Hey GM...

Regarding Sophia's first Trio-Aspect...

I've been giving some thought to my character and I want to change my Aspects.  Rather than
Wine and Children Tell the Truth, I want to embrace the fundamental conflict at the base of Sophia's character.  So... Let's replace that with:

Dissonance Demands Disruption
Invoke: the take action, to right wrongs, to cleave to her view of what's "right"
Compel: to force her to moral outrage, to see imbalance whether there is or no, to stir shit up!
This is, ultimately a variation on "Strong Moral Compass".  When she sees situations that are just out-of-whack, she gets emotionally involved.  She can't leave a whacked-out situation alone... She just has to get involved.  Towering arrogance to think she knows what's best?  Oh, hell yeah, definitely.

Great (+4): Lore
Good (+3): Empathy, Investigate
Fair (+2): Notice, Will, Rapport
Average (+1): Contacts, Crafts, Resources, Stealth

High Concept: The Wisest Man in Urcadia. Chiatracles is a natural philosopher who has spent his long life studying the world and reading the works of all the great thinkers who came before him. As a result, he has a great store of knowledge that sometimes seems to verge on the magical.

Trouble: An Age of Fear and Superstition. Chiatracles was driven from Urcadia by his enemies, who accused him of trafficking in matters that belonged to the gods and leading the city-state's youth astray. To his sorrow, he has found that other places are much the same - everyone fears a man who seems to know more than he should, and are quick to blame him for any stroke of ill fortune.

Aspect: Honesty Is Its Own Reward. On his wanderings, Chiatracles came to a village where all the children of a certain family were always ill and nothing seemed to help them. Performing a thorough investigation, Chiatracles discovered that the children's mother had been poisoning their food for years. Though the woman begged, bribed and threatened him to keep her secret, he announced it to the villagers. However, the villagers refused to believe that any mother could do something so terrible and instead chose to believe that Chiatracles was a wicked sorcerer who was himself the cause of the children's illness, and they drove him off in a hail of rocks and curses.

Aspect: A Sympathetic Ear. During the early days of her courtship with Anemia, Katerina sought the advice of wise Chiatracles on whether she should truly pursue an affair with someone so much lower than herself in station. Chiatracles councilled her to follow her heart. This meddling in the royal family matters might later have played a role in his banishment.

Stunt: A Lifetime of Study. Chiatracles has spent his life reading, experimenting and learning. You can spend a fate point to use Lore in place of any other skill for one roll or exchange, provided you can justify having once made an academic study of the action attempted.

Stunt: Wise Councillor. Chiatracles' sagely advice can set a troubled soul at ease. Once per session you can reduce someone else’s consequence by one level of severity (severe to moderate, moderate to mild, mild to nothing at all) by succeeding on an Empathy roll with a difficulty of Fair (+2) for a mild consequence, Good (+3) for moderate, or Great (+4) for severe. You need to talk with the person you’re treating for at least half an hour in order for them to receive the benefits of this stunt, and you can’t use it on yourself. (Normally, this roll would only start the recovery process, instead of changing the consequence level.)

Stunt: See the Truth of Things. Chiatracles' insights into a situation can border on the uncanny. Once per scene you can spend a fate point (and a few minutes of observation) to make a special Investigate roll representing your potent deductive faculties. For each shift you make on this roll you discover or create an aspect, on either the scene or the target of your observations, though you may only invoke one of them for free.

When Sophia decided to deal with the gluttonous father, she went to Chiatracles for help. He provided her with herbs that would make the wine and meat even more intoxicating, making it easier to extract his confession.

Aspect: Master of Potions

Chiatracles
The Gluttonous Father was a riff on Erysichthon of Thessaly.

I would just love if he should appear later on in the game.

---

Katerina
What kind of relationship do you envision or want between Katerina and Sophia?



There's a few things that this introduces into the narrative of the setting.

