[CoH] Let's playtest online (in English)

[Joshua Bearden]

Not to be outdone by the Romans, I'm hoping other 'angel pirates' in this forum will join me in an endeavour to play test this muck-shite hart breaker while it's still as fresh as a spider-hag's first kiss.

Proposal: comment in this thread by making 2 characters if you're interested. When quorum (3 or 4 people including me) is reached we'll immediately plan a google hangout session.

[Joshua Bearden]

Okay my first character:

Rolling:
BQWC = 5bwr = 5533 (plus 1) = 6644

Traits:
Romantic (+2 C): the delusion of narrative, for oneself and others
Brutal (+1 B +1 C): at home with physical and emotional pain
BQWC = 7647

Homeland
If C is highest, or if the highest score is shared by one or more attributes, then you're from Rolke, because it rounds things out
Rolke is a forested mountain land, with a rocky rough coast that nevertheless includes some maritime communities.
[...]
The coast communities struggle with raids from Spurr, but in developing ships of their own, some have also established consistent trade there.

Professions and social rank
4W = 1 profession
I want a fisherman or sailor so I'm thinking either outdoorsman or merchant
Profession: Outdoorsman
Social Rank: Freeman

Sex
I'm drawing inspiration from a character in Rockbound (a novel set along the rocky romantic coastline I live along now) and that character is male.

Magix
4 meager spell points:
White: Calm elements (3pts)
Black: Summon Demon I (1pt)

Details
rolling
bw=13
Demeanor = b+C = 8 = Blunt – not vicious or insulting, merely lacking in graces
Feature = w+C = 10 = Blaze – another common genetic quirk
Sounds perfect for a brutal romantic by the Sea.

Name
(I have 'David' or 'Uriah' in mind, but I'll see what the list offers)
Freeman have a full name but are often called the diminutive form, if available, with no real distinction between the uses. Some freemen use their region or a descriptive nickname as a surname.

GEBHARD geb "gift" hard "brave, hardy"
* GEBBERT

I contemplate using "Ironbound" (the name of an island community in rl) as his surname if necessary.

Armor and weapons
Freemen are familiar with the staff and with weapons pertaining to their jobs. An outdoorsman is necessarily skilled with the sling, bow, and hand axe, carrying whatever is needed that day.

If necessary, then add a single professional or gentry weapon, usable either on foot or mounted. If in doubt or if you don't care, choose the spear. Such characters are also trained in the use of mail, cone helmet, buckler, and parma.

I'd like Gebbert to know how to handle and throw a francisca.

Key Event
As a youth Gebbert was besotted with love for Frieda, an island woman of extraordinary beauty and wizard of Amboriyon. He worshipped her and thought he was in love. Freida used her magic to defend the island from Spurrish raiders, she used it to save the island from the winter gale. She finally purged the island of all impurity, including Gebbert's family and all his friends and then took herself to the clouds. In this scene he turns his back on the now deserted island village of his youth and decides that light should always be tempered with a little darkness.

[Ron Edwards]

Gorgeous character. I always like the way the Details come together.

[Joshua Bearden]

And one more character to prove I'm serious.

BQWC = 5bwr = 5235 = 6346
Cunning (+2 W): surprise and deception, every time
Ambitious (+1 Q +1 W): toward achieving the social rank just above one's own
B6, Q4, W7, C6
If W is highest, you're from Spurr, where treachery is trust
2 profesions: Merchant and Wizard
Status: Professional
Sex: Woman.
Demeanor: C6 +4
10 Formal – not bowing and scraping, merely according closely to clear class-based social boundaries
Feature: C6 +5
11 Emblem – denotes family, region of birth, or a profession; this is in addition to the Circle emblem ordinarily worn by the player-characters
Name: Dagmar Gerlinde
Arms & Armour:  the spear,  mail, cone helmet, buckler, and parma.
Key Event:
Raised among Spurrish raiders, Dagmar's powerful personality and secret lore allowed her to assume command of a raiding ship and crew. Her reputation grew such that she was able to trade more than raid, as her silent threat was incentive to offer her favourable terms. All went well until her mercantile pursuits offended the denizens of an isle defended by a powerful white wizard. In this scene her ship and crew are decimated by an avenging silver dragon. She alone escaped with her life.

[Joshua Bearden]

Tons of fun.  I could keep going all day.  Your scolding of Moreno scared me straight into not tampering with the order of steps.  At first it seemed funny to have to roll for demeanor and feature AFTER assigning traits...  but doing so lead to some fun twists and surprise along the way. 

There was no premeditated link between the two characters but for my personal obsession with the Sea.  None-the-less I couldn't resist leaving open the possibility that Frieda touched them both along the way.

[Justice Platt]

Alright, my first character attempt:

Rolls:5662, so B6, Q7 W7 C3

Traits: Ambitious (1Q 1W) Romantic (2C)

Final: B6 Q8 W8 C5

From Rolke.

