I don't currently have any grogs. Or do you mean the book? No. I only have the core book (and, randomly, The Sundered Eagle). It does limit me somewhat, but less than I thought it might.
Heh, OK. I'll assume, for the moment, it refers to Marko's "Superior" equipment - that is, +1 in one relevant stat.
Hurrah, horses.
Lovely! What sort of things tend to happen if one breaks a geas? I think having one that doesn't have an immediate obvious effect would be nice (no "struck by lightning"), since that just equates to "never lies". If I know something bad will happen, but that it isn't immediate or fatal, that opens the door for interesting decisions of when lying is actually the best option.
Yes, grogs, the book.
If you want, I suggest you take a look at the flaws list on the table of contents, and ask for what piques your interest atlas-games.com/pdf_storage/ ... ntents.pdf
Geas... Yeah, there were pretty hardcore ones, but I agree that this ain't interesting. As I see it, you might suffer from the effect of a minor flaw so long as you have not made suitable amend.
For exemple, you geas might be "You shall not lie, lest your fighting spirit abandon you", in which case you'd suffer from an equivalent of the non-combattant flaw until you confessed to a priest and took eucharisty.
Thanks, I din't know Atlas made their contents pages freely available! Wow, that's quite a treasure-trove of at least partially useful information. I think I'm good with Ability Block, Weakness for Cats, and Prohibition against Lying now, though.
Unless... What does Uncertain Faith do as a possible Geas effect? If it works, it seems thematic - perhaps a priest called the curse upon him. Lying means that, until shriven, his Faith isn't as effective (which could interplay nicely with his Relic). Other thoughts include:
a straightforward Lying -> Palsied Hands (that's -2 to all rolls involving holding an object, including weapon skills);
something like Lying -> Weak Characteristics (lying causes his characteristics to drop as if bought with 3 fewer points; SG choice exactly how each time it occurs. Can stack twice, like the flaw)
Ok, Phelippe's post has been edited with, I think, final numbers. He seems appropriately tank-like. Can someone check my understanding and arithmetic? I know he's missing combat stats for, say, Brawl; I can add those later. Thanks!
Do Grogs get their own page? And could Fixer carry him over to the wiki?
I think I finally have good ideas for my Grogs! Grog A, let's call her Anna is a girl branded a criminal and exiled from a city for crossing the Bowyer guild. Jerks. The guild probably didn't have the legal authority to do that, but they did have the gold to hire thugs.
The second is an orphan raised by nuns. And by nuns I mean infernalists posing as nuns. She fled as soon as she was realized the truth and would really like a place to stay. She's educated because when you are trying to gather power it helps to have everyone be educated and competent. So do I post the stats here? Make a post on the wiki? How do I post on the wiki anyway? Something else?
Name: Anna Bowyer
Characteristics: Str -1, Dex +2, Sta 0, Int 0, Per -1, Com 4, Pre 1, Qik -1
Traits: Impulsive+2, No respect for Mundane Authority+2
Age: 19
Confidence: 0
Decrepitude: 0
Warping: 0
Virtues: Affinity with Craft: Bowyer, Good Teacher, Great Communication
Flaws: Branded Criminal, Fragile Constitution, Motion Sickness
Abilities:
French 5 (Street talk)
Craft: Bowyer 7 (Arrows) (Note this costs 93 xp)
Teaching 2 (7)
Bows 3 (Defense)
Bargain 2 (Black Market)
Brawl 2 (Kicking)
Area Lore: Paris 3
Guile 2 (Rich people)
Folk Ken 1 (Rich People)
Hunt 4 (Poaching)
Survival 4 (Private Forests)
Anna was a talent young girl. Unfortunately for her, that talent was making bows and most city girls don't get to exercise that talent. But she did, becoming the leading producer of black market ranged weaponry. Made her money when her family would have otherwise starved. Most homemade stuff like that wasn't guild quality but hers was. And the guild took note. They branded her and banished from the city. Scholars might note that this is not in fact a power that guilds have. However the kind of thugs who grab people for silver and main them are not scholars.
The brand made it impossible for her to fit herself back into society elsewhere leaving her to fend for herself with her weaponry. Which swiftly led to her being an actual criminal engaging in poaching, trespass and outfitting of bandits and outlaws. Arrows to the knee where the order of the day for any band of hired adventurers who went after her.
Name: Faith Forest
Characteristics: Int +3, Com +2, Str+2, Per-3, Pre+2, Qik+1, Sta+0, Dex+0
Traits: Fear of Priests +3, Peaceful +3
Age: 14
Confidence: 0
Decrepitude: 0
Warping: 0
Virtues: Educated, Arcane Lore, Improved Characteristics
Flaws: Noncombatant, Divine Stigmata, Fear: Priests
Note: Divine Stigmata manifests infernal symbols apparently scratched into her skin.
Abilities:
Faerie Lore 2 (Dragons)
Infernal Lore 3 (Dragons)
Magic Lore 2 (Dragons)
Latin 5 (Curses)
Artes Liberales 2 (Geometry)
Philosophiae 3 (Disease)
Medicine 3 (Disease)
Chirgury 3 ( Blood Letting)
Catholic Church Lore 2 (Corrupt Members)
Civil and Cannon Law 2 (Loopholes)
Divine Lore 2 (Saints)
Profession Scribe 1 (Letters)
Stealth 3 (Moonlight)
Survival 2 (Forests)
Area Lore: The Nunnery of the White Widow 2 (Hiding places)
French 5 (Curses)
Faith's earliest memories are of the orphanage/nunnery at which she was raised. The place was normal as far as she knew, but it was far from normal. The order of nuns had been nearly completely corrupted or failing that enthralled with dark power. Everything was tense when a priest showed up the nuns fearing the priest would become suspicious which led to Faith's fear of priests. Eventually it came time to have Bless become initiated into the infernal rituals and such and Faith promptly fled when she found out, sneaking away in the dead of night. Wandering in the wilderness she came to the covenant lost and hungry. Will they really turn away a young lost orphan who is educated in matters mundane and mystical?
