So I've been watching this progress for a while and I've been thinking. If we're unable to accurately measure time in seconds, why rounds? What is a round? A round is a common thing in RPG, usually specified as a short period of time (between 4-10 seconds in my experience) in which a number of actions may happen. Most games allow one standard action (to begin with) and may allow lesser actions that are either very swift or easy to perform. If we can't measure time, then we can't base a round on time. I've seen forum-RPGs substitute rounds for posts, but because a post can describe anything from a few seconds to several years this is extremely inaccurate. We can define a round based on actions, for example one round = one action, one action being an attack, movement or similar action that demands concentration from the character. However, this also means that we must further define what "an action" is, which will take time and shift focus from the joy of playing the game to checking the number of action you've performed. Why not just bind abilities to actions or events instead? It's easy to do, quick to use and check, and can work both for and against the character as the player writes the story. Instead of worrying about rounds, we tie the abilities to unquestionable things like number of uses, environmental elements (such as "in sunlight"), specific weaknesses (like silver), things we can somewhat accurately measure (distance and height for flying for example) or specific prerequisites (requires boiling water).
Suggestion from the character "Raven": Abilities: 1. Teleport Strike: Flash through the shadows and ambush an enemy, dealing damage and knocking them prone. 2. Poisoned Blades: Poisons her daggers inflicting poison damage for one attack.
1. Stun is an effect which needs to be defined by a period of time. Since we can't do time, knocking someone down will have the same effect of having them unable to perform a wide range of actions until they've gotten up again. They may however do a combat roll to lessen the effect or crawl away to avoid being targeted, ie, it opens up to roleplaying and storytelling. 2. Poison (usually a liquid) doesn't stick very well to metal and while one could measure the time it takes for a poison to disappear it it easier to do this with actions. In this example one attack is enough to spend the poison no matter what. Hit, miss, block or wound, the poison is now gone. Interesting upgrades for the ability can involve better poison that stays on the blade longer or which only need contact with the skin, in which case a static block may splatter the opponent with the poison, effectively making the attack unblockable.
I won't try to muscle in on the GM-territory, but it feels like we could move a lot faster like this.
@Holy Soldier & @Fetzen I've also followed the debate about "petrify skin" and I believe that is has gotten a bit out of hand with the defining of levels and stuff way before it is supposed to be put to use. Focus should be on the current level now. I've taken the liberty of preparing (much like a TV chef) an example of how the ability could be phrased: "Petrifying skin - Instantly turns Kerylun's skin into a tough hide, granting damage resistance against cuts, scrapes and other minor types of damage for the next five such injuries, allowing him to engage in melee combat and make full use of his physical prowess." How about that?
Character Name: Raven Alias: Violet Thorn Age: 24 Race: Half Elf (Human/Elf) Gender: Female Height: 5'4 Weight: 130 lbs Hair Color: Raven has mid-back length black hair that has violet hues to it. Eye Color: She has normal pupils, but her eyes are dark violet in color.
Written Description: One of Raven's most distinguishable features is a scar across her left cheek. She also has a tattoo of her most prized dagger on her right wrist. She has more scars across her body from various battles and contracts.
Level: 1 Class: Thief; Assassin
Abilities: 1. Teleport Strike: Flash through the shadows and ambush an enemy, dealing damage and stunning them. Cooldown: 2 turns 2. Poisoned Blades: Poisons her daggers inflicting poison damage for 2 turns.
Skills: 1. Agility: Can climb to high places if needed (trees, buildings, etc) 2. Disarm: Detect and disarm traps.
Weapon: Dual Wield; Daggers
Personality: Raven isn't the person you want a random visit from. She started as a thief, doing what she could to make some quick and easy gold, but eventually made her way to killing for her gold. She's known as "Violet Thorn". Violet for her features and thorn, well because if you're being visited by her you can expect a dagger to be involved.
Raven is smart, you need to be for her profession. She has to think on her feet and be able to plan out her contracts thoroughly. For an Assassin, she does have morals. (If that's really possible.) She tends not to take contracts with innocent people as the target unless the gold involved is too great to refuse. She's also quite charming. Raven has learned how to use her looks to her advantage. She's been called a flirt, however, to her it's just another way to manipulate people to get what she wants.
