D&D Isekai: Render Unto Them A New World

[CaptainManbeard]

What’s hero forge?

@Crimson Flame

Hero Forge

[Crimson Flame]

<Snipped quote by Crimson Flame>

Hero Forge

@CaptainManbeard

I’m going to have fun playing with this. xD

[deadpixel101]

So the bodies they'll inhabit are made from their own DNA correct? How much leeway would there be in terms of changing? Is it entirely species based (orc, elf etc.) or is there some room for what they would want? Like if someone wanted to be taller as a very basic example.

I think I could have an interesting character point if there's wiggle room.

[CaptainManbeard]

So the bodies they'll inhabit are made from their own DNA correct? How much leeway would there be in terms of changing? Is it entirely species based (orc, elf etc.) or is there some room for what they would want? Like if someone wanted to be taller as a very basic example.

I think I could have an interesting character point if there's wiggle room.

@deadpixel101

Well, the idea was taking the DNA of the deceased fantasy races and then growing new bodies from that, but having them use the soul's memory of their original body from Earth as a basis for the overall structure. So, since the main characters all started off as human, the human-like races would look more like them. It would be kind of like a human actor playing an elf in a fantasy movie. The overall facial structure and body form is similar, but they may appear a bit more slender and have pointed ears instead of rounded ears.

For an example, if Huge Weaving was among our characters and his new body had the blood of an elf, he may end up looking like Elrond.



Or if the actors from D&D: Honor Among Thieves were among our characters, they may end up looking like their characters in the movie.



That being said, since the new bodies are sort of sculpted from their own memories of their past physical bodies, I'm fine with that process being effected by their internal views of how they wish their bodies to be. For instance, if someone was heavily overweight in their old body but viewed themselves as the thin person they used to be, their new body could end up super fit and athletic. Or like in the case you mentioned, if someone wanted to be taller, their new form can reflect that. None of their original body's DNA exists in the new world, however. The new bodies are sort of grown from the DNA of the fantasy races the old wizard collected but the souls' memories of their past bodies are used as a visual guide for how to sculpt the new bodies' physical characteristics.

Hopefully that wasn't too confusing, lol.

[Guardian Angel Haruki]

@CaptainManbeard Makes sense to me. XD

[Timemaster]

If there's another free space, count me in!

[Guardian Angel Haruki]

I believe with Timemaster, that makes five (six including CaptainManbeard).

This is just a random post for Good Luck. ^_^

[Guardian Angel Haruki]

@CaptainManbeard One more bump! XD

[CaptainManbeard]

My hope was that we'd get at least eight people on board, but if not, six is good. I'm working all through this weekend and next week, but hopefully I'll have some time to work on getting this RP up and running next weekend.

[Guardian Angel Haruki]

My hope was that we'd get at least eight people on board, but if not, six is good. I'm working all through this weekend and next week, but hopefully I'll have some time to work on getting this RP up and running next weekend.

@CaptainManbeard

Understood. Thank you for the update!

[Lewascan2]

I will admit to being interested in the premise, but the one thing that is kinda stopping me from leaping on this is the system. If I understand this right, a single dice roll determines your performance for an entire combat scene in every aspect? If that's the case, I really can't jive with that. It's too much of a gamble, and to me, it wouldn't feel like I have a lot of agency in my character's future. It means every combat essentially has a preset result, rather than ups and downs.

[CaptainManbeard]

I will admit to being interested in the premise, but the one thing that is kinda stopping me from leaping on this is the system. If I understand this right, a single dice roll determines your performance for an entire combat scene in every aspect? If that's the case, I really can't jive with that. It's too much of a gamble, and to me, it wouldn't feel like I have a lot of agency in my character's future. It means every combat essentially has a preset result, rather than ups and downs.

@Lewascan2

Well, you would be the one writing your own combat scene. I would introduce enough enemies for each player to have the opportunity to write a battle scene between their character and one or more opponents, kind of similar to how normal RPs work. The focus is still primarily narrative, the dice rolls just give a general idea of how well the characters perform.

