Disclaimer: This RP is primarily inspired by Log Horizon and Overlord. Y'know, not like there ain't already half a million of those out there already, but hey! Simple is good. Simple is nice.
Welcome to the world of Untold Eternity!
And by welcome, I quite do literally mean welcome.
Launched in 2018, Untold Eternity was released on the PC by Lucent Co., Ltd. as an old callback to older MMORPGS as the genre was beginning to fade away. Some way or another, it managed to explode in popularity, bringing the genre back to life even as VR technology seemed to be on the verge of a breakthrough. Even without the allure thereof, the game managed to garner a large audience, largely thanks to the wonders of the internet.
Either as an old veteran or a new player, you've decided to pick up the game when its newest patch, 'Dawn of a new Era', was released in 2020. You came in expecting another old game update, but instead, you're actually in the game!
I mean, there's not much weirder you can get than that.
So, here are a few things that are a bit more... Different than you'd expect.
1) Meta-knowledge. I don't necessarily mean "I know what will happen at point X, Y, and Z," even though for "veteran" characters that'll likely be the case. I mean this more along the lines of... Media like SAO, Log Horizon, .hack, and all those other series have existed in-universe for quite a while.
2) Classless, player-driven progression: The RP will start with the older areas filled in; there's an entirely new section of the world that is yet to be uncovered, and it'll be filled in as players move around and explore.
3) Collabs ENCOURAGED: Combat against mindless AIs get boring. It gets stale. This is just a fact of life: grinding is BORING. So in order to spice things up, I'd recommend you pair with whoever you're with and write things up as a team. Fetch quests will exists, but they will be uncommon and may or may not cause events to occur. 'Kill X of Y monster' quests will impact the environment. EVERYTHING HAS CONSEQUENCES!
4) Raids? Dungeons? EVERYWHERE. Raids are what you'd expect; giant multi-man parties tackling giant missions for some reason or another. Dungeons... Well...
If you guys have every played any games in ANY Mystery Dungeon series, they're supposed to play out like the dungeons in there; randomly generated upon entry, random rewards, then boss. Difficulty and size vary, of course, but... Well, you get the picture.
Mechanics:
Since the characters are effectively going into a fantasy world with game mechanics, there are some things to be clarified. They'll be expanded on below.
Stats:
The cornerstones of most RPGs. We've got HP, MP, Stamina, STR, INT, DEX, LUK, DEF, WIS, AGI, and CHA (last one's a bit weird; stands for charisma). Max level is 120, but I'd like for all characters to start at about 100 or below. Just as a reminder: these will be taking a backseat to what ACTUALLY happens most of the time. They'll exist, and for the most part people should be generalizing how strong or how fast or WHATEVER you are in-RP. I'm not going to assign numerical values for them because quantification would not only annoy the heck out of me to keep track of, but also make this a numbers game. If I wanted a numbers game, this'd be in tabletops. Levels go off the honor system; you level when it seems plausible, and I'll trust you guys to keep it that way.
Skills:
As I've stated earlier, this is a classless game; all characters have the freedom to learn whatever skills they wish, but must a) meet the prerequisites to do so and b) put time and effort into making the skill stronger. Furthermore, not all skills HAVE to be combat skills; life skills, like blacksmithing and cooking and tailoring, all exist in-game.
Some skills will be inherently stronger than others (you know, since a spark ain't gonna match up to a ball of fire), so stat bonuses will differ depending on rank. Again, not quantifying this. I WILL, however, be quantifying skill rank (because, you know, experienced users should be getting more outta their stuff). For this, I'll be using the old classic system: F to A, then S, SS, SSS, then EX. EX is where it stops.
RPers will have the ability to make their own skills, but they'll need approval by me if they're gonna slide.
In-game technology is roughly Renaissance level, reaching over into the Age of Exploration with the arrival of guns and seafaring ships. Make of that as you will.
Inventory:
A player's inventory is made up of 3 things:
1) Hammerspace money bag. Par for the course, it can store an infinite amount of money. As a downside, you lose a percentage of that on death. Banks are VERY helpful.
2) Key item hammerspace hammerspace bag. So long as it's important to a quest, it can be put in here.
