Ivalice Adventures is the first official test-play campaign for Ivalice Alliance Tabletop, conducted over Maptool and GMed by Renagade, or Ren for short. The cast consists of mainly members from the Middle Ground Forums who have TV Tropes accounts and play a diverse set of characters and classes, as mandated by Ren so each Race and Job could see an opportunity to be played.
The cast consists of the following characters, who form Clan Starstrike in order of the time they joined:
- Alae: A female Viera Red Mage.
- Andrake: A male Hume Paladin.
- Dursch: A male Seeq Monk.
- Grudis: A male Bangaa Soldier.
- Haedan: A female Hume White Mage.
- Ming: A female Gria Soldier.
- Vryn: A female Viera Hunter.
- Wenzelas: A male Moogle Gunner.
- Yvet: A female Gria Thief.
After Clan Starstrike enjoys the Great Land Festival, they compete in and win the Camoa Cup, earning quite a bit of fame in the process. The next day, they agree to accompany Clan Silverwind, a clan of 3 members who specialize in trading and treasure hunting, to the port town of Graszton. Along the way they manage to hunt and kill a Crushatrice (essentially a giant round chicken, more dangerous than it sounds) and decimate the Yellow Wings, a group of bandits who set up a toll on the well traveled Vieg Road. During the fight, Ming, a Gria Soldier, and Vryn, a Viera Hunter, defect from the Yellow Wings and join Starstrike.
Once the party arrives in Graszton, they bid farewell to Silverwind and meet Vincardi, a male Viera Gunner and captain of a ship entitled The Leviathan. Vincardi is an old friend of Yvet's, and they exchange pleasantries and stories. Later that night, a clan known as the Seaways Raiders besieges Graszton with an attempted naval invasion. But the town guard and clan Starstrike, with the help of Vincardi, fend them off and even manage to capture one of the pirates for interrogation.
They discover that the Seaways Raiders make camp in the long since forlorn Brightmoon Tor, and head out to Melby Point to storm the tower. All goes well until the actually encounter the clan leader, Jack Seaways, who set up a clever ambush for the group, the fight was brutal, and Haedan and Vryn died during the fight, but the clan was victorious. After escaping the tower, tension grew and they split up, opening the path for the Campaign Reboot.
The first official session took place on October 20th, 2010, and has been going on almost every Wednesday since then.
The Chat logs of each session are recorded on the MGForums and can be seen and read below at your viewing pleasure.
- Session 1.
Edited. - Session 2. First session with Skype support. Edited.
- Session 3. Edited.
- Session 4.
- Session 5.
- Session 6.
- Session 7, part 1.
- Session 7, part 2.
- Session 8.
part 1. - Session 9.
After these 9 sessions, the party couldn't have a good session for a good 3 weeks, after Which Ren decided to reboot the series with a newer, and less populated campaign. Taking place 3 months after the events of the previous campaign. The party consists of the following.
- Andrake: The same Andrake from the last campaign, A Hume Paladin/Dragoon.
- Artemis: GMPC and Andrake's loyal younger brother, a Hume Soldier.
- Ba'Zahng: A Bangaa Hunter who seeks the ultimate mark.
- Calanel: A Nu Mou Black Mage who's a bit of a douche.
- Castia: A Gria Monk who Walks The Earth.
- Dursch: Returning from the previous campaign to replace Castia, a Seeq Monk.
- Glauze: A Moogle Gunner who's also a bit of a douche.
They do so, and despite his grumpiness, Andrake is still good old Andrake and the party formally meets each other before heading up the road to Citadel's, well, citadel. As they approach the walls of the fortress, an explosion is heard and an alarm blares, cautious, the group continues forward. Another explosion causes them to draw their weapons and rush to the gate. Only to have the portion of the wall near it explode in a terrific explosion. A black armored man walks out of the freshly made hole, although the front gate was a few squares over. Clutched in the man's hand is a fairly large and glowing crystal. As the group gathers their bearings from the explosion they see an even larger figure walk out of the hole, a dragon, actually, scales black as a moonless night. It incinerates the incoming guards as the armored man introduces himself to Artemis and Andrake in particular. The man is revealed to be Alexander Hoppande, the supposedly dead eldest brother of the Hoppande siblings. A third figure, rather exasperatedly stumbles through the hole, who Calanel recognizes as Varios the Gray, his mentor who he was currently on the run from. The three promptly ignore the party and take off on the back of the dark-scaled dragon, whilst the guards it incinerated are revived as zombies. The group makes short work of them and head into the blasted-apart Citadel.
