General Chatter

[Urson]

Mikhail: Intended actions over the next few days

Mikhail will be visiting and talking with the local merchants- especially those who deal in furs, pelts, and wild game. He'll also enter the archery competition.

[sulldawga]

Mikhail: Intended actions over the next few days

Mikhail will be visiting and talking with the local merchants- especially those who deal in furs, pelts, and wild game. He'll also enter the archery competition.

Any thoughts about your PC? Do you want some help making it?

[Urson]

I think I have a handle on it. I'll PM you his character sheet for review later. Thanks, tho!!

[sulldawga]

IC thread is up.

Not necessary for players to have their PCs done by now but it will be helpful if you need to make any skill checks.

[sulldawga]

Getting directions from the guards, his next stop is Riverside, hoping to get an audience with the Fort-Captain and perhaps commission from him to get paid for solving a need... with so many civilians crossing into the unknown, surely they're something he's hoping to pay to get it resolved. He produces a sealed letter, hoping his friends in the capital do well by him...
Cha+Connect for letter of introduction to Fort Captain [2d6+2]=6+2=8

There's nothing on your character sheet or backstory about friends in the capital so I am going to ignore the sealed letter, unless you're actually trying to pass a forged letter?

Also, in looking at your character sheet, I noticed you listed a lot of languages:
Macabh and Chunt aren't common to this region so you wouldn't know them.
It would make sense for you to know Sargine.
Equus and Mashripal are dead languages so Know would give you knowledge of one but Connect won't help with the other. Pick just one, please. If you want, you can use Connect to know one of Macabh or Chunt.

[Marullus]

There's nothing on your character sheet or backstory about friends in the capital so I am going to ignore the sealed letter, unless you're actually trying to pass a forged letter?

Oh, sorry. I didn't realize you wanted us to write backstories? I just did concept and rough story beats and expected we were revealing in play. What's defined so far is:
- His core concept is being a Scholar (his background) and Diplomat (per the focus) who knows every language in this part of the world as a result, so is assumingly well-traveled. He's a seeker of occult lore and is not shy about fieldwork or study.
- He's described as having the look of one who was once wealthier, that his family was at least formerly-nobility, and that his lineage passes down accursed powers. I also proposed that the "Stuff past the river" is of keen interest to him and his scholarship, particularly as he explores his own accursed heritage, but have no details of what that might mean in this story.
- His accursed powers give him great magical prowess in battle and supernatural vitality, but as that's all magic he doesn't look burly-warrior-like and presents himself as a less-assuming archaeologist scholar with a dagger and shovel.

Given those established points, I assumed he has been in a many cities and in particular more cosmopolitan ones. More importantly, you have only mentioned two towns at all so far - Ket and "The Capital" - so, I just used The Capital as my representative cosmipolitan location. You can feel free to define what cities he's visited as it is relevant to your story and tell us what those cities are.

No, I am not forging a letter. I was presenting that I was arriving in Ket and using "the letter" as narrative positioning for a Connect roll that would allow you to have a roll that set disposition between him and the Fort-Captain. If you'd rather say that I've been in Ket before or for a while and use the Connect roll for that, that's fine. If you want to just assign his disposition without a roll, that's your perogative. Connect is a skill that's only going to be useful in town so we need to have agreement on how you want it to come into play as I roll it for "I know a guy" actions. Or, let us know that Connect isn't going to be a viable skill and I'll gladly move the point to Know instead.

All that said...
...The action here was "see if the Fort-Captain will pay us for a job." If you want to use the roll as me negotiating for a commission/task with Convince, that's fine, too. (I figured Connect first, and that for a major NPC you'd want more of a scene.)

Also, in looking at your character sheet, I noticed you listed a lot of languages:
Macabh and Chunt aren't common to this region so you wouldn't know them.
It would make sense for you to know Sargine.

I mean, I took a Focus explicitly to establish that I "speak all the languages common to your region of the world." But we know literally nothing about this world. All I know is that you mentioned Macbh and Chunt specifically as foreign languages we could have heard being spoken in this area so I marked them down. You get to decide what is reasonable, but I recognize that "only one language is ever needed because 99% of people here only speak that one language" so this is likely just color. If it ever matter as more than color, I'd like my focus to come into play.

Equus and Mashripal are dead languages so Know would give you knowledge of one but Connect won't help with the other. Pick just one, please. If you want, you can use Connect to know one of Macabh or Chunt.

His knowledge of dead languages is core to his "scholar of ancient magic/ruins" concept, and since any spoken language I could reasonably know I already know, I would really prefer to use my known language on the dead ones. As a scholar, can't I Connect with other scholars who teach dead languages?

I picked those two dead languages because they're ancient-ruins stuff. I skipped dwarf-runes in deference to Cybersavant. If you are decomissioning Connect, I can know three dead languages with Know-1, or if you do want me to pick just one, I would want the one more relevant to his Accursed heritage (you can decide what that means, as it will unfold in play).

