A couple of new players

[Steerpike]

Nihal and Ravana are going to be joining the game. We'll integrate their characters over the next day or two. I'll probably cap the game for now, once those two have joined, simply because I don't want to hit a player count that is going to become unwieldy, particularly during combat when we're waiting on people to post. Thoughts?

 

[Sparkie]

I'm no DM, but I know game balance is essential to a good campaign. I'm for whatever keeps us balanced. If a player cap aids in that regard, no problem here.

Besides, I'd be willing to bet that, with so many players, sooner or later someone's gonna die. Rydh can't heal everyone...

 

[Ankari]

I'm with you. I do confess, though, that I'm feeling a bit anxious. I'm going to have to double check my posts to ensure they meet Chicago Manual of Style grammar guidelines. Do we get bonus XP if Ravana approves our posts?

PS: I'm trying to stay awake by finishing a short story as I wait for a DM post. You got me hooked. Fricken' cats and their fricken' claws.

 

[Sparkie]

Do we get bonus XP if Ravana approves our posts?

I vote yes!

Seriously though, I look forward to seeing what Ravana and Nihal have in store for us. Nihal's already posted the general idea for what we should expect. Ravana, however, is being enigmatic so far. What will we see? Stay tuned, I guess.

 

[Steerpike]

I'm with you. I do confess, though, that I'm feeling a bit anxious. I'm going to have to double check my posts to ensure they meet Chicago Manual of Style grammar guidelines. Do we get bonus XP if Ravana approves our posts?

PS: I'm trying to stay awake by finishing a short story as I wait for a DM post. You got me hooked. Fricken' cats and their fricken' claws.

Heh. I'll have to double-check my posts as well.

Sorry for the late posts tonight. Was one of those days, by which I mean LONG

 

[Ravana]

I'm with you. I do confess, though, that I'm feeling a bit anxious. I'm going to have to double check my posts to ensure they meet Chicago Manual of Style grammar guidelines. Do we get bonus XP if Ravana approves our posts?

Incredible as this may sound, CMS is one of the few style major manuals I don't have a copy of—courtesy of the fact that academia uses mostly MLA or APA, so I never needed to use or teach it. Gonna have to pick one up some day, I imagine. Though in the end, the only differences between most style guides is how citations are handled, and occasionally whether they favor more or fewer commas.

P.S. Though it doesn't show when I quote you, you left the "e" in "Style" outside of the HTML italics tag.

 

[Nihal]

I'm no DM, but I know game balance is essential to a good campaign. I'm for whatever keeps us balanced. If a player cap aids in that regard, no problem here.

Besides, I'd be willing to bet that, with so many players, sooner or later someone's gonna die. Rydh can't heal everyone...

Oooh, don't worry.

A rather overconfident character + my rotten luck = High chances of a new spot soon and one less to heal.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Well, I hope death is one of those things that is possible, but not inevitable. But that depends how we play out battles. The last one was lacking when it came to teamwork and organization, and I'll be the first to admit I was the first to take an action that caused the whole party to split. We probably need to work out some effective tactics (as long as Baldhart still gets to charge. She's good at that).

Anyway, I know what Nihla's character looks like. How about you, Ravana? Unless your character is a sneering, hooded elf with a goatee (Myrddin's character art... it was worth a try), I'll need a description about 1-3 sentences... no, wait. This is Ravana. 5 clauses max with no more than three adjectives per clause. I stop reading at 200 words!

 

[Steerpike]

I think the initial battles are good learning tools for people to learn the system, aspects of play-by-post like we're doing, and so on. As the party advances, things will become more challenging and there will be times when lack of teamwork could lead to some deaths. So far, I think the group is doing well, though

Also, there may be times in the game when potential foes are simply too powerful for the party and an attack could be disastrous. I had a first-level party track down a creature called a Leucrotta once, despite in-game hints and warnings that it was ill-advised. They escaped with their lives due to some really nice teamwork, but didn't kill the creature (the thing gets three attacks per round - two kicks that do over a d6 damage eat and a bit that does something like 3-18 damage, and it is very smart; not something for a level 1 party as a general rule).

 

[Ankari]

It also has something to do with filtering what you know as a player and what the character knows. A personal example is the fight I had through the window. The group tried to climb the rope, but I alone succeeded. By the time I found out the fire creatures were hauling Father Harold away, the group had already entered the temple through the lower level. I couldn't just shout out that I needed help. Only when other members arrived at the temple could I ask for help.

I think we've been playing this game rather well. We are not always going to be of a singular mind. This is how real relationships form between a band of people. No one should get discouraged by what has transpired already.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

I agree that we can't be discouraged by the last battle. (All's well that ends well!) I felt like we learned a hard lesson the easy way. If you do the math, Rydh was at a disadvantage going one-on-one with a fire demon. (Similar damage/defense for both, but the demons had more HP.) Cadell would have fallen much sooner if not for the highly improbable amount of single-digit to-hit rolls from Steerpike (and everyone else!).

Some of us, and I'm one of them, caused the party to split when we could have been a seven-man (six-man, one-woman) war machine. We can discuss this in-game though, while we're armoring up.

 

[Ravana]

Anyway, I know what Nihla's character looks like. How about you, Ravana? Unless your character is a sneering, hooded elf with a goatee (Myrddin's character art... it was worth a try), I'll need a description about 1-3 sentences... no, wait. This is Ravana. 5 clauses max with no more than three adjectives per clause. I stop reading at 200 words!

