Hi all I am excited to join you all on this Epic journey.

Cheating a little here going to copy and paste my introduction, save me some time typing but will post some more and work on my guy a  little also tonight.

 I am a 53 year old disabled veteran,  retired from mainly security types of jobs. I have two beautiful daughters 21 and 13 both of whom live with me in North Carolina. I am about to be divorced from an amazing woman after 26 years of marriage. Gaming is almost like a therapy, memories of a brighter time when my father was a DM for me every Saturday night, from 45 years ago.

I prefer to play fighter/ thief types of characters because I can bond with them the easiest being a combat veteran and security specialist. I look forward to bonding and making friends during this epic journey with you and the others.

So Khaaven will be my character name and am looking at going Fighter thief and if needed could go Fighter mage thief but will just be a slow progression but useful for group if needed.

Welcome G6, and thank you for your service. Sorry about your divorce. I've been there (with two kids and after several years together, just like you). It's no fun. If you find yourself without any friends to talk to, I'm happy to lend an ear on the PM's. Glad you're here with us.

In reply to Guest3 (msg # 20):

I guess I am not as tough as your father. I got my left hip replaced in late 2016 and my right hip replaced this past March 16. The surgeon is talking of doing my right knee later.
I totally understand the bone on bone sensations. My left hip disintegrated while I was on a research trip to London, so I had to get as much medication as legally available and keep working until it was time to return.

In reply to Guest6 (msg # 26):

Thank you for your service. My wife, her father and her son, my stepson, are all veterans, though I am a civilian. I met my wife when I was teaching English in South Korea and she was in the Navy.

Ty, since this will be a long campaign multiclassing is a solid option.

I am open to play an elf, thinking F/T or F/M/T.  Saw we were looking at like 4 front liners so the F/M/T would allow for utility.

Any thoughts from the group

What about M/T? Advancement might be too slow with three classes.

Personally, I am not a fan of multiclassing, but that is a matter of personal taste. If the player and the DM agree on it, that is their business

I can review anybody's sheet. I don't do so with a fine-tooth comb. That's how I am with the rules -- unless something really catches my attention, I don't study it all that closely. I'm happy to rely on the more the assiduous players to do that.

I do expect I will need to track time carefully and may need to include a time marker in my updates.

I have a couple of questions about camping OSRIC-style when every minute might matter.

Is a long rest considered to be 6 or 8 hours?

I presume that time does not include camp set up time which, at a minimum, should include ten minutes bickering about who sleeps where. How long do you think that should take?

I always worked on eight hours, but that it doesn't have to be sleep.
Just not casting spells, fighting or doing heavy labour.
I definitlety allowed watches of 1 or 2 hours to count as rest (assuming random prowlers didn't cause fighting etc).
If there was a random (aka wandering monster) fight, I just deleted the hour from "rest achieved" for those taking part..

Guest List
Ornwin         -- Dwarf Fighter
Otis           -- Half-orc Fighter/Cleric (longsword) of ???
Artimus Ereth  -- Human Magic User
Khaaven        -- Fighter/Thief?
Guest 4        -- ?
Guest 5        -- ?
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:13, Sat 16 Apr 2022.

In reply to The Host (msg # 36):

Out of curiosity, what god does a half-orc half cleric worship?

In reply to Ornwin (msg # 37):

Not sure if this was a humorous/rhetorical question? If so, it's funny. If not, it's a good question!

We don't know what our DM's house rules are yet, do we? Some don't care at all about deities. Others like to have a small set of options. Others allow every god or goddess that ever existed in any world.

I have no dog in the fight, and whatever rules our DM sets are good by me.

With that caveat, here are some options (from the "everything under the sun" set), just for fun.

Nazarn, Greyhawk's half-orc god.

St. Cuthbert, Greyhawk's "combative" deity of wisdom.

Pelor, Greyhawk's chief god.

