You are aware that you are dreaming. Everything seems just the slightest bit unreal, a bit blurred in ways that simply would not occur in reality.
This is no ordinary dream, however. As time passes, you can feel your heart pounding, every beat distinct. Your wispy, uncertain form coalesces into solidity. Your awareness expands. The details of your surroundings become more firm and visible, sharper than reality. The form you wear is not your physical body. Though it's not the slightest bit similar to your true self, you nonetheless feel at home in it, like it was made for you. The folds of your clothes - some bizarre yet oddly appealing costume - feel smooth and soft and solid to the touch.
"The Outer Gate has fallen."You view your surroundings - they crisp into focus. You're standing in the middle of a square room, where the walls are made of a smooth amber crystal, the ceiling covered in daggerlike amber spikes, all of them oriented... towards the center of the etched circle you're standing in. The floor is made from a pitch-black stone, somehow soft to the touch. What a strange dream this is. You take a breath, and you feel more alive than you've ever felt before. The circle glows amber and black, then fades away, melding into the stone floor. You are simply... present, in the door-less room.
"As per protocol, defenders have been summoned from the ideal population to defend the Inner Realm of Dreams."So that's what this is, some kind of adventure? A heroic quest?
An orb of green appears, hovering in the air in front of you, before it crystalizes, and unfolds into a catlike
thing - only far too long, hovering in the air, and covered in spines instead of fur.
"Applying Crest." The creature speaks in a voice that resonates in your head more than your ears, then its tail unfolds into a long spike. Despite your instinctive attempt to evade it slams into your chest.
Everything is pain, and that's when you know you're fucked. Your uniform, your costume, your
magical girl outfit flares to life in colors that feel so much like
you - not that you can appreciate that, since you're too busy screaming.
What is this game? An homage to three previous RTDs I loved. Special People, Roll To Magic, and Perplexicon all have places in my heart, even years later. To put it simply, you the players are magical girls. You will be going on missions to defend the
Inner Realm of Dreams from the
Outsiders. You will be able to complete objectives, some primary, some secondary, to earn shards to permanently empower yourself with. As magical girls you have powerful magic capabilities - that you don't know how to use. You'll have to experiment on the fly with your magical dictionary of mystery words to figure out how to get what you want out of your powers.
What happens if my character dies? You stay dead under normal circumstances. You may then create a
Legacy based on your character's history in the game to bestow upon another player of your choice. (You'll hash out the details with me privately for this.) After that, you can create a new character sheet to go on the waitlist with.
What can I do while I'm on the waitlist? Good news! Some missions may have
Outsiders that non-players can directly control, or other systems you can influence! If you want to get in the game faster? Kill the current living players.
How do I get in, in the first place? You fill in the signup sheet. I'll choose three players based on sheet quality and two players randomly to fill the initial five.
Can the game itself be won or lost? Yes. Fail to complete too many missions and the
Outsiders can locate and attack the
Inner Gate of Dreams. Fail to defend that and the
Outsiders enter reality, which is game over. Winning is a more complicated matter, but it is possible. Note that if the situation is bad enough it may be worth retreating on a mission to save your lives and thus your progress. Think of it as similar to XCOM - weigh your lives against the cost of failure.
Tell me more about this RTD stuff. Do I really have to go over basic RTD rules at this point? Okay sure.
When taking an action, 1d6 is rolled.
On a 1 you fail horribly.
On a 2 you fail.
On a 3 you succeed weakly or fail gently, depending on the situation.
On a 4 you succeed.
On a 5 you succeed greatly.
On a 6 you succeed, technically speaking.
Since this isn't minimalist, we're applying modifiers based on your Crest Traits and based on situational circumstances. These will be somewhat arbitrary in the case of situational circumstances, but Crest Traits are very solid in terms of what they do.
During direct conflict between two entities, a contested roll occurs where each side rolls 1d6. The end result is based on the difference between the two rolls. If the difference is high enough, follow-up rolls can have bonuses or penalties attached. For example, if Jaine the Pyrourge hits Xyblk the Outsider with a fireball, with a 5 for her control over the spell versus a 1 for Xyblk's dodge, then Xylbk's following resilience roll is penalized by 1.