They enter mess hall positively full to bursting with zombies and proceed to grind them all to death, aided by the still living guards and soldiers of the Citadel and Commander Arquin, the man who raised Andrake since he was a lad. The battle went on for quite a while, but eventually the party was victorious and proceeded to explain what had just happened to Arquin, being that the man who just blew 5 holes through 10 foot thick walls was Alexander Hoppande. Arquin then discovers that Alex had come through and stolen the power source for the Citadel's Omega Cannon, a Lightwing Crystal. However, the cannon still had energy for one shot, so Arquin attempted to use it to shoot down the fleeing Alexander. He simply reflected the blast back. The reflected shot mostly missed, being that it tore apart a good chunk of the Citadel and caused a massive, if brief tidal wave. Arquin told the party that Andrake's father needed to know about this, to which the party agreed and head back to Archades to break the news.
During the airship ride to Archades, the group encounters Dursch at the bar, drunk off his ass, presumably over Haedan's death and the clan disbanding. Or he's just drunk, as usual. After Andrake and Artemis happily reunite with him, Dursch offers to join the group in whatever it is they're doing, for old time's sake, even though it's only been 3 months. However, the happy reunion is suddenly ruined when a pair of guards recognize Glauze, or, more importantly, the gun he carries, which is a stolen model of a very popular and well-known gunsmith in Archades. This causes a bit of a disturbance on the ship, but some well placed diplomacy from Artemis prevents anything major from happening, and the group agrees to take the gun to the smith as soon as they arrive in Archades to hopefully sort things out.
Once the group arrives the next day, they go to the smith, who remarks that the model was incomplete when it was taken and marvels at how Glauze managed to not only finish it, but finish it spectacularly. He refuses to press charges and even offers to take the Moogle in as an apprentice and assistance, to which Glauze declines due to the fact that he's traveling with the Hoppandes. The group then proceeds to the Hoppande estate and drops the news on Andrake Hoppande the 2nd. To say the least, he is surprised to hear that Alex is alive and insane. But if he wishes to present anything to the higher ups (like the Judges), he'll need more evidence besides a few eyewitness accounts and a hole in Citadel if they are to prevent yet another war between Archades and Rozarria. Castia agrees to act as an impromptu ambassador on behalf of Rozarria, effectively leaving the party, and the group agrees to go to Varios the Gray's manor in search of evidence...
- Reboot Session 1.
- Reboot Session 2.
- Reboot Session 3.
- Reboot Session 4.
- Reboot Session 5.
- Reboot Session 6.
Characters
The following are the PCs, important NPCs and GMPCs of Ivalice Adventures.
Andrake Nathaniel Hoppande
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Don't let his idiotic behavior fool you. He is very capable of easily kicking your ass.
- The Ditz: Notable examples are him falling off of his chair, falling off of his chocobo, staring at fish in a river, jumping up a tree for no reason, attempting to read a letter upside down...
- The Fool: And he has absolutely no idea what he's doing.
- The Hero: He's easily the main character of the campaign, so much so that the GM has even admitted that he's not doing a very good job of keeping the other players interested in the story for the sake of advancing Andrakes. However, the sheer hilarity of anything he does outside of combat is enough to keep everyone in if only for the constant laughs.
- Knight Errant: Was sent on a pilgrimage around Ivalice in order to discover who he was.
- The Paladin: Well, it is his Job.
Artemis Earnheart Hoppande
- Cool Sword: It's called Lionheart, has the Masterwork quality, and is just another thing that adds to his staggering AC.
- GMPC: He's really there to help drive the plot and round out the party by going up and tanking it out.
- Made of Iron: He has the most Hit Points out of the entire party, and the best AC.
