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IC Thread Here It is the year of Our Lord 485, the fifth year of the reign of Uther Pendragon, King of Logres. You are new knights sworn to the service of Roderick, Earl of Salisbury and loyal vassal to the King. This is a dark and violent age, where Saxons, bandits, rebels, and general villainy are the order of the day. Your sword will seldom know its sheath and your call to mete justice never slack. So rejoice, for you will never lack opportunity to show your quality and reap glory for yourself and your family! We'll be using the 5.1 edition of Pendragon. This version is very similar to the 4th edition. The main change is that the clunky magic rules are stripped out (just as well: you are knights, not wizards!), the battle rules handle larger engagements a bit more smoothly, and most importantly for now, the character generation is much more streamlined. Note: I am using a house rule inspired by Cam Banks of Marvel Heroic Roleplaying fame. In each adventure, a PC will have a Coin to spend which allows a result to be bumped up, i.e., a critical failure becomes a regular failure, a regular failure becomes a success, and a regular success become critical. If you use your Coin on behalf of another PC, you also gain 50 Glory. If you're not familiar with this RPG at all, hie you to DivineCoffeeBinge's excellent description of the background and system here, starting halfway down the page. I'm looking for four PCs. To apply, just reply in this thread. You can roll up a character afterward. Don't worry if you are totally new to this! I'll help you generate a PC and figure out the ropes. You will all start as Cymric knights from Salisbury, either Christian or pagan. Orokos.com is my preference for dice rolling websites. Roster of Knights Sir Bledri Think-Twice - Epicurious Sir Briant the Feckless - EclecticTastes Sir Elias - Shogeton Sir Pellogres the Mighty - Lager Sir Rhun the Industrious - DivineCoffeeBinge Hopeful Squires (i.e., Waitlist) none pending ibntumart fucked around with this message at 15:24 on Apr 29, 2015 |
# ? Oct 24, 2013 03:24 |
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# ? Apr 26, 2024 14:48 |
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Reserved for game information. Chronicles of the Knights of the Hound: 485: In the spring, the knights join Sir Elad on patrol and skirmish with raiding knights from Levcomagus. Summer sees them do battle against the Saxons at Mearcred Creek. 486: The knights meet Merlin while on patrol and complete the Adventure of the Sword Lake. Merlin reveals the sword to be Excalibur and recognizes the knights at Christmas Court. 487: The Earl brings the knights as part of Uther's embassy to Lindsey, where they embark on a successful hunt. They later are entrusted to deliver Uther's invitation to the Centurion King, fighting Saxon brigands along the way. King Heraut is civil to the knights, but unkind toward Uther. The following months sees each Knight on his own errands, Sir Bledri and Sir Elias each having new hope to find their missing family, Sir Briant and Sir Pellogres move closer to securing a good marriage, and Sir Rhun weds Lady Adwen this year. 488: yet to unfold Helpful Maps and Illustrations here, including maps of the county with the PCs' manors indicated. Notes about Uther's Britain: These are meant to help you get an idea what it's like to be a knight in this version of 485 AD Britain.
Equipment in the year 485: Not everying in the rulebook exists yet for a PC to buy or own. Below is the state-of-the-art in 485 AD.
Cool coat of arms generator. Be wary of snails. ibntumart fucked around with this message at 17:56 on Jan 3, 2016 |
# ? Oct 24, 2013 03:28 |
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I'm very interested. Time to dust off that PDF!
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# ? Oct 24, 2013 04:14 |
I'm also very interested. I've never heard of the game to be honest, but I'll try to binge on the FATAL and Friends posts tonight and tomorrow and see if I can get a character together.
Lager fucked around with this message at 04:29 on Oct 24, 2013 |
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# ? Oct 24, 2013 04:24 |
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Please color me interested even if I have never before played this game. Is there a way to contact you?
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# ? Oct 24, 2013 05:44 |
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I've been wanting to try Pendragon for a while. Picked up a copy of an older edition at a con on the recommendation of a friend, been wanting to give it a try ever since. Count me in, I'm ready to fight for glory and honor!
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# ? Oct 24, 2013 06:24 |
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I'm seriously interested in this despite knowing next to nothing about the system. I can't decide whether I'd rather play a shining exemplar of all that is good, or The Worst Knight. Of course, given the length of the Pendragon campaign, 'both' is probably an option.
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# ? Oct 24, 2013 11:26 |
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dereku posted:Please color me interested even if I have never before played this game. Is there a way to contact you? You can PM me here, or if you don't have plat, I'm username at gee mail. potatocubed posted:I'm seriously interested in this despite knowing next to nothing about the system. I can't decide whether I'd rather play a shining exemplar of all that is good, or The Worst Knight. Oh, that's probably something I should have mentioned! For those who aren't familiar, this RPG has a dynastic element. Your knight can (and everyone surrounding your character will expect him to) get married and have an heir, which in turn will be your PC when your current one dies (and he will die, probably painfully and terribly at the end of a lance or sword, but possibly of old age if you're unlucky. Also, rolling against your worst personality traits is a big part of this game, so even the best knight may find himself sorely tempted to take that last bit of roasted venison at the great hall or mack on his lord's wife.
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# ? Oct 24, 2013 11:36 |
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I'm definitely interested.
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# ? Oct 24, 2013 11:53 |
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I'm definitely interested, I picked up Pendragon during a charity bundle and I'm itching for a chance to play. Some kind of Pagan Knight. Hey there wasn't anything like horse archery, was there? And was the bow an appropriate weapon to use in battle?
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# ? Oct 24, 2013 12:54 |
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Bows are for hunting and for cowards who have not the skill or courage to fight an enemy as a man should, that is, up close and with a sword. In game terms, you take a serious reduction in Glory, which is both prestige and the closest to experience points, and IC fellow knights will wonder what's wrong with you. (You want Glory; besides eventually giving you bonuses in gameplay, it's basically the measure of how excellent a knight you are both objectively and in the minds of your peers.) There aren't any rules per se for firing a bow while riding on horseback---that falls under the "GM assigns a penalty that seems right" rubric.
