OOC discussion

Hello all and lets have a ball here as well.

Balls will be had! Hmmm ok, yeah, let's have a ball!

Sorry folks been a bit slow in creating my character..

Do we have a starting date?

Not in a gigantic hurry. Once everyone has their sheet finished or at least near finished we will start.

Just curious...why not human? Anyone who plays with me knows I am almost always a warrior human type, perhaps I am just a poor roleplayer or maybe my range of roleplaying is limited?

For some reason I do not really enjoy playing non-human characters, wonder why that is?

Good question. I dunno. I tend not to play non-humans myself in games that have multiple races. When I first started gaming I did. My first RPG character was a Dwarf (AD&D, of course). Since then I think Fernao and a Halfling I created about six years ago are the only non-humans I've played in the last ten years or so.

For me it's a matter of inspiration. For this game I knew I wanted to play a character different than others I'm currently playing. A big, bluff warrior type was my first thought and thought of a blustering Porthos from the Three Musketeers type might be a way into that. Looking through the races in Atlantis I spied the Taurans and these reminded me that growing up Ferdinand the Bull was a favorite book of my little brother's. Something tells me that if I hadn't remembered Ferdinand I may have gone back to playing a Human.

In reply to Fernao (msg # 7):

In a lot of games, Humans are a default and that probably leads to some of it. Humans in Atlantis though get their own set of bonuses that really do come into play. With the ability to re-roll (or force re-rolls) and spend Hero Points, a determined Human Hero is going to get things done.

My characters are always somewhat like a version of me, showing some side of my actual personality usually. So I am almost always a human in my games. I was tempted to play a Tauran though.

I am going with a tentative first game post on Sunday. Don't worry if you are not done with your characters, this will be a 99% roleplaying thread/

I rarely play a human.  I am one in real life, so what's the point in sticking with being boring!

However, I will admit that since I'm quite homely and a bit awkward in real life, playing someone attractive and less bumbling is terribly fun. *laugh*

I'm writing this quickly, because I've got other things I probably ought to be doing, but I wanted to dash some thoughts that occurred to me about this stuff, so forgive me if my grammar fades in and out here...

It has occurred to me why my interest in playing non-humans has waned over the years. See, I've been playing rpgs for a rather long time. No. Really. I'm 47 today and discovered AD&D, et al. when I was 13 or 14.

There was a point just after High School when I was trying to figure out what I was going to do and the things that seemed most interesting also seemed the most difficult (so I did the logical thing and ran away) a thought occurred to me: it doesn't matter whether I get an interesting job or actually 'Do' anything, because I've got rpgs. I can do whatever, be whatever I'd like in them. So, I can get a shit job and just get on with things, because I'll always have this outlet.

In the 20 or so years since then I'm pleased to say that I've actually managed to 'Do' some things in my career and life, go figure. That is, I didn't actually let myself live the life I wanted through my gaming while I trundled through things. I did, however, use my gaming to test out approaches to various problems and opportunities. The characters I've played at certain times in my life I don't think I could play today, because I'm not that person any more. Or perhaps it's more accurate to say that I could play those characters, but I'd play them differently.

Now, saying this I do mean to say that I've done this with every character I've ever created. Nor have I done it consistently when I've been playing a given character during one of those times when I was actively using rpging as a means to figuring out how to do whatever it was that I figuring out how to do. It does mean, though, that today I'm am far less interested in playing characters much younger than I am or that are non-human. (I've also never really played female characters and I think that this also reflects the very personal nature of my approach to gaming.)

So, yeah, while I play because I like games and I like the improv nature, etc. of rpgs that I've been able to use them to figure how to best 'play' myself in the real world has probably resulted in my characters becoming more and more like me, even if they are better looking, smarter, stronger, more highly skilled, etc. than I actually am.

erm... Crap. I just realized that I totally screwed my post up by confusing Nkruma and Brude. (Does this make me a racist? No. It makes me stupid.)

