Actaeon

I like CalRef's dice roller (which can handle modifiers), ability to embed images, ease of private messaging, and actions. I would consider another venue that could match those features if it wasn't a huge hassle to set up. If it helps, Aran did a major overhaul of the chat recently and it's far less buggy. Roleplay is also a separate channel so you don't have to worry about unfriendly locals.

I have tried several times to put together a series of stand alone tabletop roleplaying sessions with a standard setting and a rotating cast. The concept has been marred by poor execution on my part, with overly complex lore and experimental systems. In a final effort to make it work, I'm going back to basics. You play a guard in the city of Rhae. Each session will cover a single shift or mission. There's no traveling, random encounters, or trying to explain the absent party member or new addition. Once you have a character, you can join or skip sessions as you please. Your guard is still getting experience on the side, so you won't fall behind a level. We'll be using the established Pathfinder system, which is essentially a better balanced version of D&D 3.5. If you're familiar with D&D, you'll barely notice the difference. If not, pretty much everything you need to create a character is online. Provided Sy doesn't cut me off, we'd use the CalRef roleplay chat. I'm hoping this will be a somewhat cooperative worldbuilding effort where anyone can take a stab at DMing.. I envision an independent city-state which values mercantilism and the arts, with a representative democracy which takes the edge off its oligarchic roots. The players will have to walk the line between enforcing the status quo and their own sense of right and wrong as they investigate crimes, clean up magical experiments gone wrong, protect foreign dignitaries, and break up tavern fights. *** Edit: Per suggestion, I'm adding more character gen info to the thread: Let's start with level 4 characters. I'm not a big fan of chance in character generation, so have your abilities total 75 and take 2/3 of your maximum possible hit points before factoring in modifiers like constitution or feats. It's low magic, emerging technology. Clerics and Bards are fine, Sorcerers and Wizards ought to be multiclassed with something more martial. Druids and Rangers are probably not going to work for the setting unless you can come up with a really good back story. Try to work within a $10,000 budget for equipment and any magic or advanced items (like a primitive firearm or pocket watch). There's an online character creator, an overview on the SRD site, and a wiki if you need some help with background. I'm not really going to get into the Pathfinder setting but you can make use of the gods and such. I'll start the first session once four or five people wrap up characters. DM's (mostly me, I imagine) will post a short synopsis of each session in this thread so folks can keep their characters up to date.

Lol, I don't know what anybody else thinks of this, but I found it hilarious I don't know, it strikes me a pretty standard way of getting started. I think I created mine to ask a question about G2. As someone who made the mistake of starting the Avernum series with A4, I found the indoor/outdoor approach a nice balance between Geneforge/Avadon's more controlled, linear world and A4-6's all in one map.

It's my second year post college and y'all are making me nostalgic. I have the education beat, though, so I've had a taste of back to school.

1. What is your age? (Be approximate, if you'd like) 24 years, 1 month, 1 day, 9 hours, and some change 2. What part of the world do you live in? In which part of the world were you born? What countries have you lived in? I live in the Western United States, which is where I was born and the only place I've lived for any length of time. 3. What is your native language? In what languages are you proficient? My native language is English and it's the only one I'm fluent in. 4. Describe your ancestry. French Canadian, Hispanic, Irish 5. Describe your gender identity and sexual orientation. Heterosexual, cisgender male 6. Do you have any religious or spiritual beliefs? If so, describe them. In what religious tradition(s) were you raised, if any? I was raised by lapsed Catholics and consider myself a naturalistic pantheist. 7. What is your relationship status? Do you have any children? I have never been married or had kids, but I do have a girlfriend and she even drops in to CalRef occasionally. 8. Describe your social class. Have you always been in this class. I was raised fairly middle class and will probably end up in that category once I'm past the broke 20's. 9. Have you ever served in the military? If so, what division? I have not. 10. What is your occupation (or former occupation)? What is your highest level of education (and your degree, if applicable)? I have a bachelor's in Anthropology and am currently employed full time as a newspaper reporter.

