Curses, foiled again!

I bet the Ackleberries will be all happy-fun-fun-wheeee! pacifistic kind of folk. I mean, what big mean org would want "honeysap" as their nexus name, and be filled with bumbling teddies and cheerful rodents?

Don't let Ialie see this. It has been the eternal debate with Ackleberry if it will be a 'snuggle-paradise', it all depends on how it will be introduced and the first players who will nurture the commune into a certain stance. Simply because certain things are named as such, like honeysap or Ackleberry, doesn't mean at all that it is going to be where everyone who giggles and snuggles will end up at.

Edit: For more information, look here.

I also have some minor doubts that anyone with Magnagora as a next-door neighbor could exist for longer than a week as hippie-snuggle pacifists. Even factoring in the defensive value of giggle-inspiring furrikin names.

I'd love to see them return as total hard-asses from their time spent cut off from everything.

That topic had the best picture ever. Despite the slight factual inaccuracies (Lolly is a male bear-kin, not a female bunny-kin) - details!

"Ackleberry" sounds like a location in a Brian Jacques novel.

i can see them being played off either as Seren's ally (Glom would get kinda screwed, but really the 3-commune dynamic would be weird no matter what), or as aggressively neutral, perhaps because as Sylphas suggested, they are embittered by their long absence from the realm. Actually, they're halfway down that path already- didn't they basically say "Screw y'all" to the Basin when they hid to protect their own forest? Maybe something goes wrong with their maintenance of the forest in its unreal state...or, even better, perhaps Serenwilde decides to summon them back as allies against Glomdoring and the cities. Then the Ackleberry would be angry at everyone- they would naturally see Glomdoring more as the tainted forest they left behind than anything else, Magnagora would apall them, Celest would probably upset them too (although these things would depend on whether or not Ackleberry was frozen in time or existed outside the fabric of reality...I tend to think they are frozen but I dont' know). And they'd be mad at Serenwilde for dragging them out of their isolation when the taint is still there to endanger their forest. The difficulty would be in trying to develop an isolationist philosophy then didn't make them sound too much like Glom.

Personally, this is my vision of the future. It would require a HELL of a lot of players, but here goes.

Two new cities, two new communes. Hallifax, Gaudiguch, Ackleberry (Lake/Bear), and Skarch (Sun/Snake). Ackleberry v. Skarch, Hallifax v. Gaudiguch. KICKASS.

Be cool if we could build a fourth Commune! Maeve can part with another seed..right?

I like how youve made this skill, though of course there will be problems when making things from scratch and comparisons and with no prior knowledge of what the skill is actually about but you have done a wonderful job with your envisioning of it. Good job!

Ackleberry may just not care about the current taint at all, although it may be distasteful. Remember, they left when it was still virulent and touched by Kethuru. If they've been frozen, our taint nowadays will seem like nothing compared to the horrors they faced.

Yes but look at it this way- when Ackleberry poofed, that Taint was the biggest danger facing the world. It had already swallowed up Gloriana, twisted its inhabitants irrevocably, and led to a massacre of the fae. It was horrifying, loathsome, and deeply frightening. So to save themselves, Ackleberry sealed themselves off from reality, because it was the only way they knew to prevent the same from happening to them. Then they reappear in the realm, a second later from their point of view. They have to have everything explained- they are told that Kethuru was vanquished, but the taint remained. They are told Kethuru returned at one point. They are told that Kethuru is not in control of the taint any more, so it is not as active as it was when they left.

But Magnagora is still run by those who glory in the taint and spread it, the lands surrounding it are still roiling with undead, and Glomdoring which may or may not be tainted is still deeply stained by what happened to it under Kethuru, twisted and unnatural, and run by a Goddess who accidentally released Kethuru and a bunch of crazy nutters who want to spread Glomdoring's poison across the entire Basin. Now. Would you say, "Oh, well Kethuru's gone, no big deal." Or would you be frightened, considering that there was still a great deal of potential danger, and excessively paranoid about Kethuru's return? Maybe it wouldn't be rational, but imagine one day the USSR was enemy number one putting you in fear of imminent nuclear holocaust, and the next day Stalin was run over by a bus and the whole thing was rather disorganized. Maybe the fear isn't quite so imminent any more, but it's still there and very real. Remember we've had a couple centuries to let the fall of the Celestine Empire and Gloriana to become history, but to Ackleberry it's current events, it happened yesterday.

