Arcana Royale

[[sage]]

Years ago there was a magic renaisance with new keys being discovered and old keys being brought to incredible levels. However as individual mages gained new powers they became secretive and soon started battling each other for other's secrets and to protect their own. Soon magic was outlawed and mages hunted down. Now the magic ban has been removed and countless adventurers and would be mages search for the lost and hidden magical research.

This is an adventuring game. You can basically decide your backstory and who you are. This is a fantasy world, with magic playing a large role in society. You're free to explore it as you please.

Create a character
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You have 1000 points to create a character with.

Attributes transfer at a 1-1 ratio.
It costs 10 points to level up a skill. You are limited to rank 5 in any particular skill right now.
1 point gives you 1 gold piece. 1gp equals 10 silver piece.

Name:
Age:
Sex:

Bio: Please give any relevant info for your character, including any significant characters, plothooks or storylines. Having travelling companions requires points, as explained below.

Attributes- Remember, attributes are bought with points at a 1-1 ratio.
HP: How much damage you can take
MP: How much mana you have to cast spells.
AP: How much you can act in one round.

Fighting Style
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Pick your weapon(s) of choice, preference between an Aggresive, Balanced or Defensive approach to combat (these are stance types), and preference between Dodging or Parrying. You gain ten free Skill ranks to split between your weapon choice, stance choice and Defense Choice. Your skill rank limit is raised to 10 for these skills.

You may choose Arcane Keys as a fighting style as well. However you only get five free skill ranks instead of 10, and your Skill Rank limit is 7.

Skills
------
Skills are basically anything you want your character to be good at, besides magic. Physical or mental Attributes (besides HP, MP and AP), combat skills, learning a trade (weaponsmithing, sailing, etc) useful adventuring skills like picking locks or tracking, communication skills like bluffing or negotiating. No skill ranks in something assumes average ability.

You can also spend points on social or other misc. benefits such as a position which offers you priestege, political or military power (although it will be limited. No setting yourself as a King), allied NPC's (that travel and fight with you), a source of wealth (aside from general cash), a positive reputation, significant equipment, owed favors or connections to criminal or political influences or basically anything you can think of.

You may take negative skill ranks to represent a disadvantage or inability at something. Each negative rank gives you 10CP back. You are limited to 3 negative ranks per skill. You may not take more negative ranked skills than you have positive ranked skill. So if you have six positive skills, you can't take more than six negative skills.

You can also take negative levels in some of those misc. benefits I mentioned. Examples of that would be having enemies, a bad reputation, owed debts, having your influence destroyed, etc.

Magic
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Spells are cast through the use of magical energy (called mana), arcane Keys (called Keywords) and through the use of an Arcane Focus. MP is a character's innate store of mana, which is replenished through sleep and resting.

Arcane Keys (short for Keywords) are the basis of spells. Symbolized as words, they represent actions and targets for spells. For example, an Arcane Key could be "Create." However, if you also knew the Key "Fire", you could combine the two to "Create Fire." The rank of effect would be dependant on your skill in both Keys. A spellcaster with a single rank in Create and Fire could create little more than a spark. However a practied spellcaster with Twenty ranks between the two could create an inferno.

A spellcaster must practice and experiment to improve their ability to use a Key. Keywords are all skills. As one improves their skill with a Key, they can do more complicated things (like combining Keys) and generally require less mana to cast spells.

Arcane Keys are required for spellcasting. If you want to be a spellcaster, you need to learn to use as many Arcane Keys, as you can. There are two types of keys. Action Keys, represented by a verb, and Target Keys represented by a noun. Action keys are nessecary to do anything. Being skilled at Target Keys enhance your spell casting ability a lot, but aren't always nessecary.

Leveling up Actions makes you better at that action. For example, you would be able to create stuff faster, more efficiently and with greater quantity or quality.

Leveling up Targets makes you better with that object (or creature, property, or whatever). With the previous example of fire, you could control it at a much hotter degree, a wider area, shape it how you please, etc.

