Talk:OAAAA Character Creation

--Edmiao 08:50, 15 July 2008 (MST) details requested: what is the racial makeup of our island? is there a class stratification by race, like are all the humans the grunt workers and the elementals are the merchant class?

BEN: in the central isles, most islands are primarily (say 60-95%) human, with a hodge-podge of all other races making up the remaining percentage. Your island is particularly diverse, since the Temple of the Goddess of the Forge (Regina Templum Camini) has made it fairly prosperous by attracting traders and merchants from all corners of Amora. The government is fairly tolerant towards non-humans because of this, although the nobility of the island does frown on them and, unless they come to the island wealthy and powerrful, it is rare for them to achieve such status on the island. There are exceptions to this: dwarves, because of their skill at crafts of all types, are highly regarded on the island as long as they pursue a manufacturing trade and typically find patronage almost immediately (although they are still seen as "loose-cannons" and often as thuggish simpletons). Because of the importance of trade to the island (and most islands, at that), Sea Elves are also treated exceptionally well, regardless of their rank or station.
An odd thing about your island: since the patron goddess is a Goddess of the Forge, essentially a goddess of fire, Blood Elves, the piratical corsairs of Amora, are treated more respectfully than almost anywhere else (much to the chagrin of many islands' law enforcement). They are of course not permitted to "set up shop", but they are not murdered regularly in back alleys either.
The nobility is primarily human. A Sea Elf trade representative can be counted as among the nobility, living in a splendid house-boat in one of the islands' lagoons. There is also a wealthy Imadigo prince, exiled from his country, who runs in the noble circles. But overall, there is no class stratification by race.

Gabe: I like to put forward a strong vote/request to NOT have characters starting with different points... also that we be at least 75 points.

BEN: well, certain races will get "racial benefits" regardless, so we'll see.

JASON: Whether or not races get racial benefits, the player has to pay for them. If a race has infravision, the character still pays its points, it isnt free.

--Edmiao 11:28, 15 July 2008 (MST) at risk of overanalyzing things and pissing the gm off, I second gabe's request. and per jason's note above suggest that if you are of the "fairy" race that you must buy certain skills: 5 points cross dressing, 2 points knight vision, minimum charisma of 13. so you can make like a base racial character that the players add on to. or, different races could come with different "everyman" skill sets (dwarves have "weaponsmith at 8-" for free, humans have "doing gabe's mom at 8-" for free and orcs have "being gabes mom 8-" for free).

--Edmiao 11:32, 15 July 2008 (MST) no power frameworks i say yay! just imagine how nasty a spell book framework would be. will we be adding disads as the campaign progresses as well? do we have to rp out all our advancements (please say no)?

BEN: there will be no need to RP out advanacements: within the limits set out at the beginnning (most powers and some martial arts stuff, which will be by GM permission only) of the campaign, you get to spend your points where and when you want. There will be a "disad adder" system, based loosely on the deadlands system: I'm not going to elaborate till I have a better sense for how to do it.

Gabe: Sweet. Are there going to be langauge groups, like in the main book? Also I can't wait to see orcs, which is what I'm gonna play, which makes Ed's above statement that much funnier.

--Edmiao 15:47, 15 July 2008 (MST)not sure if this is what you were thinking: i suggest that characters take disads in game either voluntarily, because everyone needs to take more as game goes on, or by GM mandate. Characters get no character points for taking a disad in game. thus all maximum character points will be from starting 75 + xp. whatever disads you accumulate don't let you buy more spells. they are just part of the xp that everyone got (so some characters may have more disads but all will have the same max character points). ie i can't say, i want to take disad: afraid of dwarves for 5 points extra so that i can buy that dagger.

BEN: I've put up the disad system on the character creation page: feel free to comment, but overall I like it. there will be language groups, although I don't knwo what the rules are for buying a group rather than an individual language. I may turn to "the ultimate skill" book for this. Also, disads. will fall into the "by GM permission only" group of stuff.

JASON: I dont think you buy language groups per se. Instead, related languages allow you to speak their cousins at a reduced level. For instance (numbers not official), if you have German at 3, you can speak Yiddish at 2. If you speak Ukrainian you can then also speak Russian, etc.

