Honest.  It's safe in here.  Nothing you say here can or _probably will be used against you in the game.

...Trust me.

Do we look like that trusting of a group of people? Really?

Howdy, peoples. I'll let everyone know now that I have never played Earthdawn. It looks like an interesting setting though, so I look forward to it! But if anyone wants to give suggestions, well, I'll be open to them.

My very, very initial thought (knowing very, very little about the rules) is a T'skrang rancher/cowboy who will eventually progress into either a beastmaster or cavalryman.

What are the rest of you thinking?

Hey everyone,

Glad to be a part of this game.  I haven't been a player in years so this will be a fun change of pace for me.  I'm still musing over character concepts right now.

How long has it been since Karick's Bend opened it's kaer?  Have our characters only lived in the outside world?

Would you believe me if I said `no'?


I picture it having been about 15 years since the doors first opened, and a couple years after that before people really felt safe moving upstairs -- which would suggest to me that Elven and Windling characters might consciously remember having been children underground, while T'skrang and Trolls are likely to have been born on the surface, and the rest were probably born in the Kaer but too young to consciously remember it.  On the other hand, there's still a whole lot of it in the adults and the culture.


My initial thought is that the PCs would be a group of friends; a gang around the same age who hang out together and are probably, at least in their parents' minds, up to no good.  Kind of skipping over the whole meeting-in-a-bar thing. (Not that I think Barsaive has an official drinking age, but, you know.)  That's not something I'd be enforcing as a GM, though, it was just an idea, and is entirely up to you guys.  You'd certainly know each other, though.

Meow!

Glad to be here!

I was thinking of maybe doing an outdoorsy type that goes hunting with a bow. That would probably end up being either a scout or an archer.

Keels over dead. Or maybe not.

Oh, we'll see...grin

So, I mostly wanted to pop in and note that we have indeed ended up with a definite weighting towards people new to Earthdawn than I'd originally (um, back in '10, when I'd started thinking I might start a game) expected... so I'm starting up a bit of writing on the history and the world, particularly as people from Karick's Bend would know it.  It is likely to take me a little bit to get things finished, but not too long, I hope!

What am I thinking?  I'm thinking that I should stay out of trouble and keep my head down.

Oh, that's interesting.  I wonder how it works.  Perhaps if I open that bit up I can see what's making that ticking sound.

Hello everybody.  I'm Yona.

I'm one of the people who has never played Earthborn. *checks* Er... Earthdawn.  So I appreciate anything Vestrial chooses to tell me.  Yes I do.

Do you have a sample character sheet?

Does anybody else think Yona sounds a little bit too innocent?

...I mean, just wondering. grin

I put a basic character sheet up in the Character Creation thread.  The Spells and Talents parts won't have anything in them yet, but, you know, later.  (Well, not necessarily Spells, I suppose.)  Also, for one of my characters, I've set up lines using the new dice-rolling codes, like, Initiative: [dice=d6 text="step 8" system=earth target=8 memo="Initiative"]


Which puts in a link like this, step 8 , which will take you straight to the Dice Roller all set up to roll the right dice. 

If anybody wants those set up in their sheet so that they can roll their own dice without having to sort out what those are, I'd be happy to do that, when, you know, we get to that point.  And I have a few extra minutes.  But, the enthusiasm, totally there! grin

Also, for the record, a few of you have gone pretty well along in character concept without waiting for me to get all of this information up, which is totally cool; just wanted to warn you that any decisions you make now are completely set in stone and may not, under any circumstances, be altered in any---what?  Oh.  Well, OK, you can still change your minds. grumble

Okay, so, related question...

Could you give us character sheets so we can start making notes, please? :)

I know, I know... I'm just so terribly greedy...

And your links sound absolutely awesome! I had no idea that could be done here!

Even though I am quite comfortable with the dice roller, I think that the links are a pretty swell idea!  I didn't realize it could be done, either, so I may have to steal your idea for my game.  If there is priority in who gets set up with this first, I'll be more than happy to use the dice roller the old fashioned way in the mean time.

I honestly haven't given too much more thought on a character but I will once we have any other details pertinent to the process.  Speaking of which... I presume we're using 1st edition?

Give or take.  Actually, more 2nd Edition, really - I don't technically have it, but I know, I think, most of the things they changed, and a lot of them were good ideas.  (Like splitting Riposte into Parry and Riposte, and nerfing Taunt to something merely effective and not crippling.  I must say, as a Swordmistress, I found those two annoying, but as a GM, I think they were right.)

What I do, specifically, is the 1st Edition rulebooks and the Second Step creator programs to bridge it, and I do have the 3rd Edition Player's Guide for some comparisons on that end, too.  I've found so far that all three Editions are highly compatible, though - they didn't do any huge whole-new-system revisions like some other fantasy systems we could name.


splutter  I...well, I never!  The audacity!  The sheer reasonableness of it all!  Humph.  I suppose.

Earthdawn's the one where we're all Vampires, right ?  Or was that Vampyres ?  Though I note the version of the rules I'm looking at has been heavily amended.  In crayon ...

Alas, I confess I'm another Earthdawn newbie - so I've got a character concept around a budding Weaponsmith that seems to be coming along nicely, but am busily pestering Vestrial to get myself up to speed enough to knock a character sheet into shape.  We'll be needing the big hammer !

I'll hold off putting my character together to see what we need. In other ED games, I've played an archer, illusionist and swordmaster. . . .

Just don't forget to put the full five dots into Sparkliness.  It's more important than you might think.  Especially when we get to the Disco scene...

...hey!  Where are you all going?


Yeah.  Y'all newbies need to slow down a little.  I have this perfectly nice writeup on the Races almost done, and is anybody going to need it?  No.  Apparently not. Hmmph.

Of course we will.  It's always nice to know exactly what you're killing.

But I already do!  I mean, I invited you g---oh.  I mean, yes, yes, exactly, that's why I'm still working on it! bright, cheery grin

We're doomed.

Alrighty... I have decided to be a T'skrang... Still haven't decided Beastmaster or Cavalryman, but one decision at a time!

~Winger

In reply to Yona Tosken (msg #18):

No. You mean we're horror marked. That's worse than doomed. Trust me.

Hang on, I'm pretty sure I have something worse than Horror Marked lying around here somewhere...rummagerummage

Hmmm...well, I'm sure it'll turn up!

Oh dear.  I've already put 4 skill ranks into both Horror Marked and Doomed (though I understand they won't stack with my Talent of Hated by the GodsPassions when we get there.  Now you're saying I should have put them into Something Worse instead ?

Aha! You see those only tell you just how screwed you are! And the talent only works where there's magic. So you're good.

Yay!  Everybody has their Names.  (Such a shame - I was getting so used to Victim!  I thought it had a nice ring.  Oh, well.  You'll always be Victim to me!)


A surprising number of you have mentioned bullying in one way or another in your backgrounds.  I'm thinking there's probably something significant behind that, but I won't pry. grin  So, for such a peaceful town, it may be odd that the first group of NPCs to clarify aren't very peaceful at all.  But sometimes that's how things work out.  I shall post them into the Karick's Bend thread, I think.

So does that mean we're close to starting?

Ha Ha!  I think that bullying is something so relatable to adolescence that it's hard not to incorporate it somehow when you're making a younger character.  Maybe our little group will be like the Goonies!  ;)

I'm sure I'll take great comfort in that.

I think actually so.  You guys have been almost disturbingly proactive. grin  Although it also looks like we're going to get one more player! (Which means Urdon's Gang won't outnumber you anymore.  Hmmm...I might have to adjust that.)


You could do a lot worse!  (Although I have to say, the Goonies would have been toast without Data.  He totally carried the rest of them. grin)

You're probably right...and historically, most gamers have had issues with it, too. (And I am pretty sure most of us count as historical, I'm afraid. ahem Hehe)  I was in a brief GURPS game where one player actually built his PC as the town bully, which I thought was really rather impressive.  I think it took a certain kind of courage to play such a, well, universally disliked archetype.


Mmm, nope.  Comfort is Garlen's thing.

Which reminds me, I probably do need to get around to a quick writeup on the Passions...people would know about those.  If I don't have one up pretty soon, somebody remind me, 'k?

Hiya!

I don't really know too much about the character yet, the comp or picture server is down and I can't even choose the one I want, and I have a headache. However, the game looks fun enough for me to at least post this little blurb before I either go shoot myself or take some aspirin. If my children have finally stopped buggin me as i suspect- then the choice is aspirin. :P

*pokes GM* Don't forget to write up about passions :)

Is it pretty soon already?  Huh.

grin  Thanks!  I am working on one - is not quite ready yet.

