Thanks for the welcome DM Storm!

I'm 30 years old, unmarried (still looking for the right girl) and from Dublin, Ireland. I do some TV acting (mostly as an extra I admit) and am hoping to break into a writing career. My biggest passion is probably the cinema - I'm huge movie buff.

Looking forward to gaming with everyone!

I'm 41 years old and living with my partner and 2 boys, aged 4 and 6. I earn my living as a Contract Manager for a company involved in the erection of offshore wind farms in the shallow waters around northern and western Europe. I'm Scottish, but my partner is Danish so we moved to Denmark two years ago.

There is quite an active gaming community here in Denmark, but most of it is centred around Aarhus and Copenhagen. Those cities are a 2 and a 4 hour drive respectively from where I live, so I don't get to play around the table top very often. RPoL is a great substitute for that and a place for me to indulge my creative whimsy. I run a couple or three games here on RPoL and play in a few others. I also play on the virtual table top using Fantasy Grounds II.

Outside of family, work and RPGing, I'm also into astronomy and astrophotography, digital art and music (piano, guitar, mandolin, cello, mouth organ and jews harp).

I look forward to this game and gaming with you all.

In reply to Saliq Musfara (msg #2):

I wouldn't see you in Mrs. Brown's Boys would I? That's one hilarious piece of work.

Heh, no - at least not yet. :D Most of the stuff I've done doesn't get shown abroad (like Fair City - the Irish answer to Coronation Street or Eastenders) but I've been in The Tudors, Camelot and Titanic: Blood & Steel.

Rolled my stats: 10, 14, 14, 14, 17, 18

Wow that's uh... pretty flukey. At least I definitely meet the requirements for an Illusionist.

I thought I should jump in while the dice roller was hot:

16:50, Today: Ben Scristos rolled 17 using 4d6, dropping the lowest dice only.
16:50, Today: Ben Scristos rolled 11 using 4d6, dropping the lowest dice only.
16:50, Today: Ben Scristos rolled 14 using 4d6, dropping the lowest dice only.
16:50, Today: Ben Scristos rolled 12 using 4d6, dropping the lowest dice only.
16:50, Today: Ben Scristos rolled 10 using 4d6, dropping the lowest dice only.
16:50, Today: Ben Scristos rolled 14 using 4d6, dropping the lowest dice only.

Not bad, I suppose :)

Talk about some loaded dice!

***

I am still going to add a few more players but you guys are free to create your characters and what not. It's a pretty straightforward process that is described in the Character Creation thread.

There's only a few things that are different:

1. The skills and special traits section
2. Charisma will be used as a resource in this game to turn the tide in your favor. Charisma generates "Hero Points". You don't need to worry about this too much, other than to know that it will beneficial and is not necessarily a dump stat.
3. All spellcasters receive bonus spells as per the Cleric's Wis modifier. So, Wizard/Illusionist use INT to determine bonus spells and Druids use WIS.
4. On spells...I won't require casters to memorize spells. They can cast any spell from their spellbook as long as they have spell slots left to cast. Never cared for memorization rules.

I am probably forgetting a few things, but that will get you started.

Cheers!

~Storm

Character creation is underway. Here is my character description for your edification:

What you smell before you is one Benjamin Hyjackulus Scristos, although you can call him Ben. If you take bigger sniffs the smell goes away faster and the tears in your eyes might dry away just enough to allow you to see Ben in more detail.

Standing before you is a small man disguised as a garbage heap. He is unshaven and (quite clearly) unwashed. You may note with interest the myriad straps hanging around his shoulders, each one attaching to his wiry frame some kind of pouch, flask, trinket or jee-jaw. It is quite plain that this man is a hoarder of the highest pedigree. You wonder if, perhaps somewhere about his person, he might have concealed a bar of soap.

But, alas, no. It would seem that young Ben here prides himself on the offence he causes to your olfactory organs. Don't get too close now.

I just wanted to say hello to everyone and tell you a little bit about myself.  I am a 36 year old fella living in Portland, Oregon.  I have lovely wife who makes her living working various temp jobs and selling collage greeting cards.  I also have two adorable cats that were adopted from the local shelter.  They spend most of their time sleeping; when they're not sleeping, they tend to sleep.

I have been into into the hobby, on and off, for as long as I can remember.  Aside from rpgs, my interests include jazz guitar and writing.  I am currently working on a sandbox setting that I plan to use in an upcoming Wayfarers game that I plan to run.  The only thing I have so far is that the name of the city is Penumbra.

I look forward to playing with all of you.  While I am not particularly partisan about the various incarnations of D&D, 1st edition will always be my favorite.

