House of Ainsley: Out-of-Character Discussion

I'm sure i could do a sunday night for you guys. As I said, nights shouldn't be a problem. I just can't play for as long cos I need my sleep

OMG: i totally forgot about your question until now.

Tafe is a vocational training centre based throughout Aus. Its like a college... not quite university and far above highschool.

Anyway, here's a link to bettter explain it: https://www.tafensw.edu.au/

TAFE handles most Australian Apprenticeships, which is what I've got now.

Ah, I see now. Well done.

Anyway, I'm on now and expect to be here for a good chunk of the evening. I'm in the middle of building a new privacy fence to separate our outdoor hot tub from the chicken run. So the fence has to be tall enough to keep the prying eyes away from our hot tub dippers, yet complete and expansive enough to keep the chickens from escaping the chicken run. I dug the 8-foot fence posts in about a foot deep and filled the holes with water-packed mud and clay, but if that doesn't hold I'll have to shell out for some Quickrete at $12 a bag, or maybe just some coarse-grade gravel. I hope the water-packed earth is enough to do the job.

Then, later this week, I get to take a powerdriver and a nailgun and put the slats up, and then comes the biggest pain: measuring everything just right, driving in a couple of metal posts and putting up the gate to that privacy fence. And I still need to finish weatherproofing the attic, too. That's what I get for living in a little hundred-year-old house, I guess.

Okay, back to the campaign I go. Let's see what I can accomplish tonight.

Okay, here's something I whipped up before moseying back to the prologue chapters. Here's hoping that nothing comes up and pulls me off the computer again....

Undead Hunger gauges!

Yes, as we all know, the undead do feature strongly in the House of Ainsley campaign. GD remembers our old D&D campaign in Montana, where the undead (including their leader, a powerful nightwalker-eating lich named the Shadow King) were that campaign's designated Big Bads. This campaign went 180-degrees and made the undead allies, family members and, possibly, friends (well, among the more amiable and less sociopathic undead breeds, anyway).

The vast majority of undead races must perpetually maintain their animation and lucidity by sating an unpleasant Hunger inflicted by their condition; satisfying the Hunger usually comes at the expense of living victims, of course. Both the sustenance demanded and the frequency of the need depend on the specific undead race, but, with a few rare exceptions, undead hungers fall under three categories of sustenance: Flesh, Blood and Soul.

Like it says on the tin, Flesh Hunger (which plagues such creatures as ghouls and ghasts) requires the consumption of flesh, Blood Thirst (which plagues vampire spawn, vampires and bloodmote clouds) requires the consumption of blood and Soul Hunger (which plagues wights, wraiths, spectres and ancient vampires) requires the consumption of lifeforce, whether in the form of Levels/Hit Dice or in Attribute points (such as points of Strength, Constitution or Charisma). Other undead creatures with less common Hunger needs exist as well; among others, nightwings feed on magic, famine spirits eat ordinary food and dessicators--undead water elementals--must absorb water to survive.

Once the need is sated, it's usually anywhere between one day to three days (again, depending on the undead subrace) before the Hunger becomes a threat again. These handy gauges, which will be included in the forthcoming Party thread, help give players an idea of how long they have before the Hunger starts reducing them to deranged and ravenous grave-beasts. Let your gauge run empty at your peril.







So...pretty neat, huh?

I wonder if I should split this coming Party thread into two panels, one for the forum campaign and one for the occasional Gametable night. Ariean's starting to get slightly peckish in Sylvea's Chapter Zero prologue, while in the Tinstone Warrens adventure she just got done eating a pirate's arm, so she's okay. And then if SEAMUS acts on his newfound insight about wights-as-player-characters and we end up retconning Corwin into a wight, we'll have to include a Soul Hunger gauge or two as well, so that Corwin knows to start running around and sucking away little pieces of people's souls whenever he starts to grow a little bit lethargic. Decisions, decisions.

Okay, let me get another Mountain Dew and I'll see if Karnoz gets to hunt down and murder Hennbauer tonight. Stay tuned....

