Maxwell

Such Haukes, Such Hounds

Either works.

Such Haukes, Such Hounds

Raptorman: As much as you want, except that all the children are now dead, and the lineage broken. Who they were and what they did before they die is completely open.

Such Haukes, Such Hounds

Raptorman: The king had been married for a long time and had several children, some with children of their own.

Such Haukes, Such Hounds

That was not a rhetorical statement, by the way, I genuinely did hope that it wasn't.

And spells don't automatically win against anyone without specific magic resistance - that would make all mage characters more powerful than the non-mage ones, and that is not the case. If a spellcasting mook tosses lightning at you, you dodge it. If he curses you with fear, you shake it off and break his neck. That is, if they even manage to raise their wands before disable their hands, Starship Troopers style. Just like any major badass on the enemy side is not gonna be paralyzed by your poison.

You may have underestimated the level your characters are at, but I'm sure we'll all get there eventually.

Such Haukes, Such Hounds

Acrolith: Well, changing characters is ultimately your prerogative. Personally, though, I preferred the last one.

Lexicon: I've gone through your sheet now, and while it didn't need to be that long, I can't complain. I like a good read. I do want to pre-emptively address something, though.

I'm counting acrobatics, fencing, poison-making (and miscellaneous chymistry, perhaps), stealth, a network of spies, administrative skills, polyglotism, and a magic item. I just want everyone to know that this is totally fine. Friends, allies, secondary and tertiary skills and whatever, it's basically expected. For those of you who might feel that you didn't give your characters mad enough skillz, there's wiggle room within the game - you don't have to list every detail of your characters' knowledge and experiences to use them in game, as long as it makes some sort of sense and you're not just piling things on. The most important part is that [i]no matter your combination of skills & abilities[/b], you don't get to be more powerful than anyone else (minor differences and poorly matched specialties notwithstanding), and you absolutely do not get to push the rest of the party around with the threat of overpowering them. I mean, it's fine if that's a personality trait and yadda yadda yadda, but you know what I mean.

However, Lexicon, your magic item is not gonna fly. Blanket immunities (especially to such enormous categories as 'offensive spells') and strictly defined numbers are both traits that will interfere terribly with the balance of this game. I also can't help but suspect that you expect to sneak up on most magic users in a way that would not allow them three spells to defend themselves. I hope this wasn't a deliberate attempt at circumventing the power limit of the game, but even if it weren't, that mask has to go.

Such Haukes, Such Hounds

I have no complaints about the race, though I am a little curious - maybe I'm just misinterpreting the whole thing, but they seem so close to human to me (as in, written to be similar to humans - what I have a problem with are people making sentient four-dimensional gas clouds that feed on peg legs and geometry, then playing them as humans) that they could just be a different culture. Did the rubber forehead rule make you hesitate to differentiate them more from humans?

On a side note, I'm gonna start moving sheets over to the OOC thread. I'll move them all at the same time, so if you see your (completed - not moving WIPs) sheet missing later, make sure to mention it. Or post it again, whatever's most convenient.

Such Haukes, Such Hounds

http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/63854/posts/ooc?page=1#post-1980225

Actual, bona fide OOC thread is up. I didn't add too much, just rewrote the setting & background blurb and added a hider's worth of stuff about magic detection.

Such Haukes, Such Hounds

INTEREST CHECK THREAD

The kingdom of Altranor has fallen, her cities burn and her people are being put to the sword - well, apart from the vast majority, who honestly could not care less who they pay taxes to. There was some grumbling about soldiers trampling their crops, but such is war. Most of the cities are actually fairly intact as well, since the few that had the means to put up any kind of defence were mostly taken out by poisoned water supplies and rotting corpses being flung over the walls via catapult. Not even the corpses of slain attackers, oh no - opposing necromancers simply marched the corpses in from nearby graveyards, infected them with a variety of ingenious plagues and chucked them right into town. Certainly, the Altranorian priests and healers - the few that had not been called off to war - were able to stave off the first couple of waves, but there are far more corpses than priests in the world. So, as the world turns, the life of the common man goes on, one lord replaces another, and the two things that remain constant are death and taxes.

