[OOC] Ellon Chronicles: Dreams on the Horizon

[Renval]

Welcome to Ellon. Those among you have ventured to the Royal City of Arcedes in the Kingdom of Alsonde hoping to find a new life. Perhaps you come from a neighboring town in Alsonde, have fled from the totalitarian Winoan Empire, or crossed over from the forests – no matter your history, you have come seeking a new horizon. Life can be what you want it to be in Arcedes. An innkeeper by the name of Mayella Mulburri has introduced you to one another and offered you refuge for the time being – the choice of what to do now is your own, but she suggests sticking together until it is time to go your separate ways.

Will you strike out to explore the world? Or will you get caught up in your new lives here in Arcedes? Either way, one thing is for certain: fate has a strange way of rerouting your chosen path and things in Pereas are about to get darker than anyone could possibly imagine.

[AlternateMan]

Latest version of CS coming right up
WIP2
Reposted since page changed.

TEAM TANK IS UP

Name: Carbo

Age: 47

Gender: male

Appearance:

without armor

with armor

Profession: Shielded Lancer. His mighty shield stands for his allies, and his heavy strike with his halberd keeps the enemy at bay, while him and his comrades march forward. (Shieldbearer)

Level: 1
Exp: 0/12

Weapon:
Rusty halberd: A rusty halberd, thrown into countless battles. Old and damaged, but still useful. (Damage: atk based. Range: 2 cells) +1 ATK
Armor:
Wandering mercenary’s wear: Tough clothing for long time traveling. Might need some washing at some point. +1 SPR
Accessory:
Rusty armor: Rusty metal armor for protection, covering shoulders, chest, and waist. Comes with armored boots too. +1 DEF
-Shield:
Wooden greatshield: An old wooden greatshield. Its size is big enough to intimidate enemies without a fearsome drawing on its front. +1 DEF

A-Ability:

+SHIELD IS UP(requires any GREATSHIELD equipped): Carbo slams down his shield to the ground, pushing away an enemy in front and standing for defense.
120% DEF damage. Range: adjacent cell. 10 MP. Physical damage.
(For the next turn, Carbo is unable to attack and goes into DEFENSE mode. In this state, all attacks directed to any allies adjacent to him will be directed to Carbo, while his DEF and SPR is increased by 20%.)

+Threatening Swing: Carbo swings his halberd widely to fend off enemies.
90% ATK damage. Range: adjacent cell, plus the two cells left and right to it(in Carbo’s point of view). Physical damage.
Enemies hit by the Threatening Swing suffer 10% extra damage to the next attack they receive. 6 MP.

R-Ability:

S-Ability:
-The Towering Protector(works only with any GREATSHIELD):
All attacks except for ones behind deal 10% less damage.
If an attack from such direction deals less damage than 10% of the respective defensive stat(DEF if physical, SPR if magic/INT based), it is ignored and will deal zero damage.
#note: Might need editing depending on GM’s opinion, more over other skills.

B-Ability:

D-Ability:
War Cry: DEFENDER
“FORWARD! WITH NO MERCY!”
With a fearsome warcry, Carbo buffs his teammates.
For the next 3 turns, Carbo and his allies:
Have 50% increased DEF and SPR stats
Will have their first attack after getting buffed deal 130% damage to enemies

Stats:

HP: 25
MP: 15
DD: 0/10
Atk: 4(+1 from Rusty Halberd)
Def: 3(+0 from Wandering Mercenary’s wear) (+1 from rusty armor) (+1 from Wooden Greatshield)
Int: 1 (+0 from Rusty Halberd)
Spr: 2 (+1 from Wooden Greatshield) (+1 from Mercenary’s Wear)
Evade: 1%
Move: 2 (+1 from Shielded Lancer profession)

Skill Points: 0

[Cello]

Here is Zeke :)

Ezekiel Bracewell

Name: Ezekiel Bracewell

Age: 26

Gender: Male

Appearance:

Hider

Profession: Gladiator

Arena fighters who battle for the entertainment of others. Some are valiant warriors who wish to gain glory and admiration through their daring performances. Some are prisoners, forced into death battles as punishment for their crimes. The rules of each battle vary depending on where it's held, but in general Gladiators can only fight with what's available to them in the arena. For this reason, they use a very brutal hand to hand combat style that includes reckless strikes, grappling and quick maneuvers.

Gladiators are proficient in natural weapons as well as more basic Warrior Class weapons. They are proficient in light armor only.

Level: 1
Exp: 0/12

Weapon: Worn Cestus.

