I would like to propose a simple roleplay idea, hoping that the KISS method applies here. (Keep It Simple Stupid)

The premise for the plot is that your characters live in present day Earth (sort of). Everything is like real life, meaning that magic and fantasy creatures don't exist... or do they???

Characters will start off as normal people, who so happen to discover that magic is real, through whatever means you see fit. The type of magic that they discover will also be up to you. Once they get through their basic training, I will start introducing magical monsters and conflict that they will have to resolve. Simple? Yes?

Before I dive into the simple game mechanics, I need to touch on a few ground rules: Characters are not to start off as military, extremely rich, or well versed martial artists. Basically, your characters can't start with a large combat advantage. At least not right off the bat. Also, they can't be hyper-intelligent or super well connected (i.e. no celebrities or expert scientists). Basically, all characters should be starting on a comparable playing field.

Now, for the simple gameplay mechanics...

Players will only have two familiar stats to track: Health and Mana. Obviously, you loose health when you take damage, and you loose Mana when you cast spells. This isn't to say that other stats won't be introduced, but these are the two most important ones. Secondary stats include (but are not limited to): Speed, Resistance, Evasiveness, Accuracy, etc. Secondary stats like these are only granted by items and spells and are otherwise considered to be ZERO.

Moving on, there will only be one type of currency in this RP, and you will use this currency for EVERYTHING.

The currency though all this will be Soul Beads (SBs). These are magical items ranging from the size of a small necklace bead to much, MUCH larger orbs. As you would expect, you earn Soul Beads by defeating magical enemies or as a reward for your efforts. Soul Beads are then used in one of three primary ways: you can increase your Health, increase your Mana, or power up old spells & learn new ones.

There will also be items for purchase that cost SBs.

On that note, we come to the only semi-complicated part of this RP, creating/learning new SPELLS...

First of all, your character will technically be "learning" all their new spells, but you will be the one "creating" them. There are three basic parts to a typical spell: Damage/Recovery, Secondary Stat Boosting/Reducing, and special effects.

• Damage/Recovery includes harming the opponent, defending against damage, and recovering Health or Mana. Basically anything to do with altering/protecting someone's Health or Mana.
• Secondary Stat Boosting/Reducing is used to make an opponent more vulnerable or an ally less vulnerable, in one way or the other. This can be making someone faster/slower, more/less durable, or more/less resilient to a certain type of magic.
• Special Effects are just that... special. They are the "catch all" for anything else not covered by the above two sections. Players will propose their special effects and I will assign a cost to them.

Below is a summary of how you can spend Soul Beads...

• 5 Beads = Special effects will have a cost that is in multiples of 5
• 4 Beads = Increase your max Health or Mana by 1
• 3 Beads = Change 1 point of a character's Secondary Stats
• 2 Beads = Cause/Inflict/Heal 1 Health Point or Mana Point
• 1 Beads = Cause/Inflict/Heal 1 Health Point or Mana Point of Residual Damage.
• Residual Damage/Recovery means damage/recovery that is dealt on the target's NEXT turn and turns beyond. This can last for as long as you like, but residual damage can't be more than half the initial damage dealt/recovered in the turn before. Don't worry if this part sounds complicated. It is an advanced feature, that you won't need to know right away.

Once you've created/learned a spell, it will cost HALF the amount of Mana points to cast that spell as it did Soul Beads to buy that spell. So if you have a simple spell that only deals 4 damage, and it cost 8 SBs to create/learn that spell, then that spell will cost 4 Mana to cast.

Now for the last ingredient, DICE ROLLING...

Dice rolling is used mainly in one scenario: for inflicting/defending damage. In this case, the sides of the dice will equal the amount of damage being dealt/defended against. So if your spell deals a base damage of 4, there is a chance it might deal 4 extra damage. BUT that isn't to say that dice can't be rolled for other reasons, such as the special effect of a spell.

Sure, I'll give it a shot, what's the worst that could happen?

