This is half interest check, half advertisement for an RPG I don't think many outside of the pacific northwest have heard of. I think I've learned from previous Play by Post mistakes and from playing another myself, and I'm ready to give this whole DMing thing another whirl.
The world of Nia is home to many diverse creatures. From the mighty Dragon to the tiny Faerie, the noble Elves and the scaly Shal'taka, the inhabitants of Nia are all unique in their own special ways. In fact, depending on where one hails from, one might look radically different from another of the same race. For instance, a Dragon hailing from the mysterious island of Djunn may have a long serpentine body, and a thin wispy mustache, while one hailing from the savage land of Kilmoor would be a large quadrupedal beast, with mighty wings on its back.
The game will mostly take place, (at least to begin with) on an archipelago called the Kainal Islands. This series of islands, due to its central location, is a very popular trading hub, and a veritable melting pot of cultures, and no one person controls the entire nation. Instead, fifty officials are elected to compose the Island Senate, with a Speaker elected from those fifty to serve as the mediator and face of the Senate.
Social status in the Kainal Islands has never been about nobility or honor, but about wealth. Most of the citizens of the islands are merchants by trade, and so the ones with the smartest business practices make it to the top of the social order. The islands have no army, and no navy, instead, each citizen is expected to protect his or her person and property. Most train themselves in swordsmanship to make this possible, and black powder is also in heavy use around the islands. Pirates are a common sight, as are privateers and bounty hunters, who act as a kind of "pay on commission" police force.
On top of all that, there has been an increase in political intrigue over the years, some senators are being accused of taking bribes and even paying assassins to eliminate opponents.
Character creation is fairly simple. Every stat has certain skills associated with it, and to make a skill check, you add your stat and skill totals, then attempt to roll under the resulting number on 2d6, the dgree at which you succeed or fail depends on how far away from your target you rolled. For instance, if I wanted to pick a lock on a trapped chest, I would roll Thievery, which is under Dexterity. My DEX is 4, and my Thievery is 3, so my target is a 7. If I were to roll an 8, I would fail to pick the lock, and might break my pick, if I roll a 10, I might activate the trap, and get hit in the shoulder with a dart.
I want everyone to think of some kind of backstory for their character, and why they came to the Kainal Islands. You don't have to think it up right away, and you don't have to post it publicly, but I would like some form of backstory for every character at some point.
Health in Arrowflight is a bit more realistic than in other RPGs. Instead of having an arbitrary number of hitpoints that represent how much damage you can take, Arrowflight characters take Wounds. If an attack does damage over your Shrug stat, you take a wound, if an attack does double the damage of your Shrug, you take two wounds, triple is three, etc. The more wounds you take, the less effective you will be in combat; Every wound you take past the first will confer a -1 to any roll's target number, because it's hard to swing a sword when you're bleeding profusely. There are no health potions, and healing spells only stabilize and speed recovery. If you come back from the brink of death, even with the best healer, you'll be laid up for a little while.
Combat is pretty meaty, and is best explained by the sourcebook. There are several different combat styles, and each have their own strengths and weaknesses, in addition to different abilities that you will gain access to as you rank up in the corresponding combat skill. There are ranged combat skills for bows, crossbows, and black powder weapons, and vehicle combat rules for ships, airships, wagons, chariots, and even Dwarven automatons.
As for the magic system, it's quite complex and detailed, and yet easy to pick up and use. Magic is divided up into nine different Arcane Theories, and each have their own effects. While several sample spells are given for each Theory, mages are encouraged to create their own spells from the list of effects given for each Theory. Adding effects will increase the difficulty of the spell, while adding requirements, such as hand motions, arcane focuses, or magic circles, will decrease the difficulty of the spell. Now, while the rules say that spells can be made up on the fly, I'm going to to make a house rule that spells cannot be created during combat. If you make the spell and post it before combat starts and initiative is rolled, it can be used in that combat session. If the spell is created and posted while the caster is in combat it may not be used until the end of combat. Sample spells from the sourcebook are always valid. If this rule is opposed enough, I may get rid of it, but I feel like it makes more sense that a mage wouldn't be able to make complex formulations in their head and then immediately carry them out in the four seconds of a combat turn.
This thread will become the OOC thread, and a new thread will be started for IC things. We will be using invisiblecastle.com for rolls, and I've wanted to utilize a site called Obsidian Portal for campaign organizing, and I think this would be a good time to do so.
All in all, Arrowflight is probably the P&P RPG I've had the most fun playing, and had the best stories from, especially having been an early playtester for the game. I have permission to hand out .pdfs of the
main sourcebook and
character sheet, but I also encourage you to
buy your own copy if you can afford it. The character sheet .pdf is fully editable, and I've found that
Foxit Reader seems to have a lot less problems with it than Acrobat.
There is also a magic/prayer sheet that I can give out if needed, also fully editable.
Another house rule of mine is that you don't need to roll your Lifeline randomly as long as it fits with your character's backstory. While it's perfectly fine to roll your Lifeline and build a backstory around that, I also like to have the opposite option.
Other than all that, have fun! I'll be accepting 7 players at first and possibly letting more play as time goes on.
Sarrak: Shal'kerr'tan - Shal'taka seer
Dwarmin: Tali Greystone - Dwarf dragon hunter
kj1225: Kyle Johnson - Human bard
sjm9876: T'skrat - Shal'taka crusader
scapheap: Jane Fairweather - Human mage
ShadowHammer: Garashn - Orc bounty hunter
Sirus: Janiries Darkeyes - Human swashbuckler
Author
Topic: Arrowflight: Island Nations - OOC Thread (Read 21955 times)