My Turn? Maynard Hides.

[the_gneech]

Those of you who read my novel-draft The Ghost-King's Revenge, probably remember Maynard the werefox, whose defining characteristic (besides being a werefox) was that he was a "failed coward." Contrary to all his upbringing, and sure to bring shame and disgrace on his poor mother if any of the other werefoxes found out, Maynard kept recklessly putting himself in danger, coming to the aid of others, and even occasionally engaging in wanton acts of bravery. This, of course, made him feel terribly guilty, when every werefox is taught from an early age that one should always do their best to hide, keep safe, and never, ever stick their neck out -- especially when there's nothing to be gained except possibly helping somebody else.

Well, for jamesbarrett's new sideline D&D game, I wrote up Maynard to play as a PC, using the Fox Hengeyokai from Oriental Adventures, making him a Rogue 2/Wu Jen 1. Between skill ranks and feat selection, Maynard has +11 on both Hide and Move Silently, and as I discussed with Jamie, Maynard is pretty much constantly assumed to be taking 10 on both of those skills unless there's a particular reason to think otherwise -- giving him a constant state of hiding with a DC 21 Spot check to see him. I figured this did a pretty good job of reproducing Maynard's "obfuscation" trick as described in Ghost-King's Revenge.

Jamie was all for it; Maynard was one of his favorite elements in GKR, and so when I presented him as a possibility, Jamie's eyes practically lit up. I had originally wanted to play Gazeddor, my Conan-clone barbarian character, but since lythandra is playing a melee-based kick-butt cleric and pholph is playing a halfling fighter (!!), I figured a rogue was probably more useful to the party than another melee monster. (Given that Maynard has completely failed to detect any traps yet, while pholph's fighter keeps getting chewed up in every encounter, I'm not entirely sure I was right. But that'll change when he levels up -- at 4th he'll get another point of Int and pour a bunch of ranks into Search. I'm expecting him to have a +8 Search check next level at least.)

On the whole, it was a fun first session. We've got a pretty eccentric party of oddballs, except for lythandra's cleric who is fairly normal as 6'1" female clerics of Kord with the Strength and Luck domains go. 0.o (I'm just waiting to see her use her Strength power to suddenly be wading into combat with 20 Str or something.) On the other hand, it's a pretty eccentric oddball adventure so far. It's a 3.5 update of B4: The Lost City, which is more or less a D&D take on Robert E. Howard's "The Devil In Iron" or "Red Nails" ... an ancient should-be-abandoned city in the middle of nowhere is populated by the lotus-dreaming, insane-behaving descendants of the now-ruined civilization. This particular module seems to be a bit more played for laughs -- or at least sheer confusing weirdness -- rather than for the gibbering horror of Howard's tales, but we've just got into it, so we'll see how it goes.

So, I'm having fun playing up Maynard's jumpy nature among all these bizarre happenings. I'm also looking forward to trying to bring more of his character out, in particular his vanity and his peculiar inverse moral code. (Anybody who thinks being chaotic good is basically a weird compulsion on their part, and sees throwing themselves in harm's way to help out their compatriots regularly as a moral failure to be ashamed of, is going to make for interesting roleplaying opportunities.) Still, I regret not playing Gazeddor. Maybe next time!

-The Gneech

Comments

[pholph.livejournal.com]

This was an absolute blast.

I really play, for the most part, the "Support" character. (As you see with Ulf. Mort my 8th level cleric, has progressed into a Combat Priest practically, He's more of a Swiss Army Cleric.)

Leroy, is the first "Face" character I have, Well, you could count "Ulf" as a 'Face' but Leroy's job is to hurl into combat as an HO Scale Dreger... Next level, he's taking the +1 to STR.

I personally thought a 3' hobbit with dual axes and "Cleave" to be quite... "WTF?" and since this is a short term campaign, why not.

His personality is that he doesn't believe he's a hobbit, but a dwarven berzerker... so he'll gladly wade into combat.... hoping Lythandra can keep him patched up.

I think I was the only one who -did- take damage actually. And I think there is room for Leroy/Maynard banter... "Hey, at least -I- find the traps..." After the pit of plummet.

And Improved Initative is -wonderful-... I want to take it multiple times... Oh, and thanks for the note on the "Didn't lower my weapons one step" Redblade didn't drop my weapons a slot for me being a halfling...

I wanted to go kill the flying leeches... and every other room that had buzzing things. The pixies were not hostile at me. So, being LG, I didn't see them as a threat.

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Well, me-the-player wants to proceed level-by-level clearing out monsters and earning XP like crazy. But Maynard's reaction to everything is "run away!" so that's what he says.

FWIW, Cam and Laurie also took damage from the burning hands -- Maynard's the only one who escaped unscathed!

-The Gneech

[pholph.livejournal.com]

That is true... (re: burning hands) I forgot on that. But then, I was down to 14 -four- times (from 30) tonight.

And yes, I do want to scour the place. But I'm not the "Smart" one, so I'm following suggestions.

And not checking for traps, just opening doors... running down hallways. Following odd mentally unhinged people...

[jamesbarrett.livejournal.com]

Yes, I thought the whole thing went rather well, even if I did forget a few things I had wanted to say (they ended up not mattering much anyway). So far, I've gotten to use a few critters I've always wanted to use but never realized how, like the chokers, but especially the pixies. I hope you do go the check everything out route cause there's some cool and neat stuff tucked into the corners and I have some of my own neat things to showcase, but you do have to find them.

Too bad it'll be next month before we can play it again. -Frisk

[laurie-robey.livejournal.com]

Started good. I'd like to get a chance to use different spells besides "cure" spells. I'm also curious what spells Loose Hinge has up his short sleeves.

[tchall.livejournal.com]

Maynard sounds like a great character. Though for a fox my age, who fondly remembers Maynard G. Krebs from the Dobie Gillis show, I can't help but imagine yelping out a squeaky "Melee" whenever that word gets mentioned. Likewise, he's got the bongo drums of +5 coolness. :)

Be zorch, daddy-o. :)

[the-lizard-rat.livejournal.com]

Gneech-san, check out http://www.firstduty.com/add/league/ if you're ever in Albany. The guy who generated this is absolutely wonderful to play with.

It's probably been asked, but have you ever translated the SJ cast into characters? (And why do I see Yin as the Cleric of the group?)

Lizard Rat out.
Random in Albany NY

[kylet.livejournal.com]

So when do we get to see art of Maynard? XD
A vain fox? Nevar!

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

A scrawny, foppish fox? I wouldn't think you'd WANT to see art of him!

-The Gneech

[kylet.livejournal.com]

It often looks really dorky when someone overbeefs a fox. I don't mind doing it for myself, but other than that I EXPECT foxes to be scrawny and foppish (:::koffNarnia:::) ;-)

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Eh, you'd just say Maynard was overdressed anyway. ;)

-TG