Adventure Kingdom

Life, real life, isn’t for the faint of heart, nor is it for those who have something to lose. If you are brave enough, lucky enough, or clever enough, you can grasp the wonders of the world... or at least that’s how everybody imagines it to be.

Premise: Your characters are the underdogs, the broken, the dreamers, and the fools that are willing to risk their lives to dawn the title of “adventurer.” Whereas a mercenary has one task (violence) an adventurer is a jack of all trades functioning as detectives, messengers, enforcers, paranormal investigators, daredevils, exorcists, privateers, spies, explorers, decoys, and treasure hunters. However, their true talent lies in getting killed. They sort of have a knack for doing that. Yah... suuuuuuper popular in adventurer organizations right now.

While this sort of work is what you would like to do in the long term (unless of course, your character is looking for suicide by hazardous profession,) tasks are not exactly prevalent. So....*dum da da duumm!* while juggling your full time labors to pay the bills, you are moonlighting as an adventurer in your free time!

Setting: This a blend of historic fantasy and classic fantasy. Freedom is really not a concept many people know the meaning of well. Most likely you are going to be a serf, peasant, or knight locked into servitude to some noble. You reside in the kingdom of Fortchanar, in or near the village of Chazwall.



Good news though... your character’s story will encounter magic and gain options like being able to alter themselves into becoming mythological creatures, gain supernatural abilities, become flat out awesome, or even just find a new appreciation for normal.

Size: No fewer than 3 and no more than 6 players

Posting Frequency: About 3 times a week. Honestly frequency is better than length because it keeps the game moving.

Mood:

Rules: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4FeeTooQb04d1I2clBydGx5OGc/view

Furthermore, there are going to be a few rules specific to this game and are listed as follows:
-No one will start with magic but eventually the characters will encounter options to learn or utilize it.
-All characters are human... right now. Oooooowaaaaaooooooo! (Ever wondered why dwarves, elves, and orcs all look human-ish?)
-1 character per player (NPC’s need to be under GM control, if you have an NPC that shapes your character, work with me.)
-Rated PG (About the level of Star Wars)

I actually like colored text for conversation because it helps differentiate who is talking. I encourage it.

Don't forget that this game is based off of art. Work together to try to get an awesome and well though team of characters so that it is easier to sell to your audience.

Likewise, don't forget that underdogs and losers are perfectly okay to have in this game. Character concepts like C3PO can actually survive in this game system and not turn it lame. Feel free to build whatever you like.

Don't forget that your characters should be mostly self-motivated. You shouldn't make a placid potato along for the ride, these concepts hold very little interest to an audience and will probably get killed off unless you have them stay home and away from all of the action. If you have someone being dragged along against their will, work with other players or with me so that we can get something that works.

hmmmm. Now that I have had some sleep and a little more time to look through the rules a little further, I still don't get it. I am very much a learn by doing sort of person, so if you are ok with me feeling my way through the role play then I am more then willing to give it a try.

How about I do a step by step in the OOC on character construction for you guys?

Step 1: Character concept

(I am going to use one of my characters I've been itching to play, but I will not have a GM PC for this game, nor will they appear as an NPC. This is just for example and nothing more.)

The idea... I want a thief that poses as a magic user. This character really wants to become a magic user, but has never had luck to actually run across anything to actually learn magic. This gives me 2 things on the character sheet.

Hopes and dreams: To become a master wizard some day.

and also

Character Sacrilege: Gaining powerful supernatural abilities (This would cause character exit rather than just a bigger and better hope or dream. Why would she keep searching and risking her life for something she already has. Also, this specific character would not really go any further, they would just sit and tinker with magic in a tower somewhere until the end of her days.)

Step 2: A few skills

So, I already have a little bit about what they can do. I have little or no articles listed in "metaphysical" because that would mean this thief was actually no thief at all, but a magic user. But I DO have thief-y skills... particularly breaking and entering as well as stealth. Those are probably going to be located under perception because they involve senses to identify noise making and subtle obstacles that can cause problems. I DO have the choice to place Breaking and Entering into physical, meaning that she uses bruit force to get in... but that isn't the style I'm going for.

Per(Meh): Breaking and entering, Sneaking

These 2 skills come out of my 12 that I am thinking up.

