Ashgan

The Prophecy

I'm around, certainly. Time really does fly, I seem incapable of realising how much of it has passed since last I did make an appearance. I may be negligent, but I won't go anywhere - and your post is coming.

Betwixt the Eternal Light

Still around, sure.

Judah

Yo Capra, reserving this post for my character sheet. Most likely I'll end up re-using my previous one, but I'll most likely go over the sheet again and make some improvements to it before submitting it; I'd feel really lazy just posting the same thing again, especially since there were parts I was unhappy with. Hopefully we can get it running this time ;_;

The Prophecy

The words ‘this is pointless’ lay heavy on Jillian’s tongue, and had she not been as exhausted and defeated as she was, she might just have said so – as it was, she was too tired to even do that. It was fortunate that Gerald still had the presence of mind and strength of will to go on, to question the demon lord’s every word, to inquire ever more knowledge. While his witch companion withdrew into herself, wallowing in pessimism, he continued to interrogate the Grand Master on the subject of immortals and their relation to the Spirit Realm. The demon’s answer was confusing to say the least, and Gerald too seemed unable to follow his implications. Kevin the Insignificant and Kreshtaat – were they somehow two separate entities, in spite of being one and the same? Two souls trapped in the same body? Was it possible for one half of the old evil to dream in the Spirit Realm, while the other remained ignorant and trapped in the abyss? What a hollow, tortured existence it must be.

Following the ancient one’s exposition on the matter, it seemed that the witch had been half right, at least. Apparently Kreshtaat was indeed a being of a dual nature; an age old demon, so powerful that he is considered anathema to all life, and there it was, a tiny, mortal, human fragment buried deep inside the sea of infinite darkness that was his soul. Could he be saved? Freed from his demon part? The romantic in her wondered. If his human part dreamed in the Spirit Realm, perhaps they could sever his bond to the rest of his soul. No, that would only cause an even more painful existence, maybe even result in the birth of a ghost. Still, at the very least they might be able to communicate with him, hear what he has to say when he is not under the sway of his demonic being. For all they knew, he might still be sane and yearning for freedom – or merciful death.

“Is that really wise?” Jillian interjected, lifting her gaze once more and casting glances at both Gerald and the Grand Master, her expression unusually soft and almost sad.

“We just learned that the most powerful and most evil creature in existence has a sliver of humanity left in him, buried somewhere deep within – and you’re suggesting we just kill it? Might be that it ends the Withering, but if there had ever been a way to save Kreshtaat, or Kevin, from himself… well, we’d have gotten rid of that chance for good. I- I don’t know. All I’m saying, I guess, is that we should consider talking to him before we get to the killing. You never know, right?”

Jillian nervously shuffled her feet, looking uncertain of herself. Halfway through her words, she already began feeling like a fool. It was a charming thought to be sure, the idea that they could somehow cure Kreshtaat from being what he was, but most likely there was no chance for them. Indeed, by showing reluctance as she suggested, they might be wasting their one chance to land the kill that they so desperately needed to save their own souls from the infernal deal they struck. In their predicament, perhaps they should not worry about other people’s souls any longer.

Betwixt the Eternal Light

Just need Ink and we're good to go I suppose.

Betwixt the Eternal Light

Hey folks. I'm sorry for not having shown much of a lifesign these past few weeks, but I've actually been quite badly ill, and couldn't do much of anything, thus also not writing any kind of post. The good news is that I did not actually die, so I can get back to business as usual. How's it going Beo, Ink? We should probably consider continuing our collab one of these days.

The Prophecy

Hey folks. I'm sorry for not having shown much of a lifesign these past few weeks, but I've actually been quite badly ill, and couldn't do much of anything, thus also not writing any kind of post. The good news is that I did not actually die, so I can get back to business as usual. Which is probably still quite slow, but not as bad. Will get to a Prophecy post really soon though.

Our Dark Star

I see. So I can see your train of thought and it fits the bill insofar. I will also agree that the whole risk thing goes out the window, which is a loss, admittedly. My personal concern was for troops disappearing into thin air without justifiable reason other than "well you wanted security, that's the price". It ultimately boils down though to what Rhymer thinks fits best with the intended tone of the setting. I could even see merit in not using stats at all and letting the GM make the call on how a battle goes (or even better, players coming to an agreement).

Just some friendly discussion; I really like talking all things game design, so it's in my nature to bring this stuff up. Maybe we can even come up with a system that allows for an element of risk, as well as an element of gradual attrition/war fatigue in armies.

Our Dark Star

Certainly, drafting an army is not a simple thing and its effect on the citizenry has to be reflected accordingly. And, to be fair, I don't know enough about the setting yet to accurately judge things like deployment speeds, conscription rules and so on. With them regenerating gradually it would certainly alleviate the frequent battle issue, I guess I also have one wonder that would certainly change my perspective on things, and that is how troop permanency/positioning is handled. Say you draft an army, move somewhere, then win to a convincing enough extent that you could keep going. Do your guys get consumed on the spot? Sent home immediately? Or are they allowed to keep going towards perhaps an ultimate objective, somehow? A second question pertaining to the token system is how you would treat different unit types, to balance their worth against one another. What I liked about Rhymer's initial concept is that you could essentially draft an army, give them an appropriate "health" value of sorts, and then have them exist for as long as said value is something above 0 (probably significantly above, considering morale and all). The token system feels a little all-in heavy, unless they were allowed to persist on the map, which essentially turns them into health anyway.

Both systems can work, in the end, but I think one offers more versatility than the other.

Edit: You could pretty much combine the two by just allowing the winner to keep any surplus tokens he had (5 tokens vs 8 tokens = winner keeps 3) in play.

Our Dark Star

Yo. As a disclaimer, I hope I can manage to post on a good schedule; I'm not necessarily known to be very fast. Looking forward, you should expect me to post about once a week, rarely twice. That said, I actually looked at the past iteration of this and felt enticed to a degree. Not sure what eventually made my decision to not join (maybe I was late? too many other things going on?) but I might give it a shot this time. I kind of like your style.

And could I ask what you mean with a 'city-core'? I checked your old thread and I didn't see it mentioned on the quick. That was about the council of a pillar.

Also, on a note on the token combat system: while my opinion might have no weight, I don't actually think it's that good of an idea. The two problems I see are that A: frequent battles will get you spent fast even if your victories were very one-sided, which feels a little unfair and B: the system is very punishing towards players with highly favorable victories. Picture someone sending a single token versus someone who sends all of them. Sure the all-in guy might win, but even though most of his army should be unscathed given their overwhelming victory, they are now all spent for a year. Seems kind of crazy. The system works well when two roughly equal sides have one large battle, but that seems like a narrow area of application. To keep stats simple, I imagine an MTG system, as has been suggested, would be more versatile in this regard.