Quick question regarding "residual damage", wouldn't it be wise to roll dice to determine how long the effects last? I mean this is just me thinking but having it set where the player(s) determining themselves, one may say "[insert effect: eg burning on an enemy] lasts longer than need be, or, Oak Flesh[armor+] lasts 20 turns in a battle against a relativly weak enemy.

Not saying I'd do something like that, but I have seen RPs where such has happened.

Aside from that, your idea sounds interesting

Quick question regarding "residual damage", wouldn't it be wise to roll dice to determine how long the effects last? I mean this is just me thinking but having it set where the player(s) determining themselves, one may say "[insert effect: eg burning on an enemy] lasts longer than need be, or, Oak Flesh[armor+] lasts 20 turns in a battle against a relativly weak enemy.

Not saying I'd do something like that, but I have seen RPs where such has happened.

Aside from that, your idea sounds interesting

That is a well thought out point, but did you take into consideration that residual damage weakens with every turn? Say you cast a damage 16 spell. Your residual damage can only be 8 on the the next turn, the. 4 on the following turn, then 2, and finally 1. And yes, this would mean your spell could last longer than need be for weaker enemies. But then, you would want to use a weaker (more Mama efficient) spell against them to begin with right?

Personally, I prefer static residual instead of rolling for residual damage, because I'm trying to cut back on dice rolls in general.

However, we could go as far as to do both though, static or random, depending on the spell. I mean, one more dice roll when casting wouldn't hurt... When making the spell, you would pay more for how long the residual damage could last.

In either case, we're talking about the most advanced game mechanic in the game. LOL. I like your enthusiasm, but we can cross that bridge when we get to it. Awesome stuff though. Keep them coming.

As you see, there are the five base forms of magic: Lightning, Water, Fire, Wind, Earth. These are self explanatory.

Then there are five higher forms of magic, which are only accessible after learning two required forms of base magic. For example, you need to have a connection to fire and lightning, as they represent the righteous flames of the sun above and the lightning from the heavens. While Demonic magic is tapped into through connecting with hellfire deep within the earth. Nature is plants and animals, that live on the earth and in the water. Soul magic is the connection to souls, given by water (the substance of life) and wind (the breathe of life). Fairy Magic, is mysterious magic accessed through the literal Spark of curiosity and wistful nature of the wind.

Then, as pictured in the center, there is Chaos Magic, which is the combination of Magics that don't normally go together. It is the umbrella for Magic that can't be explained by any of the other ten forms of Magic.

So would healing magic fall under Fairy or Soul? I'm guessing Soul.

<Snipped quote by Killjoy Chaos>

That is a well thought out point, but did you take into consideration that residual damage weakens with every turn? Say you cast a damage 16 spell. Your residual damage can only be 8 on the the next turn, the. 4 on the following turn, then 2, and finally 1. And yes, this would mean your spell could last longer than need be for weaker enemies. But then, you would want to use a weaker (more Mama efficient) spell against them to begin with right?

Personally, I prefer static residual instead of rolling for residual damage, because I'm trying to cut back on dice rolls in general.

However, we could go as far as to do both though, static or random, depending on the spell. I mean, one more dice roll when casting wouldn't hurt... When making the spell, you would pay more for how long the residual damage could last.

In either case, we're talking about the most advanced game mechanic in the game. LOL. I like your enthusiasm, but we can cross that bridge when we get to it. Awesome stuff though. Keep them coming.

It's more that I was unfamiliar with it.

So would healing magic fall under Fairy or Soul? I'm guessing Soul.

Actually, healing magic can be done by any upper level style of magic: Angelic, Demonic, Fairy, Nature, and Soul. It can also be done by Water users. Nature and Soul magic are better at healing than the other three upper levels of magic, since they incorporate Water magic.

Again, this is background info that I wasn't planning on sharing right away. But since you asked...

You had me at Chaos Magic.

Okay, I'm going to go ahead an make a thread for this RP. Seems to be enough interest.