STATUS:
My roleplay is all tabletop these days, and the part of the guild I used to hang out in doesn't exist anymore. To my friends from this site, I will think of you, and maybe I'll see you again someday.
7 yrs ago
Current
My roleplay is all tabletop these days, and the part of the guild I used to hang out in doesn't exist anymore. To my friends from this site, I will think of you, and maybe I'll see you again someday.
1
like
7 yrs ago
To my friends from chat: I guess I'll see you around, since I'm still not using discord.
8 yrs ago
I don't actively RP on the site these days, but I might be convinced to come back if there's a cool fantasy or sci-fi group RP that can capture my interest. Catch me on Second Life, Wildstar, or Chat.
8 yrs ago
My life has gotten really chaotic. I'll be back to RPing when I can.
10 yrs ago
I need a good generic fantasy RP, but I can't find one.
@KRIEEEG Gotta say, I like that second plot idea since I'm always a sucker for a good dungeon brawl xD
I'm curious how vehicle-heavy people want this to be, since we already have several people with some pretty cool modes of transportation. I'm trying to think of some way, either through location or fantastical construction, that we could run a dungeon-heavy plotline while still allowing for vehicle segments.
There's the obvious option of having some form of mobile dungeon that we guard on vehicle while its moving. I doubt any of the savage races have industry on the level to build a huge spider crawler or anything though, so I'm wondering what kinda design a primitive mobile dungeon could take. Alternatively, it could be a floating one held up by a union of different types of savage magic, and that would open up a lot of options for weird construction. I mean, it could at that point possibly even just be an actual dungeon that was pulled up out of the ground with a bunch of the stone and soil around it coming with. Driving vehicles out of a flying dungeon sounds pretty fun, I gotta say. Makes me think of a fantasy version of that car parachute scene from Furious 7.
That's not much for plot ideas I suppose, but hopefully it will jog someone's imagination.
Still waiting on a couple characters, other than that I'm horribly sleep deprived and at work so I probably won't be kicking that off today. I'd welcome OOC discussion though, any "plot" I have in mind is really more of a rough direction so if people were to talk and discuss what kinda stuff they want to see / include, that might help solidify a direction to take this in.
Standing at 6'10", she cuts a broad, imposing figure. The signs of past violence are readily apparent on her, with a large scar running over one eye which has been replaced with a crudely painted fake. The scar crosses most of the left side of her face, the fur not having grown over it cleanly. Her shaggy, unwashed mane is usually kept roughly brushed back, and a few dirty trinkets and bits of string seem to be tied in at various points.
Her clothing typically displays a lack of maintenance in keeping with the rest of her appearance. It appears to be a composite of various pieces of clothing and light armor in various states of decomposition, crudely layered over each other. Often there are assorted tools tucked in to the layers, primarily wrenches of varying sizes.
Rhaka was a member of a smaller clan that had been having good success in using trimmed-down necrocycles as a core part of their raids. Rhaka, being practiced in the dark spiritual traditions of her people, had been one of the ones who worked on and maintained the clan's necrocycles. It was all going well until they got sloppy and started moving in a more predictable pattern. They got caught in an ambush and all but wiped out with a combination of rifle fire and land mines. Rhaka lost her eye and a lot of blood, and was left for dead with the rest. When she came to, night had fallen and birds had descended. She managed to get one of the least destroyed cycles running, and retreated off on her own.
Since then, she's mostly operated as a lone agent. She built a new necrocycle to replace her destroyed one, and she has largely abandoned the ultralight design that her clan had used, partially blaming its lack of armor and mass for her clan getting wiped out so easily. She favors mercenary work when available, though she also has found employment putting her necromantic powers to work. Her combination of brute force, black magic and bloodthirsty morals tend to put her in some fairly shady circles, but that's where she thrives.
Rhaka doesn't carry any actual melee weapons, relying primarily on her strength and size to beat and rip her foes apart with her hands. When she does require a weapon, she usually has a large, club-ready wrench available, and is more than willing to use anything in arm's reach as an improvised weapon. She is prone to violently flinging these things, though her missing eye and poor depth perception hinders her accuracy.
Her false eye is worth mentioning, as under the flaking blue paint decorating its surface, the grooves of a roughly cut rune run along it in lieu of a pupil. Some of her magic causes the rune, and as a result seemingly her eye, to glow a piercing shade of ice blue.
Her main other belonging of note is her necrocycle, a bone, wood and leather machine with the structure of a chopper with an oversized rear wheel. The engine is a sputtering thing marked with blocky glyphs and grease stains, and when opened up reveals a glowing internal cavity from which unwholesome sounds escape. The necrocycle is fueled by stuffing meat, preferably still twitching or alive, into the searing heat of the engine's core.
