OOC/LORE for The Age of Dragons (Recruitment OPEN)

[BadgeAddict]

I won't completely say no.

[thinkslogically]

So can I just check exactly what Krazk learned from her culture / speech training? I think the original post said something like 1 skill point = knowledge of 1 new language / culture (unless I'm misremembering)...

Based on that, shouldn't Krazk know a lot more about the cultures and people of the world rather than just humans and elves? I mean, there's obviously witches, fairies, swamp-frogs and kobolds within a days' flight of their home island that we were able to find really easily (and therefore are probably fairly common inhabitants of the world). I guess I'm just kind of at a loss for what to do next to be honest. Krazk still doesn't have much incentive to go anywhere, and the humans have thus far been disappointing...

[BadgeAddict]

I'm not perfect at world building....and have kind of thrown new things at people as they've come upon situations...

What I mean to say is that I don't have everything planned out.

1 skill point is roughly 1 language yes... though for me, the frogmen thus far have been a minor race...more than anything else...and though typically grippli can speak more languages than "ribbit", I'm kind of leaving them be with just that.

But, this world is very open for exploration, discovery...and I'm willing to react with whatever you do...

There are good humans...but..a lot of them are kind of crappy....

The Dryad is nice, but very protective, Puck is very nice, naive and has a good heart and mostly just wants to find his way home...but he's a small person and isn't overly good at traveling alone.

You said originally that you would want to play a bard...which is...kind of strange for a dragon, but I'm not against it...but i'm not entirely sure what that will look like either. But I'm here to talk to if there's something you want to do or try and I want to build this world around what you want...and I mean that for everyone, not just you..

Much like the brothers Grimm (as I keep calling them) who definitely chose to walk a darker path, though perhaps with a bit of a push from me.

I've learned that...you are difficult to push.... (and that isn't a bad quality)...
Sky-Sorrow might be where you want to go....as it is a sanctuary for dragons and other races alike.. and is like the switzerland of this world.

[thinkslogically]

...So there are other dragons? Do we know that IC? Because I don't want to know everything you have planned OOC, I just want Krazk to be benefiting from her skills more IC if possible

I dunno - at the moment it's just difficult to know what to do because krazk's character is built primarily on knowledge / speech skills, but I as a player don't know what she knows or what I should be acting on (or not). Considering we're still close to our home island and I basically put all my character points into "culture", I guess I was just hoping that I would be seeing a few more IC benefits from her abilities than have appeared so far... Krazk doesn't seem to be getting too many benefits on that front that aren't directly related to just "being pretty", and certainly doesn't seem to be any better / more knowledgeable with this stuff than any of the other players, even though they put all their skill points into other things. She did also spend 7 years exploring the world instead of studying skills, but that also doesn't seem to have counted for anything at all (yet?).

I guess if this character build just isn't going to work for your game, I'd rather know now so I can just ditch Krazk and make someone new who DOES fit with the game world you've got planned. I'd prefer not to, but it seems like if you've not got a pre-designed / populated game-world, then having a super high culture score isn't going to do me any good at all if those cultures / races / history don't exist yet, so I have zero knowledge to actually act on either IC or OOC

And yeah, I have a serious aversion to railroading. Sorry. You can ask theis how well we've followed HIS plans in his game

[BadgeAddict]

It would seem that I haven't been very fair to your character....As situations should have gone much more in your favor than I had them go, and I apologize for that.

I am not opposed to you creating a new character or at the very least, a different skill set if only to give your character more options.

IC Knowledge:
You have been told that the northern kingdom is ruled by dragons
You know that Sky-Sorrow is a sanctuary city and has dragons living there.

But I do see your point on the fact that, because I don't have this game overly fleshed out....so I'll leave that decision in your hands...if you would like to become the "quiet library attendant dragon" you may.

And to be fair to all, I'll put this out to the rest of you as well, If you would like to rearrange any of your skills because you "correctly" believe that I haven't been using them properly, you may at this one instance do this.

The three kingdoms area that you are in was very much me introducing both you and me to this world and my writing/story style. Take this opportunity to re-arrange your skills as you would like...as long as it all adds up to 50 years.

[Theis2]

Are you opposed to railroading?! It's not like I've fleshed out a plan in my game.. I was just figuring out what to encounter and find on the north eastern part of the island because you guys seemed slightly interested in that area and the first thing you do afterwards is head west and now south..

Actually you seem to have an affinity for the least fleshed out places

[thinkslogically]

Yeah.... What can I say? If there's any chance to go galavanting off at a 90 degree angle to the plot I like to take it and krazk's personality let's that happen even more easily ... Sorry. If that's not OK, just say so and I'll behave better (not you tho theis, you've let us galavant FAR too much for that to change now!)

I'll have a look at the skills tree again tomorrow and let you know if Im going to change anything. I'm thinking I might swap the culture for survival skills or something, but I'll let you know asap.

[BadgeAddict]

Perhaps the problem is that I'm too willing to let you go off at a 180┬░ angle to the plot. Though I suppose that the less information you have, the less you can go off....but please...if you want to drop quarg and theis and the wizard and go gallivanting off into the wilderness...then do it...who knows what you'll find out there.

