For all things to all people

1) I'm taking over.
2) yay.
3) Contain your excitement - I don't know anything about P&H or the Star Sea or the geopolitical entities along the coasts.
4) What I do know is sailing & the ocean & ships & plot & pace & continuity.

Action Plan:

Find out about you all.  Determine where you are, then where we go from there.

I have a vacation July 3 - 10.  Internet access is possible, but no promises.  Better to assume a no.

Anything else?
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:09, Sun 24 June 2007.

How about a list of players for this game. Its been so long I'm not sure if I was even accepted into the group.

Which group?  :)

SO far, you're the only one.  There's huge list of players for Hunters and Pirates...some of whom have never posted, some who don't even have character sheets, some who checked in yesterday.  I have sent out PMs to everyone; I am hoping to get a sense of who is where and why with whom, when, so that I can tie up loose ends, and in the immortal wordishes of Don Mason, 'Sight ship & Sink same'.

I suppose I'm here. At least long enough to see how you plan to proceed, DM fbaker4. I'm actually trying to cut back on the number of games I'm playing so that I can concentrate on DMing a region here in ROA. But I had mentioned some time back that if this group needed a fighter to fill out the ranks, I would stick around.

My general plan is to tie up loose ends and then see if it makes sense to keep going or not.  Having a sailing game is great - if it's done right.  I would say that it's hard to do right - true piracy is pretty evil, and pretty mundane.  Days and days of sailing around the empty sea before you happen on a merchant ship and slay a bunch of 1st & 2nds?  Not exactly heroic.  Sure there, opportunity for lost temples, buried treasure, & kidnappings...but if your character wanted to go after lost temples, you wouldn't be on a ship.

Also, a certain degree of knautical knowledge kneeds to be known.  Are you all in a sloop, a yawl, a bark, a brig?  A pinnace, a cutter, a carrack or a cog?  Clinker or plank- built?  Does the main mast step or not?  Can you ship oars? Is she copper-plated?  Who knows the difference between a hawser and a halyard?

Is or is not Vang a German sea-dog?

SO it's things like these that I think can make me successful here.  Unless, of course, no-one cares but me.

Right now, there's ~30 people signed up for group 3.  My guess is that 3-6 of them are actually players, and the rest are long gone.  But I'm giving people until the 30th to say "Aye-Aye" or "Nay".

Oh hey - a question.  This sea thing that y'all are in - is it a lake or a true sea?  And what's the climate like?

I vote a sloop of war or a frigate. We can capture a cutter/pinnance for cutting out operations.
No oars to worry about on a big ship. I can teach them to ship oars in a small boat.
Copper platted? In a D&D setting? Hmm. That would be a special boat. Would be easier to use magic I think.
Hawser - Huge rope for tieing off to the pier or for towing.
Halyard - (Guess on this one) Where you tie ratlines.


German? Got me on this one. Vang sounds like a easterner.



I think to be successful with this type of game you have to have a huge mission/over-goal (My own term) Online gaming is tough for the these type of battles. Knowledge of the ship and ship related verbage is just going to add flavor to this. (While I think it would be cool) I think a good idea is to have some type of "chaser"/antagonizist out to get us. (Maybe we stole a boat with a magical property) The hunter/pirate idea is strong, but logistically getting more than 5 or so PCs to post regularly is tough, much less two groups of 5 and 2 DMs, plus coordnation between the DMs themselves.


aye-aye


True sea, I don't remember the pirates ever getting info about the climate. (Hot and sweltering I think was the only reference made) I assumed a Chult-like climate since we are in a bubble.

Loose ends..I am at port so no loose ends here...And I use to have a ship? Two but I sold one.. :(

My Character does not like land...so...

I wasn't a priate but....I could change to a green peace activist..same thing. :)  I am not interested in a priate ship, I like where I was...more military style formation and organization and Perhaps a privateer with letters of Marque would be a compromise.

