[D&D-5e] The Secrets of Cinsex (5e, very complex hombrew setting with some house rules)

[Battlechaser]

Originally Posted by Sebecloki

That is another consideration -- I think this might work well if everyone was on board with it as a midway point between a worldbuilding project and a game; the ooc could go to hundreds of brief posts discussing worldbuilding concepts around the game. For instance, someone might mention a book, and someone else might suggest some history for that book, and someone else might create a revised edition of the book, and why it was revised, and so forth. That kind of chatter might help keep the game together even if the actual positing rate is pretty slow.

Perhaps it could help to have multiple subdivisions in the OOC: literature, science, religion, people. Otherwise one can easily get lost in the posts.

I have a few questions regarding my concept:

- What are the names of the God of Knowledge?
- Does he have an order of intelligence gatherers? Perhaps spies that infiltrate in other organisations with the explicit goal of intelgathering? Off course, if they destroy knowledge, an intervention is necessary.
- Where is his university located? What is its name? Do they teach medicine, alchemy, poisoncraft?
- Does Cinsex have slums? If so what is their name? Would it be reasonable for a healer/alchemist to set up practice there? Could he/she make contact with members of the new Kingfisher’s assassin’s guild?
- I see the possibility of my character gaining the trust of the organisation to infiltrate them.
- What are the naming conventions? And the major languages?
- Mechanically, I’m leaning towards a prodigy. Do you have any objections?

[lostcheerio]

Sebecloki,

When you say you want 1 post/day for M-F, do you mean that *everyone* posts a long post once a day? Or do you mean that there's a post in the game each day from someone?

Just wondering if there's a misunderstanding here, and clearing it up might bring in more interest. When people say 1/week they mean everyone posts 1/week, meaning there might actually be a daily post in the game, including the DM.

[Sebecloki]

Originally Posted by lostcheerio

Sebecloki,

When you say you want 1 post/day for M-F, do you mean that *everyone* posts a long post once a day? Or do you mean that there's a post in the game each day from someone?

Just wondering if there's a misunderstanding here, and clearing it up might bring in more interest. When people say 1/week they mean everyone posts 1/week, meaning there might actually be a daily post in the game, including the DM.

I had originally proposed everyone is posting 1/day, but I'm getting replies that increasingly suggest we should instead have everyone post 1/week. I don't think a final decision has been reached yet, but we're trending in the latter direction and trying to imagine how that would work.

[tomplum]

@ Sebecloki - A lot of games can start out quicker in regard to post rates but almost always end up falling into a once per week rhythm. I'm not saying its impossible but faster than that would be the exception. Its just kind of a truth of play by post.

Also, keep in mind that if you invite 4-6 players who are going to post once per day, that's at least 4-6 possible responses from you each day. It may not seem like much but three months down the road it can lead to burn out.

[Onward]

Originally Posted by Sebecloki

The Phoenix is only one deity that exists in dozens of forms. There are also other fire gods -- you're welcome to make something up if you have a specific proposal. Another fire god is a pack of foxes made out of fire who is mostly worshipped in the eastern lands. The phoenix is more of a creator and solar deity -- this fire god is more of a trickster and hermes/prometheus figure who gives fire to mortals as a tool and weapon. Some stories depict it as the son of the phoenix, but that's mostly in border territories where both deities are widely known. Most of the heartlands of both communities aren't really aware of the other, and don't address the other's existence in their mythology or philosophical writings.

Ooh, a bunch of flaming foxes eh. And they have a mischievous background, clearly that just fits into what my character would be, classes and background.

And none of the major towns are aware of animorphs? Strange, though I guess there might be some appearance of the more adventurous folk appearing here and there, I reckon at least.

Question, would it be reasonable for an animorph to be present in human society? How would people react? Is it a prejudice manner? Either way, my character can probably make a human disguise, maybe use a fox mask or just cover his face with a bunch of scarves.

[Onward]

I also prefer if our posting rates stay on a week-to-week basis. Day-to-day sounds time constraining, especially if we're making such long and detailed posts for everyday.

[ArcZero]

Hello I am very intrigued by this setting and approach to storytelling. I am somewhat in agreement with the others. I could do a lengthy post every day but it is more likely that it would be three-ish posts in a week of subtstantial girth if we are in storytelling mode and driving our own narrative or somewhat shorter daily posts if I'm interacting with other characters, doing dialogue, etc. The concept of giving us the monster stats and resolving things ourselves is very intriguing as combat can take weeks at a time in my PBP experience, especially if people aren't on top of responding quickly in initiative.

I would be curious about your intended balance of theatre of the mind vs battle map combat. Even in PBP I prefer some specificity of where enemies are for the sake of cover, line of sight, aoes, etc. Though I can see long narrative posts even in combat giving me the detail I need to make fun strategic choices. I understand you may handwaive details and that is fine, I prefer narrative cohesion to strict rules adherence, even if I do enjoy rules-lawyering. As long as I can get the verisimilitude of character and "combat class fantasy" I am after, I am not worried. I just like all aspects of the game to be as fleshed out as possible.

As an option, have you tried some type of chess rules for movement, where you could post a battle map and we put where we desire to move or target in an A1 to F6-style? Then that map could be updated once a round or something? I agree things like Tabletop Simulator are a pain in the bum, but I can't even imagine with an asynchronous PBP game.

I am developing a very interesting concept as Sunscript/Moonscript scroll reading, Moonglow investiture and Kingfisher white necromancy immediately appealed to me. So I am happy to write and you let me know what will fly/adapt as needed.