Going off in random directions is perfectly acceptable, I do better story-telling when I'm making stuff up on the fly anyways...

But...please understand that I have a brief conception of the world....which only comes more into focus as I add to it. The only thing that is mostly set in stone at this point is the world map..which is quite large so that I can grow as needed.

[thinkslogically]

Hey Badge! Quick question:

I'd quite like to leave Krazk as she is if I can do, but only if her culture skills are actually going to be useful in the game. For the culture / language skillset, you write:

► Show Spoiler

Culture / Language:
Dragons are raised to understand Drakken, the language of Dragons. Throughout their lives they meet various races and upon spending some time with them are able to pick up their languages. Some of the elder dragons will teach you the basics of other languages as grow.

(X/20) Ability: This enhances your ability to learn/understand new languages, as well as being able to read/understand ancient languages. This also helps when it comes to Intimidation, Bluffing and Smooth Talking.

Will different languages actually appear in the game at all? If not, the languages skill probably isn't particularly useful, although I understand that NOT having language points might be limiting for the other players. Unless it's similar to D&D in that basically everyone can speak & understand "common", but different cultures might revert to their own languages when speaking privately or in writing.

The way I see Krazk is that she's more of a "traditional" dragon. She's lazy, self-important, smart and manupulative. She has no interest in exerting more effort than she needs to in order to get what she wants, and prefers to smooth-talk her way through the world. She is absolutely the sort of dragon who would happily accept sacrifices of livestock from villages in exchange for low-value information or trinkets and would most likely like to end her days sleeping on an enormous pile of gold, while being waited on hand and foot by whatever servants she deems the least worthless. Since I am not a 50-year old dragon who has spent half a lifetime studying the finer points of diplomacy, this is kind of where I see Krazk's cultural skillset coming in to play to balance out my lack of grace as a player

It would also be cool if she was more likely to be able to identify the origins / history behind e.g. ancient ruins / artefacts etc. than her nestmates (obviously not everything because the world is, presumably, enormous and ancient!).

Also, will there ever be a benefit from the exploration she did as a youngling? If so, great! If not, I'll stick those points into flight

Anyway, I'll let you think about whether that sort of PC is going to work for you in this game. If not, I'll send you a PM about making a different PC (If I'm going to go in a different direction, I think Krazk needs a complete personality overhaul!)

[Arch Lich Burns]

Well...the grimm brothers seem to have no problem communicating with a human in spite of having language 1.

[thinkslogically]

also kobolds, witches and a fairy-thing If everyone speaks rudimentary "common" that'd be a lot less strange though.

I'm honestly ok with whatever way this goes whether Krazk gets to stay as-is, or if she needs to be swapped out with someone a little less difficult

[GathersIngredients]

Well, personally, I gave Sapphire a lot of points in MENTAL communication, because I had hoped that would kind of... circumvent the need for language and/or help with the lack of knowledge of a particular language. Because language is just a way to ... dress certain thought concepts into something that another being (who knows the same language) can understand/define easily.

By communicating mentally I had hoped to "directly" speak in thought concepts, that's at least what she was trying to do with the frog creature. Kind of like the "thought images" that Tha'zkrel is using.
And it seemed to have worked to some extend.

[thinkslogically]

Sure, but that (I assume) wouldn't help with reading or recognising artefacts / races etc.,and who knows - maybe some races fine telepathy offensive?

I guess what I was going for was to have krazk be a much more politically savvy character, who can use her knowledge of other races to politely ingratiate herself to them, and then manipulate them into doing what she wants by persuasion rather than force. A bit like cersei from game of thrones (only less evil) or the blonde woman from house of cards (Claire?).

I definitely don't want to be the only one of the group who can communicate with non-dragons though, any more than you want to be a phone service between us and the home island

[GathersIngredients]

Haha, well said with the phone service.

But yeah. That is partially why I had Sapphire ask about learning the frog creature language from the dryad. And I would assume as much was burns' intention when he had Az try and communicate with the witches, who just happened to be the first humans we met.

I am definitely willing for Sapphire to learn more. It's just that badge "kicked" us off the island after 50 years and you could only learn that many skills in that time.
(Especially if you weren't among the chosen ones that somehow earned a better point/years rate from anyone but their parents, even though you asked every mentor very courteously about becoming their student. *cough cough*)

Languages weren't a priority for Sapphire, because she used to think that being kind to others is something universally understood and would earn you a kind response. It is only now that she learns (from the witches) that this isn't necessarily true.

[BadgeAddict]

I will answer questions as I can...

To burns point on Spider and runs: They are using intimidation...even though they don't have any skill in it...they are dragons..and of all of you, they are the ones embracing this the most I think...other than being totally evil...
Dragons don't have to take shit from people and walk away...humans can kill them..but it's really really hard and they're known to burn down villages and devour children & women without a shed of care..
So the blacksmith, wanting to keep his family safe, didn't care if they were talking nice to him or not...though speaking nice to him might have worked as well.. who knows now.

