The Rusty Nail | Out of Character

[Gregorotto]

This is general discussion for the game! Let's introduce ourselves. Use whatever format, include whatever information you like.

• Name is Gregorotto, no prizes for guessing my real name; been playing for 21 years, I play a multitude of systems but 5e is the easiest to run and gets the most traction so I don't fight fate in that regard. By day I do market analysis and raise kids, as well as project manage my brilliant wife. I also run a semi-successful mythology podcast that's about to come back from hiatus.
• This game will be 1/week as far as I'm concerned. Anything beyond that is a bonus, but I'm fine keeping things fast and loose. I just want to establish expectations up front that we'll move at whatever pace suits us but minimum 1/week.

Things you'll need to know or let me know:

• Do you use Discord? I use it for all of my games and it's much more effective than OOC threads. This is not required, but I would like you to join my private channel: I will never hold it against someone for wanting to control their digital intake.
• After you post your character and answer the questions there, I'll bring the conversation here or Discord regarding what to do after the first three adventures @TricksterArcane has suggested. The goal is to get done with Tier-1 by the end of the third module, opening us up for potential Rage of Demon or sequel Hillsfar stuff that goes a little harder.

Aaaand go!

[mildly_competent]

I've never met anyone with the name Rotto before! So cool!

THE PODCAST IS GONNA COME BACK?! Hell yeah. Looking forward to whatever lore you've got to throw at us.

I'm Belle. I'm a nerd. I work from home and push buttons, and it usually helps people more than hurts them. Sometimes I help groups yell at people in power, and they ignore us. I like running, and reading. I'm rediscovering a love of gaming that I was missing out on for a decade or so, and I've been reading comics for the past few years.

I'm on discord.And Grego has tricked me into joining his channel multiple times!

[Gregorotto]

7 minutes ago, mildly_competent said:

THE PODCAST IS GONNA COME BACK?! Hell yeah. Looking forward to whatever lore you've got to throw at us.

Outlined season 4 three weekends ago. Haven't done any reading just yet, but I'm ready to jump back in, I think. Time is another matter entirely, and the wife has another podcast idea that she wants me to run by you because reasons. But that's a conversation for another place.

[TricksterArcane]

Hello. I might have instigated this but I've very glad that Grego obliged. I've been playing D&D since the red box (yes, I'm that old) but stopped when 3e just came out cause all my buddies moved away to college. I picked up 5e again a few years ago to satisfy the curiosity of some work mates and haven't stopped since. I'm happy to have my buddies back online where we play every other weekend and we alternate duties of DMing.

[Siryuu]

36 minutes ago, TricksterArcane said:

Hello. I might have instigated this but I've very glad that Grego obliged. I've been playing D&D since the red box (yes, I'm that old) but stopped when 3e just came out cause all my buddies moved away to college. I picked up 5e again a few years ago to satisfy the curiosity of some work mates and haven't stopped since. I'm happy to have my buddies back online where we play every other weekend and we alternate duties of DMing.

Ah yes, I read this was the game you requested. Nice to see it live!

[Gregorotto]

1 hour ago, TricksterArcane said:

Hello. I might have instigated this but I've very glad that Grego obliged. I've been playing D&D since the red box (yes, I'm that old) but stopped when 3e just came out cause all my buddies moved away to college. I picked up 5e again a few years ago to satisfy the curiosity of some work mates and haven't stopped since. I'm happy to have my buddies back online where we play every other weekend and we alternate duties of DMing.

Mirror lives. We started with 3e and my friends and I transferred to online as college forced us, and now we're either living close enough to continue to play or want to play online but can't. Actually got into PbP D&D on another site because of them. I suspect as age finds me there will be more D&D online with old friends, so I have that to look forward to.

[rauhric]

Hello Everyone, I'm Rauhric (named after a favorite character of mine stuck in Hell) and I have been gaming since '86, but I have never played this adventure nor do I know anything about it; so I'm pretty excited to play it. As far as posting goes 1x week is fine by me, but if more is required I can do that too. I don't use Discord just because I really don't like it.

[Gregorotto]

Perfectly fine by me; we can communicate here and there, as is necessary and in our in-game thread using OOC fieldsets.

Once I've had a chance to review character sheets and character backgrounds, I'll leave some comments so I can get vibes, thoughts, feelings, and story potential beyond what's in the module as well as plan ahead. Despite it being ALG I do like to have my PCs nourished with character developments and relevant backgrounds.

[mildly_competent]

I'll do my best to be at least semi-active in here, too, rauhric! It's nice to have the fun and camaraderie of an OOC thread, whether that's on discord or on site. :)

I like Fuma! How is it pronounced? Like "Fyu-mah" or more like "Foo-mah" or something else?

[Feuerrabe]

I am thinking about the reason, why my character Mareen would be in Hillsfar. This all falls under "Past is Prologue", of course, but I would like to know with which intention Mareen crossed the city border and what underlying connections there might be, even when it never matters in-game. Here are some options I considered, though I would put it to debate, and to a degree, to the DMs discretion, lest I create some kind of contradiction.

