This is my RTD set in the "Dynamic Fantasy" world where only the bare minimum is documented and players are given a large amount of imaginative license in how their characters interact with the world and what skills they wish their characters to use.
The Dynamic Fantasy world is a Game Master's playground. They interact directly with players via a cowardly incarnation of The Luggage (See below).
Standard swords and sorcery style setting of high fantasy, basic world map will be revealed by purchasing maps from towns and cities.
Objectives and Features
The objective of the game is for players to accumulate points while dungeon crawling, completing quests and slaying foes. Player points are ranked based on current wealth, skills, experience and teamwork. When their character dies (if it dies...) players are then entered onto a high score board with their character name, forum name and point total.
The points for individual characters are archived - These archives are requestable on death of the character and will lay out every action performed by the character which caused them to either gain or lose points.
This game is teamwork-oriented. Talking and discussing actions with your teammates is considered a free action that may occour out of character and after the first five characters are generated you are granted the opportunity to discuss between yourselves if you think there should be any character changes.
Players will start at the entrance to a generic dungeon with their first quest already assigned and accepted. Their first encounter will immediately be combat as they are pitted against the dungeon's entrance guards.
All gold is shared equally between all players automatically - Although lending and borrowing of gold from others is granted but debts will negatively effect your score.
Upon completion of a quest players are given a list of items and must decide between themselves how best to use them. Players may dive in and acquire items without discussion too, but that is not part of the spirit of this RTD and may incur point penalties.
Standard mobs and their equipment is disintegrated on death - This universe is the Game Master's playground and all creatures or entities in the world are not a natural part of it. Once their life-force ends they leave this dimension; that includes player characters. Hence - No resurrections. Once you die your body (and equipment) all disintegrate and your life-force returns to it's previous dimension or reality.
Your character's body is only a vessel - If you enter the game a second time after death you may retain your previous memories but you will be granted a new body with which to play.
Bosses may hold usable equipment. This equipment will vanish on their death, but the Game Master has decided that adventurers who are able to acquire ANY item a boss has before it is killed will have the said items bound to the life-force of the adventurers instead of the boss and thus will stay even when the boss is defeated.
Players are accompanied by The Luggage <Image> - Only this is a cowardly entity which vanishes whenever danger is nearby. It is the gift of the Game Master and acts as the medium with which the Game Master can reward players for their entertaining adventures. It follows the group when they are safe in towns but does not enter any dungeons or similar adventuring areas until quests have been completed. Upon quest completion the Luggage will appear and allow you to stow anything you don't need. It will also be the medium with which you receive item rewards from quests - Gold is the only reward given to you by quest givers.
It is assumed that all characters automatically eat when they are hungry and drink when they are thirsty. The Luggage has an infinite supply of food and drink so this need not be purchased seperately.Players fill out their character sheets and the information on their sheets is used to give the basic skills, abilities and equipment.
All non-standard skills are available, this means that any player may attempt any action - Untrained players may find they spontaneously combust if I can't find justification for their actions though. It is assumed that every character in the group is always taking note of every other character so picking up a basic profficiency in your teammates abilities is a valid possibility. A warrior with no training trying to cast a meteoric fireball at an opponent would either epically fail or combust into a ball of flames and immediately die (this will mostly happen if they've been lacking an element of teamwork, for example). A warrior who attempted to cast a melee-range scorch attack on a Giant Hairball may have exceedingly more success in their endeavours.
Depending on your actions your class may automatically be progressed up a certain ladder. Actions contrary to eachother can also progress you down the ladder of your class. Two example career paths are stated but your actions can cause you to progress up custom career paths - I'm a very versatile GM so I'll ensure your characters progress as much as possible in parallel to your actions.
The first
FIVE players with complete character creation posts will be entered into the game.
Every player who enters the game and creates a character will be granted a single "enhancement" - They can choose to enhance their skills, their gear or increase a single stat and decrease another. They will also be allowed to request guidance on finding a class that better suits their tastes if the generated one doesn't fit their visions. (For example, someone wished a stealthy thief but added intellect as a sacrificed stat and ended up with a brutish thug.)
