Following the Cataclysm, the world was flooded and ruined with vicious storms. The sea level rose and entire civilizations were destroyed and buried underneath the mighty waters. What bastions of land remained became the new centers of civilization, as mankind attempted to rebuild.
A hundred years passed since then, the storms have faded, but relatively little has changed. Mankind is scattered in small islands across a massive sea of dark waters, fighting for territory and resources.
You are an adventurer, a mercenary of some small renown, traveling between states and taking part in armed conflict, among other jobs, to sustain yourself. One day, the ship you were traveling on was ambushed at sea by a group of slavers, and you, along with the rest of the crew and passengers, were taken prisoner.
You are rotting in the hold of the mighty ship The Kraken. Time goes by and your resolve weakens in captivity. How will you escape?
This is a fantasy setting, think standard sword and sorcery meets pirates meets post-apocalypse. Yeah, that's pretty much it. It's relatively low-magic, and spellcasters are treated specially.
This is not steampunk. **** steampunk.
Rules:
Roleplaying
1. Each player may only have one character. Your characters can act independently from each other if you wish to. Please only join if you fully intend to be active (that means, post more than like once every two days).
2. The story requires your character be human, or at the very least human-like. You are free to choose or make up any class concept you like, however.
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 it have an own personality, its own reasons to fight and its own story. You are even welcome to have bonds between your characters, like being a brother/sister of someone else (even though no-one ever does that...). 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 like your character (or at least love to hate it).
4. Please write anything your character says in "". I also recommend giving your character a personal talking color; note that you can get any color you desire by specifying a hex value instead of an actual color. #E5B530, for example (the format is #RRGGBB), should give a yellowish/golden color to your text.
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, please do it in this thread, not in the game thread.
7. Whenever I post I'll add a status table that indicates the most important stats of your characters, like the current HP of each character and enemy (if there are any). The order of the party members also shows in which order they'll act in battle. The current time of day, the current weather and how much gold you currently have are 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.
Character Stats
9. Every character's main stats are HP (Health Points), XP (Experience Points) and AP (Ability Points). I think most people here should be familiar with what HP and XP do. XP are gained for pretty much everything you do, such as helping other people, disarming a trap, picking a door's lock, defeating a monster, etc. AP, on the other hand, are used to learn new skills and abilities that your character can use.
10. Advancing to the next level always takes 100 XP. After a level up your XP are reset to 0, though any leftover XP will be kept (e. g. reaching 108 XP would leave you with 8 XP after the level up). Gaining a level will grant you 100 additional AP and allow you to distribute 1 points on your main stats.
11. Players may define the abilities they learn themselves, but I decide how many AP they actually cost to learn.
12. You may carry 10 items in your inventory. Smaller object generally stack. You can increase carrying capacity by purchasing better armor or containers such as bags, quivers, scabbards, etc. You start without any items, barring the clothes you wear.
15. Each (player) character has the following stats, called "main stats":
Mettle represents Strength, skill-at-arms, and weapons training. Every positive point of Mettle increases your Attack by 1, whilst every second point increases the damage of your weapon attacks.
Negative points do not give a damage penalty, but each negative point still gives a -1 Atk penalty.
Finesse represent dexterity, timing and preciceness. Every positive point of Finesse increases your Attack by 1, and every other point also raises AC by 1. Finesse increases the effectiveness of special manuevers.
Agility represents speed and reflexes. In combat, every positive point of Agility increases AC by 2. Agility is also commonly used to dodge spells.
Fortitude represents your hardiness, constitution, and resistance to pain and illnesses. Every point of Fortitude adds 2 to your HP.
Fortitude affects your ability to resist tackles, poisons, diseases, and harsh physical conditions in general. Negative Fortitude reduces your HP by 1 per negative point.
Intellect represents 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.
Willpower represents conviction, faith, and sheer inner force. Willpower contributes to the damage of your spells, and helps you resist mental effects, spells of a mind-affecting nature, and torture.
Perception represents how honed your senses are, how likely you are to notice small details that others may miss, how likely you are to detect hidden enemies, traps, secrets, and so forth.
Luck Luck is nothing and everything, it is the fickle and ever working hand of fate and chance. Luck affects most situations at least to some degree. Characters with high luck tend to have things work their way more often, character with negative luck always seem to encounter obstacles wherever they go.
16. Distribute your starting stats wisely. You start out with 500 AP to define your abilities.
Your starting stats can be anything from -5 to +5, but the total of them all added together must not exceed +5. You will gain 100 AP and a single point to spend on one of your main stats every time you level up.
Abilities are bought with AP. They are the equivalent of D&D feats, and Abilities and skills in our old system.
They fall into three categories:
Passive abilities are abilities whose effect is permanent from the moment they are acquired.
Examples:
Weapon Mastery: +1 Attack and Damage 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 can reroll my check again to see if they actually hit.
Active abilities are abilities that must be activated. The 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 Finesse modifier, in a single action.
Leap Attack [1/1]: Allows me to attack a target even if their formation does not normally permit it.
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 Mettle modifier into a Finesse modifier.
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 Agility, Fortitude and Willpower 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, deals double damage, and ends this sustained ability prematurely.
! Please note that some ability restrictions have been added 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 raise your HP or increase the number of spells you may cast per-encounter. You may still learn abilities that allow you to memorize extra spells, however.
C. You cannot pick passive abilities that can result in some for of permanent empowering to your character.
You can still take a one such ability if it has a limited duration. You may also take such a sustained ability with a malus of some kind, or an active reaction ability with a limited number of uses, however.
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.
Combat
17. In combat, you can perform Maneuvers, attacks aimed at specific spots on your target. You can target the eyes to attempt to blind the enemy, target the legs to slow them down, target a weak spot to deal more damage, etc. There is no penalty for using a maneuver, to encourage creative combat, but the effectiveness of these maneuvers is determined by your Finesse.
18. 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.
19. 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.
20. 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.
21. 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.
22. 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.
23. 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 charater'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).
24. 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.
25. I may automatically end the current turn in a battle if some players haven't posted their actions after around 24 hours.
A quick reference for deriving your secondary statistics:
Starting Hit Points: 10 + 2Fort.
Hit points per level: 1
Dmg: Weapon damage + Mettle/2
Hit: Mettle + Finesse
Armor Class: Armor AC + Finesse/2 + 2Agility
Spell Pool (number of times you may cast a spell per encounter): Int
Señor Example, Lv1 [00] Demonstrator [Front]
14/14 HP
02/02 SP
3-10 Dmg | +3 Hit | +6 AC
Weapon: Example Sword [1-8 Dmg]
Armor: Example suspicious trench coat in the middle of summer [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:
Mettle: +2
Finesse: 0
Agility: +2
Fortitude: +2
Intellect: +2
Willpower: -3
Perception: -2
Luck: +2
Miscellanea:
Ability Points: 500
Highest Damage: 0
Kills: 0
Scripts:
- nil.
Description: Describe your characters appearance and background here.