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Dice Pursuit of Elysium - OOC

Lore
Here
WlfSamurai

WlfSamurai

Maelstrom Engineer
Welcome to our Burning Wheel game!

One thing I want to point out, we are using the Burning Wheel Gold edition of the rules. I think it's all you can find at this point, but I wanted to be clear.

I'll have other threads up as we need them. But, first we'll start "burning" our setting and situations. I'll have a post soon with our starting questions.

Thanks for joining! I haven't been able to play this game in forever. I'm not sure how it will work in PbP, but we'll figure it out.

tokotaku tokotaku , Grey Grey , Felix Felix , TigerLover513 TigerLover513 , Teh Frixz Teh Frixz , Random Word Random Word
 
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Appreciate the invite. Will let you know if I'm definitely in after I finish work today.
 
Alright, I reckon I can stretch myself to play but I might be slower to post overall.
 
Starting the world-building in the new lore page:

Dice - Pursuit of Elysium - Lore

Setting Information This will be our Lore page for our Adventure “Burning”. This will include setting, situation, and some world building. Intent Create enough setting to drive our curiosity and fuel our play. Leave open spaces to “play to find out”. Create a foundation for character...
www.rpnation.com www.rpnation.com
 
Grey said:
Fuckin' love me some Elder Scrolls, Dune, or Horror Fantasy. Or Castlevania, if we're talking the Warren Ellis animated series.
Click to expand...
Is that the new animated series on Netflix? I just started watching it. I’m on episode 5 and really enjoying.
 
Going to set a soft deadline on feedback in the Lore Thread for Wednesday morning on the current setting/situation discussion. If there are further positive responses or no other responses, we'll move forward with "character burning" with what we have now. Also, that doesn't mean it can't change after the fact (and probably will a little as we create characters/play).

Just to give so more time and set expectations.

Really looking forward to "character burning" with you guys.

tokotaku tokotaku , Grey Grey , Felix Felix , TigerLover513 TigerLover513 , Teh Frixz Teh Frixz , Random Word Random Word
 
So let's do some character burning!

Before we dive into step 1, I think there is a step 0.

CHARACTER BURNING STEP 0
I think step 0 is to skim over and read through a few of the settings that contain the various lifepaths. Like I mentioned before, this game does not have explicit setting or lore, but a lot of it is implied. That implication happens in the settings and lifepaths.

Settings: race or heritage groupings of lifepaths. Examples: Lifepaths of Man (the humans), Dwarven Lifepaths, etc.
Lifepaths: a chunk of time in your character's life--usually in an occupation--that taught her skills and gave her resources.

The idea with "character burning" is to choose lifepaths as if your character progressed through life up to the point we start playing. In they end she will have a set of skills, abilities, and resources from her lifepaths. It's kind of like playing a mini-game to build your character. Note that lifepaths do have a loose progression. Some will only let you move on to one other. Others will point out the different options you can move onto. I find it fun, but it can be tedious. Your character also gets older as the years in that lifepath continue which can be a detriment on stats depending.

For this game, we will burn characters with 4 lifepaths. So, keep that in mind.

When you think you've looked the lifepaths over it's time for the next step:


CHARACTER BURNING STEP 1: Character Concept
Now, given our discussion in the lore thread, you know the loose setting and general situations. Consider a character concept around that. They should be:
  1. Feasible within the current setting
  2. Fit into the situations that we discussed
Let's talk here them as you come up with them, too. That way we can adjust any if necessary before we move on to step 2.

tokotaku tokotaku , Grey Grey , Felix Felix , TigerLover513 TigerLover513 , Teh Frixz Teh Frixz , Random Word Random Word
 
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Soooo, been mulling concepts and ideas for a bit. Here's what I've got.


Son of a Gun (Birth - 8)
Seafaring setting general lifepath. Birth lifepath. Born of the Sea and spent first 8 years of life in and around naval facilities/ships/ports.

Ratcatcher (8-14)
As they got older, through either appeal or natural ability, they became a ratcatcher. Working ports and ships alike, catching and disposing of vermin became a way to earn coin and stay alive for a bit. Hard work that tempered the soul and exposed them to cruel environments, disease, and the degradation of both empathy and sympathy.

Kidnapper (14-17)
What differences are there, deep down, between men and rats? After years of plying their trade, the distinction would become blurred and jobs became a little more specialized. Snatching young and old, rich and poor, noble and villainous alike, the money would flow.

Poisoner (17-22)
Not all the jobs, rat and men alike, required the live capture and transport of beings. Sometimes someone would want things dead. A lot of things dead. Already experienced with the eradication of rats with poisons, traps, and more exotic methods. The jump to performing on people was just a matter of adjusting the dosage and adjusting the price.
 
I have several ideas for characters, mostly dealing with the theme of religion (so definitely a path of man). I can change them depending on what seems most fun/useful to you guys.

