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When the world gets you down, and you think no one cares, try to picture something soft and cuddly.And then imagine it being run over by a forklift truck.
8 yrs ago
Current
When the world gets you down, and you think no one cares, try to picture something soft and cuddly.And then imagine it being run over by a forklift truck.
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11 yrs ago
#We're off to see the Wizard. The Wonderful Wizard of OZ... Sing along now!
11 yrs ago
And remember, Respect is everything!
11 yrs ago
"There's no point in being grown-up if you can't be childish sometimes." - Fourth Doctor, 'Robot, Part Four
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11 yrs ago
I think I just pushed the wrong button on my iPad and nuked France. Hope no-one noticed.
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Bio
A player of games and a liver of lives, sometimes with onions and gravy.
Thasseldar noticed that the other one behind the bar was the barkeep and not the one he just tapped. Still, it wasn't in his nature to admit to mistakes...
I thought it was Clark who'd done the tapping, not Thasseldar? Thasseldar was leaning against the other end of the bar hailing Geoff while Clark was walking up behind Domaku. :S
{Clark} walked up to the creature1 and tapped him on the shoulder with the index finger of his right hand.
{Thasseldar} spotted a large I think, half troll? being what appeared to be bartender. {Thasseldar} hailed {Geoff} over.
If possible I would like to see Starkhaven included a bit. So if Anders was allowed to live by Hawke, Sebastian goes back to being prince and wages war on Kirkwall. Could be interesting if the city was still under siege of sorts?
Whether we go to Starkhaven will be something the characters will be debating at the beginning of the story. Basically we'll be sitting around a campfire on the outskirts of Cumberland discussing the rumours and leads we've gathered and trying to decide where we should go next. It should give everyone the opportunity in character to establish who they are and what their motives could be, without them just standing up and reciting their biography to everyone.
So yeah, I support the Templars in that situation simply because they just wanted to protect the city from Mages losing it and attacking everything on sight. Yeah, remember the First Enchanter? He turns on you really fast regardless of decision.
Supporting the Templars also gives you the opportunity to temper Meredith insanity somewhat, such as the mission where you're sent to hunt down three missing mages and find one of them has just slipped off down the pub. You can go with an option of just telling him to finish his drink and go back to the Gallows when he's done.
As for Fenris? I wanted to like him when I was younger. (Thought I was gay at the time due to certain friends trying to coddle me. I'm Asexual as in I just do not care, if you are cool? Then that is super.) But ended up hating him due to his broody nature.
If you play it just right you can actually get Fenris to lighten up a bit towards the end. And then sell him to Tevinter slavers! MWAHAHAHAHA!!! >D
It feels as if a Hawke that supported the mages is the typical canon playthrough (as basically who is really insane enough to support Meredith?) and really the Isabella-romance aspect of it wouldn't work if he let the Arishok take the book. 100% in favour of mage-friendly Hawke rather than Templars, if only because why would Hawke support the ruthless templars when her own sister is a mage?
There's an option in DA2 to return the Tome to the Qunari if Isabela returns with it, but then the Arishok demands her as a prisoner as well. If you then choose to fight him the cutscene after the battle shows the rest of the Qunari leaving, with one of them carrying the Tome, while leaving Isabela at Hawke's side.
This is the only way to prevent all-out war with the Qunari and keep Isabela at your side. And not to give too much away but I'm planning on Isabela's involvement at the beginning of the story to help get things started, and she needs to have been both in contact with Hawke and hold her rank of Admiral. Without having the relationship there Isabela would either be a Qunari prisoner, or a shoreline raider.
I played a version of DA2 where a Mage Hawke became so grief stricken after the death of his mother at the hands of a Blood Mage that he had an affair with Fenris which ended his relationship with Merril, backed Meredith unconditionally and executed Anders without hesitation. There's reasons either way for making the decision on who to support, which is what makes the game so fun.
If possible I would like to see Starkhaven included a bit. So if Anders was allowed to live by Hawke, Sebastian goes back to being prince and wages war on Kirkwall. Could be interesting if the city was still under siege of sorts?
Whether we go to Starkhaven will be something the characters will be debating at the beginning of the story. Basically we'll be sitting around a campfire on the outskirts of Cumberland discussing the rumours and leads we've gathered and trying to decide where we should go next. It should give everyone the opportunity in character to establish who they are and what their motives could be, without them just standing up and reciting their biography to everyone.