The thing is that while Fernao is also stupid, he's not quite that stupid.

I'm going to edit my post to fix and apologize for the error!

To add in some thoughts on the old thread about non-humans, I find it depends a lot on what type of non-humans are available. Something non-standard seems interesting (to me like the ones in Atlantis as opposed to the standard elves, dwarfs, hobbits, etc).

We have some really good roleplayers in this group, pretty excited to see how things play out. It is a meeting of my Tal worlds and D&D world meeting on 3rd party ground...Atlantis. We are just waiting on our last player to make his appearance in the tavern and then we will move on.

Woo!

We have a job, we have a destination, we have a crew of brave, fine, fearless folk!

Let's get this party started!



Also, I'll be out of town Thursday through Monday. Should have internet, but should also be stuck on tablet where typing is a pain. Will do my best to keep abreast of things and update when I can.

OK, new thread up for the Rosy Fingered Dawn. We can keep the discussion going in the Tavern as long as we need to.

Going out of town from Friday until Monday. Will get as much going in this game as possible between now and then. Too early int he game to take a break imo.

Off to the frigid wasteland of Hyperborea...will be back in business Monday night.

Hey hey folks.

I don't think it's been said in game what day/month it is. Since our beloved GM is away, do you all want to brainstorm about it?

Summer, Winter? Fall, Spring?

My flight to the great white north got canceled but not until I flew to Chicago..almost got stuck but was able tog et back home int he wee hours of the morn.

I actually have this game set in the spring...but only in my head:)

In reply to Dyaus Pater (msg # 21):

So, should we congratulate you on having your trip cancelled? Or commiserate?


Also, cool about spring. I'll have a post later today (after some other Atlantis writing gets done).

Commiserate for sure. I was taking place in a longsweord tournament and a knife tournament on Saturday and teaching French Savate and Russian fisticuffs on Sunday...would have been a blast but the cold winds of Boreas thought otherwise.

In reply to Dyaus Pater (msg # 23):

Aw, that bites, then. Hope they're able to reschedule or something and you can go do it some other time.

Yes. Sorry to hear about the travel issues and hopefully it can get rescheduled.

And glad you could get out of Chicago...seems to be way too easy to get stuck there...particularly when trying to get out of town away from the in-laws.

Woot! Beasts in the deep...

Let's hope that it's nothing horrific, hm?

Hey, wet Asena on deck. Anyone up for 'wet dog smell' comments?

Look, wet dog comment, without being rude. ;)

Sorry for the delaying in post.  This game is moving much faster than the other.. WOW

Same here -- I didn't get any posting done yesterday on rpol, busy day!

Mark it down as new game enthusiasm:)

My plan was for a slower moving game but you know what they say about even the best laid plans.

In reply to Dyaus Pater (msg # 31):

A lot of games start off with a lot of posts and then taper to a different speed after the first few weeks.


Or, perhaps, this game is just setting a faster pace. Different games/groups move at different speeds.

Also my style of GMing is a bit different. I do enjoy posting for each NPC rather than a bigger narrative GM thread like most do. This makes it look like there are more posts and there are but just about the same amount of text.

Right. Big stunt thing just attempted. Some of the rolls could have been better.

However, my thought is that 1) we've taken out the ballista crew (or at least their best shooters) and 2) if we can take out the captain of the boat rowing at us, it'll throw that boat (at least) into some chaos and/or intimidate them enough to leave us be for at least long enough to get a handle on the anchored and burning boats.

Good plan...my rolls for the bad guys have been terrible so far so maybe luck will be in your favor:)

Too, it gets to pull in some of my racial abilities (Wolf Pack), my profession abilities (flurry), and I got to spend some Hero Points.

I was thinking of Tempting Fate as well to add in even more stuff, but I figure if I get some of our other archers in on the task we'll fill the guy so full of arrows (at a +4DR at that) that he'll go down pretty quick. Then I can save the Tempting Fate for something more crucial.

