[spoiler]
(That was just my way of showing off my 1337 photoshop skillz
)[/spoiler]===Say what?:===
We need to get this forum back on it's feet, PnP RPGs seem to attract people and I was hoping this one will as well.
Even if we get just one regular member out of this ordeal, It will have fulfilled it's purpose.
The other reason for starting this, is that I've wanted to start a PnP RPG ever since Daedalus got the first one going, I had many story lines and plots on my mind and I'd like to see what people think about them.
===Purpose of this thread:===
This thread is for general talk about the PnP game I'm starting.
If you want to join, you need to post your characters here for me to evaluate and balance for the game. If you want to talk about the game's system or how things work, do it here, storyline talk can be done both here and in OOC in the game thread itself.
Once we're ready to play, I'll create the actual game thread, and we'll get this thing started.
Happy Roleplaying.
===The story so far:===
Blackheart's keep. You've heard the name many times before, and yet you shiver every time you do as if it was the first.
Hundreds of years ago, this keep, located on the far end of the snowy Deargkaig highlands, once housed a great army of black knights, whose leader was said to be the most powerful mortal to ever walk the earth.
His name became a legend. Blackheart.
Blackheart was known by some as a madman, a cruel, destructive and reckless fiend. Others consider him a genius, a prophet, and many are convinced he's still alive, somewhere within these cracked, beaten walls.
No one knows where Blackheart got his name, you've heard several versions of this as well, was It his real last name? A symbolic alias? Or was it a title, earned by his evil deeds and demonstration of destructive power?
In present time, things are different, the old keep and it's surroundings lay in ruin, and it has become an attraction for many adventurers.
Hundreds of caravans stop by every year to trade with adventurers, and amongst themselves.
Many adventurers go in to the upper floors of the keep, where monsters and treasure appear, as if magically, every single time.
The keep's underground cellars are a whole different thing. They are said to be connected to a large system of tunnels and ancient underground crypts.
Famous adventurers and brave explores went in over the years, but none of them came back as they were before.
Of the ones that did come back alive, the absolute majority went mad shortly afterwards. But the horrifying and mind boggling tales of their experiences in the dungeons were enough to draw even more adventurers into that cursed hell.
Despite all efforts, no one has succeeded in reaching the absolute bottom, in which Blackheart is said to reside, and is supposedly located only slightly above the very core of the earth.
You were too, drawn in those tales you're heard.
For whatever reason you may have, be it you desire for wealth and power, for the sheer challenge and adventure, for the prized opportunity to slit a few throats, or perhaps to cleanse this place of the evil that possesses it, you have decided to descend into the underground chambers of this ruin and begin the greatest adventure of your life.
===Starting notes:===
Alright, first of all, this RPG is based off a bunch of storyline ideas I have, and I've given it some considerable effort to make this interesting and fun.
The game will work differently than what you're probably used to from the other RPG games in this forum, so read the rules and the notes I have provided carefully.
There is also a big emphasis on the storyline, so the least you should do is read the notes (below) and storyline (above) sparingly before you even start to plan your character.
Other than that, It'll run like the old games, so unless I say otherwise, the latest forum PnP rules apply (Located on the bottom of this post).
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Initial notes:
* English isn't my mother language, and there will be some grammar and punctuation mistakes. Bear with it.
* No fooling around, don't make ridiculous names/classes/skills and don't say/do stupid or pointless things.
* Standard and familiar classes/races please, you don't have to follow this rule strictly, but don't go too far (yes, making a Were-Moose Witch doctor is going too far).
* Be nice to each other (And me. Especially me; Bribing me with delicious candy will greatly improve your odds in this game), if someone did something wrong, kindly point
it out to them. Or don't, it's my job anyway.
Additional notes and info:
* About CARG: CARG stands for "Class, Alignment, Reputation, and Goal". The four major things I take into consideration when I determine how your character
is incorporated into to the storyline, and how Npcs react to it. Yes, you get to pick most of them yourself.
Class: This is your starting class, you can multi class later, but your starting class level must be
twice the level of the sub class you wish to become, so, for instance, if you want to multiclass, and
your base class level is 6, your sub class level can go up to 3.
Multiclasing provokes a 10% exp penalty per extra class you take.
(Please, in the name of all that's groovy, pick classes that fit the game world.)
Alignment: Like in D&D, your alignment can be any combination of [Chaotic, Lawful, Neutral] and
[Evil, Good, Neutral].
If you're not sure about which alignment fits your character, you can read about them here (copy the entire line and paste in your address bar):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alignment_ ... 26_Dragons)
Reputation: Are you well known or are you a nobody? You can have both negative and positive
reputation, every faction (a significant group of people) will have their own reputation for you, I keep
track of each character's reputation, but I won't show it to you.
You can, (and you probably will) however, figure out your reputation when you talk to Npcs of
different factions.
Note that exceptional characters (of a special race, for instance) will probably have some (good or
bad) reputation to start with, and even have a different range, for instance, standard reputation is between -50 to 50.
But if you are an orc, the paladin order's reputation for will always be 30 points lower, -80 to 20.
