Gold & Glory: A Knight's Tale (OOC/Open/Fantasy/Sport)

[Katyuscha]

Gold & Glory, Glory & Gold

A Knight's Tale

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Theme

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"A Knight in shining armor is
a man who has never
had his metal truly tested"

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Welcome to Gold & Glory: A Knight's tale. A sports RPG set in a fantasy land, where you will take on the role of a knight, vagabond, noble, peasant, or some other colorful character who's decided to take up arms and compete in various tourneys for fame and fortune. The goal of this RP is to give the players the feeling of being a competitor in the medieval tournaments, as well as face them with the every day risks and adversities that come with the occupation. The results of each match will be decided via dice roll and players will RP their victories and losses as they come. A player's stats and attributes can help in giving them an edge in certain events, allowing them to be very proficient in certain fields, while being less than useful in others.

This isn't just a simple sports RP, however. There will be plenty of time between tournaments for the characters to talk and get to know one another. To forge friendships or rivalries. To deepen their own character's backstory and personality and to expand the lore of the world they live in. You can be a loner who doesn't get along well with other competitors, a friendly gentleman who's always in the mood for a bit of jolly cooperation, or an over prideful ass who sees all others as beneath their station. You could work together with other characters, protecting one another from bandits during your travels, or helping pay for expenses, or you could look out only for yourself, keeping all your prize money for your own benefit, at the cost of alienating yourself.

Things will not always be sunshine and rainbows, though, as there will be plenty of random events between and even during tournemants that could potentially hinder a characters performance in the games. You could be ambushed by brigands while on your way between towns, preventing you from improving or repairing your equipment in the next tourney, or get injured during a game and suffer penalties in your next match. Anything could happen and you will have to deal with the consequences as they come.

There will be an attribute system that players can customize and tailor to their character to help them in different situations. Having higher dexterity and will make you better in the dueling ring, while a higher strength/endurance will give you an edge in the joust. Players will be able to use their prize money to pay for different services, such as armor/weapons repair, buying better equipment, lodging, and training which will increase their stats and give them a higher chance of succeeding in any events they participate in at any particular tourney.

While this is a sports RP and will involve a lot of stats and rules and dice rolls, I want this to be primarily about the characters and their interaction with each other and the world around them to create a colorful and whimsical story about a bunch of jolly folk winning tournaments, getting drunk, competing with or against each other, and having a good time doing it.

So what say you, brave champion?

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While a lot of the concept for this RP has already been thought up, there's still much that needs to be established. Many of the mechanics, including stats and attributes, die rolls, random events, and the currency and glory systems need to be further fleshed out. On top of that, I'm debating on whether or not there should be set classes or not. I'm not the best at this, so any and all help is appreciated. If we can get this to work, then I know this will be a very interesting, if not fun RP.

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So here're a few things I still needs assistance with:

• The leveling system - How often should one level up, as well as how and where? I don't know about a base system, but I was thinking about adding in an expensive training option that can immediately level up any of a player's stats by one for a hefty sum.
• Earning Gold & Glory - I was Thinking of making each event in a tourney worth different amounts of glory/gold, with the joust obviously being the most rewarding, but I don't know exactly how to rank them, or even what all games to include in the tourneys.
• Price of services - There will be many different services open to the players that could boost their performance in the next or even ongoing tourneys. These range from better supplies and equipment, to good lodging at an in (rather than sleeping on the ground), and buying/selling equipment or repairing/reinforcing old stuff. All of these will have different effects on your stats to help you perform better at different things. Getting better sleep at an inn may increase your perception and allow you to be more accurate at your archery, while improving your armor and weapons may just save you from that next lance slicing through your armor and hitting your soft little belly, or prevent your sword from snapping in half in your next sparring match.
• Classes, Attributes/Stats, and Tourneys - Should there be a set group of classes with specialized skills that players can choose from, or should they be allowed to distribute their starting stats however they like? On top of that, what should the attributes be and what should they encompass? Also, since a lot of characters will more than likely be specialized in one or two skills, they will likely be very good at winning certain games than other. For instance, a character with light-medium armor who's light on his feet and with high dexterity would probably be best suited for sparring, but would be under equip for the joust. Is this how it should work? On one end, it allows for players to be very proficient at winning a select group of games, but on the other hand, they would be next to useless in others. This would only allow them to make certain amounts of money every tourney and could potentially lead to poverty and failure if they suffer too many losses. On the other hand, it could promote cooperation between players as they all work together to win in their respective fields so that there's a better chance of one of them making enough money to survive until the next tourney, while still allowing for some friendly rivalry. I hope you understand what I mean by this.
• Scoring and determining the winner - How should this be done? G-Tech said the scorinator would be a good fit, but I've never used it, so I can say with certainty.

