CaptainManbeard

Drachenvale: Curse of the Dragon's Amulet

Wow, that's great lore. Is the roleplay still open, I would like to join in.

@Trenen

Sure!

Since we're getting quite a few people interested now, we should probably each lay out exactly what powersets we want for our characters. My main character is going to be able to perceive Echoes - which are like remnant essences from great magical beasts who died centuries ago - and absorb them into his body. This grants him the ability to wield the same powers as the beasts, but to a much smaller degree. He will be sort of like a magical version of Ben 10, but when he first starts out, he only has like one or two Echoes and then gathers more as the story unfolds. I'll use Dodger Blue as his dialogue color, and his first Esper will be a Dracarym, a creature name I just made up that resembles a grey and blue Mega Charizard X.

And I'm probably gonna use my main character's aunt as the evil Thrall, who is the Mayor of Drachenvale and has the power to create artificial items, creatures, and monsters from a purplish energy, kinda like Agatha Harkness. For her dialogue color, I'm going to use Medium Purple.

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and you can't tell me a "young, beautiful angel. [who] imprints upon them a burning desire to locate her Tomb" to recover an amulet wouldn't seem like the start of a fellowship or a guild that's going to take them away from their current lives to start a new more exciting one.

I'm assuming they aren't just zombie walking all the way there, but rather it's an urge to get there that put's it's self on the top of their list.

aside from her friend, she hasn't met most of the others also coming for the amulet yet right?

@kitramos

I think perhaps you glimpsed over my original idea instead of reading it exactly. All the characters are residents of a small town in modern Oregon. The tomb is hidden underground, beneath the town. They don't have very far to travel, and yeah, they are zombie walking there.

From my first post: That night, her soul is partially awakened, and she reaches out into the sleeping minds of Drachenvale's residents. Seeking those who have enough dormant magical potential to be of use to her, she speaks to them in their dreams, taking the form of a young, beautiful angel. She imprints upon them a burning desire to locate her Tomb, and as if in a trance, her chosen Thralls from around the town make their way to the secret entrance in the dead of night. They enter her Tomb, break the amulet out of its cage, and they are each bathed in a different color light that grants them draconic powers.

Just then, a stranger intervenes, and our characters are lifted from their trance, much to the fury of Mephista. They recognize him as Caveman Calbert, an old hermit who built a home into the side of a mountain and rarely ventures into town. Turns out he is the last surviving member of the Dragon Watch, which had stopped recruiting new members decades ago due to the magical bloodlines becoming too diluted to wield any power. Once it was just him left and he couldn't find anyone with magical potential to replace him, Calbert cast a powerful spell to bind his soul to an amulet of his own, making him immortal so long as his Vestige remained intact.

They don't think they're joining a fellowship or guild that first night, it's not a new life completely separate from their old ones, they are still all living in the same town, and chances are many of them have at least passed by each other in a local grocery store or something. That first night is mostly confusion because they don't fully understand what's happening until Calbert shows up to break them out of the trance.

Drachenvale: Curse of the Dragon's Amulet

I never said it was against their will, I was trying to say it was something they where very much okay with and even had some reason to want to be on the other side even. just didn't want it badly enough to make it a priority over the other things. and when it happened the are surprised but not upset as it was on their list of things they wanted.

I'm not trying to stomp on anyone toes, or even try to keep in that aspect to my character, just explain where my mind was. I'll respect that you guys have different options on this so I'm going to drop it, and not bring that up again.

my character was born female and remains that way. I'll go with that as your right none of us need/want the drama and this has turned into way more drama then I wanted. So lets just forget I even brought up the idea of me playing a trans char and I won't bring it up again. Sorry for causing a mess.

@kitramos

Against their will in the sense that it wasn't a conscious choice to suddenly change what gender they are presenting as, since you mentioned them being surprised by it and having a culture shock. If this were to happen in the RP, she should already be presenting - dressing and acting - as her female gender identity prior to exposure to the amulet. I have no problem whatsoever with anyone playing a character anywhere on the LGBTQIA+ spectrums, so long as it is done respectfully. If you want to play a trans character, I'm all for it, but I don't want the transition to jump from zero to a hundred with no time for the character to reflect and acknowledge how they are truly feeling. If you want to do this, I strongly feel the character should already identify as a trans woman prior to the change. I understand you didn't mean for it to come off the way it was received, and I'm sure we can all still have a great time in the RP together.

I'm interested, if you have room for a few more!

@Stitches

Sure! Welcome aboard!

Drachenvale: Curse of the Dragon's Amulet

okay, I can see that this is also not being taken the way I intended either and last thing I want to do is make people uncomfortable.
I suppose this does highlight how everyone's journey is different, as I wasn't just making this up wholesale. but putting in personal experiences and having the char be where I'm at pre change and then get to explore vicariously what it might be like if I had the means to do such a transformation, as it's one I think I would take if I had the option. I guess I would fit more on that gender fluid side of things as there are certainly times I would love to have the option and there are times it's not such a big deal to me. and just never had to think about it to much until now.

anyways, as I said the last thing I want to do is make people uncomfortable as this is supposed to be fun, so if it's going to cause problems we can just say my char has always been female.

@kitramos

Well, as I said before, I'd be okay if the character was already transitioning and presenting as their gender identity, but what you were suggesting is a character who, for all intents and purposes, presents as male and lives within that identity and then they are suddenly changed into a new gender against their will and before they've even begun transitioning into that gender identity. Such a situation would likely cause a lot of psychological trauma for anyone, and that particular type of trauma is not something I'm interested in seeing in an RP, especially considering there is about to be a lot of real life trauma of the sort if these election predictions turn out to be true.

