In the land of Alcordia, the people pass down a long-held tradition of one's Path. The Path dictates a man's destiny, the turns he will make and the roads he will take. One's Path would be made a subject of great wonder, and every man hoped he would forsee the achievement of his success, fame and reward.
Recently, a group of mages calling themselves the Order of the Path has surfaced, claiming to have managed to magically read the Path of any man. Despite being complete strangers, the city of Galder, the largest and most central, took them into the governmental system. They now predict crimes before they will happen and arrest the perpetrators-to-be accordingly. They offer career readings for well-to-do children, and advise the King on the ruling of the land based on what actions people will take.
However, the Order often makes excursions. They show up mysteriously at a town, take some business in a building, and leave without a word of goodbyes. Some have even found them gathered around ancient ruins in the wild. Their presence is becoming suspicious to some people.
Then, today, you went to a public execution. A noble they had claimed would commit a murder in their friend's home later that day. He resisted right up until the final moments of his life, screaming innocence, and that he didn't own a weapon. His house was investigated privately, and it turned out that he indeed owned nothing capable of killing a man, and was in no state to acquire one, nor did he have any written evidence of being inclined to kill his friend - not a word of diary dissent.
Can this Order really be trusted? Is the Path as real as they say - and can they read it accurately even then?
And what is it that they're looking for all over the land?
Rules
Roleplaying
1. For anything not adressed in this ruleset, generic RPG rules apply. You know the drill. (Feel free to ask if you don't.)
2. If you want to do something that you don't want to describe as bluntly in your roleplaying or otherwise can't fit into it, feel free to state your character's actual action in OOC text.
Combat
3. This PnP uses the traditional d20 for determining the success of all actions.
Physical attacks will hit if the attacker's d20 + Hit matches or exceeds the target's AC.
There are no critical hits by default, though you can take an ability that allows you to score them.
4. Every character can take either a minor and a major action per turn, or just two minor ones.
- Major actions: Attacking, using a spell or an active ability (unless specified otherwise), using an item, changing armour.
- Minor actions: (De-)activiating a sustained ability, giving or receiving an item, switching between front and cover, changing weapons.
5. If a character's HP drop to 0, he/she is KO. Unconscious characters can't act anymore until the battle is over, at which point they regain consciousness (but remain at 0 HP, unable to defend themselves until they rest or are healed).
Also note that getting knocked out damages your fortitude modifier, meaning that your max. HP will be reduced until you get sufficient rest.
6. 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 cannot attack in melee. Trying to attack a covered combatant in melee is possible, but provokes a DEX vs. AGI check against all opposing front combatants and is thus more likely to fail - however, this only applies if the front actually exists. If there's no front row, the cover row will be treated as the front.
7. If things don't seem to be going your way, you can escape from battles. Whether this fails or succeeds depends on the circumstances; usually, you will be able to get away, but ranged attackers will get in a few free attacks while you escape. However, any party members not capable of moving (e. g. because of being unconscious) will need to be carried by someone else, and will be left behind if carrying them would hinder your escape too much.
8. 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 idle for that turn.
You can also post actions for multiple turns in advance, which I will attempt to follow as closely as possible.
Character Stats
9. Every character's main stats are HP (Health Points), XP (Experience Points) and AP. Everyone knows what HP and XP do, as well as how XP are gained. AP allow you to learn abilities as usual.
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 allow you to distribute 2 additional points among your main stats and increase your max. HP, as well as give you additional AP.
For purposes of making calculations easier, you start out at Lv0 instead of Lv1.
11. Players may define their active/sustained/passive abilities themselves, but the GM may change them if he deems them too imbalanced; otherwise, you'll be told how many AP your abilities require. Please refrain from making your abilities overly complex, as I don't really feel like spending three hours just to calculate one round of combat.
I'm aiming for roughly 25 AP for a completely "average" ability (with active abilities' uses' average being 2), though that doesn't mean that abilities that require more or less AP than that can't be just as effective.
12. You can't define your own equipment, but you can specify what you'd like to start out with and will be given something appropriate. If you don't specify anything, you will be given random equipment as deemed appropriate for your character. The more equipment you request, the weaker every individual piece you get will be overall. You may also choose one utility item (a rope, lockpick, bottle, net, something like that) on top of this.
13. Items don't stack. Ammunation (arrows, bolts, throwing stars, throwing knives, etc.) and consumables (up to a limit stated in the item description) are excepted.
14. Each character has the following modifiers, also called main stats:
Strength (STR)
- Every point de/increases the maximum number of items you can carry.
- Every point de/increases your base HP by 1.
- Every other point increases the damage your physical attacks deal by 1. Negative points do not decrease your damage.
- Every other point de/increases your Hit bonus by 1.
If a damaged/buffed STR modifier causes your inventory limit to drop below the amount of items you are carrying, you will have to discard items until you no longer surpass your new limit.
A damaged/buffed STR modifier will not affect your HP.
Dexterity (DEX)
- Every point de/increases your Hit bonus by 1.
- Every other point de/increases your AC by 1.
! Note that wearing armour may impose a penalty (indicated by the "Mal" rating) on checks done with this stat. The direct benefits to Hit and AC are not affected, however.
