Harlas

[Harlas Ravelkione]

DM name: Harlas

Forum Name: Harlas Ravelkione
Time-zone: GMT +1 (most of my quests will be GMT evening)
Real name: Thorsten
Age: 26
Occupation: Studying Civil Engineering (almost there )

I tried playing PnP with a couple of friends when I was around 17, and I was immediately hooked. I played and DM’ed PnP for a couple of years afterwards, but then moved away from my group. A friend of mine was playing NWN, so I checked it out and found it to be very entertaining. After having played on a few servers for about one year I stumbled upon Layonara. I looked through the forums, and decided to apply for a character... and here I am.

What has, and will, keep me here is the detailed history, a tricky plot, the enormous world, the neat crafting system, the GM-team, and the fantastic player base. I have played here for almost a year, and look forward to start GM’ing.

Regarding my quests:
- Use your skills! In my opinion players do not use their skills and stats enough on quests. Know what your characters can do, and use it to your advantage. If your character has 13 skill points in “intimidation” use your skills to get information or to make that guard open the door for you. If your character has 17 skill points in “listen” use your skills to listen at doors or around corners in buildings or dungeons to get information regarding the next encounter. If your character has a dexterity of 20, and you cannot open a locked door of a house you need to get into, climb the house wall and use the chimney to get in. I hope you get the picture. Some of my quests may be nearly impossible to complete successfully without using your skills to your advantage... and don’t count on me telling you to do it.
- I will try to use hardcore rules on some of my quests. I will tell you that before the start of the quest to avoid confusion. By hardcore rules I mean that actions have immediate, and perhaps dire consequences. If encounter a group of bandits that demand an item of your party, and you see 10-15 men surrounding you with heavy crossbows trained on you, do not assume that your 300 HPs and your adamantium armour will save you! In a situation like that I might tell the party that the bandits have the gear and outfit of veterans, and that they look as if they were born with a crossbow in their lap. If one or more members of the party still choose to charge, I might kill two or three directly because they are killed outright by crossbow bolts. Do not assume that the challenge rating you receive by right-clicking on your enemies tells you the truth. An enemy may be anything but effortless even though the challenge rating tells you otherwise. In such situations you will either have to be very smart or you may have to hand over whatever they want from you. You could make an attempt to bribe the group, use your intimidation or persuasion, or perhaps a combination of these. Or you could hand over the item and track them down afterwards. This will give you the opportunity to choose the time and place of the battle.
- Failure on my quests will always be an option. I will give you clues and hints, and let you work freely, but you will have to make your own decisions and piece together the puzzle on your own. Sometimes this may be easy enough, at other times it wont (it may even be impossible because what seemed obvious to the GM may not seem too obvious to the players, in which case I will adapt). Failing can be a lesson in itself, and it gives the opportunity for character development and RP, so don’t let a failed quest discourage you.
- Calem Rule: "Act stupid and face the consequences". Really just means that the moment you're start acting out of character and doing silly things, is the moment you'll likely fail the quest and/or die horribly from DM-induced appendicities. So keep that in mind and you'll have fun in my quests.
- Regarding sign-ups on the calendar. If it says max 10 players it means exactly that. 11 may be ok, but not 15. The way I am going to handle this is by rolling dices. I am not going to pick people by looking at who signed up first or last. People may have been away on vacations, their internet connection may have been down, or they did not sign up for other reasons. Everyone who comes to the designated place at the designated time gets a chance to join.

I am looking forward to seeing you out there!