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Other Realms => Role Play Theater => Topic started by: Snow on August 09, 2013, 01:28:39 PM
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You are an orphan in a world slowly dying from war and an invasion from elsewhere. In this orphanage there is no hope for more than a life of slavery. Unless the legends are true, and this musty old building holds a secret...
Seeking players for a possible game in the setting called Rym, created by Ollie Canal. Setting info is here (https://www.fur.com/~ollie/rym3.html); see esp. the "Introduction" (left icon), "Trailer" (lower right) and "Races" (right). Premise: you're teenage orphans put into a situation in which you're expected to start Saving the World from alien necromancers. You're probably human, but some anthro races will become playable shortly into the story, for some reason...
Who: Ideally 4 or so people. Decent English, preference for story and character over detailed combat tactics and stats.
When/Where: Evenings or weekends. Can guarantee at least 3 sessions of GMing. To be held on the CF chat rooms or (fairly likely) on irc.anthrochat.net, #RPG to draw people from the regulars on #thezoo.
System: Something simple! My suggestion is the Fate Accelerated Edition rules, found here (http://www.evilhat.com/home/fate-core-downloads/), but I'd also be interested in the Mini Six (http://www.antipaladingames.com/p/mini-six.html) or Mythic (http://www.mythic.wordpr.com/page14/page1/page1.html) systems. A final possibility is to more or less play freeform, if you're comfortable with doing that!
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Character Creation
You should think about possible answers to these questions. No need to finalize them or to have clear answers to them all. The starting adventure should help flesh out character ideas. Thinking about these might be the only character creation necessary!
You're a teenage orphan, probably human, from the land of Erdanis. (Map (https://www.fur.com/~ollie/world5.html)) You know that the Abbey you live in sits by the coast, on the edge of the desert called the Creeping Waste. To the northwest are six feuding city-states and the swampy, drug-producing village of Nol; there are countless minor villages where most people live. Scattered tribes of coyote-like skole and rabbit-like lapix dot the landscape. Where are you from, and do you remember anything about why you're here and what happened to your family?
Life in the Abbey means a dormitory in a crumbling old church building, seven "scullions" (assistants) who boss people around, and constant chores including some crafts done to help the place turn a profit. What did you mostly do to earn your keep? Cleaning, cooking, smithing, gardening...?
How well do you get along with the other kids? With the dour Abbot and his typically lazy assistants?
You've probably gotten in trouble for something while living here. What was it?
The letter that preceded you said you were born under a certain sign. Now what might that be?
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Depends on TF (and taurs) are allowed ;)
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As per usual, I'd be game for this
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Well counting me (I figure I should post for clarity), that's three. Should be enough to start!
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Okay! I propose Friday for a session to see how that goes. Will hopefully nail down a time later, but figure something like 8 PM EST. Update: Yes, 8 PM EST Friday 8/16.
Thoughts on rule systems (eg. freeform)? And what races?
Re: races, figure that whatever you are at first, you'll soon have some ability to become one other thing (and change back). Last time there were three young men and a woman who became a lizardman, wolf, ottergirl, and batgirl respectively. See https://www.fur.com/~ollie/races3.html (https://www.fur.com/~ollie/races3.html) for the canon races (click on pictures for more info). Ollie also drew some fox-people; we could justify having them around... or if you really want, to say they're foxtaurs. Machine PCs would be a weird choice for story reasons, but okay. Rabbit-people also exist in canon, and for story reasons from last campaign there's now a rare skunktaur species. Non-anthro animals might be okay. I'd prefer that you not make up something totally outside canon, partly because you'll be treated as a freak by pretty much everyone and this isn't a setting where absolutely every possible furry race exists. So please think about your original species choice first, then what you might want to end up as. And what are your thoughts on character background?
http://kschnee.xepher.net/rym.htm has some other links to Rym-related stuff, but note that a couple of the sites linked to from there contain NSFW content; you've been warned. Also, please don't read the RPG module you can find on the "Lutrai Design" page, yet.
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Okay! I really should have broken that into two sessions. That marks the end of the intro adventure.