Um, that shouldn't be taken as a warning that it's going to be way way too long, or anything.  I could be editing it down, right?  Totally.  That could be happening.

Just remember:

Everything Vestrial tells you is a reliable.
Everything Dis has you do is important.
Everything pisses Raggok off.
Horrors are bad.

 If you remember that, you should be good.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:02, Sat 25 Feb 2012.

Good advice, Alia!  Good advice!

...(Um, what `edited by GM' marker?  Gosh.  RPoL must be acting up again.)

See? Told you! Vestrial even manages to put words in other people's mouths.

GMs!  You can't trust any of 'em.

Er... any of them, except Vestrial, of course.

Ain't that the...pauses, remembers just how many of my GMs I invited to this game -- er, balderdash!  Utter balderdash.  GMs are fine folk.

On the presumption a young dwarf would have a short beard, I picked a new portrait. You know, there just aren't many that fit that criteria, and the few that do, a lot look like losers or wimps. Pretty much, it came down to Vigo or Russell. I picked the Crowe, even though he doesn't look like a dwarf. Use your imagination, that's why you're here, right? ;)

And I agree. You can only trust GMs somewhat. Even if they only GM IRL or another site. (Like me.) :P

There's three categories of trust:
1) Don't trust.
2) Trust somewhat.
3) Trust completely. *

* Category 3 may only be achieved posthumously.

Er...Of course not.  Rashamon's just relatively unimportant, compared to the other...um...well...I mean, as the Passion of Leadership and Ending Sentences In A Comma, it just seemed appropriate?

grin  Thank you!  Most of my posts are written in bits, in the middle of doing Other Stuff - especially long ones.  Apparently I forgot to get back to him.  He should be all there now.

Well, as the patron saint passion of politicians, I guess he really is pretty unimportant. :P

OK!  Am sorting out some final pieces with Kerric, and I think everyone else is pretty much finished.

Am I missing anything?  Does anybody not feel ready to start?  If you have any pending questions that I haven't gotten to, whether it's because I missed it or forgot or because you haven't actually asked it yet, now would be a good time!

Except you, Alia.  Yours was on purpose. grin

Number 3. Gottcha.

I think I'm ready. If not... well, we'll find that out soon, won't we?

Oh, that reminds me - everybody roll Initiative!


----OK, just kidding.

I was born ready.

Well, not me, personally.  That was just a quote from Alia.

I was born hiding under a table.

Looks up from the twigs and random stuff that she's collected. I'm sorry Yona, did you say something?

That explains a bit about Yona's background.  I expect the midwife's apology must have included the phrase, "Apparently, your wife was supposed to be on top of the table."  With a little better lighting, your childhood might have been completely different!


...Er.  I'm just going to pretend I never said that.  Although not quite to the point of actually, you know, not saying it, although I'm well aware that that's still totally an option until I actually click Post Message.

So, I just slapped together a bit of a map in Paint.  You can tell that Map Making is not my Artisan Skill, but, you know, it's mostly supposed to be sort of an idea.  I'll probably fill in some more landmarks and things when I have some more time - if anybody has any suggestions of things they'd like to know where they are, or if anyone wants to move^*, let me know!

As noted in the Races post, only the Trolls are really segregated in the Bend.  The T'skrang tend to be in the houses along the river, but not all of them, and some other folk do live there too.  The Humans, Dwarves, Orks, and Elves are mostly pretty mixed around, and the Windlings... well, they're just... around.  There is a bit of an Ork Section and kind of a Human Area, but only vaguely.  Yes, the Trolls actually have their own wall, complete with gates.  It's not a tall wall - at least, by Trollish standards, making it probably about 5 feet high.  But the Idea of the wall is important to them, and they consider it very rude to ignore it.

Which is to say, people caught climbing over the wall are subject to smooshing.

^{*- I know, I know, that last is a dangerous option.  So help me, if I hear another, "But I don't wanna live next to Opluriko! T'skrang smell funny!", you are all grounded!}

Ah, so, I get to swim to work every day? )I see no bridges...)

Well, for the T'skrang...yes.

But you're right, there should also be bridges, and I suppose people would know where they are.  Good catch!  Thanks!

*sigh*

I live out in the sticks.  I have that awful commute every day.

Yay! I'm right by the pavilion, I probably get good seats for every circus that comes to town! :)

And I want full plate armor, a tower shield, a plasma rifle in a 40 watt range... :P

Seriously, maybe a purse for coins, and a couple torches? I don't know if we're doing camping-style gear, or what, but I could totally see tinder. And a towel. Gotta have a towel when you go anywhere further than your cart.

I'm ready to go here!

When I first saw the map, I thought that Vestrial was messing with us and that there wasn't a number 6.

I have a house. It's a nice house. Really, it is.

Quiet neighbors, at least... right next to the graveyard...

Awww, man!  That would have been hilarious!  I wish I'd thought of that.  Hehehe...


You get the best seat!

 Yep.  That one.

The one the lion tamer waves at the lions.

Luckily, you're already wearing armor made out of plates, which makes it easy for the lions to split out portions.


At least you don't live out in the straw.  Then that wolf would keep blowing your house down.

Wait, doesn't the wolf blow the stick house down, too? But who's commuting? I mean, you got a farm, you just go to town on SUndays. You know, "I'm puttin' on my good, go-town-clothes." You need more sticks every time the wolf goes by, but you can get them out there, isn't that why they call it the sticks? You just need to get bags of flour. I don't know why, every movie I saw with ranchers going into town, they buy bags of flour. You'd think at least the guys who harvest grain wouldn't need so much. ;)

And I changed my mind. I want full bowl armor. So I can have my cereal in the morning, if I have milk. Lionesses have milk, right? I hear it's bad to try milking lions. (The male sort, I mean.)

I live on the farm, but who wants to work on one?

I mean its full of smelly animals and smellier cabbages and dirt and stuff.  And the mud would ruin my shoes.  And all that manual work wouldn't do my nails any good.

And the phone reception is terrible way out there.
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:42, Wed 29 Feb 2012.

*Looks off to her right and nods before turning back*

Well, I can't say anything about animals but cabbages are fine. Just ask them.

As for reception? I don't have any problems with reception, anywhere. Have you checked your spirit provider? Mine guarantees service anywhere, any time.

Peck's humble abode seems handily situated close by his place of employment, which is a big saving in bus fares.  Not far from the river either, so hauling water chores won't take long.  And close by the markets, so handy to get in early and pick up the bargains on sale days.

Location, location, location. ;>

Just don't forget to send those cookies!

I'm not suppose to be seeing another thread, am I? I only see three...

These aren't the threads you're looking for. Go about your business. Move along.

hmmm? You mean you see the red numbers incrementing too?

I just thought it was Vestrial playing a trick on me. . . .

It does indeed seem within Vestrial's sphere of influence, doesn't it?

I think there's a nefarious plot afoot. There's a secret compartment around here, with GM plots stashed inside, that are waiting to explode when we touch it. So quit poking at it! ARGGGHHH!

What?  No!  No, no.  I wouldn't keep secrets from you guys!  That's just--


Oh, wait, that compartment?  You meant that one over there?  Gosh.  I'd forgotten I even still had that old thing.

Um, maybe Yona should open it.

Already done.  Was full of delicious cookies, which I knew would be bad for everybody else, so I ate them myself and saved you all the trouble of getting sick.

There.  See?  Just cookies.  Nothing to worry---

Hey, wait.  That wasn't the container!  That was the box of cookies Peck sent as a bribe for that sweet house placement!  Yo-naaaaa!

Poor Yona.

Eat my cookies, will she...

Don't tell me... I missed my skill roll for, "Walking without impaling foot on rake", didn't I?

Worse. Missed the follow-up defense from, "Hitting face with rake handle." ;)

Wait, so are you saying this is his horse? Just want to be certain :)

No, the horse would be communal, because T'skrang think like that.  (Mind you, they're also very mercantile... if you can blend capitalism and communism in your head, you'll probably get a pretty good idea of their economic views.)  He's just a senior trainer, so it followed his commands.

It's OK - I wasn't setting Opluriko up for charges as a horse thief. grin

Okay... Thanks :)

I'll be on the road and have limited (if any) internet connectivity from tomorrow afternoon to Saturday evening.