• Some nobles organized an attack on the Cult of Harmony suggests that there is a high level of religious intolerance in this setting.
• Such religious intolerance has led to the local militia being used to push an agenda of religious persecution and "extermination".
• Katerina has met with Sophia in the past
• Katerina has delivered "heavy injuries" to Sophia

I want to reiterate that I'm using the term "cult" to mean "not a formal religious organization"... I'm not looking for the sinister connotations of the word "cult" by today's standards.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:11, Fri 05 Aug 2022.

So, first round looked like this:

Chia-->Kat
Kate-->Soph
Soph-->Saul
Saul-->Kat

Second round looks like this so far:

Chia-->Soph
Soph-->Chia

This means that Chiatracles hasn't had anybody tie in to his story, and Katerina and Sophia have both had two connections.  With only four active players, we're already all in each other's stories.  Except Chia and Saul.  They currently have no connection between them.

PC:   Active         Passive
Chia: Kate  Soph     Soph   --
Kate: Soph  --       Chia  Saul
Soph: Saul  Chia     Chia  Kate
Saul: Kate  --       Soph  --

So, ideally,
Saulas would put something in Chiatracles story, and
Katerina would put something in Saulas Story


----

Chiatracles  The Wisest Man in Urcadia
                  An Age of Fear and Superstition
                  Honesty Is Its Own Reward
                  A Sympathetic Ear (Katerina)
                  Master of Potions (Sophia)

Katerina      Greatest Warrior In The Making
                  Estranged Father
                  I Will Always Be Here For You
                  Arbiter of a Witch Hunt (Sophia)
                  As Yet Undefined

Saulas        Magical child of Nature
                  A man with a price on his head
                  Kindness is good for the soul
                  Everybody should be free to love and live as they wish (Katerina)
                  As Yet Undefined

Sophia        Huntress on the Path of Harmony
                  Prophecies of Peril and Praise
                  Dissonance Demands Disruption
                  Silver-Tongued Storyteller (Saulus)
                  Mother Green: Fostered to the Forest (Chiatracles)

I was planning on doing this anyway.  Hope to post in weekend.  So this is find with me.

Hey GM!

Can you please enable to RPOL Character so I have some place to consolidate all my information? and where I can make personal notes that only you and I can see?

In the mean-time, here's where Sophia Stands:
.
I'm still dickering around with skill, ranks.

Name: Sophia

Stress & Consequences
Refresh: 3/3, Physical: [1][2][3], Mental: [1][2], Consequences [2][4][6]

Stunts:
Huntress on the Path of Harmony
Prophecies of Peril and Praise,
Dissonance Demands Disruption,
Silver-Tongued Storyteller,
Mother Green: Fostered By the Forest

Skills:
+4: Notice,
+3: Athletics, Deceive,
+2: Empathy, Rapport, Shoot,
+1: Fight, Lore, Physique, Provoke,
+0: Burglary, Contacts, Crafts, Drive, Investigate, Resources, Stealth, Will

Stunts:
Visions of the Future
(Justified by Prophecies of Peril & Praise)
Once per session, you may ask the GM a question about future events, the likely outcomes of your actions, or any other information you can only access through seeing the future. The GM must answer as honestly as possible, but should be vague..

Danger Sense (FC p117)
You have an almost preternatural capacity for detecting danger. Your Notice skill works unimpeded by conditions like total concealment, darkness, or other sensory impairments in situations where someone or something intends to harm you.

It's Just Creative Lying
Acting is just an advanced form of lying. Use the Deceive skill instead of Rapport when performing in an oratory fashion (acting, giving a speech, etc)

Eh, not much, Kate only spared you cause she believed that her job was finished. However, she also sees that what you do might bring peace. Though, I'd like to leave it up to you on what their relationship could be when they meet.

The Game will start on the road. You are traveling together, so It makes sense to flesh out your characters relationships particularly if they started out rocky.

Getting the feeling that poor Katerina is doomed to end up getting stuck in loads of problem coursed by Saulas however hard she tries to not to or however far she travels to get away from him.

