Character Discussion

Yeah my take on it is that most of you have been operating together as a crew for three or four years. Maybe one or two of you joined up later on, such as Farouk. Khadija has been your patron for at least that long.

This is my first game on Gamer's Plane and I guess the protocols are not as I expected. I typically define in-character as only the words spoken by the character and anything else, including descriptions/narration as out-of-character. I read Zahra's post and see that her words are bold inside quotation marks.

Yeah, that’s pretty standard protocol around here. No worries!

Generally, anything that takes place in game world — narration, description, thoughts, dialogue — is considered in character. Out of character is anything said by the player, rather than the character. Most games, dialogue is in boldface, though some GMs like dialogue in color. That’s less common.

So for example, I might post:

---

Zahra pulls out her Vulcan cricket and fires a shot. "Die, scum!"

---

I think Drama posted something about this recently. It’s probably too detailed but most people do something close.

Not a problem, just wanted to be sure. To add to what the others have said, here’s the format that I’ve seen most games use on Gamers Plane. I borrowed this from a game that I once played in.


If you are describing your character's appearance, actions, or reactions: Use the standard black text, no extra formatting (what you're reading right now)

If your character is talking out loud: "Use the bold text!"

If you're sharing your character's thoughts: Use the italic text!

If you're stating something OOC (out of character):

By the way, congrats on the first post @99_Ninjas! That was awesome, it really brought the setting to life!

Can I suggest to put up an OOC thread with a full character sheet for each of the member of the crew? I am supposed to have Sa'id be familar with the members of the crew, but at this stage I often forget who's a Firstcome or a Zeni and so on, and it might be nice to have a place for reference where I can check that I am not mixing up details from two different PGs.

I know this information is in this thread, but it's a bit confusing to scroll up and down to retrieve the info for the correct PG.

Out of curiosity, what do the other characters think of Tarek? I'm wondering about possible character interactions and how to play them right.

I made a character sheet for Brahim using Google Sheets (I needed a way to keep track of bonuses and total rolls for skills).

If it would be helpful and people are interested, each player could fill in a character sheet (tabs at bottom) and bookmark the spreadsheet. Then it would be available for reference anytime and easy to update. We could also make a tab for the ship.

The sheet has dynamic cells (shaded grey) that automatically calculate skill level. Just enter your attributes above and the enter skill level and it will automatically calculate the roll (see Brahim tab as a guide).

Brahim desires stability in his life and since the Captain guides the ship and makes important decisions, Brahim observes her like a weathervane to know which way the wind is blowing. He trusts her to make the right decision and is loyal to her.

So Brahim trusts Zahra, and since Zahra trusts you, by the transitive property of equality, Brahim trusts you too. This may come off a bit like a little brother who trusts Tarek without needing much explanation or reason, but Brahim's humanite nature is cold and logical so there would not be any of the hero-worship of which little brother's can be prone. When the Captain is not around, Brahim will look to you to be his weathervane.

Brahim is amazing with technology and you may have realized that he is easily able to modify and maintain your weapons and equipment.

Brahim has no filter, so if you have told him about your past it could leak out to anyone. I will assume you have not told him any juicy details unless you tell me otherwise. Pretty much anything beyond your name would be a juicy detail.

Is that helpful?

It is, thanks!

This is very cool, Ed! I'll fill in Zahra when I get a chance. I will also point out, in the event that for some reason someone can't access Google Sheets, you can make your GP Character Sheet publicly viewable. If you go to the Characters -> All Characters link from the top menu bar, scroll down to find your character (if you have to... I've made 55 characters at GP, so...) and click on the book icon. At that point, anyone should be able to click your character avatar and go to your sheet.

Thank you to ed... for the google sheets! Those are great! And the publicly available option is also very useful.

If people want to post their opinions and thoughts about the rest of the crew, I certainly encourage it. Especially since there are some oddities in the group. For instance, how does the rest of the crew feel about working with a humanite such as Brahim? Or how does the crew feel about Farouk having powers? Or about Tarek being a duelist (duelists usually kill people over matters of honor and money)? How does anyone feel about Riya? This is all definitely good stuff to know.

