Don't trust your senses, things are not as they seem.
Story:
Rules:This tome you were sent to find, "The Book of Battle", it is said that any man who reads from it becomes a legendary warrior. Sounds like some old myth, but if you can retrieve it, the reward money could be enough to buy your own city.
The tome is said to be located in an old ruined keep that once belonged to a fierce black knight. Perhaps you and your longtime adventuring companions have what it takes to find it...
Your group arrives in Hydegrim at midnight. The imposing wooden gates are closed at night as the city is under strict curfew - a countermeasure to the rampant bandits roaming these parts. It seems that you will be forced to make camp outside the gates and rest here until morning, when the gates finally open.
Hydegrim is a border town lodged between two mountain ranges on both sides, essentially making it a bottleneck separating the known world from the area known as the "Spine", a frigid, snowy, mountainous waste home to a handful of frontier settlements and scattered with many ancient ruins from centuries past. One of these ruins, located northwest of a settlement called Lethmond, is where the Book of Battle is said to be. Come morning your group will be ready to head towards the Spine, after stocking on some supplies in Hydegrim and perhaps hiring a guide to get you to Lethmond faster.
Roleplaying
Spoiler:
2. The story expects Human characters. While this is a D&D-like fantasy setting, there are no Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, etc. If you wish to play anything other than a human character, you need to make a convincing case. You are free to choose or make up any class concept you like, however, the story assumes that your characters already know each other and have been adventuring together for some time, so keep that in mind.
3. Please try to contribute to the story when playing; this is an RPG, after all. Make your character act logically. Make it interesting. Make them have their own personality, their own reasons to fight and their own story. You don't need to type up a whole novel each time you post, especially in battles, but just make sure to make your character interesting, so that both you and the other players will be able to love your character (or at least love to hate it).
4. Describe your character's actions in third person, for writing consistency. Write anything your character actually says in "". I also recommend to give your character a personal talking color.
5. Since you will 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 update any changed values and remove the quote-tags afterwards.
6. If you want to say anything out of character in the game thread, use olive as a color please. If all you want to do is to say something out of character and isn't related to what is currently going on, please do it in the OOC thread, not in a game thread.
7. Whenever I post I'll add a status table that indicates the most important stats of your characters, like formation, or the current HP of each character and enemy (if there are any). The current location is also shown.
8. When you're done talking and want me to move the game forward, make sure to post a clear action on what you're doing next (having your character say that he thinks about doing XYZ and having him actually do XYZ are two completely different things), or else it's possible that I don't recognize it as an actual action and nothing happens.
Spoiler:
10. Advancing to the next character level always takes 100 EXP. After a level up your EXP are reset to 0, though any leftover EXP will be kept (e. g. reaching 108 EXP would leave you with 8 EXP after the level up). Gaining a level will grant you 100 additional AP and allow you to distribute 1 points on your main attributes (see below).
11. Players may define the abilities and skills that they learn themselves, but I decide how much AP they actually cost to learn. Remember, you can learn almost any kind of ability you like, allowing you develop your character exactly as you like as long as you have enough AP.
12. Each (player) character is defined first by varying scores in the following main attributes:
STR represents raw physical strength, skill-at-arms, and weapons training. Every positive point increases your HIT by 1, whilst every second point increases your max HP by 1 and the damage of your weapon attacks by 1.
Negative points do not give a damage penalty, but each negative point still gives a -1 HIT penalty. Every second negative point reduces max HP by 1.
DEX represents dexterity, timing and preciseness. In combat, every positive point increases HIT by 1 and every other point increases AC by 1.
AGI represent agility, speed and reflexes. Every positive point of increases your AC by 1.
Agility checks are commonly used to dodge spells and most forms of area attacks and effects.
AGI also dictates turn order in battle.
VIT represents vitality, hardiness, constitution, and resistance to pain and illnesses. Every point adds 2 to your max HP.
VIT affects your ability to resist tackles, poisons, diseases, and harsh physical conditions in general. Negative Fortitude reduces your HP by 1 per point.
