You await outside the derelict manor, one of the many relics from humanity's past. Called here by a flyer you found in your mailbox, apparently there is a meeting for prospective adventurers here. Well, only one way to find out.
Hey guys, time for me to run another game! And probably give up halfway through, let's see how this goes.
So it's gonna be Steampunk-fantasy theme-wise, with a bit of post-apocalyptic mixed in. Here's some more info, in-character.
In the beginning, there was nothing. Quite a bit of nothing, in fact. Sometime after that, there was something. Nobody really knows how nothing became something, and it’s quite a matter of debate, but that’s not why we’re here. After there was something, a lot of things happened very quickly. The world formed, life developed, and after only trillions of years, advanced life developed. In the scale of the universe, that’s not a very long time. This advanced life then went on to succeed in many areas, such as making advanced technologies, harnessing the powers of the world to be used as tools, and creating powerful artificial life, known as the Aseritons.
But, as with all things, it came to an end. Technology turned into weapons, the powers of the world were used to destroy instead of create, and the Aseritons razed entire continents with a single, devastating blow. After the dust settled, only the bare shreds of humanity remained, and those who did not kill themselves or died off naturally, were too insane to bear children. And so, the world stopped. Until, around five thousand years later, the cycle repeated itself. A new species rose to the top of the food chain. What they were exactly nobody knows, but all we know now is that they’re in control. They are not so much as mere physical beings, they are more so…. Forces. Malevolent, Benevolent, and everything in between, these godlike creatures reign upon all the lands, and keep a tight control over all they survey. Of course, there are areas that are still untouched, holding relics of the human times, and even sometimes pieces of Aseritons…. These areas are untouched for good reason, as dangerous things lurk there… Will you venture into the darkness? Will you seek the truth? Will you learn what is truly going on?
The world had come to a stand-still in it’s technological development once humanity died off, and it slowly degenerated from there. However, the Forces reclaimed a certain level of technology when they rose to power, namely the writings on coal, steam, and their applicable uses. Combining this with their already heightened intelligence, they created airships, steam-powered robots, even machinery that could control the very elements themselves. Of course, these are nothing compared to humanity’s achievements, but it is still a great step. They did not, however, go any further than this. The world has been at another technological stand-still for the past 20 years. People mostly use these things for tools, but if the need arose, one could use them for weapons.
There are now 4 main continents, as they have changed greatly over time, with the shifting of the tectonic plates, and the help of the Aseritons. There is one Force for each continent, and they all have different motives. Reklar, to the North, is a harsh, but fair, queen, and is as bitter as the ice land she calls home. Talerian, to the East, is a kind ruler, and is probably too kind for his job, but his society runs well, so most people don’t question it. Aete, in the South, is a mysterious entity, as no one has ever actually heard anything about him, only rumours of him taking children away into the night to experiment on, and building hazardous Aseriton-like creations. Those are, of course, just rumours. . . . Then there is Morn, to the West. Morn is a punishing, constrictive ruler, who holds her land in an palladium grasp, sending people to the Gallows for even the slightest discrepancy. Not many enjoy living under her reign, but nobody is really that happy in the other kingdoms either. War, poverty, crime, and many more things plague the lives of the innocent daily. The cause of this seems to mostly be due to the horribly exaggerated personalities, of the rulers.
After the descent of humans, a multitude of races became sentient, not having the humans in the way made it plenty easier. As such, there are a number of highly-evolved animal species, such as humanoid bears, frogs, rabbits, foxes, almost any animal has evolved. There are also a number of new races, created by the humans ever-lasting effect on the world, and these are the ones called Mutants. They come in varied shapes and sizes, from the living dead to horrible amalgamations of what once was, and they are only very rarely civilised enough to actually live in the colony, otherwise inhabiting the areas surrounding.
Name:
Race/Species: (You kind of have free reign here, as it could be a mutant or something. Anything you could think of is accepted, as long as it fits in the universe. But no humans. ‘Cause they died. You’re mutant cannot be overpowered, either.)
Gender:(What gender has your character assigned themselves?)
Sex: (What biological sex was your character born with?)
Backstory:(A brief history of your character, where they were born, their childhood, all the basic stuff.)
Description:(Personality, and appearance of character. Anything else you see necessary to add as well.)
Stats:(All of these start at 3, and you have 4 points that you can use to improve them. You can also subtract points from the starting stats, and use those to improve others. The lowest a stat can be is 1, and the highest is 10.)
Strength:(A measure of your character’s physical ability.)
Agility:(How fast your character is, and how good at dodging, or moving quickly in general.)
