Mega Story II: The Unfreezing Prethread

[cypher132]

We are still accepting participents for Mega Story II: The Unfreezing. Don't be shy. Just post in this thread with the civ you want to be, I'll put you in as the owner, and then you just need to write a story about your civ coming out of the caves for the first time in a long time.

 

[Kyzarc Fotjage]

Malakim, Lawrence

 

[Dean_the_Young]

Am I the only one who finds the idea of skill point distribution rather farcical, since there's no application for them available? You have a 'spirituality' of 100... so what? How is that better than 50, or 200? It's not going to effect your character's performance since, well, you're the one writing him/her/them.

Moreover,why only 250 ? Why a limit ? There are renaissance men and dunces, well rounded individuals who expand to a number of areas quite thoroughly and single-minded people who aren't that great in their own field. Skill point distribution might make sense in a DD game format, but this isn't that. The only determination of how good/bad your character is how your character is written.


If you just want to give a understanding of a character, just give a 1-100 scale for each attribute you want to wish, with no cap. If you your character... well, that's your failing as a writer, which will occur regardless of whether or not you 'only' distribute 250 points. But at least a rating per category overall gives some idea of your characters strengths/weaknesses/personality, rather than dump stats.

 

[cypher132]

Am I the only one who finds the idea of skill point distribution rather farcical, since there's no application for them available? You have a 'spirituality' of 100... so what? How is that better than 50, or 200? It's not going to effect your character's performance since, well, you're the one writing him/her/them.

Moreover,why only 250 ? Why a limit ? There are renaissance men and dunces, well rounded individuals who expand to a number of areas quite thoroughly and single-minded people who aren't that great in their own field. Skill point distribution might make sense in a DD game format, but this isn't that. The only determination of how good/bad your character is how your character is written.


If you just want to give a understanding of a character, just give a 1-100 scale for each attribute you want to wish, with no cap. If you your character... well, that's your failing as a writer, which will occur regardless of whether or not you 'only' distribute 250 points. But at least a rating per category overall gives some idea of your characters strengths/weaknesses/personality, rather than dump stats.

No, I think it's weird to have these skill things, too. I'm not sure where they came from so I just wasn't going to pay attention to those.

 

[Dean_the_Young]

Perhaps a better character chart might be something like


Character Profile

Name: Mouar Esirce
Age: (Stasis survivor: Unchanging-stasis hit at mid-20's)
Race: Human, Grigori
Family Background: Only (known) daughter of Prime Minister Esirce.

Qualities of Interest: Measure : Meaning

-Peaceful: Moderate-High : Not inclined towards violence, but understands the importance to not disavow it. Similar to Ethne, though not as personally-empathetic with the suffering of people.

-Politically/Military inclination : High/Low : A believer that, in the long term at least, the pen is mightier than the sword. Treaties, trade, and good policies can do far more to shape the world than a single action or fight can. Mouar will charm, persuade, and convince as best as she can before siding behind any military action. Military action is the option of last resort, and she does mean last.

-Personal Diplomacy: High : The Prime Minister's daughter through and through, Mouar is well versed in being pleasant to be around, if only to beguile others into thinking she is softer and weaker willed than she is. She takes effort to be well rounded, able to talk to most anyone on any topic, from Solomnium to farming.

-Personal History: Prime Minister Esirce's daughter from the previous age, Mouar has been engaged in Palace Politics for all her life. Rising from her own talent and not nepotism, she spent much of Auric's Age organizing efforts to help survive the winter and handle the occasional refugee who came to the Citadel of Trials. During the Stasis, when aging and maturation (physical and mental) was frozen, she remained permanently at the qualifications of a low-level minister: with the Thaw, however, her experiences can now come together and further her progression and rise into greater politics.

-Personal items of note: Besides the normal mementos of sentimentality, rumors surround two in particular; Mouar keeps a small garden of flowers that once only grew in the Calabim capital of Prespur, and Mouar always wears one ring of a pair around her neck. From whom she received the flowers or where the other ring is, she does not say.

 

[TC01]

I agree with Dean and cypher on the skill system.

Oh, and in case you haven't figured this out by now, I'm playing as Boryn, Priest of Winter and ex-Illian, but after an indefinite time in the future I may transfer to be leader of the Frozen.

 

[cypher132]

I agree with Dean and cypher on the skill system.

Oh, and in case you haven't figured this out by now, I'm playing as Boryn, Priest of Winter and ex-Illian, but after an indefinite time in the future I may transfer to be leader of the Frozen.

Already put it in the main thread.

 

[lemonjelly]

I done the character thing just so I could organise my ideas

Out of 250 just because its a nice number, if you don't want to use it, don't bother, I just thought it would be a good idea to get ideas organised, I won't hold you against it

 

[arcticnightwolf]

So, if i don't have any leader, i should create one and make his/her character profile ?

 

[Dean_the_Young]

Depends if you want to portray a leader. You could be creative and simply show the path of the civ by the experiences of those in it. If you've ever read a Harry Turtledove novel, you'll know what I mean: a cast of soldiers, civilians, even mid-level politicians, some of whom shape policy and some of whom only tell it through experiences.