I believe the crew is mostly Zenithian, with the exception of Sani and Farouk.

When I have time, I'll post some general information about Khadija and her brother; stuff that all of you know about her. Hopefully tonight or tomorrow.

Thanks @Ed..., that's really great!

Ok, I read a bit more about the other characters background and formulated some ideas about how Sa'id might feel towards them.

Sa'id finds Brahim's character interesting and, in a very odd way, comfortable to be around. There's something strangely refreshing for Sa'id about knowing the person in front of you is not likely to lie to you or deceive you. Despite all his quirks, Sa'id appreciates the cold logic of Brahim and he finds somehow calming being in the company of somebody that he knows wouldn't lie to him. He knows that he's probably withholding plenty of information (especially about Khadija), but he's happy to know that what little he knows from Brahim, he knows it to be the truth. He also admires his intelligence, and he's probably, to a certain extent, even envious of it.

Generally, Sa'id has been around too many places, and met too many people of different origin to have prejudices against humanites, or regarding whether someone is Firstcome or Zenithian. He might be bothered by Firstcome's overzealousness, especially when it is associated with excessive orthodoxy. Sa'id is a proponent of free heterodoxal belief, and he can't stand the imposition of conformist dogmas. But when he meets a Firstcome for the first time, he always offers the benefit of the doubt, and he doesn't assume they're too devout only because they're Firstcome.

His attitude towards Farouk is a different thing. On one hand, his mystic powers are an exact expression of his belief in heterodoxy, and since the Church of the Icons does not accept them, it reinforces his belief that the dogma imposed by the Church is wrong and harmful. On the other hand, Sa'id doesn't understand how to interpret his power (he's actually very uncomfortable about all Mystics, in general). He likes to believe that the Icons built the Universe as a perfect mechanism and left it running, much like a mechanical clock, with minimal intervention necessary. But Farouk's powers seem to contravene this somehow. Humanites obey beautiful mathematical and physical rules written down by the Icons, but Mystic's power are too... "arbitrary". They're hard to understand, classify, put down in writing. Sa'id believes the Icons created an elegant universe of action and reaction, but the presence of Mystic's powers is too messy. He can't make much sense of it, and this frustrates him. Sa'id is extremely interested in how Farouk's powers work, but he finds his "excessive" devoutness a bit unnerving, at times.

Sa'id enjoys being in the company of Sani. Although he consider himself a Zenithian, he spent many years with the Nomads in the past, and now he finds himself to be comfortable around Sani. It's quite nice to have someone to share the aspects of Nomad culture with.

Sa'id is careful around Tarek. He seems a very determined person and Sa'id guesses that Tarek has his own goals and motives for joining the crew (I am not sure if Tarek shared his history and the fact that he's chasing the assassins, but I'm assuming he didn't). Sa'id has the impression that nothing would stop Tarek from his mission. He's currently trying to understand a bit better his motives.

Sa'id instinctively trusts Zahra as Captain. Something about her way to lead the ship makes him feel safe when he's on board the Riyad. He guesses she has a past, but he believes that regardless the situation, and regardless of what would come out of her past, Zahra would put the safety of her crew first, and he respects that.

Of course these are not set in stone! This is just how I imagine Sa'id reacting to the other characters after a couple of years of working together, based on the little I've read from their bio and the first posts. I am sure plenty will change as the characters interact with each other. Also if I got something wrong about your character, let me know, and I'll change the details.

I must say, I found genuinely funny how the "friendly" roll ended up being stealing the favourite statue of our clearly dangerous job contractor right under the nose of her massive plate-armoured giant bodyguard with a temper :)

Lol...I know, but I think 6's are good and 1's are bad.

I think 1's in the Free League games' mechanic don't matter. I remember subtracting 1's from the successes from the dice pool in WoD games. But I went quickly through the Coriolis rulebook, and I think you just count the 6's, failing only when there's none (sounds to me a bit like in this game success rate is quite high)

I don't think I will have time today, but I will try to post Farouk's opinions of the crew.

1's aren't especially bad. You can only get the equivalent of a "Critical Failure" in Coriolis if the GM decides to spend a Darkness point. Otherwise, if you get ones and no sixes, then it’s just a failure.