...I promised I wouldn't start another RTD, but yay, inspiration... >_>
The reason this is play-by-PM? This will be a free-for-all fight where information is important, so you can't reveal your actions. The reason why it's experimental? Because this has rules to make information important, because this will be a fight to the death without NPCs, because dead characters can't be replaced, because there WILL be a winner,because there will be dice-determined character generation, because this will inevitably be horribly unbalanced (in an amusing way), because this has many rules that will make GMing this a bitch... Actually, play-by-PM means GMing this will be a bitch by default. But I want to. : I
Anyway:
Every year a ritual is held to decide who will become a god. The god then rules our world for a single year before being replaced by another one the next year.
The ritual is a tournament. Six spirits of the dead are turned into demigods. The last one standing becomes a god. The one thing that these spirits had in common was that they all had regrets before dying. That is why they want to become gods - to change something in the world.
It is the year 2014. The tournament this year takes place in a small town surrounded by dark forests and hills. It seems it will be easy to hide it from the mortals. The town itself can also be a strategic advantage as no one will attack you if mortals can witness your fight. Those that do not follow this rule will be destroyed by the current god.
Are you ready for the tournament?
Stats:
-Strength: Determines the strength of physical attacks. Having strength greater than the opponents by 2 means that the opponent will get slightly damaged even if he blocks your attack. A difference of 3 means that most of your attacks will send the enemy flying. A difference of 4 means that your attacks will simply crush him, so blocking is completely useless and unless he has high endurance and agility, the opponent should just run away.
-Agility: Determines your speed, meaning it's important to both your defense and offense. Having 2 more agility than the opponent means that you get +1 to all defense rolls since you are hard to hit. A difference of 3 in agility means that you also get a +1 to attack since your attacks are too fast to react to. A difference of 4 means that the opponent won't be able to hit you at all, except with area of effect spells. In addition, agility is used to tell who attacks first in combat.
-Endurance: Determines your ability to withstand damage. Each level makes both physical and magical attacks weaker against you. Having 3 more endurance than the type of stat that the opponent uses to damage you means that only the strongest attacks of the enemy will harm you. A difference of 4 means that you are invincible against the enemy.
-Magic: Determines the power of your magic. Basically, a stat to compare against endurance and also a general "utility" stat since it's used as a modifier to many actions in the game. This stat also represents willpower and intelligence, so many of the most powerful spells can only be used on an opponent which has a lower magic stat than yours, so physical combatants shouldn't dismiss it as a "dump stat".
Skills:
You can advance skills and learn new ones by practicing - but you shouldn't spend too much time just practicing, because it leaves a good chance for your enemies to attack you or gather information. You can also practice stats, but you should find a good balance between being skilled, but weak and strong, but unskilled.
Skills will be made up on the spot, and if you want to learn a certain type of skill, I will let you do so as long as I think it's balanced. Skills are mostly just modifiers to certain actions, sometimes only in certain conditions. The more useful a skill is, the harder it is to learn.
Traits:
Traits are chosen randomly on character creation. They can't be advanced after that and are usually very powerful and have an important impact on strategy. They depend on the class. Since any class can advance any skill and stat, the traits are what makes a class different from the others.
Artifacts:
Each demigod also has special equipment given to them at the start. A demigod can only be damaged by magical weapons, magic or the physical attacks of another demigod. That's why each demigod has a weapon that can at least damage another demigod. However the stronger artifacts have powers that can be decisive in any combat. Each artifact is bound to a demigod once it is obtained and disappears once the demigod is dead. The artifacts you have at the start are determined by a roll, but it is possible to obtain or create more, though it isn't important most of the time.
Spells are categorised by levels I-V and need a magic skill of a matching level to cast. The amount of spells you can have memorised at the same time depends on the "Spellcaster" skill which everyone has at the start.
To develop a new spell you need to spend a turn and roll some dice. You can develop two spells per turn. You can just learn random spells or specify ("I try to develop a level 3 fire spell", "I try to develop a level 4 earth summoning spell" and so on).
Once you learn a spell, it can be cast once before it recharges. Basically if you have a spell "Fireball 2/2", it means you can cast it once, then it resets to "Fireball 0/2". The next turn it will be "Fireball 1/2" and then "Fireball 2/2", which means you can cast it again.
Techniques are the same as spells, but are used by physical combat classes. They depend on the and agility strength stats instead of magic, but magic skills can still be helpful for improving them.
Observation and countering magic:
Once you know what abilities an enemy has, you can spend a turn trying to learn how to counter your opponents attacks, giving you a +1 to defending against them. That's why watching your opponents is important. Naturally, Scouting classes are better at gathering information. This is also why it's recommended to switch spells often and reveal your strongest abilities as late as you can.
Also, attacking from stealth, will give you a +1 modifier to your first attack and prevents the enemy from defending against it. Attacking while the enemy is practicing, meditating, resting or is otherwise concentrated on something else will will give you a deadly +2 modifier.
There are 6 classes: fighter, mage and scout, which are further divided into offensive and defensive.
Offensive Fighter - Tries to kill enemies quickly using high strength and powerful techniques.
Defensive Fighter - Has high endurance and agility, which makes this the hardest class to kill by usual methods.
Offensive Mage - A class that depends purely on a high magic stat and superior offensive magic.
Defensive Mage - Uses subtle tactics and a wide arsenal of spells to deal with enemies.
Offensive Scout - A master of stealth. Tries to kill enemies as fast as possible by using stealth attacks.
Defensive Scout - Depends on agility and information to defend against any possible attack.
This thread will be used for discussing rules and for announcement. Gameplay will be in PMs. Of course you can tell others about what happened in gameplay here, if it's awesome enough to brag about. : P
Form:
On the thread just state your class, nothing more. There will be 6 players and each will have a different class, so this will be a "dibs on class X" post.
In the PM use the following form, since it's important to not reveal your identity in the game itself.
Name:
Class:
Bio:(Appearance, character and story. Skills will be determined by dice rolls, but they will match your character, so don't dismiss this)
Anyway, I have mentioned characters will be determined by dice. If you remember my Psychic RTD, you will know what I mean. The dice I roll will be:
1)Preparation: This determines your starting stats and skills. Probably the least important since you can get stronger anyway and this just determines how strong you are from the start.
2)Traits: Determines your traits. Important since they are very meaningful and (usually) won't change for the entire game.
3)Artifact: Since artifacts are hard to obtain, rolling 5 or especially 6 here is a very good boost. Basically the difference between having a regular sword or a sword that messes with the rules of physics.
Owait-
If you remember my Psychic RTD, you will know what I mean
Yup. It will once again use the logic of "if everyone is overpowered, everything is fair".
Something I haven't mentioned: You CAN team up, but get ready to be stabbed in the back. It's probably only recommended if you need to bring down someone who is too lucky with the superpower roulette.
_____
Players:
Offensive Fighter - Simple
Defensive Fighter - Caellath
Offensive Mage - Toaster
Defensive Mage - Ahra (dead)
Offensive Scout - Tiruin
Defensive Scout - Agentorangesoda (dead)
Also, goddamnit I'm nervous. This is quite ambitious so I will get mad if you don't support me. >_>
Poll
1 (20%)
Author
Topic: The Ritual : FINISHED! End turn + epilogue. (Read 29016 times)