I am about to be a devil's advocate here... but it would be more interesting of Hawke sided with the Templars. Aaannnd... I want to say the Arish'tok (Might have butchered that.) returned with the book/relic rather than War. Hawke as Viscount.
I was planning to have Anders, and by extension Justice/Vengeance, still alive, but unless anyone else has an objection then I have no problem have Hawke support the Templars. He'd still be missing however, as either way he'd vanished from Kirkwall when the Seekers came hunting for him.
There's always the possibility that even with Anders dead Justice/Vengeance is still around somewhere, and the mystery as to where he went could make for an interesting plot development...
The Arishok has to die. Isabela is still alive and free, and currently with Hawke somewhere, and so Hawke must've saved her from the Qunari, slaying the Arishok in the process.
The Dalish clan unharmed, minus the death of the Keeper. Maybe have Myrill step in line as the next Lorekeeper after she learned about the demon in the mirror?
I had wanted to kill Merrill off, since I live in North Wales and her accent really bugs me, but again I have no problem with the clan surviving and her being made Keeper following Marethari's sacrifice, and several years living in the Kirkwall alienage after being banished by her clan.
During the Mage Rebellion Merrill could've returned to her clan and taken her place as Keeper as they saw that in their time of strife previous petty decisions had to be set aside for the greater good.
We could also make the Hero of Ferelden a Dalish Elf, which would then tie Merrill to him as well?
No problem, best to be sure of these things before committing to them too much. :)
I'm still looking for input on the timeline to establish the state of Thedas for the adventure and would appreciate any comment, suggestions or corrections. While I think I have a handle on which events affect others with the complexity of the DA:Keep system I'm not sure whether I have any impossible combinations or not.
Did someone say...
Champion?
In the timeline I've set up for the adventure Hawke was a female rogue, but I've no problem having you play as a male counterpart to her. :)
From the games we've already seen the 'heroes' working alongside Wynne, Justice, Anders and Cole, all of whom could be branded as Abominations by overly zealous members of the Chantry. While Paxton may be a little closer to the Dark Side than any of those I can conceivably believe that he'd be able to hide his condition well enough to be accepted by the company, although that will all depend on how maniacal he acts during the actual roleplay, which will be down to how well @Saarebas can write for him.
If he gets too extreme, or behaves in a way which would cause suspicion, then it's possible that a visit from the Templars would be introduced into the narrative, and the party would have to decide whether to let them cart off the dangerous Abominations, argue the case for their Maleficar comrade, or fight to the death to protect their possessed Mage.
@McHaggisI'd have to agree with @Genni, Imperial Templars are nothing more than guards rather than being Templars as they would be known in the south. If you'd still like to take the Templar tree as one of Marcellus's specialisations I'd still allow it of course, but some mention of how he'd managed to obtain the skills which would normally not be available given his background.
EDIT: In the time it's taken me to write this you've already done that, so you can ignore everything above.
One last quick note, could you change the 'Silent' trait name to something like 'Light Footed' instead? 'Silent' seems to imply that he's completely undetectable and I'd like to keep the option in play for a sufficiently skilled opponent to still manage to catch him should it ever be required for the plot.
@vancexentan Glass cannon Mage? Nice choice. I would have to ask you to choose Specialisations for him though, as this will deliberately limit his development during the roleplay. Having said that, based off the spells you've chosen for Gerald his current specialisations would be Arcane, Primal, Entropy, and Creation, and since I'm allowing each character a maximum of five you could still either choose another skill tree now, or leave it open for development later on.
Would you mind trying to avoid write huge block of text as well? They make for difficult reading and can give the impression of rambling. Breaking entries into paragraphs of a maximum length of about five or six lines long will make things a lot easier for me, and hopefully others. As an example:
While in Kirkwall {Gerald} grew to have a natural distaste and distrust of Qunari, Elves, and bandits of all shades and values. He viewed the Knight Commander as a tyrant, but understood what she was trying to do. He didn't support blood magic even under the direst of circumstances and despises it. He didn't support breaking free of the Templars either seeing them as a necessary evil in order to keep demons from infesting weaker willed magi. He wasn't overly fond of dwarves in the city but he found most of them harmless enough except for the Carta in which he found repulsive.
During the Qunari breakdown in Kirkwall he helped the younger and less powerful members of the Mage Circle by using his powerful fire magic to kill a Qunari Sten and a whole two squads of Qunari with only minor help from his allies. After the Annulment was ordered in Kirkwall he was near the edge of the city. A Templar whom knew him well allowed him to get out of the city using a merchant's boat, but not before he had to slaughter a rage and desire demon with said Templar's help.