I'm shooting mostly for work lately, but I took a couple of unrelated decent ones this spring.

I'd stick it out on Earth. I'm too fond of trees and such to accept an alien landscape.

I used a touchpad because it's what I have. It works better for everything else, and I'm used to it for most games. However, I get destroyed in certain Minecraft minigames, and I chose to blame that on the device instead of my own ineptitude.

I tend toward an Oxford comma even though I'm not supposed to. I have not yet checked whether the copy editor is removing them or I'm actually sneaking them into print. The passive voice is incredibly useful in a lead when the object is the real subject and the people/organization involved are secondary.

It's too bad you specified a hard-shelled egg, because something with more flexibility would probably allow for more growth. Why can't we just compromise and do a marsupial crawl?

I like three or four- both in tabletop and computer RPGs. Anything above six quickly becomes unmanageable.

I should really seek medical attention...

Your washing machine has a clock?

Are wristwatches out of vogue now? Does that mean in another decade pocket watches will come back and I'll be momentarily cool?

I guess my sense is that most of the benefits of DST could be accomplished by changing schedules where necessary. Many businesses have different summer and winter hours anyway.

Seconds seem like a truly arbitrary measurement. 1/60 of 1/60 of 1/24 of a day, plus they were slightly off in calculating the length of a day so even that's not quite right. If we're going to restructure our time system, why not just start with a day and use base ten from there? A miliday is pretty close to the minute we're used to and just about long enough to microwave a cup of coffee.

Take the poll and discuss.

I suspect we'll see a lot of these in the next couple years. If I was Aran, I'd do an analysis of top posters to see if my gut sense is correct, but I'm not so that's just a theory. Anyway, way to go Kel. Set aside a chair in the ten year club- I'll be joining next year.

It's a momentum thing. Most of us have had the experience of logging in with no one there lately, and it's discouraging us from getting back to it. If I hadn't just started a new job, I'd put together a mini-game to try to renew interest, but as it is I think we'll have to wait on Diki's masterpiece.

Heat death? Big bounce? Vacuum metastability event? Discuss. Not up to speed? Read, then discuss. (Personally, I take a certain amount of comfort in the multiverse theory, but would still prefer something cyclical.)

Everyone who signed on for the campaign for sure was already familiar with the system- which says something. I've run one D&D campaign online before and it didn't seem all that much more clunky than AIMhack to me, but we'll see how this goes. Thanks for the input, all. Hopefully I'll be able to unveil ORPHEUS sometime in 2014.

It usually depends on the group. A determined group could probably blow through it in five or six sessions, while eight or nine seems more likely.

Well, we have a potential player in Thailand, so it might be worth it to make it work. I'd be happy to go over D&D via message, chat, what have you. For someone who's done other RPG's, it shouldn't be too hard. Jerakeen, same goes for you if you need a refresher. Characters should be level seven, with at least one level of the custom prestige class. I have some house rules on abilities (they should add up to 77) and HP (2/3 of the max possible, calculated before constitution bonus) which I can elaborate on if someone wants to start character building. Edit: Here's a sample battle map to illustrate how I run combat. It's rough, but I prefer the ease of drawing on the fly to prettier but more confined systems like rollD20.

I tried using Skype but discovered that chat makes things easier to keep track of. I'd probably do the same thing I did with RotS- use CalRef's Roleplay Channel. Guests are disabled right now, but Sy can allow them for a while if people are unwilling to get an account. It has a built in dice roller, allows private messages, nicknames, image embeds... Pretty much anything but the character sheets and the battle maps, both of which can be handled using Google Docs.

BM- do you think you can make the time difference work? Also, do you have any experience with D&D or will you need an overview? Honestly, I think I just miss working with something I know well. As a DM, it's handy to be able to have that to fall back on. I still dream of an online system with a built in interface, but that's coming along slowly.