ooc Scoundrels

Please make characters here. Once approved, submit them to the game under game details below.

@rabbits, any interest?

@rabbits @dominic @mathias0077 @jomsviking I posted a character sheet under Character Creation in Game Details. I also invited each of you to game.

So I am once again pitching the BFS weilding protagonist.

I am flexible on elemental magic. Though I would prefer something based on void/metal.

I will wait for the others to decide as I am much more familiar.

Initially he will just be super strong. Strength of 4. As he levels he will develop his mind.

Okay, you are writing about pathfinder- or scoundrel-rules?

I'm writing strictly about fluff text as a character theme. Magic can be categorized into 5 rings in any system.

As for my part, I'm thinking on two paths here:
Either, if we play a classical mixed group, a supporter like Subotai, an archer, not exactly a thief, but one who dabbles in the mystics to better his situation/shooting
Or, in the case of the preferred Sword & Sorcery genre, a lean fighter who prefers to use spears and pole weapons; more city-oriented than wilderness-oriented.

What are the others thinking about style of play?

Absolutely

I was thinking a thief/fighter

Eloras is originally a steppe warrior who constantly practises shooting and is therefore constantly busy making new arrows.

He has been living in cities and ‘civilised’ settlements for some time now, avoiding the steppe altogether, whatever happened there.

He is known for making quite a fuss about important shots, but then hitting them unerringly.

ooc:
He is mainly an archer, but knows rituals (not spells) to better his survival/endeavours. So with preparation, he can come up with a few tricks.

Still not fixed, this is only an idea for play. ;-)

"Magic Missile" or equivalent seems like a DS 9 spell in scoundrels terms. Easy mode for "tough" shots to go right where intended. Especially if the bow is counted as another trinket toward the casting of the spell … then the roll is 2d6+5 v DS 9, practically can't miss.

But consider that casting a spell is always dangerous, whereas shooting a bow without magic is never dangerous.

How much does a short bow and arrows cost?

20 $ for a light missile weapon

Hoping we go long enough to get his Mind up to 2, in that time I should be able to work into the fiction his discovery of The Empty Steel or some other mystical concept that he can build magic.

Starting in the Eastern part of Xoth will be good for that. Even if he doesn't level high enough there, he can make contacts that can lead him to mystic temples back West.

There's kind of a quirk in the rules as I wrote them. With Strength 4 he is limited to 20 starting silver. Perhaps he is in debt to someone for the other 20 to buy the BFS. Maybe he is in debt to Aktar Besh and working it off, that is why he is with this mule caravan in Azjan so far from his savage northern homeland of Lamu or Tharag Thule. Or he could be from Shoma or Ikuna. Up to you!

@tibbius - Thanks for the invite, I'm heading out of town until Wednesday. I'll try and keep up with the others character decisions and have something when I get back.

@esidrix it is ok to think about party balance but also ok to not worry about it. Either we have a "classical mixed group" to paraphrase Dominic, or we have all swords against sorcery.

I have submitted my character for inspection and approval

He is approved!

@dominic for Eloras: I have added Lamuran and Susrahnite as languages. Instead of an assistant to shamans I would have him be a former acolyte of the spider-priests, whose home village was plagued by an infestation of fatally venomous arachnids; he does blame himself for this as he thinks he screwed up his part of a priestly ritual. (In fact the ritual went fine; it was supposed to summon the plague of spiders.)

Also, would it be interesting if all of Eloras' tricks were spider-based? An arrow that becomes an entangling web, a venomous arrow, spider-climbing, an arrow that becomes a spider sharing its visions with him?

A nice feature, well indeed. ;-)

It was not uncommon historically for Varangians to have debts. Learning to make perfume or medicine was quite expensive. I think it makes sense this way.

As for metal based magics, taking a play from JRPGs might be a good move. Magic missile would look like:


Blade Burst(Magic Missile)
"The technique was based on the draw, the swordsman could draw and strike with such force that the wind became the blade. A technique based on the strike of a mantis shrimp, it never misses and is almost always a mortal wound."

