Professor Vesca
Good News Everyone!
[X] Plan: Patience begets Wisdom and Wisdom begets Balance
Batorc?
Are... are you saying we are now...
Batorc?
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Orc Quest; or, A Critical Examination of Agency Through in Interactive Fiction (Warcraft)
- Thread starter FractiousDay
- Start date
- Fantasy
- Location
- United States of America
[X] Plan: Patience begets Wisdom and Wisdom begets Balance
I really like this plan. Trying to upgrade the sword a bit shows our immediate utility to the clan, and the earth binding demonstrates us as a good long-term investment + I think the aspects chosen fit well with our current characterization. Also the lightning strike location is super hype and the flamesight is also super hype.
I really like this plan. Trying to upgrade the sword a bit shows our immediate utility to the clan, and the earth binding demonstrates us as a good long-term investment + I think the aspects chosen fit well with our current characterization. Also the lightning strike location is super hype and the flamesight is also super hype.
Professor Vesca
Good News Everyone!
Grok'mash will in his later years wander Orgrimmar when he becomes bored, seeking young orcs who are bigger and stronger then him, who also dont yet know who he is.
Just so he can provoke them into a fight and lay them out on the ground.
Just so he can provoke them into a fight and lay them out on the ground.
Xilentxium
Existential Crisis Management
- Location
- Temperate Regions
ngl, I first read that as Batroc and I was okay with becoming Batroc the Leaper.
- Location
- United Kingdom
As mentioned I'll note discuss some of the plans with more comments, though further discussion is encouraged.
References have been made to strength, and yes you could potentially have some sort of strengthening enchantment, or alternatively, this could be spiritual strength or conviction, that sort of thing, these are intentionally vague.
@Kufufu's plan has been referenced and the narrative commented on, which I find unusual as there isn't any narrative in the post currently and it'll be ignored along with the votes for it unless there's some narrative in there.
The second post here with the write in I also find interesting. Both of these would give an unusual elemental rather than the normal 'big rock monster' from a big boulder or similar. I've got my own notes for each of the locations indicating what sort of aspect of the element they represent. As has been guessed, the lightning tree is more representative of fast, brief power. In this case I've got 'nuking, air combo?' written in my notes because as mentioned there's the potential for a double elemental rather than just one (this is potential, not guaranteed). Comparably the forge has again correctly been guessed as a more industrial focus. Something like this tower elemental is interesting because it might represent change, victory, that sort of thing which is both transformation and destruction.
References have been made to strength, and yes you could potentially have some sort of strengthening enchantment, or alternatively, this could be spiritual strength or conviction, that sort of thing, these are intentionally vague.
@Kufufu's plan has been referenced and the narrative commented on, which I find unusual as there isn't any narrative in the post currently and it'll be ignored along with the votes for it unless there's some narrative in there.
I find the narrative of the first quote very interesting, it's one of the ways you might start with the 'Many Flames' idea I brought up in the shaman info post, bringing an elemental out and effectively training or socialising it. You're not necessarily enslaving it in the manner of arcane mages and elementals, but equally you're not just leaving it as it is to sit around doing its own thing.
The second post here with the write in I also find interesting. Both of these would give an unusual elemental rather than the normal 'big rock monster' from a big boulder or similar. I've got my own notes for each of the locations indicating what sort of aspect of the element they represent. As has been guessed, the lightning tree is more representative of fast, brief power. In this case I've got 'nuking, air combo?' written in my notes because as mentioned there's the potential for a double elemental rather than just one (this is potential, not guaranteed). Comparably the forge has again correctly been guessed as a more industrial focus. Something like this tower elemental is interesting because it might represent change, victory, that sort of thing which is both transformation and destruction.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Plan: Patience begets Wisdom and Wisdom begets Balance
Yeah I'm cool with this plan.
Yeah I'm cool with this plan.
Kufufu
Adequate at best
- Location
- What's it to ya?
