Aww, how come I have to be Nightwing? It's because I'm never around, isn't it?
...Full character coming shortly, later today if all goes well.
Nah, you're a good looking ogre, right? You can be Terry McGinnis!
Just wear Stephanie like a power suit. She's malleable and you're strong, so it should work!
-
Thanqol, on scarves and capes: a cape as a garment covers a lot of room. It can be anything from almost a mumu to an actually superhero cape to a mantle. And I have myself a large, knit wool scarf. It's actually a blanket, and I can stretch it to cover my entire body. It's pretty cool.
It's like standing up tall and saying, "I demand you treat me like an adult!"
And they say, "Okay, we will treat you like an adult"
And they're smiling when they say it.
EDIT: Oh, Anarion, minor stylistic request. Can I have the Hedgespun cape SiuiS is gifting me capable of shapeshifting between the cape and a scarf? It would help me structure the character's visual design better.
Off chance that a Gentry demands you go clean your room, take out the trash, and do the dishes. Check.
As for the cape, as long as you're not secretly trying to become game breakingingly powerful by getting me to grant a series of small, seemingly innocuous requests, yes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PhoeKun
Aww, how come I have to be Nightwing? It's because I'm never around, isn't it?
...Full character coming shortly, later today if all goes well.
Yay character sheet. You don't have to be Nightwing though. Could always be Catwoman, or expand to the Justice League and be, I dunno, Martian Manhunter.
__________________
Lawyer Pony Avatar by Dirtytabs, exalted as an Eclipse by Elemental, now with a fancy robe.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Giant
Anarion's right on the money here.
Quotes
Spoiler
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiki Snakes
Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Anarion Mori?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiki Snakes
You just highlandered an entire city block into a glass-filled storm by road-runnering down it in your underwear.
That question was actually just to get that thought into everyone's heads. Just like the question of how many fetishes we can possibly pack into a four-person party. I'm at six now.
Only six? A quick mental checklist put me at at least ten.
Quote:
If Charlotte is Alfred, and Stephanie is Batgirl, Marchande is Lucius Fox.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PhoeKun
Aww, how come I have to be Nightwing? It's because I'm never around, isn't it?
...Full character coming shortly, later today if all goes well.
My diabolical scheme of making everyone else support characters in my story has come to fruition! Bwuahahahahahah!
(What's that? Batgirl is also a support character? Aw nuts)
Quote:
Originally Posted by SiuiS
Nah, you're a good looking ogre, right? You can be Terry McGinnis!
Just wear Stephanie like a power suit. She's malleable and you're strong, so it should work!
Eleven.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anarion
Off chance that a Gentry demands you go clean your room, take out the trash, and do the dishes. Check.
Just for reference, but that was actually my secondary idea for this game. "Ace Danger!" He was an accountant in life, and when taken by the Fae to a mystical land of adventure and wonder, he spent his entire time there cleaning dishes.
When he found out his one chance at magical adventure had been blown doing drudge work he suffered the mother of all midlife crises. He took the name Ace Danger! (The bold and exclamation mark are part of the spelling) and started pretending that his Durance had actually been rad, spent fighting Fae and monsters in hand-to-hand combat, and that he wasn't a totally pathetic washed up too-boring-to-live failure. Like a horrifyingly insecure Johnny Bravo.
He would have preferred torture. Torture would have been cool.
Quote:
As for the cape, as long as you're not secretly trying to become game breakingingly powerful by getting me to grant a series of small, seemingly innocuous requests, yes.
...
Not... any more.
Quote:
Yay character sheet. You don't have to be Nightwing though. Could always be Catwoman, or expand to the Justice League and be, I dunno, Martian Manhunter.
Hawkgirl actually sounds like a better fit from what I know of the character.
__________________
"There may be no good reason for things to be the way they are."
Hopefully there aren't any artifacts leftover from when I copy/pasted Thanqol's sheet to steal his pretty little template for myself. Let me know if I screwed something up (I totally screwed things up. I screwed it all up, I'm so bad at this)
CHARACTER SHEET
Kalina Rogers
AKA 'Rose', AKA 'The Silver Knight'
Female Summer Court Stone Bones Ogre/ Pretty Pretty Princess “Take me away.”
CLAUSES
Vainglory 1: Mask of Superiority
Cost: 2G
Pool: Intimidation+Wyrd 5-Resolve
Catch: Pretend to be someone who's important because they're pretty
Effect: Convince a guy you're better than him
Vainglory 2: Songs of Distant Arcadia
Cost: 2G
Pool: Wyrd+Expression 6
Catch: Giving a performance in front of a rich and powerful audience
Effect: Be the bestest poet evar
Vainglory 3: Splendor of the Envoy's Protection
Cost: 3G
Pool: Presence+Wyrd 6
Catch: At a formal party with 12+ guests
Effect: My wings are so pretty!
Vainglory 4: Mantle of Terrible Beauty
Cost: 2G+1 Willpower
Pool: Wyrd+Intimidate 7 vs subject's Composure+Wyrd
Catch: fighting a duel
Effect: You're going to LOVE ME (and despair!)
Stone 1: Might of the Terrible Brute
Cost: 1G
Pool: Strength+Wyrd 5
Catch: Fighting multiple opponents with bare hands(?)
Effect: Kiai makes you hit like a truck
Stone 2: Ogre's Rending Grasp
Cost: 2G
Pool: Strength + Wyrd 5
Catch: The thing you want to break is in your way
Effect: Hard stuff is less hard than advertised
Eternal Summer 1: Son of the Hearth
Cost: 1G/ 1G+1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Wyrd + Survival 4
Catch: Spit on a fading spark
Effect: Stay comfy even in crappy weather
Kith: Stonebones
1/day: Spend 1 glamor to use Wyrd as armor rating Windwing
Spend 1 Glamor to glide 1 min/Wyrd
Take 1 point bashing damage/15 yard fall, lethal damage only after 150 yards
Ogre Blessing
Spend 1G for +1 Strength, Brawl, Intimidate
Ogre Curse
No 10 again on Composure, -1 Composure as Defense Trait
Kalina Rogers is, in one word, beautiful. Breathtakingly, terrifyingly beautiful. Hers is the sort of body that makes a person drool at a glance and start to tremble the longer they stare at her. She is perfect. Annoyingly so. Windswept platinum locks that frame her face like sunlight, no matter how wet or frayed they are allowed to become. Piercing blue eyes like glacial ice that seem to stare through you. Slender frame, lovely curves, posture proud and impeccable. There has to be something wrong with her. The more you stare, the more sure of it you become. Like staring into a spotlight, looking at her starts to hurt. And she's wearing white. After labor day? But then, it's really hard to imagine her in anything else.
Underneath the mask, the effects are magnified. Her skin shines like diamond, except where it melts and bleeds away into plates of ornate, blue-trimmed steel - her body having long since turned itself into a suit of armor. Only her face, with all its pale and perfect angles, is really free from the touch of metal. Her hair is longer by more than a foot and pure silver. It flows like mercury no matter the wind or the weather. But her most striking feature by far is the pair of enormous white wings growing out of her back. The tip of each feather is gilded in gold. The air around them shimmers in light, and when she's angry or excited they flare out to either side of her. She is a Valkyrie. She is an archangel. She is a storybook champion of justice.
Kalina Rogers hates both of these forms. They are the trappings of a storybook hero, a fashion-magazine pinup: fake and hollow and crafted for a purpose not her own. Everywhere she goes, people turn and stare. On bad days, she can still hear the hideous sound of applause echoing in her ears. She wants to blend in and slip away, but she can't. She wants to seize control and become the bright and shining star for those who need the help, but those kinds of stars only shine on a stage. She wants freedom, she wants control, she wants a leash around her neck and a firm hand to guide her actions. Her wants are blurring together. If you asked her, she couldn't tell you.
You tell her she must have a beautiful smile. She will never let you see it.
HISTORY
Spoiler
San Francisco is the kind of place that lets you be whatever you would like to be. A financial mogul, a model, or a free spirit. Kalina Rogers was born to the latter: penniless hippies living in the park. They ate what they were given, slept when they felt like it, and gave their daughter a pretty sounding Slavic name because it seemed like a fun thing to do. And they let their little flower run free to do as she pleased, which was all well and good until the little girl started finding all of the things she was missing out on. The books she could be reading, the schooling and the structure all the other kids got to have. Why couldn't she have them, too?
