So I went with the full eight, don’t make me regret it. I’ll post as much as I am able to, but real life will sometimes get in the way. My aim is no less than five posts per week, but be aware that especially in July I might have trouble getting to a computer.
A reminder of my DM style:
Spoiler
I'm tactics light, roleplay heavy.
Tactics light: I dislike combat maps. They slow down everything and are more trouble than they're worth. I prefer abstract movement. While I realize the need for a common idea of the encounter battleground, I prefer to get over that difficulty with verbal descriptions rather than a map on a grid. I'll provide a general map of the area if that is required.
Roleplay heavy: I like to see the characters interact with the world in many ways, not just with the spearhead. Most of my encounters will have ways of solving them without resorting to violence. Some will not. (Because hey, this is D&D after all.) In combat situations, roleplaying will also be encouraged: choosing a hated enemy instead of the most dangerous one may be a good choice.
Creativity in resource use is encouraged and rewarded.
My tabletop game is aslo set in this world, the characters are all wizards. I reward them for finding new and inventive uses for their spells. Also, getting into and out of combat is a serious business for low-level wizards, so they need to think thrice before doing such things, and they better have devious plans.
If you can find a clever way of solving a difficult situation with an unexpected or devious use of your resources, I will reward that with something, most likely bonus XP.
Cool moves and spell use will often go over the RAW.
See above; describing your attacks and spell uses and doing the unconventional and creative will have a better chance of success than just "I hit it with me sword".
Players have minor diegetic power, while I retain control of the major lines in the world.
Diegesis is a word used by roleplaying scholars. In this context it means the narration of the world. In particular this means that while I wish to retain control of how the world works and what the NPC's and monsters do, players are free to input details, color and atmosphere even while in-game. (Players have great diegetic power with their character background, but often not in-game.) I find that giving some power to the players will improve everyone's immersion greatly.
This is especially true when combined with the above two points. Example: The group is fighting on a road of packed dirt. The fighter is bullrushed and falls prone, but retaliates: "I fling a handful of horse droppings in the brute's face and stand up while he's spitting and cursing." I will let this fly and the fighter takes no AoO from getting up. While I did not specify there's a pile of horse droppings next to the fighter, it's a reasonable thing to find on a road.
Use this power to enrich the world we're playing in, do not try to abuse it to get unfair advantages.
I guess all this can be summed up in: this is a game of imagination. Use it.
On alignment:
Spoiler
Alignment is one of the aspects in D&D I'm the least happy with. I think it's a copout from developing an actual personality, and instead picking a narrowly defined "morality" to guide your actions. However, since it's an integral part of the rules mechanics, I can't just dismiss it altogether. What I do instead is this:
You pick an alignment, but don't hang yourself with it. Find moral codes and behaviors that fit your character, and use those instead. Even a good character may be harsh towards some and even hate them, and an evil character may love someone and sacrifice herself to save that which they love. Use alignment more as a guidepost than a straitjacket, please.
The harsh end of the alignment spectrum is the outsiders and others that are supposed to embody the ideals. Those are indeed "always evil" or "always good" and so forth. Few mortals come close to that kind of absolute, and they should not either. Paladins may aspire to this kind of good, or law, or both - but their attempts are rarely quite the absolute.
Please use this thread for off-game comments and discussion, as well as background questions to me.
__________________
My first character was a first edition thief.
Evidence that MS Paint is still a valid avataring tool:
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1st commemorative BEAST award, for displaying BEASTLY qualities in overcoming tricksy obstacles.
Useful background from the recruitment thread and IC thread:
Background:
Spoiler
In a remote mountain range, there is a valley carved by ancient ice. A river of clear cold water falls through a gap in the surrounding mountains, pauses to make a small lake in the valley, and then runs on happily. On the lake, there is an island of bare, grey rock. And from this island, the impossible rises.
Travelling towards the island, you first see what seems to be a normal keep; three towers with interconnecting walls surrounding a fourth and larger tower. And then your eyes notice the details and scale – these towers are far larger than any you’ve ever seen. They rise to the sky and dwarf the town that sits lower on the same island.
