So feeling the need to stretch my creativity wings I once again throw my hat into the ring of RTD DMing. This will be a (semi)cooperative story romp. Not really having a plan you all get to do it for me. Once you post that you want in your first task will not be to create a character but instead without talking about it with anyone else PM me anything from a single word to a single sentence. This PM should describe something to do with setting, theme, genre, a thing, or really anything you could consider important and would like to play with. The most important thing is that you don't go to anyone else to talk about it. Just off the top of your head make your PM.
Anyway since I can't talk about story without tainting you poor souls lets talk a bit about how I look at RTDs in general and some stuff I will be doing (not quite up to date with current RTD trends). First I am going to steal liberally from D&D 5th edition. Mostly we will be taking Advantage and Disadvantage and how you stabilize when near death. Advantage for those not in the know means you roll 2 dice and take whatever is the better result for you while Disadvantage is the reverse. To stabilize when unconscious and bleeding out you need 3 success while 3 failures is death. To get them you just roll each turn. A success of course gives 1 success while a crit success gives two. Though beware that the reverse is true and unless you have something that specifically mentions it nothing adds or subtracts to it.
Now while I can't yet tell you how to build your characters I can tell you what they will be made of (mainly not classic stats). First people will be considered mildly competent at surviving in the world they live in so once again taking D&D a adventurer wouldn't need some special skill or stat to light a campfire. Things that would need training but at which you do not have training in will have base penalty between -1 and -3 (anyone can swing a sword around so just a -1 but to forge a good sword is a bit harder so -2). Skills will be to remove penalties and they start at lv0 (some basic training with a sword would give lv0 sword fighting and mean you no longer have the -1 untrained penalty). Tools, Weapons, and Equipment are where the real bonuses early on are and depending on the skill not having the right stuff will be at a heavy penalty (without at least a basic forge making a sword while not impossible is going to be quite difficult). Talents will give you a chance to roll at things you normally wouldn't (a telekinesis talent would give you a roll at stealing the keys off your cells guard who is sleeping over on that chair) and the higher level the talent the more it would let you do (so if you had a high level of telekinesis you could just instead crush the guards head like a grape then crumple the cell door into a tiny metallic sphere). Finally these systems are deeper then they appear to be and there is more to them then meets the eye (partly because this is all I can tell you at the moment and even telling you this much taints your thoughts more than I would like).
In the void between dimensions, a newly risen God ponders. The desire to create a new [PLACE](World, Universe, Dimension, Realm, Plane) is strong, but he ascended through strength of body not mind. An idea and he reaches out into the void around him scooping up the 5 closest [SOULS](being, undividable, self, mind, consciousness, immortal). This new god surrounds them in his power and wakes them with one word in the primal language [WHERE](setting, theme, genre, specifics, existence, beings, life, power) and the 5 Souls answer after a timeless pause.
The first and fastest to respond with memories still haunting says “Miserable and grey rolling countryside of the Marches” and a world forms before them. A flat plane of existence ringed by to the north unassailable mountains and impenetrable forests. To the east a place where the land breaks up and floats away leaving void. South has a sea extending beyond reach. Finally, the west with a realm of deserts and occasional volcanos. This is just dressing for the Realm. A vast land of gently rolling hills interspersed with natural barriers to force any nations to hold their heartlands forcing the rest into a continual struggle. These marches will live up to the word miserable and grey if given time.
A pause then the next soul responds with the suggestion for “War Tapirs”. A slight pause happens, and a pulse spreads out. While it would be hard to tell but of the wildlife that was spreading those of an equine barring have developed a harsher and more aggressive attitude while the tapirs seem to grow larger and more domestic with every generation. With further careful steering even the thought of domesticating a horse will flee from any rational beings mind paving the way for the odd and forgotten Tapir.
Quickly following that another soul posits “Passion and Femininity” and the God ponders. Passion was easy and had an accepted definition. Femininity though would be harder. A primal word came to mind as perfect for the situation and thus God spoke [YIN](Empathy, Cold, Sensitivity, Reserve, Compassion, Tolerance, The Moon, Nurturance, Shamanism). In the stellar realm “the Moon that Was” became “the Moons that Are”. Twin stellar sisters, one a cold blue orb, the other a red bursting with passion. These sisters will help guide those on the land below while also unintentionally upsetting the general balance of the genders making girls more likely to be born.