Kalina chafed under the pressures of unlimited freedom. Increasingly, she found herself staring in wonder at the primary authority figures in her life – the police. The uniformed champions of justice who chased her stupid freeloading parents all over creation. When she grew up, she wanted to be just like them. And when she told her parents about this dream, it was the first time they ever objected to something she did. That was all the motivation she needed to throw herself into the task.
Years passed. A fifteen year-old Kalina Rogers was still fervently pursuing that dream of joining the police. Just a few more years and she'd be old enough. A few more years and she'd be free. Not the kind of free her parents trapped her with, but truly free. Free from freedom. There was more to it than that, though. To Protect and Serve, to make a difference, to be a better Kalina Rogers than the one she'd woken up as the previous day, these things too had grown important to her. She would soon get the chance to prove it.
It was a sunny day that found the teenage girl walking down the streets as she pleased when she stumbled across a scene that was never meant for her. A little girl, kicking and screaming and being dragged with one hand by a tall figure into a dark alley. As the only witness, Kalina knew there wasn't time to call for help. If she didn't act then, save her, that little girl would be dead... or worse. She sprang into action, flinging herself headlong into the alley without fear, and threw the best punch of her life at the man's face. In a flash, everything went right and everything went wrong. The man stumbled, the girl ran free. The man turned to look at Kalina, and she stared straight back into his eyes that seemed like pools of pale moonlight. He smirked at her; a sort of amused look that said, “what, are you serious?” And then, Darkness.
It was darkness that defined Kalina's world from then on. When she next woke up, she was surrounded on all sides by black and twisted forest. Oh, and she was tied up tight in leaves and brambles. A voice rippled through the trees, and she knew that it belonged to him: “Now you may keep on playing hero forever. Tell me when you tire of it. All you have to do is give up, and you are free.”
Kalina Rogers did not give up. She lived in that forest, learned to untie herself, and fought all manner of great and terrible beasts. She searched for her own way out, of course, and that carried her in and out of many strange mansions and castles hidden among the briars and thorns. Sometimes she would rescue captured innocents. Other times she wound up locked up instead. Trussed up and gagged, bruised and bloody, near death, lead after promising lead slipping through her fingers, none of it mattered. She persevered. She was a hero, a bright and shining light in a world that had none. Every time the forest failed to drag her down, she shined a little brighter. She wrapped herself in her ideals like clothing and they became her. Time passed. She had no idea how much. It didn't really matter to her; she was living her dream.
And now she chased some new demon through a spot she didn't quite recognize. Cornered it on some rocks, lunged to put her blade through his heart... and tumbled headlong through curtains onto an elaborate stage. Everywhere she looked, she saw pictures of herself. Flashing images of the people she'd rescued and the monsters she'd slain. A veritable highlight reel of her greatest moments. There were bright, gaudy numbers plastered all over the air. Money and not-money and... and... who knew what some of this stuff was passed from hand to claw to flipper and back to hand again. And in that moment she knew that her life and her dreams were, in their entirety, an act. A story. A pointless game to fritter away time and goods on. Kalina Rogers, who had felled dragons and ogres and things she didn't know the names of, who had withstood unimaginable tortures and been gagged so many times she could tell you her favorite kind, fell to her knees and cried.
Music played, and a beautiful man in a tuxedo made of shadows stepped out in front of her. He lifted her up, patted her on the head, and took her by the chin to point her face up toward the big screen announcing that the 'Revelation' bet had just started paying at very very long odds, oh yes indeed. The hero had broken. “And now, little flower, you are free.”
But she wasn't. Not really. Everywhere around her she saw cut puppet strings. Every step forward she could feel them tugging. When they did not, she stumbled. Her eyes burned with fresh tears as she bobbled and toppled end over end through the endless mazes of the Hedge. She was free. She hated freedom. She was a liar and a fake, filled with a burning need to prove herself all over again and a deep seated knowledge that she never could. There was no returning to a world where she knew what she was truth. That she was manipulated the whole time. That she loved it.
Kalina Rogers fashioned a rope for herself from thorns and branches. She didn't know the way home, but soon that wouldn't matter. She bound her shimmering wings together, making sure it hurt. She climbed to the top of the tallest structure she could find. She stepped off and plummeted to her doom.
And that was when a young woman made of shadows swooped in from out of nowhere and caught her.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
THE FETCH:
Kalina Rogers' fetch has had a long time to settle herself into the missing girl's life. Twenty-five years, in fact. She's learned a lot about puppets and strings and master plans, and all of her knowledge of the games that are way bigger than her have left her paranoid in the extreme. If she's not the one at the top of things then she's vulnerable.
So while she pursued Kalina's dream of being a police officer, she quit the job halfway up the ladder in pursuit of what she thought were safer ventures. She's been very busy with her life. She took some time off to pen a series of adventure novels that have gone on to be best sellers - stories about a young girl named "Rose" who is trapped in a dark forest and battles the forces of evil, becoming The Silver Knight in the process. The idea "came to her in a dream" as the back cover tells its audience, and the books have received critical acclaim for the way they detail a child's ability to grow up and become something more than what her environment wants her to be.
From this inspirational note and on the basis of her old police work she launched a political campaign. Control of the city comes first. After that? Well, there's quite a lot of room for a bright woman with supermodel looks and a backstory spun from the finest threads of inspirational "rags to riches" tales ever conceived...
__________________ Flowers blanket all the countryside like freshly fallen snow
I know the answer's waiting somewhere, as it was once long ago
Do you wait to cross the river from the shores of shallow tide?
And what will happen to your phantom if you reach the other side?
...Hear me crying...
Avatar by Kairaven.
Hopefully there aren't any artifacts leftover from when I copy/pasted Thanqol's sheet to steal his pretty little template for myself. Let me know if I screwed something up (I totally screwed things up. I screwed it all up, I'm so bad at this)
Don't stress! There's no pressure
Two things,
- Skills unlike attributes start at 0 rather than 1, meaning you've put too many dots into skills in general.
Quote:
Take 1 point bashing damage/15 feet fall, lethal damage only after 150 feet
- Yards, not feet.
Quote:
Vainglory 3: Splendor of the Envoy's Protection
Cost: 3G
Pool: Presence+Wyrd 4
Catch: At a formal party with 12+ guests
Effect: My wings are so pretty!
XD
Love the description and backstory. ^^
I am super psyched to see this group in action
EDIT: After thinking about it, I feel that the rope tricks speciality might work better in athletics than survival - athletics covers thrown stuff, which would presumably also be lassos? I don't know, it's a bit of a grey area.
__________________
"There may be no good reason for things to be the way they are."
She is perfect. Annoyingly so. Windswept platinum locks that frame her face like sunlight, no matter how wet or frayed they are allowed to become. Piercing blue eyes like glacial ice that seem to stare through you.
Spoiler
?
Yeah, I will sharpen up that description for Striking Looks.
I had some epiphenal moments, but can't muster actual well-done writing just now. But things are looking good, im excited to play! Think I'll try and take a stroll around said City soon, to get a feel for her.
Also, Thanqol, I must decline. It's a good idea, but it changes the color of things too much.
Yeah, I will sharpen up that description for Striking Looks.
I had some epiphenal moments, but can't muster actual well-done writing just now. But things are looking good, im excited to play! Think I'll try and take a stroll around said City soon, to get a feel for her.
Also, Thanqol, I must decline. It's a good idea, but it changes the color of things too much.
'kay
__________________
"There may be no good reason for things to be the way they are."
"I must say, I'm rather discomfited by the number of my friends who desire leashes and muzzles. Having experienced both, chaps, I must say that they are undignified and dehumanizing; bondage is what we are running from. And I doubt you can convince me otherwise, no matter how ravishingly gorgeous you think I'd be in ropes."
Huzzah! Phoe's character is here, outstanding! And well worth the wait, if you don't mind me saying.
