Poll: Pulse check - Hey what's up?

[TheIronRuler]

Hey, what's up? I've been away for a few years and it looks like a lot has changed. I've made some unsuccessful ventures in the past during periods of relative calm back into the forums but I was eventually drawn back to my position in the army. I'm done, finished, over with the past, and I've wondered if I should come back and test my luck. I thought about it for a while and at the end of it I came up with several question - Do they even want me back? Do I remember the past correctly, was I even any good, or should I even try and make a return? Do they even remember me, and if they do, is it anything positive? Since I'm so certain of my worth I've decided to make this short thread and ask you about me. I'll also add a couple of ideas for games I want to try, if players are interested in my return.

"War-band: Lost Crown of the North", is a game set in a fictional world set in the early medieval age, focused around the exploits of a war-band drawn together from all corners of the Northern wastes and lead by the Konung's son in the northern people's last struggle for independence against an ever-growing Empire intent on swallowing them whole. The players are each chosen men and women from among the many clans of the north, brought forward by their respective Jarls. The game will be focused around choosing the lesser evil in a situation, living with the consequences of your actions and the risk of conflict. You are warriors - not soldiers, and even if the war is over, your struggle is not.

"Colony", is a game centered around earth's first foray into interstellar colonization, and features Earth's best and brightest sent to colonize the stars. Set mostly on the deck of a massive inter-stellar ship, the players each start out as outstanding persons in their own right - scientists, writers, engineers, top athletes - and progress over the course of a hundred and twenty years as their off-springs in an increasingly volatile environment inside the star-bound ship. Play as your descendants, follow your dreams, deal with the consequences of your mistakes and hold onto what's yours - all the while making sure the ship stays intact and reaches its destination. The second stage of the game, populated by the grand-grand-children of the player's original characters, will star the early colony in a new earth and the secrets kept inside the belly of the ship's reactor.

 

[Frission]

Welcome back! Alot of stuff on this forum has changed, but I'm up for any game.

 

[Baldrek]

Welcome back, things seem to have slowed down a lot over the years here, don't really know how many of the old crowd are still around for RPing, but might still be enough to get something started. I certainly wouldn't mind a chance to write up something again for a change.

Also, yeah, I can say I recognize you from around here. Can't remember if I've RPed with you in the past or just read a few you were in, but the name and the picture still sticks. Seem to remember you being quite good at writing, and had a good few RPs to your name as well.

As for the RPs, I'd probably apply for both/any of these, yeah. Interesting enough premises to both of them, though "Colony" might be hard to pull off correctly since you probably have to plan suitable "downtimes" and places to break off and play the next generation... Might do best as a sort of episodic adventure, probably? Give applicants a shot at getting in every new "generation" and write up a short summary each time.

Voted for "War-Band", seems pretty good and fairly uncomplicated I guess, but that doesn't mean it'll be any less enjoyable in the end. Group of skilled warriors, liege lords, struggle for independence and some ethical hurdles? Sounds good, write me up (still good for both of them though).

Good luck getting this going, haven't been in an RP for well over a year now, and getting out of "hibernation" seems quite appealing with these ideas.

 

[TheIronRuler]

Welcome back! Alot of stuff on this forum has changed, but I'm up for any game.

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Thanks Frission. I noticed that much has changed. It slowed down altogether.
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Welcome back, things seem to have slowed down a lot over the years here, don't really know how many of the old crowd are still around for RPing, but might still be enough to get something started. I certainly wouldn't mind a chance to write up something again for a change.

Also, yeah, I can say I recognize you from around here. Can't remember if I've RPed with you in the past or just read a few you were in, but the name and the picture still sticks. Seem to remember you being quite good at writing, and had a good few RPs to your name as well.

As for the RPs, I'd probably apply for both/any of these, yeah. Interesting enough premises to both of them, though "Colony" might be hard to pull off correctly since you probably have to plan suitable "downtimes" and places to break off and play the next generation... Might do best as a sort of episodic adventure, probably? Give applicants a shot at getting in every new "generation" and write up a short summary each time.

