[OOC] City of Jade

[Grueslayer]

The peak of Wua-Sho mountain is flat, impossibly so, carved and polished millennia ago by inhuman hands into a city unequaled by any in the world; the City of Jade, the City of the Gods. From here the Gods once dwelt and ruled over all of Waidi, your homeland, before turning their backs on mankind. The City is silent now; monolithic jade towers loom untouched by the wears of weather or time, and little more prowls its streets than savage animals, foolish treasure hunters, and the perpetual mist that has blanketed it since the God's disappearance all those years ago. There is nothing for anyone there anymore.

So why has your master made pilgrimage to such a haunted place?

It's been close to two years now without word from him, and in that time more warriors of his caliber have vanished as well. He told you to be patient, to await his return, but enough is enough. You're going in, and you aren't leaving without either him or his bones.



Welcome to City of Jade, a roleplay of high adventure and exploration in a mysterious eastern land! This will be a martial arts themed game where you and your companions must scour an ancient, dangerous city to determine your master's fate, all while developing the techniques he left you with before vanishing.

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Welcome to the real thread, guys! Feel free to make your character sheets now, the first IC post'll go up once I approve some of your characters. I'm not very strict, just keep things within reason. I'm reluctant to include non-human characters, but perhaps I can be persuaded if you PM me the details and keep it consistent with the eastern fantasy setting. Just don't get your hopes up in that department!

Character Sheet

Portrait: A drawing or photo of your character -- this is optional, you may just describe their looks if you prefer

Name: Self Explanatory

Profession: Anything you like, but preferably something with a martial background like Monk, Ninja or Samurai

History: Your family, clan, whatever you'd like as long as it fits the eastern fantasy setting

Master: The name and reputation of your master, along with a basic personality. If you would like to be looking for the same person as another player you may do so with their permission.

Chi: Basically your level -- this will start at 2

Luck: Basically your health -- this will be assigned once we start the game, so just leave it at 0 for now

Techniques

Techniques work passively; there is a chance in every attack for them to take effect, but by temporarily sacrificing one point of Luck you may increase your odds of the technique taking effect. Pick any technique you'd like to start out with, and if you'd like to come up with your own just PM me the details and I'll include it as long as it's within reason.

Quivering Palm: The ability to stun a foe for several seconds by striking certain nerves.

Paralyzing Strike: Allows the user to render a part of the opponent's body limp for several seconds, but is a more reliable attack than the Quivering Palm.

Fatal Strike: The ability to kill with a single well placed hit; less reliable than the Quivering Palm.

Blade Catch: The ability to catch a weapon and break it with one swift motion.

Detection: The ability to determine an opponents weak point by watching them fight, giving you an immense advantage.

Displacement: The ability to move with such speed that you will appear as to attack from multiple sides at once.

Iron Flesh: The ability to completely absorb all damage from a single blow.

They may also be used outside of combat in more freeform ways. Two examples would be using Detection to track someone, or Blade Catch to grab a falling object. You needn't spend any Luck doing this, and may use them at your own discretion. Just don't go crazy.

In the mean time here's a brief explanation of the mechanics we'll be using;

Mechanics

Basic attacks are done very simply; both combatants will roll 1d6 + their Chi and whoever has the highest number will score a hit. Damage is applied as 1d6 with an additional 1 point of damage being applied for every three points of Chi the attacker possesses. A character with 9 Chi, for instance, will deal an additional 3 points of damage when scoring a successful hit.

Luck is health. You fall unconscious at 0 and will die if you are attacked after that. Luck is restored upon resting in a safe area.

Techniques are applied where appropriate (IE Quivering Palm after a successful attack, or Iron Flesh after a failed defense), but at random based off of an additional roll I've made. The odds of your Technique taking effect can be increased if you sacrifice 1 point of Luck at the beginning of combat -- this Luck will be restored with rest like any other. The exception is Detection, which provides a bonus to its users Chi for every round of combat they participate in or observe against a single enemy.

Weapons can be used if you want to be a Samurai or Ninja or whatever, but will not affect combat beyond flavor.

The winner of combat gets to describe how it's resolved, and need not involve any death at all if they wish.

Make sense? I can't wait to see your cool characters!

Guide to the City

The 6,000 Stairs -- The only known entrance to the City, and exactly what it sounds like. At its base is an open area of stones and lit paper lanterns.

The Small Building -- A squat square structure just a short ways north of the 6,000 stairs. An old man is currently sitting outside of it, his name and motives unknown.

The Temple -- What appears to be a temple of several faiths, a few hours north of the 6,000 stairs that is in the City for some reason. It's unclear what or who is beyond it. Akio and Ose Haru, and Lei Keung are here.