A focus is an object or action used to cast a spell. By concentrating mana into the focus, one conserves mana and enhances the spell. How its enhanced depends on the focus in question. You don't need a focus, but it helps immensely. You can spend skill points on improving your ability with an Arcane Focus. Its not nessecary, but it makes your spells more effective when they're used with that focus. There are a number of Focus objects for sale, but you can also use stuff like your voice, gestures, your body (any part of it) or pretty much anything, even if its not for sale normally. All of these can be improved with skill ranks, and so can casting without a focus.

It costs 20CP to raise the rank of an Arcane Key. It costs 10CP to raise the rank for use a specific kind of Arcane Focus.

Some example Keys

Verbs
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Detect
Create
Control
Protect
Destroy
Call

Nouns
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Mind
Creature
Fire
Illusion
Wall
Seal
Air
Storm
Energy

Game Rules
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Skills and Action points (AP) are the basis of the system. Skills are measured in ranks. A Skill Rank makes gives any given action work better for less effort.

Action points represent overall measure of your physical and mental capability for action in a short period of time while under stress. In otherwords, what you can do in a combat round. Action points replenish at the start of every round, however fatigue from damage can reduce AP for the duration of combat. During each round, opponents split their action points into attack and defense (or also movement, spellcasting or non combat actions)

The more action points put into an action the more effective it is. I will never explain the specific numbers involved, but a general rule of thumb is to think of it like with skills. 10 Action points goes up one rank of Effectiveness. However, your level of skill and things like equipment bonuses will change that.

Spell Casting
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When you cast a spell you need to decide on your intended effect, how much of your AP you are using to cast it, what Keys you are using and what focus, if any. The most significant advantage of not using any focus at all is surprise. I'll give the results and how much of your MP it drained.

You can find texts and scrolls with spell formulas which have a predetermined effect.

The Combat Round
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When you face off with an opponent (or multiple opponents), you need to split your action points between what you want to do. If you want to go full on offense, if you want to attempt to defend against any of the attacks (generally a smart idea), if you want to move, if you want to cast spells or whatever. You also need to decide your stance.

The three basic stances are Aggressive, Balanced and Defensive.

Aggressive: You intend to attack first. Your opening attacks are stronger, but you are at a disadvantage if forced to defend.
Ready: You are ready to attack or to defend at will. You're balanced between attack or defense.
Defensive: You are prepared to defend yourself. Your defense is enhanced, but offense is weakened until you take the Initative.

Offense: Unless you are purely trying to defend yourself, its always a good idea to put some AP into offense. You can simply "Attack", which is usually a good idea, but you can also put AP into manuevers. A manuever is an action you attempt at some point during the combat round, and it grants you a significant advantage if performed successfully. Examples are critical attacks, disarming, tripping, grappling or whatever you wish to do. A failed manuever usually puts your opponent at an advantage.

Defense: Similiar to Offense, you can spend AP on "Defense". There are two basic types of Defense, the Dodge and the Parry. When you spend AP on defense you need to pick one or the other. You can spend AP on both if you want to. Parrying is blocking or deflecting blows with a shield or with your weapon. Dodging is moving to avoid attacks. The advantage of that over Parrying is that you combine movement with defend, allowing you to try and put yourself in a better position while defending. Otherwise, you would have to split AP between movement and defense. In addition to the basic defenses of Parry and Dodge, you can attempt defensive manuevers, which are attempts to counter attack, or give yourself an advantage for a followup action.

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Here's an example combat round. The player in this example is drake. Sam is the opponent.

Drake is a sword and shield fighter.

HP: 60
AP: 200
Longswords (R6)
Parry (R4)
Dodge (R2)

Sam is a spear fighter.
HP: 75
AP: 180
Spears (R 8)
Parry (R2)
Dodge (R5)

Drake and Sam stand 10feet apart on the grassy plains. Sam holds his spear ready and stands his ground.

Drake decides on an aggressive stance, and splits 100AP into Dodge, with a 50AP into general offense and a 50AP Rush attack to get past B's superior range.

Sam decides on a Balanced Stance. He splits 80AP into Dodge, to keep out A out of reach. He splits 80AP into Offense, and 40 into a critical lunge attack. Keep in mind that Drake doesn't have access to this information. The only thing he gets to see is Sam's equipped weapons and armor, stance and position.

