River of Cradles characters
Jun. 17th, 2005 10:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eyelessgamedetails that I emailed to my players. Putting discussion here. After the break.
Group 1: these are the adventurers: led by truth-rune people, interested in learning as well as fighting. Adventurers and investigators. I'm envisioning they're a bunch of recent elevations to Rune level. Examples of cults they might belong to:
Lhankor Mhy and Humakt (strongly recommended at least one of each)
- Laura has said she wants to play the Lhankor Mhy rune lord from Pavis
Other good cults: Orlanth, Vinga, Issaries, Yelmalio, Yelorna, maybe Babeester Gor
I don't really want Storm Bull chaos sense, but a Storm Bull whose nose was shot off (or otherwise was cursed to be unable to sense chaos) might not be bad. Give a little sense of your history (Pavis or elsewhere), what your couple of most important adventures might have been in your history (Rubble or elsewhere) and we'll decide on a bit of magic you're carrying.
I have the sense that these characters are roughly 125+75 characters (battlemagic and rune magic both cost about 10 character points each) but I'd have to see what I could actually build for that level of points.
Trip has suggested playing an Agimori for this team. Agimori have a very primitive hunter culture, similar to Balazarings, so a *typical* Agimori might not belong well in this group, being mostly truth-run fighting nerds and all.
The most common Agimori religions are, in order: Hunter (the generalized Foundchild); Ancestors (generalized Daka Fal); Lodril (fire-earth god). But of course an individual can worship anyone they like. Nothing wrong with an Agimori Orlanthi, for example, but do please make him someone who would have the background and interest in participating in the problem-solving of the group.
One possible idea: as a young man he once showed cowardice (which is as strong a taboo among the Agimori as murder of another Agimori or riding an animal) and was exiled from his tribe, possibly survived slavery by one of the Praxian tribes (morokanth or somebody else -- they all keep slaves), ended up in Pavis, where he grew up in some amount of sophistication... that has the disadvantage of cutting him off from his culture, but that's not bad since he's not a member of the group that's supposed to deal with locals anyway.
Agimori have an expensive Package Deal -- about 5 points each of extra STR, CON, and BODY; Life Support (extreme heat); Life Support (requires virtually no water); 50% resistant Damage Reduction to fire; a 2x Vulnerability to cold-based damage and a Susceptibility to freezing temperatures (they take BODY from being in below-freezing temps, even if dressed appropriately). Note that all those damage types are uncommon, since this is low-magic Fantasy Hero and not high-magic or Champions. You do live in a desert, which does get cold at times, but one presumes the native Agimori know the tricks to survive even the cold.
Group 2: Since this adventure is going far out into the wilderness and is going to stay there for a while, it needs more people -- people to keep the camp safe, people to do supply runs, people to negotiate with locals and make the camp good neighbors, and (I forgot to mention this) enough people to permit the rune-level leaders to perform their cult rituals and regain rune magic (this is what will make the adventure take a long time). Note that just about anyone can participate as a lay member of any friendly cult, and can be taught the basic responses needed for cermonies for 'tolerated' cults (Lightbringers for Yelmalio, for example).
While they're more talkers than fighters, they need to solve problems, which sometimes require violence. So they need to be able to handle themselves in a fight and have at least a few brain cells to rub together.
The leader-types will recruit this group, so it's realistic and reasonable to choose them for their correct contact/culture/skill set. If someone has the right skills, religion is secondary -- so they could be virtually anyone. Note also that some may simply be hired for the job, and need not be friends or even completely loyal to the main PCs -- talk to me privately if that's an interesting concept.
Someone to deal with river traffic (e.g. Zola Fel, Issaries, Etyries)
Someone to deal with the Sun Domers (e.g. Yelmalio, Lokarnos, or really goldentongued Issaries)
Someone to deal with the barbarians (e.g. Waha, Eiritha, Daka Fal, very very well-mannered Storm Bull)
Someone to deal, in general (Issaries)
Other interesting people: any Lightbringer, Hunter, Ernalda, Maran Gor, Yelorna, Babeester Gor, Asrelia, Chalana Arroy.
These guys are about 75+75 points, I think. They can spend some points on contacts (good contacts might include Sun Dome soldiers or commanders, people in Duke Raus' area, rivermen; perks might include Lunar citizenship or nomad tribal membership), and should be heavy in the sorts of skills and magic that would make them useful to be hired for the list of tasks above.
Feel free to come up with more than one each of these -- this group is kind of a cooperative effort (other than secrets a given character might have).