@thinks: I'm realizing by you bringing this up to me that I haven't been as fair to you as I should given that I said that culture is essentially "smooth talking" and I was holding some of your words against you.... As for the usefulness of "explore", I'm still wracking my brain trying to think of how that could be useful, and I've yet to come up with something, So if you would like to change that to flight, I'm fine with that.

Languages will probably only be seen with different races...

It would also be cool if she was more likely to be able to identify the origins / history behind e.g. ancient ruins / artifacts etc. than her nestmates (obviously not everything because the world is, presumably, enormous and ancient!).
^This was my original intent, and I will also try to include relevant bits of information when you meet new cultures in a (You remember your mother telling you blah blah blah about these people) though this doesn't necessarily help you with societies that are new, that you haven't met before.

So, I would like to ask a question of you all... and if you're okay with it, we can move forward with it, making this whole thing way way easier.

Dragons can have a spoken language and a mental language.

Spoken is their native tongue of Drakken + 1 additional language per Cultural point (This includes both speaking and understanding) Spoken/Understanding would also help with being able to read languages that you know, or figure out ancient writings, etc, as thinks suggested.

Mental Language is universal, but non-dragons cannot (under most circumstances) mentally speak to you. It keeps it's original attributes of allowing "long distance communication" as well as the others, but can be used to send "pictures" not necessarily words to other races...their response other than speaking a language you don't understand, would be similar to the frog-man in his hand and head motions. Mental language would also probably be preffered by dragons during flight, as a voice only carries so far when you are flying + the effects of the strong winds at such altitudes... (we'll assume Will is dressed warmly)

This doesn't take away from anyone's abilities, but more-so gives you additional ones. Please let me know your thoughts on this.

Also, I'll get an update out Monday morning...Weekends aren't as easy for me to have long type sessions.."somehow work hours are better?"

[Arch Lich Burns]

Does not matter if they are being intimidating, they still somehow knew hat the human was saying in spite of knowing only draken. That is what I meant from communication problems.

[BadgeAddict]

I see what you mean...
Though Spider does have 2 points in culture, and assuming humans do speak some common language....then that could have been okay..but yes I see your point burns...it seems that I forgot myself...And I will try to enforce that better in the future.

This would have put a great more impact on learning at least a few points of culture so that you as a dragon could speak to other races...hmm..well..given all of this "new information" my offer stands to change you skills this 1 time as needed based on things you think have little to no effect.

[thinkslogically]

Maybe have it so we all know Drakken + "Common", so we can speak comfortably to draconic races (this would work for the kobolds), and also to most other races we'll meet along the way. That would keep the game moving along while allowing for "special cases" where anyone with culture points could e.g. speak to a race / group that doesn't know common; or be perceived as more "polite" for having made the effort to learn it. Krazk isn't built for combat, so her life plan is to talk her way out of fighting as far as possible while still trying to get her own way. I definitely don't want to have her auto-succeed on everything because that would be crappy, but I would have thought that she'd be able to sweet-talk / bully the vast majority of random villagers into giving her a free meal

Similarly, those with high mental communication scores would presumably be more adept at portraying images of what they mean to different races, so would be more likely to succeed in those attempts, so there could be decent overlap between both skills, just applied a bit differently.

Happy to switch those explorer points to flight too by the way I'll leave Krazk's actions / other stats as they are for now. Thanks badge!

[Quarg]

Er...shouldn't we know when the last time anyone travelled away from our island? I would expect that would have been mentioned in the last 50 years or so...

[spiderwrangler]

I see what you mean...
Though Spider does have 2 points in culture,

Nope, I don't. That was the part of the graphic that was incorrect, it should have been flight, which I think it is in the tabbed character inventories, just not in your chart.

[BadgeAddict]

So...no one answered my specific question..

Is it okay if we move to Spoken and Mental (With mental communication being picture thoughts to races whose language you don't know) and (With spoken being Drakken + Common + 1 additional language per Culture point)

Is everyone okay with adding spoken language?

[thinkslogically]

I'd personally prefer "spoken" to stay more generally "culture" or else it potentially gets nerfed again as a skill. You can't speak to ruins or ask ancient treasure where it came from after all

Saying that, if it balances out by making diplomact efforts more "powerful" I could be persuaded. I guess I'd just like to know exactly what the change will do before I say yay or nay to it, because it's one of krazk's 2 primary skills.

[Runsaround]

I don't have anything to say, no investment in culture.

[Quarg]

So if I'm following this, spoken lanquages would be a skill then based on the number of culture points?

[BadgeAddict]

Spoken would include reading & writing

Mental would be "picture words" only, but could be used in replacement of known languages.

I think this would be more realistic. But there would be a common language that most people would speak...Though at the same time, as you mentioned thinks, spoken language would typically result in better diplomatic effects. As speaking to an elf in elvish would be considered honorable...as some elves are.....haughty...when it comes to their own language... There are also some races that know common but refuse to use it or act as though they don't understand it.

We'll try it out once on this update that I'm making and see how it goes.

@Quarg: Yes, spoken = number of languages you can understand, mental = picture thoughts to anyone/everyone