OOC Thread

What weapons are available in the arena?

Personally I've always imagined my guy to be a bit of a beast. His childhood was far North in Ravenstern. He fought Mystmountain Tribesmen in his youth. He left and worked as a Caravan Guard along the Fierdsvain coast. Joined Darlion then later became a Griffon. Fought Knights of the Lion. Fought in Sarleon and the D'Shar lands post-Mordred Darlion.
He has been a warrior by trade his entire life basically and has lived in harsh snow and steppe environments. I just want to find a way to balance him out as he's bound to be strong and hardy.

He is an infantry fighter so he prefers to be on foot and doesn't like horses. He has regard for nobility and honor so he focused on using a morningstar to kill heavily armored nobles.

Skilled by nature of his order with the Sword and Shield.
He uses the morningstar two handed and effectively. Siege of Ravenstern was the big indicator there.
Experience with unarmed combat.
Speed not really verified.
Hates horses because they have a mind of their own and he can't trust them.
Even worse with lances.

Most of the characters are within 4-6 points total.

Assuming there isn't a special reason, 2 WP.

Speed would be 1 for a normal, well-trained warrior. 3 would be amongst the fastest humans in Pendor.

Skill is where you'll be more able to get to 3 points, which is, well, beastly.

Keeping in mind that I don't really know your character, I would propose you go with:

WP 2
SP 1
SK 3

When using something beyond the preferred weapon SK would probably be dropped to 2.

That seems good. Though being a guy who has fought and adapted to nearly every environment in Pendor I've imagined him having really good endurance with his skill being a lifelong warrior. I'm just not sure if:

WP 3
SP 1 (-1 with shield)
SK 3 (-1 when not using sword&shield or morningstar(might be axe for arena purpose))

Would be too overpowered. Perhaps instead of going straight like that he could get a +1 WP bonus in harsh environments if such a thing exists?

I don't know what the GMs would prefer, but personally, I would prefer to make the argument in such a situation that everyone else should suffer a certain penalty.

For instance, fighting in snow wouldn't make Kamos able to take more hits, but it could make someone inexperienced slower or less proficient with their weapon.

That was a thought I had after making the post.

I think your original stats with WP 2 and a potential environmental resistance is reasonable and not overpowered.

New arena post!

Marcus, what the hell? Your luck with the dice is becoming legendary. You should consider spending a weekend in Vegas.

EDIT: yes, that with the resistance sounds good. It would be of much more use in an actual inter-order war than in tournaments, though (e.g. fighting the eventides in Ishkoman), since the royal arena is in Sarleon and the worse things you'll find there are the rain and the fog.

Is there a morningstar type weapon in the arena?

There's the axe. Since it's blunt, it could be considered a weird-shaped mace. Causes extra damage, crushes shields, but is slower.

Saeros wrote:

New arena post!

Marcus, what the hell? Your luck with the dice is becoming legendary. You should consider spending a weekend in Vegas.

EDIT: yes, that with the resistance sounds good. It would be of much more use in an actual inter-order war than in tournaments, though (e.g. fighting the eventides in Ishkoman), since the royal arena is in Sarleon and the worse things you'll find there are the rain and the fog.

I am Mat, Mat Cauthon.

For the next posters: for clarity, please keep to your characters' raw values (what the attributes would be if your were naked). The hosts will change the points according to weapon, shield etc later.

Quote :

Sir Kamos, Marshal of the Griffons

A man from the most Northern reaches of Ravenstern he has spent his entire life moving from one battle to the next. Barfights and Mystmountain Raiders from home, Heretics and Vanskerries while a caravan guard, D'Shar and Sarleons finest as a Griffon Knight he's been across Pendor with his sword and morningstar giving him a hardened resistance to the elements. His objective is to win no matter how as honor and chivalry had no place in the frozen north against Barbarians.

WP 2
SP 1 (-1 with shield, axe(arena))
SK 3 (-1 when not using sword&shield, morningstar(or axe for the arena))

+1 SK - Sword and Shield.
+1 SK - Morningstar two handed
- 1 SP - Poor on horseback
- 2 SK - Lance

Resistance to the Elements
Experienced Unarmed

I didn't quite get it. Is your base speed 1, 2 or 3? And your Skill is 2, right?
Don't need to put boni/mali for different weapons. Since you are a knight, you should have basic skills with all of them. If a situation arises when your poor skill with the lance (or good skill with the two-handed) becomes decisive, or when you RP a special move with something you master (e.g. two-handed), then they will be taken into the calculation.

More besides, I'm pretty sure that within all Orders unarmed combat is taught to the Knights. (Especially in the Silvermists - these guys logically need these skills the most). So perhaps all orders should have base skill level of 1 on unarmed combat, while Silvermists and "special" fighters have more.

Twice now has someone mentioned the epic arena skills of Iskar, but now I must confess that I am unable to find written proof of these arena encounters.

could someone help me find them?

Quote :

Marcus started walking in Iskar's direction, first slowly, then increasingly faster, with his shield raised and his sword hidden behind it. It seemed that the wanted to place the ranger in front of Azrael.

Iskar waited until Marcus was nearer, then turned his body and bolted back to the wall. In a quick movement, he makes a short and a longer jump: the first to place a foot on a recess on the wall, the second to gain momentum and height against Marcus.

Iskar attempts to stab Marcus on the head and outside his shield's protection, in a movement very few fighters would be able to imitate. But he fails. Marcus was prepared for an attack and successfully blocks the strike. But that had a cost.

