Interested Parties - Princes of Apocaverse - Session Sixteen

The Chapters and Cast of the Ballad


Arriving in Waterdeep with prisoners in tow;
Each of the band sets about to their own task;
Rewards to each their factions did bestow;
Granting each training in anything they ask.

International Tabletop Day Scenario - Airship Lost

I know I'm a bit late to set a specific scenario here, but here goes.

from the worldofjaymz wiki

The Belt of Orion was once hyped as the pinnacle of luxury vacation options, a massive airship capable of hosting 250 guests along with 100 crew members. These days it is probably the oldest of the fleet of airships and waterships owned by Firmament Tours. In the last two years it has seen a dwindling number of customers as they opt for newer ships with a greater variety of entertainment options or more up to date safety features. It is about to embark on what may be its final cruise. An expert has been placed aboard to determine what would need to be done to upgrade the vessel and whether or not the cost was worth the expense.

These matters are going to be least of their concern, however. There is a strange storm ahead and it seems set to consume the airship and all aboard.

Blind Adventurer - 5e Dungeons and Dragons Homebrew Option

Blindness is supposed to be a major inhibiting factor in Dungeons and Dragons. There has never been an official set of rules for playing a blind character because there has never been the assumption that such a character would be one that someone would want to play. Despite this, blind mystics have been a feature of myth, legend, and fiction for ages and blind warriors have become rather more common recently.

To be fair, the majority of D&D's player base is not interested in playing such a character and there are plenty of games in existence that have systems designed to allow for playing characters with blindness or other such disabilities. It is entirely possible to adapt one D&D's settings to one of these other game systems and thus play your blind warrior or mystic in that way. However, it doesn't change the plight of a person who is getting ready to play a D&D game with friends and has this firm view of playing a blind person.

Now there are some considerations to be made when creating an option to play a blind character.

Legend of the Five Rings Theoretical - Blind Beauty from the Wall

Yes, I know that's not Crab colors.
You have no idea how hard finding a good picture was.

The concept for this character is pretty simple and isn't a very uncommon concept. I'm sure it has a more well-known name for it, but I'm thinking of it as the "not as helpless as they look" concept. In this case I am thinking a blind woman of great beauty that many potential suitors are interested in due

to said beauty. In addition to this, I really like going against stereotype, so I'm thinking this will be a Crab Clan character.

Now there's a couple different variations of this that I can do and since doing a theoretical progression for a point buy system like L5R is problematic in the extreme, I think I'll do a couple of these variations. 

There will be four variations based on the intersection of two considerations: 

Courtier or Bushi?

Raised at Home or Hostage?

The Low Charisma Excuse

I just saw a post where a person was asking for advice given that they were about to be in a game with someone who treated them horribly in another game with the excuse that they had low Charisma and there for it was in character for them to be a jerk.

This is an excuse and is no reason for a person to treat anybody horribly.

If you could play on Critical Role....

(Fate/Stay-Night (Zero) spoilers.)

.....so this question gets brought up on the Facebook fan group quite a lot: "If you found yourself playing with Critical Role what class and race would you play?" And I've decided to go ahead and give a potential answer here but it is more in the neighborhood of a story development I would like to see happen in gameplay using Critical Role's current situation as a framework for explaining the idea.

I feel safe in posting this because:

• There is no way I am ever going to get to guest on Critical Role. I live in Japan and am in no way connected to either Geek and Sundry or the cast of the show outside being a fan.
• Even if I were to end up on Critical Role it would not be the sort of long-standing appearance I would need to pull off this storyline.
• If I were to somehow in the future get to know the cast and be in a position to play with them where they would want to invite me on, by then the circumstances of the show's story would have changed and likely will have invalidated everything in this set up.
• I am currently planning to be playing this character but all the other players already know her backstory and thus there is no chance I'm going to be able to pull off the Reveal moment that all of this would be working toward. There's nothing to reveal, they all already know about it and the circumstances of the setting are such that this sequence won't work anyway. Thus there's no harm posting my fantasy of a great reveal for public view.
• In all likelihood, a long-game style dramatic reveal like this is almost impossible to get to come off the way you plan it to outside of fiction because there are numerous variables involved including dice and other players.
• If fate gave me the opportunity to play on Critical Role, or Eric's TBD, or any other G&S production, I would likely end up creating some completely separate character concept because the situation would be different, I would be different, and different things would occur to me.This concept is just top of my mind right now and since this question at its core is less about playing with Crit Role specifically and more about what ideal game would you like to play, it seems a perfect concept to perform the thought exercise around.

