BJ Back From the Beyond

Saturday evening is okay with me, as long as we don't run to late.

Click to reveal.. (Lucia) Name: Lucia Hannel Race: Human Female Age: 26 Occupation: Mage Alignment: Cheerful HP: 11 / 11 STA: 10 / 10 Acrobatics: 4 Arcana: 3 Nature: 5 Athletics: 1 Magic (Evocation): 8 Perception: 6 Skill Points banked: 1 Perks: Human Survival: +1 to perception rolls, +1 to acrobatics rolls. May roll perception, stealth, athletics, or acrobatics as trained even if untrained. Description: 5 foot, 6 inches, fair skin and curly blond hair typically worn loose that falls to just below the shoulder. Blue eyes. Favors light colored robes and dresses. Always wears a brass pendant on a necklace. The pendant has the words “love conquers all” inscribed on it. Backstory: On the western side of Laessos, between Dilegad and Ylesk, there is a small village named Telemin which few mapmakers bother to make note of. That tiny village, at the borders of foothills and forests, is where the young mage Lucia Hannel hails from. She was the fourth child, after three boys, born to a blacksmith. She never expected her life to be anything but what she knew in the village, though she often dreamed of an exciting life in foreign lands. She would frequently play out her fantasies in the woods and hills near her home. When Lucia was 16, a dwarf named Amos Viksman came traveling through her village. Amos was a wealthy, traveling mage of more than some renown, and he immediately recognized Lucia’s talent for magic. No one had suspected that Lucia could be a powerful mage, least of all Lucia herself. Amos offered to make Lucia his apprentice. Her father was against the idea, but Lucia, with the help of her mother, convinced him to let her go. After that, Amos and Lucia traveled around Laessos for several years, with a few trips to Tanan and Koros. 3 years ago, Ylesk experienced a rash of kidnappings. The victims would disappear and then reappear weeks later, brutally murdered. The local government was unable to find the culprits, though not from lack of trying. When Amos and Lucia arrived, a young boy had just been taken. After learning about the murders, Amos and Lucia decided they had to act quickly before the boy turned up dead. The pair searched high and low, and eventually tracked the murders back to a cult dedicated to Hurak based on the outskirts of town. Judging that they had little time to inform the authorities, they took matters into their own hands. They rescued the boy and later informed the authorities about the cult and where it could be found. The locals praised the pair as heroes, but this just embarrassed Amos and Lucia to the point where they left early. Then, one year ago, Amos and Lucia arrived in Dilegad during a massive fire. The flames had already engulfed a large section of the city and were continuing to spread. The pair immediately volunteered to help suppress the flames. At one point, Amos ran into a building after learning there were people trapped inside. The whole building collapsed only a few moments later. Lucia had been across town keeping the fire at bay at the time of Amos’s death. It was days after the fire had gone out that his body was found. Lucia, mournful and feeling more than a little guilty, turned homeward. Her parents welcomed her with open arms. She decided to stay in Telemin, helping the locals any way she could. Lucia was starting to feel content and peaceful again when she received the most peculiar letter… Click to reveal.. (Spells) Illumine – Sheds light in a 10-foot radius. Flashbang – Fires a small energy blast that, on impact, lets loose with a blinding flash and deafening crack, stunning anyone nearby. Energize – Charges magical objects, auras, and effects with additional energy. Useful for recharging dormant artifacts or enhancing buffs. Tyinian Sunbeam – Fires a beam of hyper-concentrated sunlight at the target. Does less damage, but is more accurate and has a considerably longer range. As an added bonus, the spell is quiet, making it good in stealthy situations. The caster can fire multiple beams at the cost of 1 stamina per additional target. Solar Flare – (1 stamina) Bombards an area with intense heat and light. The AoE is small, but anyone caught inside takes moderate damage and a penalty to their next combat roll. Blazing Orbits – Creates up to three spheres of concentrated energy that revolve around the caster at blinding speed. Anyone trying to engage at melee range will almost invariably get hit by one and take damage. This spell can be cast on others, but stamina is required to do so. Click to reveal.. (Inventory) Knapsack Walking Stick Spare Robes x 2 Spellbook Brass Pendant Soft Leather Boots Small Knife with Sheath (strapped to the lower leg at all times) Bedroll Fruitcake x 2 (1 cake is enough for two days) Waterskin Bottle of Whisky