All other players who sign up will be added to a first-come first-served waiting list.
There will be permanent death with no option for resurrection - You've got one life, use it well. If your character does die, you will immediately have a position at the bottom of the queue reserved for a period of 7 days, which will give you ample time to accept or decline the offer. You will also be requested to make a new character from scratch.
The general tone of the game is fun, but in order to make sure *EVERYONE* has fun try to make sure your imagination is applied in "possible" ways. Try the unjustified bending of reality and you may just find yourself twisted into the nether and exploded into a very large number of pieces. If you sabotage your teammates, you may find that your character is targeted more often by opponents (whether you like it or not) and their attacks start to become unerringly accurate and suspiciously more overpowering. Also you may find your teammates attacks start to "hate" you - A fireball from your elementalist may keep catching you in it's blast radius or a missed bullet may hit you on a ricochet.
The GM reserves the right to plant the metaphorical doomsday cliché on any character that repeatedly spoils the fun and spirit of the game for others - Any warnings about poor conduct will be sent via forum PM and suggestions for improvement will also be offered and any complaints can also be addressed via forum PM. I want to build a strong and lasting RTD.[/b]
Rules:
The GM (Game Master) posts a situation the players are in. The players then post their actions, according to the conditions GM sets. The GM then rolls for the actions' results, and writes them out in his post. Then the players post actions again, ad infinitum.
The action results are defined by a six-sided die roll:
[1]: Epic Fail. Your efforts only worsened your situation.
[2]: Fail. Your skills or luck were insufficient.
[3]: Meager success: The situation didn't improve by as much as you have intended.
[4]: Success: Your efforts were sufficient to achieve your goal.
[5]: Epic Success: Your skills and luck have combined to ensure your success.
[6]: Overshot: Your efforts were more than required for the goal's completion, and your luck is such that unfortunate side-effects are inevitable.
Any positive or negative modifiers are considered as "enthusiasm" based rather than skill based. If you rolled a [2]+3 while it equals 5, you do not get an epic success; +6 will take you to the next roll level though.
A [2]+3 will be partway between a fail and a meager success - It could be considered a very meager success. A [2]+6 will be a meager success. A [2]+12 would be a success. This also makes life more "FUN" for your character as a [4]+12 would be an overshot due to your completely over-zealous commitment (even moreso for managing to get a +12 modifier on ANY roll) and a [6]+12 would be a super-epic overshot - If you wished to cast a fireball at a foe and rolled a [6] you'd explode the foe into gibs and a gib may hit one of your comrades in the head. If you rolled a [6]+12 you'd explode the foe and anyone near the foe plus exert such an extraordinary amount of energy in doing so that you'd be incapacitated for a turn and suffer weakened spellcasting abilities in the near future.
If at any time something threatens a player, that player may make a roll to avoid the threat.
For each action, any number of rolls may be made, as determined by the GM.
Primary causes for multiple rolls include, but are not limited to:
* Actions explicitly composed of multiple actions
* Actions that imply other actions that are not declared free
For every dodge roll, any number of additional rolls may be made, as determined by the circumstances, and any skills or special effects applied to the player.
Free Actions and Dungeon Points of Interest:
Speech is a free action. Communicate with your group members and form a cohesive team. The better your teamwork, the harder opponents you can be faced with. Harder opponents mean more reward and more points!
Requesting more basic information is a free action as long as it's something you can just glance at. Examining runes on a wall is not a free action, but requesting further information on the wall is.
Major points of interest are written in bold, italic type
Major PoIs are important features about a room which are required in order to progress in a certain area.
Minor points of interest are written in underline, italic type
Minor PoIs are less important features. They may be red herrings or they may contain some secret.
Dungeons are also mapped out by the GM, so it would help if at least *someone* was also exercising their cartography skills - Otherwise you may find yourself quite well and truly lost.