[sulldawga]

Guys, I have a fantasy baseball draft Sunday night and I need to prep a bit. Next post will be on Monday!

[Rex]

Enjoy!

[sulldawga]

I have not created the rules for the Strength or Fishing contests yet so let me know if anyone is interested and I'll make some up.

The rules for the Archery contest are in the IC thread.

Probably easiest for me to get one post from each of you with what you want to do across the entirety of the Spring Festival, be it roam the town, talk to NPCs, visit the merchants, or compete in contests, and then I will resolve each of them in turn.

[Marullus]

Probably easiest for me to get one post from each of you with what you want to do across the entirety of the Spring Festival, be it roam the town, talk to NPCs, visit the merchants, or compete in contests, and then I will resolve each of them in turn.

Done. Thanks! A fun post from Nisus.

That map helps a lot - they mentioned there's three forts already established and manned by the Ket guardsmen. I assume they're the Hex Feature in each of the hexes closest to Ket and we don't need to worry more specifically about their placement?

Do we have any other leads to start with? Can I roll Know for clues to an ancient site we can search for, or can Kaithar roll Know for an inkling to his repressed past? Or should we do those rolls at a time you call for them when we see a terrain feature that jogs our memory?

To make sure we're on the same page regarding the post above: Please let me know what final list of languages you want me to have right now and I'll update my sheet to that.

[sulldawga]

That map helps a lot - they mentioned there's three forts already established and manned by the Ket guardsmen. I assume they're the Hex Feature in each of the hexes closest to Ket and we don't need to worry more specifically about their placement?

The three forts are on the edges of The Farms, the three hex region being settled on Land Grant Day. I am trying not to be super precise about locations but the bridge between Ket and The Farms is at the westernmost point of Ket's hex.
Fort Progress is at the NW point of the northern hex of The Farms, so seven miles away.
Fort Illumination is at the W point of the western hex of The Farms, so 10.5 miles away.
Fort Advance is at the SW point of the southern hex of The Farms, so seven miles away.

Do we have any other leads to start with? Can I roll Know for clues to an ancient site we can search for, or can Kaithar roll Know for an inkling to his repressed past? Or should we do those rolls at a time you call for them when we see a terrain feature that jogs our memory?

You do not start with any inherent knowledge of the lands west of the Moche. I would prefer not to use skills like Know as a magic wand that reveals all secrets, especially before we've even begun play. There are three ways to learn more:

One is to simply get out there and explore
Two is to talk to NPCs and hear rumors/take on jobs and quests
Three is to do some research. The more erudite members of the party know that mages have libraries, temples and churches and town halls often have records, etc

I struggle with whether it's better to reveal nothing at the beginning and let the party find their own way, or if I give some hints at the beginning. I envision a game not unlike Skyrim or The Witcher, except my quest-giving NPCs don't walk around with question marks floating over their heads, so I appreciate it can be hard to learn things. The easiest way to remedy that is to talk to everyone. Alas, while I enjoy writing up encounters like the one with the Fort-Captain, that's a lot of chatter and not a lot of PC action.

So the best solution is to have you all indicate which NPCs you want to hit up (traveling merchants, permanent merchants, other townspeople, etc) and I will give back a consolidated overview of what rumors you've heard and what jobs you've been offered.

To make sure we're on the same page regarding the post above: Please let me know what final list of languages you want me to have right now and I'll update my sheet to that.

Most folks only know Common. Traders know the Trade Cant. Only around 1% know Sargine. You know all of those.

Macabh and Chunt literally come from a throw-away comment I made about languages. I didn't intend anyone in the game to ever speak them. If you want to speak them, go ahead. I guess with a procedurally generated game, there's always some random chance you run into someone who speaks them.

I think there will be opportunities to use Connect outside of Ket. As the western lands are explored, more people from the Kingdom will take interest. Your party may decide to set up your own Domain. Time will tell. But Connect does not help with knowing dead languages. That is specifically what Know is for. So you can pick one dead language that you know using Know.

I appreciate these decisions may be disappointing. But to me, if every 1st level PC with a couple of level 0 skills was Indiana Jones and could start the game with knowledge of an area that's been off-limits to the Kingdom for hundreds of years, there would be no mystery left in the game. You won't learn about what's west of the river by sitting in Ket and rolling some skill checks. You need to explore.

Anyway, if these decisions I've made affect how you viewed your PC, go ahead and respec. We have time before Land Grant Day to make adjustments.

[Marullus]

I appreciate these decisions may be disappointing. But to me, if every 1st level PC with a couple of level 0 skills was Indiana Jones and could start the game with knowledge of an area that's been off-limits to the Kingdom for hundreds of years, there would be no mystery left in the game. You won't learn about what's west of the river by sitting in Ket and rolling some skill checks. You need to explore.

