    You actually picked three Words that all do stat bonuses, so you have giant stats, which honestly fits thematically to me.

    Invictus on
    Generalísimo de Fuerzas Armadas de la República Argentina
  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    Uhhh, whoops?
    I didn't even realise some words didn't give stats

  • admanbadmanb unionize your workplace Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    Sorry for the delay. I'll put my character together tomorrow morning.

  • Dex DynamoDex Dynamo Registered User regular
    admanb wrote: »
    Sorry for the delay. I'll put my character together tomorrow morning.

    No worries! Admittedly it's been a stressful week for me, so I totally lost track of who had posted what over the last few days.

  • AustinP0027AustinP0027 Registered User regular
    Updated my Con now (and the other stats that are adjusted due to it being higher)

  • InvictusInvictus Registered User regular
    discrider wrote: »
    Uhhh, whoops?
    I didn't even realise some words didn't give stats

    If it helps, on review I'm really happy with the flavor of your character as super high stats; the classic monk self-perfection line. I know you probably were thinking about it anyway (you did take excellence!) but I wanted to give you props and remind you that all gifts not having stat bonuses will make you more unique here. Honestly, I'm happier Jason's Words give him things to do instead anyway.

    Generalísimo de Fuerzas Armadas de la República Argentina
  • AustinP0027AustinP0027 Registered User regular
    Yeah, I'm really excited about how the characters have formed so far (and based on his quick blurb, I'm sure admanb's is going to be great as well).

    We have definitely gone different directions from each other, and I'm interested to see how that'll play out.

  • InvictusInvictus Registered User regular
    Yeah, I'm really excited about how the characters have formed so far (and based on his quick blurb, I'm sure admanb's is going to be great as well).

    We have definitely gone different directions from each other, and I'm interested to see how that'll play out.

    Well, we are so far all wanderers, which is a fun combination :)

    Generalísimo de Fuerzas Armadas de la República Argentina
  • admanbadmanb unionize your workplace Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    edited July 2020
    ???

    They say his mother lied to a priest on the eve of his birth, but it's always their way to blame a woman.

    They say her father won a round of cards and took a talisman from a man no one ever saw before or since, but it's always their way to blame the father.

    They say he was born under the shadow of three moons, but it's always their way to blame the cosmos.

    They say she challenged Fox to a race, and as Fox watched this human lope and fall her way to the finish line Fox laughed and laughed, but Fox laughed so loud and so long that Fox forgot to race, and that's how she took Fox's speed.

    They say he traded a half-eaten apple for a merchant's cart and became a merchant for a time.

    They say she whispered in a king's ear and became a queen for a time.

    They say in a moment of darkness he jumped into the night sky and hopped from star to star until he fell below the horizon and into the consuming fires of the Sun, but the Sun spoke to him and sent him back to earth, and that is why sun and shadow chase each other inside him.

    They say this and much more, but who can say what's true.

    Character Sheet
    Stats:
    Str - 10
    Dex - 16
    Con - 13
    Wis - 13
    Int - 14
    Cha - 18

    Saves
    Hard: 14
    Evasi: 13
    Spir: 12

    HP: 11

    Combat:
    Rifle - +3 to hit, 1d8+2 damage
    Rapier/dirk - +3 to hit, 1d10+2 damage
    Fray die: d8

    AC: 13/19 (without and with Body of Burning Light)

    Facts:
    Origin:
    Past career:
    Relationship: The Sun

    Words:
    Alacrity - Heroes with the Alacrity Word cannot be surprised. They may increase their Dexterity to 16, or to 18 if it’s already 16 or higher.
    Deception - Heroes with the Deception Word may raise either their Dexterity or Charisma to 16, depending on whether they favor stealth or lies. If either score is already 16 or higher, they may set it to 18 instead.
    Sun - Heroes with the Sun Word may shed daylight at will up to 200 feet, cannot be blinded or their vision impaired by darkness or mists, and have an invincible defense against fire damage. Their vision can pierce blindfolds or survive even the physical removal of their eyes.