 

[Zugvogel]

Hello everyone,

first of all: Great idea to start a new thread, I enjoyed lurking in the last Mazera
However, this time I would like to take a more active role: In fact, I am thinking about taking over the Kuriotate, if that is still possible. But since I only dropped in occasionally in the old thread and don't really want to read through all fifty-something pages...can somebody give me a short summary of what happened to them and especially Lorda? So that I know what I might get myself into Please?^^

 

[Dean_the_Young]

Cardith Lorda survived an assassination attempt after an endless war with the Sheaim. The Golden Dragon was revived, but sat on it's ass until the end. The End.

Really, the Kuriotates were a non-actor last time.

 

[cypher132]

This thread is now the Discussion thread for MSII.

Also, Zugvogel is now on the list as the Kuriotates and DiamondEye as Comillo.

 

[Zugvogel]

*Edit* Fixed ]most of the gramatical errors. Damnit, but I was tired yesterday.

Very well then, here we go. Please let me introduce my protagonists:

Name Taryl of Twelfth (or to be more precise: "Taryl of Twelfth Asylum on Tailor's street second floor fiftenth bed on the right, upper corner." Ferrets like to call themselves after the place they were born in. And being very fertile, they also have to be very precise with their names to be distinctive.)
Race: Ferret (my personal version of the Kuriotate recon line, making use of rule 8)
CivilizationKuriotate
Family Background Commoners, second generation immigrants to Kwythellar.

Skills out of 250

Adventuring 25
Subterfuge (rural) 25
Subterfuge (urban) 100
Combat (crossbow) 50
Situational Creativity 50

Short bio:
A Ferret of the commoner class. His parents were refugees like most in Kwythellar. There was a lot of unemployment in the town at that time, since most of the metropolis infrastructure had been based around refining the recources imported from the countryside. But without imports and materials, there was also no commerece. The City Guard on the other hand, constantly buisy with keeping the peace in such a crowded place as K., was more than eager to recruit anyone they could get - including Ferrets. And time, city guard training and life turned the young, naive Ferret into a true survivor, doing what was nessecary to stay alive and get the job done. In that order.



------

Name:Lessuri Relassi
Civilization:Kuriotate
Family background:Member of a influential Lamia family that played a heavy role in K.s local politics and mage guild even before the long winter.
Skills:Out of 250

Magic 125
Diplomacy (polite) 75
Deception/diplomatic 50
Spheres
Water, Spirit, Creation

Short bio:
Lessuri Relassi was born to a clan of Lamia that held local prominence in the capitol almost since the founding of the Kingdom itself. And unlike most of the human noble houses, the Relassi always legitimated their power and influence through their magical ability. A philosophy that proved most beneficial because they didn't loose their social worth for the community when winter hit. And based on this promising background Lessuri became an influential member on the court and advisor to King Lorda.

 

[BorderWolf]

Hola, please allow me to participate as the Doviello in these here processions

I still think computers are strange creatures of the lower planes.

 

[lemonjelly]

BorderWolf I can't edit the post, because its by cypher132, but just go ahead and write a story if you want

 

[cypher132]

Hola, please allow me to participate as the Doviello in these here processions

I still think computers are strange creatures of the lower planes.

You're in.

 

[Dean_the_Young]

I'll say here what I said in the first game: strict time-scale is counter intuitive and counter productive. One real-time day can not equal X game-time days, simply because people can not and will not schedule their real life times and schedules to plan and report the travels and tribulations of their characters, which would be meaningless anyway for a variety of reasons and actions. One basic thing is travel: already meaningless with no sense of scale of the continents, no one is going to wait three months to write ab out a character going by ship from one continent to the other. Another is population: do you really intend to wait 100+ years/game speed to justify having a global population that has grown to the hundreds of thousands?

For a game like this, it (almost by necessity) needs to keep with the general civ tradition of timelessness. Leaders never die, and neither do named people, but entire generations can come and grow and expand. Sticking to any kind of 'realism' for time is both a pain and would necessitate not having reoccuring characters besides a bare few. Game time can't be dictated by real time.

This is why the DMs have to update both consistently and meaningfully. Updates, both in how they are affected by player actions and how they affect the players, are the only meaningful sense of progress in the story. If the DM's only give paltry 'someone had an earthquake' updates, which don't change anything, they neither matter (what's the player going to do, write 'I picked up rubble'?) nor give any sense of progress.

Quests, continuing stories that interact with other players such as mine and Diamond's, map updates tied in with real updates... these are what will give continuity and progression.

 

[Kyzarc Fotjage]

I was just looking for a general rule of thumb, not anything exact. If everyone has a different idea of the pace their nation advances then the more impatient people will have gunpowder within a week while the slow-paced people will just be including iron in their stories. Something like you go up a tech tier every couple weeks or something. Just throwing it out there.

 

[Dean_the_Young]

Considering how many different tech trees we're drawing from (hint: about every single mod of FFH), that wouldn't work either.

This is pretty informal by necessity, and pacing is the responsibility of the DM's to push. People who can't keep common-sense pacing now won't be good role-players anyway, and the DM's will be the ones in charge of stopping any outrageous claims. As it is, LJ has already raised Amurites to Knowledge of Ether: that's a good hint that other civs can claim comparative tech advances.