So, other than the burlesque possibility (what have I dooone), we have another pressing question: do we call ourselves the Unconventional Motley, the Beautiful Motley, or the Motley of Ropes? The first speaks to the fact that we're all up and shattering stereotypes left and right, as far as seemings go; the second speaks to the fact that, y'know, we're four gorgeous women who all came out of Arcadia together and are as thick as thieves; the third speaks to the fact that 3/4ths of the Motley would probably enjoy getting bound and gagged, and the fourth could be won over by her mates when she stops flipping out over the fact that collars and muzzles are for dogs.
__________________
-build that wall and build it strong-
Kasanip - best artist; Rarity - best smile; Thanqol - good Question
Spoiler
Quote:
Originally Posted by PhoeKun
Raz, you scoundrel! You planned this!
Quote:
Originally Posted by BladeofObliviom
Great, and now I'm imagining what Raz's profile on a dating site would look like. "Must be okay with veils."
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kasanip
I don't think there is such a time to have veils that it is not the fault of Raz_Fox.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dervag
It's a freaking Romulan dump truck. The Romulans are no more likely to build an unarmed warp-capable ship than they are to become a hippy commune.
- Skills unlike attributes start at 0 rather than 1, meaning you've put too many dots into skills in general.
Derp, fixed. Too much rushing trying to keep up with you at initial creation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thanqol
- Yards, not feet.
What, really? Ok then.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thanqol
XD
Love the description and backstory. ^^
I am super psyched to see this group in action
EDIT: After thinking about it, I feel that the rope tricks speciality might work better in athletics than survival - athletics covers thrown stuff, which would presumably also be lassos? I don't know, it's a bit of a grey area.
I have been going back and forth on where to put that specialty for the longest time. I guess Athletics might be slightly better, but... eh, I don't know. My little heart is wavering this way and that.
__________________ Flowers blanket all the countryside like freshly fallen snow
I know the answer's waiting somewhere, as it was once long ago
Do you wait to cross the river from the shores of shallow tide?
And what will happen to your phantom if you reach the other side?
...Hear me crying...
Avatar by Kairaven.
Hopefully there aren't any artifacts leftover from when I copy/pasted Thanqol's sheet to steal his pretty little template for myself. Let me know if I screwed something up (I totally screwed things up. I screwed it all up, I'm so bad at this)
CHARACTER SHEET
Kalina Rogers
AKA 'Rose', AKA 'The Silver Knight'
Female Summer Court Stone Bones Ogre/ Pretty Pretty Princess “Take me away.”
DERIVED TRAITS Willpower 6/6 Defense 1 Health 8/8 Speed 10
CLAUSES
Vainglory 1: Mask of Superiority
Cost: 2G
Pool: Intimidation+Wyrd 3-Resolve
Catch: Pretend to be someone who's important because they're pretty
Effect: Convince a guy you're better than him
Vainglory 2: Songs of Distant Arcadia
Cost: 2G
Pool: Wyrd+Expression 4
Catch: Giving a performance in front of a rich and powerful audience
Effect: Be the bestest poet evar
Vainglory 3: Splendor of the Envoy's Protection
Cost: 3G
Pool: Presence+Wyrd 4
Catch: At a formal party with 12+ guests
Effect: My wings are so pretty!
Vainglory 4: Mantle of Terrible Beauty
Cost: 2G+1 Willpower
Pool: Wyrd+Intimidate 5 vs subject's Composure+Wyrd
Catch: fighting a duel
Effect: You're going to LOVE ME (and despair!)
Stone 1: Might of the Terrible Brute
Cost: 1G
Pool: Strength+Wyrd 5
Catch: Fighting multiple opponents with bare hands(?)
Effect: Kiai makes you hit like a truck
Kith: Stonebones
1/day: Spend 1 glamor to use Wyrd as armor rating Windwing
Spend 1 Glamor to glide 1 min/Wyrd
Take 1 point bashing damage/15 yard fall, lethal damage only after 150 yards
Ogre Blessing
Spend 1G for +1 Strength, Brawl, Intimidate
Ogre Curse
No 10 again on Composure, -1 Composure as Defense Trait
Kalina Rogers is, in one word, beautiful. Breathtakingly, terrifyingly beautiful. Hers is the sort of body that makes a person drool at a glance and start to tremble the longer they stare at her. She is perfect. Annoyingly so. Windswept platinum locks that frame her face like sunlight, no matter how wet or frayed they are allowed to become. Piercing blue eyes like glacial ice that seem to stare through you. Slender frame, lovely curves, posture proud and impeccable. There has to be something wrong with her. The more you stare, the more sure of it you become. Like staring into a spotlight, looking at her starts to hurt. And she's wearing white. After labor day? But then, it's really hard to imagine her in anything else.
Underneath the mask, the effects are magnified. Her skin shines like diamond, except where it melts and bleeds away into plates of ornate, blue-trimmed steel - her body having long since turned itself into a suit of armor. Only her face, with all its pale and perfect angles, is really free from the touch of metal. Her hair is longer by more than a foot and pure silver. It flows like mercury no matter the wind or the weather. But her most striking feature by far is the pair of enormous white wings growing out of her back. The tip of each feather is gilded in gold. The air around them shimmers in light, and when she's angry or excited they flare out to either side of her. She is a Valkyrie. She is an archangel. She is a storybook champion of justice.
Kalina Rogers hates both of these forms. They are the trappings of a storybook hero, a fashion-magazine pinup: fake and hollow and crafted for a purpose not her own. Everywhere she goes, people turn and stare. On bad days, she can still hear the hideous sound of applause echoing in her ears. She wants to blend in and slip away, but she can't. She wants to seize control and become the bright and shining star for those who need the help, but those kinds of stars only shine on a stage. She wants freedom, she wants control, she wants a leash around her neck and a firm hand to guide her actions. Her wants are blurring together. If you asked her, she couldn't tell you.
You tell her she must have a beautiful smile. She will never let you see it.
HISTORY
Spoiler
San Francisco is the kind of place that lets you be whatever you would like to be. A financial mogul, a model, or a free spirit. Kalina Rogers was born to the latter: penniless hippies living in the park. They ate what they were given, slept when they felt like it, and gave their daughter a pretty sounding Slavic name because it seemed like a fun thing to do. And they let their little flower run free to do as she pleased, which was all well and good until the little girl started finding all of the things she was missing out on. The books she could be reading, the schooling and the structure all the other kids got to have. Why couldn't she have them, too?
Kalina chafed under the pressures of unlimited freedom. Increasingly, she found herself staring in wonder at the primary authority figures in her life – the police. The uniformed champions of justice who chased her stupid freeloading parents all over creation. When she grew up, she wanted to be just like them. And when she told her parents about this dream, it was the first time they ever objected to something she did. That was all the motivation she needed to throw herself into the task.
Years passed. A fifteen year-old Kalina Rogers was still fervently pursuing that dream of joining the police. Just a few more years and she'd be old enough. A few more years and she'd be free. Not the kind of free her parents trapped her with, but truly free. Free from freedom. There was more to it than that, though. To Protect and Serve, to make a difference, to be a better Kalina Rogers than the one she'd woken up as the previous day, these things too had grown important to her. She would soon get the chance to prove it.
It was a sunny day that found the teenage girl walking down the streets as she pleased when she stumbled across a scene that was never meant for her. A little girl, kicking and screaming and being dragged with one hand by a tall figure into a dark alley. As the only witness, Kalina knew there wasn't time to call for help. If she didn't act then, save her, that little girl would be dead... or worse. She sprang into action, flinging herself headlong into the alley without fear, and threw the best punch of her life at the man's face. In a flash, everything went right and everything went wrong. The man stumbled, the girl ran free. The man turned to look at Kalina, and she stared straight back into his eyes that seemed like pools of pale moonlight. He smirked at her; a sort of amused look that said, “what, are you serious?” And then, Darkness.
It was darkness that defined Kalina's world from then on. When she next woke up, she was surrounded on all sides by black and twisted forest. Oh, and she was tied up tight in leaves and brambles. A voice rippled through the trees, and she knew that it belonged to him: “Now you may keep on playing hero forever. Tell me when you tire of it. All you have to do is give up, and you are free.”