There're other things to discuss, as well, but there are what came to my mind, first.

[Katyuscha]

Lore and History
WIP

[Katyuscha]

Tourney Events
WIP

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Services
WIP

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Random Events
WIP

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Upgrades and Items
WIP

[Katyuscha]

Classes, stats, & Attributes
WIP

[Katyuscha]

Rules & Mechanics
WIP

[Cenning]

I'd post a thing about how I saw this in the Cafe and have been seriously interested and it's a cool idea but it's late, tag. Will be here.

[Katyuscha]

I'd post a thing about how I saw this in the Cafe and have been seriously interested and it's a cool idea but it's late, tag. Will be here.

Glad to see some interest. My hopes are to get the mechanics figured out quickly, so that we can get this started as soon as possible.

Unlike my last failed attempt at an RP

[TriStates]

Nice premise. Never seen a jousting RP before.

From your end of the table, what do you think is left wanting in the OP pages?

[Katyuscha]

Nice premise. Never seen a jousting RP before.

From your end of the table, what do you think is left wanting in the OP pages?

If you're asking what still needs to be done, quite a bit. I'm not a big mechanics person and that's what a lot of this RP relies on to function. On top of that, I need to come up with a full list of events for the tourneys, as well as the amount of gold and glory earned for winning them. I've still got to figure out the attribute/stat system, the leveling system, whether or not we'll have classes, or if we'll just allow players to tailor their stats to their characters however they want. I've got to figure out how the currency is going to work (how much do different services cost, how much do you earn from different tourneys and the events they host, how much can a player start with, and how much they can possibly gain and lose in random events). I need to come up with several different types of random events for the players, both good and bad and how often they can occur. I've got to come up with an efficient scoring and die rolling system, for the games and random events.

There's a lot to do that I'm not particularly equip to handle on my own. There's also the lore of the world, while not particularly important in the setting of the game, is important to me on a personal level.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

Alright, I'm here.

First off, Kat (I can call you Kat, right? ), you may want to use one of your posts, at least provisionally, to put there all of the ideas that were discussed in the Traveller's Café earlier so that we can have them on hand. They might be discarded or altered at some point, but having them all present should definitely help out in constructing this RP, since I can tell there's still much to be done.

Now, I know you've already said a lot of that in your last post here, but you had a pretty neat list on the Traveller's Café with everything that was still needed and I think it would really help if you pasted it into the OP or one of the reserved posts as well.

With that done, we'll need to begin making lists of everything we want. For events, I figure we'll want to include, going off of your ideas: jousting, dueling, archery. What else? Stone lifting or something? Fist fighting? Fighting one vs many?

Ditto with services, though it's preferable to go with broad strokes in that one. We'll need inns, blacksmiths, travel services... the list goes on, though I can't think of any more at the moment. Sure I might be stating the obvious, but sometimes even the obvious needs to be stated. We'll need to list random events and such as well.

Now, onto the mechanics. If you're not big on them, why don't you use a system similar to the system most Dice RPs use? If you haven't seen it before, essentially in every action the OP rolls a die and depending on the number, you get a result. The higher the number, the better the result. And certain circumstances gave characters certain boosts on certain rolls. In a similar manner, we could have rolls determine what happens (maybe use a bigger die, like a D12 or such) and give bonuses based on stats and equipment. We could even have the results posted in the OOC and have the IC go according to that, instead of posting the results on the IC directly. I think that would be neat as far as storytelling goes.

So, there's still a fair bit to do. The above system, I feel, would be viable for the competitions only, you'd have to find a different system to determine what happens during random events and when. As for the backstory, perhaps I could help, though you'd have to tell me what you have so far. Surely you have some idea of what you want the land to be like?

Anyway, I'm done now. Hopefully this'll help a bit for now.

