The rules:
1) Signup first. Just leave a post here that says you want to play.
I have a d20 (that's
this) that I'll roll for some of your character traits. When you play, try to play to those character traits. For example, if I roll you having incredible intelligence but crap social skills, you may want to adopt a brilliant-but-awkward nerdy scientist guise. Think Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory.
2) Give your character a name.
3) Once you have some character traits and a name, drop on by! You can write yourself into the story any way you please. You can literally come crashing down from the sky or just simply walk up to any character and say hi.
4) I'd like for you to keep your post relevant to the recent developments. Don't reply to a post from more than a page back unless you really have to. This should keep the game dynamic, ever moving.
5) Most things will be based on random chance. You gotta accept that. Sometimes you'll be lucky, sometimes you will not.
The rules of the dice are as follows: when you wish to perform an action, you should say something along the lines of "I attempt to climb over these rocks." You don't need to do this for every action, but note that the Director may tell you that the action you describe requires a dice roll anyway. This can be for some unexpected actions too - so don't immediately assume your action will succeed or fail (that depends on the dice!).
The Director will roll for you a dice roll with a d20 and that will determine your success. The numbers on the dice tell you the following (in general; there are exceptions - read below) :
Dice rolls wrote:1. Rolling a 1 means 'critical failure'. Whatever you tried to do failed so horribly badly, it's a surprise you didn't cause the universe to collapse in on itself in the process.
2-3. You failed.
4. You failed in such a manner that it becomes funny. Whatever you tried to do, it ends up in hilarity.
5-8. Depending on the situation, you may pull off what you tried to do, but it probably won't be pretty.
9-12. You did whatever you tried but in a mediocre fashion.
13-16. You show skill at whatever it was you attempted.
17-19. It looks like you were born to do just that which you just tried. All-natural, perfected flawlessness.
20. Critical hit. You are a god at whatever it is you just described. No matter how silly, no matter how useless it seemed when you thought of it, you were amazing and somehow it made you save the day.
When you try to perform an action, your character traits (explained below in Examples) will help you succeed in that action. Say that your action rolls a 2 (that's very bad!) but your trait for that action has a base stat of 18, then you'll probably still succeed at performing the action. But say you roll an 8 (sorta alright) and your base stat is a 2, then you may find yourself in a bit of trouble. If you roll a crit (20), no matter how bad you are at something, you'll ace it. Vice versa too - no matter how good you are in general, if the dice roll comes out 1, you will fail. Miserably.
6) Listen to your Director (me for the first season). In the end, they're the ones driving the story and the actions.
7) When you speak with your fellow players, you may lie straight to their face; but when you are in discussion with your Director, you
must tell them the truth!
Answer every of their questions honestly, and explain your pursuasions if they ask you to - this information is vital to the Director to properly conduct the game.
Lying to your Director will be considered cheating. Depending on the severity of the consequences of your cheat, it is the prerogative of the Director to choose to simply warn you, or terminate your character immediately for meddling with the course of the game.
8) When replying to the Director, please make sure at least '[[RPG]]' remains in the subject header. That causes all PMs related to this thread to get sorted into a nifty little inbox of its own.
9) Keep your posts short. The game is supposed to be quick-paced and dynamic; short but sweet!
10) You are free to discuss the game in this very thread, or go to your PMs to talk to fellow players there. If you do say things not related to what your character does at that time when you post here, please be sure to clearly mark what
is in character and what is not.
For example:
Shrooblord wrote:OOC: Crap a shadow the size of a house? I smell dragon! Sadly, my character has the perception of a donkey's behind.
IC:
Shrooblord feels a slight breeze as a large cloud passes over or something. Whatever.
OOC (out of character) and IC (in character) are useful tags to distinguish one sort of text from the other. That's easier on the Director and fellow roleplayers.
Game mechanics:
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[[DISCLAIMER]]
For this first season, I wish to not bombard everyone with all the game mechanics from the get-go; let me ease you into how to play this as we go along. But as the season progresses, game mechanics you discover will be listed here, so that you may review them and abuse them against me, as any good roleplayer does to their game master. ;D
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[[PREGAME]]
[[Starting PMs]]
At the end of the sign-up process, all enrolled participants will be sent a set of PMs describing to them their character's powers and their current inventory. At that point, you will also have been given the option of purchasing your starter equipment! Please PM back to the Director your choice of starter equipment, within the time limit indicated by the Director. Then we can all start this magical journey together!
Keep in mind that whatever you know about your character, others do not. And they do not need to either...! Unless you
want to tell them, of course.
[[Buying Equipment]]
One of the PMs you will receive gives you information on buying your starter equipment. All characters need gear to help them brave the dangers of the wicked world. The PM itself explains all necessary information, but as an example, refer to
the examples post to see what
Shrooblord the Knight has bought for his starting equipment.
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[[In-game mechanics]]
[[Rounds]]
The game moves forwards in rounds. This means that, per round, each player gets to take one turn (meaning, post a single time), and will then have to wait until the Director replies with a summary of what happened that round. Then, a new round starts and each player can again take their one turn.
Yes, this means, at times, the game might be slow - but possibly it can also whizz by at an incredible pace, depending on when everyone comes online. You may also decide to pass your turn so to speed up the progression of the game in moments where you cannot be active on the forum.