Agility (AGI)
- Every point de/increases your AC by 1.
- Your AGI is applied to your saving throw against various spells (mostly those that take on a physical form, like a fireball for example).
! Note that wearing armour may put a limit (indicated by the "Cap" rating) on the benefits received from this stat.
Fortitude (FOR)
- Every point de-/increases your base HP by 2.
- Every other point increases your HP Modifier (HP increase upon level up) by 1. Negative points do not decrease your HP Modifier.
- Your FOR is applied to your saving throw against status ailments and instant death.
Intellect (INT)
- Every other point de-/increases your maximum MP by 1.
- Every point increases the maximum number of spells you can memorize by 1. Negative points do not decrease your spell limit.
- Every point de/increases your AP by 10.
- Your INT determines the chance of hitting and effectiveness of many of your own spells.
A damaged/buffed INT modifier will not affect your MP, AP, and spell limit.
Willpower (WIL)
- Every other point de-/increases your maximum MP by 1.
- Your WIL determines the effectiveness of many of your own spells.
- Your WIL is applied to your saving throw against some types of spells (mostly those that do not take on a physical form, like debuffs, curses and mind control).
A damaged/buffed WIL modifier will not affect your MP.
...this results in the following sub-stats:
Code: Select all
- HP Modifier (HPMod): 1 + FOR/2
- Health (HP): 20 + [Lv xHPMod] ± 2xFOR ± STR (cannot be lower than 0)
- Mana (MP): 1 ± INT/2 ± WIL/2 (cannot be lower than 0)
- Ability Points (AP): 100 + 10xLv ± 10xINT
- Spell limit : 1 + INT
- Inventory Cap : 5 ± STR (cannot be lower than 1)
- Damage (Dmg): Weapon damage + STR/2. If unarmed, weapon damage is 1d3.
- Hit Bonus (Hit): STR/2 ± DEX ± Weapon Hit
- Armor Class (AC): 10 ± DEX/2 ± AGI ± Equipment AC
+ means that this only works positively; a negative stat has no effect.
15. Distribute your starting stats wisely.
Your modifiers can be anything from -5 to (5 + Lv). The sum of all your modifiers must not exceed +5 at the beginning, though you may distribute 2 more points everytime you level up.
16. Any character that fulfills the necessary requirements may start out with up to 3 spells. You can specify what kind of spells you want and what they're supposed to do, but what exactly you end up getting is decided by the GM. After the game has started, spells can be learned at various occassions. Your characters may freely teach each other their knowledge of spells when they're unoccupied for a while, though depending on both the pupil and the teacher, the pupil may learn a different variation of the spell instead (this is not always strictly negative).
17. You can rest whenever you're not in immediate danger. Resting recovers your HP, MP and ability uses, as well as damaged modifiers.
In order to fully recover your HP and MP, you'll have to rest for around 8 hours.
In order to fully recover your ability uses, as little as around 1 hour is sufficient.
Modifiers recover at a rate of around 1 point per 8 hours.
If your rest is interrupted at some point or you simply don't rest long enough, you'll still recover a certain percentual value of your HP, MP and ability uses, but not nearly as much.
Unless you're in a hurry, take your time and rest after battle. Don't rush things.
- Example-kun, Lv 0.00 (Front)
HP 16/16
MP ■■■
1d8+2 Dmg | -1 Hit | 16 AC
Longsword [ 1d8 Dmg ]
Chainmail [ 5 AC | Cap at +2 | -4 Mal ]Spoiler: Inventory & Status
Items (1/9):
- Empty Bottle
Spells (0/4):
---
Abilities ( ??/130 AP):
[list][*]Example Ability [ 3 / 3 ] [ Active ] [ ?? AP ]
Description
[*]Example Ability [ Sustained ] [ ?? AP ]
Description
[*]Example Ability [ Passive ] [ ?? AP ]
Description
+4 Strength
-3 Dexterity
+2 Agility
-4 Fortitude
+3 Intellect
+3 Willpower
HPMod: +1
Appearance:
[Insert description and/or picture]
Story:
[Insert your character's background and story][/spoiler][/list]
- Example-san, Lv 6.43 (Front)
HP 51/51
MP ■■■■■■■
1d8 Dmg | -2 Hit | 19 AC
Iron Spear [ 1d8 Dmg | +1 AC | 2h ]
Enchanted Wizard Robe +2 [ 4 AC ]Spoiler: Inventory & Status
Items (1/1):
- Empty Bottle
Spells (0/9):
---
Abilities ( ??/240 AP):
[list][*]Example Ability [ 3 / 3 ] [ Active ] [ ?? AP ]
Description
[*]Example Ability [ Sustained ] [ ?? AP ]
Description
[*]Example Ability [ Passive ] [ ?? AP ]
Description
-5 Strength
+0 Dexterity
+4 Agility
+6 Fortitude
+8 Intellect
+4 Willpower
HPMod: +4
Appearance:
[Insert description and/or picture]
Story:
[Insert your character's background and story][/spoiler][/list]
Shade, what's up with the +X Cap and -X Mal on armour?