Now, don't think that makes the whole thing any less tragic - for anyone. Even if you don't care about the raping and the pillaging, the destruction of ancient castles, the burning libraries and the pitched battles that killed thousands, you had a personal stake in all of this. King Erasmus the Indomitable, ruler of the greatest realm in all of the Fanged Isles, is dead - your liege lord and personal friend, thrown off the highest tower of his own castle to a humiliating death, his neck broken as he crashed through a pigsty. The banner of the Yellow Raven, king Bernard of Ghant, flies high above castle Altranor, and his soldiers are celebrating their victory in Erasmus' wine cellar. Your king and his family is dead, your realm is no more, and all the status and prestige you worked a lifetime to attain is gone forever. You, the last remnants of the royal court, may still be alive, but it's only a matter of time before they find you. For all your power, you generals, court wizards and spymasters, cannot hope to defeat them all - at least not here, at least not now. There is nothing left but to flee and seek retribution. Your enemy has won the war, and he believes himself secure, but there will be a terrible reckoning.

Bernard of Ghant was not even present at the killing, or even at the battle, it seems. You know this, because you are standing right there in the aftermath, watching from wherever you've concealed yourself as the pigs sniff at the cooling corpse of your monarch. Sounds of distant fighting tell you that you still are not alone in the castle, and though you know you can't save every yeoman, perhaps you can find some allies in your quest for vengeance.

- - -

Whaddup, prospective role players. I'm an old fart who's been role playing since the early 2000s and joined the role player guild back in late 2007 (or early 2008, I can't remember), sort of just stopped playing forum games for a couple of years, and then came back to the great RPGuild crash of last year (or was it early this year?). Now I've decided to try again, and hopefully make a couple of friends along the way. This game, I hope, is going to be the fantasy version of a road trip slaughterhouse movie, a darkly humourous romp through fairy tale land, all about the thirst for vengeance and the gratification of crushing a man's skull with your bare hands. The game is NOT first come, first served, and I expect each one of you whipper-snappers to think about party chemistry when you make your characters. This story isn't about any one of you, it's about all of you, you know the drill.

Setting & Background:
The Fanged Isles is a massive archipelago of vast, verdant islands surrounded by jagged cliffs and insidious reefs. The environments found there range from snow-covered mountains, to plains and forests, and even a handful of tropical swamps.cliffs and insidious reefs. Far from any mainland coast, the Fanged Isles are an ecosystem unto themselves, secluded and virtually unassailable by outside forces. It was settled many generations ago, by hardy pioneers who carved their kingdoms out of lands infested by ogres and worse. The isles now house no less than eight kingdoms, small in the grand scheme of things, but fierce, independent and strong. It is a land embroiled in constant conflict, as the monstrous natives of the islands battle for territory against the burgeoning kingdoms, whose lords war against one another even as they struggle to impose order on their own domains. Warlords, and monsters rule the unclaimed fringe lands of the islands, and pirate sloops fight royal navy cutters in channels no warship could navigate. Safe ports are few and far between among the perilous waters between the Fanged Isles, and only a few foolhardy captains dare challenge the surrounding Sea of Fangs, where sea monsters outnumber friendly ships five to one.

King Erasmus the Sixth of Altranor, the largest, most stable kingdom in all the realm, had spent his entire life struggling to lay the foundation for an end to the relentless warfare of the Islands. Through a lifelong war on monsters and the lawless, Erasmus had seen his realm flourish and grow as it edged out warlords and monsters and put counts and barons in their place. A policy of peacemaking and concessions toward the other nations and swift punishment to secessionists, along with Erasmus' golden tongue and expert statesmanship, had secured him a realm greater than any other among the Islands. His children would follow in his footsteps, exterminate those who would not be brought to heel, and finally unite the Fanged Islands as a single realm, and a major world power.

