Kalanyr said:
Since Venuz caught me in the chat room I decide I'd join this if it was okay with Serpenteye.
I'm interesting in playing a group of eladrin.
It's ok with me

. Welcome Kalanyr!
Outsiders have a rather limited presence on Oerth in official canon, and though their role is turning out to be quite a bit greater in the IR no faction can consist primarily of outsiders. Similarily; no new faction (see the "Ethergaunt war") can have all of its power based on PLs as opposed to having a balance between IC and PL.
You can have Eladrin in your faction, but you need additional territories.
Kalanyr said:
Okay this is a preliminary Sblock for me subject to SE's approval:
You could inherit James' old faction with a few customizations, that's ok.
Kalanyr said:
And I do have one question why does Alien give an infiltration bonus? Wouldn't alien creatures have a hard time infiltrating but be very difficult to infiltrate ?
Their bonus is only defensive. Their psychology and society is what makes them more difficult to infiltrate, but at the same time they have generally a better understanding of the "lesser races" , the vast majority of civilizations, than vice versa. Illithids are used to playing with the minds of humanoids, and Illithids are the archetypal Alien species.
Festy_Dog said:
Yup, you can safely count me amoung these warmongers.
The factions I happen to be after include the Guardinals first and foremost, Zippon and its dominion, Zindia, and possibly even the demigod Hachiman.
My email: festydog69 (at) hotmail (dot) com
I'll be sending off an email to Serpenteye momentarily to get some confirmation from him.
Welcome

.
You can't have a huge amount of Outsiders (though you can have some). Nippon, the Dominion and Zindia are yours as is the Demigod.
azmodean said:
Greetings all, I'm looking into joining your little soiree here, and just a few questions. Are there any guidelines for how much territory one can claim? Are there any guidelines for what kind of standing army one can have at the beggining of turn one?
Not too much or too little

. The one rule is that you cannot have a faction that's primarily based on PLs. You need to have substantial territories.
azmodean said:
That having been said, We would like to lay a claim to semeast to start, and We assert it is chock full of "wild" beings of all sorts. (Our take on building a faction is one can treat it like a deific portfolio, so that's the way We're going, with a CG "savage" god.) Our armies would include barbarians, druids, rangers, lyncanthropes, treants (or are they LG, can't remember) and other CG beasties TBA. Edit: it seems that Dwarves are underrepresented, so that would be a good choice for the primary race.
Good choice.
azmodean said:
This is assuming that there is still a shortage of good aligned players, if not We can go with a more elite (epic even?) evil force primarily composed of arcane spellcasters, undead, and constructs. Of course this would require Us to inhabit a more "civilized" area, which We would have to determine at that point.
Either one is good, just keep in mind that your faction can not be all army and no land.
Edena_of_Neith said:
We have a Nuclear Standoff already, and the game hasn't started yet: much less does anyone yet have 10th level magic or 1945 technology.
The problem is that 9th level spell from the Book of Vile Damnation.
It requires an artifact to cast, but it destroys an area equal to 10 miles in radius per level of the caster.
So, if my caster is 40th level or the equivalent (likely in an IR) she destroys an area 800 miles across with this spell by sacrificing one artifact.
That spell has never been used in the recorded history of Oerth. Nobody knows just what its going to do to its caster. I'm implying that the consequences are going to be extremely severe and unpredictable.
Your Player Characters can die in this IR. They can die irreversibly, and you never know how the dice are going to fall. The spell is only really useful as a suicide-spell.
There is another spells iIrc, slightly less overpowered, in the Book of Exalted Deeds that can be used in a similar way, though that spell only sacrifices the caster. I'm going to rule that the more powerful the character that sacrifices itself the more powerful the effect of the spell will be. That spell is also unpredictable, and the caster may not be resurrectable even by High Magic.
James Heard said:
If nothing else is clear, I'm obsessive compulsive about saving things I've created. Here's the map too. Good gaming!
Thanks
Kalanyr said:
I have problems seeing the ruler of a planar race bowing to a demigod to be honest, though this is the way 3rd Edition went, in 1e they were usually roughly lesser powers. [joke]My hat of massive retconning knoweth no limits[/joke]. Still I'll go with whatever Serpenteye decides. I'll probably relinquish YeCind if Morwel is accepted as a demipower simply because 2 demigods is probably 1 to many for a single faction.
Morwel is indeed accepted as a Demipower.
Edena_of_Neith said:
My point concerning the 9th level spell was this:
The Baklunish Empire and League of Athyr are reduced to ashes. (That much fire pouring from the sky produces a massive firestorm, folks, with sucks the oxygen out of stone houses and even underground shelters, axphixiating those within. And the intense heat of the fire produces radiant heat that fries creatures within stone shelters at the surface, and even fries people in underground shelters. Only beings deep underground, or in deep shelters, survive.)
The third spell produces a massive underground fire that scours endless thousands of miles of the Underdark, sweeping the tunnels, caves, and caverns free of all beings over hundreds of thousand of cubic miles. The Illithid, and everything else around, all perish. The Aboleth perish as their lakes boil in the intense heat.
At the end of this, Eclavdra - knowing she has failed and faces eternal damnation from Lolth - stabs herself with a Morganti Blade, which kills her and devours her soul. Sweet oblivion takes her, and she is freed from Lolth's wrath.
Nor can Eclavdra be wished back or resurrected. 10th level magic might work, but nothing less.
The spell is nasty, true, but not nearly that strong. The area of effect (and it cannot be widened

