Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[GreatWyrmGold]

((Eh. It's a mad, mad world, and you just got the long end of the madness. Which is also the short end of everything else.))

[Niccolo]

It certainly doesn't help that when I raise a concern about game balance cockslapping me and anyone who plays my "class" the response is "don't worry, I'm currently working on a way to cockslap you HARDER"

Honestly, most of the time when I suggest something like that I'm joking.

I've tossed in a couple of things to actually make life easier for mages. To begin with, I never intended on having the slow-cast ability, but then GWG considered contemplating a spell for a turn and I had to think of how this would actually affect the game. Secondly was the technique you quietly discovered last turn - by slowly releasing the magic, nothing explodes. To be a mage in this game involves trickery and alternative thinking, not just brute-forcing your way to a solution by excessive magic.

I would have honestly preferred the healing system that has demons pop out when you use it, because as I have demonstrated, demons are something that large displays of magical might can solve quickly. And then you get wounds from that but in this system I could HEAL those wounds, thus summoning more demons and giving us a wonderful recursive success mechanic.

Whereas in THIS system, trying to fill the role my character was CUSTOM TAILORED to fill in the party results in maiming, dismemberment and losing my legs, which means that until they regrow, I am 100% fully useless as a character. And since that's apparently not happening within this mission I might as well just go dark and not post.

You are a Life mage and can happily heal anybody else; the price you end up feeling is dependent on a bunch of factors, including how slowly you let the magic out. Plus you get a nice bonus to Life spells, since you've specialised heavily in it. And I've given you the tools you need to heal yourself - that healing light spell is how to patch yourself up. It takes a little while, but you can heal nearly any wound with it. And since it's a nice little loophole around the exponential cost problem, you generally don't end up paying much at all. (You should try casting it as a Wisp. The wisp spell can't short-circuit and blow you to pieces or tear a limb off. With practice, you'll be able to cast it on a single dice roll instead of three. Plus the Wisp is an easy spell to cast.)

I do need to rejig the magical injury system somehow, though. This little experiment has proved that although the blood-for-magic system works brilliantly in a book world, it doesn't translate nicely to a game without some work. If you have any input on that, do pipe up.

One thing I SHOULD do, though, is apply your endurance bonus to the price roll. I haven't actually considered it at all - honestly I keep forgetting you have that bonus - but it would actually make sense.

I honestly feel like I have to use every trick in the book and most of the ones the book never considered, just to not SPONTANEOUSLY COMBUST, let alone have anything resembling success.

I'm probably overreacting, and probably reading too much into this, but it feels like what happens in this game isn't up to the cold unfeeling hand of fate, like it is in any other RTD, including those made by Piecewise, but up to the whims of the GM, and his whims are permanently stuck on "stomp the players into the dirt"

No, you're a little right. I've been doing my level best to keep you guys alive (Despite what I've claimed), but I have perhaps been enjoying injuring you a little too much. And I'm sorry about that. You always seemed to react so well about it that I think I got a tad carried away. So thanks for bringing it to my attention, I'll try and tone it down a little.

[BFEL]

((Thanks...I got a bit carried away there with the venting, sorry bout that

Its nice to know that you're looking into ways to make it more survivable, I appreciate that a lot, it helps morale

As for the magical price thing I definitely support taking the endurance bonus into account. Perhaps it could also get bonuses or maluses based on the scale of the magic used was? For example lighting a candle would have an insane bonus to the price roll because its so trivial while the volcanosplosion I performed would have a large malus, because the term volcanosplosion was applicable XD. That's about the only thing I can think of at the time.

Also what do you mean "cast it as a wisp"? I thought the wisp was its own spell, I didn't realize you could "load" other spells into it. And if I "loaded" the regen spell into it would that allow me to use other spells while the regen was going on?
Could other types of spells be "loaded" in it? Like a flamethrower?
Can the wisp move off on its own?
Wisp is starting to seem like a semi-sentient pet instead of a spell ))

[Niccolo]

Thanks... I got a bit carried away there with the venting, sorry bout that

Hey, it's all good. It's my first RtD, so criticism is always good. Maybe next time bring it up before I drive you to venting, but hey.