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# ? Oct 24, 2013 15:40 |
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Thanks, been a while since I read the rulebook.
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# ? Oct 24, 2013 15:48 |
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What's the general outline for the game going to be? Dusted off the pdf, I was thinking I'd make Generous my notable trait, or possibly Pride. It's a toss up, am I giving with both hands just to look good? It might be interesting to try shooting for a Pagan Religious Knight. And I think I like the name Guy, though I'm not sure which way that is supposed to be pronounced in this setting.
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# ? Oct 24, 2013 18:02 |
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I have been reading through DivineCoffeeBinge's summary of the system and it seems really cool. I especially like the dynastic nature of characters, and the idea that the actions of the father will effect the son, and the game world. I see you have more than the four players you asked for, but I thought I'd throw my hat in anyway. That way if someone drops out, or you are randomly choosing players I may have a chance.
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# ? Oct 24, 2013 18:52 |
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I do love knights and history.
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# ? Oct 24, 2013 19:34 |
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Rockopolis posted:What's the general outline for the game going to be? We're starting with Uther and by God, I'm going to take this as close to the finish some 80 gametime years later as I can. Standard Pendragon format: an adventure in the first half of the year, followed by a Winter Phase (including room for solo sidequests). Wentley posted:I see you have more than the four players you asked for, but I thought I'd throw my hat in anyway. That way if someone drops out, or you are randomly choosing players I may have a chance. I probably will expand to 5 or 6 *and* keep a list in case a player has to drop out.
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# ? Oct 24, 2013 20:44 |
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Excellent. I noticed you mentioned you were newbie friendly (a relief) and that you'd be willing to help create a character. Would you rather we have characters ready, and you choose from there, or choose players and create characters as a group?
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# ? Oct 24, 2013 20:49 |
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I would be very interested in this, but I don't have a clue when it comes to this system . Will go on a reading binge I guess!
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# ? Oct 24, 2013 23:13 |
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I'm also interested. Last time I rolled a Pendragon dude, I managed, by sheer accident, to have a Flirt of 20... Sadly, I didn't get to play the most flirt-tastic knight in existence.
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# ? Oct 24, 2013 23:35 |
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Color me intrigued. I'm new and I have no idea how this works, but I'm looking forward to it all the same.
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# ? Oct 25, 2013 01:46 |
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You know I want in! Granted, it seems I'm in good company there, so if I don't get it I won't cry, but I want. I want badly. EDIT: For the record, I know this system pretty well myself, so I'd be happy to help out answering questions - with the proviso that if ibntumart and I disagree on anything, he is correct. It's his game. I'd also note, for the newbies - it's a ridiculously simple system. Don't get intimidated. On the topic of bows - bows were for hunting small game (real game was hunted with a boar spear thank you). Peasants used them. Knights did not. Knights fought "body to body", with swords or lances or axes or maces or (very occasionally) their hands. Keep in mind that this was a time period (or at least myths designed to evoke a time period) where it was felt that combat was a sacred trial; when two knights fought, the winner won because he was a better man. True Arthurian Knights have no time for things like "ranged attacks" or "tactical advantages" or "long-term planning" or "realizing that it would be stupid to give your opponent a chance to catch his breath" or "believing that it would be foolish to take your opponent at his word when he says he won't attack you from behind, honest." Pendragon has no Intelligence statistic. This is by design. DivineCoffeeBinge fucked around with this message at 04:15 on Oct 25, 2013 |
# ? Oct 25, 2013 04:07 |
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From someone who tried to GM a GPC game here, Well, uh... good luck. (Be careful how many of the extra splatbooks you use, they are blatantly contradictory with each other at various places, from costs for tutors or manorial additions, and even if the latter have the right cost, they're blatantly worthless for how much they give vs. how much they cost)
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# ? Oct 25, 2013 04:11 |
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I'm pretty interested in this. I'm pretty sure my dad, my brothers and I played the 1st edition a fuckload of years ago.
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# ? Oct 25, 2013 06:35 |
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It does my heart good to see this much love for Pendragon. A few comments before I start making up the roster:
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# ? Oct 25, 2013 09:37 |
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On to making selections! DCB and Epicurius, you were awesome squires in my last game and your PCs deserved the knighthood we never got around to---that's something we shall have to remedy, isn't it? Also, since we have a good mix of experienced players with newbies, I feel comfortable bumping the starting number of PCs up to six. Starting lineup, please post to verify you're still interested. I should be around most of the day, so I'm happy to get character creation rolling. Please feel free to ask any questions and I'll do my best to answer them speedily. Starting Roster Epicurious DivineCoffeeBinge Lager dereku potatocubed EclecticTastes Waitlist (in order) Rockopolis Mors Rattus Wentley ForeverBWFC Firesight AnAnonymousIdiot Captain Rehab Josef bugman J4Gently ibntumart fucked around with this message at 23:36 on Oct 26, 2013 |
# ? Oct 25, 2013 09:38 |
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I'm still interested and will be around after work to make a character and prepare for the Great Knightly Boar Killing Simulator. Are we going to be setting up an IRC channel for this game?
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# ? Oct 25, 2013 12:07 |
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Still interested! I know Sir Owain is a Cymric Knight from Salisbury, and for the sake of simplicity I'll make him Christian. What's next?
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# ? Oct 25, 2013 12:17 |
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Still interested on this. I might post a little after work. I have my coat of arms ready in my mind already. Seconding the idea to have and IRC channel
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# ? Oct 25, 2013 13:58 |
I'm totally still down for this and am looking forward to it. How do we go about doing chargen? Point by? Rolling? And do you plan on doing an IRC room, or just posting stuff back and forth here?