Though he hated to leave the place he called home to whatever fate it deserved along with his fellow mages he knew he couldn't do much to help less he died with them. He fled to Gwaren and from there to the Free Marches where he lived with a relative for a short period of time with a family friend before arriving at wherever this roleplay will start.
As a quick note, the adventure will be starting in Cumberland, the port city of Nevarra located on the northern shore of the Waking Sea, roughly halfway between Kirkwall and Val Royeaux. While most of the party have been with the mercenaries for some time, having been working for the Inquisition during the Corypheaus situation, I don't see a problem with your character having been a new recruit joining the party in Cumberland for the first time.
Edit: Well I apologize for spoiling it but there's no helping it now and the manga has been out for a few months now.
Don't worry, I was just kidding about that. I've already read the plot synopsis online anyway. :)
@Saarebas I like the idea of having a possessed blood mage on the team, but Paxton's abilities don't seem to fit what I would see as one of the two alternatives for the character. Basically I'd allow it if he was either a corrupting distance fighter using enemies against each other before drawing out their life force to cause devastating bursts of energy or if he was a blood draining rage machine capable of ripping through the middle of an enemy force with his bare hands, but at the moment he's trying to be both.
Could you trim back one side of his abilities or the other in order to make him work better as part of the team? I'd suggest builds like:
Fade Cloak (acting like a 'blood mist' vampire ability), Spirit Blade (growing claws made of solidified blood), Blood Magic, (feeding off your victims allows you to keep fighting) Hemorrhage or Ring of Pain (depending on whether you'd want to automatically do damage or do it yourself), Devour, (blood is life!) Dragon-Rage or Rampage (for when things get messy)
Draining Aura and Grave Robber, (area heal from enemies close by, with a boost if they're dead) Elemental Chaos, (fill the air with blood and slice them apart with it) Fist Of The Maker, (a giant bloody hand crushes down on enemies) Gravitic Ring, (curdle the blood in your enemies, making it difficult for them to move) Blood Slave (take control of a weak-willed enemy and make him attack his friends)
With Paxton's long-term goal it sounds like something he already has, rather than something he'd be working towards. Perhaps reword it a little to make it something like wanting to make sure the team, his family, stays together no matter what?
And I know that could get a little creepy if he takes the Bloodbender path, since he'd be able to control everyone to stay around the campfire toasting marshmallows and singing songs with him all night.
I'll make the same comment about long paragraphs again as I did for @vancexentan, just so he doesn't feel like I'm singling him out. :) Could you please try and keep from writing huge sprawling paragraphs covering lots of events. Breaking them up into five or six lines at most helps to keep things clear and concise.
And finally, this is a pet peeve of mine so feel free to ignore it but I never really like it when people make their characters too tall. The average male human height is between 5'2" (158cm) and 6' (184cm), anything larger than that would make your character freaking tall. While I could understand Paxton using his abilities to improve himself in that way, making him a more imposing and commanding presence, please be sure to actually make mention in the roleplay that he's always looking down on those around him, literally.
PS. SInce Paxton's magic is blood-based I did a little colour switch on his image...
@vancexentan I don't think it's too much of a problem yet, since @Genni's Hroot is a healer spirit of sorts (except when she turns Ent, in which case she loses her magic altogether,) Gerald is a damaging type with spells which mainly just inflict or increase damage against the enemy and @Saarebas's Paxton will either be a magic-boosted tank or mainly a support debuffer depending on how he reworks his character.
Since we have the three different magical roles covered now I'll probably put a cap on anyone else going for a magic-based character, although if they's like to play a warrior or rogue with a little magic in their backpocket I may still allow that, as long as their character isn't packing a arcane bazooka. Having said that, if @Saarebas goes tank we may have room for a debuffer-style mage to fill that role instead, unless you'd like to tweak Gerald to switch into some other magic specialties?
@CAS1006 Just to be clear, this is NOT going to be a combat roleplay, and as long as characters have traits and abilities which suit them and could conceivably be used by them as part of a narrative I'm happy for them to have them. So far the only character who's worried me is Paxton, as he's overpowered in both magical and physical ability and I hope @Saarebas will take my advice in hand when rethinking how Paxton could fit on the team.
The characters are also supposed to be the survivors of the Fifth Blight, the Mage Rebellion and the Corypheaus Tea Party (is there an official title in-universe for the events of Inquisition yet?) and so I'd expect them to be quite highly developed both in skills and backstory.
The events of Origins, Awakening and Inquisition have also allowed for entirely new entities to exist in Thedas who wouldn't have been seen before, namely Golems, Awakened Darkspawn and Spirits both physical and possessing others, which so far have only been seen in the games as characters like Shale, The Architect, Justice and Cole. I'm just glad no-one's tried to create a Harvester character yet (although it would make a very effective tank. :P)
With Hroot, the transformation was my suggestion as having a Mage/Warrior with that mix of abilities was a little strange, and didn't really gel well as a mix. @Genni suggested having the Ent as a companion to Hroot, acting as her muscle, but with Guardians of the Galaxy not that long ago it felt a little too much a rip off of a certain pair appearing there, and I'd rather not have people drawing comparisons with Drax and Gamora. :)
The idea of having the transformation irreversible means that Genni will have to choose carefully when she switches between them, so that she's not simply changing form every few seconds as she jumps between opponents, and I feel it balances the character into a 'Pulverizing Blows Shale' and a helpless healing shade. I've worked with @Genni before and I trust her to be able to use the character appropriately when it comes to the actual story.
As for the Maleficar, since we were a mercenary company with ties to the Inquisition, similar to the Valo-kas and Bull's Chargers mercenary companies rather than actual members most of the Inquisition wouldn't be aware of our actual composition, and wouldn't ask for too many details as long as we got the job done. After all, 'Dalish' of Bull's Chargers was "not a Mage" and none of the Templars in the Inquisition ever brought up any doubts about her while she was wandering about Skyhold, and our company would've been more 'field agents' than recruits, rarely if ever visiting Skyhold.
At the moment I'm planning on having a Warrior: Weapon and Shield, Battlemaster, Champion possibly with a little Tempest or Artificer thrown in for good measure. I don't want to set anything in stone too early though as I'll try to build my character to cover any gaps we have in our ranks.
@CAS1006 Those details have yet to be confirmed, in other words I'm waiting until we have more party members who may be affected by the events before finalising any decision on them.
I'll be looking to nail down the timeline details once we have enough players on-board for a decent party. All that I'll say for now is that
the male Hero of Fereldan...
...survived and left Thedas in the company of a pregnant Morrigan,
...allowed Branka to work the Anvil of the Void, producing new Golems for the dwarves in Orzammar,
...helped Alistair become King of Fereldan by arranging a marriage between him and Anora, recruiting the traitor Loghain as a Grey Warden in the process,
a female rogue Hawke...
...worked with smugglers for a year on arriving at Kirkwall, and established many connections within their ranks during this time,
...helped a Ben-Hassrath agent named Tallis recover papers from a Tal-Vashoth named Salit,
...supported the Mages in Kirkwall,
...fought alongside Anders at the Gallows, but afterwards told him to leave the Free Marches before the Chantry hunted Anders down for his crimes,
...left Kirkwall in the company of her lover Isabela before the Templars could capture him, and has been in hiding until summoned to Skyhold by Varric,
...and after her life was saved by Loghain sacrificed himself in the Fade was last reported heading for Weisshaupt to confer with the Grey Wardens and meet up with Isabela.
a female Qunari Inquisitor...
...broke a potential alliance with the Qunari in order to save the lives of her friends.
...romanced Josephine Montilyet and helped her restore her family's fortunes.
@vancexentan Since your character is likely to have been affected by the events in Kirkwall the most, I'm more than happy to hear their account of what they saw there.
By the way, try not to take most of what @Genni says OOC seriously, most of the time you can guarantee she'll be joking. :)
PS. I'm just in the process of watching Naruto Shippuden and your avatar and signature just gave away a huge spoiler, so thanks for that. :P
@vancexentan No problem there, I'm also busy with other things at the moment so it'll be a while before the RP launches. Feel free to have fun drawing up a Character Sheet in the meantime though, @Genni managed to give everyone a very good example of what I'd like to see. :)
A player of games and a liver of lives, sometimes with onions and gravy.
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<div style="white-space:pre-wrap;">A player of games and a liver of lives, sometimes with onions and gravy.<br><br><div class="bb-center"><img src="http://i2.wp.com/wondermark.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/02/garfield6.gif" /></div></div>