The Warrens -- Crude man-made structures along the West end of the City which long ago succumbed to ages of rot. A strange, savage creature attacked Meng Wu in its streets. Meng Wu and Yasuri are here.

The Explored Map

[Vec]

Omg, tell me that this takes inspiration from xianxia?! I'm IN either way! You can ask me literally ANYTHING about wuxia/xianxia/xianhuan/eastern themed fantasy stuff. I'm a huge nerd when it comes to the Sinosphere :)

Also, it would be nice if you put the backstory and stuff in the opening post so that people would know what this is about.
However, this will be my first tabletop, so bear with me if i make mistakes.

[Vec]

@jumpadraw@sassy1085@POOHEAD189@Eklispe@Fancy Party

Get in here peeps

[Grueslayer]

Omg, tell me that this takes inspiration from xianxia?! I'm IN either way! You can ask me literally ANYTHING about wuxia/xianxia/xianhuan/eastern themed fantasy stuff. I'm a huge nerd when it comes to the Sinosphere :)

Also, it would be nice if you put the backstory and stuff in the opening post so that people would know what this is about.
However, this will be my first tabletop, so bear with me if i make mistakes.

@Vec

Yeah it's just sort of inspired by Wuxia films and comics in general; Crouching Tiger, Five Venoms, Way of Wushu, all that stuff. I'm glad you're well familiar with the tropes of the genre!

I'd like to make an opening post once some character sheets go up, just so that I can adjust it a little to the tone of what you guys want. But all that matters in the background is that the Empire is called Waidi and beyond that I kind of want the culture of the place to be a shared combination of what you guys come up with in your backstories, you know? But if you want a little more background on the City itself I can definitely add something once I get off work (I'm on my phone right now so please forgive any typos).

And don't be intimidated by the fact that it's tabletop; you just have to learn to roll with the punches (heh) and beyond that it's smooth sailing.

[Vec]

@Grueslayer No no no, I'm not talking about the opening IC post. I'm talking about the OOC opening post! A good OOC OP is the start of good RP advertising! I suggest copy-pasting what you wrote in the int. check into your first post here, so that new people know what this is about.

Apart from that, I've been looking for something eastern themed for a long time, but no one seemed to come up with anything closely resembling that, and I've been afraid to start something up myself in fear of not being able to bear the responsibility :( The premise of your story is pretty good. It also gives leeway to us players to expand upon our chars' backgrounds.

[Fancy Party]

@jumpadraw@sassy1085@POOHEAD189@Eklispe@Fancy Party

Get in here peeps

@Vec

Thanks, I'm here. I'll work on my character sheet once I've had a bit more sleep. Looks good though.

[Eklispe]

I am the one that is in here.

[Eklispe]

I did a thing. The image is kind of, not eastern fantasy-y so I can change it if you want. Also just kinda did a little world building and ran with it, feel free to tell me if any part of it is unreasonable.

Yasuri

_{Only not the giant fist weapons k?}

Name: Yasuri

Profession: Monk

History: Yasuri was born in a fairly large city to somewhat well of parents. They lived comfortably but not in wealth. They were lucky. The city was not... The most well-run. To put it more bluntly was it was essentially run by a dictator. It was inevitable at some point that a rebellion of some kind would start. With access to only crude weapons they held underground training sessions. Yasuri was perhaps not the most logical candidate given he didn't go through the same suffering many in the city did. However he saw the corruption at a level higher than most and could also see the suffering it caused. Combined with his natural sense of empathy Yasuri found himself joining the cause. Unsurprisingly they were found out and ambushed at one such session. Yasuri was knocked out during the fighting. When he came to he found himself under the care of Master Kenta. He was informed his family, along with the families of all the other rebels had been killed. Upon attempting to exit the room and get revenge he found himself stopped by Master Kenta. Despite 24 hours of attempting to escape the room Yasuri found himself utterly outmatched. Exhausted Yasuri asked Kenta to tutor him. A smile appeared on the man's face and thus began Yasuri's journey with Kenta, abandoning his last name. After a few years Kenta told Yasuri he was leaving on a pilgrimage to the City Of Jade. Yasuri had learned long ago that questioning Kenta never did much good and simply followed. And waited. And waited. Now he is done waiting. Even the extraordinary patience taught to him by Master Kenta wearing thin over two years.

