[OOC] The Road and River

[Mal Radagast]

Beginning... Professor Lorrimor is dead - found crushed under an old broken portion of the Harrowstone Prison wall, presumably the work of either nature or else, well, everyone knows how it's haunted out there since the prison burned down. Natural or not, though, nobody suspects the living had anything to do with his death. Not that anybody much cares...the professor had an odd sort of reputation. Plenty in the village called him necromancer, and this he neither confirmed nor denied. His daughter defends him constantly to the villagers, and she's respected enough (possibly a little bit feared) that he didn't catch too much grief. Besides, he was out abroad so often - sometimes up to Lepidstadt, other times out of Ustalav altogether. Easily the best-traveled person in town - or village, as the case may be. The village doesn't have a name, anymore...it grew up to accommodate the prison, and so it was once called Harrowstone, after the structure. Now that Harrowstone's burned down, nobody calls this place anything. Here is where you're headed, to this bleak little nowhere because of some friendship or debt, some connection one way or another, to the very same Professor Lorrimor. He's made you his pallbearers, and it's fitting, really, that our story begins in a Pharast yard, a graveyard. Yours may end there, as well.

Welcome! This is the Out of Character (OOC) thread, where we can all chat as ourselves about whatever we like - this is where the table talk happens, and also where we just bs about avengers or warn the group when we're super busy and a post is gonna be late. Everyone say hallo!

Then if you'll notice, this thread exists in a folder titled Charnel Crown, which is our game - outside of that folder are the rest of the forums here, if you want to follow the General Discussion or apply to other games (I think tom is playing like ten right now, but I can't keep up with all that much). Across the top of your screen you'll see the main forum navigation tabs, and feel free to ask if you're trying to figure out anything specific!

Within our game threads, you will find Blood For Wine, where I am compiling some information about the setting and aesthetic - if you have any particular questions about the world or the lore, feel free to ask those here in OOC as well! You can also check out the Pathfinderwiki - though I do some tweaking it's still a good resource. (It's where I go for a bunch of my base material. Try to avoid spoilers, but even if you stumble on them there's a good chance they're not entirely accurate to our game anyway so no harm done!)

The other two Information threads there will be used throughout the campaign for maps and NPCs as you encounter them! (And as I have the time/energy to update them!) Once we're all set - probably not for a week or three, I'd imagine, as there's a lot to absorb and we still don't even have characters! - then I'll post a game thread and all the story and roleplay can happen in there!

Questions? Concerns?

[tomplum]

Hello! Will we be starting at level 1?

[Mal Radagast]

Heya! That's what we intend to do, if anyone else's lives actually allow them to appear.

[Humble Athena]

Hello Mr Mal! Is this the place for talks?

[Mal Radagast]

Yesm okay! Um. Okay! Wish me luck and we'll try to get this rolling I guess!

You can get Greaven in here and I'll try to get some private character threads up today/tomorrow, plus some pathfinder houserules (mostly that's just me hating feat taxes; feats should feel good), and I've got to expand on my deities section just for the sake of aesthetic.

Oh! Final disclaimer: I know the site doesn't do politics, but my storytelling definitely leans to the left, just intrinsically - in terms of diversity, gender, etc. I don't know how to tell stories without queer brown folks in them, and sometimes that bothers people. So I like to get that out of the way. Speak now or forever hold your peace!

[Humble Athena]

Getting Greaven... loading....

Ohhh ohh, I hate Feat Taxes too!

I made my own modified version of the Elephant list here if you'd like to look at what I had.



And perfectly happy to hear about that disclaimer, Mal. I try to do the same though I always worry that I'm doing it wrong.

[Mal Radagast]

Ooh, stole some of those! Hopefully I've covered most of the obvious bases, but if anyone ends up wanting to really get into, for example, improvised weapons or something, I'm sure we can figure it out.

Also I really like the broken/passable/fluent system for languages! Will be bringing that up in individual character threads for sure.

[Humble Athena]

Thanks! I stole that from GURPS.

