Thanked Posts

21

Ask A Gamemaster / Seasons

« on: November 25, 2008, 02:12:55 pm »

I think this is assumed to be true but generally ignored because of the speed at which in-game time passes, but I don't remember it being explicitly stated anywhere: does Layonara tilt on its axis similarly to Earth and are there then seasons similar to those on Earth?

I was considering that it's winter in the northern hemisphere and summer in the southern hemisphere right now, and it made me wonder if Layonara more or less coincides with Earth, so that in Hlint and Dalanthar it's summer during Jular and winter during Decilar, and vice versa in Mariner's Hold and Western Gate.

22

Ask A Gamemaster / Bindstoner Selection Process

« on: April 04, 2008, 02:38:10 pm »

I was considering the bindstones this morning, and how some characters can bind their souls and some either can't or don't.  I started wondering which it is, "can't" or "don't."

Way back when, there was a dragon calling people to serve, and the LORE page on bindstones* mentions that the bindstones became active again after some lengthy period of inactivity and that "the souls of those who have been summoned to the defense of Layonara" are tied to them.  It gives the impression that Ozlo and/or someone associated with him specifically bound the Dragoncalled to the stones.  It could just be that only those who could be bound were chosen, though, which explains why all Dragoncalled could be bound and still fits the description.

Whatever the case, it was fine before, with the whole unified cause and greatest enemy ever stuff, when people were actually being summoned to the defense of Layonara, but that isn't happening now.  Despite that, people who were born well after the end of the war are still being bound to the bindstones.

So, to think it through, first I took the viewpoint that people could choose to be bound, but don't.  They would just need to go to a bindstone and focus, like any PC does.  Well, alright, but that really doesn't explain why more people don't.  There doesn't seem to be any severe negative consequence to being bound, most people don't live lives that put them at risk of death every day, and there are bindstones everywhere just like gas stations and fast food restaurants in the real world.  So maybe your average farmer wouldn't, but why not all those Mistonian and Dregarian soldiers who went to help liberate Rohden?  Why not the Rohdenese before them?  Why not every soldier in every army everywhere?  Why would mothers not take their children as soon as they were old enough to understand?

That leads to a mess, obviously.  The world would be different than it is, so choosing to be bound can't be the way things are.  It isn't that people don't bind themselves, but that they can't.

So, most people can't, and some people can.  How is it determined who is in which group?  "Summoned to the defense of Layonara" doesn't really explain anything, as members of groups bent on the destruction of Layonara can still be bound.  Maybe it's a random thing - some people just have the special something when they are born, and can be bound to the stones.  Maybe some god or gods are involved (though I can imagine Aeridin doesn't approve), but wouldn't be telling anyone since gods don't do that; people would just have to find out they could bind their souls on their own, making it essentially random.

To go off on a tangent for a second, I can easily imagine that lots of people become adventurers (think of all the 'bored on the farm' type submissions), but that not everyone who does can be bound.  Some of those who can't may have lucky careers and return to a normal life, but most of them probably don't make it very far.  I can also imagine that there may be hundreds or even thousands of people with the ability to be bound who just work in more mundane careers and never even consider it.  I've got the random thing stuck in my head, but it just seems to work so well as an explanation given the diverse backgrounds and concepts of the various PCs.  And just to cover this, in case anyone's thoughts turned that way, I am not now suggesting and never will suggest that it should be random whether any player character can be bound.  All PCs can and should be bindable.  The randomness is just an explanation of what we see.

Anyway, maybe no one knows in-character, and no one is told out-of-character to prevent metagaming.  While part of me wants to shake a fist and yell "Cop out answer, you lazy so-and-sos," I'm mostly alright with that as long as there is a real answer stashed away somewhere.  I know bindstones are a method of facilitating gameplay, and therefore an OOC mechanic, but they are deeply embedded in-character, too, and ought to be fully addressed for the good of the world.  Maybe no character or even player will ever really know, but that doesn't mean the hows and whys of them shouldn't be worked out, y'know?

That doesn't mean I wouldn't like an answer, by the way, heh.


* By the way, that LORE page is more out of date than just not explaining the bindstones themselves, as it still mentions The Planes and souls traveling to them.

23

General Discussion / Layonara Specific Icon Overrides for Colored Icon Users

« on: February 27, 2008, 11:43:25 pm »

As hinted at [post=844842]here[/post] and [post=845092]here[/post], and announced officially and specifically [post=845062]here[/post], there are a few new spells that have their own new icons.

