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[GlyphGryph]

Well, you've already payed for the first guy, try not to have to pay the second!

[GreatWyrmGold]

So. I have a question.
How do you make a character?

[GlyphGryph]

Join the IRC, I'm there now. I'll walk you through it.
\

[Darvi]

So. I have a question.
How do you make a character?

For posteriority:


-Name, Class, Race
-Distribute three points between attributes, skills and subskills (as long as they aren't prohibited to your class). Attributes cost 3 points, and you can lower them for 2 points for every increment. Skill groups cost 2 points, subskills 1.
-Apply racial traits (Glyph should tell you those)
-Generate Your character's Fate, Flaw, and Flavour. This shoud be done with Glyph as well.

Attributes start at fair, skills at mediocre, and -- skills start at terrible if you put a point in them. The levels are, in order of competence:

-Terrible
-Poor
-Mediocre
-Fair
-Good
-Great
-Superb

You can go above or below those, but that's for exceptionaly good or bad characters.

[GlyphGryph]

technically all non-dash and non-double-dash skills start as poor and are usable by everyone, and then your class bumps all skills within it up a level.

Single dash (specialist skills) are bumped up to terrible from your class level, as normal untrained characters can't use them.

Upgrading a skill group upgrades all subskills in that group. You can NOT stack multiple group or subskill specializations on the same group or subskill, but you can combine one group and one subskill specialization, to give you an effective subskill level of Poor+Classmod+2, or Fair+Class Level.

Double dash skills need to be purchased individually. The skill group can't be higher than your class level, and the subskill can't be higher than the skill group level. It's special. You CAN pour multiple points into each of these, assuming conditions are met.

Also, you can sell an attribute level for two additional points.

[Darvi]

I was told we would get only 2 points per attribute.

[GlyphGryph]

Of course we can only get two. Why would anyone ever think otherwise?

[GreatWyrmGold]

Join the IRC, I'm there now. I'll walk you through it.

irc.freenode.net?

Does it not work on Chrome?

[Darvi]

Typing the server url into the browser accomplishes nothing.

[Criptfeind]

It's internet relay chat. You need a client to connect. Here is a free browser based one.

Go there, enter your nick, ##AetherJam, do the captcha, then connect.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Okay, heading to the IRC.

[Darvi]

Breaking news: Solar systems are made out of miniature wannabe-sun clusters and oversized PBJ sammiches.

[GlyphGryph]

COSMOLOGY AND LORE!

Spoiler: COSMOLOGY (click to show/hide)

