Digital Soul Online
Status
Always Open!
GMs
Grey, HollywoodMole
Co-GMs
Premiselmagine a world where gaming has advanced to the point where you, the player, are no longer separated from the virtual world by a screen, but instead are right there, fully immersed within the world of the game, controlling your character as you would your own body.
In the year 2026, this ideal became reality with the creation of the Neuro-Sync headset. Using nothing more than the eponymous virtual-reality headset and a comfortable place to rest, the Neuro-Sync allowed users to jump right into a game and experience the world from their character's perspective. However, despite the advancement of the single-player experience, many gamers were disappointed with the lack of multiplayer capabilities.
Enter Digital Soul Online, an urban fantasy MMORPG created by the developers of the Neuro-Sync themselves.
Ever since it's announcement DSO's release was widely anticipated, with many excited gamers going as far as to line up outside of stores the day before release in order to secure a copy. Upon release, the game was surpassed all expectations. Many players found themselves engrossed in the world of DSO, drawing their swords, loading their guns, or slinging their spells and completing quests alongside friends, old and new.
However, upon logging out many players were met with an unfortunate surprise. Head-splitting migraines, loss of coordination, hallucinations... And those were the lucky ones. Others met their fate at the hands of full-body paralysis or sudden seizures. The players remaining in the game soon received a message detailing the grisly effects of what exactly happens when a player logs off.
Now stuck within this virtual world, the players of Digital Soul Online must learn how to survive while they wait for a way back home.
PlotAs the premise may have so subtly hinted, this is an RP revolving around the time-tested concept of gamers getting trapped in a virtual reality MMORPG. Your character, having purchased DSO for whatever reason, is now effectively trapped within the confines of the urban fantasy world of DSO at the risk of death by brain damage. Fortunately you aren't alone, for there are thousands of other (un)lucky individuals unable to leave with their minds intact, just like you!
In terms of an actual objective, this RP doesn't have a grand, over-arching GM-imposed plotline to follow other than "Live out life in the game until someone in the real world saves us". It was primarily intended to be a character-driven, open-world RP focusing on the adventures of the players stuck inside, where any plot would be put together by the interactions of characters.
Information Dump
The game world of Digital Soul Online is circular shaped, with a huge starting hub/main city on an island in the center and a "huge and unnecessary moat" (- HollywoodMole) separating all the dungeons and wilderness on the 'mainland'.
The starting city itself is a very modern-looking locale, skyscrapers and such jutting into the sky. It's an on an island connected to the mainland by bridges in either of the four cardinal directions, and in the center of it is a plaza where new players spawn and dead players respawn. To the north are snow-capped mountains, with alpine forests and tundra below. Swamp and wetland are located in the south, while the west is all woodland and plains and the east is barren and deserted. Lastly, the entire game world is surrounded by a perimeter of coastline and signs of ruined civilization dot the landscape, making for a post-apocalyptic look all around.
Feel free to go wild with locations so long as they don't contradict the aforementioned description.
Stats are basically the measurement of a character's inherent abilities, which is different from Skills - values that measure how well a character's learned to perform a certain action. In Digital Soul Online there are five statistics, each designated with a number between 1 and 10 that cannot be altered outside of temporary status effects. There also exist secondary stats such as HP and MP, but for those we'll be using common sense instead of keeping track of exact values.
Strength (STR)
Represents a character's physical power. STR provides:
Bonus damage for weapons that use melee-based skills.Bonus Projectile skill damage.Improved ability to pull/push/lift/carry.
Endurance (END)
Represents a character's physical resilience. END provides:Health points/HP.Better resistance against physical effects such as poison and weather.Improved damage reduction.
Agility (AGI)
Represents a character's speed and nimbleness. AGI provides:Faster overall speed.Improved reflexes.Bonus damage for ranged skill weapons, except for Projectile.
Intelligence (INT)
Represents a character's mental power. INT provides:Mana points/MPBonus Evocation skill damage.Spell slots. 1:1 slot to INT ratio.
Willpower (WIL)
Represents a character's mental resistance and force of will. WIL provides:Better resistance against mental/magical effects such as illusions and other assorted debuffs.Improved resistance against magical damage.Boosts damage done by familiars and mounts.
There are 35 Skills in Digital Soul Online, learned abilities that measure a character's ability to do a specific action. Skill levels can be increased at level up by allocating skill points, but there exist exceptions in the form of certain quests and such.
