Aria of Ruin PnP - Talk Thread

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Re: Aria of Ruin PnP - Talk Thread

Post by Shade »

Whoa, Nica is tall.

On that note, I finally added Oz' background.
I also added another new ability.

By the way, I can't help but notice that both Nica and Example Man are Lv1 even though the ruleset says we start at Lv0. :V
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Re: Aria of Ruin PnP - Talk Thread

Post by Cimeries »

Oz - A mind of magic - 50 AP

Equipment
Oz
Trick Cane 1d4 dmg, Restores 1 MP on an attack roll of 10.
Padded Vest 1 AC

Nica
Rapier 1d6 dmg
Leather Coat 2 AC


Spells for Oz

Cyclone - Creates 1d3 + INT/3 Wind blades dealing 1+4 + WIL. Blades have INT HIT bonus.

Sonic Clap - All enemies must make a VIT check vs the caster's WIL or be stunned for a turn and lose their AC dodge bonus.

Darkmatter Vortex - All enemies must make a WIL+VIT check vs the caster's INT. If they succeed they take 1d3 damage. if they fail they will take 1d3 damage per turn for WIL turns.


Utility spells, pick two:

Absorb Elements -Grant the target WIL+[INT/2] temporary hp against elemental damage. Does not stack

Light - Creates a floating orb of radiance to act as a source of light for the caster.The orb will accomany the caster for several hours before fizzling out, and may be dismissed manually.

Life sense - The caster is able to telepathically sense all living beings within a radius of approximately INT+PER meter.

Spells for Nica
Arc bolt - Strike a single enemy with a bolt of lightning. The bolt has INT HIT and deals 3d3 +WIL damage.
On attack rolls of 6 or more, the bolt will chain to a random nearby enemy dealing 2d3+WIL damage on the first chain, and 1d3+WIL any consecutive times after that.

Entropy bolt - Attack an enemy with a strange bolt of chaotic energy. The bolt has WIL+DEX toHit and reduces the victim's AC and HIT by INT .
The victim will take 1 dmg and 5 stress every turn until they have taken the same amount that their AC and HIT were reduced by.
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Re: Aria of Ruin PnP - Talk Thread

Post by Shade »

Cimeries wrote:Oz - A mind of magic - 50 AP
Nice, I'll probably take that on my first level up, then.
Cimeries wrote:Cyclone - Creates 1d3 + INT/3 Wind blades dealing 1+4 + WIL. Blades have INT HIT bonus.
@bolded: That's supposed to be 1d4, isn't it?
Cimeries wrote:Utility spells, pick two:

Absorb Elements -Grant the target WIL+[INT/2] temporary hp against elemental damage. Does not stack

Light - Creates a floating orb of radiance to act as a source of light for the caster.The orb will accomany the caster for several hours before fizzling out, and may be dismissed manually.

Life sense - The caster is able to telepathically sense all living beings within a radius of approximately INT+PER meter.
I'll take Light and Life sense~
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Re: Aria of Ruin PnP - Talk Thread

Post by Cimeries »

Yes, that was supposed to be 1d4.
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Re: Aria of Ruin PnP - Talk Thread

Post by Agent of Dread »

I like the thematic, comes together quite nicely. I'm ready to roll.

Question for Shade: I imagine Nica would at least recognise Oz, for his reputation as a valued troublemaker if not her hobby of magic, but would it suit you (or Oz) for them to be acquainted further before the beginning of the story?

Question for Cime: Can Oz teach Nica Quick Spell? :D
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Re: Aria of Ruin PnP - Talk Thread (Ginny)

Post by Cimeries »

If you got the AP, I don't see why not.




Look at this dude...

Oops, I mean dudette.