Well, I'll grant, the `please' is polite...but a kind young man might have thought, "Old Anje!  With her bad leg, the old woman will need help.  Abandoning his sack of chains, Peck stops for a moment and says, `Anje, you've always been kind - would you like a shoulder to lean on to see what all this fuss is about?'"

...But, you know, it's OK.  It'd be a funny old world if everybody went around thinking about old women with bad legs before themselves.  I bet lots of people would've done the same thing you did.  There's no reason to feel bad, or anything.  I'm sure Anje's fine.  Sitting at her stall.  Watching a bag of chains.  Wondering...

I mean, who wouldn't love that?

grin

Ah, I see what you're thinking - 'human shield'.   I suppose Earthdawn doesn't have any of those pesky alignment restrictions you get in Other Games^TM.  ;>

Exactly!  As the son of a blacksmith, I think Peck would make an excellent shield.  He might even count as "cover".

I certainly don't have any alignment restrictions...grin  I'm not sure about you lot.

My only alignment restriction is that a vertical alignment can be tricky to maintain after a few drinks.

Just wanted to check in and apologize for the quiet - has been a very busy week at home, and we might be getting one last PC.  Next week should be much better, though, so hopefully I'll be able to update soon!

I think if you check, GM's have to be "any Evil".  Better be right, or I've been doing it wrong all these years.

And having had a very busy few weeks myself, I'm kinda grateful for the lull.  Few GM's would be that considerate ... :>

Yep! That's me.  Always willing to frame anything I do as being considerate, especially if it might net me some bonus XPs!

---Um, wait.  That didn't come out quite right.

Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know I am working on an Update!  (I actually may have sort of had it done, and then I could have, I don't know, had my Scratchpad open in two windows, apparently, and it's faintly possible that this, er, friend of mine, yes, might have accidentally clicked Save ScratchPad on the wrong one after the right one had already been closed thereby erasing everything.  But these things happen.  Hypothetically.  I'm not bitter.)

You can always rely on your friends to let you down.

Well, hello there.  I'll be joining the group in the near future.

At some point.

Maybe.

I'll just be over here...

*points*  Look!  She looks smaller than me!  Pick on her!

Hello Quendalaa, and welcome to the game.

Welcome :)

Yay! :) Looks like some sort of sidhe type person. Cool beans. :)

Er, yes.  Pick on the Windling.  They're tiny.  And helpless.  Yes.

Don't taunt the proud windling hunter.  She has is small but capable of holding a grudge ;)

She sure is!  In fact, I'll just go add "1 Grudge" to her equipment list.  It only weighs about fifty pounds, so...  Oh, dear.  Poor thing. shaking head sadly and scraping the Windling off the ground

Well, I guess it's not too late to start over.  Maybe the group could use another Troll?  They carry grudges hand-carved out of rocks!

Those are their heads.  Yup, yup.

Better be careful or Udon may just pull your wings off. And we don't want that.

We don't? blinkblink  Oh.

scribbles new notes

Right.

I like windlings. You tell them to give soemone a message, and they can do it in record time. :) Whether they actually do, now, is another story...

So does Quendalaa get her own personal enemy in Urdon's Gang? We wouldn't want her feeling left out, after all!

In reply to Kerric (msg #93):

I'm sure Udon likes windlings, too. Fried, fricasseed, sauteed, stewed, or just plain raw.

In reply to Opluriko (msg #94):
And does she get her own stranger too?

Hmph.  There's a reason trolls have rat problems.

Hah. See, that's why I'm not ticking her off.

I don't know these people. ^

:P

Just wanted to note that I updated the message on Urdon's Gang to better reflect the Expanded and Revised List of PCs!  link to a message in this game

Most especially, of course, there are now some connections for Kerric and Quendalaa.

Sorry for running even slower-than-usual right now!  This month is totally swamped with family stuff; almost all good, but very busy.  I'll try to get some posts in soon!


...remembers who I picked as a GM-Persona for this game

...Or...will I?  Bum, bum, bummmm!

Yeah. I know the feeling. Cousin's funeral tomorrow, need to pick my Mom up on the far side of town straight after work, probably an added 2 hours just driving. I just might not be posting that day or maybe the next if I need a nap badly.

*stretches and yawns*

*sigh* Getting ready to move. Being relocated to Texas in July. My oldest daughter doesn't seem to understand when the bf says "If you go to San Antonio, our relationship is over." is a BAD sign. She's trying to figure out a way to stay behind!

Yeah. BF tend to not like having GF who aren't there for some reason. I was ticked when my wife went to Texas, and the only reason she came back was the divorce papers.

Good luck.

BTW, you're the second gamer on this site I play with who's going there. Wave if you see the other one. ;) She's just visiting though, she'll only be there maybe a week.

How old is she?

She'll be 18 later this month. So technically she can stay, it's the practicality of staying behind that's the issue.

The problem is that she carefully engineered things so that she'd have to stay with us to go to the local community college (which just happens to be where bf is going). She turned down a free ride to one of the four year schools that she applied to to do this. She doesn't have the money saved up to get an apartment and live until she's able to get a job and make enough money to live (barely) on her own.

Her plan before we learned that we were relocating was to take the CNA class over the summer and get her certificate. Stay home and work full time while going to school part time. Save her money and then after 4 years finish off her BSN at a four year school. After that, she' work on getting her MSN as a Nurse Anesthetist.

We figured that bf would get pissed off by around October or November of this year since she wouldn't be around to stroke his ego on demand. Now we have the relocation happening.

*sigh* Fun times.

Sounds like a soap opera. I wish you the best, however it turns out. Perhaps like you said, she'll realize BF isn't the best choice. Unfortunately, it isn''t going to happen because you told her. She sounds like me, I had to stumble in the poo myself before I figured it out. Perhaps a nice rational discussion from some other person (uncle or something) would help. No offense, but she's not going to listen to you no matter how right you are.

Wow...they're still together?  That whole thing sounds way too complicated for anybody outside to offer much advice, but it looks like her careful planning kind of backfired for reasons that are totally not your fault, and that could work out well.  Even if she does find a way to stay, you can always keep some space open for her to come join you later if, you know, the relationship totally unexpectedly implodes under the pressure of real life.

(Now I feel like a mobster version of Cupid.  "Mmm.  Nice highschool sweetheart deal you've got going there.  Be a shame if anything were to happen to it...")

I'll try to get some updates up this week!  This month has been totally swamped, and now I see I didn't even check in with you guys.  I'm very sorry.

It's hard, sometimes, to know what is best. And none of us can see the future...

I think, Vestrial, that to make amends you should give us each a free skill point... ;P

Nods glumly at Vestrial.

Kerric, it's been a soap opera for over 2 years. He's shown very strong signs of being an abusive partner, but my daughter just doesn't want to see it. To date we've been pretty hands off, figuring that if we try to deny her access to him that it will only make it sweeter. So far it hasn't worked.

We're going to go to counseling and take her with us. We'd like for him to go to a session too, but according to his mom "We haven't seen any signs of anything since they went to counseling 2 years ago so everything must be ok."

Denial is not just a river in Egypt.

If this was D&D 3.5 I'd suggest Charm Person or maybe some Bardic Music ... and if that failed, then the old Greatsword and Power Attack.

Kids have to make their own mistakes ... but parents have to try to stop them.  That's the way we're wired.

We don't have kids.  Cats, budgies and Alpacas instead.  Won't do a thing we tell them, but on the other hand they do come with us when we move house. :>

That's terrifying; I can't imagine watching either of my kids walking into something like that.  On the other hand, I kind of did it to my parents once, and... well, I came out the other side.  All I can say is that "successful" abusive partners have to isolate their victims, so whatever happens, keep in touch.  Which you'd probably be doing anyway, since you've always sounded reasonably fond of your daughter. grin

Hope the moving is going smoothly!

Just to note - I know this last post doesn't give you guys a lot to respond with, other than the general, "I, too, go in, and probably sit down somewhere or something."  I'll have more to post soon!

...Of course, if you have anything else you want to do right away, you're certainly welcome to.

Bleah.  So, um, the power jack on my computer decided to burn out a couple of days ago.  We have like four more computers in the house and I'm welcome to borrow almost any of them, but it gives me less time, and I don't have my notes or pdfs for a little while...

I'll try to still get an update here next week, but I wanted to let you guys know what's going on.

(So now the question is, do I put in the money to get just the part fixed, or do I try to pull it together to get a better one to replace it so I can play Witcher 2...hmm...hehe...I mean, if I'm spending the, er, $50, anyway, wouldn't it be worth a paltry $800 more?  Um.  I'm not saying this is a logical conundrum.)

