Torchlight (heavily inspired by Darkest Dungeon)

the ancient carriage road slowly into the hamlet of Ash, the rotted wooden bones of the cart threatening to split at any moment from the storm raging overhead. The residents of the village peered out from the crumbling and forsaken buildings, each with their own idea of who the newcomers were. "Adventurers" was the whisper in the Skull Rot tavern, occupants in various states of stupor. "Nothing but trouble" was heard from the ancient oak doors at the church, Priest Zachariah clutching his cross tightly In his hand while divine energy emanated faintly from him. "New specimens" accompanied the glowing eyes peering out of the dilapidated laboratory while the head alchemist Twitch stared at the carriage from under his thick, broken glasses. "Customers" muttered Graves, owner of the Bulging Boar which was the only general store in town.

Several other buildings lay in disrepair around the village square, the faint insignia of the adventurers guild on the side of a building that had long since caved in. Slowly the carriage creaked to a stop and 4 people stepped out, each with a faded piece of parchment in their hands. A ripple of amazement washed over the spectators, and whispers of "the call to arms?" And "King Osidius..." were heard throughout the village as several of the adults glanced nervously at the collapsed castle in the distance, eyes filled with fear. After a couple of seconds of silence, one of the newcomers unfurled his paper and began to read.

CALL TO ARMS

Seeking DANGEROUS, DARING AND DASTARDLY adventurers to join great KING OSIDIUS in his NOBLE quest to slay the DEMON KING ASAROTH! Follow the OLDE ROAD through the GNARLED FOREST and speak to the kings squire, ARTHUR CHASTIBUL at THE IMPENETRABLE FORTRESS OF OBSIDIAN to begin your quest! FORTUNE AND FAME AWAIT!

it was clear then, as the storm raged on that the people who had arrived at Ash should never have stepped off the cart.

OOC

Welcome to Torchlight, a roleplay inspired by the game Darkest Dungeons. In this roleplay you are a part of a ragtag group of "heroes" seeking glory fame and fortune. However as you'll soon come to learn, those do not come without their fair share of insanity, depression and of course death. The final objective is to get to Fortress Obsidian and kill Mad King Odisius, who has fused souls with the demon lord Asaroth. Your main part of the game will be spent in the various dungeons and catacombs of the land, fighting monsters and collecting treasure. That treasure can then be spent to improve the village and upgrade the buildings. Unfortunately monsters aren't the only thing you have to worry about. In the dungeons your heroes will accumulate stress, which will affect everything from casting spells to Melee accuracy. Your character can go insane, into a deep depression, or turn hostile and start attacking other heroes. You can eliminate stress by going to the bar or church in between quests, and spending money to relax. You must bring torches into the dungeon, as the lower the light gets, the easier enemies to sneak attack you and the more stress you'll accumulate. You must always be prepared for anything. If this gets interest I'll flesh out the specifics later. For now, here's a basic character sheet and class list.

Classes:

Plague doctor
Templar
Highwayman
Assassin
Priest (powers based on god)
Beast tamer
Gunslinger
Engineer
Half-monster (powers based on monster)
Archer

Character sheet:

Name:

Appearance: (picture preferred)

Class:

Devotion: (if this gets interest I'll flesh out some gods to choose from)

Familiar: (beast tamer only)

Backstory:

I'd give this a shot.

How fleshed out are you creating the investment system? It seems like that kind of progress will keep people coming back. But definitely interested depending on your answer

@The Fated Fallen what do you mean by investment system?

Wait a minute... is this the one from that bizarre anti-roleplaying Chick Tract? The one where D&D turns a girl into a witch and a character death causes another girl to commit suicide? That tract was unintentionally hilarious, with "Elfstar" being invited to join a coven, and everyone burning their D&D supplies at the end.

@The Fated Fallen what do you mean by investment system?

Village improvements and the like, but also how stress and stress management is tracked

@AristoclesThat's the anti-D&D movie I think! Dark Dungeons.

This is based on the video game, Darkest Dungeons. Very similar names xD

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What The Fated Fallen said, I'm wondering how the mechanics work in the roleplay :D Cool idea, love the game.

I've just recently started getting back into Darkest Dungeon, so consider me interested in the idea. Though, as both The Fated Fallen and Mae have both mentioned, I am rather curious as to how the mechanics of village investment, stress management, and other core game mechanics would be handled in a roleplay sense.