Numbers above 0 represent respect, numbers below 0 represent disliking.
If you engage an Npc as a party, your average party reputation will be used, but some NPC will only focus on 1 member of the party, so keep that in mind.
Goal: Your goal is the reason you embarked on this quest in the first place, you only have to state
it once: When you create your character, right here in this thread. Make sure your goal fits your alignment and class.
Your goal will not affect Npcs unless they know about it, so it is wiser to keep it to yourself when talking to Npcs that may see it as something bad.
(For example, telling a good paladin you just came here to spill some blood will make him dislike you, or
even attack you, depending on the rest of your CARG.)
That last part about your goal also applies to your alignment, race and sometimes even your class.
* This game has an ending, whether you (the players) actually ever get to it is entirely up to you. I have planned several endings according to the actions and decisions the players will make during the game, and I can always improvise, so beware.
* There will be side quests too, many of them will even take place in the areas surrounding the keep.
Doing side quests is a good way to get money and experience if you're having trouble with the main quest.
* To start the game, there should be at least three active people willing to play.
With that said, I can DM for more than one party at a time (But no more than three), and I think it would be great to have two (or even three!) parties with different goals competing against each other.
Don't worry about party shortage, you will be able to recruit some Npcs along the way.
At first, all characters start together , regardless of their CARG (I'll explain this in the beginning of the game.), if people join later, or create new characters, they'll start on their own (But they can still try to join a group if they meet up with them.)
You can always leave your party if you find that the other players are complete idiots.
Don't worry about playing alone, I'll scale most encounters according to party size and average level.
More notes:
* The setting is a ruined keep, it's underground dungeons, and the vast snowy highlands that surround the keep.
* During your adventure you will gain valuable knowledge, such as enemy weak spots, battle tactics, functions of various items, passwords, secrets and more.
This sort of information is invaluable to your success and you should take note of it.
Write it down somewhere, or better yet, have a member of your party become a documenter, and he will run a journal where all this info will be kept.
* I'll make a short epilogue of sorts for each character, describing what happened after the completion of the main quest.
But I'll only do it for you if your character lived to see the end of the game. Consider this a little end-game bonus of sorts.
* Unless the ending has prevented it, you can still keep on playing, doing dumb side quests until I get sick of you and have you killed in a cheesy, stereotype,
basement clearing quest by a tiny little rat...
Or a 50 meters tall dragon, whichever is more convenient at that moment.
If you want to stop playing, just say you wish to retire and I'll start writing your epilogue. You won't get one if you get yourself killed though, especially not by a rat.
Yet more notes:
* Gold is kept separately for each character, unlike in the latest rules (above).
* In combat, there are three battle positions: Front, Middle and Back.
Front can only attack Front, and also Middle with a Dex check.
Middle can only attack Front with a Dex check
(Last two lines only apply if you're using a melee weapon, most ranged weapons ignore those rules)
* Sometimes, you will be ambushed, and that means that enemies will try to attack you from behind.
Keep your Spell casters in the Middle if you think that there is a probability of an ambush.
* Items:
You can carry up to 5 items of any kind, stacks of ammo or groups of small items count as a single slot.
You may pick three items you wish to start with.
It may be wise to take food, or items that will aid you in certain tasks (Such as lock picks, empty bottles, firewood or
torches.), You may only take cheap and weak items.
You can get more room for items later by purchasing a bag or a container.
You will receive some weapons and armor, so don't bother taking those.
* Dying:
When your HP reaches 0, you faint. Your party members can heal you back to fighting shape, or you can wait until you regain consciousness yourself.
When your HP reaches -10, you are absolutely dead. At this point, other party members can revive you with special items, but they must do so instantly, or your soul will drift away.
A dead character is removed from play and given a cute little gravestone (you can keep it and put it in your signature
). If this has happened to you, you may create a new character and start over from level 1 (if it's very far into the game I might let you start 1 level below that of the weakest character alive.)More things will be added as I see fit. If you have an idea, feel free to suggest it.
==================================================================================
This concludes my notes, thanks for reading all of that, It's very important and I'm glad you did. (And if you didn't, you must be feeling pretty stupid right now, huh?)
You can now create your character. Post it here to get my 'stamp of approval'.
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[size=large]Rules of the Game[/size]
Here are the current rules... They might be updated from time to time if I think it's suitable. However, I'll notify you if I do.
1. One player may only have one character. The party is limited to 8 characters, since I cannot handle more at a time. (up to 2 NPCs may still join you though)
2. The player defines what he does in bold letters. For example: "I pick up the bottle with the red liquid in it.". Actions that might fail (for example because the target wouldn't want it to happen) should not be written in success-form. For example: Instead of " I cut the enemy's arm away and kill it by cutting of its head" "I attack the enemy's arm with my sword" or something.
3. Every character has HP, MP, XP and AP. While wizards and such may use MP for casting spells, other classes may use MP to do other fancy stuff like special attacks or brewing potions.