Other than that, her other belongings include a windchime-like bone fetish and various small odds and ends.
Rhaka's powers are all necromantic in nature. If she concentrates, she is able to see souls up to a few minutes after they've left a dead body. Furthermore, she can interact with these spirits as though they were tangible, allowing her to attack them relatively normally or interact with them in other ways. Notably, she can overpower weak souls and use them in the process of creating magic items, a process which shackles the spirit to the object. She can also partially absorb/consume an overpowered spirit to temporarily increase her physical prowess, providing a short-term boost to her strength. Absorbing power this way is not without side effects, and sometimes results in her taking on behavioral ticks of the recently deceased while the power lasts.
She is not practiced in the spiritual traditions enough to be capable of more than that.
It has begun! Sorry about the lack of polish, like I said I did this in free moments at work. I'll probably make it fancier tonight, but for now feel free to start coming up with characters! The plot is still open to suggestions, though I have some ideas of my own as well. http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/127264-kill-the-heroes-and-take-their-stuff/ooc
This section will be updated periodically as we finalize the design of the world. What is here now is simply the current state of things, everyone should feel free to bring ideas forward if they want to contribute!
There is currently not a map for the world. If someone is good at mapping or has a map that isn't based on some major property, I would encourage them to bring it forward!
World Information
Until fairly recently, the world has mostly been a fairly standard sword & sorcery type place. A large divide exists between the Races of Man (Human, Dwarf, Elf and Halfling) and the so-called 'Savage' races, and while neither side is without their own internal conflicts, the ongoing, slow war between these two loosely-defined factions has been one of the defining forces shaping the modern world.
Roughly a hundred years ago, the first of the magic-powered vehicles took to the roads, and it changed everything. Though already an antique compared to what has come since, it changed the face of warfare in the same way that mounts once revolutionized it uncounted ages ago. Naturally, everyone wanted in. It wasn't long before vehicles of all shapes and sizes had taken to rumbling across the roads, many of them outfitted with whatever weapons and armor their owners could think of, afford or scavenge. A lack of cooperation between groups led to countless independent developers finding their own ways to power vehicles, to the point where now even the type of substance that fuels a vehicle could be nearly anything depending on who designed it in the first place.
As if vehicles didn't change the face of warfare enough, about 50 years ago, black powder was first successfully weaponized. Guns are still primitive, but already at close range they render armor all but obsolete. These days, the most common type of firearms are flintlocks, though old matchlocks still see common use and expensive and experimental new wheellocks are starting to be produced by skilled artisans. Reloading is still a slow chore, and to counter this some individuals have taken to carrying a brace of pistols to allow for multiple shots before having to reload.
These days, the world is a violent place. Gnoll slavers and Orc warriors clash with Human knights and Elven wardens, while Kobold and Dwarves trade shots at each other in the tunnels beneath the earth. It is an age of black hearts, black magic, and black powder. This world has no place for heroes.
So it's time to kill them and take their stuff.
Races
Until someone has made a character of a given race, that race is still eligible for redesigns.
Point form: -One of the strongest Human-sized races -Very strong healing, but not regeneration -Not particularly smart, for the most part -Cultural embracing of body modification
Big, green, strong and tough. Orcs might be savage and not inclined to being smart, but their natural strength can be terrible to behold. Likely the most heavily muscled of the human-sized Savage races, Orcs don't actually need weapons to be deadly if they're in the mood for violence.
Though they have no natural armor, Orcs heal far better than humans. It's not that they heal abnormally fast, they simply can recover from injuries that would result in permanent disabilities in some other races. This has led to the embracing of body modification in Orcish culture that would seem extreme for many other races, ranging from cosmetic piercings, tattoos and scarification to functional alterations to their body. Acid is known to interfere with Orcish healing, and compared to other types of damage, acid will cause Orcs far worse scarring and far more possibility of permanent damage.
Some Orcs have been known to actually crush, lacerate and mutilate one of their hands, only to tightly wrap what's left of it around a weapon and leaving it to heal, resulting in their limb healing around the weapon and making it impossible to remove it from their grasp without cutting the limb off. This practice seems to be dying out for the most part, but is still practiced in some more remote areas.
While other races have made progress with technological and magical advancements, Orcish culture hasn't been quick to embrace these things. While there are of course exceptions, the average Orc trusts their own muscle far more than any spell or black powder weapon. When they do build vehicles, they are often muscle-powered somehow. What Orcish vehicles lack in speed and agility, they often make up in mass and the ability to simply roll over most things in their path. There is a reason however that "turning like an Orc buggy" has come to mean the opposite of "turning on a dime".
