Oh my, you just made Fenris's night I'm sure. Vikings are his thang! lol
I'm glad to know! With a nickname like Fenris, I did did not expect anything less, lol. Glad to meet you guys and to write with you!
1.) Starting Attributes: Point Buy, Array, Roll?
Ok, I was thinking leaning towards point buy, but it depends on what you guys want. Point buy gives you more control over character attributes, obviously, and it would be easier to weave whatever advantages and disadvantages you guys get.
2.) Starting Equipment: how much in GP? Any items and the like off-limits?
3000 GP to begin with. At first, nothing off-limits. The only thing I request is a background story for the item in question. Nothing too long, just something that tells us where it comes from, how it ended up in the character’s hands…
3.) You mention Background Traits, are we also using Background Skills, or nyet?
Yup, background skills are a go! I forgot to write them into the description of the game.
Are dragons in this setting? More specifically, would the Dragon bloodline be appropriate?
That’s a good question. Here’s what I think about this. If we decide to make mythical beasts a common sight, they’ll obviously interfere heavily on politics. A dragon is a menace that moves armies and can be used to someone’s favor. It might make a hero, break a king and change the balance between houses, tribes, countries, etc. Would you prefer a setting like this, or something more grounded?
Either way a dragon-blooded char would be possible. He wouldn’t know much about it, only that he’s different. He might even be unaware of his distinctive nature, understanding he has certain talents that set him apart.
I’ll profit from the opportunity and ask for your opinions pertaining the races. We discussed above that we could go exclusively human, or base races, or any races, or lore-friendly races, with Jago suggesting simple rebranding of base races as an option. What do you guys think? I’ lean towards rebranding or solely humans (with racial bonuses for regions, tribes, lineages, etc.)
And what is your policy on multi-classing?
No restrictions! If it fits your character, feel free to use it.
Can I get an idea of the type of conflicts we'll be seeing? Sorcerers are extremely streamlined, and I need to know what kind of spells to focus on. Combat, social, etc. Or should I just, you know, plan for anything?
That will depend tremendously on your choices. The experience I had with this sort of gameplay on tabletop version is that you will have control over the nature of the conflicts for the most part. If you are a manipulative politician, you’ll probably have others do your dirty work; if you are a battlemage, you’ll probably try to solve your problems through challenges or by terrorizing your enemies. The important thing is that, for the most part, you’ll have to plan your own playthrough. You’ll be the one to use strategies and create situations favorable to your character’s abilities. That also means you’ll have to be ready for contingencies.
In other words, I’ll present situations. If they are going to be troublesome will be highly dependent on your backstory and in-game choices.
As for conflict motivations, I’d go for the more realistic approach. Example: a Jarl dies and his only heir is a four year old boy. Some say that the next chieftain should be the Jarl’s cousin, a grown man. Others defend that the boy should be the heir, having a tutor taking care of things up to his manhood. The Jarls last will is unknown, no documents left and the one witness vanished. Player one is the cousin and is LE, so he questions the will of the Jarl and plays the people against the baby. Being a warrior, he’d prefer to defend his claim in battle, especially if the champion for the child is someone weaker than he himself. He spies on the defenders of the child and discovers that most of them are illusionists. He has to dig up a challenge now.
Suppose, though, that player one is a mage. He might find it more interesting to allow the kid to be the heir and control his mind – or the mind of the tutor – with cautious use of spells…
Please note that I’m leaving several things open because I do want this to be built by the players.
As for our players, we have closed recruitment with:
JAGO
RHUN
TGLASSY
QUEENIE
FENRIS