Would next Friday be good, or maybe Saturday or Sunday afternoon instead? No more than three hours at a stretch!
If you'd like to continue, please work on figuring out what specific powers you want for your character. Last time the party got the following:
-The ability to turn into one specific other form, each, while exposed to sunlight, and turn back. Eg. a koba (lizardman), lutrai (otter), or dolphin (non-anthro animal).
-A convenient world map. (See map on the Rym site.)
-An equally convenient universal translator power, eliminating the worry about whether you speak Tamaran with a southern accent or not at all.
-A general blessing of awesomeness, raising your ability to learn and grow. That included some magical aptitude, a 1 on a 0-10 scale.
Also, the battle in this session was too arbitrary. I'd like to implement a bit of a rule system beyond "did you roll a good number"; let's discuss that in chat.
Though that adventure was linear, you now have the whole world to explore! The suggested quest is to search for lost temples of Kij, of which a few are known to be in certain areas around the world. But that leaves you open to explore pretty much any part of the world you're interested in. Have a preference to guide my quest design?
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As a reminder, this upcoming weekend will be bad for me. I *may* be online, but I'm very unlikely to be energetic enough for stuff. I'll get back to you (possibly with an edit to this post) about the other stuff when I have time.
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I'm away at Mephit FurMeet this weekend (the 30th) but available to play after that.
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Would tomorrow (Sep.5) work at, say, 2000 EST? No more than 3 hours.
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That's doable for me.
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I would like to try using the Fate Accelerated Edition (FAE) rules to give a bit of structure. Brief Setup:
-The six "Approaches" are Careful, Clever, Flashy, Forceful, Quick, Sneaky. Rate one as +3, two as +2, two as +1, and one as +0. These are your general style.
-You can define Aspects on yourself. Typically you have one "high concept" Aspect, one "trouble", and at least one other, but we can get by with just the first if you'd like, especially for now. Giving yourself a "trouble" like "Quick To Anger" or "Clumsy" is a way to get more Fate Points; see below.
-You roll 4d6 and add the relevant Approach to a reckoning of 1-2="-1", 5-6="+1". Eg. 1345 would be -1, +0, +0, +1, totaling +0.
-You have three "Fate Points" per scene that you can use to get a +2 to a roll, if you can justify it in terms of using an Aspect of yourself or the scenery.
-You can also take an action to create an advantage or overcome an obstacle, which sets you and other players up to do more cool stuff. Eg., you can roll to "kick over some furniture" and give the scene itself an Aspect of "Spilled Furniture" that you can then use to your advantage for offense or defense.
-If you want, you can also take a "stunt". This is in the form, "Because I am (Aspect), I get +2 to (Action)(Approach) when (some circumstance)."
-Taking damage from an attack? You can absorb hits worth +1, +2 and +3 once each, but beyond that you start taking injuries that are bad Aspects and can linger beyond the scene.
My character so far:
Leon (Human M)
Teenage orphan. A would-be gambler. Observant. Chose a staff as a weapon. Paid attention to the wind. Timid.
Aspects: Aspiring Mage
Approaches: Clever +3, Quick/Sneaky +2, Flashy/Careful +1, Forceful +0
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Sounds like a good time to post Brishen. This is kind of a pitstop for now, although I think this is pretty workable as is. I'm unsure about the high aspect and the Trouble could be one of two things. Aside from 'Acrobatic' I tried to come up with all the aspects and troubles that can have good and bad sides to them, but ran out of ideas on that last one. Brief explanation: 'lightweight' means he doesn't weigh much, can fit into tight spaces, possibly makes him hard to hit, but it also means he is bad at anything brute force; 'manipulative' helps get people to do what he wants and he's a fast talker, but sometimes people resent being manipulated when they notice what happened; 'unobtrusive' is great for being sneaky, getting away fast, and even for dodging attention in combat, but it can be hard to make people pay attention to you.
Brishen (Human M/Cat M)
Teenage orphan. An occasional prankster. Will often use others to his advantage if possible. Loves to fight with two weapons if he can. Very curious and prone to exploring. First to realize they need to jump in hole.