- Stone Wall: His AC is 28. Twenty. Fucking. Eight. However, he limits himself to knightswords, which, when compared to the damage the rest of the party regularly deals, is nothing impressive.
- Thicker Than Water: The main reason for his...
- Undying Loyalty: To Andrake, he will follow him to the ends of Ivalice, no matter how stupid the quest is or how much of an idiot he is, simply because he is his brother.
Ba'Zahng
- Great White Hunter: He seeks the ultimate mark, and after seeing Alexander blow through 10 foot thick walls with that dragon of his, he believes he has found it.
Calanel
- Butt-Monkey: The universe just plain hates him.
- Squishy Wizard: Comes with being a Black Mage, the fact that he's also a Nu Mou doesn't help.
Castia
- Elemental Weapon: She also has a Zephyr Staff, which, as the name implies, deals wind damage.
- Good Samaritan: When she saw Calanel faint in the first session, she immediately rushed to his aid, despite him being a jerk earlier.
- Power Fist: Rising Sun, let's her deliver punches made of FIRE!
- Walk the Earth: She ran away from home and wandered Rozzaria for a few years, doing odd jobs and learning self-defense.
- Winged Humanoid: Comes with being a Gria.
Trivia
- Series Hiatus: As of early May, 2011, Ren decided to put the campaign on hold due to various party members getting preoccupied with things like college. In the meantime, Ren has started a Pathfinder campaign.
This Work contains examples of…
- Acrofatic: Dursch in particular, but this could be said of any adequately capable Seeq.
- Action Girl: Yvet, Alae, and Haedan. Yvet most of the bunch, who's easily capable of quickly racking up damage.
- Big Eater: Alae and Grudis. Alae once remarked that she once went to a Hume "All-you-can-eat Buffet" Her retelling was as follows:Alae: Is it customary for buffet staff to cry in your culture?
- The Big Guy: Dursch.
- Big "NO!": Calanel, upon discovering that Varios zombified his fellow apprentices.
- Blood from the Mouth: Haedan, after being shot straight through the chest by an arrow that the DM kindly declined from being a critical hit due to the fact that he needed her alive for test-playing.
- Butt-Monkey: Wenzelas. Poor poor Wenzelas.
- Carry a Big Stick: Haedan Dual-Wields a hammer and staff. Hammer for smashing skulls, staff for healing them.
- Carry the One: When Alae was cooking dinner for the team, using magic.Alae: Carry the 5, Add a Hexagram...
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Arguably Andrake. He's straight up the weirdest of the lot and the player has stated that he's only going to get worse.
- Dark and Troubled Past: It'd be faster to list who doesn't have this in the party.
- Deadpan Snarker: If a character isn't this, then he or she is a Large Ham instead.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Dursch's snoring annoyed Alae, how does she react? By turning his food into a zombie and almost killing him.
- Dumb Muscle: Dursch. Being a Seeq, this is not surprising.
- Dysfunction Junction: Hooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, booooooooooy.
- Face Doodling: Wenzelas dozed off at the dinner table, prompting Alae to do this to him.
- Glory Seeker: Andrake, who aims to be the best Dragoon in the world.
- Groin Attack: Vincardi vs. the Seeq Viking in Session 7, Part 2.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: It doesn't take much to set Alae off.
- The Heart: Haedan, She joined the party in Session 3 and she's already bringing the team together.
- Heel–Face Turn: Vryn, since the Tournament pretty much.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: Grudis, who was declared Clan Leader, used a Claymore. Yvet also made liberal use of a Katana. Artemis sticks to a more traditional Knight Sword.* Homage: Andrake is based off of Kamina from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Don Quixote.
- I Need a Freaking Drink:
- Yvet when she learns of Wenzelas' massive debt owed.
- Haedan indulges in this trope as well, when the situation calls for it.
- Intimate Healing: Lightly applied by Headan's hug giving bestowing Bless on Alae.
- It's Always Mardi Gras in New Orleans: The campaign begins in Camoa during the Great Land Festival, which occurs at the end of Summer to celebrate a good harvest.
