This has been a really interesting way to recruit- it’s almost like an open session zero rather than signups
Yes indeed it was an experiment (I've never tried anything like this - never having recruited before) but I'm happy with how it's turning out! It's very fascinating to choose between characters that you already begin to see in action firsthand.
I was just organizing files in the D&D folder and found a writeup I did as a 'origin/backstory' for a character around the Triboar area waaaaaay back in 2018 !!! Now I wish I had discovered it before making Tarysaa, however, the amount of time cleaning all the cobwebs... Tarysaa was quicker. :D
BIG QUESTION: Do you want more 'zero session exposition' from characters or should we all hold while you decide who you want as PCs, etc.?
I ask because I do not wish to post something that screws up the flow for others as they join the chaos. :D
Always happy to pass on a tip if you hadn't found this yet.
The automatic dice roller is in the line of icons above the box where you type these replies. It's the second button from the right, the one that looks like a six-sided die you've just rolled a 3 on. When you click it, it gives you a menu with 3 tabs corresponding to the types of dice rolls you might want to include in a post: "Basic" (lets you pick any individual dice and set parameters for rolling extra and dropping one or more, for bonuses and penalities, maybe a couple other things); "Combat" (haven't tried that one yet), and much the most to the point here, "Abilities", which will automatically put in 6 rolls of 4d6 drop lowest, and you can set an option to reroll ones never, once or always depending on your DMs policy on that.
Also, as I think has been already mentioned, you want to put the abilities in a separate post first and then hit the "Quote" button underneath that post once it goes through. That will put those dice rolls into a quote box which will protect them from being rerolled when you edit the post -- they don't always, but if you haven't protected them in a quote box there's always a chance each time you edit that it will, and that will flag the whole post with a warning that "This post may have potentially manipulated dice results"
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Famh Thrawn Fiadhaich - 'half elven' sorcerer (wild magic) 2, Sleeping Gods - A Dragon Warriors campaign in the Lands of Legend
Quspira Inirali - tiefling cleric (Life domain) 4, Painted's "He'll be the father of my child"
Antar al'Barmeqi - goblin warlock (The Genie: Marid) 1, THE MOON OF THORNS
Sae Ivui Nailo - wood elf rogue (inquisitive) 5 - Sea of Death: Captain Hailstorm's Lost Treasure
Theris Dionte, shadar-kai rogue 1, Born of Stormmount
Actually the funny thing is, in the very earliest D&D there WAS no good / evil component, just law / neutrality / chaos; and chaos was assumed to be synonymous with evil because the alignment system in those days was basically lifted whole from the writings of Michael Moorcock, where the Chaotics were in fact the bad guys or at best the environment the antihero Elric of Melnibone was born in and kept trying to escape.
===========
Oh dear, here I go nattering on in the thread some more LOL
Actually the funny thing is, in the very earliest D&D there WAS no good / evil component, just law / neutrality / chaos; and chaos was assumed to be synonymous with evil because the alignment system in those days was basically lifted whole from the writings of Michael Moorcock, where the Chaotics were in fact the bad guys or at best the environment the antihero Elric of Melnibone was born in and kept trying to escape.
===========
Oh dear, here I go nattering on in the thread some more LOL
Yes, the first edition! I'm old experienced enough to have played it and yes, there was only the chaos/law axis at the time - but I did not know it was because of Moorcock's Elric! Are you sure? Really fascinating...
"Farewell friend. I was a thousand times more evil than thou"
Thick black hair framing a face with high cheekbones and a narrow chin, piercing naturally smokey eyes that appear deep set in her face. Her gaunt face seems at odds with her well-built athletic body, almost as if her head is too small for her body. She is tall at 5' 9" and has a sturdy athletic posture. Her skin has a faint reddish tint that betrays her tiefling heritage, but could be mistaken for a deep tan in poor light. Her horns have been trimmed very short and are typically hidden by her hair, although when her hair is wet, the horns are apparent.
She wears chainmail and has several weapons and a shield attached to her back, a well-equipped warrior.
BACKSTORY:
Ardana and her brother Ar are the bastard children of a daughter of a noble house, not on the line of succession. Her father was some sort of fiend, otherwise nothing really is known of him, and their mother died in childbirth. Their great grandmother was the only member of the family to show them real affection, but they did have the benefit of a noble upbringing, education and training. Their tails/horns were trimmed very early and are only short nubs now, the family in general does not like to acknowledge their heritage. Her current feelings about her horns is that she is happy to hide their existence, she is faintly ashamed of her background, but is trying to come to acceptance of it. In time she will feel less need to hide.
