General Table Talk

I am working on something for Ikelos. :slight_smile: My idea is that your Visions urge you on to read these books, and then destroy them before anyone else gets their hands on them. The knowledge is preserved in you, and it is up to you to disseminate it in a way you feel is best. That will take up seven seasons between "then" and "now".
I want to revise the books a bit first. Make the descriptions and details a bit more esoteric, add some more enigma to the contents.

Gen one up from scratch, or grab one from our roster and modify them as you see fit. :smiley:
Grogs of Andorra
They are a bit out of date I have been told. So modify away

Sounds like a plan. I will not advance Ikelos for now until you have an idea on the books.

Is there any current thread that he can fit it?

Not yet. I will make one soon.

Roberto is quite direct regarding promotion and information when he talks to new PCs xD

When Mateu can recover and close his amazed open mouth he will reply.

That is a PbP habit. I squeeze as much as I can into a single post. In abstract it can be seen as half the conversation. There would be some back and forth, but if we posted a literal back and forth it could take days or weeks of real-time to hold a short conversation.

To be fair, that is not what he said. The position is Sergeant, as in "Turb Sergeant", a position befitting a Grog. Though some in-character confusion of terms is plausible. Roberto's mundane military experience was as part of an infantry mercenary company. From my research (a few years back), I discovered that modern military ranks are evolved directly from mercenary traditions of the middle ages. Mateu is not a green recruit, he is a veteran. He comes off that way at least. It doesn't seem likely that the Order of Saint John would send their lowest ranking man as a solo operating emissary. At least worthy of being a Lance Corporal if not a Sergeant. Presuming you have seen combat.

Which again makes me think that Mateu is unlikely grog material. It isn't the stats, it is the backstory and the way he is acted out with bold confidence. However, it may well be that he is a patsy or a drone. A plant. A man on the inside for when the real diplomat shows up. Your Order doesn't expect results from you, and you have no strong contacts to communicate with them. You are a canary. They sent you to test the waters, and if after a year these devil-wizards haven't eaten you, it is safe to send visitors of rank.

To me grog is a rules thing. The king of France can be modelled as a grog. This is what happens with Mateu. If you consider him a companion, no problem either. He just will not be using the full allowance of v&f available.

But in any case yes, he is quite what he says in the ranks of the hospitalliers. An accomplished fighter and trusted warrior, but not a high officer. He is a fighter after all. He can be a canary, or just have nagged the higher ups enough to have them send him here so that he stops pestering them with correspondence.

He is a mounted fighter and can lead a lance of 4 including himself. So he assumed that this would be the case. He can be right or not, and that makes for RP material :slight_smile: I actually like the fact that he might be wrong. However, the magi might be surprised when they discover that he bludgeoned his way to the leadership of a mounted lance before they look into it again :stuck_out_tongue:

To me Grog is a matter of lack of importance in the story.
Grogs are minor characters, with little potential for greatness. Companions have more.

Very interesting! Didn't know that.

Seems that Marko has the same idea. OK, Mateu is a companion in this case. He is grand; It is me playing him after all :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Should I start a thread for Mateu?

They can have moments of importance, and they can potentially grow. But that is the exception, not the rule. They do start out small. I would allow a grog to evolve to companion level over time in play.

If you want to modify the character as a Minor Companion, that is a fantastic option. Take up to 5 points of balanced Virtues & Flaws and you have a Confidence score of 1. You can have one Minor Story Flaw. You can have one Major Flaw. You can have one Major Virtue only if you also have a Major Flaw. It is better to have no Major Virtues or Flaws.
Or go full tilt. Just show some restraint. Depends on what you want. If you are fine as is, just take the Confidence score and never use it. :smiley:

The concept of Minor Companion sounds like what I want for Selim. At least, maybe even full companion. He seems too ‘light’ as a Grog, not tapping sufficiently into his potential.
To function as a competent caravaner I think he needs a Profession (caravaner) to cover the know how and practicalities of travel and cargo. He needs more exp to possess the necessary abilities.
Also, I’d like him to be Unaffected by the Gift to work better among the magi.
Maybe Educated to learn Latin
In time he can become a caravan leader, but now he is just a competent worker as animal handler on expeditions and in the stables when home.

Ok. Will go minor companion then. I will take Patron as a way to tie him to his mission: he need to report something to someone from time to time. Tonight or so will try to post a thread with the minor updated stuff.

Hey everyone, sorry for the disappearing act. The holidays were busier than expected, and then my wife got attacked by the flu last week and I was taken out by amazingly powerful allergies at the same time. It was not fun. I am finally back in the world of the living and will have to get caught up on everything.

This. They're like extras in a TV show.

Which is why grogs can evolve: They just got promoted to "regular cast".

About "minor companion": Note that nothing forces you to create a character with 10 v/f.
So if you feel that your character is best served by 4-9 v/f, or don't need the full allotment, or whatever, it's already perfectly possible :wink:

Yeah, this is me trying to scrawl back.

Question about timings. How long is it between posts? To know what to expect in an adventure and make sure I do not post too much or too little.

Depends on the participants I suppose. I have seen pulses of fast & slow. I try to match the pace of the other players. If you wantto bump something along, go ahead.

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I am waiting for the African adventure to start and was just curious of the timings. I guess right now the "craves for travel" flaw corresponds both to Mateu as a character and his player.

Which African adventure? "All roads lead to Africa" has started but given the mid-story 'reboot' new characters could step in at the current location. ..

The one for winter that is to leave Andorra when everybody is ready. Ancient Discovery. Mateu Was not around before that to join another adventure located in Africa. :slight_smile:

Marko and I are pushing things forward with Lucas and Roberto making last-minute plans. I've been a bit swamped at work, which has slowed me down a bit. But I hope to get the adventure moving in earnest soon.