Oswald (Oz) is a nobleman son, raised with all the traditional upbringings of a gentleman: riding, swordsmanship, table manners, etc. He took leave from the university to live out his own version of Homer's Odyssey in hopes that he can write about his adventures. To his family's disappointment, Oz has yet to return from his journeys and it’s been close to three years now.


Working Character Sheet

Oswald Crispton
Mantle

ASPECTS
High-Concept: Nomadic storyteller with a weakness for skirmishes
Trouble:      Terrible ideas make the best stories!
Personal:     UNDEFINED
Personal 2:   UNDEFINED
Personal 3:   UNDEFINED

SKILLS
02 *    Great(+4): Rapport, Blades
03 *     Good(+3): Will, Empathy, Knowledge
04 *     Fair(+2): Athletics, Contacts, Investigate, Notice
05 *  Average(+1): Ride, Physique, Lore, Shoot, Stealth
05 * Mediocre(+0):


Athletics, Blades, Burglary, Contacts, Crafts, Deceive, Empathy,
Fighting, Investigate, Knowledge, Lore, Notice, Physique, Provoke,
Rapport, Ride, Shoot, Stealth,  Will

Two Great, Three Good, Four Fair, Five Average.  Please do not delete the
Mediocre(+0) ranked skills.


STUNTS
Core mantle stunts are free. You may take one additional stunt (mantle or otherwise) for free.  Any further stunts cost 1 refresh.  Refresh starts at 3.  You may go down to zero refresh.

Stunt Name
Stunt Details

STRESS & CONSEQUENCES

Mental Stress (Will)       [_][_][_][_][_] // [_][_][_][_]
Physical Stress (Physique) [_][_][_][_][_] // [_][_][_][_]
Mana (Lore)                [_][_] // [_][_][_][_][_]
Consequences               [2][4][6]

Refresh 3/3.  Mental and Physical Stress tracks start at five-shifts.  Each slot negates one stress only).  Each rank in Physique and Will adds one shift to the length of the corresponding stress-track.

This message was last edited by the player at 14:04, Thu 22 Oct 2020.

So.. yeah. A poet. The idea for this is less Shakespeare and more bardic story teller; perhaps I should change that. Oswald’s doesn’t aim to hero each tail but to tell an engaging story. By night’s end, it is not uncommon for the whole tavern to be in hushed anticipation for the ending of his most recent fable.

To me, this type of ability seems best represented by Rapport. Any thoughts on that? Maybe a stunt to augment it? After reading craft, that doesn’t fit. I think Lore would be the next closest but it rally feels like rapport with permission being granted by a stunt or aspect to use it in this way.

I’ve glanced at the recap and the world info but now I’ll be digging into them more that I’m in the game. While I’m doing that, how do you all see this type of character working into the story? Is there an aspect (pun intended) of him that needs to be developed to fit him in more seamlessly.

I suppose he would need a reason to be working with/for the Veiled Hand.

Thoughts in this space or with anything else I mentioned?
This message was last edited by the player at 00:32, Fri 16 Oct 2020.

He needs a vector in to the Veiled Hand (and the Queen's confidence).  But he does not need to have been one of the attendants.  "The Veiled Hand" generally refers to the network of information passed between attendants and friendlies.

But this is a new thing.

There's a surly kind of Queen's Guard named Menkliia who is the Queen's left hand on this.   He's the highest up the chain that the PCs are aware of.   Your handler is Stefen, "the pock-marked man" (echoes of the Farseer Trilogy is on purpose)..

Druvir is a prosperous port city in a fairly prosperous nation.

I acknowledge that the very fact that it's a port city means there must be other lands, other peoples out there, which we haven't defined.  So, it could be a thing that Oswald is from outside Aroen (the known land).  Queen Jia appears to have a bit of a thing for collecting anomalies.  I mean, she's got a Khunic Oathsworn  among her court... (a dread figure from Khune, one of our current PCs).

So, to start off with, you'll want to decide what kind of land Oswald comes from.

• Kumlar, our default.  A Bard/Troubador. etc would surely have a place.    (A PC, Nathan, is Kumlaren).
• Khune, a Harsh land to the Southwest.   More Arabic and Middle Eastern in influence  (a PC, Cara Yisil, the Oathsworn, is Khundari)
• The Plains of Taren.  Think North American Indian plains culture... (a PC, Arui, is Tarenti )
• Khadid, Once a proud nation, the land itself was torn asunder by the great magical working called the forbidding, which ended the Great War.   The land exists, but it is corrupted and rife with twisted monsters and other oddities...  But man is a hearty creature and there are scattered villages all throughout Khadid, still.
  