It is logical for you to spend the extra money to get a better one.  You deserve it for putting up with that old piece of crap for soooo long.  I bet it even smelled funny.

We, your players, deserve it too (and I bet most of us smell funny too)!

Speak for yourself. I smell quite seriously. Wait, uh...

Stupid part's probably $50, even though it's only worth $3. I could put it in myself, but finding the right part to fit, so you don't have a cobbled wart on the side of your laptop, is the problem.

From the 19th until maybe August 1st, our internet connection will be questionable due to moving.

Erk...life has been very spotty lately; I'll try to have an update up before you start!

Good luck moving!

suddenly scurries in with an anthropomorphic Tiger and stuffs him in the closet

Hmm?  Oh, um, hi.  slams the door shut and starts dragging a couch in front of it

Nothing!  Nothing at all.  This is just perfectly normal behavior!  Peck, could you help me with this couch?

Scales, fur, it's all the same, really :)

I shoot it. The couch I mean, not the tiger.

What's the point of shooting the couch?  We can't eat it... unless we can find more salt.

Well, I'm not gonna shoot Tigger. He's all bouncy and stuff.

Can't hit a moving target, eh?

Well, shooting him with an axe, standing still, is still a pretty good shot, IMO.

Just like that - life goes from spotty to stripy ?  Still lots of teeth and claw, though !

Peck is not going to naysay anyone who can wrestle a tiger into a closet, though the blacksmith's eyes are wide as he dutifully takes up his end of the couch, happy to have a large piece of furniture between himself and one of such prowess, though his expression betrays that intervening architecture would be better.

"Stop it !" he hisses frantically to the axe-hurling Kerric.  "Don't annoy her !  You'll bring down the Horrors upon all of us !"

Hoorrors, scmoorors. Have you ever smelt her cooking? :P

Honestly, this tiger's never been particularly bouncy...

But anywhere that he is, his giant, war-mount riding lizard can't be far behind... So do watch out...

Gets some elemental fire under the tiger's butt. I'll bet he'll be bouncy now. (At least once anyway)

Bubba? Is that Bubba the Barbarian, on his war-dinosaur Boo-boo? I haven't seen them in ages! Like, since 1st edition I think! Oh wait, they put their pic on something 2e, too, but I don't recall what.

Peck ventures a sickly grin at Vestrial, before abandoning his end of the couch and diving for the closet.  Tiger be damned - it's got to be safer in there than out here once terrible retribution rains down upon the Dwarf !

Muahahaha!  Terrible retribution is at hand!

Yes, that's right.

Kerric is going to have to eat my cooking!

...
   ...wait.  I might not have thought this all the way through.  I'll be back.  Um, in the meantime, you can all share the cookies.


I might just go ask Kiki for some suggestions.  He was always the sensible one...

I have never smelt the cooking over the web. Cookies now, I get planty of those... ;)

Er... you might want to look under the hood there.... Kiki's always been female... ;P

That explains why she was always so sensible!

Oh, and I have been meaning to mention - I am working on an Update.  The kids started school again yesterday, so life has been Especially Hectic, and I need to actually hold some organized thoughts in my head for this one.  But I am working on it.  I haven't just forgotten that I'm the GM here and been kibbitzing in the OOC while I wait for Yona to move us along, or anything.

Honest.  I'm not quite that scattered!

Puts Vestrial through a diffraction grating. There! Now you're scattered!

Seriously, I understand completely. I've been working at a new schedule here since we moved. I work 9 hour days and catch a ride at 5:40 in the morning.

And I just started a new job.  Which, it turns out, isn't nearly as much fun as it looked when I applied for it.  That's why I haven't been moving us along, or anything.

Pssst!  Vestrial.  This is your game!

What?  But...you just said...about the job, and...and...uh-oh.

Wait - are you sure?  I know I'm listed as the GM, but I am the Passion of Trickery, and all.  It could be a trick.

Or it could be a treat... You never can tell, can you?

Interesting how pretty much all of the games slow to a crawl at the beginning of a school year. Kinda gives me insight into who is in college or something.

If it's a trick, I'm pretty sure the trick is on you... :)

Ooh.  I wouldn't put that past me.  I am sneaky like that.


We have two kids in Elementary, but that has been eating up a lot of my time lately.  Ah, how I've missed homework... ...No, really.  How?  I'm sure there's a way.

I am working on our next update, though!

Funny that... I don't miss homework at all.  :)

Heh. My two youngest have homework, and sometimes it's a royal pain to get 'em to do it.

My schedule has been turned upside down since we moved. Hopefully things will settle down over the next couple of months.

I think I mentioned I have some legal issues. The interrogatories, last est, are 50+ pages. I caall it 'homework'. So yeah, I got homework, too, right when school started. Bad teachers. :P

Ouch!  They make those annoying on purpose, in hopes that people will decide to just drop out and let them win instead of taking the time to fill it all out.

Definitely. Rumor has it, her lawyer has another, larger set, on the way. Except- she has made me another offer. One I might take. And not just to get out of the homework! :P

I wanted to check in and let everybody know that I've been about halfway through our next update all week, but this week got kind of suddenly swamped.  But, the next two weeks I will actually have more free time than I've had in years.  So, I probably won't get a chance to finish the next update before Monday, but over the next couple weeks I can probably actually do some pretty fast turn-around, if everybody wants to!

Sounds good to me!

Been busy this week too. No worries.

You're going to sell your own child to slavers!?!

Okay, as long as it means the game can go on, it's cool.  :)

They still buy them? Maybe you can give me their number... The slavers, I mean...

(Just kidding...)

Well, if by "slavers" you mean "grandparents," and by "child" you mean "children," and by "selling to" you mean, "Sending along on vacation with" - yes!  That's exactly right.

Wow.  That was uncanny.  "Going to" and "own" were like, totally dead on!


Twelve, and twenty seven.  But I warned them to stay away from eight.  Eight is going to be bad for slavers this month, on account of Jupiter being so closely aligned with M13.

You see, this is what makes the Earthdawn rules so confusing.  In the-game-whose-name-must-not-be-mentioned it's A1-4 which is bad news for slavers.

No no, that's only if you're Against the slavers. If you're with them, those numbers mean little.

working, working, working...

Really!  Just picture a little blue bar filling up.  It's, like, eighty percent full now.  And it says, "2 hours to complete update"

...Of course, ten minutes ago, it said three days.  And five minutes before that, it was half full, and claiming only fifteen minutes remained.

Take it easy.  no need to stress.

See... that's why I'd never be tempted to run a game - too much work for the GM.

A blue bar like this one?


(Although I do care about this game... It's just so funny I had to share.)

Well, I like to think we have a higher level of graphics than that, but yeah. grin


Totally understandable.  Some people just don't have my level of dedica--ooh, shiny thing! runs off
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:52, Thu 27 Sept 2012.

Yawns

Why is it I can type Talhamnoduin without looking, but still have to double-check Murtagh?

Me too ! :>

It's the silent 'W' in Murtagh that throws you off. ;)

It's spelled, "Raymond Luxury Yacht," but it's pronounced, "Throat Warbler Mangrove".

Or the "p" in "rubber bucket", which is silent unless you shake it.

Yeah... Let's just not pee in a rubber bucket... :P

You still taking players? I have someone who might be interested.

I live in the probable path of Hurricane Sandy. If I go offline for a couple days, please forgive me.

Eep!  Good luck!  Stay dry!

I expect I'll have to let it go this time, but for my next game, I'm only inviting players who live on paradise planets.

remembers what has happened to any paradise planet in every movie that's ever included one

...Nevermind.

Oh, and, um, Kerric?  I'm very sorry - I didn't mean to ignore that.  I was thinking about it for a while and then I lost track of it.  But I was leaning towards a no anyway - it would be hard to bring somebody new in at this point.  Which isn't a very good setup for a PbP game, I know, but that's why I went the invitation-only route...grin

It's all good. :) Someone looking for game, got some game, wouldn't mind more. Not out of game, so not too big a deal.

Yes, paradise worlds are shear paradise... Until the movie starts...

Or until the humans arrive.  Whichever comes second.

Good luck Opluriko, I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.  Wbjbafdnb kjhab jakbeöjk hn hnhnhejbö.

Hmm... perhaps not while typing.

I will be vacationing and internetless from this coming Friday until the Monday after Thanksgiving. Luckily, I don't think that will be a problem in this game as we're all sort of off on our own. Have fun everyone!

