Ahem! As one of your original 4 players. I am IN! It was the most fun I have ever had online! Of course, I am also one of your WORST players, but oh well! Besides I just got elevated to Fairy Princess! Although, I DO miss my gnomeness. Anyone who is interested in playing this game should know that the way we have played in the past few years has ALWAYS been fun. Although Phnord has a permanent knot on his forhead from banging it against the monitor. Count me in - I have not yet made up my mind if I want to go back as Shirley the gnome or Shirley the Fairy Princess. As an original player, I do expect to have the choice! Phnord… I love you like madly!!!
Yay!!! I’m so glad you’re still in, Shirley!!! And you’re right, playing has been the funnest thing I’ve ever done online too. I’m so looking forward to this!!!
Great idea for a character, Brahesilver! I think Crane is going to fit right in.
I can hardly wait!
Depends – how many Experience Points and sickeningly powerful magic items do you give out? I ain’t playin’ unless I can be a total Munchkin.
Rule 4: No Poofters! Er, I mean Munchkins! Wait, no, we’re ALL munchkins!
Rule 5: There is NO rule five!
Rule 6: No Non-Munchkins!
Er… well, ok, not exactly. I HOPE you were joking… anyway, at the moment the roster is full. If you were jokin’, I’ll keep ya in mind if we can squeeze more folks in.
This game is intended to be more munchkin-friendly than most games, as a good munchkin is a dead munchkin, and a dead munchkin is just plain funny.
There are two aspects to playin’ this… one, the big world-saving hero thing, ie what is all this magic stuff anyway. Two, the good ol’ fashioned character-building treadmill. Lots of ways to gain and spend experience, lots of disposable magic items to use up platinums on. Fun for everybody.
Brahe, Amber’s right. Crane’s gonna fit right in. I’ll send ya an email when I’m done here, with some data for ya to work into his character. Get back to me with some specifics about the ‘special abilities’ yer thinkin’ about, I’m sure we can work 'em in. After all, that’s the point of the game isn’t it? q;}
Shirley! good to see ya here, can’t wait to see ya there!
To those of you who, like Kat, are interested in playin’ but don’t have the broadband, I’ll be sending out some background info and such via email in a few days, give you some idea about what kinda help I need. Mostly it’s just ideas… anything you can come up with that I can twist and mash into my gameworld, and some bouncin’ ideas off ya that I’d have to put in spoiler boxes here.
Steelerfan, because of that whole larger-plot/developer’s-corner conflict, you’d kinda have to choose one or the other, or at least wait until later in the game when anything ya knew was no longer so important. Think about it, lemme know, still plenty of time before it goes live.
Goin’ back a few posts, LeRoi Lezard talks about a ‘cartoon’ RPG, where the characters could pull anything out of their pockets at will, and nobody died, they just got knocked out of play for a bit. Guess what folks… yup, I stole THAT concept too. q;}
Some limitations, of course, it’s not completely cartoony, we do obey the laws of physics (such as they are). But, as an example, Crane the Barbarian Chef would, based on his Chef skill statistic somehow, have the ability to ‘just happen to be carrying with him’ any given chef-related implement, at the moment he happens to need it. No messy mucking about with pages of “Saucepan. Saucepan. Skillet. Colander. Frying pan. Cheesegrater. Pepper. Spatula. Salt. Saucepan.” etc. Mostly because it’s too much work for me. Lettin’ the dice decide fits the style better, I think.
There are limits to this, of course, to try to keep some balance in the game. The spy character, for example, wouldn’t have an infinite supply of bombs or anything. He’d have to buy them somewhere. But, he’d have stuff like telescopes, periscopes, magnifying glasses, minor gadgets like that, more or less at will.
And as far as death, well, ya pretty much gotta piss me off badly to die permanently. But if ya do, yer kicked out of the game, so it’s kinda a mute point then anyway. Heh.
Mchapman, sorry, there’s sort of a ‘thing’ regarding dragons, so any dragon-related player character is out of the picture. However, if you’d settle for something like a lizard-man or, hmm, gilamonsterman, or geckoman, or something else like that, lemme know. We’ll do lunch.
hmm… think that about covers it for tonight. Couple of you’ll be getting emails from me soon, the rest of y’all on the list keep watchin’ the boards.
And to everybody else, well, keep an eye out. Ya never know!
Okay, I’m working on a guy. Let me know if he is viable.
His name is Preserved Dungo, and he is a former sea captain. If you ask him why he is no longer a sea captain, he is likely just to mutter a mournful “Arrrr” and go off into a corner to pick the nits out of his long beard. He has a wooden leg which he can use as a club. I was thinking of making him a wizard of some sort too.
