OOC Chat

[Breila]

Jen just asked me to excuse her in all the padnd games, she had a night shift at work last night and today's day shift as well.

[Kafen]

I would not mind playing Tas if there is room for it. I can keep the topic on my home page and post daily.

[JadedDM]

Okay. He's all yours then.

[Kafen]

Right, reading up on the game, tonight. I will find the sheet if it is public. Thanks for the chance, it should be fun...

[Jenara]

Kafen as you can tell has been added to the group.

[Kafen]

Right, I am looking at the sheet, now. Checking on where to post in the game...

[JadedDM]

So begins chapter three.

As I'm working on setting up the new thread, I thought I'd take this opportunity to ask if there's any feedback, thoughts, opinions, or whatever.

I said before that every one of the modules in this series includes at least one dungeon, and this is it. Xak Tsaroth will make up chapters three and four, as the party explores the ancient and forgotten city, looking for...whatever it is they are supposed to be looking for. (That'll be learned really soon now).

Something else I'd like to open up for discussion is the idea of introducing more female characters to the party. I know that Horizon would like to sign up, for instance, but isn't interested in playing Flint, Riverwind or Tanis. Although we are pretty far away from Solace to try squeezing Tika in right now, or Kitiara, there are a couple of other females in the module and books at this point.

First, there's Bupu. She's in the book, but not in the module. Not sure if anyone would want to play a gully dwarf, though.

There's also Sunstar. She's in the module, but not in the book. She's a Que-Shu who was captured by the enemy.

Of course, the real dilemma is that the party is so big as it is. Adding more characters means boosting the battles, or else the party will plow through everything. But that means adding more enemies, which means overall, way too many people on the battlefields, thus longer battles. Now these female characters could replace some of the male characters that nobody seems to want, like Flint and Riverwind. But then the questions are, A) How do we write them out of the story? and B) Are we willing to give up these iconic characters?

Quite a dilemma, indeed.

[Jenara]

Personally I never liked Riverwind.. He was just too... And our Goldmoon is way too serious !

Flint and Tanis, no, must stay.

So, suggest a compromise:

Riverwinds wounds are too great, Mishikal lets him die to show Goldmoon humility.
Horizon takes the captured Que Shu.

Gaia takes Tika, she snuck after the group, she too was captured.

Then make the baddies slightly harder.

[Breila]

Do you really think that letting Riverwind die is a way to make Goldmoon less serious?

I'll ask Gaia to read through what we've played so far, maybe she finds a character she'd like. Girls don't always need to play girls, after all.

[JadedDM]

I prefer to avoid killing off characters intentionally. If the dice roll that way, so be it. If Riverwind had failed his saving throw against that dragon's breath, he'd have taken 50 damage and definitely be dead right now. But I just don't like murdering characters through the narrative. That's why Shay and Elvenoff haven't been disposed of yet in Pod-Caverns.

Riverwind is not one of the more popular companions, I realize. Horizon described him as 'boring.' Personally, I don't think he's boring, myself. He has hidden depths. But, I think, in terms of importance to the narrative, he's...expendable, I suppose. That is to say, if he does die, it doesn't have a big impact on the main plot. Flint is much the same way, really (and fairly stereotypical as dwarves go. He wasn't originally going to be, but that's another story).

Riverwind does have his uses, though. Aside from being Goldmoon's lover and protector, not to mention her only connection to her people for the time being, he's also the party's tracker. Nobody else in the group can track.

I had a similar idea regarding Tika. She followed them, was likely captured, and maybe the party finds and rescues her. There's no time to escort her all the way back to Solace, and they can't just leave her behind, so she goes with them. Something like that might work.

Breila, if Gaia would like to play Riverwind or Flint, that's fine with me. (I'd rather hold on to Tanis, for now, then hand him over to someone who's still new at gaming.) My own experience has shown that girls prefer to play characters who is beautiful, and boys prefer to play characters who are tough. That's a broad generalization, and not always true, I know.

[Breila]

I'll see Gaia Tuesday evening, and I'm sure we will talk about gaming... and either of us will let you know what she thinks.

Stangely perhaps, none of the girls who play with me has even talked about the looks of her character... they talked abilities mostly, discussing who might have learned herbalism or healing skills to help the wounded unicorn. Although all were happy that the dice didn't give them fat or scrawny figures.

[JadedDM]

Ha! That reminds me of something.

The very first game I ran online, Horizon played a priestess of the goddess of healing. Back then, I made everyone roll for height, weight, and age. Her character wound up 6'1" tall! Most of the rest of the party were half-elven or elven or halfling, so she towered over them all considerably. She hated having such an amazonian build so much, that after that, I always allowed my players to just choose their own heights, weights, and ages themselves, rather than make them roll for them.



(A reoccurring joke in my games is teasing Horizon for always putting her highest or second highest score in Charisma, regardless of her class. Charisma does not equal beauty, but it sure helps. )

[Breila]

In my opinion, beauty and charisma relate only loosely. There are some very good-looking people who are so boring or arrogant that they don't captivate. On the other hand, I remember a Hong Kong born classmate who had a very plain, flat face. But when she laughed, she drew everybody towards her...

[Jenara]

This reminds me of a conversation we had last night... hehe

[JadedDM]

I agree. Charisma has less to do about how you look and more to do with how you act. But many people associate beauty with charisma nonetheless.

There are actually optional rules in 1E for a comeliness score, but I never saw the point. Anyone who doesn't care about their character's appearance would just use it for a dump score. Besides, I don't think beauty is objective. It depends on the tastes and preferences of the person. A female orc may not be attractive to an elf, but could be gorgeous to other orcs.