so what kind of powerlevel are we aiming at here, 'cause it's looking like, say, a regular soldier guy is going to be fucked. First level D&D a good benchmark for this?

@daemon - Do you mean like actually magically changed, or just wearing lots of magic gear? Because both are acceptable, if you PM me and Hallowed Mind about it first so we can make compromises and whatnot if necessary.

@Zero - If I had to quantify it with a level, out of a twenty level D&D system, i'd say five would be a good starting point for the average soldier with a few years under his belt, while vampire kings are sitting pretty at close to twenty. Weaker apprentice characters can play and gain strength though. If all goes to plan, ten chapters and ten years in game will go by before the big conclusion and epilogue, so even 1st levels have time to learn and grow. And like leveling in most RPG gaming, it's exponential, so weaker characters will grow faster than the higher level ones, and the kings start maxed. So weaker characters will be all caught up by the end, though they may have a rough start.

For a rough feel, I'd call Shadowgale around level 15, and he's top notch warrior. After that it gets into the master status, until level twenty has you at legend-tier.

I'm, uh, gonna go ahead and say I'm gonna start out as powerful as I can then. This is because in my experience 9 out of 10 RPs die before that kind of progression can actually happen and the few times it does it can also end up being a mad power dash where a character just gains ridiculous powerups for no good reason. That's another good piece of advice for both players and GMs there, I believe: planning for the long term is very good, it really is, but games rarely get to that point so focusing on the here and now is usually a much safer bet. Don't expect the game to last enough for you to do the entirety of your epic storyline or for your character to undergo a cool growth arc that feels natural and justified.

Oh, I understand and agree.

So, after much (much) consideration and juggling around a million character concepts that I like, I've decided my character will be a dwarven traveling merchant with a penchant for adventure and treasure hunting. Of course, his combat focus will be guns and other tech doodads acquired via money, so the big question here is: how exactly do these "manabolt" weapons work? And then there's the other questions such as: Are they rare? Expensive? Can they be used effectively by mundanes? Are their strictly controlled and guarded by the Mekhanism Institution? Is it just pistols or are there other weapon types with similar properties/functions?

Manabolt weapons are guns that use bottled mana (your mana potion, basically) to allow the enhancing of rounds with fire/ice/air/energy. The standard Manabolt guns will simply add a basic effect to bullets depending on the element. Fire makes the bullet burn the contact area, ice will freeze the area around contact, air increases penetration, energy simply makes a small explosion on contact. The bottled mana isn't necessary to fire the gun, only for the effects. Standard Manabolt pistols and rifles are usable by anyone trained in how to use normal pistols and rifles and can generally found in most weapon stores, commanding a higher price tag compared to usual pistols and rifles due to a more expensive construction and being Mekhanism products, which denotes a quality build. Now, if you want a custom Manabolt weapon, these have to be custom requested at an Institution campus directly and command a much higher price tag. Mira Ackov, for example, has a pair of pistols which can combine the Ice and Energy settings to create bursts of ice on impact, to give you an idea.

So it's a regular firearm with magic juice on it, gotcha. Muzzle loaders or do we already have sixshooters and whatnot? I assume a full repeating firearm is still years of research away/too expensive for anyone but plot characters who are cooler and more important than you?

We've got readily available muskets and single-shots. Rifled guns and revolvers are present, but are a bit less common currently, being relatively newer. Nothing close to full auto yet.

I know I said this would be up yesterday, but I ended up spending all day yesterday under the hood of both mine and my boss' car. I'll have it up today. Sorry about that.

Apologies for the wait, folks. Vor's been kinda blindsided by a sudden surge of irl busy-busy. He apologizes for the delay and is trying to find a chance to post the OOC.

THAT'S UNACCEPTABLE!*Hammers fist down on table*

Kidding...

We've all been there, and done that. RL is always more important than RPG, so he can take his time...