Another pause and with a dark gloom the fourth soul responds with “Dark Fantasy”. Upon this being said the nights got darker and the winters colder. The blue sky sister once was only like a calm lady now has a chill to her radiance. Along with this from the dark reaches of the land monsters now spring forth. Of course fantasy is not monsters alone and so another pulse covers the land as magic is brought forth into the land.
With this though the last soul cackles and adds on “Corrupting Dark Magic”. Where before the deepest and darkest pits had only benign monsters new horrors are creeping out. The minds of men will be melted by these secret places and horrors will spread through the general populace.
The new risen God upon seeing this last change frowns and with a wave of their hand spreads a barrier. While corruption is fun, this God doesn’t want their first creation to fall easily. Those things which creep and ooze in the dark will stay there and the sentient races will have to seek them out for that magic which is darker than black.
With this the land is formed and the basic animals have grown. Now those which will breath [VITALITY](Life, Energy, Art, Presence, Chaos, Progress, Possibility) need to come brought forth. First to form are the dwarves from their mountains followed closely by the elves from their forests. As time flows faster and faster various animals and monsters gain power and eventually humanoid forms and develop their own cultures. Lastly humans themselves, a mix and average of all else come into being and they spread through the center lands. With this a few million years flow by needing only small tweaks.
Now time has slowed down matching the standard for all. Many small empires and kingdoms exist for all races. Though many seem to have a fetish for Tapirs. The closer to the edges it gets the more mixed they are. Within this land far larger than a planet could ever be anything can be found. The God feels satisfied and with that the God turns to those 5 souls which provided the suggestions, and with a gesture at the land asks [WHO](self, ability, history, skills, goals, race, gender)
Okay this should be simple enough. You don't have to think about skills or abilities. Instead just right a paragraph of who your character is so that they fit into the setting (as in you need to read the above). Those who are not yet in the game should just get on the wait list and then wait till you can actually get into the game so that you can make your character fit. I will then take the character description and make a status panel for them which could honestly be ignored as long as you understand what your character can do. An example of this would be if you had a small bit of skill with telekinesis then knowing it was lv2 doesn't mean a thing as you should already have it in your head that your just picking up small rocks and stuff, not smashing people with boulders (though don't let that stop you from trying in an emergency either as fail (the likely outcome) or success (yeah right) will still depend on the dice except penalties will be "FUN").
[PLAYERS](Souls, Doomed Ones, Adventurers, Vagabonds, Thieves, Heroes, Villains):
Yanethi is from one of the few lasting Drifting Peoples of the Great Sea; the Whisperer of his branch of the tribe. Each branch is a vaguely related collection of rafts and boats loosely linked to the whole, each one an immediate family or more. He's spent nearly all his life at sea, drifting or sailing: one's much the same as the other after a couple of decades. He's a human, and apart from having prematurely grey hair and the look of someone who spends a great deal of time outdoors and active, he looks much like the average younger adult human male. He speaks when it's needed; conserves his energy; conserves the resources about him.
He'd never call himself a magic-user. An outsider might want to class him as a druid, or a shaman, or perhaps most rightfully a sea-ranger: that's alright, but it's not all the story. He can manipulate magic, but it's not everyday magic. It's more magic for when the everyday skills fail. A backup for when fresh water can't be had, or when the wind and waves desert you for days on end, or the fish seem to have left the ocean. Perhaps on land he'd be called a weather-mage of some sort, but then the usefulness of that would never be entirely understood. It's a magic he uses when his tribe needs him to, not something he uses lightly. It might not seem powerful, but it is a natural and elemental magic, and Yanethi always tries to bear in mind the natural balance of things when he uses it.
Yanethi is also a repository - a repository of the tribe's collective knowledge, both in culture and in skills. He has a host of stories to pass on - most of his tribe do, but on the special occasions he is one of the designated story tellers, a role he's always enjoyed. But he is also a collector and practitioner of the skills needed to keep his tribe alive at sea. Sailing, navigation, fishing, whaling, mending and making do... But then so is every adult in the tribe, so it's nothing special. He is firm of spirit and resourceful.
The Whisperers of a tribe are chosen - usually at birth, but sometimes by aptitude - and are required by tradition to marry outside of the tribe. It's a way of preventing the culture from becoming atrophied and insular. Having made no contact with any of the other known remaining Drifting Peoples for over a year, Yanethi resolved to head to land to seek out the one who would be prepared to spend the rest of her life on water, and help safeguard the customs and future of the tribe.
It would be a lot to ask for.
