For out-of-character chatter...

Welcome, everyone! I'll be filling out our cast list over the weekend, so expect a few more to join soon.

In the meantime, you can get started on your character sheets. Let me know what questions you have and/or if you need any assistance.

Hey all, resident trickster. Did the GM have a preferred style of generating stats? If not, I'll just use the standard point buy.

Hey everyone, Elvish wizard here. And yeah, it'd be good to know any rules for character creation before we go forward.

Character Creation

1. Choose civilization: We are starting in the Free City, but your character can be from any civilization
2. Choose species: Dragonborn, Dvaergen (Guardian or Builder), Elf (Light or Sap), Gnome (Rock), Halfling (Lightfoot or Surefoot), Human, Melesse, Merosi, or Tiefling
3. Choose background: Acolyte, Animist, Artisan, Bohemian, Condottiere, Explorer of Wild Lands, Notable, Pirate, Recluse, Savant, Scoundrel, Slave, Survivor, or Custom (check with Leader)
4. Choose class: Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Scholar, Sorcerer, Warlock, or Wizard
5. Determine whether awakened to magic: Dormant, Close to Awakening, or Awakened; your choice
6. Determine Ability Scores: 15-point-buy (see below)
7. Choose equipment: Standard from Background and Class; you may sell anything you don't want at full price
8. Take note of skills and technical details: Cyfand is the Common language of the Free City
9. Describe the character and choose alignment: Any non-Evil alignment

Let me know if you have any questions and/or when you have a draft of your character sheet completed.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:26, Sun 05 Dec 2021.

I put a blank character sheet in everyone's Character Details page. You can use this one or a sheet of your own, provided all of the information is there.

Hello everyone, I'll be playing a Half-Elf knife fighter.

GM, if we sell some of our starting equipment, can we also buy new equipment?

Of course!

Yaxai's sheet might be done, her bio and profile is.

Anyone want to have known Yaxai before the game starts, drop me a message!

Quick and dirty is a conwoman who grew up poor in Free City.

Sorry, probably won't get my character done until tonight.

Greetings!

I'll get to work on my character soon.

Hello, I believe my character sheet is done and have updated the character details. Looking forward to playing!

I don't see your character sheet, Kaan'radh...

We should be adding one more person soon.

Once everyone has their sheets completed, we'll get the story started.

Alright, I think I'm finished. Just gonna add a character description and I should be good to go.

Hi all, thanks for having me :)

Welcome!

My sheet is almost done. I just need to fill in a few details.

I'm working through the sheet. Is it normal to start off encumbered? Just want to check I haven't calculated something incorrectly... :/

It is pretty abnormal, yes. Most starting packages shouldn't burden a character with a decent strength score.

So, the question is, what's that strength? And how much are you carrying?

Fighting the orcish stereotype, I've attempted to build a DEX ranger, so my STR is only 12. This gives
Max capacity:      180 lb (15xSTR)
Encumbrance:       60 lb (5xSTR)
Heavy Encumbrance: 120 lb (10xSTR)
(All from pg. 341)

So my backpack is 47 lb (p259), just adding my armour takes me to 59 lb, so simply by having any weapon I am immediately encumbered.

Or have I messed up somewhere?

Including clothes, kits, ammo and a heavy hunting trap, my total is 95 lb. I would need a STR of 19 to carry this comfortably. :/
This message was last edited by the player at 13:41, Thu 09 Dec 2021.

If I ditch, trap (25 lb), rope (10 lb) and 5 torches (5 lb), I can get to a comfortable 55 lb but I just want to make sure I've got this right, as I've not calculated encumbrance before.

You missed that Encumbrance as you are doing it is a variant rule. I did not see the GM include it anywhere. IN standard D&D rules, your max load is the only number to worry about.

Additionally, worn items don't count against encumbrance

That is, if I am remembering things correctly.

Ah, I see. I figured since it was on the sheet it was something to consider. Muuuch simpler if 180 limit is all there is to worry about.

I was intending to use the Encumbrance rules. That's why I put a spot for it in the character sheets.

Ah, that's cool. I'll do my research then.

In reply to Leader (msg # 24):

Ok, thanks for clarifying. I’ve read a little of it and it seems like the variant rules do tend to force you to unburden some starter gear, so I have done so. I think some encumbrance for journeying is expected but that backpacks are dropped when conflict starts? Anyway I think I have the mechanics on my sheet done, just need to do a little character background stuff. I’m concerned I might have the point buy incorrect as I’ve not done it before, would it be ok for you to check it?

Yup, I just put together weight loads for with and without my backpack. Using the encumbrance rule, gotta track where everything is carried. As itinerant types, encumbrance would be normal as we carry all our life with us.

If anyone wants to have connected back stories, I’m open to ideas, assuming it’s okay with Leader.

In reply to Ukhumarz (msg # 28):

I've made it know I was cool with that as well, but I think I made it known before you joined us. I already worked out stuff with one other.