Kalina Rogers did not give up. She lived in that forest, learned to untie herself, and fought all manner of great and terrible beasts. She searched for her own way out, of course, and that carried her in and out of many strange mansions and castles hidden among the briars and thorns. Sometimes she would rescue captured innocents. Other times she wound up locked up instead. Trussed up and gagged, bruised and bloody, near death, lead after promising lead slipping through her fingers, none of it mattered. She persevered. She was a hero, a bright and shining light in a world that had none. Every time the forest failed to drag her down, she shined a little brighter. She wrapped herself in her ideals like clothing and they became her. Time passed. She had no idea how much. It didn't really matter to her; she was living her dream.
And now she chased some new demon through a spot she didn't quite recognize. Cornered it on some rocks, lunged to put her blade through his heart... and tumbled headlong through curtains onto an elaborate stage. Everywhere she looked, she saw pictures of herself. Flashing images of the people she'd rescued and the monsters she'd slain. A veritable highlight reel of her greatest moments. There were bright, gaudy numbers plastered all over the air. Money and not-money and... and... who knew what some of this stuff was passed from hand to claw to flipper and back to hand again. And in that moment she knew that her life and her dreams were, in their entirety, an act. A story. A pointless game to fritter away time and goods on. Kalina Rogers, who had felled dragons and ogres and things she didn't know the names of, who had withstood unimaginable tortures and been gagged so many times she could tell you her favorite kind, fell to her knees and cried.
Music played, and a beautiful man in a tuxedo made of shadows stepped out in front of her. He lifted her up, patted her on the head, and took her by the chin to point her face up toward the big screen announcing that the 'Revelation' bet had just started paying at very very long odds, oh yes indeed. The hero had broken. “And now, little flower, you are free.”
But she wasn't. Not really. Everywhere around her she saw cut puppet strings. Every step forward she could feel them tugging. When they did not, she stumbled. Her eyes burned with fresh tears as she bobbled and toppled end over end through the endless mazes of the Hedge. She was free. She hated freedom. She was a liar and a fake, filled with a burning need to prove herself all over again and a deep seated knowledge that she never could. There was no returning to a world where she knew what she was truth. That she was manipulated the whole time. That she loved it.
Kalina Rogers fashioned a rope for herself from thorns and branches. She didn't know the way home, but soon that wouldn't matter. She bound her shimmering wings together, making sure it hurt. She climbed to the top of the tallest structure she could find. She stepped off and plummeted to her doom.
And that was when a young woman made of shadows swooped in from out of nowhere and caught her.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
THE FETCH:
Coming soon, to a theater near you.
That was beautiful. I am really looking forward to running this group.
Just a couple quick things. One, technically at least 2 contracts need to be in your own seeming or court (this was discussed with SiuiS previously, it says it on pg 76, but not pg 74). That one is really easy to overlook, so if it's important to you that you have vainglory 4 and stone 1, I'm willing to allow that, although you should buy another stone or summer contract as soon as you can.
Second, and this is more for Thanqol actually. How did you get starting glamour 7/10? It's supposed to be 5/10 and as far as I can tell the harvest merit is the only way to raise that and neither you nor Phoe got it. I'm assuming Phoe copied it from your template, so could you explain where it's coming from?
Setting question.
I'm still sort of thinking about where to drop you back into the world. I've got several possible locations and I'd like to make that initial scene interesting. I've got a couple good ways to draw you into the freehold no matter where we start, so let me ask a few questions.
1. When you start the game, do you want a chance to talk quietly, or would you prefer to make a scene either intentionally or accidentally?
2. Do you want time to pursue some of your own goals or readjust to reality before meeting another changeling?
3. If unmolested, how long would your characters likely remain wherever they happen to pop out of the hedge before going somewhere else?
Also, I said this to Thanqol back on May 7th
Quote:
I think SiuiS is also considering a mostly non-combat character similar to Raz, so unless Phoe decides to make the most bulked out ogre in the history of character generation, it's looking like the game will focus on non-combat challenges, although there will still likely be physical work and perhaps infiltration of some sort involved.
So we may have a bit more combat after all.
__________________
Lawyer Pony Avatar by Dirtytabs, exalted as an Eclipse by Elemental, now with a fancy robe.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Giant
Anarion's right on the money here.
Quotes
Spoiler
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiki Snakes
Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Anarion Mori?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiki Snakes
You just highlandered an entire city block into a glass-filled storm by road-runnering down it in your underwear.
"I must say, I'm rather discomfited by the number of my friends who desire leashes and muzzles. Having experienced both, chaps, I must say that they are undignified and dehumanizing; bondage is what we are running from. And I doubt you can convince me otherwise, no matter how ravishingly gorgeous you think I'd be in ropes."
Stephanie: "Are you hitting on me?"
Quote:
Huzzah! Phoe's character is here, outstanding! And well worth the wait, if you don't mind me saying.
So, other than the burlesque possibility (what have I dooone), we have another pressing question: do we call ourselves the Unconventional Motley, the Beautiful Motley, or the Motley of Ropes? The first speaks to the fact that we're all up and shattering stereotypes left and right, as far as seemings go; the second speaks to the fact that, y'know, we're four gorgeous women who all came out of Arcadia together and are as thick as thieves; the third speaks to the fact that 3/4ths of the Motley would probably enjoy getting bound and gagged, and the fourth could be won over by her mates when she stops flipping out over the fact that collars and muzzles are for dogs.
Stephanie probably doesn't enjoy getting bound and gagged. That sure happened an awful lot when she got caught by James McClaw, but it was usually followed with being tossed into some kind of deathtrap or monster pit that she had to escape from really fast and she kinda got too good at escaping from ropes to really take the time to figure out if they turned her on.
She doesn't mind it either, but it's not so much something strange and vulnerable as it is Tuesday.
If we encounter a bunch of bad guys in game who tie us all up there's going to be an interesting range of reactions.
Don't let Stephanie name the group, she'll get 'Justice' in there somewhere.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PhoeKun
Derp, fixed. Too much rushing trying to keep up with you at initial creation.
Cool, no other issues with your mechanics
Quote:
I have been going back and forth on where to put that specialty for the longest time. I guess Athletics might be slightly better, but... eh, I don't know. My little heart is wavering this way and that.
Best I can figure is survival would be more range and variety of knots while Athletics would be most sporting applications. Otherwise should get a ST quote.
__________________
"There may be no good reason for things to be the way they are."
Best I can figure is survival would be more range and variety of knots while Athletics would be most sporting applications. Otherwise should get a ST quote.
Well hm. Athletics implies something like rope or rock-climbing knots. Survival seems more general use though. My Dad was a Boy Scout and knows a billion different knots, so I'd say survival would get you more.
__________________
Lawyer Pony Avatar by Dirtytabs, exalted as an Eclipse by Elemental, now with a fancy robe.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Giant
Anarion's right on the money here.
Quotes
Spoiler
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiki Snakes
Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Anarion Mori?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiki Snakes
You just highlandered an entire city block into a glass-filled storm by road-runnering down it in your underwear.
Second, and this is more for Thanqol actually. How did you get starting glamour 7/10? It's supposed to be 5/10 and as far as I can tell the harvest merit is the only way to raise that and neither you nor Phoe got it. I'm assuming Phoe copied it from your template, so could you explain where it's coming from?
Derp, Mage holdover where starting mana was equal to your morality stat. Will edit.
Quote:
Setting question.
I'm still sort of thinking about where to drop you back into the world. I've got several possible locations and I'd like to make that initial scene interesting. I've got a couple good ways to draw you into the freehold no matter where we start, so let me ask a few questions.
My first request is that we start at night because Grumpy Stephanie gets off on the wrong foot with everyone.
Quote:
1. When you start the game, do you want a chance to talk quietly, or would you prefer to make a scene either intentionally or accidentally?
I think something should happen relatively soon but not particularly high stakes; we'll be in a position where getting a meal would be a significant challenge. The challenge can be lowballed because we're in no state to deal with it.
Quote:
2. Do you want time to pursue some of your own goals or readjust to reality before meeting another changeling?
I think that the meeting with at least one Fetch should occur before anyone knows what they're in for. Don't mind who's.
Quote:
3. If unmolested, how long would your characters likely remain wherever they happen to pop out of the hedge before going somewhere else?
Stephanie, basic needs provided for, would either head towards her home or help one of her friends go home directly. She wouldn't race ahead but she wouldn't dawdle.
Quote:
Also, I said this to Thanqol back on May 7th
So we may have a bit more combat after all.