 

I know I am very new here but I have a long history with D&D history primarily acting as the DM for several groups of friends. Some of my favorite books are The Name of the Wind, Stormlight Archives, Mistborn, Dresden Files, Tolkien's Silmarillion China Mieville's books like Perdido Street Station and The Scar, so I am no stranger to hard and soft magic, elegant prose and insane worldbuilding. Your setting reminds me of that historical mysticism of Game of Thrones: wherein religions and historical figures have many names and ways to view their mythos and timelines. The unreliable narrator, Dark Souls-style tidbits of information (Bloodborne is one of my favorite games with the way it weaves an inverted hero's journey and Cosmic Horror elegantly into the background is one of my favorite narrative experiences ever), a game of telephone style mythology where some people got a flaky, skin-graying disease and now people halfway across the world tell of golem people with the blood of acid.

I appreciate the Morrowind-esque narrative exposition you're indicating NPC's would give us (exposition dumps), but I am curious if that tasty unreliable historical mythology would be in effect as well. After all, that is one of my favorite ways of interpreting the religions and mythos of the past from Beowulf to the Buddha: that people could not easily explain or convey what they saw and so larger-than-life storytelling is not simply people from the past lying or "being hurr-durr idiots" for not knowing about modern science, but rather that was a method of relaying information used across the world and it has whole entire systems of logic, truth and meaning to them that reach back to the oldest parts of understanding that make us human.

To account for my inchoate posting status, here is a link to my substantial character application in another game. https://www.rpgcrossing.com/showthre...02#post9525102
This should show my ability to create vivid imagery with solid characterization, but I am happy to develop some proto-character posts in this thread if that would sufficiently indicate my capability for prose.

Also, I have played D&D for 16 years, dm'ed several games with lots of linguistic references, mythologies, etc. as indicated in my linked post 'about me' section.

If I am to get into both that game and yours, I would certainly commit to doing both justice. On Giants in the Playground in years past, I had been in two to three campaigns concurrently with little issue. You see, as my interest and investment in the story goes up, so does the fecundity of my writing. I am prone to falling in and out of love with something, so I will do my best to communicate if there comes a time that my schedule changes or I do not intend to continue.

On to the fun stuff. Let me know what you think, I know I am trying to weave together a lot of lore, what could be two or three characters' worth, but when it comes to casters, I am very much a fan of the Kvothe and Gandalf style of overloaded characters steeped in tradition who wear many hats, have been many places and only show their hand when necessary. As a fifth level character, I expect they would have a solid journey through the world so far and likely have completed their initial journeyman/squire phase of training and be into the knighthood/"Jedi Knight" phase of things where they are achieving mastery in the world and beginning their Sir Gawain-style Arthurian quests properly. If you can't tell, I love the symbology and character growth of the Hero's Journey, so I am curious if you have read The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell and would be interested in writing that kind of Arthurian/Beowulf type myth-making. Leaning into subtle characterization in addition to all the lore.

Character Concept I know this concept is creative, but this setting screams for some strangeness. Let me know what you like and what would be too far. Name: Lissatra (surname tbd) Class: Wizard (ideally a mix of Necromancer and Onomancy (true naming)), I see them as much more charismatic than strictly intelligence-based so a Charisma Wizard, Sorceror or even a Cleric with a custom subclass or Sphere stuff could work as well. Race: Is a long-beaked Kenku-Kingfisher type bird too on the nose for a Kingfisher temple wizard "priest"? The mimicry ability would play into the character concept tremendously; otherwise, some flavor of High Elf or Half-Elf. Goal and Background: Lissatra is a recent graduate/disciple of the Kingfisher temple. If dabbling in multiple origins of magic is allowed, then after studying gnostican magic, the sorcerous "spark" magic or even possession magic, she had a terrible vision/deduction of an imbalance in the flow of life and death (this vision could also be much less apocalyptic, simply showing that there are swaths of errors and inconsistencies in causality). So she set out to learn to read Suncscript and Moonscript, to divine a way to avoid this calamity. To this point, Lissatra had convened with minor spirits and had learned the True Names of a few mortals, Onomancy being her preferred magic from when her talent with "spark" or possession magic first manifested; however, access to Moon and Sunscript required the type of formal training she had avoided. Managing to persuade the Temple School to accept her (I know not age or other entry requirements), Lissatra studied hard and used her Onomancy to gain access to some type of communion with the Kingfisher goddess or one of her surrogates. She saw a connection point to the great weave of leylines, visualizing it as branches of a lunar tree or a lunar river, with tributaries, whirpools, or reverse-flowing eddies. She sought to prune this tree or stymie the river and divert its many segments back to their infinitesimally subtle original paths. If her blashpemy in attempting to marry Onomancy and Moonglow is known to others, it would doubtless cause offense but Lissatra does her best to be devout and show that she is certain this path will heal the balance of the world. This hacking of the mantle of Moonglow has allowed Lissatra to imbue the wan, crepuscular rays of Moonglow into the hallowed dead. This returns those who were not yet destined to die to life until the proper time comes for unlife to cessate once more. At once a faithful clergy/laity woman of Kingfisher white necromancy and an iconoclast using Moonglow for her own purposes, Lissatra walks a dangerous path. (I see this manifesting as Onomancy with the Undead Thralls ability worked in somewhere and perhaps Command Undead at 14th level. Granted the 6th level Undead Thralls and 6th level Resonant Utterance compete for the lion's shares of the power in their respective subclasses, so that's awkward. Otherwise the Undead Sphere looks promising and I don't know how the semi-feat talent system you're talking about works. Again, if this can be made to work as a Charisma Wizard or a Sorcerer, that would be cool.) Personality:Lissatra is cautious and reserved, having learned discretion at a young age when her parents sent her to a very strict Ettiquette teacher. They were of a minor noble sort: elevated enough to live happily and yet just low enough that they were forced to grovel and indenture themselves to others of higher status to give their children upward mobility into the ranks of the clergy. Lissatra enjoyed being around the ne'er-do-wells once her studies were done each day. She learned to subvert, abscond and lie with these hoodlums. Seeing a breakthrough with Onomancy from a later teacher gave her some respect for higher powers and a few missteps with the insanely rigorous procedures with which people Name and Call spirits and mortals alike left her psychically vulnerable to outsiders. Brought back to her teacher's ken, she vowed to be more careful with serious magic. Now she enjoys puppeteering others, gathering subtle clues to their personality or how they say their own name to later use against them by getting access to their True Name. The dead she often treats with more reverence than the living (especially if she winds up going the possession magic route), dressing them in attire and arms fitting of their station in life. Lissatra can be petty and certainly holds grudges, aided now by her ability to Name and control the living and dead alike.