  Several generations after the Great War, the Khadiden are multi-generational refugees largely integrated into their respective societies.  But, it's sort of like the Medieval Jew in that tehy're a part of, yet curiosly distinct from their socieities, and probably often persecuted (or depending on how different they are, perhaps fetishized)...  At the moment, no current PC is Khadiden.
• The Cyrenni, Fisherman and pirates.  The original inhabitants of Sachs Isl and the other Eastern Islands.  They're not really defined beyond "fishermen and pirates, and the fact that Cyren is the second largest population center in Kumlar, and essentially the gatewway to the rest of the world.  I'd probably rip stuff off from Freeport for that one.  It's a blank whiteboard for you, if you want this...

Now, as to Skills...  I see Lore and Rapport being predominant.

Lore
For being literate, learning your stories and songs, understanding the context of said stories.

Rapport
For making people like you.  This is the performance skill, definitely.


Are you a all Familiar with the Lynn Flewelling's trilogY "The Nightrunner" series?  It starts with "Luck in the Shadows".  MY roommate and I refer to it as "the Gay Elf books" (because the main character eventually discovers that he's both, though not at the same time).   One of the central characters (the main/characters mentor/lover is first seen as a a troubadour/bard type.  And it's absolutely <U>perfect</I> for explaining why someone  might criss-cross the nation, know all sorts of people, all sorts of things and be remarkably well-informed about the state of affairs all over.

This is just what I was sort of envisioning when you pitched the concept.

With that in mind, it makes the character less about the performance (oh, the rapport should be up there), and way more about the background... A bard absolutely must be talking to people, learning things...  asking questions and possibly ruffling feathers in the process.  That's how they get their stories!.  And boy does that fit the into this game-concept really really well...

Above I’ve started a working character sheet. I’ll make updates there until I have a final, unless you prefer a new post for each update (happy to do either). I have a few aspect ideas but need a bit more information to flesh things out more.

I’m tempted to go Kumlar to keep it simple, but a Khadid gipsy vibe is kind of calling my name. Do the Khadid have nobles? does the leaving university idea fit in with them?

I haven’t read nightrunner, but I like the idea of giving contacts a +2 at minimum due to Oz traveling around so much.

You have knowledge and lore as available skills, what is the distinction between them and do you view lore as something Oz would have gained during his formal education?

Combat has blades, fighting, shoot.  Is fighting fists and non-bladed weapons, or is blades an umbrella for close combat weapons? Also, are black powder weapons a thing, or just bows and crossbows?

And the whole mantel thing:  I found a blurb speaking to them as a role sort of thing, but I couldn’t find a “this is how you make one” type of post. There was even an example of a troubadour! :) From the mechanics perspective, only having one free stunt outside a mantle makes me want to take a mantel for the extra “free” stunts, but what does a mantle give me that I can’t portray with my 5 aspects and the usual 3 free stunts? I hope I don’t sound like I’m being critical, I’m honestly not, just trying to figure out the difference and how it can apply to Oz.

If you're seen Castle with Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic, then the Investigator-Bard relationship with my Nathan might be an in

In reply to Nathan (msg # 5):

I haven't seen that.  Tell me what you're thinking, it sounds interesting.

In the tv show, Fillion is an author tagging along with Katie, a homicide detective, whilst he polished up procedural for his latest murder mystery. Along the way he helps solve some of them

Was wondering if his noble name might have meant someone in the Blue Cloaks (the city guard analogue) would have passed him off to me?

Khadid really hasn't been fleshed out, so it's wide open.   While there might have been nobles, the utter decimation of the nation's capital and it's following inability to defend itself meant that the nation is simply no more.

Those who claimed Khadiden nobility might well have been such.  They might've been able to escape as refugees, while the remaining Mondain, the forces back broken, pillaged and ransacked every settlement they could find on their wayback to the Mondat mountains.  Some, perhaps, never left Khadid, and they are the progenitor source of several of the twisted monstrosities that exist there.

I like to envision Khadid as having the precursor to a formal university...  Which the College of Mages in Kumlar have picked up and run with.  The fractious nature of the houses in Khune probably means it hasn't quite gotten the same traction there.