Master Kenta: Master Kenta is a wiry man of an indeterminate age. It's quite confusing as his frame matches that of some of an average male around 30-50 but his face is that of someone around 20. Attempts to get him to reveal or even hint at his age had been met with no success, though the amount of people that know him and their age seems to indicate he's been around for quite a bit longer than the visual would indicaite. Kenta always speak in the same cheerful tone of voice. He's very friendly, always ready with a story or a joke to liven things up. He also likes to hand out life lessons and generally helpful tips to just about anybody he runs across. All in all he seems to be a middle-aged friendly uncle Iroh sort of guy. Kenta does however seem to have more strength in 1 finger than most people have in their whole body and his skin seems to be made of some sort of adamantium like replacement.

Chi: 2

Luck: 5

Techniques
Iron Flesh: The ability to completely absorb all damage from a single blow.

[Grueslayer]

I did a thing. The image is kind of, not eastern fantasy-y so I can change it if you want. Also just kinda did a little world building and ran with it, feel free to tell me if any part of it is unreasonable.

@Eklispe

That's all perfect -- I love the world-building you did, it suits everything quite well. Your character portrait is alright too; you can change it if you want but it really doesn't look that out of place.

And your Luck comes out as 5, not a bad roll at all to start with!

[Eklispe]

Yay woo, want me to put it in the cs tab now?

[Grueslayer]

Yep go ahead.

[sassy1085]

Hatsumi Natsuko

Portrait:

Name: Hatsumi Natsuko

Profession: Samurai

History: Hatsumi was born and raise in Natsuko clan, a clan full of fearless samurai warrior and it was guarded by Hatsumi father and leader of the clan Akihito Natsuko. She and her older sister Miyu Natsuko live under her father guarded and she always look up to her father and all samurai in her clan but one night something unfortunate happen. While helping her mother and her sister around the house, a massager came at the door to tell her mother the grief news...Akihito Natsuko was killed while protecting the clan. Hatsumi feel nothing but grief about her father death but he once told her to look forward and never change who you her, which she did and when she turn 19 she found a note that left behind by her father.

Dear Natsuyo

if you are reading it means I'm dead or gone missing, I want you to tell the girls to go to city of jade, there is no reason why they should go there but it very important that they need to go there. there is my family sword buried in the backyard one of them need it to go there, and tell the girls I love them.

Love Akihito

Hatsumi go to the backyard and found her father family sword. She told her older sister to come with her but Miyu want to stay in the clan to protect it, that night Hatsumi run away from home taking her father sword and on her journey to city of jade

Master: Miyu Natsuko A cold samurai with a cold look she freeze her enemy but with a warm heart and a smile when it comes to her clan and her family, when their father die durning battle she needs to take care of her little sister and her mother, so for a few years she help Hatsumi to train to be a Samurai while their mother wasn't looked. by the time Hatsumi run away to city of jade, Miyu knew that she is proud of her sister and hoping she would be a fine Samurai someday.

Chi: 2

Luck: 0

Techniques: Displacement: The ability to move with such speed that you will appear as to attack from multiple sides at once.

[rocketrobie2]

@Eklispe Hey, do you mind if I use the same dictator and rebellion in my character's backstory?

[Eklispe]

Go for it fam.

[POOHEAD189]

Ayy, nice! Thanks for the tag.

[Fancy Party]

Let me know if this works, or if I should add more to it.

Lei Keung

Portrait:

Name: Lei Keung Wu-Wei

Profession: Monk.

History: From the Wu-Wei clan, he spent many of his earlier years outside of the clan, as a wanderer. He would travel to places as he learned of their existence, either whispered in secret or spoken of commonly. He has learned many things in the ways of martial arts on his travels, but none so much as he has learned from his master.

Master: Fan Gang, a well-built muscular man well over the age of 120, living in the mountains much of his life, he doesn't look or act his age, but you can tell from his frail appearance, the greyness of his beard and the baldness of his head that he is old enough to be your great grandfather. He is well known for getting into mass drunken brawls with thugs and misfits a quarter his age and winning, no matter how many outnumber him. Its best to keep alcohol and opiates away from him, it is said. Much stronger, faster, and more cunning than he looks, he has a good sense of humor about him still.