This is the home to Professor Callan’s School of Magic, and you have been selected to study here. Maybe you were tested by a stranger and bought from your parents for a paltry sum of money. Maybe you had heard of such a place and traveled through worlds to be here. Maybe you were found among an abandoned litter of your kobold kin. No matter: here you are. You are going to be a wizard!
* * *
Fast forward several years: you flunked out. Not among the first crop, those destined to become well-off farmers and laborers. Probably in the second crop - those whose talents appeared not in wizardry, but in some other area. Maybe in the third crop – those who became wizards but lacked the gift to become the professor’s own apprentices.
But the School takes care of those it’s taken in. You now have a job at the school itself. You live in a barracks in the huge north tower, the one housing the corps responsible for exploration of the surrounding world, and the recruitment of new students. It’s simply called Exploration, and you’ve just begun to settle in. And now the call comes out to you, and a group of other explorers. You have been assigned to explore, map, and make familiar the recently discovered caves beneath the school.
Good luck.
On religion:
Spoiler
The school recruits from multiple worlds, so the inhabitants' religious feelings are truly and well mixed. Pelor worshippers rub shoulders with the faithful of Mystra, Gruumsh and Ptah. The school administration makes sure everyone knows not to make waves, and peace is kept.
There is a temple in the southeast tower, and it has strange private altars that magically conform to the belief of the individual worshipper. It also has a large temple to a minor knowledge god called Antero Vipunen, and a small but dedicated priesthood. Most of the schools' resident wizards pay homage in this temple, but no one is forced to do so. If you've trained as a cleric in the school, he is most likely your deity.
The gods of this world are different. They always have a physical form - an indestructible object ranging from a book in a temple to a huge boulder held aloft by a forest. These deities are not really aligned traditionally, but provincially. This means that wars of religion spring up relatively often, whenever a god decides it needs more territory for worshippers. There is no established local god at the school itself (the kobold tribes of the valley are animist).
(OC: this transates to "any deity you want is fine", but the locals are nonstandard - no alignment limitations. Antero Vipunen is N and has the domains of Knowledge, Earth, Magic and Strength)
The Explorer’s Code
Spoiler
Friends are better than enemies. I will make the former, and destroy the latter.
My companions are my life. I will do everything in my power to bring all of us back, no matter the condition.
My loyalty is to the Explorers, and I know the Explorers will support me in return.
Knowledge is the most powerful thing in the world. If I find any, I will bring it back.
Finding things is rewarded by finding things. I will let things Í find be inspected. In return, I will know what it is and it or another item of the same kind will be given to me.
On the Conclave:
Spoiler
The Conclave is a group of professor Callan’s apprentices who have been tasked with the daily governance of the valley and school. They decide on important matters by voting, with senior members having more votes than the junior ones. They all have something visibly strange about them, something that’s not right. There are a lot of other authorities in the school and in the valley, but the conclave is the professor’s voice when he’s not around. And he does keep to himself a lot.
The professor:
Spoiler
Professor Callan is a wizard of indeterminate age and species. He's rarely seen twice in the same form: one day he is a giant snake, the next a halfling. His (her?) gender changes occasionally as well, but he is male most of the time. On the school grounds, he can be recognized by his hat; on old black top hat with a red band. Not that he's around very often. He's left the administration of the school and the surrounding valley to his apprentices, and spends most of his time sequestered away in his personal laboratory or away altogether.
Few people in the school speak to him, as he only teaches his own apprentice students, after they've graduated from the school itself. The regular teaching staff know him and can talk to him if the need arises. Very few do. The ones that regularly do are the high priestess at the temple, the castle seneschal, the top leaders of Exploration and the Guard, the professor's own apprentices, and Kupari, the copper dragon living high in the main tower.
Everyone has met the professor at least once. He does make sure to greet every student coming to the school, if only briefly. That meeting has left most people wondering what the Professor was after, since he always asks very strange questions.