Ginny, Lv0 [00] Blue Knight [Front]
16/16 HP // 00/100 [IIIIIIIIII]
+1 DMG | +2 HIT | +0 AC | +1 MR | +1 INIT
Longsword [1-8 Dmg] | Old Breastplate Armor [4 AC]
Spoiler: Character Sheet
Inventory...[ 01/10 ]
[list][*][2/5] Healing Flasks [ Restores 5 HP ][/list]


Spellbook...[ 02/02 ]
[list][*]First Strike [02]
Strikes first in the current combat turn, disregarding INIT.

[*]Mug [02]
A standard attack that causes enemies to drop extra loot randomly.
[/list]

Abilities [ 0285/0300 AP ]:
[list]
[*] Image Blue Lancer [1/1] [ Active ] [ 55 AP ]
This attack has +5 HIT, can only be used from the cover row, and targets a single enemy in the front row. This attack moves Ginny over to the front row, and deals x2 Maximized damage if it connects. Ginny gains 25 stress if the attack misses. This attack requires a major and a minor action to use.
[*] Image War Banner [1/1] [ Active ] [ 30 AP ]
Reduce stress by 10 for all other party members and maximize the damage of their next attack. This is a major action.
[*] Image Blue Knight [ Passive ] [ 200 AP ]
A Blue Knight learns attacks by defeating enemies. Ginny cannot learn spells, and has no SP. Instead, her spellbook will be filled up with abilities as Ginny's party defeats enemies, based on the enemies themselves. The attacks in a Blue Knight's spellbook have a limited number of uses before they are forgotten. The number of uses gained is random between 1 and INT. Once an ability in the spellbook has run out of uses, it is erased. Ginny can only manually clear entries from the spellbook by meditating at camp, otherwise she must expand attacks to clear entries. Ginny's learned attacks cannot be taught as spells would be to others, as they are invoked, rather than studied.
[*] Image Metamagick [1/1] [ Active ] [ 30 AP ] [ Not learned ]
Whenever an ally casts an offensive spell, Ginny can consume one use of her spellbook abilities to add its effects to the spell that was cast (the efficiency of this effect is circumstantial). This ability is considered a major action.

[*] Image Reflection [ Camping ] [ 45 AP ] [ Not learned ]
Ginny can boost the number of uses for one of her spellbook abilities by [WIL].

[*] Image Soul Crucible [ Camping ] [ 115 AP ] [ Not learned ]
Ginny can combine up to 2 spellbook abilities into a single ability - merging their effects and summing their uses. Ginny can't use this ability to combine a spellbook ability that is already the product of such a combination.
[/list]

Attributes:
STR: +2
DEX: +0
AGI: +0
VIT: +0
INT: +2
WIL: +1
PER: +0

Ability Points: 15
Attribute Points: 0

Scripts:
- nil.
Spoiler: Character Bio
Basic Info
Image
Age: 25
Gender: Female

Appearance
Hair color: Dark Brown
Hairstyle: Long, Straight
Eye color: Gray
Skin tone: White
Physique: Athletic
Height: 1.71m
Weight: 60kg
Clothing:
- Metal Armor
- Blue and Black shirt and mantle
- Sturdy blackened leather gloves
- Metal boots
- Black leather belts

Background: Ginny is the granddaughter of the late last thane of Escal. The thanedom of Escal was a small independent city-state that rose to power in the northeastern territory of the continent, some three hundred years ago... many years before the Rødlev Dynasty assimilated the entire continent under its banner.
Growing up, Ginny would hear tales of her lineage's conquest and skill at arms, the Escal family name being associated for centuries with warrior-caste traditions in history. Her family code speaks of loyalty to the state - honoring and working together with the ruling government as their allies wherever they chose to settle, or whoever happens to currently own the land the Escal have chosen to be their home and heritage.
Ginny has a certain magical talent that is not fully understood yet, and appears to be a form of inner invocation. The source of this talent isn't known, but some Escal have manifested strange power of this sort through the years.
What is known with quite some certainty, is that it is not a form of spell casting common among wizards and sorcerers, though individuals with greater mental faculties seem to be able to use it to greater extents, when it does manifest itself.