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# ? Oct 25, 2013 14:36 |
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I am so in, and will start my chargen now; I'll write it up step-by-step and post the whole process in-thread so that people will have a template to refer to, which will hopefully make it easier for you to help the folks that haven't done this before, ibntumart. This is gonna be fun. EDIT: For the record, the "here's a step-by-step character creation" is the main reason I'm not just grabbing Lardans from the last game and saying "here, done." Heh. He was fun, but I think this will be too! DivineCoffeeBinge fucked around with this message at 16:17 on Oct 25, 2013 |
# ? Oct 25, 2013 15:58 |
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I'd also like to claim interest, if that is okay, still new at every thing RPG but will be reading up on pendragon (and following the gamethread) closely! Thank you!
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# ? Oct 25, 2013 15:58 |
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Though this is awesome, I'm going to do the honorable thing and let someone else take my place. I'll have less free time than I thought, and I really like the Thirteenth Age character I thought up. I'm sorry.
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# ? Oct 25, 2013 17:04 |
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DCB's Character Creation STEP ONE: PERSONAL DATA This is pretty easy. First up we pick a name; I'm gonna choose Rhun (stealing from the 4th edition's 'sample Cymric names' list instead of the 5th edition 'here's some random Arthurian names' list). Homeland we already know; we're from Salisbury. Culture we also already know, we're Cymric. Religion.... hmm. I'm going to change gears from the last time ibntumart ran the game and play a Pagan Knight this time around. It is worth noting here that Pagans in Pendragon are not devil-worshipping mankillers or anything; they follow the "Old Ways," which can be as vague or as specific as an individual GM wants. The game's author was very much influenced by Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon in his inclusion of and depiction of Pagans; a good rule of thumb is that Pendragon Pagans live the religion that modern Wiccans pretend they're emulating, only with the modern-day nonsense removed. The next bit of personal data to choose is my Father's Name; we'll pick... hmm... Gwern. Sure, why not. Next is a Title, but as Titles are often derived from Traits let's see what those are before we pick. Father's Class is the next bit, but during this simple character creation all characters are the Son of a Vassal Knight, so that was simple enough. Son Number is also easy; we are all assumed to be the eldest sons of our fathers, and so our Son Number is 1. Our Liege Lord is Sir Roderick, Earl of Salisbury. For our Current Class, the chargen says basically 'you're about to be vassal knights but write in Squire for now;' as ibntumart has said we're starting as knights, I'm going to write in Vassal Knight, but this may need changing if he decides to drop back to just before our knighting ceremony. Next up is our Current Home. Finally, the dice have to come out. We roll 1d20: Manor Roll: 1d20 3 A roll of 3 gets me the Manor of Broughton. This is the manor house in which I live (and, as a vassal knight, administrate for my Lord). It is also my first potential source for a Title; "Rhun de Broughton," or "Run of Broughton." It bears noting that if anyone else rolls a 3 at this step they have to reroll because only I get Broughton. Hah hah! Age and Year Born remain blank for now. STEP TWO: TRAITS AND PASSIONS Okay. First up we look at the list of Traits, which I will swipe from my earlier Pendragon posts: quote:*Chaste / Lustful Now, five of those Traits should be underlined, to denote your Religious Traits. For a Pagan, those Traits are Generous, Energetic, Honest, Lustful, and Proud. If I can ever get these Traits to each be 16 or more, I will earn a Religious Bonus (which, for Pagans, is +2 to Healing Rate IIRC). In addition, the following Traits should have dots next to them: Energetic, Generous, Just, Merciful, Modest, and Valorous. These are the Chivalric Traits, and if we can ever get them to all add up to 80 or more points we get a Chivalry Bonus which is pretty drat sweet. Note that this is harder for Pagans to achieve than it is for Christians, as their religious Trait of Proud is directly opposed to the Chivalric trait of Modest! This doesn't mean that a Pagan can't manage both bonuses - but it does mean that in order to do so they'd better be pretty damned good at every Chivalric Trait other than Modest... Christians, whether of the Roman or British variety, do not have this problem. They are, in fact, the only faith (except maybe the usually-NPC-only Judaism, I forget) that has no religious Traits opposed to a Chivalric Trait. Then I assign values to the Traits: Valorous always starts at 15, because we've been trained to beat asses. Religious Traits always start at 13. Everything else is at 10. Now, our Traits come in pairs, you may have noticed; each pair's value should add up to 20. So, since my Lustful starts at 13, my Chaste starts at 7; Prudent and Reckless are both at 10, however. Then I assign one Famous Trait: I bump one value up to 16 to determine what it is my character is awesome at, what he's known for. Ideally, for long-term planning reasons, I would want a Trait that will get me closer to both a Chivalry Bonus and a Religious Bonus; I'm going to choose Energetic. This is also a source of Titles; Rhun could be called the Vigorous, the Industrious, or the Robust (or the Indefatigable, in theory, but I have the sneaking suspicion that that would make everyone hate me for having to type the word out and remember how it's spelled and suchlike). (remind me to link you sometime to the story where my Irish Knight with an Energetic of 23 defeated a Faerie Knight in single combat in a duel that lasted eighteen hours) So my final Traits look like this: Chaste 7 / Lustful 13 *Energetic 16 / Lazy 4 Forgiving 10 / Vengeful 10 *Generous 13/ Selfish 7 Honest 13/ Deceitful 7 *Just 10 / Arbitrary 10 *Merciful 10 / Cruel 10 *Modest 7 / Proud 13 Pious 10 / Worldly 10 Prudent 10 / Reckless 10 Temperate 10 / Indulgent 10 Trusting 10 / Suspicious 10 *Valorous 15 / Cowardly 5 Now, keep