Looks awesome, Adora. However, can you put the section headers in bold? Makes it easier to distinguish things.

I have an open question to everyone:

How do you guys feel about non-dice combat systems? I had one for the original version of this roleplay, a coupe of months ago, but it wasn't very well developed and some people were distraught about 'numbers' and stuff. However, I often feel that descriptions of abilities, how much damage someone can suffer, and other such things become so relative without some kind of number to indicate a definite. Am I alone in this? A system like this would have low value numbers, static numbers, and function as a 'background' thing to normal combat descriptions, to which are accustomed. So, it isn't really a 'tabletop' game. I've been thinking about this since some people struggle with creating their own spirits—I struggled myself.

What is your stance on this?

I personally don't like number systems for RP's like this. I much prefer writing it out and really getting caught up in the moment. We're all reasonable people who know what we're doing, we don't necessarily need a number system to tell us what's going on.

I concur wholeheartedly with Ozie. The strongest thing about a text rp is that it is not beholden to mechanical systems.

On the subject of Sam. Get over it people. Everybody dies. This is war. There will always be casualties. Life is pain. Stiff upper lip. Suck it up. Be professional. I am not repressing anything!

I can go either or. Having numbers does give us (or maybe just me) a clear idea of the combat situation (narrative battles can get ambiguous), but on the other hand, it has the potential of becoming very distracting. Possibly to the point that players could loose interest. You should also expect some confusion in the first few battles.

If you do implement numbers, how would you do it with this version of The Spirits Within? Maybe you can write an example of a typical combat (tutorial), instead of simply writing a list of rules, so that we get the feel of it?

Personally I wouldn't use a dice or number based combat system in this, mainly for the reason that the range of powers and abilities we could conceivably have are are to wide and varied to be quantified by a simple number, if everyone uses damage dealing spirit abilities then sure it will work but when you use something a bit more abstract to confuse or disorient an opponent to gain the upper hand it's hard to numerically compare that kind of ability with one purely based of damage.

I actually think it would be interesting to have little stat sheets to represent our characters' skills, granted that this doesn't heavily impact the roleplay. Like, have it just be a background thing. I once was in a roleplay where there were very extensive stat sheets that we never used. The entire point of them was just to think about what your character was able to do and what their limits were. We ended up with a really awesome and balanced cast when it came to combat.

We are not going to use a system for this roleplay, as I did not advertise it.

But, I think it's an interesting topic, because there is such a strong divide between people who like it and those who do not, so hearing people's thoughts are on the matter is always educational. I developed a casual system for a Magic: The Gathering roleplay, way back, that I based the first version of The Spirits Within's combat system on. The gist of the system was for it to be a decent bridge between text-based roleplay and tabletop, very streamlined and non-intrusive.

For example, there were a set number of 'character actions' for all characters, which were issued with 'action points.'This was just an anti-godmodding feature, that is, to prevent someone from killing everything in one post. One of the actions was "attack," which did a static amount of 'physical damage,' but the point was to roleplay it as several attacks back and forth between you and your enemy, block and misses, acrobatic moves, whatever—just as you would describe it in text-based combat, but you would be able to back all of your writing up with numbers in the background.

Then there was a static 'health pool' to indicate when and where a character would die. This part of text-based roleplaying is impossible to determine without ambiguity. I urged people to interpret different health values according to their own character, so what 20 health meant to character A did not have to mean the same to character B. it all depends on gender, body type, and those other obscure text-based things.

However, as Everblight said, the problem with this would be the extent of difference in magical abilities. But, I already stated that 'very specific' magical effects would not be very useful in combat situations. And 'status effects' such as being confused or whatever is easy to implement mechanics for. However, my biggest problem with the system, or any system, is that it becomes boring after a while unless you have a considerable amount of character customization in the form of traits, items, and whatever else, which was a nightmare to create and sucked the meaning out of 'simplicity.'

So, I never used the system.

This looks very cool; I like the concept a lot. If you are still accepting, I would be interested in giving it a shot.

By the by, I don't think dice-based systems work well if you aren't actually at a table playing a tabletop game. Not that anyone asked the newcomer ;).

Hey so who wants to help Thael retrieve his spear after he does Sunspear?

We were discussing systems without dice, but dice-games can work quite well with play-by-post roleplaying. It seems to work for the guys over at the Tabletop forum, but enough about that stuff.

Ex, there are currently ten people who are planning a character, working on one, or have completed one. However, there will not be ten people in the roleplay, and I want to give everyone who is interested a chance to submit a character, so go ahead and post your ideas.