3) Weighted normal inventory. Basically hammerspace bag with a weight limit. Equipped items don't count towards this total (for obvious reasons). Movement doesn't start getting sluggish until the bag is over capacity. It's not as if you'll stop moving, but from then on, until you start emptying that mess out, you can't stuff anything else in there. Bag upgrades exist... in the new patch, so for now EVERYONE'S got a 200lb bag. That's about 90kg, for all the people using the metric system.
All items are accessed with a GUI that pops out of the main menu (a la EVERY MMO EVER). No one ACTUALLY has to dig anything out of their bags.
Equipment:
Alright. Remember how I was just going on about not quantifying stats? I'm sticking to that. Weapons crafted or dropped from things that are harder to kill/get to? Those will usually be stronger. I'm also not gonna stop anyone from customizing weapons, unless of course you decide to try and make anything like a automatic rifle or anything equally more more advanced than that.(at which point I will calmly have it implode and let everyone move on with their lives.) That aside, all customization's fair game. I recommend adding flavor text. Might lead to interesting things in the future. But remember, we're not trying to emulate the ol' 'unstoppable object v immovable wall' dilemma here. Well, hopefully. Something's gonna give, and then nobody ends up happy.
Combat:
Going off the Log Horizon standard, skills can be cast 2 ways: either done via menu, or cast by means of player actions. With the full range of mobility that actually BEING in the world grants a person, this becomes a lot more feasible. There are some features to help things not miss as much, but most of what'll happen is up to the players and how good they are at aiming. No automatic trick shots, aspiring archers!
Items, Item Drops, and their relationship to Equipment:
EVERYTHING drops stuff. Most mobs will have bodies you can loot post-battle (think Monster Hunter), so be careful of what's damaged and what's not. Equipment drops are only from field bosses, dungeon bosses, and raid bosses; they can be anything ranging from aesthetic gear to endgame weapons, but usually something's guaranteed from completing things.
Equipment does NOT count towards the weight total of an inventory, nor does it drop upon death. Which leads me to...
Death and Respawning:
Not gonna lie; people ARE gonna kick the bucket. But death, as you'd expect from the previous statement, ISN'T PERMANENT. You'll lose a % of your EXP, a % of your currently-carried gold, and be stuck in limbo for a good while as a spirit of sorts. You've got two options at this point:
1) Wait it out. You'll respawn at the nearest 'safe' location.
2) Pray that a party member has a revival item. Phoenix down is more effective than phoenix feathers; the latter is usually sold in healer shops in bundles. For a price.
Pets: They're USEFUL! Pets come in all shapes and sizes, but what they all have are the following:
a) Summon timers. Though their length varies, all pets can only be out for a certain amount of time before they go 'poof' for the day.
b) Their own inventories. They work similarly to the players' own, so use that to your advantage.
Pets can be obtained in 3 ways:
a) PURE luck; some things may or may not drop things you need to call a pet up.
b) Actual money; in-RP, this means the veterans. Only one of these per character, as you'd expect.
c) In-game purchases; You know, like... Annoying a stablemaster for one or something.
Quick Movement:
Once a location has been visited by a player (ANY player), a Teleportation Gate is set up such that the location can be accessed by ANY other player at ANY other Gate. Powered by mana, these gates cut down on travel times absurdly quickly, but only exist on the outskirts of towns, cities, or ports.
Let me know if I missed anything.
The World:
The world of Untold Eternity, pre-Dawn, is a large continent with multiple smaller towns surrounding two cities. The new patch, of course, added seafaring vessels and basically opened up exploration of a nearby continent and the ability to set sail on the oceans to places unknown! Other continents may or may not exist; the patch was pretty big...
Old World (Pre-Dawn):
This continent, known as Yeran, is standard fare; most of the villages are situated upon one of the three rivers originating from the Rolu Mountain right in the center of said continent. Most players start out in Toray, situated to the north, and spread out from there.
The two major cities, Araldyne and Caroli, have developed in two locations and, thus, have different economies. The former is located inland, a few miles off from the southeastern base of Rolu Mountain; having started as a trade outpost for merchants in the past, thanks to the continued efforts of adventurers since the game's release, the location is touted as one of the fastest-growing locations pre-Dawn. Caroli, on the other hand, is a port city retconned in by the developers on the western coast of the continent upon the game's update. Similar to how a port like Venice would look, Caroli's growth has been tuned to follow Araldyne's, barring anyone messing with the system.