4. Characters may gain self-defined spells/skills upon level ups, however the Dungeon Master defines how many AP they cost. Also, instead of learning a new spell/skill, a player may also improve an already existing one.
5. If a player's HP drop to 0 or lower, he faints. He may still be attacked though, although the player can't act anymore until he's healed in some way. If a player's HP drop below -10, he dies (and cannot rejoin until either the whole party dies, or the party revives the character in some way).
6. If you want to talk, please write what you say in "".
7. Attacks/Weapons have a ATK value, which indicates how much damage it does. The damage done will result in "Attackers ATK - Defenders DEF = Damage". The damage dealt cannot be negative.
8. Many actions may succeed or fail. The Dungeon Master will throw dices for you when you decide to do something, indicating the difficulty grade (the lowest number you need to have in order to be successful, e. g. if there is a DG of 14, you need to throw 14 or higher (with bonuses) in order to be successful).
9. When killing an enemy, each player in the party gains XP. Advancing to the next level always takes 100 XP more than it took to reach the previous level:
Code: Select all
LEVEL XP NEEDED
2 000100 XP
3 000300 XP
4 000600 XP
5 001000 XP
6 001500 XP
7 002100 XP
8 002800 XP
9 003600 XP
etc.
10. Gold may be aquired the same way as other items are (except for buying it, of course...). However, the gold doesn't belong to a specific character, but to the whole group. It's included in the status table.
11. You may carry up to 5 items in your inventory (even of the same type!). It should be displayed under your status table, using the "[hide]"-tag, so people don't always need to see all your items. Your equipment you're currently wearing should not be hidden. Worn Bags (in the "other"-slot) may increase the amount of items you can carry.
12. Since you might be having quite some code in each of your posts, I recommend "copying" that code by clicking "quote" at your last own post. Just remember to remove the "[quote]"-tags afterwards.
13. The Dungeon Master will describe what you see. You can do various actions that will cause the Dungeon Master to reveal more information about it if you're successful.
14. If you want to say anything out of character, use olive as a color please.
15. You may try to do whatever you imagine you want to do. If you want to try to climb a wall in order to look at the whole thing from above, do it. If you encounter a pool full of sharks and want to jump over it, try it! Nobody ensures that it will be successful though...
16. Whenever I post I'll add a status table that indicates the current HP, MP and Lvl of each character and enemy (if there are any) as well as the result of your last actions and the total amount of gold the group currently owns. You may only do one action, e.g. attack someone, at a time. After having done an action, you'll have to wait for my next post. Saying something or talking to someone doesn't count as an action though. Also, if you do something in order to do something else, e.g. you light your torch to see what is around, or you throw something at your enemies to surprise them and run away, it also only counts as one action, not as two.
17. When leveling up, you gain 1D6+Power HP, 1D6+Intelligence MP and 10 Ability Points (AP). There are a bunch of skills and abilites available you can learn using those AP. The amount of AP you need to learn a skill/ability depends on the usefulness of the skill/ability. Also, abilites generally cost more AP than skills. At the beginning of the game, you will have 25 AP to spend.
18. If things get risky, you may try to escape. In that case, every consious party member gets a check. Those are all added together, with unconsious heroes being +0. Then the remaining enemies all get a check (bosses may get high bonuses here), also being added together. Then party vs. enemies is checked. If party is higher, the escape is successful.
19. There are three possible positions for battles. You can choose between either *front* or *cover*. The front can be attacked by anything, but can also attack with anything itself. Covered characters can only be hit by ranged attacks, magic and certain skills that hit the whole party - however, this only applies if there is at least one character standing at the front. If all characters at the front are either gone or unconsious, melee attacks will hit covered characters as well. There's also a position *flying* or *hidden* for flying or hidden monsters, which always disallows melee attacks, even if there is no front. There may also be special positions for special cases.
20. Sometimes you'll encounter exceptionally strong enemies, called bosses. They are very dangerous and often need to be defeated in order to continue with the good part of the story. They often have very high modificators on their stats. When seeing them in the status table, they are marked brown, so be careful when you see one.
Each post should have the characters status table on top, looking similar to the example below. You may also add bars and a hidden avatar if you want, but these are not necessary. You can ignore this rule if all you do is say something OOC and your status hasn't changed in the meanwhile.
Hans, lvl 15 (Fighter)
HP: 43/71 [-7]
MP: 03/12
XP: 11176/12000
AP: 07
ATK: 18
DEF: 14
Weapon: Great Sword +3 (ATK 18 )
Shield: Light Iron Shield (DEF 04)
Armor: Heavy Platemail +1 (DEF 10)
[spoiler]Items (5):
- Some Potion
- Some Weapon
- Some Armor
- Some Food
- Some Letter
Skills:
- Some Skill (5 MP): What does this skill do?
- Some Stronger Skill (10 MP): What does this skill do?
Abilities:
- Some Ability: What does this ability do?
Power: +3
Dextery: +3
Wisdom: -5
Intelligence: -4
Attacking: +3
Dodging: +5
Casting: -5
Resistance: 0[/spoiler]
[/bigassthread]
) or take them away again.
