Dice Avatar Legends: The Northern War - OOC

[jaydude]

For OOC stuff.

 

[D. Rex]

First!

 

[D. Rex]

So then! Where should we start? I suppose maybe with discussion of an Era?

 

[D. Rex]

I'm thinking maybe the Hundred Year war? Seems particularly tumultuous. Or Aangs era, perhaps.

 

[Wandering Owl]

So then! Where should we start? I suppose maybe with discussion of an Era?

Sounds good! I'm most familiar with Aang's, but I like the style of Korra's, and I'm open to learning more about the earlier eras if we settle on one of those.

 

[Wandering Owl]

I'm thinking maybe the Hundred Year war? Seems particularly tumultuous. Or Aangs era, perhaps.

Yeah, Hundred Years War sounds like it's got a lot of good opportunities for plot hooks

 

[jaydude]

I'm thinking maybe the Hundred Year war? Seems particularly tumultuous. Or Aangs era, perhaps.

Hundred Year War era is the period before Aang's return from his icy kip, so yeah, odds are you'll have plenty of opportunity to go up against the Fire Nation/get involved in the war. Aang's Era meanwhile is a couple of years after the events of Last Airbender, where the world's at peace and starting to industrialize/modernize into what we see during Legend of Korra.

 

[jaydude]

I want to let PatriasLover and Pumpkin Spice Cyanide weigh in with their suggestions first, but if we are going to play during the Hundred Year War Era, the Forbidden Scroll adventure detailed within the quickstart is an option for our plot.

 

[PatriasLover]

hundered years war sounds chill with me

 

[Wandering Owl]

I want to let PatriasLover and Pumpkin Spice Cyanide weigh in with their suggestions first, but if we are going to play during the Hundred Year War Era, the Forbidden Scroll adventure detailed within the quickstart is an option for our plot.

How do you feel about running a pre-made versus coming up with the plot from scratch? GM's opinion is probably the most important on that front.

 

[jaydude]

How do you feel about running a pre-made versus coming up with the plot from scratch? GM's opinion is probably the most important on that front.

Either option's fine with me. It all depends on whether you guys want to get stuck in immediately, or spend a bit of time brainstorming about the story first.

 

[D. Rex]

I will never ever turn down an opportunity to do some brainstorming. Not ever.


On one hand, pre-mades are pretty easy on the GM. Quick and simple with an established direction.

On the other hand, we got more narrative freedom to make stuff up as we need or want, at the cost of a bit more work.





So what is the Forbidden Scroll adventure option?

 

[jaydude]

So what is the Forbidden Scroll adventure option?

The characters are captured after they travel to the Fire Nation capital and try to steal a scroll containing historical information their captors would rather keep hidden from the public eye. The next morning, they're freed by a benevolent Fire Sage, who gives them the scroll and all their confiscated gear, and asks them to help get him and the scroll out of the capital, since he's a wanted man as well. From there, the characters have to escape the city while avoiding the Fire Nation's attempts to recapture them.

 

[D. Rex]

The characters are captured after they travel to the Fire Nation capital and try to steal a scroll containing historical information their captors would rather keep hidden from the public eye. The next morning, they're freed by a benevolent Fire Sage, who gives them the scroll and all their confiscated gear, and asks them to help get him and the scroll out of the capital, since he's a wanted man as well. From there, the characters have to escape the city while avoiding the Fire Nation's attempts to recapture them.

How would those of us who are firebenders fit into that?


Also! What is scope, that I heard mentioned?

 

[jaydude]

How would those of us who are firebenders fit into that?

Presumably your character(s) would be at odds with the Fire Nation, or at least Ozai's rule of it.

Also! What is scope, that I heard mentioned?

Scope is really just how much of the Avatarverse world you expect to explore in the game. Some examples would be, in increasing scale; a single Fire Sage Temple, the Air Temples, the city of Ba Sing Se, or even the entirety of the planet.

 

[D. Rex]

Presumably your character(s) would be at odds with the Fire Nation, or at least Ozai's rule of it.


Scope is really just how much of the Avatarverse world you expect to explore in the game. Some examples would be, in increasing scale; a single Fire Sage Temple, the Air Temples, the city of Ba Sing Se, or even the entirety of the planet.

Also interesting!

So should we design characters around the adventure we choose, or choose the adventure around the characters we make?

 

[jaydude]

Also interesting!

So should we design characters around the adventure we choose, or choose the adventure around the characters we make?

I'd be more inclined to do the former one, seeing as that's the order the quickstart has it in.

 

[D. Rex]

I'd be more inclined to do the former one, seeing as that's the order the quickstart has it in.

In that case, what are the other options the quickstart has in store for an adventure?

 

[jaydude]

In that case, what are the other options the quickstart has in store for an adventure?

Afraid that's the only premade adventure option in the quickstart.

 

[D. Rex]

Afraid that's the only premade adventure option in the quickstart.

So it would be that or thinking up our own adventure?

 

[jaydude]

So it would be that or thinking up our own adventure?

Yes.

 

[D. Rex]

Hmmm. Well I suppose I'd be leaning towards creating an adventure of our own.

 

[Wandering Owl]

We could always use parts of the premade (eg locations, NPCs, etc) even if we end up coming up with our own adventure

 

[D. Rex]

That we could, that we could. Even whole parts of it, if we need to.

 

[jaydude]

D. Rex PatriasLover Pumpkin Spice Cyanide Wandering Owl

In terms of creating our own adventure, the first instinct that comes to mind for me is to have the Hundred Year War be a significant part of the narrative backdrop, assuming we're all willing to play in that particular era. Thus, our group focus should relate to it in some way, whether that's fighting the Fire Nation directly, or dealing with fallout from the war.

Based on that, here are some ideas I've come up with for the group focus. I'll add more if and when they come to me:

Defeat a Fire Nation General/Protect a region of the Earth Kingdom - This would be a straight-up war/resistance story, with our characters taking on the role of partisans/allies of the Earth Kingdom, aiding and/or spearheading efforts to resist the Fire Nation. Scope would be a single region, whether because our villain's operating there, or we're trying to defend it. Note that in this particular case, "defeat" doesn't necessarily mean "kill"; it could mean just depriving the villain of their ability to wage war.

Protect a group of refugees - This would be more of a "wandering heroes" type story, where our characters would be travelling alongside a group of refugees hoping to get to somewhere like Omashu, Ba Sing Se, or anywhere else that could serve as a safe haven from the war. Along the way, they'd have to defend them from things like Fire Nation troops, bandits, or other hazards.

If anyone has any other ideas, you are of course welcome to voice them. I'm open to a lot of things, and our focus can certainly be changed once the game's underway, but ideally, a focus should be something that would take a season of the show or a trilogy of comics to accomplish.