Professions: Entertainer (Low), Martial (Low).  Social rank-peasant.

I initially wanted to make this character male, just cos that's how he was appearing in my mind, but the picture got more vivid and interesting to me when I started thinking of a woman with these traits.  So woman it is.

Magic is a little tough.  Glamor seems like a no-brainer, so glamor.  I like the idea that this highly talented and extremely ambitious woman can summon demons, so that's in, and I'll add in some seemingly highly useful stuff in Perfect Senses, Warding, and Shimmer-she likes staying alive.

For demeanor & feature I get 1 & 6 respectively, so she is friendly (not what I had been imagining, but I can roll with it) and has an emblem.  Possibly something to do with the entertainer profession.

I like the name Gisa from the lists.

For weapons, I'll take the staff, hand axe, round shield, and lots of concealed knives.  Since she's from Rolke, a bow as well.

The inciting event:  After leaving her family of tinkers & jugglers, she used the glamor spell and lots of head knocking to rise to the top of a bandit gang.  She presented herself as something of a downtrodden champion to gain sympathy and support from the local peasantry and freemen, but could manage only a bloody stalemate with the local warlord.  She summoned a dancer, lost control, and crawled away from the bloody shambles by sheer luck.

[Ron Edwards]

That's great, Justice! Two characters, so let's see the next.

[Justice Platt]

Thanks for the vetting, Ron. I was pretty sure I got it right, but the confirmation is good.

2nd character.

Dice: 5246, so B6 Q3 W5 C7

I'm going to go with Brave (2Q) and Cunning (2W), so final: B6 Q5 W7 C7.

Also from Rolke.  For professions, I'll take Priest and Scholar.  Social rank is Freeman.

This character will be male.  Spells: Heal, repair, soothe, black speech, confuse-I admit I may be skipping ahead a bit, as I'm having pictures of the event in my head, and chose some spells based on that.  Maybe I should have gone random.

Rolls are 2 & 2 for features, so I've got a formal demeanor and a blaze.  Pretty in line with how I'm picturing him this far.

I'll call him Oskar.  (I just read the Meinrad Good example, and discovered maybe a surname?  Hadn't realized I duplicated effort so much).  So surname-he's from Foulke, so that's the surname-Foulken.

He's a cautious guy, so he has a spear, parma, mail, and a cone helmet. 

Event:  He was taken under the wing of the former priset in his town, and taught doctrine and literacy.  Upon the older man's death, he inherited the position and also the man's secret cache of a few books and papers, which he studied well, keeping his eye out to obtain more.  He learned some magic from the texts, and used it to protect and care  for the locals.  He took it on himself to investigate some nasty happenings, and encountered a lich.  Initially, he tried to negotiate, reason, suborn but found he would be forced to bow to raw power. He tried to cobble together something magical to defend his place and people.  He failed.

[Vernon R]

I'm game!

First character

Rolls:  5,4,2 so we start with B6, Q6, W5, C3

For traits we'll take Brutal (+1 B and +1 C) and Brave (+2Q) giving us B7 Q8 W5 C4

Q is highest so homeland is Famberge.

5wits gives us two professions so Outdoorsman and Martial (low) making him a freeman.

Definitely male.

I'm thinking this guy is a lesser relative of a chieftain in Famberge.  He helps out with the farming when it's necesary but he lives for the glory and honor of raiding his neighboring settlements.  Stealing cattle, pigs, goats, whatever and exacting vengeance on those who have stolen from him and his.

Magic I'm thinking would all be learned since joining the circle.
White- 1pt healing, 2pt armor
Black- 2pt reflect spell

Details: Demeanor-Formal,Feature-mismatched eyes

Name: Gerhardt
Key event: As frequent successful raiders Gerhardt and his tribe created many enemies.  One particularly desperate chieftain turned to a sorcerer of Rbaja for his vengeance who inflicted the village with a vile pestilence.  In their weakened state they were no match for the vengeful tribe, Gerhardt and others who were capture were set out to be crucified and then turned into undead by the sorcerer.  The chieftains daughter had escaped the sacking and was hidden in the forest, she cried out to the heavens for help and in response a Unicorn appeared and had pity on her.  It showed none to the attacking tribe and the sorcerer.  In the chaos that ensued Gerhardt escaped.

[Vernon R]

Second character.

Rolls: 1, 5, 4  Starting with B6 Q2 W6 C4

Traits Brave (+2q)  and Romantic (+2c) giving us B6 Q4 W6 C6
A tie so he's from Rolke.

6W gives us two professions.  I think he's a lesser son of a king or chieftain so not exactly full gentry.  I was thinking Martial high as a benefit of birth and the either Artisan as they've had him working on building a castle with the stone masons.

