@Guardian Angel Haruki, honestly, the more I think about it, Daniel won't allow a shapeshifter who means them harm to live long enough to, say, go find the nearest settlement and use his shapeshifting to impersonate the party to frame them for crimes they didn't commit.

So he'd probably work with Malcer to ensure that Bartholomew dies as soon as possible.

That is, if Barth being a Changeling is obviously known.

You presume much about how "gung ho" Malcer would be to murder a party member, no matter how unempathetic he can be towards those that aren't his friends. Consider that, starting out, Malcer is likely at least slightly disassociating his situation in this new world. He might partially feel like he's in a dream, but it feels too real and too clear to think like that. So, for safety's sake, he operates with the assumption that everything is real and that his choices matter and can have consequences.

Regardless, on his stance on murder, this isn't exactly accurate without going more in-depth, but basically he sorta sees his party members as more "real" than the locals, who are naturally "NPCs", and he sort of treats his situation like that. Now, as an avid role-player, he has this understanding, a gentlemen's agreement of sorts, that one of the biggest cardinal sins is to deliberately sabotage the party or kill a fellow PC. For this reason, no matter his garbage attitude, Bartholomew has some leeway. As long as he, himself, does not commit that cardinal sin, Malcer may not like him, but for the practicality of greater firepower and utility, he is willing to tolerate him... to a degree.

And consider: Malcer may be unempathetic, but he's not a psycho/sociopath. The party to him are "real people", and killing them is nothing less than murder. Malcer was never a murderer in his past life. He was a pretty normal guy, and that hasn't changed, no matter how much he's now enabled to exercise his power fantasies. It's one thing if he's killing a bandit or monster that attacked him on the road; he won't hesitate in such a case. But to escalate to murder against someone that's "only" an asshole and hasn't tried to kill him or his friends first? Wouldn't be something he'd feel like would be "justifiable" to the party.

That said, if Malcer were to (perhaps inevitably) plot Bartholomew's murder, it's unlikely he would collaborate with any of the rest of the party. To spare the morals and feelings of people like Ciel and Finn, Malcer would likely go it alone. He would want Bartholomew's death to not be something that could be tracked back to him, because he cares about the rest of the party and wouldn't want to compromise his reputation in their eyes. So, if he commits premediated murder like this, he's not going to ask anyone else to stain their hands.

So, jokes aside, don't expect Malcer to do more than menace/threaten Bartholomew out the gate to keep him in line. Actually trying to kill him is a whole other level of response to be reserved for an appropriate time and offense(s).

I think Bartholomew would realize how invaluable being a Changeling is for him, and would most likely keep that secret.

I'm currently presuming that the party would arrive in their base states with no abilities active, given they are basically just growing into fresh bodies. So, I wonder if Bartholomew would even be able to hide it from the party... It's funny though, but even if he can't hide it from them, when I really think about it, it's still incredibly hard to defend against without straight-up mind-reading. It's pretty clear to me examining that ability why changelings are often feared and hated, because it's absolutely sinister what they can do unchecked.

If I submit my character sheet this will be mine:

He was the silent kid from the gang who loves playing MMORPG called Dragon Lair. Upon getting isekai'd he chooses to be one his favorite character, the Grand Master.



The Grand Master is a character that uses Weapon Change attacks to convert skills and maintain a consistent pace when attacking enemies.

Isekai name: Xian
Race: Human
Age: 20
Class: Grand Master (An advanced class of Knight)
Damage type: Magic

Character Debut/Theme

Errr…
You might want to look at the previous Character Sheets. Yours is missing a lot of information.

Also, we’re using Dungeons and Dragons 5e for determining classes and abilities. If you need help with that, don’t hesitate to ask. ^^”

<Snipped quote by Guardian Angel Haruki>

I'm currently presuming that the party would arrive in their base states with no abilities active, given they are basically just growing into fresh bodies. So, I wonder if Bartholomew would even be able to hide it from the party... It's funny though, but even if he can't hide it from them, when I really think about it, it's still incredibly hard to defend against without straight-up mind-reading. It's pretty clear to me examining that ability why changelings are often feared and hated, because it's absolutely sinister what they can do unchecked.

That’s a fair presumption. I do have a similar presumption with Ciel and her being a warlock: She wouldn’t have her warlock abilities until she actually makes a pact with the Djinni Patron.

Since it sounds like @CaptainManbeard is considering taking on a pure GM role, that means contract terms may need to be hashed out in game. But I do imagine the prerequisite to make the contract being “For the love of everything that is good, break up with Bartholomew!”

So, they might not even realize that Bart is a changeling until later or someone native to the new world points it out.

EDIT: Reread CaptainManbeard’s post! Sorry for the confusion on my end.