Llerg (aka Hlerg), Greyhawk's god of "beasts and strength."

Luthic, the orc goddess of healing (from Forgotten Realms).

Ishtar, Babylonian goddess of love and war.

Quetzalcoatl, the chief god from Mesoamerican mythology, whose alternate name is Kukulcan, which sounds kinda orcish.

Itzamna, the Mesoamerican god of medicine.

Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom and war, which would be perfect for a F/C, but maybe not a half-orc, unless he happens to be lawful good?

Vishnu, the Indian god of mercy and light (but he's also lawful good.)

The Red God from Leiber's world of Nehwan. Neutral alignment, but fits well with a F/C type.

Mithra, the good god from Howard's Hyborea.

Yen Wang Yeh, the Chinese "judge of the dead."

Anu, the chief god from Babylonian mythology.

Odin, the chief god of Norse mythology.

Zeus, the chief god of Greek mythology.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:27, Mon 18 Apr 2022.

I went ahead and added bold formatting to Ereth's list to call out gods who would be known in the Tegel Village area. To that list, you could add any entity who might dwell within the Lovecraftian mythos, directly, such as Yog Sothoth, or indirectly, such as Cynothoglys. Further any deity connected to death, funerary practices, and so forth would find a home in Tegel Village.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:49, Sat 16 Apr 2022.

Please note the addition of a character creation rule at the top of this thread.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:59, Sat 16 Apr 2022.

In reply to The Host (msg # 39):

I'm glad that you called me Ereth. I was going to invite the other party members to do so. I think I'll update my profile to reflect that, and just note my full name as additional information on my character sheet.

Edit: I guess only the host can make that change. Feel free to do so or to leave at is. I'm good either way.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:03, Sat 16 Apr 2022.

In reply to Artimus Ereth (msg # 38):

I have visited the tomb of the original St. Cuthbert in Durham Cathedral.

In reply to The Host (msg # 39):

My personal favorite HPL god is Tsathoggua. Fat and lazy, my ideal.

In reply to Ornwin (msg # 42):

Very cool!!!

My paternal ancestors all come from that part of the world, between Durham, England and Dundee, Scotland (about a 200 mile stretch along the East coast of the island).

I do not have them pinned solidly, but I believe most of my ancestors came from the Midlands and northern England.

In reply to Ornwin (msg # 43):

For a lazy bugger, Tsathoggua gets around. Created by Clark Ashton Smith (he and HP were postal correspondents extraordinaire), he appears in stories by both of them and even found a lair in C-1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan.

Alright, I've been reading and skimming sections of Tegel Manor and have concluded there are two ways of running it: Option 1 would be the "Million Ways to Die" version, and Option 2 would be the "Old School but still New School" version.

While some areas are, let us say, consistent in terms of challenge, large swaths are all over the place. For 1, I don't touch a thing. The deaths are part of the fun as "bad endings" are in some types of games. Replacement characters get boons.

For 2, I leave the smooth areas alone and smooth out the other areas. I will institute a policy of modern level design. Replacement characters will still get boons.

For me, it's a question of expectation. If you have the right expectation, both versions can be relished.

I would like for you to PM me your thoughts and preferences and then I will make a decision.

In reply to The Host (msg # 46):

I have read the Tsathoggua stories by both HPL and Smith, thanks partly to my father's library and partly to being around for the Ballentine Fantasy series. I had not known he was in C-1.

I will PM on my preference on the rules.

Smith being the superior writer in so many respects.

Wizards can acquire their first 4 1st-level spells in the standard manner (Read Magic, 1 chosen, 2 random). They can choose any spell. I was working off some misinformation from another game.

TY! It did sound weirdly restrictive but I wasn't going to argue; that's not a profile I want to foster.
I just assumed there was a reason for it.

TY for that relaxation

I don't consider such concerns to be argumentative in nature. I need a collaborative approach to these rules.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:44, Tue 19 Apr 2022.