Heh. Actually, I'm still trying to choose between a couple options; I'll let you know.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Cool. And of course I'm kidding that I'd ignore your description after 200 words. The truth behind the humor is that I draw better when given little direction, so the trick is to tell me things that matter. Like facial hair. There's an insecure part of me that wonders if Myrddin's reason for not playing is the goatee I gave his guy. I'm sure that's not even a small part of the reason he never jumped in-game, but I'd be lying if I said the thought didn't cross my mind at all. I mean, I just typed it, so I had to have thought it, even if I didn't take the thought seriously!

If you want to give us an extensive background for your character, by all means, add it to the Getting to Know You thread!

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

I'm coloring Mauve right now.

Ravana, until I find out who your guy is, I'm using Prince Heverik as a placeholder. If your character would wear a dead squirrel as a hat and has a face that says "I am always punctual for tea time," this is your guy.

 

[Ravana]

Well, maybe and yes, in that order. May not always be punctual, but the face says that. Noble in bearing, but definitely a composed, tranquil look: reserved, unlike Heverik's native ebullience. Probably won't be a squirrel, but something natural.

You might need to make a couple changes, though: skin and hair both as pale as you've seen on anyone who isn't an albino. (Looks like a Finn, in other words.) Hair straight and shoulder-length. Small, almost delicate, both overall and in specific features. Only closest inspection reveals hints of elven blood in background: most people miss them. Garbed in fur-trimmed leathers with a definite "natural" look to them.

Oh: and her name is Hiljikki.

 

[Nihal]

If Mauve already knew Baldhart I bet Mauve would elbow Bald and say "Hey, look! Competition.".

*ahem* I'm curious to see those avatars!

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Here's Mauve

Funny thing… I drew her on an orange index card using a ball point pen, but I don't think the sketchiness shows up much. (At least not in a bad way?) I gave her a dark skin tone, so now we have the well-tanned dark-haired girl, the pale blonde, and the six-foot-nine behemoth. So I ruined the whole Charlie's Angels thing with my character. But I'll bet Charlie would've liked having a six-foot-nine behemoth. Unless he was a creepy guy who constantly put his female employees in grave danger just so he could watch them make sexy poses while murdering people for him. What kind of a sick bas

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Well, maybe and yes, in that order. May not always be punctual, but the face says that. Noble in bearing, but definitely a composed, tranquil look: reserved, unlike Heverik's native ebullience. Probably won't be a squirrel, but something natural.

You might need to make a couple changes, though: skin and hair both as pale as you've seen on anyone who isn't an albino. (Looks like a Finn, in other words.) Hair straight and shoulder-length. Small, almost delicate, both overall and in specific features. Only closest inspection reveals hints of elven blood in background: most people miss them. Garbed in fur-trimmed leathers with a definite "natural" look to them.

Oh: and her name is Hiljikki.

Perfect. Now the number of female characters is equal to the number of players not playing as their own gender. And yet, we only have two women playing. (I could totally write this as a math test word problem. But I don't teach math. Probably for the best.)

I should be able to draw Hiljikki tomorrow, since I have the day off thanks to a blizzard named Nemo!

 

[Nihal]

How did you, I don't even...! It's perfect, hahaha!

Mauve could also pass as the "asian" version of the brunette, she supposedly squints her eyes so often you wouldn't be really able to tell from a distance. :x

The funny thing is that we got there two short and scrawn... *cough* ... slender angels and one so tall and strong she can make up for them both.

 

[Ravana]

"Slender" bids fair to be an understatement in my case… didn't want to give numbers up front (it would have given away the punchline), but Hiljikki's around five-foot-not-so-much and a hundred-and-fewer pounds.

And, of course, she wears flats. Well, moccasins, but same result.

Might want to delay anything more than a sketch for the moment, LS: she's going to be traveling with an as-yet-undetermined animal and an as-yet-undetermined musical instrument, either or both of which may or may not be obvious. So the squirrel (or whatever) on her head might not be dead after all, and the instrument case might be large enough to be visible over her shoulder. Especially if I sell Steerpike on the existence of slide trombones in his world.

Oops. Channeling Heverik again. (Though Steerpike can confirm that I did already mention the trombone.) Besides, I see her as more of a didgeridoo type.…

< several of Ravana's heads chasten the one that uttered the last sentence in his "outside voice" >

No, she's not a bard.
["'I was certain of it, directly I heard you play!'"]
["Oh, shut up, you. Besides, no one's going to get the reference—even with the trombone."]
[ <sulks> "No one appreciates the classics any more."]

Anyway… she isn't a bard: she just likes music. The animal is easier to account for: she's a druid.
["Yeah, and if she wears antlers, the squirrel can hang out on her rack."]
["And what the hell is that supposed to be a reference to?"]
["Cleavage, moron."]
["She wears antlers on h—?"]
["Never mind."]
["Besides, she doesn't have—"]
["Just let it go, alright?"]
< heads continue arguing, albeit in subdued voices >

Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of a sitar and a ring-tailed lemur.…

< argument stops; both heads—along with all the others—stare at speaker in astonishment >

[ … ]
[ … ]
["Oh, right: he's the one who came up with Heverik."]
["In which case, it should have been a double-reed flügelsyrinx and some unheard-of species of snake."]
["Maybe he's learning restraint."]
["You think?"]
["No. But hope springs eternal."]
["At least he didn't use the line about trying to learn the Aeolian harp again.…"]
["Don't remind him."]