Bryan: my vote

I'd go with the mercenary one, orcs are usually easy and the others seem too advanced for a party of beginners.

Poll: First Campaign

Hey, you guys, I know it's been forever, but I think I can seriously say the rpg could be done soon.
I do, however, need everyone's vote on the next step. I need to know which campaign I should start making that will introduce everyone to the game. You can look back to the other posts on the descriptions, but here are the choices:

Sandstorm
Mercenary
Frostfall
The Merchant's Peril
Exile
Burning Water
The Quarry
Utopia

The other ones are cool, too (I REALLY wanna do flooded ruins), but these are the easiest and least complicated.

Please everyone comment on this post just once with your opinion. Thanks!

Occupations List

Finally! The job list is here! (I need to come up with the official word; job, occupation, whatever) .
I'll list all the ones I've thought of, then 2 attributes and 3 skills recommended for that job.

Warrior (Strength, Agility, a weapon skill)
Swordsman (Strength, Agility, long and short blade skill)
Fencer (Speed, Agility, long and short blade skill, reflexive dodge)
Archer (Senses, Speed, bow skill, targeting)
Sniper (Senses, Speed, bow skill, targeting, stealth)
Axeman (Strength, Vitality, axe skill)
Spearman (Strength, Agility, pole skill)
Maceman (Strength, Vitality, club skill)
Knight (Strength, Wisdom, long blade, leadership, horseback)
Hero (Wisdom, Charm, leadership, almost anything else)
Berserker (Strength, Vitality, a weapon skill, willpower)
Bounty Hunter (Strength, Agility, a weapon skill, researching, intimidation)
Mercenary (Strength, Agility, a weapon skill)
Assassin (Agility, Speed, stealth, assassination, a weapon skill)
Ninja (Agility, Speed, ninja)
Samurai (Strength, Wisdom, long blade, willpower, defense)
Vigilante (Agility, Senses, acrobatics, stealth, a weapon)
Hunter (Senses, Speed, bow/throwing skill, targeting, stealth)
Scout (Senses, Speed, listening, stealth, climbing)
Ranger (Senses, Speed, tracking, stealth, listening)
Thief (Intelligence, Agility, thieving- both, stealth)
Spy (Intelligence, Speed, stealth, listening, forgery)
Bodygaurd (Vitality, Senses, defense, a weapon)
Sailor (sailing)
Pirate (Strength, Agility, sailing, intimidation, a weapon)
Diver (Strength, swimming)
Con Artist (Intelligence, Charm, bluffing, thieving)
Diplomat (Intelligence, Charm, bluffing)
Explosives Expert (Intelligence, explosives)
Traps Expert (disarming traps)
Explorer (Senses)
Machinist (Intelligence, technology, craft)
Blacksmith (Strength, smithing)
Teacher (Wisdom, Intelligence, teaching)
Scholar (Wisdom, Intelligence, researching)
Inventor (Intelligence, inventing)
Chemist (Intelligence, chemistry)
Healer (healing)
Miner (Strength, mining)
Monk (Intelligence, Wisdom, researching, teaching)
Templar Knight (Intelligence, Strength, researching, long blade, leadership)
Entertainer (Intelligence, Charm, entertaining)
Acrobat (Agility, Speed, acrobatics, climbing)
Dragyn Rider (Wisdom, Charm, creature taming)

And that's it for now! Pick all your favs and let me know. Ask questions!!!

Skill Dictionary E-L

Hey howdy hey! Here's the continuation of the skill dictionary.

Entertaining/Music/Tales - Amusing the masses with humor, wit, or artistic talent. This skill isn't very neccessary, but it can come in handy when earning extra cash. Quite simply, the crowd may have a set number for how high of an Entertaining level they will need. Bored people are more easier amused. Other factors may subtract from your performance, such as the weather, other noises, you being a foreigner, etc. Your gold earned relates to your net entertainment value.

Escaping (Agility/Intelligence) - A must for criminals and other sorts. Escaping is that back door for when you eventually get caught. Each prison or stockade or whatever will have a set captivity number, and you need to try harder than that number to escape. Even if your lockpicking or stealth could get you out, you need an escaping number higher than the prison's level.

Fletching - This is cool; it's making arrows! You can buy or gather wood, and then spend a little time making your own arrows. You'll need some blacksmithing skill in addition if you want metal arrows.