That said, here goes the character development.Again, this is the sort of thing that's a lot easier to pull off when writing a novel and even then is very delicate to get done precisely right. Trying to pull this off in an RPG would be amazingly unlikely and is the main reason I am deliberately trying to keep things vague.

International Tabletop Day Event

I am planning to run some online scenarios for the Divine Blood game on April 28th/29th as part of International Tabletop Day. I plan for the event to go on my youtube channel afterwards as part of the ITTD sharing.

The One Ring by Cubicle 7

This is one of the latest games out of a long list of games that have sought to reproduce the setting and flavor of JRR Tolkien's beloved world setting, Middle-Earth. By default it is set in the years immediately following the fall of Smaug and the return of Dwarves to the Lonely Mountain. This is a period of relative peace when orcs and goblins have had their numbers depleted by the Battle of Five Armies, Sauron has been driven out of Dol Guldur, and one of the few remaining dragons has been removed from the world. In the next few decades, Erebor and Dale will grow in strength and stability forming a bulwark in the East working alongside the Elves of Mirkwood to resist the efforts of the Shadow.

This choice of time-period and setting is quite clever and allows for more flexibility than one would initially assume for a game set in Middle-Earth. Lord of the Rings primarily focuses on the impact of the War of the Rings on the Shire, Bree, Rohan, and Gondor. There is information about other great battles that take place in other places such as Lothlorien's siege of Dol Guldur and the siege of Dale and Erebor but we only have a little bit of information about what occured in those places. We have even less knowledge of the events that occurred in these lands following Bilbo's adventure and the default choice of the RPG's time and focus allows players a lot of freedom to add detail to those events.

Overall, I find it a very interesting game that very heavily recreates the sort of problems facing characters forced to make long-distance journeys, battle against horrible enemies, bandy words with silver-tongued corruptors, and have to occasionally retire to a sanctuary in order to refresh depleted resources or heal injuries.

A Most Curious Tower - The Journal of Aisha Yethtai

Ruined Tower by Spaceskeleton

Gwenfys had some relatively strong opinions about the path that we should take across the hills. There was some discussion as to whether we should cut straight across or turn southward once the mountains fell away so that we could reach the town of Kheldell. However, the ranger had noted that the town is terminally dull and that we should probably do whatever we can to avoid it. Considering this is a statement I'd more expect out of Tarnish, I was inclined to agree. As such we ended up cutting straight across with plans to join the Kheldell Path and take that to Red Larch before taking the Long Path northward toward Triboar where our message was to be delivered and our investigations were to begin.

The Trip to Carnath Roadhouse - The Journal of Aisha Yethtai

We now have a legitimate task before us. I suppose the eclectic nature of our group is such that we do match the accepted definition of a band of roving adventuerers at this point. In any case, we have decided to make the trip along the coastline in the shadow of the Sword Mountains to deliver this shipment of weapons. Neither Waterdeep nor anyone else is aware of any reason why such a shipment should be a matter for concern and thus there was nothing preventing us from delivering this merchant his goods as we had originally planned. The passage to doing such proved to be a little bit more problematic than we originally expected however.

Castles over Waterdeep - The Journal of Aisha Yethtai

Castle in the Clouds by Everlight

With the residents of Nightstone rescued and returned to their devastated homes, we set about repairing and replacing our stores. I, for one, found it necessary to replace the armor that the black pudding had damaged when it nearly killed me. Other than that we replaced some arrows and rations before taking to the road North to Waterdeep with an eye of reporting these situations to the authorities there.

