House of Ainsley: Out-of-Character Discussion

Well, I know I talked a big game.... but its almost midnight and I only have a few ideas. I will get back into the swing of things - I haven't been much of a storyteller lately - once I start moving things again. Until then.... sorry but my posts will be.... ummm…. pleebish. haha!

Well, onward!

V;tM, Requiem was a great game... I miss Vampre before it went to shit...

My most memorable part of dr. Grout's mansion was when I stealth killed a loonie in front of a mirror, only to discover that it wasn't a mirror.....

As for Karnoz, *sigh* I really need to drop some points into intimidate.... So many skills, so few points....

Wraith wrote:

Well, I know I talked a big game.... but its almost midnight and I only have a few ideas. I will get back into the swing of things - I haven't been much of a storyteller lately - once I start moving things again. Until then.... sorry but my posts will be.... ummm…. pleebish. haha!

I'm not sure what "pleebish" means, but it looks like a cute word.  

I'm still beating the rust off of my creative gears, so no worries.  

Wraith wrote:

Well, onward!

Yarrr.  

GoldenDrakon wrote:

V;tM, Requiem was a great game... I miss Vampre before it went to shit...  

You might be thinking of Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines here, or perhaps its predecessor (Vampire: the Masquerade — Redemption).  Both were great computer games.

Vampire: The Requiem was the rehash of Vampire: The Masquerade for the New World of Darkness, and the New World of Darkness was when everything went sour like a gallon of milk left out in the sun.  Changeling: The Lost was almost a worthy successor to Changeling: The Dreaming, but the only NWoD game that I earnestly enjoyed was Promethean: The Created.  But perhaps that was because 1) Promethean was a NWoD game that didn't have a predecessor in the Classic World of Darkness, and 2) I always loved the cautionary story of Frankenstein anyway.  Werewolf: The Forsaken was crap compared to Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Mage: The Awakening was crap compared to Mage: The Ascension (and Mage: The Awakening completely threw out my beautiful, magnificently Orwellian Technocracy, damn it all!), and if Hunter: The Reckoning wasn't all that great, then Hunter: The Vigil made things even worse.

I never got to experience the rest of the CWoD books, but I imagine that Demon: The Descent was crap compared to Demon: The Fallen.  But Mummy: The Resurrection only had two or three books to the entire series, so Mummy: The Curse didn't have too much of a predecessor to topple in the first place, so maybe it did just that, or maybe it didn't.  And did Beast: The Primordial and Deviant: The Renegades even exist?

(And if you want convoluted histories, just look at Wraith: The Oblivion!  Wraith is a pretty heavy game.  As I've said before, Call of Cthulhu has a big, bad reputation, but Call of Cthulhu is what horror gamers play when they want to take a break from Wraith: The Oblivion.  Just the fact that Wraith has an entire book that goes into detail about what happened with the millions upon millions of ghosts from the Holocaust suggests how heavy Wraith can get.  Naturally, since most people are delicate snowflakes who retreat to their safe spaces the moment they're faced with something uncomfortable, Wraith was never very popular.  So White Wolf killed off Wraith well before the Time of Judgement books descended to kill off the entire Classic World of Darkness...so early that they had time to rehash Wraith as Orpheus.  Orpheus was okay, but it wasn't nearly as fully fledged, detailed and involving as Wraith was.  Then the Time of Judgement killed off the CWoD, along came the NWoD and years later, we got Geist: The Sin-Eaters as the successor to both Wraith and Orpheus.  I never laid my hands on Geist myself, but by most accounts, it sucked.

There's just no topping Wraith.  You think that Vampire is top-of-the-line at executing the whole "A monster I am lest a monster I become" character development device?  You haven't tried Wraith yet.  

(But thinking back to Promethean for a moment, I really should grab my sketching pencils, get back on DeviantArt and finish the backstory on my own Mercurian Frankenstein one of these days.  I may as well embellish a bit more on my old Rat Pooka from Changeling: The Dreaming while I'm at it....)

GoldenDrakon wrote:

My most memorable part of dr. Grout's mansion was when I stealth killed a loonie in front of a mirror, only to discover that it wasn't a mirror.....

Oh, yeah...I remember that part well!  The "mirror" that the madwoman was gazing into turned out to be a regular pane of glass with a similar-looking madwoman standing on the other side, looking right back at her!  It took me by surprise too.   Well played, Troika!  Well played.  

I still have to place Grout's Mansion beneath the Ocean House on my list of "Places in Bloodlines that creeped me right the spork out".  Yeah.  First Place: The Ocean House Hotel.  Second Place: Aleister Grout's Mansion.  Third Place: Andrei the Tzimisce's House of Flesh.  That sounds about right, right?  