in mind - having a Trait at 16 or higher is a big deal. It's something you are legitimately famous for; people who meet Rhun, should they recognize him, will say things like "Oh! You're the guy who stayed awake for four days holding vigil over a wounded relative and then got up and jogged three miles!" or something along those lines. Don't take a Famous Trait that you don't want to be, y'know... famous for! Okay, next step is the Directed Traits, which we won't have any of yet so don't sweat it. Next is Passions! Passions are easy enough: quote:Passion Starting Value It says if the 'Salisbury Family History' section from Chapter 3 is used, Hate (Saxons) will be determined there instead. I don't know if ibntumart wants us to use that section or not, so I'm going to just roll; if he says "go ahead and use that section," then I will go back and do so! So: Generate Hate (Saxons): 3d6 15 drat, Rhun doesn't like Saxons at all. Now we can add up to three points to our Passions, so I'm going to bump Honor, Love (Family), and Hate (Saxons) up to 16! 16 is enough to make them Famous, as with Traits, so it's kind of a big deal. (you don't have to add points, by the way) EDIT: ibntumart tells me we are in fact using that system. Shame, that was a nice roll! Okay, I'll get to that but later. For now, scrap that Hate (Saxons) roll and put that unspent Passion point into Hospitality. STEP THREE: ATTRIBUTES (technically 'Prime and Derived Statistics') Okay, so we have 5 primary Statistics: Size (SIZ), which is how big you are and must range from 8 to 18; Dexterity (DEX), which you should know what that means if you've ever played an RPG before, and ranges from 5 to 18; Strength (STR), ditto; Constitution (CON) which is also self-explanatory and ranges from 5 to 21 (because Cymric characters get CON boosts in the next step), and Appearance (APP) which is how good looking you are and ranges from 5 to 18. A note on APP: You very rarely roll it, but it can give bonuses, especially at very high values. The rationale is that at this point in time people tended to equate "is handsome" with "is blessed by God" - and, the thinking went, if you were blessed by God you must be a pretty good person in order to deserve it, right? So handsome dudes are automatically more trustworthy and noble in a lot of peoples' eyes. Conversely, ugly people are thought to be ugly for a reason - God must have cursed them for their wickedness! Oh, and a quick sidebar from the book: No Intelligence Rating? posted:Note that no attributes are given for intelligence or any form of wisdom, astuteness, or wit. This is because it is a knight’s duty to act, not to think... And you thought I was kidding about that "No Intelligence score by design" bit! So, we have 60 points to distribute freely. As Rhun is a pagan I want him to be able to get attention from some of those hot pagan priestesses and their fertility ceremonies HURR HURR HURR, and besides I want to demonstrate a later section on Distinctive Features, so let's give Rhun an APP of 16. That leaves me with 44 points for the other 4 attributes; let's go with SIZ 12, DEX 11, CON 9, STR 12. EDIT: MorsRattus pointed out to me I'd spent one extra point here! Oops! Dropped by DEX down to 11, and I'll edit everything else to reflect the correct value. Our next step is Cultural Modifiers; as Cymri, we get +3 CON. This brings Rhun's CON up to 12. Next we have Derived Statistics: these are Stats whose values are derived from our primary stats. They are: Damage, which is how hard you hit. The formula is (STR+SIZ)/6 - for Rhun, that's (12+12)/6, or 4 ('standard' rounding rules apply, if needed). In combat, when Rhun hits a dude, I roll 4d6 for damage (usually; different weapons may adjust this value). Healing Rate is how many HP you heal per week; it is (CON+STR)/10. For Rhun, that's (12+12)/10 or 2.4, rounded to 2. Movement Rate is how many yards you can walk per round in armor, as well as affecting overland travel; it is calculated with (STR+DEX)/10 - so Rhun gets another 2. Total Hit Points is pretty self-explanatory; figure it with CON+SIZ, or 24 for Rhun. Unconscious is 1/4th of your total HP, so Rhun gets a 6. If your current HP are at or below this number, you fall down and nap for a while, though you're probably not in danger of death. Next up, Distinctive Features. With an APP of 16, Rhun gets 2 of these, as his APP is high and not low, they are things about him that are pleasing and handsome, as opposed to horrible scars or what have you. I roll 1d6 on a chart to see what these features are: Distinctive Features: 2#1d6 1 5 1 is "Hair" and 5 is "Facial Feature" - so let's say Rhun has eye-catching, bright red hair and... hmm... high cheekbones. Sure, why not. (Had Rhun's APP been, say, an 8, I could have made the same roll and picked 'prematurely balding' and 'beady eyes.' The degree to which this actually matters is exceptionally low!) ***** This is getting lengthy as hell, so I'm going to post this and continue working in my next post. If anyone has any questions, or is curios as to why I made any of the choices I did, or what have you, feel free to ask! DivineCoffeeBinge fucked around with this message at 21:02 on Oct 25, 2013 |
# ? Oct 25, 2013 17:37 |
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I created an IRC channel,#GPC_Chat. Let me know if it appears for you guys. I am about to crash and have some errands to run today, but I'll pop into IRC whenever I'm near my PC today and over the weekend. Genericangst, no worries---thanks for letting me know. EclecticTastes, you're off the waitlist. DivineCoffeeBinge, much appreciated! Just a couple of notes for people generating characters on their own: 1) go ahead and put in vassal knight and 2) PCs are going to roll on Salisbury Family History tables because it's too awesome not to.
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# ? Oct 25, 2013 17:53 |
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ibntumart posted:I created an IRC channel,#GPC_Chat. Let me know if it appears for you guys. I am about to crash and have some errands to run today, but I'll pop into IRC whenever I'm near my PC today and over the weekend. SynIRC?
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# ? Oct 25, 2013 17:56 |
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Mors Rattus posted:SynIRC? Yes. At least, it is now... forgot to check my IRC settings.