Unfortunately, success like that could not possibly stand. Greedy eyes had been set on Altranor for decades, but when the invaders finally came, no one could have foreseen the speed with which the kingdom was toppled. Wreathed in powerful and expensive magic, three entire armies marched straight out of the midwinter blizzards, trampling the unprepared defenders in a furious blitz. With desperate warlords battering against its defences from all directions, Altranor could not muster up enough soldiers to stem the tide, and the banners of the Yellow Raven Bernard of Ghant, his cousin August the Green Crow of Thandonia, and Queen Evangeline of Soven soon flew from castles and fortresses all across the land. Three bitter enemies that had come together to split Erasmus' realm between them, their pent-up greed and aggression saw the might of Altranor shattered before anyone knew what happened. With the other two protecting his flanks, the Yellow Raven's army cut a swathe straight through to the capital, butchered their way past castle Antranor's defences, and tossed king Erasmus off his own highest tower. The kingdom may not know it yet, but the invaders have won. This is where our story begins.

Magic

Arcane magic is based on a language of sounds, symbols and motions that describe the effects they desire. A wizard could, in theory, do absolutely anything at all, provided he knew enough of the magic tongue and could speak and move indefinitely without stutter, hesitation or stopping to draw breath. Realistically, a wizard is limited to what he can communicate within the span of a couple of dozen seconds, and exactly what magical terms are known to various wizards around the world varies wildly (there is a vast difference in power between a wizard who has to describe the force of his spell as "one plus one plus one" and a wizard who knows the arcane term for "three"). Chemical reactions and physical forces are more easily described than each individual cell of a living creature, meaning that arcane magic is hilariously ill-suited to creating illusions, summoning creatures or otherwise creating complex visual effects.

Explosions, blasts of energy, obstacles made of pure force and such are staples of wizard-dom, but controlling just where they detonate and how powerfully is a precise and difficult science - not only that, but uneven ground or the press of bodies can easily make certain gestures impossible, making arcane magic extremely impractical for personal combat. To counteract this, aspiring battlemages tend to craft wands and amulets and such, containing half-finished spells in symbol form, which can be completed with relatively simple words or gestures, often ones related to targeting the spell (these are not enchanted items, which are considerably rarer and more difficult to make). Wizards also remain unrivaled in the fields of magical study and research, and frequently turn out to know more about other forms of magic than the practitioners themselves!

What defines a wizard's power is his intellect, his physical fitness (good lungs for incantations, agility for acrobatic gestures), and of course his knowledge of the magical language. Wizardry only becomes more powerful with practise, so wizards tend to use magic as often as they can in their everyday lives. Magic is incredibly complicated, however, so wizards choose arbitrary specializations to represent which aspects of arcanery they are most familiar with: biological transmutation, physical forces, light manipulation, and a million other classifications.

Divine magic is granted by the gods, or so the clerics claim. Wizarding communities generally seem to support this claim, and to the average citizen, denying the existence of gods is roughly considered as rational and socially acceptable as we modern folk would be denying the holocaust. Unlike a wizard, a priest needs only his voice and his devotion to call upon the power of his god. Also unlike a wizard, a priest is shit out of luck if his patron (or some related saint) does not deign to intervene on his behalf. The gods are myriad, and the one you choose may respond to a wide range of prayers depending on the situation - usually related to the god's own unknowable purposes. What priests do not have, however, is precision. Whereas a wizard with enough knowledge of the human body could perform plastic surgery with his healing spells, a priest might be able to restore a shattered ribcage with a single phrase - although the result might not be pretty. On rare occasions, priests are the subject of involuntary divine intervention in the form of portents, supernatural gifts, and even spontaneous resurrection in a few cases.

Priests are typically expected to manage themselves, and are loath to call upon divine favours unless the need is dire. In game terms, priest players will be allowed to decide for themselves whether their prayers are heard, and will be trusted not to overshadow the rest of the party. Portents, visions and such will be doled out at my discretion. What determines the power of a priest is his devotion to his god, his accomplishments in the name of that god (proselytizing, slaying hated creatures, burning the temples of enemy gods, etc), his charisma and his strength of will. Channeling the raw forces of the universe can blast a mind, and asylums are filled with the broken shells of acolytes who incurred the wrath of their divine patrons.

It should be noted that religious rules and secular law are very much separate, and the power a given church has over a given area is dependent more on the local priests' political pull and reputation than anything else. Being a priest in itself gives you no legal authority, though it may earn you the sympathy of fellow believers.