In reply to Nkruma (msg # 36):

Yeah... I was going to fire one arrow at him.  Or do a flurry at the other armed crewmen, probably do more damage spreading it around.  But I figure you're shooting for a 'shock and awe' effect here, so I'm going whole hog on the guy right behind you!

Welcome to the fray, Captain Pincushion!  :)

Certainly they're going to be a bit more hesitant about closing with us after Capt Pincushion meets the deck.

That's a LOT of damage to take in. Armor can help reduce some of it. Conceivably if some of those are criticals, he could just go unconscious (and maybe we get a new Enemy disadvantage in the future) and/or be impaled by so many arrows that taking them out kills him. He could have a small pool of Hero Points to mitigate some of the damage... But, after those two volleys, he's still looking at a potential maximum (assuming all the arrows hit) of 100+ DR. If a couple of them are misses, he has some minor armor, he spends some Hero Points... I still think he's going down.

If we're lucky, that'll mean that at least one of the pirate ships is out of commission for a few rounds at least.

In reply to Nkruma (msg # 38):

Looks like you're right.  I think we will now have to refer to him as Captain Pincushion (ret.).  :)

One thing I'm still getting used to is the high heroics of games like Hellas and (this version) of Atlantis.  By and large, I've always been used to semi-realistic or even gritty games.

There's a number of interesting departures in these games.  It much more captures the feel of books and movies where we are playing the heroes and main characters.  I've seen this in other, more recent rpgs as well, such as using something along the lines of the Wealth Rating -- after all, when you think about it, in the source material we all are familiar with, how often do you see a price list, or the heroes talking about how many gold pieces they have, or how many something costs?  No, they're either rich with their recent plunder, well enough off to get by, or nearly broke.

Okay, I'm wandering off in game systems rambling now, so I'll stop!

In reply to Conall (msg # 39):

I think it's a helpful discussion. Atlantis (and Hellas) make some in-game assumptions with the mechanics that aren't entirely spelled out.

Like the Wealth Rating rolls. Either you've got the money for what you need or you don't. No bookkeeping about exactly how many pieces of gold or silver or barter or whatever. You roll, and if you succeed, you get it. There is a chart (somewhere in there) that kind of goes through how roughly much gold each step of the WR is (I think). But, yeah, either you're broke or you've got the funds and you don't really stop to count it out. And when you do have it, you're spending it anyway. The idea is to drop those other little bits of bookkeeping and just focus on the action.

I do like this idea...I have been in so many games where it seemed like the GM did nothing but nitpick about money/encumbrance/equipment while letting the story itself take a backseat to all this.

I also like the idea behind the awarding of renown rather than xp. The characters should be heroic...let them earn their renown rather than doling out xp at the end of an adventure. Makes for a different feel.

In reply to Dyaus Pater (msg # 41):

The giving renown when things happen is a big change (at least for me). It's really hard for me to remember to do that when I'm running Hellas (or Atlantis) around a table with friends.

But, you're right. It does seem to encourage heroic behavior with an immediate reward.


Someone on one of the other rpg-boards I've been on said that they worked out that Atlantis Heroes with their narrow range of "XP" (the renown chart only goes to like 300ish or so?) equates to a D&D 3/Pathfinder level span of like 13 to 17. I'm not sure if the math on that is accurate or not, but it's another way to get a handle on how competent the Heroes are.
Of course, it's also apples to oranges. Atlantis Heroes don't have huge scads of Hit Points, magic works completely differently, and there's far far less magical healing around.

I like the encouragement of heroic deeds with Atlantis, and the fact that even starting characters have a shot at pulling them off. I've gotten old (cranky) and busy enough that having to play out the early underpowered grind can get a little rough.