You left out SCHOONER! LoL Or barge, Caravel, Coracle, Dhow, Dromond, Dugout, Galley, Greatship, Ironclad, Junk, Keelboat, Launch, Longship, Raft, rowboat,  Trireme, war canoe or in D&D tearms a Therurgeme, or Elf Winship?  :)
Well since we are not on a river, we can elimeninate a lot of these choices...
Therurgeme is best for locomition!...

A Dromond or Ironclad if we are privateers...Frigate with copper hull....hmmm
If we are going to have combat like cannons or ballista etc... It  depends on what we are going to do...speed vs strength...what kind of game we decide to play would determine the ship. Well we be paid to deliver cargo...so a mechant vessel part time. Need to know game to choose ship.

No she was not copper platted. But is that an option? if so...yes.Like the USS Constitution...



Clinker-built is made with boards whose edges lap one over another.
Contrasted with carvelbuilt; Which is having the planks meet flush at the seams, instead of lapping as in a clinker-built vessel. The vikings did good with Clinker-built but we are more advanced.. :)

Main mast step sounds good. And I want an instep pad that is grooved to prevent slipping

I would not want to ship oars...I know how to sail...I have a small diesel right. :)   Oh, we do not have diesels...oars huh....Yes then oars as well...so looks more and more like a Dromond! Of course if we cannot have 200 complement it takes, we will take an Iron Clad...if we have to stay below 100 complement then a Elf Wingship!

A Hawser is a cable or rope used in mooring or towing a ship.

A Halyard is a rope used to raise or lower a sail, flag, or yard.

A Vang is dervied from the Dutch not german; Dutch, a catch, from vangen, to catch.
Vang is it is a rope running from the peak of a gaff to a ship's rail or mast, used to steady the gaff.


Aye-Aye

It is a true sea actually an ocean You can sail around all of Faruern...so the climate would depend on our actual location on the sea/ocean (longitude/latitude) we are at the time....

             Old Ironsides
        AY TEAR her tattered ensign down!
           Long has it waved on high,
        And many an eye has danced to see
           That banner in the sky;
        Beneath it rung the battle shout,
         And burst the cannon's roar;
          The meteor of the ocean air
        Shall sweep the clouds no more.

      Her deck once red with heroes' blood,
         Where knelt the vanquished foe,
     When winds were hurrying o’er the flood,
           And waves were white below,
      No more shall feel the victor’s tread,
         Or know the conquered knee;
      The harpies of the shore shall pluck
             The eagle of the sea!

      Oh, better that her shattered hulk
         Should sink beneath the wave;
      Her thunders shook the mighty deep,
        And there should be her grave;
        Nail to the mast her holy flag
         Set every threadbare sail,
     And give her to the god of storms,
         The lightning and the gale!

       -- Oliver Wendell Holmes 

What did I miss....

I say we keep the ship kinda small to avoid the ho-hum issues with a bigger ship. IE Taking on water and supplies, worrying about the depth under the keel, raising/lowering sails. Maybe we could be smugglers. Working out of Skullport, saving slaves and smuggling them to where ever. Or maybe kinda a merc sailing outfit.
I'd say a 30-40 crew max. With 4-6 PCs as specialists/owner-operators.

That would be a Elf Wingship!
:)

ok, not so bad!  Sadly, there's only three of you, two of whom really want in.  I expect that we'll be crossing most of the group 3 signers off the list.

ok, from the FRCS "The Sea of Fallen Stars provides rainfall and moderated temperatures...shallow and affected by seabed volcanism...cool mountain winds and harsh winters..."

So there you have the climate.  I was thinking keelboats, galley, cogs, coasters, knarrs, & longboats for shipping styles, given the description of the climate.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:14, Tue 26 June 2007.

I'm still around, sort of... problem is the character is made up for the pirate group and as such is an utter filth of the human being. So any major change would be nigh impossible for Lilian without rewriting huge chunks of the character.

But yes, I'm still here.

Let's figure out who's here first, and then we'll plot & scheme.

Is this considered a bubble region still?

depends.  Right now, it's a limbo region.