Thinking about it, though, I don't want this character to feel like a somber student. I want them more fun and childlike. Having them imagine that they are a powerful wizard already would be the feel I was going for. Likewise, I would want them to be too impatient to do their homework to figure out the correct channels to become a student.

Look at that, 2 more intrigue articles! Intrigue articles are great, because they mean that I can determine how and when I get experience. I don't want just 1 or 2 situations that I get rewarded for playing in, I want tons of them!

Imaginative
Impatient

This also opens up my personality sliders because I know where I'm heading.

Energetic 0---- Lethargic

Theory 0---- Reality

Orderly ----0 Adaptable

I keep them extreme, because they are way easier to play. The ones closer to the middle are more subtle, and I find that a little more difficult to play accurately. I want to maximize my exposure to the GM so that I get awarded for it.

Skills and Stats

So, I haven't unloaded my skills and stats yet. If I look at the second page of skills (Under "To build a character"), I can get a general idea of what sort of build I am going for.

Since I'm sort of a jerk, I have decided to torment my character by drowning them in melancholy by making them not particularly good at anything... to some extent. I would like her with tolerable reflexes.

I also figure that since my character has had life kick her in the teeth again and again, that Heart would be a strong stat since that is where I put all of my psychological benefits. (I would put magical powers in Metaphysical.)

Now that I think about it, I want my character to be pretty heavy in heart and not so great anywhere else.

I have chosen to have her “Normal.”
This means that I have 1 stat at “Decent” with 3 skills in it, 1 stat at “Okay” with 2 skills in it, 2 stats at “Unremarkable” with 1 skill in each.

I also get a few more skills to spend, but I can decide on that later on

So, this is what I come up with.


You will note that I have those stats marked with an * are higher. That is because their parent stats raise them.

Also note that Brave adds an extra point to Fear, and Stubborn x2 adds 2 to Frustration.

I have 7 skills with this build, so I actually have 5 more to decide on.

That should be enough to get you guys most of the way there.

Interesting. I have my character fully planned out in my head and should be able to put up a character sheet soon. Is it possible to go over 12 skills if we have good reason?

PS: My planned skills
Music: Harp
Music: Voice
Storytelling
Juggling
Knife Throwing
Slight of Hand
Knowledge: Music
Knowledge: Myths And Lore
Combat: Unarmed
Combat: Knife
Persuasion
Knowledge: The Great Game (the knowledge of nobility, as well as how The Great Game, or Game of Houses is played.)

Also, may I have a minor power of perfect memory? (I have the rest of the character planned, but this is stuff that may be key.)

Ah, a minstrel! This should be good.

You can get more than 12, you can sell off a single Stat down a maximum of 3 levels but gain 3 additional skills. This means that you are horrible at something though.

However, I don't think that is necessary. You can easily compile some of his related elements into one thing. Such as Storytelling: Plain Chant, Storytelling: High Chant, and Knowledge: Stories. It would be reasonable to combine them into just "Storytelling." He would need to know stories in order to tell one, and the differences in technique are not likely to really affect the outcome of a scene.

Many of these skills can be parked into Mental, Perception, or even Cunning. So keep that in mind. Mental would represent stories and music he has learned and is reproducing. Perception would be accurately emulating another person's work (kind of like forgery or impersonating), and Cunning would represent his own creations.

You do need to divide Unarmed and knife combat though.

I look forward to seeing the rest.

@Deserted Edited a bit. I will start the full sheet tomorrow. What about the Perfect Memory?

@zardoricThere are a few ways of doing that, you could put it into Mental to represent the potent workings of his brain, or you could also put it into metaphysical (with a vulnerability) for an ability that exceeds simple eidetic memory this would be something you might find on Sherlock or Psych where they can basically re-live their experience like retro-cognition.

I would be okay with both, but we would need to work out a little bit of structure if you go the retro-cognition rout.

I was thinking the Retro-Cognition route. Drawback could be that he would be more vulnerable to traumatic events because he can't forget them, so each new one causes the memories of the others to come forward, disabling him for a time, and increasing the chances of personality changes and/or whatever this game would deal to him.

@Zardoric Okay, so this is how we handle this. Obviously you have frequency to potency ratio.