So...  A troubadour descended from a noble Khadiden house would be do-able.  As a noble, he'd be acceped in Kumlaren court, btu there'd always be that little "lesser than" feeling because he's not Kumlaren...



You have knowledge and lore as available skills, what is the distinction between them and do you view lore as something Oz would have gained during his formal education?

Right, I gotta remember what game I'm in.  This one has the little bit more detailed magic system.

Knowledge is General Knowledge (Fate Core: Lore).

Lore is very specifically mystical and magical knowledge, the awareness of spirituality, cosmology, mana and the flow of magic.  Lore is an anchor stat for creating a mana pool IF you are a fast-caster.  The Mana-Pool is a magical stress-track that will eb eaten up before you need to consider eating up your Mental and/or physical stress-tracks.




Combat has blades, fighting, shoot.  Is fighting fists and non-bladed weapons, or is blades an umbrella for close combat weapons? Also, are black powder weapons a thing, or just bows and crossbows?

Pre-black-powder, please.   Alchemy is definitely a thing, and explosive properties are being explored, but they are not yet introduced in such a capacity as to be familiar or frequently encountered.

Originally it was Fight (unarmed), Blades (any hand-held melee weapon), and Shoot (any projectile weapon).  It still is.  We had a discussion in which I offered to revise the skill set because the unarmed fighting just never came up...  We chose not to retcon the skill-system in that regard.




And the whole mantel thing:  I found a blurb speaking to them as a role sort of thing, but I couldn’t find a “this is how you make one” type of post. There was even an example of a troubadour! :) From the mechanics perspective, only having one free stunt outside a mantle makes me want to take a mantel for the extra “free” stunts, but what does a mantle give me that I can’t portray with my 5 aspects and the usual 3 free stunts? I hope I don’t sound like I’m being critical, I’m honestly not, just trying to figure out the difference and how it can apply to Oz.

You can be critical if you want to.  It's far too late for us to nerf it now.


As to balance...  I'm willing to allow another stunt for free if you choose not go with a mantle.  But, really I'm most certainly not overly concerned with instituting mechanically Balanced character creation.  Meaning, I'm not going to worry about  making sure that Mike is just as powerful as Tom, because Tom has one or two more stunts at his finger-tips.   Sorry.  That's a discussion we've had already, I believe.


How to build a mantle
At it's heart a mantle is a container for unique but consistent consequences, unique s stress-tracks, and stunts all thematicaly associated.


The easiest example I can think of is the Vampire.

A vampire is assumed to fund it's unique powers (the stunts) by the blood it consumes.  An Aspect alone doesn't tell us what kind of limits that as, nor how much of this limited resource is available to him before he can't turn into a bat anymore...  Providing a unique stress-track, called a "Blood Pool" condition allows us to do that.

So, he requires the Aspect defining him as a vampire, and that gets him the blood-pool.  When not empty, he can then mark off a box or two of this unique stress-track to fund his vampire stunts.

There's a trade-off, of course...  If he's exposed to sunlight, he gets the Consequence (also a condition) Sunburnt.  And when he's sunburnt, he cannot access any of his stunts until he's healed up...

So, that's modeled as so:

MANTLE: Vampire
Requires: An Aspect indicating he's a vampire
Allows access to the following Conditions:
Sunburnt [_] (unmarked until exposed to sunlight)
Blood-Pool [_][_][_][_][_]  - Mark a box to fund the relevant stunts (if so defined in said stunts).  Some stunts may not need to pull from the blood pool.

Now... why take it?

Maybe you need it, maybe not.  I'm not pushing for either way.

Cara, our resident Oathsworn has a unique Mantle wherein she feeds from the blood of her... benefactors?  donators?  and can evocation in their domain of expertise, btu she's limited to only the length of her mana-pool...  Once it's used up, she can't cast any more until she's fed again and replenished the pool.  Kinda just like the vampire example above.  There's more nuance to it, but that's the fundamentals.

I like Mantles.  I feel that it allows for a mechanically unique character with very specific concerns.  But I also recognize that sometimes the subsystem is overkill.

After each chapter, we will have a little OOC discussion where I ask about what worked and what didn't, and will adjust rules and other stuff as appropriate.
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:14, Sun 18 Oct 2020.

Dependents.

If you've read The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard you'll figure out what I'm shamelessly ripping off immediately.