On the Matter of Strategic Incompetence - The Journal of Aisha Yethtai

I am aware that Waterdeep has a number of respected military thinkers. There is even a center of worship for the Red Knight within her walls. But I must again take issue with the utter lack of practical understanding evidenced by whatever Waterdhavian aristocratic layabout is responsible for the emergency procedures of Nightstone.

Many More Visitors - The Journal of Aisha Yethtai

Our intentions to seek out the villagers who had fled the keep have been delayed by the events of this day, unfortunately. The fact that they have not returned from their refuge concerns me a fair amount. It has been at least two days and none of the residents of the village have made the least effort to return and see what the current status of things is. We had taken refuge ourselves in the battered ruins of the central keep when, upon the rise of the new day, we found that there was a mounted company within the walls of the bailey portion of the settlement.

5e The Wise Wolf (Wildhunt Shifter Bard of Lore)

This character concept is inspired by one of the two main characters of the Spice and Wolf stories. Holo (or Horo, but usually I see her name in English written as Holo), the Wise Wolf. She is an ancient wolf spirit who also has some influence on the growth of crops and has been around for hundreds of years by the start of the story.

Arrival in Nightstone - The Journal of Aisha Yethtai

Nightstone is representative of what many consider to be the average attitude of Waterdhavian Nobility. Which is to say that they are long on convenience and luxury but short on practical understanding of fortifications and strategy. To be fair, I had not expected that a great amount of such knowledge would be necessary so close to Waterdeep. Nor was the nature of the first attack one that could easily be predicted. Still, however, the events I have become wrapped up how dangerous it is to assume that one can ever ignore basic matters of strategy.

The End of an Exile - The Journal of Aisha Yethtai

 
I have received word that I am to travel back to the Sword Coast at my earliest convenience. I shan't be travelling directly to Silverymoon as yet, but rather I am to make my way to Waterdeep and speak to my city's delegate there. I am hopeful that this is a signal that I am to be called to service in the name of Silverymoon's banner yet again though I must not be too hopeful. If there were some dire need for an agent then Silverymoon and the Lord's Alliance would have sought some warrior much closer to hand than Suzail. But, at the very least, it seems as though my exile is come to an end.

Aisha Yethtai Tiefling Battlemaster

Aisha Yethtai - 6th Level

Character Journal

The Journal of Aisha Yethtai

(Note that I am starting this journal about six sessions into the campaign, so I may have some memory gaps.)

Aisha's great-grandparents were a tiefling wizard and a Bedine warrior who wandered the North with other adventurers. Eventually they came to the service of Silverymoon and retired to that city after induction within the Spellguard and the Knights in Silver respectively. Since then several members of her family have given laudable service within one of the two orders. Aisha was set to be no different when she was assigned as part of a Silverymoon contingent of Knights under the command of Aleina Brightlance to aid in the defense of Sundabar. The effort was a disaster, the horde of orcs was far larger than anybody expected it to be and the best efforts of all involved were for naught.

M-Com Mission Report - Operation: Captive Illness - Monster of the Week Campaign

M-Com Campaign

5e Companion (Half-Elven Warlock of the Seeker Pact)

The patron for this character has been called "Edan tuulo' i luin minas." They appear to be human but has had numerous faces over time and a mercurial personality that has ranged from near pacifistic to scheming and manipulative. However, no matter what guise the Man from the Blue Tower appears in, he (or occasionally she) has always encouraged curiosity, innovation, and courage. Though he often seems just the slightest bit disapproving of mortals from time to time, he certainly has shown a love for them and empathy for their trials.

Yes, this theoretical build is basically a Companion for the Doctor

5e Corrupted Martyr (Fallen Aasimar Paladin of Conquest) - Edited

The idea of doing this came when a line I wrote in a fanfic sometime ago popped into my mind and I had to go look up the fanfic to see where I had used it.

