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[Cthulhu]

So two Darklands LPs have been cut down in the Spring of Life, and I feel it's time for one that won't.  You know what they say, if you want something done right you have to do it yourself.

So now, for the first time in history, Cthulhu is doing an LP.

A Darklands LP.

Of Darklands.


Basic Summary:

Darklands is a Historical Fantasy RPG from 1992 that follows four adventurers(That's you guys) and their heroic exploits across the Rhineland.  In towns and during special events the game plays like a choose your own adventure book, as you can see in the following screenshot:


During fights the game takes on an isometric view as you can see here(Shamelessly stolen from one of the other LPs, I hope you don't mind but Abandonia didn't have one):


While the game is pretty historically accurate, it also deviates from reality by bringing many of the legends and superstitions held by the medieval Germans to life(Saints will provide blessings to the faithful, the dead rise to protect their graves, heretics, witches, and possibly even demons haunt the darker parts of the countryside, dragons sleep in their lairs awaiting Judgment Day, and SCHRATS LIVE IN THE WOODS.  DON'T GO THERE.  THEY WILL EAT YOUR FLESH AND RAVISH YOUR WOMEN.  YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED)

Instead of magic, the game has the aforementioned Saints, who can be called upon by priestly characters, and alchemy, the art of crafting potions that can be drunk, thrown, or used in Choose Your Own Adventure scenes to solve problems.  Both of these arts will be needed for a successful group.

As said before, we'll need four people.  The usual group configuration is a charismatic warrior, a strong but dumb warrior(Also the one with a high perception and probably Woodwise.  This will help when travelling), an alchemist, and a priest.  Feel free to deviate as you see fit, but be aware that screwing around too much will probably lead to a party that gets dominated very early on, and death is permanent.  If you don't claim a spot in time, feel free to reserve a replacement character.  Depending on how the players deal with things, the game can be a bit of a meat grinder, and since I don't plan on letting this LP die, you will most likely get a spot in the group before too terribly long.

Relevant Character Creation Information:

A character is created by choosing a name and gender, followed by family background and attributes, and then the character chooses an occupation and assigns skill points based on that.  This final step continues in five year increments until the character is complete.  Aging lowers some of your attributes, so younger characters are stronger than older characters, but older characters are wealthier, more skilled, and have better equipment.  A large part of creating good characters is knowing when to stop aging your character to get the best of both worlds.

Attributes:

Endurance: Determines a character's stamina and toughness.  This is reduced if you receive light wounds(Like bruises from strikes blocked by your armor).  If it reaches zero, you lose consciousness.  This regenerates quickly though, and after a few hours of rest you'll be fighting fit again.

Strength:  Represents strength(derp derp) and vital constitution.  Blows that penetrate your defenses will do strength damage as well as endurance damage, and 0 strength results in death.  Strength regenerates slowly, and a severely maimed character may take many days to recover.

Agility:  Governs acrobatic feats, dodging, and escaping from enemies.  Remember, however, that in many situations your group is only as good as its least agile member(Remember this if you go camping in real life.  If a bear attacks, you don't have to be faster than everyone, you just have to be faster than someone)

Perception:  Alertness and sensory acuity.  Also allows you to sense motives, supposedly

Intelligence:  Smartness.  Necessary for alchemists, and when dealing with the intelligentsia.

Charisma:  Glibness and guile, needed for the party leader, and in most situations involving discussion or parlaying with enemies(I suppose, maybe)

Divine Favor:  Needed to call upon saints.  Regained by prayer and stuff.

Skills:

Most of these are self-explanatory, if they're not I'll give a quick blurb.

