The World of Layonara  Forums

Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - Aphel

Pages: [1]
1
General Discussion / Re: For a friend...
« on: November 20, 2012, 12:26:09 pm »
Happy birthday!
The following users thanked this post: Hellblazer

2
Rumour Has It / Hilm Protectorate - Beneath A Shifting Sky
« on: January 03, 2015, 09:08:16 am »
He first noticed it while stargazing with Orn last night, and it had them both confused for a moment. That really was  the last thing everyone needed right now. Still recovering from the war and the last conflict, threatened on all sides by amoral opportunists, dark forces both new and old - a shifting sky coupled with the usual doom prophets and a superstitious people, it all made developing the Hilm Protectorate into a stable state all the more troubling. Life went on, sure, because it had to - the folk of the Protectorate were a hardy people, but still.Pax looked up to him, wondering what he would do. He didn't know, and scratched the dog between the ears. "Let's go for a walk." The paladin got up from the stairs in front of the small chapel and the Hovawart followed him. Maybe he should get his horse and visit a few of the small settlements in the countryside, they were more likely to spot and notice any trouble and strange happenings. Panic and trouble should not spread, but short of being present, doing patrols and somehow improving the education, the Paladin was out of ideas on how to counter the possible threat.Surely, elsewhere there had to be more trouble, especially with the followers of the affected faiths. Commander Lance was surely already busy to process the information, as well as others, and adapting his agenda to the new circumstances and events. Ah well. Time to do something.
The following users thanked this post: Dorax Windsmith, Lance Stargazer

3
Rumour Has It / Rumours from the Wolfswood
« on: March 01, 2014, 04:37:20 am »
Aside from - seemingly usual - troubles at the border with the Sun Kingdom, a spike in wildfires has been reported from the Wolfswood and surrounding areas. Farmsteads, Stores and Storages, Offices of Mayors and such buildings important are rumored to have been targeted, and roumours have it that it's the doing of the Destoryer or wild elementals or freak magical accidents caused by gnomes, depending on who is speaking.
The following users thanked this post: Guardian 452, miltonyorkcastle, Ravemore, Brutus_Clawfoot

4
Rumour Has It / Missing adventurers
« on: February 24, 2014, 03:11:02 pm »
Talk in the Silver Buckle is heard that a ranger offers to reveal the location of one of his stashes to those who can find out what happened to a group of adventurers that went missing in the Wolfswood. He has found out that they had caches made to supply them in case of an emergency and suggests to check them out - where there's something missing or signs that the cache has been tempered with, there is also a good place to start the search.He has hints leading to the caches for those who wish to investigate and help him find the missing adventurers, but also a warning: that walking around in the Wolfswood isn't exactly a walk in the park, not only because there are giants and such monsters, but also because the Border of Sun is nearby and non-humans should best not let themselves be caught beyond that invisible line.//Hints to be found in the display case near the entry. Geared towards low-levels.
The following users thanked this post: mixafix, Lance Stargazer, Brutus_Clawfoot

5
Trade and Market Hall / Looking for materials
« on: January 25, 2014, 08:30:00 am »
A brief note is posted on the boards of various inns and crafthalls:I am looking for mahogany branches as well as normal and dark spider silks. Will pay regular prices, please contact me if interested. And address of a courier service is then given.
The following users thanked this post: Ravemore

6
Roleplaying / Character looking for ...
« on: January 19, 2014, 07:35:30 pm »
Having ideas about creating a new character and looking for siblings, enemies, mentors and the like? Planning something with your character, and looking for support, an antihero or an antagonist of the PC variety?  Post here and get things rolling! I'm currently looking for an antagonist for my toranite paladin and my elvish ranger. If you feel addressed and interested (and have ocasionally time at GMT-friendly hours), feel free to PM me. 
The following users thanked this post: miltonyorkcastle, Ravemore

7
Rumour Has It / Rumours of movements
« on: January 20, 2013, 11:23:48 am »
Rumour has it, that due to the famine on Alindor, various attempts by hopelessly naive idealists are taken to solve the situation in Mariner's Hold. While the exact cyinicism in these rumours vary among the people, the more nature oriented folks hear of something else. They say that even letters were sent to various people in lieu of a naive young pup of the Wolfswood Rangers.

