Hidden 11 yrs ago Post by Primal Conundrum
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A sword and sorcery style RP, but not the standard Tolkien-style world.

Magic, though once a powerful and completely controllable energy, has declined over a period of centuries to a point where it is dangerous and unreliable. This has caused most of the old civilizations of the world to slowly crumble and finally collapse, as the use of magic had been integral to everything from national defence to communication and even bureaucracy.

As the world stands now, most people are learning to get along without magic- there are some small towns that don't actually believe in it. Wizards and spellcasters are often looked at as mad, dangerous individuals- though capable of wielding great power, almost every mage with any amount of experience bears permanent magical scarring at best, or more commonly disfiguration or even some level of disability, ranging from petrified eyes to having had limbs blown off. Due to the danger involved, few choose to pursue the arcane arts- this in turn leads to an astoundingly small number of people capable of creating magic items.

This is not a setting where you scrape together two thousand gold and buy a +1 longsword. A magic weapon is likely to be very, very old, and the enchantments may have decayed or mutated over time, making them unpredictable.

As enchanted arms and armour have become less common, the monstrous races of the world have begun to come into their own. Without having to deal with bane weapons or armour that can protect their foes from their inhuman strength, races such as ogres and minotaurs and gnolls have begun to cut out lands of their own. Some of the common races (Humans, Elves, Dwarves, etc.) have tried to fight them back in the way that their ancestors would have, but others have changed with the time and begun to accept these races they once would have called monsters. It is not uncommon to see an Ogre drinking next to a human in an Inn, with a kobold barkeeper and an Elven serving girl. Halfbreeds have also become far more common, including mixes that would have been regarded as abominations once upon a time.

Currently, the world is still in something of a dark age. There is no kingdom or empire, only scattered towns and the occasional fortress city. Bands of raiders plague the roads, and petty bandit chieftains take slaves where they can and cut out bloody little domains of their own before being violently overthrown. Within the ruins of the ancient empires of the world, there is still treasure to be found- enchanted objects and gold, but the danger of these places has so far kept would-be adventurers out, or kept their broken bodies within after they fail.

Anyone interested? Still need to come up with an actual plot, but I wanna do a more gritty fantasy world. Think less Anime, more "Iron Heroes D&D"
Hidden 11 yrs ago Post by Herald
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Possibly interested. Will know for sure once the plot is established but its a great idea.
Hidden 11 yrs ago Post by Primal Conundrum
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I'm open to ideas. Could be as simple as a mismatched assortment of characters ending up in an adventuring group, or something like that. Heh, or possibly shopkeepers in a really savage world.
Hidden 11 yrs ago Post by detts
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I'm interested, as well :)
If you're still accepting, I'm in. I love fantasy. But, it would be a good thing if there would be a general idea of the plot. Adventure? Romance? Is there a villain? Or is it just plain living?
Also, is there a certain character skeleton you want (if were even thinking about characters yet)?
Hidden 11 yrs ago Post by Primal Conundrum
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There's no villain really planned because I'm not sure if there is anyone who could truly be called a "good guy" in this setting. I'm thinking it would likely lean towards adventure- romance is in theory possible, but I wouldn't go into the RP expecting a rom-com.

Character skeleton would probably just be asking the fairly basic stuff: character name, gender, species, history, appearance, that sort of thing. Not going to bother asking about orientation since I feel that having people list that would only push the RP towards being a romantic one, and romance is an element I think should be a sidenote at most for this. If orientation is important, it'll come up during the RP. As for starting gear, no magic items at all, and aim for lower quality gear. Stuff can and will be upgraded and replaced, and I would rather it be the characters who are powerful, not their weapons and armour. After all, if all your power is in your weapon, then you'd have a lot harder time with a scene where it gets shattered and you have to find a replacement weapon. If you're just plain really good at fighting with staffs, then you just grab a broom, break the head off and go to town on your enemy.

I've got a character in mind that I would play, really leaning towards the heavy melee bruiser style.
Hidden 11 yrs ago Post by Rinion
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just lurking atm, just a quick suggestion tho, wat about the whole magic thing being the "main quest" eg earthquakes errupt over the land as word of a mighty necromancer has reached the ears of the adventurers and if he is not stopped the entire world may perish if not from his magic then from the effect its having on the enviroment? only a suggestion
Hidden 11 yrs ago Post by BKburke
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I'm in.
Hidden 11 yrs ago Post by Strangelander
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This sounds pretty awesome, and then I read up on Iron Heroes which also sounds awesome. Count me in!
Hidden 11 yrs ago Post by detts
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Primal Conundrum said
There's no villain really planned because I'm not sure if there is anyone who could truly be called a "good guy" in this setting. I'm thinking it would likely lean towards adventure- romance is in theory possible, but I wouldn't go into the RP expecting a rom-com.Character skeleton would probably just be asking the fairly basic stuff: character name, gender, species, history, appearance, that sort of thing. Not going to bother asking about orientation since I feel that having people list that would only push the RP towards being a romantic one, and romance is an element I think should be a sidenote at most for this. If orientation is important, it'll come up during the RP. As for starting gear, no magic items at all, and aim for lower quality gear. Stuff can and will be upgraded and replaced, and I would rather it be the characters who are powerful, not their weapons and armour. After all, if all your power is in your weapon, then you'd have a lot harder time with a scene where it gets shattered and you have to find a replacement weapon. If you're just plain really good at fighting with staffs, then you just grab a broom, break the head off and go to town on your enemy.I've got a character in mind that I would play, really leaning towards the heavy melee bruiser style.