Following her family code and tradition, Ginny concluded her training as a warrior some years ago, and has mastered her magical ability enough to allow her to bolster her combat prowess and fight in a way that is uniquely... chaotic.
She has become a member of Rødlev's military operative branch, performing delicate peacekeeping operations within the empire's massive, unwieldy borders.
Her next assignment is bound to take her to the town of Korsgrad, a city that was once part of the Escal thanedom, according to her family's history...
This character isn't meant to dish out or sustain a lot of damage, but rather is an extensive exercise in battle tactics and resource management, what with my "spells" being a truly limited resource and getting constantly switched around between fights. Should spice melee combat up quite a lot. ^^

I believe with these three backstories, and our respective ability sets, it will allow for some interesting interactions between the three characters. I like where this is going, let's hope nobody dies. :D

Thoughts, etc? Tell me what you think about Ginny's abilities and their AP costs as well since I can't guarantee that I'm 100% objective about those.
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Re: Aria of Ruin PnP - Talk Thread

Post by Agent of Dread »

She's certainly the kind of thing only a GM can play in a game like this, but all the same I like her a lot. (And War Banner covers for something I completely forgot to put in my own Kleptokinesis, so I can appreciate it. :P)

I could see Blue Knight being a little bit more expensive, but all the same, the "spells" just have to never be worth more than any set price at any given time.

And yeah, I'm excited to start writing and getting into the rhythm with you guys.
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Re: Aria of Ruin PnP - Talk Thread

Post by Shade »

Agent of Dread wrote:Question for Shade: I imagine Nica would at least recognise Oz, for his reputation as a valued troublemaker if not her hobby of magic, but would it suit you (or Oz) for them to be acquainted further before the beginning of the story?
Sure. Did you have any particular relationship in mind?


@Cime: Well, that's certainly a heck of a lot more inspired than Mr. "lol I have infinite MP" Oz. xD

As far as AP costs go, my judgement may not be reliable as the system I'm used to nowadays uses a completely different metric for them (generally allowing for a bit more freedom with abilities), although Metamagick seems pretty cheap for what it does (some kinds of spells lack just a single aspect to become absolutely ridiculous. Just imagine Darkmattervortex with a stun effect attached to each instance of damage, for example).
Similarly, Soul Crucible seems like it has the potential to become pretty crazy if you keep combining the same spell before it runs out of uses, in a way also mostly neutering the "limited uses" aspect were your stats just a bit higher. If it were me, I'd probably add a clause that prevents you from using spells in the Soul Crucible that already are a result of it.
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Re: Aria of Ruin PnP - Talk Thread

Post by Cimeries »

I could see Blue Knight being a little bit more expensive, but all the same, the "spells" just have to never be worth more than any set price at any given time.
I plan to keep them all on the scale of the two I picked to start with, except for maybe boss or miniboss abilities that may be slightly cooler and more memorable. Since my character has some spare AP left, I'll bump the cost to 200 AP just so that it's harder for me to abuse it.
Metamagick seems pretty cheap for what it does (some kinds of spells lack just a single aspect to become absolutely ridiculous. Just imagine Darkmattervortex with a stun effect attached to each instance of damage, for example).
Noted, but I believe that the fact that it's limited use, costs me a major action (so I can't attack myself that turn), and an ability charge, and on top of that requires good timing/planning to really make good use of, it should balance with the potential awesomesauce that it can bring about.

I also added the "efficiency" clause there on purpose. I don't just copy paste the effect from my ability into the spell, I modify it to suit the spell and let's just say that if the spell is lame, the extra kick from Metamagick isn't going to make it amazing all of the sudden.

