DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Hall of Fame - Latest Top 10 completed games HWD: The Heartwood HWD: OOC Chatter

I had no intention of any of you providing me with an extensive character history. I just wanted a very brief idea of each character. That way, I - not my character - would have some idea of who I'd be meeting up with.

I normally have no problems keeping what I know separate from what my character knows. I tend to prefer a slight advantage over the character in knowledge since my character would see and experience things directly and immediately while I have to figure out what the descriptions mean and get the scenario straight in my head so I hopefully won't make my character look idiotic - or at least not too idiotic.

As for what I'd be willing to tell the other players, I'd be pleased to let them know pretty much what they'd see, recognize and realize about my character from first meeting him. That's pretty much all I was asking for when this whole thing started.

Being clueless is an advantage here! Look at Nivek, being all adorable and blonde, and walking off into the Dirkwood... just because! Who does that? Bekkah does! And Mokie... gosh, I miss Mokie. The funniest Squire of Rames on the entire Heartwood. "I have a sword!" Hee hee hee I need to go email him again.

Nah, man. Clueless is fun. I wish I could be clueless sometimes. Alas, Super OCD Woman takes over my brain and I must fact check everything. Le sigh.

[Note to Super OCD Woman: consider translations of GM posts in addition to copy edits.]

[Note to GM: consider more drawings... SketchUp is bomb diggity, isn't it?]

[Note to Self: don't forget to install Illustrator.]

oh. the white one like the Forest.

Well, that explains a lot.

Well, I posted a brief bio for Mikal both because it seemed others were doing so and also because Mikal has a reputation across the central Heartwood and depending on where the new pcs are from it is possible they could have heard of him.

Who the heck started all this?

Oh, me...

Nevermind.

Reputation includes, "Has been known to associate with those... those... swordbi... er, Dayalans."



On one hand, that gets you bonus points in the Frontier Keeps up past Cragside and the Rock. On the other hand... not so good among people who aren't friends of Dandy, Gilly, and Poppy... or are opened-minded like, oh, not too many people.

Oooh, that is a sharp sword you're standing on, my friend.

Yeah, most of the people he cares about helping don't care about that stuff. The ones who it will annoy, he doesn't care about.

By niw there have to be at least a few rumors about the new Korie.

And I'm making up more as we speak.

Heh. I mean, I magine at least some of the events at this latest court have made their way to new places by now.

actually tales about a really odd Midsummer's Council is in someone's background.

A thing the GM might want to put in the Reference Section:

How does SIZ relate to height? From what I understand from the words of the GM is that SIZ is the intersection of the absolute value of Height with the abstract value of Body Type. Super OCD Woman has a long rant about that, but y'all don't need to be subjected to that. This is the height part, as handed down in stone tablet form from the GM to your humble scribe. (Although the stone tablets were probably index cards.) The centimeters have been rounded to the nearest whole centimeter.

I believe that came from the Avalon Hill RQ release - they were sticklers about such things

It came from you. On one of those blue index cards I brought home from NYSADA. Where you got it... that's your business.

well I certainly didn't see my character as being 5'2" tall... but I did choose that number as my SIZ score- i saw that as more of a build thing overall. I saw her taller and willowy... I didn't have a number though.

And this is why I donnae like these numbers. Trying to meld an absolute construct with an abstract concept is going to be problematic. If one wanted to keep SIZ as a stat that's used in whatever way it's used behind the scenes, then create sub-statistics that are purely descriptive, (HGT in cm; TYP as body type determined by in-world standards) but that then can be used to calculate SIZ. It's possible; I already have a fairly complex spreadsheet that calculates all manner of things.

Our beloved NPC Romana has a SIZ stat of 17. Yes, she's very tall for a woman at 6'0"... but she also (if I understand the GM correctly), more on the Very Thin end of the spectrum rather than just Willowy. Of course, Romana is an Easterner, so there's also the factor of racial differences.

<shrug>

Super OCD Woman and Webmistress can update formulas and web pages. But the nuts and bolts gotta come from the GM... assuming the GM wants to make SIZ something that means what I think he believes it means.

the quick read i had on some links he provided indicated that a size score also affects a character's reach and attack rank factors. Little folks just aren't getting past the dude with the pole-arm weapon quite as effectively as that tall thin Romana lady!<g>

so siz does have some crunchy stuff to it, but that doesn't mean that there can't be some flexibility to accomodate the personal vision of the player in regards to their character- that being said, as long as it does have some relevance to size related crunchiness that needs to bear some reflection in the physicality of the character.

and, by the end of that I had no idea what i was talking about anymore so i will shut up

Well, yes... 6'0" lovely Romana is going to have a reach greater than just about everyone else. Not that she'd do anything with that reach other than try to heal someone these days, but... yeah.

And all that crunchy stuff makes my head hurt, which is why the spreadsheet exists. I don't care about any of the numbers except the totals fields... which, when they are peculiar, I mention them to the GM. And the GM says either, "Oh, that's fine" or "Ooops, change this or that."

When I was putting Daxia's stats together, it was more like a game of Pick Up Sticks. Didn't know what the heck I was doing and didn't care. Putting Keiko together, I have a better idea of what I'm doing... sort of. I kind of know who I want her to be, so the crunchy bits of the spreadsheet helped me get some of the numbers that reflect that. I have no clue how she's going to fit with the party, however.

Especially given that she and Bekkah seem to have been et by the Forest. Ooopsie.

Let us not speak of the crunchiness of numbers. I have carrots here that are crunchy, too, and they taste MUCH better.

Kadri's krunch krunches right for her.

actually that's one of the very first things you learn in medieval recreational melee combat. no matter how fast, dexterous or sneaky you are the person with the longer reach and/or longer weapon will always have the first chance to hit you - the skill was getting past that first hit.

I - with my boring sword and shield - got to the point where I could pretty much win against most (again, skill trumps all) two handed great sword users .... If I could survive and pass through the two to three foot zone where they could clobber me and I was not effective against them. Once you got past that they were now at a disadvantage - you could press with your shield and if you couldn't pin their great sword you were too close for them for their attacks to be effective (simple high school lever physics)

This meant two things ... a) if they were smart they would back off while I moved forward and on an open field it was a TON of chasing them all around and the loser (oops) was the one who got tired first. b) if they were smart enough to be using a recreation ricassoed blade I could still be in trouble in close combat. or c) as I stated before they could just be better than me and kill me before I could cross the danger zone or still kill me when I got close in; skill always wins out.

That said there's a very good reason why sword and shield stayed the predominant weapons style for centuries. Of all the disciplines it tends to be the most effective with the best balance of attack and defense capability.

And that is why Keiko's strategy of "RUN AWAY" is so useful against those sword and shield types. She's smaller and (also being less encumbered by armor) faster.

Also, "Don't go into dead end alleys" is an excellent motto. Or, having spent time in Trundle, she'd probably say "just don't go into alleys at all" would be a better motto.


(Actually, wouldn't the loser be the one who got tired first?)

And Kadri would generally give her a fist bump on that strategy. Only two options. First, 'away' second 'up in their grill, yo'. Either get really close or really far away. Far away is preferable. Far away from her and closer to Mikal's sword.

see? I was exhausted when I wrote that!

Bekkah

"I don't understand. You mean people actually try and hurt you?"

"How strange"

<snicker>