What you have included for Oltovian seems to be in order!

so awesome! i'm exuberantly happy with what u have for my char sheet!

Celeste, I'm working on a PM for you. Give me a sec. Maybe a chat session mind help too.
Ayrn

..... for Astrid

An updated status report... I have:

* Completed characters from Hammer, Reralae, Astrid, and Bodkin.

* An almost complete character from Celeste (just need to put it into a character sheet)

* I've got interest from Grugg and Ziklag. (so far, we don't have any friars or wizards, if you're still thinking about what to play... not that we need either... more warriors, scouts and talespinners are fun too!)

If you've indicated interest, please send me some details by Monday.

Thanks!
Ayrn

It sure is nice to find an rpg format such as this... All the rpgs I am accustomed to are face2face. I'm interested in advice you may have for a beginner for this format of gaming.

P.S. Love the character sheets!

Go to the section titled 'General Forum' and scroll down to the section titled 'Rules-based RPGs' and directly beneath that click on the section titled 'Dungeons and Dragons' and you will see a listing of game threads.

Scroll down to the game thread titled 'What Evil Hides in the Hearts of Men...' and click on it and read the two pages of that adventure to get an idea of how Ayrn would have you post.

That game has the same format as 'Abbey' does with " " for your character conversation, italics for your character thoughts and sentences or conversation Bold Letters for whenever you copy and paste anything Aryn has written or anything any of the other PC characters have said or done!

But the has to be directly in front of the first letter of the first word (no space between them) and the directly after the last letter or period, exclamation mark or question mark (no space between them) for it to be Bold Lettered in your posting!

< b > < / b> and < i > < / i > but without the spaces between those characters to make it Bold or Italics!

Same with the Italics for your character thoughts thoughts but they have to be directly in front of the first letter and last letter or period, exclamation mark or question mark of the sentence as described above like so hopefully Bodkin understands my communication!

Hope that clarifies things for you!

Hammer the Helpful

Hammer gives a good example of the style of online gaming I typically like with "What Evil Lies in the Hearts of Men". Alacrity's game, "The Island of Putnum", would also be a good example.

Basically, it's like tabletop, except that, instead of describing your actions in first person format (i.e. "I attack the dragon"), you write your character's actions, speech, and thoughts in third person, like you would if you were writing a novel.

This is heroic fantasy game... your characters are heroic not so much for their special abilities, but because of their actual character. (think of the mouse from Narnia, or Martin from Redwall, or all the Fellowship of the Ring characters... that's what I have in mind) It will be your job, as players, to tease out the heroic qualities of your characters. Are they brave? Bold? Wise? Sacrificial? Honourable? Selfless? Just, Good, or Kind? How does this play out in how your character acts? Do they loot the dead? Give them "proper" burial? Do they show their foes mercy? Do they give up their treasure to the Abbey, or to the poor? Do they take time to stop and help others?

Also, many of you listed some character flaws or struggles... bullying, shameful secrets, poor self-image, vanity, spurned love, etc... find ways to play with those (maybe in some of your character's thoughts?).

Finally, I dislike a lot of player character in-fighting. I've intentionally tried to link your character's up as friends. You now need to figure out what your character appreciates/loves about the others that helps him/her overlook the others' failings and faults. I despise thinly-veiled, in-character flame wars. If something another player wrote really irks you, don't retaliate... that's lame-sauce. Be mature, overlook it maybe, or write them a PM and ask them if you understood their post correctly. If you're really struggling with what they wrote, PM me please. I'll try to work it out.

...stepping off my soapbox...
Looking forward to playing this game!
Ayrn

You really covered the bases of what an Enjoyable Adventure Gaming Experience here at the Inn is all about when writing and interacting with other players!

I just read over my post above. Wow! I was writing that quick and made a ton of mistakes with word choices. Anyway, you all should read it again. I expanded a bit and made it make a bit more sense.