INT represents intellect, learning, mental capacity, reasoning and deduction skills. You can memorize a number of spells equal to your Intellect, and cast as many spells every encounter.
WIL represents Willpower, conviction, faith, and sheer inner force. Willpower contributes to the raw destructiveness and potency of your spells, and helps you resist mental effects and spells of a mind-affecting nature, or inflict them on others.
From your basic attributes, secondary statistics are derived:
+HIT is your hit bonus, added to attacking rolls in combat.
+AC is the armor class granted by your character's ability to dodge, this is added to your armor's AC in combat (unless your character is unable to dodge for some reason).
+DMG is the damage bonus added to your weapon damage in combat.
Spellpoints: One point is consumed every time you cast a spell. Your maximum number of Spellpoints is equal to your INT score. Resting recovers your Spellpoints.
13. Distribute your starting stats wisely. Every new character starts out at level 0, with 15 max HP (before STR/VIT), and 300 AP to define your abilities.
Your starting attributes (STR,DEX etc.) are yours do define according to what best suits your character, and range from -5 to +5. Note that the total of your starting attributes all added together must not exceed +5.
You will gain 100 AP, 1-3 max HP (randomly) and a single attribute point every time you level up.
14. Abilities are bought with AP. They are the equivalent of D&D feats, and Abilities and skills in our older system.
They fall into three categories:
Passive abilities are abilities whose effect is permanent from the moment they are acquired.
Examples:
Weapon Mastery: +1 HIT and DMG when wielding my weapon of choice in combat (one handed sword, polearm, bow, etc).
Stealthy: +2 on stealth checks.
Combat Premonition: I can see small details from the very near future. If I am hit by a sneak attack or an ambush maneuver, I get a second chance to reroll my check.
Active abilities are abilities that must be activated. They can be fancy attack maneuvers, unique actions, reaction abilities, etc. Active abilities have a limit of how many times they can be used per encounter. More uses means a steeper AP cost.
Examples:
Rain of Steel [1/1]: Allows me to simultaneously throw as many ranged thrown weapons as my DEX modifier, in a single action.
Leap Attack [1/1]: Allows me to attack a target even if their formation or some sort of effect does not normally permit me to do so (for example if another enemy is guarding them with their shield or body and such).
Defensive Roll [1/1]: Once per encounter, when a hit would normally take me below 0 HP, I reduce the damage in half, remaining with no less than 1 HP.
Sustained abilities are modes that can be turned on and off and offer some kind of bonus in exchange for a malus. You can only turn sustained abilities on/off at the beginning of your own turn, but they are otherwise unlimited.
Examples:
Combat Expertise: Converts my +DMG bonus from STR into bonus +AC.
Quickened Spell: Casting a spell is considered a minor action in this mode, but my hastened movements and the tremendous concentration they require make me an easier target, reducing my HIT and AC by 2 each.
Daggerdance: Whenever I successfully dodge a melee attack, my AC is increased by 1 for the remainder of this encounter. This bonus is cumulative.
Being hit in melee resets the bonus, causes me to take extra damage equal to the stacked AC bonus, and ends this sustained ability prematurely. Ending this ability manually carries no negative effect.
! Please note that there are some ability restrictions in place to maintain balance. You may not have abilities that behave in the following ways:
A. You cannot pick passive abilities that permanently increase any of the main attributes. (Sustained abilities, or active abilities with a limited duration are fine).
B. You cannot pick passive abilities that can result in some for of permanent empowering to your character.
(For example: +1 max HP after killing an enemy.)
15. Spellcasting: In order to cast spells, your character needs to learn them, adding them to their spellbook. You can learn spells from scrolls and books you come across in your adventures, and NPCs can teach you spells as well.
The number of spells you can memorize is equal to your Intellect modifier, which is also the number of spells you may cast per-encounter. You can learn abilities to increase the number of spells you can memorize or cast above what your intellect allows, if you wish.
Once your spellbook is full, you will have to forget an existing spell if you'd like to learn a new one.
