Seeking another long-term RP partner for original settings

[MorganaLeFay]

I think that idea is pretty good. Because most of the time, using weaponry usually utilizes physical skill. Not saying that though does not come into play, but it focuses a tad bit more on one than the other.


I do like playing elves. Like, a lot.


And a question. How exactly are the stat points distributed in the sub-classifications under a skill?

 

[HeyGayzelle]

Cool, well if you're okay with that then we can go with that idea and maybe just change the name. Projectile weapons that utilize a high degree of physical strength like javelins and such are far less common in sci fi than fantasy, so I was just working under different assumptions when drafting up the skill categories.


Also the skills are just totally binary, you either have them or you don't. I figure character growth will just take the form of getting more points to pump into your stats while new skills and perks are acquired at a slower rate since they're more powerful. Ultimately, I want this rules system to have something in it that eliminates the need for a DM by giving the players in-game incentives to take risks by performing higher difficulty actions, but we could just utilize an informal rule such as "we level up and get more points to spend after each quest" if I don't come up with anything before we kick off the game.


And sure, elves are totally fine. Sometimes I enjoy slightly unusual character concepts and I'm interested in seeing how one might function within this system. I may or may not play some kind of winged creature to get some use out of the Soar perk.

 

[MorganaLeFay]

Alright. I'll start working on that then.

 

[HeyGayzelle]

Sure thing, I'll get rolling with some character ideas as well. Just feel free to drop me a line when you're ready to share some ideas.

 

[MorganaLeFay]

Alright.


I was thinking of having a more Rougeish type character, you know, focused more on speed attacks then dealing a lot of damage. Would that work..?

 

[HeyGayzelle]

Yeah, that would totally work. I'd consider looking at perks like Haste and Sneak Attack. Trickster is also a super useful skill because it works for deception, hiding from sight, pickpocketing, disguises, and you get a fairly reliable two-strike attack with Sneak Attack, of course.


I've actually really wondered whether Trickster is overpowered compared to Integrity, but I also figure they might be reasonably balanced because at least with Integrity, you don't burn bridges with NPCs by stabbing them in the back all the time. But yeah, it's probably the one skill I would recommend to a rogue/thief-type character.

 

[MorganaLeFay]

Alright. I'll keep that in mind.


Sorry if I'm hounding you with questions

 

[HeyGayzelle]

Oh, it's no problem at all. I can't reasonably expect people to just understand my incomplete rules system through osmosis or something. I'm just honestly glad that someone is interested in actually trying it out somehow. The whole thing is designed to be pretty lightweight, so I imagine it should feel pretty easy once we get in the flow of it.


I've been interested in RPing with dice for a while, but I don't want to deal with a rules system that could basically fill up an entire phone book, so I decided to make something that should theoretically be very light and quick on a forum.

 

[MorganaLeFay]

Yeah. I have another suggestion. Instead of the three strike thing, (Which, no offense, seems just a bit weird) maybe you could have a system of hit points. Like we could start out with three hit points (to keep your idea at the beginning) and as we progress and get stronger, we would gain more hit points, while at the same time, the MOB's attacks could get stronger/ vary in strength.


I guess it just seems a bit more believable that way to me.


But just a suggestion.

 

[MorganaLeFay]

Btw, this is what I have so far.


Name: Lillyane Thane


Nickname: Lil


Age: (dunno yet, what's yours going to be?)


Gender: Female


Fighting style: Rougish


Appearance:

(Yay, I found one that wasn't over sexualized!)


Character Stats:


Body; 10


Glamour


Acrobat


Athlete


Mind; 9


Insight


Pilot


Fate; 9


Trickster


Negotiator


Perks;


Sneak Attack


Heal

 

[HeyGayzelle]

Strikes are essentially a form of hit points as it were anyway. When you think about it, perks like "Untouchable" and "Rally" essentially boost your "hit points" from 3 to 5. The term was selected mostly for the sake of brevity on the page, the fact that "three strikes" is a fundamentally simple enough rule to not require some kind of counter like a higher HP range does, and it theoretically limits the amount of time spent in an encounter. But like I said in the rules, these are roughly intended as a baseline, and that narrative discretion totally does apply.