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# ? Oct 25, 2013 18:02 |
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Following DivineCoffeeBinge’s guide let’s see. As for name I’m going for Derek the first son of Derrick (Now I usually would add a grandpa and a great grandpa with a title related to the family blazon but I’ll give me some time to think about it) With the Homeland Salisbury, Cymric culture and being a Roman Catholic with my religion ((WOO POPE!)) As a Vassal of Sir Roderick, Earl of Salisbury and I’ll be following instructions gicen to us and write Vassal Knight too. Now, My manor will be Home: 1d20 1 which means I’m calling dibs on Baverstock (You guys can’t have it it’s mine [cue evil laugh]) Instead of leaving Age and year born blank I’m going with the basic at chargen and go with 21 and year 465. Now we will move to traits, unlike Rhun who is by the way a filthy, filthy pagan. We civilized Roman Catholic knights believe in the following traits: Chaste, Forgiving, Merciful, modest, temperate. At this moment I’m between picking Energetic, Just, Temperate or Modest as my famous trait, but as this seems to be an optional step I think I’ll leave this for later Chaste13 / Lustful 7 *Energetic 10 / Lazy 10 Forgiving 13 / Vengeful 10 *Generous 10/ Selfish 10 Honest 10/ Deceitful 10 *Just 10 / Arbitrary 10 *Merciful 13 / Cruel 17 *Modest 13 / Proud 7 Pious 10 / Worldly 10 Prudent 10 / Reckless 10 Temperate 13 / Indulgent 7 Trusting 10 / Suspicious 10 *Valorous 15 / Cowardly 5 Now going to my passions as directed Loyalty (lord) 15 Love (family) 15 Hospitality 15 Honor 15 Hate (Saxons) Salisbury Family History defined [TBA] That was fun! Now to my attributes, Let’s see I don’t want to be ugly but I don’t care too much about being handsome but I want to have at least one significant feature but to play it safe I’ll put 13 in app. This leaves me 47 for the rest of the attributes and they will be as follows: Size: 11 Dex: 13 Str: 13 Con: 10 (This will get to 13 with the bonus as a Cymric knight) App: 13 (2 traits) And my final atributes will be as follow: Size: 11 Dex: 13 Str: 13 Con: 13 App: 13 Looks pretty balanced IMHO doesn't shine but doesn't seem lacking. My derived statistics would be: Damage: 24/6 = 4 Healing: 26/10 = 2.6 Movement: 26/10 = 2.6 Total HP: 24 KO: 6 My traits are: Distinctive traits: 2d6 9 or 3,6 He will have a nice smile (3 is for face) and strong arms (6 is for limbs) Seeing this is as far as DCB got I'll stop here too dereku fucked around with this message at 21:05 on Oct 25, 2013 |
# ? Oct 25, 2013 18:30 |
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DCB's Character Creation, Continued STEP FOUR: SKILLS Now we're getting into the meat of things. We start off with a certain set of base values based on our culture; Cymric characters all start off with the following base skill ratings: quote:Awareness 5, Boating 1, Compose 1, Courtesy 3, Dancing 2, Faerie Lore 1, Falconry 3, First Aid 10, Flirting 3, Folklore 2, Gaming 3, Heraldry 3, Hunting 2, Intrigue 3, Orate 3, Play [harp] 3, Read [Latin] 0, Recognize 3, Religion [choose one] 2, Romance 2, Singing 2, Stewardship 2, Swimming 2, Tourney 2. Now we get to some customization. There are some restrictions, as follows: quote:There are a few limitations, as follows: First, we choose any one Knightly skill at which we excel and make it a 15. The book says Sword is a popular choice, and the book is right to point this out, because you're gonna use your Sword a lot. I bump Rhun's Sword skill up to 15. Second, choose any three non-combat skills other than First Aid and make them a 10. Since Rhun is the good-looking one, it makes sense to choose some skills that will play off of this; I'm going to choose Dancing and Flirting (in a later age I might have chosen Romance, but Romance, during this era of Pendragon, is not exactly the pivotal courtly activity it becomes later). I also want Rhun to be knowledgeable in the ways of his faith, so I'll choose Religion (Pagan) for my third skill. Step Three is a little more involved, so let's check the book: quote:Heighten any four unique statistics chosen from among the following: attribute scores, traits, passions, or skills. Heightening a skill (or combat skill) increases it by up to 5 points, while heightening an attribute, trait, or passion increases it by 1 point. Thus, for example, a character could increase (i) his SIZ, STR, and DEX by 1 point each and his Axe skill by up to 5 points; or (ii) his Energetic trait and his Love (family) passion by 1 point each and his Horsemanship and Hunting skills by up to 5 each. Any combination of four increases is allowed, within the restrictions given above. Hmmm. Well, once I'm done with this process I can no longer increase Rhun's SIZ normally, so if I want to make him any bigger I'd better do it now. Let's give Rhun 2 more points of SIZ. Then we'll make his Valorous a 16, so that he's Famous for that as well; with our last boost let's raise his STR by one. EDIT: Mors pointed out another error I'd made (I blame the fact that I'm more familiar with 4th Edition): I can't boost SIZ twice here. So I'm going to do the following: pretend that when I started chargen I put one additional point into SIZ and took one out of DEX; then instead of 2 points into SIZ here I'm putting one into SIZ and one into DEX. I am kind of a moron. Note that this also affects his Derived Statistics; Rhun's Damage becomes (13+14)/6, or 4.5, which rounds to 5. His Healing Rate becomes 3; his Total Hit Points becomes 26, and his Unconscious becomes 7. Step Four: Add 10 more points among your skills, combat or non-combat alike, keeping in mind the prior limits (nothing above 15, no non-Knightly skills like Chirurgery). Let's see now... well, a knight is basically defined by sitting a horse. Let's add three points to Horsemanship (13) and another 3 to Lance (13); the other four points we'll put into Orate (7), because that's the skill you use to boast and Rhun is Proud enough to be boastful. STEP