What would you think of a sword as a familiar? Perhaps it is imbued by the essence of countless lives taken?

That would fit well in the fiction as he builds his Mind score over time and slaughter. By the time his Mind is high enough to use magic (at least 30 rolls made), there should be lives in the blade to awaken it.

For the sake of the setting I will need your character to be a Tharagan who has been in the service of King Achad VI of Taraam. For the sake of being able to play with the other characters, he will need to start with only 3 Strength and 1 Mind so that he has an additional language. His languages should be Tharagan, Lamuran, and very limited Taraamite. Having been in the service of King Achad VI perhaps he has absconded with his royal-issued great big sword, and still has 20 $ to spend!

@mathias0077, Hanford Dixon's 1 Mind gives him another language beyond the cultural languages. Taraamite might be good to know, but pick any.

@dominic with 2 Mind, Eloras can start knowing two more languages. Taraamite might be useful, as it is the border language to the Eastern lands and many people of Laksha or Azjan might speak it. Maybe Eloras even can speak Bhangari, which is the local language in Laksha and Azjan.

Whats most important is he speaks the universal language of ultraviolence.

:lol: !

I plan on writing an album for this game should it go on long enough.

Something I have been mulling over, what if instead of absconding with the sword the character is a champion ofthe king and as an agent uses a very easily identifiable piece of the king's armory as a tool to represent authority.

A play on "I let my sword do the talking"

This leads to the question, why is the king's champion escorting a spice merchant in a foreign land?

Oh thats easy. He is a spy. Easily penetrable cover plus no one would believe someone so brutish is capable of subtlety.

A debt is a good tie to adventure. An obligation is better.

Because it is fun to die in character creation rolling for aging.

@esidrix @jomsviking Please submit characters in Game Details. I would like to post first game post Monday.

@tibbius Character submitted.

"Basillus, this dog is defective. It should be put to death for its temper."

Life had been brutal in the frozen north, it built a hardy kind of human, the unforgiving cold created them without remorse. Even a child from the region when pressed would show these traits. As did the barbarian, who stood over the body of the youth he had slain. It had not been the artful strikes of a trained warrior, but swift unfeeling savagery. Hungry eyes, empty of pity, but full of rage turned to the men who had pitted the two boys in combat.

These eyes understood, though there was a language barrier, they understood that violence was the reason he had been given as hostage. They understood pain. They understood hate.

"Of course it appears defective Kasim, that is a wolf."

WIP

@mathias0077

Could you post the sheet code you are using? It looks nice.

I used the one on the main page from our game just click on character sheet.

What are you thinking in terms of ecology. Fauna specifically. Mounts?

Standard Bronze Age Earth stuff, nothing super interesting.

Welcome to the Koryos fellow wolves!

@esidrix

Nox coming with or will we meet them later?

Yeah, basically, we should roll in every post we do (and did) to advance early to next level. A metagaming decision which I had overlooked or, more likely, had suppressed.

So, at least one of us advanced at the start of combat.

Yes.

Right now the timer is on. All failed rolls are counting it down but the advantage of levelling outweighs the cost of failure

My sincere thanks. Would have come more handy if you had wrote that in the beginning, like a reminder for the leveling mechanic.

I feel like in a contest in every group I play with you. It's not a pleasant feeling for me. If you are interested in chatting about it, we could exchange personal messages.

By the way:
I'm a friend of creativity and player empowerment, as player and as a GM, but I try to be restrained in the beginning of a round with unknown GMs. Seems to have been unnecessary.

Then compete if thats what you need to do.

Or do not.

I am not in competition with anyone but the dice roller.

Thanks for clarifying that.

I realise that I don't feel comfortable with you, and that's hindering my game. Before I spoil the mood for all of you even more, I'll spare you my presence.

You aren't spoiling my mood. You don't have that power. You choose to feel, whatever big feels you are having. I don't have the power to make you.



But if you want to leave for any reason, that was always an option.

But let us be perfectly honest. You aren't doing it for us. Feelings are deeply personal constructs. Do what feels good, or what feels bad if you are so inclined.

Can we squash this and continue on?