Despite being twins, she is the opposite of Ar. While Ar is outgoing, intelligent, seductive, and ambitious, Ardana is introspective, quiet, and eschews romantic relationships. Ar's romantic conquests started early and often, and as a result Ar and Ardana were both exiled when they reached the age of 21. While Ardana adores her brother, for Ar people including Ardana are only a means to an end, that end being power. They went their separate ways when they left home, Ardana has been travelling, adventuring, and helping people ever since. She has a kindly heart, but is still exploring and discovering her place in the world. She isn't in Longsaddle for any particular reason, she is travelling the country searching for her own path in the world.
STATS ( POINT BUY / ROLL ): Point Buy, 15/12/13/10/12/14
Ardana has been travelling for months after leaving home. She has taken a few caravan escort gigs but no permanent job. The caravan she was guarding had stopped when she saw a notice on the sign for Longsaddle saying that help was urgently needed. Maybe this was a way to use her skills to help someone who actually needed her help. Suddenly she tired of mercenary work and petitioned her employer for release of her contract, and left the caravan to journey to Longsaddle. Now is her chance to do good in the world.
Actually the funny thing is, in the very earliest D&D there WAS no good / evil component, just law / neutrality / chaos; and chaos was assumed to be synonymous with evil because the alignment system in those days was basically lifted whole from the writings of Michael Moorcock, where the Chaotics were in fact the bad guys or at best the environment the antihero Elric of Melnibone was born in and kept trying to escape.
===========
Oh dear, here I go nattering on in the thread some more LOL
Yes, the first edition! I'm old experienced enough to have played it and yes, there was only the chaos/law axis at the time - but I did not know it was because of Moorcock's Elric! Are you sure? Really fascinating...
"Farewell friend. I was a thousand times more evil than thou"
That's what I'd always understood, but I don't remember now what my sources were for that.
Were you in on the earliest earliest set, the red boxed one where there weren't even any rules to adventure outside?\, and dwarf elf and halfling. were CLASSES rather than races?
You can bet! And a fan of the elf 'class' to boot, because of my love for arcane warrior types. Always been really, really unconvinced of that weird initial choice to make them 'classes' - but, hey, it still was an awesome game.
First edition was so incredibly complete... I mean, it guided you through your career from unskilled young adventurer to 'immortal' status ( = godhood)! And that was still not the end, for there were 'immortal' quests too!
Only, well, a bit too challenging in my opinion. Really too easy to die. But still, incredibly rich product - even with its limits, it always gave me the feeling of a product developed with love.
You bet! And a fan of the elf 'class' to boot, because of my love for arcane warrior types. Always been really, really unconvinced of that weird initial choice to make them 'classes' - but, hey, it still was an awesome game.
First edition was so incredibly complete... I mean, it guided you through your career from unskilled young adventurer to 'immortal' status ( = godhood)! And that was still not the end, for there were 'immortal' quests too!
Only, well, a bit too challenging in my opinion. Really too easy to die. But still, incredibly rich product - even with its limits, it always gave me the feeling of a product developed with love.
But But But.... you could walk around the town and kick stray dogs to level up!
1e... we really did have a person's character going around taking out stray dogs. He only needed 5 or so XP to make it to level 2. He claimed it was to keep down wandering vermin... until a pack of wild, stray dogs chased him through town. He DID get his XP and (hopefully) learned a lesson.
1e... we really did have a person's character going around taking out stray dogs. He only needed 5 or so XP to make it to level 2. He claimed it was to keep down wandering vermin... until a pack of wild, stray dogs chased him through town. He DID get his XP and (hopefully) learned a lesson.
Lol! It could have been even worse for him... maybe being chased by 101 enemies... 😉
1e... we really did have a person's character going around taking out stray dogs. He only needed 5 or so XP to make it to level 2. He claimed it was to keep down wandering vermin... until a pack of wild, stray dogs chased him through town. He DID get his XP and (hopefully) learned a lesson.
Lol! It could have been even worse for him... maybe being chased by 101 enemies... 😉
lol... can you imagine the tavern talk about how some level 1 adventurer got taken down by a pack of cuddley puppers?
You can bet! And a fan of the elf 'class' to boot, because of my love for arcane warrior types. Always been really, really unconvinced of that weird initial choice to make them 'classes' - but, hey, it still was an awesome game.
First edition was so incredibly complete... I mean, it guided you through your career from unskilled young adventurer to 'immortal' status ( = godhood)! And that was still not the end, for there were 'immortal' quests too!
Only, well, a bit too challenging in my opinion. Really too easy to die. But still, incredibly rich product - even with its limits, it always gave me the feeling of a product developed with love.
