Glad to see things are steaming along.
Still catching up. We need more nominations for "decision makers" (facilitator/judge/etc).
I also wanted to raise the idea of retraining. If we eventually decide to add new content, especially if it comes in the form of whole books, it only seems fair that existent characters get the chance to use it. Not a real concern aty this stage, but something worth considering for the future.
Agree strongly. Wanted to suggest some sort of explicit system. Couldn't find time yet.
Yes!
Regarding backstory for the Daunton Five (I admit I haven't come up with a better name than that... but I'm not sure we need to...), I'm thinking that there should be relatively few well-documented episodes in their history, but lots of legends, hearsay, songs, stories that have grown in the retelling, and so forth. That way they can have a larger-than-life impact on the world, but we don't have to actually write up their entire adventuring career. Characters can use the Five in their backstories without fear of contradicting the official canon.
agree strongly
Maybe its just an assumption but why is it that we assume that all adventures are good? Not every adventure traveling the land has the noblest of hearts… Obviously, it helps (mostly the DM but the players too) but it doesn’t seem like it’s a flat-out requirement if the players/DM know what is expected… Right?
"Good" is relative.
Adventurers kill sentient creatures and take their stuff in a quest to amass personal power.
At the same time? "Evil PCs" are almost invariably annoying and destructive. DnD runs on trust. You meet a new guy out in the swamp and five minutes later you're fighting back to back against orcs.
That's how it works.
Punishing people for playing that way (i.e. as good people) by allowing characters who are in the setting with the goal of taking advatange of that trust seems counter productive.
I had an idea to limit it involving
displeasing the gods but it was bad. I'll see if I can think of something better.
The Daunton Five might have consisted of these individuals:
I like them. They "fit" well. I'd tweak maybe 10% add more overtly negative points, and make the dragonborn a bit less of a "follower". Will see if I can edit it or maybe we should leave it for development in play?
[sblock=great fluffl]
On the wall of the Hanged Man is a hand-drawn map behind a glass frame. Below the map is a letter in the same hand:
"Dear Mayor Brunt,
As you requested, here is our most recent map of the seas and coasts of the islands near Daunton. I caution you against relying on it too heavily, since, as you know, distances and even landmarks are subject to change when the fog rolls in. Still, with some caution, this map should be useful for many years yet.
You will note that very little is known of the interior of the larger islands, particularly Argonel and Kestoriel. The Feywild is strongest there, and direction and distance are easily confused. The few maps we have made of the region have been found to be physically impossible when examined back in Bacarte. They are full of tricks and illusions, like the picture in your office of the stairway that always ascends, circling back on its own base without ever going down. The mountains, and to some extent the larger rivers, can be seen from a great distance and so we are confident enough of their location, though more so on Argonel than Serenal. Perhaps the Imperials in Nova Renata might have better information.
No other islands have recently drifted within sight of our vessels. We will continue to inform you if that situation changes.
I remain your respectful colleague,
Kanesk Geniker,
Senior Merchant of the Free Merchants of Bacarte"[/sblock]
This is my attempt at the best of two worlds: having a map, and having the flexibility to not worry too much about the details of the map. The map itself is a crappy scan of a pencil drawing. Easy enough to clean up, but it will take me some time.[/quote]
I like the history a lot.
It forgrounds the "fact" that the setting is unsettled.
I'd prefer if the islands were a smaller. Right now Argonal looks like North America on my screen. Again, I'm a strong poponenet of having a modular world. I'd prefer "a not a map" that is less of a map. Where the cities seem bigger and the world less locked in.
I have one other question/point: If Pentincia is going to be that big could it be a bunch of islands that are stuck together?
I love the general feel of the map though. It's just a scale/flavor debate.
I haven't played around w/ the wiki, but it seems fine (though there should be a forum link to the wiki for each character for each of access). The issue one would have to be concerned with is possible judge spoofing (or edits by canny players who can change the approved line). The forum thread (controlled by the judges) would be place to enforce this double check.
Great catch. We need to remember to do this.
Personally I'm bullish on the wiki since anybody who tries anything will be recorded.
- # of judges and such: Odd numbers good, but you should have some mechanism for making sure a lone voice doesn't get drowned out. We have our solution to this in LEB as well: 3 Yes with no No is a pass, but you need 4 Yeses if you have a single No.
All details for the above
here.
Without going on a rant about things of this nature.... I'm strongly in favor of a system where a facilitator can raise a "major objection".
I.e. someone can say, in a vote, "I have a major objection" and the vote doesn't proceed until the person withdraws their objection (i.e. a concensus of some sort can be met -- note: this doens't mean they vote yes. They can still vote "no" but it's an emergency brake cord to insure the group is respecting each other's opinions.
To steal a page from LEB's book, I will implement the above plan if any one of these conditions is met:
- Three people say "yes, do it" and no one says "no, wait" within some reasonable amout of time.
- Four people say "yes, do it" and no more than one person says "no, wait"
I think this is a fantastic method of doing things.