Voted for "War-Band", seems pretty good and fairly uncomplicated I guess, but that doesn't mean it'll be any less enjoyable in the end. Group of skilled warriors, liege lords, struggle for independence and some ethical hurdles? Sounds good, write me up (still good for both of them though).

Good luck getting this going, haven't been in an RP for well over a year now, and getting out of "hibernation" seems quite appealing with these ideas.

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You're spot-on about how Colony would be structured, and it is a challenge for the Game-Master to craft. War-band is simpler, since it draws on the fantasy embedded in my brain and inspired by works like ASOIAF, Joe Abercrombie's stuff and a bit of Tolkien. It's my way of bringing Crusader Kings 2 to life.

The forum has slowed down, I noticed it when I came back. A lot less activity.

 

[Baldrek]

You're spot-on about how Colony would be structured, and it is a challenge for the Game-Master to craft. War-band is simpler, since it draws on the fantasy embedded in my brain and inspired by works like ASOIAF, Joe Abercrombie's stuff and a bit of Tolkien. It's my way of bringing Crusader Kings 2 to life.

The forum has slowed down, I noticed it when I came back. A lot less activity.

Crusader Kings II, eh? So the warriors we'd be playing would then presumably end up in a sort of "courtier" role at some point? Might be interesting that. I'm guessing, even though Tolkien was mentioned as an inspiration, it'll be more politics/relations/fantasy nations than any non-human races?

Just a question though, will you be posting some sort of development snippets or small pieces of lore in this thread as well? Might give us even more of idea of what your visions for these RPs are, and possibly draw another eye or two. Seems like there's few enough people frequenting the RP board these days to not attempt to make the thread a bit more visible in some way.

 

[TheIronRuler]

You're spot-on about how Colony would be structured, and it is a challenge for the Game-Master to craft. War-band is simpler, since it draws on the fantasy embedded in my brain and inspired by works like ASOIAF, Joe Abercrombie's stuff and a bit of Tolkien. It's my way of bringing Crusader Kings 2 to life.

The forum has slowed down, I noticed it when I came back. A lot less activity.

Crusader Kings II, eh? So the warriors we'd be playing would then presumably end up in a sort of "courtier" role at some point? Might be interesting that. I'm guessing, even though Tolkien was mentioned as an inspiration, it'll be more politics/relations/fantasy nations than any non-human races?

Just a question though, will you be posting some sort of development snippets or small pieces of lore in this thread as well? Might give us even more of idea of what your visions for these RPs are, and possibly draw another eye or two. Seems like there's few enough people frequenting the RP board these days to not attempt to make the thread a bit more visible in some way.

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It doesn't look like there's much interest except for you two. I'll send out snippets for War-band right now:

"The land is strong in the north, imbued with the blood of giants and guarded by the all-father. He of many faces guides the fathers with his wisdom, and lends the sons courage to conduct war. It is he that granted the title of Konung to the men, and raised one of them to be above them all, to decide on matters of grave discussion, and unite the tribes in times of war." - Words of the Green Man of the Jarl of the Amtrobes, in a sermon to the council of Thanes, minutes after the arrival of a messenger.

An outrider appears in the distance on the backdrop of a rising sun. He is approaching the town of Bjornsfyord, a tributary of the Amtrobes tribe, and a former colony of the Black-League. The warm rays of the sun embrace a sleeping guardsman leaning on his spear on the parapets of the palisade when the cries of the outrider rudely awaken him from his slumber. He speaks with a rough accent, a true northerner's tongue, "Open The Gates!", to which the guardsman answers with crying out to his sleeping replacement laying besides him. "Open 'em before I make 'em red, fishies! Words of the Konung!". They descend the steps down to the gate and hurriedly fumble with the two heavy planks blocking them, while a third rings a bell to jostle the entire guard of the town, the whole twelve of the lot. The outrider rushes forward just as the gates open and speeds off to the port's customs house, to kick the patrician's fat ass out of bed and finish with his task. It nearly cost a slave's left arm, but the outrider beat his way through the winding halls of the custom's house and barged into the patrician's room while he was barely pulling his trousers on his thick body. It would have cost an ordinary man his honor, and his life, to treat a town's patrician like a child. It was the mark on his right forearm that made him untouchable to all those that would not dare challenge the authority of the Konung, marking him as a Carl of the Amtrobes tribe.