I have a feeling that when we get right to it, there will only be two or three of you.  If that's the case, then I suggest that we position your characters such that they can play in another region.

I understand...It is amazing this went to the region with a waiting list down to this....

I do really like the concept...but I know so little about the surrounding area, that I don't think I want to build it back to strength...if people are here, then ok, we'll figure something out.  If not...you guys seem to be good players from the posting, and you're dedicated...you deserve better than some slip-shod game from a GM that leaves you hanging for months.

On the plus side, it should be easy to re-start from the place you are now...either a new bunch of PCs; a whole new look, or simply retire.

Is there an RoA policy on retiring PCs for XP?  SO for instance if I have a 10th level PC that just can't find a home, can I retire him for a 5th level PC, or must I start from scratch at 3rd like everyone else?

I'll post this in the DM forum as well.  Let you know what I hear.

FYI: I know next to nothing about ships and sailing. And, no offence, but I'm not really interested in learning either. There are plenty of other things that I'm trying to train myself in at the moment.

If this game will require a great deal of nautical training then I will politely excuse myself. I think this will be better for everyone concerned.

My sailing expertise is limited with having watched teh entire hornblower series on DVD and an occassional pirate game/movie.

Thats all. We hardly need to be nautical experts for an rpgame. Just like you dont have the be a medieval historian/reenacter/stunman to partake in a normal d&d game.

I am willing to retire this PC...

But I know about sailing I lived on a 65' Morgan for 3 years as Dive Master/crew and then Capn of a 35' Irwin for years. Also a few years on a 90' Minesweeper (not sails but still a ship) :)
It is a lot of fun being on a sail boat in the ocean in the middleof a Tropical Storm in 60' waves....you do not feel the fear until it is all over...Have to get everyone safely through it first.

When I retired I worked as a Marine Patrol Officer in Florida for six years before called to return to Saudi Arabia for Operation Desert Storm. (That means I spent 12 hours a day piloting a boat; including high-speed pursuits and some things I will not speak of.)

But I would not want to play Capn either...that is why I made a Marine and First Mate.

Oh ya, How many here were Sea Explorers?

I've read the Hornblower series and Alexander Kent's Series. I was also in the US Navy for 4 years. Thats where I picked up most of my knowledge, as limited as it is. Zorlax's background actually had a touch of sailing in it at one point. I'm not really ready to retire him. He hasn't even leveled once yet. I'd still like to flesh him out some.

Not a sea explorer, but I do have some blue water experience.

Agree with Lil that PC's needn't have sail experience, but that if the GM does, it helps, especially if there are PC's that do.

Regardless, we'll see who's here and then we'll decide what to do, and then we'll decide how to do it.  A few more days until the Great Culling!

((Last week, there were 23 characters in Group 3.  Now, there are 18.  Come Sunday, only those who have responded to the PMs will remain!)

There are now 5 players, down from 23.

I've closed and archived all the threads, save for two; this one, and the 'game' thread in Fowlsport.

If the region goes forward - and it doesn't _have_ to...we'll have to decide in what format we move through.

Over the short run, I leave for week's vacation Tuesday July 3, return July 11th.

Here is where those of you who are players can express your desire for continuing, or your ambivalence for the region.

It's possible that in the near-term, if this region comes back, that it could be joined with the non-good moonsea bubble; that would provide for more players, but might dramatically change the tenor of the game.

Hey guys looks like I'm back in the game. hopefully it'll be more active than last time and we won't be left adrift with out a Dm or even a sense of direction.

But if we are out to sea with no wind and no oars....we might just be adrift for a while....:(

That is why oars come in handy and I had suggested the ship I did....  :)

Oars do come in handy.  From what I'm reading, while the SoFS might be shallow at times, it's rarely short on wind.  But there's a lot of considerations that have to be de-kinked before we proceed.

In fact, I ended the discussion as I did in order to provide some closure in case of closure.

Oh as for my saiing knowledge, next to none. My dad knows how to sail, but i never really paid attention when he tried to teach me when I was a punk teenager.