In reply to Yaxai (msg # 29):

Fair enough! It’s easy for my guy to be an outsider but it’s nice to have a hook into the party :)

Unfortunately it's gonna be a bit difficult for my character to have a connected backstory with anyone else, since he's from the forests of Ellerina, which is notoriously not super open to outsiders. That said, I'd be willing to work with anyone else who has potential ideas.

Likewise with Balthasar; he's only recently arrived in the Free City.

It's not necessary for your characters to know each other when we begin.

I should have time to get the first game thread posted later today/tonight.

Sorry, rote accepting of quests from people with question marks over their heads doesn't suit me! Haha. Yaxai wants to go, but her instinct would be to negotiate and to dislike anyone who undercuts her position, however naive they might be in that act.

Fair, I’m going for the ‘any excuse to get back into the wilds’ excuse behind Ukhumarz’ reasoning, but if you can negotiate a better deal I’m not gonna complain!

I hope everyone had a good weekend and is having a good new year so far.

If you have any other questions for Leylen, please ask them. Otherwise, you can summarize what you're going to do overnight, and then we'll be ready to move on to the next day.

I’m not sure to what depth of detail we’re going for, but I’d do a weather check before departing. Time of year / local weather patterns to know whether we might need wet weather gear / snow gear etc.

Yaxai will read the octract thoroughly. Any interesting points?

I've been quite busy this week. I'll move things along this weekend.

Another busy week! Sorry about that.

If you would like to set a regular schedule for keeping watch while resting, please do that here. I will make note of it and assume that you will follow that schedule in the future unless you specify otherwise.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:17, Sat 05 Feb 2022.

I am happy to take first watch, or any if others have preference. I think I have an ability where I can pretty much always find sustenance when we camp. It might be linked to favoured terrain tho but I am struggling to find my pdf. Will let you know when I dig it out.

Rangers do have an ability to find food more easily in their favored terrain. Do be sure to check that we are in your favored terrain though.

Anyone with a decent survival skill can also try to find foods, I think.

Yaxai will gladly take the midnight watch.

Ukhumarz, you will be able to find food for the party easily.

For reference, I am an elf, so I only "sleep" for four hours. So I can easily take whatever watch is needed.

If you break a long rest into four 2-hour-long shifts, who will keep watch for each shift? Remember that Kal'areth needs 4 hours of uninterrupted rest, like he said, while everyone else can only take a single 2-hour shift.

1st:
2nd:
3rd:
4th:

Let me know what you want to do.

Yaxai will take the second watch.

Though, a common misconception, there should be five shifts as we all need 8 hours of resting for a long rest, but watch wouldn't really be considered low activity, would it?

Also, we going to face the ramifications of interrupted rest if attacked at night? As in, LR not complete so abilities not reset? We can always sleep in the morning after to compensate.

It says explicitly in both the D&D 5e Player's Handbook and the Fateforge: Adventurers book that standing watch for no more than 2 hours is permissible during a long rest.

1st: Ukhumarz
2nd: Yaxai
3rd: Kaan'radh (& Kal'areth?)
4th: Balthasar
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:36, Sun 13 Feb 2022.

Okily dokily

Works for me.

Given that you said I'd find food easily I've just ran with that. Let me know if I need to roll anything for that trap tho.

No need to roll regarding the cooking; just go with whatever you think makes for the best story.

Alesse's player disappeared. I just posted an advert to try to find someone to take over her.

Greetings everyone Been busy reading and catching up. I'll be taking over Alesse and look forward to playing with you all.

Welcome and thanks for jumping into her role!

In reply to Ukhumarz (msg # 52):

Thanks for the welcome.

I kinda feel bad. I post and then get sick right after. Just now getting caught up on rpol. But seems I didn't miss too much thankfully.

Hope you're on the mend :)

In reply to Ukhumarz (msg # 54):

Yeah at the tail end of it. Just getting back to normal now. Wife and oldest got it first. They were down for a day and getting better the second day. Then my self and the toddler got it. He was done with it in a day. It hit me for a good two days and I still have a bit of overhang from it. Our middle child seems immune to it at least. But otherwise we are past it.

In reply to Alesse (msg # 55):

Glad to hear you guys are doing better. Looking forward to playing with you and thank you for joining!

I was waiting for Alesse and Kal'areth to post, but it looks like we might have lost them...

Before I post the results of this first round, Kaan'radh and Yaxai, if you want to adjust your actions, let me know. The closest bandits are 300 feet away from the party, so they will be well out of range of your attacks.

They ambushed from that far away?!

Well, then there is nothing to do but hide.

My apologies for not posting. Got something up for you, will try to be more consistent from here on.

Is this game still running?

Sorry for going AWOL. I've been much busier than expected lately. Unfortunately, I don't anticipate things getting any better until May at the earliest.

I'm going to close this game down soon. I apologize for wasting everyone's time.

It wasn't a waste of my time. I enjoyed what I could of it. I understand that life happens sometimes.

Just take care of yourself, man. Real life always comes first, and all that.