Unlike in our old PnPs, you cannot define your own spells (balance ahoy).
This effectively makes spell-casting accessible to anyone with a positive intellect score. A warrior can dabble and learn one or two spells to help turn the tide of battle.
You can personalize your spells via abilities, for example:
Cold Ember (Sustained ability): All fire spells that I cast in this mode deal cold damage instead.
Augment Healing (Passive): Healing spells cast by me are 20% more effective.
Extend Spell [1/1]: Doubles the duration of a duration spell that I cast.
Spoiler:
17. If a character's HP drop to 0, he/she faints. Unconscious characters can't act anymore until the battle is over, at which point they regain consciousness (but remain at 0 HP, unable to fight). Your characters cannot die in combat unless the whole party is defeated.
18. In combat, you may do one attack (major action) and one minor action or just two minor actions per turn. Anything that is not just talking counts as a minor action (e.g. using an item from your inventory, changing your row, etc.). After having done your actions, wait for my next post, unless all you want to do is to make your character say something.
19. You can choose between two possible positions for battles - 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, certain skills/spells and attacks that hit multiple characters - however, this only applies if there is at least one character standing at the front. If no-one at the front is left, melee attacks will be able to hit covered characters as well, so beware. Also note that if you're attacked from behind, your front and cover will be reversed.
20. If it looks like you're about to lose a battle, you might want to try to escape instead of waiting until you're defeated. Usually, if you try to escape and there aren't any obstacles in your way, you will succeed. However, if you escape, any party members not capable of moving (e. g. because of being unconscious) will be left behind (carrying them would slow you down too much). Usually, this means that they'll be captured. If you're unlucky, it might also mean their death, however.
21. Be creative. There are many ways to defeat your enemies, and not all of them necessarily involve defeating them yourself or even reducing their HP to 0 at all.
22. In a battle, whenever a turn passes in which a player hasn't posted (and the other players haven't chosen what that character should do either), his character will simply attack the first enemy on the list with a simple normal attack if he can hit an enemy from where he's standing.
If you don't want that to happen, simply add a "Script" tag in your character's profile (in the spoiler) that tells me what your character should do in which situation. This can be as detailed as you want; if you want, you can even make a whole universal strategy to be used when you're absent, and I will make your character act accordingly to it (unless something happens which isn't covered in your script, in which case your character will resort to doing either normal attacks or nothing).
23. If you don't want to wait for the other players to post in a battle (for example if it just drags on and seemingly takes forever), you can just post a bolded End Turn in the game thread. You can then also give orders to the characters that haven't posted yet, if you want to, kind of like in an actual RPG game. Any characters that do not receive orders and have not posted yet at that point will resort to their script. If you ever actually want a character to do nothing, state so.
24. I may automatically end the current turn in a battle if some players haven't posted their actions after around 24 hours.
25. If your surroundings are safe, you may attempt to rest at any time (as long as you have a reasonable place to do it in), allowing your party to heal and tend to their wounds, and regain spellpoints and active abilities.
Example character sheet:
Example, Lv1 [00] Demonstrator [Front]
20/20 HP
Spellpoints: ++
+1 DMG | +3 HIT | +2 AC
Weapon: Example Sword [1-8 Dmg]
Armor: Example Armor [1 AC]
Spoiler:
- Item (Effect)
- Item (Effect)
- Item (Effect)
Spellbook...[ 02/02 ]
- Magic Rocket: Ride it baby!
- Lukewarm Hands: Can be either pleasant or awkward, depending on the context....
Active Abilities[list]Example [3/3]: Provides an example of an active ability your character can learn.[/list]
Sustained Abilities[list]Example: Sometimes provides an example of a sustained ability your character can learn.[/list]
Passive Abilities[list]Example: Always provides an example of a passive ability your character can learn.[/list]
Attributes:
STR: +2
DEX: 0
AGI: +2
VIT: +2
INT: +2
WIL: -3
Ability Points: 500
Scripts:
- nil.
Description: Describe your characters appearance and background here.