I'm also glad that healing was toned down from the high levels that are ubiquitous in most fantasy rpgs.  Again, that's one point where rpgs tend to be wildly at variance with source material.  Except for a few recent high magic/fantasy novels, you don't see heroes repeatedly suffering massive wounds and receiving constant, and instantaneous healing.  That's always broken the immersion factor for me.  There's at least got to be some time lag; you know, Thag the barbarian is wounded in a score of places in the battle, and afterwards, Pious the cleric tends to and prays over his wounds, and after a good night's sleep, he's still scratched up and bandaged, but he's looking pretty good and functioning almost normally.  But that's still a whole different ball game from Thag being hacked near to death, Pious pokes him with a glowing finger, his wounds instantly close up and they open the door and continue to the next room.

That kind of healing is pretty miraculous, but then it's not, since as designed, it becomes commonplace instead.

While I have become generally not overly fond of the base magic system (though I loved it when I first read it, years ago), the tweaks in Atlantis do make it fit.  With some twists and turns, tapping hero points and the like, mages can still pop off some humdingers without being able to do that all the time.

Okay, rambling again...

Hello folks, I'm sorry but I think I'm gonna jump ship.  It seems that I'm not keeping up with the posting on this game and you guys are moving across the sea at a fast pace.. LOL

I don't want to hold the game up..

Understood. Thanks for playing...will ease Seer into a nice npc slot:)

Slowly getting over the worst stomach flu of my entire life...will try and update tomorrow. Just don't have it in me to deal with a combat round tonight.

Get well soon and have a full recovery from that flu!  <Mom voice>Be sure to get plenty of rest and drink lots of fluids! </Mom voice>

Seer, glad you could come along for the time you did, wished to see more of how the character played out.

Just a question since it might be booboo patching time soon... does anyone have medicine higher than +3 (where Thamyron is)

Alembos is at +6...plus he has all sorts of potions and other stuff on hand. Alchemists are pretty cool One of my favorite classes from way back when I used to play the first Ed of Atlantis.

In reply to Thamyron (msg # 49):

Not I!

However, I do have a spirit that I sometimes communicate with that can help me to boost the skills and stats of myself or others. That process takes some time, though. Lots of chanting and beseeching and howling and stripping naked beneath the moon.

I suggest we save that one for a last resort, shall we?  :)

I think I know a little first aid.

Again, I have to say that not having magical instant healing is a huge cool factor in this game.  I feel rpg's in general suffer in their story telling from the ubiquity of instant laying on of hands type healing.  Don't get me wrong, that's a cool staple that belongs in some fantasy games, but I like it to be rare and miraculous, not an everyday kind of event.

So here is my situation. I live way out in the middle of no where my internet options are extremely limited. I have been informed by my provider that I am being dropped due to excessive usage, they cited youtube and a manga website (that my daughter visits) as the main offenders which is crazy considering I hardly visit youtube and the manga site is all text and comics, not sure how they are getting overuse out of that but whatever, they are not budging.

So on April 9 I am getting the boot, this leaves me with phone access only until I find another way to get internet here. I play in a lot of games with some of you and will continue to do so even if I have to do it over the phone (a pain but doable) the two games I run will be a a different story, things will obviously slow down until I get stable internet here at home. With any luck I will get this resolved before the 9th...hopefully much sooner cause right now they have me throttled back to the point where RPOL is one of the only sites my computer can load. Of course they say they are not doing that but they are.

Aw, geez.  We had a similar problem when we were on Hughes.net.  Worst and most expensive internet EVER.

I hope you get something worked out.  Remember that likely your local library has the option for you to use the internet on their computers or at least WiFi in the building if you have a laptop.

In reply to Dyaus Pater (msg # 53):

Ouch. That bites.

We had an issue with service here a few years back. We're in a small rural town and for decades all the phone/cable service into town was handled by 1 company (they had some contract with the town itself).

That company had sold off internet access to some third party who was actually based out of state. No biggie.

But then that company goes out of business. And nothing had been done to maintain, repair, or upgrade service into the town in all that time. Cue sudden lack of internet for the town, including the businesses, library, and school.