[SIZE=10]//Details [/SIZE], [SIZE=10]Event[/SIZE]
The following users thanked this post: Dezza, miltonyorkcastle

8
General Discussion / Gauging the interest
« on: January 09, 2013, 07:12:55 pm »
Some time ago I had the idea for a series of player run events geared towards good aligned characters with a focus on the progression of martial, military and civil skills like leadersip, small units tactics, organisation and so on - in a nutshell, a continuation of the Toran Leadership Programme trying to dabble into an academy of advanced training of various nature but all focused on preparing characters to "fight the good fight" better and with more effect.

There are already some long-running quests out there and more a possibly brewing. Who would be interested in something like the idea mentioned above and has the character and, moreover, the time?*



[SIZE=10]*M[SIZE=10]ight but is not limited to contain Toranites, [SIZE=10]Voraxians, chairs, dragons, ungentlemanly but nevertheless nonlet[SIZE=10]hal tact[SIZE=10]ics, stra[SIZE=10]tegies, gnomish inventions, training injuries, going one bridge to[SIZE=10]o far, persecution by various k[SIZE=10]ingdoms[SIZE=10], sudden death[SIZE=10] by aforementioned gnomish inventions, walking away from he[SIZE=10]llballs [/SIZE]but not looking at it[/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE].
The following users thanked this post: ShiffDrgnhrt, Lance Stargazer

9
Roleplaying / Food for thought: Stealth
« on: December 29, 2012, 04:30:00 pm »
I originally wanted to post an answer to this other topic,  but then I figured it would be best to take the opportunity to approach  the issue differently. I would like to share my thoughts on the issue  of stealth, and if there are any thougths and discussions archived on  this topic, a link won't do no harm.

One of things that can be  done with most RPG I played is to create and play character using  stealth. Some systems implement it better than others, some make things  easier for player and GM while others just provide competetive skill  checks and a limited ability to back stab. That aside and talked about  later, there are some more roleplay-oriented things that I think might  be worth talking about.

Stealth and how it can be roleplayed is  in my experience only limited by time and patience of those involved as  it could drag on for quite a while to play it out. In the past, I used  text macros to emote what my character was doing, however it felt too  simple and easy most of the time, automated in an way that somehow  didn't quite fit to what I wanted to portray. It's a bit more  complicated than *uses the terrain, light and his own gear to conceal himself*, so here are a few thoughts. Stealth depends on various different factors:
  • Distance to your enemies
  • Perception of your enemies
  • Amount of cover
  • Personal skill and gear
  • Alertness of your enemies
  • Environment
  • What you want to do
  • What your enemies can do
Stealth  is more than being unheard or unseen. You can be seen, but judged as  harmless or be forgotten quite easily. Items can be disguised as  harmless objects, and mind games shall be played. Creativity is important if you approach stealth in your roleplay.

Think  of those that you want to elude, confuse and deceive. What kind of  sense to they have? Do they have good smell, heat sensitivity, dark  vision? How alert and/or paranoid are they? How far away are they? What  are they looking for, and what do they deem as harmless? Most of these  questions can be answered by the GM or come from the experiences of the  character.


How much concealment does your character  have available? No matter the armor penalty, with 100% line of sight  cover it is hard to see somebody. Sure, other senses then smell or  really bad luck (shadows, parts of gear sticking out of cover etc) it  can still be possible to notice somebody. On a very loud place, or a  very smelly or hot place, other senses might be likewise limited.  Stealth can also mean that distractions and baits are used to remain  unnoticed. Hide and move silently can be used without training, and if  he stays out of sight, even a warrior in full plate can sneak up on  somebody, or remain hidden.
It is quite possible to hide a warrior  in full plate with a tower shield in plain sight without the use of  magic. It does depend on your opponent and her or his abilities and  resources, and maybe a good bluff check or something similar.


Stealth  is all about perception and creativity, yours and your opponents. It's  more than just a perception check against a skill check, and even Hide  in plain sight has its downfalls. If rangers and shadowdancers can  aquire at a certain level the ability of doing a hide check despite  being observed, does that mean one can't use distractions to achieve the  same? Of course one can. Hide in plain sight just implies, in my  opinion, that the character is so good at using her or his  environment/mystical ability/ to  simply "vanish" despit being "watched". It's a perception game, after  all.