New World (Post-Dawn):
The new continent, as expected, is to the west. Yet unnamed by the inhabitants of Yeran, from what the sailors can tell, nobody knows if the place is inhabited or not.
(Note: I'll update this section as the RP progresses.)
Rules:
1. No Sues/Stus. Please. Like, I get you can go wild with the way I've set this up, but please, nothing too stupid perfect.
2. No godmodding/powerplaying. PvP is a thing. yes. Duels are fine. That's okay. But please, don't immediately just smack face for lethal. At least give them a chance to fight back or something (unless it's planned. If you two discussed it beforehand, then I have no complaints.)
3. Accept death and loss with dignity. Complete party wipes are a thing. They will happen. They'll usually be intentional. They won't happen often, but they WILL happen. Just how games go.
4. Max 3 characters. Pets and NPCs don't count.
5. PG-13, people! Romance is fine, but take it somewhere else if you want to go that far.
6. Baseball rules. 3 strikes, and you're out.
7. No character should be able to solve complex problems or draft complex machinery unless they KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING. No way should a random teenager be able to create the schematics for a man-o-war out of the blue unless they're a navy nut like that.
8. Guns aren't op just because they're guns. These are things like matchlock pistols and flintlock rifles we're talking about here. Yes, they may hurt a LOT more, but they're also quite volatile to handle. Because, you know, THEY'RE NOT MODERN GUNS. Bow are not made immediately obsolete just because they exist.
9. Be civil. I don't do things out of spite. If misfortune happens upon a character, then there's probably something in the future that has relevance to it. That, or lady luck just wasn't feeling very happy. Don't worry, my own characters are just as subject to misfortune as anyone else's.
10. Have fun, and good luck. Might need it, might not.
So... Yeah, there's my attempt at a... Well, "generic" RP. Never GMed one, so might as well scratch that off the bucket list.
We're open for business!
And yes, I wanted to be snarky for once in my life. Sue me.
Welcome to the world of Untold Eternity!
And by welcome, I quite do literally mean welcome.
Launched in 2018, Untold Eternity was released on the PC by Lucent Co., Ltd. as an old callback to older MMORPGS as the genre was beginning to fade away. Some way or another, it managed to explode in popularity, bringing the genre back to life even as VR technology seemed to be on the verge of a breakthrough. Even without the allure thereof, the game managed to garner a large audience, largely thanks to the wonders of the internet.
Either as an old veteran or a new player, you've decided to pick up the game when its newest patch, 'Dawn of a new Era', was released in 2020. You came in expecting another old game update, but instead, you're actually in the game!
I mean, there's not much weirder you can get than that.
So, here are a few things that are a bit more... Different than you'd expect.
1) Meta-knowledge. I don't necessarily mean "I know what will happen at point X, Y, and Z," even though for "veteran" characters that'll likely be the case. I mean this more along the lines of... Media like SAO, Log Horizon, .hack, and all those other series have existed in-universe for quite a while.
2) Classless, player-driven progression: The RP will start with the older areas filled in; there's an entirely new section of the world that is yet to be uncovered, and it'll be filled in as players move around and explore.
3) Collabs ENCOURAGED: Combat against mindless AIs get boring. It gets stale. This is just a fact of life: grinding is BORING. So in order to spice things up, I'd recommend you pair with whoever you're with and write things up as a team. Fetch quests will exists, but they will be uncommon and may or may not cause events to occur. 'Kill X of Y monster' quests will impact the environment. EVERYTHING HAS CONSEQUENCES!
4) Raids? Dungeons? EVERYWHERE. Raids are what you'd expect; giant multi-man parties tackling giant missions for some reason or another. Dungeons... Well...
If you guys have every played any games in ANY Mystery Dungeon series, they're supposed to play out like the dungeons in there; randomly generated upon entry, random rewards, then boss. Difficulty and size vary, of course, but... Well, you get the picture.