Yeah, I kind of wish I'd had Libris Mortis' advanced rules for undead player-characters from the beginning. But no worries. It shouldn't be any trouble at all to retcon Corwin into wightdom, seeing as he hasn't reached the end of Chapter Zero yet. Okay, the Gametable adventure-in-progress (which is set in some tangent story arc in the forum campaign's future) might need a little adjustment, but I'm sure the rest of you are cool with that. "The harpies have brought their leader onto the field! Raven Murder! If you can get to the scaffolding stairs with your shortbow without being noticed, we might...eh? What's happening to Corwin?" "Oh, he's just magically growing some very pallid meat to cover those bones of his. Absorbing all those little pieces of stolen lifeforce must have done him some good. It's about time he did that. I can't say I care for his new black-lipped rictus grin, though...."



I have no idea how that picture got on my website. Honest. How does it look?

And yes, Hero Machine needs some new mouths, including a rictus grin...you know, like the involuntary smile which looks like your lips are too small for your mouth, so the lips stretch uncomfortably and expose your teeth constantly, and you talk with a hiss because you can't close your lips all the way...something like that. Get your artists back on the clock, Hero Machine people.

Two down, one to go!

So...how about that treasure map? I thought I might try giving the map an aged look by using a Rice Paper background pattern, drawing it up and typing it up, then going back with a paintbrush set to the same Rice Paper pattern set to 50% transparency. And I used the paintbrush to paint faded streaks across the red text and lines, giving it an uneven "splotchy" appearance, like some portions of the ink had decayed and faded faster than other portions did. How does it look?

Also, aqua regia is a term that apparently goes back to the Dark Ages. It's a fancy Old World term for nitro-hydrochloric acid, a 1:3 solution of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid! Leave it to a wizard (or a rejected wizard apprentice) to use a strong corrosive acid in meat preparation, eh?

See? I'm educational too.

On a completely different tangent, vampires really are all the rage right now, aren't they? It seems like so many of those movies and TV shows out there are about those gloryhound vampires, and if it's not the vampires it's the ghosts and the mummies. Ghouls don't get any love...well, except for one Tales from the Crypt episode that I tracked down after all these years.

Mournin' Mess, Parts Un, Deux and Tres

That's about all that I recall as far as ghouls getting their screen time. The staff did do a pretty good job with designing these ghouls, didn't they? Of course, between the boobies and the cussies, you probably shouldn't watch Mournin' Mess at work or in the daycare. It is a Tales from the Crypt episode, after all.

Okay...so maybe vampires have all the suaveness, and ghosts have all the pathos, but you have to admit, any undead type which is capable of gleefully tearing off some guy's ear and eating it with a salsa dip has to be pretty hardcore.

So...who else here has further examples of ghouls taking a stab at stardom?

This is my sixth post in a row. *sniffle* So lonely....

Anyway, I was thinking of going back to that thread about classes and races and such and adding pictures of each entry, as well as a scanned Level progression chart. For example, those soul-sucking wights!





Something like that. It'll be a lot of scans, though; I'll probably have to restart my computer with a cold boot before I take on such a task.

Also, the Party thread's up. I also took the liberty of going back through The Devils of Tides and adding Corwin's gathered goodies to the Character Sheets thread. I assume that Corwin wouldn't be lugging that cart wheel all over creation and hence dumped it somewhere, but everything else (from the hairpin and spur he got from Gaston to his mother's belongings) should be there. I'm still going through the details in The Devils of Tides, so I may have more to adjust with The Party and Character Sheets; feel free to speak up and correct me if I miss anything.

And don't forget the question about Karnoz and calling cards, GD.

Now say something, dagnabbit.

i got fired yesterday.

That sucks! *pet pets Seamus* I'm so sorry dude.

On a pleasanter and slightly gluttonous note: I got signed up yesterday for a three year apprenticeship. So, I'm locked in for the next three years, yay.

On the note of Gametable. Tell me what's going on, please?

Sunday (or saturday) nights my time would be perfect.

Thanks.

*pet pets Seamus again* Sawwwwry....

Wraith wrote:

On the note of Gametable. Tell me what's going on, please?

Sunday (or saturday) nights my time would be perfect.