Dungeons also contain traps. Plenty of them. Hopefully someone in the party starts with a decent ability to detect these traps!
Bosses and Quests:
Bosses are allowed two rolls per action, with the roll that has the highest beneficial effect to the boss being used. These are dangerous foes but no "unbeatable" bosses will be generated on the course of the adventure. Bosses appear at the end of standard quests.
Uber-Bosses are allowed three rolls per action, with the roll that has the highest beneficial effect to the boss being used. Seasoned adventuring teams of good reputation may be offered [Heroic] quests. Taking a leaf straight out of World of Warcraft the standard encounters on Heroic quests contain elite enemies who get double-rolls the same as normal bosses. The final encounters of Heroic quests are uber-bosses who are granted three rolls per action.
The rewards for heroic quests are immense. Should an adventuring team feel they are prepared, they may embark upon heroic quests and really test their mettle.
Statistic Types:
Statistic types:
The statistics chosen aren't all standard (although they mostly do what you'd expect them to do). There's two statistics that can be applied to every problem: Stength is the cousin of agility, intellect is the cousin of wisdom, charisma is the cousin of spirit, constitution is the cousin of fortitude.
[Agi]lity
Agility covers everything from balance to speed. A very agile character can sneak quieter, sprint longer, dodge faster and has superior balance and stability. A strong character may avoid being knocked down by a brute force show of strength, an agile character may be smashed across a room and land on their feet based on their grace and balance.
[Str]ength
Strength is your brute-force prowess. Whereas an agile character may opt to climb over a wall, a strong character may decide that punching a player-character sized hole in the wall may be a far better option. An agile character may be able to place a knife in an opponent's vital spot, but they'd suffer against armor. A strong character could crush through the armor.
[Int]ellect
Intellect governs how learned your character is. A high intellect means your character has earned knowledge through study and learning. An intelligent character may have studied enough arcane books to know how to control an element such as air or fire, while a wise character may be able to commune with nature and gain different abilities without any rigorous study or training.
[Wis]dom
Wisdom is a character's intrinsic knowledge and understanding of the world - If intelligence is a representation of how much a character has studied in their life, wisdom is a representation of how well they apply that knowledge to the world. A wise character would be more likely to solve a riddle (which requires the ability to think outside of the box) than an intelligent character, but would lose to an intellgent character in a game of chess (which requires to think and plan a number of moves ahead to succeed).
[Cha]risma
This represents a character's force of personality. A highly charismatic paladin would consider every single quest to be a chance to test themselves on the field of combat and prove that good will always vanquish evil. A spirited paladin may be percieved as forceful, pushy and holier-than-thou. A high charisma thief would be a charming rogue who'd sooner talk a person's money out of their pockets than sneak around behind their backs.
[Spi]rit
A character's force of will. If things aren't going right a highly spirited character will be motivated to succeed where a character with low spirit would crumble under the pressure. Whereas a character with high charisma can sweet-talk their way out of a problem, you could consider a spirited character as being able to overpower their adversaries' will similar to a Jedi mind trick.
[Con]stitution
Your constitution effects everything to do with resistance and survival - a higher constitution means you're more resistant to physical effects such as poisons and you can drink more alcohol before the effects kick in. You're also able to shrug off wounds easier and are less likely to be phased by the effects of wounds you receive. It'll help you shrug off a caster who also uses a physical element like Earth, but it won't act like fortitude to lessen the damage a fireball does (although a higher constitution would mean you'd be more likely to keep on fighting despite critical wounds, even if the damage isn't reduced.)
[For]titude
Your fortitude is your ability to resist magical effects. Things such as mind control, confusion and effects that disable your character can be overcome with a strong fortitude. Your fortitude will do nothing against poisons - Those that are magical or those coated on an assassin's blade - But a psionic confusion blast from a powerful mind flayer would leave a high consistution character eating their own leg. A high fortitude character would feel quite refreshed, as if a large number of cobwebs in their head has just been blown away. You would also be more resistant to effects such as fireballs, frostbolts or lightning strikes as your life-force would be able to shield you from these effects without draining itself in the process.