Group 3: a group of native Pavisites. Friends or acquaintances of one or more of the main group of characters who remain in Pavis (mostly) and help out as needed -- I believe there will be developments in Pavis that relate to the adventure, and it'd be nice to have PCs to witness these events and send/receive messages regarding them. I like the idea of a former street gang who in adulthood have gone their separate ways but maintain friendship and keep in touch.
Cults that work well: Zola Fel, Pavis, Lanbril, Lhankor Mhy, Issaries
Other reasonable choices: Yelmalio, Seven Mothers, Uleria, Orlanth
These characters are generally good at streetwise survival in Pavis, including skirmishing, perhaps some second-story work, investigation and intrigue. Again, probably 75+75 points. I'll create a list of what I think are interesting contacts, favors, and perks you can spend points on.
Comments and feedback encouraged.
Update: Trip has characters listed, back for which I have given feed.
Group 1: these are the adventurers: led by truth-rune people, interested in learning as well as fighting. Adventurers and investigators. I'm envisioning they're a bunch of recent elevations to Rune level. Examples of cults they might belong to:
Lhankor Mhy and Humakt (strongly recommended at least one of each)
- Laura has said she wants to play the Lhankor Mhy rune lord from Pavis
Other good cults: Orlanth, Vinga, Issaries, Yelmalio, Yelorna, maybe Babeester Gor
I don't really want Storm Bull chaos sense, but a Storm Bull whose nose was shot off (or otherwise was cursed to be unable to sense chaos) might not be bad. Give a little sense of your history (Pavis or elsewhere), what your couple of most important adventures might have been in your history (Rubble or elsewhere) and we'll decide on a bit of magic you're carrying.
I have the sense that these characters are roughly 125+75 characters (battlemagic and rune magic both cost about 10 character points each) but I'd have to see what I could actually build for that level of points.
Trip has suggested playing an Agimori for this team. Agimori have a very primitive hunter culture, similar to Balazarings, so a *typical* Agimori might not belong well in this group, being mostly truth-run fighting nerds and all.
The most common Agimori religions are, in order: Hunter (the generalized Foundchild); Ancestors (generalized Daka Fal); Lodril (fire-earth god). But of course an individual can worship anyone they like. Nothing wrong with an Agimori Orlanthi, for example, but do please make him someone who would have the background and interest in participating in the problem-solving of the group.
One possible idea: as a young man he once showed cowardice (which is as strong a taboo among the Agimori as murder of another Agimori or riding an animal) and was exiled from his tribe, possibly survived slavery by one of the Praxian tribes (morokanth or somebody else -- they all keep slaves), ended up in Pavis, where he grew up in some amount of sophistication... that has the disadvantage of cutting him off from his culture, but that's not bad since he's not a member of the group that's supposed to deal with locals anyway.
Agimori have an expensive Package Deal -- about 5 points each of extra STR, CON, and BODY; Life Support (extreme heat); Life Support (requires virtually no water); 50% resistant Damage Reduction to fire; a 2x Vulnerability to cold-based damage and a Susceptibility to freezing temperatures (they take BODY from being in below-freezing temps, even if dressed appropriately). Note that all those damage types are uncommon, since this is low-magic Fantasy Hero and not high-magic or Champions. You do live in a desert, which does get cold at times, but one presumes the native Agimori know the tricks to survive even the cold.
Group 2: Since this adventure is going far out into the wilderness and is going to stay there for a while, it needs more people -- people to keep the camp safe, people to do supply runs, people to negotiate with locals and make the camp good neighbors, and (I forgot to mention this) enough people to permit the rune-level leaders to perform their cult rituals and regain rune magic (this is what will make the adventure take a long time). Note that just about anyone can participate as a lay member of any friendly cult, and can be taught the basic responses needed for cermonies for 'tolerated' cults (Lightbringers for Yelmalio, for example).
While they're more talkers than fighters, they need to solve problems, which sometimes require violence. So they need to be able to handle themselves in a fight and have at least a few brain cells to rub together.
The leader-types will recruit this group, so it's realistic and reasonable to choose them for their correct contact/culture/skill set. If someone has the right skills, religion is secondary -- so they could be virtually anyone. Note also that some may simply be hired for the job, and need not be friends or even completely loyal to the main PCs -- talk to me privately if that's an interesting concept.