I'm good for just about any evening, so long as I can get a bit of head's up. Tonight or tomorrow night would be good too.

Sorry to hear about your troubles Seamus. I don't suppose there is anything I could to to assist is there?

not unless you have a job in minnesota doing data entry or other data research and resolution.

or a cushy gubament jorb that isn't the military.

as i am enexterminatus employicus i am free many days of the week

Heh...believe me, SEAMUS, those government jobs can be just as unforgiving with tardies and absences. Just ask GD and me all about the Air Force's standards. They'll regurgitate some minor misstep that you made two years ago and fling it right back in your face when you least expect it, believe you me.

Also, next Sunday morning in the USA would be Sunday evening in Koala Lumpur, wouldn't it? We should aim for that as far as the next Gametable day goes; let's check that Greenwich calendar and see if we can come up with an exact time, and we'll do this like Brutus.

I also got to spend the day with my father yesterday; between his job and mine, we don't really get all that much time together despite living together on-and-off. And I and the rest of our cast for the coming Evening of One-Act Plays have less than three weeks left until showtime, I only have one play's script halfway memorized and the other play's script I've hardly memorized at all. Suddenly I remember why I'm accustomed to taking a season or two off between plays. This is going to be a bit rough....

Anyhow, I'm going back to work on the prologues now. We'll see how much work I accomplish before I have to go to work in the hour that I have; if nothing else, tomorrow morning's wide open.

So how does the Party topic look? I'm sure there's a way to Sticky it, but I haven't figured out what it is yet.... :?

Quote :

So how does the Party topic look? I'm sure there's a way to Sticky it, but I haven't figured out what it is yet.... :?

Done and done

(edit the topic and under the options you have to click the 'sticky' option)

And it looks great, by the way.

Quote :

Also, next Sunday morning in the USA would be Sunday evening in Koala Lumpur,

Ummm... call me thick, but don't I live in Australia? What that have to do with me?.....

Or am I missing something with the word "Koala" lol... *puzzled*

Oh yeah, anyway, Sunday evenings are fine. Though I am going to have a complete sunday off in the next two weeks. The 24th of Jan precisely. Yay.

But I've got to work 8 days straight before that.... not good after only being in the workforce for about two months *sigh*

(whispers to self: suck it up!)

Yeah, anyway, give me a time. Any evening is free for me and you guys communicate better between yourself to organise things than I can at the moment.

GD, PM me... drop me a line man.....

Oh, "Koala Lumpur" was just a spontaneous play on geographical names. It was a cute thing to say instead of "Australia" or "Aussieland" or "Down Under," or so I thought. You're not thick; I'm obscure.

Also, koalas are cute. What's it like having them roaming around your house?

Anyway, I never thought I'd say this, but I need to spend more time on the computer. Between sleep, my job and my real-life stuff, I don't get as much computer time as I once did.

Speaking of my job, I'm off to clock in again. I hope to be on here tomorrow morning. G'night, mates.


(Also, have you seen the Seventh Sanctum website? It has oodles of great random name generators that are useful for Dungeon Masters and Game Masters who need to whip up random names for stuff on the fly. I've used these name generators to generate a few tavern names (such as the Bard and Fox Inn) and ship names (such as the Devil's Hangman) for the HoA campaign before. Now try this Fantasy Disease Name Generator! Good stuff, huh? )

I shall place the link in the Resources section here. Very cool stuff.

And after i wrote the post I guessed your intention and had a little laugh, so I guess I'm just thicker than average

Koalas don't roam around my house, sadly. But I guess that's good, cos they can get NASTY. Seriously, when they bark, they're effing scaaaaary!

But they're cute, soft and extremely cuddly. And cute. lol.

And I agree with you. I need more computer time too. My forum has sadly gone into dissarray and poor GD doesn't know what's happening with Universes and so cannot do a thing to stop it from degrading. I should talk to him more....

*pet pets GD*

Bare with me. Hopefully by next year I have things sorted and more members to mess with....errrr... I mean, play with. Errr... I mean!