Awesome.

Mantles!  So it looks like you're another player who doesn't want to play a wizard or sorcerer?  DnD Bards have magic, do you want to be an Evoker at all?  Or not be an Evoker but have music based Bard Magic or some such thing?  Like, Evocation is Battle Magic.  But if you want to be able to cast none battle magic (think illusions or enchantments) with Evocation's speed, we can build a Mantle that does that.

High-Concept: Poet with a wordy longsword
Trouble:  Starving artist sounds better than fat noble

So, there are a few immediate directions that spring to mind.

• Being some sort of highly social character who can call in Favors as their resource bar/stress track?
• Having a magic talking sword with Swordlore or something else thematically appropriate as its resource bar/stress track?
• Actually being a Noble with Wealth as its resource bar/stress track?
• Straight up DnD Bard with a couple of Enchantment and Illusion effects, and something like Spellsong as your resource bar/stress track?

If you hate all of those ideas, I can keep spit balling ideas
This message was last edited by the player at 02:11, Sun 18 Oct 2020.

The first parallels a little of what I"m feeling with Angharad, albeit she's doing it with spirits.  That's got a nice symmetry to it.

The second touches on something I'd wanted to explore in the Fate system, but didn't (because we already had a jumble of new rules)...  and that's the idea of treating some very special unique weapons as an artifact similar to those found in Earthdawn.

By doing research and satisfying some unknown conditions, you can essentially "unlock" the awareness of various Aspects of the Artifact.

My original thought with the wordy long sword was two fold. Wordy because he’s a poet but know how to use his sword as his words at time. But my second idea was maybe there are some ruins carved into the blade that do something neat.

I’m not really interested in getting into magic myself. Maybe the Ruin Sword could have some anti magic properties, like a counter spell.

We could combine the mantle and artifact idea?

Rather that diving into the possibility of a mantle, Let's round out the basic character first.  A Mantle might not be necessary for what you want to achieve.  Cara, for  all her desire to help, loves creating mantles.  I prefer to do one step at a time to prevent unnecessary work.

As it stands right now, I see two Aspects:

Poet with a wordy longsword
"Wordy longsword" put me in a frame of mind to expect it to speak (at least to him)... and all the damned time!.   Possibly not what you were going for.  I don't think it's an effective juxtaposition of the two elements: poet and swordsman.

I think I want to flesh out the back-story and driving motivations a little bit more before we revisit the High-Concept.

I want to know what this character wants, what he's seeking, perhaps what his fundamental wound is.    Not that Poet with a Wordy Longsword isn't intriguing...  I just want more context.


You gave this as a concept background:
Oswald (Oz) is a nobleman son, raised with all the traditional upbringings of a gentleman: riding, swordsmanship, table manners, etc. He took leave from university to live out his own version of the Homer's Odyssey in hopes that he can write about his adventures. To his families disappointment, Oz has yet to return from his journeys and it’s been close to three years now.


At the end of the day, the nations of Aroen are mostly a feudal society.  Is he the first-born, set to inherit the family's wealth and holdings?

You say "to his family's disappointment..."  which suggests that there is living family who has perhaps coddled him a little and let him have his way despite their misgivings...   Is this the seed of the tension in this character?



Starving artist sounds better than fat noble
So...  He's turning his back on the nobility, on his name?  Is there a story here?  What kinds of trouble do you want to see emerge from this?

He's now in the Kumlaren capital city, Druvir and about to get mixed up in a clandestine operation tied directly to the Queen of Kumlar, herself.     Why get involved?


Any thoughts on other Aspects?

Bearing a blade weighed with promises?

Control has (correctly) needed to restrain my creative impulses in this regard on several occasions.

It's what I love so much about Fate Accelerated.  Your Aspects, Mantle, and Stunt use mechanics to control narrative.  How many times have you, for instance, made a super scary Nosferatu character.  The sort where you really pour your heart and soul into the writing to convey just how repulsive they are... only to have all the other players ignore it because they are too busy playing their bad ass warrior vampires?  They are thinking about how cool their Vampire is, not how scary yours is.  Fate Accelerated gives you three tools to add mechanics to your flavor!

Take Cara.

High-Concept:  Devourer of Mantles.

Here is the first paragraph of her character info.



I wanted Oathsworn to be scary!  But why would another player who is playing their bad-ass warrior knight care?  I need mechanics that they need to interact with, that create the role play effects I want.  So how do I do that?

