OOC Crimson Chains: 5e Seeking 3-5 players

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

use the standard array for stats. (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, any background/race is fine.

When you say "any" race, do you mean in the Player's Handbook, or could I possibly use something from the recent Unearthed Arcana on Gothic Lineages? I had a really cool idea, which I will put in a box for compactness:

VIEW CONTENT:

Two things caught my eye under the Dhampir lineage:
1) One of the dhampir hungers is for "a color from one’s appearance."
2) One possible origin is "A parasite inhabits your body. You indulge your hunger to sate it."
What I am picturing is a Sage type, who found and studied a strange rock from the sky. Unfortunately, a parasitic thing (like a Lovecraftian colour out of space) transferred from the meteorite to him, and made him hunger for color. When he bites people, he drains the chroma of a particular color from their bodies. He is repulsed by this predatory obsession, and is trying to figure out how to rid himself of it.
If the color he drains happens to be red, there could be a natural tie-in to this Scarlet King of which you speak.

If you want me to restrict myself to published rulebooks, I have a gnome warlock waiting to be refurbished.

[kintire]

Ahh, the perils of the word "any".

I considered using the local background, but it came with a desire to go cheese rolling. I've been to Cooper's Hill, and you're not getting me chasing a cheese down that grassy cliff. I realise this is a horror game, but some things go too far...

[JMaytr]

Dealing with a power outage (ice storm) but the character sounds fun.

Yes, the cheese chase is exactly what you think it is. The horror...

Town map coming tomorrow when my power is restored.

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

Alright, here is what I have for my character:

Name: Rodrigue Duvene
Background: Sage (Astronomer)
Race: Dhampir (formerly Human)
Class: Monk (I am taking this as an abstraction of the physiological changes the parasite is causing, e.g. improved reflexes and preternatural speed.)
Alignment: Neutral
Backstory:
Rodrigue was a promising academic, interested in the motions of the stars since he was a small boy. He studied relentlessly his entire life, cataloguing the inscrutable night sky. When a piece of the sky fell to the earth, however, so began his long damnation. He spotted the falling star, and recovered it for study, but when he pried it open in his laboratory, an evil color emerged. This insubstantial red phantasm latched itself to his very soul, awakening in him a terrible urge to feed it, to drain energy from the living. Through his new fangs, he could draw the red hue from another being, leaving a dead gray in its place. The survivors of his first impulsive attacks recovered their color, but not all were so lucky. Repulsed by his new nature, Rodrigue fled his home and distanced himself from civilization for a long time.
Having regained some level of control, he tries to live out a calm, self-imposed exile in Clemmonton. He struggles to repress his hunger, hoping to starve out the parasite within him. As more than one rooster has mysteriously turned up dead, with a gray wattle and comb, it is clear his restraint is far from absolute.
Appearance:
Rodrigue is tall and thin, with blue-gray eyes and a somewhat pale complexion. His hair is short and white, and has receded significantly. All in all, he looks like a quite healthy man in his fifties. For a man who is truly 27, that isn't a point of pride. His spotty abstinence from feeding has prematurely aged him, though the effects could prove reversible if he were to keep his thirst quenched for an extended period.

I also need a bit of a ruling on some text in the Dhampir description:

Vampiric Bite. Your fanged bite is a natural weapon, which counts as a simple melee weapon with which you are proficient. You add your Constitution modifier to the attack and damage rolls when you attack with your bite.

Technically, it doesn't say that I use Con instead of Str (the standard modifier for melee weapons), so do I add Con in addition to Str? At the moment, it makes no difference, as his Con is 10.
Also, as a simple melee weapon, it would appear that the vampiric bite can benefit from the Martial Arts feature of the Monk class. Does that sound alright?