Oz, it's a team effort... or, rather, as the leader of the group, it is my job to make sure that you guys kick ass (!), so Olivia will most likely retrieve your spear.

For Everyone
#The first in-character post is written, so this roleplay can start the very second that the cast is set.

#Try to complete your character within a week of this post. I do not want this to be one of those roleplays where you have to wait a month or two for the story to begin.

#My character is nearing completion, which means that the character depository-thread will soon follow. When you have been accepted, I will ask you to post your character in that thread. If you are not accepted, I will send you a private message and state why, and we can have a discussion if you want to.

Good to hear, both on spear count and the IC progress. Thael is pretty much complete, barring some minor peaks. I've made a few updates if you want to check back.

I bolded my headers. :P

I would love to join in on this. :o I haven't done a fantasy-ish RP in a looooong time, but this is too interesting to pass up. That, and Oz and Ex were talking about it and it sounded reallay interestin'.

Ex, there are currently ten people who are planning a character, working on one, or have completed one. However, there will not be ten people in the roleplay, and I want to give everyone who is interested a chance to submit a character, so go ahead and post your ideas.

I think I've got something unique (compared to what others have done) that would really add something to the RP, so hopefully I can persuade you to let me in!

I will work on the character later today.

Prisk I have finished my character...it is now awaiting your thoughts.

I'm thinking about how Freddy's gonna interact with some of these characters. For one I think he'd hypocritically rage about Aaron's rage, and basically butt heads with him all the time due to their ideological differences on the subject of violence. He would probably love the hell out of Kat because he could always rely on her to tell him when he's being a giant douche bag, and I imagine she would at least appreciate his honesty as well. He'd feel sad for Remi due to how he's changed since his youth. I can imagine Freddy shaking Remi by the shoulders and yelling, "DO SOMETHING STUPID LIKE YOU USED TO!" I imagine Freddy would basically partner up with Thael, since, despite their size difference and attitudes, they have a shit load in common.

Also, I imagine Freddy being extremely protective of Fuzzy, and having like a persecution complex for him. Like, if anyone looks at Fuzzy weird, he'd just be like, "HE'S A NICE GOD DAMN GUY. STOP JUDGING HIM ON HIS APPEARANCE YOU PAINT HUFFING DICKMUNCHERS!"

Welcome to Ex and Sixsmith is in order.

Ozerath said
Good to hear, both on spear count and the IC progress. Thael is pretty much complete, barring some minor peaks. I've made a few updates if you want to check back.

See if you can describe or find a picture for Thael's shield.

You have to clearly state, in-character, when your Limit Break buffs everyone else. It should have a visual appearance, so think about how you are going to describe that.

"While I Draw Breath" must have some kind of drawback when Thael is pushing the limits. Perhaps some of his other abilities are disabled, as those spirits focus their attention on the spirits that form this ability—the spirits are, perhaps, assisting each other with this ability.

Other than that, things look real solid.

Adorabadass said
I bolded my headers. :P

Excellent

Edit: those are some nice ideas for character relations!

Archangel89 said
Prisk I have finished my character...it is now awaiting your thoughts.

This looks really nice and clear. See if you can find an image for Aaron, but if you deliberately chose not to have one, then that is fine. You can always expand on things if you want to, while you wait for everyone else and the in-character to begin.

A quick question about limit breaks: Is it preferable that, if the attack would generally hurt anything in its radius, people friendly to the attacker be protected? Or, is it better if the limit break hurts everything equally?

Why thank you, Prisk.

And come to think of it, will our limit breaks change at all as we accrue new spirits? Does it depend on the limit break in question, based on how one's spirits affect their limit break? I can imagine it changing for Freddy if he gets more spirits, since it's basically, "Roid raging and having my spirits roid rage too."

Ex said
A quick question about limit breaks: Is it preferable that, if the attack would generally hurt in its radius, people friendly to the attacker be protected? Or, is it better if the limit break hurts everything equally?

You are free to deign the specifics of how your character's limit break works. There are no preferences.

Adorabadass said
Why thank you, Prisk.And come to think of it, will our limit breaks change at all as we accrue new spirits? Does it depend on the limit break in question, based on how one's spirits affect their limit break? I can imagine it changing for Freddy if he gets more spirits, since it's basically, "Roid raging and having my spirits roid rage too."

I have no plans for the limit breaks to change during the story at this time, but that might change—who knows.