[Katyuscha]

Alright, I'm here.

First off, Kat (I can call you Kat, right? ), you may want to use one of your posts, at least provisionally, to put there all of the ideas that were discussed in the Traveller's Café earlier so that we can have them on hand. They might be discarded or altered at some point, but having them all present should definitely help out in constructing this RP, since I can tell there's still much to be done.

Now, I know you've already said a lot of that in your last post here, but you had a pretty neat list on the Traveller's Café with everything that was still needed and I think it would really help if you pasted it into the OP or one of the reserved posts as well.

With that done, we'll need to begin making lists of everything we want. For events, I figure we'll want to include, going off of your ideas: jousting, dueling, archery. What else? Stone lifting or something? Fist fighting? Fighting one vs many?

Ditto with services, though it's preferable to go with broad strokes in that one. We'll need inns, blacksmiths, travel services... the list goes on, though I can't think of any more at the moment. Sure I might be stating the obvious, but sometimes even the obvious needs to be stated. We'll need to list random events and such as well.

Now, onto the mechanics. If you're not big on them, why don't you use a system similar to the system most Dice RPs use? If you haven't seen it before, essentially in every action the OP rolls a die and depending on the number, you get a result. The higher the number, the better the result. And certain circumstances gave characters certain boosts on certain rolls. In a similar manner, we could have rolls determine what happens (maybe use a bigger die, like a D12 or such) and give bonuses based on stats and equipment. We could even have the results posted in the OOC and have the IC go according to that, instead of posting the results on the IC directly. I think that would be neat as far as storytelling goes.

So, there's still a fair bit to do. The above system, I feel, would be viable for the competitions only, you'd have to find a different system to determine what happens during random events and when. As for the backstory, perhaps I could help, though you'd have to tell me what you have so far. Surely you have some idea of what you want the land to be like?

Anyway, I'm done now. Hopefully this'll help a bit for now.

Yay! And yes, you may

Alright, that makes sense. I'll be sure to add it in, now. I'll see about using another one of the reserved posts for the list of events, services, and random events. Possibly even a list of equipment upgrades and such. I understand the basics of die rolls, but I know some people use different die for different things and I wasn't sure to how much of an extent we'd be using them, like only for tourney events and RE's, or for anything that you could potentially fail at, like in D&D. I saw the term scorinator used in the cafe and have no experience with it, so I assumed it to be a completely different beast from other die rolling systems. As for the results, it'd probably be best to leave them in the OOC, but if it becomes too hard to follow them (likely it won't) then we can post then in a simple spoiler in the IC.

Regarding the story and lore, I haven't put too much detail into it, so far, simply because the history of the world doesn't play as big a role in this RP as it usually does. I still really like deep backstories and intricate histories, so I've left the history and lore of the world completely open to the players. The only cannon things, so far, are that the land that this RP is set in is culturally and technologically similar to that of early-mid medieval western Europe, is a feudal monarchy, and is very rich and powerful on the world stage. There will be other countries, as well, and I may even see about having a map of the country, and possibly the world, made with all of the different cities we'll be traveling to marked on it. Each city will have a name, culture, and history that we as a group will be able to craft, together. There are foreigners that participate in there games, too, so you don't have to play a generic European knight if you don't want to. You could be an exiled warrior from a far off and mysterious eastern land, or a converted nobleman from a heathen country. Anything is possible and I'd love to hear people ideas.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

Alright Kat, .

Regarding the dice system, I think you should keep it fairly simple and limit dice rolls to tournaments, random events and maybe some stuff like if the player tries to cheat in a tourney, bribe someone or try to steal a fine piece of equipment, for example. I can't imagine every character you get would be above this so adding a sense of risk to it all might be for the best. Plus there are those between-tourney stories you were talking about in the Café which might make heavy use of that.

I'm not familiar with what a scorinator is either, myself, so I support the dice system.

As for the lore, everything you said sounds good, it's nice that you're leaving the lore for the players to craft, but you ought to at least make a short description of the country. "So and so is a land with medieval tech like the rest of the world, its main cities are so, so and so, it is very powerful, it is a feudal monarchy, ruled by so and so. Here's a map." <- something like this, but obviously with a lot more flourish and such. That alone should suffice and still leave more than enough wiggling room for any creative players who want to make vast and immersive backstories of their own. That's my take on it, at least.

