dreamer

Tales of Survival

@Jerkchicken Sure thing. I'll add that info to the Custom Characters section as I have time.

EDIT: Some guidelines have been provided for Custom Characters. More info will be added later.

Custom Characters

Custom Characters

Custom Characters are created by the community. They must undergo a balance check, perhaps multiple checks, in order to be playable in a Scenario.

Custom Characters can provide a Character Image similar to the ones shown in Canon Characters, or a detailed character sheet. Include enough details to paint a visual picture of your character if you do not have an image for them. Details that must be included are Character Based Stats (Health, Armor, Attack), Character Class, and Traits. Traits must follow the double edged sword method, meaning if a Trait provides a benefit it must also provide a henderance. You can do this either with a single trait that has a pro and con, or two traits with one being the beneficial one and the other the hindrance. (Refer to Canon Characters for examples)

Guidelines
Here are some tips to increase the chances of your Custom Character being accepted and playable in scenarios. Note, both the board game and the RP are subject to change in regards to balance. What might be an okay set of stats early on might turn out to be too weak or too strong later on.

guidelines

• Choose a class and base your character around that class.
  Hunters stats tend to be burst damage based, allowing them to take down animals quickly before they can flee. This makes them more suited for guerrilla tactics with tougher foes rather than drawn out battles. Their traits tend to complement their hunting either in combat or leading to it. (Health is around 5-7, Armor is 0-1, and Attack is 3+)
  Gatherers are based around gathering resources and are able to carry 8 resources instead of 6. They typically aren't suited for combat and rely on the use of their resources to turn the tide of battle. (Health is around 6-8, Armor is 0-1, and Attack is 2-3)
  Warriors excel at combat and have high character stats. However, they lack any talents that would help them regards to gathering resources or surviving the elements and thus tend to rely on cooperation in order to make it through the day. This works the other way around as other characters may need to a Warrior to fend off more dangerous foes. (Health is around 8+, Armor is 1-2, and Attack is 3+)
  Guardians prepare for when things go awry. Their traits tend to provide an escape out of a dangerous situation be it against an encounter or the elements. Because of this, they tend to be life savers when things are at their worst but are rather unproductive when things are less dire. (Stats vary, Guardians can either be really tanky or escape artist. Be one or the other, don't be both)

Tales of Survival

@Roughdragon1 There are six major cities that are the "core" of civilized society.



These are the most well defended and established places in the country/world. There are small towns throughout but they often rise and fall. Although Novus Anima is more stable than the majority of the world, it's still rather chaotic. Natural disasters occur often and on large scales. Bandits plague most of the country as people turn to thieving and murder in order to get by, outside of the major cities. The wildlife can also be very deadly, especially when infected with the crystals that drive them mad.

Blood Horn

So inside the cities, mostly civilized though each has their own problems. Outside those cities, the world is dangerous, some places more so than others.

Tales of Survival

Canon Characters

Custom Characters

These are characters created by @dreamer that you can choose from. You can also create your own, refer to Custom Characters for more info.

Most Canon Characters have multiple variations, versions of a character had they made different choices in life thus impacting who they became. For example, Val (Valencia) ran away from an arranged marriage setup by her father. Valencia would make choices along the way that led to her either becoming Val - The Archer, a young woman who travels the world painting the world and defending herself with a bow' or she made choices that led to her becoming Val - The Bandit Queen, who turned to crime in order to keep herself safe from her father's reaches, eventually becoming a leader amongst a band of bandits.

Val - The Bandit Queen

Teresa - The Essence

Custom Characters

Custom Characters

Custom Characters are created by the community. They must undergo a balance check, perhaps multiple checks, in order to be playable in a Scenario.