Once Stephanie loses a few fights, her investments are Elements 2 Brawl 2, which gives her reasonable combat potential. Until then she'll see no need to learn how to win fights, so her first few are almost certain to go badly.
__________________
"There may be no good reason for things to be the way they are."
That was beautiful. I am really looking forward to running this group.
I know, right?
Quote:
Setting question.
I'm still sort of thinking about where to drop you back into the world. I've got several possible locations and I'd like to make that initial scene interesting. I've got a couple good ways to draw you into the freehold no matter where we start, so let me ask a few questions.
1. When you start the game, do you want a chance to talk quietly, or would you prefer to make a scene either intentionally or accidentally?
2. Do you want time to pursue some of your own goals or readjust to reality before meeting another changeling?
3. If unmolested, how long would your characters likely remain wherever they happen to pop out of the hedge before going somewhere else?
1. I'm mostly with Thanqol. I am all for talking quietly, but there will be a definite sense of now what? which pervades. Three of us have never really played in the World of Darkness in earnest; we will need something. A mugging, a run in with the police, even accidentally falling, blinkered, onto a busy street.
Our reactions are going to be "oh feathers what do I do?!", I think we'd benefit from having situations where that reaction is ok at first.
2. I am again agreeing that we should meet some fetch or another first. It has better narrative flow, meeting the 'villain' and then our allies. Scares us into the freehold's arms, as it were.
3. A tough one. It will take Charlotte a few weeks for the ennui to set in, so until then she won't begin perusing much of anything. The only two with motive force are Stephanie because Thanqol loves Forces, and Marchande because she has a tangible goal.
I suspect it will be Marchande who gets us moving. Need a stall and things to sell, and those don't normally walk right to you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PhoeKun
I have been going back and forth on where to put that specialty for the longest time. I guess Athletics might be slightly better, but... eh, I don't know. My little heart is wavering this way and that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thanqol
Best I can figure is survival would be more range and variety of knots while Athletics would be most sporting applications. Otherwise should get a ST quote.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anarion
Well hm. Athletics implies something like rope or rock-climbing knots. Survival seems more general use though. My Dad was a Boy Scout and knows a billion different knots, so I'd say survival would get you more.
Sometimes you have to step back and realize just how bizarre we are, relying on year-old context.
But this time is not that time.
Unsure of the response I'd get, I figured Expression with a specialty in Shibari would work, as I could justify any of the other uses that came survival and athletics. Days later, I can now, of course... I blame D&D 4e, for putting rope use under acrobatics, not athletics.
Darn, not enough room... Well, guess I'll have to pick that up as we go along. Question, can we have specialties in skills we don't have dots in? Because Changeling's get a free specialty and I dropped my in stealth, but I did wonder if maybe athletics (rope use) would work. I've been considering asking how to get it down to a rote action, too.
EDIT:
I'm dumb. Anarion, since it's as much a matter of art as fumction, can I use Crafts for rope use? It is as functional as using crafts for any engineering project.
Touched up Charlotte's looks. Her history is on my phone, however, not my computer. So that will have to wait :3
That was beautiful. I am really looking forward to running this group.
Just a couple quick things. One, technically at least 2 contracts need to be in your own seeming or court (this was discussed with SiuiS previously, it says it on pg 76, but not pg 74). That one is really easy to overlook, so if it's important to you that you have vainglory 4 and stone 1, I'm willing to allow that, although you should buy another stone or summer contract as soon as you can.
I will admit I was completely and totally unaware of that contract rule, but the reason I had Vainglory so high and both my mantle and seeming contracts so low is because I had figured she was in this Durance and, in a really twisted way, getting everything she wanted. Since being strong was less than half as important to her as being Good, the sorts of things she wished for and signed contracts to (without realizing it) were the ones that most made her the beautiful hero. She became on the outside what she was on the inside.
But I'll happily devote my first bit of XP to increasing one or both of those. I'm pretty highly interested in both contracts. Especially when I read ahead enough to see Summer eventually involves shooting sun lasers. I... need to do this, at least once in my life.
On a related note: How exactly is Wyrd going to be handled? I read the little bit you wrote about not spending xp on it, but does that mean it won't grow? Or... just, what's it all mean, really? I'm fascinated.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anarion
Setting question.
I'm still sort of thinking about where to drop you back into the world. I've got several possible locations and I'd like to make that initial scene interesting. I've got a couple good ways to draw you into the freehold no matter where we start, so let me ask a few questions.
1. When you start the game, do you want a chance to talk quietly, or would you prefer to make a scene either intentionally or accidentally?
2. Do you want time to pursue some of your own goals or readjust to reality before meeting another changeling?
3. If unmolested, how long would your characters likely remain wherever they happen to pop out of the hedge before going somewhere else?
1. What I'd say is that the opening probably sets the tone of the game. Being that I have no idea what the tone of the game is, more direction would be nicer than less.
2. In the same vein of setting the tone, I think it's very valuable to know how the world works before it breaks. We have been out from the word for a long time. Some of us an incredibly long time. A chance to see things, maybe meet a fetch (like Thanqol suggested) before we're really prepared for such a thing would be bucketloads of cool.
SPEAKING OF WHICH!
Kalina's fetch is something we have not yet discussed. Here's the breakdown:
Spoiler
Kalina Rogers' fetch has had a long time to settle herself into the missing girl's life. Twenty-five years, in fact. She's learned a lot about puppets and strings and master plans, and all of her knowledge of the games that are way bigger than her have left her paranoid in the extreme. If she's not the one at the top of things then she's vulnerable.
So while she pursued Kalina's dream of being a police officer, she quit the job halfway up the ladder in pursuit of what she thought were safer ventures. She's been very busy with her life. She took some time off to pen a series of adventure novels that have gone on to be best sellers - stories about a young girl named "Rose" who is trapped in a dark forest and battles the forces of evil, becoming The Silver Knight in the process. The idea "came to her in a dream" as the back cover tells its audience, and the books have received critical acclaim for the way they detail a child's ability to grow up and become something more than what her environment wants her to be.
From this inspirational note and on the basis of her old police work she launched a political campaign. Control of the city comes first. After that? Well, there's quite a lot of room for a bright woman with supermodel looks and a backstory spun from the finest threads of inspirational "rags to riches" tales ever conceived...
Exactly how far the fetch has come with her plans is something I'm leaving to you. Make it interesting - she's got a bunch of potential as a villain and could easily drive her original self flying right off the deep end. =D
3. If unmolested, she would continue to float forever. Something must push her if she's to accomplish anything in this new old world of her.
__________________ Flowers blanket all the countryside like freshly fallen snow
I know the answer's waiting somewhere, as it was once long ago
Do you wait to cross the river from the shores of shallow tide?
And what will happen to your phantom if you reach the other side?
...Hear me crying...
Avatar by Kairaven.
Setting question.
I'm still sort of thinking about where to drop you back into the world. I've got several possible locations and I'd like to make that initial scene interesting. I've got a couple good ways to draw you into the freehold no matter where we start, so let me ask a few questions.
1. When you start the game, do you want a chance to talk quietly, or would you prefer to make a scene either intentionally or accidentally?
2. Do you want time to pursue some of your own goals or readjust to reality before meeting another changeling?
3. If unmolested, how long would your characters likely remain wherever they happen to pop out of the hedge before going somewhere else?
1. Oh, making a scene is always fun.
2. Marchande doesn't have a lot of her own goals that don't involve the luck-selling, although I did have a small scene in mind in which Marchande dolefully stares at Ruth, happily having lunch with her boyfriend, from across the street before walking away, making plans. Plans which involve leaving fetch!Ruth alone and making her own life.
3. Not too long. Marchande might be intoxicated by freedom and hurry back to the university, only to segue into #2.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thanqol
Stephanie: "Are you hitting on me?"
"What? No! I'm not like that! I mean, I was talking to Rose, Stephanie, for goodness' sake!"
Quote:
Stephanie probably doesn't enjoy getting bound and gagged. That sure happened an awful lot when she got caught by James McClaw, but it was usually followed with being tossed into some kind of deathtrap or monster pit that she had to escape from really fast and she kinda got too good at escaping from ropes to really take the time to figure out if they turned her on.
