The other Play By Forum - Balgin's Game

[Alex]

Cheers! I think I registered when you set the thing up, but found it hard enough to get work done when I was procrastinating on the FoD without getting another board to check every 20 mins :D

On another somewhat off-topic note, do you (or anyone else out there for that matter) have any idea how to get rid of the horizontal scrollbar of doom? The board, or at least the status bar at the top, is just too big for my screen!

[S1ND3X]

i'm in (if wanted), clerics fighters rogues and sorcerers (often cross classing) is my field

[Custom_Hobby]

You can switch back to the core display format (Which will make it look a lil like the FoD) or you can waiti a few days and Chris said he would fix it in the default view. Glad you are getting into the game.

If enough people want to get into this game I will back out to let someone else in (I am already in Fabians).

[Mr Teufel]

Hi! I'm interested too.

There's a lot about the sea and oceans in the background. I'm tempted to be a druid in the service of the seagod? I've never been a druid. Maybe a druid/rogue cross.

What races are you happy for people to play, aside from not too many elves?

[Custom_Hobby]

Just in case anyone missed it, this is a great reference site http://www.d20srd.org/index.htm

[Alex]

You can switch back to the core display format (Which will make it look a lil like the FoD) or you can waiti a few days and Chris said he would fix it in the default view. Glad you are getting into the game.

If enough people want to get into this game I will back out to let someone else in (I am already in Fabians).

Ah okidoki, I'll resist futtering around with settings for the mean time. Thanks!

Balgin, any other useful info that might help in coming up with characters?

I'd like to maybe play a dwarf, or possibly one of the other small races, though I could go human if it fitted in better. Maybe some sort of pirate type, if it fits, or some sort of more mystical character. I've a few ideas kicking round, though, so I can probably come up with something to complement the rest of the group.

[Balgin Stondraeg]

There's a lot about the sea and oceans in the background.

I believe it's just one. The four or five main countries seem to be situated around the great inland sea (so basicaly think of the big bit of sea between greece, turkey and egypt) with a large ocean to the south of that. I don't have a map so that's just what I've gathered from reading over the glossary quickly.

I can tell you that most of the adventure will take place on an island in the great inland sea but the group will be working for the church of Theydori (in the interests of the crud*name Llan, technicaly).

I'd like to maybe play a dwarf, or possibly one of the other small races, though I could go human if it fitted in better.

There was an incident (a very long time ago) when the dwarfs and elves allied (basicaly the dwarfs turned up to bail the elves out of trouble). Given the less organised nature of the elves (basicaly think wood elves who were once high elves a long time ago) they probably don't have many records of the event whereas the dwarfs probably do keep records. There's no mention of gnomes or hobbits anywhere so I'm fairly flexible on them (but please bear in mind that gnomes are basicaly another breed of dwarf for people who prefer a different kind of concept).

What races are you happy for people to play, aside from not too many elves?

No Drow (obviously) since they're a Greyhawk monster that the Forgotten Realms authors got obsessed with (and blatantly ignored the frequency: vary rare part of their monster manual entry). The same goes for any setting specific races (like the half ogres from Dragonlance). Also I'd prefer it if nobody played any half orcs (since they're basicaly "monsters" as far as most npc's are concerned and it'd be a major nightmare to sort things out but if you want your character to be hounded out of every settlement you approach then I'm sure the other party members will eventualy get fed up of it too :p).

So humans, dwarfs, gnomes and hobbits (yes, they're hobbits in my game) are fine. Elves are okay too so long as there's not too many of them. Given the rare nature of elvenfolk, half elves would either be rare (due to the lack of elves) or more common than elves (due to the lack of other elves for the rare elves to procreate with).

[Balgin Stondraeg]

I'll start an ooc thread soon, anyway, for now I think I'll post my suggested changes here for everyone to discuss. I'm suggesting changing Llan to Drechanon and Quorrul (sounds too much like quarrel) to Medhera. Char endl needs to be something like Skirnir (probably ending in ir) that sounds harsh but isn't some rubbish double barrelled endl thing. I'm not sure what I want to call it but currently it sounds wrong.

Y'sira might sound better as Y'syria although I'm thinking of resurrecting the lost desert empire of Harsemia from an old campaign for this one (natives of Harsemia are known as the Harsi). Port Lyrie should probably be changed to something but I'm not sure yet.

[Fabian]

Perhaps I'm being dense, but I'm having a difficult time getting a handle on the cultural feel of the setting; apologies if it's been mentioned anywhere. Would you say that it has any analogues with real Earth cultures or is it very much its own thing?

[Balgin Stondraeg]

Perhaps I'm being dense, but I'm having a difficult time getting a handle on the cultural feel of the setting; apologies if it's been mentioned anywhere. Would you say that it has any analogues with real Earth cultures or is it very much its own thing?

Good man, I've been wondering a little myself.

Well then.... 300 years ago Char Endl was very similar to scandinavia in the dark ages (constantly plundering the southern lands but with it's own well defined culture). Apparently they haven't changed much since then but they do less raiding and are a little bit more settled down.

From the illustrations the church of Theydori look quite a lot like catholic monks and friars of various orders.

The elves were high elves but have "degenerated" to wood elves because they got bored of the world and started leaving it (like the elves moving west to the other continent in Middle Earth).