Custom Characters can provide a Character Image similar to the ones shown in Canon Characters, or a detailed character sheet. Include enough details to paint a visual picture of your character if you do not have an image for them. Details that must be included are Character Based Stats (Health, Armor, Attack), Character Class, and Traits. Traits must follow the double edged sword method, meaning if a Trait provides a benefit it must also provide a henderance. You can do this either with a single trait that has a pro and con, or two traits with one being the beneficial one and the other the hindrance. (Refer to Canon Characters for examples)

Guidelines
Here are some tips to increase the chances of your custom character being accepted and playable in scenarios. Note, both the board game and the RP are subject to change in regards to balance. What might be an okay set of stats early on might turn out to be too weak or too strong later on.

Guidelines

• Choose a class and base your character around that class.
  Hunters stats tend to be burst damage based, allowing them to take down animals quickly before they can flee. This makes them more suited for guerrilla tactics with tougher foes rather than drawn out battles. Their traits tend to complement their hunting either in combat or leading to it. (Health is around 5-7, Armor is 0-1, and Attack is 3+)
  Gatherers are based around gathering resources and are able to carry 8 resources instead of 6. They typically aren't suited for combat and rely on the use of their resources to turn the tide of battle. (Health is around 6-8, Armor is 0-1, and Attack is 2-3)
  Warriors excel at combat and have high character stats. However, they lack any talents that would help them regards to gathering resources or surviving the elements and thus tend to rely on cooperation in order to make it through the day. This works the other way around as other characters may need to a Warrior to fend off more dangerous foes. (Health is around 8+, Armor is 1-2, and Attack is 3+)
  Guardians prepare for when things go awry. Their traits tend to provide an escape out of a dangerous situation be it against an encounter or the elements. Because of this, they tend to be life savers when things are at their worst but are rather unproductive when things are less dire. (Stats vary, Guardians can either be really tanky or escape artist. Be one or the other, don't be both)

Custom Character Tutorial

A theme you can follow to help when creating a character is to use a (High, Medium, Low) stat setup. By this, I mean for each class a spectrum for each stat is provided. I'll use the Warrior Class as an example

Warrior Spectrum
(Health is around 8+, Armor is 1-2, and Attack is 3+)

OP Warrior
(Health 10, Armor 2, Attack 5)

What we have above is a (High, High, High) setup. Which won't work, not unless your traits are absolutely horrendous on your character which is no fun. Instead, you should pick one stat to be your High, one to be your Medium, and one to be your Low. Here's an example...

Example Warrior
(Health 9, Armor 2, Attack 3)

Example Warrior's setup is (Medium, High, Low) respectively. This setup has our Warrior being a bit on the tanky side, but not quite Guardian levels of tanky. The traits at this point are the defining feature that will lock in our Example Character as a Warrior.

Example Warrior
(Health 9, Armor 2, Attack 3)
Trait 1: Every attack the Warrior lands, his Total Attack increases by 1. (Caps at 8)

Trait 2: Every attack the Warrior misses, his Total Attack decreases by 1. (Minimum of 2)

There you have it, we have our Example Warrior's stats and traits. Just make sure he also has a Bio, Gameplay Description, name, class, and appearance (image or detailed description) listed and you're good to go!

Character List

• Tahzra/Ciaran - roleplayerguild.com/posts/4427155

Tales of Survival

Added Resource section to the original post. More to come, not sure how much I'll get done today though as someone invited me to a D&D session. Never played D&D, only watched it. So we'll see how that goes.

Resources

Resources are necessary to stay alive and can be found throughout the map and can be rewarded for defeating encounters. They include the following;

• Berries, there are three types of these, red berries, yellow berries, and black berries. These are randomly assigned values by the GM at the start of the scenario that determine if they are edible or poisonous. (At least one berry type will be edible and at least one will be poisonous)
• Meat , this is dropped by animals when killed. This should be cooked before being eaten, if not you will likely fall ill.
• Wood , used to build fires and repair structures.
• Herbs, come in three forms simply referred to as, Herb 1, Herb 2, and Herb 3. These will each cure random ailments assigned to them by the GM at the start of the scenario. For example, one may help with an injury, another fever, and the last vomiting.
• Dogbane , is used to repair structures and armor. Acts as a rope of sorts to strap things together.
• Crystal , provides variable effects upon consumption. For most characters consuming a crystal simply adds a single attack dice to their next role. For others the effects can vary, such as Teresa - The Taken, consuming a crystal replenishes one AP (Action Point) at the cost of 1 Health. (Refer to the traits of a character if they mention crystal use)

EDIT: I've added a Character Section, the top post there will list all Canon Characters (made by me) and Custom Characters (made by the community).