) is far smaller than either the League of Athyr or the Baklunish Empire and it's rather useless underground (iIrc it cannot ignore line of effect). Since the duration of the spell (also iIrc) is instantaneous and it has a rather low damage it will not cause much more lingering damage than a Fireball. Oxygen will be consumed, true, but since the area of effect is "flat" (iIrc, and if not I rule it thus) but shapable in the vertical dimension the area will soon be flooded with oxygen from above. You cannot kill the IR with this spell, but it is a powerful deterrant.
Edena_of_Neith said:
This grim scenario is what I call the Suicide Scenario, or the I'll Take You With Me scenario.
It isn't my idea of fun, for the record.
But it IS what Eclavdra would do, if the drow were being crushed.
For that matter, it is what Iuz would do.
And if Iuz and Eclavdra might be willing to do it, others might.
Facing threats from the good and the evil powers, and wondering how to save my power, this awful idea of the Suicide Scenario came to my mind.
And I realized it would not be good for the IR. If I legitimately got 10th level magic, that would be another matter, but this is going to be Turn 1.
So, I posted that I thought the tactic should be prohibited. In so doing, I did in my own power, taking away a supreme deterrent I could have used to keep you all at bay.
But where's the fun?
How fun is it, if I say: If I go, I'll take half the IR down with me? On a fluke caused by the presence of a spell in the Book of Vile Damnation that ... well, the authors of that book did not foresee the circumstances of this IR when they put that spell in there!
I used myself as the example.
But any power, even a good power, could use this deterrent, and if crushed this final answer.
In the Real World, every nuclear power has used this tactic as a deterrent, and is prepared to use the Suicide Scenario if crushed.
It is hard to imagine that people won't use this tactic in the IR.
That is why I am advocating banning it.
Yes, eventually, the powers of the IR will have nuclear weapons and 10th level magic, and that is a part of Serpenteye's game and what he intended. At that point, we will have all sorts of mayhem and mess, and that's good: that's the way it should be.
But Q-Bomb obliteration of entire powers on Turn 1?
I don't think it would be fun.
If Serpenteye allows this tactic, I refuse to use it. For the record.
I'll allow Eclavdra to be killed, and the drow to be destroyed, before I use this tactic. Because I want other people to have fun, not just myself. And being Q Bombed on a fluke is no fun.
Yours Sincerely
Edena_of_Neith
I will not hesitate (much) killing your Characters, so to lessen the lethality of the game deterent-spells like these might help you save yourself from each-others. Other factions will hesitate to wipe you out, reduce you to such a state of desperation that you choose to risk killing your character to punish them. This, more than anything else, is what will keep factions from being utterly wiped out.
The balance of terror during the Cold War was a good thing. Imagine if only one side had had nuclear weapons. Would they have been so hesitant to use them then?
azmodean said:
Would it be ok for me to claim some existing infiltration in several areas instead of claiming the entire area? The targets would be the Red Kingdom, Ishtarland, and the tarquis dominions. It seems to me that claiming any of these areas individually would put me "over the top" in power.
How is this for the entry concerning Seamest?
- The Barbarian Seameast - this represents an enormous force of good aligned dwarves(60%), humans(10%), lycanthropes(5%), and other nature-aligned creatures(15%).
Also, what reprecussions would there be to technological development? For my faction any non-sustainable use of natural resources and any degree of polution would be unacceptable. I understand setting up my faction the way I have is the cause for this issue, but I'd like some information on if and how I could proceed technologically.
For serpenteye:
[sblock]I apologise in advance if I'm asking for a significant amount of extra work purely for my own faction's benefit, please feel free to not answer this request or give very loose information. The information I seek concerns how "environmentally friendly" various powers are. I am finding it difficult to determine my diplomatic priorities, as information of this nature is not included with the entries of most of the powers. For instance, I know the elven and druidic powers will share interests with me concerning the protection of nature, but the drow, for instance, might interfere with nature very little, which would make them candidates for alliance as well. It is very possible that the more technologically or magically advanced a power, the less I like them, yay me. Anway, very interesting set-up you have going here, looking foward to getting started on it.[/sblock]
Infiltration is good.
Hmm... If it wasn't profitable (in the short term at least) to pollute noone would do it in the real world. Environmentally friendly alternatives are usually more expensive.
I'll make an addition to the rules about technology. Usually it costs 50 ppts to advance one level in the technological arms race, but that implies using diabolical polluting technology. If you want non-diabolic technology (the devils are the main source of new tech on Oerth, they have a head-start in the industrial revolution and are giving their schematics to you for mysterious reasons) it will cost you another 10 points to advance one level and if you want to use non-polluting technology it will also cost you 10 points. You have the option of using either diabolic polluting technology or diabolic clean technology or non-diabolic clean technology.
I will keep a record on what kind of tehnology you use.
This might seem like it's an advantage for the evil factions, and it very well might be, but a conscience doesn't come cheap. Those who choose to trust the devils deserve a little reward, I'd say