The Konung has sent riders to all of the Jarls of the north and the following was memorized by the Carls sent as outriders, to prepare the north for a war-council to take place soon, in four moons' time.

"This is a cry to arms, away from your fields and your homes, towards the glory of combat and the warmth of blood. It is a cry of unity against the outsiders bent on subjugating the free folk under them, and take our children as slaves for them to devour. I call on all the Jarls of the north along with their men, and all of the Carls who roam the land - come to the banner of our forefathers, and let us forge a new saga for generations to come".

Those words were not uttered by the outrider. Such high ideas of freedom and glory were foreign to the fish-folk, especially to those once a part of the Black League. Those patricians had not forgotten their legacy, but what remains of them is merely a shadow of their past. They remain loyal only at the threat of the sword. Thus the words uttered by the Carl were of a different sort.

"We are going to war, and you are going to feed us, cloth us and arm us. Refuse, and we burn your ships with you in them as our host marches south. Remember your humiliation at the hands of Harold Red-beard, and understand this - rebellion will be met with swift vengeance. Two hundred silver loafs is your tax. Pray to your false gods it is all we demand".

Several notes:
Konung - the title of King in the North, a non-hereditary and elective title taken by a Jarl elected by a majority of Jarls in the "Green Place" until his death. His first-born son inherits the title until a new selection is officially taken, but often his authority is mocked without the backing of the Jarls of the north.
Jarls - leaders of tribes, chieftains holding an entire confederation of clans together on a spot of land, the nobility of sorts of the lands in the north.
Thanes - relatives, close friends and retainers of the Jarl, acting as administrators but often as the Jarl's fiercest and most loyal warriors.
Carls - the free-folk, the lowest form of a northerner but still better than a slave. Often belong to a clan and a tribe, but sometimes act alone, living in isolated farms away from the ravages of war.
Thralls - enslaved prisoners of war, often not of northern blood. They provide much of the work-force in the north. Their children are born as free-folk, but are often sold into slavery by the thralls to keep them protected from harm.
The All-Father - The embodiment of everything in the world, the father of all creation, and the patron of the North and its people.
Greenmen - Wizards, Priests, Prophets and Scholars of the time and age, the Green Men are raised in the Green places among their own kind, and are often taken from noble families with too many sons.
The Black League - Once a federation of patricians and city-states on the coasts of the inner sea, it had slowly disintegrated under pressure from both the north and the south, the northern outposts beconing tributaries - literal cash-cows for the stronger tribes, and the southern cities integrated into the Empire.
The Empire - although not mentioned in name, the Empire to the south is less of an Empire and more of a loose confederation of counties, duchies, city-states, free-holds and monasteries combined together under one Emperor, whose title passes on to the one most likely to keep the Empire together, made by a popular vote of the member state's representatives.

 

[Dogmatic99]

I voted for the northern warband option. I stand by it after reading that.

 

[TheIronRuler]

You're spot-on about how Colony would be structured, and it is a challenge for the Game-Master to craft. War-band is simpler, since it draws on the fantasy embedded in my brain and inspired by works like ASOIAF, Joe Abercrombie's stuff and a bit of Tolkien. It's my way of bringing Crusader Kings 2 to life.

The forum has slowed down, I noticed it when I came back. A lot less activity.