High Aspect: Trickster
Low Aspects: Lightweight, Manipulative, Acrobatic (Human), Unobtrusive (Cat)
Trouble: Poor Impulse Control, alternatively Curious
Approaches: Sneaky +3, Quick/Clever +2, Forceful/Careful +1, Flashy +0
As a cat, Brishen has a golden pelt with green eyes and is otherwise a fairly normal looking short hair cat. He is usually capable of talking, but may become less coherent to others when tired or stressed. Or perhaps that is another thing tied to having sunlight around.
As a human, Brishen has slightly toned skin with shaggy gold-blond hair. His eyes are green and he's about average height.
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At this point a "minor milestone" applies according to the rules, too, which means you can swap out two approaches (eg. Sneaky and Forceful) or declare a stunt. I plan to do a stunt for Leon. But this point is like those RPGs where you walk out of the first dungeon and a voice asks you if you'd like to revise your childhood: now's a good time to pretty much retcon anything, and define (say) three aspects and a stunt.
Between the FAE book and the core rulebook, the suggested rule for magic healing is something like, "Roll vs. 4, 6 or 8 to reduce an injury by one step." In general I'm not sure how to work magic mechanically. The setting's magic is element-based -- see here (https://www.fur.com/~ollie/elements.html) -- plus copious magitech (look under Items) and some space/time magic. FAE suggests handwaving it all by saying that if you have some relevant aspect -- "Kij's Blessing" would be appropriate for everyone -- you can do magic things just by rolling some relevant approach and describing what you're doing. I like that, but will probably try a stunt like, "Light Mage: +2 to heal people cleverly when given at least half an hour's downtime." The Fate Core rules have some more detailed suggestions that might be interesting, though.
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Okay, looked over the rulebook some more and it gave me some good inspirations to work with. I like these aspects *much* more than the other ones which were really closer to what stunts are supposed to be. For a stunt... how's this?
Stunt: Leaf on the Wind - Due to his light frame and by using wind magic, Brishen can as a last ditch effort *throw* himself sideways in a mid-air dodge when trying to avoid a hit for a situational +2. Could require a fate point to use, or could be that he tries it multiple times, but it only works right with perfect timing once per scene.
Brishen (Human M/Cat M)
Teenage orphan. An occasional prankster. Will often use others to his advantage if possible. Loves to fight with two weapons if he can. Very curious and prone to exploring. First to realize they need to jump in hole.
High Aspect: Fast Talking Trickster
Low Aspects: Lone Survivor, Champion of the Weak, Down but not Out
Trouble: Insatiable Curiosity
Approaches: Sneaky +3, Quick/Clever +2, Forceful/Careful +1, Flashy +0
As a cat, Brishen has a golden pelt with green eyes and is otherwise a fairly normal looking short hair cat. He is usually capable of talking, but may become less coherent to others when tired or stressed. Or perhaps that is another thing tied to having sunlight around.
As a human, Brishen has slightly toned skin with shaggy gold-blond hair. His eyes are green and he's about average height.
Lone Survivor is indicative of how he was the only member of his merchant clan to survive. He still remembers his family and many friends, though he tries not to think about it sometimes. He insists they're still alive out there somewhere though, and the experience made him stronger for the suffering he went through.
Champion of the Weak refers to Brishen's tendency to protect those who don't have control over their own lives. For as long as he's been in the orphanage, he has been making life easier for the really young children even if it means getting himself into trouble or taking on extra burdens for himself.
Down but not Out represents the years he spent at the orphanage that never managed to crush his spirit. He tried to run away at least five times and was caught every time, so he's learned that even if you face defeat now, sometimes you just need to keep trying and eventually you'll make it. Even if you need to bide your time, you learn from every loss as long as you don't give up.
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How's this Friday?
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I don't actually know when you're planning the next segment of this, but as a reminder I am usually unable to make Fridays. Last time was mostly serendipity. I am clear most other days of the week.
To be more clear: on any given Friday, I can't get on until at least 11est, usually later. Wednesdays are not preferred, but any evening other than Friday is feasible.