In reply to Katerina (msg # 38):

Okay....

Being on the Path of Harmony does not mean Sophia is particularly nice nor forgiving.

From my perspective, there is a moral obligation for Sophia to balance the scales. This suggests an antagonistic relationship.

If you're not comfortable with this, we'll need to work out why Sophia doesn't harbor a grudge.

I can't really fathom why Sophia would -choose- to travel with a woman who almost killed her.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:57, Sat 06 Aug 2022.

I thought it was to be Saulas and Katerina what would have a grudge against each other but it seems otherwise.

Sophia can harbor a grudge.  In fact I think it would be good for the game.

You see Saulas tells Sophia not to kill his sort of fiancée.  That she has a lesson to learn here.
To learn the value of not always killing your enemy but finding a use for them to be alive.  That they can be useful.  That maybe enemies do not have to stay enemies for ever.

Remember Saulas is kind-hearted.  Killing someone is for him the last resort.  He is forgiving and does not hold grudges.  He could technically have grudge against Katerina (and she him) but does not.  He cares about her (Katerina note I use the word care and not love for a reason).  Saulas excepted her for who she is).

So poor Sophia is stuck with being with her.

What do you say player Sophia?
This message was last edited by the player at 22:18, Sat 06 Aug 2022.

Heh, I am fine with this. Being antagonistic or friendly is all fine and dandy to me.

Okay.  I think that there's potential for a character-arc for Sophia in this.

She'll forebear her vengeance out of respect for Saulas.  She likely won't be overtly mean or cruel, but definitely guarded and distant.  As to where she goes... so much will depend on the story.

Sorry. I didn't realize the character sheets weren't accessible.  I'm still new at this side of RPOL. Let me know if you're still having issues.

Just a passing note.

Normally in most game character sheet work but maybe in this game we should use Character Description.

The difference is anybody can see Character Description but only the player can see character sheet.
With character creation in this game more party based than player based it maybe useful to have most if not all the player character sheets open for everybody.

Just a thought.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:43, Sun 07 Aug 2022.

This makes sense.

In fate based games, I personally like using the character sheet as a private notepad that only myself and the GM can see.

I updated the public character sheets; please look them over to make sue I got it right.  Also let me know if the character sheets are working in your character details.  The public character sheet is mostly to help organize and so people know what aspects you can invoke.

I think we're just about ready, unfortunately, I'm going on a trip at the end of the week. It will only be a week, but it's right when we're getting started.  I'll try to check in when I can.  I'm hoping you can use the time to RP and build the character dynamic, which I feel is the heart of the game.

Hmm, so do we got a dynamic. I feel like we've got a feel for each other's characters. Maybe.

Hope the trip was fruitful!

Unfortunately, we're not really in a position to roleplay.   RPOL limits thread-creation to GMs only.   We depend on you to establish the scene...   If we are travelling together we need to know why: what we hope to accomplish by doing so (and by inference what's at stake if we don't).  Ultimately, this means that we're in  a holding pattern until you, our illustrious GM, lead us down that primrose path....


Re: Personal Sheets
Back in message #31 in this thread, I requested to change Both Wine and Children Speak the Truth for Dissonance Demands Disruption.  My RPOL character sheet is updated with these in place.  I've also got the full revised character sheet in Message #37.

If you have an issue with Dissonance Demands Disruption as an Aspect, let's please discuss.

In reply to Sophia (msg # 50):

I've updated you character sheet, and I linked your new aspect to the old narrative if that's ok.

I also started an IC thread.  I'll be back home by Sunday, so I can spend the time to really focus.

Sorry I'm a bit slow posting. I've got a lot of overtime this week. Thing should be back to normal next week.  I'll post the current scene later today, but I wanted to respond to someone's question so they can post.

PM

Sorry I haven't been around. Work got busy this week.

I am still here.  Sorry work and the sad passing of the much loved head of state of my country.
Being civil servant it has had an effect.  It just sad.

Anyway try to post over the weekend.