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This one is meant as something of a joke - but a deadly earnest one. It takes on serious themes, while setting up a mythology gag. Read with an open mind, and you may find it amusing

( Yindur )

[If you don't get it, try reading it aloud.]

This was originally conceived basically as soon as I saw the episode "Pegasus", which was an excellent episode, one that played with our emotions and confronted us with moral choices. But I was surprised that more people didn't comment on how stupid the Pegasus CAG's remarks about tracking kill counts for esprit de corps are. Especially given that we have a historical precedent for why kill counting is stupid when your mission is basically escort - the 332nd Fighter Wing, the infamous Tuskegee Airmen, noted not for scoring kills (which they did, in considerable number), but for keeping the bombers they were escorting safe.

When the bomber crews stoop up and formally requested that they be escorted not by white pilots, but by the negros. they were making a powerful statement about negro competence as soldiers and aviators. They were admitting that racial prejudices were wrong, that negros could do the job, not only as well as white men, but better. The 332nd, treated badly in training, repeatedly criticized by bigots, and under constant threat of being disbanded in their early sorties, nonetheless did their mission, and did it well - they flew and fought and died to get the bombers home, instead of seeking glory and kill counts. More so than kills and medals, their legacy is the hundreds of men who survived bombing missions to go home to their families.

( Counting Coup )

Okay, so we had the usual troubles. Incomplete sheet, missing party member, etc. Thoughts and suggestions follow:

Obvious issue #1 is that there is lack of system mastery. I hoped people would have time to try the links and read about how d20 works but evident that didn't happen. Here is an overview

( part1: basics )

( Part 2: Feats and Skills )

Issue #2: preparedness. We are short of gaming stuff. We have some die (I will be loaning out my die and relying on computer die rollers), and people have volunteered to use chess board as a grid. If you have a small item that can function as a miniature, please bring it. That said, completing character sheets should be a priority. I cannot personally go through every part of character creation with you. If you have a laptop, make use of it to look stuff up. If you don't, print/write out descriptions of all your powers and have them at hand with your character sheet. lots of cheap low-end magic items can be found in the Magic Item Compendium. I will list a few favorites here as suggestions.

( Magic Items of Note )

This post is about making a character for play in World of Arlen.

If you're new to D&D (3.5), my advice is to come up with the character concept first? Who do you want to be? A swashbuckling pirate? A silent assassin who ghosts through the night? A earnest young missionary priest? A jaded noble sick of courtly intruiges?

World of Arlen includes high fantasy archetypes but is not limited to them. Gadgeteers, Sword Saints, Spiritualist Detectives, and Martial Arts Masters abound. You can play an expy of your favorite comic book character and thats okay.

Once you know who you are, figuring out your abilities is easy. If you're not familiar with the mechanics I will help you with character building.

For old hands, parameters are under the cut

( The Cut! )

The tall Skarn is imposing, and not just because of his grand title and fine robes. He stands well over 6 feet tall and his forearm spines are sharp and polished to a glistening sheen. He unrolls the parchment with a grave expression of solemn dignity.

He reads a long, almost poetic missive from some high muckety-muck official, but you barely listen. You know the gist. Your party's success in clearing out the old catacombs beneath White Spire Mountain has become too well known - and too much of an embarrassment to the Provincial Government, who dithered and let the old cave network become a haven for monsters and the occasional would be necromancer. So it's politically expedient to pay your passage out of Kian. They could have sprung for Teleports - costs are down these days as the 'porter network expands, but instead you have a ship chartered through Tsunyan waters. They're probably hoping the No-Faces will kill you for them. You don't intend to take this lying down.

Our story begins with Our Intrepid Heroes being ceremoniously but firmly being ushered out of Kian by the sea lanes. Where we go from there is up to you.

feel free to post questions here.

( Further Notes )

World of Arlen is my D&D 3.5 campaign setting designed to focus on alternate magic systems. Spellcasting is rare and frequently unavailable to players. Psionics, Incarnum, Martial Strikes, Invocations, and Binding are in common use however, so Magic is still quite common.

This is the central post with links to the other stuff.

My Content:

The Continents

Background for "Adrift in the Sea of Dreams" Campaign.

Character Building notes.

General History for World of Arlen

Other Content:

Online SRD - most classes here are not in use in Arlen, but it has the basic rules, and the psionics section is useful.

Dreamscarred Press Free Content - additional psionic classes, feats, and rules.

Therafim RPG - they have online resources for several additional psionic classes. Most notably the Ardent and Lurk.

D&D tools - big list of feats and other D&D content.

Realmshelp - big archive of D&D stuff.

( Other Tidbits )

Basic ArcanoEthnic break down of the world.

( By Continent )

I love bioware's spunky female rogue archetype characters. They're all funny and brilliant. But they're so often portrayed as the kid in fic, rather than a contributing member of the party who grows to be as badass as any other. That irks me. In my first play-through of Kotor, mission took out two Dark Jedi solo, at fairly low level, and I've always though of her as being Little Miss Badass-Adorable

So here's me musing on why mission is most definitely not the kid to be left behind in a safe place.

( Hey Dad. )

There was a "vote for the best woman of Doctor Who" poll going on over at BBC america. Rose won. Naturally, bashing was there with a vengeance. Fortunately, I already had this idea gestating in the back of my mind, which allowed me to resist the urge to jump into the fray. I wrote this instead. Journey's End was an ending that pleased no one, but this interpretation allows me at least to make sense of the way it went.

( The Great Adventure )

I love the Avengers movie, and love the fanfic potential of Clint and Natasha's unexplained backstory. But it bugged me how often fics had him bring her in forcefully - subdue her in hand to hand combat.

In the movie, he and Widow fight to a near standstill, while she is injured, and without a weapon, and him fresh and armed. She is fighting under the additional handicap of not wanting to really hurt or worse, kill him. She still wins.

Get in close quarters with the Black Widow, and capture her? Captain America or Luke Cage might be able to. Hawkeye? Heck no.

That was the genesis of the fic. It grew to be about much more.

( They Assume )

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Yer All Buffleheaded

(and that's a good thing, honest)

Recent Entries

Yindur (Suprise Sci-fi Series, PG, gen)

Counting Coup (nBSG - gen, PG, Apollo)

Game Session 1 - post op.

Character Building (World of Arlen)

Adrift in the Sea of Dreams - Backstory Page

World of Arlen

World of Arlen - basic global outline

Hey Dad (1/?, KOTOR, Mission Vao, Carth Onasi, Family, Gen, PG)

The Great Adventure (Doctor Who - Rose, Journey's End - PG)

They Assume (Avengers-MCU, PG, Clint, Natasha)

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January 2013

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