FIVE: PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE Now! These are Rhun's stats at 21 years of age. We may, if we choose, make our characters a bit older; we can age them up to 26 if we so choose. For each year we age our character we can do two of the following (but not the same one twice): *Distribute 1d6 points among skills (no skill higher than 15, and you can't raise a skill that starts at 0) *Add one point to any Trait (max 19) or Passion (max 20) *Add 1 point to STR, DEX, CON, or APP, up to your cultural maximums So... do I want to do this? Well, the best reason to age up a character is either to meet qualifications for a knightly class - which we don't have to worry about, we all meet the qualifications to be a vassal knight already just by going through this chargen - or to hit a bonus that you might be close to qualifying for. In Rhun's case, the Religious Bonus is right out; I would have to raise 4 different Traits three points each to get it, for 12 total points. So that ain't gonna happen. But what about the Chivalry Bonus? Well, you get the Chivalry Bonus if your Chivalrous Traits add up to 80 or more. Rhun's total is (16+13+10+10+7+16), or 72... so he needs 8 more points to be Chivalrous. Can't reach that total either! Crap. No worries, we'll get there in time. Still, we can make a start at it. Let's make Rhun a 22 year old, just to demonstrate how the system works. I'm going to add one point to his Generous (getting him closer to both his Religious and his Chivalry bonus) and roll 1d6 for more skills: Age-up skills: 1d6 5 Nice! 5 more points. Let's put two points apiece into Horsemanship and Lance, making them each a 15, and the last point into Awareness, making it a 6, because being surprised sucks. This is an optional step, and usually I skip it. I did this for you, people! STEP SIX: OTHER STUFF First is Glory. Ignore it for now! Since we're using the optional Salisbury Family History section we'll derive our Glory from our father's Glory; a kid gets 1/10th of his father's Glory when he enters play. Coat of Arms: I'm gonna gin one of these up with the Coat of Arms generator that ibntumart linked in his first post. But later! Not now. Horses! What's the manual got to say about horses? quote:You begin play with the following horses: We'll get to their stats later; for right now it's enough to know that we each have 4 horses. Your charger is a big fuckin' deal, because they are super-rare in this time period. Sir Roderick must be rolling in cash to outfit his knights so well! We'll get to Squires in a bit... ah! Equipstuff! Over and above your horses, you start out with: Chainmail and shield; 2 spears, sword, dagger; Fine clothing (worth 1 £.); Personal gear, travel gear, war gear (see “Starting Equipment” in Chapter 8). "Personal Gear, War Gear," et cetera is stuff like your tent and bedroll and what have you. Don't sweat it for now. Your spears also double as lances, by the way; your Lance skill is used when couching your lance and charging on your horse, but if your horse isn't charging or you're dismounted, you use the Spear skill. The actual stick-with-a-pointy-bit is typically the same in both cases, however. Additional Belongings! Everyone rolls 1d20 on a table to see what Other Neat Stuff they might have inherited. My roll: Table 2-2: 1d20 16 I inherit an extra rouncy. Which is handy! You might laugh, you people who roll your blessed lances and sacred heirlooms and priceless healing potions, but eventually we're gonna rescue a damosel and someone is gonna have to let her ride.... There's some other bookkeeping stuff which we can ignore for just a moment; things like 'year of borth' et cetera. We're working with the crunch here! Next up is Family Characteristic: something your bloodline is known for. This is a boost to a Skill, which can bump your skill over the earlier maximums. Roll 1d20 on table 2-3: Table 2-3: 1d20 7 This gives me a result of Keen senses (+5 Awareness). This is awesome. (an 11 for a +10 Flirting would have been funnier, though) Next up (and lastly) is your Army - how many men you can call to your banner when your Lord calls you to war. Army comes in several flavors: *Family Knights are, well, family members who are already Knights. Cousins, Uncles, et cetera. These break down into three categories: Old Knights: (1d6–5) Middle-Aged Knights: (1d6–2) and Young Knights: (1d6+1). Roll these, add them up, add 1 for your character. So for Rhun: Family Knights: 1d6-5 -4 Family Knights: 1d6-2 0 Family Knights: 1d6+1 5 Luckily that -4 becomes a 0, so Rhun can call on a total of 6 Family Knights including himself. *Vassals are nobles who have sworn fealty to you. We start with zero of these! That was simple. *Other Lineage Men are men of your family who are not knighted, but can still be useful in a fight, probably as men-at-arms. 3d6+5 on these. Other Lineage Men: 3d6+5 18 *Finally there's the Levy, where you call up every able-bodied man in your demense (in this case, your Manor). As soldiers, they tend to suck. Roll 5d20 for this number. Levy: 5d20 52 We're done with this section. Next up, we go to the Salisbury Family History section, which I'll cover in my next post. Again, if you have any questions, ask away! EDIT: dereku, you round all values at .5 or higher up, all at .4 or lower down. So at this point your Healing and Movement Rates are each a 3! Neat, huh? DivineCoffeeBinge fucked around with this message at 21:17 on Oct 25, 2013 |