    Divine Gifts:
    Body of Burning Light (Sun/Lesser/On Turn) - Commit Effort. Your brilliance makes you almost impossible to target, by creatures who operate by means of vision. While you shine, your natural AC is 3 against creatures with sight. Your weapons or unarmed attacks count as a magical weapon with a range of 200 feet, and do a minimum of 1d10 damage. Your corona counts as natural sunlight for susceptible creatures. Armor and shields don't aid this AC
    Perfect Masquerade (Deception/Lesser/On Turn) - Commit Effort. Instantly appear as any humanoid you have seen. Only worthy foes or those with significant personal knowledge of the individual have any chance to make a Spirit save against the deception unless you do something egregiously out of character. You instinctively mimic voice, clothing, mannerisms, and expected habits of behavior
    Deceiver’s Unblinking Eye (Deception/Lesser/Constant) - You can always tell when someone’s trying to lie to you or deceive you. You can see through mortal illusions and disguises. This gift does not affect other Godbound with the Deception Word.
    Conviction of Error (Deception/Greater/Action) - Commit Effort. All chosen targets present become convinced that one of their beliefs of your choice is actually a terrible lie that has been imposed upon them, whether it is the existence of a god or the fidelity of their spouse. Worthy foes get a Spirit saving throw. They may reconsider this conviction of error once Effort is reclaimed, but will do so only under great pressure of emotions or obvious facts.
    Flickering Advance (Alacrity/Lesser/On Turn) - Commit Effort to scene end. Instantly reach any location you can see with your unaided sight out to the horizon, which is usually about three miles away for a character standing on flat terrain. From a high elevation, the maximum range is ten times as far.
    Resources
    Effort - 2
    Influence - 2
    Dominion - 0
    Wealth - 0


    admanb on
  • AustinP0027AustinP0027 Registered User regular
    I'm really glad someone took Sun. It was such a great looking power set, I just couldn't come up with any character concepts around it that I particularly liked.

  • Dex DynamoDex Dynamo Registered User regular
    Hell yeah. I love all of your characters.

    I'm going to spend a day or two making notes and putting a scenario together. Stay tuned!

  • Dex DynamoDex Dynamo Registered User regular
    You have heard stories of the War Machines of Curm. The tiny border town on lockdown, held at the whim of a powerful despot with a fleet of warsuits. The people who live in hushed fear. Where have you heard about them, what one specific rumor have you heard about the town (its people, its culture, the environment, etc.), and what draws you toward the town itself?

    My rumor:
    • Armed soldiers patrol the streets. The Bastion, the ruler of Curm, walks with a heavily armed guard. And yet, the artillery suits (the War Machines Of Curm themselves) are pointed away from the populace, towards the chasm caves on the outskirts of town. Never moving, always armed. The hum of readied cannons are unending.

  • InvictusInvictus Registered User regular
    When Jason heard about Curm, he knew he had a place to go. The Bastion is exactly the kind of tyrant that was his fundamental target, and if the rumors about the the screams coming out of the War Machines themselves were true, not only the citizens needed help.

    Generalísimo de Fuerzas Armadas de la República Argentina
  • AustinP0027AustinP0027 Registered User regular
    edited June 2020
    Curm shouldn’t be a place that drew anyone’s real attention. It’s a small town, with no specific resource abundance, yet it now is occupied. Rumors have started to escape, however, of something significant either within the town or nearby. Something possibly valuable hidden when the world ended, and potentially something worth taking over the town for.

    Zane is drawn there by the likelihood that an occupied town is a suffering town. He has no specific feelings of removing the occupying force, but he wants to make sure the townsfolk aren't suffering from poor care.

    AustinP0027 on
  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    Burr had heard that the War Machines weren't always machines.
    That the students of the low theurgies found their tools dull and inadequate, and instead cut the magic harnesses into their own flesh.
    That the suits were now mostly empty as system after system was grafted on.
    That the theurgy had taken its cost, as is its wont.

    Still, there's no saving someone from themselves.
    Burr is more interested in seeing how he could help the villagers who have seen their fields subsumed by the chasms.

  • admanbadmanb unionize your workplace Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    Ina, as they were calling her today, heard the Bastion has a soft spot for his family. Particularly a young son who was showing flashes of artistic genius. Though the boy was an eager student the father had driven away a number of master artists he brought in as teachers, and one hadn’t been seen since he incurred Bastion’s wrath.

    Ina was here because the missing artist was an old friend of hers (not that they would recognize her now) and she felt she owed them something.

