Good luck. I would play this... but it's beyond my grasp of complexity.
Well, the mechanical complexity isn't
that bad, there's just a lot of world to rummage through.
Sounds very interesting. Consider my interest piqued.
Probably going to submit a sheet, too.
Edit: Name: Jov (?)
Captain: No
Race: Fanai (Fane)
Archetype: Psycho Warrior-Assassin
Attributes:
Strength: 24 Resistance Points: 12.6
Finess: 12 Focus Pool: 25.6
Speed: 32 Focus Regen: 3.2
Grace: 9 Light: 13.7
Wisdom: 5 Evasion: 20.3
Brilliance: 8 Crit Resistance: 4.91
Skills + Abilities:
Battle Sense
--Opportune Timing
Combat Expertise
--Steelshock
Cadet Training (Edged)
--Inner Void
Speaker
--Listener
Gear:
Plain Steel Sword (50)
Plain Steel Maul (50)
Armor ("Cloth Braces", Lesser, Defense Vs Blades 3, Vs Blunt 3, Speed Penalty 2, Grace Penalty 5, Finesse Penalty 3) (20)
Navigator's Arc (35)
Crystal Cloak (65)
Comfortable clothes (?)
(Most of a) Greater Lockpick Set (?)
Recreational drinks, 3 bottles (?)
Backpack (?)
Extra set of comfortable clothes (?)
Simple eating impliments (?)
A dissembodied limb or two (?)
A set of loaded die (?)
A pillow and light blanket (?)
A couple feet of rope; not enough to scale a cliff, but enough to sufficiently restrain a struggling victim's wrists or feet (?)
Description: Jov's scales are a dark orange; nearly brown. He has feathers of both a strong yellow and strong red. He keeps his arms and legs tightly wrapped in a cloth brace, but leaves his hands and feet free. He prefers a tunic and short pants, for freedom of movement; his favored tunics are all dark colors. He's short for a Fanai, but not outside the usual range. Some of his teeth have been replaced with iron, and he has scars all over his face and hidden on his arms and legs where his shows of strength have resulted in generally self-inflicted wounds. His thin jawline makes his long head seem longer, and his eyes are a burning pasionate red; should you look at them, you'd get a sense of a wild psychopath being contained by a furious excitement for all things.
Personality: Jov believes that he is the strongest, and if he is not, he strives to improve himself and be the strongest. He expresses his strength by bloodshed; his own or others matters not to him, as long as he's inflicting pain to demonstrate strength. He believes in no god but himself, rejecting worship of the War god of his people as a crutch for weaklings. He's not at all shy of conflict, and will escalate a fight pretty quickly. He's also not shy or reserved in the slightest; loud and boastful, full of confidence. He doesn't make freindships fast; sooner or later he's going to try and spill his comrade's guts during their sleep, to watch their pain and enjoy it. He doesn't believe in a fair fight, but he doesn't accept help from others, either. If you need help, you are not strong. Killing your adversary on your own, even in the dead of night and in the back, is strength. Perhaps a suitably strong captain can keep him under his thumb?
Biography: The crew camped for the dim period. They had been traveling for days, always on the watch for their pursuer. They pitched their tents in a circle around a fire, wary of an attack, and set their watches. In a nearby tree, a winged creature stirred and flew off, startling the watch. The night wore on. The watch never noticed a figure enter a tent, then leave. They never noticed when the fire got brighter, but they did notice the stench of burning flesh. They ran to investigate, and found one of their companions in the fire, his chest opened up and some of his organs removed messily, and his throat slit. And there were many cuts elsewhere on his body, too; his arms in particular were torn to shreds. Their pursuer had taken another life.
When the Lighthose brightened, the crew uttered their prayers for their departed comrade, and then packed up and resumed their journey. They were leaving the range of the Lighthouse, and it would only be one more day's travel before they reached the light of the next one, but still; during their trek through darkness would be the worst. Their leader held up his hand to light the way as the light got darker, and they clung to it. But it wasn't enough. One of their sharp-eyed members cried out as he saw their pursuer for the first time charging right at them from ahead. The figure raised his clawed hand to strike, and tore right through their leader, causing their light to fail. Now in total darkness, the remaining crew members could hear the screams of their fellow travelers as they got ripped apart, and the grunting sounds of their killer as he swallowed bits and pieces of them.
The carnage ended when the last one died. Jov released some of his Phari light, and looked over what he had done. Yes, they were all dead. He would get his pay, and had proved once more that his ways of killing were far superior. He looked around for the landmark that would indicate where the job would have passed out of his hands; there it was, he had killed them all on time.
The money was back in the city, though, so he started his trek back to the Lighthouse; perhaps he'd spend it on drink, or on whores, or even on food. No - not food; he tore an arm off of one of the dead travellers; he had plenty of food right here, and if he got hungry there was always someone who wanted someone else dead and eaten.
Nice, but a few points.
Your attributes sum to 90, is that because you've accommodated for your armor already?
The cost of your current armor should be 10, not 20. Point cost only doubles if you're purchasing the soak type that is already a multiple of three.
I'd normally charge something around 35 for a greater lockpicking set, but, if yours is a little bit incomplete, I'll let it go for 25. The rest of your misc. items... I'll charge thirty for the lot. So you'll have 25 C that will potentially get converted into coinage, 35 if you don't modify your armor.
What happens to Aoul orphans, if they didn't know their parents (okay, presumably someone would, but what if)? Could someone of an other race be 'adopted' into Aoul society and gain their symbols? Not necessarily my concept, just interested.