# ? Oct 25, 2013 18:37 |
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DCB's Character Creation, Part the Third It's time for the Salisbury Family History section. This is a lotta charts but it's kinda awesome. We start with our grandfather, and here's what the book has to say: quote:Grandpa was born in 410 A.D., the last year that Britain was part of the Roman Empire. Irish raiders from the west, Picts from the north, and Saxons from the east were ruthlessly harrying the island. The nobles sent a letter to their emperor to ask for imperial help, preferably in the form of legions to fight off the invaders. However, Emperor Honorius had no armies to spare, and instead he sent only a return letter with the now-famous line, “look to your own defenses.” From that moment forward, no Briton considered his land to be a part of the Roman Empire. So, let's see. Rhun's great-grandfather will also be named Rhun - the current Rhun was named in his honor - and his son, Rhun's grandfather, will be named Cynrain. According to the book, Great-Granddad dies not long after Grandpa is knighted, and dies with a Glory of 1000+(1d20*100). In this case that's... Great-grandfather's Glory: (1d20*100)+1000 1100 You suck, great-granddad! Ugh. Anyways, this means Grandpa Cynrain starts off with 1/10th his father's Glory, or 110, plus 2d20 for his own actions as a knight thus far. Though the book doesn't exp-licitly say, he should also be getting 1000 Glory for being knighted, as well, which I'm adding in. So: Cynrain's starting Glory: 1110+2d20 1140 Now we start rolling for Cynrain's career. year 439: 1d20 17 17 means he participated in the Battle of Carlion, and another roll: http://orokos.com/roll/145234: 1d20 10 indicated he survived the battle. He earns 15*(http://orokos.com/roll/145235: 1d6 5) Glory, or 75, bringing his Glory to 1215. Check to see if he earned a Passion: http://orokos.com/roll/145236: 1d20 18 He does! Cynrain gains a Hate (Irish) Passion of http://orokos.com/roll/145237: 3d6 8. year 440: 1d20 3 During this year, when Constantin was murdered by one of his own guards, Cynrain was serving Garrison duty and was murdered by Pictish raiders (son of a bitch). He gains 20 Glory (new total: 1235), then I skip to year 460 to start working on papa Gwern's history. Gwern starts with 1000 Glory plus 1/10th of Cynrain's Glory, which is 123.5, which rounds to 124. So, 1124 Glory for Dad. Year 460: 1d20 17 he served garrison duty but saw little combat. There is no entry for Year 461, for some reason, so we'll skip it. Years 462 and 463 refer exclusively to your character's grandfather, and since Cynrain is long dead, we'll skip those too. Now, in Year 463 King Vortigern prosecuted the Night of the Long Knives, in which all sorts of grandfathers were murdered; this means there are plenty of widowed heiresses out there now, and in 464 Dad marries to procure an heir. (also, as a note: it is impossible to roll for 463 without generating a Hate (Saxons) Passion. While the text does refer to your character's grandfather, it does NOT say not to roll if your grandfather is already dead! So I'm going to have to ask ibntumart for a ruling on this one!) Year 464: 1d20 17 His new wife has 100 Glory of her own, which accrues to him (new total: 1224). In Year 465 Rhun is (theoretically) born; the math may have to be rejiggered here since I aged Rhun up in chargen. We'll see. Either way, nothing else interesting happens this year. Year 466: 1d20 9 Gwern joins with Ambrosius Aurelianus in the Siege of Carlion, fighting to depose the wicked Vortigern: http://orokos.com/roll/145245: 1d20 18 He survived the battle. This nets him 15*(http://orokos.com/roll/145246: 1d6 2) Glory, or 30 (total 1254). Year 467: 1d20 4 The Siege continues to its end, but Gwern is reassigned to garrison duty and saw little to no combat. Year 468: 1d20 5 Aurelius Ambrosius goes and pursues Vortigern and is eventually made the new High King; Gwern misses out on all that, as he's stuck on garrison duty (still). Bah! Years 469-472: 4#1d20 11 10 10 8 These years are identical; Saxons are raiding all over the place. Gwern gets 100 Glory in 469, then 50 Glory in each of the following three years (total 1504). Year 473: 1d20 12 Gwern participates in the Battle of Windsor, and his result... http://orokos.com/roll/145252: 1d20 1 Gwern dies gloriously in battle in what eventually turns out to be a loss for the British. He gets 30*1d6*0.5 Glory for participation (30 because it's a major battle, 0.5 because he was on the losing side), or http://orokos.com/roll/145254: 1d6 3 - 45 Glory... plus an additional 1,000 Glory for his Glorious death (which, unless anyone says otherwise, I will declare was the result of him standing his ground and fighting in order to allow High King Ambrosius time to escape). His total Glory at death is 2549 Glory. This means, at the start of play, Rhun will gain 1/10th Gwern's Glory, or 255 points. This, plus 1000 for being Knighted, gives me a beginning Glory of 1255. What about Grandpa's Hate (Irish) Passion? Well, the book doesn't tell me to inherit it, and so unless and until ibntumart says otherwise, I'll just forget about it. It's not like Rhun ever heard the old guy talk anyways, he was too young! Anyways, so there's Rhun's family history. It has a lot of dying young in it - though people doubtless still talk about Sir Gwern's noble sacrifice and glorious death, which gives him something to live up to! Now, a note for people building their characters: you get Annual Glory Awards, which is Glory you get basically just for being you. These are: 100 points if you have the Religious Bonus, another 100 if you have the Chivalry Bonus, 6 for owning a manor... and then you get the value of any Traits of 16 or higher, and the value of any Passions at 16 or higher. DivineCoffeeBinge fucked around with this message at 20:35 on Oct 25, 2013 |
# ? Oct 25, 2013 20:13 |
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# ? Apr 26, 2024 14:48 |