And I totally understand where you're coming from in the sense that part of the appeal of RPGs is, you know, getting all this feedback in the form of very concrete numbers that indicate exactly how much stronger a character is getting. But truthfully, I believe that the overall feel and flow of a battle has far less to do with seeing specific damage values and such than it has to do with the actual number of turns in which you remain engaged with an enemy. So, what a rule like "three strikes" does is give very clear feedback regarding the specific number of turns it will take at minimum to defeat an enemy, which I feel could be very important on forum where there will likely be lapses spanning several hours between attacks. The investment of mental effort required really wouldn't be worth it especially when you consider that, many RPGs at least in theory try to keep the number of turns required to resolve a combat scene relatively consistent throughout the game, usually less than a half dozen or so.


Furthermore, consider the fact that extending the pool of strikes or HP or what have you to a greater degree would actually make all of the combat stats less proportionally effective unless some rules for incrementally increasing those were in place too. So that's kind of it, when you want to go for that level of extensibility in a game system, every other aspect of the game needs to be redesigned to take account of that, and given that this game is designed to just fit on a single page, it just really isn't theoretically possible to accommodate some of those considerations. Like, having extremely diverse statistics for enemies implies having having some kind of monster roster which needs to be balanced. And that degree of granularity with the enemies usually implies a system where equipment has its own set of statistics. So, had this game gone in that direction, that 1 page worth of rules that I posted before probably would have been in the neighborhood of 30 pages or so.


That being said, I hope that didn't come off as defensive because I actually am extremely interested in hearing feedback from someone who has experience with D&D to get some ideas of where to take it, but I'm just trying to clarify the design considerations I was trying to satisfy when I drafted up these rules. The system was designed to be relatively modular and extensible as shown by the optional rules section, but this is meant to be more of a system that enables narrative inspiration and good storytelling, not something that offers a relatively intense abstract metagame in the way something like D&D does.


That character looks pretty good save for two things. The picture didn't load correctly for me, and when I wrote "a character may only have one stat with no skills," I meant to imply that they still have to put 4 points into the stat category. So feel free to take Soul as a dump stat, but you'll still have to put 4 points. The explanation is so this way, it's at least theoretically possible for you to pass a check on a Soul skill you don't have. Sorry if I explained that poorly.

 

[MorganaLeFay]

No, you're good, just took me a moment to read.


That all makes sense, and I'll fix that real quick.

 

[MorganaLeFay]

Name: Lillyane


Nickname: Lil


Age: (dunno yet, what's yours going to be?)


Gender: Female


Fighting style: Rougish


Appearance:<p><a href="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2016_06/blizzard-art-elf-rogue-header.jpg.969d0ae6321e2ecb511d543fa85a7648.jpg" class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image"><img data-fileid="136867" src="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2016_06/blizzard-art-elf-rogue-header.jpg.969d0ae6321e2ecb511d543fa85a7648.jpg" class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" alt=""></a></p>


(Yay, I found one that wasn't over sexualized!)


Character Stats:


Body; 10


Glamour


Acrobat


Athlete


Mind; 7


Insight


Soul; 4


Cleric


Fate; 7


Trickster


Negotiator


Perks;


Sneak Attack


Heal


Did the pic load this time?

 

[HeyGayzelle]

Yep, everything loaded fine for me. You'll have to allot 4 points to give yourself the minimum score on Soul, but aside from that, I'd say the character looks good.


You know, I actually don't know about my character's age. Probably young adult age, but I'm not leaning too strong one way or another. Even without the fighter skill, you're in a pretty good place for a starting character with sneak attack and heal. At the very least I'll probably take a good Soul score to have that gap covered, but not sure what I'll go with, maybe some kind of intelligent monster or beast could be fun.

 

[MorganaLeFay]

There, I fixed it now.


I really have no advise to give to you.

