Session Zero

Hello everyone! Welcome! Very excited to play with you all!

Lines and Veils
First up, please head over to this Lines and Veils Google Sheet (this one is taken from Happy Jacks) and indicate topics/themes you want excluded from the game, and perhaps some topics you're particularly keen to have included.

Please edit the sheet directly - it already contains my Lines and Veils for this game, you're adding any additional ones to those shared by other players already.

At the top right please indicate whether/how you are open to romantic action for your PC, and indicate by filling in the box that you've seen/edited the sheet. Add your GamersPlane username to the box so we know who's looked through the sheet.

Building characters

So! What kind of characters are you interested in making?

Your characters have each undertaken a quest for The Tower. From the moment you swore your oath, your oath to seek out The Tower, every step you have taken has been towards The Tower. Every time you stopped to rest, The Tower waited. Your characters are together in a ka-tet, where you share your commitment, your quest, to reach the tower.

To make your own character, check out this Google Document describing the rules. I found them relatively easy to follow for making my own characters, and if you have any questions, please ask them here, very happy to help.

I've provided an example pre-generated character on the far left of the "Characters" sheet.

If you'd like me to make a pre-generated character for you, just let me know, and I can put one together for you.

Please put your characters in this Google Sheet Character Keeper provided by the game's author.

Once you've chosen a portrait/avatar, and a name, for your character, please add these to a simple custom GamersPlane character sheet - so that when you post in character, we see your PC name and PC avatar next to the post in the forums.

Hi! Thanks for inviting me into the game! I filled out the line and veils. Would you like us to roll our stats here? Right now I'm leaning towards otherworlder marked by doors or a street rat.

Thanks for filling out the Lines and Veils!

Feel free to roll for stats here or on your own, whatever works best for you. The one advantage I can see of rolling them here, is that if you do your rolls, and the next person to roll up their character can see how you did it, maybe it makes it a bit easier/clearer for them to do it themselves.

Personally, I quite enjoyed rolling for things that the rules suggest we roll for e.g. where you found your heart, equipment - I enjoyed building that randomness into my character in a world that feels very random. But if you prefer to pick from those lists without the randomiser, that's also fine by me.

So, please, @microtheMacroBear, go ahead and do it the way that works best for you.

Welcome! I also like rolling for things.

Here it goes!

On top of the rolls, I'll play an other worker with these backgrounds.

Other worlder:
Marked by Doorways
Guided by Dreams

Wastelander:
Animal Companion

Ok, I've done everything but my portraits. :)

This is helpful- new to the system/rules so I'm going to chip away at making a character. If you notice anything off please let me know.

Lol- I added what I thought I should to the character sheet. Not sure if I screwed some of the fields up though.

Looking good, @microtheMacroBear - looking forward to seeing Oscar's portrait.

With the character build, there are two things I think you can change (both are in your favour heh).

Firstly, for your DEX, you rolled (4,2) -> 6 which maps to 10 not 9 (which is what you have in the Character Keeper.)

Secoundly ,you get to roll another d10 on a Weapon Table of your choice - you rolled your first against "Otherworlder", this second roll can be against any of the tables. So you'll have a second weapon in addition to your Taser.

Henry's looking good, @SenorDeebs - I went in a fiddled a bit with the formating, I think it's giving the information you need in the sheet now. AHHHHHH excited to get playing with y'all!

Thanks! I total missed the second weapon rule. I'll update that and the better stat role for dex (which will definitely help!)

Yah! Also excited to play. Rolling for a weapon from the wasteland.

So, I'll give it a try then

I think Ms Adler is about ready for the doom ahead.

Ms Adler looks like she has her double-barrelled shotgun all ready to go...!

Bring it ;)

So I rolled ‘Breach Cannon’ and I’m trying to wrap my brain around what that is. lol- I’m guessing just a kind of pistol that loads from the breech… not an actual cannon… which is what a quick we search revealed :)

heh yeah several of the bits of gear need (for me at least) some judicious internet searching to get my head around what they could look like and how they might work!

@therecusant @DragonDweller62 do please ping me if you need any help or inspiration for character building.

We can also play with the three of you who've already made characters (@microtheMacroBear @Adrasthea @SenorDeebs)

I suggest we wait until the end of Thursday 30th to hear from @therecusant @DragonDweller62 - and if we haven't by then, we can start in-character play. If you think we should do this differently, maybe wait longer, please let me know (I'm new to GP and PbP and have yet to start running a game that has gotten to in-character play... hopefully a few starting soon though, including this one!)

Sounds good! I think maybe we should wait until Monday. If they are from the U.S., they could still be traveling/visiting for the Thanksgiving Holiday.

Ahhhhh yes of course, I forgot about Thanksgiving! Yes, will wait until Monday 4th :)

Thanks for waiting; I went through the Lines and Veils sheet and added my username last night. With that done, I'll get started on my character shortly.

Ah, great you can join :) Please just ping me with any questions - looking forward to seeing your PC!