I have been crazy busy the last couple of weeks and am behind in all things RPoL - including, of course, this one, and some of you might know about other games I'm running behind in.  I am very sorry - I'm working on my next post as I can!

*hastily hides rope behind back*

That's okay, take your time.  We're patient.

Tell me about crazy busy! It's been rather crazy here too. Work has been nuts!

You don't work for Kar's, do you? One of the guys I game with works at a pistashio plant, his work is always nuts... :P

Nope. We just got done with a big project at work. On Monday I'd already put in over 25 hours.

...So, um, unless somebody wanted to say, "Zzzzz," or, "I toss.  Then I'll turn.  Does that invoke an AoO?" ...Obviously this last post doesn't give you guys a lot to reply to.

Next update coming soon!

Sounds good. I wasn't really sure what to say at this point anyway. . . .

And so Opluriko sleeps...

Hey !  We haven't organised the Watch roster yet !  We are so doomed to die in our beds ...

Actually no.  Yona has made a habit of always sleeping under her bed.

Well, actually, it's technically not her bed.  If belongs to her cousin, Almik.  You know?  The one with the different coloured eyes and the wart on his nose.  Always smells like sour milk.  Yes, that Almik.

Anyway, it belongs to him, or to his mum and dad at any rate, and Yona's dad just has it on a sort of long-term loan.

And she always sleeps under it.  Because who, in their right mind, would sleep in a bed that was once used by Pee-the-Bed-Almik?

Yep.  Under the bed.

Happy 2013 everybody!

What happened to my post? It's gone missing!

Anyhow, I did mention, aren't we supposed to friends? "Good friends"? Isn't Peck acting a lot more like those other bullies we don't like, at least toward Kerric?

That's just him being friendly.  You should see how he treats people he doesn't like.  Or his family.

It's the dream thing; everybody's a little bit different from who they really are.  (Chaia and Laethwyr are acting different, too.)


That, I don't know, though.  You'd think I would, wouldn't you?

Wait... what?  There's a dream?

eyes Yona suspiciously

Darnit, I never know if you're kidding.

considers this

That's not true.  I almost always know if you're kidding.  Your hands are on the keyboard, for a start.  I'm just not sure this time.

My hands aren't necessarily on the keyboard while you're reading what I typed.  therefore your assumption that you know when I'm kidding is based on potentially inaccurate data.

I kid you not.

Mmm, no, but your posts are timestamped, and I know roughly what region you live in, so I can work out the time at which you were kidding within an acceptable margin of error.

Anyway, you must have known about the dream thing, or you would have assumed you had your stick.  QED. Give me a couple days to think about it and I, as the very Passion of Trickery embodied, am very hard to fool which isn't a challenge by the way.  But I'm thinking I might clarify it in the thread titles from now on, to make it more clear.

...Um, not that it's ever going to come up again, or anything.

Complaining again, Digger ? ;>

Yeah, I decided to have fun with Peck in the dream state - think of this version as the evil twin.

The real Peck is going to be horrified when he wakens.  Sorry, that should be if he wakens ... for all I know this might be the reality and the other the dream !

Yeah... In a play-by-post game, especially one as slow as this, I wonder if it's wise to have such a long, interactive dream... But we'll see...

So, apparently, you guys don't get an Update until I move it out of my Scratchpad and into a post.  Was anybody else aware of this?  Honestly - RuBB code is so complicated!

ahem

Um, right.  So that's why I thought I'd written a post for you guys, and you didn't.


For the early part of the game, the dreams are an integral piece.  Without giving too much away, one hopes, they're meant to be kind of mini-adventures on their own, and thereby create a sort of 'safe' place for the characters to learn some of their new abilities...

"safe place"?

Does that mean we aren't about to find ourselves surrounded by gigbazillions of undead, and all die horribly?

...Mmmmmaayyyyybe?

Hehe.

There was some fighting in South America, and the Secretary of Defense had bad news for the president. He told him, "Sir, we've lost several Brazilian soldiers."

The secretary was surpprised when the president decided to fly the flags at half staff, make a national day of mourning, and pull out all the stops. He asked the secretary then, "Just how many IS a brazillion, anyhow?"

:P

Hehe

I...I...hmph.  I have nothing to cover the fact that there's a PM in this message.



Or... do I?

ponders  Mm, nope.  I was right the first time.

I hate when people put private messages in posts, and can't think of a good way to cover up the fact.  *coughs*

Cough, cough. Ponder. Which is in no way related to a preponderance, which is definitely not thinking ahead.

Kerric, I don't think you missed anything. I think we are each getting fed specific, different information. Opluriko did call out a warning about a flood, although she honestly isn't sure what it is, but it looks sort of like that to her... :)

Also, am sorry - I know this update is taking a long time.  This last couple of weeks have been... swamped.  But I am working on one as I can!

Kerric, that's a really good point! I just don't think my character's close enough to you to hear it

I'm just confused. I still think I missed post(s) somewhere.

There's a flood? But Opluriko is on the ground? And there's a crowd of people in the flood, where the lights go out? But we're on the roof watching. Except for some of us, who are on the ground, going to the ground.

There's something missing for me to add things up, beyond the whole dream-mystery thing. I think it's probable I didn't read it while I was uber-busy.

Opluriko thought she saw a flood, but it never came. So although she initially climbed to a greater height, and called for others to as well, she has since climbed back down and started to run at the weird thing that looks, to her, like the edge of a flood. Some people are on the roof and some on the ground.

Hope that helps...

A little... but I don't understand what looks like a flood to her, I guess. Lights going out? There's nothing my character has noticed, apparently, even remotely close, although it was mentioned something like 'in addition to what they see, you have infravision' I seem to have have missed the whole 'what they see' part.

People all went in different places and the situation is supposed to be confused, really.  But I can confirm that Kerric has seen nothing to suggest flooding.

And Yona has, as far as I'm aware, seen nothing to suggest giant bat-winged pigeons.  With or without crossbows.

Hope to post IC tomorrow.  Had a really busy week.

Right!  Wait...what?  Did you not see my PM?  Oh dear...

PM?  *checks*  Eep!

Confused, right on track. :) I love it when a plan comes together.

Very sorry, I got super sick last week and have a lot of RL catching up to do!  Will try to start catching up here as soon as I can!

Really sorry to hear about that, Boss.

Er... the sickness, that is, not the impending catching up with the game.

I'd have thought you'd done enough catching things in the first place !  Welcome back to the land of the living ! ;>

I think I'm going to need to bow out. With the new department at work, I can't access the web much, and not reliably. With the extra demands @ home, I don't have enough time after work. That pretty much leaves only weekends, when I try to actually do some stuff.

I'm in the process of trimming down some of my games. I'm trying to figure out which ones, but it just isn't easy, I only joined good ones in the first place. Sadly, I think this one is going to be one of them. It's pretty much come down to the 'best of the best' that also have friends of mine playing and GMing in them. Not that you guys aren't my friends, or anything... I mean, I feel kinda bad cutting out like this, but I need to face reality, either I cut the losses or don't keep up.

I think this game is slow enough that even if you do only check once a week it wouldn't be a problem...

But it's your choice. Best of luck either way!

She has a point - this game would be hard for you to hold up. grin  But I totally understand, and RL definitely has to come first.  Pretty definitely.  I think I read that somewhere.  ANYway.  I'll miss you, and you can always drop me an Rmail or an RtJ if things change!

I'll give you, like, a week or so in case you change your mind before I actually remove you from the game - if I forget and haven't taken you out by next week, feel free to give me a nudge.  Thank you for telling us what was going on!!

...For everybody else - we lost Mace'Aurek quite a while ago, and Quendalaa never really got started.  If Kerric is stepping out, too, I'm going to see if I can find some new players.  It'll be a little bit tricky to bring in new PCs with the way I set things up here, but I think we can sort it out, especially if people don't mind pretending they were around when everybody met in town and were just kind of quiet, maybe.

Eyes Opluriko thoughtfully  I know, I know... His mind was pretty made up, wasn't it?

Sorry - he's dropped his last game and is not interested in taking on another...

Should be fairly easy to get them into the current situation - it's a dream.  I can see Kerric's face sort of melting already, and look, he's getting taller.  He looks a bit like that kid with the red hair and the squint in his right ear...

Given the general townsfolks' reaction to the outsiders which swings between curious fascination and righteous condemnation, it'd be easy to see that some of our number would bow to their parent's wishes, peer pressure or their own wishes to extricate themselves ... while our participation might encourage others (that might be known to one or more of us, rather than the group as a whole) to get involved.

Sniff, makes me sentimental, really - sounds kinda like when RPGs first started out ...

