Beyond the Dead-Gray Mist (Diceless Eberron)
 

TL/DR: If you're not willing to read this entire post you're probably not going to be interested in this game. Sorry!

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Originally Posted by Prince Oargev ir'Wynarn, Cyran Refugee Camp, Breland, Therendor 4th, 994 YK (Post 3907680) People of Cyre! Remnants of my dear homeland! I, Oargev, scion of the ir'Wynarn line, son of Mishann, Queen of Cyre, rightful ruler of Galifar, stand before you today, forced by the terrible events of the last weeks to grasp the mantle of leadership years, decades, before it should have been taken from my mother, your Queen. Yet my pain is nothing compared to yours, remnants of Cyre. I have lost my mother, my wife, my family, in the cruel, inexplicable events of Olarune 20th, and I mourn for them, mourn for them with all my heart. But there are those among who have lost not only parents and spouses, but children. There are those among you who have lost not only family and friends, but entire towns, entire cities. And you mourn for them, we mourn for them, with all our hearts. But Olarune 20th, this day, this terrible day, this Day of Mourning, did not rob us only of our families, our friends, our dwellings, our livelihoods. It robbed us of our nation. Of Cyre. And compared to this loss, all the other tragedies of this terrible, inexplicable day are as nothing. (No, not inexplicable, I swear to you, for something, someone caused this day, this Day of Mourning, and I, we, shall never rest until that force is brought to justice...) For on Olarune 19th, in Cyre, people still died, mothers and fathers, wives and husbands, daughters and sons. But one fragile, wonderful, shining idea lived on; Cyre lived on, beloved, cherished Cyre. In Eston, in Kalazart, in wonderful, shining Metrol, Cyre lived on, gleaming brightly at the heart of Khorvaire. If the Dragon Above, mighty Siberys himself, were to wake and to look down upon the life-bearing corpse of his sister Eberron, he would not have been able, on Olarune 19th, to tear his gaze away from Cyre, wonderful, shining Cyre, beloved, cherished Cyre, Cyre, the Jewel of Galifar. Now, though-- Full disclosure: this paragraph (but not the rest of the speech) is taken from Five Nations, p. 77. Weep, oh nations of Khorvaire, for the Jewel of Galifar is no more. You have finally completed what you started when you rejected the true and proper right of Mishann to ascend the throne of Galifar. With your jealousy and petty ambitions, you have brought this disaster on us all! Weep, my brothers and sisters, for our homes and our families have been eliminated in a foul and cowardly way. Do not let Cyre be forgotten! Do not let the Day of Mourning end! Not until we have discovered the villain. Not until we have made the villain face justice for this heinous crime. Not until Cyre’s children are once more safe and content within their homeland. Weep this day, my fellow Cyrans, and never forget. But tomorrow . . . tomorrow we begin to hunt down this villain, to demand justice, and to rebuild beloved, cherished Cyre. Tomorrow! Tomorrow we shall go home!

You were one of the members of the crowd that day, the beaten, bedraggled remnants of once-mighty Cyre. Afterwards, Prince Oargev himself sought you out, invited you to his tent. There, he admitted to you and a few others that he had not been entirely forthcoming in his speech. Not only was the Day of Mourning (as Oargev had called it) not inexplicable, Oargev believed he had found an explanation for it--not, yet, a means or a motive, but a perpetrator, one far too powerful to accuse directly. No, revenging Cyre would not be simple, nor easy, nor quick. But standing in his tent that day, Prince Oargev, along with you and a few others, took a solemn oath: that once a new Cyre rose out of the ashes of the old, you would kindle a pyre of revenge, and let the perpetrator take its place.

