Well, if you want to do it early, here's the very likely (AKA very unlikely) final ruleset/first post/whatever. Anyone else, feel free to create your characters.
The Westlands were always hostile lands. Ravaged by chaotic magic, lacking water, hot as hell, they were horrid lands, no god could have any effect on them, and no one dared venture into them.
Until now.
26 years ago, a tribe of Accurarwa (desert dog-men that live in the Westlands) named The Sword of Ascar (Ascar is an evil god) raided the human lands of Ashter. Their goal was the famed, but nearly impossible to find, Sword of the Precursors.
The Sword of the Precursors was a sword, made by the Precursors, creators of the gods of this planet. The Sword was created early on, when all the gods were created, for the strongest, quickest, and smartest one to dominate the world. A sort of Natural Selection. The sword was hidden for the gods to find, so they could defeat the others and take over the world themselves as the one and only god. However, before they could grab it, an early human hid it deep within the earth where no god or man could find it. He hid the only map to it in the most inhospitable place on earth, the Westlands.
The Sword of Ascar had it.
They quickly stole away the sword, readying to bring it to their master. Horrified, the gods dispatched heroes from afar to destroy the sword, anyone who could be sent was sent. You six are one of the many groups sent. The fate of the world rests on the shoulders of all the heroes sent, which includes you. Should you fail, the world will stand no chance agaist Ascar, and the world will plummet into darkness for the rest of time. Should you succeed, the gods will reward you immensely.
However, you could always keep the sword for yourself if you would like to rule the earth... However, regardless of what you decide to do, you must first find the sword.
You start at the town of Toi, one of the very few towns in the Westlands. Right at the edge. The people around here are visibly affected by Chaos, but not frighteningly much. With you are five strangers.
If this RTD looks daunting, don't worry, you only have to read the spoilers with -N on them to sign up. -P are partially optional, containing important but not 100% necessary information when creating your char. -O ones are optional, simply telling you how things work. You don't have to read them to sign up, but it's a good idea to check them sometime.
I plan for this RTD to have 8 slots. You'd better hurry, though, already 5 players have reserved.
Remember, BOLD YOUR ACTIONS. Non-bolded actions are UNACCEPTABLE. And WILL be PUNISHED by making you feel like a CENTERFOLD.
I won't mind if you roleplay.
This RTD will have two rolls: Normal rolls, and luck rolls. Luck rolls occur often, excluding in non-magic combat and simple, non-luck based actions.
Normal rolls:
<=[1]: You fail so bad that you made things worse.
[2]: You failed.
[3]: You succeeded, but poorly.
[4]: You succeeded. Yay.
[5]: You Roflskate over all problems and succeed amazingly.
>=[6]: You succeeded, buuuut you caused bad things to happen by overshooting.
Luck rolls:
<=[1]: Rotten luck! Bad things are going to happen.
[2]: Bad luck.
[3]: Meh luck. Doesn't affect your result.
[4]: Good luck.
[5]: Great luck. Expect your [1]s to act the same as [2]s.
[6]: Good luck, but you overshot. Look out.
Chaos will be affecting you slowly throughout the game. Generally, the area will have a low chaos radiation (1 per turn), or none. However, sometimes there may be a lot of chaos radiation in the area. As chaos affects you, you will start to change, sometimes for the better, sometimes for worse, until you hit your limit (80) and turn into a mass of chaos. As you can tell, Chaos can become a problem over time. Chaos can be lowered and their mutations removed by drinking water that's not affected by chaos (you can test by dipping an item into the water, I'd recommend you dip a disposable item), staying in non-chaos affected areas (-1 per turn), or drinking the rare, extremely powerful Potion of Cure Chaos.
Chaos transformations happen at:
20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 65, 70, 75, and 80 points of chaos. As you can guess, the last one is when you die.
Other things that will increase your chaos are:
Chaos spells casted by you.
Chaos spells casted by you failing.
Chaos spells casted against you.
Drinking Chaos-irradiated water.
Walking into Chaos-irradiated water.
Chaos creatures hitting you.
Chaos creatures standing close to you for a long time.