On housing:
Spoiler
You are housed in rooms you share with two other explorers. You have a chest with a lock, and theft is taken very seriously. The more senior explorers have fancier quarters. If you are a wizard, you will also have access to a basic shared laboratory.
On Arcane Marks:
Spoiler
An Arcane mark, also called a Wizard’s Mark is essential for all magic. I becomes a part of every spell scribed into a spellbook and every magical text that a wizard writes. In the school, it’s used in many more tasks, including lab reservations, tests and as a form of ID. A Mark is not static, but grows with the wizard. It starts out simple, often as the wizard’s own initials or monogram or another symbol important to the wizard. Everybody chooses their own. As the wizard grows in power, it becomes more and more elaborate. Some very powerful wizard even have three-dimensional marks that rise out of the surface they’re written on. Some move. Nonwizards may also have marks, if they’ve studied the wizard ways for long enough. These don’t grow, but remain static unless the owner starts learning arcane magic.
(Ruleswise: if you have two or more ranks in Spellcraft, you have a Mark of your own.)
NPCs met:
Spoiler
Laksara, officer in charge of Exploration in or near the valley. She's a tiefling with chitinous hands. Seems to think this mission is important.
Ako Korfaras, steward in charge of the castle main storage. Human with a penchant for smoking and an appetite for watching people get punched. Apparently a bit racist speciesist towards nonhumans.
Mark Curie, alchemy professor at the school.
Markalk, in charge of basement excavations. Dwarf with an elaborately styled beard. Likes to keep his workers safe.
__________________
My first character was a first edition thief.
Evidence that MS Paint is still a valid avataring tool:
Spoiler
1st commemorative BEAST award, for displaying BEASTLY qualities in overcoming tricksy obstacles.
Stinky will be talking in "Lime". scratch that, I cannot look at it, Pale Green. undreadable, Just plain old green.
I'll post later today or tomorrow - I have meeting to do a project and don't know how long it will take and I want to read everything from useful background list before I post.
Are there any other female PCs? Just want to know who she might be bunking with.
Maybe we should post things here that others in the school would know about our PCs.
Ceraphina had always been very enthusiastic about learning magic. She'd talk about her father, Jerrod the great fire Mage. She was very book smart but struggled through her lessons. Surprisingly she passed her first tests in auras and force magic, but couldn't go much further. She know works in the library.
Oh, I forgot to mention - Gurlin's accent for the most part simply replaces "a" sounds with "e", or "i" sounds, and syllables like "au" and "awe" with "o", for example -"accent" is written like "eccn't", and "far" sounds like "fore",
also, sounds like "oo" may be replaced with "eh", or "ye" in the case of "you".
smaller details should stay comprehensible in other situations.
__________________ Thanks to Ceika, Vamber lives to play with fire in this cheerful avatar!
You can call me by my username, or Zahn, or PZ, I would appreciate you not deviating from the given.
Games currently playing:
I'm new to PbP here on giantitp.com, but not in general. DM, do you have a preferred format for our IC posts? I would prefer not to use a color for speech and thought, just quotes and italics, as appropriate, but I'll conform to whatever you want.
Also, fellow players, if you guys are more experienced and see something I could be doing better, or more easily, please point it out. I don't get offended by attempts to help, even if I disagree. That said:
freebiewitz: Can I ask you to use a darker color? That pale orange/peach thing is hell against a white background. I'll beg if it'll help?
Prince Zahn: I'm a big fan of Gurlin's accent!
Some of what you'd know about Judit:
Judit is shy and quiet usually, though friendly enough if approached first. You'd know he's a conjurer, and the few times he's spoken up by himself has been in defense of someone else, or in enthusiasm at his lessons. He's attractive, in a waifish, vulnerable sort of way, and doesn't look strong, but carries himself with a reasonable amount of unconscious grace.
If you want to have befriended Judit, let me know and I can share more of his history or personality with you.
Marker Mage: Is it alright if Judit has come to you in the past for tutoring, having seen the extent of your Arcane knowledge?
Last edited by AugustusGloop : 06-14-2012 at 12:06 PM.
