ADigitalMagician Runs a Fate Game

I think it makes sense that some would be intelligent and some not, possibly varying by the complexity and so on, or accruing intelligence over centuries of being "fed" more songs also makes sense... either way, since it's literally made of music, it's gotta sing rather than speak, right?

 

Good point! Or maybe its voice has one of those multi-layered effects going on where it's got that main voice that speaks normally, but under it there's like a chorus of singing echos. Idk if I described that very well but I assure you it sounds very cool in my head. XD

Probably there're some legends out there about the great Battle Bards and the war that brought this dragon into existence, and also legends about the bond between the dragon and its territory and its people. The Viking might even consider themselves the dragon's children on some level.

 

Crazy screwy idea: the dragon IS Valhalla.

 

omg! :D I'm intrigued by this and wish to explore it further!

Are you thinking like, when the Vikings die their souls join with the dragon's?

 

Yes. Yes that is exactly what I mean.

 

We're giving a lot of thought to Vikingland, maybe let's branch out a little. We've got that, we've got the cliff city, how about one built around a spring that its magically-powerful god-king forced up out of the ground? (Or is said to have done, at least.)

 

That sounds great!

 

Alright, reading through creation, we have viking land (The important bits) covered. Mostly, we need to produce locations for play. So unless we intend to visit vikingland, Onnastik is right we should move on.

From the way everyone was chatting about the cliff city, that sounds like a place people are interested in using as an actual setting? I do like the sound of an oasis based on a spring. That would give us two solid areas of play, and between the two enough interest to get running.

Vikingland just excites me, which is why focused.

Once we have some antagonists in place, we can start character creation. (I forgot how much they streamlined the world building. I think we're at the point of "enough to play" once we firm these ideas up.)

 

I think the cliff city and the oasis are actually two separate places, giving us a total of three locations once we've developed them a bit more. (Unless we combine them, of course.)

The cliff city is ruled by an urbane despot who puts on a front of graciousness and magnanimity in order to keep the loyalty of the masses of people whose voices he needs to keep his city attached to the cliffs, rather than crumbling. However, the truth is that he (wait, why is this person necessarily male? We really should have at LEAST one female antagonist, maybe more) is really very cruel and selfish, maybe even sadistic!

The oasis is ruled by a warlord who, legend has it, raised the water from deep within the earth through magic. I was actually just thinking the possibility that they might be the center of a bloody fertility cult, in which raiders take prisoners in ritualized warfare so they can be sacrificed in order to keep the water flowing and the crops growing.

 

The ritual sacrifice thing could definitely have some plot hung on it.

Either Cliff Despot or Spring Despot should be female, yeah, and of course there are going to have to be a bunch of antagonists on a smaller scale than the actual warlords, so of course they'll be of varying genders. (Also I kind of imagine Vikingland's warlord as being female. Unless it's the dragon. The dragon needs no gender.)

 

The dragon has no gender. The dragon needs no gender. XD

Heck, why not make BOTH the Cliff and Spring Despots female? We don't have to cater to anybody except ourselves, here!

Also, I know it's still a little early for character creation, but I'd really like to reserve the bassist in the band for myself. I'm envisioning a rather selfish, materialistic person for my character, at least initially. She's not afraid of danger, but she wants material compensation for it. Good food, a comfortable place to live, blinged out armor and a high-quality instrument...those are the things she dreams about, and she doesn't really care where they come from or who had to suffer to make sure she got them. She might get character development that takes her out of that mindset as the game goes on, but that's how I'd like her to start, and because of that I think it would be most appropriate and interesting if she were the bassist, because out of all the usual instruments you see in heavy metal bands, the bassist is the one who'd have the hardest time going solo. XD She needs the band to get what she wants, and that could lead to all kinds of interesting conflict we'd miss if she had the option of just flouncing out.

(Plus games ALWAYS slow down when you split the party, and that's no good for anybody.)

 

I may have gone and downloaded FATE, and we're actually just about to the point where we talk about characters. Also, I love selfish characters learning to care! /starryeyed

(As for me, I'd like to tell you my own musings on characterization just because my thought processes have been seriously amusing to me so far: I usually relate better to my RP characters if I start with an existing fandom character and modify them, and I was kind of torn because I wanted to avoid either the Insufferable Genius type or the Kaylee Frye Expy. Then I realized I already knew a character who sings to help herself work with machines... and lives in a ridiculously dangerous world... where people's creations often get out of hand and turn dangerous... so now I've got the heavy metal Agatha Heterodyne, Girl Genius! on my hands. XD)

 

oh my GOD, that's fantastic! :D
So shall we assume your character is the vocalist, then? XD

 

I'd like her to be, yeah.

 

Might be a good idea to have, at least to start with, a neutral sort of spot or a little village that's reasonably friendly, so we know at least one place to hole up and get supplies and quests and things while we're still getting used to the world and feeling our way into the game.

 

I am loving these ideas. I would like to claim drums/percussion if possible. Because the character I am blocking out is a relative of these guys.

 

Also the starting area could be just like an underground burrow area. Able to sustain minimal life but by no means capable of a city. Kinda like how mammals survived the K/T extinction or the setting for The Host.

 

Starting area/burrow sounds like a good idea! I think someone may have already claimed drums, though?

 

We've got four people, right? As long as our vocalist can also play lead guitar, there's no actual reason we can't have two drummers.

(edit) Or I could possibly rework things a bit and make my character work as an axe-wielding guitarist. I'll have to think about that and see if she still comes out the way I want her. It might well work.

 

My character dislikes the vocalist already! XD (but I still love you onna <333)

Multiple drummers would make plenty of sense though, for a band of heavy metal battle bards. You look at the Doof Warrior, his actor pretty much said straight up in interviews what while he tried to throw a couple actual songs in there, after being up on that rig for a few hours he was pretty much just hammering on the strings to produce a steady beat. Shit's pretty exhausting. XD So with two drummers and a bassist, we could work shifts during long chases, or shore each other up during important battles. Lots of options for fielding ourselves effectively.