Regarding heroic qualities, let me share a story or two from our family table-top game. For those who don't know me well, I've got 7 kids at home, ranging between 2 - 13 years old. (good times!) Anyway, I just picked up Woodland Warriors for the kids. They love reading stories where animals are the main protagonists, and I've run a down and dirty dungeon crawl once before for my eldest 4 and they loved it. Roleplaying in my home is lovingly refered too as "the Sewer Rat game" because of their first adventure. (haha)

For this game, we've created characters for EVERYONE. Even my 2 year old is team playing (with me or my wife) a dexterous mouse warrior named Ribbon. (she may show up in our game as an NPC, I like her that much)

Anyway, (wow, that was a long intro to get to my real stories), my eldest daughter (9) plays a hedgehog friar named Alice. Alice and her party stopped to ask a mole for some directions. As the mole is a long-time miner, I gave him the trait of a hacking and wheezing cough as he gave the directions.

Alice thanked the mole for his help and then asked him about his cough. The mole dismissed it as merely the hazards of many shifts in the mines. Alice asked the mole if he would like to be healed.

(I am sad to say that, as a DM, I thought that using her healing on the miner rather than saving it for when they were in combat was a foolish waste of her ability.)

I had the mole give a queer look and then shrug and say, "Guess it couldn't hurt none." Alice laid on hands, but I told her there was little change. She proceeded to give the mole ALL her healing berries. I told her there was still no change.

She sighed and said, "I'm sorry I couldn't do more." She paused for a moment and then piped in, "When I return, I shall try again."

Heroic qualities: Selfless, persistant, perseverance, hopefulness.


Later, the party was listening to a sad tale from an NPC who had experienced some significant loss, but seemed to be skirting around his pain. The badger warrior, Little Ben (played by my 7 year old son) offers to give his bottle of juice (non-fermented... the players are all under age) with the sad creature.

Now, I need to back this story up a little. When my son was creating Little Ben, he specifically stated that he wanted a bottle of pineapple juice. I told him that pineapple juice was very rare and expensive in these parts and would cost 3x as much as regular apple juice. He said he would take a bottle of apple juice, but wanted the pineapple juice as well and was willing to pay the cost. I let him buy it.

So, fast forward to him offering the NPC his pineapple juice. I asked my son if he was sure he wanted Little Ben to give away his very special and expensive juice.

"Yep," he says."Here you go. I know it's not the same as what you lost. But it's special to me and I want you to have it."

Heroic qualities: Empathy, compassion, sharing, sacrifice.


I could go on and tell you of how my wife's character, a hedgehog wizard named Sansa, offered to sacrificed herself in order to allow her sister (Alice) and the rest of the party to escape an ambush which, in turn, led the two twin Squirrel Scouts (played by my eldest boys) to stand their ground with the wizard and attempt to protect her until she was able to cast her spell.

Or how, when they somehow managed to survive the ambush and even take some of their foes as prisoners, Little Ben offered their captives his apple juice and Anya (a mouse friar played by my 5 year old daughter) shared her trail rations and tended to their wounds.

This is what I mean by "heroic" fantasy. The characters aren't perfect (less you start to think too highly of my family). Most of them will "loot" the bodies of their foes. They are not afraid to intimidate their captives to gain information. The badger sometimes asked his questions in rude ways. The one squirrel scout is regularly trying to persuade some other character to carry his gear. Both of the twin scouts have, at times, shown themselves to be a little craven (that's why, when their stand against overwhelming odds to so heroic). They can all be a bit competitive and gloating at times. And, often, they argue about which course of action they should take. But even then, someone will submit to the wishes of the others and they work it out and move on. And, in a sense, that's heroic too.

The stuff legends are made of!

Anyway, just a few stories so you get a feel of what I mean when I'm thinking of the PCs as heroes.

Can't wait to make some stories with you all!
Ayrn

Hey Everyone,

Just a short update on where we are so far:

1) Ziklag and Grugg have bowed out. No hard feeling about that (Some sad ones, though... would have loved to game with you both). Just the way life is sometimes.

2) I am waiting on a description and background from Celeste for Reginald.

3) I will be mostly away for the next week. If I have time, I'll try and update the Q/A thread with some more information on the setting. No promises though.

4) It is my intention to have the game up and running prior to January 5.

Merry Christmas to each of you! May you experience greater grace, hope, joy, and peace in the coming year.

Ayrn

After reading the latest entry in the Alder Vale Q/A section I am really looking forward to more!

Thanks Hammer and Ayrn for the advice. I've found the entire Redwall cartoon series on youtube. Genre research!

Happy new year!
I will not be checking this thread out any longer. Please post all questions to the Q/A Thread.