Drake moves forward, sword raised to attack when he closes.
Sam responds with a vicious jab at Drake's head.
Drake dodges. Sam quickly steps back.
Sam jabs twice more. Drake dodges both easily and rushes!
Sam dances backwords, braces and makes a powerful lunge attack.
Drake narrowloy avoids it, but Sam follows up with two more jabs, keeping Drake at bay.
Drake misses the third jab as Sam jabs his spear point at his face, drawing blood along his cheek.
Drake steps back, Sam presses with a fourth jab, but Drake nimbly dodges away from it.

Results:

Drake
HP: 45/60

Sam
HP: 75/75
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I finally figured out how to do a decent version of that rules system without being too complicated (I hope) Plus I realized I wanted to do something a bit more focused on D&D style adventuring than a pure battle club or something RP heavy like GotWP. If I didn't explain anything clearly feel free to ask. Its pretty unusual I think.

[SephirothKirby]

Hoo boy, this is a big one. I'll be certain to join.

Question: Are guns available as weapons? You didn't specifically say "medieval", just fantasy.

I've been meaning to create a gunslinger magician for a while now.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand

Name: Zio
Age: 26
Sex: Male

Bio: Zio is a loner, with no attachments. He dabbles in magic with the coming of times, but he always keeps a strong grip on his gun. It's assumed he has a family name, but it's never used - He's always just "Zio". He's that one guy you see slumped over in the back of a bar, who looks "cool". He's a generally 'nice' guy, but he loves tricks, always preforming stunts like "Make the gold sack disappear", hence he has turned people against him whether he was just joking around or went too far. In fact, he's made a lot of enemies ... Too many. Constantly looking over his shoulder, he can't trust anyone. He's a nimble fighter when the need comes, but is usually very slack, because even though there's always the concern of danger around, he has confidence in his combat skills.

Attributes
HP: 180
MP: 190
AP: 240

Fighting Style
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Weapon of Choice:
-Gun [Rank 8]
Prefered Stance:
-Defensive [Rank 3]
Prefered Defense:
-Dodging [Rank 7]

Skills
------
-Bluff [Rank 5]
-Sleight of Hand [Rank 3]
-Endurance [Rank 1] [Harder to reduce Zio's AP]
-Paralyze [Rank 4] [By firing bullets at a specific region, hinders movement/damage/AP]
-Reload [Rank 1] [Allows Zio to Reload for less AP/More Quickly]
-Enemies [Rank -2]
-Dept [Rank -1]

Arcane Keys
-Stop [Rank 3]
-Creature [Rank 2]

Arcane Focus
-Snap Fingers [Rank 5]

[[sage]]

Question: Are guns available as weapons? You didn't specifically say "medieval", just fantasy.

I wasn't planning on it, but if you want them in, it'll be like FFT. You won't see them very often, they're kind of primitive and the best ones are magical guns. Technological advances are rare since magic is more common.

Stop creature would be about the equivalant of a paralysis spell. It would still age and would still be aware of its surroundings, just helpless to act. Stopping time is considerably more difficult, so your paralysis trick is probably perfect for that character. "Creature" affects all living things, but not as well as if say you took "Person" or "animal". Specialization makes things more powerful but less flexible.

Just to let you know, Stop wouldn't have to be combined with creature. You could essentially stop anything you wanted to, but since you have ranks in "Creature" you'll be most effective at stopping living beings. You cannot stop a creature from aging without Time though.

(I get 5 free, correct? I couldn't quite tell from your wording.)

I was giving free ranks for fighting style. You get the choice between ten free ranks to split between a traditional weapon style (weapon, stance and parry/dodge) or a magical style. Since you went past 5 in Guns and Dodge, I'm assuming you wanted the free ranks for your gun style. So far you've spent

640 in attributes.
80 on fighting style (180 points total, -100 for free ranks)
130 in skills
200 in magic.

Thats 1050, with no left over points for gp. I was planning on giving everyone at least free weapons, so if you don't want anything else, you could solve the points by raising enemies to rank 3 and adding three ranks of a flaw (I'd recommend debt if you want to go this route). If you do want gold and other equipment, I would lower your attributes. Having a lot of AP is always a good thing, so I'd probably lower your HP and MP some. With your AP, you will be very fast and effective in combat, which seems to fit the swashbuckler/gunslinger nature of your character.