Llan/Drechanon looks like a "typical" late medieval european country. Given the name of Llan I'd like to give it a slightly celtic twist (since it was once elf territory) but I'd like it to be less of a late medieval culture and more of a late saxon culture to represent influences from the nrothlands and from Elkia (although I'll need to examine the deck plans for the ship/boat that's heavily involved in the adventure).

Elkia & Sard were once a large empire and from the writeup I'm getting a slightly Mogolian feel for Sard (sounds like Sardinia so it could also be sort of arabian). Elkia sounds kind of eastern euopean (slavnics, stuff like that) and apparently they've got a load of good craftsmen there so it's where a lot of quality merchandise comes from.

Elkia's a theocracy, that's why I was thinking eastern european (kind of a greek/russian orthodox church kind of set up).

Leezeria is elf land. They don't let humans and other races in much so nobody knows much about it (but I've got this idea of a badly populated wood elf type nation with heavy defences around the edges trying to hide how week and stretched the nation is).

Tempest is an archipelago within the inland sea so probably a mediterranean kind of set up (small island communities, very close).

Y'sira/Harsemia is a large desert with wandering nomadic tribes so I'm thinking of an arabian desert with the occassional egyptian ruins representing the great might of their now lost and ruined kingdom.

Harsemia actualy links in nicely to the dwarven mythology stuff I'd use about how the Harsi, who used to trade food for gold with the dwarves, collapsed the entrances to the surface to hold dwarven merchants to ransom for better prices but bad stuff happened below ground and when the dwarfs finaly managed to open up the entrances the dwarven merchants trapped above ground had evolved into gnomes (but the gnomes don't remember this at all and the dwarfs don't like people who forget their culture because it means they're turning into goblins - in dwarven mythology goblins are naughty dwarven children who've forgotten how to behave properly).

[Alex]

So gnome is an ethnic subtype of dwarfs in general? That's grand. Are they seen as a separate entity by outsiders (ie humans)? Or is a somewhat more detailed knowledge of internal politics needed to make a distinction?

Oh, I had a little google search for Char Endl (first word from the glossary that came to hand) and found this: http://www.comstar-games.com/downloads/encyclopedia-eldoria/eldoria-maps.php

I think it's a collection of maps from the setting, which may or may not be useful to you.

[Fabian]

Cool, thanks for that; I'm getting more and more interested in playing, y'see. I had an idea for a character who would have bard somewhere in his makeup, but not as in "twiddly-dee, play my lute, bluff-bluff-bluff-the stupid ogre"  :icon_wink: type but more someone who enters into a sort of reverie when in battle or suchlike and calls upon mystic song that affects others even though they don't understand the language (and he may not either). A bit like when Sam calls upon Elbereth when facing Shelob or (if you've read Wheel of Time) how Mat is able to inspire his men in the Old Tongue.

If that's not too wanky a concept, it sounds like Llan might be the place for him to hail from. Although, it occured to me that the taltos (Hungarian shaman) has been presented in a similar way in a couple of places in Dragon, so Elkia might work too.

[Balgin Stondraeg]

So gnome is an ethnic subtype of dwarfs in general?

Only according to all the dwarfs (and a small minority of older gnomes).

Are they seen as a separate entity by outsiders (ie humans)?

Nope. Outsiders don't know about it because the dwarfs never speak of it publicly (it's taboo). Here's how it works: The dwarfs know that all gnomes are really dwarfs. That means that the gnoems know it too. If the gnomes forget then they're clearly turning goblin. Asking a gnome if he remembers "do you remember?" is as far as a dwarf would go. If the gnome said "remember what?" then the dwarf would simply sigh and shake his head (and not discuss it further 'cause lanky topsiders might overhear the conversation and learn of the dwarven shameful truth regarding what goblins truly are - because lanky gobrubbish*e good for nothing topsiders aren't allowed to know the truth about that).

Or is a somewhat more detailed knowledge of internal politics needed to make a distinction?

Yep, more of a political/social thing.

Oh, I had a little google search for Char Endl (first word from the glossary that came to hand) and found this: http://www.comstar-games.com/downloads/encyclopedia-eldoria/eldoria-maps.php

Great, I'll take a look at that later (to see how the countries match the rough mental image I've formed based on the glossary). The company's website went down a few months ago and they hadn't published anything new since 2002 so it was fairly safe to assume it's a dead company now.

I had an idea for a character who would have bard somewhere in his makeup, but not as in "twiddly-dee, play my lute, bluff-bluff-bluff-the stupid ogre"

Do you know Ragnar Helstorm the dwarven bard?

"Ragnar Hellstorm shall lie on his back, summon a magical guitar (non amplified accoustic variant) and play a song. The lyrics shall be happy happy happy kill kill and you shall all gain combat bonuses."

"I am Ragnar Hellstorm. I am the god of hellfire and I command you all to burn! And then I'll sing the song about the farmboy and the pixie..."

"Ragnar Hellstorm does not get drunk! Ragnar Hellstorm doesn't even have a liver!"

"Okay everyone start attacking the trees. Don't aim to kill, aim to wound!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

He's an unusual character to say the least.

[Mr Teufel]

I like your idea, Fabian. I think it would suit your mystic chorister if he was an elf, to carry on the etherial theme you have going.

[Fabian]

Well, he's no choir boy!  :icon_razz: (says me, having been one) - more of a soloist  :icon_cool: And I think he'd be slightly more down to earth, not shying away from combat. Think grittier than Enya :icon_wink: