Sounds perfect.
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More for myself really, Iāll just post here with our charactersā confirmed details. Please do point out any mistakes, Iāll be bookmarking this post and referring to it. @RogerBW has kindly made this a Wiki post, so we can all edit it.
ABitWhippet
Major Character: Jens
Jens is a police officer, a hard working, honest constable if he is to believed. He works under Masigonde. Rumour is that he is neither hard working or honest, but he gets the right result by the wrong methods.
Jens wants access to someone important, the chancellor of the colony - more importantly her files as he is trying to bring her down for pocketing public funds. He feels that getting involved in this project will bring him this opportunity.
Altun has found out that Jens is corrupt, and has been covering up one of Jenās colleagues planting evidence against the person they suspected to be a gang leader. Jens would very much like Altun to bury the story.
Minor Character: Connith
Connith manages the mines, she spends most of her day underground supervising the machines that drill ever deeper in search of useful material. She is criticised heavily, and most of the blame for every failure is usually attributed to her
GabrielH
Major Character: Augustus Merlin Vincent
He is a member of the colonial Council, and in charge of all the cityās infrastructure.
He stands firmly for the ācommon goodā, but his ambition is to gradually transfer all control from the other councilmembers to his own sector, so that his son, Tobias Lucianus Vincent[ius] (Tubby), will be able become sole ruler of the colony, and pass this title through his superior lineage. For the good of the people, of course; democracy is hardly efficient, and the appropriation of resources will be much more effective under his complete authority.
He wants Jens to get control over the police (and potential militia) as well as the criminal bosses, so that in the event that some try to subvert his control, he will be able to prevent any unnecessary chaos. Jens is resistant to this because Masigonde is like a father to him and even though he has betrayed him in oh so many ways, he never wants Masigonde to discover what he gets up to, even if it is for the right reason. Taking control from under him - well, heās not going to exactly be able to hide that!
Minor Character: Rodrigo
Rodrigo. He is a janitor, he cleans toilets, among other things. Some very important people sit on those toilets, but he doesnāt care; friends and family are what really matters. Heās working overtime now to get Benito, who they call Billy, through the best school around. Maybe the next generation will have it easier, but at least theyāll always have each other.
Sagantine
Major Character:
Altun is essentially the local news, though she sees herself more as an indie documentary filmmaker. She has been vlogging the progress of this wave of the colony since day one, and is driven to get into wherever sheās not wanted no matter what.
She delights in exposing anything negative or sensational that happens in the colony, and at this point most people are wise to her shenanigans (if not outright distrustful of her).
Altun keeps pestering Hunk to teach her sculpting (weāre both artists!), and it seems like a huge bother to practical and focused Hunk, plus she doesnāt do anything without some kind of ulterior motive - so he keeps turning her down.
Minor Character: Masigonde
Masigonde is ostensibly the Marshal, though he rarely interferes with anything petty or domestic. When he does, even the rumour of the giant-sized manās approach quickly puts an end to any altercations. However, he is much more concerned about the safety of the group as a whole, and has the authority to form and train militias in time of need. He is quite secretive about his former life, and yet knows everyone elseās personal files quite well - a source of irritation for some. He seems to have insight and proficiency in a great diversity of jobs and hobbies - which leads some to believe him extremely well read, and others to postulate that he is actually very old. Neither explanation has enough evidence to verify.
Captbnut
Major Character: Davy
Davy is an out of place hard man. He was a king in school; captain of the football (soccer team), dating the prettiest girl. He didnāt work because he didnāt need to, knowledge was for plebs. As heās got older the football glory has diminished, his wife left him and his kids donāt want to know him. Now heās mid 40s, angry and with nothing left for him at home. Heās tough, handy with his fists and not scared of anything (for better or worse).
Davy wants to escape, thereās nothing left for him. But apart from escape, he wants to rediscover his glories - he wants this colony to be hard, where the real men are kings.
Davy sees Augustin as a useful tool to further his own goal. If Augustin can begin to tear down the council then maybe Davy can cause some mayhem and make sure that talking isnāt the only thing that matters here.
Minor Character: Muriel
Muriel is 85 years old. She has given money to every tele-vangelist out there and has seen the end of the world not come 14 times. She is loaded after out living 4 separate husbands. She has no place on this mission, but her funding comes in useful. This is the one, the end of the world is nigh and she wanted to see a new one. She believes
Cokho
Major Character: Carrie
Carrie is eighteen year old, and does not talk much. She learned to keep quiet since she became old enough to understand that she was regarded as the fifth reincarnation of The All Mighty Eyes, as it was explained to her on her fifth birthday. She does not know what that really means, but a small and very vocal group seem to really care, and everything she says has had some kind of repercussion before. So now, she tries really hard to keep quiet, and spend her days looking through her shielded windows at other kids, wondering how their life is.
Carrie wants to be forgotten in this new colony. To live in a place where she is not constantly looked at and scrutinized. She wants a new name, a new look, a new life.
Carrie has a one sided deep crush on Davy, and want to have a married life, kids and all that, with him. (Although, I realize itās deeply in the weird zone, with her being eighteen and him being forty. I think thatās why it is her want that he does not want to give her. We can turn that into more platonic āshe wants his admirationā if it is too creepy)
Minor Character: Magda
Magda is a teacher, and has the most extensive book collection of the whole community. Having to sort all of those to only keep two trunk full of them on her voyage was the hardest decision of her life, and she is still thinking she chose wrong. Hopefully, someone back home will still be reading the one left behind. For now, she has the difficult task of coming up with a learning system that will be compatible with the new life they are all expecting.
RossM
Major Character: Hunk
Hunk is a Sculptor. He believes in firm hand shakes and few words. He supplements his artistic work with brute force jobs.
Hunk wants to be known for his skill, not his muscle.
He wants Carrie to reveal the secrets of this new world to him, to make him understand itās subtleties, but sheās so damn quiet.
Minor Character: De
De is technically a medic, a dab hand with a needle and thread. But really, De is a magician, an expert in the sleight of hand. She has what she lovingly refers to as āa pastā.
Other Canon Characters
Tubby likes candy, and he likes computer games, and he has a skateboard that he carries around so he can stand next to other kids who he thinks are a bit more cool than himself. His dad does something very important. Something aboutā¦ Being rich and important. Thatās about all we know about that, but we certainly do know that, and thatās something. Thatās more than Billy can say, cause his dad just cleans toilets all day!
Ganza is a resourceful and talented chef, and seems to be calm and jovial through any hardship. As colony provisioner, he makes the best of a bad thing every single day, and puts up with a good percentage of the colonyās most irrational grousing. Heās friendly with everyone, though heās probably too busy to have many truly close friends. Masigonde is one of those, though they do spend a lot of time trading insults in their native tongues. It should be noted that they do not share a native tongue, and their insults make no sense to each other, or to anyone else. Ganza is also partially responsible for kids like Tubby remaining tubby, as he will gladly give snacks to those presumptuous enough to slip into the kitchen to ask for them.
*ABitWhippet edit notes: I noticed we have two Carries, changing the mine managerās name to Connith!
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While we wait for the last few details from character creation, Iāll go through playing the game - as we are now ready!
To complete our quest, our fellowship will face three challenges. We wonāt know what challenges will confront us at the start, weāll only know as they arise.
Each challenge is something we need to do to move closer to our goal. If we succeed at a challenge, we are more likely to succeed at the quest. If we fail, ignore or refuse the challenge, it doesnāt mean the quest immediately fails, but it makes it harder for the quest to succeed in the end.
We must pick challenges from the quest sheet, and our choices and order we put them in will define the flavour of the game.
Each challenge is tackled in a game round, the game consists of three rounds, one for each challenge.
For each round we follow these steps:
- Pick our challenge and describe why it is difficult
- Play scenes to explore how our character deal witht he challenge and each other
- Draw stones to see if the fellowship succeeds or fails at the challenge and whether any of our characters are lost or betrayed the fellowship.
The third challenge is different, itās outcome determines the success or failure of the entire quest, but our wins or losses in the first two challenges will influence our chances of victory.
After the third challenge is resolved and weāve seen whether the fellowship has succeeded at the quest, weāll play a short epilogue to look at the charactersā lives after the quest. After all was said and done, was the quest worth it to them?
Scenes
Each round, every player makes one scene. In the game as written, we are supposed to between us choose a player (who hasnāt picked one) to pick each challenge, and then the first scene is created by the player to their left. Iām very open to houseruling this considering that means half of us wonāt get to choose a challenge. Regardless, however we choose challenges and who creates the first scene, I am confident we will come up with a fair way.
Whoever creates the first scene, the next is created by the player on their left, an so on until we all have.
Your scene is your spotlight time, itās your chance to explore your relationship to other characters in the fellowship, what you think about the quest, and what you are going to do to deal with the challenge.
Use your scenes to lay the groundwork and put our plans into motion. . But no matter what happens, we wonāt know if we succeed or fail at the challenge until after everyone has made a scene. We may think things are going well or poorly but we wonāt learn the outcome until we get to the climax.
To make a scene, say who is there, where itās happening and what is going on. It is more important to describe a situation that is clear to all the players than one which is novel.
Your scene should be about your main character - other characters may be present as well, but this is your time. Do not include your minor character.