Stats range from 1 to 5 and are used in modification of rolls involving that stat.
1 : -2
2 : -1
3 : 0
4 : +1
5 : +2
The total for your stats is always 24. If you gain a stat, you must also lose a stat.
Every character has two preferred stats and two sacrificed stats. These are considered strengths and weaknesses of your character and confer a +1 and -1 bonus on character creation. A character who is preferred in str and agi means they're naturally physically fit and capable - They were born so, and do not need inexorbant amounts of training in order to be above average in those stats. These stats also try their hardest to increase and try their hardest to resist decreasing. Sacrificed stats are the opposite - Inherent weaknesses. A low constitution character would be someone who was always sickly as a child. A low fortitude character would be someone who with a naturally weak life-force who would have difficulty repelling magic effects.
Where realistic you will lose your preferred sacrificed stats, but this is not always the case. For example a mage with agi and strength as unfavoured statistics that has been doing an awful lot of dodging in melee and fair bit of staff-swinging will find that their constituion would be lowered as they have not been taking much physical damage - Even if it isn't a sacrificed stat, they've still been neglecting to train it.
Skills:
Every action that would require anything that is not common knowledge is considered a skill. Relevance is also a major factor - For example if I didn't give a stealthy thief the ability to pick locks as a skill yet they try to use later on they may be granted a de facto basic ranking in this skill.
This means that any oversights on the part of myself as GM do not negatively effect the players and those who wish to use their class imaginatively aren't always going to be hampered by a skill not existing. Any player can use their character however they wish - Just because a skill is not listed doesn't mean it can't be done; it just means I havn't considered the possibility of it for your character. But this doesn't mean an elementalist who throws lightning bolts around can also be given a de facto knowledge of healing - Just because they're a caster doesn't mean they know how to bend the tethers of the world into healing a wound. They'd probably just set the wound on fire. But their mastery of the elements may allow them to delve into other areas such as time manipulation or gravity altering which are sisters of the elemental magics.
Skills come in various ranks:
Low * Pathetic (A warrior tries to use magic to create a camp fire from dry wood)
* Poor
* Dabbling
* (no-adjective)
* Skilled
* Adept
* Expert
* Master
* High Master
* Grand Master
* Legendary
High * Godlike (A mage has used fire-magic skills so many times their prowess and ability rivals that of even the Gods)
Spells:
Your character's profficiency in any spell school is the definition of your spellbook. In this RTD spellcasters create and define their own spells - The difficulty of which are rolled against their skills. Creating heat would require a pathetic rank in Magic [Fire]. Creating fire is dabbling. Projecting the fire as a cast ball is (no-adjective). Charging the fireball with homing properties is expert. Casting multiple homing fireballs is high master. Moulding your homing multi-fireballs to leave a tail of burning fire in their wake as part of a net or trap is legendary. Manipulating the burning tails of mega-multi-fireballs while simultaneously controlling them yourself to create a delicately woven web of fire capable of incinerating anything caught in it's net then obliterating what survives with the physical balls of fire is requires a Godlike mastery.
As a guide for spellcasters (and those who wish to take up casting of spells when they are not a primary spellcaster) - A (no-adjective) rank is required in order to create a spell and "fire" it. It's also enough to empower a weapon as you strike. A dabbling rank is enough to create a "ball", but it needs to be applied at melee range with any consequences that follow. A poor rank is enough to create a very weak "ball". Pathetic basically only creates very, very minor effects. A pathetic fire spell may be enough to heat water to boiling point. Likewise, a pathetic water spell may just make your hands feel like they're sweaty but drip enough water to fill a cup before you become exhausted. A pathetic lightning spell may be able to spark up an oil lantern or light dry wood on fire. A pathetic air spell may be just enough to blow a lit candle out. A pathetic heal spell may be able to stop the bleeding of a tiny cut but not heal it.