  • Dex DynamoDex Dynamo Registered User regular
    And so you all gather, possibly for the first time in ages, possibly having traveled here together in the encampment village of Whisper Downs, on the outskirts of Anur-Azak, about a two-day trip from Curm. The shadow of the city buildings loom behind you, and you see the remnants of the great field-tilling machines settled on distant fields as you settle into the last checkpoint before the wilds.

    Tents and campsites surround you, and people, mostly travelers passing through just as the four of you are, pass by you on all sides. The sounds are all the hustle and bustle of a crowded market. People are trading stories, secrets, rumors, and supplies... most particularly because information, gossip, tall tales, and words are simply how things are traded in Whisper Downs. This is where you've all picked up on each of your rumors in the short time before meeting up.

    Most of the commercial spots of Whisper Downs are travel amenities (after all, that's how you get the best gossip). There are some outdoor festival-style gambling spaces, refreshment tents, Burrow-Worm stables, and a large field for competitive trash-talk battles. It's a bit... slap-dash of an encampment, but it's warm and buzzing and homey, so there are worse places to be.

    Questions for you:
    • You all know and are comfortable working together with at least one other party member, and possibly the whole group. What do you envision as your relationship to the other PCs?
    • Where do you all meet up with one another within Whisper Downs?
    • Is there anything additional you want to seek out in town before heading into the wild?
    • And if not, you have a few options for how to make the trek:
    1. Do you take Lockhammer Pass, one of the few guarded roads left in the Wilds, and negotiate with (the term negotiate used with maximum eye-roll) The Watchers Of The Road?
    2. Do you follow The Two Lovers' Way, an interlocking series of caves and rivers which will add time, but ensure you arrive in shadow?
    3. Or, do you take your chances and push through the Wasted Wood, potentially the quickest and least expensive route... provided the Stilt-Legged Fishers don't spot you?

  • InvictusInvictus Registered User regular
    edited June 2020
    Jason might actually have encountered any number of the other three, including all of them, in his roamings. I'm in for any explanation of how we met, as long as Jason was roaming and trying to help people be self-sufficient. I'm in fact happy to be our touchstone, if people want an easy explanation for how we're all together.

    Jason definitely wants to take Lockhammer Pass and either aid or hurt The Watchers Of The Road as is appropriate; people, even raiders, have to eat, and if we can arrange things to where they eat while not hurting others that's a win. If we can't do that, well...

    Jason also wants information about The Watchers, and will seek it out in camp. He is happy to trade well-made gear for it.

    EDIT: Other PCs should take this as a pre-emptive "Yes, and..." for any story they wanna tell about them and Jason. Also, is 'them' cool for your char, @admanb ?

    Invictus on
    Generalísimo de Fuerzas Armadas de la República Argentina
  • AustinP0027AustinP0027 Registered User regular
    Zane met Jason on the road and has been traveling with him. The young man followed the older one at first due to subconsciously seeking out someone more experienced that would fill the role of the leader that he had grown to need. As they traveled and Zane's confidence grew, instead he kept following Jason due to a similar viewpoint of helping others. (Leaving this open ended on how long they traveled together, and how many others would have joined along the way).

    Zane's previous life as a hunter gives him confidence that he would be able to get through the Wasted Wood, but he still views himself internally as young, so defers to what others would decide.

    Within the camp, Zane would seek out any that are suffering from more serious illnesses to heal them. He would do it more discreetly, as he isn't ready to announce his presence in this place openly.

  • admanbadmanb unionize your workplace Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    Let's say Ina has crossed paths with both Jason and Burr in that past, though my idea glands are failing to generate a story right now. Ina's definitely less heroic than some (all?) of the other PCs, but she'd recognize a powerful ally and jump in to help.

    Ina would be moving through the camp, listening and talking to as many people as possible, so she would stumble on the others wherever they were.

    Ina would push to take Lockhammer Pass as well, as she's always most comfortable dealing with people. In one way or another.

    (@Invictus et/all: they/them are always appropriate pronouns for my character, but the pronouns of whoever they currently "are" are also appropriate. Right now they're Ina and they're she/her.)