I need to update my inventory list. This is everything I have based on the logs and what happened last night. Click to reveal.. (Kyle's Inventory) On Person: - T-Shirt, jeans, boxers, shoes - Pocket Knife: contains blade, file, and scissors. - Standard Pistol: 9/10 bullets loaded Athletic Bag: - Bandages: 14 - Suture Kit: 2 - Bottle of Aspirin: 10 pills - Bottle of Rubbing Alcohol: mostly full - 32 oz, Aluminum Water Bottle: less than half full - 3 t-shirts, a pair of blue jeans, and 4 pairs of boxers. - 3 packages of jerkey - Bar of soap - Bottle of shampoo - Bottle of disinfectant - Deodorant - Screwdriver - AA batteries: 8 - Pump-action Shotgun: 0/4 shells loaded - Shotgun shells: 5 - Several bottles of painkillers Stowed in Fire Truck: - Katana - Jug of filtered water Also, if I could get more information on those painkillers we found, that would be awesome.

Originally Posted By: Nikki Caitlin turned it down because she lied her ass off about being a master at it. If it's going to go to waste, sure, she'll take it (and Laurence can have the bat), but I didn't want to use Caitlin's way with words to steal other people's loot. I have no problem giving the katana to Caitlin. After all, what's Kyle going to do with it? Open heart surgery?

Ideally, Caitlin should get it since it's probably the best melee weapon we've found so far, but she expressed no interest when Kyle offered it to her. Neither Kyle nor Clyve can use it effectively (both get -3 in melee), and Devin already has a fire axe. Alright, if no one else wants it I'll give it to Laurence beginning of next session.

Click to reveal.. (Kyle Reid, level 4) Name: Kyle Reid Age: 26 Occupation: Paramedic Alignment: Shotgun/Katana wielding Pragmatic Level: 4 Strength: 1 Dexterity: 4 Perception: 2 Intelligence: 5 HP: 10 / 10 / 12 AC: 14 Speed: 5 Athletics: 4 Driving: 1 First Aid: 7 Observation: 2 Search: 3 Sneak: 4 Intimidation: 1 Feats: Foolhardy: +2 to will saves, +4 Intimidation when you are at an obvious disadvantage Steady Hands: Failed first aid rolls do no damage. Also, that katana really needs to go to someone who can use it. Kyle only has 1 point in strength and no weapon proficiency.

Yeah, depending on how late in the afternoon we start, I may be a little late. I should be there about 3 EST (hopefully earlier).

Level for Aaron: Click to reveal.. (Stats) Name: Aaron Race: Human Occupation: Wanderer Deity: Imaunte Alignment: Willful Level: 4 HP: 21 / 24 STM: 6 / 10 STR: 4 DEX: 3 INT: 6 Martial (swords): 4 Magic (enchantment): 6 (11 spent) History: 4 Composure: 3 Artifice: 2 Perception: 4 (RB) (3 spent) Stealth: 1 (RB) I'm going to go ahead and post Aaron's new spells here, pending approval. Click to reveal.. (New Spells) Phantom Barrier – Creates a wall of illusion, appearing as a writhing curtain of shifting colors, which repulses anyone trying to enter it. Anyone, the one exception being the caster, trying to pass though it must make a will save. Failing the save causes them to stop just outside the barrier and be unable to move again that round, though they may still take other actions. The barrier can persist for several rounds, depending on the strength of the spell. Agony Seed – A delayed-effect spell that sits in the target’s mind and activates on the next combat round. The target is then wracked with intense pain and nausea. They take a penalty to all actions and defense. Also, they will pass out if their HP drops below a certain point, determined by the strength of the spell.

I'll be there on Wednesday. Now I need to go put together a character.

I will not be available Saturday. We're have some friends over at our house that night, so I'm going to be busy.