Point form: -Short -Natural affinity for magic -Physical features vary wildly from region to region -Broad range of cultural advancement from tribe to tribe
Goblins are short, almost never over three feet tall, and often seen as somewhat mentally unstable. Goblins can be found in any climate or region on the planet, as their comparatively fast maturation rate and large range of genetic variation means that they evolve to fit a region in a very short time. This rapid rate of change has in the past been attributed to Goblinkind's natural ability with magic, and indeed every tribe has some sort of magic that is common among all its members. One byproduct of their rapid adaptation is that Goblins are the most physically diverse of the Savage races. Goblins come in dirty shades of pretty much every colour of the rainbow, and while their average height tends to be between 2'6" and 3', some tribes are up to a foot shorter than THAT average. Goblins also are prone to having oversized features, and when relevant these often relate to the same purpose that their inherent magic is turned towards. The sound-focused Howler Tribe typically has almost comically large ears, while some of the very short, pale Goblins that live in the deep parts of the earth have enormous milk-white eyes that can pierce the lightless reaches of their home.
Goblin magic frequently lacks the structure that one would call a spell, and is usually more a raw manifestation of magic energy invoked without precise control or understanding of how it works. For example, a tribe that settled in a sun-baked desert region may have a natural affinity for fire magic, meaning that any Goblin from that tribe will have some inherent, crude ability to create and manipulate small volumes of fire.
Goblin magic becomes dangerous when practiced by Goblins in groups, as this seems to result in power greater than the sum of its parts. The battlecry of a single Howler Tribe Goblin might only be painfully loud, but a group of them shrieking can shatter glass and eardrums for a surprising distance.
There is no extant record of all types of Goblin magic, as there are so many tribes scattered so far apart with such a range of magic. There are some basic commonalities that have been established though, such as the fact that Goblin magic tends to be quite physical in its casting. Also known is that, usually, Goblin magic is relatively direct in nature, often lacking in subtlety of execution or purpose.
Goblin culture also varies wildly in level of advancement from one tribe to the next, with some fringe tribes living in stone-age conditions while other, more advanced tribes build crude black powder weapons and in many ways act on-par with the other Savage races in terms of development.
Point form: -Tall -Fast and tough -Well-deserved reputation as slavers and raiders, known to eat other intelligent races -Sadistic culture
Gnolls are the Hyena-folk from the great plains. Averaging a little under seven feet in height, female Gnolls tend to be a little bit larger than the males but both are intimidating in stature. With their height comes speed, and while they are not inherently much stronger than Humans, their violent lifestyles often leave the average Gnoll being stronger than the average Human. Their short, bristly fur and tough skin affords them a level of physical resilience roughly on par with an average human wearing some manner of leather armor. This durability combined with their natural inclination towards violence has resulted in a culture where acts of aggression are so commonplace that they aren't even thought of as a bad thing for the most part, simply a fact of life.
Gnolls have a fearsome reputation as slavers, and it's unheard of for a Gnoll clan to not engage in slavery to at least some degree. Dark rumors circulate that certain Gnoll shamans take their slavery one step further, laying claim to the soul of a slave once their body has finally been worn out. What isn't a rumor is the predominance of necromancy as the magic discipline of choice for any sorcerously-inclined Gnolls, as evidenced by any number of hanging bone fetishes or dwarfskin leather tents.
Gnolls eat meat exclusively, and while no Gnoll would turn down a leg of lamb, it's a commonly known fact that, given the option, they usually prefer to eat other intelligent humanoids. They aren't actually cannibalistic, not eating other Gnolls or Aardgnolls, but other races (Elves in particular) are quick to wind up on the menu.
Point form: -Short -Tough like a Gnoll -Clever in an unhinged sort of way
In many ways, Aardgnolls are Gnolls in miniature. Standing between 3-4 feet high, they are considered strong for a short race but could still be fairly easily overpowered by most Human-sized beings. Covered in a layer of short bristle, they share the Gnoll's natural durability to an extent. Whereas Gnolls live on meat, however, Aardgnolls are primarily insectivores, with termites being especially prized. One of the most commonly known things about Aardgnolls is their unpleasant odor. Aardgnolls naturally have a bad scent, and while normally not more than a sour-sweet background note of rotting meat, the smell can become chokingly strong where the Aardgnolls live, particularly if there isn't much ventilation.
Aardgnolls usually live alongside Gnolls as part of the same tribe. They manage this by being durable enough to shrug off being casually kicked or smacked around, and by being small and slippery enough to live in cramped areas that others would overlook. An Aardgnoll could happily live inside almost any confined area they can fit into, and it's not entirely uncommon to find them living in old barrels, under the hood or wheel wells of abandoned (or not-so-abandoned) vehicles, or other small spaces that it often seems they shouldn't be able to fit inside, let alone comfortably sleep inside. This habit of living in strange, niche spots and being able to take a beating like a Gnoll have left them with a reputation for being a little mentally unbalanced. In some cases, this is unquestionably true. Despite that, Aardgnolls often are more inclined to invention and progress than Gnolls, and most lasting Gnoll magic and technology has at some point been influenced or even developed by Aardgnolls.