She doesn't mind it either, but it's not so much something strange and vulnerable as it is Tuesday.
Point taken. Still, her initial reaction wouldn't be "flip out and get free by any means necessary." Which is Marchande's straight-from-Hedge attitude.
Quote:
If we encounter a bunch of bad guys in game who tie us all up there's going to be an interesting range of reactions.
Oh, yes, indeedy.
Quote:
Don't let Stephanie name the group, she'll get 'Justice' in there somewhere.
JUSTICE ADVENTURE BUDDIES
__________________
-build that wall and build it strong-
Kasanip - best artist; Rarity - best smile; Thanqol - good Question
Spoiler
Quote:
Originally Posted by PhoeKun
Raz, you scoundrel! You planned this!
Quote:
Originally Posted by BladeofObliviom
Great, and now I'm imagining what Raz's profile on a dating site would look like. "Must be okay with veils."
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kasanip
I don't think there is such a time to have veils that it is not the fault of Raz_Fox.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dervag
It's a freaking Romulan dump truck. The Romulans are no more likely to build an unarmed warp-capable ship than they are to become a hippy commune.
I will admit I was completely and totally unaware of that contract rule,
I was too until just now. I occasionally have strange holes in my knowledge.
Quote:
But I'll happily devote my first bit of XP to increasing one or both of those. I'm pretty highly interested in both contracts. Especially when I read ahead enough to see Summer eventually involves shooting sun lasers. I... need to do this, at least once in my life.
Darn skippy.
Quote:
On a related note: How exactly is Wyrd going to be handled? I read the little bit you wrote about not spending xp on it, but does that mean it won't grow? Or... just, what's it all mean, really? I'm fascinated.
In short,
- You cannot raise it in character creation.
- You can raise it in play for new dots x8 XP. So from 1 to 2 costs 16, 2 to 3 costs 24 etc.
- Arcane XP can only be spent on Wyrd. You get Arcane XP for encountering new supernatural phenomena, e.g. meeting a vampire, reading a book of spells, whatever. It essentially provides a significant discount on the very costly Wyrd advances.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Raz_Fox
"What? No! I'm not like that! I mean, I was talking to Rose, Stephanie, for goodness' sake!"
Stephanie: "Oh. Okay."
Quote:
JUSTICE ADVENTURE BUDDIES
I swear to Celestia that when I thought, "What would you name our group, Stephanie?"
The immediate answer?
"The League of Nations!"
She tried to backpedal but the damage was done.
__________________
"There may be no good reason for things to be the way they are."
Keeping in mind that I've done it piecemeal and there may be artefacts left over from revision; Charlotte is done. Though I need to add in her fetch's name.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Raz_Fox
Bah. You just don't want the possible Glamour junkie with a neurotic need to be human and respectable to be in charge, admit it. She's smart, and she's got a strong personality! What more do you need in a Princess of the Market?
"Why, you can certainly take charge, miss."
This is my newest favorite affectation. If I could change my voice is use this IRL all the time. Time to learn voice control...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thanqol
Hurray! I buy another dot of Mantle!
You sly dog, you!
Quote:
No other thoughts right now because I'm full of meaningless rage. Looking forwards to channelling it into Easy as Lying.
Meant to ask; is this your usual wake up and hate the world rage, or is something going on?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anarion
What's up with those urls? It's just xxx and they don't go anywhere. Was it blocked or something when you were posting?
Alternately: isn't bribing the DM standard procedure? Don't you like triple-X stuff? You are running a game of hot chicks with kinks after all.
[color="white"]Enough of that for me, by the way. Think I am riding the border of "tasteless" just a bit too hard~[/quote]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anarion
I find a certain vague irony in the fact that Hidden Reality is the sort of thing that Exalted can basically do for free, but it's actually my favorite of the contracts you linked and seems powerful.
I also noticed oneiromachy uses stunting.
I will pray for the poor Fae bastard who engages Kalina in dreams. Exalted! Wad one of Phoe's bigger time investments, I think.
Or I totally misremembered a series of cues. Either or =t
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anarion
Anyway, this has my approval barring a slight description change to explain how a totally unremarkable person has striking looks.
Should be good now?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Raz_Fox
Seriously cool. I approve; anything that you'd want Charlotte to do for Marchande, or vice versa?
That was why I asked about your hedgespun's origin, actually. I think outr two characters will do better In Character; with Stephanie, thanqol let me know he needed some reason not to assume I was the villain.
I didn't have one. Hence, bribery
Quote:
Originally Posted by Raz_Fox
"I must say, I'm rather discomfited by the number of my friends who desire leashes and muzzles. Having experienced both, chaps, I must say that they are undignified and dehumanizing; bondage is what we are running from. And I doubt you can convince me otherwise, no matter how ravishingly gorgeous you think I'd be in ropes."
It's an interesting dichotomy, that I'm interested in ropes only as shorthand, but Marchande equates the leash with the hand that holds it.
Quote:
So, other than the burlesque possibility (what have I dooone), we have another pressing question: do we call ourselves the Unconventional Motley, the Beautiful Motley, or the Motley of Ropes? The first speaks to the fact that we're all up and shattering stereotypes left and right, as far as seemings go; the second speaks to the fact that, y'know, we're four gorgeous women who all came out of Arcadia together and are as thick as thieves; the third speaks to the fact that 3/4ths of the Motley would probably enjoy getting bound and gagged, and the fourth could be won over by her mates when she stops flipping out over the fact that collars and muzzles are for dogs.
Do we do that? Do motleys get names? Will we like, sign up to RSVP the Fab Four at the next freehold homecoming?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thanqol
I was too until just now. I occasionally have strange holes in my knowledge.
Well to be fair, it took me two days of questing and consulting a man who can read legalese to find it. It's a very offhand thing.
Meant to ask; is this your usual wake up and hate the world rage, or is something going on?
The feeling's slipped away by now so it's difficult for me to catalogue. It wasn't aimed at or caused by anything in particular though. I could go into detail but that would be depressing and pointless.
Quote:
That was why I asked about your hedgespun's origin, actually. I think outr two characters will do better In Character; with Stephanie, thanqol let me know he needed some reason not to assume I was the villain.
I didn't have one. Hence, bribery
Ohhhh, now I see what you did there.
Quote:
Do we do that? Do motleys get names? Will we like, sign up to RSVP the Fab Four at the next freehold homecoming?
If we don't have a nickname we shall acquire a nickname, and if we take no steps to manage which nickname we acquire we shall acquire an insulting nickname.
I am fine with any of these.
__________________
"There may be no good reason for things to be the way they are."
Answering several more questions or pseudo questions. But first one big one. We have four characters now, and details on most of the fetches (would like a tad more on what SiuiS's is up to at the moment unless he wants me to make that up). So, when do we want to get started? I'm thinking a couple more days with the IC thread opening up on Friday or Saturday Pacific Daylight Time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SiuiS
Darn, not enough room... Well, guess I'll have to pick that up as we go along. Question, can we have specialties in skills we don't have dots in? Because Changeling's get a free specialty and I dropped my in stealth, but I did wonder if maybe athletics (rope use) would work. I've been considering asking how to get it down to a rote action, too.
EDIT:
I'm dumb. Anarion, since it's as much a matter of art as fumction, can I use Crafts for rope use? It is as functional as using crafts for any engineering project.
Touched up Charlotte's looks. Her history is on my phone, however, not my computer. So that will have to wait :3
I'm not finding a rule saying you can't get a specialty in a zero dot skill, but it does seem weird at first glance. Still, it's possible one could have training in a very narrow technique without the more broad training representative of the skill. So, unless someone finds a quote saying it's not allowed, I'm okay with it.
Crafts for rope use, however, I think is not okay. Craft would be about making rope, actually braiding the material and making sure that it's strong and won't fray. It doesn't indicate anything about your ability to tie knots, swing from vines, climb cliffs, or do anything else with a rope. I suppose experience crafting rope sculptures that include a lot of knots could maybe, maaaybe, work, but it's pushing it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PhoeKun
I will admit I was completely and totally unaware of that contract rule, but the reason I had Vainglory so high and both my mantle and seeming contracts so low is because I had figured she was in this Durance and, in a really twisted way, getting everything she wanted. Since being strong was less than half as important to her as being Good, the sorts of things she wished for and signed contracts to (without realizing it) were the ones that most made her the beautiful hero. She became on the outside what she was on the inside.
