The Northlands Saga - Spears in the Ice OOC

[Ghostfoot]

Ghost, can you put that link in the OP please?

Done.

I'll go DM Blue

[Dexam]

Sorry for the delay; it's been a hectic week.
My IC post is now up, and I'm taking teal for speech colour.

[Ghostfoot]

A note on purchasing Magic Items and Services in the Northlands:

There are no Magic Marts in this game.

If you have a strong desire for a particular item, let me know and I might place it as part of a loot haul, or place a supplier.

Certain items will be available but not always to be simply purchased.

• First a supplier must be located - e.g. an appropriate cunning woman, godi (cleric) or master weaponsmith.
• Then the supplier might require tasks to be performed to 'earn' the items in question, rather than a simple monetary transaction.

The more wondrous the item in question, the more difficult or improbable it will be to source.

Signy Stone-Eye will gain access to cure spells from level 3 as part of her cunning woman bloodline, so she will be able to act as party healer from that point.

[Dexam]

In the meantime, assuming that PC's don't get too badly wounded, Skorri can use Restful Sleep to double natural healing, so there is that... although it is extremely meh at low levels; in fact, it's only around level 3 that it starts to equal or exceed Cure Light Would in terms of total HP healed. I'm just wondering if I should switch out Restful Sleep for CLW, and take Restful Sleep at level 3 or later? Thoughts?

Also, regarding Magic Items etc., I'd always assumed that magic items would be in short supply for this game; though how would you feel about Skorri crafting magic items for himself and others? I'm thinking mostly Craft Magic Arms & Armour - I'm having ideas of him etching Runes of Power^TM into weapons/shields/armour while reciting tales of Epic Heroism... or is this too obvious in terms of use of magic? At any rate, it's not something that would come up until at least Level 6, so plenty of time to think about it.

[Ghostfoot]

In the meantime, assuming that PC's don't get too badly wounded, Skorri can use Restful Sleep to double natural healing, so there is that... although it is extremely meh at low levels; in fact, it's only around level 3 that it starts to equal or exceed Cure Light Would in terms of total HP healed. I'm just wondering if I should switch out Restful Sleep for CLW, and take Restful Sleep at level 3 or later? Thoughts?

My 2-cents as DM, looking at what the adventure holds in the early levels, unless you go really off-piste CLW is going to get more use than Restful Sleep.

Also, regarding Magic Items etc., I'd always assumed that magic items would be in short supply for this game; though how would you feel about Skorri crafting magic items for himself and others? I'm thinking mostly Craft Magic Arms & Armour - I'm having ideas of him etching Runes of Power^TM into weapons/shields/armour while reciting tales of Epic Heroism... or is this too obvious in terms of use of magic? At any rate, it's not something that would come up until at least Level 6, so plenty of time to think about it.

I'm totally fine if PC's want to take Crafting feats. There will be plenty of downtime between (& sometimes within) adventures to do so. With overtly magical/ wondrous items you'll just need to be mindful of the reactions of others - a low-level unknown who climbs walls with slippers of spider climbing will possibly be viewed as a demon-spawned trickster whereas a renowned hero with a flaming sword is more likely to be viewed as truly blessed by the gods themselves. Heck, s/he probably wrestled it from the gods in a test of mettle.

Summoning magic in particular is generally viewed as universally intolerable.

[Dexam]

My 2-cents as DM, looking at what the adventure holds in the early levels, unless you go really off-piste CLW is going to get more use than Restful Sleep.

Okay, updated Restful Sleep to CLW - I'll just have to try to be careful/subtle with any casting.

I'm totally fine if PC's want to take Crafting feats. There will be plenty of downtime between (& sometimes within) adventures to do so. With overtly magical/ wondrous items you'll just need to be mindful of the reactions of others - a low-level unknown who climbs walls with slippers of spider climbing will possibly be viewed as a demon-spawned trickster whereas a renowned hero with a flaming sword is more likely to be viewed as truly blessed by the gods themselves. Heck, s/he probably wrestled it from the gods in a test of mettle.

It's the reactions of others to the crafting of magic items that concerns me. If my character goes into a forge and walks out a week later with glowing spear and magic helmet, are others going to be okay with it? Or will they start reaching for torches and their favourite lynching ropes?

[Ghostfoot]

I feel bad attacking you with a ditch at level 1. Let's make the falling damage nonlethal.

[Ghostfoot]

I hope you guys are okay with how this game is going...I quite like that it has a few skill challenges and interactions to start with since you're squishy level 1's but I promise we'll have some real action pretty soon.

[BelGareth]

Oh man, i totally forgot to post!!!

will do

[DrK]

Did I miss an IC post?

Edit: yes, yes I did.

[PeacefulOak]

I certainly am enjoying the game!

I’m excited to see where this goes!

[Ghostfoot]

Phew! I got busy for a bit and when I came back wondered if everyone had unsubscribed .

But no problem, a gentle pace will work best for me. I've got an after-work team dinner tomorrow so will be back with you again in a couple of days.

[Ghostfoot]

I don't mind if you want to interact more with One-Eyed Sven before we move on - just let me know and I'll tweak the description. I figured just easier to keep things moving as a default right now.

[Dexam]

8, 9, 10... The RNG has a sense of humour.

[BelGareth]

Dang, that is one hell of a boon.

Nice!

[PeacefulOak]

Agreed. Oh! I owe this game a post.

[Dexam]

Given my usual luck with rolls, that boon is going to come in very handy.

[DrK]

Given my usual luck with rolls, that boon is going to come in very handy.

That's what I thought as well.

[BelGareth]

That's what I thought as well.

Do you mean Dexam's, or yours? :P

[Dexam]

Do you mean Dexam's, or yours? :P

Spoiler

Show

[Ghostfoot]

I'm aiming to update in a few hours, if anyone else wants to act first...

[DrK]

I'm aiming to update in a few hours, if anyone else wants to act first...

Nope, Freyja is happy to ignore a small yappy dog

[Ghostfoot]

I know we've only really just started this game, and I don't like to tinker with the rules every 5 minutes, but I recently became aware of the background skills variant rules and thought that they looked quite cool.

Basically each character would receive +2 skill points per level to spend on (arguably) less useful skills that add flavour/ depth.

Keen?

[PeacefulOak]

More skill points for flavor is good. :) I rarely argue with more skill points.

[DrK]

Yes! As a low skill point character anything that helps would be great

[Ghostfoot]

Cool, let's do it then.

Let me know if you have any questions/ confusion with it. I've updated DMPC Signy so you can copy what I've done if you want.

[Dexam]

I already have some background skills built into my character, but as a more skilled class, I could afford to do it. I guess this means that I have two more skill ranks to spend.

[Ghostfoot]

I already have some background skills built into my character, but as a more skilled class, I could afford to do it. I guess this means that I have two more skill ranks to spend.

Yeah that sounds right. You can always spend 'normal' skill points on background skills if you want. Basically each level you get 2 extra skill points, and each level you must spend minimum 2 skill points on background skills.

[Dexam]

Well, this is an interesting development...

[Ghostfoot]

Well, this is an interesting development...

Can't have you just prancing round meadows making skill checks all campaign