Aardgnolls do occasionally form clans of their own without any Gnolls, though such clans are uncommon. Where such clans exist, it's usually in an area such as a junkyard where they can be mostly left alone, and where there's enough small spaces and bad smells for them to conceal themselves. Aardgnolls, more than most other Savage races, are quite good at living in urban areas without being noticed. With their diet of insects and their preference for out-of-the-way dwellings, many clanless Aardgnolls do quite well for themselves skulking around in the gutters of the cities of Man, despite the ever-present risk of being caught and killed as a monster.
Point form: -Very short -Physically weak -Clever inventors and deadly trappers -Exceptional eyesight
A race of cave-dwelling reptilians, Kobold are quite short, averaging around two to two and a half feet tall. Physically, Kobold are weak creatures who depend on their cowardice to survive. This weakness has instilled a level of diabolic, Machiavellian creativity in them that belies their small statures however, and Kobold are mechanical pioneers at least on par with the Dwarves.
While even a fairly large group of Kobold could be easily butchered by a couple of farmers with a pitchfork and a lumber axe between them, no self-respecting Kobold would allow themselves to get stuck in anything even remotely resembling a fair fight. Kobold are infamous for their use of traps and guerrilla tactics, and if a Kobold has supplies and some time to set up, they can turn most indoor or confined areas into killing grounds. Even capturing Kobold can prove difficult, as it's not uncommon for them to build some sort of improvised weapon or trap out of whatever they can manage to steal.
Kobold are unusual in that they almost unanimously don't like to use black powder. Their large eyes, capable of seeing in utter darkness, are easily blinded by the bright flash, and in dark tunnels it serves only to give away their position and make a lot of noise. Add to that the risk of cave-ins from accidental detonations, and Kobold typically find black powder to be more trouble than it's worth.
That's not to say that they question the effectiveness of black powder, and in lieu of using it they've had to develop alternatives. Kobold crossbows are some of the most ingenious mechanical murdering machines currently available, as while they might still only be crossbows, they are in many ways closer to firearms. Winches and hand-cranks have been replaced with spring cartridges to hold a kinetic charge, and the normal horizontal bow structure is usually exchanged for a system of flat springs and pulleys that leave their weapons more streamlined and less prone to catching on outcroppings of rock while running through tunnels. The most iconic aspect of Kobold crossbows, however, is their high rate of fire. Many can fire at a semi-automatic rate, while some are even capable of limited burst fire, typically a rapid burst of three consecutive bolts. Though the bolts are smaller than those from a normally sized crossbow, the amount of suppressing fire that even three Kobold can lay down with such weapons can completely stop an opposing force from progressing through a good chokepoint. Most Kobold who own such a crossbow have modified it and added personalized tweaks, to the point where it's rare to find two such crossbows that function identically.
Name: (try to pick something fitting, I don't want to see an Orc named Bob or a Gnoll named Chad (unless you have a wicked awesome backstory that leaves me super stoked on your character))
Race:
Appearance: (Use a picture if you happen to find one that fits, otherwise simply describe how your character appears)
History: (It doesn't need to be a novel or anything, just an overview of whatever major events you feel helped shape who your character is. It doesn't need to be comprehensive, just give something to work with)
Equipment: (Weapons, armor, whatever your character is starting with, just list it here. Please remember that guns are still muzzle-loaders, and if you choose to start with a vehicle, please keep it to a lower-end one. Upgrades are part of the fun of the RP!)
Quick update, I'm working on the OOC when I get free moments at work, I'll have it up sometime today. Please bear with me on this, I'm rusty at making these things!
@Sombrero I could see it working. It's gonna be a tricky line to walk because a character like that could easily power balloon, but if you can keep a good balance of strengths and weaknesses I think it could be really fun. Also, as a plus for the pirate / land pirate theme, guns in this setting are very much at the point where you would carry a brace of single-shot pistols.
And tbh, Mad Max is kinda one of the strong influences on the setting as I have it so far, just with a more magic twist to it. For example, Gnolls rock crude, really big combat motorbikes fueled by necromantic enchantments. They gas up by shoving a body, still living or dead, into the engine. Depending on the wind, the smell of burning flesh might be an earlier warning than the sounds of their sputtering, grease-spewing engines. I'd love it if we all wound up riding nasty vehicles around, so feel free to brainstorm about possibilities in that direction!
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