 GlyphGryph: So
 GlyphGryph: Today
 GlyphGryph: I want to discuss
 GlyphGryph: LORE
 Ultimuh: LORE!
 GlyphGryph: And SETTING
 Frastur: L'ORE
 Frastur: L'OR
 GlyphGryph: We have all worked a bit on personal character stuff
 Frastur: FRENCH GOLD.
 Ultimuh: L'URR
 GlyphGryph: But what is the WORLD like, you know?
 Frastur: Many planets
 GlyphGryph: That's a damn good question, and I'm working on it
 Frastur: DOubtlessly.
 ***Vorthon isn't quite done yet. :/
 GlyphGryph: So I thought I'd share what I know
 GlyphGryph: For one.
 GlyphGryph: Scale
 GlyphGryph: Things in Aetherjam are... smaller
 Frastur: Galactic.
 Ultimuh: ah yes, Scale
 GlyphGryph: For example
 GlyphGryph: Things like Suns
 GlyphGryph: Are actually smaller than the planets which orbit around them
 Frastur: What
 GlyphGryph: Also planets don't orbit
 Frastur: How would that work.
 GlyphGryph: They are closer!
 GlyphGryph: But the celestial form is fixed.
 Frastur: YOU JUST COMPLETELY RUINED MY SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF.
 GlyphGryph: Thanks to the Aetherdrag
 GlyphGryph: Things like orbitting would be impossible
 Frastur: So seasons aren't possible
 Frastur: Therefore there is no life anywhere.
 GlyphGryph: However, the suns aren't matter, and aren't effected by the aetherdrag, and thus orbit around the planets
 GlyphGryph: You don't need seasons for life
 Ultimuh: Frashtur: It's a fantasyish setting
 GlyphGryph: See: The Equator
 scriver: ...
 GlyphGryph: Things are also a bit closer together.
 Frastur: I thought people would notice the lack of seriousness on my part.
 GlyphGryph: The suns tend to orbit clusters of planets.
 scriver: Read up on equatorial seasons, Glyph
 GlyphGryph: Scriver have you lived on the equator?
 Frastur: There are seasons
 Frastur: Hot and dry
 GlyphGryph: They are fake seasons
 Frastur: And hot and wet.
 Ultimuh: Lets just say an ancient wizard did it
 GlyphGryph: The gods fixed the planets in the firmament
 GlyphGryph: Anyways there CAN be seasons
 GlyphGryph: Because the suns orbit the planet clusters
 scriver: You can't just arbitrarily decide that some seasons are fake and some aren't
 GlyphGryph: They have no mass or physical form of their own
 GlyphGryph: And thus are unaffected by the aether drag
 Ultimuh: please lets not argue over trivialities
 scriver: ...But I'm tired and arguing with Glyph is fun.
 GlyphGryph: But many planets are relatively the same all year around, and thats fine because the life on them adapted to those conditions
 GlyphGryph: Some planets have... well, far more extreme seasons.
 GlyphGryph: This means within a planetary cluster, planetary travel is fairly simple. Planets are much smaller and much closer together.
 GlyphGryph: some places have planets that are VERY small
 GlyphGryph: But most planets have about the surface area of England
 GlyphGryph: Some are quite a bit larger.
 GlyphGryph: Russia-sized maybe.
 Frastur: Luxembourg-sized-
 Frastur: xD
 Vorthon: Any gas-giant sized ones?
 GlyphGryph: A few are just basically glorified asteroids that managed to snag a semblance of atmosphere.
 Vorthon: Ooh! Are there any clusters where all the planets share one atmosphere?
 GlyphGryph: All of them have fairly normal gravity.
 GlyphGryph: Mostly because gravity is only generated by one substance.
 GlyphGryph: And the planets tend to form around that substance.
 Frastur: Jam?
 GlyphGryph: Sure
 GlyphGryph: Hahah
 GlyphGryph: At the core of every planet is a solid Jamcore
 Frastur: And the crust is made of PB
 Frastur: No
 GlyphGryph: And yeah, Vorthon, there are clusters where the planet atmospheres overlap
 Frastur: The mantle
 GlyphGryph: Heheh
 Frastur: The crusts are mabde of wheatloafs
 Frastur: *loaves
 Vorthon: So there's places where everything's like one big sky?
 Frastur: And now I'm hungry.
 GlyphGryph: Regardless, these Jamcores have a fixed range, and simply don't exert gravitational pull beyond that.
 GlyphGryph: It's pretty solid based on the mass of the core and tapers off towards the edges.
 GlyphGryph: The problem with planets that have an overlapping atmosphere
 GlyphGryph: Is that they need to make sure their gravity bubbles
 GlyphGryph: DON'T overlap the opposing Jamcore
 GlyphGryph: As that would be bad.
 GlyphGryph: If it overlaps the other planets surface though
 GlyphGryph: You get locations of almost neutral gravity
 GlyphGryph: Allowing the ability to jump from one planet to another with a decent jump.
 GlyphGryph: Or a launch of some sort if it's not quite overlapping.
 Frastur: STRONGjumps
 Ultimuh: Super Mario Galaxy
 GlyphGryph: I wouldn't know I haven't played that game.
 GlyphGryph: But maybe!
 GlyphGryph: Does this all seem reasonable so far?