I pick Aspects, a Mantle, and Stunts that give me all sorts of tricks centered around the Provoke skill.  I literally have mechanics that support the story of my character.

So you're on Aspects, the first step.  What do you want to be?  How do you want to be seen?  How do you want others to react to you?  That helps shape your Aspects.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:11, Sun 18 Oct 2020.

I did a little writing this morning for my aspects, and they've evolved a bit through our discussions. Please let me know what you think. I've finished selecting skills and have updated these aspects on my top post.

# High Concept
**Nomadic storyteller with a weakness for skirmishes**

## HC Background
Leaving the life of a nobleman's son behind, Oz seeks to find his own place in this world. Always fond of literature and contests of valor, he's made a living for himself traveling from town to town, captivating taverns and amphitheaters with epics of his heroic adventures. Not one for common brawls (unless it can make a great story!), he seeks for story fodder through courageous acts and honorable deeds.


# Trouble
**Terrible ideas make the best stories!**

## T Background
Oswald's desire to tell amazing epics often overrides all other rational thought. Putting himself into disadvantaged positions to tell more intriguing stories are a means to justify any end.

# Personal Aspect 1
Nationalism related. Still need to figure out where he's from.

# Personal Aspect 2
Veiled Hand connection.@Nathan, you mentioned perhaps crossing over characters' paths to give me a connection to the Hand.  Is that something you're still interested in?

# Personal Aspect 3
Perhaps something about his sword or some other piece of gear he's acquired on an adventure.

Happy for the connection if its interesting for Oswald as a character :)

In reply to Nathan (msg # 18):

Super cool.

I glanced around for a good spot with a lot of info about your character but couldn't find it. So I'm gonna start you with a writing prompt then your response can serve as my writing prompt.  If you want to go about this another way happy to try it out, this seems the most PBP friendly.

Tell me about a time you were on a mission for the Hand, where did you see Oz telling one of his stories, and how did it get complicated?

Although, not as a member of the Veiled Han... as it hadn't been formed as an active cell prior to this game...

Nathan;  If you like, I can share the Google Drive link.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:52, Thu 22 Oct 2020.

In reply to Control (msg # 20):

Happy to

Will respond to the prompt later today

Okay.

For reasons of my impatience, I once thought we'd lost Nathan.  So, I removed his character-creation thread.  But not before backing it up.   That back-up is at:
https://drive.google.com/file/...eV5/view?usp=sharing

You're welcome to peruse if you should so see fit.

Nathan's an Investigative-Enforcer, so here he is, investigating one of the fancy gambling halls, only tonight there's a rough crew been drawn in by the opportunity for fleecing some of the better off. He has backup ready to come in, raid the joint, and there's Oswald, who has both the villains and a handful of naive dilettantes enthralled with the same risque story...

Details deliberately left vague, though there is probably a reason that he would be there that needed a heavy-hitter

By the way, I love this kind of collaborative development!

Oh yes, I remember now. It's not uncommon for me to spend a fortnight or two at a time on the payroll of taverns and gambling halls. Free room, board, and a little extra coin for my travels is always a plus.

That particular night was aboard The Private Helm, the most upscale gambling galley of the seven seas!! Security nearly doubled when the Queen's nephew Aldridge purchased a ticket to come try his luck. I believe that's what led you to the Helm.

I was sea sick for the first three days on board. Nasty business not knowing when my stomach would give me permission to eat again. Though the gods saw me through it.

We picked up a fresh group of loaded suckers-- err...I mean--noble guests at our second port stop. There was something off about a few of them: less concerned with having fun and more concerned about everyone else. Aldridge also boarded with that group.

I usually don't begin telling my tales until later in the evening, but the house had a bit more luck sooner than it should have and people needed a distraction. Halfway through my second ballad is when I believe you noticed one of our new guests emptying the counting room key from one of the coin attendant's pockets.

I'm a little fuzzy on what you did when you saw that. Care to elaborate?

Ack.  I went to look for responses to my post and see it didn't post.  I'm sorry.  I must have closed the browser without posting...  Here's a second go-round...

Nomadic storyteller with a weakness for skirmishes
So he likes to fight, eh?  Why?