Stealth is a great tool to solve encounters  if the GM so permits. Just like combat, magic and social skills it can  be (more or less) cleverly used, and even should be used in my opinion.

What  do you think in regards to the use of stealth? When roleplaying  stealth, how do you go about it? Or does it hinder the flow of action  too much for you? What are your pet peeves in regards to  stealth/stealthy characters? Do you use it with the character you play  on quests?
Do you think making things complexis better than  making it easy and simple, reducing it to competetive skill checkes and  +d6 sneak attack, or vice versa?
The following users thanked this post: lonnarin

10
Ask A Gamemaster / Question regarding the military arm of faiths
« on: November 04, 2012, 05:51:50 pm »
Both Rofirein as well as Toran have a rather large army at their disposal (for example, Dezza mentioned 1800 members of the toranite forces in the war between Fiorez and the Deepening Dark - that's already about half a roman legion). Who is paying them? The churches (and thus - the faithful) or do the kingdoms give them money as well? How are they regulated, that means, what kind of rules in regards to numbers, recruitment and so forth are there? Were there any treaties in the past in that regard? To specify the areas a bit more, I am interested in how Hilm, Trelania and Brelin handle these things in regard to the church of the Golden and the Hand of Virtue as an example.
The following users thanked this post: miltonyorkcastle

11
Development Journals and Discussion / The longest path
« on: November 01, 2012, 01:45:24 pm »
[SIZE=10]Sundance, Hilm Military Field Camp[/SIZE]
Just a few miles up.
And a few miles down.
Piece of cake.
His feet hated him for every step on this trail, nothing more than a twisted path over roots and stones to an outpost, a tower with a few barracks and a wall around it all. It was cold on this side of the hill, especially when the trees stood that close together. William was sweating and loosing water by the gallon, still. His tunic was soaked and uncomfortably cold, and sack full of sand excoriated his shoulders. It hurt, and quite much so, but it was nothing. It all had purpose, to keep him in shape, to prepare him. He woke from a nightmare and was still fighting the aftermath that kept him in his grip, long tendrils pulling him back to wastelands and terror. It was better to not dream at all, he had felt more healthy back then. But at least nobody was sharing his tent when he woke covered in sweat and instinctively ducked behind his shield. But there were no arrows, no dark magics. Just a cold morning near Sundance.
So time to suck it up and soldier on. At least I have found the guts it takes to do something on my own, on my own terms. Exercise didn't help him to fall asleep much. Meditation helped, a bit, but still, his mind was in an odd state of turmoil. Many things he thought of as truths he found out to be lies, and what appeared to be strength seemed weakness now. Despite loathing his time in Fiorez City, it had helped him hone off many weaknesses he had harbored before. He nevertheless felt alone, doing his job, yes, but still alone. Of course, he would never have said so. Just suck it up and soldier on. No time to be a loathsome character. It was hard enough to fight of the contempt and disregard for the things he observed and experienced. To not be disgusted and know that to find a more correct path was much harder for others as well was a day to day trial. He learned much from their training, and another useful lecture: to be ignorant, to shut himself off completely, let go, let the beast inside every mortal do the job. To control and harness its powers...fundamentals of warfare and societies. He thought about that a lot. Not that anybody would give him a true for his views on that, ever. They're all big heroes, generals, statesmen, whatever. Strip them naked, push them in the dirt, do not let them sleep, make them sit still in ice cold water, make them bleed - in the end, they were mortals, fragile, scared. Schizophrenic, as well. Too much talk about the Conducts, about law and order and punishment - in the end it was still the rule of the strong over the weak. For some time, he even doubted the value of Toran's words for those that followed him -- because if you need to recite or cite them so often, did that not mean you either could not remember them, or that something else was wrong? And if it was just another form of the rule of the strong over the weak, as The Chosen One and Hector by their choices of action, would that not mean that there was no point in settling disputes in a more civilized manner? He was sure he would be selected out of the order soon enough, because they thought the he was weak. They played their games with him -- tell him that he was not worthy so that he would try harder, for example. So that he would conform, march in line, no matter where they lead him. He was expendable, even if their words were different.
Not the way of Toran.
But he observed it that way. He remembered so many things recently, things he rather would forget -- because he wanted to answer, to explain, to clarify. But what did it, what would it matter in the end? Not at all. The so called family ... next time somebody wants to settle a dispute with a blade, I could crush him or her if I have the chance. A blade is not a toy, and if they want to settle disagreements by determining who is stronger, not who is right, he could do that. There was a reason he was frowning upon it, and in more than one way.
Sometimes, he would meet a patrol on his way up or down. They would look at him oddly, the young man with the scars and the sweat soaked tunic and the big sack over the shoulders, with an ankh dangling from his neck on a simple cord. Some greeted him, others did not. Nobody knew who he was. He didn't knew who they were either. His feet where hating him, tho, and it was hard to keep consciousness firmly in his grasp sometimes. Especially with an empty stomach. Especially in the morning.
The last few miles he would be out in the open, exposed to the cold wind running up the steep and twisted path. Sometimes, his feet and knees where big lumps of pain when he reached the top and used a rope to make a punching bag from the sack of sand. He had picked this hill because it was the highest and steepest around. He picked it because the hill reminded him of something, of somebody. He picked the hill because he loathed him, because he disliked every stone, every root, every forced step up, very sliding step down. And when he reached the top, he wondered if it was worth it getting up, and when he was at the bottom, he wondered why  he bothered running up there. He woke up in the morning, nightmare -- it was good that Lance had assigned him a tent that was seldom used by others than himself, so nobody saw him waking reaching for his shield and hiding behind it. Some noticed him waking too early and not going to sleep again, doing runs around the camp. It was good training, and when somebody noticed, he started running up the hill.