[Lewascan2]

<Snipped quote by Lewascan2>

Well, you would be the one writing your own combat scene. I would introduce enough enemies for each player to have the opportunity to write a battle scene between their character and one or more opponents, kind of similar to how normal RPs work. The focus is still primarily narrative, the dice rolls just give a general idea of how well the characters perform.

@CaptainManbeard

The problem isn't really the dice roll itself. I have played D&D quite a few times, so I know how it goes. Sometimes the luck of the dice gods is with you, and sometimes, they just throw up two big middle fingers. The issue in my mind is that this is a single dice roll governing an entire future series of actions. You only get one roll, one singular point of success or failure. And once you have it, you can't adapt to or overcome it, because you don't get any other rolls to follow up with. It's a predetermined result.

To me, this seems like the sort of situation where it would better benefit from being either one or the other, full narrative or full dice. A single dice roll governing an entire narrative isn't much of a narrative at all. There isn't really a narrative tit for tat, where both sides can try to outsmart the other, because no matter what, the result is determined. Highs may be higher, sure, but lows are even lower. I'm pretty big on character agency, and this has very little. Even with normal D&D, I'm not a huge fan of ICly having every possible reason to succeed and just... not, but with that, at least you have the opportunity to roll more dice on later turns to try and recover or alter a failed plan. Not so here.

Of course, all that said, I really am tempted to give this a try, but you can see my misgivings. A big thing for me in an RP is character agency, that my success and failure rests on my own skills and tactics winning the day. This system doesn't allow for that outside pure luck. But all told, I do actually still want to give it a whirl. At the least, I think I'm interested enough to try this system out. I don't think I'll like it, but I'd be glad to be wrong.

[Lewascan2]

But anyway, in the interests of my actual interest in this RP, I can see that even if combat turns out to not be my favorite thing, at least the out-of-combat shouldn't be predetermined as far as I know, so there's some freedom there worth exploring. I'm kinda hoping that if we are stuck with a single roll for combat, that there will be the ability to add modifiers to that roll in some way, like via sufficient preparations, resources and such, but that's for later consideration.

As a character concept, I'm admittedly interested in a Wizard. I love my spell-slingers, and their spell list has always deeply satisfied my inner gremlin hoarder of spells. I like being magic batman. In particular, I very much like playing a necromancer, but I've continuously had poor luck in campaigns that last long enough for me to get to the good stuff.

I find it a little funny actually that this is my go-to, considering that we have two other people seemingly looking at squishy spellcasters.

As far as a race... it's been a long while since I played D&D tbh, but if I recall correctly, I think what I'm considering is called the "Reborn". Aesthetically, I'm thinking just straight-up a living skeleton that (as far as WOtC is concerned after the update) somehow doesn't qualify as undead, despite the race lore. lol

[CaptainManbeard]

Perhaps part of my mistake was not clearly defining what I meant by Combat Scenario. I didn't envision it as an entire dungeon or anything of that scale, more like the equivalent of a single battle in a Final Fantasy game or something. Like, each player would write between three and five paragraphs for a single Battle Scenario. So that dice roll would only dictate that single three to five paragraph post.

An example of a common Battle Scenario might be a bandit attack while they are traveling. Let's say we have one bandit for each player to write out a three to five paragraph scene of their character fighting that bandit. Let's say you roll a 1. While the ultimate outcome of that post may be somewhat predetermined, it's up to you to decide how it gets there. Maybe you want to write your character totally kicking ass at first and then the bandit gets him with a poisoned dagger at the end. You still have near complete creative freedom for that post, the only thing the dice roll is determining is the overall performance of your character in that single battle post.

[Lewascan2]

Perhaps part of my mistake was not clearly defining what I meant by Combat Scenario. I didn't envision it as an entire dungeon or anything of that scale, more like the equivalent of a single battle in a Final Fantasy game or something. Like, each player would write between three and five paragraphs for a single Battle Scenario. So that dice roll would only dictate that single three to five paragraph post.

An example of a common Battle Scenario might be a bandit attack while they are traveling. Let's say we have one bandit for each player to write out a three to five paragraph scene of their character fighting that bandit. Let's say you roll a 1. While the ultimate outcome of that post may be somewhat predetermined, it's up to you to decide how it gets there. Maybe you want to write your character totally kicking ass at first and then the bandit gets him with a poisoned dagger at the end. You still have new complete creative freedom for that post, the only thing the dice roll is determining is the overall performance of your character in that single battle post.