The Wisp... is kinda like the Wisp spell from Dragon Age. It hovers around you doing its thing. You have no real control over it - I guess it functions in the same way an 'aura' spell would, just... as a wisp. And yes, you can load other spells onto it. For the moment you have to cast Wisp as a Life spell and you can toss other elements into it, but with time you may work out how to cast just a Fire wisp (Which would, incidentally, give you a +1 to fire rolls. Like you need more of those.). And if you get really good - and if Ekoka ups his Life level too - you'll be able to teach him how to cast the spell.

Yes, you could use other magic, since you wouldn't have to focus on it! There is the standard 1-in-6 chance of magic disrupting the Wisp, but that's always there. It's seriously the only downside to the spell - it can't even explode on you. Like Ekoka's alacrity. The worst that can happen with that is he loses focus for a second and runs into a tree - the spell itself can fail to cast, but it can't misfire and kill him by burying him up to his neck in dirt or launching him into space.

I suppose you could make it sentient? With a hell of a lot of work and focus.

And towards the price... well, what I've tried to do is scale the damage based on the spell. So if you rolled a one while healing a papercut, you'd get a splitting headache that'd hamper you for a turn. But that hasn't worked so well, so I'll probably consider bonuses vis-a-vis the complexity. That's easier to balance. (By the way, GWG, this concerns you directly too, so if you have input voice it! Same for the rest of you fellows, although it's not directly affecting you...)

[BFEL]

((Hey I just got an idea while reading the "and if Ekoka also got good" thing.

Is it possible for two casters to combine magic? Like a dual fireball? And then we get Cygnus in on it too to make it the most hilariously OP thing in history? XD
Seriously, imagine if my volcano had also had two other casters, one a professional pyromancer, pouring into it

Also, another idea for dealing with cost. Can a caster slowly "charge up" a spell to release it in a big burst later, with the cost being like if they eased into it? The idea here being "slowly pour fire energy into a ball and prepare ball for firing, then fire later" instead of FIREBALL FIREBALL LIGHTNING BOLT!...or is that just what Slow Cast is? ))

[Niccolo]

((Hey I just got an idea while reading the "and if Ekoka also got good" thing.

Is it possible for two casters to combine magic? Like a dual fireball? And then we get Cygnus in on it too to make it the most hilariously OP thing in history? XD
Seriously, imagine if my volcano had also had two other casters, one a professional pyromancer, pouring into it

Also, another idea for dealing with cost. Can a caster slowly "charge up" a spell to release it in a big burst later, with the cost being like if they eased into it? The idea here being "slowly pour fire energy into a ball and prepare ball for firing, then fire later" instead of FIREBALL FIREBALL LIGHTNING BOLT!...or is that just what Slow Cast is? ))

Well, well, well. Now there's a use I hadn't considered. I hadn't even thought of that method.

I guess you could. As long as you slowly formed it and held it outside your body, then you'd have almost no price since as you 'use' it later the magic isn't actually tearing out of your body now. Huh. Maybe, with a little earth magic you could imprison the spell inside a crystal or a lump of glass? Then throw the glass ball at someone and WOOMF.

I like it! You surprised me and it's absolutely inventive. Therefore, yes it totally is possible.

... And I'm going to say yes to the mixing of magics. But you'd have to get it just right. It's a hell out powerful technique, so I'll have to come up with some suitable drawbacks.

[BFEL]

... And I'm going to say yes to the mixing of magics. But you'd have to get it just right. It's a hell out powerful technique, so I'll have to come up with some suitable drawbacks.

((Potentially destroying the universe isn't a drawback?
I mean I SUPPOSE you could list it as a feature, but it would need a hell of a lot of asterisks to get on store shelves.))

[Niccolo]

So, BFEL, are you planning on changing your action?

[BFEL]

So, BFEL, are you planning on changing your action?

Why do you ask?....actually what WAS my action?
No idea what it was, so lets just go with sitting there twiddling my thumbs, because I cant twiddle my toes, on account of not having toes.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Who would twiddle their toes?

[BFEL]

Who would twiddle their toes?

A toetwiddler

[Niccolo]

Sorry it took me so long to write this turn!

- Turn 27: The Village of Cnoc Adh -

Having decided to enter the village and find the source of the crazy demon-monster-things, you gather yourselves at the village entrance…

Back up towards the village gate, keeping an eye on our surroundings. Shoot at any kakhi's that attack the group. Enter village if my teammates get the door open.