If you use a colored icon override, or if you might later, or if you just have a hankering for three fancy colored icons for some reason, there are colorized versions of the new icons attached to this post for your downloading pleasure.

Just to be clear, you do not need these icons.  The icons in the default color are already in there and ready to go.  These are 100% optional.

To use these, just save them to your override folder in your NWN directory.  I'm pretty sure they work.  They worked when I tested them a while back, anyway.  If they don't, let me know.

24

Ask A Gamemaster / Are Law Enforcers Stupid?

« on: December 03, 2007, 06:46:24 pm »

I ask the question that is the subject of this thread because of thoughts that flowed from reading [post=724662]this post[/post].  I don't mean any offense to Falonthas in asking this stuff.

In a world where magic is real, and it is not especially uncommon that people will change size and shape, would anyone who had that potential really be held in a room with a window or behind a simple set of bars?  Would there really be no cells designed for holding mages or suppressing magic in general?

I understand that smaller towns and villages might have a simple jail, or even just a nice corner of a barn where they can chain people, but a big city like Port Hempstead should have a prison that fits the reality of a magical world.  Even if they don't have fancy cells, I really don't think the city guard as a whole is so incompetent as to give prisoners easy and obvious ways out.

25

Introduce Yourself / Hello. My name is

« on: March 15, 2007, 03:13:04 pm »

Forum Name: Gulnyr
Name: Greg
Class: Commoner (1)
Race: Human
Alignment: TN
Deity: None

Age: 31
Sex: Male

Physical Description: 175 cm tall.  61.2 kg.  Dark hair, usually cropped off very close to the scalp.  Nerd-pale skin.  Wears glasses.  Often kind of scruffy-looking.

Hobbies and Interests: Sciences (all of them, though some more than others), history, science fiction, gaming, classical music, cookies.

Background:  I was introduced to the bright red D&D Basic box set at age 12 by some slightly older neighborhood friends.  It was a lot of fun playing for a couple of years, but then they moved away.  

I found some new friends with new games.  Some were RPGs, like GURPS, Warhammer Fantasy, and Champions (aka the Hero system).  Most were tabletop wargames, like Battletech, the Star Trek Starship Tactical Combat Simulator, and Warhammer 40000 (way back in the days of Rogue Trader, when army lists came in White Dwarf and made you roll randomly for equipment).  There were never many of us, so it usually came down to some sort of battle no matter what game we were playing, but we always made sure to include roleplaying.  We developed characters for every game, not necessarily written out on paper, but always with personalities that affected the game in real ways.  Tabletop battles take on a whole new feel when you stop thinking of the counters or miniatures as chess pieces and start caring about the characters involved.

Even when we started playing against each other in computer games, we'd find ways to include roleplaying.  We made rules for mixing Risk with Age of Empires, with a backdrop of politics for our characters - the leaders of the nations - to interact within.  

I met new people online who were also interested in mixing roleplaying into the basic computer games.  One of the best experiences I had was a small community built around the game Man of War II.  It's a simulation of sailing ship combat around the time of the American Revolution on into the Napoleonic Era, but we used it to represent roughly the mid to late 1600s in the Caribbean.  Some of us played pirates, others played naval officers (mostly British), and a couple played the middle as privateers.  It was called Marooners.  We set up a forum and four of us acted as GMs.  There were general rules about what could be done when and where, but it was generally free form.  I made a spreadsheet chart with a built-in die roller for determining ship sightings and cargo in the holds of prize ships, which was about the most absolute thing about the whole setup.  The players would make posts in the forum, in-character, describing what their characters were doing in town or at sea, up to twice per day.  The GMs would then respond with descriptions of the action, playing the roles of NPCs and other ships when necessary.  Things generally built toward Fridays, as that was our night to get together online and fight out any ship-to-ship combat that resulted from forum posts.  Any player who didn't have his character in a battle could still be part of the fun by playing one of the NPC ships.  

Eventually, I circled around and found D&D again with the arrival of 3rd Edition and then NWN.  Then I found Layonara through the D&D Adventures site.  That was a little over two years ago.  Since then, I've had only two 'real' characters - Gulnyr the Grim and Jennara Creekskipper.  Gulnyr is based on a level 1 Dwarven Rogue I have on a sheet of paper.  Jennara was a little more spontaneous, but she doesn't lack any depth for it, I hope.