I apologize for the misunderstanding.

I am not asking for unattainable knowledge of the area, to wave a magic wand, or to ruin any mystery left in the game.

I am asking if you would like to provide a plot hook for us to help color our initial direction.

I established that my character has an heritage from long-forgotten pacts and he is a Scholar trying to understand whatever lost civilization he is descended from. He has spent a significant part of his life so far pursuing it and I am fine with the "I didn't find it in thr East and believe it is beyond the river." If that's what you prefer, that's enough. My "drive" is to find and explore ruins for that purpose. Beyond that, I am asking:

* Is there some McGuffin location that you want to say I am particularly looking for? "The texts indicate the Temple of Agthys was out there somewhere, along a river, or where a river was then." If so, what nuggets do you want me to know to roleplay around it?

* Is my Accursed heritage more likely to be linked to Equus or to Mashripal? (Particularly if I am picking just one?)

[sulldawga]

So here's the deal. You may recall from one of my earliest posts in the interest thread that I wanted to keep this game simple. I have for months, if not years, been thinking about creating this awesome game world with depth and backstories galore and what ended up happening was that I was overwhelmed with the enormity of the project. For that reason, I decided to run a procedurally generated game. I can't give you answers on hooks because I have no idea what to say. I haven't generated anything yet.

More to the point, I don't want to get that far. I am fine with doing just as much work as is required to keep me a couple days ahead of the players. Literally all I have right now is three regions and an idea of what lairs and features are in each. That's it. If you talk to the NPCs in town, that's all they can talk about because they don't know any more. The hooks are basically: cross the bridge and go NW, W, or SW. See what you find!

Anyway, at some point, you guys are going to leave Ket and actually explore the world. And I will have to generate some stuff for you to find. And it'll be generic so I'll need to breathe some life into it. At that point, I actually wouldn't mind the help. So if you want to make some stuff up for me to riff off of, I'm ok with that. Just be comfortable with the idea that you might not be 100% right. If your story says, "I will learn the identity of my father in the Temple of Agthys", what may end up happening is "I found half of a map in the Temple and when I find the other half, it will lead me to a man who knew my father but last saw him 10 years ago."

Equus was last in use a few centuries ago. Mashripal is much older than that. That's literally all I know about the two.

[cybersavant]

From the initial proposal, i assumed that going across the river was new, and no one knew what lay beyond; so my character is just waiting to get across to explore - better if he is with a group

so actions unti then are to maybe watch a few competitions, go back outside town for the night - maybe all the way back to Vorthon depending on travel time - which is why he was noting where each person he met and travelled with on the road to Ket is staying

he knows proper mages have books and stuff, but if they haven't been across the river, he wouldn't think to inquire of their knowledge of that area - again, just waiting around to explore

maybe someone finds him - maybe not

[Marullus]

I decided to run a procedurally generated game.

I totally understand. I am on board with coloring as we go. I fully support "keep it at the table, make it up in play."

And I will have to generate some stuff for you to find. And it'll be generic so I'll need to breathe some life into it. At that point, I actually wouldn't mind the help. So if you want to make some stuff up for me to riff off of, I'm ok with that. Just be comfortable with the idea that you might not be 100% right.

That's perfect. If you are open to collaborative narrative, that will be great.

The underlying question was about "how blank is the page" -- do you have firm ideas and direction for story, how much and what is established by your Thirdkingdom materials, and how much freedom to color do you intend us to have as players. You answered that and I appreciate it.

I will choose Mashripal - the Workings necessary to bind Eldritch powers into a bloodline fits better there, narratively. I appreciate you giving freedom for me to color in gameplay as a Scholar and having it be millennia ago gives you as much latitude as you want in it being true or not.

[sulldawga]

Last call for actions in Ket before I fast forward to Land Grant Day.

[Rex]

I am good with a fast forward.

[Marullus]

Yep!

[Enoch]

Same.

[sulldawga]

The party has agreed to go to the Blackwater Swamp region first.

Ciarra (Rex) wants to head directly for the swamp.
Lavin (Enoch) has proposed two paths: one directly WNW to the Swamp, the other looping SW to exit The Farms faster and spend more time in unexplored country.
Gars (Marullus) wants to take Enoch's proposed looping SW path.
Mikhail (Urson) is undecided on the path, as he doesn't know whether or not they're in a rush.
Kaithar (cybersavant) wants to talk to druids or search for ruins but doesn't profess an opinion on the path to be taken.

I need Ruprect's Rangers to decide on a path and then we can begin.

I am going to create a new thread where I'd like everyone to post their PCs encumbrance. I will be using that thread to determine who is carrying what, be it food, a torch, or a tent. I would like for there to be no arguments: if it's in the post, your PC has it. If it's not in the post, your PC does not have it.

If you can no longer edit your post (I think that may happen over time, if memory serves), let me know and we can move to a new post.