Discussion of Scotley's upcoming 4e Swashbuckler Game

[renau1g]

No, Scotley just hadn't included me on his list. I hope he hasn't given me the boot...

 

[Scotley]

*sniff* Poor Francois d'Yves... oh I suppose that's my fault.

As I'm sure you suspect, Francois was only left off the list because he had not yet made an appearance in the RG. Now that he has, he's also on the list.

 

[Scotley]

With that line-up, the parallels to the 'Foreign Legion' that were mentioned back in the beginning of the thread seem most appropriate. Perhaps that might be used to reinforce the Hounds rivalry with the Archmandress' servants/'Cardinal's guard' equivalent. While the Hounds will accept anyone who meets their standards, perhaps the other group is solely human, or only Franzian-born nationals (or even both). As an aside, the current state of disfavor might be part of the excuse for the formation of such a party- perhaps the old squads were broken up by a manufactured 'royal decree', and new teams were formed by lottery- the PCs being just one of such groups newly thrown together. Despite the large size of the group, they are about right for a military squad.

More ideas are forthcoming- taking a break now for dinner.

I can definitely do something with this idea...

 

[Scotley]

Scrub out lady's maid...that was her mom. Write in "duellist."

I haven't added it to the background yet, but her cover occupation while in Caledonia was a duellist.

Basically, in my mind, it works like this. The fey (and human) lords of Avalon and Caledonia avenge slights with challenges to duels...but since they don't want to risk their OWN immortal necks, they either hire or have as retainers, 'professional' duellists that act as their proxies in these battles of honor.

Naturally, this gives an advantage to wealthier and more influential lords and ladies...which may or may not be accidental, but probably isn't.

Oh, and duels aren't necessarily fought to the death...but that doesn't mean deaths don't occur. Arranging for a high lord's duellist to die of poison just before, or during, a big scheduled fight with an audience is a great way to embarrass them.

Hee hee, I knew how the "Lady's Maid" part fit in, but it made for a more interesting list to leave it in.

The duelist background sounds very apt to me.

 

[Scotley]

And CELTS! Let's not forget the Celts and their shillelaghs!

Yes indeed!

 

[Walking Dad]

I've just been going over the group. What an amazing collection of characters.

Leif's Manous Artouche, Human Paladin and noble savage
Vertexx69's Thayoon, the Sharmind Mage street performer
stonegod Wilhelm Gunsmith in Exile human hunter (ranger) and rifleman extraordinaire
Walking Dad's Malkyr Tsul the Drow Assassin but really just a simple traveling performer
Mowgli's Aislinn Easnadh Kalashtar Prescient Bard and prophetic seer
Lou's Alejandro 'Ali' Arroyo Human, Defending Swordmage swashbuckling swordsman
Shayuri's Tamiya Human Thief, lady's maid Duelist, tomboy and infiltrator.
Insight's Colin MacKinnon Dwarf Valor Bard and scotsman (scotsdwarf) with a mission
Rhun's Lucius Devereux Human Fighter and master of sword and dagger
renau1g's Francois d'Yves Drow Ranger and gunslinger

I believe we can have a great deal of fun with this group. We have a nice mix of swashbucklers and a few more exotic, but appropriate types.

Looks like you got enough players for two groups

We have:

3 Defenders (Paladin, Swordmage, Fighter)
2 Controllers (Mage, Hunter)
2 Leaders (Bard x2)
3 Strikers (Assassin, Thief, Ranger)

(4 essential classes)

5 humans
2 drow
1 shardmind
1 kalashtar
1 dwarf

(I sometimes like statistics)

 

[Rhun]

Hey Walking Dad, has anyone ever told you that you have too much time on your hands?

 

[Walking Dad]

Took not that much time to make a small list.

I didn't checked who got the best score in which skill for example

 

[Scotley]

Looks like you got enough players for two groups

We have:

3 Defenders (Paladin, Swordmage, Fighter)
2 Controllers (Mage, Hunter)
2 Leaders (Bard x2)
3 Strikers (Assassin, Thief, Ranger)

(4 essential classes)

5 humans
2 drow
1 shardmind
1 kalashtar
1 dwarf

(I sometimes like statistics)

Thanks Walking Dad. I had intentions of looking over this sort of thing myself as I'm a bit of a statistics nut myself. Just hadn't had time yet.

I find it interesting that we have no Elves (other than Drow) in the group. I wonder if Wizards has gone too far in addressing a perceived imbalance in the race previous editions. While I have no hard data to support it, my perception is that there are relatively few Elves and Eladrin being played. At least in the 4e games I've been looking at. If this were a 2nd or 3rd edition game I can't imagine not having any elves out of 10 characters. I'm pleased to see half the group is human.

I was concerned we'd have an all striker group, but the party seems to have come to a good balance of roles. I wonder if the high number of essential's classes represented has to do with their relative newness? It is going to quite a task for me to come up with battles to challenge such a group.

 

[Scotley]

Took not that much time to make a small list.

I didn't checked who got the best score in which skill for example

I will have to look at the skill breakdown as well in order to come up with good skill challenges. I don't want to base a challenge on a skill that isn't well represented in the group or make it a cakewalk because nearly everyone is good at something.