[Katyuscha]

Alright Kat, .

Regarding the dice system, I think you should keep it fairly simple and limit dice rolls to tournaments, random events and maybe some stuff like if the player tries to cheat in a tourney, bribe someone or try to steal a fine piece of equipment, for example. I can't imagine every character you get would be above this so adding a sense of risk to it all might be for the best. Plus there are those between-tourney stories you were talking about in the Café which might make heavy use of that.

I'm not familiar with what a scorinator is either, myself, so I support the dice system.

As for the lore, everything you said sounds good, it's nice that you're leaving the lore for the players to craft, but you ought to at least make a short description of the country. "So and so is a land with medieval tech like the rest of the world, its main cities are so, so and so, it is very powerful, it is a feudal monarchy, ruled by so and so. Here's a map." <- something like this, but obviously with a lot more flourish and such. That alone should suffice and still leave more than enough wiggling room for any creative players who want to make vast and immersive backstories of their own. That's my take on it, at least.

I can understand that. I'd like to keep the dice rolls simple, as well. I know too many mechanics and rules can turn one off from the RP and I'm more into the story in the first place. The mechanics are just a means of keeping things fair and somewhat real.

Good. That makes me feel less out of touch with these things

Oh, of course. I'll be providing the basic info for the setting, myself. I'm coming up with some basic history and lore for it, now, in fact I just like to leave a lot of the deeper and more intricate pieces of information up to the others. I like leaving the lore of my worlds intentionally vague so that players don't feel forced into a setting that doesn't appeal to them and gets them more involved in it, because they've helped create it. I've currently got another tab open and am working on adding some basic lore and information for people to work off of, so now worries

[Indo-pasif archipelago]

Tag, this looks fun.

About classes, maybe you can give players points to spend and tailors their own stats, but classes will give you extra points to their respective stats. Like archers will have extra points in archery, while knight will get extra points in horse riding and/or strength.

[Katyuscha]

Tag, this looks fun.

About classes, maybe you can give players points to spend and tailors their own stats, but classes will give you extra points to their respective stats. Like archers will have extra points in archery, while knight will get extra points in horse riding and/or strength.

That's actually what I was thinking and I may add it in, soon, and see what people think

[Zarkenis Ultima]

Alright Kat, .

Regarding the dice system, I think you should keep it fairly simple and limit dice rolls to tournaments, random events and maybe some stuff like if the player tries to cheat in a tourney, bribe someone or try to steal a fine piece of equipment, for example. I can't imagine every character you get would be above this so adding a sense of risk to it all might be for the best. Plus there are those between-tourney stories you were talking about in the Café which might make heavy use of that.

I'm not familiar with what a scorinator is either, myself, so I support the dice system.

As for the lore, everything you said sounds good, it's nice that you're leaving the lore for the players to craft, but you ought to at least make a short description of the country. "So and so is a land with medieval tech like the rest of the world, its main cities are so, so and so, it is very powerful, it is a feudal monarchy, ruled by so and so. Here's a map." <- something like this, but obviously with a lot more flourish and such. That alone should suffice and still leave more than enough wiggling room for any creative players who want to make vast and immersive backstories of their own. That's my take on it, at least.

I can understand that. I'd like to keep the dice rolls simple, as well. I know too many mechanics and rules can turn one off from the RP and I'm more into the story in the first place. The mechanics are just a means of keeping things fair and somewhat real.

Good. That makes me feel less out of touch with these things

Oh, of course. I'll be providing the basic info for the setting, myself. I'm coming up with some basic history and lore for it, now, in fact I just like to leave a lot of the deeper and more intricate pieces of information up to the others. I like leaving the lore of my worlds intentionally vague so that players don't feel forced into a setting that doesn't appeal to them and gets them more involved in it, because they've helped create it. I've currently got another tab open and am working on adding some basic lore and information for people to work off of, so now worries

Ah, well, then we mostly agree on everything, which is good to know.

Tag, this looks fun.

About classes, maybe you can give players points to spend and tailors their own stats, but classes will give you extra points to their respective stats. Like archers will have extra points in archery, while knight will get extra points in horse riding and/or strength.

