Hammersmith

Uhhh...fucked up, holding this spot for another roll with another name Edit: HAH, that'll do "Hands off the merch I sez. Easy rule I sez." The elder roe shifted the axe on his shoulder, grumbling through a cloud of smoke as he advanced down the mercentile lanes of Ul'Dah. "Gonna burn yez ear inffin yez play grab ass I sez. Gonna lose a hand if you touch the merch again I sez." The giant stopped and eyed something in the air. A wisp of smoke, trailing over the crowd. The giant snuffled through his oft broken nose. The scent of burning hair mixed with the spices and perfumes of the market. "Didn't listen. Didn't LISTEN. I singed yez FUZZY FUCKIN EAR. NOW YEZ OWE ME A HAND, GRABASS." The giant followed. Debts owed. Debts owed.

"Tell me again why you think this is a good idea?" Said the armored lord of the Grindstone. "He's kept himself restricted to mauling and maiming. We have no idea where he sleeps, lives, or goes after this. It's the only place you'll get a chance to get him in the open and without his full combat kit." Muttered a cloaked figure perched on the rock next to him. "It'll ruin your little game here but it's not your tournament, so no real loss..." "No. Not that part. Why Him? Why does Ishgarde AND Ul'dah care what an old, alchoholic Roe does in his spare ti-" Warren stopped mid sentence and reflexively stepped backwards as a shadow crossed the sun. Someone Hammersmith's size shouldn't move that quick, or that quiet, or be able to leap that high. The giant's bulk, briefly, eclipsed the day-star as he dropped from the cloudless sky and brought The Stick down, overhanded, into the skull and spine of the Ishgardian emissary. The explosion of The Stick's impact was a meat-filled balloon popping over the two large men. Warren stayed very, very still as Hammer pulled himself out of the gore sodden impact where the agent had been standing and spoke. "Figgures they'd get desperate. C'mon tin-can. Dun really care what sword they got hangin over yer neck t'make this happen." The giant shifted his stance and found footing on the blood slick stone. "We both been waitin fir an excuse t'dance."

*Right click -> Leave FC*

As will be revealed in some stuff in Hammer's journal thread, he knows a little about guns. He knows how to "cheat" people using them and considers pretty much anything as fair play against someone throwing a lead ball at super-sonic speeds at a fleshy target. So, of course, it's a lethal kind of "Cheat"

The Hammersmith version of a Lala was "One Eyed Jack" You're all lucky he doesn't exist here. Also holy shit Grish, Get drawing more cause you good son.

This would be hard to RP though because theoretically your character would never put themselves in life-threatening situations, so if a life-threatening situation ever came up through natural RP you'd have to explain why your character didn't foresee it. Oh, I never said it was a viable char concept, I didn't think that was the question. Totally viable for some wrinkled NPC in a tall tower though. You see a lot of "Looking" forward in the Coerthas stuff, the astrologers are all segregated and in controlled sections there. Given the shit happening at Ishgarde, astrology has to have a major flaw. Either it becomes impossibly complicated for normal people on a macro scale, making it impossible to have a nation state like Ishgarde steered soley by it, or it's subject to more chance and "This or that might" forking prophecies not "This is" definites. So either it works on a small scale but not large, which means it'd be great if you want to be a really old codger who lives in a tower, or it's a complex web of questions and branching possibilities like the Foundation series wrote about with their social mathematics, which I think also lends to it's "complex on large scale" issues. Obviously it can't be perfect or Ishgard would have seen all this coming, like you said.

I think it could, in an indirect way. Since it's a management of fate and omens, it could, in theory, steer you away from major life events that would be detrimental. Don't go outside on X day, storm strikes, don't travel to X an Y day, place burns to the ground. IN short you'd have a long natural life span at the expense of being boring as hell. In order to do anything with your long life you'll have to...well...put it at risk.

Zealous Oak dealing with Grindstone participants who have over-zealous wounds.

Lot of good info in this thread. Use it. One I didn't see mentioned, and a personal thing that twists my ear and pisses me off more often than not: Make sure your char has a reason to interact, get involved, and step out. Mr. Broods McDarksalot in the corner isn't going to get into any fun if they never step into and interact with people. Sad shy girl isn't going to have anything happen if they never leave their table and never talk. If either of them do, it's a thin soup of a story since they'll go back to Dark and/or Quiet waiting for the next plot point to come to them instead of getting involved in them. IN short: You're RPing in a group environment. Have reasons, twists, flaws, merits, and other personality things that make sure you interact with the group. Otherwise you're background colour and making everyone else do the work of bringing RP to you, instead of making a collective story. People who get mad about never getting RP and then mention their char is a super secret ninja who never reveals their location or speaks to people outside of their extensive NPC organization that no one knows about kind of piss me off.