There needs to be more, I know, I just haven’t thought it out totally.
Another idea was Wolfgang Mewees, Freelance Economist. Naturally, he’d be a ranger or paladin.
Phnord, I just though of something. In my new Fairy Princess character, we forgot I was a QUILTING Fairy Princess! If you cannot add it in, then I can go back to my old gnome character. I play bad enough, I cannot play UNARMED! lol
Hello again everybody. More updates.
First, Hugh:
Preserved Dungo, eh? Mind if we jus call ya “Dungo”? Great.
I’m not all that big on the whole nautical thing, but there have been a few sailor-type NPCs around before. No reason not to include a PC sailor. Just be aware there aren’t many seafaring adventures planned… of course, if we have a sailor, I’ll have incentive to make some.
Sounds like a great start for a character. I dig the wooden leg/club thing, that’s easy enough to work in. As far as wizard, well, you’ll be training him yourself as we play so it’s up to you where to go with it. Only the starting character needs to be determined ahead of time. And all the RP aspects are pretty much up to you. Something I like to do is pick a few minor ‘magical’ abilities suitable for the character, and then use those to help flesh 'em out. So, old sea captain missing a leg? Maybe a shark ate it… so, ok, maybe the sharks now follow him around, wanting the other one… so, ok, maybe he learned, for that reason, some special invisibility-to-sharks spell, that only he knows? Something like that, see, helps build character.
This ranger/paladin/freelance economist? Uh… ok… hmm… yer really gonna have to explain that one to me. What the heck does that mean?
You’re next on the list for character generation. I’ll send ya an email here in a bit, get ya into the Monkey for some training and character building one of these nights.
We did Brahe Silver’s Barbarian Chef character last night, it went pretty well. Looks like it’s gonna be a fun one. Thanks for comin’ Brahe! Had a good time brainstorming stuff, can’t wait to see him in action. The spatula in particular! q;}
Other players on the list, come on, let’s get some ideas here, get those characters generated!
To help clarify, a character is 1) Of a specific race 2) has a profession 3) has certain specialized skills and history which make him/her unique 4) has special quirks that are also unique to him/her.
I find that picking a quirk, building skills around that, then coming up with history and profession and specifics like that later, tends to work best. Use yer imagination. Pick an animal ya like, or a character ya wanna emulate, and tweak 'em a bit, and see what happens.
Developer’s Corner:
Just to clarify, those who wish to help me behind the scenes (and I do appreciate it any help you’ll give) will be unable to play in the immediate future, due to the whole puzzle and mystery spoiler thing, and will be asked to keep whatever they learn reasonably secret.
One example of the type of thing I’d like help with is the aforementioned seafaring mini-adventure. Brainstorming sessions with a group of people, where I can say what has to be included and what can’t, and then just let y’all throw ideas out until we come up with something fun. So, for example, I’ll say I wanna do a, hmm, characters-board-a-ship-that-gets-attacked-by-pirates adventure. Needs to start with them finding some reason to board it, end with them, say, getting thrown overboard and washed up at such-and-such shore, and everything else is up to you. Then we’ll come up with the ‘fiddly bits’ like what kinda pirates (evil undead zombie, perhaps?) and their names and that sorta thing.
BTS Developers List:
Gorgon Heap
Kat
Malacandra
MissTake
FilmGeek
Iacob Matthew
Steelerphan (?)
Kat, I know you’re interested, so you’re gettin’ an email when I’m done with Hugh.
The rest of y’all, lemme know. 
Ha. Thanks, Phnord and Amberlei. It was fun to get that guy down on paper. Turns out he’s not a Barbarian who likes cooking, but a barbaric chef.
I’ve got a transcript of most of our conversation if you want to look at it again for rounding out the character sheet. It’s just whenever I remembered to copy/paste, but the majority of Crane-related stuff is there. To my understanding I’ve still got some Druid non-combat skills that need to be finalized/removed, and fleshing out the rest of the calculated stats.
Shirley, the topic of the mysterious sewing bag did come up, so I dont think they’ve forgotten it. Then the conversation kind of wandered, and I stopped copying, and then I had to leave anyway.
Oh, and Amberlei asked me what time zone I was in right before I left: Pacific.
How about this? Runner is a one armed human historian. He wanders the land, recording events as they transpire. His past is shrouded in mystery, but its said that he is the heir to a great power. But he wants nothing to do with that power, is in fact desperately afraid that his heritage will turn him into the one thing he hates.
I’m thinking he could be either a bard of sorts(for the historian aspect) or a wizard of some sort(from his heritage). Or both maybe heh.
(Why yes, I have been reading Terry Brooks. Why do you ask? :P)
Ok here goes!