Premise

The game will be structured like a TV series: it will be divided into discrete episodes which combine together to make an overarching goal. After a prologue (the "pilot", tentatively titled "Memories Beyond") of solo threads starting on Olarune 19th, 994 YK establishing how the players arrived at the future site of New Cyre in time for Oargev's speech, first season will cover the period from then up until the signing of the Treaty of Thronehold in 996 YK--episodes will more-or-less alternate between treaty negotiation sessions and more action-based stuff, such as expeditions into the Mournland. Additional seasons will cover similar or longer spans of time--fulfilling the oath of revenge may very well take decades. For the most part, players will act as a team, rather than splitting up--so all PCs will need to be able to handle both social interactions and more physical work, if not actually heavy combat.

Mechanics

The game will be diceless, so there won't actually be any mechanics. However, note that it will be on the simulationist side of things: I will track things like dates, travel times, etc., and I will probably insist that the players keep detailed accounting of their possessions (the better to take them away ;)), though this is open to discussion.

On an OOC level, players will have a fair amount of metagame control: as noted above, the players will even choose who their primary antagonist will be. Especially during the prologue threads, I may go further: for example, I may say things like "your character walks onto the lighting rail car. Describe who else is present."

Finally, note that all IC posts should be in present tense, unless noted otherwise.

Resources

I welcome people new to Eberron, as long as they're willing to put some effort into learning the setting. Fortunately, this is very easy, at least for a diceless game; all of the published (3.5 era) lore is freely available, between the Dragonshards and the Grand History of Eberron. You need not have read these before you create the character, but I expect you to be willing to look things up when necessary.

Note that I will default to the 3.5 version of Eberron, as that's the version I know best: don't expect dragonborn or Feyspires. However, this shouldn't stop you from using this material in your application if you want to: I'll include the 4e elements in the game if they're important to any of the PCs.

Pacing

I don't want to exclude anyone from this game based on posting rate. With that said, you'll be able to participate most fully if you can post

i.e. this is your usual rate. You don't have to live up to it 52 weeks a year: I'm not going to kick you from the game if you go on vacation, have busy periods at work, etc.--but please notify me a week or so in advance if possible when this is happening.

regularly at least twice a week. It's probably best if you can post at a faster clip during the prologue thread, since you'll be the only one driving your character's story and I intend to end all of the threads at the same time. However, if this is an issue we can work something out--perhaps working out some of the narrative over Gchat, or leaving some of it aside to be worked out later.

I will endeavor to regularly post at least every 48 hours; my usual rate should be one round of posts per day.

Number of Players

Apparently when you leave this field blank in the new ad form, you get 1. This will not actually be a solo game: it's safe to say that there will be more than 3 players and less than 10, but I can't be more precise than that right now. (Note that asking whether this is, in fact, a solo game, is an excellent way to prove you haven't read the whole ad and make me much less likely to accept your application.)

Application Process

First, my now-standard description of what I want in a player and in a PC:

I want interesting characters; I also want interesting players. I want characters who have goals; I want players who have the motivation to create new goals once the first set have been met. I want characters who aren't centered around combat (perhaps characters who have never fought); I want players who are interested in things beyond killing and looting. I want characters who inhabit the world around them; I want players who want to explore and create every last detail of that world.


I don't expect your applications to be complete when first posted: instead, after you post an initial idea I will work with you to make the character more at home in Eberron, and to flesh out details of their past I can use to torment you with later. ;) The best way to see what I'm looking for is to look at the ad for one of my previous games: since it was diceless, the best thing to look at is pink peril's application, posted here, and the sort of questions I asked and pp answered.

However, there are four necessary but not sufficient items I would like in your application by the deadline:

1. Where your character was on Olarune 19th, 994 YK (the day before the Day of Mourning).
2. A "day in the life," i.e. a more-or-less typical day for your character before the Mourning. I will probably use this to start your prologue thread, so you should probably make it at least somewhat interesting. See the descriptions by Crossroad, pink peril, Galedeep, and ShadowBright from my last advertisement for examples of the type of thing I'm looking for.
3. Why your character took the oath.
4. A possible explanation for the Mourning. This need not be what your character will believe after it occurs--in fact, it probably shouldn't be, since we'll play that out directly and since uncovering the nature of the Mourning will probably end up being a big plot point. This is more to make sure that you have a good enough grasp on Eberron that you can come up with something, and for my own selfish purposes.