In melee combat: The attacker rolls 1d6+(weapon Skill level and attribute bonuses) against the defender's 1d6+(defense Skill level and attribute bonuses). If the attacker has a higher roll than the defender, he hits and how much higher his roll is is the damage dealt. Then a weapon's bonus damage is added flatly, meaning only if the weapon hits, not giving a bonus to the attacker's rolls.
For example, the attacker rolls 5+2(weapon Skill level and attribute bonuses) and the defender 3+2(defense Skill level and attribute bonuses). The damage dealt to the defender is 2. However, the attacker's weapon gives +4 to damage. The actual damage is 6.
Another example, the attacker rolls a 3+2 and the defender 4+2. The attacker fails to hurt the defender. The weapon's bonus does not do any bonus damage because the attacker missed.
Afterwards, the armor bonus comes into effect. More on that later.
In ranged combat: The attacker rolls 1d6+(weapon Skill level and attribute bonuses) against the defender's 1d6+(defense Skill level and attribute bonuses). If the attacker has a higher roll than the defender, he hits. Damage dealt is based on the ammo's die roll.
Afterwards, the armor bonus comes into effect. Again, more on that later.
In ranged non-AoE magic combat: The attacker rolls 1d6 against the defender's 1d6+(defense Skill level and attribute bonuses). Obviously, the lack of skill bonuses to the spellcaster's to-hit makes it harder to hit a person at range than with a bow or crossbow. The damage dealt is based on the spell's die roll.
Afterwards, the armor bonus comes into effect. Yet again, more on that later.
In ranged AoE magic combat: The attacker always hits. However, AoE spells also do far less damage than every other spell. They also do splash damage, though. The damage dealt is based on the spell's die roll.
Afterwards, the armor bonus comes into effect. See below finally.
Armor Bonus: Armor bonus is how much damage your armor will absorb. Each piece of armor has Armor Health Points (AHP), meaning your armor has health for itself. Each armor also absorbs a certain amount of damage dealt to you. This makes armor very important in lengthening your survival.
Shields are special pieces of armor. They take up hand slots. Their special ability is a chance to take ALL damage dealt to you. However, once again they too have AHP. Much less so than regular armor. This means they won't last long but they can really be useful at taking damage instead of you.
You have 65 points to spend at the beginning and gain more with levels. In the character sheets, your points will all start out at their lowest, 0 points, with none spent. The penalties are really bad. That's why you have more than enough to break even at 10 points.
List of stats:
Strength: For every 5 points in this, you get +1 to using a weapon that uses this attribute. You also gain 5 additional encumbrance points for each point.
Agility: For every 5 points in this, you get +1 to using a weapon that uses this attribute. You also gain +1 to defense every 5 points in this.
Toughness: For every point in this you gain 1HP. For every 10 points in this, you can stay alive 1 additional turn while mortally wounded.
Intelligence: For each 5 points in this, you gain +1 to spellcasting.
Charisma: For each 5 points in this, you gain +1 to talking to other people.
With no points spend, your attributes look like this:
0 Strength: -2 to using a weapon that uses this attribute. -50 encumbrance points.
0 Agility: -2 to using a weapon that uses this attribute. -2 to defense.
0 Toughness: 6HP. Can stay alive for 1 turn while mortally wounded.
0 Intelligence: -2 to spellcasting.
0 Charisma: -2 to talking.
In The Westlands, there are many schools of magic. Some of them have very little spells, some have many. Some are defensive, some are offensive. As long as you're at least novice in two magic schools, you can attempt to use them both at the same time at a -1 penalty.
Fire magic is... well, fire magic. There's not much else to explain besides that Fire magic allows you to create raw fire with magical power and manipulate it however you wish. Fire magic is obviously offensive.
Water magic is self explanatory. You control water, though it's hard to create water out of nothing. You can also freeze water making it a solid barrier too, but you can't unfreeze it. Water magic is offensive, defensive, and utility.
Earth magic is... oh come on, do I really need to explain this?! You control the earth, which is everywhere. Earth has a variety of uses, if I, the Earth, am to be believed. Earth magic is offensive, defensive, and utility.
Air magic allows you to control the air, of course. Obviously the air is everywhere, so you can use it whenever, except underwater. Air magic is both offensive and defensive.
