Children of Ash - Recruitment Closed

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Arch Lich Burns
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Re: Children of Ash - Recruitment Closed

Post by Arch Lich Burns » Tue Mar 10, 2015 5:23 pm

Asides from me. But i am thinkig of one while at work! Though...is it bad i want to try to find the most useless skill and try to abuse it for awesomeness?

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Synch
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Re: Children of Ash - Recruitment Closed

Post by Synch » Tue Mar 10, 2015 5:59 pm

Look, this may be an unpopular decision and I'm gonna come across as a complete asshat but I'm going to draw the line at 8 because Spider manages to do 7 but I think 10 is a stretch too far.

I think the best way to do this is to unfortunately leave you out Burns because you don't have a character yet, and Asks because he was the last to make a character (although his character is awesome!) I really don't want to pick favourites and do dice rolls etc etc because I've had a think about it and it would be pretty unfair if someone who made their character immediately lost their place to someone who signed up 3 days later.
However if everything is ticking along smoothly after a few turns and I am managing with 8, I will look to add you two into the game. Additionally if I am really struggling to do all 8 together, we could even look at two games of 5. And of course if anyone goes on a long hiatus or leaves (or dies >:D ) then you guys get first option.

I'm very sorry Asks and Burns :( I just don't think I can manage 10 people all at once.
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spiderwrangler
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Re: Children of Ash - Recruitment thread

Post by spiderwrangler » Tue Mar 10, 2015 6:45 pm

thinkslogically wrote:I'm interested, though not familiar with the rules particularly. I'll have a think and see if I can come up with a character for tomorrow.
Well, this game is your intellectual grandchild, of sorts, since SCH was inspired by my wanting to delve deeper into something akin to the skill leveling system you have in LOTMK... (I think it was Wears that gave me the idea of porting that into the Girl Genius world.... thanks Wears!).
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Quarg
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Re: Children of Ash - Recruitment Closed

Post by Quarg » Tue Mar 10, 2015 6:51 pm

So there is no hippy to call my character an evil baby killer eh? Oh well...
Really...why are you reading this?

Eileen Ap'Fyretorr

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Synch
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Re: Children of Ash - Recruitment Closed

Post by Synch » Tue Mar 10, 2015 8:00 pm

Do we all want a flavour bonus to your character (eg Roslyn is very attractive, and gets +1 to speech checks against members of the opposite sex), or are profession bonuses enough differentiation between characters?
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Arch Lich Burns
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Re: Children of Ash - Recruitment Closed

Post by Arch Lich Burns » Tue Mar 10, 2015 8:46 pm

why only to opposite sex? What about those who just like males better in general? :P

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askstoomuch
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Re: Children of Ash - Recruitment Closed

Post by askstoomuch » Tue Mar 10, 2015 9:22 pm

Quarg wrote:So there is no hippy to call my character an evil baby killer eh? Oh well...
i made his specially for that , just call you a narc , make vietnam jokes and follow you around playing bongos as peachfull protest

sucks but I understand :|
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2020 - Come have a drink

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ChuckDaRighteous
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Re: Children of Ash - Recruitment Closed

Post by ChuckDaRighteous » Tue Mar 10, 2015 9:26 pm

In general I think the more flavor the better. So I'm all for special bonuses.

Its a shame though, I was looking forward to forcing asks to bathe against his will. (aka throwing him into the nearest water source) Still everyone seems to have cool characters so I should have no trouble interacting.
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nikohl
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Re: Children of Ash - Recruitment Closed

Post by nikohl » Wed Mar 11, 2015 12:51 am

I'm all for extra flavour too. Plusses, minuses, throw them in. As long as it's not too much to keep track of for you, I think it's worth it.

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Re: Children of Ash - Recruitment Closed

Post by BadgeAddict » Wed Mar 11, 2015 4:16 am

Just remember that more flavor is more to keep track of. So if you wanted to start the first but as an intro the see how much math you have to do, you could add in the flavor later.

I would say that statiscally, the majority of games have died due to time constraints.

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thinkslogically
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Re: Children of Ash - Recruitment Closed

Post by thinkslogically » Wed Mar 11, 2015 5:19 am

Yeah, from a management point of view I'd suggest keeping things simple. I'm always up for more flavour, but at the same time it can be a total pain to keep track of.

An alternative way to deal with personality bonuses might be to use something like "inspiration points" that have appeared in D&D 5e. In that system, the DM (or players, providing it's not abused) reward good roleplaying by awarding the player "inspiration" which essentially allows them an extra action on a turn (max. 1 at a time). It's designed to encourage players to embrace their character's flaws and play more realistic PCs.

The mechanics obviously won't be directly comparable, but you could potentially do something similar here and award a discretionary bonus if someone is RPing their character particularly well. From the sounds of it, you want this game to be RP heavy anyway so why not actively reward it? The benefit of that would also be that you can be a lot more flexible in giving out bonuses, particularly if a character changes their attitudes etc. over the course of the game. A disadvantage might be that players won't always know when they're going to win a bonus...

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Re: Children of Ash - Recruitment Closed

Post by nikohl » Wed Mar 11, 2015 5:40 am

Similarly, a pool of action points or karma or whatever you want to call it, individual pools of spendable points, something like that which can be burned to increase chances of success and which only replenish at set points or when awarded by the GM.