Whoops.

Anyway, I'm away from the 3rd to the 11th, so there's plenty of time to decide what you want to do.

well can we just appear in the inn and post or should we wait for an entrance?

Post an entrance

that's not exactly what I meant. What I was asking was if I shoudl wait for the Dm to write me in or if I should just post?

Sure, you can post an enterance if you like.

The core questions can't be answered by an drink at a tavern, though.

As I see them now, the Questions that need answering are:

Is this still viable enough to keep & attract players?

Assuming that the above question is true, then:

Is this to be an evil group & bubble-leveled or mixed and not, or evil and not, or...?

Right now, as we've combined some Pirate PCs with some Hunter PCs and some Bubble-leveled PCs, we have a non-functioning mix.

Personally, I would suggest that we opt for evil-tolerant non-bubble leveled, and instead of having a set purpose of piracy or hunting pirates, we create a situation where you have a small shipl likely some sort of cog, coaster or knaar, and then accept what Umberlee brings you.  Maybe one time, you're acting as privateers, and another as waterborne thieves, and a third as smugglers or transporters.  Sure, there are some very selfish PCs, some with cruel streaks - enough to be called evil.  But no outright sociopaths, lunatic killers, sadistic were-rats, etc.

Does that make sense?  I would hear votes & comments.

Another thing to consider:  retiring PCs that were 4th or lower in level that *don't fit* anymore.  If a PC to be retired has more earned XP than 5000, then I'll award standard Bonus XP to credit a new PC with Earned XP/5.  DM or Bonus XP would of course be welcome under standard rules .

well how viable the region is depends on the second and third questions. Just what kind of group are we and just what are we going to be doing? Flik is a Choatic good priest of Tymora. He joined up with the pirates because he got taken by his previous captain in a game of cards and because he was bored and thought a little juant at sea could be fun. He didn't know that they were pirates until after he got on ship, but he stayed with them and complained and whined if the captain and the crew did anything to evil. He'd tolerate them stealing, but wonton killing he wouldn't. So the pirates I would say were pretty much just choatic and not really all that evil.

 We could be something like an aquatic A-team or we could just be a standard group of adventurers with a ship.

I guess to answer those questions I'd need to know exactly who is here.

I'm a mage. Chaotic Neutral. Lv 3.

Are there any Lawful types here?
I think Varul is level 10 or so. What would be a challenge to him would likely take me out quickly. So I could just play super defensive and basically hide until level 5 or 6, but I'd rather not, and it would be a challenge for a DM to give us encounters that be fullfilling to us.

What are the rest of the PC's Alignments and Levels?

As for the bubble thing, I don't like them. I understand why they are out there, but I'd rather be in one big happy world. I'd rather it be open ended to some extent with out a stop the armada from sweeping over the sea-type of adventure. (Basically you could hop off at some point and not kill it for everyone. This has happened to 4 out of my last 5 games on here.)

No...I am not near level 10 but thanks for the compliment.
Though I am double your level. But, I am just a barbarian and rage is my only weapon....

So you can see on my own I will always be fighting and in trouble. And need someone to handle spell casters...

I am Chaotic and proud of it. (Hmm, I may be meaner then some of the pirates...I wonder if I was on the worng ship). LoL

Well we have the basics covered: Healing, Magic, and Fighting. A rogue would round us out a little, Varul, think you could get a henchman say a low level rogue? Personally, I'd like to have one more fighter as Zorlax is pretty useless at it.

I wouldn't worry about team composition...the first thing we need to decide is what kind of group to have and what sort of things we want to do.

Well Lilly is only lvl 3 (given that I got in the game only a couple of weeks before it went the way of the Titanic.)

Lilly is techinically a bard, although she's a midship"man" by definition. Little bit of everything really. Except for combat...she aint a power house.

AAk!  No more talk, please of level this or class that, or PrC or what you want to do when you hit level 20...