I am not home this weekend, so Monday works great for me :)

Rolling my stuff . . .

Looking good, @DragonDweller62! Just looked through that all, and it checks out for me. Look forward to learning more about your character!

Thanks, BeardHare! Just finished my character and submitted a GP sheet. As always, feel free to look it over and make sure everything's correct.

Thanks, @DragonDweller62! Looking good :)

If we don't hear from @therecusant tomorrow we might have another player come in their place - will give them a couple of days to check in, but expecting to start play next week!

Hey! Glad to be playing with everyone!

I’m going to be going with someone from the Suzerainty

@therecusant couldn't join, sent their wishes for us to have a good game together :) @Aegis had just pinged to ask if there was space, so that timing worked out well!

I've added a coloumn for you, @Aegis, in the Google Sheets character keeper. Work is very busy for me the next three days (my work schedule is like that - I run training courses for a job, and there's one this week) so it may take me a few days to check out your character once you've put it up.

Sounds good. I’ll get in there and update it. Thanks

@aegis I thought I'd put your name in for the columns for your character - but I hadn't. Just changed that now, sorry for any confusion. Your character content would go in the columns Q->T.

Hi! I have to travel for work. So, I may not post on Thursday or Saturday because of airport internet, but I will try to post when I can.

I think that’s it. Please check out my character sheet when you get the chance.

Hey @Aegis,

For the attributes, the idea is that your 2d6 rolls map onto this table at the top of p9 in the rule book

roll_total:attribute_value
2-3:8
4-5:9
6-7:10
8-9:11
10-11:12
12:13

Thus, your rolls map to the attribute values indicated below:

STR 5 -> 9
DEX 8 -> 11
CON 6 -> 10
INT 9 -> 11
WIS 11 -> 12
CHA 7 -> 10


Thus your attributes are

STR -> 10 (9 base attribute +1 from Soldier background)
DEX -> 11 (11 base attribute)
CON -> 11 (10 base attribute +1 from Hearty background)
INT -> 12 (11 base attribute +1 from Surgeon background)
WIS -> 12 (12 base attribute)
CHA -> 10 (10 base attribute)

I've edited these for you in your character sheet.

I also edited your HP up to 16 rather than 11 (i.e. 11 + 5 from Hearty background).

With that we're good to go!

Ahhhhh looking at the character keeper I'm reminded of the words of Sergeant Apone in Aliens...

"Absolutely BADASS"!

Two things to do before we start playing

1. @aegis please create a skeleton character sheet for Maxim (just with his avatar and a portrait so when you post as him, we see his name and avatar)

2. @Adrasthea please check out/edit/indicate you've looked at the Lines and Veils document for the game

When it comes to posting frequency, my current plan is to wait three days for someone to post if we're waiting on them. If we don't hear from them, I will move the plot forward either keeping that PC in the background, not getting involved - or if it's unavoidable i.e. something is happening that would impact them and require them to respond, then i'll take over the reigns and act for them.

Thanks, BeadHare. Everyone's character is looking great, and I'm excited to meet them all! The posting frequency sounds fair to me.

Thanks, BeardHare. Totally agree!

Ah, y'all, thanks for all the support and enthusiasm! Great to see it :)

I like to start games with some lore-co-creation, asking each PC a different question/giving each a different prompt - you're free to answer these as you like, and what you describe will become part of your shared history, part of how the worlds work.

I'm going to put those up now/today in the first in-character thread. You can answer in-character if you like or in third-person. I don't want us to move the plot or action forward until everyone's had a chance to respond to their prompt and you're welcome to chat around and engage with the answers the others provide.

No need. thx

Thanks @Adrasthea - in that case, do please check out the topics other people have excluded from the game, and I won't wait to see your check mark on the sheet.

Hey. Super sorry I just dropped off the planet like that. I had a TON of stuff happen in RL (wife had a kid super early AND a brand new job and new responsibilities) and got pretty overwhelmed. I kept thinking I was going to post something "tomorrow" but tomorrow kept moving and by the time I realized that, it'd basically been a month, I guess.

Anyway, with all of my RL stuff going on, I've got to scale back and basically quit any of the games I was in if they didn't quit me first, so I won't be on the site much for a while.

Again, sorry to be so flighty.

No worries, congratulations on the baby and the job!

No apology needed, congratulations!

How do you feel about character death?

My default plan would be for it just to happen if God wills it. And then work with the player, if they want to keep going, to make a new character that would be introduced to the story almost instantly i.e. with more focus on speed, less on being particularly reasonable/rational.

How would you like to deal with it? The system is built for death to be reasonably likely, but if you wouldn't enjoy that, we'll find a way of accommodating that. And our way of dealing with this can be different for different players. And you can change your mind about that if or when it happens.

But just wanted to check in. Er. Cue ominous music? lol...

Congrats to @Aegis!
I don't mind heroic deaths- it makes playing th echaracter worthwhile. I think whatever makes most sense narratively- if there's a possibility of returning (like Jake did in the writing), then cool.