Dragon Ball Z Roleplay

[Veeks]

Anyone down for a DBZ Roleplay? I'd prefer to do something AU or set in the distant future of the main timeline and focus more on OCs than the original cast. I've got a few plot ideas in mind, one of which involving a Saiyan Queen antagonist. I'm also open to any other plot suggestions you guys might have. Anyone interested?

[Legion-114]

I'm interested.

[Veeks]

Sweet! Do you have a preference for AU or distant future? I've been leaning more toward AU just to keep from mucking things up with the original chronology

[Legion-114]

Having distant future allows us to create our own characters and events without anybody complaining, however if we want to keep most of the original, especially human characters in, we will need to do AU.

[Duthguy]

I'm interested as well though I'm not sure if prefer distant future or AU

[Lord Coake]

I'm interested as well, though I'd much prefer an AU.

[Veeks]

Awesome. I'm leaning toward AU as well, as it gives a better opportunity to produce a more original story. Any suggestions regarding a general plot? I've got a few arc ideas.

1. Saiyan Queen: The Saiyans and Arcosians(Frieza Race) Have been at war for centuries. Throughout their conflict, they've traveled throughout the galaxy, claiming any planets they come across as a part of their respective Empires. The war's waged across the galaxy, and the Saiyan Empire has finally reached earth. The Saiyans, lead by their ruthless Empress of Pain, Queen Sorrel, begin their campaign on the unsuspecting planet.

2. Demon Saga: A powerful demon from another dimension uses dark magic to force his way into the world of the living, and begins raising a powerful army to turn the Earth into the capital of what will soon be a new Demon Empire.

3. World Martial Arts Tournament: Just start it off with a good ol' fashioned tournament. Nice, simple plot that can easily and comfortably introduce our characters to each other.

Any of this sound interesting? Any suggestions?

[Lord Coake]

@VeeksI've always been a big fan of starting out with a World Tournament. I also think it might be interesting to have the story progress similar to the DB-DBZ timeline, in that our first 2-3 villains are already on Earth, and then the scale gets progressively larger until we're saving the whole universe.

[Duthguy]

Yeah so maybe we begin with the tournament, than deal with the demon after which the Saiyans arrive.

[Double]

@VeeksI'm interested as well, but I feel the need to caution you about opening on a World Tournament. Speaking from experience, starting with a Tournament basically locks out any late comers from getting to do anything other than sit around watching the other players have all the fun. I've actually genuinely seen it happen in other games. Another aspect about Tournament arcs that isn't really fun to think about is that it will basically require all participates to be absolutely committed to posted, otherwise the game will grind to a painful halt whilst everyone waits for specific players to post. There's also the idea of waiting around for each paired up player to post back and forth until their fight is settled. Granted, this is a thing that will persist in ALL battles, but at least in non-Tournament settings the other players can still do other things while the fight is going on. At a Tournament... they're basically stuck in the audience unless they go out of their way to cause or find trouble (which can be a problem in and of itself).

I'm not necessarily voting against the idea of a Tournament arc altogether, but I am rather cautious about opening the whole RP on one.

[Lord Coake]

@DoubleThere's a solution to that, borrow the DBZ-era(I think) Royal Rumble-esque rules, where they send fighters in until only one is left.

[Veeks]

@VeeksI'm interested as well, but I feel the need to caution you about opening on a World Tournament. Speaking from experience, starting with a Tournament basically locks out any late comers from getting to do anything other than sit around watching the other players have all the fun. I've actually genuinely seen it happen in other games. Another aspect about Tournament arcs that isn't really fun to think about is that it will basically require all participates to be absolutely committed to posted, otherwise the game will grind to a painful halt whilst everyone waits for specific players to post. There's also the idea of waiting around for each paired up player to post back and forth until their fight is settled. Granted, this is a thing that will persist in ALL battles, but at least in non-Tournament settings the other players can still do other things while the fight is going on. At a Tournament... they're basically stuck in the audience unless they go out of their way to cause or find trouble (which can be a problem in and of itself).

I'm not necessarily voting against the idea of a Tournament arc altogether, but I am rather cautious about opening the whole RP on one.

@Double

You make some valid points. I was worried about this too, but felt I should at least bring it up and see what everyone else thinks. I was also thinking of going a "World's Strongest" route and start the RP off with a mad scientist who's found a way to harness the magical properties of Dragon Balls and actually use them as a source of unlimited power, which would fuel an endless army of droids/mechs infused with the latent ki energy naturally given off by the Dragon Balls. The scientist will have only collected about three or four, but our heroes could stumble upon his lair or even be on the receiving end of an attack as he sends his droids across the planet, souring the globe for the rest of the Dragon Balls.

Another thing I'm a bit reluctant to bring up: Power Levels/Scaling. How should it be handled? Should power levels be a thing? How should power be gauged? A lot of Roleplayers like the numbers aspect of Power Levels, and a few DBZ RPs I've been in have had some fairly comprehensive and reliable systems when it comes to dealing with power levels and how they rise as the RP progresses. I personally have nothing against power levels, but I'd avoid them if I could, just to keep things from getting messy between players. I want to have a Roleplay where we're all contributing to one overarching story, as opposed to just doing whatever we can to make our characters look cool, which has been a constant problem I've faced every time I've tried to do a DBZ Roleplay. Thoughts?

