OOC thread!

[raixel]

They are *amazing*. At least their older stuff. They got a new singer, and their newer stuff is slower and not as epic. Its melodoc metal with keyboards and amazing female true operatic vocals. AND they sing about Dragonlance, LOTR, and a bunch of other amazing fantasy stuff. Their best album is Wishmaster, and I'd recommend listening to that album first. They are seriously the most unique sounding band I have ever encountered.

[beowuuf]

Nice journal entry in the other thread! And poor guy, a pendant and food huh? Never knew what hit him

[raixel]

Thanks! Yeah, I kinda wanted to show how insidious the bad guys really are. I generally dont go for the old TSR style of writing where the bad guys are one sided- overtly evil and doing stupid shit like sacrificing their own loyal underlings (that *always* drove me nuts- things like where an allied monster is hungry, so the bad guy just grabs a loyal guard and throws them at the monster, you wouldnt have any loyal underlings if you did that!) and slaughtering entire villages, instead of turning them to your side. Well, to be fair TSR had a code of "ethics" in their novels that forced the authors to write the bad guys as both inept and clearly bad. The bad guys literally could not win or act smart, and also could not be sympathetic characters or have some good points.

I'm trying to make it so the NPCs are fully fledged characters, not just one sided. Even potential bad guys Of course, sometimes its just fun to uncomplicatedly kick ass and take names, and thats where a horde of magically summoned diseased rats comes in.

And yeah, wonder where the drover's headaches are coming from.

[raixel]

This is a response to Ian in him and OB's thread, but I wanted to move it out here so I could say thanks to everyone for being such great players and thanks for all the positive feedback. You all are responsible for making this game so much fun to run with your great characters and RP! I dunno if its cuz PbP allows for more expression or we just have an amazing group, but this campaign (and I count it as one instead of two cuz as I'm sure anyone who reads both threads will realize, there's a method to this madness and some underlying similarities going on here, hmm? ) is one of the most fun ive *ever* run!

----

Yeah. It comes from my fascination with human culture. I try to make it all unique based on how the race/creature perceives the world, mixed with little bits of Earth cultures where appropriate. The Bika for instance are based off some North American plains native cultures with some "canine/DM" touches, but goblin "culture" - if it could be called such a thing is entirely my own invention. But even when I use an Earth culture, its only a base idea. I change it enough that its barely recognizable.

[rant] That was one thing that drove me nuts about the movie Avatar. A whole BUNCH of the cat-peoples rituals/dances were DIRECTLY ripped from some African and Asian tribal people's spiritual/religious dances and rituals. As in not just based of of, but taken lock stock and barrel. To the point of where I was naming off the tribes to my friends in the theater. Blatantly ripping off a people's real belief/magic system that they practice to this day for the entertainment of Westerners in a pretend race is horrible, disresoectful, and beyond ethnocentric in my mind.[/rant]

I'm glad you all seem to like it. I spend a lot of my day at work thinking "what would a spider people's writing system be like?" "what would a grahhssk drover's journal have in it?" "what would a swamp-lizar's speech sound like?" ect. Ive gotten so I carry a tiny notepad with me so if I come up with an idea suddenly I wont forget it. As long as everyones having fun, I'm happy cuz thats my goal!

[ian_scho]

I carry a tiny notepad with me so if I come up with an idea suddenly I wont forget it.

Don't put it down! I used to do that for my dungeon, and I still pick it up occasionally.

Still ineedeely having fun. Muchas gracias raixel

[beowuuf]

Regarding Mouse Guard, it seems a cool system, I think I was busy at the time so couldn't play in the game Ameena mentioned. Would also love to play or run a Monsters and oher Childish things game at some point. And another Lone Wolf game. And since the D&D NExt playtest has expanded to online play, I'd love to try that too. So many potential games, so little time (and too much opportunity to walk around and enjoy the brief flashes of summer while it lasts!)


And I think this is a cool gaming group! I think PbP does lend itself well to always being able to throw in a character beat no matter what, whioch makes up for the slightly slower pace of action. But I definitely think you guys are also just great players. And it is very fun to see you in action as a DM Raixel, you have tons of knowledge and deep interests that make for a much richer world and story. Heh, I can fake it ok if I have too, but all your cool hunting and linquistics and racial stuff puts me to shame several times over!