.
Guilt Puppy said:
Festy: Welcome aboard!
James: Welcome back!
Edena: It wouldn't be too difficult at all to use the existing script with James' map, actually... The biggest problem is designating the territories -- I had to do it manually (as in, making one big text file full of names and coordinates) for the original map, and that was time-consuming, let me tell you.
So, I'm thinking of making a slightly more automated system for designating territories. Not sure exactly what form it will take, but it will generally take the form of typing in the territory's name, then pointing and clicking.
This still, however, leaves a lot of pointing and clicking to be done, and let me tell you, I'm not going to be the one doing all of it

So, I'm wondering if I can get any volunteers to do this? It represents a substantial amount of work, certainly, BUT if we split it up a few ways, it shouldn't be so bad.
Also, I'm of the opinion that currently the Flaeness territories are too small for a map of this size -- is there any opposition to merging some of the smaller territories, where necessary?
Thanks muchly
Don't worry about the Flannaes-territories on that map. We already have a map for them and they can safely be ignored.
Kalanyr said:
My faction is also concerned with this question, destruction of the environment is not acceptable to us either.
Worry not, young idealist, there is another way. A safer, cleaner way.
DralonXitz said:
Id like to join in this, my first IR. Im still reading the rules, but if its still open, count me in.
Welcome
Uvenelei said:
Hey everybody. For those new to the 5th IR, I was in the 3rd, and now Edena's roped me back into this one. I don't know what faction I want to play, and I haven't read the whole thread yet, so I'm just saying hi for now.
Hi. Welcome in

. There's always room for the inventor of the Groundpounder.
Sollir Furryfoot said:
Hey, I've been watching on this for a while but didn't want to post due to my lack of response for a previous game I've offered to run for SE (I felt it'd be awfully rude to ask to be included in one of his without being able to reciprocate, especially since I offered mine first). But I'm back ( I think ), and ready for some PBP games and able to run that solo game if SE still wants, and in addition it looks like I'll be playing in this IR if SE allows.
If that's okay then, I'd like to claim the Empire of Lynn. I have an idea for my PC already and I will be posting that soon (although I will be busy with new years)
Don't worry. You're welcome

.
I admit I was acting like a brat during the preparations for that game, so I imagine it wasn't a very appealing thought to play a solo game with me at that time. No matter, it's all water under the bridge and I have no hard feelings for anyone

.
I believe Lynn was already claimed by Kalanyr (?), but if not you can have it.