Tales of Survival

OOC is up though still in the works. It's late and the post was starting to lag so I went ahead and put it up. I'll edit it further tomorrow but feel free to post there and ask any questions you may have about what's listed currently. I'll be sure to address your concerns!

Tales of Survival

Tales of Survival (the rp) is based on a digital survival board game of the same name that I've been working on for over a year. The game and rp take place in Novus Anima, a world torn apart by the actions of the previous human civilization. Previously known as Earth, most of the world has become uninhabitable aside from the country of Novus Anima "The New World". Life has managed to survive here, though much of it different from the life you know today. Lycans live to the east, crystals spread through the world like a disease, and dragons along their lords were once used to unite the human cities of the northern half of the country.

Our story today doesn't follow the lives of Dragon Lords and heroes. It isn't about people trying to prevent the world from falling into chaos, or keeping mankind from making the same mistakes as they did in the past that led them here. Our story follows the lives of a few souls just trying to survive the situations they find themselves in.



Basics
- Select a scenario (depending on interest multiple of these could be going on at once)


- Select a character (or create your own)


- Complete the playthrough (live or die within the time provided)

- Play again! (different character, different crew this time?)

Details

Characters

Characters have set stats and traits that they must follow to ensure a "balanced" experience amongst players.

Character Specific Stats, which vary per character, consist of the following;

• Health, when this hits zero the character is injured (health returns to 1). If the character is already injured when health hits 0, then they die.
• Armor, determines how much damage a character can resist. IE, if a character receives 2 damage but they have 1 armor, they only take 1 damage. Armor can break and must be repaired.
• Attack, determines how much damage a character can do. Damage is represented by D6 die (Refer to dice for more info)

Character General Stats, which are the same amongst all characters, consist of the following;

• Nourishment, is how full/hungry a character is. (Ranges 0-7, 0 being starving and 7 being full. Goes down one point every day phase; morning, afternoon, evening, night. Rises when eating food.)
• Rest, is how much rest someone has had. If you allow this to get too low, you will have a steady chance of passing out. (Ranges 0-5, 0 causes you to become sleep deprived and gives you a chance to pass out. Goes down every day phase. Rises when you rest, which is improved in a hub.)
• Exposure, represents how much a character has been exposed to the elements. Certain types of weather are worse than others and will build exposure faster. Each point of exposure results in an exposure die to be rolled at the end of the day, each die has a chance to cause harm to a character. (Ranges 0-6, 0 results in no die tossed, 6 results in 6 die tossed. Rises when exposed to bad weather, lowers when in exposed to ideal conditions, ie being near a campfire on in a winter scenario)

Character Traits determine the "abilities" of a character. These include both class traits and character specific traits.

• Class Traits, are mutual traits amongst characters of the same class. For example, Hunters have a higher chance of tracking an animal successfully.
• Character Traits, vary between characters drastically and are the main determining factor in what separates one character from another. An example of a character specific trait is Teresa - The Essence's ability to leave "echoes" of herself throughout the map which she can use to have map awareness as well as a means of teleporting across the map, both of which come at the cost of her own health. (Most Character Traits act as a double edged sword, providing a benefit and a hindrance)

Daily Occurances

Time is represented by Days and Phases. Days are shown as Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, etc. Day phases are shown as Morning, Afternoon, Evening, and Night.