 

[HeyGayzelle]

Cool, thanks. I'll try and get cooking on a character soon. Oh, but just FYI, you didn't have to take the Cleric skill unless you wanted to. That's what I meant when I said "you may have one stat with no associated skills" in the rules. Probably my fault if there was any confusion, I bet those rules look cryptic as hell to anyone who didn't write them.

 

[MorganaLeFay]

Just a bit, haha.


But I'll keep the cleric skill. Because why not.

 

[HeyGayzelle]

Well feel free if you'd like to run with it in-character. I'll mostly give my character a build that should complement hers. I imagine at this point, the rules system kind of reads like a mess of idiosyncracies, so I can take the lead with explaining those aspects as we encounter them, and I guess I'll follow your lead more with the style and atmosphere of the setting since you seem to have a stronger idea of what you want in that regard.

 

[MorganaLeFay]

Alright, like I said before, take your time.

 

[HeyGayzelle]

Do you have particularly strong opinions about the kind of sentient creatures you want or don't want in this setting? I think I'm going to make my character some kind of bird chimera, probably something more magical-looking than these, but more savage-looking than these. I figure his backstory is that he was a wizard or alchemist's assistant, so if we don't want to have an entire race of sentient creatures like this, we could just say that he was some kind of magically or alchemically-engineered mutant. Would that be acceptable for you?


Finding reference art that really hits the nail on the head has proven difficult, so I'll probably just do a textual description for my appearance.

 

[MorganaLeFay]

I say that you do what you want with your character. This is tour story idea, and I haven't had a peoblem with anything yet.


And I understand that entirely.

 

[HeyGayzelle]

Alright then, just thought I'd run that by before finalizing the character concept. I also enjoy seeing other players build on their own character ideas, but the mere existence of a certain kind of character can have implications for the setting and seeing as you'll be spending the game with them, I figure it's only fair to let you have a say.


I'll probably have a finalized character sheet up within the day. I think I'll rename the "Blaster" skill to "Grenadier" for this setting. "Pilot" is hard to find an appropriate-sounding replacement before, but it should still be functional in the setting if we just have it apply to things like horses, carts, boats, and maybe airships or some other flying vehicle if they exist.

 

[MorganaLeFay]

Makes sense. I'll be waiting.

 

[HeyGayzelle]

Alright, so I think I'm ready to go with my character.


Name: Hauki


Body:5


-Acrobat


Mind:7


-Tekker


-Grenadier


Soul:10


-Psion


-Sorcerer


-Cleric


Fate:6


-Artisan


Perks:


-Soar


-Crowd Control


Apologies for the dry info dump of a bio, but seeing how "flying interdisciplinary mutant crow wizard" isn't exactly the tried and true winner that a character archetype like "elf rogue" is, I figured it would be good to have something a little substantial to refer back to if I'm trying to figure out what his difficulty on a given challenge would be or what kind of prose I want to use to describe him doing stuff. Not expecting you to commit this stuff to memory or anything, lol.

Spoiler

Bio: A crow chimera created by the polymath wizard, Carulanth. Hauki lived with him since birth, later serving as an assistant and as a test subject for various alchemical reagents that heightened his magical attunement. He carries himself with a low, hunchbacked posture and an inhuman, beastly gait. His hands and feet end in gangly clawed talons. He wears a light blue tabard-like garment with gold embroidery. He carries a totem made from a small stick with an intricate disc-shaped symbol at the head. Pouches containing various small items hang from a belt on his waist, along with a hook holding a short launcher with a crossbow-style firing mechanism that ends in a stirrup shaped to fit his talon. Since his light body, long limbs and overall scrawny physique make him very physically weak, he must have two hands and a foot available to reload the launcher. He fights well when he can take the height advantage and attack from above, but is easily physically overpowered on the ground, particularly when entrapped in enclosed areas. He is well-spoken and intelligent enough to be recognized as civilized, but monstrous enough to earn the scorn and contempt of many. His socially isolated upbringing further hinders his ability to understand people.

 

[MorganaLeFay]

Alright, looks good to me.


And please excuse any typos I make. I had my eyes dialated a bit ago, and anything within twonfeet of my face is hard to see clearly