 GlyphGryph: Cosmologically speaking?
 Ultimuh: Sure
 Ultimuh: I mean, I can imagine it
 scriver: Hrhehe. Cosmos.
 Frastur: So yeah
 Frastur: Like SMG
 Frastur: Except suns instead of black holes.
 GlyphGryph: The suns are basically heat light generators but aren't really made of "stuff"
 GlyphGryph: And their routes are fixes
 GlyphGryph: *fixed
 GlyphGryph: Rather than attached to the cluster
 GlyphGryph: Meaning some clusters can have rather EXTREME seasons
 Ultimuh: So what would happen if one went straight towards one of these suns?
 GlyphGryph: You'd probably burn up once you got close enough.
 Ultimuh: ah
 Ultimuh: same as regular suns
 Vorthon: What if you had protection?
 freeformschooler [~freeforms@173.246.213.175] entered the room.
 freeformschooler: )
 GlyphGryph: Then conceivably you could fly right through the middle and out the other side without a problem
 GlyphGryph: As long as you avoided the central point
 GlyphGryph: From which the heat and light emenates
 GlyphGryph: If your "protection" is some sort of shield, and that point ends up INSIDE the shield
 GlyphGryph: Well
 GlyphGryph: Lets just say it would suck if you ran out of fuel in the path of an approaching sun
 GlyphGryph: Or if your pilot lost the ability to Jam
 GlyphGryph: Some places are surrounded by dozens or hundreds of smaller suns, giving them sort of an eternal twilight with a sky full of stars.
 GlyphGryph: Any questions or suggestions so far?
 Frastur: My god!
 Frastur: It's full of stars!
 Vorthon: Wait.
 Ultimuh: Well I got nothing, sounds good so far
 Vorthon: Are there things like water worlds, desert worlds, etc.
 Vorthon: *?
 GlyphGryph: Yes
 GlyphGryph: With such small worlds
 GlyphGryph: They tend to be a bit less varied
 Frastur: Naboo says hi.
 GlyphGryph: The only constant is a solid Jamcore
 Frastur: Naboo says bye.
 Ultimuh: heh
 GlyphGryph: To exert the equivalent of gravity force
 Frastur: Those jamcores
 Vorthon: So no worlds where you can bounce around like on the moon? D:
 Frastur: Can they be mined and used for whatever?
 GlyphGryph: There could essentially be cloud worlds without much trouble too
 GlyphGryph: Vorthon, of course. Gravity power is determined solely by the size of the Jamcore
 GlyphGryph: A small jamcore means low gravity
 GlyphGryph: And yes, Frastur, they can be mined. It isn't easy
 Frastur is now known as JamMiner
 GlyphGryph: Much more common is just taking a whole smaller jamcore
 GlyphGryph: For use in a Gravity Engine
 GlyphGryph: Combining them is fairly easy
 GlyphGryph: Getting them back apart
 GlyphGryph: Not so much
 GlyphGryph: Unlike everything else, where gravity over distance is fairly constant until the cut off point
 GlyphGryph: Jamcores attract each other far more strongly not the CLOSER they get, but the longer they spend within each others range.
 JamMiner: No
 JamMiner: So
 JamMiner: Jamgravity
 JamMiner: Is constant
 JamMiner: Across a certain distance
 GlyphGryph: It peters off a bit at the edges.
 GlyphGryph: Sort of fuzzy out there
 GlyphGryph: But that's the exception and isn't because it's weaker per se
 GlyphGryph: But just less... dense
 GlyphGryph: But thats all fancy science magic stuff
 GlyphGryph: For most purposes
 GlyphGryph: Yes, it's constant
 GlyphGryph: But you have a bit of forewarning that you are about to hit a gravity well
 GlyphGryph: Once you're in it, though, it doesn't change
 GlyphGryph: Also, Jamcores are immune to a Trancers jamming powers
 GlyphGryph: I've just decided.
 GlyphGryph: Meaning stations with Gravity engines
 GlyphGryph: Can't be moved.
 GlyphGryph: Nor can planets be jammed.
 JamMiner: How do you move a jamcore then?
 GlyphGryph: Blink it
 JamMiner: Ah.
 JamMiner: That's why they're hard to separate, right?
 GlyphGryph: Right
 GlyphGryph: Even moving them physically is pretty hard
 GlyphGryph: Unless you're attracting it with another larger jamcore.
 GlyphGryph: Which is basically just asking for trouble.
 JamMiner: Jam romance
 JamMiner: Rojamce
 Ultimuh: Jamrance
 GlyphGryph: Blinking a smaller jamcore into the gravity well of an inhabited planet
 GlyphGryph: Is frowned upon
 Ultimuh: Jamance
 Ultimuh: Jamce
 GlyphGryph: And when I say frowned upon
 GlyphGryph: I mean
 JamMiner: Terrorism?
 GlyphGryph: Unambigously execution worthy
 GlyphGryph: *ambigously
 Ultimuh: I sense plot
 JamMiner: Hok, rather.
 JamMiner: *Hook
 Ultimuh: yeah, plot hook'
 GlyphGryph: Heh
 GlyphGryph: Plot hook?
 JamMiner: So, that it for the setting's astrography?
 GlyphGryph: Or knowing my players and laying out consequences in advance?
 GlyphGryph: Who could say!
 ***JamMiner eyes scriver <_<
 GlyphGryph: But yes
 GlyphGryph: That is my setting cosmology