Sympathetic magic is something of an enigma, and is typically considered the domain of witches and druids. Everchanging and unpredictable, it seems to bend to laws no sane mind can comprehend. A blood-stained spiral carved into the south side of an old tree can summon a hurricane, the bones of a two-headed cat scattered in a fire can reveal the branching paths of the future. Muddy water, beholder eyes and a garbled rant can make a potion to cure near-sightedness. Every witch doctor and hedge wizard has his own brand of madness, encompassing everything from dancing naked in the moonlight to consuming hallucinogenic mushrooms to gain insight, and still... only a fool would deny their existence. Whether they are mad or brilliant, practitioners of sympathetic magic seem to have a sixth sense for what the whims of their magic require of them from day to day, and sometimes for the vagaries of other magic as well.

The main determinant of a sympathetic magic user's power is his intuition. The requirements for his spells change on a daily basis, and many require ponderous rituals in return for subtle effects. Unless he can guess them as quickly as they change, he can't do a thing. Many pick up herb-lore or woodsman skills just to get something out of all the time they spend collecting strange ingredients. Some even claim that the widely recognized chymist's guilds (chymistry being a collective term for alchemy and early chemistry) are actually hedge wizards in disguise, as their mercury-laden potions and scientific principles are baffling to many and oftentimes unreliable. In any case, the keen instincts of sympathetic magic users invariably grant them insights into things such as time, orientation, lies, and other such things, an ability that might seem like magic in itself.

Witchsight

The sixth sense, the second sight, visio aetherum, or whatever your particular school of thought calls it, is the ability to perceive magic in its pure state, without needing to witness its effects on the physical universe. An absolute requirement for any serious analysis of magic, wizards are expected to be able to endow themselves with witchsight before finishing their preliminary education. Wealther wizards often create - or have made for them - spectacles enchanted to allow them to perceive magic at all times. Though the cost is roughly that of a two-story house in a major city, eyepieces like these are the most common magic items in the world, and a wizard of means will typically own at least one pair. To a priest, the second sight is usually theirs for the asking, sometimes even permanently, in the case of more powerful clerics who might need such an ability. Sympathetic magic users, who probably wouldn't understand what they are looking at anyway, tend to sense magic "by the pricking of their thumbs" as it were, instinctively avoiding magical dangers they have no natural means of detecting.

Witchsight is also necessary to combat magic outside of the physical plane. A fireball can be physically resisted, of course - a sturdy shield, a good bit over cover, a well-timed dodge can all save your skin from such attacks, but a skillful sorcerer (or a priest whose patron has a particular dislike for the arcane) finds it much more effective to scatter the building blocks of a spell before it is even completed. A practitioner of magic can be utterly shut down if there is enough magical disturbance coming his way - although, as with nearly everything else, whether spell disruption is successful is a matter of skill and numbers. Even priests are susceptible to having their magic disrupted, as even though the full might of a god is to a wizard what a hurricane is to a paper fan, the cleric is limited in power by his paltry mortal mind - unless he wants to spend the rest of his life as a soulless, gibbering shell of a person.

Martial Combat and Technology

Across the Fanged Islands, many schools of armed and unarmed combat vie for glory and wealthy patrons. So far, black powder weapons are only a distant gleam in the eye of the most accomplished chymists and engineers, and heavy cavalry will dominate the battlefield for a long time to come. Large scale battles follow the usual tactics of the late medieval era, although the use of artillery magics, flying beasts and inhumanly powerful warriors forces commanders to prepare for anything. In terms of personal combat, the humble sword remains a favourite of those who must be armed at all times, as carrying say, a halberd around in your everyday life is an inconvenience that would challenge even the most patient of warriors. Unconventional styles abound, of course, and everything from punch daggers to flying guillotines can be found in the arsenals of the eccentric. The general guideline is that it is not the weapon that makes the warrior - certain magical arms excepted.