Edged Weapons
Impact Weapons
Flail Weapons(Blunt weapons attached to the handle by a chain, rather than being directly affixed)
Thrown Weapons(This includes potions, I'm pretty sure)
Ranged Weapons
Missile Device Weapons(Crossbows, handguns)
Alchemy
Religious Training
Virtue(How well the character's  behavior conforms to the church's standards)
Speak Common(Influences fast-talking and the like)
Speak Latin(For the church and intelligentsia)
Literacy(Yeah, they make you invest skill points in order to read and write.  I told you it was historically accurate)
Healing
Artifice(Lockpicking, disabling mechanical traps)
Stealth
Streetwise(Dealing with city denizens)
Riding
Woodwise(Forest lore, dealing with animals)

Family Backgrounds:

Nobility(Needed to be a knight)
Wealthy Urban Family
Town Trades Family
Country Crafts Family
Urban Commoners
Rural Commoners

Occupations(Borrowed from the Let's Play Darklands Again thread again, I hope you don't mind, but yours had everything laid out so neatly):


Military Occupations:
Recruit
Soldier
Veteran
Captain

Aristocratic Occupations:
Courtier
Noble Heir
Knights
Manorial Lord

Clerical Occupations:
Novice Monk/Nun
Monk/Nun
Priest (sorry, the game won't let females)
Abbot/Abbess
Bishop (again, sorry the game is so conservative)
Friars
Hermit
Oblate (lay student at a monestary)

Merchant Occupations:
Peddlers
Local Traders
Travelling Merchants
Merchant-Proprietors

Craftsmen Occupations: (despite the titles, gender is irrelevant)
Apprentice Craftman
Journeyman Craftman
Master Craftman

Intelligentsia Occupations:
Student
Clerk
Physician
Alchemist (Magic Potions!  Whoot!)
Master Alchemist (Learns even more potions!  Double Whoot!)

Commoners:
Laborer
Peasant
Hunter

Underworld and the Underclass: (Typical LCS members, if the LCS existed in the 1400's)
Thieves
Swindlers
Bandits
Vagabond


To claim a spot, simply post his name, age(multiple of five, between 15 and 60, although 40 is a more practical limit.  Any higher and physical attributes start dropping fast), gender, appearance(The four character images can be seen in the combat screenshot above.  Decide what colors you want for it, and I'll do what I can), and (optional) your coat of arms.

If you really want, and you already have Darklands, you can make a character in that and post a log of everything you did, but writing down everything you did can take a long time, and it's not necessary, so only do it if you really want to customize your character down to the very last detail.

Let's get ready to Dark these Lands like they've never been darked before.

Party Wealth: 0florins, 8groschen, 11 pfennigs (107 pfennigs total)
You do not yet have a philosophers stone and as such will not be able to make potions until you get one.
Active Characters(Player):

Sor Whupess(sonerohi):


Hotels(Broose):


Formulae:
Solomon's Eyeburn-
Blinding Powder
Greatly reduces skills
Thrown
Mystical number 84(Of 200, indicates power and difficulty of formula)

Raimundus L's Sunburst-
Blinding flash of light
Stuns enemies
Thrown
Mystical Number 99

John of R's Strongedge
Ointment
Increases strength of swords/polearms
Applied directly to weapon
Mystical Number 148


Sir Francis(Xotes):


Father Xavier(EuchreJack):


Saints Known:

St. Albert the Great
Very Great Alchemy Increase
Great Speak Latin/R&W increase
Modest Int and Per increase

St. Alexis
Good local reputation increase
Modest Cha increase
Grants money to party if impoverished

St. Arnulf
Small Str and Int increase
Modest R&W, Latin, Streetwise, Riding, Perception Increase
Good weapon skill increase

St. Eric
Small Cha increase
Modest Str, Riding, Speak Common increase
Large Weapon skill increasee
Causes nobility(Especially evil nobility) to reveal information
Increases local reputation in Sweden

Santa Claus
Modest agi increase
Good cha increase,
Tremendous riding increase
Affects local reputation in many places you will never visit
Saves ships from storms.

St. Sabas the Goth
Good Cha increase
Full Str/End restoration

Replacement Characters(Player):

Heinrich(Archangel)
Gaweir Orsidious(Workerdrone)

Dead Characters(Cause of Death):

None.  That will change.