Metamagick and War Banner are two abilities I plan to use on the turn before Blue Lancer, since they're a worthwhile use of a major action. Then the minor action for the first turn is used to move back so that I can charge in on the second turn with both actions. :)
Shade wrote: Similarly, Soul Crucible seems like it has the potential to become pretty crazy if you keep combining the same spell before it runs out of uses, in a way also mostly neutering the "limited uses" aspect were your stats just a bit higher. If it were me, I'd probably add a clause that prevents you from using spells in the Soul Crucible that already are a result of it.
Ah, nice catch. I didn't even consider the possibility of doing that! This is probably because Soul Crucible could only be used once per camp and an ability can't be expected to last that long in the spellbook, but that is certainly a pretty haxx0r thing I could potentially do. I'll add a clause to my ability description.
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Re: Aria of Ruin PnP - Talk Thread

Post by Shade »

Cimeries wrote:
I could see Blue Knight being a little bit more expensive, but all the same, the "spells" just have to never be worth more than any set price at any given time.
I plan to keep them all on the scale of the two I picked to start with, except for maybe boss or miniboss abilities that may be slightly cooler and more memorable. Since my character has some spare AP left, I'll bump the cost to 200 AP just so that it's harder for me to abuse it.
Considering all the restrictions the ability comes with, 150 AP honestly seems like more than enough, even if the skills you learn this way were on the level of regular spells like the ones Oz has.
(Although you also priced Disquieting Serenity at 300 AP even though I thought it was a neutral ability at best, so maybe you just value new abilities at the cost of others a lot higher than I do.)
Cimeries wrote:This is probably because Soul Crucible could only be used once per camp and an ability can't be expected to last that long in the spellbook, but that is certainly a pretty haxx0r thing I could potentially do.
It could be expected to last that long if your INT was higher. :P
I feel bad for having basically double everyone else's stats

...oh, while I'm talking about stats, is there any limit to how we can distribute our attribute points when we level up?
For instance, could I put both points into the same stat each time and walk around with something completely stupid like +15 INT by level 5 or so? :V
Last edited by Shade on Wed Jun 14, 2017 4:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Aria of Ruin PnP - Talk Thread

Post by Cimeries »

is there any limit to how we can distribute our attribute points when we level up?
You can put them into whatever attribute you want. It's not "how" you can distribute them... More like "when". You will not be able to immediately invest AP and attribute points when you level up. You'll see later when we start the game. :)

Bleh I accidentally edited your post instead of quoting it just then... had to go back and reconstruct it. xD
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Re: Aria of Ruin PnP - Talk Thread

Post by Shade »

Cimeries wrote:You can put them into whatever attribute you want. It's not "how" you can distribute them... More like "when". You will not be able to immediately invest AP and attribute points when you level up. You'll see later when we start the game. :)
Well, no complaining if I start oneshotting everything past a certain point, then. :twisted:
Cimeries wrote:Bleh I accidentally edited your post instead of quoting it just then... had to go back and reconstruct it. xD
Cime plz
You forgot the strikethrough tag
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Re: Aria of Ruin PnP - Talk Thread

Post by Cimeries »

You know what... I think you may be right so after some consideration - I'm changing the number of attribute points per level to 1.

I don't want characters to scale in power that fast all things considered.
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Re: Aria of Ruin PnP - Talk Thread

Post by Shade »

Two attribute points per level works fine in my experience, you just need to enforce a cap that people can't raise their stats past at any given point to ensure they spread out their points a little.
For instance, in the latest version of the ruleset I'm used to, the attribute cap is [3 + Lv/2], with 2 additional stat points per level up. That way people can have significant growth on each level up without the risk of something silly like a 5 HP mage oneshotting everything with 50 damage spells or a fencer that has enough AGI to be literally unhittable. In particular, it encourages people to raise both their offensive and defensive parameters a bit rather than just focusing on one all game.
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Re: Aria of Ruin PnP - Talk Thread

Post by Cimeries »

You make a good point.
Let's go with a 5+lv/2 cap for now,with 2 points per level, and see how that balances out.
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