Scholars of certain cultures claim to be able to harness an energy they refer to as ki, which is supposedly the basis of all truly skilled warriors' prowess. This philosophy has taken hold in certain areas of the Fanged Isles as well, where warriors meditate under waterfalls and balance on thin poles in order to become better warriors, somehow. Those who prefer actually training and participating in combat to improve their skill usually scoff at these methods and deride them as pure fantasy. The truth has not been confirmed, but since these communities survive at all, they must be doing something right.

Enchanted Items

Enchanted items are rare, but not unheard of. More powerful items are exponentially rarer, but many nobles pride themselves on owning swords that never need sharpening, armour that maintains a bright silver sheen and throws off dirt and blood, and other such trinkets. Blades that are sharper than blades can be, bows that never run out of arrows, silk garments as resilient as steel - these are the things that are found in the hands of generals and warlords. The mightiest man-made artifacts are usually found in the hands of kings and emperors, and otherwise usually in the treasure hoards of kings and emperors. These are the flaming swords that cleave through steel like butter, the protective rings that turn aside blows long before they hit and so on.

When a magical creature, such as a dragon or a lich dies, its flesh still contains magical power, in a far purer and more refined form than that wizards draw from the air. Techniques have been developed, through lengthy and difficult rituals, to draw that power from the flesh and use it to imbue items with magical properties. The process is incredibly wasteful, requiring creatures of immense potency to create even basic magical gear, and even great artisan-mages often fail their task completely.

Divine magical items are a different matter. Sometimes, a truly devout warrior will simply notice his blade cutting swifter, holding a better edge, or developing other qualities through the battles he experiences. A wizard might detect divine magic about the weapon and take note, but others will rarely notice, or even regard it as a figment of the warrior's imagination. None of that matters to the true believer, of course, as he knows his god is with him.

- - -
This section is reserved for information about the Fanged Islands themselves. I will be filling this out as information is discovered in-game or stated by the players, as part of the game is exploring and building the setting. So far, I'm only tossing in a few names to hint at my ideas for the various kingdoms, and hopefully pique people's interest.

Nations of the Fanged Isles:

Altranor, the Land of a Thousand Roads (empty)

Ghant, the Island of Steel (empty)

Thandonia, the Realm of the Robber King (empty)

Soven, the Forest of Swords (empty)

Beasts of the Fanged Isles:

- - -

Character Creation Guidelines:

Pay Close Attention

1) All Characters are Created Equal
I see many role playing characters that are blatant attempts at overpowering the rest of the party, generally so that the player can boss everyone around and never worry about losing a fight. Do not make a character with a bunch of questionable immunities or abusable powers. Unless you're deliberately making a weak character - which you certainly may - everyone in the party should be equally powerful in a fight. As a rough guideline, you (including all your gear, magic and pets) versus a mob of 30 peasants (with spears and crossbows) should be an even fight, whether you are a swordsman or a mage.

Your characters are very powerful compared to the average person, but you are not the greatest in the world (or you'd be archwizard of your own college, rather than watching the king's back), and you can certainly still die. You are not living legends, and going toe-to-toe with a full-grown dragon is not recommended. The strongest among you may be able to out-wrestle an ogre if you set your mind to it, however. On the other hand, you still have some room to grow.

2) Exercise Self-Restraint
I've left the setting deliberately vague, so you have the opportunity to define what sort of fantastic races might be commonly found around the Fanged Islands. However, I implore you to ask yourself, before choosing something exotic, why your character needs to be this outlandish race? How does it affect his personality and habits? How does it enrich the setting or the campaign? If it's just window dressing to a character that's just a human with a different hat, consider playing something less outlandish. I definitely do not want a party where not a single member can enter a town unnoticed. No uranium golems.

3) Be Excellent to Each Other
Brooding loners that never interact with anyone have no place in a party, and nobody likes a haughty jerk - both of these popular archetypes should be avoided, unless you're certain that you can use them to enhance everyone's enjoyment. Not only that, but you should be certain that you can convince me that you can play them without being a detriment to the game, and that is a herculean task indeed! If I think a character is just going to turn the game into a campaign-sized stare-off or one long sneering contest, I won't accept them.