Reading up her background, she looks like a potential loremaster, something we're solely lacking of (You have no idea how many times I wanted arachné to delegate matters to someone skilled in all these mundane Arcane Lore skills no one has at a high enough level).
Instead of making her one of the "yet another one of the best teachers ever" crowd, why not emphasize that aspect? Shift Good Teacher (Which is, likewise, IMO wasted on Anna) for Improved Characteristics, raise her Intelligence to 3 and suddenly, she loses somewhat in teaching potential (with a dreadful individual SQ of 12 + Teaching skill), but becomes much more useful as a ressource, as well as increasing vastly her potential to do some Natural Magic.
As it is, once she's raised her skills, she won't be able to do anything else than teach them in a few seasons, and then nothing.
Making her a loremaster would vastly increase her usefulness in stories (Increased chance to make those knowledge skill rolls) and in downtime (Inceptions, Reagents, Ligatures, Enriched Items...)
Also, she's called Faith but her background reads Bless
That's a good idea. Consider it stolen and implemented. Good teacher on Anna is for teaching apprentice craftsmen. This way we can piss off the bowyer's guild even more. Good catch on the name. The idea wasn't really to be a best teacher ever, but to write books that don't suck. Although the stuff from A&A is cool. @Ansilano: Good catch on the characteristics and traits. Its what happens when I try to get a standard format and use copy paste. Whoops.
Magda [strike]is[/strike] was a 7 year old girl when she joined the educational program- we will introduce her in the near future via a story involving one of the current teachers (Marcus or Draganna) similar to the way Yanni was introduced. This character however may be more playable as a grog as she advances:
Stats:
Int 0 Per 0
Pre 0 Com 4
Str -1 Sta -1
Dex 0 Quick 2
Virtues:
great communication(minor +1)*
good teacher(minor +1)*
book learner(minor +1)
inherited traits gained after introductory story
flaws:
small frame(minor -1)
know it all(minor -1)
bastard(minor -1)
Abilities:
Basque 5
area Lore-Arans 2
charm 3
guile 2
music 3
legardemain 1
folk ken 1
An apprentice for Donna. I believe silveroak requested one. She'll be an artsy smith perpetually annoyed about not making cuter things. All swords should clearly be practical and pretty.
Name: Chloe
Age: 8
Personality Traits: Artsy+2 Gullible+3 Brave-3
Characteristics: Com+2 Pre+1 Per-3, Int+0, Str+2, Dex+3, Sta-2, Qik-2
Virtues: Prolific Artist, Free Expression, Unaging (Faerie)
Flaws: Gullible, No Sense of Direction Weak Characteristics
Abilities:
Catalan 5 (Apologizing while running away)
Athletics 3 (running away)
Swim 2 (returning to land)
Charm 3 (brushing over mistakes)
Stealth 3 (Hiding from people looking for her)
Life History and Personality: Chloe is one of the many children at the covenant everyone seems to ignore. The grogs are hard enough to distinguish on their own and their all having children. The children are just small hyper-active blobs people learn to avoid and ignore. Or at least it feels that way to Chloe. Whatever the case she wants to make shiny, pretty, cool things for a living. Who doesn't like a sword with a decorative engraving or a particularly cool, but somehow still practical axe?
Chloe believes just about whatever anyone tells her. Like the story about the castle with the talking candlestick and the friendly wolfman even though all the other kids say its stupid. Although in her defense it turned out to be true, and she met the guy. Also wolfmen have a terrible sense of direction. No one believed her about it, but that's only reinforced her gullibility. She is also easily scared.
I'm assuming this is how she is when Donna begins her apprenticeship- in spring 1237. By 1242 when Belinda starts at age 5 Chloe will be 13... how gullibility will interact with the faerie power of conjuration should be... interesting.
By 1242 she would have 36 points in craft:weaponsmith and 5 free seasons to study/do as she wishes.
Abilities:
Basque 5
area Lore-Arans 2
charm 3
guile 2
craft:woodworking 4
ettiquette 2
folk ken 1
carouse 1
Background: Turtle has a reputation as a child prodigy in artistic woodworking, and his parents have sacrificed a lot to give him that opportunity. His artwork grows more expensive though, and now he has been told he must find a patron or he will be given to someone as an apprentice, so he has ventured to the castle to seek patronage. He will be a fair craftsman with a bit more age, and is probably at the peak of his artistic ability for his age. He has some definite potential in either direction however.
Silveroak, QPac, I assume those stats are their "final" stats when they reach full maturity (ie. without the age penalty)? I'm wondering if maybe we should come up with a standard convention for the young folk. Maybe show their final stats, but next to the "Stats:" line put the stat penalty in parentheses next to it? So for Turtle it would look like:
Stats: (-4 to all)
Int 1 Per 2
Pre 1 Com -2
Str 0 Sta 0
Dex 3 Quick -1
Does that make sense? It's just easier than having to remember what the penalty is for each year when you're looking at character sheets. I'm up for other recommendations. I originally thought just putting the current stats as is would work, but I actually think this is better.
Yup stats at start.
I'm trying to figure out how you calculated this and I'm having trouble. How are the seasons split up? And is Donna working on the off seasons so Chloe can train under Donna?
Secondly, 36 experience seems like almost no training was bothered with. Indeed, she could learn more by forgetting the apprenticeship and just trying to learn how to smith on her own. (Also known as practice.)
Good catch on the name. The idea wasn't really to be a best teacher ever, but to write books that don't suck. Although the stuff from A&A is cool.