I have two characters that I have played in the past. I enjoy both, and would be willing to play either.
Ziq (pronounced Zeke) the Barbarian - He is of the classic Conan mold in size and shape. He shuns all armor and will only use a two handed bladed weapon during combat if at all possible. He is a vain wannabe hero type. He has two main problems, he is deathly afraid of water and completely and utterly gullible. Because of his gulliblity he has no money and only his trusty sword. He also has many scraps of paper that promise 20% ownership in some swamplands over the mountains.
Harran - Dwarven Cleric - When he was young he was the tallest in his village, since taller Dwarves are more accepted with humans he was sent off to learn healing at a young age. Since he was young and at an impressionable age, he took a liking to human females over dwarves. When he went back to his village and this was found out he was sent to church to cleanse him of this. As mixed up as he was, he did find help in the church and loves his god, (name to be determined by dwarven gods allowed in campaign.) but decided that becoming a solitary friar type was not to his liking. With his skills and faith he decided to head out into the unknown, because in the unknown there has to be some human females that gotta like dwarves.
Do either sound good enough for the campaign?
Sinbad the sea-farin’ sorcerer?
Hello again, and welcome to Page Two. q;}
Brahe, I’ve got the entire thing logged somewhere, so no worries as far as that’s concerned. Expect your character sheet tomorrow sometime. Can’t wait to see him in action.
Nanook, I like the idea. Got a couple ways to tie it into my campaign, we need to talk. I’ll be emailin’ ya soon.
mchapman, both of your character ideas sound pretty good. Gotta pick one tho, maybe someone else can pick up the other and run with it. At the moment, I’d say go with the dwarven cleric, simply because we have neither a dwarf nor a cleric as yet. But don’t let that stop you from playin’ Ziq if ya like him better, it’s still early. Think about it, check yer email tomorrow, we’ll see how it goes.
Hugh and Kat, still haven’t heard back from y’all. Lemme know.
The rest of y’all? :::waits patiently:::
Hadn’t heard anything, so I figured I would post to keep this thread alive. I am have no problem playing either character so Harran it is.
Send me an email when you want me to start!
Raring to go…
I’d be very interested in participating, except my hours are a little wonky. I can pretty much be online any night, but we’re talking usually around 9-10pm PST (sometimes 6-7pm PST, depending on which shift I get). On Saturdays, I’m good for around 6-7pm PST. Not sure if that would cause too much trouble with everyone else’s scheduling.
I used to be a big AD&D fan, and all my campaigns were variations of pie-throwing orc debacles, so this sounds right up my ally.
I’d love to get involved. Saturday nights don’t work for me though as Mrs. Lochdale likes me to take her to dinner then. Where do I sign up!
Hello again everybody! Sorry about the email-thing the other day, I just sorta zoned out. You should have gotten them now… if not, lemme know.
For those of you who wanna play and haven’t gotten emails, POST YOUR CHARACTER IDEAS. When I see a character idea here I like, you get onto the mailing list. From there, you get into the Monkey. No character, no mail, no Monkey. q;}
Right now we have four characters created, three more waiting to get rolled up, and a whole bunch of people who said they’re interested but haven’t come up with a character yet.
Current Characters:
Phnord: Human Bard, GM’s character, comedic relief and critical hints only.
Amberleia: Hobbit Druid, Herbalist/Geneticist
Shirley: Fairy Thief, Sewing Specialist
Crane: Barbarian Chef, Gourmet Combat
Proposed Characters:
Dungo, Formerly-Seafaring Wizard
Harran, Dwarven Cleric
Runner, One-armed Historian/Bard
Hopefully, tonight’s episode of the Monkey will result in the creation of at least one more character. It won’t be long after that for the game to go live… get in now while you can!
I’m interested, but my hours are a little weird. I’m usually busy with homework on weekdays (other than Friday). Sunday afternoons are good. Also since the wireless adapter on my computer is not working, I have to use my mother’s (obviously her need of it for work and research supercedes my desire to post and play 
) so I might not be able to make every session. I’m still working on a character. She’s an elven ranger (who uses bows), but I’m working on a background and a name (either Astela or Grace).
Sorry for the lack of responses, I’ve been avoiding the thread as to not make myself too jealous.
I’d love to be part of a brainstorming team. What do you need of me?
Well waddya know… last nights episode resulted in the creation of a new character!
Welcome: Captain Preserved Dungo, ex-sea captain, currently wizard-in-training! Your character sheets will be ready in a day or two.
Everybody else:
Next character creation night: Wednesdays, Feb 18, 2004. 5-10pm CST, in The Monkey. Get your characters ready, only a couple weeks left before we go live!
Wednesday? Perfect for me, expect me there.