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(NOTE: There is an updated sheet on page 4, the original app is kept for posterity.) Heck yeah I'm still interested, I made a character last night. Of course, I'll need to reroll my home, since somebody rolled Baverstock mere hours ago (I knew I should have posted instead of sleeping!). Joking aside, let's meet my character, custom-made to fit into the early years of Uther Pendragon's reign. Small note about the order of my rolls, I actually forgot to roll for my home the first time until right before I rolled for Heirloom. Also, I rolled for hating Saxons in the main section as well as family history, so there's a 3d6 in there for that. Name: Sir Briant (known as "The Feckless" among those outside his range of hearing) Age: 26 Religion: British Christian Home: Newton Family characteristic: Clever Heirloom: Decorated Saddle Traits (Two bonuses from the "select four" section used here): Just/Arbitrary: 4/16 Valorous/Cowardly: 16/4 Generous/Selfish: 13/7 Energetic/Lazy: 13/7 Chaste/Lustful: 13/7 Temperate/Indulgent: 13/7 Forgiving/Vengeful: 9/11 Passions: Loyalty (Lord): 15 Love (Family): 15 Hospitality: 15 Honor: 16 Hate (Saxons): 17 (rolled 14 in Family History, added the three bonus points to it) Attributes (two "choose four" bonuses added here, as well as five points from Previous Experience): Size: 18 Dex: 8 Str: 15 Con: 21 App: 8 Damage: 6d6 Hit Points: 39 Unconscious at: 10 Move Rate: 2 Healing Rate: 3 Distinctive Features (2, chosen rather than rolled): Haughty Sneer, Booming Voice Skills (Five Previous Experience rolls of extra points): Awareness 10 Boating 1 Compose 1 Courtesy 10 Dancing 2 Faerie Lore 1 Falconry 3 First Aid 10 Flirting 3 Folk Lore 2 Gaming 13 Heraldry 3 Hunting 10 Intrigue 3 Orate 5 Play (Harp) 3 Read (Latin) 0 Recognize 10 Religion (Christianity) 2 Romance 2 Singing 2 Stewardship 10 Swimming 10 Tourney 2 Battle 15 Horsemanship 10 Sword 16 Lance 7 Dagger 5 Army: Old Knights: 0 Middle-Aged Knights: 3 Young Knights: 6 Non-lineage Men: 12 Levy: 56 Who the family knights are: Middle-Aged: -Guy (Briant's uncle, a far more accomplished knight than his older brother, Briant's father) -Eliot (The other younger brother of Briant's father, has no sons, treats Briant like his own) -Adtherp (illegitimate brother of Briant's father, grateful to have even been given land and knighted). Young: -Gracian and Alein (Briant's twin younger brothers by his father's second wife, the woman he married in 464, they admire their brother, but Briant sees them as reminders of his father's total inability to claim any sort of glory for himself) -Floridas (The elder son of Guy, a far more dashing and popular knight than Briant, though lacking the latter's bulk and strength) -Gauter (Younger son of Guy, overeager with a penchant for getting himself into trouble) -Melion (Son of Briant's birth mother's departed brother, feels similarly resentful for having an incompetent milksop for a father) -Perin (Briant's illegitimate younger brother by a house maid of his father, hates Briant's father more than Briant himself, and they have found commonality and friendship in their mutual disdain for the dead fool) Family History, as described by me ad-hoc during rolls last night (unaltered save for Orokos links): Great-Grandfather: Elias, Roman Christian, Glory at Death 2300 Grandfather: Adelbert, Roman Christian nee British Christian, 1255 starting Glory, fought at Carlion, survived with 60 Glory earned, did not hold it against the Irish, served garrison and survived the Picts in 440 and earned 10 Glory, survived 441-442 with 20 Glory earned, finally killed by Garrison in 443 with a final total of 1365 Glory. His father would have been proud. Father: Edward, British Christian, 1137 starting Glory, serves garrison from 460 to 464, gains 50 Glory from marrying a widow in 464, fought at Carlion and survived with 60 Glory in hand, fought at Snowdon and survived with a pittance of 30 Glory for showing up, finally found his calling when he earned 200 Glory murdering Saxons, decided to try his luck at Windsor, died like a chump with a posthumous reward of 45 Glory. Embarrassed son takes it personally. Final Glory was 1522. Starting Glory (pre-knighting): 152 (at least his father was less of a loser than his grandfather, if only because he got knighted.) Annual Glory: Traits/Passions: 65 (Arbitrary, Valorous, Hates Saxons, Honor) Land: 6 Glory from knighting and becoming a vassal knight: 1050 (Even if The Leap were being used, Briant is apparently following in his father's footsteps) This guy's story practically writes itself. Briant's great-grandfather was an above-average knight, if his Glory was anything to go on. Maybe not the best, but pretty drat good. Then his grandfather gets murdered by raiders and his father almost shows some promise while killing Saxons, only to be slain immediately following the closest thing to greatness he ever achieved. The product of almost offensive mediocrity, Briant is cynical, bitter, and ambitious. He ostensibly follows the knightly code, but he doesn't hesitate to abuse the peasantry whenever he feels like it, and he pretty much never rules in favor of "lessers" in disputes or criminal cases. A mountain on legs, rare is the man who would criticize his actions to his face. On the positive side, he's quite generous to his lackeys, cronies, and yes-men, along with anyone else willing to treat him as though he were some sort of superior being, and he tends to avoid drinking to excess, preferring to keep his senses sharp. Along with swordplay, he is well-acquainted with battle tactics and scheming. He hates Saxons with a passion rivaled by few in the realm, and is an accomplished gambler, like all the men of his family. His saddle, studded with all manner of jewels and precious metal inlays, was won by his great-grandfather in a game of tabula many years ago, and has been in the family ever since. In appearance, he has dark brown hair and full beard, with icy blue eyes and a voice that could fill a great hall. Though massive, he is almost entirely muscle, capable of great feats of both strength and endurance. Okay, that should be everything, aside from listing the stuff that everyone gets uniformly, because that stuff kind of goes without saying at this point. EDIT: Added 1000 Glory to grandfather for being knighted, which becomes another 100 for father and 10 for Briant. The PDF never mentions it, so I didn't think it was there, but everyone else seems to be counting it. EclecticTastes fucked around with this message at 05:00 on Jun 1, 2014 |
# ? Oct 25, 2013 20:22 |