 

1. The Harpers asked her to. Hillsfar's art and culture scene took a serious hit when all non-humans were forced out. The Harpers are trying to turn into an opportunity to fill the void with their own agents. It's a demanding task though: Any agent working in the art scene must be on party line and actively spread the enemy's propaganda, and thus become complicit in an evil, oppressive system, to spy on it and help its victims.
   
   Mareen carries an invitation by a "variety theatre", which will provide shelter as she arrives. The "variety" on display is limited to what Torin Nomerthal deems acceptable, of course.
    
2. The Harpers still asked Mareen to, but on top of the above, given her family historyOn relevant parts of Mareen's family history, beyond what is said in the character description:
   
   Mareen's father, a local crime lord, was 32 years older than Mareen's mother. Despite his attitude towards women, he had was very fond of Mareen and she loved him dearly. In her youth, everything she was to make him proud, including her choice of career as a ballerina. During Mareen's teens, the relationship between Mareen's parents soured, as her father began to surround himself with even younger women and lost interest in Mareen's mother (but not in Mareen, for whom he always had time). Mareen's mother wanted to flee from Rodano, but the girl refused very passionately. Following that Mareen's mother disappeared altogether. After she hadn't heard anything but nasty rumours for a while, the then-18-year-old Mareen mantle of the Red Dancer, to find out the truth. Mareen eventually turned against her father and betrayed him, but only to stop his evil and prevent others from suffering her mother's fate. Mareen still loved her father when she betrayed him.
   
   During her late teens, she found out that she preferred the company of women, but she doesn't reject the idea of being with men altogether.
   
   When she assesses men, she measures them up against her father, and she has the self-destructive streak to enjoy the company of elder benevolent patrons. Her strength, as a spy, is that she doesn't need to fake it., she was deemed a suitable spy. The idea is to plant her as potential mistress in the household of one of Nomerthal's nouveau riche elite, which is desperately longing to surround themselves with some of the displaced upper class' air of grace. With the help of the Harpers and due to collaboration, one family of said displaced elite managed to hold out the fringes of Nomerthal's new upper class.
   
   Now the Harpers collected their debt and asked that family to introduce Mareen into the upper class. Mareen carries and invitation of said family.
    
3. Like b, but there is no proxy family, and the Harpers are only marginally involved: An old protégée of Mareen's father, left Waterdeep about three years ago, has come to power in Hillsfar in Nomerthal's wake. He doesn't know or doesn't believe that Mareen was instrumental in her father's downfall. The Harpers encouraged Mareen to renew the acquaintance with that "fatherly friend". Mareen thus wrote a letter and successfully managed to secure an invitation.
   
   She carries this invitation by somebody in the new elite to be their mistress under some flimsy excuse (tutor, dancing teacher, consort, handmaiden).

[rauhric]

@mildly_competent thanks, and it's "Foo mah". It's not that I don't like discord, it is just that I'm already here so why go somewhere else to talk.

[PureChance]

@Feuerrabe my inclination is the first of the options - avoids the obvious question of why she's not currently doing that and getting involved in whatever we're about to get involved with, especially since any kind of infiltration like that requires a bit of long term investment for payoff (plus she's not trained in deception right? Seems an oversight for a social spy rather than a circus spy).

Seems like number 1 plays most to her talents and offers more opportunities for subversion of the propaganda - thinking of hidden messages inside the posters etc. - which seems very harper-esque

 

[Feuerrabe]

35 minutes ago, PureChance said:

@Feuerrabe my inclination is the first of the options - avoids the obvious question of why she's not currently doing that and getting involved in whatever we're about to get involved with, especially since any kind of infiltration like that requires a bit of long term investment for payoff (plus she's not trained in deception right? Seems an oversight for a social spy rather than a circus spy).

Seems like number 1 plays most to her talents and offers more opportunities for subversion of the propaganda - thinking of hidden messages inside the posters etc. - which seems very harper-esque

 

Well, the answer why she's not doing that yet is simply: She just arrived. She's doing whatever we're about to do because that's going to be the most pressing concern, and she is by no means the only ace up the Harper's sleeve. (EDIT: Besides, she's not necessarily giving up, that depends on what we do. Being a masked vigilante is after all the point of the character.) However, the lack of deception is indeed a problem.

[Siryuu]

To me @Feuerrabe, number 3 sounds more like it, sort of reminds me of the setting in Star Wars Andor. The idea there is an NPC that knows of her and also believes she was not instrumental to the achievements in her backstory makes it more real, and it gives something to relate to. The letter she carries makes more sense this way.

Edited May 9 by Siryuu (see edit history)

[Siryuu]

1 hour ago, rauhric said:

It's not that I don't like discord, it is just that I'm already here so why go somewhere else to talk.

The discussion in discord's been lots of fun, enriched with dank memes and cryptic memes leaning towards Irish folklore, as expected.