Well used studded leather straps which wrap around ones hands. Stained with blood and sweat with visible tearing.

Armor: Fighter's Rags

Filthy cotton trousers with a ragged, torn appearance. Held up at the waist by a tightly drawn sash of fabric. These rags provide no additional bonus to defenses, but also allow for complete freedom of movement.

Accessory: Tear Pendant

A nostalgic pendant made of Lapis Lazuli. Cut to resemble a teardrop. Grants +5 Mana.

A-Ability:

+ Crushing Blow: Empowered strike with 110% ATK Potency. Reduces the targets DEF Stat by 10% for 3 turns. This effect can stack up to 3 times. Can be used during Lock Up. Range: Adjacent Cell. Mana Cost: 6 MP.

+ Lock Up: Ezekiel grabs his target, giving them the Grappled condition for 1 Turn. Ezekiel can maintain Lock Up for an extra turn for an additional Mana Cost. This can be done up to 2 additional turns for a potential total of 3 turns grappled. Maintaining the grapple counts as a movement action, and Ezekiel can make an attack against his grappled target in these extra rounds. Range: Adjacent Cell. Mana Cost: 8 Initial, 4 per round to maintain.

Grappled: Target is immobilized. Both the target and the assailant lose their Evasion Bonus while Grappled. An attempt can be made to escape the grapple at the cost of the targets movement action. This attempt has a 50% success chance. Successive attempts to escape a Grapple increase the success rate by 10%.

Ezekiel can only grapple targets who are up to one size category larger than he is. Grappling larger enemies increases the success rate of them escaping the grapple up to 80%.

R-Ability:

S-Ability:

+ Thick Skin: Ezekiel's DEF Stat is increased by 15% when he is wearing light or no armor.

B-Ability:

D-Ability:

+ Giants Charge: Ezekiel rushes down an opponent in one direction, able to charge up to double his movement stat (4 Cells). This can be used on targets up to 2 size categories larger than he is. If he collides with his target, they become Grappled and are pushed in the direction of Ezekiel's charge until the end of his movement. Any enemies in the way of the charge are pushed aside 1 Cell and take 50% ATK Damage. At the end of the charge, the grappled target is knocked Prone for 1 turn and takes 150% ATK Damage. If Ezekiel charges his victim into terrain, they instead take 180% ATK Damage and are stunned for 3 turns.

Prone: Target is pushed to the ground, completely losing their Evasion bonus. Non-movement actions can be made while Prone with a 25% Chance of said action failing.

Stats:

HP: 25
MP: 20 (+5 from Tear Pendant)
DD: 0/10
Atk: 4 (+1 from Worn Cestus)
Def: 2 (+0 from Fighter's Rags) (+1 from Thick Skin)
Int: 1 (+0 from Worn Cestus)
Spr: 2 (+0 from Fighter's Rags)
Evade: 3%
Move: 2 (+1 from Gladiator Profession)

Skill Points: 0

[Jerkchicken]

Right so how do you increase the percentage? Is it with a skill point? If so what is the rate? Also could you please mark some of status effects by the mana intensity? Like stuff insta-killing mooks is pretty obvious that it's gonna cost but other stuff is not that obvious you know? Is there a knockdown inducing option? That's always a solid low level effect although given the video game influences on the effect list it's more tabletop-y compared to them.

I want to see my statblock and play the tutorial battle first before getting deeper with my comments and whatnot. Anyway the transformation ability seems better fitting as an ultimate over say being in a support slot. I'll probably change the support ability but I only did it because there wasn't any immediately obvious manner of like giving him a higher movement rate when I was doing his write-up.

I will say that don't like how evasion is being handled, it's too rooted in the genre where evasion was an easy way to differentiate from your tank unit and squishier frontliners and also how these games create difficulty by combining RNG with stacking mechanics. Sure it's faithful to the genre, but the issue is now have various structural changes to keep in mind of. The addition of multiple players each controlling one character which they partially create and obviously playing on a forum instead of a video game changes this from being an electronic wargame into a RPG that happens to have a grid combat system.

We're already able to prioritize what we want to be good at with regards to damage soaking and dealing when we spend our stat points during level ups, being able to do the same with dodging is doable and shouldn't cause any problem at all. Honestly I think it makes it less potentially broken; since it's no longer in a weird area where it's "balanced" by being a costly investment because if you get too high number you end up being able to trivialize combat.

[Cello]

@Jerkchicken If you look at Zeke's sheet I have added a custom effect for one of his skills that is essentially a knock-down. It's called Prone, because that's what I'm used to with my own tabletop experiences.