Guns only have infinite bullets if they are enchanted to do so.

[SephirothKirby]

Well, it is your RP, so your call.

But if they are uncommon, does that mean my guy will not start with one?

[[sage]]

edited my above post.

You'll start with one. I'm assuming a gunslinger, especially one with 8 ranks in gunslinging has tracked down and found a gun at some point. How else is he that good?

[Blake]

Name: Cyran Meylos
Age: 10
Sex: Male

Bio: Cyran is not only a talented young mage, but a greedy one as well. He has reached the prime of his life and has not even hit puberty yet. With his young innocent looks and cute, sweet way of talking he is quite capable of making people revere him, sympathize for him, or any of the like to practically get adults to do his bidding.

Cyran's parents and their friends as well as many neighbors in his home town treat him like a king, or a baby at times. While the attention can get on his nerves at times, he would never wish it upon anyone else, simply because it's great to be the center of attention.

HP: 100 CP
MP: 140 CP
AP: 120 CP

Fighting Style
--------------
Knives- 2 Free Skill Ranks
Crossbows- 4 Free Skill Ranks

Aggressive
Balanced- 3 Free Skill Ranks
Defensive- 1 Free Skill Rank, 10 CP

Dodging- 30 CP
Parrying- 10 CP

Skills
------
Ranged Combat- Cyran has increased critical and hit rates with ranged weapons.(30 CP)
Efficient Casting- Reduces MP costs of some or all of Cyran's spells by a percentage amount.(20 CP)
Charisma- Being an innocent figure, many people find Cyran cute and charming and are willing to help him get his dirty work done for him.(50 CP)
Plead- Cyran is capable of making people purchase gifts or items for him for various reasons because of his youth.(50 CP)
Bluff- When things do not go his way or when he is in a jam, Cyran can whip up lies like second nature. His ability to bluff often gets him out of situations in which he would otherwise be overwhelmed.(50 CP)

Keys:
Verbs
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Detect- 20 CP
Create- 40 CP
Control- 20 CP

Nouns
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Wood- 60 CP
Water- 20 CP
Fire- 20 CP
Leaves- 20 CP
Threats- 40 CP
Levitate- 80 CP
Humanoid- 40 CP

Arcane Focus:
Air Orb- 30 CP

That should be one thousand points. Tell me if I did anything wrong, such as possibly the arcane focus?

[[sage]]

SK as I explained in my post above, you're 50 points over the limit.

Blake, thats 990 points. Want 10gp or want to spend those skill points?

I'll have your topic up either later tonight or sometime tommorow.

[Blake]

Whoops, I actually forgot to throw 10 in offensive so we'll put those in offensive.

Edit: Aggressive

[[sage]]

Oh yeah, and I'm curious what you intend to do with "threats" Thats an interesting key I hadn't thought of. Leaves as well.

[SephirothKirby]

Wait, I editted and somehow ended up with [strike]100[/strike] 50 extra.

I hadn't spent 200 in Magic. 5 Ranks in Keys is 100, and if you include the Focus, that's 150.

One of us made a mistake here, I'll let you evaluate it.

Attributes: 610
Fighting Style: 80 (100 Free)
Skills: 110 (Total)
Arcane Keys: 100
Arcane Focus: 50

Total:

950

---

also my math is different everytime what the hell

[Blake]

Oh yeah, and I'm curious what you intend to do with "threats" Thats an interesting key I hadn't thought of. Leaves as well.

I was gonna answer this question, but I'll keep you hanging heh.

Can we use as many keywords in a sentence?

For example I wish I threw in the word "combine" so I can say "combine x and y"

[[sage]]

Yes you can. It doesn't nessecarily make the spell more effective (it might though) but it does drain more mana and allows you to be more flexible with your magic.

For example, if you used Control, Humanoid, and Fire in the same spell Control and Humanoid would stack, as would Control and Fire, but Humanoid and Fire wouldn't normally. However, you would be losing MP for all three of them, regardless of whether they stack or not.

SK, the error was on my part. You're good now. I'll have both your topics up tonight.

[[sage]]

Nevermind.

[t3hDarkness]

Is it too late to join?

