OOC - Character Workshop

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Graybeard
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Re: OOC - Character Workshop

Post by Graybeard »

Imp-Chan wrote:Erm... there's no evidence of either were-people or tigers in the Errant Story universe, and I can't see it happening in this magic system, either. I could see someone choosing to look like a tiger (assuming they exist) using deliberate polymorph magic, though that doesn't fit with the idea of learning only simple magics. We have a lot of mages and gunslingers already, so the idea of someone who is more apt to use genuine stealth and poison is a good one.
Thanks. I was going to say something similar, but you did a better job of it than I would have. Of course, who knows what weirdness exists in the Northern Confederacy...
Imp-Chan wrote:Mostly there hasn't been any mention of Nobles, either, although one can plainly see that there are class divisions still present. There was, at one point, a princess or something that went missing, but that was hundreds of years before the story takes place (I think), and now the major players are Veracia (a theocracy... church officials are the closest to a noble class), Farrel (libertarian, again no nobles), and Tsuiraku (which MIGHT have nobles and does have officials, but we haven't seen anybody named as a noble).
Yes and no. This analysis looks accurate and sufficient as regards the big countries. A few other odds and ends:
  • The Northern Confederacy has been described as "feudal," although I can't find a reference. Feudal societies tend to develop something like a noble class, whether they're called nobles or not.
  • Meji called the extinct Lorenzel a "kingdom."
  • The elves clearly get the concept of nobility, at least in a titular sense. Renane, the scribe-underling that Sarine encounters on her first visit back to Praenubilus Astu, calls her "my lady," and uses the same term for whoever dismisses her from the earlier tete-a-tete.
  • The play "An Elf Princess in Farrel" has been around for a while, but even uncultured Farrelians like Jon get the idea, so the concept is out there even if the nobility is not.
I don't think it's out of the question that societies involving noble classes might exist in terra incognita, even though they're not obvious in human societies that are definitely in-story. Anyway, your point that this proposed character might require a little amendment to conform to the Poe-verse is sound.
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LordofNightmares
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Re: OOC - Character Workshop

Post by LordofNightmares »

Imp-Chan wrote:Erm... there's no evidence of either were-people or tigers in the Errant Story universe, and I can't see it happening in this magic system, either. I could see someone choosing to look like a tiger (assuming they exist) using deliberate polymorph magic, though that doesn't fit with the idea of learning only simple magics.
As I see it a Were-person is more of a magical mutation, but I do agree with you there on the magic system. When the Errants went mad there was a lot of Magical energy released in a short amount of time in those lost cites, and Old magic tends to stick around in areas where the mage was killed or was released in large amounts just like a A-Bomb on earth leaves radiation for hundreds of years, Magic seams to do so as well especially around Key Lines and Nexus points.
But I would like a better description of the magical system. So I can better get the system and know if were/lycan are possible or not.
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Re: OOC - Character Workshop

Post by Imp-Chan »

I'd actually checked with Poe before posting this morning, he says no weres, but I was trying to find something that would allow for a viable workaround. To be honest polymorph is a stretch.

Also... I don't know that we've seen evidence of magic pooling, there's been no mention of ley lines, and the Errants did not go mad all at once so there's no reason to assume a release of magical energy from that or from their subsequent war-induced deaths. I know these are common magical assumptions in other RPGs and in other systems, but we're trying really hard in this game to ignore those kinds of assumptions in favor of what fits with the knowledge we have gleaned from this specific story.

Sorry.

-_-'
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LordofNightmares
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Re: OOC - Character Workshop

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Thank you for the info now I can at least know the extent of the magical system. Well time to use the will of the macro verse and reset her =^.^=.
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Re: OOC - Character Workshop

Post by Viking-Sensei »

Right, how about this... a race of wild humans, savages almost on rival to the trolls, who perform a ritual on their young to determine their spirit animal using a "bonding" talisman (an object statically charged with a polymorph spell, like the pocket-dimension bags or Lucas' Glamor-smokes) activated by the latent magic of the wearer to give them a semi-enhanced form similar to a were-creature.
The talisman is an artifact of the once great-and-glorious Elven/Human civilization in it's golden era, and was concocted originally as a party-game sort of thing, a "which 'spirit animal' do you have" sort of thing... The spell inside the talisman was only meant to be used on the incredibly short-term due to the deterious effects of long-term exposure to the low-level polymorphic field... unfortunately, nobody ever explained that to 6-year-old Tsubasa, who was kidnapped by the slavers during her spirit-animal-finding-ritual. Because she is still wearing the talisman (being one of the only heirlooms that she has of her former life), she's more-or-less grafted the polymorphic magic onto her own natural body template and has been blessed/cursed with the ability to occasionally take on some of the more animalistic aspects of her spirit-animal during times of stress.

