The World of Solem

[deanjday]

Originally Posted by Þorkell

Sorry. I have to nitpick. Gaius was apparently a masculine name in Roman times, so it looks a bit odd to me to have it as the name of the mother. Perhaps you'd want to consider using the feminine form of that name instead, Gaia?

Good catch, thanks, will edit the post.

[deanjday]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

You might want to specify what should be done with leftover points for those who take Fearlessness but don't take exactly 5 levels of it.



You probably want to give minimum values to secondary and background skills so players know what levels are appropriate. It also cuts down on rules look-ups.



Modify the template to reflect what all Knights of the Silver Flame have in common, then create various lenses to reflect the regional or vocational variations. For instance, you might have an Urban lens that includes things like Legal Enforcement Powers [10] and Military Rank 3 [15].

I don't feel experienced enough yet to add Lenses into the mix, I probably will when i have done a few more templates.

[deanjday]

Originally Posted by Emerald Cat

DangerousThing is referring to the fact that your template comes out to 122 points rather than 125, a multiple of 5. Multiples of 5 are preferred because Advantages and Disadvantages typically have values that are multiples of 5. To get there, you need to spend 3 more points elsewhere on this template.

Formatting wise, this is a good start. A minor nitpick is that character points for individual traits are usually enclosed in [] rather than (). That could cause confusion on templates that contain Innate Attacks, since armor divisors are enclosed in ().

Your Advantages and Disadvantages would be easier to parse if each trait were put onto a separate line. This would be especially helpful for the Patron (Church of the Silver Flame) advantage, because it is hard to tell where that trait ends. If you do keep them in list form, please use semicolons to separate traits to make it easier to separate them out.

I'd recommend using a consistent phrasing for the menus that enable player choice. You are dealing with new players, so your menu needs to make it clear to your player what they need to do. Your "spend [X] points from" wording from the Secondary and Background skill section is clearer than "then [X] points from" the Advantages section. For the Secondary and Background skills, you may want to explicitly state that players may invest more than 1 point if that is an option.

Regarding the actual traits on the sheet, most of it looks good but I do have a few critiques. For one thing, the highest skill level on the sheet is a 12. Is that indicative of PC skill levels? I also share Mailanka's opinion that the Vow disadvantage is easier to roleplay than Code of Honor. Vow should at least be an option on the disadvantages list.

Thanks for your formatting suggestions, i have edited the post to incorparate them.

Regarding the skill levels I did not want to make the npcs, overly powerful, this is for a starting squire, either player or npc in the organisation. I will probably do some further npc templates for more experienced npc knight types, such as captains, sergeants etc.

[bocephus]

I think you're doing fine, keep banging away at it (change the deity names to placeholders "PuddinPop/Janice/Frumgy/Female_Deity_1A (FD1A for short)" if you can tolerate the giggling, and that it might stick later on hehheh)


I actually do prefaced my campaigns with an introductory disclaimer for new people something like You may see names/terms/words that you believe familiar but turn out not to adhere accurately to your Real world preconceptions. Any names, settings, contraptions, or tropes should be viewed from the perspective of someone without an in depth knowledge of our world (unless specifically told otherwise by the GM). Any use of these terms/words will be to give a general feel for a person, item, place, or event that approximates a "generalized knowledge" for the PC not the player. Specific details may (often will) differ at the discretion of the GM because he is known to be 'like that' and do to his laziness when developing an entire world from scratch or to intentionally misdirect meta gaming or just inject a bit of surprise. Differences will be intentional in most cases and once presented will remain consistent going forward. Deviation from this will be covered via direct conversations between the GM and players in the event that consistency is failing, but not during game play.

[deanjday]

The Knights of the Silver Flame

The military arm of the Church of the Silver Flame is both revered and cursed in Solem, depending on who and where you speak.
Their main place of power is the church's religious place of great power the city of Haven. This is where the Lord Commander of the Knights Sir William Addington plans where and when he will deploy his forces against the churches enemies.
The Knights of the Silver Flame have often been the difference between stopping incursions and invasions of Shadowspawn especially in the Misty Isles and the kingdom of Aquitaine. This has led to greater popularity of the church in these areas despite the extreme religious behavior and zeal of many of its members, particularly the Investigators.
But the churches extreme beliefs about magic and its connection to the Dark One have bought it into constant conflict with the Arcanna and magically talented races such as the Elves and the Dwarves.

The Elves particularly have a great enmity for the church and the knights in particular especially after the massacre at and destruction of Caras Galadar by their order.

Recruitment for the Knights has recently increased with the recent signs over the last few years of the Dark One's stirring, seemingly galvanized the populace of many nations and city states.
The Knights accept all men that apply, no matter what their physical size, what is regarded as much more important is their religious zeal and willingness to accept he churches teachings and dogma and ability to carry out orders no matter what they may be.

The Knights truly believe that the end of the world is coming and the Dark One will soon be unleashed once more on Solem. They intend to be ready for these dire events and so steel their military might wit constant maneuvers, raids, training and psychological toughening of their forces to ensure they are ready for the trials to come.