[DaniLore]

Hello Sebecloki, I'm simply blown away by the depth of the Lore you've provided so far. You've touched on the fall of the Ghedron empire and the emergence of city-states. My character's idea is one who is a foreigner. Have you already developed a map or list of these domains or may we take liberties with crafting our own along with their histories? Just wanting to check before diving in headfirst!

The kingdom I have in mind is a long-time ally of Ghyfe, best known for its industry and naval prowess. Also, are there any foreign powers we should be aware of in your setting? Can you tell us anything more about taboo and heretical views, including what might directly oppose the Kingfisher and Phoenix faiths? Also, may we have a little more info on the Royals under threat?

[Sebecloki]

Originally Posted by DaniLore

Hello Sebecloki, I'm simply blown away by the depth of the Lore you've provided so far. You've touched on the fall of the Ghedron empire and the emergence of city-states. My character's idea is one who is a foreigner. Have you already developed a map or list of these domains or may we take liberties with crafting our own along with their histories? Just wanting to check before diving in headfirst!

The kingdom I have in mind is a long-time ally of Ghyfe, best known for its industry and naval prowess. Also, are there any foreign powers we should be aware of in your setting? Can you tell us anything more about taboo and heretical views, including what might directly oppose the Kingfisher and Phoenix faiths? Also, may we have a little more info on the Royals under threat?

There are a lot of individual questions here -- I'll get around to those and some of the ones above, but I have quick answers to the religion one.

The faith of the Phoenix Goddess of the Sun Atax-Aurora the Kingfisher Goddess of the Moon Teperua is the official faith of Ghyfe -- it arose in the last days of the Ghedron Empire during the time of blood, and displaced a previous monothestic faith that worshipped a god that could not see or hear the world, but could feel its pain without being changed by this experience, and emenated the archons and demiurges who created it. Atax-Aurora is a messianic, inspiring deity that was originally part of a mystery religion embraced by only some members of the military elite to gain favor in battle. This is how it spread so quickly -- when several of the legions recreated themselves as noble hosues, their faith displaced that of the previous imperial order, and was installed as the new state religion. It was presented that the phoenix had delivered the lands of Ghyfe from the time of blood, especially her spokesperson -- a mysterious woman known as the Solar Prophet who has been attributed many names. Though the church denies this, the faith of Teperua was originally a 'higher mystery' -- something like crazy wisdom in Tibetan buddhism, and a subset of the monotheist faith of the phoenix. The state church was reformed by an enterprising pontif -- a newly created position called the First Flame that it was claimed had been revived from the precedent established in ancient documents. This figure set out dualistic faith of the sun and moon, claiming both goddesses were coequal mistresses of creation. Several explanations have been given for this -- that the initial First Flame was actually a secret moon adherent, and a heretic of the sect which holds the kingfisher as the primary deity, or that it was an attempt to create peace between two powerful factions. Whatever the truth, the dualistic version of the faith is the official version, and all others are persecuted to the degree they depart from this party line. Phoenix monotheists, a sort of old guard, often give lip service to the dualism, and are essentially tolerated as long as they are not to loud about their views; kingfisher monotheists are a hidden sect, and are considered extremely dangerous, but no one looks to hard for them, as they are widely believed to be a small but influential faction aligned with powerful supernatural and criminal forces. The minority that considers the phoenix and her dark sister to be the same god are persecuted heretics that are drowned in water lit with alchemical fire. Any hint of this heresy is ruthlessly stamped out. It is explicitly mentioned in the holy texts, though the exact reason why this particular view is so repugnant is not theologically clear. Adherents of this view opposed the Solar Prophet, but there is little explanation in the hagiography of her life as to WHY exactly these views are so detestable to the majority. There is a hidden sect that views both goddesses as emanations from the old imperial god that has no name, no eyes, and no ears -- and this group, too, would be purged if they ever revealed themselves, but it is largely a private mystery that only a few scholars embrace and have no interest in evangelizing. The phoenix-kingfisher monotheists believe the rest of the church is in heresy, and actively seek to convert their fellows to their version of the faith. There are dozens of other sects -- but those are the main alternative viewpoint.