<Snipped quote by Remuri>

Errr…
You might want to look at the previous Character Sheets. Yours is missing a lot of information.

Also, we’re using Dungeons and Dragons 5e for determining classes and abilities. If you need help with that, don’t hesitate to ask. ^^”

<Snipped quote by Lewascan2>

That’s a fair presumption. I do have a similar presumption with Ciel and her being a warlock: She wouldn’t have her warlock abilities until she actually makes a pact with the Djinni Patron.

Since it sounds like @CaptainManbeard is considering taking on a pure GM role, that means contract terms may need to be hashed out in game. But I do imagine the prerequisite to make the contract being “For the love of everything that is good, break up with Bartholomew!”

So, they might not even realize that Bart is a changeling until later or someone native to the new world points it out.

EDIT: Reread CaptainManbeard’s post! Sorry for the confusion on my end.

I’m pretty sure that when all the party members received their “dream training” that they forget about until the isekai kicks off, they already have some of their abilities but are unaware of it. So, Ciel would probably have made her pact in that time-frame. Assuming that’s what our lovely GM goes for as the explanation for why all the PCs have a minimum of preexisting sudden competence in their abilities.

Malcer, being the RPG nerd he is, would probably be the most likely to identify Bart’s race. Since Daniel perhaps isn’t as into RPs as him, and Ciel probably is super rusty from being isolated for years.

@Lewascan2, Huh, point. Daniel will probably hold back on the murder plotting, for Malcer's sake.

Hmmm, isn't that a turn based game?

I'm not familiar with American turn based game. I only did play some asian turn based game such as Mana Khemia and Honkai:Star Rail.

Hmmm, isn't that a turn based game?

I'm not familiar with American turn based game. I only did play some asian turn based game such as Mana Khemia and Honkai:Star Rail.

Video games are a poor comparison.

Dungeons and Dragons is traditionally a pen and paper RPG. It's designed to use dice, but we're translating the abilities to pure narrative assets that don't use dice, since that will flow better in a RPGuild roleplay. So, yes, you're at least correct that it will perhaps be turn-based... in the sense that all text RPs are technically turn-based.

Hmmm I could be something like a Berserker/Human/Axe-Wielder at least. 🤔

Hmmm I could be something like a Berserker/Human/Axe-Wielder at least. 🤔

That could work.

Berserker is a sub-class of Barbarian, which you could choose at level 3, and a greataxe is a very common choice for a barbarian weapon. Though, Barbarian abilities mean they don't really wear armor. But since we're not staying 100% true to official D&D rules, the GM may allow it.

<Snipped quote by Guardian Angel Haruki>

I’m pretty sure that when all the party members received their “dream training” that they forget about until the isekai kicks off, they already have some of their abilities but are unaware of it. So, Ciel would probably have made her pact in that time-frame. Assuming that’s what our lovely GM goes for as the explanation for why all the PCs have a minimum of preexisting sudden competence in their abilities.

I was also thinking that the pact would have been established in the dream training as well, but Ciel wouldn't have accepted it right away. Self-doubt, hearing that she has to break up with Bart, and the fact that it was a dream would all have been reasons why she wouldn't have accepted the pact right away.

That way, she could commit to the pact in the new world and have a cool scene somewhat like the Awakening scenes in the Persona 5 game.

Malcer, being the RPG nerd he is, would probably be the most likely to identify Bart’s race. Since Daniel perhaps isn’t as into RPs as him, and Ciel probably is super rusty from being isolated for years.

Oh yeah, she would be more than just rusty. I was thinking that Malcer was the one who introduced her to Tabletop RPGs. She's played video games before, but her main thing in the real world was reading books and studying.

Finally picked voices for the character sheets!

We got Marisha Ray’s Keyleth for Ciel, Hamdsome Jack from Borderlands for Bartholomew, and (who else but?) Matthew Mercer’s Sinbad for the Djinni Patron.

I'm wondering if it might be best to hand over GMing duties to one of you guys. As previously mentioned, I'm going to have less free time than I initially thought when I started this interest check three weeks ago because since then I've been offered a much higher paying position. It's a financial services role for a multinational bank and there are a lot of systems and terms and policies to learn (six weeks of training), and I feel like my posting rate would be too slow to keep up with both this and my Teen Titans RP. Does anyone want to take over as GM?

I'm wondering if it might be best to hand over GMing duties to one of you guys. As previously mentioned, I'm going to have less free time than I initially thought when I started this interest check three weeks ago because since then I've been offered a much higher paying position. It's a financial services role for a multinational bank and there are a lot of systems and terms and policies to learn (six weeks of training), and I feel like my posting rate would be too slow to keep up with both this and my Teen Titans RP. Does anyone want to take over as GM?

Congratulations on getting a higher paying position!