We've got internet now (obviously) but for a while we (personally, our block) was going with a satellite internet service (handy, but expensive comparatively and ultimately unreliable) before switching to individual options. The local library still has periodic issues with internet even though AT&T now handles it - issues mainly with the current existing hardware/landline stuff.

Best of luck, man.

---

There are internet satellite providers out there - but see if you can price stuff around before agreeing to anything. Look in to all the additional costs - equipment like a satellite dish that you have to use and they have to come out and install, etc.

Man, that's a huge bummer.  I live out in the sticks also, and my internet is pretty important for me -- it allows me to work from home, which I often do in the evenings or on weekends.  Luckily, my internet provider has been fairly steady, which is a lucky thing, since I have a choice of 1.  The local cable company also went out of business a few years ago, downgrading much of the town from very poor service to no service.

Sabetha's right on the libraries.  Ours is great, has internet and wifi.  They even advertise that you can use the wifi when the library isn't open, if you have a laptop and want to hang out in the parking lot or just sit outside the library.

Another reason why I'm very happy to live in a big city. Snark aside, sorry to hear about this hassle. I'm happy to wait as long as it takes and I hope for your daughter's sake it won't take too long!

Definitely good things and bad things about living in the city. i would not want to raise a family this big in the city but if I was alone, I would def be a city dweller, just think country is better for family.

Library here is great as well but I am 5 miles away from it. It use dot be in my backyard but we just had to move from the middle of the middle of nowhere to the outskirts of the middle of nowhere.

On a game related note...are you happy with your character? I have been stuck in games with characters I just could not click with, I know your pain. If you feel the need to try another character concept, this is a good time to do so. No penalty, no harm no foul, I just want you folks to be happy with the character you are playing. This will be the last port before we hit the mainland so like I said, good time to get a new concept in.

I'm good!

I think in an ideal world, I'd drop Nkruma's magic-use in favor of other skills, but I'm happy with it as is.

I am so far pleased with Fernao -- thanks, for asking!

I think I need to get accustomed to Sabetha... I also think that I need to change the color of her speech because others are using red and I want things to be very obvious who's got what. *grin*

I like Conall, though he's a little different than I'd originally envisioned him.  I'd thought of him originally as more of a woodsy, rangery type and he's kind of ended up being a little more Robin Hood/killer archer.  It seems the game is somewhat predisposed to turn Scouts into archers.  Not necessarily a bad thing, if that's the design goal.  Not intended to be the center of the character, but I think it's going to show that my woodsman type character is far better at archery than he is at woodland skills.  I'll roll with it, as I still like the character, he's just turned out different than my original conception.

Being stuck on a ship is not exactly the best place for both Sabetha and Conall...that will be changing soon so maybe we will get to see the characters in a different light once they are on land moving across the country side encounter hostile natives:)

If there is anything I can do to get you connected to your character, just let me know.

On the home internet front. CenturyLink claims they have dsl available to me but their website does not mesh with what the operators are telling us. I will believe it when I see it, hopefully they do and we can get on with life.

Hope the internet has cleared up some. Sorry to be absent, had a strep throat flareup (again), and have been entertaining a demanding father in law.

Actually just plugged in the new DSl modem less then ten minutes ago:)

Sorry for my absence.  It's the beginning of my busy season at work.

Everyone...sorry to have been scarce lately but had some big distractions that will most likely continue for the next two weeks at least (if they end earlier, it's probably a bad thing). I will post when I can, but if I am slowing things down hopefully the GM will fill in for me for as needed. Sorry

Best of luck, Thamyron!

Sorry, been waylaid by lightning damage here. Pole got hit and fried my modem and once I got that replaced I found that it cooked my ethernet card as well. But of course now that I am back up I am just a day away from going to teach at Combat con in Vegas: www.combatcon.com

Will try to get a post or two off before I leave though.

I'm super sorry about my absence.

No worries. It happens to all of us on rpol at one point or another.

Will I be able to join back in?