This suggests he's an entertainer who fights.  And certainly he should be able to hold his own.  But... is "a weakness for skirmishes" really such a fundamental part of who he is, that it's part of his high-concept and not, say, his Trouble Aspect?   I'm neither here nor there about it, I just wanna get a feel for why this combination of words.

he seeks for story fodder through courageous acts and honorable deeds.
I'm fascinated that this is all rather narcissistic of him.  He seeks adventure so he can tell the tales of his own adventures.  Not those he's witnessed, nor those with whom he fought.

I can't help but wonder if this focus on self might be the better Trouble Aspect.

Off-hand, I can't help but notice that there is nothing in this that speaks to his "noble blood" (thus social standing, education,, etc).

As a side note, I also wonder if he has some sort of romantic notion of "knightly-virtues"?   Or is he actually working at "creating" the idea of courtly love in this setting?



Terrible Ideas Make the Best Stories!
It's not bad.  It's just... not terribly exciting.   I'd really like this to be something that's a fundamental conflict for him.  I personally love Trouble Aspects that are reflections of the character, drawing on a personal "defect" of some sort...  Something that tells me more about who he is.

You can really get an idea about some of the ones I've used in the past:

• Towering Rage; Hair-Pin Trigger
• Five--Count Them--Ex-Wives
• I'm Not Scatter-Brained;  I Just Have Trouble--Oh, Shiny!
• Can't Hold My Own Tongue

You certainly don't need to go with an internal defect approach.  But I think we can probably twist Terrible Ideas Make the Best Stories! into something more powerful, more... suggestive?  How do any of these strike you as jumping off points?

• Might Not Be The Tactician I Think I Am
• But I Am the Hero of the Story!  Me!
• Attention-Whore
• Can't Leave Well-Enough Alone
• 'Cause Embellishment Improves Everything
• Just Can't Hold My Own Tongue

Perhaps something about his sword or some other piece of gear he's acquired on an adventure.
I'm certainly okay with special equipment...   Some very special artifacts (not just weapons) have one to three Aspects associated with them.  If your character can do the research to uncover these Aspects, they can then invoke those Aspects on their own behalf...  It's a twist on Earthdawn's artifacts approach.   If it's particularly complex or symbiotic or something, we may look at working that into a mantle...
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:31, Wed 28 Oct 2020.

You might not have believed the sudden clumsiness that afflicted Nathan at this juncture, his claret spilling over the key-lifter and his stumbling fall knocking a tray of flagons over the Queen's nephew. Chaos, curses, apologies and camaraderie ensued - enough to steal the tempo of the "heist" and the key-lifter's key to vanish

Okay.

Okay... I'm really wanting to start moving on this.

Can you please update your RPOL character sheet.

I'd really like to get the skills in place before we get too deep into the mantle.  It can all be revised, but let's set the groundwork first please.   A basic character first, before we start working on the add-ons.

I have most of it done in my first post.  I'll tweak my aspects a bit based on your feedback and pick a stunt. I'll transfer it all to the character details proper.

Interesting, thinking about Mantles a bit.

What differentiates Oswald from everyone else?  What makes him exceptional?  What can he do that no one else can?m Storyteller who bites off more than he can chew?  Bit of a Swashbuckler but with a bit of a reputation?  So off the top of my head I'm seeing a guy who can perform extraordinary stunts of swashbuckling, and get people to do him favors, but who leaves a trail of enemies in his wake.

How the hell would we do a Mantle for that?

Easy

---

Unique Conditions:
Hot On Your Trail (Sticky):  [ ]
When this condition is marked, your existence and location are revealed to an old foe. This condition lasts until the thing or things pursuing you catches up and you confront them. Either paying off an old debt or convincing them you’re not worth the trouble.

Daring-Do (Sticky): [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
Mark one of this condition’s five boxes to use the plucky grit granted to you by your mantle, as described in your stunts.  Recover this condition by laying low (one box per session), or clear it completely by marking Hot On Your Trail.

---

Then you pick a couple of stunts related to swashbuckling, acrobatics, story telling, musical performances, and bam!

Got yourself a Mantle.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:36, Thu 05 Nov 2020.

By "weakness for skirmishes," I was trying to speak to a couple of different things. First, fighting is a core concept for Oz, but I think it's more than that; honestly, he's more of a grand adventurer. He doesn't mind getting messy when he knows that a good story will be added to his repertoire at the end of it (more on this in a bit). Secondly, to speak to the types of stories he likes to tell.  His tales of grand adventure and battle. As I write through this, I think his HC needs to capture more experience rather than fighting.