  1. An augur from an animistic religion, who started harnessing the spirits to fight the oppressors, but was banished from the tribe and maybe has trouble going on land as she angered land spirits (peasant born, augur, rogue wizard, weather witch).
  2. A missionary priest who changed his views on the superiority of his religion, either converting to a pagan one or coming up for the rights of the locals (village/noble born , acolyte, itinerant priest, apostate/heretic priest or insurrectionist).
  3. A miracle healer with an impostor syndrome. When he was a priest he once healed a noble and got famous. He tried to live up to the reputation, but the pressure became too much, so he escaped to sea. (village born, temple acolyte, priest, court doctor)

Which do you like best or will create the best dynamic? Also, they are ordered in my personal preference.
 
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I'm leaning towards number one and number three, both offering a good hook for the party and both may seem like the 'fish out of water' type
 
Teh Frixz said:
I'm leaning towards number one and number three, both offering a good hook for the party and both may seem like the 'fish out of water' type
Click to expand...
Weather witch is actually a seafaring path, so the first one would not be as out of water as three, but she does seem better integrated in the plot and has more hooks for the party indeed.
 
I was thinking about making an elven turncoat, but having actually rolled one up elves are terrifying combat monsters. If you're a soldier the game hands out Grief exponents like candy. I ended up at Grief B8, so the character wouldn't last long but they would be crazy powerful before they committed suicide. If I'm understanding Ballad of Rage correctly this character could be throwing around B10-B14 Sword dice (B6 + half or full Grief) for a full fight without too much difficulty. Song of Burning Bright is some crazy AoE stun, again based off Grief. I kind of like the idea of being able to go nova on something on very rare dramatic occasions. Maybe have a thing where the character is honour bound to only draw their sword if the situation is truly dire in some way. I'll also think of a human alternative, maybe the black market quartermaster who can seemingly procure anything, always far more interested in their latest side hustle than actually doing their job.

The idea I was toying with was an elven marine captain, so thoroughly disgusted and enraged by their own people they want nothing more than to see them all dead or driven 'into the west'. I'm presuming 'going into the west' is metaphorical for some kind of ascension ritual, rather than literally hopping in a boat to sail west. Given the nature of Grief I imagine an elven empire could only subjugate human populations by proxy, maintaining a very strict cordon between themselves and the atrocities required to maintain peace and order. You could maybe sneak around Grief by dehumanizing humans, but I imagine the elves ruling humans 'for their own good' with a combination of a Noblesse Oblige attitude and a passionate desire to end the constant infighting and injustices that used to bring the elves so much Grief. This cordon is so effective they've long since completely lost touch with the consequences of the vicious cycle of increasingly draconian and violent efforts required to maintain this perfect peace and order and all the exploitation and corruption it enables, which naturally leads to unrest and more repression. I've been calling that cordon the Veil in my head, and I imagined it physically manifested as things like literal wearing of veils, travelling in windowless carriages and palanquins, travelling with musicians and perfumes/incense to ward off sounds and smells, travelling along carefully walled and elevated roads that conceal neighbourhoods, carrying out most orders through a byzantine bureaucracy of human proxies, etc. The Veil is so well crafted and so much effort is spent maintaining it I imagine many elves genuinely have little idea how bad conditions are for their subjects and the rest bemoan the fact that even with all this guidance humans still can't help but make a mess of their own lives. One can only imagine how much worse they would have it if they weren't protected from themselves.

I was imagining this marine captain has made a habit of looking beyond the Veil and in so doing has become overwhelmed with Grief. They were heaped with scorn for agitating for reform, declared a disgrace, and finally saw themselves court martialled and exiled after a series of egregious Veil violations like storming the stage in an opera house with a contingent of soldiers escorting political prisoners sentenced to death, reading the prisoner's charges and carrying out their executions while the mostly elven audience watched, aghast.

Being rejected and renounced by comrades, family, friends, and everyone they ever knew in a highly publicised trial has left them a thinly stretched veneer of impeccable politeness over a tightly wound bundle of rage and grief, willing to sign on with any mercenary outfit opposed to the empire. They're hated by both sides, as turncoats always are, but they pretend they don't care so long as they're feared more than they're hated and they can continue to chip away at the ossified husk that holds the rotting remains of everything that once made their people beautiful.
 
Still poring through the material.
Definitely aiming for some kind of dissident sea captain revolutionary type. Not sure how I feel about Greed but a Dwarf might be interesting - otherwise likely to go human if I can't see an interesting way to roll an orc.

EDIT: Haha oh wow that is some post-Tolkien fuckery. Going to play a human but I have to say this game is not winning itself any favour with me beyond interesting mechanics.
 
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Yeah, the default setting really is just LotR with maybe half the serial numbers filed off + the medieval Catholic church. Orcs are straight up D&D Chaotic Evil at birth. It's problematic. I can see why people took the mechanics and ran with them in other settings like Mouse Guard. They're interesting and worth stealing.
 
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