Someone to deal with river traffic (e.g. Zola Fel, Issaries, Etyries)
Someone to deal with the Sun Domers (e.g. Yelmalio, Lokarnos, or really goldentongued Issaries)
Someone to deal with the barbarians (e.g. Waha, Eiritha, Daka Fal, very very well-mannered Storm Bull)
Someone to deal, in general (Issaries)
Other interesting people: any Lightbringer, Hunter, Ernalda, Maran Gor, Yelorna, Babeester Gor, Asrelia, Chalana Arroy.
These guys are about 75+75 points, I think. They can spend some points on contacts (good contacts might include Sun Dome soldiers or commanders, people in Duke Raus' area, rivermen; perks might include Lunar citizenship or nomad tribal membership), and should be heavy in the sorts of skills and magic that would make them useful to be hired for the list of tasks above.
Feel free to come up with more than one each of these -- this group is kind of a cooperative effort (other than secrets a given character might have).
Group 3: a group of native Pavisites. Friends or acquaintances of one or more of the main group of characters who remain in Pavis (mostly) and help out as needed -- I believe there will be developments in Pavis that relate to the adventure, and it'd be nice to have PCs to witness these events and send/receive messages regarding them. I like the idea of a former street gang who in adulthood have gone their separate ways but maintain friendship and keep in touch.
Cults that work well: Zola Fel, Pavis, Lanbril, Lhankor Mhy, Issaries
Other reasonable choices: Yelmalio, Seven Mothers, Uleria, Orlanth
These characters are generally good at streetwise survival in Pavis, including skirmishing, perhaps some second-story work, investigation and intrigue. Again, probably 75+75 points. I'll create a list of what I think are interesting contacts, favors, and perks you can spend points on.
Comments and feedback encouraged.
Update: Trip has characters listed, back for which I have given feed.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-17 08:33 pm (UTC)[Zombie] "Must work to provide food and shelter for koi..." [/Zombie]
Feel free to ask me for my opinion on 'fishy' thoughts and abilities. :)
They are exceedingly good at smelling things, have a good 360 degree 'feel' of the underwater environment (like touch at distance but not targeting) and can see pretty well up to about 30m although oftentimes the enviroment is such that sight isn't possible beyond 1m (and that's the reason for the 'feel' sense).
no subject
Date: 2005-06-20 02:27 am (UTC)Anyway, I think my ranting about spell costs is probably more useful at this point than character ideas, although I still like the idea of a Storm Bull who had to develop social skills to ferret out Chaos.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-20 05:02 am (UTC)I wrestle a bit with the costs of rune magic, because really their usefulness depends on the presence of a perk. To be properly Heroic, one-use rune magic should be far cheaper than reusable rune magic...
no subject
Date: 2005-06-20 04:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-20 09:37 pm (UTC)I think one-use spells should cost at least a token amount of XP to purchase, since it does cost a Runequest character actual POW, which he only gains back on the whim of infrequenty-rolled dice. It should be a sacrifice.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-20 11:22 pm (UTC)Hm. A point of Ego costs 2 up to 20, but 4 above that. Maybe this has some connection to the difference between one-use and resuable rune magic?
Or you could just say that a point of one-use rune magic costs 1 XP. No idea how much reusable rune magic should cost. 5/point? 10/point? I'm not clear on whether rune magic is flat-out more powerful than battle magic, or just rarer.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-21 12:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-21 12:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-21 05:04 am (UTC)So if battlemagic is 10 active points (considering advantages) with a -1 limitation (considering the inherent use limits of its POW pool) making 5 real cost, then rune magic is about 50 active points with at least a -2 limitation, making it 17 points... since it also "requires a perk (Rune level)" and has the equivalent of a "bulky" recharge process, 15 points is reasonable.
One-use-ever then would have a -8 limit on 50 active points, making it about 6 points... just tossing out numbers for ideas.
More comment will be in the other thread.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-21 04:15 pm (UTC)(The answer is probably, "Decouple Glorantha and RQ?! Who do you think you are, Greg Stafford?!" but I had to ask.)
I didn't realize a rune spell was only usable once per (points) days. That is a pretty big limit (and bigger for bigger spells, since 1 charge per 2 days is probably a bigger limitation than 1 charge per day). I'm at work so I don't have my book, but I think 1 charge is a -2 by itself, and the difficulty of regaining charges increases it from there, so maybe more like 10 points per point of rune magic.
I think that in Hero terms the correct limitation for battle magic is Side Effect: Drains Ego, since it doesn't just draw from an End battery that is slow to recharge but actually reduces your ECV and Ego roll.