Piratecat's storyhour reborn! (updated July 4, 2006)

[Piratecat]

Particularly in the 5/29 update, involving perfect chins and tousled hair. All in all I'm digging the writing, but I'm not much for visual exposition during action scenes.

You don't need to get too used to it, although you might still see more of this than you like. I wanted to give it the feel of that cinematic shot where the hero appears next to his tired and grubby compatiots, and his hair and teeth are both gleaming as if lubed down with bottled charisma.* It's a "wow!" moment based just on looks alone.

Shara is a total manipulative skunk, but she looks good. Kiri and Nolin are both charismatic as well, but in very different ways; Kiri is warm throughout, and Nolin is flashy over a core of self-doubt. But Shara has a different way, an Eversink way, of getting what she wants. I wanted to paint an image that helped make that clear.

* I know what you're thinking. Eww.

 

[Gold Roger]

Actually, not as badly as you'd think.

Well, it was more professional curiosity than true criticism. The whole issue is rather controversial, so I wanted to know your reasoning. I don't know if I would have done it that way, but agree that it would have sucked for him to simply burn out.

The Jimbaja is cool. I generally like magic items that are a bit quirky. If they simply copy spells, things get booring.

 

[Fajitas]

But Shara has a different way, an Eversink way, of getting what she wants.

Shara has a very simple, very clear philosophy. She discovered the truth of this philosophy at an early age, as her teachers and tutors drilled into her all the lady-like skills she would need to be what her grandfather always intended her to be: a very pretty thing he could marry off to some other family to curry favor.

Her philosophy is this: Appearance really *is* everything.

Because most people aren't smart enough to see past it.

That philosophy, a 19 Cha, a 20 Int, and 13 wizard levels as a specialized illusionist will get you pretty far in life.

 

[el-remmen]

I'm a bit at odds here, Pkitty. I like a lot of the writing, but a few bits here and there, where you go into more detail than I'm used to you using, seem a little out of place. Particularly in the 5/29 update, involving perfect chins and tousled hair. All in all I'm digging the writing, but I'm not much for visual exposition during action scenes.

Personally, I'm liking how the writing is going and the added detail.

Oh, and did you see my question above about the 2E conversion?

I take it from your answers that you guys got the playtest rules piece-meal, so were introducing a bit at a time?

 

[Piratecat]

Right. We got updates every week as they changed stuff. I remember when initiative got changed; we did it wrong for weeks, because we couldn't grasp our minds around the fact that you were only supposed to roll once per combat.

Can you talk a little about how you handled 3E conversions and what you did (if anything) to smooth over "continuity problems" that might have crept up with characters' abilities changing - and just the change in strategy that the players had to develop because of the new rules?

Did any of the PCs have "kits" from 2E and/or were any certain kinds of specialty priest with non-standard abilities?

I've already talked a little bit about how we eventually changed Nolin. The biggest problems came from the multiple changes to skills (I remember wisdomlikesilence recalculating her skills for about the 5th time, and for a while most of the skills used the phrase "intuit." Intuit danger, intuit direction, all sorts of things. To this day, just to be funny we still occasionally say "make an intuit jump check.")

Eltariel was a character in my game who was a 12th lvl fighter/magic-user (or whatever they were in 2e.) He felt really, really gimped by having to split his classes between fighter and wizard, because he lost all of his spellcasting and the prestige classes hadn't been invented yet. We ended up giving him a couple of extra levels to compensate, which made him overly powerful but helped meet his idea of the PC.

The specialty priest classes that changed into a normal cleric was most keenly felt in Sagiro's game, where we had three very different clerics in the party. One person (Morningstar's player) in particular felt that she lost a whole lot of flavor due to the change to a common spell list.

TomTom's psionics were tricky to convert until we got the PsiHB drafts. I think we sort of faked it, combining 2e psionics with 3e classes. It wasn't pretty, but it got us through.

It's funny how rules drive your expectations. The very first 3e adventure I ran was one where the bad guy was a dwarven wizard, and the PCs totally ignored him as a potential villain because they knew that dwarves couldn't cast spells.

Incidentally, I just realized that the adventures preceding the Bearspittle game was probably my story arc involving King Josric, G2 (the frost giants), Unflaith the psionic spider, and the King's inadvertent insanity. Good stuff, but I think I picked the right starting place.

 

[Piratecat]

One wonders where the supplier for that was. I mean, I'm no expert on Spira but I suppose you can't buy it at the Corsai Walmart.

Most of it's home cooking; you just need to provide your own raw ingredients.

Design-wise, there's an interesting balance to providing a reasonably powerful item (and this is probably in minor artifact status) that's fueled by something loathsome. If the heroes choose to use it extensively, that just creates new avenues of plot hooks.

"Hello, miss? My name is Nolin, and I'm looking to paint "Nymph in a tub." Would you please help? And don't fret that the tub looks like a cooking pot, that's just for my art!"

 

[KidCthulhu]

One wonders where the supplier for that was. I mean, I'm no expert on Spira but I suppose you can't buy it at the Corsai Walmart.

It's even ickier when you think about the fact that nymphs aren't packing a whole lot of body fat. So to get enough to fill the oil reservoir...

That's a lot of dead fairies.

 

[Sialia]

. . .
Incidentally, I just realized that the adventures preceding the Bearspittle game was probably my story arc involving King Josric, G2 (the frost giants), Unflaith the psionic spider, and the King's inadvertent insanity. Good stuff, but I think I picked the right starting place.

But Unflaith was soooooo cool.

You just have to tell that one sometime . . . everybody out there will want to steal her.

And thus our glorious creation will have offspring across so many worldssses, yess.

You mussssst.

Really.

 

[KidCthulhu]

Si, you need to step away from the evil brain spider. Right now!

 

[Sialia]

Sigh. I already have. Now this stupid tune is stuck in my head:

"I am dancing dancing dancing with Rofan
tripping through leaves and sticks and rills
all through the forest, the calling of Rofan
the little squakes chatter, the little birds trill
tree roots are twining, leaves boughs en-vining
open earth welcoming, sky is beckoning,
tree limbs spreading, reaching the sky . . .
the sun is coy, floating barely too high.
Fire is dancing, dancing with Rofan.
Mist is rising, rising with Rofan.
fog enveloping, cloudlings developing . . .
Follow, follow, follow the lady
with him the lady the lady the lady we find
finding the lady with Rofan."

beats me where this came from.