OR I could just stab Kerric in the back, in an effort to win brownie points ! ;>

Gah!  Yona, get that candle out of Kerric's nose!  That's not funny.

...Well, OK, but only a little.


Hmmm...now that you actually put it that way, that's, like, super obvious and brilliant.

...I mean - exactly what I was thinking.  Yeah.  I was just about to do that.  _Thanks.

Right then!  Sorry for being so quiet - we have four close-family birthdays in May, so it's always a bad time for getting quiet computer time.  But I should be good now, until, oh... next week, when we have to start planning for our camping trip.

Wait, next week started today, didn't it?  Argh!

So, well, yeah.  I'll try to get an update done in the next couple of days, but I wanted to check on, especially, what the people who were up on the roof are doing?  I gather you've all moved at least back inside - are you continuing on down, as I believe Kerric has proposed, to go out into town and look for the source of the trouble?  Or are you finding Oliver and Korunda inside?

I'd hoped to join the group inside, find a safe place and hide defend the smaller kids from whatever is coming.

If everybody else wants to go outside and die a glorious death in the streets, I'm good with that though.  Yona is not a leader.  :)

Unless by "leader" you mean "good at hiding".

Peck's first thought was to ward the children ... it was only Kerric's insistence on following that made him doubt - but in the end he's going to stay with his dream-sister, so if Yona's instinct is to go inside, then that's more than fine with him, and he'll be there too. :>

Er... it's been a month in game? I know this game is slow, but that's getting a bit... concerning...

Shush !  The rule here is 'if nothing bad is currently happening to you then keep very very quiet' !! <grins>

My character stands well away from Opluriko ! ;>

I have just accepted a job offer that will require relocation.  I will have very limited time available for the next month. Please feel free to NPC as needed.

Thanks!

Congratulations.  On the job, I mean, not on the limited free time.  :)

It's a fundamental design flaw really.  What we need are jobs that increase our free time.  Well paid at that.  Something in the time-travelling adventurer treasure-hunting line, I'm thinking.  Can't be too dangerous ...

But good luck with the move and the new job, Opluriko !  :>

I always found that time-travelling adventurer jobs to be less exciting than they sound... er... never mind.  Forget I said that.  Oh, look, a three-headed monkey. *points*

That's OK, though, because Peck wasn't looking for excitement - just lots of money and free time.

frowns

Huh.

I don't know why I said that.  Well.  Anyway - yeah, Peck, that would be perfect!

Congratulations, Opluriko! 

Was going to joke about how now that I can NPC Opluriko she won't be slowing us down, but, um, it wasn't going to be as funny as I wanted.  Sorry for being slow - even by my standards - lately; May is our family Birthday Month, so I got pretty swamped there, and then we went camping.  (Had a great camping trip, though!)  I'm talking to a couple of people about bringing in a couple new PC's, too, which is, you know, good in the long run, but in the short term, eating some of my computer time!

Congratulations Opluriko and hello everybody else! ^_^

Er... hello.

*slowly and carefully picks up a knife, just in case*

Hail and well met, Ariadne !  :>

*hides behind Yona*

Hello Ariadne!

I'm the resident flake elementalist-to-be.

Sorry for the brief introduction before.
I was a bit stressed with exams.
I'm the new Swordsmistress-to-be.
*curtsies*

I brought cookies!
(and a stick, but that's mostly for drawing on the ground for now)

Oh internet! Sweet internet! How I have missed you!

<peeks out from behind Yona> Cookies ?  Ah, Ariadne ... welcome indeed !

Opluriko !  Welcome back.  Funny ... the internet was just saying how much it missed you too ! ;>

Don't trust her, she has a stick!

*hides own stick behind back*

But she has cookies !

They probably have sticks in them.

Nu-uh! I found them in a Cookie Circle of One. I bet you they're proper Discworld Dwarf Cookies.

http://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/index.php/Dwarf_Bread
This message was last edited by the player at 07:37, Sun 07 July 2013.

Ooooh! Sticks and stones! You're prepared!

She seems to have some words, too.  I'd be extra careful.

Er, if I were inclined to sow dissent between the players, that is, which I'm not.  You can all trust Ariadne implicitly!  You have my word.

That's right. You can trust me just as long as I can throw you
(or probably "as long as you can throw me. I am a shortarse after all).

Edit: Technically I think that will be "Sticks and Scones"
This message was last edited by the player at 08:26, Mon 08 July 2013.

This is ALia;s wife, he passed away suddenly last night, the computer is logged in permantenly, so I;m letting you know.

I'm sorry to hear that...
My thoughts are with his family and friends.

I'm so sorry to hear that. Thank you for letting us know.

Agh.  This is one of those things that makes you... think.  Well, it's made me, anyway.  Online friendships are weird; I don't know Greyghost's real name, I only know where he lived with, like, a six-hundred-mile margin or error, but, he's very much one of the handful of people on RPoL that I really think of as a friend.  As someone that I knew a bit beyond his characters, and liked more than just to play games with.

Most of the rest of that handful is in this game, actually, so I just wanted to say, you guys are great.  Thank you for being here.

Really sorry to hear about this, my condolences to the family.

Wot Vestrial said.  We might come from opposite ends of the globe, but if we have nothing else in common, we're united as gamers, and delight and enjoy in the sharing of trial and triumph in these worlds of imagination.

Frater Ave atque Vale ...

Er... Um... I was just checking in to make sure I hadn't missed anything and people aren't waiting for me and... um... I appear to be missing the active thread... ???

Action is just moving a little bit!  You're fine.

The news about Alia really shook me.  I'm still sort of hoping maybe it was a prank or something, but I suppose by now he'd have probably straightened it out if it were.

And strictly game-wise, it was very hard to lose another PC.  I don't want to say "especially Alia", but kind of especially Alia.  I have Ariadne to replace Kerric, but Alia being gone leaves us a party forming without any spellcasters at all, and I'm trying to think of someone solid enough to invite to take that over - but it's been hard to think about that without really accepting Greyghost as gone, you know?

Anyway.  I do have one person to ask, so I'll go do that.  If any of you guys know anybody who might be both interested and interesting, though, let me know!  Am still totally willing to take in people who aren't so familiar with Earthdawn, too.

Let us know how it goes ^_^

Hello everyone.

I'll be playing a Dwarf that looks like my avatar.  I'll be a stonemason and miner of sorts.  I dig, I find stones, I work in the quarry, I shape stone and I build stone buildings.  I'm a Dwarf, that's what I do.  Oh, and I carry a big hammer.  When you carry a hammer, everything begins to look like a nail.  ;)

Eventually I hope to become an Elementalist and heal you while you fight or cast air armor on you so you don't need to eat so much heated food.  :)

Hi!  ...Oh, wait, we'd already met.  Well, hi, anyway.

Just updated the Map of Karick's Bend!  Also dropped a new detail into the Points of Interest message in the last post of the Welcome to Karick's Bend Thread, which you're welcome to read or ignore as you please.  It's not an important detail or anything, just a detail, which I took time to write, but which you're nevertheless free to just carry on without even looking at.

Welcome newer person ^_^

So this new detail...
Does it include a watermill? ^_^

Er... two details, I meant.  Give me a second.

ahem  Yes, of course it included a Watermill.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:07, Fri 06 Sept 2013.

Hello Shard hammerhand.  Hmm... I'm now involved in two games with characters called Shard.  Interesting.

I read the new detail, Boss.  You know I hang on your every word.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:08, Fri 06 Sept 2013.

Great cause I think somebody is living there. ^_^
(And just between you and me; I think someone is also climbing on the wheel on regular basis)

Incidentally, I believe the new T'skrang place, the Trisnari, has a symbol outside which represents that food and knowledge are both essential to any living creature - you can not survive without either.  The symbol is in the form of the entrances where these two requirements for life enter the body through two golden arches...

Welcome!

In reply to Vestrial (msg # 256):

Yep, I read through the "Welcome ...." thread to ensure I was up on the latest news.  I thought it interesting the Watchtower was built by Trolls?  Good Garlen, it will surely fall down any day now.  Everyone knows if you want something to stand the test of time you have a dwarf build it.  ;)

Thanks for the grand welcome everyone.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:11, Sat 07 Sept 2013.

I think I need to be added to a group, I don't see any active posting by the players.  I can see 4 threads.

1. OOC
   
2. Character Creation
   
3. Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, by Mister Rogers
   
4. Welcome to Karick's Bend

The post total is 498 but Cat's Cradle total posts is 655, so I think I'm missing a thread?  Thanks.

