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The game's coming along nicely, I think.  We're still a month or so away from being able to start playing, but everything's going well.  We're setting the story a hundred years before the events of the last game, and we won't actually be located in the Strasa, but in the nation of Verterre, which borders the Stormlands in my version of the game world.  

Verterre's King and Queen were betrayed by their treacherous Viceroy, and assassinated by violent revolutionaries who want to overthrow the monarchy.  The Prince has gone into hiding, and the Viceroy's agents are searching everywhere in an attempt to find and eliminate him.  As political alliances break down, Verterre finds itself on the brink of war with a neighbouring kingdom.  Noble and Merchant lords are taking advantage of the power vacuum and clawing their way to the top of Vertesian society, using their vast resources to hire personal armies of mercenaries and cut-throats to protect them.

One character is an Eladrin Paladin, who served as a member of the Queensguard, who's sworn an oath to avenge her death and restore her son to the throne.  Another character is a "Shifter" Avenger who was actually born human, but drank the blood of the wolf as a sacred rite upon entering the inner circle of his Order, the House of Scales.  He is an agent of Justice, sworn to uphold the sacred balance and to hunt down those who would upset it.  We also have a Halfling Bard, who came to Verterre in chains, to serve as the personal entertainer of a cruel and terrible noble woman.  He has since been freed from the bonds of slavery, and is trying to find a place for himself in this strange new land.  Then we have a Warlord from the Raining City, who had once been a construction foreman in charge of building the maze of tunnels that twist and turn beneath the streets of Strasa.  His mind was touched by the Abiding One, who warped and twisted his thoughts.  He was later forced to leave Strasa, and now operates as a mercenary captain in Verterre.

We may have one more player, but we haven't settled on a character concept yet.

It's going to be a lot of fun, I think. 

Oct 25, 2012 -- 7:21PM, Ibaum wrote:

Your combats will be slow with two leaders in a party of four.  I would look into hybriding the Warlord with a striker or controller.

I like the setting you're developing here.  Hope it's fun for you guys.

Under ordinary circumstances, I'd definitely agree with you, but I've made a ton of adjustments to the system to accommodate some of my new players.  In the past, my primary issue with 4E has been that combats can drag out for a lot longer than they need to, and because some of the guys in this group are really critical of 4E already (even though they have very little experience with it), I've attempted to smooth out the math a bit to speed up combat.  I've basically halved all enemy HP, and increased their damage output by +5 per tier.  We'll play around with that, and if it needs adjustmenting, we'll do that.  I want combat to quick and gritty for both sides, and I think this is a good fix.  It also allows us to blow through combat so we can get around to roleplaying, which is really the focus of this particular group.

So, we'll see how it goes.

It's looking like we've lost our Avenger (he and his wife have a new baby, and there are some scheduling issues), but my wife's agreed to step in and play something.  She's thinking maybe a Kalashtar Ardent.  Her character concept sounds really cool to me, but that would leave us with a Defender and three Leaders, lol.  So, we'll see how it goes.  I want everyone to play the characters they're most interested in roleplaying, and if their choices make combat difficult, I'll make adjustments to combat.