Crusader Kings II, eh? So the warriors we'd be playing would then presumably end up in a sort of "courtier" role at some point? Might be interesting that. I'm guessing, even though Tolkien was mentioned as an inspiration, it'll be more politics/relations/fantasy nations than any non-human races?

Just a question though, will you be posting some sort of development snippets or small pieces of lore in this thread as well? Might give us even more of idea of what your visions for these RPs are, and possibly draw another eye or two. Seems like there's few enough people frequenting the RP board these days to not attempt to make the thread a bit more visible in some way.

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The warriors may play a significant role in the way the future will be shaped, and take up prominent positions in the paradigms of power... or they could be laying face down in a ditch somewhere, torn apart by wolves.
For the most part, there will not be non-human races.
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I voted for the northern warband option. I stand by it after reading that.

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Thanks for the support. I'll post another tidbit:

Words spoken to young students in the green places, to quell their blood-lust and teach them the ways of the world.

"This is a story of the consequences of rash decisions and the power of vengeance. Two great Konung's ago, a Jarl of the Vallen Tribe, of the Hefer Clan, raised his eyes up to meet the high-places to the north and felt envy in his heart. It was soon declared that any white who would cross the Karuga river, separating the Vallen Tribe's lands from the high-places, would be killed. A reward was offered for white ears, traditionally pierced and adorned with artifacts signalling their status. It was a tale of sorrow, when the son of a white chieftain came down from the mountains with his close men, to hone their skills of the hunt, that he became the hunted and was stripped of his ears and life. The response came swiftly and without remorse. They sacked the north-most town, sitting at the mouth of the Karuga and signalling the end of open waters for winter, it soon became a pile of charcoal.

They descended with their host south. The whites moved at night as though like a storm ripped through the heavens, with fire and horns they signaled their approach in the witch's hour. They cried out for war and its spoils, taken from the cold embrace of slain patricians and burghers. They cried out for the mothers to come outside, so their children could be spared, as the night would also spare them the sight of their sacrifice.

They were a cruel folk, the whites, but as deceptive as they were merciless. All around the town, there were empty fires, and the steel clanging on steel was the work of tired goats smashing iron-shoes with their broken legs in a pool of tin forks and plates, the haul from the previous town along the coast they sacked. That day they did not have a thirst for blood, or silver, or slaves - but for vengeance. Their chieftain, Clug 'white-eye', did not make time to weep over the desecrated corpse of his beloved son - he acted quickly against the tribe at the foothills of their home, the high-places, sitting on a range of mountains that touched the top of the world and hid their secret valleys away from outsiders.

Wiping out another fishy town, the so-called 'flodsten' sitting atop a rock on the mouth of a small tributary of the great Karuga river, was not vengeance. Murdering the Vallen Tribe Jarl's two daughters in their sleep was a much better exchange for the spilled blood of Clug's son. It was said in the time of old that their blood sparkled with a tint of the great giants, and so it was immeasurably more valuable than that of the lowly raider scum living in the flat-lands and hiding in the fyords to the south. So it was easier to assault the village of Skolkov, the heat of the Vallen Tribe, when the entire host was raised and sent to save their lowly tributary fishes, when their city was besieged by ghosts and goats. The village was razed to the ground, the men murdered, the women and children taken as thralls, and the earth spread with salt.

The humiliating defeat crushed the spirit of Garald, the great Jarl of Vallen, and in a matter of days his clan was broken, split among the others of the Vallen, and a new Jarl came to dominate the Tribe, raising his clan up from the mud. To this day, the new Jarls leave a small tribute to the north of the Karuga river, an offering of blood-money to quell the rage of the north."