  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    edited June 2020
    Burr has met Jason from time to time in his travels. On such occasions, it would not be uncommon to see Jason fashioning raw materials for Burr to hammer into place in some unfortunate village.
    Despite the comradery there, eventually it would be time to part ways, often due to Burr's predilection against Jason's 'toys' as he would call them.
    Burr would refuse anything with the Artificier's magic running through it, blaming such tools for the fracture of the world.

    Zane is welcome company though, and Burr wonders how Jason managed to find such an accomplished apprentice.

    Burr isn't sure what to make of Ina.
    On the occasion they've crossed paths, he's been a powerful ally in a fight. But he's also, too airy?
    Burr believes in himself, and in knowing himself, and that knowing these truths are the start of true power, but Burr isn't sure that Ina believes in any truth.
    Maybe this is just youth.

    Burr is comfortable heading in any direction from the Whisper Downs, having traveled most every path before.
    Ideally, he'd prefer to take The Two Lovers' Way (:whistle:SECRET TUNNEL THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS:whistle:), because he doesn't actively seek confrontation, and the distance doesn't matter for him.
    Otherwise, he will not shirk from making trouble with the Watchers, or being left for dead only to swim several kilometers to safety through the Wasted Woods' marshes.

    In Whisper Downs at the moment though, Burr has been ambling from group to group, picking up tales of things gone wrong and trying to figure where to head next.
    Most the people here seem happy enough, so he wants to leave before that changes, but before then he'll shlack out the Worms' quarters.
    That's always good for a coin or two.

    discrider on
  • Dex DynamoDex Dynamo Registered User regular
    Jason, you're able to strike a deal for some information on The Watchers fairly easily, especially with the trade of some well-made armor.

    They're an organization small in number but large in weaponry. Only about 20 Watchers exist, patrolling the road that connects Azur-Anek to Zhuun, as well as a few offshoot communities. However, due in small part to an... arrangement with various smugglers, gunrunners, and organized outfits operating out of Zhuun, the Watchers ride on mecha-dragonflies and wield the finest crafted claymores. They are not a group to trifle with... though, the same could be said for a cavalcade of Godbound.

    Ina, you're able to pick up a lot of the same information; this is clearly a topic the people of Whisper Downs spend a lot of time discussing. However, you also get a few stories of the Stilt-Legged Fishers from a merchant caravan that cut through the woods. 10 feet tall, hooked hands, pack hunters... if you see one, they say, you're surrounded by 10. And yet, though everyone in the caravan is wounded and scraped up and terrified, it sounds like only one person, the group's enforcer, a large burly person named Carville, was actually "taken." Grabbed, pulled into a tree, and almost in an instant, the Fishers disappeared.

    Zane, make me a Charisma or a Dexterity Check (whichever is better). You're able to heal people fairly effortlessly, but I'd like you to roll to see if you can properly hide your Godbound talents from the wandering eyes and the whispers of Whisper Downs.

    Burr, Stories are always in abundance in Whisper Downs. Assume you've heard all of this, and reports from explorers of the Two Lovers' Way that, though the caves seem to follow a straight line, sometimes when you exit the other side, you may find yourself in a place entirely unlike what you expected. Time, distance, place, even the laws of the universe seem to change when you pass through them.

    (So it sounds like you're all on-board for the Watchers, still? If so, I'll send you on your merry way.)

  • admanbadmanb unionize your workplace Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    edited June 2020
    Ina is actually a bit more curious about the Fishers now. A well-armed group that takes money from travelers is annoying but nothing unusual -- in some areas they're just called the army, but a crew of hunters that ambushes, doesn't kill, but kidnaps strong bodies? That's interesting.

    admanb on
  • InvictusInvictus Registered User regular
    edited June 2020
    The campfire burns low, as the four friends-of-friends share dinner.

    "I call for testing these Watchers. Roads are a value worth protecting, but this is a core roadway, and people need to move between. I see the value in...investigating...these marsh beasts, if not the Watchers, but caves don't interest me."

    Invictus on
    Generalísimo de Fuerzas Armadas de la República Argentina
  • AustinP0027AustinP0027 Registered User regular
    Zane attempts to use his quickness to keep himself inconspicuous as he heals those direly in need. He isn't flashy, and he doesn't ask for thanks, he just heals and moves on.

    Geth, roll 1d20+2 for Dex check

    Dex check:
    1d20+2 5 [1d20=3]

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