Anything But Normal, Sailing the Endless Falls

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

Bront, Ekilu's item: [sblock]Your shield, Spirit's Shell, was further enhanced by a water genasi priest in Taala's service. Now the sturdy little clam can open up and bite arrows and other projectiles, snapping them out of the air before they can even hit you. Mechanically the shield is now a +3 arrow deflecting sheild. About once a month, the shell opens of its own violition, revealing an arrow seemingly made of mother of pearl. You find it to be particularly effective against monsters of the spirit type.[/sblock]

 

[Rystil Arden]

Well Oobobooboo can crush both Nissa and Lupaz in debate on the subject of fate. Sure, its "mildly retarded" and has no knowledge skills. But Oob's weeks of experience in all matters philosophical and flexible, oozy perspective give it an undeniable edge

What about the No Book Learning flaw Seriously, though, assuming you are parodying Kel's "my sheet may not say it but I'm actually an expert in this" position, I do see your point, but I can also see the other side--for instance, Nissa is a fey, so even though she doesn't have Knowledge (Nature), I imagined her having information about fey (and elementals like her mother) in her Knowledge (Nobility) and Knowledge (Local) skill categories, and she probably wouldn't know as much about humanoid nobles or locals. However, according to a strict reading of the knowledge skill descriptions, she wouldn't even know what a nereid is (even though she is one). In that sense, trying to nebulously decide on knowledge based on concept and the character's nature, while a slippery slope (which your example represents perfectly I think), seems a worthy cause.

 

[Kelleris]

What about the No Book Learning flaw Seriously, though, assuming you are parodying Kel's "my sheet may not say it but I'm actually an expert in this" position, I do see your point, but I can also see the other side--for instance, Nissa is a fey, so even though she doesn't have Knowledge (Nature), I imagined her having information about fey (and elementals like her mother) in her Knowledge (Nobility) and Knowledge (Local) skill categories, and she probably wouldn't know as much about humanoid nobles or locals. However, according to a strict reading of the knowledge skill descriptions, she wouldn't even know what a nereid is (even though she is one). In that sense, trying to nebulously decide on knowledge based on concept and the character's nature, while a slippery slope (which your example represents perfectly I think), seems a worthy cause.

My rule of thumb is that if I wouldn't have to ask the DM about it and it's up the character's alley, I can call it "common knowledge" for that character. A little metagamey, but since many or even most characters have *no* formal knowledge skills, kinda necessary. In this case, I don't intend to ever ask Isida for a Knowledge (religion) check to get some obscure sect's views on fate if we find a mosaic alluding to it and the hint my help us bypass a trap or something, but I feel free to make up obscure sects and their views on fate if it won't have any material influence on the plot of the game to do so, much as I made up a city and assumed it's possible under Isida's metaphysics to have a congenitally twisted fate for background purposes.

 

[Rystil Arden]

My rule of thumb is that if I wouldn't have to ask the DM about it and it's up the character's alley, I can call it "common knowledge" for that character. A little metagamey, but since many or even most characters have *no* formal knowledge skills, kinda necessary. In this case, I don't intend to ever ask Isida for a Knowledge (religion) check to get some obscure sect's views on fate if we find a mosaic alluding to it and the hint my help us bypass a trap or something, but I feel free to make up obscure sects and their views on fate if it won't have any material influence on the plot of the game to do so, much as I made up a city and assumed it's possible under Isida's metaphysics to have a congenitally twisted fate for background purposes.

Yup, I getcha--it adds to the discussion In Character to do so. I think Voidrazor's point in showing the absurd extremes of the argument is that you shouldn't allow that added metagamey flavour knowledge to influence whether or not the character is able to know more about the topic than another character who has the skill and/or higher Int (any more than you would have the orc barbarian with no Disable Device but who wrote in his background 'my barbarian likes disabling devices and knows how, even though he can't actually do it' piping up to the rogue about checking for pressure plates and thinking about leaving counterweights to foil a trap, or the further absurd argument that the ooze with 6 Int and no Knowledge skills and a flaw to take penalties to Knowledge skills is, when roleplaying and not asking for info from the GM, the genius master of all knowledge ). I can see both sides here--it's definitely an interesting area for discussion.

 

[Kelleris]

I got my reaction to him based off of what you wrote in the personality, which struck me as someone who is a doom-sayer. If I got the wrong impression off of that, then it would significantly change Ekilu's reaction to you.

That also may be why you got pegged as a loner.