• Characters' General Stats (Nourishment, Rest, and Exposure) change every time a Day Phase shifts, ie Morning to Afternoon.
• Weather changes at the start of a new day. (Clear Skies, Snow, Blizzard, etc)
• Daily Events occur at the start of each day. (Infested Meat, Abandoned Cart, etc)
• Exposure dice are rolled at the end of each day.

Dice

Dice are a common tool used to determine the results of events that take place throughout Tale sof Survival. They consist of the following;

• Combat Dice, these are D6's that determine what damage is done during an encounter with either an NPC or player controlled character. Their faces consist of 2 "Hits" which deal health damage, 1 "Armor Break" which deal damage to armor, and 3 "Misses" which cause no damage.
• Exposure Dice, are D6's that have 3 blank faces and 3 "Exposure" faces. The latter causes you to suffer from the infliction listed on the weather card for that day. (Clear Skies, Snow, and Blizzard lead to illness. Hail causes injury)
• Injury Dice, these are rolled when you are attempting to move between regions if you are injured. They are D6's with 3 blank faces and 3 "Injury" faces. Landing on "Injury" causes the action to fail, wasting an action.

Resources

Resources are necessary to stay alive and can be found throughout the map and can be rewarded for defeating encounters. They include the following;

• Berries, there are three types of these, red berries, yellow berries, and black berries. These are randomly assigned values by the GM at the start of the scenario that determine if they are edible or poisonous. (At least one berry type will be edible and at least one will be poisonous)
• Meat , this is dropped by animals when killed. This should be cooked before being eaten, if not you will likely fall ill.
• Wood , used to build fires and repair structures.
• Herbs, come in three forms simply referred to as, Herb 1, Herb 2, and Herb 3. These will each cure random ailments assigned to them by the GM at the start of the scenario. For example, one may help with an injury, another fever, and the last vomiting.
• Dogbane , is used to repair structures and armor. Acts as a rope of sorts to strap things together.
• Crystal , provides variable effects upon consumption. For most characters consuming a crystal simply adds a single attack dice to their next role. For others the effects can vary, such as Teresa - The Taken, consuming a crystal replenishes one AP (Action Point) at the cost of 1 Health. (Refer to the traits of a character if they mention crystal use)

Active Scenarios

The Eastern Forest - Super Storm - Accepting Applications

The Eastern Forest - The Storm
This scenario puts our survivors up against a brutal snow storm in the Eastern Forest. Winters have always been hard in the region but this storm is especially deadly. In addition, people have taken arms in what is being referred to as the "Winter Rebellion" in the city of Urbi Lupi, the largest settlement in the region. The White Cross, knights who serve The Young King Julian, are sent in to bring an end to the rebellion. The Illuminous, assassins from the city of Arenious, visit the city in search of supplies for their own rebellion back home. Civilians of Urbi Lupi, especially those of wealth, flee the city as people are killed in the streets. People of all backgrounds are caught in the storm, miles from peaceful land. Bandits take advantage of the situation, knowing the forest better than most, and slaughter travelers in the hundreds.

You find yourself amongst these travelers caught in the storm, with the company of only strangers you must bare through the storm.

Version
Super Storm - 14 Days: You must survive 14 days, make it to day 15 and you will have outlasted the storm. This is a much longer survival scenario that will take a minimum of 56 posts per player to complete. This is intended for those who enjoy longer lasting experiences where they have ample opportunity to explore their character and learn about the others they play with.

Players - Characters

• Dreamer - GM
• Ciaran - Tahzra
• -
• -

Map - The Eastern Forest

Map - No Markers


Map - Dividers and Paths
(Subregion dividers are handled differently in the board game, I've done a quick photoshop edit for the purpose of the RP)

Completed Scenarios
None yet...


This OOC is under construction. More information will be provided as I have time to edit this post. In the mean time feel free to ask any questions, if I don't already intend to explain the answer in the post here, I'll be sure to address it thanks to your question.

Tales of Survival

@astralGemini Alright sounds cool.