Just fielding some of the main questions here:

Stress management: taking a page out of Darkest Dungeons book, the main ways of getting rid of stress is the bar and the church, which will be available in between missions. You can spend money in these places, which each have their own benefits from use. Using the church, characters who have sworn themselves to a god can along with removing stress, receive a nice buff unique to the god they choose to follow. The bar however, is a good way to receive side quests and more importantly, town quests by talking to the weary folk of Ash. These town quests will give the option to repair certain buildings that were previously destroyed in order to access their various uses (ex: adventurers guild building gives the option to have multiple characters). Unlike Darkest Dungeons however, combat and stress will not be numbers based off and instead will be focusing heavily on the role play aspect. I will be playing the monsters you face, and will scale my difficulty according to the type of enemy you're facing. This will be completely fair I assure you, and I'm not going to be targeting anyone specifically. Stress is gained by spending long periods in Dungeons, accumulating damage, and a variety of other insanity inducing things you may find in the infernal crypts of this RP. This is not based on a number, but instead I leave it to you when your character finally snaps, although I am not afraid to do it myself if you're making your character into "the man who has no fear". Your characters will be messed up going into the dungeons, but exploring them will make their nightmares seem like daydreams.

Combat: as stated earlier, combat is going to be mainly RP focused, with no stat bars or anything of the like. You can do anything you like in combat, cowering behind your allies if you're injured, exploiting your enemies weaknesses and just generally fighting for your Life in every battle. Since I'll be GM'ing then battles, I will be very rewarding to those who are creative in combat (ex: striking at a skeletons joints in order to collapse an arm or leg). I'm honestly expecting everyone to treat combat fairly, so no magically excusing yourself from damage or stress. Stress in combat is really based on the injury you incur. A shallow slash on the stomach won't worry you much, but a blow to the shoulder that is gushing blood will do significantly more to worry your character. Monsters do have powers specifically designed to stress you out, so watch out for those.

Town development: the gold you collect in adventures is split evenly between characters, and you may spend it on whatever you wish. You can pool your resources to uproars even buildings or spend it on items for yourself. Starting out, all buildings will only require a certain amount of gold to upgrade, but eventually you will have to go out and buy/collect items in order to proceed. Upgrades will increase the effectiveness of the building, along with building specific perks. The More you upgrade the church for example, the more powerful your deity buffs will be. The more you upgrade the bar, the drinks will get cheaper and quests will be progressively unlocked. The final upgrades to buildings will have major benefits, but those I'm keeping a secret for now.

My GM style: as GM I will be playing your enemies in the dungeons, and the NPCs in the town. This will not be an easy RP in the slightest. If your character is stunned by a blow, the next available monster will swoop in for your demise. The more injured you are, the more monsters will focus you. Though your characters are quite strong, 4 or 5 blows in the right areas will have you at deaths door in no time. I'm not the type to be unfair however, and I award creativity. Finding key weaknesses in an enemy is the perfect way to master combat, but it will likely take much trial and error to find them. EVERY Enemy has a weakness, some minor and some major. I'm extremely open to ideas, and if you think something I did was unfair then I'd love to discuss it in the OOC with you. I will generally be reacting to the stuff you guys do, though be prepared for an ambush or un prompted NPC chat from time to time. Overall, I'm just looking forward to having loads of fun with you guys, as you ward off insanity and darkness while I throw your worst nightmares at you :).

Your character: in this RP, you can't coddle your character. Your character is not going to be some special snowflake who overcomes all the evil and comes out unscathed. They aren't going to be perfectly sane after every dungeon and they aren't going to come out without a few scars. In fact, I would consider your starting character surviving until the end to be nothing short of a miracle. Don't get too attached ;)

If you have any questions or concern let me know!

I am now even more interested.

By the way, that beast tamer. Is that some sort of pet class?

@Skwint yes, beast tamer is a pet class. They really have no static "job" in the party, it really depends on what pet you choose. You'll be able to pick up the basics of other classes, but really instead of training yourself you'll be training your pet. For instance if you're playing a ranged character you could have your raven pet scout ahead to prevent ambushes or improve accuracy, or if you want to be on the front lines why not have a plague infested wolf at your side, tearing and ripping through the flesh of your enemies? As long as it's not too OP you could have any animal you want, mythical or real. I'll also be making a unique buff that comes with the pet you choose, but be warned your pet CAN die and unless you have the General Store or the church upgraded you're going to be pretty useless for awhile. The beast tamer is nothing without his beast after all.

i am certainly interested in this

I'm slightly worried that because combat is RP based putting all these different rules on it might end up poorly and are definitely open to abuse (from either side)

But with a little trust I'm sure we can get by, so I'm interested still

@The Fated Fallen yes I do agree that combat RP will be extremely based off of trust, but I assure you that I will be extremely vigilant in watching for god mode characters and the like. If players are repeatedly saving their characters from death and insanity by taking advantage of our trust based system, I am not afraid to handicap those players so that all of their combat is based off of dice rolls. This is an extremely mature roleplay, and all those involved are expected to act like it. This means as stated before, not safeguarding your character from death and other ailments. If you feel like something someone did was OP or unfair, don't hesitate to bring it up in OOC so we can have a good natured debate on the matter.

Be sure to ask if you have any questions or concerns!

The official topic is up! I will now begin reviewing and accepting character sheets, up to 4 people at max first come first serve.

Find it here: roleplayerguild.com/topics/164987-tor…