In reply to Sabetha (msg # 72):

As far as we're concerned, you never left!  :)

Oh hell yeah:)

Sabetha and Nkruma are still with the group en route to the ziggurat. I have just made them passive for the time being. You can jump in any time you can.

Aias and Seer have left the group at least for now.

Okie dokie, I'll try and read/catch up and post!

Welcome back, Sabetha!

Can I hop back in as well?

Sure...you know how I run my games:)Lionel Ritchie could write a song about my GMing style:)

Arrroooooo!

Nkruma's pulling some bear-suit berserker style stuff. Will it intimidate the Nethermen? Probably not. Does it look cool in the meantime? Quite likely? Will he burst all out and kill one of the skrags? I hope so.


Speaking of which, how high is this wall?

Walls are near 15 feet tall.

I missed the description of the gate.  Is it just bars?  Is that why we can see them?  If so, can Conall fire arrows through the gate at the Nethermen?

And out of curiosity, what kind of additional DoD would it be to target Nethermen's legs, so, ah, maybe the ones in the front of the charge might fall down and get trampled by and/or trip those behind?

Yes it is just bars. Some were rusted and weak but Thamyron shored them up with his magic. Definitely easy to shoot through.

As for hitting the legs, they are really close -2...not to hard for a good archer to easily overcome.

In reply to Dyaus Pater (msg # 81):

15 feet tall, you say? 5ish meters, that is?

Hmmm...



Ok, fellow Heroes... Do we want to keep the inside of the walls secure and take the battle beyond the gate to the Nethermen? Because if so, I think that Nkruma (possibly with another Hero Point expenditure) can handily jump over this wall and land in the midst of our foes and lay waste and horror amongst their ranks.

I'll look at the possibilities with the book in a bit. But, I think that I can clear 5 meters.

Remember I said there was some debris inside the walls...something you could vault off off to make your jump more of a 12 foot one.

With a +0 Spd it's a bit uncertain whether or not I'd make it, so rather than take that chance I'll do what I can to keep them focused on the gate while those you can make this jump attack them from there.

I dunno.  Let them fight their way in, taking casualties, and once they've breached the gate, jump down behind them and throw them into chaos attacking from behind.  The wall is nearly as much a hindrance to us as them, except they want to get in more than we want to get out!  As it is, we get to thin the ranks some, and we can hold them at the gate to prevent them from using superior numbers against us.

In reply to Conall (msg # 87):

Nkruma also have secret super weapon. ;)

Sorry folks, Major computer issues have me sidelined for a few days.

With any luck, I am back.

We will get rerolling here in a few days, question , do we want to continue where we left off or have me do a post saying what happened and move on in a new direction? I am good with either one and preprepared to do either.

In reply to Dyaus Pater (msg # 91):

What were we doing again?  Weren't we about to go loot the ancient temple or something along those lines?

Yes, they were just trying to find a way into the ziggurat.

Ok...no preference so I am just going with start where we left off.

Lenelle I will work you in as soon as humanly possible...probably with your own thread. If anyone cares to work up a second character, this is the time to do it.

>an archaic Atlantean dialect

Do I understand what was said?   Or roll to see if I did?

You understand it...in fact Ostroga has told both you and Diomemedes that the Village of Stars and the surrounding area is an old Atlantean outpost so it does not come as much of a surprise to you. Most of the area outside the Village speaks a Hellenic language.

I'm in the middle of BookExpo America and will be until Friday. Hopefully I'll be able to reengage with the rest of my life by Saturday.

Hey folks,

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but according to his wife, the fine fine man who started/was running this game died last night.

Sorry to read this news. I'll raise a glass to him this evening!
This message was last edited by the player at 15:25, Mon 06 June 2016.

Just saying a hello, keeping this game here, alive, in memory of Ken.

Thanks for doing so. Here's to him!

Thank you. To his memory!

Coming up on 5 years since he's been gone.  Hope you're having fun fighting and gaming in the afterlife, buddy!

Hear! Hear!