[Sebecloki]

Originally Posted by DaniLore

Hello Sebecloki, I'm simply blown away by the depth of the Lore you've provided so far. You've touched on the fall of the Ghedron empire and the emergence of city-states. My character's idea is one who is a foreigner. Have you already developed a map or list of these domains or may we take liberties with crafting our own along with their histories? Just wanting to check before diving in headfirst!

The kingdom I have in mind is a long-time ally of Ghyfe, best known for its industry and naval prowess. Also, are there any foreign powers we should be aware of in your setting? Can you tell us anything more about taboo and heretical views, including what might directly oppose the Kingfisher and Phoenix faiths? Also, may we have a little more info on the Royals under threat?

Okay, for foreign powers; the center-south of Sairla was dominated by the Ghedron Empire, but it's now split up into a bazillion -- like hundreds of thousands, of piece, some as large as whole kingdoms like Ghyfe, and some as small a castle and its lands. I don't have names for every one, but here is an overview of the continent:

The Kingdom of Ghyfe is a feudal realm on the southern coast of a large continent -- it's northern border is made up of several steep mountain ranges. The western border of Ghyfe is a desert with pink sand known as the Desert of Karneades. To the east is the Republic of Hossis, which is a republic with a large minority of psionically gifted individuals. Both realms are predominantly human, but also include populations of other races. The elves that live in the mountains that form the northern border of Ghyfe are quasi-Tibetan/Bon in culture.

The Kingdom of Ghyfe uses a set of naming conventions taken from Basque, Armenia, and some other languages of the Caucuses like Georgian. Aesthetically, its culture is similar to that of late medieval Poland and the Baroque style of the Iberian Peninsula-- the cultures that produced the famous Winged Hussars and the Santiago de Compostela.
The border region between Ghyfe and Hossis has an aesthetic more similar to 18th c. colonial America.

The culture of the Republic of Hossis is neoclassical, except its buildings are made of unusual materials like crystal and pink marble.

Other cultures on the same continent include an imperial realm of kobolds with a quasi-chinese culture that worship dragons, a quasi-turkic realm of orcs who ride megafauna like megacerops, the quasi-tibetan elves of the mountains, and gnoll culture from a continent to the south that is suggestive of nubia and canaanite culture.

The primary human subraces are the Ghyfeans -- who resemble the inhabitants of modern day Iberia; they have a feudal culture and worship the Sun Goddess Atax-Aurora, the Phoenix, and the Moon Goddess Teperua, the Nightingale. These divine sisters are the two major deities. The priests of Atax-Aurora attempt to undermine and drive out the worship of any other sun deity. There are several underground societies that venerate other sun deities.

The other primary human subraces are the Vumyrusians, the inhabitants of the islands of the Sea of Claws; they physically resemble the inhabitants of Ireland -- gingers with pale skin, freckles, and green eyes, and are recovering from being conquered by Ghyfe. They have an historical streak of independence, and also practice unusual forms of magic that exist nowhere else in the continent.

The humans that live on the border between Ghyfe and Hossis are known as Marchlanders, and are pale-skinned, blonde-haired, blue-eyed humans with a distinct southern twang in their dialect. Though they do not have firearms as such, they are exceptionally skilled in the creation and use of wands and repeat crossbows, and also possess a distinct religion known as the Way of the Prophets -- this teaching holds that a trinity of goddesses of light and crystal speak through a line of human representatives known as prophets. It is often the case that there is more than one prophet at a given time. They also pray to a panoply of angelic servants of these three goddesses. This culture can be compared to a combination of early Mormonism and the hinterlands of the Antebellum South -- Appalachia/'Hillbilly' or Bayou culture.

Can I get more information about orcs in the setting other than the initial pitch e.g culture, tendencies, society, their reaction of half-breeds, etc? By turkic-quasi realm, do they behave like Warcraft Orcs?


I mean that, like historical Turks, they historically developed from a nomadic, horse-archer people in a steppe region, and have historically served in a role as janissaries/ghilman (slave soldiers) for contiguous urban societies, and have, in iterations, invaded those urban regions and displaced the previous urban elite -- think kh*****mia, where the ghilmans became the ruling class. They have a high reverence for calvary and archery skills, and a religion that is a form of elemental animism. Their conception of lineage/blood would be like other tribal cultures such as the cherokee -- where cultural identity has primarily to do with family relationships and embodiment of cultural norms -- such as archery skills, rather than a specific ethnic origin. For example, and elven child taken in a raid and adopted into an orc family could eventually be considered a full tribal citizen as long as they speak the language, embody and reflect the cultural norms, and maintain their place in the patronage/lineage system (they do not irrevocably sever themselves from the pater familias through an act of dishonor/treachery).

I'm not really sure what the cultural inspiration for warcraft orcs are -- I'm thinking about central asian peoples like the uighurs and the islamic states that arose when those peoples conquered neighboring urban cultures -- the ottomans, seljuks, kh*****mia, etc., with that caveat that more of the population have maintained a tribal, animistic faith practice as opposed to a doctrinal, textually-based monotheistic creed.

Some other cultural concepts -- a high reverence and development of oral poetry, and the preservation of an archaic form of a steppe language (similar the bedouin forms of Arabic); orc nobles from sedentary orc elites still send their children to be trained in archery and horsemanship and speech to the traditional tribes of the steppes. Wealth is still measured significantly among both urban and nomadic orcs by possession of large hordes of calvary, warbeasts, and domesticated animals for food and milk. The urban architecture of the orc elites still reflects motifs and shapes from their nomadic origins.