"You gentlemen do whataver you want, but just so you know, there's a whole bunch of these stinkin' arseholes coming our way.” You gesture at the fallen khaki thing before drawing another arrow and notching it. “I'm just going to go ahead and get to relative safety now.” Seeing the priest and the swordsman moving towards the gate, you quickly sign your intent to stand guard and cover their backs. “Also, there's someone calling for help inside of the village. Just so you know."

The forest is getting strangely quiet around you. That’s weird. You can’t hear anything at all moving out there. You haven’t travelled the forested highlands of Cylenia very much - being a seaman from a tiny tropical archipelago - but you’re pretty sure that there should be a bunch of rowdy birds pretty much at any point when the sun is up. No deer, no birds, no mice… even worse, you can’t hear any more of the khaki monsters. You know they’re there, but… Oh dear.

Cyrus is standing next to you, fire glimmering in his hands as he too surveys the forest. “I don’t like this,” he murmurs in his cultured voice. You wonder how he ever fell in with bandits like that. The travel and battles have been a little rough on the poor mage; he looks positively exhausted from his magical use in the firefight. Somehow, though, his hair is still utterly immaculate. Where does he find the time?

Behind you, the gate swings open. You cast one eye back over your shoulder...

Seek a way inside the village. A way to open the gates, for instance.

"It is a miracle! My mild wounds have completely disappeared!" you crow happily, clapping your hands gleefully. Possibly because it seems to confirm Thuun’s possible sainthood and thus the great value of his holy bone shards.

Turning thoughts of miracles and money aside, you eye the newly-fallen, rapidly dying khaki man. This one appears to not be an elf - unlike the others - which is odd, as this village was primarily comprised of elven people. You decide that you’d feel a fair bit safer with stout village walls between you and its friends, so you turn and survey the gates.

The village wall is a sturdy wooden palisade, able to withstand most banditry and the encroachment of the forest, but nothing that an irate mage couldn’t take down. Undamaged save for the natural wear and tear of an old fortification, it gives you some hope. However, villages have been abandoned quietly before - and it’s all too common in Yagal.

You hesitantly step towards the gate. It looks to be in relatively sound condition. You go to push on the one gate and Baldur strolls over to assist you...

Baldur walks over to the village gates and tries to force them open.

“Thanks,” you mutter to the mage who’s still glowing disturbingly. You edge away from him and decide it’s high time to get inside this village and see what’s in there. Hopefully something good. You’re not expecting much, though. In your years as a mercenary you’ve seen villages like this before. Murder, monsters and mayhem on the outside; you know exactly what’s going to be inside.

You step up to the gate, joining the priest there. You lean your shoulder into the strong, heavy door and give it a good shove. The gates ponderously swing open…

Keep an eye on Khaki Man, which is possibly a good name for a superhero so I should write that down. Ahem. Also look for some kind of rock to throw at him if he turns out to be hostile.

You backstep from the dying monster/man thing and pick up a rock just in case he springs up and bites you. While bleeding profusely from the arrow through his chest. You decide not to think about exactly how much good a rock will do against a monster that can’t be killed by such a high level of trauma.

As the monster gasps out its last, you hear the gates behind you creak open. You turn to survey the village entrance...

Sitting there twiddling my thumbs, because I cant twiddle my toes, on account of not having toes.

You sit and twiddle your thumbs. Your glowing legs are a little distracting. They feel tingly. You feel a popping sensation on the base of your stumps which topples yo in shock. You blink and look closely at the stumps.

Are those… Are those tiny feet? Really? That’s how they’re going to regenerate? You mutter incoherently about the inconsistency of the laws of magic and go back to twiddling your thumbs. Your tiny feet are far too tiny to do anything except wiggle.

You hear a creak behind you as the gate opens, so you turn and look…

The wooden gates ponderously swing open to reveal a wide dirt track into the village. A cadaverous mist hangs low to the ground, giving the village an unearthly presence, as though it’s not quite there… which makes what you see all the worse.

Small houses can be seen just inside the palisade. One of them is missing most of its roof, signs of fire showing just how the thatching was removed. The other has a door hanging by a single hinge, creaking faintly in a breeze. Further in are some more houses in similar disrepair. Windows are broken; rosebushes are torn forcibly from the ground; doors smashed and splintered. And everywhere that you look you see bodies. And… pieces of bodies.