I think I have a fair amount of interest and it seems most people want the mechanical/table top approach. We'll go with that! I'll work on an OOC tomorrow then if I get the time. Stay tuned.

Tales of Survival

@Jerkchicken I'd agree and that should be the case should you guys prefer a free form approach.

@Everyone else, I've edited a post above with a bit of info. I also have a wiki (that I need to clean up a bit) if you guys want to go deep diving into my world.

Tales of Survival

@Roughdragon1 Alright now that you're interested what would you prefer, board game approach (cards and dice come into play)

My Hider

Or a free writing approach where the story is less bound to rules and more up to whatever people come up with?

EDIT: I'll expand on the tabletop approach a bit further. I'll essentially play GM and decide what is where and make sure people play by the rules I setup. If people try to hurt or kill each other, dice will decide what damage is done and then you will explain what happened with your words. So if someone rolls 3 dice, one does armor damage, one misses, and the other hits health, it would be up to you to explain how your character acted in that scenario. (Get creative, maybe they missed with their weapon so they grabbed a rock on the ground and threw it or something) In a free writing story, you'd have to just agree that one of you lost or such and not base the scenario on dice.

In regards to survival in free writing someone can make up that they found a berry bush that they're living off of, in the table top version I would have had to already decide there was a berry bush in the area, and also determined those berries were edible.

EDIT EDIT: Just saw your question, not sure why I didn't see it before @Roughdragon1. Sorry about that. Magic is present though uncommon, and not in your typical sense. Magic is in most cases, based on terraforming crystals left behind from the old world. These crystals used to be a catalyst for terraformers so that they could do things like shift earth, create fire, and otherwise control the elements. (So magic essentially) Now, these are very dangerous and vary between locations so we'll have to discuss magic based on what scenario you guys decide to play through.

Crystals typically tend to be parasitic in nature and can spread across creatures causing them to become very hostile, and powerful.

My Hider

There's also a race of people, Okiciyans, that exist due to crystals and thus are very magical in nature, though rare as they can not reproduce and face extinction.

My Hider

Humans can also end up impacted by crystals though they're typically able to remove it if it's an outside infliction. Some do have it grow inside them, on a minor scale they may never notice it in life. On a more major scale, they can control elements like mages though they are more likely to die from health issues due to this. Dragon Lords were the most well known of these humans, they shared element control like their dragon counterpart and formed a bond with them. they've for the most part died out in a civil war and for the purpose of this rp, will not come into play (far too powerful, would have no trouble surviving).

Side note, people who have crystals in them, even minor amounts, are more likely to leave a spirit behind. These spirits are more or less energy taking the form of the previous host of the crystals. They often have little memory of who they were before, wander the world for a bit, and fade into oblivion. Spirits who underwent traumatic experiences before death have a chance to become abominations, twisted creatures, that kill and twist other spirits into abominations.

That's a bit of info... if there are any questions I'll try to answer them. I have a bit of the world fleshed out either in documents or art so I'd be happy to share them.

Tales of Survival

Right, guess I wasn't super clear on that @roughdragon1. Essentially Novus Anima is Earth, but thousands of years after an apocalypse scenario. (Terraforming AI decided to wipe out humanity in order to preserve life) Humanity survived throughout the galaxy, but barely. they're separated by lightyears and few and far between. Those on Earth have essentially reset to medieval times and much of the history of the past was forgotten. However a combination of relics of the past, and the new nature of the world, has caused the society to have more fantasy elements to it. Couple examples, one there are crystals left over from "the event" that were terraforming Earth/Novus Anima are now used like magic in some places to the advantage of people. There's a church in the city of Arenious that uses crystals found there to create lightning to defend the city from invaders.


Another example of the world's nature is a lab, or ruins of a lab more like, was happened upon by some scavengers looking for relics to trade. One injured himself with a vial that had timberwolf RNA that changed him into my world's version of a lycan.