Spoiler: LORE (click to show/hide)

 scriver: Waitwhat?
 scriver: I hot distracted by the cat
 scriver: *got
 scriver: She was trying to eat my toes.
 Ultimuh: What a toejam
 GlyphGryph: Heh
 GlyphGryph: So what else do you guys want to hear about?
 JamMiner: Eh.
 JamMiner: Lessay
 JamMiner: Galactic history
 Ultimuh: Lore, especiallu of the various species
 Ultimuh: especially*
 scriver: Spacevermin.
 GlyphGryph: Okay
 GlyphGryph: We can do some of that
 GlyphGryph: Which species do you want to hear about first?
 Ultimuh: You know the answer
 JamMiner: The squats.
 Ultimuh: But the others might want to hear of others
 Vorthon: MYCO.
 GlyphGryph: So race-specific lore is interesting, since there hasn't been a lot of race-specific anything in a loong time
 GlyphGryph: A lot of groups are composed of only one race
 GlyphGryph: But most races are composed of a great many groups
 GlyphGryph: There is no Helmsman Empire or Rat Empire or anything
 GlyphGryph: With one exception
 GlyphGryph: Also, the Rats and most races at least have some racial lore that they all share
 GlyphGryph: Like the Rats believe that one day a true leader will arise and unite all the clans of the galaxy
 GlyphGryph: And that this day will mark the beginning of the end for all other species except the Mycos
 GlyphGryph: They have... conflicting views on which tribe he will arise from
 GlyphGryph: Which is the cause of a good portion of their inter-race wars
 GlyphGryph: The Mycos themselves are a bit interesting
 GlyphGryph: As most of the other races new each other for a while before they appeared on the seen
 GlyphGryph: *scene
 GlyphGryph: Just popped up one day with a huge colony city
 JamMiner: 'sup.
 GlyphGryph: Plopped themselves down on a large but barren and uninhabited world
 GlyphGryph: And built it up into an enormous fortress
 GlyphGryph: A kingdom
 GlyphGryph: They brought with them strange, powerful technology
 GlyphGryph: And pretty much revolutionized the way the others interacted
 Cript: Back.
 GlyphGryph: Before the Mycos there were no jamships
 GlyphGryph: Or blink engines
 Cript: NEVER TRUST A MYCO
 GlyphGryph: You either used a TON of fuel to get from planet to planet
 GlyphGryph: Or you blinked your way there in very small vehicles with maybe one passenger
 GlyphGryph: Or a bunch of letters
 GlyphGryph: And it cost a lot of money
 GlyphGryph: And the whole galaxy was a relatively small number of clusters
 GlyphGryph: maybe a hundred or so
 GlyphGryph: With an average of 3 planets each
 Cript: Since suns are uneffected by jam in everyway, does that mean there are dark planets that have no sun? Where jam collected without a sun in the region?
 Cript: GHOST PLANETS
 GlyphGryph: The Hrunter, the Helmsmen, the Rats and the pretty much squabbled constantly over limited resources.
 GlyphGryph: Yes there are quite a few dark planets
 GlyphGryph: Generally uninhabitable to civilized life
 GlyphGryph: For some reason though
 GlyphGryph: They are rarely discovered
 GlyphGryph: Probably due to the darkness
 GlyphGryph: Anyways, the arrival of the Mycos finally allowed them to begin to look outwards
 GlyphGryph: The galaxy became a bit more peaceful
 GlyphGryph: For a while, anyway
 GlyphGryph: Each adapted to the new technology in their own ways
 GlyphGryph: And continued perfecting their own skills and abilities like the Rotors that the humans came up with,. or the Rumblers the Hrunter invented
 GlyphGryph: The Rats didn't invent the Rakers but were the most keen to use them
 GlyphGryph: PIracy was easy and lucrative if you were willing to take the risk.
 GlyphGryph: As a point of antiquated technology
 GlyphGryph: Transaether ships were often launched from great blimp-vessels
 GlyphGryph: Floating at the edge of the gravitywell
 GlyphGryph: Anyway
 GlyphGryph: Like I said
 GlyphGryph: With the arrival of the mycos
 GlyphGryph: The three races began to look outwards
 GlyphGryph: And this is when they discovered the Squelk Empires
 GlyphGryph: There were three of them, actually.
 GlyphGryph: Locked in eternal struggle over a smaller group of clusters of their own
 GlyphGryph: Denser, though
 GlyphGryph: Maybe 30 or 40 clusters averaging 5 planets a piece
 GlyphGryph: Always known for being explorers, it was a Helmsmen who first encountered the Squelk
 GlyphGryph: He was promptly killed
 GlyphGryph: His jamship was dissassembled
 GlyphGryph: The Squelk empires set aside their war in the face of the horrific alien threat
 GlyphGryph: And launched a surprise assault with their combined might on the source of the obvious invasion scout