For the sake of convenience, we won't be keeping track of exact values in the RP.
Weapon SkillsSkills that influence how much damage a player can get out of a weapon. and/or how well a character can block with it.
- Archery: Proficiency with bows.
- Blade: Proficiency with weapons such as swords, daggers, axes, etc.
- Blunt: Proficiency with blunt weapons such as maces, hammers, etc.
- Evocation: Combat magic. Spells that either cause direct damage, summon creatures, or set up defenses.
- Marksman: Proficiency with firearms.
- Polearm: Proficiency with long weapons such as spears, halberds, shovels, etc.
- Projectile: Proficiency at throwing things.
- Shield: Proficiency at using a shield to block or bash.
- Unarmed: Proficiency at hand to hand combat and the use of weapons such as gauntlets and greaves
Armor SkillsSkills that let players avoid or mitigate damage by evading, deflecting, or absorbing blows, as well as maneuver with more ease.
- Unarmored: Dodging blows and maneuvering more effectively without any armor.
- Light Armor: Moving and defending while wearing light-weight, flexible armors like leather. Fastest actual armor type, but also the most fragile (not counting above).
- Medium Armor: Use of durable yet flexible armors such as chainmail. A good balance between damage reduction and speed.
- Heavy Armor: Movement and defense while wearing large, rigid armors like steel plate. Incredibly durable, but at the cost of speed.
Crafting SkillsSkills that involve the permanent creation of something new and/or the improvement of an existing item.
- Alchemy: The art of brewing potions, poisons, and other related substances that provide one-time effects such as healing or status effects. Additionally, the ability to identify potential uses for ingredients.
- Enchanting: The process of applying a magical property to an item of choice. Used to create one-shot scrolls, spell tomes, enchanted equipment, or magical focuses. Requires knowledge of a spell with the same ability, i.e. fire spell = fire sword, no fire spell = no fire sword
- Mechanics: The skill used to create items, such as traps, equipment, or various gadgetry.
- Repair: The skill used to maintain equipment at top effectiveness.
Utility SkillsSkills that provide benefits outside of combat or crafting.
- Acrobatics: How proficient one is in vertical movement and performing gymnastic maneuvers. Also mitigates fall damage.
- Alteration: Utility magic. Spells that buff/debuff, summon illusions and equipment, inflict status effects, gather information, dispel spells, heal, etc.
- Analysis: The ability to discern information about the capabilities of opponents and their equipment.
- Athletics: How efficiently one can move through the environment by running and swimming.
- Barter: The time-tested art of obtaining better prices for sales and purchases.
- Detection: The ability to locate enemies, traps, and other dangers with instinct.
- Disguise: Changing appearances without magic, and successfully impersonating others.
- Listening: Use of one's ears to listen to the environment more effectively.
- Medic: Healing and getting rid of physical status effects without the use of magic. Also modifies how much HP/MP potions regenerate.
- Meditation: Becoming still and keeping the mind clear to dispel magical and mental status effects and illusions.
- Riding: Expertise in riding mounts and vehicles, as well as conducting mounted combat.
- Sabotage: Altering traps, technology, and certain items for varying effects.
- Search: Discovering hidden objects, characters, pathways when actively looking for them.
- Security: The skill of bypassing locks.
- Sleight: (of hand) The ability to pickpocket items and conceal items on your person. Also the ability to use feats of dexterity, like juggling or (fake) magic tricks.
- Stealth: Hiding and moving silently. Damage is increased significantly if successfully attacking while hidden.
- Survival: A skill for living in the wild. Enhances environmental resistance, mitigates hunger/thirst effects, and helps when tracking monsters.
- Taming: The ability to turn monsters and animals to your side and keep them as familiars and/or mounts.
TL;DR: Melee combat is melee combat, ranged combat does a lot of damage but can be blocked just like melee, and magical combat usually relies on enchanted tools as not to sacrifice room for utility.
Melee Combat
Melee combat is... melee combat. Not much else to it. You attack with the weapon and deal damage based off a largely-arbitrary number in relation to another set of numbers, combined with how fast you're attacking with it (which is determined by more numbers). Fortunately, I mentioned earlier that we won't be keeping track of the 99.9% of the numbers, so that's a moot point.