[raixel]

Hm. If this was real life, i'd be mumbling something unintelligible and staring at my feet from all the praise while turning bright red. But seriously, thanks guys. It means a lot. D&D has always been one of my major hobbies, and I am so happy that I got the chance to game with a great group of mature (well, I mean that in the sense of we aren't doing it to try and compensate for some real-life lack by making a super-hot and perfect character and squeezing every mechanical advantage out of the rules, not in the sense that we don't make comments about dwarf underwear and wands fusing to peoples hands ) and creative people!

Heres a bit of player-knowledge backstory about the two moons. I'm currently working on a calendar and schedule of moonphases and rising/setting but I'm so busy for now its just gonna be a narrative effect, with very base concepts -IE Rasar most often rises first, so is first in the sky, Zosar usually rises when Rasar has been in the sky for some time and sets barely an hour before sunrise.:
I'm pretty sure everyones gathered that there are two moons, Rasar and Zosar. Rasar is large (bigger than Earth's moon a bit, like twice as big around) and white, Zosar is small (a little bit smaller than Earth's moon when its really high and looks small) and looks purplish - kind of like the color of a UV light, but a little paler-whiter and without the UV intensity. When just Rasar is in the sky, the light looks like Earth's moon, only every single phase except for new9obviously)is brighter,in game terms about twice as bright. When just Zosar is in the sky, it sheds a very dim purple light thats the color of UV light but nowhere near sa intense or bright. Its light is dull, and really doesnt provide much illumination but gives everything a weird purple tinge. When both are in the sky, Zosar dulls Rasar's illumination to the same level as Earth's moon for the corresponding phase, but it gives the silver light a slight purple tinge so it becomes purplish-silver. This doesnt affect visbility or anything, all sight is the same as for an Earth-like moon, just that everything is barely tinted purple instead of straight silver. Rasar usually rises first and sets forst, so there is a period at the beginning of each night were only Rasar is visible and at the end where only Zosar is. Depending on the phases of the moons and the time of year, only one moon may be visible at night, in cases such as where one is in its new phase or due to planetary rotation one is on the wrong side of the planet to be visible at night. Or something. Astronomy really isnt my strong suit, so for now I'm just gonna leave the moons a narrative feature for general 'time of night', like if only Zosar is visible, its late, if its touching the horison, sunrise will be very soon ect.

And this is how the moons figure in Growlgra's story about the orgins of barghests.

If you have read the bika culture doc, you will have read bika worship the Moon, singular. (the fact that I created that doc before the idea that there was *two* moons, eh?). I might change the culture doc to make note of Zosar, or just leave it as is and assume the bika call Zosar "her dark brother" and view it as the trapped and powerless evil brother of their benevolent goddess(who I havent worked on yet, whether shes a High Lord or the bika are just animist or what - even though I hate the concept that in base D&D clerics can get their power from a concept or alignment. That always bugged me. Maybe its cuz I was raised playing Forgotten Realms where disbelief in the gods leads to an eternity of torture because the gods are very real and you cant get spells from a concept, But I digress). Anyway, thats where Growlgra's people think barghest came from! Also "forever-cub-packmates' is the bika word for the large dogs they keep as companions/hunting partners and to pull their travois. Credit goes to Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series for the idea, her plains dwelling horse nomads called Shin'a'in refer to their specially bred horses as forever-younger-siblings in their language.

[Ameena]