GoldenDrakon wrote:

As for Karnoz, *sigh* I really need to drop some points into intimidate.... So many skills, so few points....

...even when you're a Rogue with high Intelligence.  I hear you, man.

Okay, so I was entertaining the idea of Stickying the active Chapter Zero topics, and while I set things up to get back with GOOB on character creation, I had thought to put every topic that had something to do with character creation into a "Character Creation" subforum.

But I can't seem to find the tools to either Sticky topics or create subforums.  Are those options somewhere above my rank, or am I maybe just looking in the wrong places?  :?

I shall look into it tonight after my shift. Good news! I have two days scheduled off next week! And I should be returning to my normal hours the week later!!! Whoop whoop!

Also.... I am unsure of what just happened . Is the laughing zombie now mine to command? Did my Rebuke Undead turn into Command Undead? And does that mean I can only command it simply and for how long?

I am both excited and worried that you've maybe given me another minion....

Wraith wrote:

I shall look into it tonight after my shift. Good news! I have two days scheduled off next week! And I should be returning to my normal hours the week later!!! Whoop whoop!

It's good to finally have some time off, isn't it?  

You're still a chef of some sort, right?  What hours do you normally work?

Wraith wrote:

Also.... I am unsure of what just happened . Is the laughing zombie now mine to command? Did my Rebuke Undead turn into Command Undead? And does that mean I can only command it simply and for how long?

Well, seeing as Sylvea has apparently never actually seen or tried this result herself...I'd say that this calls for the good old "trial and error" approach.  What do you think, Drakonator?  

Wraith wrote:

I am both excited and worried that you've maybe given me another minion....

"Worried," huh?  Now why might that be?  

It does bring something else to mind, though: Clerics, like every other character from every other Class, can permanently increase one of their Abilities every four Levels.  For some Classes, the choice is easy; Bards almost always opt for Charisma, Wizards almost always opt for Intelligence and Rogues almost always opt for Dexterity, simply because most if not all of what those Classes can do hinge on one Ability alone.  Players are welcome to go off the beaten path, of course; Rogues also have easy access to almost all of the social Skills, so for a more people-person kind of Rogue, investments in Charisma can lead to happy returns as well.

For Clerics, it's a bit less cut-and-dried.  Almost everything about their spellcasting hinges on Wisdom, so it's often considered their foremost Ability.  Wisdom determines how many spells of each Spell Level the Cleric can cast, how difficult the spells are for enemies to resist, and whether or not spells of certain Spell Levels can be cast at all (ie. a Cleric with a Wisdom of 17 can never cast 8th or 9th Level Cleric spells).

However, their ability to Turn or Rebuke Undead is not to be dismissed lightly.  Undead often possess numerous resistances and immunities to what most Classes can dish out; Rogues can't Sneak Attack them.  Wizards can't stop them with Sleep spells, drain them with Enervation spells or instantly kill them with Finger of Death, Circle of Death or even the mighty Wail of the Banshee.  Fighters and Barbarians will have a hard time cutting down certain varieties of undead with common weapons of certain Damage Types.  But powerful though the undead may be, a single Cleric or Paladin in the party can swiftly turn the tide against their undead enemies.  And Turning/Rebuking hinges entirely on Charisma as far as how many times the Cleric may Turn or Rebuke each day, whether or not the undead are affected at all, how many undead will be affected by a single Turn/Rebuke attempt and how long the effects of Turning/Rebuking last.  A high-Charisma Cleric might easily drive a marauding vampire to flight, while a low-Charisma Cleric might only anger the vampire, provoke him to derisive laughter or give him a few more seconds to close the gap and attack.

The other Abilities can help too, of course.  A high-Strength Cleric can bust more skeletons apart with a mace, a high-Constitution Cleric will be less likely to fall to a spectre's dreaded Level-draining touch or a ghast's deathly stench, a high-Intelligence Cleric can shore up the normally meager number of Skill Points that Clerics receive, et al.  But there are definitely some very strong incentives to raise a Cleric's Wisdom or Charisma every four Levels.

Also, I just slopped this together in a few minutes to lend a few ideas on what higher or lower Ability Scores might mean, in roleplay or otherwise.  Don't laugh.


I'm still not entirely sure why I did that.

Also, I should probably go to bed soon.  

So because Sylvea is a lvl 5 cleric, does that mean she has already chosen an ability to increase? Or are you getting at that I should pick on before i go further?

I am still a chef. I run my own bistro. Meaning I am employed by another but I'm responsible for how its run and the menu and everything except paying the bills. Pretty good gig. And getting paid well too. I usually do a five day week with split shifts lunch and dinner. I average about 35 hours a week, which Is much less than I used to but I also now do more because it's just me. I have no helpers but I have a dish hand and a waitress on fridays and Saturdays. We have a pizza chef who is awesome but she has her own stuff to do so we help each other out while we can. This busy period we both bumped up to seven days a week with roughly 60hrs a week in there. We had some extra helpers but we also tripled our daily takings.... so it's been hectic.