@CaptainManbeard

Oh no, I understood what you meant. And even that is too constrictive in my mind, that the entire minor skirmish is determined by a single roll. I said what I did with full understanding of that. If the result is determined to that degree, it doesn't feel like much creative freedom. After all, when I envision D&D (or even just most any RP battle with an equal-ish opponent), a 1v1 for example typically takes several rounds, not a single post. If this were a matter of the battle being expected to take several posts and rolling for performance for each individual post in that case, that would feel more flexible, but that's not the vibe I'm getting that you're going for.

But combat mechanics aside, I'm not trying to be a negative nancy and harp on about that incessantly. My dislike of that aspect can be shoved firmly in a corner, as I still love the premise of this RP overall and am very interested.

So, first character concept is: Reborn Necromancer Wizard. Magic batman, living skeleton. The usual mage shenanigans down the road.

Might go for a Life or Death Cleric instead if the party looks particularly squishy otherwise, because D&D's White Mages are not to be trifled with and can cover a lot of holes. I recall one particularly fun time I was able to function as a tank as a Life Cleric, which was pretty hilarious, but I digress. Not sure what race I'd pair with Cleric, but maybe Half Elf or Yuan-Ti.

[CaptainManbeard]

I guess part of it is the writer in me. Having to stop writing every few sentences to wait potentially days for multiple dice rolls just sucks the fun out of it for me. And that would be a very real possibility given different time zones and work schedules and such. I guess when I use the term "player," I'm not really being genuine. The best way to describe it is that I view us as co-writers crafting a narrative together and using the dice rolls to help us throw in a little variety and spontaneity. The only way I would be comfortable with us doing multiple dice rolls within a single Battle Scenario would be if we were all online at the same time and did everything through Discord, but that seems unlikely.

But I do understand where you are coming from and am considering just scrapping the system entirely and going full RP with no levels or dice rolls at all. I don't know. I'll have to wait till my next day off to really dedicate enough time to figuring it out.

[Lewascan2]

Far be it from me to tell you how to run your own game. Again, I apologize for any negativity I've inadvertedly brought. I love the premise, but the present system is just a huge deal-breaker for me in many ways. If you decide going full narrative is for you, more power to you! I'd be genuinely elated, but if you have a vision for this present system, don't feel pressured to drop it just like that. I do think it would be worth keeping the levels around in either case as a way to ground progression.

[CaptainManbeard]

Far be it from me to tell you how to run your own game. Again, I apologize for any negativity I've inadvertedly brought. I love the premise, but the present system is just a huge deal-breaker for me in many ways. If you decide going full narrative is for you, more power to you! I'd be genuinely elated, but if you have a vision for this present system, don't feel pressured to drop it just like that. I do think it would be worth keeping the levels around in either case as a way to ground progression.

@Lewascan2

No worries! I think I've come up with a good compromise - the dice rolls won't be mandatory and you can do as many as you want for your post. One dice roll, many dice rolls, or zero dice rolls. I'll throw opponents out at the start of each Battle Scenario and then I'll leave it up to each of you to decide how you want to write out that scene. I'll use the same method for my own characters as well.

[Lewascan2]

<Snipped quote by Lewascan2>

No worries! I think I've come up with a good compromise - the dice rolls won't be mandatory and you can do as many as you want for your post. One dice roll, many dice rolls, or zero dice rolls. I'll throw opponents out at the start of each Battle Scenario and then I'll leave it up to each of you to decide how you want to write out that scene. I'll use the same method for my own characters as well.

@CaptainManbeard

Woah, nice! That is a simple but effective change. I definitely am all in on this. I suppose I'll take it on a case by case basis, but the ability to plot out a battle through multiple dice rolls is definitely the sort of flexibility that completely erases my misgivings.

As for what I'm thinking of going with? Well, I already mentioned, but either a Necromancer Wizard or a Life/Death Cleric. Not 100% sure which yet, but either could be fun. I certainly lean towards the Wizard though, bringing this party another step closer to being Team Glass Cannon. lol