But I'll happily devote my first bit of XP to increasing one or both of those. I'm pretty highly interested in both contracts. Especially when I read ahead enough to see Summer eventually involves shooting sun lasers. I... need to do this, at least once in my life.
Oki-doki loki.
Quote:
On a related note: How exactly is Wyrd going to be handled? I read the little bit you wrote about not spending xp on it, but does that mean it won't grow? Or... just, what's it all mean, really? I'm fascinated.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thanqol
In short,
- You cannot raise it in character creation.
- You can raise it in play for new dots x8 XP. So from 1 to 2 costs 16, 2 to 3 costs 24 etc.
- Arcane XP can only be spent on Wyrd. You get Arcane XP for encountering new supernatural phenomena, e.g. meeting a vampire, reading a book of spells, whatever. It essentially provides a significant discount on the very costly Wyrd advances.
In short, you're being forced to start at Wyrd 1, but it actually should advance at a reasonable clip, especially in the beginning when you learn all about the world of Changeling. The intent of the houserule is that if you could have spent merit to get Wyrd, instead of being the four femme fatales you'd be the four mechanically optimized Wyrd 3 characters.
Quote:
SPEAKING OF WHICH!
Kalina's fetch is something we have not yet discussed. Here's the breakdown:
Spoiler
Kalina Rogers' fetch has had a long time to settle herself into the missing girl's life. Twenty-five years, in fact. She's learned a lot about puppets and strings and master plans, and all of her knowledge of the games that are way bigger than her have left her paranoid in the extreme. If she's not the one at the top of things then she's vulnerable.
So while she pursued Kalina's dream of being a police officer, she quit the job halfway up the ladder in pursuit of what she thought were safer ventures. She's been very busy with her life. She took some time off to pen a series of adventure novels that have gone on to be best sellers - stories about a young girl named "Rose" who is trapped in a dark forest and battles the forces of evil, becoming The Silver Knight in the process. The idea "came to her in a dream" as the back cover tells its audience, and the books have received critical acclaim for the way they detail a child's ability to grow up and become something more than what her environment wants her to be.
From this inspirational note and on the basis of her old police work she launched a political campaign. Control of the city comes first. After that? Well, there's quite a lot of room for a bright woman with supermodel looks and a backstory spun from the finest threads of inspirational "rags to riches" tales ever conceived...
Exactly how far the fetch has come with her plans is something I'm leaving to you. Make it interesting - she's got a bunch of potential as a villain and could easily drive her original self flying right off the deep end. =D
3. If unmolested, she would continue to float forever. Something must push her if she's to accomplish anything in this new old world of her.
And Phoe's fetch is now the most likely to be encountered early. Possibly in the opening scene. Though uh, sort of not really spoiler. There are Changelings in politics.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SiuiS
Keeping in mind that I've done it piecemeal and there may be artefacts left over from revision; Charlotte is done. Though I need to add in her fetch's name.
Nice, ignore my earlier comment about the fetch then.
Quote:
[
Alternately: isn't bribing the DM standard procedure? Don't you like triple-X stuff? You are running a game of hot chicks with kinks after all.
[color="white"]Enough of that for me, by the way. Think I am riding the border of "tasteless" just a bit too hard~
*Facehoof*
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thanqol
If we don't have a nickname we shall acquire a nickname, and if we take no steps to manage which nickname we acquire we shall acquire an insulting nickname.
I am fine with any of these.
...Would you like to be in charge of the insulting nickname committee?
__________________
Lawyer Pony Avatar by Dirtytabs, exalted as an Eclipse by Elemental, now with a fancy robe.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Giant
Anarion's right on the money here.
Quotes
Spoiler
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiki Snakes
Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Anarion Mori?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiki Snakes
You just highlandered an entire city block into a glass-filled storm by road-runnering down it in your underwear.
Answering several more questions or pseudo questions. But first one big one. We have four characters now, and details on most of the fetches (would like a tad more on what SiuiS's is up to at the moment unless he wants me to make that up). So, when do we want to get started? I'm thinking a couple more days with the IC thread opening up on Friday or Saturday Pacific Daylight Time.
I personally am good to go now. No rush though, I can wait.
Quote:
...Would you like to be in charge of the insulting nickname committee?
I can't do better/worse/different than "The League of Nations".
__________________
"There may be no good reason for things to be the way they are."
Answering several more questions or pseudo questions. But first one big one. We have four characters now, and details on most of the fetches (would like a tad more on what SiuiS's is up to at the moment unless he wants me to make that up). So, when do we want to get started? I'm thinking a couple more days with the IC thread opening up on Friday or Saturday Pacific Daylight Time.
works for me. Gives me time to stop reading. Do you know how awkward changeling dreams are?
Quote:
I'm not finding a rule saying you can't get a specialty in a zero dot skill, but it does seem weird at first glance. Still, it's possible one could have training in a very narrow technique without the more broad training representative of the skill. So, unless someone finds a quote saying it's not allowed, I'm okay with it.
From a fluff point of view, it makes sense. It ever so slightly decreases the chance of a catastrophic flustercluck, balancing out the untrained die penalty. A person can be charming, and thus suck less at charming than at any other use of Socialization. Boy is it counterintuitive from a rules perspective though.
Quote:
Crafts for rope use, however, I think is not okay. Craft would be about making rope, actually braiding the material and making sure that it's strong and won't fray. It doesn't indicate anything about your ability to tie knots, swing from vines, climb cliffs, or do anything else with a rope. I suppose experience crafting rope sculptures that include a lot of knots could maybe, maaaybe, work, but it's pushing it.
That is about what I expected. I would show you what I mean, but that would be againat forum rules, I think. So I would use Craft to create outfits out of rope, which would involve the basic knots - cow hitch, square, some of the hard to name triangle ones, a trucker's loop, some basic rigging. I could make a harness, and a pulley system using slide loops, but not do anything with them afterwards.
Of course, any system which requires a player to say "don't worry, I'll use it responsibly" is inellegant. I can always just wait to put points into it later, I just have a compulsive need to make sure all the information is on the table before dropping a subject
Quote:
Nice, ignore my earlier comment about the fetch then.
Ignore it because I gave you the info, or because I gave you enough to make it up as you go?
...
I... can't actually remeber the specifics of what I wrote last night XD
Okay, then, in the interests of full disclosure;
I am off work Tuesday and Wednesday.
Wednesday I usually play D&D from about 6:30 to midnight.
Friday, I play AD&D from midnight to 5 am.
work days I can post, but the quality will not be best. Wednesday and Friday (or maybe saurday, it depends on how well my body adapts?) I will be tired and distracted. Otherwise, I have an almost 24 hour possible posting schedule. I hope this will be satisfactory?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thanqol
I personally am good to go now. No rush though, I can wait.
Internet Friendships: turning character creation from that annoying thing that wastes your first session into a delicious mental apetizer.
Quote:
I can't do better/worse/different than "The League of Nations".
Stephanie names the group after as positive a thing she can.
Kalina would, if pressed, name us after an adventuring troup.
Marchande would find a catchy name to leverage into a franchise.
Charlotte would think of a bunch of french names and never voice any because that's silly.
The freehold just calls us "Them Girls". Or occasionally "Dem Girls *wink*"
I personally am good to go now. No rush though, I can wait.
I picked Friday because I found out today that I have to write a case comment on short notice on the Federal Circuit's decision in the Apple v. Samsung appeal. It's due on Friday, should be published by next week.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SiuiS
That is about what I expected. I would show you what I mean, but that would be againat forum rules, I think. So I would use Craft to create outfits out of rope, which would involve the basic knots - cow hitch, square, some of the hard to name triangle ones, a trucker's loop, some basic rigging. I could make a harness, and a pulley system using slide loops, but not do anything with them afterwards.
Of course, any system which requires a player to say "don't worry, I'll use it responsibly" is inellegant. I can always just wait to put points into it later, I just have a compulsive need to make sure all the information is on the table before dropping a subject
As I said, you could make the rope sculpture thing work. But it's also true that just because someone works with an object in one context doesn't mean they know how to use it in others. For example, even if you know 10 different knots for use in sculpture or outfits, that doesn't mean you know which one of those 10 knots is best for holding a heavy load. You might, but you just as easily could have never encountered it.