Grytorm: I have noticed that your character sheet mentions that Chaff enjoys eating books. My character, Niko, has a great respect for books. Because of this, I've been thinking of entertaining ways to have Niko react to seeing Chaff eat a book, from fainting (maybe rolling a Will save to see if he actually does so) to describing Niko losing sanity points, to having Niko trying to get Chaff to spit the pieces out and asking the magic users in the group if they can cast a Mending spell. So there's an opportunity to use that for some comic relief.
What some of you might know about Niko:
Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. That is Niko's relationship with the arcane arts. He can't cast spells, but he does know enough about magic to even tutor some of the students that were in more advanced classes. If any of you want to say that your character had been tutored by him at one time or another, I'll gladly go along with it. Some may have heard about him having cheated in a test of his spellcasting abilities by sneaking a wand in. One of your characters may have even been the one to bring that to the teacher's attention (the paladin seems like a good choice for that). Those of you who looked at Niko's character sheet might have noticed that his spellbook's listed location is "held". That's because that book spends most of its time in Niko's hands or tucked under an arm instead of being stored away safely.
AugustusGloop: Yes, it's OK. And after your post to the IC thread, I have to say that I am becoming rather self conscious about the ratio of text colors in my post.
I certainly don't mind having text colors for communication. I know a lot of people prefer to have speech and thought easy to pick out so they don't miss anything, I just don't prefer it. The only thing I mind is when I have to strain to read a color, like when it's too light against the white page.
I'm just simply wondering if the ratio of description to quotation in my post in the IC thread should have been more in favor of description. I had 1 sentence of description for every 5 sentences of quotation.
Oh, don't worry about it. Everyone does this differently. My goal is to post what is important to my character, as though even the description is how he would have remembered it. Judit is introspective and emotional about things, so I spend a lot of time talking about what's going on around him and how he feels about it. I won't talk a lot about things that aren't important to him, like his crossbow, or the tactics of battles, except as far as he's involved. If you're happy with how your posts come out, good enough. If not, edit them until you are, and don't worry about your style evolving as you do more of it.
Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. I'm a bit unfamiliar of what times it's considered socially acceptable to edit my posts in a PbP game (other than the times when the post I'm editing is the newest one) though.
Personally, I wouldn't care as long as you're messing with fluff, not changing important details. I've been futzing with the formatting of mine since I put it up. You run the risk of someone reacting to something you said or did, and then changed, so just be careful that you've got the gist of everything you want in there before you hit post the first time.
What you need to know about Stikny:
He's a greedy, unpleasant, whiny drunktard and troublemaker and probably knee-deep in many illegal things going around. Most of you probably heard or even were around when the incident involving him, Elven girl and one of the best students, Janisa, and Elf-hating dwarf known as The Beard. Incident that resulted in massive destruction when Stinky tried to save her from murderous dwarf, for which they both were kicked out (Stinky and Beard, not Stinky and Janisa and neither Janisa and Beard).
@AugustusGloop: I sympathize with the eye strain problem, bright on white can be torturous and unreadable, also, that is good advice, I think I'll try that.
Anyway, as for the things everyone knows/should know about '"Griping Gurlin":
Gurlin is mean and hideous, and boy, do the basic sections of the school know it. throughout the years have 'newcrops', students and staff alike complained about his behavior towards delinquents in the school, if not for his extreme measures, then for it's noise pollution as screams of pain occasionally echo throughout the halls and even disrupt ill-prepared classes, but these complaints are generally rejected as he simply finds a different location to do these acts. Those of you who heard or might have been punished by this disciplinarian might remember of/ hearing of tortures varying from flat out beatings,to aiding the man-lump with his toil, to being hung upside-down from a block and tackle as dogs jumped and barked at you, whatever the punishments you've heard or experienced might have been such things were clerically supervised to assure no permanent scars after the punishment (no irreparable physical scars or major mental trauma, at least)
Whilst considering advice, criticism, or alterations from others about what he does, Gurlin tends to also think if there's a way he wouldn't need to change his habits but keep the person quiet about it anyway. but doesn't think it through as much as he should. In addition, He is not fond of people without clear indications of morals.