That has some of the distinctive features of the Poe-verse (ritual, magic, body change, magically activated items, bitter irony triggered by an "if only you knew better then, when it would have helped you" realization) and lets you have a were-ish person in the Poe-verse.
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Jacobus
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Re: OOC - Character Workshop

Post by Jacobus »

Heya. Gonna bounce some ideas off people. See how my concept is.

Concept: A tribesman. In DnD terms would be a half orc or something along those lines. Basically just a hunter/warrior who has left his tribe for some reason. (I am thinking they were wiped out) And is now traveling the world as a muscle for hire. Has an assortment of "archaic" weapons. Probably axes, knives, and a bow. More on those later though.
I just need to know if such tribes of "barbarians" exist in the world. And such.
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Re: OOC - Character Workshop

Post by LordofNightmares »

There might be but I never heard of any when reading ES but Impy , GB, or Viking might know more.
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Graybeard
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Re: OOC - Character Workshop

Post by Graybeard »

Jacobus wrote:Heya. Gonna bounce some ideas off people. See how my concept is.

Concept: A tribesman. In DnD terms would be a half orc or something along those lines. Basically just a hunter/warrior who has left his tribe for some reason. (I am thinking they were wiped out) And is now traveling the world as a muscle for hire. Has an assortment of "archaic" weapons. Probably axes, knives, and a bow. More on those later though.
I just need to know if such tribes of "barbarians" exist in the world. And such.
What you're describing is actually fairly close to my character Grope, a troll long separated from his tribe (although on the way back to them at the moment, for reasons that will eventually become clear) and more of an "explorer" than hired muscle. There's surely room for another troll or two.

A couple of recommendations: first, don't think of things "in DnD terms." This isn't DnD, it's the Poe-verse, which is better. ;) Second, rather than being wedded to a particular character concept, think of what might produce interesting interactions with other players and NPCs in the settings of Kiyoka, Port Lorrel, and wherever else gets developed. With the action in those two places and the surrounding countryside (Tsuiraku and Farrel, respectively) for the foreseeable future, it may be difficult to work a real "tribesman" into the story lines. If the action veers to the Northern Confederacy or Anuban Colonies (wherever they are), it would probably be less so, but that's likely some time in the future. Something that might work is a half troll who's ostracized by both trolls and humans and thus fated to move on the fringes of polite society; we have it on good authority that such a character is possible. You'll still have to solve the problem of how to interact with other players, but it's probably tractable.

Third, suggest you take a good look at the Heretic Knowledge Vault, particularly the articles on countries (Farrel, Tsuiraku, Veracia, Northern Confederacy); those might give you some ideas for starting points. Maybe your character could come from the long-lost city-kingdom of Lorenzel?...
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Re: OOC - Character Workshop

Post by Jacobus »

Thanks Graybeard. And ok, I will rephrase think of say . . . A native american hunter. Does that sit a bit better? And at this stage I was not willing to say "half-troll" when I wasn't sure if it was possible. All of which are interesting ideas.
Something I have been pondering: How does everyone view bows? Obsolete compared to guns? Or is it a bit like in westerns, where they are just as good, if not better depending on the situation?
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Re: OOC - Character Workshop

Post by Graybeard »

Jacobus wrote:Thanks Graybeard. And ok, I will rephrase think of say . . . A native american hunter. Does that sit a bit better? And at this stage I was not willing to say "half-troll" when I wasn't sure if it was possible. All of which are interesting ideas.
I think it can be reasonably assumed that there are places in the Poe-verse that are inhabited by such people. However, there are also places in our own world with such people, and they don't wear loincloths and carry blowguns when they come to the city; they wear what the city people wear, and do what the city people do -- with unique cultural quirks resulting from who they are. In their homelands, they may very well comport themselves very differently than when in the city. But they don't act like "savages" (sic) when they're in town, or at least, no more so than anyone else does.

I'm playing the most "uncivilized" character of anyone now going in this, in Grope. In some regards he's a pain, because his opportunities to interact with the rest of the characters are limited while they're in an urban environment. A troll cannot assimilate fully into a culture that is terrified of trolls. I am accordingly forced to go it alone, at least until everyone else reaches a setting that's more conducive to a 9-foot-tall, shamanistic hunter. In my personal case that's not a problem; Grope and I can wing it solo for a while, and since I'm also helping construct the BBEG via a series of NPCs (some of them very well developed), I still have plenty of stuff to do. But there are definite challenges to a character falling well outside the local social norms. If you don't mind chafing under those challenges, fine, construct the character however you want to, but be aware that the challenges exist.
Jacobus wrote:Something I have been pondering: How does everyone view bows? Obsolete compared to guns? Or is it a bit like in westerns, where they are just as good, if not better depending on the situation?
Bows, guns, crossbows, blowguns, rocket launchers, giant magical slingshots -- whatever. The important thing is what the character is like.
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