(-.-') *sweatdrop*

and you call yourself an aussie

Drop Bears are dangerous creatures that hide in gum trees. You can tell if one of them is hiding in a tree by lying on your back beneath the tree and spitting upwards. If the Drop Bear is up there, it'll spit back.

I can do tomorrow night, if that's what you're saying. Though I won't be able to pull a late one.

Next saturday/sunday, I'm free. All day. Yippee

(btw, its Sunday night here)

S.E.A.M.U.S wrote:

If the Drop Bear is up there, it'll spit back.

LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shadow and I had such a good laugh at this! We've never, I mean, NEVER, come up against a Drop Bear before.

Hopefully our good fortune will continue

Well, it all started Thursday night/Friday morning, when I was at work. It was nighttime, there were no customers and nothing to do. My "doodle bag" with all my papers and pencils and other drawing instruments was in my car, and on a lark I decided to draw up another doodle of my Twi'lek character from the Neverwinter Nights server, Star Wars: Rise of the Rebellion...something related to me finding the planet Dagobah in-game. The doodle turned out pretty well, I thought, and I spent the rest of the day alternating between Deviant Art (skimming through other people's Star Wars art) and SW:RotR (mostly trading butt-stomp with the armies of B1 Battle Droids--and various other droids from the Clone Wars Era--on Geonosis). Another player--one gu with a high-level character--even took me through the bad part of Geonosis, where we got to fight a ton of General Grievous' leftover Magna Guards before finding Count Dooku's arena, hitting the gong and fighting wave after wave of space critters and robots and other assorted monsters. The Sand Worms were particularly impressive.



As you can see, I also spent some time working the trade routes and saving up enough Credits to buy Zaniya some new Verpine Ultramesh battle armor, and after Geonosis I spent about an hour at the Jawa Traders shop on Tatooine customizing the armor to look more like an amalgam of her old armor and her new armor.

I have to give kudos to Pugnius, Mysterious Darkness and all the other devs who worked on SW:RotR; they really did a whiz-bang job on this server. And Pugnius apparently recognized my world-building talents after I described my previous work on Neverwinter Nights modules, because he wants me to design and build some surface zones for the Twi'lek homeworld Ryloth. So I also spend some of Friday working on Ryloth too. Sorry about all that; Star Wars always was one of my weaknesses.

Also, watch this video. It's great. And while I'm pretty sure that Metallica didn't really do this cover, if any song deserves to be covered with electric guitars, it's the Imperial March from the first trilogy. Agree with me or I'll hit you with a Jedi mind trick or something.

Let's see...the rest of the weekend was spent fighting off some stomach bug, visiting a friend in Arlington (and almost tearing up my car on the way there because the Dallas Department of Transportation apparently has Mr. Magoo on the payroll leaving small trenches across Highway 635... ), getting my car stuck in the mud while I was running Dad's mail up to Aunt Alma, building more of that new privacy fence between the hot tub and the chicken run...oh, get this! You know those last four pullet chicks I bought for cheap (and with zero breeding information on them) because Atwoods was trying to get rid of their baby poultry stock? Well, our Bantam chicken Munchie--one of those "hens"--turned out to be a rooster. And I had Dad and his friend Teresa standing outside the chicken run watching Munchie rear up, puff out his chest, spread his wings and crow like roosters do. It's kind of funny watching him show off in front of the ladies when he's the smallest chicken of the bunch...which you expect from Bantam breeds. Bannies are pretty much useless, unless you're breeding fancy-looking show chickens; they're too small too be suitable as meat chickens or egg chickens. Some of the hens pick on him too; I've seen them peck his head bloody before. So where Munchie gets off crowing around like that, I can't figure out. Maybe it's instinct.

But, seeing as we're inside Canton's city limits and Canton doesn't like people having roosters--heck, they barely tolerate hens--I guess we have to get rid of Munchie now that we know he's a rooster. He's kind of amusing, but other than that he's pretty much a useless pet. Maybe Dad's chicken rancher friends the Rosses will accept Munchie in trade for another Silver Laced Wyandotte or something.

Also, my digital camera still doesn't work. But I got the memory chip out of my camera and plugged it into my computer, and I can salvage all the images that were on my camera before it died. I guess y'all will get treated to photos of my 30-egg omelet after all.

