Post by Draxy on Oct 5, 2003 11:57:33 GMT -5
Welcome. What we are going to be striving for here is Role Playing without the all to usual ego gratification of "my character is the third son of Odin" or "ol' uncle Clem was the ancient red dragon Tharasuun" or "my character was acknowledged as the finest swordsman in three kingdoms before he was fifteen".
Also, NO starting magic items please! I'll provide the possibility of gaining those as they make sense.
The idea here is to build a character that can really be Role Played with. PC's ARE head and shoulders above the average, but they are not the gods that be. They have flaws as well as strengths and the good RPer can have as much fun with those as with the strengths. Don't ignore them.
Now, when designing your character, think above average, but signifigantly below maximum human stats. Also, think HUMAN. Few and far between are the RPers who can play an alien being (and yes, elves, dwarves and the like are alien beings) correctly. If you really want to, PM me about it ahead of time.
Too, think medium-low level. The equivalent of 3rd is about what we want. Think young and realtively poor: no sons, daughters or even distaff cousins of the local baron are wanted. Again, the ideas we stress are Role Play and challenge. If you can just buy or "connections" your way out of trouble, where is the challenge?
As this is free form, don't worry about drawing up character sheets, but do write up as vivd a description of your character as possible. Don't ignore the effects of family and up bringing on him/her. Give your character a richly developed background and you'll have a much easier time giving him/her a richly vivid life.
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The set up is simple. Taking the climate and society of northern England and southern Scotland (although this does NOT take place in a world that is like our own except in a superficial manner) as a model, you are from a small town or service village setting, and if you're magicly active you've been apprenticed until very recently to a local magi. Magic is sometimes feared, but generally acceptable for the most part with only the occasional lynching of a local "wonder worker". Magic items are exceedingly rare, except the simplier potions and the classical "love philthers" and such.
The religion in place is similiar to druidism but does not use tutleary gods. That is, there are no clerics of whomever. All of the priesthood are druids serving "mother nature" in a non-specific manner or are bards that serve as wisemen/wisewomen for the smaller of the communities.
Classic city setting theives are almost (but not quite) unknown. Sharpers and magsmen are far more common.
The common weapon and armor types are those of the societies mentioned BEFORE the Crusades. Thus, there are no crossbows and the Welsh longbow is all but unknown. There is no platemail and even full chainmail is very rarely seen. If you're familiar with the movie "Braveheart", they did a fairly good job of representing things as they were. Armor is more of a psychological advantage than a tactical one in battle.
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The starting locale is the village green (the area around the deep communal well) of Hammersdorf, a large service village that almost deserves to be called a "market town". It's the tag end of a wet and wild autumn and there was a very light snwfall the night before that has already been trudged into slush except in lightly travelled areas. It's almost noon of an overcast day and each of you seperately are either travellers seeking your fortunes or local people at your choice.
What I would like from each person who wants in, to start, is a short descriptive of who you are, what you look like and what your main life goals (if any) are at present. Internal dialogue is often useful for this type of thing, but feel free to create VERY MINOR npc#s to whom you might be talking and use their thoughts of what they see as descriptives.
Again, welcome aboard.
Draxy
Also, NO starting magic items please! I'll provide the possibility of gaining those as they make sense.
The idea here is to build a character that can really be Role Played with. PC's ARE head and shoulders above the average, but they are not the gods that be. They have flaws as well as strengths and the good RPer can have as much fun with those as with the strengths. Don't ignore them.
Now, when designing your character, think above average, but signifigantly below maximum human stats. Also, think HUMAN. Few and far between are the RPers who can play an alien being (and yes, elves, dwarves and the like are alien beings) correctly. If you really want to, PM me about it ahead of time.
Too, think medium-low level. The equivalent of 3rd is about what we want. Think young and realtively poor: no sons, daughters or even distaff cousins of the local baron are wanted. Again, the ideas we stress are Role Play and challenge. If you can just buy or "connections" your way out of trouble, where is the challenge?
As this is free form, don't worry about drawing up character sheets, but do write up as vivd a description of your character as possible. Don't ignore the effects of family and up bringing on him/her. Give your character a richly developed background and you'll have a much easier time giving him/her a richly vivid life.
_____________________________________
The set up is simple. Taking the climate and society of northern England and southern Scotland (although this does NOT take place in a world that is like our own except in a superficial manner) as a model, you are from a small town or service village setting, and if you're magicly active you've been apprenticed until very recently to a local magi. Magic is sometimes feared, but generally acceptable for the most part with only the occasional lynching of a local "wonder worker". Magic items are exceedingly rare, except the simplier potions and the classical "love philthers" and such.
The religion in place is similiar to druidism but does not use tutleary gods. That is, there are no clerics of whomever. All of the priesthood are druids serving "mother nature" in a non-specific manner or are bards that serve as wisemen/wisewomen for the smaller of the communities.
Classic city setting theives are almost (but not quite) unknown. Sharpers and magsmen are far more common.
The common weapon and armor types are those of the societies mentioned BEFORE the Crusades. Thus, there are no crossbows and the Welsh longbow is all but unknown. There is no platemail and even full chainmail is very rarely seen. If you're familiar with the movie "Braveheart", they did a fairly good job of representing things as they were. Armor is more of a psychological advantage than a tactical one in battle.
_____________________________________
The starting locale is the village green (the area around the deep communal well) of Hammersdorf, a large service village that almost deserves to be called a "market town". It's the tag end of a wet and wild autumn and there was a very light snwfall the night before that has already been trudged into slush except in lightly travelled areas. It's almost noon of an overcast day and each of you seperately are either travellers seeking your fortunes or local people at your choice.
What I would like from each person who wants in, to start, is a short descriptive of who you are, what you look like and what your main life goals (if any) are at present. Internal dialogue is often useful for this type of thing, but feel free to create VERY MINOR npc#s to whom you might be talking and use their thoughts of what they see as descriptives.
Again, welcome aboard.
Draxy