Not a doomsayer, just someone who never looks surprised when something terrible happens. I'm a fatalist, not a prophet. And I didn't realize you were following standard darfellan practice with the naming conventions. Still, "Hound" is terribly unspecific, kinda like nicknaming someone "You There." How about "Courser," for a type of hunting dog, or "Corsair" if you want to be nautically themed, for the swift pirate vessel. Or even "Harrier," a name for a pack-hunting dog and a reference to my disinclination to kill people off by myself (while tracking and harrying them with the best of them, of course).

Lucky may be cutesy (and remember that was after you killed the Loopy option ) but Tempest in no way uses it in a cutesy manner. He finds Lupaz's fatalism amusing and so adopted the name not to be cute but to lighten the mood around Lupaz "I am Lupaz the hound of DOOM" "Ahh don't worrry about Lucky, he ate something not quite right for breakfast this morning. Normally he's such a happy-go-lucky chap"

Oh trust me, Lucky is an improvement. I just couldn't tell if you were giving him that nickname to alleviate nervousness or simply because you give everyone cute nicknames. And since you do in fact give everyone cute nicknames, it kinda stood out.

And remember that the "I am Lupaz the hound of DOOM" thing is kinda my schtick. I have items, feats, skill points, spells, ability scores, and an RP reputation all devoted to being intimidating. I'm about as good at it as any 8th-level character can be. If you start breaking the mood when I'm rolling Intimidate checks and giving me circumstance penalties on my roll, Tempest and Lupaz are going to have words, if you know what I mean.

But seriously, I love the part in Lupaz's opinions about having a bad feeling about Oob's items. An imbecile with an alien chainsaw powered by pure chaos, oh whatever could go wrong?

Good God, it sounds even worse when you put it that way.

But yeah, I was kinda wondering why nobody else was bothered by the fact that you're using blasphemous magic from beyond the veil for both your armor and weapons. Particularly the super-genius nereid who apparently knows everything under the arcana heading. Is there something she's not telling us?

 

[Voidrazor]

Well not exactly parody as no mockery was intented. OK, maybe I was poking a bit of fun at the 'my character can beat your character' tone the conversation had early on. But I realize that its probably good to hash this stuff out now OOC, so that IC play doesn't get warped by misunderstanding between players.

 

[Kelleris]

Bront - I should mention, sometimes Lupaz *is* a doomsayer, but it's just for dramatic effect, part of Intimidate and Daunting Presence use rather than a regular part of his character.

 

[Bront]

Not a doomsayer, just someone who never looks surprised when something terrible happens. I'm a fatalist, not a prophet. And I didn't realize you were following standard darfellan practice with the naming conventions. Still, "Hound" is terribly unspecific, kinda like nicknaming someone "You There." How about "Courser," for a type of hunting dog, or "Corsair" if you want to be nautically themed, for the swift pirate vessel. Or even "Harrier," a name for a pack-hunting dog and a reference to my disinclination to kill people off by myself (while tracking and harrying them with the best of them, of course).

Smith is also teribly unspecific. If I had a better idea of what "job" you did (Curser doesn't sound good either), he'd probably come up with another one. I'm open for ideas. But don't take 'Hound' as insulting.

The Darfellan are Native Americanish, so in many ways, it's like 'White Man'

 

[Bront]

Bront - I should mention, sometimes Lupaz *is* a doomsayer, but it's just for dramatic effect, part of Intimidate and Daunting Presence use rather than a regular part of his character.

I have an odd view of Doomsayers, mostly from having played one based off of a character in a game (Doomsday from Wing Commander) who's most positive thing he ever said was "Maybe we won't all die after all".

Trust me, much of this is based off of first impressions, so what happens once we get into game may be a bit different.

 

[Rystil Arden]

But yeah, I was kinda wondering why nobody else was bothered by the fact that you're using blasphemous magic from beyond the veil for both your armor and weapons. Particularly the super-genius nereid who apparently knows everything under the arcana heading. Is there something she's not telling us?

I didn't know what it is out of character, so I didn't think to ask Plus Nissa isn't maxed out in Kn:Arc, though she does have enough of a bonus to automatically know anything that is common knowledge.

And remember that the "I am Lupaz the hound of DOOM" thing is kinda my schtick. I have items, feats, skill points, spells, ability scores, and an RP reputation all devoted to being intimidating. I'm about as good at it as any 8th-level character can be.

Yup--I'm glad I didn't put skill points into Intimidate, as I feel safe that Lupaz will do that for us If I had done so (and Nissa had thus wound up with +20 Intimidate), I would have removed them anyway to make sure Lupaz could do his thing without trouble.

Still, "Hound" is terribly unspecific, kinda like nicknaming someone "You There."

While that's true, at least "Hound" is still accurate if unspecific--it's better than"Empath" for Nissa. Now, I have several characters in PbP games who deserve the name Empath, but Nissa is definitely not one of them