DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Fantasy SKT: The Storm King's Thunder OOC thread

I go back to 1979 but sadly my memory does not!

I tend to alternate between males & females, though I find it hard to buy into a female human fighter. I do have a preference for humans but have played elves, half elves, dwarves and the odd gnome. I like rouges but also fighters, rangers, paladins, also played a monk and a spellcaster but usually multiclassed.

I think this game will be my most adventurous D&D character ever! My Gnoll Shaman sounds exotic but was created for an all humanoid party when GAZ10 The Orcs of Thar came out in 1988. We also had an Orc, a Troll, and (a bit randomly) a Shadow Elf in the party. So in that company a Gnoll Shaman wasn't so unusual. Tritons give a lot of scope for creativity though. In Forgotten Realms they're said to have a major civilisation spanning into the Plane of Water, located somewhere in the ocean, but that's as much as has been written.

You have not been watching the movies I have been watching <chuckle> There are plenty of movies with strong female fighter characters. Off the top of my head ... the Resident Evil franchise (actually, anything with Milla Jovovich <g>) ... Tomb Raider (again,Angelina Jolie is awesome in everything I have seen her in <g>) Of course there is also Wonder Woman <shrug>

Red Sonja- speed and grace, plus strength. she was a match for Conan, because she was faster than he was. and that is just one thought that came to my mind first

Good one!! I have not thought of her is a while ... gotta go check NF now <weg>

I think there are many strong female warrior characters in fiction, though many are more defined by being survivors. Ripley and Sarah Conner, frex. Neither of them chose the fight.

In more recent times you have Cara Dune from The Mandalorian, who was superb, though it helps that she was played by Gina Carano, who is a real world female warrior (UFC, retired).

And Furiosa from Fury Road. One bad-arse woman.



That's science fiction, mind you. In traditional fantasy fiction, female fighters have never been terribly convincing, I agree with Gypsy on that.

Red Sonja paved the way for the chainmail bikini brigade during the sword-and-sorcery/Boris Valejo era and fantasy still hasn't quite recovered imo. People talk about Brienne of Tarth and she was a solid enough background character but that's about it. Éowyn had heart but had so little to do she was barely a character at all.

Your post 'sparked' a memory. Can't remember the movie. It was post apocalyptic and our 'heroine' was an amputee that persevered in spite of that!! =If= I remember the title, I will post it <g> But I am sure I will watch it again on NF <g>

Probably The Bad Batch, MikeD. I enjoyed it, but Jason Momoa's Cuban accent was well dodgy.

I think that Wonder Woman and the Amazons, especially how they were portrayed in the recent movie, was quite convincing. It was, the exception rather than the rule in terms of fantasy female warriors.

BTW, sorry for not posting in game. I've been tied up with my family on vacation. Time has been there for a quick post to keep other games going but not for DMing this game the way it should. Maybe in the next day or two.

Surprised Xena hasn't warranted a mention yet.

Yeah, it was Bad Batch. Thanks for the reminder Neil.

AJ ... I would say that is because Xena was never a strong =female= lead. The stories and such never seemed to have been written with a female in mind. You could have put a guy into that part and not have to chance much ... beyond the costume <weg> That doesn't mean they weren't fun to watch, though <g>

I don't dislike female fighters on the whole - just can't easily come up with a convincing justification in D&D. Can be done.. and I've done it.. but real shortage of convincing back stories for me.

I wrote about Xena, erased it, and rewrote it because of "political correctness". I'll put aside PC for a moment and spit it out.

The The "bikini brigade" is simply the film industry perceives what people want to see. Xena and Gabrielle walked around semi-naked together for years and I'm pretty sure that the production studios were thrilled that straight men and gay women all wanted to see that.

Xena is what, in my mind, the prototypical fantasy genre female warrior hero would be.

And for many, like Gypsy, the backstory is important. I'm the opposite so if I decide to play a character, it's usually because I want to see how I would best use the powers that the character has.

Same here, Nep. Backstory usually comes second for me too, after I've figured out what build I want to experiment with, or if it's a more free-form system, after I've come up with a short elevator pitch for a character.

Yeah, same here. PC Class/Type/Powers first, then I come up with whatever backstory fits.

Yup. I don't disagree. Once I have my 'character' sorted ... that is when it is time to figure out how (s)he got to be who (s)he is <g>

Not all DMs seem to understand that concept

As a GM I'll take whatever a player gives me for their character. I've known some players who'd rather submit a description and have the GM create the character, and there's a lot to be said for that approach. After all, a GM will likely build a character that they know is perfectly tailored for the adventure. No undead-slaying cleric in an adventure without undead, frex.

Neil, while it can make things more ... consistent / well integrated, it =is= a lot more work for the GM <g>

Nep, there are a lot of different GM styles ... not all of them for everyone. But there are also a lot of different player styles as well, so hopefully everyone will find a game that works for them <g>

Aye, and another pitfall is that if the player asks the GM to build the character, it can just facilitate the player not engaging with the system and not learning it.

In my message games I try to keep the system behind the scenes so no-one has to worry about it, because I know I'm often (possibly always) testing new systems. But in a ftf game, even if you're playtesting a new system, it's only a legit playtest if everyone around the table gives it a fair shake.

I agree that a message based game should be more about story than dice rolls.

I literally never use the same system twice, unless as a showcase for players who haven't experienced it.

I'm rarely tempted to use a system twice either. The only exception to that is 13th Age, which I always have a hankering to GM.

Having said that, if I run another game here on DreamLyrics, frex, it'll be yet another new system, preferably one that's new to us all.

Completely agree that every DM, and every player, has a different preference for running, or playing in, games. The nice part about our community is there is something for everyone.

If you enjoy soaps or games where everyone sits around chatting and talking at length about their backstories (the old 'Tavern' games) there are games for you. If you prefer to min/max a pc and do lots of skill checks and combat, and your backstory is something you have completely forgotten about after a few months, there are games for you. If you like games where there are lots of single-threads for individual pcs and getting 2 or more of them together is a rare occurrence, there's games for you too.

Nep, Zeim, I'm running a D&D 5e playtest for ftf friends soon and have lined up either the Starter Set or Secrets of Sokol Keep.

I have some questions you might know the answer to.

How long does it take to run the Starter Set around a table, in your experience?

I tried out D&D Beyond for its character builder, but holy fish firkin it's expensive!! We're talking over 300 bucks!

Does Roll20 have access to all the official content, or just the SRD? How much does it cost?

Finally, since this session will include a 6 YO and a 10 YO, who've never played D&D before---although they have played FFG's Star Wars and End of the World, and Savage Worlds---do you think running 1st level characters is advisable? I remember that first encounter in the Starter Set, the goblin ambush, gave us a damn good thrashing in the very first combat round, for example.

As to how long - the biggest factor is 'familiarity'. If everyone is familiar with the game, it will go a lot faster than if everyone is a newbie <g>

As to the 'danger factor', the GM can easily 'adjust things' as seems necessary for the game.