That's actually what I was thinking and I may add it in, soon, and see what people think

I think it's neat. Instead of giving extra stats, classes could give bonuses to certain rolls, maybe?

[Katyuscha]

I can understand that. I'd like to keep the dice rolls simple, as well. I know too many mechanics and rules can turn one off from the RP and I'm more into the story in the first place. The mechanics are just a means of keeping things fair and somewhat real.

Good. That makes me feel less out of touch with these things

Oh, of course. I'll be providing the basic info for the setting, myself. I'm coming up with some basic history and lore for it, now, in fact I just like to leave a lot of the deeper and more intricate pieces of information up to the others. I like leaving the lore of my worlds intentionally vague so that players don't feel forced into a setting that doesn't appeal to them and gets them more involved in it, because they've helped create it. I've currently got another tab open and am working on adding some basic lore and information for people to work off of, so now worries

Ah, well, then we mostly agree on everything, which is good to know.

That's actually what I was thinking and I may add it in, soon, and see what people think

I think it's neat. Instead of giving extra stats, classes could give bonuses to certain rolls, maybe?

Glad we're on the same page

Sounds good. What classes should there be? So far, I've seen Knight, and Archer. Possibly duelist, who's built to excel in sparring matched and such? Also, maybe each class could have another special ability unrelated to competitions? Like n archer/ranger is more likely to avoid negative random events and a knight can complete extra quests more efficiently or something. Just a thought.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

Ah, well, then we mostly agree on everything, which is good to know.



I think it's neat. Instead of giving extra stats, classes could give bonuses to certain rolls, maybe?

Glad we're on the same page

Sounds good. What classes should there be? So far, I've seen Knight, and Archer. Possibly duelist, who's built to excel in sparring matched and such? Also, maybe each class could have another special ability unrelated to competitions? Like n archer/ranger is more likely to avoid negative random events and a knight can complete extra quests more efficiently or something. Just a thought.

Cavalier (stat boosts for jousting, travel bonuses maybe?), archer (stat boosts for archery, less chance of negative RE like you said), knight (stat boosts for strength competitions? and maybe stuff like bonus fame or quests like you said), duelist (stat boosts for duels, maybe since they're more showoffish they'd get more money or something?), and that's it for ideas I have right now. But yeah, having separate effects for out of tourneys sounds pretty good to me.

[Katyuscha]

Glad we're on the same page

Sounds good. What classes should there be? So far, I've seen Knight, and Archer. Possibly duelist, who's built to excel in sparring matched and such? Also, maybe each class could have another special ability unrelated to competitions? Like n archer/ranger is more likely to avoid negative random events and a knight can complete extra quests more efficiently or something. Just a thought.

Cavalier (stat boosts for jousting, travel bonuses maybe?), archer (stat boosts for archery, less chance of negative RE like you said), knight (stat boosts for strength competitions? and maybe stuff like bonus fame or quests like you said), duelist (stat boosts for duels, maybe since they're more showoffish they'd get more money or something?), and that's it for ideas I have right now. But yeah, having separate effects for out of tourneys sounds pretty good to me.

This sounds good. There don't seem to be any other viable classes in a low fantasy universe like this.

What would be good base stats to start with? Also, what attribute should be included? So for, I've got strength, endurance, dexterity, possibly perception, persuasion, and vitality?

[Zarkenis Ultima]

Cavalier (stat boosts for jousting, travel bonuses maybe?), archer (stat boosts for archery, less chance of negative RE like you said), knight (stat boosts for strength competitions? and maybe stuff like bonus fame or quests like you said), duelist (stat boosts for duels, maybe since they're more showoffish they'd get more money or something?), and that's it for ideas I have right now. But yeah, having separate effects for out of tourneys sounds pretty good to me.

This sounds good. There don't seem to be any other viable classes in a low fantasy universe like this.

What would be good base stats to start with? Also, what attribute should be included? So for, I've got strength, endurance, dexterity, possibly perception, persuasion, and vitality?

Endurance and Vitality separate? Would that serve much of a purpose? As for perception, couldn't you group it together with dexterity somehow?

Y'now, just for the sake of making things simpler.

[Katyuscha]

This sounds good. There don't seem to be any other viable classes in a low fantasy universe like this.