Two or three characters per scene is ideal. Every player does not have to be in every scene. Normally you include other characters from the fellowship, but you can also invent outside characters (or use those already canon) and ask another player to play them.
Houserule suggestion - With the rules as written, designed for in person around a table, players will sit out for 5 minutes or so. In play by forum, this could be weeks. Therefore I propose we play two scenes simultaneously, via pm. The player choosing a scene does so by the rules and those left over automatically form a new scene to be played via a different pm thread. Using pmās is to keep each scene clear and easy to navigate, not for privacy, I see no reason why all players shouldnāt be invited into both, along with any observers following the game!
Once the scene is established, play and see what happens. Iām always happy to help players roleplay, please donāt worry about asking if you find this daunting, though I get the impression you all know what to do! The only rule here is that we canāt describe failing or succeeding at the challenge. Donāt be afraid to let bad things happen to your character, if you play yourself out the game, you can take over your, or another minor character, create a new one etc.
If any player (And spectators, feel free to petition the players!) thinks you described your character as getting success too easily in a scene, they can add a Consequence and describe how your action put another playerās character in danger or difficulty. If youāre making the consequence, you can put your own character in danger however you choose, but only do so to another playerās character with their consent.
End the scene when youāve shown some decision being made, or revealed something about a character or situation, or just when it feels right. Shorter is usually better.
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Ross is probably really busy right now, they can catch up when they can!
In the meantime, letās each pick a challenge from this list and then vote on the picked options.
Scenario Challenges
- Survey the Region
- Pick a good spot to build
- Clear the land
- Harvest natural resources
- Reach remote useful supplies
- Build something
- Expand the settlement
- Head-off starvation
- Survive harsh weather
- Deal with dangerous wildlife
- Treat a disease afflicting colonists
- Raise Morale
- Establish a government
- Judge someone who committed a crime
- Prevent a schism in the community
And of course, if you have a good idea not covered, feel free to put that in.
Iāll pick: Survey the region - It is noticed that the statues appear in different places, but there doesnāt seem to be a pattern and no-one has yet seen them move. A party has been selected to reach those that appear closest and bring back as much information as possible as to their nature and whether they pose a threat.
(Sorry, what am I supposed to be doing?)
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No problem! We just need Hankās wants - what he wants from the quest, and what he wants from Carrie that she is unwilling to give him
I think Survey the region is a good one. I could see Davy wanting to get out and do something rather than sitting around
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Iāll put each our ours in as different options, mine focused on the statues and yours as a general survey
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Hunk wants to be known for his skill, not his muscle.
He wants Carrie to reveal the secrets of this new world to him, to make him understand itās subtleties, but sheās so damn quiet.
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Iāll leave the challenge ideas open for a week or so - I know all around the world we are all having to deal with the pandemic measures and the last thing I want is for this game to be stressful for anyone, or make things more difficult, so please donāt feel that you are āholding up playā or any of the other stuff people have said they are worried about. Take your time, use this game to bring a relief from stress, donāt let it add to it - thatās what itās for!
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I would agree on Survey the region. I think the Head off starvation would fit in very well in regards to the fact that we were expecting paradise and got this instead!
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I like the idea of finding distant important supplies. I can imagine it being a result of shoddy planning (seems like there are a lot of politics in this settlement!)
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Looks like no need for a poll, thatās pretty conclusive for a General survey of the region due to shoddy supply planning.
@Captbnut, please choose the player to make the first scene. Weāll all make a scene referring to this challenge moving around the ātableā, but the challenge creator gets to choose the first player.
Whoever is chosen: To start the scene, describe Who else is there, What is going on and Where itās happening. It should be about your main character, and should not include your minor character. You donāt have to limit yourself to player characters - but npcās will be allocated to relevant players. We should have about three players in each scene.
Unless there are any objections, Iāll press ahead with my house rule - the players not involved in the scene will run a parallel scene of their own. Once youāve described the who what and where, Iāll send a pm to run the scene.
We are finally about to start playing!
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Iāll also add that my husband has set up a discord group for our role playing games - itās more a place to socialise than run the games. In fact itās more a test of discord for us moving away from whatsapp, but youāre all more than welcome to join - this game already has itās own channel. Just pm me for the invitation link!
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Ok, Iāll pick @Cokho to make the first scene
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I will have a scene with @RossM and @Sagantine. Carrie, Hunk and Altun are sent to one of the statue to look at them a bit closer and bring back some information. The scene start as we were walking toward it, it has been a bit silent until now, and we still have an hour of trekking before reaching our destination.
I donāt think Carrie is the one to talk first, so probably someone else should start the conversation!
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Sounds good to me
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Do we discuss here or in a separate thread?
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Discuss here I think, and play in the pm I sent earlier!