I agree this is coming off as a bit narcissistic, but that wasn't my intention.  Oz narrates other people's stories as well, but he likes to seek out adventure to give him new tales to tell. I need to incorporate his culture and nobility into the HC as well.



If it's all the same to you, I think I'll opt to keep this one as-is for now.  Are you okay with letting it evolve a bit during play?

I wanted to close this out, so I brought the story elements together and named a couple of aspects at the end.

#Nathan
Nathan's an Investigative-Enforcer, so here he is, investigating one of the fancy gambling halls, only tonight there's a rough crew been drawn in by the opportunity for fleecing some of the better off. He has backup ready to come in, raid the joint, and there's Oswald, who has both the villains and a handful of naive dilettantes enthralled with the same risque story...

Details were deliberately left vague, though there is probably a reason he would be there that needed a heavy-hitter.

# Oz
Oh, yes, I remember now. It's not uncommon for me to spend a fortnight or two at a time on the payroll of taverns and gambling halls. Free room, board, and a little extra coin for my travels are always a plus.

That particular night was aboard The Private Helm, the most upscale gambling galley of the seven seas!! Security nearly doubled when the Queen's nephew Aldridge purchased a ticket to come to try his luck. I believe that's what led you to the Helm.

I was seasick for the first three days on board. Nasty business not knowing when my stomach would give me permission to eat again. Though the gods saw me through it.

We picked up a new group of loaded suckers-- err...I mean--noble guests at our second port stop. There was something off about a few of them: less concerned with having fun and more concerned about everyone else. Aldridge also boarded with that group.

I usually don't begin telling my tales until later in the evening, but the house had a bit more luck sooner than it should have, and people needed a distraction. Halfway through my second ballad is when I believe you noticed one of our new guests emptying the counting room key from one of the coin attendants' pockets.

I'm a little fuzzy on what you did when you saw that. Care to elaborate?

#Nathan
You might not have believed the sudden clumsiness that afflicted Nathan at this juncture, his claret spilling over the key-lifter and his stumbling fall knocking a tray of flagons over the Queen's nephew. Chaos, curses, apologies, and camaraderie ensued - enough to steal the tempo of the "heist" and the key-lifter's key to vanish.

#Oz (new material)
While Nathan was able to discretely and gracefully foil the attempted theft, Aldridge was still a big target. Finishing his time upfront with a story about a  sea captain pressing his luck and being greatly rewarded, Oz stepped down for some ale. Nathan, worried about the Queen's nephew, recruited the storyteller to keep an extra eye on the thrice removed prince. We don't have time to finish this tale now; suffice it to say, Aldridge is deeply indebted to Nathan and Oz. On this trip, Nathan learned about Oz and became willing to vouch for him for our current adventure.

A couple of aspects I've drawn from this story are:

Well known by many taverns.

The Queen's nephew owes me his life!

I'm good to move forard with what we've got.

While I can gladly discuss/argue Aspects til the cows come home, in the end, it's only in play that we see which ones carry weight.

I'm not keen on Terrible Ideas Make the Best Stories!.

Implicit in this Aspect is the idea that he chooses to run with ideas even knowing they're terrible.   But, you know, I can live with it.  Or rather, Oswald can live with it.

I've started plying Dragon Age: Inquisition and the character Varric puts me in mind of Oswald.   hich is to say, creative, industrious, a charmer, very capable (the guy named his crossbow "Bianca")...   And I'm re-reading Luck in the Shadows, (which I may've mentioned before) which features Seregil, who takes on the role of a bard (and very very well)...  So, I'm keen to get Oswald up and going.

In fact, we've done enough that if you wanted to start posting in-character, The Briney Goose thread is up and ready for you.

In reply to Control (msg # 34):

I'll think through this some and try to tweak it a bit.  I do think what you're saying is valid.  It's not doing exactly what I want it to be doing as I think about it more.

Late one night after leaving the university library, Oz stumbled across a man lying in the street next to a five-story building, bleeding from what seemed like hundreds of micro lacerations. The man could hardly move, much less speak as labored to breathe. It was then that Oswald noticed the crushed crate underneath the man, the torn canopy over a window, and three pairs of eyes peering over the ledge of the roof. They locked eyes with the Troubadour.