The impact was so powerful that it shattered Marcus' shield, which wasn't of a good quality to start with. The legionnaire was unscathed, but now had only his sword in his hands.
Iskar lands and rolls successfully behind Marcus' position, also not injuried by the movement (but eating some dirt in the process).

Now Marcus is between Azrael and Iskar.
Both were too busy to see what Azrael was doing.

That's one of them.

I think people are exaggerating on this account. The thing is that Iskar is not a very good melee fighter, so he has to stick to other tactics and make his speed count. If he does not find a way to do this he is pretty much lost.

Iskar wrote:

I think people are exaggerating on this account. The thing is that Iskar is not a very good melee fighter, so he has to stick to other tactics and make his speed count. If he does not find a way to do this he is pretty much lost.

well, I must say my mind's eye thought it was pretty amazing.

Iskar's trying to be modest. Awwwww.

There I switched to what I suppose would be his naked stats.
Marcus there is no way I'm surrendering the Morningstar bonus, I used that thing to no end during the siege of Ravenstern and brought it as a part of my character. I'm okay if it doesn't apply to axes or there are no morningstars but I'm keeping it up there for the sake of it.

Confirming that there will be several prizes for the arena winner. They will be kept secret.

What I can say is that one of them includes a title. Another is a slight boost to your order's recruitment. All the more reason to participate, and thus use your recently acquired fame further your plans of Pendorian domination.

any chance you will tell me?

I cannot participate in the jousting, so at least pm me that price ... please

I think we need to discuss how many points are reasonable for the Arena stats.

We started out with mostly 5, then went to 6, and now we're up to 7.

Alright, I'd like to clarify something, and hope you all to understand. For those affected: don't take it personally.

Every single one of us has a weapon of preference, at which we are either good or exceptional.
If we assume that being good with a weapon is enough to give one a bonus, then literally everyone will get this +1 bonus, and everything will remain the same. Which is kind of useless.

Nevertheless, personal preferences must have some effect. I would like use this information (e.g. assassin; swordmaster; shield basher) as a context-related bonus, that is: it cannot be taken for granted; it must be triggered by your actions.

Therefore, I suggest we try to convert our "good with this and that" trait into RP. Is your character an awesome spear fighter? Then demonstrate that by RPing good and creative spear movements. Is he a shield basher? Then, by all means, bash. Bash the back of the head, break the knee, use the shield to lock the opponent's weapon - there are many things you can do. Do that, and I will give a bonus.

An actual example that occurred in the Iskar vs. Marcus fight. Iskar describes himself as a very agile man with Noldor training. Did he get a weapon bonus for that? No, he has 1 Skill. In the fight, he parkour'ed a wall, jumped, and stabbed Marcus from above. Now, this is a difficult movement. Iskar did it without penalties. But if Marcus had tried the same thing, he would have had slight penalties. If Jareth had tried, the penalties would be more severe (Jareth is even less agile than Marcus).

The opposite also applies. Iskar, naturally, can try to take someone down with his own weight. He is slender and would suffer penalties for that. The Boar describes himself as a basher. He can also try to take someone down. Differently from Iskar, however, he would do it very, very easily.

You see, this is how I will proceed (other hosts may behave differently). My intention is to not let numbers override your roleplay. In short: your preferences and specializations will be taken into account. But not in an absolute or automatic way. You have to behave in a manner that allows me to give you this bonus (orrto don't give you penalties). If your character does something well, then do it. Do not consider it a fixed part of your character.



Concerning the weapon bonus, this is how I propose it to be done:
- Weapon choice gives a bonus only when it's the weapon of your order. I've lowered my own character's skill on Sunday because of that: I'm a Silvermist, and swords are not a Silvermists weapon of spec.

The following seems plausible if we attend to the lore, although the last word is the grandmasters':

Dawn: lance
Eventide: spiked mace + shield (converted to sword+shield for the tournament)
Silvermists: bow
Clarion call: bow
Legion: sword+shield; javelins
Gauntlet: sword+shield
Griffon: sword+shield
Dragons: sword+shield. I'd give them 2Handed, though, since no one else has them as specialty.


Ana, I'll answer that in my next post.

And Dragons? Sword and Board?

Don't Dragons carry two handed weapons IG? I know they have swords as well, but still.

As much sense as it makes, the other Dawnites won't accept the lance being our speciality, even if we are a cavalry>infantry Order. Ana is the only spear-user amongst the PCs.

Quote :

I think we need to discuss how many points are reasonable for the Arena stats.
We started out with mostly 5, then went to 6, and now we're up to 7.

The arena was not designed as a balanced place. Some people simply have better chance. You cannot put a windrider against a gauntlet and expect evenness in every respect. Some characters are scholars and medics; they cannot compare to a brute like the boar. Some are squires, who have less training and experience than their grandmasters.

However, this can be countered in two ways.

Firstly there's the RP. A good strategy may allow a 5-point character to win against an 8-point one. Knowing you opponent in advance, you may choose your weapons accordingly and develop a strategy beforehand.

Secondly, fight will probably be organized in deathmatches of fours: four people, coming from four different doors, and one two will remain standing. This means good teamwork may compensate one's weakness. (this must he worked on, but something similar will happen).


Furthermore, there will be even weaker fighters in the arena. Some Highlanders and the like, sharing the ground with you.