And Thul, I'm sorry, I didn't meant to hijack your thread. I really like the bear skillset. I agree as some have that it's kind of overpowered, but I don't know enough about the other totem specializations to really offer constructive critique. It was a lot of fun to look at though!

Personally, I wouldn't be suprised if Ackleberry was completly neutral, seeing the Wyrd as not Taint. Ackleberry could then be used as mediator between Seren and Glom, and then all of the communes could start fighting the cities instead.

Didn't Ackleberry tell Serenwilde how to seal off their forest?

I really need to re-read the histories, but if they did it would hint at them caring about protecting the forests against the taint.

Also if they are in some form of stasis or something wouldn't that preserve their memories of how things were (or have stories of lovely Gloriana filled with Ravens song) and so the differences with current day Glomdoring would still be apparent to them

From Lolly's memoirs- the first to speak is the High Priestess of the Moon:

Anyways back on track from that hijack and about the skills in this set.

I don't like the idea of using deepwounds at all as Druids have no use for them. Also saying every skill has useless abilities does not make it right, I don't know anyone who likes having stupid abilities that have no point. Yes, I know Perch is generally useless and should be envoy'd (Yes I know it provides some extra resistance over Cling but that isn't interesting, it should allow you to hear conversations on the ground below you or something equally unique.)

Also I think the skillset needs 2 more skills to be even with Stag/Crow. Also, along with that the facepaints need to be spread out more evenly.

One thing I don't really like about this skill is that the skills really aren't that interesting. Although Crow abilities aren't particularly powerful they have a whole lot of flavor. Also, they are helpful for spying to an extent with tracking people using eyeballs and eyeballs used for spying. However, that could just be a personal thing for me as I don't find bears particularly interesting. I'm sure if you researched the habits of bears more thoroughly they could have some real interesting things to be done with (I think).

Finally, I really don't like Bearhug for Bearform at all. Skills that drain a lot of endurance/willpower of someone are never a good idea. Warriors can get away with it because their attacks are highly random. Psychicvampirism in Teleptahy needs to be looked at as well since it drains willpower as well. Abilities that cause lasting damage that is unable to be cured and results in the incapacitation or death of an opponent are usually taboo. It is one of the fundamental problems with Vodun in other games, it's not a matter of a skill it's about one fighter having to have the skill to kill another before a timer runs out. The attacker that constantly bearhugs until he kills someone needs no real skill, only a tanky race and a good system which are both able to be bought with money.

No offence but I hate the Grouphug ability just because of its name...

That reminds me of the final part that the names and descriptions of the skills are rather boring like Slam and Smack.

I was bored and decided to read up on basic things about Bears and as I had expected they don't do much interesting things but here's some stuff for abilities.

Bears can walk on four legs or stand up straight. (This could be used as a kind of stance where the bear user gains bonuses and negatives from walking on four legs. Just as a not so good example, if they are on four legs and they are harder to knock over and hit but are unable to climb trees.)

Can climb trees to get to prey. (Add an ability to leap from the trees unto unexpecting foes and and name it Dropbear.)

Bears have different colour pelts. (Maybe add this to bearpelt to add flavour akin to Werecreatures in Aetolia where they grow different kind of pelts.)

Bears are usually solitary creatures except with mother and cubs. (This kind of contradicts the social aspect of the Ackleberry Commune. However, I did read Bears will form groups when food is plentiful such as when catching salmon. Also, I guess Grouphug kind of fits into this but it's a little too snugglyesque if you ask me.)

Bear's have vast feeding territories and have great memories to return to where food was prevelant in the past. (Maybe the ability to mark the local area as their feeding territory allowing them to travel to it wit hease and while inside it be able to move around freely)

Many bears form food caches of animal carcasses or other types of food like nuts and berries. (This would be a little too much like Crow's nest so maybe think of a unique idea.)

Bears are rather aggressive creatures when riled. (This is one thing that is kind of missing in this skillset, maybe an ability to cause them to be enraged as the site of an ally dying or something equally unique?)

Just things like that to provide inspiration for unique and interesting abilities.

Oooooh! Somebody envoy this, please.

*cough* http://youtube.com/watch?v=QBuXz4ozJLc&search=bears *cough*

RUN!

...Can we have a drop-bear skill?