Dexterity:(How coordinated your character is, such as keeping a steady hand, knowing where to hit someone to do maximum damage, etc.)
Intelligence:(How smart your character is.)
Perception:(How good your character is at seeing things from far away, noticing small details, etc.)
Charisma:(How much influence your character holds over others. Basically either how good-looking they are, or how good with words they are.)
Radioactivity:(How much radiation they have absorbed. This starts at 0 for everyone, but will increase in heavily irradiated areas over time. If you start as a mutant, this starts at 3.)
Willpower:(This is the average of all your stats, and determines how resistant you are to Stress, and other forms of mental damage.)
Special Trait:(This is a permanent perk that your character has, that is unique to them, and can be broad as you like. Not too overpowered, but can be quite powerful. ((i.e. Not: “Instantly win the game” Yes:”Can shoot a giant laser beam once per week.”
Profession: (This will determine your starting skills and equipment, and is what your character did before they decided to become an adventurer.)
Most of the game will consist of me rolling a D20, but besides that, here’s some more specifics.
Combat:
Combat will start off with an initiative roll, with modifiers from the arena, characters Agility, weapons and armor, and starting tiles. The combat will then proceed turn-based, and each weapon will have their own set of dice, combined with a modifier from an appropriate stat. I may make up some simple combat maps, but we’ll see how it goes. Those would mostly just be for determining position, if that’s a thing I feel like doing.
Radiation, and Irradiated Areas:
Radiation will be a gradual thing, as in, when you are in an irradiated area, you will start to gain radiation every 2 rounds (in combat) or every 2 action-rounds (in encounters). Once you’ve gained three mutation points, you will gain a randomised mutation. After this, it will go up in multiples of two, i.e. 1st mutation: 3 radioactivity, 2nd mutation: 6 radioactivity, 3rd mutation: 12, 4th mutation: 24, etc.
There will be some horribly bad mutations, some extremely good mutations, and some mediocre mutations. Mutants start with a free mutation, that relates to their character (or otherwise decided by me.)
Basic Needs:
Things such as hunger, thirst, and sanity will need to be maintained as well. This will mostly just involve resting the night in Taverns or Bars, or some sort of Home-like Place. This will restore all three, whilst drinking clean water will restore thirst, eating food on the road will restore hunger.
Eating raw/spoiled/generally just gross food will restore hunger, but reduce sanity, and drinking irradiated water will restore thirst, but increase radioactivity and decrease sanity. Etc.
I’m trying not to make food ‘n’ stuff really complicated like I sometimes do, but it’s a nice thing for immersion.
Stress, and Mental Damage:
Much like Darkest Dungeon, under certain conditions, your Sanity may come under threat. This can be in combat, or in encounters, or even just in conversations. You have a mental defense, Willpower, which reduces sanity damage. If your sanity reaches 0, you will either become insane and incapacitated until taken to a doctor/or something similar, or develop a Mental Trait, that can only be removed with very specific things. Basically, try to keep sane. I know, that’s hard to ask, but just try.
Travel:
When travelling, a D20 will be rolled every km, to check whether or not you are besieged by oncoming foes, face a challenge, find something interesting, or just get pooped on by a bird. These travel sections will be fast-forwarded, and can take days at a time, so that’s why you need to rest at least once between travels, and occasionally more if you need to restore something particularly.
Also, with the hunger, thirst, and sanity, you won’t be able to tell exactly how you’re faring. Same for health. It’ll either be approx., or if you have certain items or skills, you may be able to tell exactly how well you’re doing. Because I’m evil like that.
Skills & Levelling up:
To get your base stats up, you need to do a certain amount of actions, which give you XP, otherwise known as execution points experience. So, like normal, you get 3 Stat points per level. But to get your skills up, you must train in that specific skill. To learn new skills, you must have someone teach you, or read a book about it, or have the basic knowledge somehow transported into your brain.
Skill Levels:
Cursed: -2 to rolls.
Failure: -1 to rolls.
Unskilled: No bonus or penalty.
Skilled: +1 to rolls
Novice: +2 to rolls.
Adept: +3 to rolls.
Master: +4 to rolls.
Natural Talent: +1 to any of the above.
Equipment:
Each piece of equipment has either a set of dice attached to it, determining certain stats depending on the type of equipment.
Weapons: (Damage, Accuracy, and Speed.)
Armour: (Defense, Speed.)
Other things: (Depends.)
Current Characters:
Sentient Bowtie -
Name: Bjorn Kolber
Race/Species: Ursine, a.k.a. a huge bearperson.
Gender/Sex: Male/Very definitely male.