Magic: 6pts
White 1pt Beacon, 2pt Bless
Black 1pt confuse, 2pt curse



Demeanor - Formal
Feature- one piece of bright clothing

Name: Adalwulf Gisbert


Key Event:  Adalwulf might be the youngest of the circle knights.  He was little more than a child when he first met the young king.  In the wars that were fought to establish his kingdom he eventually came up against Adalwulf's father.  Battle lines were drawn but before the forces engaged the young king spoke out to the assembled troops and offered all who wished to join him the opportunity to do so.   So powerful were his words that Adalwulf immediately felt love (possibly heretical, homosexual, tragic doomed romantic) for the young king and turned against his family joining the kings cause forever after.

[Joshua Bearden]

Wow!  Excellent.  This gives us quorum. Lets move to the final phase of the circle...

Divide the characters into the half with higher total scores and the half with lower total scores.
Each of the latter gets +1 to any score the player chooses (this doesn't affect homeland,
professions, details, or anything else). The single character with the lowest total scores gets a
Tally item of the player's choice (see Magic).

Gisa (from Rolke):   B6 Q8 W8 C5 = 27
Oskar Foulken:   B6 Q5 W7 C7 = 25
-----
Gerhardt (from Famberge):  B7 Q8 W5 C4 = 24  +1 (Vernon choose)
Gebbert Ironbound:   B7 Q6 W4 C7 = 24   +1 ( I choose +1 Brawn)
Dagmar Gerlinde:   B6 Q4 W7 C6 = 23   +1  (I choose +1 quickness)
Adalwulf Gisbert:   B6 Q4 W6 C6 = 22  +1 (Vernon choose, also choose a tally!)

So Vernon has three final choices to make and then the circle is ready.

Next step...

The GM does prepare the location and beginning situation, independently of the players.

I'm willing to do this, but if either of you Justice or Vernon are eager to GM just say so here. (Also do the prep.)
I'm going to prep anyway and if neither of you has spoken by the time we meet we'll go with that.

Now, on to scheduling.  This could get painful to watch so I'm going to suggest we take it to email. Please email me joshua
at bearsend dot ca.

Once we make a few decisions I'll post them back here so people know what we're up to.

Good?

[Justice Platt]

Good.  I'd be willing to GM, but I think you're in a better place relative to the game's aesthetic than I am, plus reviewing other threads makes it clear that I missed some (many!) details in my first read of the game's rules, so...

Email pending.

[Vernon R]

Interesting.  Tough decisions but I think I'll take +1 brawn for Gerhardt.  For Adalwulf I'll take +1 C and the tally will be white, convert an unnamed npc into an unquestioning follower with a C vs 12 roll, once per adventure.

Email to follow.

[Joshua Bearden]

Just finishing our first play session.  I want to thank Vernon and Justice for their patience with me.  It's nice at least that 'we're playtesting' is part of the social contract so I don't have too feel too embarrassed about fumbling with the rules so much.



As GM I provided the players with the following information:

The assignment:
Bekselle is a town, in the upper reaches of Rolke's deepest fjord. It is prosperous but insular.  The fjord's mouth is a shallow a treachorous delta, nearly unnavigable. Better protected than most of the coastal cities, it has been virtually immune to spurrish incursions and raids.  Its prosperity seems entirely inward focussed because it does so little trade with other cities.   A travelling priest or herbalist reports that the town teems with healthy children and youths and has even since well before the young kings time.   The young king would like to know the secret of their robustness to see if it can be shared to other towns.

Upon reaching the town they met, in fairly short order an elderly matriach named Hulda, a discontent and angry young man name Aghi, and Hulda's oldest son Guntram.

I'll leave it to the others to provide what detail they divined.  I'll also get back to this thread after some sleep.

My first impressions.  Combat is fast and decisive.  However I have a long way to go before I am even close to feeling like I'm running it properly. I was pretty seriously confused about the offence/defence allocations but I felt that Vernon and Justice had figured it out enough for us to get through the relevant combat.

During the climax of tonight's session the two circle knights were pounding on Aghi when a small mob of his followers showed up to assist.  We knew from past experience that the mob members were 'nobodies' but I was prepared to treat them as an instantly lethal mob if they chose to attack.  Gisa had subdued Aghi and had a knife to his throat. Gerhard was able to give Aghi a kick, preventing him from interfering as Gisa cast glamour and rolled 2d6+ 10 (magically enhanced charm) to order the mob to stand down - an automatic success.

We weren't sure whether casting a spell in that situation was proper.  I ruled it was, more because I wanted to see some magic in action than anything else.  Without it, they would have had to use natural charm alone against the mob. I'm not sure what I would have had to do if it had failed.

[Ron Edwards]

The spellcasting seems perfectly proper to me - not seeing how it wouldn't be, so let me know about that for text-explanation purposes.

Without the spell, e.g. if the player-character hadn't cast it and they tried to fight the mob normally, they would have died. Why weren't you "sure" about that? It is not the Circle of Hands GM's job to preserved the player-characters' lives.