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I can do pretty much any evening except for monday to wednesday evening
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I failed at reading comprehension, apparently. How would Sunday be? Failing that, Thursday the 21st rather than today (the 12th)? I could maybe do a shorter session on the 12th if you want to play sooner.
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Re: Brishen's stunts, the Accelerated book suggests you should do "Leaf On the Wind" as one of these:
-Once per session, avoid one attack completely if there's room to dodge.
The second sounds closer to what you said -- 1/session, but free to use. FAE's stunts are either that "1/session, do something cool and useful" or "whenever, get a flat +2 in a specific circumstance". The core book has some other options that'd be okay too, like "whenever you succeed at X, there's a level-2 advantage of some kind". (Their example is "when spraying automatic gunfire successfully on an attack, there's so much lead in the air that enemies have a +2 difficulty to move around in that area for one turn".)
One other thing about Brishen: everybody ought to have some aspect reflecting that they're marked by Kij, which might get bad guys to recognize they're special in some way. Maybe change "Guardian of the Weak" to "Guardian of Kij" or something like that? Works about the same way but can cause more problems.
Here's my revised character sheet so far:
Leon
Human M / Hoomiku F
Approaches: Clever +3, Careful/Sneaky +2, Flashy/Quick +1, Forceful +0
Aspects:
-Aspiring Mage: Eager to learn magic and see the world
-Timid: Still easily frightened
-Cleric of Kij: Learning light-elemental magic; mystically marked by the divine connection
Stunts:
-Healing Magic: Can use Overcome actions to reduce a wound by one level (which makes recovery faster). Takes a few minutes of quiet.
Later I might do some kind of magic barrier stunt, and/or a different element of magic.
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How's Thursday? Failing that, Saturday?
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Thursday works for me
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For the record, I will be on in about four hours! Short of another power outage. However that seems unlikely.
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Cedric
Human M/ Cepn M
Attributes
-Strongarmed Pyromancer of Kij
-Apprentice Smith
-Subtle as a Brick
-Brawlhappy Lunatic
Approaches
+4 Forceful
+2 Flashy, Clever
+1 Careful, Quick
+0 Sneaky
Stunts
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Possessions
-weapon spark
-basic blacksmithing tools
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Current character sheet:
Leon
Human M / Durian (skunktaur) F
Approaches: Clever +3, Careful/Sneaky +2, Flashy/Quick +1, Forceful +0
Aspects:
-Aspiring Mage: Eager to learn magic and see the world
-Clumsy: Not used to this new body, and thrown off even while human
-Cleric of Kij: Learning light-elemental magic; mystically marked by the divine connection
Stunts:
-Healing Magic: Can use Overcome actions to reduce a wound by one level (which makes recovery faster). Takes a few minutes of quiet.
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I'm available this weekend if you want. We got far enough that you can take a "significant milestone" bonus: you can do one thing on the "minor milestone" list, and optionally add +1 to any approach and undo certain damage (n/a).
Also, what do you think about a playing scenario in which you're trying to coordinate another group of people? I'm not sure of a good way to handle the scale of a group unless it's to give them a lot of stress boxes. An Aspect with free invocations on it for being big?
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Some of this I thought I had already changed, but the edit didn't really go through. So for clarity, here it is again with updates.
Brishen (Human M/Cat M)
Teenage orphan adventurer. An occasional prankster. Will often use others to his advantage if possible. Loves to fight with two weapons if he can. Very curious and prone to exploring. Sometimes sticks his nose in metaphorical beehives.
High Aspect: Fast Talking Rogue
Low Aspects: Tragic Past, Kid Friendly, Airmage of Kij
Trouble: Insatiable Curiosity
Approaches: Sneaky/Quick +3, Clever +2, Forceful/Careful +1, Flashy +0
Stunt: Leaf on the Wind - Due to his light frame and by using wind magic, Brishen can as a last ditch effort *throw* himself sideways in a mid-air dodge when trying to avoid a hit once per session assuming there is room to dodge to.