Mechanics:
Since the characters are effectively going into a fantasy world with game mechanics, there are some things to be clarified. They'll be expanded on below.
Stats:
The cornerstones of most RPGs. We've got HP, MP, Stamina, STR, INT, DEX, LUK, DEF, WIS, AGI, and CHA (last one's a bit weird; stands for charisma). Max level is 120, but I'd like for all characters to start at about 100 or below. Just as a reminder: these will be taking a backseat to what ACTUALLY happens most of the time. They'll exist, and for the most part people should be generalizing how strong or how fast or WHATEVER you are in-RP. I'm not going to assign numerical values for them because quantification would not only annoy the heck out of me to keep track of, but also make this a numbers game. If I wanted a numbers game, this'd be in tabletops. Levels go off the honor system; you level when it seems plausible, and I'll trust you guys to keep it that way.
Skills:
As I've stated earlier, this is a classless game; all characters have the freedom to learn whatever skills they wish, but must a) meet the prerequisites to do so and b) put time and effort into making the skill stronger. Furthermore, not all skills HAVE to be combat skills; life skills, like blacksmithing and cooking and tailoring, all exist in-game.
Some skills will be inherently stronger than others (you know, since a spark ain't gonna match up to a ball of fire), so stat bonuses will differ depending on rank. Again, not quantifying this. I WILL, however, be quantifying skill rank (because, you know, experienced users should be getting more outta their stuff). For this, I'll be using the old classic system: F to A, then S, SS, SSS, then EX. EX is where it stops.
RPers will have the ability to make their own skills, but they'll need approval by me if they're gonna slide.
In-game technology is roughly Renaissance level, reaching over into the Age of Exploration with the arrival of guns and seafaring ships. Make of that as you will.
Inventory:
A player's inventory is made up of 3 things:
1) Hammerspace money bag. Par for the course, it can store an infinite amount of money. As a downside, you lose a percentage of that on death. Banks are VERY helpful.
2) Key item hammerspace hammerspace bag. So long as it's important to a quest, it can be put in here.
3) Weighted normal inventory. Basically hammerspace bag with a weight limit. Equipped items don't count towards this total (for obvious reasons). Movement doesn't start getting sluggish until the bag is over capacity. It's not as if you'll stop moving, but from then on, until you start emptying that mess out, you can't stuff anything else in there. Bag upgrades exist... in the new patch, so for now EVERYONE'S got a 200lb bag. That's about 90kg, for all the people using the metric system.
All items are accessed with a GUI that pops out of the main menu (a la EVERY MMO EVER). No one ACTUALLY has to dig anything out of their bags.
Equipment:
Alright. Remember how I was just going on about not quantifying stats? I'm sticking to that. Weapons crafted or dropped from things that are harder to kill/get to? Those will usually be stronger. I'm also not gonna stop anyone from customizing weapons, unless of course you decide to try and make anything like a automatic rifle or anything equally more more advanced than that.(at which point I will calmly have it implode and let everyone move on with their lives.) That aside, all customization's fair game. I recommend adding flavor text. Might lead to interesting things in the future. But remember, we're not trying to emulate the ol' 'unstoppable object v immovable wall' dilemma here. Well, hopefully. Something's gonna give, and then nobody ends up happy.
Combat:
Going off the Log Horizon standard, skills can be cast 2 ways: either done via menu, or cast by means of player actions. With the full range of mobility that actually BEING in the world grants a person, this becomes a lot more feasible. There are some features to help things not miss as much, but most of what'll happen is up to the players and how good they are at aiming. No automatic trick shots, aspiring archers!
Items, Item Drops, and their relationship to Equipment:
EVERYTHING drops stuff. Most mobs will have bodies you can loot post-battle (think Monster Hunter), so be careful of what's damaged and what's not. Equipment drops are only from field bosses, dungeon bosses, and raid bosses; they can be anything ranging from aesthetic gear to endgame weapons, but usually something's guaranteed from completing things.
Equipment does NOT count towards the weight total of an inventory, nor does it drop upon death. Which leads me to...