Yeah, this game is great fun so far - something I like about PbP is that you can just write this massive lengthy descriptive post about what your character thinks, feels, says, and does, rather than just doing "I go over here and do this" or whatever. And I like the character I made. And I like the characters that I've been interacting with (however frustrating my character may be getting with some of them because they just seem to be standing around talking unintelligibly when they should, as far as she's concerned, be getting on with actually doing important stuff). And I'm looking forward to doing stuff later...I mean, using certain abilites my character has. For the fun, that is. I'm not so fussed about mechanics, so long as they make sense and aren't abused . I'm no power-gamer, especially not in PbP where people actually play narratively and put obvious effort into their characters and what they thing and stuff. I've found that when RPing at tabletop, it can be really too easy to think from a player PoV rather than a character one - zomg, metagaming! But I'm not too bad, I don't think. It sort of depends on how everyone else is playing. Also, most tabletop games I play don't seem to last very long, so I can't really get into it. I hope this game lasts ages, like Wuffy's did, so I can have plenty of time to enjoy playing my character and see how she develops and stuff .
I hadn't actually gathered that there were two moons, but then I don't think it's come up since my character's been in the story (or if it has, then I've forgotten ). But then, my character probably wouldn't really give much of a shit about the two big circle thingys that move across the sky. They're probably kind of annoying because they cast light that can cause her to be spotted when hunting. Then again, light creates shadow, so that's a few extra hiding places for her . Anyway erm...UV light is invisible, same as the opposite end of the spectrum, infra-red. But I get what you mean . Thinking about it, I've now just decided what my character will call the moons, and why .
On the Bika, I thought that "forever-cub-packmate" meant either "sibling", "mate", or just "packmate", but Urrffrah herself will have brushed over that - "I don't know what that means. It didn't sound too important. I have more important things to focus on right now." because she was a bit busy focusing on Nihss at the time .

[beowuuf]

A 'clever' fudge for the moon/moons thing could be that the bika believe there is only one moon. That just like the Grey Lord is a representation of two beings, that the two moons in our plane show the overlapping realms and the facets of the true moon. That the lower planes arfe where only the dark facet is seen, and the bright moon is seen in the other plane. and the fact the white moon is larger shows that good holds sway in our realm, but eveil is always there? somethingliek that.

And therefore, it's hard to get the Bika to get used to a timing involving only one moon, because they consider the movements of the two moons as one, just like a rainbow is only the split facets of one shaft of light.


Or something?

[raixel]

Massively super busy. I'll try to post later today. Sorry for the delay.

[ian_scho]

np here! Lovely quiet weekend... Until Spain plays football tonight (Eurocup final, you see..... (Soccer!)).

[beowuuf]

No problem, been walking in between rain showers - or through rain showers!

[beowuuf]

So celebration in Spain tonight then, Ian?

[raixel]

Heres a concept of a lizar ssslik'athha. Sssil would know this stuff, anyone else who wants to read it as a player is welcome.

Its basically a mistress, kind of like a geisha but geisha are usually hired entertainers for many men and they dont usually sleep with them.
([rant] the book "Memoirs of a Geisha" is BS, but unfortunately its the only idea many Westerners have of the concept. Geisha arent forced to sleep with anyone they dont want to, and in Ancient Japan was one of the only ways a woman could become powerful and independant. For a real look at it, read "Geisha, A LIfe" by Mineko Iwasaki- written by a real geisha not some Western guy. The guy who wrote Memoirs of a Geisha got sued by Mineko Iwasaki in both Japanese and American court because he went to her to ask about what it was like to be a geisha and hoow they were trained and stuff, so she told him, and he twisted it into this fucked up near sexual slavery thing, apparently cuz the true story wasn't titillating enough. So she wrote an autobiographical story of her life, and its actually really cool and if I was a woman in pre war Japan i'd probably have done it too.[/rant])

The male provides her with a nice home and luxuries, clothes ect and she entertains him privately like hangs out with him, sings songs/dances, gives massages and...other stuff, acts as armcandy at functions if his mate is unavailable or doesn't want to go, pours drinks/entertains at parties he is hosting and stuff like taht. In lizar culture it is an accepted facet of lif, among the well-off but non noble classes. A noble House would not sully their females by having them be ssslik'athha to another noble and no noble would (openly) sleep with a non noble. It happens that sometimes there is an affair between a noble and a commoner but these are secret and frowned on. Some male's mates are more tolerant than others of the practice but it is considered a mark of status to have a ssslik'athha if you are well off self-merchant or member of a merchant/trading house or a well off craftsman or member of a craft House.

And hmm. beo I like your idea, 'll see what I can do with it!

[ian_scho]

Yep, lots of fireworks and shouting last night. People wandering lost the streets this morning on the way to work. All in a state of drunken happiness.

I just love the titbits of additional background you throw in there, raixel.

