On another note, am I the only one who thinks the GM has got to be using a table/website to roll for these backgrounds? I have no idea how one person could otherwise think up so many place names and character descriptions in such a short timespan.

I mean, I guess you feasibly could, but surely it would not come out with such thematic synergy on the first try?

To be clear, I wouldn't look down on that as a method at all, I think it's an ingenious way to speed up hefty adjudications which often weigh down PbPs.

Don't look at the man behind the curtains ;D

The thing I'd have more problems with is, indeed, the naming. Id have to spend a disproportionate amount of time making sure, for example, that techniques have the right feel - or I'd have to straight-up rip them off somewhere.

The main factor is probably more familiarity with the source material (more than me, at least). While I did read some Wuxia/Xianxia (otherwise I wouldn't be here in the first place), it's several orders of magnitude less than the well I can dip into for "Generic Vaguely European Fantasy World #23". Not to mention that "Generic Vaguely European Fantasy World #23", unless played with folks I already GMd for, benefits from a slew of lore pre-made by myself I can shamelessly recycle.

I can use some juggling and some smoke and mirrors to make it look like I'm done with A LOT more work than is actually ready in such a setting. But there's no way I can pull that off while ALSO having to double-check that I'm using honorifics reasonably.

You and The Wizard of Oz are giving me very different messages right now! Who should I trust??



Absolutely. I don't speak any asian languages, so I felt almost guilty picking this name, 'cause I really have little to no knowledge about it or context for it, except that it sounds good to my western ears.

I did try and search for names that had meanings I liked, but that's kind of fruitless without an actual awareness of proper grammatical structure.



Exactly same for me. I've seen a little bit of Wuxia/Xianxia, and a crapload of generic vaguely European fantasy to the point where I can make rough sketches for whole fantasy worlds in an hour or less, and then just fill in what I need.

It won't be much special, but it's perfectly reasonable.



Don't just reveal the biggest GM secret! They are supposed to think us as Gods, not Men!

For me, I think I could pretty easily adapt to using honorifics. They are one of the easier parts of a language to learn in my opinion. Even English has them with things like "Sir, Miss, Mister, Lady, Lord" and so on.

Though, using them perfectly requires at least a good enough understanding of the culture surrounding them, or it can come off a bit weird, even if technically correct/applicable.

I mean, it's like a foreigner going around calling everyone, "Lord" because it's 'respectful'. That doesn't really happen, because that would be super awkward and someone would tell them the linguistic equivalent of "you have something on their face" pretty soon.

TBH, I get a load of enjoyment from honorifics, especially ones of affection, like the japanese '-kun' or '-chan' and the (south?) korean '-oppa, -hy[u/eo]ng' because we don't have those here and that makes me sad.

Wei Jing is a delight to write for.  She's not a bad person, but she is an Asura in every conceivable definition of the word.  Slightly bloodthirsty and with a loose grasp on morals that have been reinforced heavily by a Very Good Upbringing.

But sometimes it just leaks out from time to time and she accidentally becomes nightmare fuel.

(Seriously, her Emotion scores are so bad it's amazing.  They're all below 25 except for Sorrow, which is funnily high.  The fact she then made her first Rage check is hilarious to me.  Her alignment is also in PERFECT BALANCE which is even more comedy)
This message was last edited by the player at 22:28, Sat 17 July 2021.

That is amazing, LMAO

I'm sure her and Lei would hit it off. Think about it; By day, they could go around protecting the weak from wicked villains, and by night they would spend all that positive karma by starting a bloody tavern brawl!

Fun fun fun :)

Yeah, I kind of ended up blowing a ridiculous amount of Talent Points on a mystery box, but Wei Jing I'm hoping is to be the Good Girl Demonic Cultivator who uses the power of friendship to rise to success as an immortal demon blacksmith of sorts.

It's a mystery as to how far it'll go, but I'm definitely looking forward to it!

Ah, yes, the lure of mystery boxes!
I couldn't resist those myself, and now I have a mystery box that requires two skills my character can't make heads or tails of.

...nothing wrong can ever come out of practicing a cultivation method you barely understand three fifths of, right? xD
This message was last edited by the player at 11:18, Sun 18 July 2021.