Now, all that being said, Raven is loyal to her party, friendly even. She's aware that with them, she can make much more gold and maybe have some good company while doing it.
Quirks: Tends to fidget/play with her blades frequently and is condescending. Likes: Gold, blades, night time, storms, manipulating others Dislikes: Daylight, domesticated animals, clearings (open spaces) Inventory: Empty
Yes, this is accepted. You can move her over to the character thread.
@Holy Soldier Character Name: Kerylun Alias: Lucy - that's short for Lucifer, because of his appearance. Age: 36 Race: Gargoyle Height: 9'4 ( 2,84m ) Weight: 928 lbs ( 421kg ) Hair Color: Matt white. In contrast to humans, it is not a sign for old age, but a natural phenomenon. His hairstyle is a badly organized mess: As long as it stays out of his eyesight, everything's okay for him. Helping with this is the fact that his hairs are long, easily covering his shoulders, thick and sturdy. He also has a short goatee. Eye Color: His eyes are amber with a white clarity around it that is very susceptible to reddish traces of blood vessels appearing inside of it. Visual Description:
Written Description: The picture only represents how he would look if he would not wear anything. He usually does however. It is a simple pair of trousers and a shirt that almost doesn't cover anything of his back because of the wings. Both items are made out of thick linen and look quite cheap. No boots. He doesn't use any armor and would not be amused if someone tried to squeeze him into one, especially if its made out of inflexible metal. His skin is of a very dark grey color that competes with a slight touch of red in form of an irregular pattern across his entire body. Judging by the tightness his skin wraps around his muscle one could assume that he is seriously undernourished, but that's only mildly the case. His hands and feet are formed as an array of vicious natural weaponry. The wing surface consists of a highly flexible, surprisingly thin, leathery skin. Fully deployed they stretch out for several yards on each side to be able to actually support him. And he has a quite long and sturdy tail. Level: 1 Class: Archer Abilities:
Fly - These wings aren't for pure decoration. However deciding to engange a combat flying is an ambivalent decision: On one hand you obviously don't have to worry about melee attacks, on the other hand a significant bit of precision in own attacks is lost along all chances of staying hidden. The real benefit is terrain-independent relocation. As long as a person is physically fit and not too heavy (~1/3 of his own weight), he can carry someone on his back. That someone then won't be able to do anything but look around because he would have to hold on to Kerylun. Grabbing an enemy and dump him from a proper altitude would theoretically be possible, but he could as well get his arms cut off in that attempt.
Petrification - This is an active ability that doesn't last long, but grants him increased damage resistance so he can engage in melee combat and make full use of his physical prowess.
Level 1: Kerylun's upper layer of skin becomes tough as granite. It becomes very resilient to superficial damage like cuts and scrapes. Exposure to excessive heat that would cause 1 degree burns, mild frostbite, mild electrical shock or other elemental effects to minor extent causes reduced damage.
Level 2: The effect expands inwards, now involving the entire thickness of his skin. Damage reduction is also applied to stabbing/impalement, deep cuts that an average being would need stitches for, second degree burns, severe frostbite, and nerve damage that would be caused by electrical attacks.
Level 3: The effect expands further inwards, including his muscles and tendons. Damage reduction is now granted against all kind of physical attacks except very heavy blunt weapons. His dense defense can be shattered by continual bombardment from level 3 non-elemental magic spells.
Level 4: Kerylun now basically has the consistency of a tank. Damage reduction is granted against all kinds of physical or elemental attacks/effects. Level 4 non-elemental magic spells are the only spells that can harm him.
Skills:
Inhuman physique - While with his size he is certainly prone to suffer from accidents and embarrassing situations in unprepared households, it is obvious that there could be situations in which this is very advantageous - and be it just for a bar fight.
Night vision - Imagine a creature of the night that doesn't have this...
