Welcome to Holy Question Mark [Amber Diceless RPG] CLOSED

[Rook Seidhr]

Nice pics.

Important stuff about the monsters! Go read.

EDIT: Important stuff about magic, too.

[Empyrean]

Is Good Stuff something we can purchase?

[Bowen]

Stating interest in this game. Amber was my all time favorite series back in high school. Reading rules, will have questions

[lillisa]

Wow, definitely interested. Will have a character application tomorrow

[Rook Seidhr]

Is Good Stuff something we can purchase?

Stuff (Good, Bad and Zero) is covered on pages 25–28 of the ADRPG rules.

Basically, Good Stuff is any points you have left over at the end of character creation. Bad Stuff is any points you spend in excess of what you're nominally allowed. If you have neither Good Stuff nor Bad Stuff, you have Zero Stuff. It affects your character's general luck and how they're treated by NPCs. The book says Corwin is a Bad Stuff character, but a lot of Amber players think he's actually a Good Stuff character with a Bad Stuff outlook on life—like most protagonists, there are a healthy number of coincidences that break in his favor.

Madeleine, with her sheltered upbringing, sounds like she's either got Good Stuff (a charmed life) or Bad Stuff (about to be thrust into a world of strife and heartbreak). I don't think she makes sense as a Zero Stuff character.

Folks, if you're taking Good Stuff, please limit it to at most 5 points, maaaaaybe 10. The only use for more Good Stuff than that is to reserve points for advancement to learn a Power, and since I'm making all Powers available in bite-size pieces, you shouldn't need to do that.

EDIT: Empyrean and Meliai, please go ahead and make your character sheets and PM them to me. Do not post them to the thread! This is not a PvP scenario, but certain traditions must still be observed

[Meliai]

Sent~

[Empyrean]

Sent

[Bowen]

Kenshiro Tachibana, he goes with Ken to avoid getting into fights, is the broody blonde white guy with the Japanese name. If the world hadn’t gone to hell and a hand basket he might be famous as a langes schwert champion but that isn’t the case and most people only know him because of his sectoral heterochromia; one of his eyes is blue, while the other is half blue-half brown and odd name for a Caucasian.

He is at The Socinian Institute because his parents have the highest expectations of him and this is the place to realize those dreams. He has a good memory which helps him maintain his grades on top of the other duties he has.

Ken is not antisocial but is rather sensitive about racism and tends to be quiet and reserved until he figures someone out. Once he calls you a friend though he’s friendly, thoughtful and rather protective.

It may not be such a surprise that Ken is from Japan, well that is where he was adopted by the Tachibana’s. They wanted a fresh start after the head of their family was caught up in a scandal. The only other person in their home is Mr. Warwick who could be a tutor or maybe a bodyguard of some kind but he is a constant in Ken’s life.

Questions
How did he come to the Tachibanas' attention as a possible adoptee?
-they were being turned down by the adoptive agencies in Japan due to the patriarch Tachiban's very public scandal (he was president of a corporaton and was exposed as perpetrating one of the biggest and longest-running loss-hiding arrangements in Japanese corporate history. Ken's adoptive parents started reaching out through their contacts to anyone else and found someone in the United States willing to give up their child privately

Why an American (Canadian, European, whatever) and not a Japanese child?
-I wanted him to feel like an outsider in his own family, even though his adoptive parents love him to death, his cousins, aunts and uncles sort of tolerate him at best and have a lot of mixed feelings about him usually. As a Japanese child, he wouldn't have that, they'd most likely just accept him.

What was his life like before high school?
-There was a lot of shame staying in Japan for his parents, they tried to shelter him from that but kids pick up on sadness and frustration. Then they moved to the States for a fresh start. While few people here knew about his adoptive grandfather there was a lot of racism he encountered. He's rather protective and got into a lot of fights when people talked crap about his mom. His parents expected him to do well scholastically, there was always that pressure. He didn't have an easy time making friends even though he wanted to. It was frustrating for him. He looked at every change of school as a new chance but over the years he's become a little guarded. He's still willing to give people chances but he doesn't wear his heart on his sleeve anymore.

Why is he being educated in an American boarding school and not in Japan?
-Parents left Japan due to the stigma of their name. They felt that Ken would fit into school/life in the States better and the Tachibana's both spoke English well so it helped narrow their choices (they could have picked Canada/England too but felt there were more opportunities in the States)

Why not a Japanese character?
I'd love to be able to play a Japanese character but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't do it justice. He'd look Japanese because his avatar was Japanese but he'd sound like a North American in a Japanese person's body. Even after years of knowing a lot of my friends they still surprise me with their reactions to things/what pisses them off.

What part of this character concept are you most enthusiastic about?
Him finding a place and a group where he actually belongs. That could be a girlfriend but mostly I think it would be the shared discovery of being from Amber or Chaos and finding family (even distant family) where he just didn't expect to find any. Right now he feels alone and independent. He'd like to belong to something greater.

what's his roommate like?
His roommate, Rob is a chubby spoiled rich kid. He's better now after watching Ken practice with his sword, keeps his things to his side of the room and uses the headphones when Ken is studying.

Is he sexually active? Does he currently have a romantic partner?
Ken has always had a hard time making friends, this includes women he may be interested in. It seems the few girls that were interested saw him as some kind of outsider/badboy and wanted to use that to piss off their fathers; Ken didn't like that idea, you should like someone for who they are not what they get you. So currently sexually inactive and no romantic partner. Ken is making an effort to be friendlier since coming to this school.