As someone who's DMing a few D&D games here on this site, I can help with DMing, but I'm not sure if I can take a full DM role. That's something I'd have to think about...

I'm wondering if it might be best to hand over GMing duties to one of you guys. As previously mentioned, I'm going to have less free time than I initially thought when I started this interest check three weeks ago because since then I've been offered a much higher paying position. It's a financial services role for a multinational bank and there are a lot of systems and terms and policies to learn (six weeks of training), and I feel like my posting rate would be too slow to keep up with both this and my Teen Titans RP. Does anyone want to take over as GM?

Congratulations on the promotion!

I wouldn't worry about your posting speed too much, but I get where you're coming from. I'm generally not one for a GM role, but I'm game to throw ideas around. If I recall, you mentioned you hoped for this to be a collaborative story, so maybe we can get a little more literal about that if necessary. I don't know too much about what you got planned as far as world-building, but it could be interesting if players could suggest/create their own "quests" for the party to take if there's any sort of mercenary/adventurer gathering place they find themselves. Could also otherwise suggest problems the party could solve. But before all that, we'd need to do some broader-scale world-building to make sure any smaller elements fit in.

<Snipped quote by CaptainManbeard>

Congratulations on the promotion!

I wouldn't worry about your posting speed too much, but I get where you're coming from. I'm generally not one for a GM role, but I'm game to throw ideas around. If I recall, you mentioned you hoped for this to be a collaborative story, so maybe we can get a little more literal about that if necessary. I don't know too much about what you got planned as far as world-building, but it could be interesting if players could suggest/create their own "quests" for the party to take if there's any sort of mercenary/adventurer gathering place they find themselves. Could also otherwise suggest problems the party could solve. But before all that, we'd need to do some broader-scale world-building to make sure any smaller elements fit in.

This! I concur with this!

Thank you @Lewascan2!

I wasn't thinking this would still go on as there was no actual RP page but wow. This is a lot.

Congrats on your promotion, mate! Regarding the DMing bit, if I may add my opinion, why not make it like every player (unless they just don't want to) will DM a part of the story or each will have their own story/plot and then they can make the story/plot as long or short as they want.

I wasn't thinking this would still go on as there was no actual RP page but wow. This is a lot.

Congrats on your promotion, mate! Regarding the DMing bit, if I may add my opinion, why not make it like every player (unless they just don't want to) will DM a part of the story or each will have their own story/plot and then they can make the story/plot as long or short as they want.

That is also a great idea! XD

I think the rotating GM idea is great, but that would ultimately be for you all to decide. I just don't see myself having enough time to participate, so I probably won't be very involved in the RP if at all. Right now, in my current position, I can check the site between calls, but once I transition into full time training for the new role, I will be attending the class via Zoom and won't be able to post at all during the day. My full attention will be required for the entire shift.

@CaptainManbeard You could always be a "silent" DM. While we control the parts of the stories, you could jump in when you've got the time and throw a wrench in our plans or appear as a "ghost" to guide/save/harm our characters depending on the situation.

@Guardian Angel Haruki I've seen it done before with custom races (primarily D&D) and you could choose the original race as we'd know it OR create a variant of your own alongside a location/country etc for it. The player then would have the chance when they'd be the DM to take the other players to the location and create a story there. If the main DM would see that things...stalled, he would've just jumped in and "timeskip" to the next location of the new DM.

I think the rotating GM idea is great, but that would ultimately be for you all to decide. I just don't see myself having enough time to participate, so I probably won't be very involved in the RP if at all. Right now, in my current position, I can check the site between calls, but once I transition into full time training for the new role, I will be attending the class via Zoom and won't be able to post at all during the day. My full attention will be required for the entire shift.

@CaptainManbeard You could always be a "silent" DM. While we control the parts of the stories, you could jump in when you've got the time and throw a wrench in our plans or appear as a "ghost" to guide/save/harm our characters depending on the situation.

@Guardian Angel Haruki I've seen it done before with custom races (primarily D&D) and you could choose the original race as we'd know it OR create a variant of your own alongside a location/country etc for it. The player then would have the chance when they'd be the DM to take the other players to the location and create a story there. If the main DM would see that things...stalled, he would've just jumped in and "timeskip" to the next location of the new DM.

It sounds fun! I think the rotating Dungeon Master might be the way to go.

The only thought I have when doing this would be anyone but me should control/DM as the Djinni Patron for the Djinni Warlock. That way there can be air of mystery whenever the Warlock Patron sends the Warlock and the party on a mission or side quest.

@Guardian Angel Haruki You can choose someone to do it or if the main DM is up for it, they could sometimes jump in. Deities don't usually interact with mortals in "clear" ways, so it works if the main DM will only write up once in a while.