Backstory: A proud child of the traditional Kolber bloodline, Bjorn grew up watching his father hammer bronze and iron in the forge. His family had sold the shaped metal to other craftsman at market, the ones with their extravagant steampower and machines. Bjorn's father had never liked steam much; neither had his father, or his father before him. Making the framework was good enough for them and it was good enough for Bjorn, too.
The young bear immediately began practicing his family's craft once he was of age, starting with simple things like bucklers and swords before advancing to the more nuanced machinery. But he could never get it just right like his father. Pieces were always too big or too small; they had an extra bend there, or were missing one here, and every mistake wasted time, valuable fuel for the forge, and more valuable metal. The failures culminated in an especially temperamental piece of iron completely shattering under Bjorn's hammer - he'd known it was in the fire too long - and sending a piece of it straight at his right eye.
Though Bjorn just wasn't the type of person to let a missing eye get in the way of his work; if crafting machinery wasn't for him, he could just as easily return to weapons and armor - and so he did. He spent much of his years perfecting the craft, and eventually made his most prized possession: a simply enormous steel warhammer, six feet tall and one-and-one-half wide, with a nasty spike on one end of the head and flat, merciless metal on the other. With such a beautiful weapon always in his sight and thoughts, the call of adventure grew daily, till Bjorn could resist no more.
Description: A massive specimen, easily nine feet tall and many hundred pounds, Bjorn is hardly a man (bear?) to mess with.. if it wasn't for his godlike patience. Simply put, you would have to be either incredibly skilled or incredibly stupid to seriously upset him - and then there is little anyone could do for you but pray and mop up the stain afterwards.
Bjorn himself is a dark fellow, almost black, with large, claws hands and paws. A large pink scar crosses his ever closed right eye, from cheek to forehead. He wears specially-fitted iron coverings on his shoulders, chest, waist and legs, leaving his arms and feet uncovered.
Bjorn is, cough cough, excessively male. Thank whoever you'd like he covers up.
Stats:
Strength: 7
Agility: 2
Dexterity: 5
Intelligence: 2
Perception: 4
Charisma: 2
Radioactivity: 0
Willpower: 3
Special Trait: Smithing On The Go: Bjorn brought a few of his smaller tools along for the journey, and the flat of his warhammer is conveniently anvil-sized. Assuming he has the time, materials, and isn't too fatigued to do so, he can easily improve or modify anyone's equipment however they would like.
Profession: Metalsmithing, specifically larger arms (greatswords, etc.) and light protection (small shields, simple armor pieces).
Skills: Master Armorer, Adept Large Weapons.
Equipment: Iron Armour (2d6 Defense, 1d6 Speed), Giant Warhammer (2d8 Attack, 1d6 Accuracy, 1d4 Speed), Buckler (+1 chance to Block).
Kevak -
Name: Ki is what most call it. That may or may not actually be its name.
Race/Species: Knitter.
Gender: N/A.
Sex: N/A
Backstory: Ki in its many ieterations has roamed, subsumed, subverted, and absorbed creatures and people for eons. Ki remembers many things. Ki forgets many more things. One can only store so much in one's own brain. Ki knows not where it came from. it just was. A silent, relatively impartial witness to the passing of the ages and the folly of mortals repeating their mistakes century after century, millennium after millennium. Eon after eon. Ki forgets many of those follies. More interesting that way and storage space is quite limited.
Description: Ki is quiet. Ki watches. Ki learns. Ki forgets. Ki wears one shell one day and another another day. The current one is furred. The last one was big. The First one was hairless. This one has two arms and three mouths. The last one was made of many donors. The First one spoke back to Ki. Ki has kept a bit of the First alive throughout the ages. A small partition of memories and cognizance. Ki knows it shouldn't as that leads to Thinking Tumors, but the First has behaved and Ki appreciates the limited company. Even if the conversations must take place over the course of centuries due to processing limitations.
Stats:
Strength: 3
Agility: 3
Dexterity: 3
Intelligence: 10 (Fixed)
Perception: 3
Charisma: 0 (Locked and Fixed)
Radioactivity: 3 (Locked)
Willpower: 3
Special Trait: [Knitter_of_Flesh]
Profession: [Roaming_Horror] Ki roamed. Ki watched. Ki ate. Ki drank. Ki remembered. Ki forgot. Time passes. Ki does not pass with it
Skills: None.
Equipment: None.