Rules:

Players need to check the thread and post at least once a day.  If you go 24 hours without posting, I'll send you a PM.  If another 24 hours passes without a post(Unless something has come up and you will be gone for a few days, we'll burn that bridge when we get to it), your character will come under the control of a willing stand-in.  If you want to be a stand-in, say so.  You don't have to decide on a character for that.  Do you guys think that stand-ins and replacements should be kept separate?  Like, if sonerohi had to leave for two weeks, would Archangel get his character, or would someone who picked to stand-in get it?


I'm not going to make you roleplay; I'll be narrating in my usual un-serious manner, so feel free to give your character whatever name you want, as long as it's not obscene.  However, I will expect you not to act upon OOC knowledge when it comes to encounters.  If you're a Darklands veteran and know exactly what's going to happen based on the first screen of an event, don't spoil it for everyone and say what's going to happen or how to deal with it.  I'll be very unhappy with you.

I think those are pretty much the only rules.

[sonerohi]

A nobility born man of 30 years of age, Sor Whupess is a captain (or highest militiary occupation available. If knights are available off the bat, I'd like to be a knight). Secure in his ignorance of the world, Sor Whupess ignored learning how to read, write, or even speak, in order to better aquiant himself with horses, sharp objects, and the wilderness. He really likes the color red, because how could you not after getting coated in it everytime you cut open a large group of people? His few retainers that can understand his grunts and gestures say that he insists that he looks like 'guy #3'.

[Cthulhu]

Guy three in the actual map, or guy three going down along the side?

[sonerohi]

The picture, not the sidebar. Is my application fine and dandy otherwise?

[Cthulhu]

Yeah, it's good.  By "off the bat" do you mean available at any point during character creation(As in, you don't need to do something in-game to become a knight), or do you mean immediately upon starting creation?

You can pick up the knight profession during character creation, but not for a few years.  A thirty year old will be able to get it, though.

[Broose]

I'll take an alchemist named Hotels. Make him the youngest age an alchemist can be. Not really sure what else to say, I have to play this game.

[Cthulhu]

How low exactly do you want to go agewise?  You can get training to improve once it's started, but a very young alchemist probably won't have more than one or two formulae, which will limit his versatility.

[Broose]

How low exactly do you want to go agewise?  You can get training to improve once it's started, but a very young alchemist probably won't have more than one or two formulae, which will limit his versatility.

Would 35 be good?

[AussieGuy]

Hopefully this wont die....

[Xotes]

Can I have a 40 year old rogue with general rogueish skills and good speech abilities? His name is SIR FRANCIS (or at least that's what he calls himself) but you can cut the Sir part. He's a bit of an arrogant git, but knows what to do when it hits the fan. Which means kill everything that moves.

[EuchreJack]

I'll be the 40-year-old virgin monk/abbot/friar/whatevergiveslotsasaints (monk image) with healing skills, lotsa virtue, religion.  Oh yeah, Endurance and Strength starting at 29 please! Name: Father Xavier

Sorry my LP of this game died, but nobody seemed to care, and it was more trouble than it was worth.  I'll do my best to save your LP!

[Cthulhu]

Alright, I'll see about getting these into character format.

[sonerohi]

Yeah, it's good.  By "off the bat" do you mean available at any point during character creation(As in, you don't need to do something in-game to become a knight), or do you mean immediately upon starting creation?

You can pick up the knight profession during character creation, but not for a few years.  A thirty year old will be able to get it, though.

Well, if it's possible to start out as knight, then I would like to.

[Cthulhu]

Alright, well, I'm making him now, and he's apparently not able to be a knight.  It may have to do with the whole dumb as a rock thing.  I can, however, make him a manorial lord, which is pretty much the same but with negligibly lower combat skills.

[EuchreJack]

Start with noble heir, then you might be able to select Knight.

Although, the Knight from my LP was sorta smart and charismatic.  Your mileage will vary.  Still, I recall the requirements for manorial lord were as strict as Knight, maybe.