Character and World Creation

Could we get portraits for Rook and Alycine. It will help us distinguish them in posts.

Shout is you need help.

Right... wink wink :D
I've added it here.Makes sense, I'll have good and bad days, I guess. And it surely makes for an easy excuse sometimes :)
Also, if there would be a situation where having bad lungs specifically would be a down side, I'm fine with having some sort of penalty on my roll. I'll leave that up to you. It might be more fun/fitting with the fiction.

Everyone: feel free to call me Gen for short.

Noted.

OK, I have a portrait now for Rook

Alright, I'm going to roll my stats (I hope).

STR +2; DEX +1; CON +0; INT +2; WIS +1; CHA +0.
Seems like I'll be making a wizard?

The dice sure seem to be telling you to... even if the world tells you not to. :)
But then, equally high STR, and good DEX and WIS give you all sorts of options. Play what you want, not what the dice suggest, we can make it work.

paladintodd: I don't see your HP listed. Did you ever roll them? (Not saying you are gonna need them, or anything:).

With Cook's +1 CON you roll two dice and keep the highest 1d6,1d6

Oh, looks like I never got around to finishing Cook. Oops. Will get equipment and what not done this afternoon.

6 HP!
Surprisingly healthy. :)

Alrighty, gonna roll up my attributes

Cool, I'm really charismatic. Rolling my HP now.

Dirk Tsoil the grave robbing amateur archaeologist

I submitted my character, hopefully I did it all right. I'll sketch up a portrait for him in a bit.

Dirk looks good.

How do you think he ends up with the party?

Was he part of the caravan and with the party all along, through the whole experience?
Was he with the bandits and joined back then?
Have his grave robbing archaeological activities brought him to this hidden and long forgotten place?

All are valid ways to get a new character into the story. Meeting now, at the temple, means we have to do a little work to build trust (we can all ignore the obvious suspicion engendered by their most recent --though short-lived-- addition), but we can make that happen. We can play it out, or just declare it done, whatever we choose.

If you know some of the others from before it can help. Rook is a thief, so you may have moved in similar circles, and Albert was a bartender, till recently, so he is easy for anyone to know.

Except, Dirk's HP are 3, not 4. You roll 2 dice, but only keep 1 when you are level 1.

I'm having a blast reading through the adventure so far, just finished reading "On the Road" and the OOC commentary on it. Right now I just started reading "Off the Beaten Track". I know I don't need to read the whole thing but it's a nice little learning experience for me since the only PBP experience I have so far is bowlofspinach's tutorial.
Trying to come up with an idea of how to introduce Dirk, I might just go with your suggestion on meeting at the temple, not sure yet.
Ah gotcha, the wording was a little confusing in the rules but this clears it up. I also changed out Zigzag the dog with the tinker skill.
Does the "can't miss" thing apply to both abilities and skills? Or just skills?

While it is not necessary, reading what has gone before can be very worthwhile. There is also a summary which can be referred back to (it can be depressing how short those summaries are:).

One of the reasons I prefer to keep games public is so prospective players can read them to get a feel for the game's style, and prospective GMs can take a look at a the player's style. But most games don't get read by anyone who is not --or not going to be-- involved. We are not writing a book, so don't fret about the quality of language, being creative is the most important bit, though beaten by being clear. A clear but boring way of saying something is vastly better than a beautiful but hard to understand one. :)
Also: Those were also only examples --though they were pretty all-encompassing in their generality-- any other ideas you can come up are welcome.
Maybe Dirk was out near here, archiologing, and had a dream last night that drove him to seek what is beneath the temple? So he abandoned what he was doing and came looking?

If so: What is he seeking? What is beneath the temple that drives him?
Yes, the rules about HP are a constant source of confusion.
Also, don't stress too much about getting the exact right picks now. If you find during play that something is not working the way you thought it did, we can always swap it out later after some discussion.

Rook does already have Tinker. Rezart, you still happy with such duplication?
Just Skills, that is all a Skill does (well, that and provide fictional positioning to do things others would have a harder time justifying).
Special Abilities provide extra options or items (the dog for instance, or better armour and such). If you have to roll for an Ability, then a Skill can apply there as well.

If you need someone familiar within the group, my character "Albert" was a bartender at a bar just outside of town. Feel free to have him as a friend or acquaintance. I find it's much easier to be accepted (and trusted) in a group when there are existing bonds.

While PCs are better, Dirk could also know either of the NPCs present (Asha or the guard captain). This only eases the acceptability right now, a bond with a PC last even if the NPCs depart.

It seems a bit redundant to have two trap springers on the team, but it won't hurt my enjoyment of the game in any way if that's what you want to go with. With something like a graverobber, I'd think you'd could go for some sort of cooler ability like spirit command or something though. Or maybe Slay, from building up those digging muscles? But like I said, I'm fine with whichever way you want to take it; Rook is more of a street rat, and his Tinker is much more useful for picking locks and pockets