Fallout 1 and 3 are both core pillars of what "Fallout" is up until this point, and what 4 is going to be: Vault Dweller thrown into strange world after long time apart from it. 2 and New Vegas are very much a "Life after the Vault" set of stories and good in their own right. However that giant gear-work door, the jumpsuits, being the Vault Dweller, are all very iconic parts of the series. I say start at 1 or 3, with 3 probably being the most easily digestible for the modern gamer who didn't come up in an era of isometric RPGs. There's a TON of head nods in all the games towards the other games. In the end, if we had an idea world, I'd say it'd be best to just play them all through in order. Since we don't have that kind of time, having a wiki handy while playing 3 will help you catch a lot of the series nods at itself.

"The First and the Earth send it's regards." *Rolls up sleeves, reveals extensive tattoos of titan and Kobold order markings* And that's when the screaming began.

Hammer's been an Ul'dah fixture for decades, at various stages. If she's a tavern talker she'd probably have been on the receiving end of Hammer's tongue at some point. Most people end up on the punching side in places like the quicksand so most of Hammer's quieter, more brain-twisting talk takes place during the quieter moments. If she's Ul'dah arcanist we might have more to 'plot', throw a PM if interested.

Hammer deals in large-scale smithing work. Seige weaponry, cannons, black powder, trebuchets, as well as gearworks and the like. He's got a reputation in the Flames for working with anything that might blow up a wall...or a platoon. He might be helpful. Considering that Ishgarde seems to be the Prime place for guns, black powder weaponry, and the mechanical class, Hammer's understanding of gunpowder, lead-throwers, and gears, combined with not being ishgardian even in a good light, might cause her some concern though.

Let's see. Potential Hooks: [align=left] Lonely? [/align] This one's a non-hook for Hammer. [align=left] Doman? [/align] Newp. [align=left] Have need of a competent tracker? [/align] Yes. Hammer's had various man-hunters under contract for "Reasons" for almost 15 years now. Mostly centering around one specific target and, more recently, two others. [align=left] Wounds that require healing? [/align] Chronically. Non-guild/aligned sawbones are a plus. [align=left] Maybe even some combination of the above? [/align] No idea?

I'll have to agree on that point. I think what history a player shows on a wiki needs to be expected to be picked up on by readers, which means I try to frame it in a general manner of whatever wake of reputation might follow the char who's featured on the wiki. Specifics, deep details, and major life events don't tend to show up in those places, much less private things Hammer's unlikely to ever open his mouth about. As for taking notice: Go for it. As noted: What's public on that wiki is stuff I'm alright with people taking IC. I guess that also opens up the question: How much of a history are you people alright with being Public Knowledge and how do you get that done. PMs? Rumors? Linking a wiki and saying READ PUNY MORTAL AND DESPAIR? Old chars aren't just pulled from the aether and most people end up building an expected baggage train of events that get carried into the public eye in one way or another. How do you get that out there, yourself?

Alright. I have a question that I think I'll be interested in hearing answered repeatedly. How important is backstory to you? Is your char a blank slate being painted completely by day to day events they run into, or are they dragging around a ticking machinery of Past Events that are pointing their decisions as much as The Moment is? To follow: How important is it for that backstory to be known? We all know the Chronic Exposition Monkey. The guy who barfs up a novel's worth of backstory at the slightest, or even complete lack of, a reason to divulge. Then you have people like Hammer, that asshole, who don't talk about their past, refuse to talk about their past, and have gone several iterations of existence with Revealing the Big Story of Hammer to anyone or anything. I think the two are important facets, I think both are often abused, ignored, and twisted as anything in a large sampling of players is likely to be. I think that, with the right players, they both work, I just know I favor Deep Back Story, but I don't see a reason for People To NEED to Know the Story at the drop of a hat, or several hats, or any hats, ever. Maybe it shows up in a glimmer, but I'm not the sort to think Exposition of My Past is a thing that is a requirement for introductions or even casual friends. So what're your views on it?

Alas, the weekend I'm doing things and stuff, and we have the chance for a megabrawl. Next week Warren. Next week.

it's tomorrow, that time still good for you? Shiiit No. No I cannot. Pour one out for me.

I can make tonight. Let's do this.

- How does your character deal with killing? Depends, a lot, on the who and the why. If you're a nobody, you're that. A footnote. A nothing. A non-entity. At best you'll be used as an example in some lesson in the future. At worst your corpse gets used as a weapon in the immediate aftermath. If Hammer Gives a Shit it's a weight that gets carried. Usually brought up at a time that'll cause maximum injury for whoever's approaching it from the wrong angle. - How did your character feel after his/her first kill? Shock. Awe. Elation. Surprise. Confusion. It wasn't surprisingly, the first one that mattered. The first time opens a door. It's what happens once that door opened up that shaped who Hammer became. - Does your character mull over it later on? Yes. A lot. And as such he'll fish into other people's past and set hooks in their own memories of killing to see what threads come up. Then he'll start pulling. Just to see what's attached and where it goes. People aren't a puzzle to Hammer, but they are made up of a LOT of questions they don't seem comfortable with the answers to and he loves seeing how far that hole goes.

"....what d'yah mean I ain't dead? You people stupid or just really shitty shots?"

You could say she really... ( •_•)>⌐■-■ (⌐■_■) cleaned their clocks. YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

"You're a big one aren't yah?" "Can you put that out?" "I don't think we kill enough people to make you happy"