Technical Details:

VIEW CONTENT:

STR 8, DEX 17, CON 10, INT 14, WIS 14, CHA 12
Proficiencies:
Str and Dex saves, Acrobatics, Arcana, History, Stealth
Simple Weapons, Shortswords, Musical Instrument (Horn)
Languages:
Common, Elvish, Draconic, Gnomish
I am operating under the assumption that a lot of old academic and arcane texts use Draconic as a scholarly language. Elvish and Gnomish made sense along similar lines, as there is certainly much good lore among those long-lived races.

AC: 15
HP: 8
Speed: 35 ft.

Weapons: Quarterstaff (walking stick) and Darts

His background also gives him a letter from a dead colleague posing a question my character has been unable to answer. I will need to know the contents of that.

[JMaytr]

My initial reading of bite is that you would only add Con mod to the bite, not Str, but my "RAI" feeling here is: that is the force within giving a benefit to an arguably unbeneficial requirement.

Ruling: add CON to STR for the bite attack. It takes an action to bite.

I will send you a PM about the contents of your letter within a day.

[JMaytr]

Concerning Kobolds:

Kobolds are reddish to brown colored small humanoids with canine-like features.


They speak their own language: kobold, which sounds like a combination of goblin and elvish, and knowing either of these will give you the "basic" grasp of verbal communication with them. As for written language, they use a form of "hobo-sign" to alert each other about nearby conditions. To read these requires a successful DC 12 WIS (Insight) check

[JMaytr]

Now that we have a complete beginning party, I will post the first scene once I have sent each of you some background information your characters will know. A day at the latest.

[ewancummins]

He'll speak Kobold.

[JMaytr]

Color me intrigued.

quite the pun now with your current PC

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

Color me intrigued.

quite the pun now with your current PC

I thought it made for a good pun just from the ambient red motifs, but my character choice certainly complemented it.

[ewancummins]

Quitting FoS. See you on the flipside, guys.

[JMaytr]

new book announcement?

[JMaytr]

Having seen why Ewan decided to quit FoS is pretty disappointing. The mods appear to have disagreed with him politically and then mocked soldiers with PTSD to him, not knowing about his military service. A 2-month ban over what they clearly instigated is pretty disgusting. they also edited his posts and others that agreed with him.

[Five]

Having just read this entire thread it seems abundantly clear that the mods disagreed with Ewan politically, and then mocked him. He is a soldier who served in the US Military in Iraq and they mocked "shell-shocked" soldiers with ptsd at him. despicable.

This isn't the 1910s when "shell shocked" soldiers lacked "moral fibre" and were cowards.
People have real feelings and can experience real trauma, and being reminded of said trauma conjures very real emotional distress.

Put the torch down, JMaytr, and read that again.

I don't know nothing about nothing in regards to how things were taken and what triggered the trigger, or even what the response was, but if that was it (or tone of the latter part; ie: "preaching to the choir") then that is the obvious focal point of peaceful reconnect...

That's right, I'm dogging you.

You're only going to make a **** situation worse. If you got a message from Ewan and he's cool with you delivering it, then spit it out with quotes. Otherwise **************.

Ewan gone is a big loss to us here, yes. He's got game in a hobby that needs more like him. But now it's up to him and FoS to chill and offer the olive branch, if they so choose. Hopefully it'll happen.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Having seen why Ewan decided to quit FoS is pretty disappointing. The mods appear to have disagreed with him politically and then mocked soldiers with PTSD to him, not knowing about his military service. A 2-month ban over what they clearly instigated is pretty disgusting. they also edited his posts and others that agreed with him.

JMaytr, to put it simply, you have misread the situation. No one mocked soldiers with PTSD. The comment from Jester that keeps being quoted was explicitly saying that PTSD is real, and that we as a society have come a long way since the time that those things were said about soldiers. And as far as I know, he said that without knowing Ewan's background. Whether any of the mods agree politically with Ewan or any other poster is irrelevant. He was asked to tone down his rhetoric, he responded with a vulgar personal attack, and for that he was banned. The only editing of posts that we've done (to those agreeing with him and those disagreeing with him) was to filter out vulgarities.