Hello everyone.

I am still sort of taking form, but I am human.  My family is so poor it makes Yona seem like a princess.  Two sticks to rub together is a family hierloom, sort of thing.

Please don't hit me on the head, I may be [too] tall and not very bulky, but I'm not a nail, I promise you, Hammerhead.

In reply to Shard Hammerhand (msg # 263):

My cousin Bandil once told me, in between pulling my hair and pinching my arm, that the reason trolls built it is that dwarves can't reach high enough to build a decent tower.

I can show you where Bandil lives, you know, in case you want a "quiet word" with him. *hopeful look*

Hello Anora.  What's the weather like up there?

In reply to Yona Tosken (msg # 266):

So if you want a 12 foot wall, a Troll is just the right person to ask.  Dwarves realizing their short stature were smart enough to use tackle, rope and pulley along with scaffolding to get the job done right.

Take out a troll's knee cap and he's eye level.  ;)

Nah...
Dwarf to Troll ratio the Dwarf has to for the hip.
Not the knees.

In reply to Yona Tosken (msg # 266):

Cold and alone.

Two sticks ?  You were lucky.  We used to huddle together, all 28 of us ... oh, hang on a second - wrong sketch.

Welcome to all the newcomers.  Please take careful note of the friendly 'Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here' sign and take care to keep all limbs within the threads at all times. ;>

Don't worry about it ^_^

I haven't been added yet either.

I'm sure it'll come at some point when I'm not grounded any more

In reply to Peck Murtagh (msg # 270):

Yes, two.  The original, three inch stick broke after the eight generation's twelfth biannual Gazing Upon in Awe ritual.  Legend has it that it was Uncle Orwen's glare that broke it.

Another two generations later the ritual had morphed into a biannual Pretend Rub the Two Sticks Together ceremony instead, without touching, of course.


Thank you for the welcome, Peck.

Oh alright.
Welcome to you too ^_^

In reply to Anora Sawtvest (msg # 265):

As a hammer, you are supposed to hit the nail on the head, but I'll take exception to you.  ;)


Yona, point out your cousin Bandil.  I'll have a quiet word or two.  :P

For some reason or another this is how I imagine Ariadne and Anora standing next to one another.



Just both of them wearing more stitched clothes and flat shoes.
(Ariadne isn't from a poor family, but there is no need to put a new dress on her when you know it will be dragged through several bushes and up a tree at least twice before the day is over.)

There actually was a Dwarven Watchtower, too, but they had to take it out because people kept tripping over it.


But...just a couple whacks with his hammer, and that `too tall' problem could go away completely!


But they have to start with the knees, because they can't reach the hip.


What!?  Who put that sign there?  There's no need to abandon any hope!  No hope-abandoning should be happening here!

Hope is the yummiest part!

Thank you for the welcome, strange ones.  I think.  The thank you part, that is, no question about you being strange.

A couple of whacks would indeed solve any problem with being alive, yes.  I see you are trying to kill me already.  I feel so welcome now.  *blink*

I'd just like to point out that I have NOT abandoned hope.

I had none to start with...

In reply to Shard Hammerhand (msg # 274):

Oh, and nearly forgot.  There's Bandil over there.  The one with hair the colour of carrots, the drippy nose, and eyes trying to look in two directions at once.

For a second I thought you were talking about the household Kue.
His name is "Bandit". There's also a raven named "Vestrial", but we can't let him in the mill any more.

Annnnd... sorry for the various delays and confusions, but we have a new active public thread up, and you are all welcome to post into it as everyone wakes up and their days begin!

If there is something involved that you want to do in the morning, you can post it there, or you can send it as a PM - but for the most part, we should probably kind of skim over the basic and, um, you know, everybody-separated pieces, and move on towards people heading over to the Schoolhouse, as I hope people will.

I guess you don't have to.  I don't want to railroad you or anything.  It's just, well, Urdon gets cranky, is all, and if he were to stumble across anybody wandering around the edges of town, say, I'm just... well, I'm not sure what might happen, but it sounds like such an awful shame.  You're all so nice.

grin

We have a Railroad!?
Cool! Who build that? The T'skrang? :)

It was a subset of dragons, those with two, er, ends.  Dragoons.  They actually sidetracked the whole project by laying down the foundation for railing and whining in general, seeing as they were naturally gifted at being, hmm, "poop-deck openings".

Scout's honour.

I'm no scout, though, so if you question this, find a scout and ask them...  ^_^

<wakes, leaps out of bed and sprints for the schoolhouse>

Sounds very much like one of those dreams.  So I've heard ...

In reply to Peck Murtagh (msg # 284):

Some people think if they get there fast they can also get out fast. ^_^;

I should run that theory by my son... "But the sooner we get there, the sooner you can come home!"

I'm not sure.  I think he'll figure it out.

It worked on me with homework...

Just because I've been grounded for a week doesn't make me a new face.

With the possible US Gov shut down, I may lose my internet for an undisclosed amount of time.  If I stop posting, its because of lack of connectivity, not lack of desire to join in on the fun.

Thanks.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:09, Mon 30 Sept 2013.

"Dear Congressman; I need Shard back in my game.  Fix this."

They'll listen, right?  Maybe I can get a petition going.

We could pay them in GP ?

Seriously, it must be a real worry for those affected by the shutdown in the US, so much sympathy. :<

In reply to Peck Murtagh (msg # 291):

Pay them in kindness, they need all the help they can get.  ;)

Luckily, I still have internet.  :]

Yay!  I read you'd still be getting paid, at least, but I wasn't sure it would extend to keeping all your utilities up... glad you're still here!


It's... vexing, and if it goes on more than a couple of weeks, could become a serious problem for our family too.  Hopefully it won't go that long - but I'm worried it will.

The fact that they build these shutdowns (and debt-defaulting, which is coming up in a couple weeks) into our system on purpose just annoys the heck out of me, though.

You need the Queen to take over again

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...ryone-in-parliament/

I find it best not to delve into politics on gaming sites.  There are always hurt feelings and angry comments that will usually come about because there are two sides to every conflict.  ;)

I'm glad I have a job and can support my family.  That's all I've got to say.  :)

Bah!  You have children that you can send out to work and help the family budget.

Mostly just wanted to mention that I'm working on an update!  But I need to apologize - we brought new people in, and I didn't really `set the stage' properly again, because sometimes I'm not very good at remembering what actual order things happened in. grin

Anyway, the schoolhouse, as it was originally described:


Ariadne's last post made me realize that she's picturing something a lot more complete.  Her first post there really should have done that, too, with its mention of desks, so I'm really sorry I didn't catch it then.  But, although there's no blackboard or pointer-stick and there haven't been actual teachers yet, that pile of cut wood in the back would quite reasonably have some pieces that could work as a makeshift staff.  She'd be looking at a-little-too-long and not-cut-for-hands rather than too-thin and not-quite-long-enough.  Or, if she'd prefer, she could find a shorter board that could be held sort of more like a sword, although awkward to curl her fingers around and with a definite risk of splinters.

Alas, the people doing the work on it have been taking their tools home, apparently.

Carrying sharp objects home after usage does seem like a good idea when you have characters such as Ariadne and Chaia about.

I'll edit my response to Ariadne mumbling something about "Improvised weapons" and grabbing a club instead.

The Army unit I'm working with isn't paying for the free internet starting the 20th (Merry Christmas) so I might be without internet for a few days.  I will likely move to the paid internet but still not 100% sure.

That rather sucks, Shard... Good luck!

Wanted to drop a note.

I'll be leaving Afghanistan on Monday and will be out of the loop for about a month as I fly back to the states, reunite with my family and take some vacation time with them.

I expect to be back the first part of March, perhaps earlier depending on how things go.

Have a safe journey home, and a good vacation.

In reply to Yona Tosken (msg # 302):

Thank you.

Yay!  Welcome back, and have a great time with your family!!

I don't like it... it's too quiet.

^Boo.

I don't like it... it's too loud!

...

*yawns* I do hope this game is not dead...

Sssssh...
We're lurking...

I'm sorry!  No, no, I'm not dead.  Um, the game, I mean, isn't dead.  Either of us, actually.  I do apologize; I have to admit that, given that my pacing is slow for real reasons, having put myself in the position of running essentially separate scenes for everyone probably wasn't the best plan... but it's the only thing that makes sense right now.

