Character Concept: Irella the Wanderer

Not all who wander are lost.

Primary Motivation: discovery and adventure! to explore, meet people, and see new places
Emotional Disposition: curious but apathetic
Sense of Humor: sarcastic
Flexible nonchalant, tolerant, open-minded, adaptable
Secretive closed, mysterious, evasive, cryptic
Favorite Topics of Conversation: the road, other travellers, weather, exotic locations
Quirks, Habits and Oddities: humming, superstitious
Hobbies and Enjoyments fishing, storytelling


•Irella’s family homestead burned to the ground when she was but a toddler. Her uncle, Nadoin, rescued her from the fire.
•Irella grew up with Nadoin on the road and learned much of her worldly knowledge from him.
•Irella does not know where she was born or where her family homestead was located. It was many years ago and her uncle rarely spoke of home before he died.
•Nadoin once told Irella that there was Elven heritage in her father’s family but that the elven ancestor was from so long ago that it was hardly worth mentioning.
•Irella has travelled to see this “Great City beneith a cloud from three waterfalls”

Friends
Bagarth – A roguish human who travels the roads, sings songs and keeps Irella company on the road now and then. He tends to travel with caravans, selling his services as a scout and woodsman.
Riyah – A shy elven slave that Irella saved from a cruel master and dispicable living conditions at a outlaying farm.

Enemies
Vantar – A mercenary and bounty hunter seeking revenge for the stolen diamond that Bagarth liberated from his possession. He and Irella have had several run-ins.
Trigat – The wealthy farm owner who lost his slave, when Riyah helped the elven girl escape and travelled on the road together for a while.


Visit Irella's page on Obsidian Portal.

Complete Campaign - Lessons Learned Along the Way, Part 4

After finishing up the first campaign that I’ve intentionally completed, I have contemplated the lessons learned.  This was the most character driven and story intensive game I had ever run.  Today I'm covering the Audio and Visual aids that made the campaign feel more real.
Music!

Battle music consisted mostly of movie sound tracks.  Since the Conan The Barbarian movie sound track simply rocks, that was queued up the most often for serious combat encounters.

Bard music was a must for the taverns.  Deathsong had her own music.  I used the songs by ......... for my vampire bard npc.  Every time this music came on, it became apparent that Deathsong had taken the stage.  There was a small bit of electric guitar on a track or two, but I joked that it was a magic guitar.  It also matched her miniature pretty well.

A few well placed howls announced the arrival of werewolf antagonists.

There was some generic "exploration and dark mystery" music that I used throughout the game as background music.


Visuals!

The large Chessex Battlemat that I bought worked great.  It was so quick and easy to use.  Along with the Reaper Mini's that I had painted, the battlemat gave combat and encounters some much needed spacial structure.

I made ancient letters, notes and scrolls for the game.  These were NOT a big hit with either my player in the solo game or the players in the group Ravenloft game.  I was surprised.  Most of the time players would briefly look at a letter and hand it right back.  I had wanted them to be excited about the clues in the letters and keep them with their character sheets but they just didn't drum up any enthusiasm.

There are two more parts to this series, coming soon!

• Tall Tales – Why not let the character do that?
• Epic Endings – How to make the final game memorable.

En Garde!

Want to play a 17th Century Swashbuckling Adventure with your fellow RTR members? You could duel your opponents with honor, earn prestige by being a hero at the front, woo a lovely and wealthy lady, attend a large party with your entourge of toadies and much more!

Starting at the August 3rd the meetups, I would have a small print out newsletter of the major events and gossip for the events of Paris the previous month (ie the results of everyone's previous turn). Then anyone with a character could hand me their actions for the next turn. If the player can't make it to the meetup, the due date is 1 week post Raleigh Meetup and they could send it to me via email.

I'd keep an Obsidian Portal Page up for the game to keep track of the NPC's and setting information. You will want to join the Obsidian Portal Page to know what is going on in game. Then during the Raleigh Casual Meetup for the next month, I would hand out results again and the process continues. Each turn takes 1 month in real life.

The fun part of this game is that you, the players, will have to talk to each other some about your intrigues. You can discuss who is applying for an appointment, who just got a new title, and who has been sent off to fight at the front. Conspire about gaining social status and keeping your enemies from gaining their goals. Join a regiment and fight as compatriots!

Normally when En Garde! is run as a play by post game, the players have an annual fee to cover the cost of postage, printing and the GM's time. For our game, we're going to raise a few funds by selling characters for $1. To generate your character for the game, hand me a $1 and it goes straight into the RTR tip jar. Not only do you get to swash your buckle for fun, but you help the RTR get out of the budget red zone.