Forgery (Intelligence) - This is duplicating someone's signature or handwriting to pass off a fake document as legal. The better your number, the less likely it is to be found out, and the less time it takes to copy stuff over. Essential if you want to steal an original and replace it with a fake.

Hand-to-hand** (Strength/Agility) - This is the same as one of the weapon skills, except it's for when you're unarmed (hence, you don't get a weapon bonus). The difference is, when you attack, it gets rid of an opponent's energy instead of health. Once their, energy is down to zero, then you convert the numbers to damage. There are special abilities and moves that let you always do damage instead of drain health.

Healing* (Intelligence) - This is a non-selfish skill, that is used to recover an ally's health. You need to use healing supplies, and better supplies can be used if you have more skill. Everyone wants everyone else to buy this skill so they can help them, but it can also be used to keep non-player characters alive. Think about it.

Horseback Riding - Your speed on a horse instead of on foot. However much energy you put into this while on a horse, you'll go triple that distance in one turn. Different horses have different limits as to how far they can go. This could also involve fighting while on a moving horse (a must for knights.)

Intimidation - Scaring someone else into getting what you want (info, stuff). Different people will have different levels that you have to reach to scare them. If you are a wimp or have no weapon, this will subtract drastically from your success.

Inventing** (Intelligence) - Coming up with Cool Stuff (note caps). There is a list of uninvented Cool Stuff showing how much skill it takes to invent, and how much time and money it costs. You can invent things off the list, and once you do, they become playable in the universe. If your skill isn't high enough, the item doesn't get made up. Please be aware that invention is not limited to the List of Coolness (hardly). In fact, you can make up anything you want (within reason). If you suggest what you want to the narrator (probably me), then I can set a skill level for it, and you can make it. This is one of the prime examples of the unlimited customization of this game.

Knowledge- General** (Intelligence) - An essential skill, this allows the player to learn about unknown objects, races, creatures, etc. The narrator can set a number for an unknown item, and if you have that General Knowledge level, you can identify it. This also lets you learn the energy needed for certain tasks instead of trying and failing.

Knowledge- Science* (Intelligence) - Same deal, just with chemicals and gadgets.

Leadership (Wisdom) - Another selfless skill, this is good if you are the leader of a group of your friends (but I didn't have to tell you that). If one of your teammates does not have enough energy for an action and is failing, you can use up your energy and add up to 20 energy into that skill for the individual (by way of warnings, smart suggestions, etc.) and make them succeed.

Listening (Senses) - This is when you Stop, Look, and Listen, just like fire drills. If you take the time (at a good spot where you might be ambushed, perhaps) you can use this skill to "sweep the area with your radar." If anything is present or trying to hide, and your Listening is higher than their Stealth, you discover them.

Luck* - My favorite skill. Ever. Luck is for people like Han Solo, Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Carribean, and others that love trouble. It's for when you do something highly dangerous and hope you'll come out alive. This skill does not get used by the player, but the narrator makes calls on when to use it. Say you jump off a waterfall (a really high one) with a few rocks at the bottom to avoid some enemies pursuing you. The narrator can quickly estimate you'd need a Luck number of 60 to survive the fall, and see if you do. Or say someone in a third-floor window is about to snipe you with 80 damage, but you have a Luck of 90, so the narrator has the shot come right when you lean over to tie your shoe. This power (the honest name for it) does not get used often or abused. It is rarely used in combat, mostly just for stuff that your character relies on a little Luck to get out of. It's hard to explain, but the narrator can have some fun in keeping your character alive just a little longer, especially when nobody wants that.

Pa-hooey! That's a lot of typing! Hope that satisfies you people.
Now post! Post, ye minions! Or great unspeakable doom shall fall upon you! Doom!

Bryan: Possible guild idea

I thought about an assassin's guild in a big city that poses as another kind of guild. They knock off higher ups, do really specialized jobs and are only accessible to the wealthy. I wrote a short story about something like that...

POST YOUR CHARACTERS HERE

Ay-oh! It's time to post our characters! Everybody participate now!
I don't need a set in stone chart or anything, just a general idea on what you want, and I can coach you towards better development. Just comment on this post and start typing. I'll start with a few samples.