Some of you may have noticed that I rolled up a character with exceptionally powerful stats.  I thought I was in heaven until I realized that the lowest die had not been dropped :{
This message was last edited by the player at 20:29, Mon 30 Jan 2012.

Hey guys, another new guy here.  I'm 37 and also in the US Air Force.  I am married, but still no kids yet.  I'm currently deployed with the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO for those interested) so this is really the only gaming opportunity I have right now.

I started gaming with the old red box D&D Basic set (the one that came pre-three ring binder punched) worked my way up through the Companion rules before jumping over to AD&D (1st edition).  I've played every edition of D&D and whole slew of other games as well, and I'm really looking forward to this.

I will be playing the stereotypical elven fighter/mage.

Hey Sularius and Ravick, glad to meet you.

DM how do you want us to handle the Skills section? Just say general traits like "Saliq is a gifted horseman"?

Yep. That's it.

Cool, thanks.

As for languages known I'm guessing Saliq speaks Common and the language of The Empires of the Shifting Sands (unless they are the same!)

Okay, the current party consists of:

Hestilan - Human Magic-User
Ben - Human Thief
Ravick - Elf Thief
Saliq - Human Illusionist
Sularius - Elf Fighter/Magic-User

There's six other RTJ's in my inbox, most of which are really good character pitches. I need to make sure I get right cast though, so I am being careful about the final selections.

On a side note, I received 4 "thief" submissions, all of which were good. I think 2 thieves is more than enough for one group though.

The party needs some muscle and a cleric.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:36, Tue 31 Jan 2012.

In reply to DM Storm (msg #15):

Here are my roles.  It took me awhile to figure out the keep the highest / lowest jazz.

18:16, Today: Ravick rolled 15 using 4d6, keeping the 3 highest rolls.
18:16, Today: Ravick rolled 13 using 4d6, keeping the 3 highest rolls.
18:16, Today: Ravick rolled 8 using 4d6, keeping the 3 highest rolls.
18:16, Today: Ravick rolled 11 using 4d6, keeping the 3 highest rolls.
18:16, Today: Ravick rolled 14 using 4d6, keeping the 3 highest rolls.
18:16, Today: Ravick rolled 12 using 4d6, keeping the 3 highest rolls.

Ravick: Glad to see you figured out that dice roller.

Dice roller has been very kind to all of you!

Wow, I just brought down the dice roller average a bit...

13:03, Today: Sularius Alariel rolled 5 using 3d6+2. Gold.

That's right, 3 1s, the absolute least amount of money possible.  Oh well, looks like I know why I'm adventuring...

Lean and hungry...lean and hungry.

***

Looks like 3 of you have finished your characters and two are still in the process of doing so. I will probably make the last PC selection today and then get them started on the char gen process.

I had toyed with the idea of starting with 8 PCs and then letting the usual RPoL attrition "right-size" the cast, but I think 8 will become unwieldy. Any of you have exerience in games with that many players?

I run (or ran, as the game is on its knees at the moment) a game that started with 8 players. It went great guns, considering that I started with individual prologue threads and had the PCs meet each other on the way to the first adventure. There was plenty of great dialogue and I was able to engage the players for the year and a bit that it lasted. Combat was sometimes a bit of a drag, but only if I threw too many opponents into the mix. That served to delay the conclusion of encounters.

Hey Mr. DM, are we allowed to reduce or raise scores?   Maybe this was a house rule that I grew accustomed to, but we were allowed to reduce one score by two and raise another by one point.  I don't remember if that was an innovation rolled out in Basic, or what, but I thought I'd ask : )

Yeah. My primary concern with so many players would be the lag during encounters. Sitting around a tavern shooting the breeze is okay when you have a lot of players, but this game is not going to be about talking about adventure...it will be about ADVENTURE.

I should probably let you all know now that I start games in media res...meaning there won't be any exposition prior to the adventure...I will drop you at the front door of the adventure and give you a brief prologue on how you got there.

Hope nobody is too opposed to this. I just want to cut right to the chase and get to the fun as quick as possible. Not that RP isn't fun, but given the choice between RP'ing in the heat of adventure versus sitting around a tavern sipping ales...I'll take the adventure everytime!

There's no better way of establishing a reason to band together than facing down a horde of flesh-hungry beasts! Find a friend quick...or be food.

Besides, in keeping with the "old school" roots, that's how every adventure we ever played started: at the dark portal leading into the dungeon!
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:26, Tue 31 Jan 2012.

I've used this same house rule in the past, but for this game let's just play them as they rolled.

In reply to DM Storm (msg #22):

Bring it on (Ben hides in shadows)!

Sounds fine to me.  I'll have my character done asap.

Hey DM, almost finished but have one question.

Are you allowing the optional weapon specialization and double weapon specialization rules listed under the fighter.