What would be good base stats to start with? Also, what attribute should be included? So for, I've got strength, endurance, dexterity, possibly perception, persuasion, and vitality?

Endurance and Vitality separate? Would that serve much of a purpose? As for perception, couldn't you group it together with dexterity somehow?

Y'now, just for the sake of making things simpler.

Yeah, that'd probably be best. I guess I'm too into the Dark Souls mindset of attributes The only reason I said dexterity and perception separate was to make the difference between duelists and archer/rangers a little more noticeable. Maybe they would work better, together. I'm not an expert on this.

Alright, I'mna finish writing up the basic lore and history and a brief description of the current classes.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

Endurance and Vitality separate? Would that serve much of a purpose? As for perception, couldn't you group it together with dexterity somehow?

Y'now, just for the sake of making things simpler.

Yeah, that'd probably be best. I guess I'm too into the Dark Souls mindset of attributes The only reason I said dexterity and perception separate was to make the difference between duelists and archer/rangers a little more noticeable. Maybe they would work better, together. I'm not an expert on this.

Alright, I'mna finish writing up the basic lore and history and a brief description of the current classes.

Not an expert either. But if you have dexterity, strength, persuasion and vitality, then cavaliers would excel at strength and vitality, archers at dexterity and persuasion, knights at strength and dexterity and duelists at dexterity and vitality?

Or something. To be frank that sounds a little trippy, but I'm of the mind that classes should get unique boosts each.

[Indo-pasif archipelago]

What about combination of those classes? Like Archer/Knight or Archer/Duelist can be Hunter? Is Thief a possible class?

[TriStates]

Late to the party, and I don't know if a system has been decided on, but heres one possibility.

Mechanics
Might I suggest the S.P.E.C.I.A.L attribute system? Minimum of 1 to Maximum of 10 in any one category. Players start with 40 points that can be allotted, though you can also put a starting limit on the amount per category if you want. The players chosen class would also influence additional bonuses to each SPECIAL.

Strength - Pretty obvious. Would judge the physical, determining how built a character is. Would affect things like carry amount, and rule what items, armor, weapons and actions requiring brute strength.
Perception - Deals with the Five Senses, influencing ranged combat, ability to spot foes hidden foes, and the characters overall alertness. A player character with higher Perception may notice things in his environment or dialogue that a character with lower Perception would miss out on.
Endurance - Would determine Hit Points, Environment & Poison Resistance, Healing Rate and additional Hit Points per level/rank/grade/etc.
Charisma - A combination of appearance and charm. A high Charisma is important for characters that want to influence people with words. Very important for a character who wants to win the crowd at a Tournament, talk his way into fortune or out of trouble.
Intelligence - Knowledge, wisdom and the ability to think quickly.
Agility - Coordination and the ability to move well. Good for fast, flinty, acrobatic characters.
Luck - Luck primarily affects the chances with the dice of the game: a high Luck increases the likelihood to succeed a roll, while the opposite is also true.

This is just a basic overview of what the skills are usually used for. You can always amend them to include rulings on features that they don't already cover. There is also the GURPS system, and while pleasingly retro, I personally prefer SPECIAL to it.

As for how to determine an actions success, I agree with Zark. Using a simple D12 roll on major events and actions. For minor events and actions, you could use attribute and level discrimination. The success of a players action in a situation would depend on whether he has the correct attribute amount and level grade.

Example: A LvL 16 Knight with high Agility would successfully dodge an attack that requires a Agility score of +10. A LvL 10 Archer, who doesn't have the required Agility score, would fail at the dodge and take the hit. Of course, this could happen vice versa, if the Archer has higher starting Agility than the Knight. In this situation, the LvL 16 Knight could probably take the hit better than his lower level counterpart.

It seems like you guys have the classes worked out. I'll think on what other services we could use (Stable & Fletcher, for two) and have them in another post.

[Cenning]

I feel like worldbuilding here is actually quite a large part of this. The whole appeal of this idea to me is that it's something more than a sports RP where someone you've never met clicks a button, gets some numbers out and you then have to talk about them - it's about the people involved and everything around it, and worldbuilding does inevitably come into that.

So I guess what I'm saying is: I'm not that good with mechanics but if you want me I can definitely help work out some of the background and the locations.