I see, I see. Alright then, I suppose I should get on that, shouldn't I. -_-
So, I chose to meditate under the lightning-struck tree because in a vast majority of legands associated with meditation and communing with a higher power; success is found in the form of a lightning-struck tree or while meditating underneath it.
I chose to enhance our sword with fire because as is, it is our greatest resource and our only real tool in combat. Additionally, adding another fire spirit to it is probably going to cause a synergy between the two, granting new effects.
I chose Balance for a few reasons but the primary one would be to help the MC gain some balance for himself, these past few chapters has had him rife with insecurity and literally every combat we've seen has him doubting himself in some way, though with his proformance during said combat; it might just be self awareness.
I was a bit iffy on choosing to meditate on the mountain top because I think that, as a place where the earth and sky meet, it might have some carry over from Air, but in the end decided it was the best of the options available for what I'm going for since any cavernous caves in the area would be full of warlocks and thus the "holy place" too suffused with the energies of the twisting nether to be useful for us.
I figured that a normal totem might be for the best with earth as none of the other options managed to fit in my eyes. They either felt like they wouldn't fit the Elements at all or they didn't suit the concept of the Element I was trying to harness.
Finally, we come to Patience; which I chose so that we would have a better time of communing with the Elements later. Its been said several times to us already, "the first element you should bind is Earth because it will teach you Patience and Wisdom". While we did bind Fire first, I'm hoping that the fact that its Balance that we bound will make us more amenable to the lessens Earth can depart on us.
I chose Flameseeing because I feel that the more we learn about Shamanism the less we will smell of Fel (which we apparently do) and the better off we will be standing wise. Also, everyone asked for it because no one else wanted to play with a chemistry set :'(
- Pronouns
- He/Him
- The lightning-struck tree is cool.
- Flameseeing is great, and so is the Earth-as-patience.
- The sword? What if our sword is removed from us in combat, or we are imprisoned, would we be helpless then?
(Besides, what if we roll very bad and the 2 spirits of fire tear the sword apart and we lose both? Now, that would be a funny setback)
IMO having something inconspicuous like a Ring of Fire, that remains on us even if our weapon is knocked out of our hands, would have been better. - I would have preferred the fire as "light in dark places", what is this "PERFECTLY BALANCED between creation and destruction" thing, we are not Thanos, but nevermind
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Kir the Wizard
The Sun King
- Location
- Ukraine
I'm certain fantasy-land prisons will be sure to remove both a sword, and a magic fire ring.
- Location
- Canada
[X] Plan Blade of Blackrock
- Location
- United Kingdom
The tally doesn't seem to have counted all the votes properly but in any case patience wisdom balance seems to be leading. Voting remains open for the moment but I'll close it later today
- Location
- United Kingdom
And voting closed. Will use this post for rolls.
Step 1 rolls, Meditation, elemental power, confrontation
Step 2 rolls, research, binding attempt, item creation
Step 3 rolls, meditation, ability power, ability utility
Flameseeing, base, target, power
If anyone's interested here are my notes for various locations:
Fire
[ ] The town's central firepit (communal? Joining, fire as communal assistance?)
[ ] Near the braziers of the gate guards (watchful?)
[ ] Atop a local mountain (steady personal isolated power, or air combo?)
[ ] On the plains of southern Durotar (steady, weak? Earth retains sun's heat?)
[ ] By the main forge of Razor Hill (industry, earth combo?)
[ ] Beneath a lightning-struck tree (nukes, air combo?)
[ ] By the town's wood store (fire as energy)
Earth
[ ] The canyons of Norther Durotar (upheaval, earth as violent)
[ ] In one of the caves nearby (earth as secret, darkness, safety, water combo?)
[ ] At the base of the town's walls (communal strength)
[ ] Atop a local mountain (steady personal isolated power, air combo?)
[ ] By the main forge of Razor Hill (industry, fire combo)
[ ] On a crossroads south of Razor Hill (earth as facilitator)
[ ] By a large standing stone near the town (individual strength, steadiness)
Step 1 rolls, Meditation, elemental power, confrontation
Step 2 rolls, research, binding attempt, item creation
Step 3 rolls, meditation, ability power, ability utility
Flameseeing, base, target, power
If anyone's interested here are my notes for various locations:
Fire
[ ] The town's central firepit (communal? Joining, fire as communal assistance?)
