Alruneza: Saving the Kingdom

[Dracos]

yup, pretty much whoever has that will get lots of watching and thinking with whatever they choose.

Dracos

[Brian]

Savage Species does a pretty good job of equating monsters into classes, so you could figure out what the creature's ECL is.  I have said book on my desk (I'm not sure why, though) at this moment if you want any more info on that.

[Dracos]

As far as starting gold:

Please do not make chars before the accepting of players/whatnot.  Concepts, sure, but I'd rather avoid any mess there and that's partially why I didn't put down gold first.  I'm half considering just letting your backgrounds dictate it as well.

Dracos

[Dracos]

My guess at the moment:

Merc: Male lead.
Rez: Female lead.
Carthrat: Mentor.
Baka: Magical Animal Companion.

Waiting on confirmation and a fourth to hammer down.

[Carthrat]

I'll *cheerfully* step down if anyone else wants the fourth slot. Seriously. Do it. I play too many games. Only YOU can stop me overdosing.

[Dracos]

I post too slow for it to matter.

Dracos

[Merc]

Sounds fine to me.

[Dracos]

Some more on world structure.  LEVELS and WHAT THEY MEAN!
(Up for dispute if some player really dislikes this)

Because the 'level 0' thing tends to be kind of stupid, and I never really liked it and the way it generally is intentionally leaves vague what is what...

An average child is a level 0 character.  They have two minor skills, one of which is usually knowledge: Local of 4 ranks.

An average teenager is a level 2 character.  They tend to have three minor skills of rank 6, one of which is usually a craft and one of which is usually knowledge: Local.

An average adult is a level 3 character.  They tend to have four minor skills of rank 6, one of which is usually a craft and one of which is usually knowledge:local.

A craftsman is usually level 4, tends to have skill focus in the area and at least 1-2 points of natural talent.  On top of that they are a level 4 craftsman which is a special  class whose only class benefit is that it doubles the skill cap per level with regard to their specific craft.  Thus they tend to have 11 ranks in their craft.

A trained warrior or mage is generally between level 6 and 8.  Below there they would be considered apprentices in their craft.  This isn't to say that apprentices are helpless, far from it, but that they are clearly outclassed in general by those who have spent years training at their craft.

A character that has ten or more levels is either viewed as a ranking commander type or a legend in the making usually.  These characters significantly outperform average trained characters and usually possess skills that would stun an average townsperson just by performing them.

A character of tweleve or more levels is rare indeed, found only in elite guards, city garrison ringers, heading their own guild of thieves, or spinning their own legend.

There are no epic leveled characters in Alruneza.  XP progression will start as normal but may be slowed at post 12 levels.   I've not decided yet.  These declarations are in play for a sanity check, so if you guys mysteriously went off and trained for ten years and returned at level 15, these rules wouldn't change.

Dracos

[Carthrat]

[10:53] * Carthrat eyes this level thing. That scales up pretty high.
[10:53] <Carthrat> Your average soldier is 6th-to-8th level, which implies he can take on two or three ogres (admittedly, the ogres are without class levels) at once, single-handedly.
[10:53] <Ranma007> You know, meteor swarm sucks.
[10:54] <Dracos> Yeah, you're right, but hum, I still think it's a good set for the thematic small hero versus evil empire type game.
[10:55] <Carthrat> I approve of the trained people being higher level than level 1, but I'd eyeball them capping at around level 4-5 rather tan 6-8.
[10:55] <Dracos> It allows more sensibly for fewer characters while at the same time not making the silliness of 'we are a group of adventurers who've killed 20 ogres and thus can totally take out anyone who's been garrisoning for 20 years'.

[Dracos]

Morale (otherwise known as playing in character):

I'm going to want detailed backgrounds, but we'll go over these after  I have a firm four 'starts'.  But as has already been indicated, I'm going to be using some rules of thumb morale bonuses and penalties.

Some starter ideas of mine:

Doing a blatantly evil action: -4 morale penalty for  24 hours.  Each additional one DOUBLES the length of this.

Female lead assisting the hero: +2 to such actions at GM discretion.

Magical monster assisting the hero: +1 to such actions at GM discretion.

Doing openly heroic things inclusive of speeches, charging to the rescue, etc etc: +2 morale bonus for 24 hours.

Abandoning a party member, in any situation: a -2 culmative penalty to morale per party member.  Negated in the occassion of a dramatic rescue.

Betraying the party through another: -2 morale penalty until resolved.

Betraying the party intentionally: -4 morale penalty.

The intent here should be clear: By playing to the genre, the characters should be able to take on things above their means.  By playing against it, you'd incur harsh penalties that would often match with what should be the narrative indecision, guilt, or other disaffection from the action.

Dracos

[baka]

Post of confirmation/start/yes.

[Dracos]

Yarr.  Baka locks in as the monster I think.

But really I'm waiting on rat or someone else to definitively claim slot four.

Dracos

[Dracos]

Rat, you in?

Dracos

[Carthrat]

Guessing I am!

[Dracos]

Sorry 'bout the delay in getting things started.  Was going to today but getting us off these servers is taking precedence.  Hopefully tomorrow.

Dracos