The first layer of Aoul tattoos are given at birth, so, as long as someone was there to apply the ink, you can't not know who your family is or was. If a young Aoul becomes the last of his family, then he may get partially adopted into another family. This essentially means that they get bonding ink to senior member of the adopting family, with a few glyphs added to explain that this bond is one of protection and friendship, of familial love.
If an Aoul is born and does not get tattooed, it depends. There are few instances where it would happen, as, even on the run, a pregnant Aoul would probably have made every effort to secure (or make) a tattooing set. Her bonded, or herself if he was not present, would then apply the tattoos even if it had to be done in the back of a wagon, while walking, or on the back of chattel. Messy tattoos are better than no tattoos.
If an Aoul is, for any reason, born but without a family there to apply the tattoos of his or her family, things get difficult. If they can prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that their parents were certain Aoul, then they may be able to rejoin their family at a later date. Otherwise they must start their own house as if they'd married. This essentially means that they have no ancestors except for the great forerunners, which sets the bar pretty high on what they need to achieve in order to be recognized as great. They will have no place set aside for them in a worship grove, and because they are completely unknown, with no accomplishments, no family, and nothing written or carved of their history and ancestry, it may be difficult to get any weight added to their opinion. They can be partially adopted, as an Aoul who becomes the last of their family might be, but this does not provide them with the aegis of that family's ancestors. The bonding will confer whatever protection the bonded family member chooses to extend, nothing more.
Another race cannot be fully adopted into an Aoul family, not by tattoos. A family tattoo is tantamount to saying that this person is a blood family member to everyone else who ever has, or ever will, bear this tattoo. If you're not the same race, that assertion is insane. A non-Aoul can bond to an Aoul just fine, however, and you can even get the same partially adoptive relationship described above.
As an aside, Aoul, because bonding does not have anything to do with purity of family or inclusion into what it actually means to be an Aoul (bonding tattoos are basically "I love you as much as I love my family"), are some of the most forward thinking when it comes to inter-species relationships.
First: How's the fluff? I know it's rough, but I hope it gets the idea across.
Second: What should I do about combat? I have no idea what I want his final stats to look like other than obviously high Str. I was gonna have him wield a giant hammer, but looking at the mechanics it seems like even with training he wouldn't be very good with it. And of course as a Keelai he's going to be made of tissue paper once his RP's gone, and as the only proper flying race it'd be a bit of a shame if he wasn't smiting wild beasts with the powers of light itself... but I seem to be failing to get a good grasp on how combat works and stats affect it, what kind of build would work, etc. What would you recommend?
Third: How does Lumomancy work again? I was thinking Lora here was way too much of a dogmatic racist not to get a tier of it, but the magic description seemed vague and the combat description was talking about how rigid and narrow it was. Which provided an interesting potential conflict if he felt that the other two were more mechanically useful but had to rationalize it as light magic having some other advantages, but which didn't help me figure out what I could actually do with it.
To the first, I love it. Most people would have gone for the Fanai as their rabid racists, but Keelai have as much reason as any, particularly if they believe the broken histories they've written.
Second: Hammers innately have terrible accuracy but great damage. With the massive hammer, you'd hit less than half the time (if the target was perfectly still), but you'd deal 11 damage on a basic swing, enough to OHKO most basic mooks and severely injure anyone else. I think you should shift ten points away from brilliance and into grace. Brilliance is not necessarily about being smart, it's about adapting quickly to a new situation, and Lora seems to have trouble with that. Grace will improve your accuracy, dodge chance, and your RP, which will be nice for you. I also think that, in addition to picking up some hammertime training, it might be beneficial to pick up a level of arbitomancy. See below for why.
Third: As far as magic goes, think of Lumomancy like math. Pretty much everyone can add, subtract, multiply, and divide. That's utilizing basic powers like making your hand glow to provide a light in darkness. You're taking in energy from a Lighthouse, storing it briefly in dermal crystallization or internal cysts, and then releasing and refining it at a later date. Most people can do the basics instinctively because they've lived their entire lives under a Lighthouse. Advanced lumomancy is like calculus and differential equations, most people can't do (or even comprehend) the advanced stuff, but they can usually grasp the basics if you explain it. (By this example, Avernomancy is like CY Geometry, where most people go glassy eyed and begin drooling to preserve their minds)
Lumomancy lets you manipulate Light, and that is all it does. You get an interesting spectrum of radiation to play with, but the actual process is scientific, with rules, formulas, and the whole shebang.
Honestly, I think Arbitomancy might be a better fit for this character. Arbitomancy completely freeform, and is about believing something until reality capitulates and gives it to you. Importantly, even at rank one, it could enhance your existing combat style. Hammers favor big damage at the cost of hitting rarely, but, with Arbitomancy, you can use words like 'bind', 'slow', 'fatigue', 'halt', 'stop', on your enemies to set them up for big hits, and use words like 'energize', 'renew', 'bless', 'improve', 'strengthen' on yourself to keep from being torn apart. Of course, one word commands are imprecise and can go awry pretty easily, but you have to start somewhere. The fact that arbitomancy gradually drives you insane is hardly a penalty here, hell, you probably won't even be able to notice the change for a good long while.
Imma watch this :3
Cool. I admit to being profoundly inspired in terms of basic mechanics by FEF games.
Author
Topic: Lighthouse: The Age of Destiny, the Age of Ruin (OOC Thread. Game Started!) (Read 20813 times)