To prevent combat from going on forever, wounds and other penalties will accumulate upon those beings that fail sufficiently at their resilience rolls. Unlike in previous games I've run, once an attack hits I won't roll for the attack's damage-level. That damage level will be set by what the attack is, and resilience rolls will exist within that context. A 5 to tank a punch is different than 5 to tank Zothom's Disintegrating Lightning.
Finally, determining who goes first in combat is done turn by turn, and is a roll of 1d100, also subject to situational, wound, and Crest Trait modifiers.
Well I can't go into too much detail, but here's the basics.
Spellcasting is done with a pair of rolls, for Power and Control. These rolls have a rather extensive list of potential modifiers attached. Note that overshooting your Control will mitigate a Power overshoot. The rolls are made simultaneously, mutually impacting each other. The higher the Power, the greater the scope, effect, and conceptual depth of the spell will be. The higher the Control, the more precise, stable, safe (for you and your allies), and complex the effects of your spell will be. In short, Power is the fuel of your spells, and Control is how well you use it.
Obviously, Power and Control are affected by Crest Traits.
When casting a spell, you declare what Words you wish to use and in what order they are used, along with invoking any active-use Crest Traits you wish to use, and expending any Essences you wish to expend.
Too bad. You'll figure it out as you go. Learn from your fellow players, that'll help. Also, check out the Codex entries for publicly available information.
Words of PowerSoul ProgressionCan you at least tell me about Words? It wouldn't be magical girls without rampant individualism. Everyone has their own individual set of words. Some words may be shared between players, others will not be. Think of it as a magical, fragmented, confused language you can use to describe your spells, if you can pay the cost and weather the failures.
How do I sign up? Submit a character sheet. I'll order the waitlist based on order of posting after I select the initial five.
Title: You can't remember your name, but there is something you're called in this form.
Uniform: You're a defender of all of humanity, even if they don't know it. You must look the part.
Stats: Assign 6 points.
(0 points adds a -1 roll penalty, 1 has no penalty, every 3 more than 0 adds +1 to rolls in the category)
--Might 0 - Strike harder and resist the physical, keep going even as you bleed.
--Mobility 0 - Move quicker, evade physical attacks, strike swiftly.
--Power 0 - Empower and hate-imbue your spells. Make stronger Essences.
--Control 0 - Control and make safe your spells. Make more usable Essences.
--Will 0 - Endure wars of the mind, control that which you seek to shackle.
--Heart 0 - Be a magical girl. Use more Words in your spells.
Crest Traits:
-(The beautiful marks upon your Crest that grant you passive benefits or active abilities. Pick one to start from the below list.)
Domains:
-(Pick one from the below list. Each Domain adds some of its Words to your personal list when gained, and advancing a Domain's rank adds more of its Words - and may bless or curse you with certain Crest Traits.)
Starter Crest Traits:
Hasted Steps: Add +20 to all of your initiative rolls, and an additional +20 for the first initiative roll of a given combat engagement.
Potent Soul: Add +1 to your Power spell casting rolls. Once per mission, can be activated to achieve a guaranteed '5' roll in Power.
Steady Soul: Add +1 to your Control spell casting rolls. Once per mission, can be activated to achieve a guaranteed '5' roll in Control.
Heroic Form: Add +1 to your Might and Mobility rolls.
Essential Self: You may hold four Essences by default instead of two, and you may use two Essences to boost a single spell.
Barrier Jacket: Add +3 to your first three major resilience rolls per mission.
Starter Domains:
Luxhart is the light of life itself, radiance that envelops all things.
Myrhast seeks to eradicate, cut, shatter, and weaken.
Tenae is mysterious, a shadow that hides and strings that distort.
Dullan is uninteresting and unglamorous, but steady and reliable, a touchstone.
Vea'vatam always grows, always expands, always overcomes in the end.
Reaoh is unreliable, untrustworthy, yet bears well-hidden potential.
Playerlist:-Luna's Vestige / syvvaris
-Golden Flare / Lenglon
-Heavenly Clerk / Fluffe9911
-Skylord / Devastator
-Ignorance's Witch / Egan_BW
Waitlist:-Dawnlight Thorn / IronyOwl
-Platinum / MCreeper
-The Puppeteer / Knightwing64
-Incarnate / Blackpaladin99
-Sword-Piercing-Darkness / VermilionSkies
-Apparition / Naturegirl1999
-Sol, The Horizon / Horizon
Author
Topic: The Gate of Dreams - Glass Cream (5 / 5) - 16 (Read 32707 times)