The Kingdom of Ghyfe is located on a continent in the northern portion of its planet -- it faces a tempestuous sea that straddles the middle of the tropics; the continent is about double the size of north America.

This continent is surrounded by a large ocean, which contains one other continent, which lies to the south; These two continents are surrounded by what is in fact an inland sea -- the vast majority of the planet is a ring land which surrounds this ocean, which only occupies one side of the planet.

the western portions are dominated by a large peninsula that contains five quasi-Asian realms with an elemental focus to each -- earth, fire, water, metal, and wood. Each of these realms is occupied by kobolds of the appropriate chromatic/elemental alignment, genasi, and other elementally-aligned races like fire newts, azeri, warforged, etc. Each of the 'Five Kingdoms' occupies a separate river valley or series of river valleys that support agriculture. These five realms are also engaged in a tense struggle for control which keeps them from organizing, allying, or invading any other portions of the continent.

The primary orc region is a series of plateaus -- think the Thayan escarpment -- several tiers of cliffs, that abuts the peninsula of the Five Kingdoms. Surrounding this escarpment are a number of kingdoms, several of which now have orc elites; one of these is a solar theocracy, a variant of the religion of Ghyfe where the phoenix goddess is the sole deity, and the moon goddess is considered to be a demonic entity. This theocracy -- the Theocracy of the Ankh -- has imposed vassalship on two other neighboring kingdoms, but not conquered them outright; its clergy and templars merely patrol the streets and decisively influence all political decisions.

Also abutting the escarpment are a collection of a dozen realms with admixtures of human, orc, and dwarven populations -- including halfbreeds. These realms are on the northern border of the escarpment, while the Theocracy of the Ankh lies to the south. These baronies, dukedoms, and petty realms are the remnants of a once larger empire that also ruled the escarpment are warred with the empire that once ruled the entire peninsula of the Five Kingdoms. They have tense relationship with another alliance of nine realms composed of humans, goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears (as well as halfbreeds) that are positioned on the other side of a large forest and river system. Further to the east is a group of 101-110 petty bandit/slaver states that sometimes join in alliances of as large as 30-33 to war with one or more of the feudal kingdoms.

The eastern side of the escarpment is a massive rift that connects with the 'deep earth'. There is a constant conflict between the evil deep gnomes that are the strongest power in the 'deep earth' and a derro psiocracy that controls the rift and adjoining territory itself. North of the rift is a large lake whose waters empty into the gulch and which is dominated by a ring of twisted, thorn-laden forests, as well as city-states ruled by half-green/half-wild elves, which compose druid circles that rule each city-state, and ghostwise halflings, as well as various plant races.

East of the rift are 36 kingdoms made up primarily of humans -- Ghyfe is one of these realms. Most of these realms are feudal monarchies.
Further to the west are about 30 realms dominated by lupin, catlfolk, and half-catfolk.

The Sea of Claws is part of the one ocean of the world which is dominated by a sahuagin empire -- the Vumyrusian Islands made up of almost a million islands of various size in the sea of claws -- think the Indonesian Archipelago, but much, much larger. They have been substantially infiltrated by one portion of the sahuagin empire which is dominated by the throwback subspecies known as the prehistoric sahuagin, or adacthys, and which is ruled by undead seers and their godlike undead megaladon and mosasaurus demi-gods/rulers. These cults infiltrated an arm of the Vumyrusian Islands which is near to the coast of Ghyfe, and this was the power behind the Dread Fleets which sparked the Azure Crusade. While the allies and servants of the sahuagin have largely been driven out above the waves and in the islands, they continue to plot their resurgence in the depths.

The first age of the world was the age of fire -- it ended with an invasion by the forces of Imix, who burned the azeri, firenewt, efreet, and other fire-aligned races. A subsequent conflict took place between the forces of Imix and the Burning Hate Zalar. This conflict resulted in the extinction of life, but created fertile regions of charged ash at the poles of the planet.

The dark earth of the poles gave life to the Andian halflings -- the halflings of the northern poles were psionic lords, and ruled a LN, highly-ordered psionic realm, while those of the south were practitioners of subpsionics. The war between these factions resulted in the southern subpsionic halfings being driven underground, where they gave birth to the svirneblin race.

[Sebecloki]

Originally Posted by ArcZero

Hello I am very intrigued by this setting and approach to storytelling. I am somewhat in agreement with the others. I could do a lengthy post every day but it is more likely that it would be three-ish posts in a week of subtstantial girth if we are in storytelling mode and driving our own narrative or somewhat shorter daily posts if I'm interacting with other characters, doing dialogue, etc. The concept of giving us the monster stats and resolving things ourselves is very intriguing as combat can take weeks at a time in my PBP experience, especially if people aren't on top of responding quickly in initiative.

I would be curious about your intended balance of theatre of the mind vs battle map combat. Even in PBP I prefer some specificity of where enemies are for the sake of cover, line of sight, aoes, etc. Though I can see long narrative posts even in combat giving me the detail I need to make fun strategic choices. I understand you may handwaive details and that is fine, I prefer narrative cohesion to strict rules adherence, even if I do enjoy rules-lawyering. As long as I can get the verisimilitude of character and "combat class fantasy" I am after, I am not worried. I just like all aspects of the game to be as fleshed out as possible.

As an option, have you tried some type of chess rules for movement, where you could post a battle map and we put where we desire to move or target in an A1 to F6-style? Then that map could be updated once a round or something? I agree things like Tabletop Simulator are a pain in the bum, but I can't even imagine with an asynchronous PBP game.

