Starting a 2nd forum game right after the first when I'm still new to the forum and a noob GM in general? No way this can go wrong!
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I have too much free time..
Anyhow! Welcome! If you do happen to be following my other forum game, well, prepare for something completely different!
I'm borrowing monk12's rules for this, from his You are a necromancer thread. Same rules for the most part, a d12 will be rolled to determine the outcomes of your guys' actions, information as to your status, friends and capabilities will be spoilered at the bottom of each post, etc. Also, take into account that for some actions, instant success will be assumed, unless you roll a critical fail.
As to what kind of posts are allowed.. the usual stuff. Don't be a prick, NSFW stuff can be alluded to but not described, etc. If you guys really want to, the Omnicide route is open.. but you CAN die. And you are likely to receive a lethal ass-kicking if you piss off the wrong person before you're powerful enough.. and there's ALWAYS going to be someone stronger than you, or at least your equal.
Anyway, onto the IC info.
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The Shapers rule the known world.
The Shapers are the most powerful magical sect, masters of magic with the power to create life from raw materials. With this power, the Shapers have dominated every other society in the known world - two continents, and the few islands surrounding and linking them. Every scrap of earth known to man has known the control of the Shapers for two centuries.
When the Shapers require servants, they create Serviles, the humanoid slave race they brought about to take care of their need for servants and manual labor, and when they require a foe brought to waste, they can conjure into being one of the many deadly creatures they have designed to kill and lay waste to their enemies. When they need information recorded and Serviles organized, they call into being the living, immobile, organic computers they call Servant Minds, and when they desire something as simple as a sliding door, they make fungal beasts to move their doors from the inside.
Shaper rule is harsh, but fair. And whether or not one thinks the Shapers are fair, the prosperity the Shapers have brought to Terrestia is undeniable. Harsh labor need never be performed by human hands, when there are Serviles to fulfill such roles in society. Nor are human supervisors needed when a single servant mind can instruct a host of Serviles more efficiently than any number of human overseers. Neither famine nor disease are of much concern, when the Shapers can use their abilities to create new and better plants, as well as cure disease. Humans no longer live in poverty - instead, every man or woman is a merchant or craftsmen of some kind, or helps the Shapers in their work - either joining the Shaper army, and helping maintain order in Shaper society, or aiding the Shapers in feeding and maintaining their creations. Or even learning magic themselves - although even normal magic is strictly controlled and monitored by the Shapers, lest dangerous arts such as necromancy cause instability and disorder, a dedicated, loyal and focused Outsider - a non-Shaper - can easily learn magic and use it in service to the Shapers. Shapers have opened public schools all throughout Terrestia - lack of education is no longer an obstacle for anyone. And of course, in each settlement, governing, bringing forth new Creations as needed, and maintaining order, is a Shaper.
And you are a Shaper prospective
When you were but a toddler, you were tested, for your intellect, focus and loyalty to the Shapers, and over the years tested again and again throughout your education in the general curriculum everyone citizen in whatever province you belong to goes through, and again and again you were proven smart enough, focused enough and loyal enough to have Shaper potential time and time again. Two years ago, you were taken aside by a special tutor after school one day, and he explained to you that you were specifically chosen to learn how to hold the special, semi-living magical energy used only in shaping, Essence, within yourself, a skill you would need to Shape later on in life. Ever since then, you have attended private classes with said tutor - a Shaper himself - and a group of other young prospectives the same age as you, fellow classmates who have shown the necessary traits, just as you have.
But now, you have learned to hold Essence within yourself, night and day, without even thinking of it, and you have grown old enough to move on to the next step, with the rest of your peers. Today, a week after your twelve birthday, you are finally being sent to a special school, to learn the skills you will need as a Shaper.
Today your journey begins.
What is your name?What is your gender?What are your interests?Which school are you being sent to?- Barstow Academy - A facility located in the countryside near the capital city and province of Perikalia, in the middle of Eastern Terrestia, where the Shaper council meets to deliberate, Barstow Academy is a state of the art facility that produces top notch Shapers. Their standards are especially harsh, and nothing is allowed to occur that is not planned for - some might see that as a good thing, some as a bad thing. However, a Shaper that manages to graduate from Barstow and get an apprenticeship is sure to be prepared for a life of Shaper politics, but might find themselves less able to improvise and deal with Outsiders than normal.
- Ithlum College - An experimental research facility slash Shaper school, Ithlum college is located on the southern coast of Western Terrestia, in the middle of the Dera Reaches, an inhospitable wasteland even the Shapers have found difficult to cultivate. Isolated both physically and culturally, and used for dangerous experimentation and research, Ithlum College is extremely strict in it's safety procedures, but rather lax in how it teaches it's Shaper prospectives. Most of the teachers there are.. eccentric by Shaper standards, and willing to look over similar eccentricities in their students, as well as actively involving their students in their rather dangerous experiments. Not to mention the host of Outsider soldiers the students will inevitably interact with. A Shaper who graduates from Ithlum will end up with a much greater wealth of practical knowledge than the average Apprentice, and be far more used to interacting with Outsiders, but will no doubt be considered eccentric by Shaper standards, and find themselves rather inept in matters of Shaper politics.
- Caburh Academy - Located on the northwestern coast of Eastern Terrestia, in the Lethia Province, Caburh Academy is considered a perfectly normal Shaper academy, that produces mostly average Shapers. Of course, even the most boring Shaper academy is bound to be far more interesting than any sort of Outsider education, but you've literally heard nothing of Caburh other than the fact that it is average.
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Sorry for the wall of text, this setting is crazy detailed. And no, this setting isn't mine. I'm basically turning the Geneforge game series, by Spiderweb software, into a forum game. If you're familiar with the series, you'll notice I'm changing the setting quite a bit to suit my purposes, and please keep the spoilers down. If you aren't, don't play it just yet, or you'll spoil some of the surprises I have planned for yourself.