DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Hall of Fame - Latest Top 10 completed games HHE: The Haunted Helm OOC: The Table Pre-Game

Ty for the clarification on posting or not in the introduction thread. I was not sure.

OK, so you can start to see how your Icon rolls refine the story. I'm also trying to show how the benefit you get from a 5 or 6 can be varied.

Even where no 5 or 6 is rolled, like with Seyja, the One Unique Thing can be brought into play to make the adventure more personalised.

OK, so it looks like this adventure might not be about the Orc Lord, but that relationship is still in effect, and there may be points in an adventure where rolling more Icon dice is appropriate.

And as you've no doubt figured out, the Icons don't always represent themselves.

The Great Gold Wyrm doesn't appear to Weston and give him a quest. Rather his adherents, the Order of Averness do. The Diabolist doesn't visit D's rooms in person, to give him information about an enemy of the Black and a presumably useful potion. Her demonic messenger, Omen, does. Etc.

Interestingly, none of the situations, organisations, or NPCs even existed before your Icon rolls. They've been made to measure.

All done.

As I say, these preludes are anecdotes, don't take them as gospel. If there's something that doesn't sit right with you, then whoever told me the story must've got it wrong.

Another thing I'm trying to show here is 5's and relationship types.

Nestaron's 5 roll on a positive with the High Druid gets him a follower. A benefit, yes, but can also be a liability. Don't expect him to have immaculate social graces, for example.

Zoltan's 6 roll on a conflicted with the GGW. The Order hires him, payment up front, but it's for a job and they're giving him a minder (Weston).

Etc.

So, is everyone happy, anyone have any questions?

I am happy and loved mine. I think you pegged him nicely and the situation is intriguing. Lots of questions but all of them involve answers during play. So i am good to go.

Glad to hear it, Pandemonium.

For further clarification, the cities are noted on the official 13th Age map.

This Rosencliff place is probably on the south shore of Azure Bay, on the Sword Point.

The Kingdom of Meniscus is probably one of those islands along the coast, between Glitterhaegen and Shadowport.

So everyone's travelling in the same direction along the coast, essentially.

So, question on the Icon dice. Considering how it seems to play out why wouldn't you pick a single Icon to have a Positive Relationship with and then give that Icon all 3 points to get a +3 and three dice to try to roll a 5 or 6 with? And then have no Negative Icon relationships?

OK, first ... loving it so far <g>

Next, you said, "This Rosencliff place is probably on the south shore of Sword Point, in the Azure Bay." Geography on the map suggests that it is either 1.) on the =northern= shore of Sword Point ... =OR= ... 2.) it is in Pocket Bay <weg>

Zeim, I can talk to =some= of that from my discussions while I was sorting out my Icon relationships. FWIW, I have all my points in the Great Gold Wyrm. We talked about the pros and cons of being so 'one dimensional'. I was real close to taking a second, but could not convince myself that ... at least of the ones on the initial list ... any of the others 'spoke' to a part of Weston. If there had been a 'Tymora' like Icon, I would likely have taken a point in that one because the world is so ... random ... or something like that <g>

Finally, once we have finished up our 'assignments', where do we post or send them?

Yes, absolutely right, MikeD. I meant on the south shore of Azure Bay, which is indeed the north shore of Sword Point. I'll edit the above statement.

Btw, the Dragon Empire is actually quite small. About the size of the Habsburg Empire, so we're not talking Rome or China here.

And Zeim, as MikeD said it's all about whatever you want for your character.

Mechanically, you're just as likely to get a boon by taking one Icon at pos 3, as you are taking a variety. The big difference is what you want to inject into the story.

For example, often players like having at least a 1 neg Icon, so they always have a chance of tweaking the nose of their enemy (whilst gaining from it).

Yes, that's sado-masochistic in a manner of speaking, but still a lot of fun.

As for your checking of the character sheets, send those to my email address. i.e., My user name @leanerminds.com.

Entirely pleased with Seyja's intro. There are things I am not sure about, but I'm sure I can pick it up during gameplay.