Most of your application (points 3 and 4 above are an obvious exception) should pertain to your character before the Mourning. The Mourning itself should leave a big impression on your character (at least if they're actually in Cyre at the time), and it may alter your character's personality considerably. If that's the case, you should feel free to make some notes on what you think the effect of these changes will be, and we can work together in your prologue to justify them.

Applications may be private or public, I don't care, but note that the prologue posts will be public. I expect my players to be mature enough to separate IC from OOC knowledge--or, better yet, use their metagame knowledge to make the IC experience even more interesting. (I will give everyone private OOC threads, though.)

Go ahead and post applications in this thread, unless there's some rule against that now that I'm not aware of.

Please submit applications by 8 PM EST on the 22nd.

One last note: I will accept applications for Prince Oargev, but they will need to be exceptional, since having Oargev as a PC will significantly change the nature, or at least structure, of the game.

Applications

pink peril: Graece ir'Merat
Belul: Ali
Pumpkin31415: Taelin Phaloni
WhiteKnight777: Sebastian Nod
Silverkiss: Kormác Mondlicht
Karayan: Iskra ir'Siran
Havelock: Satros
RavenQueen: Valeriya ir'Rurik
Wizard of the Coat: Olivander Greybern d'Deneith
lasseram: Fargherat the Mourner
ShadowBright: Teela

I'm actually running a similar game like this in real-life, and I constantly think to myself, "Boy this would be a fun game to play in."

I do have a character in mind; a Thunder Guide working for Cyran interests in Xen'drik, returning to Sharn on the 19th with artifacts and information for the crown. Does that sound like something that would work for you? Also, what you say the relative power level of this game is?

@Pumpkin31415: definitely has potential. Obviously he needs to be fleshed out, so he's not just a Thunder Guide but also a person, but we can work on that. :) We'll also need to figure out the precise nature of the information--probably after the game begins, since it might be a nice way to establish who the "adversary" is. As for power level--it's diceless, so there isn't really a need to make everyone equal in power. But my intention is for most of the drama to come through social interaction--so there shouldn't be characters so powerful that they can solve everything by fighting, nor should they have access to high-level knowledge acquisition spells which derail mysteries.

Awesome! To those of you who do not know j_d as a DM, I can tell you he's brilliant.
I have a character that could fit well after some tweaking. A shifter druid with a connection to Oargev, though he might not be as important to the Prince as the Prince is to him. :)

You're a bad man jd, forcing me to apply like that :)

Perhaps this is a silly question, but its one I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around. What process does Oargev use when recruiting this "team"? You imply that he pulls these people by random and I don't think that is what you intended. Should the characters be exceptional in some right to catch Oargev's attention? Does he openly recruit volunteers? (That seems unlikely because you hint at secrecy.) I may be nitpicking, but it does speak to the type of character I'd come up with. Originally, I was leaning towards a roguey-street smart rascal. But, after some thinking, I wonder if the character shouldn't be more established in her field and thus have a name for herself.

This.

I had the pleasure of working with jd as a co-DM for a couple of years, and I am certain that all of you will be impressed with the depth of his knowledge of the setting.

Natch :). 'Thunder Guide' is just a more expedient way of saying "Xen'drik explorer/archaeologist/grave robber."

I imagine her having two different personas; a public celebrity (famous a least in Cyre, Breland, and Zilargo, if not other places as well), and the government persona who undertakes missions on behalf of the Cyran crown. She's always collected, as comfortable drinking tea with high society as she is dueling a drow champion in the heart of the jungle. Her wits--and ability to keep them about her--are her most powerful weapon.

I can't agree more. Having played in JD's Olarune game, he is a strong and incredibly giving storyteller with a deep understanding of Eberron.