[Veeks]

bump

[Dark Light]

What plan would be in place for conflict resolution? Fights and such.

[Little Bird]

Another thing I'm a bit reluctant to bring up: Power Levels/Scaling. How should it be handled? Should power levels be a thing? How should power be gauged? A lot of Roleplayers like the numbers aspect of Power Levels, and a few DBZ RPs I've been in have had some fairly comprehensive and reliable systems when it comes to dealing with power levels and how they rise as the RP progresses. I personally have nothing against power levels, but I'd avoid them if I could, just to keep things from getting messy between players. I want to have a Roleplay where we're all contributing to one overarching story, as opposed to just doing whatever we can to make our characters look cool, which has been a constant problem I've faced every time I've tried to do a DBZ Roleplay. Thoughts?

@Veeks

If we were going to go with power levels, it might be easiest to implement them into some kind of stat system. I've had ideas for such a system, though it may not be popular.

Alternatively, it would probably be best to:
1. Assume each character to be on a similar power scale. The obvious exceptions would be primary (and a few secondary) antagonists.
2. Take measures to ensure that factors/races that would otherwise glean dramatic advantages; for example, limiting permanent fusions, and setting the RP within a point in time at which Saiyan bloodlines have dramatically diminished in purity, to prevent SSJ and Zenkai boosts.

Personally, I like the 2nd and 3rd plot ideas.

[Dark Light]

Here's a quick simple layout to give players boundaries and a way to compare characters. If interested we can build some more detail but the idea is not to over complicate.

Stats
1=pitiful, 3=average human, 5=human peak, 7=super, 10=godlike

Offence =
Str
Speed
Attack chi

Defense=
Endurance
Awareness
Ability chi

Chi
Each point potentially resembles a new skill, multiple points can be put together to make a more powerful skill.

Charging a chi skill will increase its effective point allocation by 1.
Putting a charge requirement on a skill (meaning it has to be charged to be used) increases it's effective points by 2.
(Charging requires its own post and cannot be released until the opponent has posted.)

Ability chi:
If it is not an attack it is probably an ability chi. Examples include
Flight
Instant transmission
Invisibility
Multiple images
Transformations
Foresight
Ect ect...

Ability chi can be used to boost a stat. As a rule each point in the skill is equal to one stat for one post.
(Starts on one post, ends in the middle of the next.)
A 3 point skill could see you boost your strength by 3 for 3 posts, alternatively by '5 for 1' or by
'2 for 4' or any combination between. But it cannot change once set and chosen.

Favourable
Specials/uniques
This is a certain circumstance that gives you a bonus to one specific skill or attribute but has to have a minus on the flip side.

Ie: Air-born
+1 agi while in the open air
- 1 agi while on the ground

Sponge Bob
+1 combat chi while near water
- 1 defence when not near a water supply

The favour should be less likely or smaller then the unfavourable condition

[Keyblade87]

Im quite interested if youd have me

[Mr_pink]

Interested

[Veeks]

Here's a quick simple layout to give players boundaries and a way to compare characters. If interested we can build some more detail but the idea is not to over complicate.

Stats
1=pitiful, 3=average human, 5=human peak, 7=super, 10=godlike

Offence =
Str
Speed
Attack chi

Defense=
Endurance
Awareness
Ability chi

Chi
Each point potentially resembles a new skill, multiple points can be put together to make a more powerful skill.

Charging a chi skill will increase its effective point allocation by 1.
Putting a charge requirement on a skill (meaning it has to be charged to be used) increases it's effective points by 2.
(Charging requires its own post and cannot be released until the opponent has posted.)

Ability chi:
If it is not an attack it is probably an ability chi. Examples include
Flight
Instant transmission
Invisibility
Multiple images
Transformations
Foresight
Ect ect...

Ability chi can be used to boost a stat. As a rule each point in the skill is equal to one stat for one post.
(Starts on one post, ends in the middle of the next.)
A 3 point skill could see you boost your strength by 3 for 3 posts, alternatively by '5 for 1' or by
'2 for 4' or any combination between. But it cannot change once set and chosen.

Favourable
Specials/uniques
This is a certain circumstance that gives you a bonus to one specific skill or attribute but has to have a minus on the flip side.

Ie: Air-born
+1 agi while in the open air
- 1 agi while on the ground

Sponge Bob
+1 combat chi while near water
- 1 defence when not near a water supply

The favour should be less likely or smaller then the unfavourable condition

@Dark Light

I like this model. I was thinking of giving characters a total of four signature techniques for the time being, and giving them a set amount of "skill points" to assign to each technique, perhaps on the scale of 1 to 10 you provided. Skill points could be earned after every major battle or training session to either increase the strength of existing skills, or spend several more points to create a new technique all together.

@Wayward

I'd be interested to read more about what you have in mind in terms of power levels

[Dark Light]

@Veeks rough character example

Name:Azerus
Height:
Weight:
Appearance: human with 3 eyes
History:
---------------------
(22 point character)

Stats;
Str 3
Speed 4
Attack chi 3

Endurance 3
Awareness 4
Ability chi 5

Offence = 10
Defense= 12
--------------------

Chi:
Offence=3points
• invisible push, mid range
••{••} Charged 3rd eye beam, long range.

Ability=5
• 3rd eye X-Ray / heat vision
• astral projection
••• Astral Aid- manifests a physical astral projection of himself to fight.
+2agi/str, 2rounds.