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Post by GravityEmblem on Sept 12, 2022 15:54:01 GMT -8
Oh, gosh, it's almost over already? Wow. This game has been a part of my life for four or five years, and I'll be pretty sad to see it go. Rabbah and Renosia seem interesting to me (maybe I could bring back Kallian Skybrush for the latter? ), but I'm happy to defer to Horizons on this.
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Post by Daos on Sept 12, 2022 16:40:51 GMT -8
Unfortunately, Kallian is at around 70k XP, so she'd be too powerful for now. Unless it turned out she got level drained several times off-screen. Otherwise, it might be possible to bring her in in a later game, once we are able to build up to that number.
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Post by HorizonsDream on Sept 12, 2022 20:22:13 GMT -8
I was leaning towards Renosia, and Rabbah was my second choice.
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Post by Daos on Sept 12, 2022 20:36:54 GMT -8
So, Renosia then? Interesting, the setting where the original Ladonna was played.
Well, alright then, that was easier than I thought. I'll start brainstorming ideas, and start working on it in the background as this game continues.
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Post by Daos on Sept 14, 2022 13:37:07 GMT -8
Gonna ramble about Renosia for a bit.
I've run three games in Renosia in the past, but they were all before the last big reboot, so most of the information from that time is no longer up to date. The first game was an Evil campaign, and it was horrible. I consider it, to this day, the worst game I ever ran and why I will never run one again. The players decided that being 'Evil' meant they had to constantly try to kill each other. A couple of them teamed up against Horizon, the only woman in the group to keep trying to kill her character. And when she took measures to stop them (mainly, rolling up Ladonna, whom she used to Charm several henchmen to protect her), they then started trying to abandon her (e.g., wait until she was asleep and then pack up and run off, so she'd be forced to reroll a new character or make me run two games at once). It turns out that Evil games have a tendency to attract the worst sort of player, the kind who is looking for a way to play out their worst impulses in-game. I eventually just shut it down, because nobody was really having fun. Yeah, never again.
The second game was a 'Rebel' campaign, where the party were good guys fighting against the oppressive evil regime. It went a lot better, but still had a lot of problems. We had a lot of turnover, and I generally left it up to the players to decide how to proceed with their revolution, which led to lots of waffling.
The third game was, by far, the most successful of the three. Arguably, one of my most successful games ever. It was known as the 'Slayer' campaign. The party were all monster hunters for hire. They weren't good guys or bad guys, per se, mostly just amoral mercs trying to survive. It was a lot of fun, was highly player driven, had some great player interactions and there wasn't a lot of turnover. The Big Bad was pretty generic, admittedly, and there was some player drama toward that end that forced me to rush through the ending because I was afraid the game would fall apart first. But it's one of the few games I can look back on and still be impressed with how well it worked (usually looking back on old games causes me to cringe).
Anyway, Renosia was a single nation back then (as were Gontoria and Octhania). I'll probably carve it up into multiple nations like I did with Gontoria now. It sort of already is, as the country was split into four regions, each ruled by an 'Overlord.' Each region had a sort of theme to it. There was one dedicated to war and honor, and was mostly ruled by Hobgoblins. It was pretty similar to the Klingon Empire from Star Trek; obsessed with honor and glory in battle. It was oppressive and tyrannical, and the laws were extremely harsh. The military basically ruled, with the top general being the Overlord. This is where the Evil and the Rebel games took place.
Another region was ruled by a cabal of powerful Necromancers and dark priests, and there were undead everywhere. Skeletons and Zombies were used for labor purposes; in fact, it was possible for a person to be sold into slavery and the contract to extend beyond their maximum lifespan, so if they died, they'd be reanimated and put back to work. The Overlord was a lich, or maybe a vampire, I don't remember. I never ran a game there.
The third region was ruled by a cabal of powerful fiend summoners/worshipers. Fiends and Tieflings were quite commonplace. There was said to be a portal, or maybe multiple ones, to the lower planes, so many fiends could come and go as they please. I don't remember much else, I never ran a game there, either.
The final region was ruled by the Drow. It was a chaotic and dangerous place, because the Drow, any Drow, were above any laws. They could do whatever they wanted without consequence. They mostly stayed holed up in their underground homes, relying on surfacer underlings to run things in their name, but every now and again one would decide to stray up to the surface and it was always a terrifying event. Because if they decided to start killing folk, or worse, all you could do was run away. To try and fight back would ensure the Drow would send a full strike force to wipe that town out. They were like unseen nobles, but to the commoners they were real boogeymen, and people lived in fear of them (for instance, "There was an accident at the mine; several miners were hurt and as a result, didn't make their quota for the week. What if the Drow find out? What if they send someone to investigate?!"). This is where I ran the Slayer game.
All four regions were more or less constantly fighting each other in one way or another, whether simple border skirmishes or full blown war. In all likelihood, I'll probably keep the four regions, although make them full nations. I might add one or two more, as well.
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Post by Daos on Sept 15, 2022 11:06:09 GMT -8
Something else to note about Renosia is that the standard sub-races are different there. Most Elves and Half-Elves are Drow, most Dwarves are Duergar (Azer can be found there, too, but they aren't playable), most Gnomes are Svirfneblin, most Halflings are Skelms (homebrew subrace), and a number of Humanoid races are playable (Goblins, Hobgoblins, Orcs, Half-Orcs, Ogres, Half-Ogres, Lizardmen, Kobolds, and Gnolls), as well as Tieflings and various forms of Fire Genasi (Lava, Ash, Radiance, Smoke). It is possible to play other subraces, but they're very rare so they stand out like a sore thumb, as none are native to this land. And there may be animosity. If the Drow got word of a High Elf wandering around, for instance, they'd probably send a murder squad to take care of that really quick.
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Post by GravityEmblem on Sept 15, 2022 12:09:48 GMT -8
I have a rough idea for a character pitch in mind--another Cleric of Renos, Human or Hobgoblin. Her backstory is something about being dependent on someone else, who then betrayed her. So she turned to Renos to help find strength and self-dependence within herself (and also to get revenge on him )
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Post by Daos on Sept 15, 2022 14:37:11 GMT -8
That's doable, although I should mention I'm considering reinstating specialty priest classes. I'll probably split up Renos' domains into different factions, so maybe one for war, one for vengeance, one for strength, one for ambition, etc. So the revenge one might be a good fit.
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Post by Daos on Sept 16, 2022 13:32:00 GMT -8
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Post by GravityEmblem on Sept 17, 2022 7:15:52 GMT -8
Oh, that’s a nice map!
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Post by Daos on Sept 17, 2022 12:51:45 GMT -8
I remember being pretty proud of it at the time, but looking at it now all I can see is how derivative it is. You can really see the FF6 influence; not just because each region has like 1-2 towns max, but also if you google 'FF6 World of Balance map' and then take a look at the southern continent and...yeah.
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Post by GravityEmblem on Sept 18, 2022 10:37:59 GMT -8
That chapter I missed is really catching up to me.
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Post by Daos on Sept 18, 2022 10:47:03 GMT -8
You were present for chapter 10. Lillian tried to communicate with the kobolds after they were captured, remember?
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Post by GravityEmblem on Sept 18, 2022 11:31:32 GMT -8
No, actually, I don't!
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Post by Daos on Sept 18, 2022 11:38:03 GMT -8
Well, it was three years ago. One of the downsides of such a long running game.
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