..But with that said, I have to confess that this last couple of weeks I have let a lot of my computer time be eaten up on the FASA game forum, where the people developing Earthdawn 4th Edition seem to be actually paying attention to what we're talking about.  Not necessarily making the right choices-- the same choices I would have made, but listening, and there's been some really neat discussion anyway just about the history of the system with a group of people who've been with it every bit as long as I have, or in a couple of cases, even longer.  (One of the original designers has chimed in here and there.  I think I have to allow that he might have a prior claim.)

Um, anyway - sorry.  Earthdawn is totally at the top of my personal list of geekdoms.  It's like taking out pictures of your kids and finding out that everybody else has pictures of the same kids and are really interested in all the cute anecdotes!  Only, um, that would be really really creepy, nevermind, bad metaphor... I'll get us some updates this week!

We're playing Earthdawn ?  I thought it was D&D ?  Admittedly with some rather weird and wonderful house rules thrown in for good measure ... <g,d,r>

Orcs ?  I attack !  Huzzah !! <thank you, Dork Tower>

glare

... realizes Peck waited exactly a week after I promised to have updates in a week

OK.  I deserved that.  I won't smite you this time...

I mean, you could totally make the case that "D&D with weird and wonderful house rules" is a totally fair description of Earthdawn, really.  A whole, whole lot of its original design premise was to make a world where some of D&D's sillier tropes weren't silly.  'Course, you could probably make that case for about 80% of all the other games that have come out since D&D...hehe...

Knights of the Dinner Table recently posted a copy of an old Shadis magazine interview with Gary Gygax where the master himself seemed to suggest that there was really not much new and everything was a variation of D&D ... except for Paranoia, but everyone dies anyway in that game.

Not sure I'd agree ... by that argument pretty much all fantasy is a variation on Tolkien.  Given the tropes of the genre, I think there's a lot of room for interpretation - you could say that anything is D&D at the core, but with modified character generation, progression skills, magic and combat rules,

Personally I don't think D&D 4th Ed is D&D ... so I think there's plenty of room for manoevere and Earthdawn stands on it's own.  I think the main difference is that the rule set directly reflects the campaign world (like the Midnight variation for D&D), which makes Homebrew a lot more difficult, but that's true of many game systems.

Life has been seriously, deeply crazy lately!!  I will really try to get updates done here soon, but if I don't... life is just really crazy right now.

Take your time, RL comes first.  Don't stress about something which is supposed to be fun for everybody (including you).

Really Crazy is indeed the correct definition of Real Life, to be sure.  We'll be here!

Don't know.
I think the world is about as crazy as it's always been...
Difference is just it's our turn this time around again.

Don't worry too much about it.
I think most of us here accepted it was a slow-moving game a long time ago. ^_^

I knew this was a slow game when I joined, and I don't have a problem with posts every few weeks, but it's been almost two months... It's hard for me to get back into the character after that amount of time... Is there anything we can do to help pick up the pace a little? I'm not talking a lot, once every couple weeks is a-okay as far as I'm concerned, but... I'm just having a hard time keeping my mind in this game...

I can help, GM.  I can kill your characters in my games, and that will leave you with more time for this one.  See?  I'm helpful.  So helpful you wouldn't believe it.

^{In reply to Yona Tosken (msg # 320):}

...yeeessss, that sounds... ...helpful indeed...


O_o

I'm wondering if all the GM's I have have gone on Summervacation...
On another note: I signed my Thesis Contract today!
Yay me! ^_^
This calls for girly cocktails with umbrellas and fruity colours!
But it does mean I am prevented from starting my own ED game until next year.

Congratulations, Ariadne.  ^_^

           ___,
          '._.'\
       _____/'-.\
      |    / |
      |~~~/~~|
      \ ()   /
       '.__.'
         ||
        _||_
   jgs `----`

Yes, congratulations!

You're right, Opluriko.  I'm sorry.  I need to find a balance between overwhelming myself with these individual tracks, and pushing things too fast.  The current kind of philosophical scenes feel important to me, but they take a lot of work!


Ooh, would you?  That would help a lot, I bet!  You remember who I play, right?  Aarnr Foultongue?  I can hardly wait! grin


Congratulations, Ariadne! But at the same time, Awww. pout  Hehe... Looking forward to it when you do!

Anora -- I thought that was a two-headed chicken at first.  And second.  And third.  On fourth glance, though, I worked it out.  Now I can't really see the chicken anymore.


...Sigh.  I miss that chicken.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:34, Wed 28 May 2014.

And now I can ONLY see the two-headed chicken.  And it keeps looking at me!  :(

Aw...  Here, have two chickens to make up for it.

 {"c   c"}
,(_). ,(_).
 -"-   -"-




Here you go, a blindfold.  For you or the chicken, you choose.  *gives blindfold*

Thank you.

I can do ASCII are too.

_______

See?  It's a stick!

Still looks like a chicken to me.  A chicken that's been flattened by a <the rest of this sentence has been removed to protect delicate sensibilities>

And you really want to be careful killing off Aarnr ... his restless ghost once loosed might roam who knows where, and take over the personality of one or more, indeed all players in a certain Earthdawn world.

"Horrors !  Hedge-pigs !  Charge !!" <very much toned down to protect sensibilities delicate or otherwise>

Is this a case of 'it takes one to know one'?  ^_^

Thank you everybody! ^_^

Both the Chicken and the Cocktail was delicious!

Alright.
I've been giving this a lot of thought and I have come to the conclusion that I cannot completely eradicate my procrastination and I need to nurse my ED-Addiction.

Hence I have concluded that if I can get one or two Co-GM's with adequate understanding of the ED universe (and Rpol) and interested players I will run a campaign.

Let me hear if there is any interest and what you would like me to include before I have locked myself too much on the setting. ^_^

I'll take that as "No interest" then :)

Ah, yeah, no.

As in, no, I'm in too many games already.  Thanks for the offer, though.

Same here, I'm afraid.

And this is my only try at Earth Dawn - I really don't know the system much at all...

For players, you should probably try dropping a note in one of Stormforged's games... I'm pretty sure the players in those would be interested in a new game. grin  You're also welcome to drop a mention in New Beginnings; it has some solid ED players, a few of whom actually weren't in SF's games.

Opluriko -- if you'd be interested, I'd be happy to help you work things out for someone else's game, too!

I am working on updates for us!  I am also trying to shape them to move things ahead a little bit and get back to a point where I can have you guys together, without just skipping right through everything.

Excellent!  Though I think it fair to point out that Yona won't be skipping anywhere.  A slow hobble is more her style.

That's OK.  `Hobbling' seems to be a better description for my pacing, anyway.

Um, but, post is up!  Tried out a bit of an experiment with nesting everybody's response in a "Secret" line, instead of posting separately for each person.  So, um, you know, hopefully I put everybody in right and you can all see them. grin  So... if you don't have an actual paragraph or two about your morning in the post, please let me know, because there is one!

Huh.  I didn't think the Schoolhouse had enough of a roof yet to sustain an echo...grin

You're right - I believe Yona is being tutored in the dangerous and unspeakable arts of Ventroliquism ...

No, I'm grinking a gottle of geer.

Gasp!  Vaudeville!  I'm not sure our game is Rated for that...

Welcome back, Shard!!

In reply to Vestrial (msg # 343):

Rating, this game has a rating?  :p

Is not that rating "awesome"?

<suck-up mode />

Ratting.  Something Dwarves do, apparently, though strictly in a culinary sense, if one T. Pratchett is to be believed.

I think I've misunderstood something here haha.

My ex once told me how him and his friends were interested in every girl in class when they were teenagers.
To avoid trouble him and his friends divided the girls in a pick and chose fashion
(I think they called it "Divide and conquer"). That was what I was trying to emulate.
But I admit I am on thin ice here.

That was ... very fair of them.

They took that from 'A Beautiful Mind' !  ;>

Going to be without computer access for the next few weeks.  In the interim assume Peck continues to worry about a) that dream and b) what exactly the Strangers are teaching them.  :>

Peck continues to worry that all his stuff has mysteriously not been sold to a band of passing vagabonds.  Right.  We can fix that for you.

In reply to Yona Tosken (msg # 350):

There goes my plan...
Thank you very much Yona...
The traveling circus even has a bear that can ride mono-cycles while wearing a top hat...

Guess it is back to the drawingboard for me then.

Have fun Peck! ^_^

I already checked.  The bear said Peck's clothes won't fit, plus it doesn't like the style.  And they smell funny.

If they smell funny, we might be better selling them to clowns.

I think I have a better idea then...
There's this traveling aquarium.
Yona. How long can your brother hold his breath?