[Ameena]

Ahh, so is a self-merchant basically a self-emplyed merchant as opposed to someone belonging to a company/guild of merchants run by someone else? I'd been wondering what the term meant since Nihss used it when describing what happened with Thessan, but since Urrffrah wouldn't care about those kinds of specifics I never got round to asking OOC at the time.

[raixel]

Yeah. They're called Houses(not to be confused with the lizar Ten Noble Houses, which is the blood-kin of the ten noble familes of Makan and their servants/guards) in Zaanguard and Guilds in human lands. A self-merchant is the Zaangaardian word for a non-House affiliated merchant, as you guessed. They can end up decently successful, but most of them are small time, hiring out a caravan or owning a little one-grahhssk wagon to carry their goods. I'm extrapolating a lot from my fav fantasy series (the Valdemar series by Mercedes Lackey), so theres a lot of guilds at least in human lands.

Heres one of the guilds Ive outlined, the human-and-their-allies Mercenaries guild, with chapters in pretty much every major human city, and forts/Company headquarters scattered throughout wild-lands, to give you an idea of how a guild works, at least in human lands.

The mercs pay a small yearly fee to become "bonded" members and sign the Guild charter, so they have certain rights non-guild mercs do, like the right to be ransomed by the Guild if captured as a POW, the right to a bunk/rations and minor supplies at a Guild fort/chapter house for them and up to 3 companions(basically to be considered their family, but could be anyone travelling with the merc) for free for 3 days, and then at a reduced rate after that, a yearly stipend to next of kin/family if the merc falls in battle for 5 years after the death, the right to treatment of wounds received in a Guild-contracted battle to the best of the aboility of the medics (ie no cutting of limbs just cuz it would be easier) and getting a case about unfair officer/captain treatment, pay breaches, disputes ect heard by Guild justicars, and are given suitable arms for campaign and the use of Guild training facilities to keep in shape.

In return they agree to abide by the rules of the conflict that the group purchasing the companies service through the Guild states(like no looting or raping, the prince must be captured alive, or whatever), if a bonded merc from an opposing company surrenders in battle, the winning merc is obligated to accept the surrender and transfer him/her beyond lines to wait for a ransom, to be ready to march with fair warning and keep in shape/trained for battle, not desert unless there is a huge breach of contract (and even then they would have to go before the Justicars to explain why they deserted, and if it wsant found to be reason enough, they would be fined or imprisoned. Even if there was reason, they would probably still get a black mark on their Guild record), treat opposing bonded Guild merc's wounds to the best of their ability after the cessation of hostilities(that goes for all bonded companies on both sides, after a battle is won, both sides treat the wounded to the best of their combined abilities- you never know when the company you fought against this time will be fighting at your side in a different campaign) and generally conduct themselves as a "proper" merc.

Non-bonded mercs dont have these perks and restrictions, but generally dont make as much as a bonded merc. A sucessful bonded company-officer who is known to be a good tactician and fair to his men and contract can make as much in one successful campaign as a mid-class merchant, and a Captain of a well-known company can end up quitw well off by the time he/she retires. Even bonded free-lancers (part time mercs who have no standing Company,and only form units based on need, like Artaxes) make quite a bit in a successful campaign, with freelance officers making even more. Non-bonded mercs/companies generally go for about half of what it costs to hire a bonded company, but as they dont have the word of the Guild backing them up they might desert, loot, or break contract. Basically you pay what you get for. Sometimes the Guild hires out non-bonded mercs if they cant fill out enough ranks for a campaign, but they are closely watched and generally put in a place where they couldnt do much harm, or it is easy for them to desert.

I havent decided how different Zaangaardian Houses are from Human guilds, but its generally the same principal(you pay a fee/do work for the House to get certain perks and abide by small restrictions), although Zaangaard has no mercenary House.

[Ameena]

Cool, I like all the detailed fluff stuff you put into the game . I tend to like coming up with fluff more than actually putting it to use, lol. I don't suppose Urrffrah will have much to do with guilds herself, financial concerns not exactly being something that she gives a shit about, or has even ever heard of .

[raixel]

Hey, theres nothing in the human mercenaries guild charter about bonded mercs having to be of a certain race. Maybe if Urrffrah took payment in cattle on the hoof she could be the first ever bonded barghest merc!