Polymorph magic is a very small school, but an indeed interesting one. It allows transformations of your body and enemy bodies into basically anything. Indeed, it allows you to "reverse" the affects of chaos, though it doesn't remove the radiation, meaning it's still there, just not affecting you in any direct way. Polymorph magic is utility.
Energy magic is a magic type that uses the affects of pure magic as an offensive weapon. Typically, these attacks are weak. However, there's no natural resistances to this. Anything that resists this resists every other magic type. Energy magic is offensive.
Chaos magic is a dangerous type of magic, using the raw forces of chaos as weapons. This is the most destructive of all magics, but it has a major drawback: Each spell irradiates you with chaos, and failing a spell radiates you even more than if you succeeded. The more powerful the spell, the more radiation. Pay attention to the amount of radiation each spell causes. Chaos magic is offensive.
Force magic is another magic type with very little spells. It uses pure kinetic energy as weapons. No, it's not like the Star Wars force, this force is hard to control, it's impossible to pick up a small item like a sword from a distance without bringing everything else within 3 feet with it. Anyway, Force magic is initially very weak, however the higher the levels the more bone crushing the pushes. Force magic is offensive.
Shield magic is Energy magic in a defensive form. It's different enough to warrant it's own school. Shield energy allows you to maintain kinetic or magical barriers. Kinetic Shields block kinetic energy, but not magic energy. Magic Shields block magic energy, but not kinetic energy. The higher level the spells, the larger the shields can be and the more damage they can sustain in a single turn. Note that maintaining a shield is draining, and you will have to roll against fainting soon enough. Shield magic is, of course, defensive.
Healing magic is magic that, well, heals you. Only downside is that if you get a 1 you may pull a Cheddarius. However, I'm not mean enough to make it hurt much. The higher levels of healing magic may allow you to revive someone from the dead. Healing magic is utility.
Necromancy magic is the foulest of magics. It allows you to play around with souls and bodies and stuff. General necromantic stuff. However, to prevent you from going crazy resurrecting enemies, resurrection requires you to use some of your own health in order to bring things back to life, their life depends on how much life you spent. Necromancy magic has some offensive spells, too. Necromancy is offensive and defensive.
Skills are your ability to use related items. You have 24 points to spend with a max of 16 in each skill type. In the spoiler below, you'll see how much you need to spend in each skill for a bonus. Below in this spoiler is the list of skills you can spend points on with the main attributes for the related items. You will gain +1 experience in skills every time you use them.
Melee:
Longswords: The ability to use longswords. Longswords use Agility bonus+Strength bonus/2.
Shortwords: The ability to use shortswords. Shortswords use Agility bonus.
Daggers: The ability to use daggers. Daggers use Agility bonus.
Hammers: The ability to use hammers, clubs and maces. Hammers use Strength bonus.
Whips: The ability to use whips and various variants. Whips use Agility bonus.
Axeman: The ability to use Axes. Axes use Strength bonus.
Spearman: The ability to use Spears. Spears use Strength bonus.
Polearms: The ability to use Polearms, staffs, etc. Polearms use Strength bonus.
Wrestling: The ability to wrestle and punch. Wrestling uses Agility bonus+Strength bonus/2.
Misc Object: The ability to use objects that are not weapons as weapons. The bonus varies depending on how heavy the item is.
Ranged:
Bows: The ability to use various short and long bows. Bows use Agility bonus+Strength bonus/2.
Crossbows: The ability to use crossbows. Crossbows use Agility bonus.
Slings: The ability to use slings. Slings use Agility bonus+Strength bonus/2.
Throwing: The ability to flat out throw things. Throwing uses Strength bonus.
Magic: All listed use intelligence bonuses.
Fire magic: The ability to use Fire magic.
Water magic: The ability to use Water magic.
Earth magic: The ability to use Earth magic.
Air magic: The ability to use Air magic.
Polymorph magic: The ability to use Polymorph magic.
Energy magic: The ability to use Energy magic.
Chaos magic: The ability to use Chaos magic.
Force magic: The ability to use Force magic.
Shield magic: The ability to use Shield magic.
Healing magic: The ability to use Healing magic.
Necromancy magic: The ability to use Necromancy magic.
Misc:
Defense: This affects your defense. See the Combat spoiler.
Crafting: This affects your crafting.
