The Forgotten Art: An Urban and Magical RTDThe weather this Saturday afternoon is rather appropriate for the season – a furious downpour interrupted by occasional bits of extremely loud thunder, not to mention a gale that could strip the flesh from your bones were it not too busy making off with your hat or possibly your umbrella if you have one. All in all, it promises to be a miserable time for everyone except the most hopelessly contrarian people you wouldn’t enjoy talking to anyway.
Still, the outside world, as gloomy as it may be, is not quite our concern presently. Instead, we direct our attentions to a certain building on a particular street in a nonspecific city, which just so happens to be in an unimportant place in space. Despite the normally agreeable and temperate climate actively rebelling against anything that one might construe as fun or engaging, something is indeed happening within the walls of the aforementioned building – the Coleman Community Center. More specifically, within Room 303, where a rather fat, informally dressed and unkempt man sits in a room that can easily be recognized as a former classroom, albeit a slightly redecorated one. For one, there’s a whole bunch of burning candles around, some of them rather aromatic. Secondly, the entire room stinks of cheap incense. Thirdly, there is a prominent red banner draped over a nearby whiteboard that has the words “OBSCURA SEEKER CLUB” embroidered on it rather delicately. The fat man appears to be hardly able to contain his excitement, and checks his watch periodically to make sure that the hour of destiny is indeed approaching.
As the hour approaches, the door opens, and in comes a raincoat-wearing individual, followed eventually by three others. The fat man’s grin widens with each arrival until it seems like he might reach his ears if it were to stretch just a little more. Luckily, no more people seem to be coming, so nobody gets to find out what that might look like, fortunately for their psyche. When the man is confident that no others shall arrive, he addresses those that have assembled.
“Right, everyone! Welcome to the first-ever meeting of the Obscura Seeker Club! Now, I know what you’re thinking – why am I even here? Who is this guy? Well, I’ve got two words for you – magic, baby. That’s what occultism is all about, getting those sweet magicks, right? Here you will- wait. Getting ahead of myself right here, I am. I don’t even know you guys! Luckily, that’s what your club cards are for!”The assembled people look at him, then at each other perplexedly.
“Oh, goddammit, let me guess – your question right now is ‘what cards?’, right?”His potential fellow clubmates shrug.
“Sheesh. Well, there’s some over there. Fill ‘em out,” he says peevishly, pointing to a stack of photocopied pages on a nearby desk that one certainly wouldn’t mistake for cards.
Hello and welcome to my third RTD. This'll be a relatively small one, and updated presumably once per day if all goes well.
This is an urban fantasy RTD set in modern times, and it involves magic with a slight twist.
I will be using a slight modification of the standard RTD system which will involve exploding 1s and 6s (exactly like in Prophets of the New God), with a 1 or 6 followed by a 3- will be (relatively – 6s are still generally or at least tangentially good for you) undesirable, while a 1 or 6 followed by a 4+ will be (relatively – 1s are still failures at best) desirable.
Stats will come into play after initial character selection and determine bonuses. In addition, they will be subject to change over time.
To join the game, fill out the member card. Players are not chosen on a first-come first-serve basis, and are instead chosen by how interesting I find their cards on August 26th with the 4 most appealing ones chosen on that date (at about 12:00 AM, GMT +2:00 if you’re interested), so take the time to answer them interestingly. Bear in mind, though, you begin as mostly ordinary (personal levels of psychosis, dementia, obsession and/or common sense aside) people who don't have any conclusive proof of magic actually existing.
Finally, melee combat is handled by opposing d6 rolls, modified as appropriate for stats and circumstance, while ranged combat consists only from an attack d6 roll, modified as appropriate. Damage follows chunky salsa rules, so be careful. Or not, to please any possible waitlisters and be amusing.
The longest permissible answer length is a single sentence, 20 or so words at most!
1. Why are you here and not someplace else?
2. What’s your name?
3. What color do you identify yourself with?
4. Describe yourself.
5. What do you like/love/enjoy?
6. What do you dislike/hate/fear?
7. In terms of occult or obscure power and knowledge, who would you like most to resemble (fictional people included)?
Answer, and you shall be considered for membership in the Obscura Seeker Club, an exclusive brother- and sisterhood of like-minded individuals!
For potential waitlisters: also add your stats, the basic principle and allocation of which is explained in the spoiler below.
Stats:
Body: your physical strength, stamina and toughness.
Finesse: overall quickness and coordination, determines initiative in addition to the usual things.
Mind: intelligence and perceptiveness, this stat is used in magical research and determines how many spells you can cast (with 0 mind, you can cast three, and with each point you get one more).
Affinity: attunement to magic, this determines the power of spells cast.
0 points equals a -1 to rolls, 1 point equals an unmodified roll, 2 points give a 50% chance at a +1, 3 points give a solid +1, and every point from there on in adds a +1/3 to rolls. All stats start at 0, and you have 6 points initially to spend between them.
You may also notice that there's no Charisma-type stat - this is because social interactions are purely RP-based.
Once again, stats are mutable and liable to increase if you do well enough and manage not to perish horribly, which may or may not prove more difficult than you might think.
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Topic: The Forgotten Art: Approaching the Nexus (Read 272766 times)