And my philosophy is "detailed fluff is what brings the world to life". You can have all the mechanics you want, but when it comes down to it, they are just a set of numbers. I mean, beyond the minor racial bonuses what makes a lizar fighter different than a human? Not much beyond the fluff.

I just dont want anyone to think Ive got the monopoly on world building! Anyone is more than welcome to build whatever fluff they want about their char/race/lands and i'll shove it in. For instance because of Urrffrah, we know theres a semi-ruined stone mages tower near a small town/city somewhere in the plains of human lands(probablyy in the plains/high desert area bordering the wild lands where the bika packs roam near Mt. Anaias). Beo built the original map (although I lost it due to the crash, if you could give me the link again thatd be great) which I altered slightly to fit the layout of this campaign), Ian made a slang word for human mercs and the fact that grahhssk ages can be told by their feet, and OB was the catalyst for the merc's guild and the whole reason why you guys are running around Zaangaard in the swamp in the first place!

[Ameena]

The town that the mage guy lived near was basically just some backwater, out-of-the-way, shitty little place with a relatively small population that probably didn't see too much of the outside world or think too much of outsiders*/magic 'cause they like their petty little lives the way they are and don't wany any outside interference messing things up.
Anyway, I can come up with more detailed stuff on anything if you want, should it ever come up .



*That is, people from outside the town, not Outsiders as in extraplanar creatures...though they probably wouldn't be too friendly toward those either .

[beowuuf]

The map link is as simple as http://dmjump.net/worldmap.jpg

[raixel]

Cool thanks. Note to everyone though, this map is kinda correct for my campaign, but not 100%.

I had a minor work-emergency today, as in there I was minding my own business when suddenly my boss called and dropped a "I need this done in 9 hours, can you do it?" project on my ass. Sigh. Needless to say, its now midnight and I have a headache. Updates tomorrow!

[beowuuf]

Such is the way of real life

[ian_scho]

np raixel. thanks for the heads up

[raixel]

Alright, so the planet we are all on needs a name! The planes name is the Plane of Harmony/Balance, which fits based on everything we know about the world, but the only reference to the planet is whatever the heck it was called in the DM2 intro story, and there definately is the issue of if thats even the same world.

So, I'm open to suggestions here. I think naming the planet is osmething all players should do together!

[Ameena]

Hehe, I've had this trouble before, trying to think of what the world is called, because I figure every race is probably gonna have their own name for it, even if they end up using a name that another race thought of (eg if two races interact enough that they start sharing linguistic terms and stuff). This is another of those things that Urrffrah won't care about. Thinking about it, even if I'd been playing a murafu again I don't think it'd have been an issue, since I don't think they're too fussed about the fact that the world might have a name either, only that they live in it. They'd probably have heard enough names from different races that it's just "This place where we live that everyone calls something different" .
Anyway, I'm guessing what you want is the "standard", human name for the world, assuming humans are the "dominant" species in this setting? But then, surely a race like the lizardfolks wouldn't "lower" themselves to calling the world the same thing that the humans call it and probably haven't interacted with them enough to know what that is anyway?
Or maybe this is one of those "some kind of deity (or multiple deities) created the world and named it, and so every race's name for the world is ultimately based on that" kind of settings.
Umm...so yeah...that's just me being all fiddly and not actually producing any constructive ideas, as usual . When I was trying to come up with a name for the world (well, more of a country, really) for my game that I was running for Wuffy I just ended up making it a slightly altered combination of two other words. I did the same with most of the titles for the people within the "ruling body" (for want of a better term), and probably a few place names as well.

[ian_scho]

Thinking about it, even if I'd been playing a murafu again I don't think it'd have been an issue, since I don't think they're too fussed about the fact that the world might have a name either

Cool. A bit like the Buddhists telling people not to waste time trying to work out how the universe was created.

What about "Efftiel"?

[oh_brother]

Sorry folks - super busy, super stressed, probably won't surface again until Monday. Keep going without me.

[beowuuf]

Youch, that sounds not fune See you on the other side of it!

[beowuuf]

Yeah, DM2 mentioned the world of Zark, but a) it sucks as a name, and b) I don't believe it was the name of the DM world.