If he failed, he would return, remain childless, and pass on the tradition to another family's child. In the meantime, Yanethi travelled, in the hope of gaining knowledge of the world, and perhaps increasing his ability to guide his tribe.
Name: Yanethi
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Skills: Sailing Lv4, Expert Lore[Drifting Peoples] Lv1, Weapon Mastery[Novice Spear Lv5]
Talents: [Untapped], Novice Natures Balance Magic Lv5
[Untapped] - You have potential not yet brought forth. Any moment it could burst forth and potentially change the very way you look at the world.
Natures Balance Magic - Crude words to describe a whole symphony of possibilities restricted by your sensibilities. Be warned for while with your people it was easy to keep the balance you are now among those who will respect results more than what is good for the world. May you keep steady and not fall off the path you chose.
Crossbreed Karlan was born to noble parents, in a rich and respected household, Karlan would have been endowed with fine tutelage, great wealth and a high standing in society, living a pleasant and charmed life. All that went to shit when they realized he had a squid for a head.
After an assault on his noble mother by a band of skulking near-human horrors, Karlan was born with the body of a short-stubby squid instead of a skull, tentacles nearly a foot long creeping round his neck. His eyes are massive and dark, his pale red flesh changing colour from time to time when in pain or excited. His is an odd, teuthic intelligence, extremely detached and calm, but little inclined to deal with complex social situations. He communicates slowly with humans because of the otherness of his neural network: for him, everything is progression through an endless abyssal depth, a pattern of hunter and hunted, at the instinctive level. He must concentrate to think as humans do. Time is measured only in food, and verbs are something that happens to other people. The moment is all that there is.
Karlan was of course hidden, no noble would admit to having an aberration for a son. The first dozen years of his life were spent in his parent's basement, away from the public eye. He was given a basic education by a scientist and friend of the family who came to study him; indeed this man growing up was the closest person to Karlan, as his mother and father shunned him in near-horror. He learnt to write via wax tablet, though seldom resorts to it. After this, the family could bear the shame no longer, and sent him away at night in a carriage, to be dropped in the wilderness very far from them.
Somehow Karlan made the arduous journey to some kind of civilization, inexperienced and half-blinded by sunlight. He was spurned for his abnormality in the urban centres, and ended up living on the outskirts, scavenging from dumps, walking the sewers, wandering the outskirts and living in abandoned places. He ended up as a sort of rag-and-bone man, selling near-worthless goods and trinkets from scrap heaps and garbage pits, cobbling awkward and ugly things from trash.
So for a dozen more years he lived his meagre and ugly life. It was said that he had found several abandoned manuals of swordsmanship and combat, and studied them avidly, practicing daily and alone. Few people would enjoy admitting that a disfigured rag-and-bone man is a better fencer than them, but indeed he must have some talent, singlehandedly facing down huge garbage-eating rats and the creatures swimming through the sewers, though his weapons could be little better than salvaged shards of metal.
He cannot speak, squids have beaks and no vocal cords. He can of course breathe underwater, and emit clouds of ink when in the sea. In terms of diet, he is omnivorous, eating roughly the same food as humans, despite caring less about whether or not meat is cooked.
His tentacles are probably too weak to grab and strangle people like a giant squid, but are prehensile and capable of complex manipulation, at least as much as fingers.
Name: Karlan
Gender: Male
Race:
Skills: Intermediate Disease Resistance Lv3, Weapon Mastery[Sword Lv5, Improvised Lv1], Salvage Lv3
Talents: [Water Breathing], Novice Ink Spurt Lv0, One with the Moment Lv5
- Your ‘race’ doesn’t have a name yet. Lucky you were born to a noble family as any other family would have just killed you at birth. Maybe you should settle down and spread a new race onto the land at some point.
[Water Breathing] - What it says on the tin. No levels because you can breathe water end of story.
Ink Spurt - A physical ability based purely upon your body. When underwater you can causes an ink cloud.
One with the Moment - Some talk about the mystical one with yourself, one with the sword, or one with the universe. You don’t quite have that but your planless ways can help confuse foes who expect you to plan ahead. Probably be really good for games of rock paper scissor.