Death and Respawning:
Not gonna lie; people ARE gonna kick the bucket. But death, as you'd expect from the previous statement, ISN'T PERMANENT. You'll lose a % of your EXP, a % of your currently-carried gold, and be stuck in limbo for a good while as a spirit of sorts. You've got two options at this point:
1) Wait it out. You'll respawn at the nearest 'safe' location.
2) Pray that a party member has a revival item. Phoenix down is more effective than phoenix feathers; the latter is usually sold in healer shops in bundles. For a price.
Pets: They're USEFUL! Pets come in all shapes and sizes, but what they all have are the following:
a) Summon timers. Though their length varies, all pets can only be out for a certain amount of time before they go 'poof' for the day.
b) Their own inventories. They work similarly to the players' own, so use that to your advantage.
Pets can be obtained in 3 ways:
a) PURE luck; some things may or may not drop things you need to call a pet up.
b) Actual money; in-RP, this means the veterans. Only one of these per character, as you'd expect.
c) In-game purchases; You know, like... Annoying a stablemaster for one or something.
Quick Movement:
Once a location has been visited by a player (ANY player), a Teleportation Gate is set up such that the location can be accessed by ANY other player at ANY other Gate. Powered by mana, these gates cut down on travel times absurdly quickly, but only exist on the outskirts of towns, cities, or ports.
Let me know if I missed anything.
The World:
The world of Untold Eternity, pre-Dawn, is a large continent with multiple smaller towns surrounding two cities. The new patch, of course, added seafaring vessels and basically opened up exploration of a nearby continent and the ability to set sail on the oceans to places unknown! Other continents may or may not exist; the patch was pretty big...
Old World (Pre-Dawn):
This continent, known as Yeran, is standard fare; most of the villages are situated upon one of the three rivers originating from the Rolu Mountain right in the center of said continent. Most players start out in Toray, situated to the north, and spread out from there.
The two major cities, Araldyne and Caroli, have developed in two locations and, thus, have different economies. The former is located inland, a few miles off from the southeastern base of Rolu Mountain; having started as a trade outpost for merchants in the past, thanks to the continued efforts of adventurers since the game's release, the location is touted as one of the fastest-growing locations pre-Dawn. Caroli, on the other hand, is a port city retconned in by the developers on the western coast of the continent upon the game's update. Similar to how a port like Venice would look, Caroli's growth has been tuned to follow Araldyne's, barring anyone messing with the system.
New World (Post-Dawn):
The new continent, as expected, is to the west. Yet unnamed by the inhabitants of Yeran, from what the sailors can tell, nobody knows if the place is inhabited or not.
(Note: I'll update this section as the RP progresses.)
Rules:
1. No Sues/Stus. Please. Like, I get you can go wild with the way I've set this up, but please, nothing too stupid perfect.
2. No godmodding/powerplaying. PvP is a thing. yes. Duels are fine. That's okay. But please, don't immediately just smack face for lethal. At least give them a chance to fight back or something (unless it's planned. If you two discussed it beforehand, then I have no complaints.)
3. Accept death and loss with dignity. Complete party wipes are a thing. They will happen. They'll usually be intentional. They won't happen often, but they WILL happen. Just how games go.
4. Max 3 characters. Pets and NPCs don't count.
5. PG-13, people! Romance is fine, but take it somewhere else if you want to go that far.
6. Baseball rules. 3 strikes, and you're out.
7. No character should be able to solve complex problems or draft complex machinery unless they KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING. No way should a random teenager be able to create the schematics for a man-o-war out of the blue unless they're a navy nut like that.
8. Guns aren't op just because they're guns. These are things like matchlock pistols and flintlock rifles we're talking about here. Yes, they may hurt a LOT more, but they're also quite volatile to handle. Because, you know, THEY'RE NOT MODERN GUNS. Bow are not made immediately obsolete just because they exist.
9. Be civil. I don't do things out of spite. If misfortune happens upon a character, then there's probably something in the future that has relevance to it. That, or lady luck just wasn't feeling very happy. Don't worry, my own characters are just as subject to misfortune as anyone else's.
10. Have fun, and good luck. Might need it, might not.
So... Yeah, there's my attempt at a... Well, "generic" RP. Never GMed one, so might as well scratch that off the bucket list.
We're open for business!
And yes, I wanted to be snarky for once in my life. Sue me.