Minor: That has constant use
Nifty: That can be used a few times in a scene
Useful: That can be used one time in a scene
(You actually have 2 other levels but with Adventure Kingdom, they are restricted at this time.)

So, describe what you can actually do with this ability or determine how often the character uses it.

Vulnerability is intended to be a barrier for the GM to use. The way you have yours constructed, you have chosen to have psychological damage (Trauma) as this block. This means you have chosen to automatically receive damage to your heart points when the situation arises, and I am forced to be fair and not save you by the skin of your teeth if you actually lose it. Are you sure you want to do that? This could also be purchased as intrigue and give you kudos when you play it, but this would also require a different vulnerability.

It would technically be "Minor" because of the constant use, and can you think of any other penalty that would balance that out and still make sense?

A power is unbalance by its very nature. That is why I have made the player choose between a limited frequency or have to water down their power's usefulness. This is to assure that the power doesn't dominate the game. This is the "It doesn't work that way" that we often see in the movies.

Vulnerability is an entirely different animal. This is a roadblock from using your ability. Most books and movies wind up having a number of these, but don't really have a catch-phrase to quantify it. The most predominant restrictions are things like magical items or item focuses that can be taken away, kryptonite, concentration, a ritual, emotional mojo that gets out of whack with psychological wallops, or other things like that.

That is why the default is "Mystical and unpredictable" basically it is "I don't know why it doesn't always work."

Let's see, here are some ideas I can see that could fit.
-Physical- Cause (or cannot have) pain exhaustion or injury, requires sleep, being wet, etc...
-Psychological- Emotional state dependent, can only retrieve a memorable event, cannot worry or focus on the future, etc...
-Situational- Ritual, concentration, a special item to help initiate the power, moon must be aligned, etc...
-Material- Doesn't work in the presence of ash, silver, rare or unique items, diamond dust, etc...
-Retrieving end- can only return once, cannot see own reflection, etc...

Don't forget that the easier to disable, the easier the recovery. However, the harder to disable, the harder the recovery.

However, this doesn't mean that you have to choose Minor, you could choose one of the other two, and basically it would mean "it doesn't matter how many times I look, the information just isn't there" and thus it becomes irrelevant to have it be continuous.

Sooo, I think I got it... Lets see. I was a little confused over what to do with intrigue, so I gave it my best guess.



And thats what I got. Skill levels were a bit confusing too. You say 12 skills, but based on your skill build examples, I cannot do it for how I am reading it. But perhaps those three sections that I didn't know what to do with will help make sense of the rest.

edit: forgot the personality slider

Intrigue: This is a way for me to predict your character's behavior. I have given you many slots in order to explain this (such as personality and motivation) So basically you are telling me how you are going to act when a situation arises. Intrigue articles are simply things that don't fit in any of the provided categories. An example would be "Collects exotic pets" that really isn't a personality thing, nor is it a hope or dream. It is just something he does.

You are free to have nothing in intrigue, but that isn't going to be very beneficial to you since it automatically means that your character is not intriguing at all. (Seriously, this IS what makes a character intriguing in a book or movie)

Here are some examples of Intrigue and famous characters

Sherlock Holmes: Plays the violin to think, uses opiates, disinterested in simple and mundane crime, arrogant, innately trusts Watson, believes it is his duty to take care of those more ignorant than him, has his own personal code of justice, competitive with brother

Han Solo: Skeptic, proud, not seeking self-improvement, constantly repairs and enhances his ship, in it for the money, a good friend, impulsive, likes danger, sarcastic, possessive

Captain America: Patriotic, believes people need to be responsible for their actions, protective, believes in freedom, polite, self-sacrificing, lonely, blames himself even when it's not his fault, black and white morality, old fashioned

@Mr RageDon't forget the other half of your stats (they are in "Action.")
I think you were looking for places to put skills and didn't notice that you only have the "Interaction" category on your character sheet. That is how you have "Endurance, High Pain Tolerance" if you list that under Heart, this means he takes stress well, and doesn't cry when his girlfriend dumps him. I'm pretty sure that wasn't what you were going for.

I'm not going to do much here until Monday. Sorry I haven't posted here recently.