This may mean everyone wants to become a spellcaster - Remember this is a team RTD. Good teamwork and a balanced group will mean much, much greater successes and in the end everyone can learn every skill (much like Dwarf Fortress).
You can progress your warrior to a (no-adjective) skill in Magic [lightning] outside of combat by a sincere attempt to use your limited powers in a positive way and suddenly you will be granted the ability to imbue your weapon strikes with a very minor shocking effect that can paralyze limbs. Just don't neglect your physical body in doing so - If you over-exert yourself trying to learn magic as a warrior you may find that while you are gaining intellect, your life-force is being drained and you lose constitution or strength as your body starts to wither. It's wholly possible that you may later on decide to become a caster and by intelligent play you can change your character's stats by smart/clever/intelligent actions while retaining all the previous skills you held as a warrior.
Character Creation:
Your character creation sheet will be used to give you a dynamic class, skills and equipment based on what you fill in. Classes cross a demi-infinite number of realms from a whole manner fantasy games such as Dungeons and Dragons or Final Fantasy.
Name:
You may pick any standard "high fantasy" race as your race of choice.
You may also put "GM" - Your race will be generated for you.
Race:
Gender:
Preferred Class Base: Physical or Magical
Preferred Class Style: Ranged or Melee
Your preferred class flavour is where you state what kind of class you wish to have in a far more specific term. You can say something like "Thief" or "Healer", you can use a much broader term like "Support" or "Elementalist". This is the defining part of your class - And you can break convention.
A physical, ranged elementalist would be akin to an arcane archer. A ranged, magical thief would be an Illusionist.
Similarly a magical, melee healer would be a cleric while a physical, melee healer would be a paladin. A ranged, magical healer would be a priest while a ranged, physical healer would be an alchemist who would heal using potions and attack with a gun.
Preferred Class Flavour:
These are also taken into account for creating your character, so think carefully about what you pick! A strong, agile thief who's sacrificed intellect and charisma would be little more than thug. Albeit a physically powerful and dextrous thug capable of stabbing a knife hard and painfully into their opponent's vital spots - But they wouldn't be suited to the subtleties of stealth - Sure they could sneak quietly - But they're too stupid to know how to. They would be too stupid to disarm traps and would sooner slam their faces against a door to smash it down rather than apply lock picks for more than picking food out of their teeth.
Primary Preferred Stat:
Secondard Preferred Stat:
Primary Sacrificed Stat:
Secondary Sacrificed Stat:
Example Character:
Name: Joe Bloggs
Race: Human
Gender: Male
Preferred Class Base: Magical
Preferred Class Style: Melee
Preferred Class Flavour: Learns enemy skills
Primary Preferred Stat: Int
Secondary Preferred Stat: Spi
Primary Sacrificed Stat: Agi
Secondary Sacrificed stat: Cha
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Character Sheet for Joe Bloggs♂
Your class is [Game Master].
Your race is [Consciousness], but you were formerly a [Human].
Your stats are:
Agi - 2
Str - 3
Int - 4
Wis - 3
Cha - 2
Spi - 4
Con - 3
For - 3
A game master is a malevolent Diety or God. They can also be Demons who have gained enough followers to grant them power equal to (but never surpassing) a God.
They specialise in creation and destruction - They are able to summon a wide variety of all living, dead and inanimate objects using their immesne intellect and overpowering spirit to forcefully will creatures and objects from other dimensions.
They are also masters of Eden and Doomsday schools. Those of creation and destruction. They hold the capacity to create entire realities - And destroy them too.
---
Your items: None, you're a consciousness - Remember?
Your skills: Godlike Summon [All], Godlike Magic [Eden], Godlike Magic [Doomsday]
Your status-
Physical: You have no physical body, thus you have no injuries.
Mental: You have not recently used any magic, thus you are mentally fit.
Author
Topic: Dynamic Fantasy RTD (Read 6276 times)