Due to me wanting to use this adventure as an opportunity to test out a bunch of neato mechanics and features, there may end up being a good deal of stuff to explain. However, because I don't exactly consider reading through a guidebook's worth of game info right off the bat as the most fun thing in the world, I'll just lay down what will be most relevant in the early stages of things for now, and add to this post as things progress:
Exactly what it sounds like. More specifically, a gift from the God-King, and one of the core systems of this adventure. It is this gift that will, for the most part, determine your overall potency for the duration of the trial. Its level rises with your glorious successes, and falls with your dismal failures. It can transform you into a mountain-splitting, army annihilating juggernaut, or a sorry fool, who may sooner be killed off by their own misfortune than by the hand of any opponent.
Mechanically, the level of your badassery will tie into a number of things. Most notably, it will increase/decrease your roll threshold depending on its level, allowing you to either wield greater power and accomplish more and more impressive feats with ease, or making you more prone to slip-ups and mishaps. As the level your badassery approaches either side of the spectrum, it will take events of progressively greater caliber before the next level can be reached.
Unless you're totally set on taking a completely pacifistic route, odds are you're gonna have to kick some ass sooner or later. And during these early stages, said combat will most likely be between individuals/small groups. I'm not usually all that much a fan of the hitpoint system, so for this adventure, I'm going to try making things a little more in-depth.
In place of health/hitpoints, attack damage will instead be determined using (somewhat) common sense. That is to say, if your ankle gets snapped, you're going to have trouble moving around on foot. Get an eye gauged out, you'll suffer some accuracy loss. Someone tears your heart from your chest, you'll probably die of blood loss. When determining how successful attacks are, I will take various factors into account depending on the type, target and complexity of said attack.
Initiating an attack is as easy as specifying what that attack will be,(e.g., "Rip his head off!", "Aim for her torso and fire as rapidly as possible!", "Lie in wait for the perfect moment, then jump out from behind them and sever their spinal cords.") and leaving the rest up to me.
Most injuries will heal over time, and there will certainly be things you can do to speed the process up. With an especially high level of badassery, for example, you should be able to recover from all but the most grievous of wounds with no more than a couple hours of rest.
The length of time covered by one full "turn" may increase as events grow in scale. But for now, I think a single day's time should work fine. Once the trial begins, a set time of 24 hours will start to count down as Chosen Ones work through their desired actions. Time can advance anywhere from a split second to the entire 24 hour time period, depending on how long it is estimated said actions will take. Now of course, everyone's actions may not always finish at the same time. So if you aren't included in an update post, it just means your action(s) aren't yet completed and nothing of note has taken place.
We don't want the entire adventure to be held up by somebody that decides to go MIA on us, so if we go long enough without any word from someone, it will be assumed they stopped doing everything and simply began awkwardly idling around while time advances without their input. Once the 24 hours is up, I'll write a flavorful and informative recap of everything that went down, along with info about things such as relationships, acquired items, health status, all that good stuff. The timer will then be reset, and the next turn can commence.
The results of any given action will be determined using an elegant mix of rolls, basic reasoning, voodoo magic, and perhaps the occasional coin flip.
Simply supply me with the requested information below.
Name: What name shall be regarded as legend when later generations retell the chronicles of your grand exploits?
Sex: Judging by your current set of reproductive organs, what would you be classified as?
Age: How long have you been about the business of existing?
Description: Who are you? What are you? What do you look like? What do you dress like? Any information that fits into these categories goes here. Can be as basic or detailed as you'd like, just so long is it gives me a good idea of who I'm dealing with.
Origin: What was the state of your life prior to being chosen for this trial? Can be anything from an entire life story, to a quick summary of what you had been up to before this point. Such info could help me to better form you into the story.
Traits:Select five of your most predominant traits. Traits can be gained and lost over time depending on your behavior, and most will have both positive and negative effects that make themselves apparent at different times. Just about any trait you can think of I can work into the mechanics of the game somehow, so don't feel restricted. To give you a few examples:
Despite usually being pretty friendly, I am often considered rather intimidating. I am very ambitious, though this can make me quite stubborn at times. And my tendency to try and avoid failure and defeat at all costs has caused me to become a very enduring individual.
The effects that traits have on Chosen Ones and those around them can vary from situation to situation. They tend to be more subtle, and depend heavily on the personal choices of the individual they belong to. Traits, like many other things, are also tied to your Badassery Level. The potency of their effects shift with the rise and fall of your own power.
Skills & abilities work by either providing Chosen Ones with a static boost to certain capabilities, independent of their Badassery Level, or giving them entirely new capabilities that are tied to the level of their Badassery, and have the potential to be immensely powerful game changers.
While traits themselves change and fluctuate to better reflect those they belong to, gaining a new ability or skill usually requires some notable event or a great deal of effort (or both). But once you have them, they're difficult if not impossible to lose. Traits can affect the skills and abilities you gain by making certain ones harder or easier to attain depending on their nature.
-This adventure is a child of the suggestion game You are Me, the story in the OP taking place an indefinitely long time after the events in the end of its third chapter. Of course, you won't need to have read YaM in order to participate in this. Aside from missing some references to it here and there, those who haven't read You are Me will suffer no disadvantages against those who have.
-I'll be the first to admit that consistency isn't one of my strong points. My schedule is sporadic, and unexpected occurrences popping up are not uncommon, so time between updates may vary greatly. However, what I lack in consistency, I make up for in dedication, as I cannot stand the thought of leaving a story of mine unfinished. In other words, no matter how long it takes, I fully intend to run this from start to finish.
-Remember, this is largely experimental. If there's some aspect of the game you dislike/think could be better, that's cool. I don't mind tweaking what doesn't work as well as anticipated. But I expect you to be able to discuss it in a calm and civil manner. Otherwise, I will have no choice but to smash through your roof, physically restrain you, and forcefully inject a heavy dosage of liquefied Chill Pills into your bloodstream.
-This is not "first come first serve", which would be kind of silly considering you'll all be referred to as Chosen Ones.
-During the trial, there shall be a large emphasis on having an open environment and giving participants complete freedom over their actions, because one thing I find most enjoyable is the creative challenge of building a story around the choices of other people. And although there will be an end goal to strive for, how you pursue it, should you choose to pursue it at all, will be entirely up to you (though that doesn't mean I won't still be throwing challenges your way).
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Topic: Slaves to DZA: God of Everything: Chapter I: The Chosen Ones: Day 2 (Read 93522 times)