You can see clear down the track to the centre of the village, maybe fifty metres away. In the centre square is the village’s maypole, erected for the upcoming solstice celebrations. Tied to the maypole in some macabre mockery of the traditional ribbons are four severed heads, lashed to the pole by their hair. Blood has run down the pole in rivulets so thick you can see them from the entrance, looking for all the world like a barber’s sign.

Closer to you, three women have been torn into pieces, their limbs used to paint crude signs and sigils on the walls of the houses. Their torsos are just piled to one side like morbid apple cores, freshly divested of their flesh. Another woman is hanging from the eaves of a tall building, her own intestines looped in a ghoulish noose around her neck.

Blood is thick on the ground, splatters and trails and pools. Most of it has coagulated, binding the dirt track into a sticky, red-brown mess. And square in the middle of a puddle, although strangely unbloodied, is one corpse. A young woman is lying not twenty feet away, her arms and legs limp and exhausted in death. You can see only one wound on her, one of her delicately tapered elven  ears is torn off and has been stuffed roughly into her mouth. Her eyes are staring directly at the gate, hanging open and dull. Her dress is torn into tatters. You shudder to think at just how she died. Just behind her is lying another corpse, this time of a young man. He is run through, pinned to the ground by a copper spear.

Again, you hear a voice. A plaintive, mournful and wordless cry for help. It seems to be coming from the centre of the village.

Spoiler: The Players (click to show/hide)

Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)
Profession: Priest
Status: Opening doors
Inventory:
Staff (Bronze-Capped)
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
180 gold
10 Jimsonweed Fruit
Bits of Thuun’s legs
Jagged shard of bone
More bits of Thuun’s legs
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany (1/6)]

Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)
Profession: Mercenary
Status: Openin’ doors
Inventory:
Broken greatsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak
300 gold

Wounds/Status: [Slashed left eye(3/3)][/color]
Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed]

Lao Thuun (BFEL)
Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Twiddling his thumbs
Inventory:
Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour and boots
Acolyte's Suncloak
Religious Necklace
210 gold
Wounds/Status: [Healed stumpy legs]

Abilities:
[Enduring] [Dragon Aspect: 1] [Slow Cast] [Atoner] [Spellsword (3/3)][Regenerative Magic]
Spells:
[Life Spell: Wisp]
Magical Experience:
[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 1] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]

Felice Nasib (Pancaek)
Profession: Seaman
Status: Watching for nasties
Inventory:
Repaired Shortbow
Seventeen Arrows
Razor-sharp Dirk
Nautical Longcoat and Boots
313 gold
Kidzuku
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities:
[Fearless] [Kidzuku: Arrowtime]  [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot] [Kidzuku: Comprehension]

Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)
Profession: Wanderer
Status: A trifle jumpy
Inventory:
Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: [Cramped up right arm (1/2)]
Abilities:
[Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Slow Cast] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit]
Spells:
[Wind Spell: Alacrity]
Magical Experience:
[Ea: 0] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]

[BFEL]

Cyrus is standing next to you, fire glimmering in his hands as he too surveys the forest. “I don’t like this,” he murmurs in his cultured voice. You wonder how he ever fell in with bandits like that. The travel and battles have been a little rough on the poor mage; he looks positively exhausted from his magical use in the firefight. Somehow, though, his hair is still utterly immaculate. Where does he find the time?

((OH REALLY? *looks at legs*))

[Harry Baldman]

"Well, that's highly interesting!" Lyu reflexively says, then turns away from the scene, his smile slightly shrunken. Seems likely that whatever's caused those fake demons outside is probably in here someplace. Presumably the voice, even.

Take everyone inside the village, close the gate. Then commence the looting of all the bodies in immediate vicinity. Don't stroll toward the center of the village just yet, though.

[Niccolo]

Cyrus is standing next to you, fire glimmering in his hands as he too surveys the forest. “I don’t like this,” he murmurs in his cultured voice. You wonder how he ever fell in with bandits like that. The travel and battles have been a little rough on the poor mage; he looks positively exhausted from his magical use in the firefight. Somehow, though, his hair is still utterly immaculate. Where does he find the time?

((OH REALLY? *looks at legs*))

Ehehehe. At least he didn't try and cauterise his own wounds with lava. I must say, that really was one of your more insane decisions.