Just talk about what you want to do in the game - sail around and wait to be attacked, pirate pirates, use the ship as a bridge between land-based adventures, have an NPC crew of 100 rowers and ram things, merchant-transport stuff...

Let's talk about why you want to adventure in the sea of fallen stars - not your character's reason, yours, the players, let's us talk OCC about what were doing here.

sorry seems I started a a little land slide. Anyway what I'd like to do in the sea of fallen stars, Perhaps playing robin hood for a bit? Stealing, raiding and messing with the well laid plans and machinations of those who use thier wealth and power to abuse people. Otherwise taking on daring jobs is fine. I actually kinda like the idea of being an aquatic A-team, if you're familiar with that old  show from the 80's. Hiring ourselves out to those who have been wronged and have no other recourse. We could do the typical adventure stuff too.

I really do not want any land based dungeon type adventures.... Take on ships if they seem to be pirates (we might as well benefit from what they got) or from certain lands, transport risky merchandise/people, and of course defend ourselves from other ships and the large creatures of the deep.  I would not mind an underwater adventure vs. any land based ones...I will not travel more then a days journey from water...

And yes I would like oars on our boat with a crew to man them.... even if small...I mentioned the ship I liked a couple of times...it has a small complement.

i've never heard of an elf wingship.

can anyone tell me if any of the nation-states along the Sea of Fallen Stars is currently at war?  If not, privateering is kinda out.

This is too broad. Being a water based area, the sky's the limit. I say we each write up 2 ideas for what we'd like to do and then have a group vote. Or we could let the DM select 1 (or several) and build something from them.

Here are Mine:

1: We are hired by a local official to find and seize an illegal shipment of some kind. We then get involved with some sort of underground black market. (maybe even drug or slave operation) And they put a price on one/all of our heads.

2: We stumble upon a magic item that is a key or locator for an even more powerful item (or ship) We get involved with finding this item and run a foul of some organization. (either evil or lawful)

I'm leaving these pretty broad and undetailed so that they could be meshed in with other ideas or set up as side items.

What do the rest of you think?

Letters of Marque could be used for more than just an enemy nation. We could get one to be a priate hunter, slaver hunter, smuggler patrol, etc..

How about instead of adventure hooks, themes?  Of course, a good adventure hook can help clarify what it is that we want.

But basically, I'm thinking about a few very seperate themes:

We're not evil guys, but don't care much about others.  We prey on other ships, and aren't too particular about who's there.  We are looking for loot, and to put our stamp on the Inner Sea.

We may be selfish...but we're mostly good-ish; we take letters of marque against pirates, scary creatures, evil humanoids, and the like; both land-based and sea-based adventures are possible.

We're an aquatic-bourne trouble shooters, mostly good and a last-resort aid team, and we have primarily land-based adventures.

We're evil, and starting to get organized.  With the help of our new friends, we'll cut a red swath throught the Inner Sea.

those are the themes I'm generally talking about.

Once we settle on a theme, then we can figure out who else we need, cast-wise, and choose a few adventure hooks.

the selfish, but mostly goodish and the aquatic trouble shooters are the two themes I vote for.

I like the first two.

As a player I'd be interested in one of these two as well.

We're not evil guys, but don't care much about others.  We prey on other ships, and aren't too particular about who's there.  We are looking for loot, and to put our stamp on the Inner Sea.

We may be selfish...but we're mostly good-ish; we take letters of marque against pirates, scary creatures, evil humanoids, and the like; both land-based and sea-based adventures are possible.

With the top one we would always be busy.. :)

These are the ones I'd vote for (well lilly would), cause frankly I find the "evil" angle far more challenging and rewarding RP wise than the cookie cutter goody-lil-two-shoes style of play which we've all done countless of times before. The real RP challenge is to maintain a character thats evil but without becoming a twodimensional Villain.

We're evil, and starting to get organized.  With the help of our new friends, we'll cut a red swath throught the Inner Sea.

We're not evil guys, but don't care much about others.  We prey on other ships, and aren't too particular about who's there.  We are looking for loot, and to put our stamp on the Inner Sea.