I should be free every day next week, though we are suppose to have an End of Days session on Thursday.

Level up for Aaron: Click to reveal.. Name: Aaron Race: Human Occupation: Wanderer Deity: Imaunte Alignment: Willful Level: 3 HP: 20 / 20 STM: 8 / 10 STR: 4 DEX: 3 INT: 5 Martial (swords): 4 (4 spent) Magic (enchantment): 4 (4 spent) History: 4 Composure: 3 Artifice: 2 (2 spent) Perception: 3 (RB) (2 spent) Stealth: 1 (RB)

Story: AGB's story is short. Very short, as I'm sure others have pointed out. Personally, I try not to hold a scenario's length against it, but that's rather hard to do in this case. There are a number of details about the plot and the setting that are scattered around the scenario, kind of like breadcrumbs leading to some deeper, more complex story. Unfortunately, we're never told what that story is. I actually find myself thinking that if some of the details were cut out it would make for a more complete story. Right now it is just a fragment. Having said that, I did like the actual writing. The dialog was fun to read, and I never felt like I was slogging through barrages of unnecessary text. Combat: There is very little combat in this scenario. To little for my tastes, and what is there is fairly straight forward and easy. There were only two times where I felt really challenged, and they were the snake pit and the final boss. The snakes were difficult for my newly made party, but are also an optional encounter. The final boss was able to drain all the HP in my party with a singe Ice Lances spell, which I felt was a little on the overpowered side, but since you have the option to opt out of that battle it really isn't a problem. Design: There are very few resources for the party to use in this scenario, but the length and relative lack of combat make that somehow feel appropriate. There are vendors who will sell you most any item you may need, and if you're using a new party that will be quite a few things. There is, however, very little gold in the scenario, so you'll need to be frugal. One of my biggest complaints is that there is almost nothing in the outdoors. I found one uninteresting encounter. The rest is just empty space that could have easily been turned into something far more interesting. Scripting: I found no bugs, and there were some nice encounters. Nothing really worthy of note here. The final score for A Good Beginning is AVERAGE. It's a fun little scenario that doesn't take much time to play, but you'll wish it had.

I could be there Thursday or Friday, but it's tricky. I'll be more available after next Monday. I will not be available this weekend.

Originally Posted By: BainIhrno If this seems like a go, I could start it now actually, and set the deadline for the end of the year in case anyone does actually want to make a scenario. I'm actually working on one right now, although I started working on it a while ago. I should totally start a hype thread.

For the record, I shall always be here. Originally Posted By: Handyman My idea is, roughly: We should split scenario design into different "aspects." So, like: writing, plot, combat, aesthetics, whatever. Each participant will take on a different "aspect" for each scenario once. There are probably a number of reasons for and against doing things this way, but it at least seems interesting. I find this somewhat confusing. Does this mean that for every scenario in the contest there is one person who is designing one aspect, like one person writes all the dialog for say 5 different scenarios and the rest of the aspects in those scenarios are designed by other people? Or is it more like we split into small groups and each group makes a scenario? Originally Posted By: Handyman I'd be willing to participate, but then we'd need a way to organize things, and I'd prefer it if participants/judges would remain blind to who's working on what, so it'd be cool if someone uninclined towards designing/judging could volunteer to organize the shuffling of versions back and forth. That sounds like it would be me. Unless someone else is feeling particularly useful, I could do this. I have other scenarios I'm designing right now anyway, and taking on a new one would put to much on my plate.

Originally Posted By: Enraged Slith I considered that, but the intention was actually to have a creature script drop/throw explosives around that would explode in a turn or two. The alternative was to transfer the code to a creature script, I just preferred that the player and other creatures be able to walk over the explosives. You could do this without terrain scripts. You'll need to set aside three SDFs for every explosive you want to be available at a time (say you want a max of three at a time, then you need nine SDFs). When the creature 'throws' an explosive, have the creature script set those three flags to the numbers you want, the first two being the x and y locations of the explosive and the third the time to the explosion. Be sure to make the creature script check if those flags are zero before changing them, or you're going to have explosives jumping all over the place. Then what you want is for the START_STATE in the town script to check if the flags are non-zero. If so, have it reduce the timer flag by one, then check if that flag is zero. If so, set off the explosion at the location defined by your first two flags. Then, set those flags back to zero.