Arìenne grew up in the small Elvish settlement of Tahìr, which was settled only due to its location being considered a good area for War-Tapir breeding. Her mother died when she was only a young girl, butchered by her father in a drunk rage. Now without parents, as her father was executed shortly after, Arìenne was forced to survive in ways that no child should ever had have to. Now aged nineteen, she is a harlot, entertaining those wealthy elf nobles who come into town to purchase War-Tapirs to fulfill their fetishistic desires. However, she was driven not by passion; in fact, she hated herself for what she did in her life. Prostitution had both become a part of her, and become a part of her worst nightmares. She desired an escape from this terrible upbringing she had been given, which was the primary reason she had been stashing whatever spare earnings she wrought behind her bed in the meager room she was granted by the inn she worked at.
Name: Arìenne
Gender: Female
Race: Elf/???
Skills: Etiquette Lv2, Novice War-Tapir Handling Lv3, Seduction Lv1, Weapon Mastery[Novice Dagger Lv2]
Talents: Uncontrolled Novice Reality Bending Lv1, Raging Fire Magic Lv1
- Well technically your still an Elf... Maybe. Hopefully you don't do anything further to alter your very being
Raging - Your fire magic has forever been tainted by rage and your ability to manipulate fire will vary depending on your emotions
Uncontrolled - This is a power you just can’t manage. This could be for any number of reasons from being too young or as in your case the power belonging to something else.
Reality Bending - Magic uses the power around and Psionics uses the power within. This, this just uses power. Truly something that strays into the territory of the (demi)Gods.
http://danbooru.donmai.us/data/__sekibanki_touhou_drawn_by_kuroba_rapid__3a667ce3f3fe0992cbcf2fa1fd47a009.png
Takashi Miamoto is a rather friendly and personable person or rather when she's not roughhousing and giving a teasing jab or sarcastic remark.Generally they are competent in a variety of weapons including the scythe the axe and the short sword.They from what can be gathered originate from a eleven farming village where they were raised happily and lovingly if made a bit crude.They are a rather strange being to be honest most likely of some kinda magical origin but creatures at least like it have been seen before.
Name: Takashi Miamoto
Gender: Female
Race: Elf
Skills: Weapon Mastery[Axe Lv3, Scythe Lv3, Short Sword Lv3]
Talents: [Untapped]
[Untapped] - You have potential not yet brought forth. Any moment it could burst forth and potentially change the very way you look at the world.
[DEAD](dead, lifeless, killed, murdered, destroyed):
Ckaeyod wasn't his birth name, but it was the only one he could remember. In reality, he was born in a prosperous and opulent trade hub in the Great Desert before being abducted by a mystery cult at the age of 12. After being reborn under this moniker and his original mind being magically removed, Ckaeyod was trained on the Psychic Path in the name of the Silver God. One day, the Order of Silver's Grand Priest offered him the chance to sacrifice his body to allow an extra dimensional terror to inhabit it as a vessel. Taking the offer as his final mission of his thus far 31 year long life, the ceremony commenced. Things went wrong, though. Very wrong. An entity that was anything but the target was released by the ritual and part of it fused with Ckaeyod's soul. His skin became ashen grey and his eyes became completely white. Possessed by the newfound compulsion to destroy and grim enlightenment, he murdered the entire order over night with his strengthened powers. He now wanders the world as a vagabond in search of a way to fully dominate the Thing within him and fully obtain it's reality-bending powers so that he may attain the Final Enlightenment and reshape the entire world into a Cathedral of the Silver God.
Name: Ckaeyod
Gender: Male
Race:
Skills: Preaching Lv1
Talents: Intermediate Psionics Lv2(rage), Corrupting Uncontrolled Novice Reality Bending Lv1
- You once had a race. Then you decided to let a horror from beyond the veil inhabit your body (yes even if it had worked right) so now you don’t get one. You still look enough like your previous self though so that is a thing.
Psionics - Where others forged path of Magic you looked down upon them for you knew the only true way to power is through oneself. While you can only draw upon your own power by doing so your powers are as if liquid compared to gas before magic.
Uncontrolled - This is a power you just can’t manage. This could be for any number of reasons from being too young or as in your case the power belonging to something else.
Reality Bending - Magic uses the power around and Psionics uses the power within. This, this just uses power. Truly something that strays into the territory of the (demi)Gods.
Corrupting - That which mortal mind was not meant for. It whispers to you in the night about the power you could hold. Why worship that silver god who isn’t even a true god~? You could hold power like him~ Just let it flow, I will always be there for you~ We/I/you are connected for the rest of eternity~ Why not let go now and save yourself all the pain~
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Author
Topic: Roll To be Determined: Turn 20 - So close yet so far (Read 33521 times)