As a cat, Brishen has a golden pelt with green eyes and is otherwise a fairly normal looking short hair cat. He is usually capable of talking, but may become less coherent to others when tired, stressed, or has been stuck as a cat for too long.
As a human, Brishen has slightly toned skin with shaggy gold-blond hair. His eyes are green and he's about average height.
(Note: Kid Friendly is based on his tendency to stick up for kids younger than him at the orphanage. It's basically a way to say 'bleeding heart' that has a positive side, strictly that kids tend to like him.)
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Note: I'm out of town this Thu.-Sun. So, can't play.
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Ah, that simplifies things for me then as I have to travel this coming thurs. afternoon/evening so I wouldn't have been able to make it until late anyways
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Did we settle on Wednesday? Possibly late due to Fax's schedule? I have an early Thursday class but could go for a little while if you want. Am fine with delaying too.
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Yes, the decision was tonight.We never really picked a time, but I'm going to try for 8, if not earlier. I'll be more 'here' than I was Sunday since I know we're doing a thing rather than just 'might' so that won't happen again.
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I've been having trouble putting effort into the game lately, as you've noticed. A lot of the trouble is that I've been doing NaNoWriMo and putting my creative energy into that, rather than gaming or drawing. (Or studying. =p ) But as Stormkit suspected, I'm kind of losing interest in the game, too. So, this note airs the reasons for that. Note that none of the reasons is "I don't like playing with you!" I've had fun with you guys and am grateful that you'd put up with me.
-It's a rerun. Thought it'd be fun to see how a different party would react to the same campaign, and it was, but it was also a finished story, and now from my perspective we're pretty much telling it again. It's less interesting to see the second time.
-Whoa, that long? The first run-through took over two years, I think. I'm having trouble committing to another really long campaign from "level 0 orphans" to "saving the world from an entire alien race", particularly a rerun. Defending the Abbey, visiting the secretive coastal city, sailing to Cekus, battling pirates, and activating an ancient cathedral is, like, Act I.
-My character. So far Leon bores me and pretty much fails at everything. Last time my thinking was "I'll make a wallflower PC so that I can play along without overshadowing the other players; he'll be able to offer advice but not take the lead." That worked out fine, and over the course of the game she (!) got to be pretty interesting. This time I went the wallflower route again, forbidding myself to pick the same species or element, but this PC has little personality to me yet. The taur thing hasn't really come into play in any way either, and is awkward because it's at best a very rare race in the setting and I'm not trying to make all the NPCs look at me. (Last time I went lutrai, which are rare outside Cekus except as slaves but still well known. Also they're Ollie's pet Mary Sue race.)
-Unloved by Fate. This time we're using Fate instead of basically freeform play, and I'm apparently pretty bad at setting the difficulty level. Also I just plain roll badly. [fox] One thing I've been interested in exploring is army-scale battles, and I'm not sure Fate's any good for that.
-Sole GM. Last time, I traded the GM hat off to other players, so we had 3-4 people doing quests and such. That started after I'd run for a while to establish the premise. This time it's just been me, so that probably contributes to my burnout and flat PC.
-Small party size. Well, not much smaller, but we did have 4 players (counting me) last time. We lost one in a nasty disagreement that went from annoyance over roleplaying to worrying for the player's actual health. We picked up and lost other players here and there but kept a core group of me and two others. With just 2-plus-GM players from the outset, there's less going on.
I'm not sure what to conclude here, other than that it's been fun to play with you and I'm open to suggestions.
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Well it was certainly fun while it lasted. I think that overall we may have been just better off doing a different setting with a similar theme. I think what may have dragged you down the most however, is that you were the GM. You knew pretty much exactly how this whole campaign was going to inevitably go. I think this would have greatly benefitted by letting Fax and I in on a bit of the big picture and giving us the GM hat now and again. Not only would this have given you a break from running the show, having a second (or third) GM involved in campaign creation can vastly diverge the scope of the campaign from what you would have come up with on your own. If you'd like to try again, I'd be fine with sharing the GM burden for some other campaign (perhaps in a different setting), even if that means doing it off CF so we can get a larger player pool.