"If she couldn't feel the light she could at least look at it from the darkness."

Edited: Mis-read the Paladin, thought they needed Wisdom for Spell save DCs, so altered the stats here a bit.

5e Shrine Maiden (Ghostwise Halfling Circle of the Land Druid)

There are many different ways of representing a shrine maiden style character. First of all, you have to decide what you mean by "shrine maiden." In general, the powers demonstrated by shrine maidens in Japanese movies and anime spans a large variety and doesn't really bare much resemblance to the status of such people in either myth or real life. It pretty much relates to the style of dress that the character wears, the white and red religious robes. They often are shown wielding spears, bows, staves, or brooms (mostly because sweeping up a shrine and keeping it tidy is part of the real life duties of shrine maidens and other people connected to shrines.)

5e Vampyr Warrior - Second Version (Variant Human Undying Warlock)

This is going to be a rework of the character idea first presented in the post immediately prior to this one. The basic concept is, again, a soldier who was exposed to the lingering essence of a long destroyed vampire and started to acquire arcane abilities as a result.

This time, however, I am primarily focusing on the warrior aspect and I am using neither homebrew nor third party features.

5e Vampyr Warrior (Undying Warlock - Homebrew Invocation)

This character is based on the idea of a character I designed for a superhero game. In this case I am going to modify the concept for a standard fantasy style setting. The origin story was that a soldier was an MP mediating an argument between some soldiers and some locals when everyone invovled were dumped into a hidden tomb that had been long undiscovered. Said tomb contained the last remaining essences of Lamashtu and Pazuzu, two demons from Mesopotamian mythology which are often linked to vampire myths in modern day fiction.

Eternals within Divine Blood

This is mostly brainstorming. Eternals are a very esoteric and eldritch aspect of Divine Blood and to be honest, their weirdness has little to no impact on the wider story that is currently being focused on. I have considered the idea of doing a series of stories focusing on the conflict between various Eternals and their machinations behind the scenes of the Divine Blood stories. Featuring alternate time lines and results of various events. But first I want to focus on the story as relates to the humans, Gods and Demons being focused on in the fiction as well as the common situations for the mortals and immortals restricted to basic linear existence within the normal RPG setting.

The first thing to understand about Eternals is that they are not a species so much as they are a phenomenon. An individual Eternal might originate from any sentient species and, in fact, the same Eternal might have pieces that are of different species in different branches of reality.

5e Hunter of the Dead (Third Party Dhampir Ranger)

This is based on a character I created for a campaign of Curse of the Crimson Lord that didn't happen because our group got a bit tired of d20 for a little bit of time. If she looks a bit oddly proportioned it is because I made the decision that her mortal parent was a halfling since dhampir have the same stats regardless of their heritage. As such, she appeared to people as an especially short human woman.

Pathfinder has an alternate multicalssing method that works a bit like the multiclassing in 4e where features from the secondary class replace feats. In this case, she was a ranger with some cleric capabilities and was dedicated as a hunter of undead for Saranrae. I'm going to do something similar and use feats to borrow cleric abilities. One of these feats will be a homebrewed feat of my own making this theoretical based on two third-person features, a race and a feat.

Blindness and other character flaws

Playing a blind character in D&D is generally going to be more problematic than most players want. You can accept the blinded condition permanently, meaning that in 5th Edition you would automatically fail any sight based Wisdom(Perception) or Intelligence(Investigation) based checks, enemies would have advantage to attack you, and all your attacks would have disadvantage. Taking the Alert feat would remove the advantage from attacks against you but your own attacks would still suffer and it is quite possible that a GM might decide that any spell requiring line of sight is impossible for you to cast.

Riders on the Storm - Princes of Apocaverse - Session Fifteen

The Chapters and Cast of the Ballad

Many meetings came in brief time
Between the locksmith of 271;
And the others on the issue to chime;
Of the technicians changes mostly done.