Here's an example. Rarity may be able to weave the perfect bird's nest, but could you see her applying that knowledge in an industrial context? I really couldn't.
Quote:
Ignore it because I gave you the info, or because I gave you enough to make it up as you go?
...
I... can't actually remeber the specifics of what I wrote last night XD
Okay, then, in the interests of full disclosure;
I am off work Tuesday and Wednesday.
Wednesday I usually play D&D from about 6:30 to midnight.
Friday, I play AD&D from midnight to 5 am.
work days I can post, but the quality will not be best. Wednesday and Friday (or maybe saurday, it depends on how well my body adapts?) I will be tired and distracted. Otherwise, I have an almost 24 hour possible posting schedule. I hope this will be satisfactory?
I'd still like the info about your fetch. I just thought you were saying that you had written it already, in which case you can just add it to your character post.
As for posting, which time zone are you in? I'm Pacific Daylight for the next 6 weeks and as I noted in the OP I expect to usually post in the early to mid evening on weekdays, although there's a (frighteningly high) chance I'll check the thread during breaks. Right now, I'm on a very late schedule because of Diablo 3, and I'll probably make the IC thread either in the mid afternoon or in the later evening.
__________________
Lawyer Pony Avatar by Dirtytabs, exalted as an Eclipse by Elemental, now with a fancy robe.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Giant
Anarion's right on the money here.
Quotes
Spoiler
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiki Snakes
Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Anarion Mori?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiki Snakes
You just highlandered an entire city block into a glass-filled storm by road-runnering down it in your underwear.
Oh, oh, question! How common are Contracts of Hearth in the San Fran freehold? How about Contracts of Dream?
As with all contracts, assume that people with 5 dots are relatively rare, since that implies a pretty heavy investment. If someone has 5 dots of hearth, they're probably actively using that, perhaps to inspire a mortal artist they've ensorcelled. Similarly, someone with 5 dots in dreams is probably highly desired for his or her services in oneiromancy. On the other hand, as contracts universally available to all changelings, I would expect that many of them have at least one or two dots in dreams or hearth. It's always useful to have a way to get a sense of direction in the hedge, and the basic "you roll less dice, I roll more dice" powers are some of the most useful around.
__________________
Lawyer Pony Avatar by Dirtytabs, exalted as an Eclipse by Elemental, now with a fancy robe.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Giant
Anarion's right on the money here.
Quotes
Spoiler
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiki Snakes
Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Anarion Mori?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiki Snakes
You just highlandered an entire city block into a glass-filled storm by road-runnering down it in your underwear.
As with all contracts, assume that people with 5 dots are relatively rare, since that implies a pretty heavy investment. If someone has 5 dots of hearth, they're probably actively using that, perhaps to inspire a mortal artist they've ensorcelled. Similarly, someone with 5 dots in dreams is probably highly desired for his or her services in oneiromancy. On the other hand, as contracts universally available to all changelings, I would expect that many of them have at least one or two dots in dreams or hearth. It's always useful to have a way to get a sense of direction in the hedge, and the basic "you roll less dice, I roll more dice" powers are some of the most useful around.
Crud.
This is rather problematic, given that Marchande would be trying to sell something common to many changelings. If, say, Hearth 2 isn't common, then suddenly that's a valuable ability to have, but if a lot of Changelings have Hearth then all she's got up her sleeve that people can't easily acquire elsewhere is the automatic success from Hearth 3.
__________________
-build that wall and build it strong-
Kasanip - best artist; Rarity - best smile; Thanqol - good Question
Spoiler
Quote:
Originally Posted by PhoeKun
Raz, you scoundrel! You planned this!
Quote:
Originally Posted by BladeofObliviom
Great, and now I'm imagining what Raz's profile on a dating site would look like. "Must be okay with veils."
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kasanip
I don't think there is such a time to have veils that it is not the fault of Raz_Fox.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dervag
It's a freaking Romulan dump truck. The Romulans are no more likely to build an unarmed warp-capable ship than they are to become a hippy commune.
This is rather problematic, given that Marchande would be trying to sell something common to many changelings. If, say, Hearth 2 isn't common, then suddenly that's a valuable ability to have, but if a lot of Changelings have Hearth then all she's got up her sleeve that people can't easily acquire elsewhere is the automatic success from Hearth 3.
Just means you need to change your pitch. Lots of people own cars, computers, and suits, yet they're all expensive. Plus, a good vs. a bad teacher could make a large difference. Perhaps you can teach Hearth 2 relatively quickly, or do so in a way that is enjoyable for the learner. Perhaps you're willing to take on some of the more...unstable...students or offer your services whenever the freehold needs them, day or night.
__________________
Lawyer Pony Avatar by Dirtytabs, exalted as an Eclipse by Elemental, now with a fancy robe.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Giant
Anarion's right on the money here.
Quotes
Spoiler
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiki Snakes
Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Anarion Mori?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiki Snakes
You just highlandered an entire city block into a glass-filled storm by road-runnering down it in your underwear.
This is rather problematic, given that Marchande would be trying to sell something common to many changelings. If, say, Hearth 2 isn't common, then suddenly that's a valuable ability to have, but if a lot of Changelings have Hearth then all she's got up her sleeve that people can't easily acquire elsewhere is the automatic success from Hearth 3.
Hearth is relatively common, Hearth 2 is relatively easy to attain, you're not exactly selling uniqueness here.
Advice is not to rely on your contracts (again), it's to provide a service that your contracts help you support. The difference between owning a mobile phone and being the guy who can get in touch with everyone in town. Don't say "I can boost your luck!", say, "I can provide long term fortune and care for an area you're interested in".
Contracts by themselves are commodities, essentially. They're open to anyone who needs to purchase them. There's very little profit in commodities. You want to find a way to turn that raw iron into kettles and buildings; that adds value. [/businessmajor]
__________________
"There may be no good reason for things to be the way they are."
Hearth is relatively common, Hearth 2 is relatively easy to attain, you're not exactly selling uniqueness here.
Advice is not to rely on your contracts (again), it's to provide a service that your contracts help you support. The difference between owning a mobile phone and being the guy who can get in touch with everyone in town. Don't say "I can boost your luck!", say, "I can provide long term fortune and care for an area you're interested in".
Contracts by themselves are commodities, essentially. They're open to anyone who needs to purchase them. There's very little profit in commodities. You want to find a way to turn that raw iron into kettles and buildings; that adds value. [/businessmajor]
On that note, perhaps some sort of full service luck boosting would sell well? You're not just buying the hearth contract, you're buying the person behind that contract. A person who will dedicate the same level of care and attention to your interests that you would yourself.
__________________
Lawyer Pony Avatar by Dirtytabs, exalted as an Eclipse by Elemental, now with a fancy robe.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Giant
Anarion's right on the money here.
Quotes
Spoiler
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiki Snakes
Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Anarion Mori?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiki Snakes
You just highlandered an entire city block into a glass-filled storm by road-runnering down it in your underwear.
Marchande: you could also look at it from the viewpoint of starting capital. You're not going to make overhead unless you expand. more incentive to be the one who has 5 dots. But you're limiting yourself. Look at it holistically.
You're a Junk dealer. Someone wants luck and all they have are their track shoes? Sold. Someone would like a better shot at winning the title but can't pay? A favor or some glamour would work. Found a nice trinket? Sure, we'll add it as credit to your tab. No one has to know you're brokering these to goblin markets for a profit. Who knows what the shows that ran the 2003 UCSF track championship could bring?
You're a franchise chain. The lost of the City know you, but you'll be receiving calls from prospects who spoke to the spidery painter exhibiting in Sacramento. Your apprentice might move to Oregon for the weather (and the wild green... Hippies.) and network there. Every time Stephanie licks out she's a walking billboard, being too guileless to not tell people.
You're networked. Every time you provide a professional service someone takes note. And not only can they call on you, you can call on them. There were more but such custom as today's distracts me. You actually benefit from professional distance from your motley, though. Be sure to keep tabs and run it like a business.
RSS Feeds: 
Re: [Changeling] A Gathering of Mists (OOC)