Weapon: A large longbow. Personality: He's quite intelligent, often to the surprise of the people around him. He also has a rather smooth temper as long as you meet him with respect and not the usual bullshit. In the latter case the outcome depends on where he is: In a city with its many guards he'll probably bare his teeth, hiss and hit you with deliberate blasts of bad air. In the wilderness where noone's looking... it gets dangerous. Very dangerous. He's become adept in pretending obedience while internally ripping you into pieces and hatching plans to put such plans into actions. To sum things up: it's not far away from the truth to consider him a walking social catastrophy, but only partly for reasons he can be claimed responsible for. Quirks: He needs to eat a huge lot and is purely carnivorous, ideal conditions for very low standards when it comes to quality - his body can take it. Slain enemies are not on his list however, except if the situation's really dire. It's needless to say that people can consider him quite intimidating, resulting in a social barrier he has to get over first. Likes: Meat, wilderness, buildings of adequate ceiling height, a good fight (with him winning, of course), flying. Dislikes: Humanity as a whole is his social problem. It gets better with other races, depending on what they think about him, but humans... someone hit Alt+F4 for them! Or wait, that's not possible. They already run on Windows 3.1 bluescreens in their heads. He can work with them if he must, but he hates them. The reason is that a hunting party once crossed his way and what the nobles did was to quarrel about who would be allowed to claim the prize and enslave him. The winner did so with success for several years until he managed to escape by force. This is not commonly known, but he still is pretty much a savage that plays and has to play the poor man's role in human cities. Inventory: Empty.
Greyed-out text is used to keep track of which level(s) he has not reached yet.
First Party is now free to post in the IC, interact, and all that jazz. However, the quests discussion has to happen together as a group. They will also need to decide on a party leader. Of course, a party leader isn't permanent because if the party splits into smaller units, then there will be a new one for each unit. It'll basically be the most competent person. But thank you all for being patient.
All right; you know what? Scratch what I last said. Since we're going to be a mass guild, I don't want anyone WAITING on anyone else if they're ready to write. So if your character has been approved, then go ahead and post in the IC.
The way we'll do it is the party leader will select who he/she wants in her party to complete a mission, unless the missions says "Everyone."
Hair:short white hair covers his right eye but not so much to the point of blinding his right eye though.
Eyes:Silver eyes
Written description: tan skin, slim athletic build, movement he makes looks like he thought of it on the spot, wears civilian cloth. When he turns his cloth tear off and his eyes turn yellow as his skin becomes covered in dark grey hair.
Level:1
Class:werewolf
Abilities: Blood lust: temporarily become faster and stronger(2 turn cooldown?)
Howl: his howl makes enemies flee(2 turn cooldown?)
Skills: Sense of smell:His nose is very strong because of his wolf blood
Instincts: his gut makes most the major decisions in his life this could also be a fault but it works mostly in his favor.
Weapon: long sword
Personality:growing up Reavus was entirely human until around the time he was 16. He was out in the forest slashing trees with his sword. When he heard a grumble and looked over to see a werewolf staring at him through the bushes. He quickly turned as the werewolf attacked, and he managed to kill it since his sword is silver but he got scratched and turned at the next full moon permanently. He now tries to keep himself under control on full moons by staying in a cage on full moons. He is smart but overly playful at times.
Quirks: only eats meat and apple pie, calls everyone by animal names, sleeps in a big cage.
Likes: apple pie, chases, bears
Dislikes: fleas, that thing that's sometimes behind him when he get excited(his tail), being hungry
Inventory:Empty
For both of those abilities, they need more detail. You are saying that 1 howl would scare "everyone" and "anything" away automatically. This isn't Pokemon (although I do GM a Pokemon game). Some of these bosses will not be affected by that. So maybe...have it scare lesser creatures away? Not to include mini bosses and bosses. Also, the every two turns is fine.
Now for his increased strength and speed. I need to know how strong and how fast. You can give an example of both (such as he can uproot a tree or something [example]) or even set a mph. The two turn duration of the ability is fine also.
@Holy Soldier So is the second party meeting in the same place just at like a different table or how is that going exactly? And we don't need a full party to begin yet, then?
@AyemdarEveryone is going to meet at the main table or near the main table. Once the party leader is decided, then he or she will decide what 5 people he/she wants in his/her party to do whatever quest. Some quests don't require 3 or so people, but that'll all be decided in game. Same for who the guild leader is of our still nameless guild lol.
@Holy Soldier noice. I'm feeling like cleric-ing, since both groups seem to lack one. Dunno if white mage is a healer though, haven't read through the cs'es.
@VecAs long as you set a "turn duration" for them and write specifically what they do, then they're not a problem. Since he's level 1, I don't expect the buffs to be too strong. You should allow them to be upgradable.
2x Laugh
