The Story
Of Amor, Armor, and Alchemy
20 years ago, under a peach colored Dawn, a little girl was born, and her name was Daenerys. Her parents both smiled, for their house was on a tranquil shore of a little lake, and the dawn-sign and the tranquility sign had auspicious tidings when combined with many spirit signs. Their village, being farthest from Amoris, did not have a priest to administer the auspice reading, so instead they summoned the wise crone from her hut on the beach. She came quickly, for she had had potent dreams, and she burned crushed lavender and moonglove, to sharpen her inner sight and dull her outer shell, and she cast the bones. When she came out of her trance, she pondered the symbols long and hard, reading them again, and again, and then again, for what she saw there no one on the island had seen in a very long time. She pulled out her bag of herbs, certain they had molded, and discarded them: then she plucked fresh herbs from the forest and burned them again, the potent fumes clouding all senses but the magesight. The bones fell again, and again the sign of the Forge, of passionate flame, of creation stared back at her in ivory and ebony. "Your daughter" she said, scratching the stuble on her leathery chin "Is to be the next high priestess of the forge." And then she went away.
Note the the characters: All characters must have the Forge as their Spirit Sign. You probably should share all 3 signs with Daenerys, unless your character is a human girl, in which case you can have a sky and earth sign that are slightly different.end note
In the following years, strange turned to stranger, for amongst the children of that generation, several others had been born under the rarely seen spirit auspice of the Forge. The people rejoiced, for they saw it as auspicious.
Time passed, and as the children aged, Daenerys, who believed very strongly in the power of the auspices, sought out her auspice-bound and befriended them easily: for she was beautiful and clever, with a will of iron, and she would not take no for an answer, or be dissuaded by trickery or fear. Once she became the High Priestess, her friends saw little of her, but always on their birthday she sent them a little gift, to remind them that she had not forgotten their bond.
some other things the characters know: On the night Daenerys was born, a blood elf raiding party attacked the little town where she was born, killing several and taking many (by the small town's standards) slaves. Daenerys' parents were killed, but an unknown personage saved daenerys, delivering her anonymously to a smith and her husband in the same village. Her foster parents, who lost a child in the same raid never revealed to anyone other than daenerys that they were not her true parents, and she has revealed it to no one other than members of the group.
Group Hook Revisited: All of your characters know Daenerys: its up to you if you approached her or she approached you. She had a reason for seeking you all out, some of you may have had a reason for seeking her out. To what extent you know each other is up to you. I will not enforce a "all the players must be buddies" rule as I have in the past, vis a vis Jason's insight on a group hook being more about characters wanting the same thing than knowing one another. Besides, a major fantasy trope is the "its a dark and stormy night, and X strangers sit in a bar/arrive at the scene of a battle/whatever". So I will leave any pre-existing character connections up to you. Something to consider: you might try defining these connections in terms of what they mean to the characters as well: what desires/dreams/aspirations/hatreds/etc do the characters share that make them spend time together? In the past, it has been my experience that "bonds" between characters that are pre-established often aren't interpreted by the two players in the same way. I'm hoping that by falling back on the "what does each character want/get out of this" these things can be better established.
Game Progression and Expectations: The story, as I envision it, has 3 sections, or books. Each book consists of roughly 10 chapters (sessions). Each book is self sufficient: I'd like to get to the end of a book, but after each book I'm happy to call the game if it isn't doing it for people anymore. XP is assigned at the end of each session, and is awarded REGARDLESS of attendance, to keep all PCs on the same level of power. Small amounts of bonus XP will be awarded to the party for doing awesumz and at the end of books.
Chapters are organized roughly into groups of 3, not including the first session. As a general rule, the game will have much more combat than gemini, but less than supers: players can expect ~1 combat per session. The magnitude of these combats will vary, but keeping with the episodic nature of the game, and trying to stick to the feel of heroic tales, it is fair to say that GENERALLY (not always) the combat during the "cliffhanger" sessions (as in, the one right before we switch to the other game) will probably be the most challenging.
Regarding combats: I will never force the PCs into a fight they absolutely cannot win. However, fights will range from easy, to intermediate, to difficult, to nearly impossible. easy fights are guaranteed PC victories, intermediate should lead to PC victories if the PCs are sensible, while difficult and nearly impossible fights will often (NOT always) lead to player defeats, sometimes even if PCs "pull out all the stops". Sticking with the idea of grandiose storytelling, I will indicate to the players what level of fight they are about to enter upon at the beginning of combat if that is something you all want: this is something you all can discuss on the discussion page, I'm happy keeping it a secret or letting y'all know (this may take away too much mystique, or contrarily may keep frustrations down, you guys decide what you think is more likely). I would like that decided before the game starts though. Of course, it being hero, my estimations might be way off track.
Thoughts: Having been a player for the last six months or so exclusively, I've tried to pay attention to what I, as a player, could do to benefit/damage a gaming session. We all know that making decks, sorting magic cards, surfing the intertronz, watching tv, or rehashing our favorite tv show episode/movie/internet meme/MtG combo has several detrimental effects: it breaks the game atmosphere, it distracts other players, and it means the person doing said thing isn't paying attention. I've gotten sucked into these things myself a lot, and after all, we do game to have fun, so I'm not about to put some nazi style shit down on this...if things in the game aren't interesting to you, its only fair that you entertain yourself until they are.
HOWEVER. I learned from the games Gabe GMed that I, as a player, miss 50% of the details in a game even when I'm paying very, very close attention and trying to catch everything. I also learned, particularly from those one shots, how bad-ass sessions are when everybody is closely involved. I much prefer to have meta-game knowledge, and do my best not to act on it, rather than missing the cool shit my fellow players are doing. Coupled with the fact that I put a lot of little details, side stories, and difficult clues into my games (as you all are no doubt aware), there are tangible benefits along with just staying "in the game" to this.
Anyways, I'd like to ask that, as much as possible, everybody refrain from doing things not directly related to the game once the session(s) actually start (after magic, eatinz, whatever). If you are looking up how to spend XP, or a rule, or something, fine. Also, if I step away from the table for some secret discussion, feel free to mess around as much as you want. I'm also happy to institute "breaks", although I don't think its necessary with our earlier end times. But when I am at the table and actually GMing, even if you aren't at the center of the action, I'd be grateful if you still paid attention. I don't want to "enforce" this in any way, I don't mind if it doesn't work out at all: but I've been trying to make the effort as a player, and it's been only beneficial for me.
Other things: I've already said that I will defer to the book for any rulings. If something isn't clear, we'll look it up and do it the way the book says. If we can't find the rule, or its ambiguous, I will let the ruling stand as the players want it as long as we then consistently use that ruling from then on (barring finding the actual rule in the book). I find rules arguments disruptive and they make everyone unhappy, so lets just avoid them.
I've done everything I can to maintain "balance" in character creation and progression. I'm a sucker for creative thinking, though, and I'm certainly not the best versed in hero rules, so occassionally, somebody will get away with something crazy. Please don't take it personally: my experience has been that everybody gets away with something sometimes, so it all balances out.