Here is an article / link that uses the white board and red yarn to show nearly all the 'influences' on how D&D ended up with the Order (Law) vs Chaos (Evil) concept.
I was just organizing files in the D&D folder and found a writeup I did as a 'origin/backstory' for a character around the Triboar area waaaaaay back in 2018 !!! Now I wish I had discovered it before making Tarysaa, however, the amount of time cleaning all the cobwebs... Tarysaa was quicker. :D
BIG QUESTION: Do you want more 'zero session exposition' from characters or should we all hold while you decide who you want as PCs, etc.?
I ask because I do not wish to post something that screws up the flow for others as they join the chaos. :D
/roll
Always happy to pass on a tip if you hadn't found this yet.
The automatic dice roller is in the line of icons above the box where you type these replies. It's the second button from the right, the one that looks like a six-sided die you've just rolled a 3 on. When you click it, it gives you a menu with 3 tabs corresponding to the types of dice rolls you might want to include in a post: "Basic" (lets you pick any individual dice and set parameters for rolling extra and dropping one or more, for bonuses and penalities, maybe a couple other things); "Combat" (haven't tried that one yet), and much the most to the point here, "Abilities", which will automatically put in 6 rolls of 4d6 drop lowest, and you can set an option to reroll ones never, once or always depending on your DMs policy on that.
Also, as I think has been already mentioned, you want to put the abilities in a separate post first and then hit the "Quote" button underneath that post once it goes through. That will put those dice rolls into a quote box which will protect them from being rerolled when you edit the post -- they don't always, but if you haven't protected them in a quote box there's always a chance each time you edit that it will, and that will flag the whole post with a warning that "This post may have potentially manipulated dice results"
Famh Thrawn Fiadhaich - 'half elven' sorcerer (wild magic) 2, Sleeping Gods - A Dragon Warriors campaign in the Lands of Legend
Quspira Inirali - tiefling cleric (Life domain) 4, Painted's "He'll be the father of my child"
Antar al'Barmeqi - goblin warlock (The Genie: Marid) 1, THE MOON OF THORNS
Sae Ivui Nailo - wood elf rogue (inquisitive) 5 - Sea of Death: Captain Hailstorm's Lost Treasure
Theris Dionte, shadar-kai rogue 1, Born of Stormmount
No need for more exposition, thank you... What you already posted is enough to get the idea. 😀
Wait.
Chaos is a bad thing?
News to me .. (LOL)
Famh Thrawn Fiadhaich - 'half elven' sorcerer (wild magic) 2, Sleeping Gods - A Dragon Warriors campaign in the Lands of Legend
Quspira Inirali - tiefling cleric (Life domain) 4, Painted's "He'll be the father of my child"
Antar al'Barmeqi - goblin warlock (The Genie: Marid) 1, THE MOON OF THORNS
Sae Ivui Nailo - wood elf rogue (inquisitive) 5 - Sea of Death: Captain Hailstorm's Lost Treasure
Theris Dionte, shadar-kai rogue 1, Born of Stormmount
Chaos is too chaotic to be defined as a good or bad thing 😉
I thought it was just on a different part of the alignment axis 😁
⚖️-🌪️/😇-😈
Actually the funny thing is, in the very earliest D&D there WAS no good / evil component, just law / neutrality / chaos; and chaos was assumed to be synonymous with evil because the alignment system in those days was basically lifted whole from the writings of Michael Moorcock, where the Chaotics were in fact the bad guys or at best the environment the antihero Elric of Melnibone was born in and kept trying to escape.
===========
Oh dear, here I go nattering on in the thread some more LOL
Famh Thrawn Fiadhaich - 'half elven' sorcerer (wild magic) 2, Sleeping Gods - A Dragon Warriors campaign in the Lands of Legend
Quspira Inirali - tiefling cleric (Life domain) 4, Painted's "He'll be the father of my child"
Antar al'Barmeqi - goblin warlock (The Genie: Marid) 1, THE MOON OF THORNS
Sae Ivui Nailo - wood elf rogue (inquisitive) 5 - Sea of Death: Captain Hailstorm's Lost Treasure
Theris Dionte, shadar-kai rogue 1, Born of Stormmount
Yes, the first edition! I'm
oldexperienced enough to have played it and yes, there was only the chaos/law axis at the time - but I did not know it was because of Moorcock's Elric! Are you sure? Really fascinating..."Farewell friend. I was a thousand times more evil than thou"
CHARACTER NAME: Ardana
RACE: Tiefling
CLASS: Paladin
Description:
Thick black hair framing a face with high cheekbones and a narrow chin, piercing naturally smokey eyes that appear deep set in her face. Her gaunt face seems at odds with her well-built athletic body, almost as if her head is too small for her body. She is tall at 5' 9" and has a sturdy athletic posture. Her skin has a faint reddish tint that betrays her tiefling heritage, but could be mistaken for a deep tan in poor light. Her horns have been trimmed very short and are typically hidden by her hair, although when her hair is wet, the horns are apparent.