I am developing a very interesting concept as Sunscript/Moonscript scroll reading, Moonglow investiture and Kingfisher white necromancy immediately appealed to me. So I am happy to write and you let me know what will fly/adapt as needed.

 

I know I am very new here but I have a long history with D&D history primarily acting as the DM for several groups of friends. Some of my favorite books are The Name of the Wind, Stormlight Archives, Mistborn, Dresden Files, Tolkien's Silmarillion China Mieville's books like Perdido Street Station and The Scar, so I am no stranger to hard and soft magic, elegant prose and insane worldbuilding. Your setting reminds me of that historical mysticism of Game of Thrones: wherein religions and historical figures have many names and ways to view their mythos and timelines. The unreliable narrator, Dark Souls-style tidbits of information (Bloodborne is one of my favorite games with the way it weaves an inverted hero's journey and Cosmic Horror elegantly into the background is one of my favorite narrative experiences ever), a game of telephone style mythology where some people got a flaky, skin-graying disease and now people halfway across the world tell of golem people with the blood of acid.

I appreciate the Morrowind-esque narrative exposition you're indicating NPC's would give us (exposition dumps), but I am curious if that tasty unreliable historical mythology would be in effect as well. After all, that is one of my favorite ways of interpreting the religions and mythos of the past from Beowulf to the Buddha: that people could not easily explain or convey what they saw and so larger-than-life storytelling is not simply people from the past lying or "being hurr-durr idiots" for not knowing about modern science, but rather that was a method of relaying information used across the world and it has whole entire systems of logic, truth and meaning to them that reach back to the oldest parts of understanding that make us human.

To account for my inchoate posting status, here is a link to my substantial character application in another game. https://www.rpgcrossing.com/showthre...02#post9525102
This should show my ability to create vivid imagery with solid characterization, but I am happy to develop some proto-character posts in this thread if that would sufficiently indicate my capability for prose.

Also, I have played D&D for 16 years, dm'ed several games with lots of linguistic references, mythologies, etc. as indicated in my linked post 'about me' section.

If I am to get into both that game and yours, I would certainly commit to doing both justice. On Giants in the Playground in years past, I had been in two to three campaigns concurrently with little issue. You see, as my interest and investment in the story goes up, so does the fecundity of my writing. I am prone to falling in and out of love with something, so I will do my best to communicate if there comes a time that my schedule changes or I do not intend to continue.

On to the fun stuff. Let me know what you think, I know I am trying to weave together a lot of lore, what could be two or three characters' worth, but when it comes to casters, I am very much a fan of the Kvothe and Gandalf style of overloaded characters steeped in tradition who wear many hats, have been many places and only show their hand when necessary. As a fifth level character, I expect they would have a solid journey through the world so far and likely have completed their initial journeyman/squire phase of training and be into the knighthood/"Jedi Knight" phase of things where they are achieving mastery in the world and beginning their Sir Gawain-style Arthurian quests properly. If you can't tell, I love the symbology and character growth of the Hero's Journey, so I am curious if you have read The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell and would be interested in writing that kind of Arthurian/Beowulf type myth-making. Leaning into subtle characterization in addition to all the lore.

I see you put truenaming in there -- I'm not sure if there's a 5e conversion for that.

Honestly, I have no problem making this PF1e if everyone ACTUALLY wants to do spheres, akasha, path of war, and that kind of stuff (there's also a conversion of truenaming for PF by interjection games that's free and expands the system), I just was trying to use the system with the most fan base (5e) to get writing intense applicants. I've actually played more early 3x systems, and I know what all that stuff is.

The 3pp. systems like spheres can be very appealing to gamers who are more interested in the rules than the story, or primarily interested in the rules, and that's not really the focus here. I'm not really interested in players who "had this cool gestalt idea for a cleric/epilektoi build I always wanted to try out; they have a killer bullrush + smash and smite combo that does at least 100 damage a round, and leaves the opponent stunned if you apply this feat" or whatever.

[Sebecloki]

Originally Posted by Onward

Ooh, a bunch of flaming foxes eh. And they have a mischievous background, clearly that just fits into what my character would be, classes and background.

And none of the major towns are aware of animorphs? Strange, though I guess there might be some appearance of the more adventurous folk appearing here and there, I reckon at least.

Question, would it be reasonable for an animorph to be present in human society? How would people react? Is it a prejudice manner? Either way, my character can probably make a human disguise, maybe use a fox mask or just cover his face with a bunch of scarves.

I meant the religions of the theriomorphs of the east are not well known, not the peoples. So, they've met fox people, but aren't really aware of all the details of their religion, or that they have a separate fire god with some similar portfolios to the phoenix goddess they worship. The theriomorphs come from the east -- they're not native to the central lands of the continent that are mostly elf, orc, and human lands -- by far, predominantly human. They're viewed like the kobolds from the west, as foreigners, but not necessarily with suspicion. They're simply outsiders with different religions, cultures, and worlviews -- and they're travelers, not natives, but they're not scared of them outright. The kobolds have a worse reputation, for instance.

[Sebecloki]

Originally Posted by ArcZero

Hello I am very intrigued by this setting and approach to storytelling. I am somewhat in agreement with the others. I could do a lengthy post every day but it is more likely that it would be three-ish posts in a week of subtstantial girth if we are in storytelling mode and driving our own narrative or somewhat shorter daily posts if I'm interacting with other characters, doing dialogue, etc. The concept of giving us the monster stats and resolving things ourselves is very intriguing as combat can take weeks at a time in my PBP experience, especially if people aren't on top of responding quickly in initiative.