Wraith wrote:

I shall place the link in the Resources section here. Very cool stuff.

Thank you! Which Resources section is that again?

I also just played around more with that Disease Name Generator, and as usual there were some turkeys and some gems. Here are some of the more noteworthy examples:

Generated disease names which I would gladly use as menacing outbreaks, Black-Death-magnitude plagues or other major plot elements in my House of Ainsley campaign or any other campaign:
Ghost Pox
Ancestral Annihilating Pestillence
Tomb Grip
Stranger's Corruption Canker
Ancestral Chill
Cairn Ague
Living Atrophy
Death Sweats
Soul Eyes
Ossuary Veins
Bone Dance (Okay, let's push all thoughts of the Hannah Montana song from our mind, now...)
Dragon's Vomiting Corruption
Dark Heart
Ancient Death Abcess
Cairn Stroke
Oblivion Fever
Living Desolation
Scarlet Necrosis
Scarlet Insanity
Bronze Plague
Warping Ghost Lunacy

Generated disease names which I would use as minor nuisances, annoyances or run-of-the-mill pestilences:
Brain Chills
Fall Bule
Fall Croup
Warping Lymph Decay
Summer Canker
Ghost Misery
Battle Abcess
Wasting Leg
Lymphatic Collapse
Sore Malignancy (well, not "sore" as in "aches and pains" but "sore" as in "open, festering rent in the skin")
Madness Throat
Crop Miasma
Rose Congestion
Cat's Sore
Stranger's White Sweat
Dungeon Soreness
Fiery Fester
Putrid Sneeze
Pain Abcess
Melancholy Pox
Moor Ulcer
Orange Doom
Insanity Atrophy
Rot Sneeze
Jungle Foot
Sleeping Croup
Spring Eye
Cenotaph Disorder
Legendary Pain Paralysis (and even then, I might balk at the use of "legendary")
Sailor's Jungle Sores
Scarlet Inflamation
Moon Disorder
Moor Atrophy
Dream Cough
Yellow Sniffles
Woodland Melancholy
Ursine Congestion
Tomb Cramps

Generated disease names which I either would only use in a comedic campaign or would never, ever use at all:
Horrible Womb
Cankered Attack
Queen's Arse
Bone Pimples
Thunder Madness
Tomb Intestines
Diary Chill
Diary Heart
Warping Destruction Womb
Ancestral Feline Decay (proof that using the word "ancestral" won't automatically get your disease on my Plague of Doom list)
Ancestral Insanity Scalp (ditto)
Ancestral Island Decay (yep)
Grocer's Rot
Fatty Veins
Dog's Pustules
Zombie's Dock Gut
Iron Nervousness
Elephant's Air Destruction (...buh?)
Elephant's Annihilating Pox (...though take off "Elephant's" and it might just be good enough for my Plague of Doom list...)
Legendary Heat
Eruptive Complaint
Grand Annihilation Pain (this and Grand Annihilation Itch would have to be the "Huge Midget" of disease names, right here...)
Cow's Decay
Small Palsy
Suffering Foot
Grocer's Chills
Cow's Torture
Man's Sore Pimples
Unthinkable Darkness (this sounds more like a cosmic horror than a supernatural disease)
Grotto Runs
Fear Pimples
Ultimate Dropsy (if only because the word "ultimate" has been done to death)
Horrible Liver
Panic Shave
Short Belly
Dog's Upset
Ape's Terrible Dance

...and so on.

The fun part is coming up with the disease itself, based on the name you randomly rolled up. What does Moon Disorder do? What are the symptoms? How is it contracted? Is it communicable? Is it fatal? Is it permanently disfiguring? Does it deplete your Ability scores and Hit Points? All that and more.

Fun fun fun, those diseases. Keep Sylvea handy, Karnoz; you might just need her if you pick up something nasty from some guy who sprayed blood in your eyes while you were knifing him to death.

Speaking of Karnoz, look what I found: somebody's Thieves Cant page! This should give us some better dialogue when it's time for Karnoz and other members of various Thieves Guilds to make their Innuendo checks and communicate clandestinely via Thieves Cant. Whatcha think?