She wears chainmail and has several weapons and a shield attached to her back, a well-equipped warrior.
BACKSTORY:
Ardana and her brother Ar are the bastard children of a daughter of a noble house, not on the line of succession. Her father was some sort of fiend, otherwise nothing really is known of him, and their mother died in childbirth. Their great grandmother was the only member of the family to show them real affection, but they did have the benefit of a noble upbringing, education and training. Their tails/horns were trimmed very early and are only short nubs now, the family in general does not like to acknowledge their heritage. Her current feelings about her horns is that she is happy to hide their existence, she is faintly ashamed of her background, but is trying to come to acceptance of it. In time she will feel less need to hide.
Despite being twins, she is the opposite of Ar. While Ar is outgoing, intelligent, seductive, and ambitious, Ardana is introspective, quiet, and eschews romantic relationships. Ar's romantic conquests started early and often, and as a result Ar and Ardana were both exiled when they reached the age of 21. While Ardana adores her brother, for Ar people including Ardana are only a means to an end, that end being power. They went their separate ways when they left home, Ardana has been travelling, adventuring, and helping people ever since. She has a kindly heart, but is still exploring and discovering her place in the world. She isn't in Longsaddle for any particular reason, she is travelling the country searching for her own path in the world.
STATS ( POINT BUY / ROLL ): Point Buy, 15/12/13/10/12/14
CHARACTER SHEET: https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/102714936
TIMEZONE ( OPTIONAL ): US West Coast
Coming to Longsaddle:
Ardana has been travelling for months after leaving home. She has taken a few caravan escort gigs but no permanent job. The caravan she was guarding had stopped when she saw a notice on the sign for Longsaddle saying that help was urgently needed. Maybe this was a way to use her skills to help someone who actually needed her help. Suddenly she tired of mercenary work and petitioned her employer for release of her contract, and left the caravan to journey to Longsaddle. Now is her chance to do good in the world.
That's what I'd always understood, but I don't remember now what my sources were for that.
Were you in on the earliest earliest set, the red boxed one where there weren't even any rules to adventure outside?\, and dwarf elf and halfling. were CLASSES rather than races?
Famh Thrawn Fiadhaich - 'half elven' sorcerer (wild magic) 2, Sleeping Gods - A Dragon Warriors campaign in the Lands of Legend
Quspira Inirali - tiefling cleric (Life domain) 4, Painted's "He'll be the father of my child"
Antar al'Barmeqi - goblin warlock (The Genie: Marid) 1, THE MOON OF THORNS
Sae Ivui Nailo - wood elf rogue (inquisitive) 5 - Sea of Death: Captain Hailstorm's Lost Treasure
Theris Dionte, shadar-kai rogue 1, Born of Stormmount
You can bet! And a fan of the elf 'class' to boot, because of my love for arcane warrior types. Always been really, really unconvinced of that weird initial choice to make them 'classes' - but, hey, it still was an awesome game.
First edition was so incredibly complete... I mean, it guided you through your career from unskilled young adventurer to 'immortal' status ( = godhood)! And that was still not the end, for there were 'immortal' quests too!
Only, well, a bit too challenging in my opinion. Really too easy to die. But still, incredibly rich product - even with its limits, it always gave me the feeling of a product developed with love.
But But But.... you could walk around the town and kick stray dogs to level up!
And what fun would have you had with that? Not to mention you are going to run out of stray dogs, sooner or later 😉
Will we be using milestones or XP to level up?
Milestone; you'll level up to 2 and 3 during the quest and finally to 4 by completing it.
1e... we really did have a person's character going around taking out stray dogs. He only needed 5 or so XP to make it to level 2. He claimed it was to keep down wandering vermin... until a pack of wild, stray dogs chased him through town. He DID get his XP and (hopefully) learned a lesson.
Lol! It could have been even worse for him... maybe being chased by 101 enemies... 😉
lol... can you imagine the tavern talk about how some level 1 adventurer got taken down by a pack of cuddley puppers?
Here is an article / link that uses the white board and red yarn to show nearly all the 'influences' on how D&D ended up with the Order (Law) vs Chaos (Evil) concept.
https://nerdsonearth.com/2018/02/tolkien-alignment-system-of-dnd/
Tolkien, Science Fiction / Fantasy writers from the Golden Age, Moorcock, and more!