So far I have three votes for 1 & 2, and one for 3 & 4.

Word of caution:  Profession-Sailor is mandatory if you want to play a sailor.  I'll allow some re-jiggering, 'cause 'use rope' just won't cut it.

How many Profession:Sailor skill points do we need? Will one point cut it or do I need to make it several?
This message was last edited by the player at 02:44, Wed 11 July 2007.

Re: skill points

I feel like a +1 score indicates someone who's a new recruit, maybe 'cabin boy' status or 'power monkey' or 'winchman' someone who only can handle the most menial or simple tasks.  If you can get to a +3, then you're a 'fair weather' sailor.  You're pretty bad, but you have a cruise or two, nothing major and can't be counted on for most things.  But you can be made useful.  At +5 score, you can be a sailor.  With 5 ranks - not just a +5 - or a +7, you're a good sailor.  +10 score and you're a mate, or should be.  10 ranks, and you can be a first mate on some vessels and captain on some.  Etc.

Of course, if you own your ship - by coin or by cutlass - then you're Captain.  But the better your first mate is, the better she'll sail.

Naturally, if you're 'Marines' or 'Boarders' then you might not have many roles shipboard.  Ditto for mage/healer/carpenter/cook etc.  A ship will pay a full share to the cook, 2-5 for a specialist, depending.

And then also the size of the ship matters.  If you're a sailor in a crew of three, you better be good, because you matter.  In a crew of 300...you can get by on charm and copying what others do.

Make sense?  Sound fair?

Well as a ships mage, and a new one at that, I figured I'd pick up one or two points by living aboard. (Ie. port, starbord, wind direction, etc..) As for something like navagation or preparing to set sail, I, as a mage, would have little to nothing to do with it. (not my area) That would be handled by the common crew and the officers. Now if I was strictly a sailing mage with asperations of being a captian I could see beefing it up. At this point I don't think I'm gunning to be the captian.

When Flik levels up he may take a rank or two of pofession sailor, but as of right now he doesn't have any. He is more of a Combat medic than anything else, support spells and healing are his job. If we are going to have a vey small crew and need every man to help all the time in keeping the ship moving than flik may be a little out of place at the momment.

Hmmm.  Well, I think then we should take another look at the general themes, and those that voted #1, maybe either re-vote or we can undertake a little character sheet-adjustment.

Also - Varul isn't going along with you all, wherever you fare.  This means that there's ~4 of you; Flik, Zorlax, Lillian and maybe Hands and maybe Gildor.  Especially if you wanted to go the more evil & more organized route, there's another GM-less group in the Moonsea.  Otherwise, the options of letters of marque/aquatic-borne a-team are better than straight piracy.

Let's build a concensus swiftly, and either get playing here, move to the moonsea, or pack up the region.

The letter of marque is good for me.


I'm gonna miss Varul, I wanted to see him in action.

He's great, I'm sure.  I'm going to convert him to an NPC; if he comes into play, I may have the previous owner guest-play him.

Ok - safe to say now that it's just you three...

alright then, flik will make an entrance a little later. Just need to think of how he managed to get free of captain Blackmane. The how seems easy enough, it's the stakes he offered to her that was as valuable as his services is the main question.

Hmmm...well, we're not doing so well here.  A few different characters that are leaning in different directions...I wouldn't mind taking over the area but I need more from y'all.

Flik - don't worry about the Blackmane stuff;  Lillian, there's also a single 'evil' PC left standing in the non-good Moonsea bubble; that might be a good place to get together; I'm trying to get contact with that person and see how we can get you all together.

Personally, I'm more suited to running a dark-side of neutral sea&land game; an A-team, like Flik mentioned.

I think too, that because it's winter, it's plausible that a non-sea combat game would make sense.  A short adventure would allow us to maybe build some coin to buy a ship or 'acquire' one.  All the better if we could add a lost player from the Moonsea region, and once we got you all settled, then we could think about adding new members.

Make sense so far?