Mildly curious as to whether Tindarion and Nestaron just met in the course of this most recent unfortunate event with the miners and the King's men. Gypsy, your thoughts? GM, did you have ideas about this? We can always back-fill of course, but wanted to figure out the right tone to set with my traveling companion...

Nope. The specifics are entirely up to you guys. Did they participate in the battle? How implicit they were in the revolt? How tight they are now? I have no idea... If that helps!

The orium mine would have been very important though. It made the island's ruling elite extremely rich, whilst simultaneously destroying the local environment, quality of life and future prospects of the common folk, as explained in the anecdote.

However, what is orium? We'll say its a potent ingredient in magical potions, oils and runes.

Exeter, there was a specific digital painting that inspired the Iron Skull.

<Shows everyone the Iron Skull image>

Ugh... impressive, but not loveable...

Well, he's a forgeborn, a sentient magical golem. I'm thinking he must serve the Orc Lord, either a paid merc or a loyal minion.

Makes sense to me...

It's another detail that I leave up to you.

And since it is up to you, there is certainly 'precedent' ... in anime, movies, comics and books ... that 'allow' a 'mere construct' to rebel against it's creators. For example, there are a couple of great movies based on the Frankenstein myth. One is "I Frankenstein" where the monster ends up having more of a conscience than any of the other so called 'heroes'. I cannot recall the title of the other, but it revolves around an 'enforcer' for the Catholic church hunting vampires. He runs into the monster ... who the evil vampires want to 'abuse' to infuse life into their offspring. He is a good person as well. Both are movies worth watching if you like that sort of thing <g>

Well, in the 13th AGE Rules website we've been using there is a PC class for Forgeborn. It wasn't listed by Neal as available, but it's there.

It is listed in the core rule book as well. I assumed the GM wanted to use them in some other way. In core they are a part of the dwarf race. But no reason why one couldn't have a forgeborn from other races too.

There were a couple of races not listed in the Game Forum PC Creation thread, such as Draconic, Forgeborn, Gearforged, Aasimar,and Tiefling. The DM offered me a Tiefling because of my background, but the others may be reserved for NPCs.

Dragonspawn, Aasimar, Forgeborn and Tiefling are in the 13th Age rule book as optional races. I wanted more of an old school flavour though, so ruled them out...

Since we didn't get any dwarves, half-orcs, halflings or gnomes though, I decided to spice things up by offering Zeim tiefling for his character, since it suited the concept more than wood elf.

Right, I'm working through everyone's character sheets, filling the blanks and checking the mechanics. So far I think everyone's had a few small corrections, as you'd expect, but nothing worth mentioning. Nothing that alters your concepts or how you play 'em, put it that way.

I've still got Gypsy, Khamsin and Owain's to do, and that will be the final pre-flight checks done.

Did anyone find anything particularly unexpected or interesting about their anecdote btw. If I know what hooks engage you the most, that's a greater chance of me following them up.

Will you let us know what the corrections were? I know I, for one, spent quite a bit of time cross-referencing the rules to try to hit everything properly. Like to know what I missed, if anything.

As for Zoltan's opening. Very nice. Went along the lines I expected, other than missing the flirting with "Miss Moneypenny" <g>.

I am intrigued by the Diabolist's involvement and the unknowns. The questions or mystery intrigue me. Why is pretty huge for this character.

I found mine very interesting. Looking forward to seeing how this all works out in play <g> So far, I am liking the system.

After reading what you wrote for Seyja, the thought that first crossed my mind was:

Twice now I have fled from you and your master, but never again.

Zeim. I haven't kept a changelog, but I'll be able to give you the gist of the corrections. As for Miss Coppercoin, I added a little extra implied impropriety at the end for you.

Pandemonium. Yes, I think D would have quite a journey of discovery ahead of him in a campaign! I think the Diabolist is also a fascinating Icon, since she consorts with demons, but believes they are playthings, slaves and servants, and is strongly opposed to the demon invasion. Does that make her a good kind of bad. (Well, unless you're a demon.)

Weston will certainly have an interesting ride-along with Zoltan, I think MikeD. Hopefully there's some chemistry and they influence each other in interesting and unexpected ways.

And Exeter, you've done it now. One MikeD-style montage coming up!!