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Post by joatmoniac on Mar 30, 2015 22:55:12 GMT
I think that gradually shifting the visions or completely switching it could work well either way. As for th under construction thing that would mostly depend on your group, and the overall feel of the campaign up to that point. I probably wouldn't break the feel that way, but it could make complete sense for your group. I really like the sound of the Mirage Nomad, and the NPC could be used well to set the tone of everything happening in your campaign. The only thing I would advise about the visions and the Mirage Nomad is to make sure that they don't railroad the party at any point. Which I don't think will happen based on what you have presented here, but definitely something to keep in mind.
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Post by insightfulhedgehog on Mar 31, 2015 0:05:34 GMT
I tend to use my sense of humor as a means to befriend people so a lot of times I will reach a little bit in order to get laughs and such. I am in agreement that it would break the feel, and although I think my players might enjoy it I feel that the impact it would have on the story's epic styled vibe would be to intrusive. Therefore I am not going to use it but may mention it to my players later on because it is the type of thing they get a kick out of.
I attempted to make the visions vague so as not to railroad the party in any way. I'm glad that you don't think it will happen because railroading is something I've always felt should be as limited as possible. Thus, I tried my best to make my story compelling enough that the players would want to play it out in a way that fits my plan. So far it is working. It should also be mentioned during character creation I gave the players a list of things that were important to keep in mind(even though I worked with each person one on one).
A few of the items were: good and neutral only, you need a flaw(racist blacksmith example from ep 10), stick to the races in the PHB for this first campaign, you have not killed dragons etc. yet(you are a 0 on the hero scale) write up a short summary of your character's traits etc.(around a paragraph) so that you can check it before we play each time(an aid to people in my group who are new to RPing).
At the end of the list I put a note that read something to the effect of "If you want to do something that breaks any of these rules listed present to me your reasoning, if you want to play an evil character, why should I let you seeing as it might hurt my planned campaign, if you want to be a Goblin show me an example of a goblin's PC racial stats, etc. I'm happy to change these rules just ask."
In the end no one had any objection to any of these so it went swimmingly.
One last thing. I have a few ideas for other charecters that I want to use but I'm not sure how to use them or when. Given that I have 12 vaults to complete there will be down time in cities and aid for the quest may be required.
Here are the ideas:
Orwic(or Orwin which do you guys like better)- A city guard whose hand is branded with the symbol for thief. He got the mark as a boy because his mother died and he was forced to steal to feed his younger siblings. The mark made it impossible for him to get any jobs so he took to mercenary work but he hated it. One day Alhasan offered to get him a job with a steady pay and used his charismatic nature to convince the captain of the guard to take him in as a guard. Orwic has a strong bond to Alhasan and also a strong sense of law. He rose through the ranks and after several years was appointed the new captain of the guard(This is why only the palace guard pursues Alhasan). Feel free to ask for more info I've got quite a bit written about this NPC.
The Pen and The Sword- This idea is in it's early stages but essentially there are two great hero's a wise mage and a strong warrior. Their stories would be told to the group in their travels by Alhasan so they would know of them. Upon meeting them (no idea why yet) they find that one is a massive man and the other one has a hunched back, is scrawny, short, and wears glasses. However, it turns out that the massive guy is actually the mage and the small guy is the fighter. (Perhaps a halfling and a Half-orc) I just like Ironic characters and these two really interest me.
Tetrox- I made another post about this called "Interesting NPC's" but essentially Tetrox is a raven(city symbol) whose nest as a hatchling was made partially from pages torn out of books from the library in which it is located. From this Tetrox learned to read and eventually to speak it. He even created his own form of writing(raven's don't have the dexterity for normal writing" to the untrained eye it looks like squiggles of nonsense, however, Tetrox taught it to Alhasan(they are friends for some reason I have yet to figure out(help welcome)). One day Tetrox touched some cursed artifact and had his voice squelched. He can no longer speak(a talking bird who is mute[Did I mention I love ironic characters]) and therefore can only speak to Alhasan through their language of writing. Tetrox has a extremely high intelligence and wisdom score and I plan for him to serve as Alhasan's Tactician when he becomes king.
Just some ideas, I'll leave it at that thanks for all the feedback so far it has helped a lot just to discuss things out and get other opinions. Love this forum.
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Post by insightfulhedgehog on Mar 31, 2015 0:08:39 GMT
hese are the pictures I might use for Orwic and the Mirage Nomad respectively.
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Samuel Wise
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Post by Samuel Wise on Mar 31, 2015 0:21:31 GMT
Hey, like the ideas. I would stick with Orwic (instead of Orwin), but I would change the C to a K: "Orwik". For some reason I find words annoying that end in C (strange I know). The picture for the Mirage Nomad is awesome. The Pen and Sword are also a fun idea, I would definitely use a Goliath (from the Elemental Evil Players Guide) for the Mage (if you have Goliaths in your world. And a gnome for the fighter, but that might be too extreme of a difference. Just some of my thoughts... Great ideas!
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Samuel Wise
Demigod
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Posts: 989
Favorite D&D Class: Warlock
Favorite D&D Race: Mousefolk
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Post by Samuel Wise on Mar 31, 2015 0:26:06 GMT
Speaking of Irony! I just noticed that your NPCs were called The pen and the sword. I'm kind of laughing, because of the post I made concerning Names and languages. I called the post "Verbum et Entsis" which (in Latin) means the Word and the Sword. Ironic. Hint: There are two names from a dead language that could match the characters...
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Post by insightfulhedgehog on Mar 31, 2015 2:49:38 GMT
Haha, I don't know any latin other then the most commonly used phrases and prefix's/suffix's we use in english. So, I had no idea what your title was when I saw it. That said I do like the name Entsis but I might look for another latin word to use for my pen guy just from the standpoint that verbum has the word verb clearly in it and I want it to be a bit mysterious who is who so people will get confused. I may have forgotten to mention that they get extremely annoyed when people confuse them(Edward Elric anyone?).
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Post by insightfulhedgehog on Mar 31, 2015 2:52:52 GMT
How about Atramen (an alteration of atramentum which is a word used for ink). Atramen and Entsis, I like it.
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Samuel Wise
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Posts: 989
Favorite D&D Class: Warlock
Favorite D&D Race: Mousefolk
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Post by Samuel Wise on Mar 31, 2015 3:24:19 GMT
That sounds awesome, Atramen is probably the best Latin related word to writing. And To really mix it up you could call the soldier Atramen and the Wizard Entsis (you would have the most ironic mis-matched characters). But like Friartook's Captain Captain it would be a joke only you would understand.
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