[ ] Near the braziers of the gate guards (watchful?)
[ ] Atop a local mountain (steady personal isolated power, or air combo?)
[ ] On the plains of southern Durotar (steady, weak? Earth retains sun's heat?)
[ ] By the main forge of Razor Hill (industry, earth combo?)
[ ] Beneath a lightning-struck tree (nukes, air combo?)
[ ] By the town's wood store (fire as energy)
Earth
[ ] The canyons of Norther Durotar (upheaval, earth as violent)
[ ] In one of the caves nearby (earth as secret, darkness, safety, water combo?)
[ ] At the base of the town's walls (communal strength)
[ ] Atop a local mountain (steady personal isolated power, air combo?)
[ ] By the main forge of Razor Hill (industry, fire combo)
[ ] On a crossroads south of Razor Hill (earth as facilitator)
[ ] By a large standing stone near the town (individual strength, steadiness)
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Kir the Wizard
The Sun King
- Location
- Ukraine
Huh, so I sort of figured out the cave one, but was wrong about the lightning bolt (Nuke? Wow!).
Xilentxium
Existential Crisis Management
- Location
- Temperate Regions
Neeru: " Did you use Fel for it?"
Grok'mash: "Well no-"
Neeru: "Talk to me when you use Fel for it."
Kir the Wizard
The Sun King
- Location
- Ukraine
hapcelion
The Abyss gazed back
- Location
- n/a
clearly we need some minions of our own.It's not easy being green...
- Location
- United Kingdom
Rolls done, will write the update now.
I should clarify regarding 'nukes', this refers to fast, high damage spells not to actual nukes. In comparison a spell might provide a defensive enchantment, a strength buff, or a slower damage over time spell in the form of a poison or something.
I should clarify regarding 'nukes', this refers to fast, high damage spells not to actual nukes. In comparison a spell might provide a defensive enchantment, a strength buff, or a slower damage over time spell in the form of a poison or something.
hapcelion
The Abyss gazed back
- Location
- n/a
@FractiousDay remind me, how does the dice system work? I want to say that we did good on flameseeing, but with a number of fairly low rolls, I have doubts.
- Location
- United Kingdom
Depends on who's doing it, and also what I write as the 'question' the dice roll is answering. If its 'how Does your attempt go' a high roll is a success, but if it's another active participant and they're the actor rolling then a high roll would be a success for them.
For flameseeing specifically you rolled very high on the target, which in this case was a beneficial one. If you'd rolled low you might have seen some random thing that wasn't of any benefit. Comparatively though you did just get a lot of low rolls this turn, which means your attempts haven't been as successful as you might like.
The rolls do basically just work as an abstraction though. They direct the narrative and prevent people from saying im being arbitrary as the GM
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Rolls and rolling
- Location
- United Kingdom
Thought I'd do a quick infopost on rolls.
Rolls are rolled whenever there's a meaningful decision or challenge. They also rely on specific conditions and are mediated by them. For example if you were fighting a giant even if you got a high roll you still might not do a lot because you're one guy. Comparably, if you rolled low fighting a gnome you'd still probably win because you're a decent fighter.
Similarly, rolls will be adjusted depending on various things. I've previously capped rolls with floors and ceilings to prevent you doing too well or too badly. For example, if you have a skilled teacher you're going to learn a minimum of stuff, whereas if you have an unskilled teacher you'd have difficulty learning everything.
Criticals are 1 and 100, and artificial criticals aren't a thing.
Rolls are rolled to answer questions, therefore their effects depend on what that question is. If you're in a larger fight I'll roll several rounds with attacker and defender rolling, whereas with a more minor fight I'll just roll one roll to determine how the battle goes.