"I burn an AP to do this cool thing/add 10 to my roll/not fall off the roof/dodge that car" - we had action points in DnD, and Karma worked as rerolls in Shadowrun.

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Re: Children of Ash - Recruitment Closed

Post by NotStickFigures » Wed Mar 11, 2015 5:59 am

I'm good with whatever you choose to do about bonuses or not.
Excited about being in a game that is different than D&D and looking forward to this.

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ChuckDaRighteous
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Re: Children of Ash - Recruitment Closed

Post by ChuckDaRighteous » Wed Mar 11, 2015 6:32 am

Personally I like bonuses. Things like +1 speech vs men encourage players to act accordingly. Roslyn would then choose to persuade the man instead of the woman unless there was some other reason not to. She'd still likely do it without but it sort of cements the decision and would encourage it even if the persuading the woman was potentially more beneficial. Bonuses encourage players to act accordingly. The problem I've found with AP systems, is that since someone can reliably do what they're good at, they spend it all on something they have no business even attempting in character and succeeding. Also trying to reward people for good RP is subjective. And I've never round that people had issues with not enough RP on this forum, unless their character was doing something tedious over several turns (continue to craft x). So I don't think you need something to encourage players to do it. Also a reward system can sometimes influence players to try even when uninspired and put out something lackluster. If you did try to reward RP, you could do something like was done in Kobold mine. If there is RP for that turn, +1 to rolls for that turn. Even when doing something tedious we did a little bit of text to flesh out the story or what we were thinking and get our bonus. Simple and not exploitable.
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Re: Children of Ash - Recruitment Closed

Post by nikohl » Wed Mar 11, 2015 7:05 am

Thinking about it, I agree with pretty much everything Chuck said, esp. re: using bennies/other ad-hoc bonuses to suddenly be amazing at something in a sticky situation which makes no sense. It has a cool factor but it isn't super realistic.

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thinkslogically
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Re: Children of Ash - Recruitment Closed

Post by thinkslogically » Wed Mar 11, 2015 7:21 am

That's very true, and I guess is where inspiration system is a little different since it essentially gives you an extra action, rather than a general bonus that can be applied to anything at all.

I guess what I was thinking of was more along the lines of: If you RP well while describing the actions your character is taking, (either just inspirational writing or providing a bit of backstory as to WHY they might be good at a particular skill) the GM could apply a discretionary bonus to the player's action. That way, the player is encouraged to stick within their skillset, but could conceivably get an extra small bonus outside their main skills if the GM thinks they've done a good job at playing their character. A bit like what Chuck suggested from the Kobold Mine, but less general.

I'm happy to go with whatever works for you though Synch. I'm not in the least bit fussed what system gets used as long as it's something you can deal with :)

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ChuckDaRighteous
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Re: Children of Ash - Recruitment Closed

Post by ChuckDaRighteous » Wed Mar 11, 2015 5:59 pm

nikohl wrote:It has a cool factor but it isn't super realistic.
Who knew that sweet innocent ol' grandma was secretly Bruce Lee?

I do agree with what TL said: do what works for you. When the DM is enjoying putting the effort into the game it shows. So do what you think would work best for you. If you think bonuses are cool and add to the experience, then add them. If you think they're one more thing for you tediously keep track of, then don't. Though I think if they're all as well done like Roslyn's vs men bonus then they should be easy to execute.
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Synch
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Re: Children of Ash - Recruitment Closed

Post by Synch » Wed Mar 11, 2015 6:54 pm

I think RP points are a bridge too far, just one extra thing to keep a track of on top of Completion Points and Skill Points. Nice idea though.

Your characters are now created, along with Innate Skills and Flavour Bonuses. I hope you all like them; if anyone has any problems or issues, thinks anyone is overpowered or underpowered etc, please discuss in the OOC thread, or else message me if you feel uncomfortable with that.

I suspect there may be a few eyebrows raised at Alaen and nikohl's bonuses, let me explain. I wanted to reflect their vast previous knowledge, as these two are probably the most skilled at rebuilding the world and surviving an apocalypse respectively. But they are a double edged sword in that they have less profession bonus because they don't specialise in anything. Bear in mind that their extra skills are, for the majority, of a benefit to all of you. E.g. Alaen will be better prepared at fixing and repairing things you all shall use (provided he sticks with the group.)

Quarg's is hidden as it is story related and will be revealed in time, I think he knows what that might be ;) (I'll message you.)


If we could all migrate to the OOC thread, that would be awesome :)
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Re: Children of Ash - Recruitment Closed

Post by BadgeAddict » Wed Mar 11, 2015 6:58 pm

Do I need to specify that I want to play as Mr. Green?

I'm sorry.

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Synch
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Re: Children of Ash - Recruitment Closed

Post by Synch » Wed Mar 11, 2015 6:59 pm

BadgeAddict wrote:Do I need to specify that I want to play as Mr. Green?

I'm sorry.
Damn you Badge, I preferred Chad! :meh:

Let me make some changes.
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ChuckDaRighteous
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Re: Children of Ash - Recruitment Closed

Post by ChuckDaRighteous » Wed Mar 11, 2015 8:11 pm

Well quarg's is likely related to his daughter somehow. Sounds interesting.

I'm fine with mine.

I was hoping to figure out a little more about the setting from the skills, but its a weird mix. From plumbing to horticulture, motorcycles to animal husbandry. I'm intrigued.
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