Chi: 2

Luck: 8

Technique: Detection

[rocketrobie2]

Here's my WIP

Hider

Portrait: A drawing or photo of your character -- this is optional, you may just describe their looks if you prefer

Name: Ose Haru

Profession: Ronin / Mercenary

History: Haru was born and raised to be a farmer just like his father and his father, just beyond the borders of a village where they sold their crops. His life was spent mostly in isolation with only his parents to keep him company and the occasional relative that would come by. Nothing significant happened in Haru’s life until a messenger came from the nearest city to tell the family that their farm was now under the rule of a dictator who had conquered the closest village to the farm. Haru’s father was angered by this but said nothing as he didn’t want to put his family at risk. Haru, being just under the age of a teenager ( a ‘Tween’ if you will ), saw how much the new tax angered his father and decided to do something about it. Haru began looking for a way to defend his family so that, if given the opportunity, his family could stop paying the tax and he could fend off any potentially violent ambassadors sent his family’s way. Still being decently young, Haru didn’t have a good grasp on what was actually a realistic expectation of his abilities but he had high hopes and a drive which eventually led him to find Ueno Tanka, a local muscle for hire who used to serve the old ruler of the lands before being overthrown by the current dictator. Haru asked the ronin to train him in how to fight but Tanka denied him, telling him he was to old to be properly trained in his art. And so Haru left the local dive sadly and headed home. That night, Haru felt crushed by the rejection of the once-samurai but that night he vowed not to give up and so he repeated this process for weeks to come until Tanka finally agreed to train him. As Haru became an adult, he and his master joined a rebellion against the dictator of the lands in the hopes of improving their people’s way of life. Eventually after fighting a great deal, the Rebellion’s funds for weaponry and other such commodities began to dwindle so Tanka vowed to enter the Jade City and find the fortune hidden there to fun their rebellion. Now its been two years and with the rebellion finally winning only a year prior but there has been no sign pf Ueno Tanka since he left for the Jade City. Now, after two years of waiting, Haru vows to find his master or at least find out what happened to him.

Master: The name and reputation of your master, along with a basic personality. If you would like to be looking for the same person as another player you may do so with their permission.

Chi: 2

Luck: 0

Techniques: Blade Catch

Possessions: A Katana of questionable quality.

[Vec]

my CS is coming along nicely

[rocketrobie2]

@Vec Why not post a WIP so we can check it out! I'd like to see it!

But if your not alright with showing the unfinished product then thats alright too. :D

[rocketrobie2]

Name: Ose Haru

Profession: Ronin / Mercenary

History: Haru was born and raised to be a farmer just like his father and his father, just beyond the borders of a village where they sold their crops. His life was spent mostly in isolation with only his parents to keep him company and the occasional relative that would come by. Nothing significant happened in Haru’s life until a messenger came from the nearest city to tell the family that their farm was now under the rule of a dictator who had conquered the closest village to the farm. Haru’s father was angered by this but said nothing as he didn’t want to put his family at risk. Haru, being just under the age of a teenager ( a ‘Tween’ if you will ), saw how much the new tax angered his father and decided to do something about it. Haru began looking for a way to defend his family so that, if given the opportunity, his family could stop paying the tax and he could fend off any potentially violent ambassadors sent his family’s way. Still being decently young, Haru didn’t have a good grasp on what was actually a realistic expectation of his abilities but he had high hopes and a drive which eventually led him to find Ueno Tanka, a local muscle for hire who used to serve the old ruler of the lands before being overthrown by the current dictator. Haru asked the ronin to train him in how to fight but Tanka denied him, telling him he was to old to be properly trained in his art. And so Haru left the local dive sadly and headed home. That night, Haru felt crushed by the rejection of the once-samurai but that night he vowed not to give up and so he repeated this process for weeks to come until Tanka finally agreed to train him. As Haru became an adult, he and his master joined a rebellion against the dictator of the lands in the hopes of improving their people’s way of life. Eventually after fighting a great deal, the Rebellion’s funds for weaponry and other such commodities began to dwindle so Tanka vowed to enter the Jade City and find the fortune hidden there to fun their rebellion. Now its been two years and with the rebellion finally winning only a year prior but there has been no sign pf Ueno Tanka since he left for the Jade City. Now, after two years of waiting, Haru vows to find his master or at least find out what happened to him.

Master: Ueno Tanka doesn’t have much of a reputation now but back when he was still full blown samurai he had the boisterous reputation of being unbeatable due to his unwavering will to improve himself and his unique mixture of swordplay and martial arts in his fighting style. His reputation before leaving however was one of a jolly man who normally didn’t take things to seriously. Tanka was a very blunt man and didn’t shy away from a fight if it meant proving that he could still fight like the best of them. He always had a sore spot when talking about the old ruler and while he wouldn’t say it aloud, it can be deduced that he blamed himself for the state of the lands. He was decently old ( probably his late forties ) and he had begun to show it as he began to move slower than he once did but his sheer mastery of his arts allowed him to continue to hold his own against people half his age. He often kept his hair back in a bun with small streaks of grey hair on his otherwise tar black hair. His only other defining marks was his huge stature standing at 6’2” and his small and well kept greyed moustache.

Chi: 2

Luck: 0

Techniques: Blade Catch

Possessions: A Katana of questionable quality.