In terms of unmodified speed, lighter, smaller weapons are faster than heavier, larger weapons. Speed tiers, in terms of broad categories, would go something like:
Unarmed > 1 Handed Blade > 1 Handed Blunt > Polearm > 2 Handed Blade > 2 Handed Blunt
Damage tiers would be that in reverse.
Ranged Combat
Ranged combat, in this case meaning the non-magical sort, is conducted with thrown objects, firearms, and bows. Their use could be called fairly realistic, if not for one major exception: DSO runs on anime physics. This means that it's completely possible to dodge, block, or even parry bullets/arrows/throwing knives/etc. However ranged combat still generally inflicts higher end damage (greater or equal to two handed melee weapons) and are averagely fast (polearm speed), at least when it comes to bows and guns. Damage and speed for thrown objects, on the other hand, tends to fluctuate depending on the ammunition.
In terms of Bow vs Firearm, a bow would be preferable to stealth and magic-users due to their ability to use enchanted arrows along with the enchantment on the bow, and remain silent. A firearm would be more suited to a combat playstyle due to more damage output. Additionally, firearms are loud and tend to reveal your location enemies if you aren't far enough away.
Magical Combat
Combat magic in DSO is a rather peculiar thing. A mage gets a number of spell slots dependent on their INT stat and any perks, but they aren't allowed to change the spells within a dungeon and even then MP is still a concern. Between utility and damage, there's not nearly enough slots to cover all a mage's bases.
However, the Enchanting skill allows for the creation of equipment that can produce magical effects for combat and don't count towards a mage's spell slots or against MP. What this means is that a mage can bring in a staff of fire, use it to fire off all their fire spells to their heart's content and just use the spell slots for Alteration skill spells. Just like a warrior would haul around his sword or an archer their bow, mages in DSO tend to carry around various gauntlets, rings, wands, and/or staves to deal their damage.
Another method of dealing damage is via runes, but those are more the trap sort of spells when they aren't used to enchant items.
Fields to be added as necessary.
Rules1. Standard rules apply. Listen to the GMs and Co-GMs, no godmodding, no metagaming, no sexytimes outside PM, etc.
2. When you post, make sure you at least try to do something that other players can react to, and not just react without doing anything. Keeps it all going smoothly.
3. If you need help figuring out what to do/getting back into the RP, contact myself or one of your friendly neighborhood co-GMs. If you wish to leave, please do the same so we don't end up awkwardly twiddling our thumbs while waiting for someone who'll never post.
4. Rules subject to change.
Character Sheet
Name: A-yup.
Username: A-yup.
Gender: Male/female
Age: Yuuuup.
Personality: Optional, if History was filled out. No need to type too much, but at least type something that isn't a single line or two.
History: Optional, if Personality was filled out. Again, no need to type too much, but something with substance would be preferable.
Appearance: Anime or description, pls. If your appearance in game is different, it's probably important you include that as well.
Race: When in doubt, human out. This section is more for people who want to make their own race and play elves or dwarves or something. Purely aesthetic, however.
Weapon: What you like to hit people with.
Stats: Point buy is 30, stats are out of 10 and minimum is 1. For information, visit the Info Dump.
-STR:
-END:
-AGI:
-INT:
-WIL:
Favored Skills: It's like a create-your-own-class kind of thing. Pick seven or less skills to 'specialize' in, so we don't have to keep track of numbers. Also visit the info dump for the stat list.
Perks: Optional. Maximum 2. Basically these are perks that either give a character special bonuses (attack speed is twice as fast, more spell slots) or a special ability of some sort (night vision, dual wielding two handed weapons, etc). Make sure it isn't stupidly overpowered and has at least some justification (i.e. a guy with 1 STR with a perk that let's them duel wield two-handers). Also, try to give it a name of some sort that's related to what it does. Example:
Pyromaniac - Twice as much damage from fire-based spells/weapons.
Name:
Username:
Gender:
Age:
Personality:
History:
Appearance:
Race:
Weapon:
Stats:
-STR:
-END:
-AGI:
-INT:
-WIL:
Favored Skills:
Perks:
See the guide above for any questions regarding the CS. If it's not covered there, then ask away.
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spambot_WIP.bat "winfhimght"Professor_Wyvern as
Johnny "Axebeard" AceRancealot as
Alice "Papa Gigante" SchaeferSpice as
Lucas "Lucky" ShafferStephenRouse as
Elliot "Breaker "ThomasTheRpgGamer as
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Jack "Andromachus" Miller