Some of the soldiers were members of a newly formed scouting or some other light infantry unit. Some young, but most of them older, more experienced. Scraped together after their units have been smashed to bits and pieces. Their commanding officer was a woman with red hair and a scar across her face. She had a local accent.
"What're you doing, soldier?! Rank, name?!" Striding over from the barrack towards where he had put the punching bag up on a tree. He was ignoring the pain in his legs and focused on the punching bag. Trying to place his blows dead center for now, with as much force as possible.
"William Leox. I am a paladin of Toran."
She watched him working away at the punching bag with fists, elbows, shin and foot.
"It's quite unhealthy what you're doing here. Whose permission have you?" Her voice was used to yelling, commanding, demanding answers and obedience. He wasn't answering quickly, it was hard to focus.
"Train as you fight, Ma'am...and... I don't need ... anybodies permission."
He couldn't see her slight frown after hearing that statement.
"My men say this is the third day you're doing this."
"Correct...I was...transferred here...got some...days off."
To much babbling, in his opinion. She was beginning to pace up and down. So too much talk for her as well.
"Couldn't you have picked another hill?"
"No."
He looked at his bruised knuckles and continued.
"You must hate yourself, soldier, or be outright crazy."
"We train as we fight. This...is nothing."
It was nothing. Nobody yelling at him to go faster. Nobody around that wanted to stick him a knife between the shoulders at first opportunity.
"I must report this to your commanding officer. Who is your commanding officer?"
"Speak to Commander...Lance Stargazer...can I ... finish my training please?"
"As you were."
And she strode away. Soldiers, yes. None of them really like war, they liked to get out of one, not into one. Too many wars. Too many dead. Tomorrow, tomorrow he should rest. Yes.
Tomorrow. He would sleep better. No more dreams of fanatical ragtag armies fighting over wastelands in the twilight. No more dreams of the pits opening up and the deep returning to the surface after the realms of the surface fought each other over ideologies that were all nothing but masks for greed and sloth. Civil war over who was right. And he refused to believe that the fate of humans, dwarves and elves would consist of more than pain, blood, ashes and racial bigotry.
The following users thanked this post: Ravemore

12
Rumour Has It / ~ A fire at the Crossroads ~
« on: October 13, 2012, 02:52:51 pm »
Rumors are heard that there will be some sort of meeting at Stormcrest Crossroads held by a ranger, both for sharing stories around the fire as well as finding new companions for hunting trips. Some say there will be festivities to honor the Longstrider, while others say that the Wolfswood Rangers will be there as well to recruit new, promising blood.
There are also whispers that, if those that patrol the lands, meet in such a manner, something foul is afoot...
The following users thanked this post: Lance Stargazer

Pages: [1]