<Snipped quote by CaptainManbeard>

I’m going with this.

@Crimson Flame

Okay, sounds good! XD

Drachenvale: Curse of the Dragon's Amulet

Yeah, I'm transgender(ftm), and this feels a bit iffy to me. I'm okay with the geomancer and artificer knowing each other, though! <33

@Dragonfly 9

I have a lot of friends who are LGBTQIA+, and hate the idea of disrespecting and triviliazing their lifestyles, their struggles, their journeys, even in an RP. I understand that was not Kitramos's intent, but it still makes me uncomfortable. But them knowing each other does sound cool! XD

Drachenvale: Curse of the Dragon's Amulet

I understand about wanting to avoid transphobia, and really I wouldn't be going in that direction either that was not my idea at all.

it certainly did react to an inner desire to be one. I did want it to be a surprise to both of them a pleasant one but a surprise none the less. like that one ticket you bought just so happened to have the winning numbers. a big surprise but a good one.

so he may of given it some thought but maybe was to discouraged to think to much on it and hasn't really said much about it to his friend.
so can still that that wtf moment, but also be like ooh I just got a free upgrade. I think he's also going to have some culture shock moments both good and bad. though again he's still going to consider the change a good thing over all.

does that make sense?

@kitramos

But if she has felt that she should be a woman deep down, then the sudden change is almost like forcing her to come out of the closet before she is ready, which could be horribly traumatizing. It could also be incredibly triggering to anyone reading along who happens to be transgender. I think this particular route you're going for may be better off left alone. If we're including a transgender character for diversity and representation, that's one thing, but this feels too much like a gimmick that is in bad taste. I hope you can understand.

Drachenvale: Curse of the Dragon's Amulet

<Snipped quote by Dragonfly 9>

I'm fine with that long as I get a buddy to play with.

I did have two other ideas I thought might also stir the pot a little more, but can be left out if need be.

what if the geomancer and the artifacer knew each other before this all went down? could be another reason they where so quick to start working together. while they haven't worked on anything like this before, it would make more sense that they are the first person she asks.

And What if my character started out as a guy, but somehow when the powers where granted it transformed them into a girl? I think it would give some extra fun problems for them to work though

@kitramos

We'd have to make sure we are respectful when portraying someone changing genders. I have zero tolerance for transphobia of any kind, so I don't want anyone to write their characters as "weirded out" by the change or anything of the sort. One way to do that is to have the character be genderfluid prior to their exposure to the amulet, and part of their powers centers around shifting their body between masculine and feminine forms depending on how they identify at any given time. Another option is to say the character was already transitioning from male to female, and the amulet granted their deep-seeded desire to have a body that matches their mind. However, having a normal, cis male who suddenly has a permanent female body might tilt a little too far towards transphobia for my taste.

Drachenvale: Curse of the Dragon's Amulet

<Snipped quote by CaptainManbeard>

Can I be the geomancer instead of you(if you and ktramos are okay with that, I mean)? The idea sounds more interesting than what I had anyway.

@Dragonfly 9

Sure, I have no problem with that XD.

<Snipped quote by CaptainManbeard>

Not at the moment. xD

I just have the idea of a young man who’s bored of being in this small town, but really likes the magic stuff.

@Crimson Flame

One idea is to give him an overactive imagination from being so bored, and his power manifests as manipulating light into illusions or something.

For my main character, I think I'm going to give him the ability to channel the essences of ancient magical beasts and temporarily have their powers or something. Kinda like Ben 10.

Drachenvale: Curse of the Dragon's Amulet

Yeah! Like, in addition to the books, maybe part of her ability is to see secret aspects of things in general, and she is able to use that to draw out hidden power within ancient crystals and use those as fuel sources for her machines. And maybe I could create an extra character who gains a form of geomancy and can manipulate rocks, crystals, metals, etc. Those two would work great together; she is the brains behind the machines, and he is the brawn, retrieving and shaping the different parts she needs. She could have a notebook where she translates the books and recreates the blueprints in a form he can understand, and then he uses that to craft the various parts and gears and whatever else she needs. Then she uses those parts to put the machines together and power them or something. Of course, that is completely up to you. If you'd like her to be solely responsible for the machines, that's totally fine too XD.

Drachenvale: Curse of the Dragon's Amulet

well first thought is maybe more like steampunk style gadgets that are powered by her magic.

@kitramos

Hmmm... Since they have no knowledge of anything magical prior to their encounter with the amulet, we would need to do her abilities in such a way that works with the story. If she's a bookworm, maybe she read a lot of stuff on fantasy machines from fictional stories, and her new powers somehow give her the ability to build those machines for real. Or another idea is that she develops the ability to read special magical writing in Calbert's collected books that even he himself never managed to read. Like, when anyone looks at the pages, the writing seems like a jumbled mess, but her brain is able to put it together and reveals plans and blueprints for machines that can aide them in their fight against Mephista, her corrupted Thrall, and their army of monsters.

Drachenvale: Curse of the Dragon's Amulet

Well I'm interested, as for characters I was thinking of maybe a book worm turned Artificer. or if that doesn't fit, I can come up with something else

@kitramos

Welcome, and thanks for the interest! What type of abilities did you have in mind for the Artificer?