 GlyphGryph: Thus started the first galactic war
 GlyphGryph: Also known as the Aetherwar
 GlyphGryph: Of course, the Squelk were outnumbered, their ships were all based off a single long-range scouts technology, and they had no idea what to expecty
 GlyphGryph: *expect
 GlyphGryph: So despite some initial success
 GlyphGryph: The other races eventually banded together and stamped their armies into the dust
 GlyphGryph: The threat dealt with, the First Great Alliance
 GlyphGryph: quickly fell to pieces squabbling over the spoils
 Cript: What did the mycos do?
 GlyphGryph: The Squelk continued being pretty darn isolationist for the most part
 GlyphGryph: The Mycos joined the alliance. The Squelk made it quite clear they saw all four other races as horrific variations on the same basic space-horror
 JamMiner: IRONY
 GlyphGryph: And they believed deep in their four-chambered hearts
 GlyphGryph: That it was kill or be killed, and if they didn't destroy every non-squelk in the galaxy
 GlyphGryph: They would forever regret it
 Cript: Wait, does that imply that the Helmsmen do not have four chambers?
 GlyphGryph: They DID have some success with their bioplagues towards the end of the war, once they had enough opportunities to study
 GlyphGryph: But it was too little too late
 GlyphGryph: Surprisingly, heart chambers are one of the few features the squelk and helmsmen have in common!
 GlyphGryph: Again!
 GlyphGryph: IRONY
 Cript: How many chambers do the other races have?
 GlyphGryph: They felt in their one fairly similar bit that they had to kill all the other people for being different
 JamMiner: Nil
 JamMiner: They're heartless abominations.
 JamMiner: :V
 Cript:
 JamMiner: Kidding.
 Ultimuh: meh
 Ultimuh: :p
 JamMiner: Of course I could imagine that it's the case with Mycos
 GlyphGryph: Also I'm kidding, it's four chambered but more like a fish heart
 GlyphGryph: Not really the same at all.
 GlyphGryph: I imagine they are all four chambered but hey, the Hrunter could be heartless as well
 GlyphGryph: I don't know how bug hearts work
 Ultimuh: Seems like you put a lot of thought into this
 GlyphGryph: Nothing since I was talking about fixed planet clusters
 GlyphGryph: Has had any previous thought put into it
 GlyphGryph: This is all off the cuff
 GlyphGryph: And didn't exist before I said the words
 Ultimuh: ah
 GlyphGryph: In any form in my mind
 Cript: I have a question then, if this is the right time.
 GlyphGryph: Shoot
 Ultimuh: Better remember it then
 Cript: Is there a limit on jam to jam attraction? Does it become impossible for established planets to be broken apart by anything but a powerful blinker?  And once jam parts are separated do they lose their attract to each other and if so at what rate?
 GlyphGryph: That way if you guys had input I could easily modify
 GlyphGryph: Once a Jamcore is moved out of range of another jamcore the attraction ceases
 Cript: Also not being able to jam jam makes me sad.
 GlyphGryph: They can be separated by a powerful enough physical force.
 Cript: Because it means no crashing asteroids into people.
 GlyphGryph: You can, you just have to remove the core first.
 GlyphGryph: Or leave it behind!
 Cript: Well. I guess.
 GlyphGryph: The problem is that even moving Jamcores is not simply.
 Cript: But at that point it is not really a asteroid so much as a cloud of debris.
 GlyphGryph: So you'd probably drill a hole and jam the 'roid off the core
 JamMiner: There are 'roids without jamcores, right?
 Ultimuh: I take it that someone have attempted to crash a celestial body into another?
 GlyphGryph: Matter does hold itself together through molecular forces as well after all
 Cript: I mean.
 GlyphGryph: Otherwise Aetherships wouldn't work
 Cript: I am pretty sure that is not really true for something like a naturally occurring asteroid.
 Cript: But it doesn't really matter.
 GlyphGryph: Asteroids are really just small planets
 Ultimuh: So.. back to telling interesting lore?
 JamMiner: How recent is all that?
 GlyphGryph: I'm basically at my limits for unprompted spontaneous lore.
 Ultimuh: ah
 GlyphGryph: Outside of your lifetimes.
 GlyphGryph: Not the lifetimes of all members in your race, in the case of the Mycos.
 GlyphGryph: But at least a hundred years ago.
 GlyphGryph: The Squelk continue to have three empires, but have joined together as a sort of confederation in the face of the "persistent outsider threat"
 GlyphGryph: The Frontier is expanding ever outwards.

[GreatWyrmGold]

I'd like to note that the other side of the ocean's surface lacks seasons.

[Ultimuh]

Why dont you join us on the chat?