Against this the Arcanna in particular has not been idle, warning many Kings and their counselors not to let the Church of the Silver Flame any more influence and power in their kingdoms than they already have.
The battle lines are being drawn across Solem.

Behind the Curtain
I have made Sir William Addington a good, well meaning man, skilled and intelligent and truly believing of the Knights mission. However, underneath him in the order are many extremists mixed in with the well meaning and the Investigators have much influence over particular knightly units.
The organisation also has a definite racist vibe against non human races especially the Elves of the setting, this will complicate greatly any attempts at coordination against the Dark One's forces in the years to come.

[Emerald Cat]

Originally Posted by deanjday

I don't feel experienced enough yet to add Lenses into the mix, I probably will when i have done a few more templates.

Lenses are useful for character customization and template consolidation.

But you can get away without using lenses. Your players aren't going to care that different fighting styles are each represented by a separate template. Even though you could have one Warrior template with each of those options as lenses. You could also take this approach to background templates and other templates intended for character customization.

The main weakness with this approach is that you have to search through the catalog of templates. A good table of contents will help with that.

Originally Posted by deanjday

Thanks for your formatting suggestions, i have edited the post to incorparate them.

Your template looks a lot better now. For the version you're going to give your players, I'd recommend using indentation to visually group sections. For example:

Advantages

Fit [5]
Rank 1 (Squire) [5]
Status 3 [15]

* Choose [15] points from the following options, spending any leftover points on other items from this template:

Charisma [5/lv]
Combat Reflexes [15]
[...]

This is easier to achieve with a word processor than with the forums. For the drafts you post to this thread, the format you used is good.

Originally Posted by deanjday

Regarding the skill levels I did not want to make the npcs, overly powerful, this is for a starting squire, either player or npc in the organisation.

In that case, a skill level of 12 makes sense for a professional warrior NPC. Make sure to make your expectations of PC vs NPC skill level clear to your players, otherwise they will be confused.

Originally Posted by deanjday

I will probably do some further npc templates for more experienced npc knight types, such as captains, sergeants etc.

Upgrading a base template to represent a more experienced character would be a good use for lenses. Lenses work especially well where the differences are minor. This mitigates template bloat and gives players an easy way to improve their character.

[DangerousThing]

Originally Posted by Emerald Cat

Upgrading a base template to represent a more experienced character would be a good use for lenses. Lenses work especially well where the differences are minor. This mitigates template bloat and gives players an easy way to improve their character.

Yes!

You should decide on the point difference for each rank, and the skills and other traits that go along with that.

Depending on the training/experience of the squire, I might move Combat Reflexes to the next rank's lens.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Emerald Cat

Your players aren't going to care that different fighting styles are each represented by a separate template. Even though you could have one Warrior template with each of those options as lenses. You could also take this approach to background templates and other templates intended for character customization.

The main weakness with this approach is that you have to search through the catalog of templates. A good table of contents will help with that.

Another potential pitfall is messaging. If you make a dozen fighter templates to cover combat style variety, your players could read the unintended message of "he really thinks we should all be fighters".

[deanjday]

Rules - Template Racial

[B]High Elf 150 points/B]

Attributes
ST 9 (-10), DEX 12 (40), IQ 12 (40), HT 10 (0)

Secondary Characteristics
Damage 1d-2/1d -1
Bl 16 ibs
HP 9 (0)
WILL 10 (-10)
PER 12 (0)
FP 15 (15)
Base Speed 5.5 (0)
Base Move 6 (5)

Advantages
Acute Vision 2 (4)
Appearance (very beautiful/handsome) (16)
Charisma 1 (5)
Magery 1 (15)
Musical Ability 1 (5)
Perfect Balance (15)
Telcommunication Telesend (30)
Voice (10)
Unaging (15)

Disadvantages
Enemy (Church of the Silver Flame) hunter, frequency of appearance 9 or less (-20)
Intolerance (Dwarfs) (-5)
Odious Personal Habits (arrogance) (-5)
Sense of Duty (nature) (-15)
Skinny (-5)


Behind the curtain
The High Elfs are very much taken from Tolkien and I have made them very magically gifted with Magery 1. This also explains the hatred and fear the Church of the Silver Flame hold them in, triggering their enemy disadvantage.
I have made them very intelligent and dexterous, but not strong or any increase in will.
Wood Elfs however will take a very different role in the campaign and will be largely based on Gloranthian plant like elfs.
The High Elves stated here are very much the seemingly perfect first born, beautiful, intelligent and immortal.

Update
Added In the Telecommunication advantage.

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by deanjday

Rules - Template Racial

[B]High Elf 120 points/B]

Attributes
ST 9 (-10), DEX 12 (40), IQ 20 (40), HT 10 (0)

I think you typoed the IQ there...

Originally Posted by deanjday

Skinny (-5)

Generally speaking, you want to leave build-related Disadvantages off a racial template. If your Elves are very slender, just describe them that way and maybe lower HP and/or make Fat a taboo trait. Otherwise, you have nowhere to go if an individual Elf is skinny compared to a normal one.