The Campaign Builder's Guild

I had typed out a more detailed explanation of why my character would not be directly involved in politics but could still easily meet the party but it vanished.  So here is the short version : when they are going from place to place in a city, my character is likely to approach them and try to sell them something.

I Need :
1. Languages of your world
2. A little more about how halflings fit into society and how other races see them.
3. Average lifespan of halflings.  When they reach adulthood.
4. A little about the city we start in and at least the names of one or two others in the area.

Nothing major, just general details.

Ok, my character will be a Northern Titon. He is on this adventure because of his knowledge of the artifact or interest in the artifact. His staff was carved from a piece of driftwood he found and will not part with it.

More to come later.

Quote from: Ninja D!I Need :
1. Languages of your world
2. A little more about how halflings fit into society and how other races see them.
3. Average lifespan of halflings.  When they reach adulthood.
4. A little about the city we start in and at least the names of one or two others in the area.

1) I need help naming the languages, but here are the languages I will have:

*1 Common (a "commoner's" version of the old Hunurst empire's language; anyone can communicate with this but you suffer a -5 penalty to social skill checks when using it; it's good for simple conversations but not complex ones)
*2 Dwarven (one for each culture)
*Fey (spoken by elves, goblins, and all other spirit creatures, including most gods and demons)
*2 Ifrit (one for each culture)
*3 Human (one for each culture; civilized halflings speak these languages)
*Halfling (only wild halflings speak this language)
*Orc
*2 Triton (one for each culture)
*Valkyrie
*Celestial/Fiendish (very uncommon; can't be learned at first level).
*Feral (the language of the anthomorphic animals)
*Draconic
*Ancient (very uncommon, can't be learned at first level; written language only)

You can use a language from one race to speak to someone who knows a different language from the same race, but you suffer a -2 penalty to social skill checks (mostly charisma checks and insight). I hope these penalties will make players want to know more languages but won't hurt playing. All of the civilized races speak common, but the uncivilized races do not.

To make up for there being a few more languages, I will be reinstating characters gaining bonus languages equal to their Intelligence modifier.

2) Halflings were discovered by the Hunurst Empire during their exploration of the world. Their penchant for opportunism lead many of them to leave their home-island to live in the Hunurst Empire, and they quickly spread to all human lands, and can be found in the lands of many other races. In most places they are treated as second class citizens, though they avoid heavy labor for unskilled crafts (their small and dextrous hands makes them quite adept at manipulating tools and smaller objects). In the new Hunurst Republic, their participation in the uprising that lead to the formation of the Republic has garnered them more respect; they now possess a noble household and laws keeping them down have been removed from the books (though prejudice still remains amongst the more conservative).

3) Haflings age faster than humans. They reach adulthood at 12 years and have an average lifespan of 50 years (vs. human's 18 and 65 respectively). Halflings remain spry well into middle age, but quickly degenerate after that (they are not considered "old" till their 40's).

4) You will be starting in the city of Hunurst, the capitol of the Republic that shares the same name. The city is a vast metropolise on the mouth of the Blue River. The city resides on both sides of the river, and serves as a trade center for the empire, dealing with overseas imports and exports. The center of the city is of giant construction, with massive buildings originally built to house beings up to 30 feet tall; many of the floors of these massive buildings have been split into 3 levels, and stairwells have had to be modified to not require climbing gear, but some rooms retain the massive vaulted cealings. An imposing wall separates this area of the city from the others, and this area houses the noble families, as well as the government and religious districts. Outside are the docks and all the other wards of the city, built to human sizes (though there are a few wards built to halfling size, generally near the inland edge of the city).

The capitol is made up of 4 power centers: The Senate, the Church, the Merchant's Guild, and the People's Guild (the people's guild is a front for a thieve's guild, which has recently become something of a political watchdog organization, gaining influence over many in the Senate in the "best interest" of the people). Many in the Senate are growing progressive (it has been 80 years since the Republic was formed) while the Church is quite conservative. Both the Merchant's Guild and the People's Guild wield much influence over the Senate, bending it to their wishes.

I haven't made enough names of nearby cities, other than a few. Lakton lies far up river, where the river flows from a large freshwater lake (fed by the snowfall of the mountains as well as two feeding rivers). Lakton is a smaller city, but is quite wealthy as it manages most of the inland trade of the Republic (as much trade flows along the rivers).

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Sorry that things are coming along slowly. In person D&D keeps pulling me away. Hope that helps people to come up with more ideas for their characters.

Well that answers most of my questions. I think I can write an actual story with what I have now (will run it by you of course for fixes).

I do have a question or two though. Could you explain a bit more about the workings of the senate and the people's guild.

BTW, I am definitely still "in" on this, I injured my back pretty badly last week and have been less than fully available for the past week (even had to take my first ever sick days at work), but I should have plenty of time tomorrow to get back into the discussion.  Hope I'm not holding anything up.

That answers my questions nicely.  I can work with that to make a fair background.  If you happen to have any more on wild halflings, that would be cool.  If not, I don't need that right now.

Alright, I believe I've put enough together. I want to ask people if they want to start at 1st or maybe a bit higher. Searching for this artifact is sort of important, so they probably wouldn't send 1st level delegates, even though 1st level characters are stronger than common folk.