What are his most and least favorite classes?
Least favorite classes include politics and business, especially marketing; he can't believe that despite the world going in the direction it is that people are still trying to make the buck from the poor.
Favourite classes include philosophy, anything gym relatd and art (even though he is horrible at drawing/painting, he puts in a fair bit of effort).

Does he go to school sports events?
He's gone to a few but prefers to be in them rather than watching and cheering someone else on.

Does he enjoy spending money, and if so, on what?
Ken hates shopping mainly because of sales people. He tends to make his shopping as short as possible buying practical items. He will splurge to get the best, his camera is top of the line. Same as his laptop.

Does he take Advanced Spirituality class?
Yes he does. He believes in spirituality as a whole and enjoys philosophy. Its one of the classes he looks forward to.

[Rook Seidhr]

After discussion, Bowen is cleared to submit a character sheet. I have asked him to edit his post above and add some information.

Wikistuff added: Invocation. That completes the list of additional Powers I was planning to provide for this game, though there is room to discuss powers not listed over PM if you have a particular character concept in mind.

Wikistuff changed: the Daily Schedule, Advanced Spirituality and Miscellaneous Notes sections of the "Holy Question Mark" page.

[Bowen]

Sent

[Empyrean]

I'm a little confused. Do we choose what classes to plug in to the ones and twos on the schedule sheet?

[Rook Seidhr]

I'm a little confused. Do we choose what classes to plug in to the ones and twos on the schedule sheet?

Yes, though I would suggest waiting to discuss that until the game OOC thread is open; there's only one AP Biology class, for example, so everyone taking it needs to agree which block it's in.

It would be good to know what classes you're taking, though it's not immediately necessary to schedule them in detail, so do give it a little thought. Typical course load for a second-semester junior is: one English class, one math class, one science class, one social studies class, one foreign language class, one elective related to religion, spirituality or philosophy, and one other elective. This can be fiddled around with depending on what your character's focus of study is. I can help you figure out what specific classes you're taking if you're not sure.

Advanced Spirituality, if you're taking it, is in block 7. It's taught by Rev. Dr. Foley, the school's UU pastor. Rev. Foley is also your advisor, meaning that in the blocks labeled "Assembly," you all go to her office and have a chance to chat with her about what's going on in your lives. She's a nice person, so it's only mildly awful.

There are two NPCs in Rev. Foley's Assembly, along with all of your PCs: Penn Solomon and BC "Bearcat" Cavagnaro. Normal Assembly size is 10–12, so this one is pretty small. Your Assembly teacher doesn't change from year to year—you've been in Rev. Foley's Assembly since you came to Holy Question Mark, whether that was 9th grade or last semester.

EDIT: I just changed Bearcat's page slightly: he is Argentinian-American, not Argentinian, as I feel I could not do a convincing accent.

[Meliai]

Wiki page for Madeleine's up, working on Ken's now.

Ken's is up now as well.

I just C&Ped their bios from the thread/that Riveda PMed me and formatted them, no editing apart from fixing a few minor spelling errors that chrome's spellchecker caught. If there's anything either of you want to change and you need help with the wiki feel free to PM me or leave a note here c:

[Bowen]

Nice. And thanks Meliai

[Meliai]

No problem, always happy to help~

[Empyrean]

Do we have an OOC yet for plotting and character connections?

[Rook Seidhr]

No, because if we don't get at least one more player--preferably three more--the game's not happening.

[Meliai]

Oh, I uploaded these to the wiki last night but forgot to post them here!

A small selection of Maples

[Rook Seidhr]

I told Meliai that characters' birthdays were between January and March of 2000. She pointed out that that leaves the technical possibility that PCs could be 16 at game start. I don't know whether that matters to anyone, but I figured I'd make a note of it.

[Meliai]

I was mostly just being pedantic.

Also possibly trying to weasel in an on-screen birthday~

[LordRod]

OK, I am no longer sure I am doing this right, but here is my start.

William Wake is not supposed to be alive.  Neither is anyone of Hordial, Minn.  When the monsters came, they were outnumbered sixty to one but somehow they survived.  No one in the village would talk about it.  Accounts varied wildly.  It took the authorities over two years to figure it out, but it was primarily from dogged persistance in getting the people of the village to admit what had happened, and even then, the details were sketchy.  Somehow, the child had managed to gather the people together into a coherant force against the monsters.  At first, no one listened to his nonsensical suggestions but the ones who did lived and the ones who didn't died.  William had sworn them to secrecy, giving each a different story about what had happened; and they'd clung to it.  It took another two years to find William and bring him here.  His parents are dead; replaced by body snatchers.  It is believed that this is what caused him to save the village.  It is not known.  He is so small and relatively weak that few are certain of how he does what he does.  When the authorities finally found him, he did not resist.  They told him of the wonderful school and all it could do for him and that he could do in the fight against the monsters.  William didn't answer them.  He's been at the school for 3 years and only says what he absolutely must to pass classes and little else.  He is not in the advanced spirituality class, even though everyone thinks he should be....even if they aren't sure why.

[Rook Seidhr]

After some discussion in PM, I am approving LordRod's concept.

OOC thread will be open soon for plotting/character connections as Empyrean requested.

[Bowen]

Cool. Looking forward to this.

[Rook Seidhr]

OOC thread is open. People who are interested in playing but have not yet been approved should post questions and character concepts here. Only approved players should be posting in the OOC thread.

[The Jackal]

Interested, but I won't have a chance to read the rules until Saturday.  Also have not read the book yet...

How much knowledge is publically available on the monsters?