I'm ready to start making a character: seems quite simple even. Feel like we have a good foundation here.

About characters - are we starting at the 'Family' level ( where we represent our entire group and can create new family members as needed for the roleplay without needing to do through the detailed character generation)?

We only need a character created when we 'zoom in' to a more detailed, specific setting where individual members of the families go out in search of some specific objective.

I'd rather start the role play at the family level, let us get a better sense of these groups and the named individuals in the Families, then zoom in later when there is a specific reason to do so.

My reading has always been that you create one character at the start of each age to be the 'main' character of the family through that period and be a focus for events. The choice of that character also gives some ideas about the kind of things you, and by extension others, might be getting up to - an elder leader is going to put a different flavour on your families age than a rebel scavenger.

That doesn't stop other quick characters being rustled up as they might be needed for scenes (or names and characters just being made up on the fly if they don't need stats).

My initial thoughts had been to start with something zoomed in to kick matters off but I'm not wedded to that if we start with bigger picture stuff. Actually my thought of an opening scene, the representatives of the families meeting with the representatives of the locals to decide what needs to be done about the refugees, could work as a sort of "in character zoomed out" scene with the families representatives not actually having to be be the main characters and just serving as the mouthpiece for the families views.

That works for me, I was just wondering. My read of the game was a bit different in that I got the sense that at the Family level, you didn't create a character per say, but brought in characters for roleplay purposes as needed. Of course when you zoom in, you could pick one of those not very sketched out characters to flesh out and make a main protagonist.

It doesn't matter to me, but it is going to severely limit my choices for character playbooks as I will feel the need to pick a playbook that can both represent the Family interests as well as be an interesting protagonist on their own *shrug*.

There's still a couple of people's history options up for grabs but we're nearly there on that.

That means once people have characters ready to go we can kick off. Alternatively having thought about it some more I quite like the idea of starting things off with a thread that is 'in character' but not specifically with the chosen characters for this age (though not precluding them if it would make sense for them to be there). So allowing for the more zoomed out decision making but allowing everyone to get a flavor for the different families. How does that sound as that is something we could get up and running pretty quickly?

I like it, but I think I made that clear earlier:-)

I can work with it.  I was thinking about what playbook I would want for my single character starting out, based on what I thought I might do without any more external input, but on the other hand starting more zoomed out and getting said external input would also work.

A chance to do some posting about family members and interacting with one another, though not necessarily being the main character for that age, would help flesh out the family, and how we all interact.

Perfect - that's a majority in favour and no objections!

I'll get something along those lines up over the weekend (if not just before).

Right, first IC post is up (finally!) so it's over to you!

I'm assuming everyone has sent one representative to the conference but who that rep is up to you. As previously discussed it doesn't have to be your main character for this age though can be if you want. If not then no need to make them as a quick character - I'm not anticipating character level dice rolls here (though if that changes we can whip up quick characters) and I see anything which needs doing will be family level at this point.

Entirely up to you how you want to proceed. Obviously the main thing the NPCs will want to talk about is the refugee issue and you can engage with that but if you would rather try and find some way to address your needs, gain surpluses or just generally expand your power base go for it!

Bennington and Unbidden do you want to post an introduction before I move the main thread along?

Sorry for the slowdown - hectic week at work.

I'll move things along over the weekend.

No worries, it's been the same on my end the last couple weeks.

I didn't want to reply to the Proteans in case Bennington or Unbidden wanted to add something first. However, they seem to have been away for over 2 weeks now...

Yeah I fear we have lost them. To do the world building bit and then ghost before it even starts running seems an odd thing to do but such is life in RPoL!

Three players is still enough for a decent game of this in my book so I’m happy to keep forging ahead if everyone else is?

I can hold off posting for a day or two if you want to respond to the Proteans?

It's unfortunate, but I'm definitely willing to keep going with the group we still have.

I don't have anything in particular that I want to do with the current scene - assuming the others agree, should we jump into our meeting with the refugees or wait for you to set the stage?

Sounds good to me. I'll give it a day or two and if nobody has anything specific left that they want to do I'll move things along.

Sorry - last week got away from me.

Ready now to move on to a fully zoomed in post. I think we'll need characters for that so are people able to whip up their main character for this age now you know the kind of issues at stake?

Unfortunately for me, life is hectic right now. I think I need to drop from the game. Sorry all..I just don't know when I can post.

So am I the last player standing at this point?

I spaced out as others had gone, and was finding it difficult to feel engaged.

Which I'm angry at myself for, as I requested the game in the first place :(

I feel you - too much attrition at once really sucks the life out of a game, and it's hard to stay enthusiastic through that.

Yeah, I fear with this system so much time is spent on world building at the start it runs the risk of losing that early momentum you need for play by post.

I think that if (likely when) I try to run it again on here I might go in with a ready made setting and just have players fit their families in to that. It takes some of the charm of the start of the game away but would hopefully move things to starting properly much more quickly.

I've thought about doing something similar with Ars Magica - I've been in so many games on here that burn all of their new-game momentum on creating the covenant (the PCs' base, if you're not familiar with that game) and then have little to none left for the actual game.

In any case, thanks for having put this together!
This message was last edited by the player at 00:39, Thu 01 July 2021.