So next week I get two whole days off!!! I'm excited! I was actually hoping we could get our gametable stuff going again along the line too :-)

Wraith wrote:

So because Sylvea is a lvl 5 cleric, does that mean she has already chosen an ability to increase? Or are you getting at that I should pick on before i go further?

Sylvea already did receive an extra Ability point for passing Level 4, yes.  You picked Wisdom.

(Do you remember when this forum had little clickies at the end of each post, and those would give you the URL to a direct link to that particular post?  You wouldn't believe how much of a Frankenstein job I had to do with that link, just to get it to come out right!  What ever happened to those clickies?   )

Wraith wrote:

I am still a chef. I run my own bistro. Meaning I am employed by another but I'm responsible for how its run and the menu and everything except paying the bills. Pretty good gig. And getting paid well too. I usually do a five day week with split shifts lunch and dinner. I average about 35 hours a week, which Is much less than I used to but I also now do more because it's just me. I have no helpers but I have a dish hand and a waitress on fridays and Saturdays. We have a pizza chef who is awesome but she has her own stuff to do so we help each other out while we can. This busy period we both bumped up to seven days a week with roughly 60hrs a week in there. We had some extra helpers but we also tripled our daily takings.... so it's been hectic.  

It's definitely quite the opposite of how Walmart runs their stores, then.  Walmart seems to believe that you save money by trimming your staff down to a skeleton crew at all times; fewer workers means fewer paychecks for the employer to mete out, right?  But they fail to see that hiring more workers means better work, better customer service, reduced losses from theft (for those types of businesses to which the threat of shoplifting applies) and lower turnover (what with fewer workers getting fed up with being overworked and quitting their jobs), which leads to a stronger reputation for the company and, from there, more customers.  So the company rakes in more profit overall from having a stronger workforce.

Walmart has been a shadow of what it was meant to be ever since Sam Walton died back in the 90's.  I'm so glad that I left them.  I'm far from content with working at the Mark W. Michael Unit, but at least it's not Walmart.

So here I thought that you worked for one of those big, fancy restaurants with all the big, complicated crews of chefs...Executive Chef, Sous Chef, Station Chef, Pastry Chef, Sauce Chef, Fish Chef, Meat Chef, Vegetable Chef, Garnish Chef, Line Chef, This Chef, That Chef, all the way down to the wee little Dishwasher.  Like in the movie Ratatouille, or the ones that Gordon Ramsay screams and cusses at all the time.  So your crew's not quite like that, I take it.  

(I get that Gordon Ramsay's a damned good Executive Chef and whatever he touches turns to gold, but how does he get away with exploding at people like that?  Not all that professional in conduct, is he?   )

Wraith wrote:

So next week I get two whole days off!!! I'm excited! I was actually hoping we could get our gametable stuff going again along the line too :-)

Whenever we catch each other online again, we might see if we can link our Gametable clients together again.  How does that sound?  

Well, I went ahead and Stickied the active player-character threads. If SEAMUS and Taljor ever decide to come back, then I'll be glad to Sticky their topics as well. But for now, there we stand.

Did you want to give the Gametable linking another go, Wraith?

Not today. I'm just taking a breather from kaylebs relentless Birthdayness. But in a few days we should be able to link up. I get Monday and Tuesday off so can try something then

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I so happen to have Mondays and Tuesdays off too! I guess we'll see how things go then.

And I tested the SUBBY subforum with my own thread, and it works! Now how did you make that happen?

*tidies up by erasing his first Testy McTest topic*

Tiger Spirit!  I've ignored this tidbit for long enough, so I grabbed the dice and I finally got around to figuring out Gustov's leftover moneys, that being:

40 Platinum, 548 Gold, 200 Silver and 11 Copper.  As updated in The Party thread.

Being second or third in line for Bardosylvania's throne helps (with the downside of putting a target on Gustov's back for Bardosylvania's enemies to go sniping at on occasion).  Don't spend it all in one place.  

So, I spent my first day off just staying away from everyone and everything. It was bliss.

I haven't gone through and taken screenshots but I will soonish. Maybe tomorrow. I have to do some grocery shopping and a copious amount of relaxing.... soooo. yeah. haha!

Meanwhile I popped out a short post to keep things going. Hope all goes well for my darling Elf. I've gotten kinda attached to her again. I miss Ariean.

Also... quick question. Does Ariean only eat Live flesh?