Rolls are also dependant on traits and abilities. Say you were doing some specialist activity, you'd only be able to perform to your own skills, so even a critical success wouldn't mean you do incredibly. As an example, you had a look at your magic medallion, but you did this with your basic scholarship trait, so even though you rolled high you might have gotten it completely wrong because you were an amateur at the time.
Successes and Failures in rolls will be modified by what's realistic and probable to happen in any instance. For example, a low roll might mean the action is ineffective, not that a meteor crashes down and kills you. Comparably, if you try and persuade a king to give you their kingdom and roll a 100 they'll think its a funny joke, not actually give you the kingdom because that would be such a ridiculous suggestion they're just not going to do it.
I see my role as GM as one of adjudication and while I make lots of rolls I tend to not necessarily use them all in the interest of having interesting things happen rather than relying entirely on the rolls to say whether so and so wants to do something. Generally I'll have 1 overall roll for an action and a series of other minor rolls to give me direction on other issues.
Someone mentioned the bonuses you get to rolls are pretty small. This is indeed so. I tend to dislike quests where most actions are successes and I want to have threatening failstates which will force you to take various actions you might not want to normally. However, you can stack various rolls, currently you have a +11 for fighting, but I might actually do away with them all together as I've started to find it annoying to have to tabulate everything and include all the bonuses, but that would then mean skills would be done away with, which I don't really want to do. Currently considering it.
Questions welcome so I can develop this post as necessary.
Also, @Kir the Wizard and @Guiding Bolt are awarded a bonus of +20 for some future roll. This will be a way I reward interesting ideas and participation in future.
@Algalon gets one for good analysis.
Rolls are rolled whenever there's a meaningful decision or challenge. They also rely on specific conditions and are mediated by them. For example if you were fighting a giant even if you got a high roll you still might not do a lot because you're one guy. Comparably, if you rolled low fighting a gnome you'd still probably win because you're a decent fighter.
Similarly, rolls will be adjusted depending on various things. I've previously capped rolls with floors and ceilings to prevent you doing too well or too badly. For example, if you have a skilled teacher you're going to learn a minimum of stuff, whereas if you have an unskilled teacher you'd have difficulty learning everything.
Criticals are 1 and 100, and artificial criticals aren't a thing.
Rolls are rolled to answer questions, therefore their effects depend on what that question is. If you're in a larger fight I'll roll several rounds with attacker and defender rolling, whereas with a more minor fight I'll just roll one roll to determine how the battle goes.
Rolls are also dependant on traits and abilities. Say you were doing some specialist activity, you'd only be able to perform to your own skills, so even a critical success wouldn't mean you do incredibly. As an example, you had a look at your magic medallion, but you did this with your basic scholarship trait, so even though you rolled high you might have gotten it completely wrong because you were an amateur at the time.
Successes and Failures in rolls will be modified by what's realistic and probable to happen in any instance. For example, a low roll might mean the action is ineffective, not that a meteor crashes down and kills you. Comparably, if you try and persuade a king to give you their kingdom and roll a 100 they'll think its a funny joke, not actually give you the kingdom because that would be such a ridiculous suggestion they're just not going to do it.
I see my role as GM as one of adjudication and while I make lots of rolls I tend to not necessarily use them all in the interest of having interesting things happen rather than relying entirely on the rolls to say whether so and so wants to do something. Generally I'll have 1 overall roll for an action and a series of other minor rolls to give me direction on other issues.
Someone mentioned the bonuses you get to rolls are pretty small. This is indeed so. I tend to dislike quests where most actions are successes and I want to have threatening failstates which will force you to take various actions you might not want to normally. However, you can stack various rolls, currently you have a +11 for fighting, but I might actually do away with them all together as I've started to find it annoying to have to tabulate everything and include all the bonuses, but that would then mean skills would be done away with, which I don't really want to do. Currently considering it.
Questions welcome so I can develop this post as necessary.
Also, @Kir the Wizard and @Guiding Bolt are awarded a bonus of +20 for some future roll. This will be a way I reward interesting ideas and participation in future.
@Algalon gets one for good analysis.
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