I see what you're saying. Just about a giant RPG type thing. I'm in.
Hidden 11 yrs ago Post by Primal Conundrum
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Alright, gonna get an OOC set up for this. Quick question, as for starting locations I have two ideas and I want your feedback.

First idea is simple, small trader town at a crossroads. Lot of through traffic, fairly decent path to get to anywhere. Not a lot of starting hooks, but a ton of freedom to go in pretty much whatever direction we choose.

Second idea is a moderately sized city built among the ruins of a much, much larger city from long before the fall of magic. Could be that the full history of the city ruins aren't known, and it's very much clear that a lot of / most of the city is still not well understood or explored. Everything from houses built into the cover provided by a statue that fell sideways, to finding whole new wings of the cities that time and ruin had blocked off and left forgotten. This would really set things up to more likely remain as a kind of ruin explorers / urban adventurers blend, meaning that there would be less potential for cross-country kinds of stuff, major scenery changes and that sort of thing.

Personally I'm leaning towards the ruined city setup, but I'd like your input.
Hidden 11 yrs ago Post by detts
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Yes. Personally I'm kind of leaning more towards the city one, too. I think that it'd just work better, too.

The first idea, the one with the small kind of town, it could work... But, (I'm not meaning to be rude/offensive in any way) I feel that the way that setting seems, the role play may not be as eventful as the city one.

Oh and I have two quick questions about characters. 1) Can we have more than one character, or would that not work? 2) (I suppose this is more of a question about the site then the role play) Character skellys: Will they be posted here or somewhere else? Like on a different thread or something?
.
Hidden 11 yrs ago Post by FateWeaver
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This sounds interesting, but I don't have a lot of time to read at the moment. If you're still accepting, I'll read over everything in a bit. If not, oh well, tough luck for me :3

EDIT:: Now that I have actually read it, I have a question about magic itself (obviously I plan to play a caster of some type). Is religion a big thing in this world, and is 'divine' magic in any way separated from 'arcane'? If not, then I must ask if there is any form of healing/nature magic? (I main druids and clerics in d&d, so I figured I'd ask)
Hidden 11 yrs ago Post by LeeRoy
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For some reason this interests me, something about the unique concept, I'm going to bookmark this and check up on it.
Hidden 11 yrs ago Post by Strangelander
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I'd say go with the ruined city, I think it gives us some more direction to start out with, without restricting us too much.

So I've got two character ideas, one is a somewhat uppity alchemist with a thing for gunpowder (not in guns, but for making things blow up), the other is a charismatic and sorta mysterious duelist. I might use both if you're fine with two characters.
Hidden 11 yrs ago Post by Primal Conundrum
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I'm thinking arcane magic is the only kind of applicable magic in this- The gods, if they even actually exist, are distant and unknowable. Due to the dangerous and volatile nature of magic in this setting, even someone who specialized in trying to heal people with magic would still be more likely to injure them than cure them.

Strangelander, I like your ideas but I'm not sure how well they fit this setting, it's a bit more low-tech than that. Think literal dark ages Europe, somewhere in 600-800 ad as far as tech level goes. There would be some idea of alchemy, in this setting mostly influenced from the strange and often spoiled mixtures found in ancient ruins, but it would be poorly understood and there would certainly be no black powder yet. A charismatic and mysterious duellist could work, but I doubt there's a swordsmith alive who could forge a rapier or even knows what a rapier is- remember that such things evolved as a sort of gentleman's weapon / court sword, and there's not really any gentlemen or courts in this setting. When you say Duellist, I assume you mean fencer. The most delicate sword you're probably going to be able to have anyone make in this setting is a short sword, and if there are any rapiers they are lost among ruins. Also keep in mind that basically nobody would know how to properly use one if they did find one- there's no current history of fighting with them, so anyone that did find and choose to use one would have to be figuring out how to use this oddly lightweight sword that doesn't seem to have the mass to do much. Don't get me wrong, I love the fencing style and honestly hope to learn it IRL someday, but that style of swordplay isn't particularly well suited to this.

Detts, I'd like to start out with just one character each- if people drop or we end up otherwise being low on players I may change that, but for now I figure it's easier to start small and make more characters than start huge and have too much going on to follow. I'll be posting character skeletons in the OOC thread when I put it up.
Hidden 11 yrs ago Post by LeeRoy
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Hmm.

Distant gods, dangerous arcane magics, I know exactly the sort of character I'm going to use.
Hidden 11 yrs ago Post by Primal Conundrum
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I'll be sitting down to make the OOC once I get home from work- that will be about eleven hours from now. Until then, sit tight and think up some savage characters! Remember, monstrous races are going to be 100% A-OK, I'm actually going to be playing a centaur.
Hidden 11 yrs ago Post by detts
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Alright :)
Thanks
Hidden 11 yrs ago Post by Strangelander
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It's totally fine, I was a bit worried about the alchemist, but I think I could easily retool the duelist. I was originally thinking a fencer, but I could easily see him as just a one-on-one fighter with a bit of flourish and a long sword. And a big hat, because he can't be fancy without a big hat.

Then again, unless we already have someone filling in a "healer" role, I could be a barber-surgeon... Because barber-surgeon. Actually I think I might do that, the more I say barber-surgeon the more I love the idea of it. No idea how effective a barber-surgeon would be, or if that's even the right time-period, but I'll do some more research and get back to you.
Hidden 11 yrs ago Post by Primal Conundrum
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barber-surgeon could work well! Just keep in mind that medicine is still pretty rough- chop off a gangrenous limb, put leeches on something, that kinda stuff. Healing magic is only going to be looked for by the truly desperate, since it's basically a coin toss that it might screw up and kill them.
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