Malcor the Human Knight
Malcor is a skilled knight, with pretty well-rounded, but generally high attributes (mostly intelligence and strength). He is a member of the Crimson Guard, the elite order of knights, so he wears a full crimson plate suit. He weilds a one or two-handed long sword, also crimson, and wears a hand crossbow on his belt. He owns his own castle and has an extensive library, in which he practices invention in his spare time. He has high long blade and ranged skills.
Skills: Chemistry, craft, defense, hand-to-hand, healing, horseback, inventing, knowledge (general and science), leadership, protection, researching, and willpower.

Gothric the Fool
Gothric is a half-elf traveling entertainer, who does magic, sings songs, tells tales, and talks in a loud voice to amuse his audience. He is also an undercover assassin. Yes, you read that right.
Gothric uses his performances as a front to cover the fact that he is one of the best killers, spies, and thieves around. He has a cool cart with all sorts of weapons disguised as props.
He has high short blade and throwing.
Skills: Acrobatics, assassination, bluffing, concealing, disarming traps, disguising, entertaining, escaping, forgery, hand-to-hand, luck, persuasion, reflexive dodge, stealth, targeting, thieving (lockpicking and stealing), unpredictability, and voice intimidation.

There's a start. Now, both of these characters would take a lot of points, and the player would need to take a lot of disadvantages to pay for these, or would need to start not as good and train their way up to get good. Maybe the knight could start as a soldier if he couldn't pay for all his skills.
Here's another:

Timrit
Timrit is a full elf vigilante, who patrols the packed and crime filled cities at night and deals out his own version of justice. He has the full amounts of acrobatics and climbing, which lets him jump and swing and flip, etc. from rooftop to the street to the rooftop. He wields two long knives and also two hand crossbows with a variety of arrows with different effects, including grappling hook thingies for climbing. He's pretty much Batelf.
He has very high combat and movement skills; with fighting, moving fast, seeing in the dark, he has it.

***Editor's note: I yanked Timrit's name for a human captain of the guard in my story, so this guy's nameless for now. Any suggestions would be cool, too.***

Ok, y'all, post! I'll be checking on this to help you out.

Race List

Oh man!
I can't believe I didn't post this right when I started! Here's the current list of playable races in the game, along with general characteristics of them.

Humans- The humans are the most balanced race. They have average amounts of all the attributes, with high intelligence and charm. Good for beginners.

Elves- Elves are very fast and agile, but have low strength and health levels. They have excellent senses, along with good stealth. They are the best race if you plan on not getting hit a lot, just striking and then vanishing.

Half-elves- Almost identical to elves in every single way except their stats. For all cases, anything that applies to "elves only", or whatever, can be shared by this race. However, half-elves have some human blood in them, which makes them a little less fast then normal elves, but a little stronger and with a little more health.

Dwarves- This race is very strong with a lot of health, but they are also pretty slow. They are good for taking a lot of hits or dealing heavy damage. They are not for comic relief.

Half-dwarves- Like before, these are a mix of humans and dwarves, which means they have a little less strength, but they are not as slow.

The Kee-rah- These are a race with human bodies but with the heads of falcons and eagles. They live on top of tall mountains in the south country, pretty far away from the rest of the world. Until a certain time, they were just thought to be legends, until they were discovered by a group of elven heroes in need of assistance. They suffer from prejudice based on fear in the rest of the world, due to their appearance. They are the best inventors in the world, having invented flight and other wonders far before the other cultures. They are the race with the highest agility, and also have excessive amounts of intelligence and wisdom. They are low in charm and senses, however.

The Shoran- These are a tribe of human bodies with wolf heads. They have different tribes and camps in the mountains in the south country. Their story is similar to that of the Kee-rah. They are 100% the best fighters in the game, using almost any kind of weapon well, and they also have very high strength, speed, and senses. They have very low intelligence, wisdom, and charm.

The last two would be very challenging to roleplay but also very fun. I would encourage more experienced gamers to try them out eventually.

Coming soon...

Hey, all. No big update today, but just a heads up for what's coming.

Continuation of the Skill Dictionary. Starting on the letter e, I'll be adding to this section.

Job List. Complete list of occupations (ninjas, pirates, vigilantes, thieves, hunters, spies, treasure divers, it'll be good)

Show and tell. Members of the blog will be able to post their character designs and get advice on skills, etc.

Axe and Bow Weapon lists.

And more. Stay tuned...