A weak voice interrupted, "Take the sword..." said the stranger before he coughed up some blood and weakly pointing across the cobbled street halfway in a covered ditch. "Its name is 'Mage Slayer.' Don't let them have it." said the man, taking his last breath. Oz crossed the street and picked up the blade; runes glowed blue along the steel's flat sides. The weapon was well balanced and seemed lighter than one would think. The hilt ended with a deep blue orb a quarter size of a man's fist.

"Hand it over!" said a gruff voice, but without waiting for a response, the taller of the three from above evoked a bolt of lightning toward the storyteller. Instinctively Oz held up his arms to brace for an impact that never came. He felt  Mage Slayer become heavier in his hand and opened his eyes in time to see the last of the bolt be absorbed by the now burning blue runes; the orb in the hilt now also shown with a light that was not there before. The battle had just begun...

This is my idea for a unique piece of gear, and maybe it will work as a mantle if I'm thinking about that correctly. A sword that can absorb magic attacks and then unleash them back. Mechanically speaking, I'll need to defend, maybe even with style, against a spell and then have some sort of stress track to see how many "charges" the sword has.

The aspect would be something like:
Wielder of Mage Slayer
This message was last edited by the player at 14:03, Fri 06 Nov 2020.

An anti-Evoker Sword could definitely be a Mantle.

---

Unique Conditions:
On a Mission (sticky)[ ] Each artifact has a specific purpose or mission. Mark this condition when you are suddenly called on to fulfill your artifact’s purpose. Add a new approach at Great (+4), appropriate to your item’s properties.

Crisis of X (sticky) [ ] There are certain rules for every powerful artifact. Mark this condition if you significantly violate the tenets or misuse the power granted to you. While this condition is marked, the approach and all stunts of this mantle are unavailable. Recover this condition after performing appropriate penance, per the GM.

---

Use a Mana bar to represent its charges, and then a handful of stunts of cool shit it lets you do, with the idea that you can unlock more later if you so choose.

Reflecting a spell for sure could be one of them.

Thoughts?

Does that make any sense?

Does it feel way off, or kind of where you wanted to go?

In reply to Cara (msg # 38):

I think it's definitely the direction I want to go. Just need to flesh it out.

Any ideas on themes you'd want to expand on?  Aesthetics?

In reply to Cara (msg # 40):

Should the sticky be: you have a spell currently absorbed? Like there’s gas in the tank?  Or am I think about it incorrectly?

I was thinking about filling the mana bar by absorbing spells. So that would make the negative sticky be true when it’s empty?


Would that be how it works?

Oooh, interesting.

So it isn't really a magic sword unless it's absorbed a spell!  Yeah that totally works.  So here is just a rough draft, feel free to change anything or everything.

Unique Conditions:
Spellpool: (sticky)[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]  Unmark one box of your Spellpool whenever you use the well of power granted to you by Spelldrinker, as described in your stunts.  In addition, you can also Unmark one box of your Spellpool to take a +2 to any one action.  The roll for Spelldrinker cannot be enhanced with Spellpool.

Crisis of X: (sticky) [ ] There are certain rules for every powerful artifact. Mark this condition if you significantly violate the tenets or misuse the power granted to you. While this condition is marked, the approach and all stunts of this mantle are unavailable. Recover this condition after performing appropriate penance, per the GM.

Unique Stunts:

Spelldrinker: When you are the target of an Evocation or Ritual, you can attempt to absorb it into Sword Name.  Roll Blades as a Block Action against the Approach.  If you win, the spell is negated, and you mark down points of Mana on your Spellpool equal to the difference between rolls. On a tie, the spell is still negated, but you do not recieve any mana in your Spellpool.

---

So let's say Pierre the Pyro shoots a beam of fire at you and Rolls Shoot +3, and you roll to defend with Blades +5, you would get 2 points of Mana in your Spellpool.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:02, Mon 16 Nov 2020.

Oh, that's neat!

Oh, and by the way, you're welcome to post in the  02.02: Aboard the Hundari Kornmara thread.

In reply to Cara (msg # 42):

this is perfect!! thank you! Exactly what I imagined.

Awesome, do you need help with stunts?

Want to get you ready to play in the main thread.

I'll dedicate some time to them either today or tomorrow morning.  Between moving and the holidays, this has been a busy couple of weeks.  I have an idea for the main thread, have outlined some notes, and need to get some keyboard time.