The GM seems to be happy with that status effect, so I don't see why you can't use it as well.

And I must admit, I am curious to see how these more video-gamey mechanics will play out in the IC. I'm just concerned it may ruin the immersion for me with all the grid-combat system and luck based mechanics. I won't knock it 'till I try it though.

[Jerkchicken]

Cool I'll nab that for a later move. I'm happy with my repositioning move for now, especially if upon leveling up you can tweak certain aspects of it.

Grid combat system is fine for tabletop games, although on a play by post format it will be interesting to see how it plays out. Only real concerns is trying to do videogame mechanics that are clunkier and much more arbitrary in an analog setting cuz the computer isn't taking care of it. Not to say tabletop doesn't have clunky stuff in it as well though.

I think Anima's damage formula of

(Attacker's total(after modifiers) - Defender's Total (after modifiers) -20 for absorption -10* AT of the defender of the attack type) /100 (making a percentage) * the final damage of the attacker's weapon.

being an example of clunkiness. Since play slows every time you fight a new foe since you need to wait for the GM to feed you it's damage soak to your attack type and also you're dealing with triple digits at higher levels.

[Gisk]

@Renval
Let me know if anything here is not okay. The class doesn't play straightforward with its use of the stats. I think the way it works is reasonable and fitting, but just let me know if it doesn't fly.

Inquisitor

Name: Holly Elivander

Age: 27

Gender: Female

Appearance

Profession: Inquisitor. Carries a holy symbol into battle, abhors spellcasters traditionally, but will tolerate allied magic to use against enemy magic.

Level: 1.
Exp: 0/12.

Weapon: Old Longsword
Armor: Greathelm and padded Gambeson
Accessory: Rosary. A holy symbol on a beaded string. Spr+1.

A-Ability: Crusade

+ Condemnation: Holly smites the sinful with her sword. Deals 120% of the target's INT(dealing more dmg to magic using targets). Range: Adjacent Cell.

+ Zealous Charge: Rushes to engage in combat. Can pass through closer enemies to engage with targets past them. 100% Atk Dmg. Range: 4 cells.

R-Ability:

S-Ability:

B-Ability: Bless. Can be extended to an ally. Target receives the Immune and Shell status.

D-Ability: Last Rites. A blessing for one about to die. In combat, this comes off more as a threat than anything. Lowers the target's Def and Int by 150% of Inquisitor's Spr.

Stats:

HP:
MP:
DD: 0/10
Atk:
Def:
Int:
Spr:
Evade:

Skill Points:

[AlternateMan]

@Gisk
BY THE HOLY I SHALL SMASH THINE SKULL
I like the concept. We’ve got a tanker, a debuffer, some good damage dealers.

[Renval]

@AlternateMan@Jerkchicken@Leslie Hall@Gisk@Lauder@Bishop

Unfortunately, my friends, I'm going to have to cancel as the forum does not support changing the typeface to a fixed width font, which is necessary to structure the battlefield. If I had more computer space and time to render the battlefield using images, I would go ahead with that, but, at this point, it is not an option. I sincerely apologize for your lost time and hard work on your profiles – I should have checked before I put up the interest check, but I didn't foresee this being a problem. I hope I have not caused you to miss out on any other roleplays that have been started recently. If I have, again, I am incredibly sorry – this was not my intention at all. If the forum receives and update and I am able to host this roleplay in the future, you all will be the first people I reach out to.

Again, my sincerest apologies, and I wish you all well.

[Bishop]

@Renval GOD! That saves me like, SO MUCH WORK on putting all the values in my abilities and weapons.
Good thing that my lazy nature made me procrastinate even in my part time hobby.
Well farewell to you too.

[Jerkchicken]

By battlefield images do you mean something like this?

pic

That being that kinda sucks as I was looking forward to playing. Perhaps you could adapt the story and do like a ruleset that doesn't need a positioning element like this one does?

[Renval]

@Jerkchicken Unfortunately, my current MP costing formula and balancing is heavily dependent on all of these components being in place. Until I'm in a better position to either do images or the forum supports a fixed width typeface, I'm afraid I have to place this on hold.

[Jerkchicken]

I was gonna suggest to you an existing game that does the stuff you're trying which would make the issue of figuring costs and balancing stuff way easier since it's taken care of within the rules, but then I remembered you still need to do take care of the grid stuff. And even doing MS paint doodles on a grid background might be a bit annoying to do?