Leif's Homebrew 4E, OOC1

[Walking Dad]

Mechanics are ready. Just not totally sure about his background (besides noble sunelf with an arcane warrior training.

 

[Leif]

Mechanics are ready. Just not totally sure about his background (besides noble sunelf with an arcane warrior training.

[Auctioneer's Voice: ] Step right up, foks! Here we have a hardly used Eladrin Sun Elf noble trained as an arcane warrior. Now who wants to be called "Daddy" by this strapping young fellow, eh? Come on now, don't be shy folks, what am I bid for this Baron of the Sidhe?

 

[Sparky]

@Leif : I made the same assumption as Shayuri, that we were Feywild natives. Where are our Eladrin from? And since we're not using Forgotten Realms, what does it mean to be a Sun Elf in your world? Running with Shayuri's lead, Sun Elf = Summer Court... so... Moon Elf = Winter Court or maybe Autumn Court (what with the Harvest Moon and all)?

Anyway. I love world building. Don't mind me.

Are you sticking with the basic cosmology?
-- Gods we know (Avandra, Pelor, etc)
-- Feywild, Shadowfell, Material

-----

@ Everyone: I had a question - what sort of tone are we looking to create? Eladrin always struck me as very Tolkein-elf-ish. Aloof, arcane, serious, melancholy.

Do we want to embrace that? Or are we playing against type? I'm sorta looking forward to playing them as I see them, dramatic. I don't mean melodramatic, just, you know, more "Italian Job" than "Tower Heist."

----

For backgrounds, I thought we could account for our whereabouts from level to level. Levels are long, a dozen or so encounters. So I figure we can (with Leif's help) sketch out our doings. Each level is... say, a year? It'd be a sketch we can build on for our shared adventuring history.

If y'all are game, why don't you start us off, Leif? Choose what we did at 1st level. I gave an example at level 8 based on what we know about our recent past. When you're done, pass it along to another player, repeat until done.

Level 1:
Level 2:
Level 3:
Level 4:
Level 5:
Level 6:
Level 7:
Level 8: Seeking the cause/source of the Dweomerfall, fight black dragon Archangault

 

[Shayuri]

As far as Sulannus goes, she wears the aloof mystique of the eladrin like a mask...but it IS a mask. Her actual personality is considerably warmer and less jaded. She struggles sometimes with her perception that her duty requires her to be something she doesn't always like, or agree with.

 

[Scotley]

Still struggling with my Assassin. I'll have a draft up Sunday at the latest.

I like the ideas for noble siblings and playing a bit dramatic and perhaps melancholy. That should fit well with my shadow touched brother. Serious is a challenge for me. Leif tends to bring out my humorous side, but I can keep a lid on it if that is it the consensus. I'll just have to channel it into a more serious tone.

 

[Sparky]

I'm a huge goof in face-to-face games and build characters that support my inclination to crack wise.

Though, I tend to be able to pull off more 'real' characters on forums. So I'm up for whatever the consensus agrees to as well.

 

[Leif]

@Leif : I made the same assumption as Shayuri, that we were Feywild natives. Where are our Eladrin from? And since we're not using Forgotten Realms, what does it mean to be a Sun Elf in your world? Running with Shayuri's lead, Sun Elf = Summer Court... so... Moon Elf = Winter Court or maybe Autumn Court (what with the Harvest Moon and all)?

Anyway. I love world building. Don't mind me.

Are you sticking with the basic cosmology?
-- Gods we know (Avandra, Pelor, etc)
-- Feywild, Shadowfell, Material

-----

@ Everyone: I had a question - what sort of tone are we looking to create? Eladrin always struck me as very Tolkein-elf-ish. Aloof, arcane, serious, melancholy.

Do we want to embrace that? Or are we playing against type? I'm sorta looking forward to playing them as I see them, dramatic. I don't mean melodramatic, just, you know, more "Italian Job" than "Tower Heist."

----

For backgrounds, I thought we could account for our whereabouts from level to level. Levels are long, a dozen or so encounters. So I figure we can (with Leif's help) sketch out our doings. Each level is... say, a year? It'd be a sketch we can build on for our shared adventuring history.

If y'all are game, why don't you start us off, Leif? Choose what we did at 1st level. I gave an example at level 8 based on what we know about our recent past. When you're done, pass it along to another player, repeat until done.

Level 1: Battled the minions of a Goblin Warlock in the FeyWild [Leif]
Level 2: Continued the Battle with the Goblin Warlock's forces, routed the Warlock himself, too, and ousted him from the FeyWild. [Leif again]
Level 3:
Level 4:
Level 5:
Level 6:
Level 7: First learned of Dweomerfall while pursuing a Firbolg Rogue in the Feywild. Caught and defeated him thoroughly.[Leif yet again]
Level 8: Seeking the cause/source of the Dweomerfall, fight black dragon Archangault

I'm a huge goof in face-to-face games and build characters that support my inclination to crack wise.