I'm tracking ya.

Lil - Flik?

Still there?

yeah, for some reason my internet connection seems to be switching on and off so I haven't been able to post. It should be taken care of soon though.

sorry about the silence, been at work and jet setting around the county.

ok, jetsetting is well and all...but any thoughts on our perdicament?  we have a mismatch here of players to setting.  I think we should resolve it or we should close the region.  No sense in having it hang around just to eat up our time without playing.

Well honestly if it's just the three of us and if because of alignment issues we won't mesh well as a group then perhaps it is time to close of the region. Zorlax is what chaotic neutral? Flik is Chaotic good and Lilian is one of the evil alignments. Flik and Zorlax can get along well, Zorlax and Lilian can get along well, but unless Lilian is only slightly evil she and Flik may end up butting heads a lot. That can be fun, but only to a point and then after that it gets annoying.

So either we try and get a few more people into the region so that we have a wider vote and more varied group or we close it down and move on.

Lillian is for the record CE, and yes I think it might just be best to let the beast die.

I like your characters individually...but I have a hard time sketching out an adventure theme that'll let your characters flower the way they are now.  But let's all weigh in; I don't want to crush a region just because.  Lil, we have your vote.

It's certainly possible that the region will open again; I'm sort of a 'troubleshooter'; I like taking over lost regions with active characters.  This region is lost...but the characters were/are so disparate...

Well, I guess this region is closed for now.


I'll try to find a home for Zorlax.

It's not closed until we all agree it is; I'm a repairman/troubleshooter, not an axeman...unless everyone wants out, in which case I'll close the region so that it's open to a new GM.  There's at least one more region that I want to troubleshoot, but I might come back to this one, if everyone decides they want out.

But if all three of you decide you want the same kind of adventure, and want to temper your aligns to get along, we can move forward here, now.  Sadly, from my vantage point CG/CN/CE & helper/hunter/harmer looks like a poor (but not impossible) mix...but I don't want to attract new PCs only to have them make the existing problems worse.  You three are the last of the folks that want to press on; if we can come to agreement, then we can.  But don't just say yes for the sake of saying yes.  There's lot of regions here in RoA; and lots of reasons to play.  YOu just need an area and a character that suits.  Trust me, I was a jerked around player lots of times before I started to DM here at RoA, so I know from whence you came.

Anyway, if you want, you can put these PCs on 'hold' until something else comes up, or you can come up with a reason why your outlook or alignment changed.  You can make new PCs for this region or another; or as I did in a game, offer to take over an abandoned PC, 'banking' the XP for a new PC in that region, or your current PC for when they 'join' that other region.

All I want to know is if you want to play in the inner sea, and if yes, how you want to get your PCs in line with the others here.

well I joined this region on a whim basically. I wanted to join another game and a pirate adventure with player killing possibilities seemed like it would be an interesting twist to the standard roaming adventurer gig. However when push came to shove there was no player killing, The pirates just got pounded and then a truce was called and before we could set off on the joint adventure our DMs started vanishing due to personal reasons and the region went to hell. Would I be willing to play with Lilian sure, can I promise that she and Flik won't bicker constantly, no. Until we start ending up in actual in game situations I can't predict what will happen, how Lilian will play her character and how Flik will react. She posted a few times in game before ninjacow vanished, but not enough for me to get an idea of what her character would be like and if she and Flik could get along. I don't want flik to disappear. I like the character alot so if this region is getting axed I would like to move him to a new one.

like I said, it's not axed unless you three move out...Lillian is a stayer, and Flik is a stayer, ergo, it's not axed.  I'm open to suggestions on how to combine you three; not an easy task, by my mind, unless it's very short term...

But that's possible, too, especially if there's near-starving PC's around.  Is anyone an expert on the FR?

Well it would be to Flik or Lil to adjust. Zorlax can go with either as far as alignment issues go. I chose this region because I have an affinity for ships and the sea. Zorlax wasn't created for this region. I wrote him into it. However he hasn't developed other than picking up a few magical items (which I think the DMS gave us to try to catch the pirates up to the hunters) So he could easily go somewhere else.