Cinder -
Name: Diora Orfila Celsus
Race/Species: Lesser Suricate (Actually just a meerkat that stayed the same size while becoming more intelligent, as opposed to their more anthromorphic and stronger counterpart)
Gender: Female
Sex: Female
Backstory: Being smaller than most of their fellows in the city, the Orfila clan elders several generations ago have made the decision to migrate from their ancestral homes to the big city, cornering the market for professions that benefit from greater maneuverability like tinkers, healers, and chemists. Diora was in both the second and third category. She specialized in treating toxins, which in the current ecology wasn't a bad decision at all.
Despite their wealth, her clan had a fairly bad reputation. This may have been partly due to their diminutive size serving as a catalyst for special discrimination, but it was likely mostly due to their connection with the local mob boss. As an Orfila, Diora was also on call like her brethren to provide services for the mob, providing them with chemicals, which they use to make certain people disappear.
As a healer, Diora was not very happy about the mob specifically requesting more and more painful poison to serve their various vendettas, not to mention their corrupting influence on the city and her family's involvement in it. The straw that broke the camel's back came when the mob mistakenly trusted her with their plans to poison the entire law enforcement force in a feast. That night, the Mob's boss and several of his subordinates were found dead, as well as a few prominent peacekeepers. An anonymous tip directed the peacekeepers to seize the mob's asset and although they knew that the Orfila clan was involved with the crime mob, all the evidences appear to have been destroyed.
Diora was missing throughout the chaos that followed. She was now a traveling mercenary.
Description: Diora is jovial and flirtatious, though she can be rather depressing and macabre to people other than herself. She isn't one to actively throw her weight around, since there's not much weight to begin with, but she lets the danger of her implements speak for themselves. Surprisingly, people find someone who can poison you and make you die by hours of pure agony intimidating.
In truth, Diora is rather squeamish about killing. Oh, she'd dissect corpses of both sentient and nonsentient, but she likes to avoid conflicts if possible, using her lethality as a negotiating tool rather than a weapon.
Being a two-feet tall suricate means that her clothing have to be custom-tailored to her. Due to her size, any sufficiently powerful hit would be enough to kill her dead, so she doesn't bother with armor. She wears a small coat over herself where she keeps her darts, a belt where she holsters her dart-gun, and carries a satchel where she keep her poison vials (because she's not stupid, they're metal)
Stats:
Strength: 1
Agility: 6
Dexterity: 3
Intelligence: 5
Perception: 3
Charisma: 4
Radioactivity: 0
Willpower: 3
Special Trait: Diora retained the immunity to venom that her meerkat ancestors had, making her immune to most forms of natural venom, while her evolved genes as a suricate turns most toxins to merely life-threatening rather than a death sentence, and inconvenient rather than life-threatening.
Profession: Toxicologist
Skills: Adept Nursing (+Natural Talent), Adept Science, Adept Poison-Making.
Equipment: Small Coat (1d4 Defense, 2d8 Speed), Dart Gun (2d8 Damage, 2d6 Accuracy, 2d8 Speed), 5x Poison Vials, 15x Poisonous Darts (1d6 Poison Damage, for 5 turns), 5x Antidote, 3x Medical Equipment (2d6 to Medical rolls).
My Name Is Immaterial -
Name: Smith of Speelerpoint D25XRU
Race/Species: Steelborn Smith, Series D25. This variation of Steelborn are designed to work as smiths, as one might imagine. They are almost comically broad chested, their chestplate styled after the rippling muscles of a bare-chested man. Their arms are equally large, with interior plating like scales so that it bends like flesh. Their head and face is one complete assembly, only marred by two wide, spherical ocular units, two more audio receptors, and a slit for an audio projector. It's an emotionless, unnerving face, the plain head contrasting harshly with the lifelike torso. Since the D25 series was designed to be able to work with both small components and larger pieces, filling a military R&D role, they were imbued with an enhanced intelligence, capable of lateral thinking and imagination. Further more, their manipulators are very advanced, strong enough to bend metal, yet precise enough to repair a clock.
Gender: XRU was not programmed with a gender, and does not have one. Typical pronouns are 'it' or 'they', if one is close to the Steelborn.
Sex: Not really applicable.
Backstory: 37 years and 98 days ago, XRU was constructed in the northern city of Speelerpoint, destined for the city's great smithies. To learn the operations of its body, it was assigned to spend the first 100 days of its motion working the bellows, the next 100 cooling redhot steel, and the next 100 hammering out blade after blade for the armies of Queen Reklar. After 300 days, it was finally moved to Research and Development, assisting the senior experts, both Steelborn and flesh. It worked on everything from general issue blades to non-lethal steamthrowers to Steelborn combat enhancements. After 19 years of this, it found itself as that expert, and continued produces weapons of war for a battle that never came. It never even thought about questioning its duty, it just wasn't in its programming. Recently, however, a Steelborn rights group in the North petitioned the Crown to release all Steelborn who had completed their tour of duty from military service. Somehow, the Crown agreed to their petition, with the condition of two tours; 30 years in total. After trying to reapply for service, and being turned down, XRU claimed its pension and set out to find something to do. It turned its feet towards the south, wandering the world, selling small technological marvels for the motion-giving coal.