[[sage]]

Nope, why would it? Each person gets their own topic.

[KirbyBoy2000]

Man, this is only making it more obvious that I need to make an RPG sometime. Shame I don't have any good ideas for them right now. :/

Anyway...


Name - Tharis Letral
Age - 38
Sex - Male

Bio - Leader of a small band of mercenaries; though rather unsuccessfully, if their near non-existant reputation and lack of cash is anything to say about it. He's incredibly competent in battle, though the same can't be said of outside of it. When dealing with people he's about as delicate as a rock; probably smart as one too, given that he doesn't pay much attention to simple things... Like how much money his team would be getting from a mission, which pretty much always ends up as 'not much'; much to the annoyance of everyone else on his team. He focuses mostly on whatever he thinks would be the most exciting thing, though he'll listen to what his allies have to say if they disagree with one of his plans, which is surprisingly often.

Stats (520)
HP:200
MP:120
AP:200

Fighting Style (20)
--------------------
Axes - Rank 6 (All Free)

Aggressive - Rank 4 (3 Free + 10CP)
Balanced - Rank 2 (1 Free + 10CP)
Defensive - . . .

Dodging - *Gets shot*
Parrying - *then stabbed*
Cut-people-in-half-before-they-can-do-anything - Rank 10 (Allegedly.) [Also side note, make one ally a healer. <_<]

Skills (160)
--------
Allies - Rank 5 (50CP) - Has allies for lord knows what reason.
Leadership - Rank 3 (50CP) - Ability to lead allies,
Melee - Rank 5 (50CP) - Overall skill in melee combat.
Better Equipment - Rank 3 (30CP)
Intelligence - Rank -2 (+20CP) - Bad with money, decisions, basic stuff. Whatever.

Arcane Keys (200)
-------------------
Control - Rank 5 (100)
Earth - Rank 5 (100)

Arcane Focus (100)
--------------------
Weapon - Rank 5 (50)
Arms - Rank 5 (50)


Any problems? You know, aside from the character itself?

[[sage]]

KB, for your better equipment, take your pick of any two of the following. Can't pick the same thing twice.

A major Magical item (axe, medium armor or lower or something of your choice)
Three minor magical items
Non magical Heavy Armor
Mounts for your entire mercenary group. (Fewer mercenaries means better mounts just to let you know)
A base/buisness office located in a city- otherwise you guys are travelling mercenaries by default.
A special arcane focus.

Also give me an idea of how strong and how many mercenaries you want. You have 100 points to do so. A 10 point ally would be roughly as skilled as you are. You can specify what kind of allies you like. You said you wanted a healer for example. No more than 10 points to any one ally.

After you do that, I'll post your topic.

My idea of your character is a pretty thuggish leader who's very good at fighting and battle strategy but has no buisness or common sense whatsoever and little to new social skills besides bossing people around. That more or less what you're going for?

[KirbyBoy2000]

I'll go with a special axe I guess. If it doubled somewhat as a special focus then that'd be great too, but I don't want to ask too much.

Allies - Five 'special' ones with 10 points. 10 other ones with 5 points.
10 points to someone who focuses on defense/healing. 10 points to someone on magic, offensive or otherwise. 10 points to an archer/tracker. 10 points to a thief or something. 10 points to a melee fighter. The ones with 5 points, have them be kind of balanced: Some ranged, some melee, some supportive, most probably physical, some magically skilled.

And I wasn't really going for thuggish too much, but whatever. I'd say he'd be respected for his skill and power, though not much else. Given he wouldn't really be smart or delicate enough to get people to do something otherwise it fits fine though.

[[sage]]

You get two choices for equipment, so if you want the axe to double as a focus, than that would count for both. If not, you still have one more choice.

And I wasn't really going for thuggish too much, but whatever. I'd say he'd be respected for his skill and power, though not much else. Given he wouldn't really be smart or delicate enough to get people to do something otherwise it fits fine though.

Gotcha.

[KirbyBoy2000]

Oh... I missed the two, I thought I only got one of those.

3 Minor Magical Items + One Special Focus. One of those items and the focus will be an axe. The next armor of some sort. And I'm not sure on the last. You can make that whatever you want, chances are someone with me would be able to use it anyway.