As for what we want to do, I think we all agreed that the second option you offered would work. Lil wanted the more evil one and then Flik leaned the other way. Everyone chose the "out for ourselves" style. Just maybe not as a first choice. I assumed that would be the general theme.

What do you mean banking xp for another character? Taking over an abandoned PC and writing him/her out and writing your PC into a game? Do you only get a percentage of XP or are you equalled out to level with the remaining PCs? A level 3 would find it hard to hang with a group of 7 or 8s, IMO.

I joined this game cause frankly it was more unique and exciting than any of the other RoA options. I joined right before the "big showdown" with the hunters. And frankly nothing really much happened, turns out the hunters out "classed" us by miles.

Not really gotten any exp to speak of, not any items above the stuff I started with. So dont know what I would gain by banking the xp for another character.

And like I said, Lil is CE, but she is far from stupid. She might not find the methods of flik any fun, she'd no make too much a fuss off it. Given that the long term rewards were good enough. She's not evil to be evil. She's evil cause thats all she knows (and is a bit of a sadistic bint).

well we might be able to pull it off then. As long as Lilian is really malicious and as long as ham caused to innocent of good people is kept to a minimum Flik won't interfere. For example if we come across say slavers or worshipers of Basheba Flik might even encourage Lilian to be a little rough on them.

Ok, cool.  I have an idea too.

First - anyone an 'expert' on the FR?

Second - anyone remember the game day that you were in?  Just so we have a sense of the continuity.

1: Have a solid grasp of FR, but mostly since AD&D days, not so up to date anymore.

2: Not a clue as to the date.

Ok; I have a plan...if someone was/is a real FR expert that would be/might be helpful.  If now, we may have to suspend our disbelief at somepoint...

For now, we'll just adventure with us four.  If we decide to/want to later, we can add.  I figure an area like the inner sea could support literally a dozen games; it's pretty big.

Also - can someone get a FR Map edit so that just the Inner Sea is shown and post that to this board?  It's worth some GM XP.

I am still kinda new to the forgotten realms. I don't know a lot about it's history or major NPC's. I know a little something about several regions and enough about the human subraces to make fitting and interesting characters, but that's about it.

Zor - are you a FR expert?

For some reason I always too that we were on the shining sea, cause the pirate secret cove was on one of the smaller Nethlander isles.

Or did I horribly misunderstand something.

??

Sea of Fallen Stars.  The one that's really a lake, in the middle of FR.

Just popping in...

You were in the Sea of Swords / Shining Sea area. When DM Hamster came-and-went on the Hunters, he relocated the game to the Sea of Fallen Stars. DM fbaker4 has chosen to keep the change.

Maybe it was a sea portal...

Always happy to see you, BCM.  I feel poorly, because I'd orginally considered SoFS instead of Chult, but the Hampster insisted that he wanted it.  Is he back, GMing some other region, by the way?


post edit:

Also, folks, I'm made the first of what I hope will be many posts here.  I thank you all for cooperating, and helping to get the game and the players straightened out so that we can continue play.

One thing I will tell you about my GM style is that I believe that you know we're playing a game.  What this means for you is that I will be transparent in my rolls, and expect you to be able to keep your instincts to metagame to a minimum.  It means that PC death is a very real possibility; as I cannot push or pull rolls; and it means that you enemies will not fight fair.  It means that I will not penalize you for being people who game; I, too, look up monsters that I face!  I want you to understand that _we_ make the game, that I am on your side, and that I'll need your help.  Never feel that you can't approach me with a question, either OCC or via PM about what or why - up to and including the plot!  Yes, even the plot.  We work together on the game, or the game does not work at all.

Game on, my new friends, game on.

Fred
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:28, Sat 21 July 2007.

Not really. I've read alot of the books but I don't have access to most of the FR material for gaming.

Ok!  We're all in the same spot then for FR knowledge...that's something.