--Edmiao 09:48, 16 July 2008 (MST) i am planning to buy ultimate skill book, fyi. try to have it by next week, and probably will leave it at BnD/Ks.

--Matts Are Faeries a playable race? What about half-faeries?

BEN: yes and yes, although the other part of the "half" may be subject to restriction

--Edmiao 11:42, 16 July 2008 (MST) i want to play a half orc half elf martial arts assassin whose main goal in life is to kill himself. that was a joke, but then again, maybe not...... Matt, are you going to play a half ferry half troll? cus that would be cool, you could like live under a bridge and then transport people across the river!

--Matts 13:48, 16 July 2008 (MST)He was gonna be half-Chinese and get people across the river on his remarkably large junk!

GABE: Chinese and large junk just don't fit. So are the faries small? Like... human hand sized? So here is what I'm thinking of... Either an Orc Warrior type (maybe mystic warrior, or shaman warrior), or a human Alchemist - think lots of potions, crazy stuff like that...

Speaking of which, what is the general tech level?

--Gdaze 14:41, 16 July 2008 (MST) Holy crap those 75 points go FAST!

--Matts 14:44, 16 July 2008 (MST)Irrespective of nautical vehicle lineage, my character will be large and carry a bigger hammer with additional details fluid.

--67.160.116.72 14:53, 16 July 2008 (MST) So are you gonna be a fighter type?

--Matts 15:45, 16 July 2008 (MST)He could be. His skill at swinging the hammer will be there regardless. His strength too. What else he does I haven't decided. Except the bridge part.

--Edmiao 17:26, 16 July 2008 (MST) I plan to make an "ultimate" version of my character, what he might look like at the game end. this will give me an idea of where to start from and what advances to take as we progress, unless the story inspires a different track. what is the estimated xp mid and late game? if the game runs 12 months, say average of 3 sessions every two months (with cancellations and absences) then 3 x 12 / 2 = 18 sessions. 18 sessions x 10-15 xp per session = 180-270 xp gained over a year of game play?

BEN: yes, that is about right. If the xp gain rate turns out to be unmanageably fast (I dont' think this is likely), it may slow down mid/late game, likely at 100pt. markers (200, 300, 400, etc). again, I don't anticipate this, but I've thought about it. see "Advancement".
as to faeries, haven't put up their description yet, but they come in all shapes and sizes. Many are small, but many are also human sized: like elementals, they are highly variable in terms of their physical forms.

--Gdaze 18:31, 16 July 2008 (MST) Any idea how we are gonna do mounts? Those things are an expensive investment of points...

--Gdaze -- Do we have to use starting EXP on equipment? Or do we get some points for that? Also I'm not too sure about that lay down the law thing, I'd rather see rule 0. But m'eh.

--Edmiao 08:57, 17 July 2008 (MST) good question, what levele of equipment requires XP. certainly swords and daggers do, but probably not butter knives, and what about a pocket knife? Probably lockpicking tools do (or are included in a lockpicking skill?). does rope? a horse? Probably depends on how useful an item is or is envisioned to be? So maybe a pocket knife that is used to prepare food and whittle logs would not, but you could never use it to say stab someone in the back or cut ropes that you are tied up with.

--Edmiao 09:04, 17 July 2008 (MST)i was reading the disads section, where you have to spend xp to get disads and then when they come into play you get extra xp for them. is that still on? so with a 25 base + 50 disads, but the disads cost half, so that is actually 50 to spend on the character and 25 to spend on disads? just trying to do the math.

Gabe: Also if I remember correctly we have to spend exp on magic items? I'm most likely going to be needing a lot of bottles and alchmey supplies, so would I have to spend XP on these as well? I still think money would be easier but bleh! Also can we assume we have enough money to pay for a boat from point A to B? I can sell my potions, will that give me extra points to buy stuff with, or is that assumed to be how I make my general gold?

--Edmiao 10:07, 17 July 2008 (MST) my guess would be that supplies are free of xp but once you make a potion, that costs xp. how do potions work? i guess you buy a potion slot with one charge, with disad charge difficult to restore.