Several Notes:
The Whites - A people living to the north-east of the 'Northerners', surviving in the bitter cold of the high-places and flourishing in their secret valleys nestled deep within the snowy mountains. They are called whites because of their abnormally pale skin. They are altogether taller and larger than the northerners and significantly so compared to those hailing from the mainland and the Empire.
Tribal structure - A tribe is comprised of clans, and is held together by a Jarl whose clan becomes the dominant one in the Tribe. Usually a new Jarl is chosen from the dominant clan, unless a change in the power-balance occurs in the Tribe, usually due to outside forces (like in the tidbit above).
The Karuga river - the last warm river in the north, and a landmark separating between the flat-lands below and the mountainous region of the white above.

 

[TheIronRuler]

Awkward Cough.

I'm working on my OP for War-band. This lack of inactivity is giving me the creeping doubt that there isn't as much demand for it as I had hoped for. Could you prove me wrong?

 

[Baldrek]

Don't really think the demand is up there for RPs these days at all, so I'd say to not let it discourage you from posting the OP and seeing if it generates a little more buzz. Worth a shot at least.

Regarding the two above snippets, I'd say they look pretty good, gives off a bit of an early scandinavian/baltic feel (with more than a little northern-german in the mix). Place names might take a little getting used to, but that's not really any different than any other setting. I quite like the idea of the "green men", they sort of remind me of druids I guess? Don't know if that's really the case though.

Anyway, I'd love to prove you wrong, but you might just have to post the game thread and see.

 

[Frission]

Sounds pretty nice, and I'm following this along since I don't have much to add. More people might post in an official recruitment thread, or they may not.

How many people are you looking for anyway?

 

[TheIronRuler]

Sounds pretty nice, and I'm following this along since I don't have much to add. More people might post in an official recruitment thread, or they may not.

How many people are you looking for anyway?

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A healthy population is six players.
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Don't really think the demand is up there for RPs these days at all, so I'd say to not let it discourage you from posting the OP and seeing if it generates a little more buzz. Worth a shot at least.

Regarding the two above snippets, I'd say they look pretty good, gives off a bit of an early scandinavian/baltic feel (with more than a little northern-german in the mix). Place names might take a little getting used to, but that's not really any different than any other setting. I quite like the idea of the "green men", they sort of remind me of druids I guess? Don't know if that's really the case though.

Anyway, I'd love to prove you wrong, but you might just have to post the game thread and see.

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You're close to the point with your druid comparison.

Ok, I'll give it a shot.

 

[Fappy]

The RP section's fairly reflective of the current state of the site in general. A lot less traffic overall.

I have no interest in joining any other RPs these days, sorry. Too busy to keep up with my players in my own RP as it is >.>

We're 70-something pages in and we're only 60% through the story. I've been wondering if we'll be finished before the site is, lol.

 

[Frission]

The RP section's fairly reflective of the current state of the site in general. A lot less traffic overall.

I have no interest in joining any other RPs these days, sorry. Too busy to keep up with my players in my own RP as it is >.>

We're 70-something pages in and we're only 60% through the story. I've been wondering if we'll be finished before the site is, lol.

The Ashlanders, right? It's impressive that it's now around three years old.

Any other site recommendations for RPs or do you mainly stay on this site Fappy?

 

[Fappy]

The RP section's fairly reflective of the current state of the site in general. A lot less traffic overall.

I have no interest in joining any other RPs these days, sorry. Too busy to keep up with my players in my own RP as it is >.>

We're 70-something pages in and we're only 60% through the story. I've been wondering if we'll be finished before the site is, lol.

The Ashlanders, right? It's impressive that it's now around three years old.

Any other site recommendations for RPs or do you mainly stay on this site Fappy?

Yeah it's just over 2 1/2 years old. Crazy stuff XD

The Escapist is the only site I've been using for RP for sometime now. I have a second RP that I run out of a Googledoc. Different format than normal forum posts, but I think it's pretty neat. Most of my players are from Ashlanders there too.

 

[drmigit2]

Oh man, this place has really fallen out of sorts. I guess it makes sense, what with the website going the way of Game Trailers and all. Still, this was kind of important to me up until last year, weird to think it's going away.