Description: XRU is little different from the rest of its series, its plates slightly warped by use and great heat. Otherwise, its plates are buffed to a shine. It carries a gladius on a belt around its waist, a pack of tinkering tools on its back, and a week of coal in an internal compartment. Personality-wise, it is full of a quiet intelligence, learning all it can of the world's creatures so that it can develop better weaponry. It is unswervingly loyal to the Crown of the North, and, if it could dream, it would dream of Aseritons... finding one, unlocking its secrets, building a new one around itself...
Stats:
Strength: 6
Agility: 2
Dexterity: 5
Intelligence: 5
Perception: 3
Charisma: 1
Radioactivity: 0
Willpower: 3
Special Trait: Steelborn: Smith is made from metal, rather than flesh. Thus, it does sleep, eat or breathe, instead going into a low power mode for a short time each day and requiring coal to operate at full power. Furthermore, it is modifiable with time, materials and an advanced workshop.
Profession: Tinker/Ex-Military R&D equipment.
Skills: Adept Smithing (+Natural Talent), Master Technology.
Equipment: Modifiable Chassis (UNREMOVABLE, 2d6 Defense, 1d8 Speed), 14x Coal, Tinkerer's Tools (1d6 for rolls regarding Repairing/Crafting/Technology), Gladius (2d4 Damage, 1d4 Accuracy, 2d6 Speed).
Trapezohedron -
Name: Kruzt Gulberh
Race/Species: "Mantodean",; former lupine humanoid.
Gender/Sex: Male
Backstory: A nomadic wolf-beast that mutated into a horrific mantis-humanoid amalgam due to exposure to ancient elements. Being the sole member of a new mutant race, the insectoid camouflages its existence with large amounts of cloth padding, leaving only its antennae peeking out of its accoutrements, of which it will never part with due to its fears of rejection in society.
It now seeks refuge in mercenary work, as moving from place to place will never lead to its identity being ever revealed.
Description: Due to its circumstances, Kruzt Gulberh wears full cloth-and-leather attire at all times, hiding its mutations from public eyes. Its antennae have been decorated, in hopes that it will simply pass as a feature of his brim hat. Kruzt hides its face underneath paddings of cloth and goggles very thickly that it almost passes for a typical humanoid head.
His fingers have all turned into sharp, retractable claws, but he tries his best to wrap it around in a padded glove tailored to conform to his deformities, in order to be able to utilize various humanoid objects normally. He can speak in a gravelly voice sufficiently passable to most communities as normal voice.
His true and current nature is that of a mantis, 70% converted from his lupine race. He now possesses durable exoskeleton, but is still rather squishy inside and can easily hurt seriously with a heavy fist. Is incapable of punching hard and eating anything vegetarian.
Stats:
Strength: 3
Agility: 6
Dexterity: 6
Intelligence: 3
Perception: 2
Charisma: 2
Radioactivity: 3
Willpower: 3
Special Trait: [Reaper]: Kruzt throws off all pretense of disguise and utilizes his nature as a mantis to eliminate foes. Strength Stat becomes the sum of its Agility Stat + Dexterity Stat, divided by two. Then Kruzt gets a plus 1 to Agility and Dexterity after Strength calculation. Kruzt doffs his cloth wraps and suffers an incapability to use objects that require a humanoid hand's finesse. Utilizing said skill will reduce the opinion of people around him (-2 Charisma) for those who have seen his horrific mutations. Can be deactivated at will, but charisma penalty to people that have seen him is permanent.
Profession: Sniper-Mercenary
Skills: Adept Long-ranged Weapons, Adept Disguise, Adept Sneak.
Equipment: Padded Leather Armour (1d8 Defense, 2d4 Speed), Steam-Powered Crossbow (3d6 Damage, 2d8 Accuracy, 1d4 Speed), Rusted Dagger (1d4 Damage, 2d4 Accuracy, 1d8 Speed), Wide-Brim Hat (+1 to Sneak rolls), Full-Body Cloth Coverings, 5x Belts, Padded Leather Gloves (2d4 Defense, 2d4 Speed).
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Topic: Fables of a Forgotten Land: A steampunk-fantasy RPG. [5/5] Waitlist Open! OOC. (Read 5868 times)