Conversation: This affects how well you can talk to other people. Main
Skill levels are reached when you have a certain amount of points in skills. Each skill level gives Skill Level Points (SLP). Each level also gives bonuses to using related items. Player levels are increased once you reach a certain level of combined SLP from all skills. Once you reach higher Player Levels, you gain more ability points which you can spend.
Skill levels:
No skill: N/A points required. -1 to using the related item.
Beginner: 4 points required. Negates no-skill penalty.
Novice: 8 points required. Worth 1 SLP. 1/2 chance for +1 to using related items.
Adept: 16 points required. Worth 2 SLP. 3/4 chance for +1 to using related items.
Expert: 32 points required. Worth 3 SLP. +1 to using related items.
Master: 56 points required. Worth 4 SLP. +1 to using related items with a 1/2 chance for +2 to using related items instead.
Legendary: 98 points required. Worth 6 SLP. +2 to using related items.
Epic: 178. Worth 20 SLP. +3 to using related items.
Player levels:
1: Costs 4 SLP. Gives 1 attribute point
2: Costs 8 SLP. Gives 1 attribute point.
3: Costs 12 SLP. Gives 2 attribute points.
4: Costs 16 SLP. Gives 2 attribute points.
5: Costs 20 SLP. Gives 3 attribute points.
6: Costs 24 SLP. Gives 3 attribute points.
7: Costs 28 SLP. Gives 4 attribute points.
8: Costs 32 SLP. Gives 4 attribute points.
9: Costs 36 SLP. Gives 5 attribute points.
10: Costs 40 SLP. Gives 5 attribute points.
11: Costs 44 SLP. Gives 6 attribute points.
12: Costs 48 SLP. Gives 6 attribute points.
n: costs (nx4)SLP. Gives n/2 attribute points rounded up.
Name: (Whatever you want. Don't feel bad if you can't think of anything and use your username, I tend to do that all the time.)
Gender: (This has no effect on your stats or skills, though gender-related stuff will tend to be different.)
Bio: (Optional. Don't worry, I won't blame you if you can't think of anything. The bios will be listed in the first post only.)
Starting Items: (All up to you. If I find something overpowering, I'll ask you to nerf it.)
Skills: (See "Skills and list of skills".)
Attributes: (This is currently at absolute minimum. See "Attributes" And please remember to change the penalties when you spend points, thank you.)
0 Strength: -2 to using a weapon that uses this attribute. -50 encumbrance points.
0 Agility: -2 to using a weapon that uses this attribute. -2 to defense.
0 Toughness: 6HP. Can stay alive for 1 turn while mortally wounded.
0 Intelligence: -2 to spellcasting.
0 Charisma: -2 to talking.
(this is an example of what you should put in:)
Name: Tarran Smith "Aruathroc".
Gender: Male.
Bio: N/A
Starting Items:Silver Warhammer.
Iron Armor.
Bronze Shield.
Skills:16 Hammer. 8 Defense.
Attributes:15 Strength: +1 to using a weapon that uses this attribute. +25 encumbrance points.
5 Agility: -1 to using a weapon that uses this attribute. -1 to defense.
20 Toughness: 26HP. Can stay alive for 3 turns while mortally wounded.
10 Intelligence: No bonuses.
15 Charisma: +1 to talking.
End result: (this is what it'll look like after I'm finished with it. Just testing stuff and giving you an example)
Name: Tarran Smith "Aruathroc".
Gender: Male.
HP: 26/26.Chaos: 0/80.Encumbrance: 55/75.SLP: 3/4.
Level: 0.
Items: Silver Warhammer. Iron Armor. Bronze Shield.Skills: Adept Hammer 16/32.
Novice Defender 8/16
Attributes: 15 Strength. 5 Agility. 20 Toughness. 10 Intelligence. 15 Charisma.
Players:
1:
There is nothing in these spoilers.
2:
Because no-one has posted yet.
3:
So stop looking in these damn spoilers.
4:
Because it's a waste of time.
5:
Oh, and did you know that originally there were six slots, but I opened up to eight slots because it would just be unfair to leave just one slot open.
6:
7:
8:
There's no one waiting. Did you honestly expect someone to be in waiting for a game that's just starting?
Ed: Small text fix. Nothing huge.