Apolyton D&D: SF's PBEM.

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by Wraith
--"I always play good characters myself, usualy lawful good"

That's a hard alignment to play. I've only ever known one guy who did a really good job at it, and his character was, of course, a paladin. Paladin Wu. Strongest character I've ever seen on a natural roll, too (18/93). Once he got his hands on a Holy Avenger (long, powerful campaing)... well...

I died... (and I was a paladin, it was a different system though)

Jon Miller

[SnowFire]

Okay. UR, hopefully that question would have been resolved for you earlier. Check out the website on how a PBEM runs.

EA, alas, it seems like we'd already gotten our participants. Still, if anyone drops out, I'll try and get in touch.

Sigh, depressing having to use Geocities again, but the website I set up is at

https://www.geocities.com/snowinferno

In any case, it seems as if we will be doing the "Soldiers" campaign. Considering the number of people new to 3rd edition, I decided that adding the Forgotten Realms 3rd edition book- which is good, mind you- that I don't even have would not be a wise idea. So striaght from the Player's Handbook it is. With some hopefully minor modifications for flavor.

The website should have links to how to play a PBEM, and some background on the history of my setting, if not the actual setting for your character. Fear my MS Paint skills. I haven't finished everything- for starters, I need to talk about religion more, but it's 3 AM- but it should be a start. What I need now is everyone's contact information. Private Messages won't do forever.

I also have the PHB in .pdf format (finally!). It really is important to read it, so if you don't have it, talk to me on ICQ or AIM, and I'll send it to you. Or you can go down to a bookstore and buy a copy, that works too.

And oh yes. The most important thing about character creation. Come up with some fun stuff. I don't want "Well, he was a farm boy, came to town, and did so well his superiors noticed him and stuck him in the position to have a grand adventure!" I'm talking sprurned lovers, arranged marriages, brothers & sisters doing odd things, powerful and maybe shady parents, odd artifacts found nearby, odd dreams as a child, whatever. You don't have to flesh everything out yet, of course- but the more background, the better. Psychology is important too: why is your character doing this? I know I should be more descriptive of what "this" is, but I'll get to that.

If you're brave, you can also go for a more mysterious touch and have ME generate odd things about your character. I might do this anyway, mind. This is generally the case for characters with amnesia or odd curses they don't even understand what they do.

Also note that on a metagamey-level, Meria is not particularly high-powered. This is not the Forgotten Realms, where you can trip over 20th level Archmages while going to get a glass of water. Maybe the highest level person known is around 12th level or so. That said, early advancement is common, so there are plenty of people at levels 2-6.

I know I'm forgeting something, but that's enough for now.

[Jon Miller]

hmm

so my sending someone your way who can only do pbem was pointless

oh well

Jon Miller

[Makeo]

just looked at the site. good stuff so far, meria and its history.

include me in the emails if you could. thanks.

[SnowFire]

Makeo: Thanks. I've had the history known for some time, my problem was with names. I was running out of names after about 3, so I started stealing wildly. Don't worry, you're on the lurkers list.

Now I need to go clean up some hideous editing mistakes.

Character Creation note: It seems that Wraith will probably be playing a mix of Rogue & spell-caster, with an emphasis on the Rogue part. So take that into account; we probably don't need a straight Rogue anymore.

Edit: Also be aware, of course, that there are countless smaller villages & cities scattered around the map. Feel free to "open source" the setting for your background as you see fit. So saying you're from a town called Mornchester on the trading route to Erlos which is dominated by a powerful merchant's guilt is fine. Heck, saying you fell out from another plane and am a newcomer in Meria is fine too. Be creative.

Also note- especially considering I've said that alignment-detection abilities are rare!- that you aren't under any obligation to share your character sheet with other people. If you want to, feel free, of course.

[SnowFire]

Hmm, Metaliturtle has pointed out that Greater Meria bears an odd similiarity to China. I think this is what happens when you reverse the standard Northern Hemisphere Europe-clone: traditionally, there are mountains to the north, a great sea to the west, vast wastes to the east, and a desert to the south. Being all creative, I stuck my ocean in the east. And the vast steppes to the west. It didn't start out so Chinese, but then came the two rivers, and the marshy coastal lands to the south, and the outlying island... Oh well, culturally it's quite European.

I wonder if gamers in Australia play Southern Hemisphere fantasy lands, with the frozen wastes to the south and the hot tropical areas to the north?

Metaliturtle seems to want to play a fighter-type, for those interested in party-balance. Assuming he doesn't play a Ranger (though certainly possible), that leaves several possibilities for a good balanced other 2 party members: A Ranger & a Cleric, or maybe a Druid & a Wizard. Or more odd multi-class intentions.

[Wraith]

--"Also note that on a metagamey-level, Meria is not particularly high-powered."

In that case, should we assume that where you say "we will be rolling 3 5d6 - drop the two lowest- and 3 4d6." you forgot to add the "- drop the one lowest"? ^_^

Kind of moot point for me right now, though. I can't believe it, but I seem to have lost my dice (which isn't quite as bad as loosing your marbles). I'll have to make a run down to Dragon's Lair sometime soon and get some new ones.

Wraith
On the Woad again

[SnowFire]

Um, yeah. People with starting Strengths of 21 are not happy.

[Skanky Burns]

Just checking if it is me that is having trouble following the conversation, or my ICQ that is not showing me everything...

EDIT: ICQ test complete. My ICQ isn't working properly. Images deleted.

[Skanky Burns]

EDIT: Removed

[SnowFire]

All right, let's hope this clears things up.

Edit: Removed.

[Skanky Burns]

Bugger

A 5?!?

[Urban Ranger]

Are you rolling dice for stats? How does this work? 4d6 to pick the best 3 dice?

[FrustratedPoet]

This looks interesting. Can you include me in the lurker's list?
frustratedpoet AT apolyton DOT net

You can also add me to the reserve list for if/when people drop out. Sounds like a good game.

[Skanky Burns]

I only figured it out after reading Wraith's post. You roll 5d6, remove the two lowest scores. Repeat twice more (so you now have 3 numbers). Then repeat the whole exercise using only 4d6, and removing 1 low score per set.

And I just noticed I labelled my stats completely wrong in the picture. Ignore that bit.