I would be curious about your intended balance of theatre of the mind vs battle map combat. Even in PBP I prefer some specificity of where enemies are for the sake of cover, line of sight, aoes, etc. Though I can see long narrative posts even in combat giving me the detail I need to make fun strategic choices. I understand you may handwaive details and that is fine, I prefer narrative cohesion to strict rules adherence, even if I do enjoy rules-lawyering. As long as I can get the verisimilitude of character and "combat class fantasy" I am after, I am not worried. I just like all aspects of the game to be as fleshed out as possible.

As an option, have you tried some type of chess rules for movement, where you could post a battle map and we put where we desire to move or target in an A1 to F6-style? Then that map could be updated once a round or something? I agree things like Tabletop Simulator are a pain in the bum, but I can't even imagine with an asynchronous PBP game.

I am developing a very interesting concept as Sunscript/Moonscript scroll reading, Moonglow investiture and Kingfisher white necromancy immediately appealed to me. So I am happy to write and you let me know what will fly/adapt as needed.

 

I know I am very new here but I have a long history with D&D history primarily acting as the DM for several groups of friends. Some of my favorite books are The Name of the Wind, Stormlight Archives, Mistborn, Dresden Files, Tolkien's Silmarillion China Mieville's books like Perdido Street Station and The Scar, so I am no stranger to hard and soft magic, elegant prose and insane worldbuilding. Your setting reminds me of that historical mysticism of Game of Thrones: wherein religions and historical figures have many names and ways to view their mythos and timelines. The unreliable narrator, Dark Souls-style tidbits of information (Bloodborne is one of my favorite games with the way it weaves an inverted hero's journey and Cosmic Horror elegantly into the background is one of my favorite narrative experiences ever), a game of telephone style mythology where some people got a flaky, skin-graying disease and now people halfway across the world tell of golem people with the blood of acid.

I appreciate the Morrowind-esque narrative exposition you're indicating NPC's would give us (exposition dumps), but I am curious if that tasty unreliable historical mythology would be in effect as well. After all, that is one of my favorite ways of interpreting the religions and mythos of the past from Beowulf to the Buddha: that people could not easily explain or convey what they saw and so larger-than-life storytelling is not simply people from the past lying or "being hurr-durr idiots" for not knowing about modern science, but rather that was a method of relaying information used across the world and it has whole entire systems of logic, truth and meaning to them that reach back to the oldest parts of understanding that make us human.

To account for my inchoate posting status, here is a link to my substantial character application in another game. https://www.rpgcrossing.com/showthre...02#post9525102
This should show my ability to create vivid imagery with solid characterization, but I am happy to develop some proto-character posts in this thread if that would sufficiently indicate my capability for prose.

Also, I have played D&D for 16 years, dm'ed several games with lots of linguistic references, mythologies, etc. as indicated in my linked post 'about me' section.

If I am to get into both that game and yours, I would certainly commit to doing both justice. On Giants in the Playground in years past, I had been in two to three campaigns concurrently with little issue. You see, as my interest and investment in the story goes up, so does the fecundity of my writing. I am prone to falling in and out of love with something, so I will do my best to communicate if there comes a time that my schedule changes or I do not intend to continue.

On to the fun stuff. Let me know what you think, I know I am trying to weave together a lot of lore, what could be two or three characters' worth, but when it comes to casters, I am very much a fan of the Kvothe and Gandalf style of overloaded characters steeped in tradition who wear many hats, have been many places and only show their hand when necessary. As a fifth level character, I expect they would have a solid journey through the world so far and likely have completed their initial journeyman/squire phase of training and be into the knighthood/"Jedi Knight" phase of things where they are achieving mastery in the world and beginning their Sir Gawain-style Arthurian quests properly. If you can't tell, I love the symbology and character growth of the Hero's Journey, so I am curious if you have read The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell and would be interested in writing that kind of Arthurian/Beowulf type myth-making. Leaning into subtle characterization in addition to all the lore.

Yes, the characters are giving you THEIR take or understanding on whatever the topic is -- you can't assume that a the chaplain of the royal shrine is giving you a completely historical take on the life of the Solar Prophet, for example; he's giving you the party line of the upper echelons of the temple heirarchy -- it's not even necc. what he himself believes, it's what he thinks he's supposed to say when asked by an outsider or questioner about it. If your party knows someone who's his friend or is a member of the same religion who asks a certain way, he might tell you the official story but also some variant versions if he doesn't think it will get out or complicate his position. He might even tell you he's discussed some of these issues with the princess, who agrees with him.

[Sebecloki]

Originally Posted by ArcZero

Hello I am very intrigued by this setting and approach to storytelling. I am somewhat in agreement with the others. I could do a lengthy post every day but it is more likely that it would be three-ish posts in a week of subtstantial girth if we are in storytelling mode and driving our own narrative or somewhat shorter daily posts if I'm interacting with other characters, doing dialogue, etc. The concept of giving us the monster stats and resolving things ourselves is very intriguing as combat can take weeks at a time in my PBP experience, especially if people aren't on top of responding quickly in initiative.