I'll leave that up to you. I could go with 1st, 6th, or even 11th with some persuasion. Once I get that from enough of you (read "3" of you), I'll put up the background info.

PS: Sorry to hear about your back Ish.

I don't mind 1st level and probably wouldn't want to start any higher than 6th. Either 1st or 6th is good for me.

I would prefer 6th as it seems like the appropriate level for this type of campaign (experienced enough to handle things but not so experienced to be in a high position which could not be filled by someone else while they were away).

QuoteAlright, I believe I've put enough together. I want to ask people if they want to start at 1st or maybe a bit higher. Searching for this artifact is sort of important, so they probably wouldn't send 1st level delegates, even though 1st level characters are stronger than common folk.

I'm fine with 1st or 6th. I mean, whoever's sending us probably doesn't have Levelmeters (tm) anyway so they may think we're tougher than we really are. Especially if we've got a high bluff bonus. :)

I'm also still interested. I'm just very busy with UnCon and RL this week. I hearken to the argument for 6th level. I'd really like to try out a challenging character a male valkyrie barbarian, if this would be allowable.

Basic idea is that he was mistreated and eventually this was found out by the rest of society and his females were punished. He left and though outwardly taking this very well, he holds an inner reserve of anger over his life. In the city he started as an accidental vigilante but was quickly folded into the official guard.

If this is too sketchy I have a few other ideas to toss out.

Valkyrie Barbarian is just fine Jaerc. Alright folks, we'll be starting level 6. Don't worry about any of my extra things, just make the characters following the PHB. If you're playing an Elf, just switch the stats to Int and Wis and you're good.

Did I put up stats for the Valkyrie and Ifrit yet?

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[Note]Players
Jaerc: Male Valkyrie Barbarian
Brainface: Triton Warlock (?)
[spoiler=Brainface]What pact were you looking at having? Here's some info about each pact in the world and how they're percieved. Fey pact draws its power from the powers of Avalon, while Shadow pact draws its powers from the powers of Sylphenhest. Star pact draws its powers from the sleeping Aberrations which destroyed the ancients. Infernal pact draws its powers from the devils of Hell; curently there are no Warlocks who have figured out how to make pacts with Angels. I'd like to tweek a few things with primary stats, such as I'm considering having Starlocks use Wisdom (going with the whole otherworldly insanity, the need to be wise to "see beyond" and all that).[/spoiler]Nomadic: Human Rogue (Trickster)
Poseidon: Triton Wizard (Staff)
Ninja D!: Halfling Rogue (Trickster)
Ishmayl: (?)
[spoiler=Ishmayl]The group does need a defender or a leader of sorts. I want to see if you could be interested in being heavily tied to the church, as the church would most definately want a representative as a part of this expedition. I don't see if you already said what you wanted to play, so let me know.[/spoiler]

Make your character 6th level. At 4th level you gain +2 to 2 stats instead of the normal +1. No one's wearing heavy armor yet, but it will be getting a bump in power soon when I can figure out how to fit it in without it being too much too soon. You each should have a 7th level item, a 6th level item, a 5th level item, and the 1,000 sp value of a 5th level item (Note: I'm using WoW currency because it makes silver worth more for longer: 100 cp to 1 sp, 100 sp to 1 gp, 100 gp to 1 pp. All gold costs in the book are converted to silver, so that's simple enough). You can use any Wizards source book; if you're using something from the online mags or a 3rd party book, just show me first for confirmation.[/note]
[ic=Narrative]The Hunurst Empire traveled much during the height of their power. Their greed lead to the downfall of the Northern Tritons by filling them with distrust when they made alliances with some but not all. As the Northern Tritons fell into disarray one-thousand years ago, the Hunurst humans stole a priceless relic from the holiest of temples to the Water God. On their return to Hunurst, their ship met with mystical storms and was sank, its cargo lost to the sea, but the infighting amongst the Northern Tritons kept them from having the resources to search for it.

Now, the Southern Tritons have taken up the search. They located the wreckage but could not find the relic. Their Valkyrie allies possess powerful diviners who were able to determine that the relic had made it to the mainland, possibly taken from the ship when they first hit the storm, but they were unable to pinpoint its exact location.

[Brainface] and [Poseidon] are amongst deligates sent to meet with members of the Hunurst Senate, the first diplomatic meeting between these people in one-thousand years. Their meeting is to seek permision to search for their missing artifact, and to foster better relations between the Tritons and the Hunurst Republic.[/ic]

[ooc]Brainface and Poseidon's entrance is easy, but I need to know how everyone else wants to fit in.

Once I have this information, and your characters, we will begin with the first meeting between the Triton deligates and the Senators. I'll try to fit in everyone.[/ooc]

What's the average life expectancy of a Triton?
Weight?
Height?

Relations with other races/nations? I see there is some bad blood between Hunurst and the Tritons, but what is their view on the other races and nations?

Note: I am an elf rogue not a human (I just have human tendencies ;) ).

Anyhow I am going to be the personal aid to one of the senators. I think that if you made the senator sympathetic to their search it would be easy to get me onboard. My character is already someone with a thirst for excitement and experience. His master would be bound to know that and could send him in his stead (as a senator obviously couldn't go himself) to represent the people of Hunurst. I will get down to writing up my background and will lead it right up to that.

I'll try to give you some more detail when I get home from work.