The Great Weave has collapsed, sending shockwaves and chaos throughout the world. Bereft of the once stable magical system that upheld society's interconnected network of systems - business, transportation, security, communications, healthcare, research - The young Empire of Astrea has experienced a severe crisis. Starvation, joblessness, homelessness, crime, and despair are rampant in the Capital city, Neacor, and all along the developed regions central to the Empire.
People are hunkering down, scavenging for what they can earn, make, or steal to survive. Many have left eh cities to find work or safety in nearby rural areas - farms and small towns have seen a massive influx of refugees, and their problems along with them. Others seek refuge in mystic societies, or have fled the Empire back to the Old World - those who could afford passage, or were willing to brave the Forges to earn their way Across the Aethyr. For both groups, the instability in the System brought great risk for the journey.
Still others have turned their eyes outward - to the edges of civilization. A patchwork system of Nodes, Transport Lines, Ferries, and Coaches links the core of the Empire with settlements and opportunities in distant, wild places:
The dry North, where Spice is harvested, earning those fortunate enough to survive the Worms untold fortune.
The Western Archipelago, where hunting ships wage war against he sea and bring great harvests to shore, should they ever return to shore at all,
the Southern Steppes, full of fast, powerful animals and a booming - some even say explosive - fur trade.
The most desperate, foolish, and unlucky travel
East into Desolation. Only rumors remain of them. Only legends reach your ears of those who have returned from the East, broken, scarred, dying.
Hungry, desperate, tired, your eyes turn outward, to the horizons, and you ponder your fate.
name:
race:
size:
atrtributes
Mind
Body
Spirit
skills
inventory
select a race from the list below, or suggest a race.
if you suggest a race, it needs to be detailed and balanced. You'll need to give enough information for me to make a decision based on this game. Don't assume I know anything about races from other games, books, or movies - I won't stick to some other system's canon.
races can vary in size: tiny (insects, rodents), small (cats, rabbits), medium (large dogs, humanoids), large (horses) huge (elephants)
basic race options:
human, obviously. The classic template race.
demihuman: elf, dwarf, kobold, draconian, etc. basically these races tend to emphasize one aspect of humanity at the loss of other aspects. Elves favor magic, Dwarves are durable and skillful, gnomes are creative, etc. in this setting, dwarves are practically carved from living stone, rather than being directly related to humans and other races, so half-dwarves are out as a race.
constructs: golems (alchemy made stone, clay, or wood beings with rather limited skillsets), mechanoids (steampunk magic powered robots),
the Winged: more a collection of races that have the capability to fly. For most, flight is a necessity rather than an option. Avians, Winged Serpents,
labor races: trolls, ogres, centauroids. low mind and spirit, high body creatures with high food intake needs. Not really a recommended race option for most
beast races: humanoid/animal hybrids. herbivore based races have an affinity for foraging and have eaasier access to food in grass and woodlands, but are more susceptible to monster attacks, while carnivores tend to have an affinity for hunting, but a more demanding diet.
assign stats. You have 18 points to spread between the stats. If a stat hits 0, the character dies.
body stat covers all primarily physical activities and rolls
mind covers skills, knowledge rolls, exploration, perception rolls and the like
spirit covers things like magic, charisma, willpower, etc.
assign skills. Select 4 or more skills. assign 24 points between them
food related: hunting, fishing, foraging
transportation: boating, flying, riding (if your character moves naturally by flying,swimming, or some other exotic method, this counts as one of your skills)
physical work: labor, carpentry, masonry, other (specify)
mental work: accounting, law, machine design, spell design, other (specify)
spiritual work: magic (see below), religion, creature empathy, aethyr sensitivity (sense at a distance: communication, spectral travel, clairvoyance)
combat: body, melee weapon, ranged weapon. specify the weapon. doesn't have to be super precise.
magic: each type of magic is a separate skill.
Elemental types are Mass, Energy, Motion, Space
life and death types are broken into plant, animal, monster, and Sapient (aka humanoid, aka, thinking, feeling beings), and primordial (mircobes, oozes, spores, and the like)
alchemy and ritual magic are possible, but both are resource and time intensive, so if you don't want to invest heavily in working those out, I suggest avoiding them. You'd have to develop a detailed magic system to work them.
Eldritch magic is also possible, at the cost of your character's soul. I advise against this route as well unless you dig doing some descent into madness RP and don't mind losing characters
For generic tasks, I'll typically roll a standard rtd d6. may modify it if the task is easy or carefully planned or if there are extenuating circumstances like a blizzard or something.
for skill or attribute based actions will roll a d10 or higher, depending on how difficult the action might be. You'll need to roll under your stat or skill value to succeed. The difference between the roll and your stat/skill determines how well or poorly you did. for example, you have a 4 in bows and attempt to shoot a deer. if you roll a 4, you wound the deer, but it runs off. you can then track it or shoot again or whatever. if you roll a 5, you might clip the deer, but not do enough damage to injure it, making tracking it much harder. roll a 1 and you get a clean kill. roll a 10, you break a bowstring. I won't track ammo.
Turns:
TUrns are broken into a Morning Turn and an Evening Turn. Morning is the time to prepare for the day's work. Evening is the time to prepare shelter for the night or do other things. Sleep happens automatically at the end of Evening Cycle, unless otherwise stated.
Shelter: Shelter can be made or purchased. Typically, to make shelter you need materials such as camping tents or sufficient survival skill to construct something out of natural elements nearby. Going a night without shelter (sleeping under the stars or in the streets) will result in a d6 roll to determine if a bad effect happens
1: hostile creature encounter (possibly sapient)
2: hostile non-sapient creature encounter. usually a less threatening encounter than teh above.
3: environmental effect: weather, magical effects, neighbors fighting - something that makes sleep unrestful
4: no ill effects unless one is explicitly ina bad effect area, such as a freezing biome or the middle of a gang war territory
5: restful sleep.
6: random magical effect. usually not a good thing, but not always.