Character Sheet, feel free to make additions if it seems necessary:

Username Here

Name:
Race:
Position: (Your official rank and function at court, as well as your skills and abilties. Be sure to know more than just fighting - your learning may be as superhuman as your combat prowess!)
Appearance: (Text only, please. Bright colours offend my crotchety old sensibilities)
Personality: (Include something about how the bugger relates to other people, as well)
Backstory: (Include some notable achievements and explain how you ended up at court - especially if you're a filthy lowborn peasant. Those of you with a background in glory-making will probably also have friends in high places. Mention some places, if not your friends.)
Notable Possessions: Was your sword commissioned from a legendary swordsmith for the price of a small castle? Put it down here. Go easy on the magical gear, though - that stuff is supposed to be rare, it doesn't increase your overall power, and having it severely reduces the fun of looting it later on.

Feel free to add to and define parts of the setting, large or small - for accepted characters, the rest of the Fanged Isles will be designed around your additions - but try to avoid sweeping statements that limit the entire world. If your background includes the words "the world's only" or "the best in the world at", that's probably taking it too far. The Fanged Islands are big, and the world is bigger still. If you want to be the chess champion at court, that's fine, but avoid stuff like "the strongest mortal in all the realm" in a setting where there might be giants. Unless you're playing a giant. But even then.

Additionally, avoid giving too many traits to the king. He was left vague on purpose, so that every character could have their own reason to be loyal, without any of them ever being confirmed or denied. In general, it's better if you describe something in terms of your character's views, popular opinion and so forth. Makes it less likely for backgrounds to clash - I'm still gonna go with the characters I feel are best-written, but it makes for less jigging.

Last, but not least, ask questions! Communication is the key to a good, lasting campaign, whether you're playing pen & paper or play by post.

Such Haukes, Such Hounds

This isn't first come, first served, so I'll take any number of sheets. So far, only four have been submitted - and I'm not sure if those are all even complete yet.

Such Haukes, Such Hounds

Lexicon: Acrolith hit it on the head.

Acrolith: Well, if nobody came asking for anything else, I was gonna have it be pretty open about that sort of stuff. I did invite people to play personal friends of the king, and to play as any race their little hearts desired, and I figured Erasmus was mostly focused on expanding his area of influence as quickly as possible, internal differences be damned. Keeping their peasants straight is what you have vassals for, after all. Of course, since the vassals basically get to do what they want as long as their reputation and taxes are in order, some places may well be a lot worse to be an orc/elf/centaur/frog-beast in than others - and people over the next hill might not have any idea.

Rayn Night: I hate to say this, but I'm getting more convinced that we're just not on the same page. I'm not the kind of guy who quietly says to himself "yep, that guy's not getting in" and then just ignores someone's application - and I wont. I'll consider your sheet as seriously as anyone else's - but it'd feel unfair not to warn you before you go through all that effort. I think you're gonna have a hard time getting in.

[b[Everyone:[/b] I'd like to request at least a solid paragraph for your appearance and personality sections. You probably have a clear picture of what your character looks like, but I want that too. As for personality, well, backgrounds are good to have, but your personality affects how you're gonna deal with everything that happens from now on, which is the the game is about. I think that it's extremely important to know who your character is and where he wants to be from the get-go, and I'm very interested in knowing that stuff myself.

However, I'm not a robot, and I'm not sitting here with a checklist of stuff you need to do to get in the game. If you're confident that you've gotten across enough characterization in the rest of your sheet, then go ahead and stick with a shorter personality. I'm not looking for filler, and indirect characterization is, and will always be, the bom diggity.

Very long pause for dramatic effect

...I actually really wanted to end my post on "bom diggity", and just let the contrast to the way I usually write sink in, but I have more to say. I'm not in a terrible hurry to get this game started, but I am seriously concerned that people will lose interest if we don't get anywhere within the next handful of days. Therefore, as some sort of compromise, I will try keep this thread active, and to have a proper OOC thread up soon, and pick out a couple of people at a time with a "you're totally in, this is what your character's circumstances are like" kind of post. Hate to stress anyone out, but this is play by post. Gotta keep it rolling, You should have most of next week though, and I might allow a straggler or two, if you make clear your intent to join the game.