Within a round, you may discuss actively with players, send PMs and decide together on what you'd like to do that round, but remember that once you've had your turn, you can no longer contribute
anything in-character (IC) to the rest of the round, except via PMs.
Each day, a new round will be guarranteed to start; there is a minimum of one round per day, and whenever a new day hits, a new round will start. This time limit ensures that the game keeps moving forwards, and safeguards against people showing inactivity. For more information, read on below.
[[Weekends]]
The exception is weekends. Play may be slower over weekends, since it's good for both players and Directors to have a break once in a while. ;)
[[Turns]]
As mentioned above, each player gets one turn and one turn only per round.
You may not post anything in-character (IC) again if you already have that round! A turn consists of two actions that you can take. For more details, read below.
Before you post to have your one turn that round, you may choose to want to discuss things with others in advance, through PM or through posting out-of-character (OOC).
Just remember that you may only post one post per round that contains in-character (IC) information to contribute to that round in the game.
[[Inactivity/Pass Turn]]
If you know that you will be unavailable to come to the forum for an extended amount of time, you can also choose to send the Director a PM informing them you wish to pass your turns in rounds until you post in a round once more.
Then, the Director will automatically decide for you how to describe your inactivity by making your character perform automatic attacks, or respond very basically to questions asked, or sit around doing not very much at all. Indeed, your character may appear inactive, and the other players could ascertain from this that you have temporarily withdrawn out of the game; this could also be deliberate tactic on your part, as part of the mindgame you're playing with your fellow players.
The Director will continue to pass turns for you until you post in a round yourself. This way, you can choose to let others play more rounds on a day where you personally can't make it to the forum (or don't want to). There will be 15 minute intervals in which you can choose to post, thereby cancelling the Director's auto-pass for your turns until you tell them again through PM that you wish to auto-pass turns.
Note that if you fail to post your turn before the daily time limit for the round expires (see above), you will automatically pass the turn.
Pass too many turns, and the Director may want to contact you about your inactivity. The game depends on your participation.
[[Actions]]
Each turn may contain up to two actions your character attempts to perform. Your turn may be filled with one attack or action; movement
and an attack or action; or simply movement.
If you choose to dedicate your full turn to an attack or action, you may perform a more powerful version of said ability than if you'd choose to move
and attack or perform an action.
Similarly, you can move further in turns that consist of only moving.
You have a 'secret' third action: it is the "reaction" you have in your turn. Please see
this post for an explanation.
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[[Player stats]]
Character traits have an associated action or type of actions you can perform better according to how well-trained you are in them. There's always the chance for you to roll a critical hit on something, of course, but being well-versed in a skill before attempting it will catch you at times when you would normally fail a roll. Rolling well and being good at something to begin with leads to better results than just rolling well.
Speed: d20/4 (rounded down) * 5 maximum movement speed (in feet) per action.
(Minimum of 5.)
For example: at character creation, d20 rolls an 18. Your maximum speed is 18/4 = 4.5 --> 4 * 5 = 20 feet per action. In one action during combat, you may move anywhere to a maximum range of 20 (move and attack) up to 40 (if you dedicate your entire turn to a move) feet away from your current position.
That is to say, when rolling the speed stat of your character, this trait determines how fast and agile your character can move in general. In certain situations, you may find your base speed will benefit or hinder you, but these situations will become apparant as they come. For the purpose of storytelling, you may assume that in non-combat, non-challenge situations, all characters move at roughly the same speed.
---- [[Derived skills]] ----
Perception: Intelligence/2 (rounded down) + 5.
For example: at character creation, d20 for Intelligence rolls a 13. Your Perception is 13/2 = 6.5 --> 6 + 5 = 11. This means that, when rolling to see if you can see where an enemy is, or when the Director attempts to hide creatures from you, those creatures would need a Stealth of 12 or higher in order to remain undetected.
In other words, depending on your
Intelligence, you may be very good at spotting out hiding targets, or completely oblivious to them. Note that there are lots of factors that can influence both
Stealth and
Perception, raising or lowering the base value before the roll. Some examples include:
- Actively searching for something gives a +5 bonus to your Perception.
- Conditions like smoke, mist, darkness or obstructions between you and your enemy, hindering your line of sight towards them, will raise the Stealth of the creature attempting to hide or remain hidden by a bonus of +5.
- If you are surrounded by enemies, you take a penalty of -5 to your Perception (since you are distracted).
- Certain equipment or items may incur penalties or boost Stealth and/or Perception.
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[[Combat mechanics]]
[[Attacks]]
The easiest attack to perform is the
Melee or Ranged Basic Attack. Each character in the game has the ability to use this at-will (as indicated by the colour scheme).
[Basic Attack]
Attack power - melee or range 25 feet. You punch, kick, slap or throw something at your target. The attack is quite weak, but sometimes whittling down your opponent one bit at a time is the right choice.
It should be noted that a
melee basic attack is based on the character's
strength, while a
ranged basic attack goes off of
dexterity.
Please see this post (and the conversation that follows) for a short explanation of how most combat mechanics work in-game.
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Other character stats will become apparant as the game goes on. When in doubt, just try something! It may just work out in your favour...--
My spines may not damage potential handlers much, but they do at least give me sturdy protection when I can't find an escape route.