Quote :

Bare with me. Hopefully by next year I have things sorted and more members to mess with....errrr... I mean, play with. Errr... I mean!

(-.-') *sweatdrop*

You realize that "bear with me" and "bare with me" mean two completely different things, right?

Anyway, I'm off to the playhouse again. And this time, when I get home, I might actually get you three back in the saddle with your prologues. I hope. Apologies for the delays again, but please stay tuned.

So I take it that we are *not* meeting tonight then?

Drat.

GoldenDrakon wrote:

So I take it that we are *not* meeting tonight then?

Drat.

Actually, I think we'd scheduled for yesterday (Sunday) morning (or Sunday evening for Wraith), but I had that cable outtage then. And, of course, East Texas Cable just can't be bothered to pull themselves out of their Lay-Z-Boys and get us fixed up in a timely manner, doubly so if it's on a Sunday. Too bad they're the only game in town, or I'd dump them in a heartbeat.

But since last Sunday didn't work out, we should get back to the Gametable thread and discuss next weekend, bearing in mind that our mornings are Wraith's evenings and our evenings are Wraith's next-day mornings. Perhaps Saturday morning/evening at around 8 AM Central/9 AM Mountain/8 (?) PM Sydney would work for all of us? :?

Also, it looks like the forums got rearranged. Trippy. When did this happen?

You post too much...

LOL.

Anyway, yes, I am aware of those differences, however I was on the insomniac train that day and my brain was too tired.

(probably)

Next saturday night would be perfect for me. And by next, I mean four days from now.

As for the resources section, I've not done the link yet but you'll find the resources section itself in The Scribe's Hall.

And the forum was rearranged because this section is seeing more action than the other one. And I was getting tired of scrolling down to the bottom.... *sigh*

And I felt like it

Ah. Yo lo comprendo. Danke.

And you know what I forgot? 1) Music for Sylvea's update, and 2) some dead lunatics strewn about the streets, whether killed by the Laughing Death running its course, killed by the frost giant or killed by each other. Sylvea may eventually figure out that the Laughing Death has a supernatural element to it (in part because Cure Disease spells seem to have no effect) and that the victims are somehow acting in concert, but the harmony isn't perfect and the afflicted loonies do flip out and turn on each other now and then. If Sylvea's lucky, this might even work to her advantage at times.

As for that Seventh Sanctum disease name generator again, it doesn't seem to have "Laughing" in its vocabulary anywhere--so I obviously came up with the Laughing Death on my own--but I think it should be. As it stands, the disease name generator is nice for generating diseases whose names consist of chains of two or three everyday words. But what about coming up with diseases whose names defy that standard?

Heck, just look at our own reality's diseases. We have disease names and nicknames that do comply with the Seventh Sanctum standard (ie. Common Cold, Chicken Pox, Scarlet Fever, Yellow Fever, Hay Fever (if it counts), Black Lung, Legionnaire's Disease, Yellow Jaundice, Genital Warts (which is viral, so it counts), Bubonic Plague, Black Death (Bubonic Plague's medieval nickname, as in the Black Death of 1366), etc.) and we have disease names that don't comply with that standard (ie. Rubella, Cholera, Chlamydia, Malaria (Yellow Fever's official name), Botulism, Scabies, Ebola, Laryngitis, Follicolitis, etc.).

So maybe one of the other name generators would work for the latter disease names...like, say, the Lovecraftian, Elven, Drow, Goblin, Kaiju or Evil-Sounding name generators. I just used them to come up with names like A'caatego, Tuagghothone, Otidetis, Nzebug, Cacagong, Garango, Lalroma and Sakangla, which may or may not pass as disease names with proper set-up and application. Whatchathink?

Anyhoo, back to work I go!

some of those diseases follow the nameing convention from seventh sanctum, if you remember that they're in another langage.. larynx-itis inflammation of the larynx

Yeah, I know. I'm talking Engrish here.

Also, GD, did you see that post about Karnoz and calling cards back there on the tail end of Page 11?