Though, I tend to be able to pull off more 'real' characters on forums. So I'm up for whatever the consensus agrees to as well.

Ahh! That's right, Sunelf is FR! No wonder I haven't been able to find it anywhere. Ok, I guess it can mean basically the same thing? We can even be in the FR when it's Prime Material Time, if you want. I hadn't really thought about it that much. I'd like to be in a less-settled area, so where would be a good place in the Realms?

Yes, you are Feywild natives, but you can have some familiarity with the Prime Material [FR] as well.

Basic cosmology, yes, but if anyone feels the need to expand upon that it's probably ok, just check with me first, ok? And let's say that you've been pursuing Archangault during Level7 as well as Level8. Other than that, I have no real preference, except that I want you all to have been adventuring as a group for most of your careers. Sulannus may have missed the recent battle with Archangault for some reason, as I hinted previously, but I'm not married to that idea, either.

We can go for high drama, sure. In fact, that'd be better for everyone's suspension of disbelief and stuff like 'at. But as Sparky has intimated and Scotley has confirmed, I have a tendency to crack wise from time to time. I hope I don't ruin it for anyone, and I'll try to keep that to a bare minimum, and hopefully only in the OOC. But if I fall off the wagon, please help me up and set me straight, ok? I want this to be a great game, and not to overuse a silly descriptor, but even an EPIC one!

As far as Sulannus goes, she wears the aloof mystique of the eladrin like a mask...but it IS a mask. Her actual personality is considerably warmer and less jaded. She struggles sometimes with her perception that her duty requires her to be something she doesn't always like, or agree with.

Remember, Shay, that with this group, she is among family, so she can safely relax her guard somewhat when the group is away from others. Or maybe that is part of her struggle, that she is unable to really be herself and let her guard down, even with her loved ones?

Still struggling with my Assassin. I'll have a draft up Sunday at the latest.

I like the ideas for noble siblings and playing a bit dramatic and perhaps melancholy. That should fit well with my shadow touched brother. Serious is a challenge for me. Leif tends to bring out my humorous side, but I can keep a lid on it if that is it the consensus. I'll just have to channel it into a more serious tone.

Wow, Scotley, you've really set yourself quite a task here, haven't you? Think you can maintain without making me bust out laughing? I'm sure you're up to it. And I'm not at all sure what you mean by "Leif tends to bring out my humorous side." Why ... I ... never!! For real, dude, we gots to cap that stuff off and bottle it for use in another game, ok?

 

[Sparky]

I'd rather not use the FR setting if possible. There are tons of gods and regions and factions and all sorts of new things happening in 4E that I have absolutely no idea about.

It's a great setting, but it's largely a big '?' for me.

 

[Leif]

I'd rather not use the FR setting if possible. There are tons of gods and regions and factions and all sorts of new things happening in 4E that I have absolutely no idea about.

It's a great setting, but it's largely a big '?' for me.

I have no problem with using the Forgotten Realms as the setting for this game, but really Sparky, I'm basically in the same boat that you're in because I really don't know too much about the Realms either.

You should have seen me practically ripping apart every 4E book that I own looking for a "Moon Elf" reference. I knew I had seen it somewhere, but I couldn't find it to save my life. Never did find it -- I had to be told where it was. As usual.

Don't worry, though, everyone will know everything that they are supposed to know when they are supposed to know it. I will not be presuming that you know anything about the world that I have not told you. And, speaking of presumptions, if anyone presumes to know anything about the setting based solely upon the published works, they do so at their extreme peril, because chances are that MY FR diverges from the published FR in unexpected ways.

And remember, no matter what else happens, your characters are NOT from FR, they are from the Feywild. It just happens to be adjacent to the FR. Some of the time, anyway. The way planes migrate and move around in my games, you might very well end up in Eberron when you are trying to get to Waterdeep. (Waterdeep is a city in the Realms, just in case you didn't know.) Again, don't worry. Shhh, it'll be ok, I promise.

 

[Leif]

One more thing that I'm thinking about messing with is the rate of progression that Sparky mentioned. In most of my play-by-post experience, characters are LUCKY if they can expect to increase in level once each year. And that's by no means guaranteed, either. An idea that I have toyed with is just sort of skipping around more and hitting the high points of an adventure or level, playing out some key scenes and filling in the blanks by just telling the PCs what's been happening, or what your characters think has been happening, anyway. There would be some clues and warnings offered if there's any funny stuff going on. I don't get my jollies by picking on PCs in my games -- the way I've always seen it, if your characters succeed, then we all have a good time, but I can't make it TOO easy for you, either. Actually, it's not going to be as critical to me to do that in this game, since we're starting at a reasonable level, but I would like to see the party become truly formidable and kick some major bootay before my hair turns all the way gray, and Scotley can attest that it's practically there already!