It always annoyed me in D&D/PF, that you're either fluent in a language or don't know it at all (in which case you pull up a spell to be fluent in it, or lose the relevant plot point). The real fun is when you understand just enough to get into trouble!

[Mal Radagast]

Yeah, that'll be a lot of fun - way more character-building than everyone just being fluent in fifteen languages!

Okay, so I think we might have four players and I've got some pathfinderish houserules set up - but nobody worry about building sheets right away! Poke around the infos and think about the setting a little - I will get those player threads up in a little while and we can discuss characters! Right now, I've got to go eat some lunch, because breakfast was three cups of coffee and my hands are shaking!

I will leave you with this, just to think about - I'm not going to limit you to these specific campaign traits, but they are along the right lines for your initial hook. The Professor was an academic specializing in the morbid, the grotesque and the curious - at some point that crossed over directly with your identity. Even if it's only a tangent to your character, that point is what I want you to focus on and grow with.

I won't be asking for a full backstory - honestly I think it's better not to have every detail fleshed out from the start - but we'll be working exactly two things out in your private threads before we start. 1) Your connection to the Professor and 2) What breaks your heart. Because everyone has heartache and that tells me more about your character than a full detail of siblings and mentors and noble ambitions ever will.

[Greaven]

I'm here, I'm here. Trying to get a little cleaning done and some yard work. I shall be reviewing available materials and forming a character idea shortly.

[Mal Radagast]

Lovely! Yes, far be it for me to judge how anyone tries to juggle their free time around here. Like I say, we'll be lucky if we can keep up 1-2 posts/week (Although if I'm very lucky, I could get enough back from my student loan refund to let me work just the one job while I go back to school!)

I've set up some private threads for the three of you - let me know if you can see anyone else's thread so I can fix that! Answer questions in your own time; we're still probably a week or two out from me being really ready to jump in. (I've got maps and things stick-tacked to my wall and notecards going up, just need to get some yarn and I'll look like that Always-Sunny meme.)

Also added a bit on religion into the informations - during which I thought to mention something that I forgot to put in the houserules! I don't do alignment restrictions for classes. They just don't make any sense, and mostly alignment doesn't make any sense, and just try not to be evil please and I think we'll be okay. (One of my favorite things to play is a CG paladin and it's amazing how many people argue that it's an impossibility.)

[Greaven]

lol I had a drunken brawler be a LN monk. Lawful can be defined in discipline or morals, doesn't have to be both. He sticks to his training regimen, and is brutally strict with his discipline. Morals... eeeeh? But yeah, people tend to argue stupid points a lot with alignments.


Edit That is to say social morals. Brawls cause chaos and disruption, so might be perceived as not a lawful type. I should really finish my thoughts, but, alas, a migraine has been plaguing me.

[Humble Athena]

I was thinking of a monster hunting ranger. Knows just enough to be terrified. (Sorry, at nephew's right now, helping them build PF characters for a game I'm going to start) Will interact more when I get home.

[Greaven]

Ummmm leaning toward two characters

Bishop- Gravedigger rehash from a game a while back. Religious, but, not strictly speaking divine. Honors faiths equally, and even has a few different symbols for prayers to different faithful as his own little last rights. As a course of career, not a fan of tomb robbers. (lol as annoying as this sounds, he's not against spoils of war, but breaking sacred tombs for profit is frowned upon. His original basis was a servant of a god of death, who warned people not to take ANYTHING from a tomb, which was protected by his goddess. Of course the party didn't listen, and the thief got twice cursed before the session was out)

Pale Man- Never properly named him because it was really just a character concept I never quite finished. A dapper dressed man in his twenties. He is quite pale, with black hair and somewhat hollow eyes. Either an acrobatic fighter or a rogue type. Is very sensitive about his "Ugly face" letting his hair cover much of it, and scars, in particular the one across his throat, constantly trying to cover it up. He is nervous of people and Appears to be mute, he can talk but feels his voice sounds weird and doesn't like to even before the throat slitting.

[Humble Athena]

Hah Bishop sounds appropriate

How embarrassing, I just realized I linked to the rep button instead of the proper link for the feats, lol. Oops.