I would be curious about your intended balance of theatre of the mind vs battle map combat. Even in PBP I prefer some specificity of where enemies are for the sake of cover, line of sight, aoes, etc. Though I can see long narrative posts even in combat giving me the detail I need to make fun strategic choices. I understand you may handwaive details and that is fine, I prefer narrative cohesion to strict rules adherence, even if I do enjoy rules-lawyering. As long as I can get the verisimilitude of character and "combat class fantasy" I am after, I am not worried. I just like all aspects of the game to be as fleshed out as possible.

As an option, have you tried some type of chess rules for movement, where you could post a battle map and we put where we desire to move or target in an A1 to F6-style? Then that map could be updated once a round or something? I agree things like Tabletop Simulator are a pain in the bum, but I can't even imagine with an asynchronous PBP game.

I am developing a very interesting concept as Sunscript/Moonscript scroll reading, Moonglow investiture and Kingfisher white necromancy immediately appealed to me. So I am happy to write and you let me know what will fly/adapt as needed.

 

I know I am very new here but I have a long history with D&D history primarily acting as the DM for several groups of friends. Some of my favorite books are The Name of the Wind, Stormlight Archives, Mistborn, Dresden Files, Tolkien's Silmarillion China Mieville's books like Perdido Street Station and The Scar, so I am no stranger to hard and soft magic, elegant prose and insane worldbuilding. Your setting reminds me of that historical mysticism of Game of Thrones: wherein religions and historical figures have many names and ways to view their mythos and timelines. The unreliable narrator, Dark Souls-style tidbits of information (Bloodborne is one of my favorite games with the way it weaves an inverted hero's journey and Cosmic Horror elegantly into the background is one of my favorite narrative experiences ever), a game of telephone style mythology where some people got a flaky, skin-graying disease and now people halfway across the world tell of golem people with the blood of acid.

I appreciate the Morrowind-esque narrative exposition you're indicating NPC's would give us (exposition dumps), but I am curious if that tasty unreliable historical mythology would be in effect as well. After all, that is one of my favorite ways of interpreting the religions and mythos of the past from Beowulf to the Buddha: that people could not easily explain or convey what they saw and so larger-than-life storytelling is not simply people from the past lying or "being hurr-durr idiots" for not knowing about modern science, but rather that was a method of relaying information used across the world and it has whole entire systems of logic, truth and meaning to them that reach back to the oldest parts of understanding that make us human.

To account for my inchoate posting status, here is a link to my substantial character application in another game. https://www.rpgcrossing.com/showthre...02#post9525102
This should show my ability to create vivid imagery with solid characterization, but I am happy to develop some proto-character posts in this thread if that would sufficiently indicate my capability for prose.

Also, I have played D&D for 16 years, dm'ed several games with lots of linguistic references, mythologies, etc. as indicated in my linked post 'about me' section.

If I am to get into both that game and yours, I would certainly commit to doing both justice. On Giants in the Playground in years past, I had been in two to three campaigns concurrently with little issue. You see, as my interest and investment in the story goes up, so does the fecundity of my writing. I am prone to falling in and out of love with something, so I will do my best to communicate if there comes a time that my schedule changes or I do not intend to continue.

On to the fun stuff. Let me know what you think, I know I am trying to weave together a lot of lore, what could be two or three characters' worth, but when it comes to casters, I am very much a fan of the Kvothe and Gandalf style of overloaded characters steeped in tradition who wear many hats, have been many places and only show their hand when necessary. As a fifth level character, I expect they would have a solid journey through the world so far and likely have completed their initial journeyman/squire phase of training and be into the knighthood/"Jedi Knight" phase of things where they are achieving mastery in the world and beginning their Sir Gawain-style Arthurian quests properly. If you can't tell, I love the symbology and character growth of the Hero's Journey, so I am curious if you have read The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell and would be interested in writing that kind of Arthurian/Beowulf type myth-making. Leaning into subtle characterization in addition to all the lore.

For the question about battlemaps -- I have patreons to several creators, and I make stuff myself with dungeondraft. I love maps. But I question the amount of effort to get tokens uploaded and move the little chits around throughout the turn, and measure line of sight. I'm intending to always have a map with a grid so you know how big the space is, what the furniture looks like, and so on, but I've seen a lot of games break down waiting around for people to make and move their tokens. I'm just asking if anyone thinks it's an issue to not bother with some of those details beyond just throwing them on for one time to establish where everyone starts and how big the room is. I feel like a lot of the round 2+ could be dealt with by basic possibilites -- you know the room's a 20x30' rectangle, approximately where the enemies are (where they started out). You can tell if they're blocking an exit or if there isn't 100ft of room to manuever in this space. I'm just questioning some of the specifities about line of sight and flanking rules, for example. Like, I'm basically happy to say cones hit things if they're in front of you and not beyond the range of effect, and not around a corner -- I don't know if we need to draw it out to figure out if 6 or 8 goblins are actually in the cone.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by tomplum

@ Sebecloki - A lot of games can start out quicker in regard to post rates but almost always end up falling into a once per week rhythm. I'm not saying its impossible but faster than that would be the exception. Its just kind of a truth of play by post.

Also, keep in mind that if you invite 4-6 players who are going to post once per day, that's at least 4-6 possible responses from you each day. It may not seem like much but three months down the road it can lead to burn out.

Wise words.

Also, and I'm not suggesting this will happen but, games do fail. (RL intervenes, enthusiasms wane, internet access issues occur, a key player drops out...)

So, given the time investment in character creation requested, given the post rate wanted, however up my street this game sounds, however much I would like to present my take on a reptilian mindset (play a kobold)... For now I'm gonna lurk and if permitted subscribe to the story once yous get started.

I wish this ambitious project well.