Hah, same boat here admittedly went for a martial arts manual and a spirit herb, and got a fire related one for both of them, only problem is... I'm lightning affinity!

Ah, come on, don't be so picky - lightning is KIND of like fire!

Not close enough :V that being said, the herb can nurture my fire spirit, so if I turn it into a pill it might work out in the end, since I built for pill refining in addition to my combat stuff.

Me too. I originally wanted Formations, but ended up with Medicine making sense - and from there the jump was easier to pills.

Got the Formations and Inscriptions combo package here, so i'll probably be enchanting gear for you all at some point in the game :P

Lei can also do Inscriptions! Looking forward to giving everything he makes incredibly over-the-top stupid names because of course this idiot would do that.

Oh yeah and check my thread if you want to see how truly stupid this idiot is :) At least when it comes to judging character haha

Just did, actually.

And yes, why shouldn't the activation chant on a particularly strong magical spell be "I like to wear pink tutus!"? Prevents abuse of the spell if you make sure people will only use it when absolutely necessary.

As for the woman though, i'd disagree. She doesn't come across as a hothead, i'd say she's more kuudere myself. Tsundere lean more towards sarcasm.

Oh man, you're totally right! I knew about that trope too but then it slipped my mind. Would've been perfect for an 'icy beauty'

Really tempted to edit, but not sure the GM policy on editing posts, especially when it's for a stupid reason like 'my joke didn't land so can i get a redo?'

Probably inconsequential either way, unless of course Lei gets stabbed hahahahaha.

Actually, it's kind of in-character for Lei to get this wrong, since he's only 'heard about this in legends' so it makes sense he got some of the details mixed up on his dere types :P

Imagine being an otaku in the, what, 13th century?

In reply to Lei Feng (msg # 53):

Go ahead with edits. As long as it makes a fun narrative and doesn't change major things too much it should be fine.

Speaking of legends, i actually wanted to ask about this earlier, but apparently forgot.

Dao, what's our level of IC knowledge of the various beasts of legend we may encounter? I know the creature i ran into was a kumiho, but how likely would it be for me to know this ICly? I played it off as 'heard about it from bedtime stories' at the time, but a GM call on it would be nice.

In reply to Oriana Kimari (msg # 55):

As long as you can recognize them, you can treat it as though your characters know them, but the level of knowledge is very superficial and limited to whatever the story about it speaks of about them. Of course, stories are just stories - they are mostly greatly exaggerated and might contain information that might be false.

If you've read the Classic of Mountains and Seas, you might also recognize a lot more obscure and strange creatures (that might appear in the game) and the medicinal properties of some of their organs. Of course, how true they are is questionable.

The foolproof way of knowing stuff in a reliable manner is to procure and study for a period of time books on the subject of various creatures. In which case your character may recall any detail about a creature.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:01, Mon 19 July 2021.

Well, i wouldn't exactly call myself an expert and immediately come up with a list of valuable organs to harvest for selling monster kidneys on the black market medicinal purposes, but i'd have to rely on my character for that once she starts getting the appropriate skills and lores :)

In reply to Dao Master (msg # 56):

...Don't mind me as I add Classic of Mountains and Seas to my 'potential inspiration to steal' list. It looks pretty interesting.

In reply to Xiao Kang (msg # 58):

I can help with that:

https://archive.org/stream/ACh...%20Bestiary_djvu.txt

I might grab it in actual book format.

...fortunately I read a decent english, because getting it in my language apparently costs five times as much.
And no, chinese isn't an option xD
This message was last edited by the player at 09:50, Mon 19 July 2021.

In reply to Xiao Kang (msg # 60):

From the article:



Out of curiosity, which is your language?

The language of pizza!
...and mustachio-ed plumbers.

New York City, then? You know, the pizza rat?

(im kidding please dont kill me)



Ah yes, Mario Mario the genocidal maniac!

So, you're from Japan.

(okay ill stop)

---

I tried to read the stuff in the link, but the formatting made me lose my last remaining brain cell, which I was really using to have thoughts or whatever.