- Jerkass: Alae takes the cake and the platter it was served on in this department. She's a raging perfectionist with a temper problem and can't stand it when she makes a mistake or is one-upped in the Magicks department. People who annoy her usually receive a couple thousand volts of electricity for their problems.
- Klingon Promotion: How The Previously Newly-Promoted Yellow Wings Leader Who Is Called Reginal Who Is Also Slain and Therefore No Longer the Leader became Leader.
- The Klutz: Andrake.
- Large Ham:
- Grudis. Oh God, Grudis.
- Andrake has his fair share of this as well.
- Dursch being a literal example.
- Lethal Chef: Alae, literally, her food came alive as an undead creature. Even after it was dispatched of, Andrake and Dursch decided to taste it. It made Andrake puke and straight out KO'd Dursch.
- Marshmallow Hell: Three girls, one cramped wagon. Do the math.
- Meaningful Name:
- Dursch, it's supposedly German for "Punch."
- Andrake Hoppande. Which is supposedly Swedish for "Drake Jumping."
- Nominal Importance: Meta Example. As soon as Vryn and the three Gossips were named, the players picked up on it in Skype.
- Oh, Crap!: The Yellow Wings Leader's reaction to seeing Dursch again.
- Oh, My Gods!: Ivalice's religion is, as of yet, wonky. The GM and Game-creator know's there is at least one official Church in Ivalice. But this doesn't stop Wenzelas from mentioning Famfrit any time the cosmos decide to fuck with him.
- Overly Long Name: The Previously Newly-Promoted Yellow Wings Leader Who Is Called Reginal Who Is Also Slain and Therefore No Longer the Leader. And then there's his title, "The Seeq With the Impractically Long Name Which may Become even More Rediculously Long in the Near Future"
- Pirates: Vincardi is a type 2. The Seaway Raiders are type 1.
- Punched Across the Room: Dursch vs. Yellow Wings' Leader. That punch alone shoved him back two squares and spawned Shout Outs to Captain Falcon and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, from the players.
- The Red Mage: Alae, of course.
- Revive Kills Zombie: Par for the course, notably, Haedan's Cure dispatched Alae's food zombie.
- Rule of Cool: Ren runs by it, it may not necessarily follow the rules, but if he's in a good mood and if you roll well enough, there'll probably be one or two rules he'll break to allow something awesome to happen.
- Rule of Funny: The Gm has stated that he doesn't mind adhering to this rule, as long as the session is not totally derailed by the antics and the players can hunker down for some Serious Business when the time calls for it.
- Running Gag: Do not lean back in a chair in this campaign. Just don't.
- Sarashi: Alae wears it.
- Talk Like a Pirate: The Seaway Raiders.
- The Teetotaler: Alae, the barman mixed up Birch Beer with actual Beer and Alae, preoccupied with the fact that she was about to fight pirates, downed the entire glass. Hilarity. Fucking. Ensued.
- Throwing Down the Gauntlet: Literally and in the spirit of the trope when Andrake challenged the Test of Endurance Seeq.
- Token Good Teammate:
- Andrake, being a Paladin he already qualified. But he does have a good heart and sense of justice, even if he is a bit insane.
- Artemis seems to be filling into this role as well.
- Tournament Arc: The Camoa Cup and, apparently, future City Cups, such as Grazton.
- Tsundere: Alae, who's cold, arrogant and aloof, but is slowly warming up to the clan.
- We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: Skype likes to bugger out on us. Maptool likes to randomly disconnect people.
- Wham Episode:
- Session 9, by far, has the most plot twist and development out of all of the campaign. Andrake is revealed to be nobility, and next in line to receive a large inheritance. Alae went into a massive rage and nearly killed Andrake, and later reveals that she killed a Gifted. And the GM proves that he can throw suitably challenging encounters at the PCs.
- Reboot Session 6 as well dropped some pretty serious bombs. Mainly on Calanel.
- What a Senseless Waste of Human Life: The girls' opinion of the Yellow Wings battle.
- Winged Humanoid: Yvet, Ming, Glauze and Wenzelas. Who are two Gria and Moogles, respectively, so this is a given. Although Yvet and Ming are currently the only members who can fly, if only for a short distance.