Hey, everyone.  I've had a pretty crazy week here on my end, what with three job interviews, eight job applications, a sewer line excavation (so I can repair it or replace it, and I'm still not done with that), a Federal Income Tax return and studying on how to make a demo reel so I can finally put my Drama classes and acting experience to work by (hopefully) reading for audiobooks, which would beat any job with the Postal Service in my opinion.  If it's not obvious, I'm sick and tired of being a prison guard with an hour-long commute, so I'm angling for something better.  

But I'm driving off to the prison again here in half an hour, and I'll only have two hours to work with when I get home tonight.  If all goes well, I should be caught up with everyone tomorrow.  Stay tuned.

Wraith wrote:

Also... quick question. Does Ariean only eat Live flesh?

Oh, no, not at all.  Ghouls can eat any form of flesh to sustain themselves, be it live, dead or undead.  Ghouls first came to be known for being ghouls and haunting graveyards when people first observed them digging up coffins and breaking into tombs in order to help themselves to the bodies of the recently deceased.  Of course, it wasn't too long before the ghouls decided to try eating their living observers, but that whole association with being graverobbing necrophages was the ghouls' first impression on people, and they're not going to shake it off anytime soon (if only because eating mouldering carcasses is a pretty repugnant thing to do, but hey...ghouls have to eat and they're not very picky).  Their feeding habits have occasionally brought ghouls into conflict with other undead as well; there's simply no way to tell how many times a ghoul has thrown open a coffin and started snacking on the corpse inside, only to find that the "corpse" was a torpid vampire (and suddenly a startled and likely angry vampire).  It's not yet known if vampires can be killed through being completely devoured by ghouls, as so far the vampires have been understandably reluctant to let the ghouls carry on that far, and vampires are known for harboring longstanding grudges over such violations.

Anyway, I'm glad that you got some time off of work.  I'm thinking of taking some time off myself.  How do you feel now?  

Oh my God. Two weeks in a row and I've had my days off. I'm in Blissful Heaven. I had no idea just how run down I had become. Anyways, I'm refreshed and good to go. The reason I haven't been on at all lately is because I've literally avoided being online to be with my family. I missed them so much. Shadow and I are very close and my little boy missed me. Even though I came home every night, he'd be going to bed and he'd still be in bed when I left for work sooooo... it sucked. But it was worth it for the money I could save. And my boss has treated me fair too. And I've booked in a two week holiday!!! Its at the end of February on our anniversary so if I drop off then too, you know I'm not dead. Lol. Just enjoying it. Haha!

Thanks for the info on Ariean. Hopefully I can use her a little better when I get her back.

Heard anything back from your interviews?

Wraith wrote:

Heard anything back from your interviews?

Well, unfortunately, I got turned down for three of those jobs (specifically, the Post Offices in Terrell, Van and Ben Wheeler).  But my interview with the Post Office here in Canton seemed to go well, and I haven't heard from Kaufman, Whitehouse and Tyler yet.  Van and Ben Wheeler also had another job opening each after both of those Post Offices shot me down, so being a glutton for punishment, I applied with both of them.  Again.  

Sorry about the big delay there, but I'm back again.  And I should be here all week.  Let me grab my dice box and get back to it.  

Also, Hi there, Drak! How are you and Jaz tonight?

It's all good. We all have lives. I should've had this day off but it's a Public Holiday so I got called in. I do get tomorrow off though so maybe after I go grocery shopping we can have a post spree. Or Gametable?

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Late January...that's Australia Day, isn't it? What's the story behind that holiday?

And yes, I'm up for anything tomorrow. Maybe we'll get a chance to see if we can finally get our Gametable clients to link up again after all these years....

It's supposed to commemorate the day we became a federation and not just a colony. But mostly people just like getting the day off work and getting drunk. There's also fireworks. (Fireworks are banned in Australia. We only get them on special occasions and you have to be licensed to use them, ie. A company or business)

Also a good day for a barbeque. And lamb. Apparently.

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You need a license to pop off fireworks?  Sheesh, people in the States can launch bottle rockets down Main Street without any paperwork whatsoever, as long as it's a holiday (like New Year's Eve, New Year's Day or Independence Day) and no one gets blasted out of their boots.  Why did Australia's Government decide to ban fireworks?  Did Ned Kelly do something rascally with a bunch of Roman candles, like pop them off at the police while he was dressed in his big, fancy boiler armor?  

I'm not sure, but I think its tied to our gun policy. I really couldn't be bothered to look it up. Its just the way its always been. And the gun policy came into effect when I was a little girl so, I've gotten used to it, I guess.

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The House of Ainsley wrote:

Also, Hi there, Drak!  How are you and Jaz tonight?  

Freezing our butts off. Another winter storm is rolling through and the bad weather is playing hell with our house... so , no house yet.

Well, I've served the ball to GOOB and Turnarex. Here's hoping that they return the ball soon.

Your new house still isn't finished, though? So where are you and your family living right now?