Level: Click to reveal.. Name: Kyle Reid Age: 26 Occupation: Paramedic Alignment: Pragmatic Level: 3 Strength: 1 Dexterity: 4 Perception: 2 Intelligence: 4 HP: 11 / 11 / 12 AC: 14 Speed: 5 Athletics: 4 Driving: 1 First Aid: 6 Observation: 2 Search: 3 Sneak: 2 Feats: Foolhardy: +2 to will saves, +4 Intimidation when you are at an obvious disadvantage Steady Hands: Failed first aid rolls do not deal damage. Also, I'm going to be on the road after this Friday and wont be back until 9 days later. I should still be able to get internet access in the evenings, but not on Tuesday and Wednesday. I may be late if we have another session that week though.

Either Saturday or Friday at that time works for me.

Yay, level! Click to reveal.. Name: Kyle Reid Age: 26 Occupation: Paramedic Alignment: Pragmatic Level: 2 Strength: 1 Dexterity: 3 Perception: 2 Intelligence: 4 HP: 12 / 12 / 12 AC: 13 Spd: 4 Athletics: 4 Driving: 1 First Aid: 5 Observation: 2 Search: 3 Feats: Foolhardy: +2 to will saves, +4 Intimidation when you are at an obvious disadvantage

We lived! Highlights: -Fixing problems by smashing windows is highly effective. -Setting zombies on fire is now a team sport. -Zombies make a very satisfying 'slat' when they hid the front gill of a moving fire truck.

Originally Posted By: Enraged Slith Writing dialogue in this game is a struggle because it's boring and expository. I find that avoiding pointless conversation with worthless NPCs helps, because players aren't going to want to read through walls of text about daily habits and unusual fetishes anyway. I do try to avoid putting in to much pointless dialog, but I find that even with major characters who are well defined already I have a difficult time structuring a good conversation. Because of this, dialog is often one of the last things I do in a town.

1. Describe your perfect sandwich. Sourdough bread with lots of roast beef, lettuce, red onions, a little mayonnaise on one side and a little spicy mustard on the other. Tomatoes are optional. 2. What is your favorite filling or condiment? Mustard, whether yellow or brown depends on the sandwich. 3. What is your least favorite filling or condiment? Ketchup, the greatest crime against tomatoes ever. 4. How often do you eat sandwiches? Less than once a week. 5. Have you ever found something really horrible in a sandwich? I'm pretty sure I block those memories. 6.If you could only eat one type of sandwich for the rest of your life, what would it be? See question one. 7. White or wheat? Wheat 8. Jelly or jam? Both 9. Pickles or onions? Depends on the sandwich, but mostly onions. 10. Cheddar or Swiss? Depends on the sandwich, but mostly Swiss. 11. Grilled or toasted? Grilled 12. Explain why sandwiches are better than wraps. Wraps are always contained inside inedible "health food" and are therefore disgusting. Sandwiches are more likely to be edible. 13. Explain why wraps are better than sandwiches. They're "health food", which doesn't mean a whole lot to me. 14. Is an open-face sandwich an actual sandwich? Why or why not? The purpose of a sandwich is for it to supply nourishment while still being portable. If you can't pick it up and walk around with it, it isn't a sandwich.

Collaboration can be an opportunity for designers with different strengths to work together to make something really amazing. I, for example, struggle with writing dialog and descriptions, but I'm good at coding complex encounters and structuring battles. If I were to work with someone, I would prefer they be good at writing dialog. We could both do what we're good at and avoid things we suck at. At least, that's how I see it. I imagine it wont entirely work out that way in real life, and there are other things the two writers would need to agree on ahead of time. The writing stages are likely the hardest on a project like this. That isn't to say I wouldn't be willing to try.

Wow. Squishy party. The most strength anyone has is two. At least unlike the End of Days party this one can actually heal itself.