Gurlin is oft-addressed in derogatory names, when not formally addressed(as rare as that happens) or simply named "Gurlin", or mentioned between the student's by his common nickname. However he normally shrugs off the insulting names with a frown or brief grumbling and moves on, figuring it's almost becoming a 'norm'.
Those of you who actually met Gurlin, or had a conversation with him can tell that while he's a hard man to like, he was once actually a man rather than...whatever he is now. And, if you're observant, could tell that he can probably do better than simply fixing, cleaning, breaking and punishing if he tries, or if asked to.
__________________ Thanks to Ceika, Vamber lives to play with fire in this cheerful avatar!
You can call me by my username, or Zahn, or PZ, I would appreciate you not deviating from the given.
Games currently playing:
Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. I'm a bit unfamiliar of what times it's considered socially acceptable to edit my posts in a PbP game (other than the times when the post I'm editing is the newest one) though.
When I've fallen behind I've back posted things in my current post that would not affect the things currently going on. I think editing is fine as long as it does affect another character's actions.
I have a friend pretty much exactly like Stinky. Aside from the kobold bit. He's really not a bad sort, but he's convinced that if he waits long enough, the universe will own up to what it owes him. Until then he'll polish the abuses he's suffered until they shine, and he can set them on his mantle for decoration.
he's convinced that if he waits long enough, the universe will own up to what it owes him. Until then he'll polish the abuses he's suffered until they shine, and he can set them on his mantle for decoration.
I consider copypasting it into personality part on my sheet.
Sorry the delay, after work I didn't have time to get here
I like that idea of putting our sheets at the beggining of our post, so copying it and, on other topic, should we use MSN/skype/etc between ourselves or it's just here?
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Avatar made by Andraste, thanks lots!
Sorry the delay, after work I didn't have time to get here
I like that idea of putting our sheets at the beggining of our post, so copying it and, on other topic, should we use MSN/skype/etc between ourselves or it's just here?
I'm on irc.rizon.net every work day, so I'd be glad to prepare us a room there if you liked.
Feel free to join me in #undertheschool. www.mibbit.com is a decent web based irc client if you don't have one.
I'm glad to see all of you got the game up and running. Good.
I do not mind you guys using any colors to mark your speech, or just quotation marks. I decided it would be easier to read if I use bold for NPC speech. I edited the first post to do that.
Now I trust you've all noticed the private messages I've sent each of you. One major point I got from a reply was that if you need a low-level contact in the students or staff (that means 1st level NPC classes gamewise), make one up. Come up with a name and job and anything you need. I don't keep track of all the 1400+ people in the school, just the movers and shakers.
On IRC: I can't do that from work, even on web clients. This means you won't see me on IRC. It may be a good place to plot if you want to.
EDIT: I posted Laksara's answers. I'll also post a description of Ako and the storeroom later today. Remember, you'll be asked if you want armor, a weapon or a magic thing - you probably won't have much say in what Ako brings out from storage.
On editing posts: If you return to a post you've made earlier, just make sure you don't edit content, just fluff. I would prefer you to avoid editing altogether, but I see it may be necessary at times.
__________________
My first character was a first edition thief.
Evidence that MS Paint is still a valid avataring tool:
Spoiler
1st commemorative BEAST award, for displaying BEASTLY qualities in overcoming tricksy obstacles.
Stinky: a remider of what you can get from the commissary (this was in the recruitment thread):
All food - as much as you want to pack. Also all containers such as canteens.
All light sources (excluding sunrods, but one everburning torch for everyone).
As much rope as you want.
Other survival gear (bedrolls, tents, pitons, hammers etc.)
Backpacks and other carrying gear.
Other reasonable requests
Chappe will probably ask for tin plates, bowls, forks, chopping board, spoons, ladels etc. I couldn't find such things in the phb so I didn't want to risk it. The only thing I could find was an iron pot. However if it's all free then hell yeah!
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"A knife can only bring true happiness in the hands of a chef."
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