Things Betwixt: A Journey Beyond [OOC | Open] (Fantasy)

[G-Tech Corporation]

Excellent; I’m not always sure if images are poetic license or meant to be reflective, heh.

I'll go ahead and say that the images are generally reflective. The exact details may differ slightly, but the atmosphere, scale, and mood will be correct for the most part.

Interesting. I’ll keep that in mind.

[Lazarian]

I'll be adding this to the second post of the OP, but I figured that I'd post it in the thread so that folks wouldn't miss it.

COMBAT SETTINGS:

While combat is largely done behind the scenes, there are a few options you can indicate at the bottom of your post.

Focus Down The Most Lethal: It is what it says on the tin. Your chaps will prioritize attacking the enemy with the highest Might.
Focus Down The Weakest: Your fellows will prioritize attacking the enemy with the lowest Vitality.
Focus Down Stability Damage Dealers: If an enemy inflicts stability damage, your fellows will prioritize putting it down first.

The default is Focus Down The Weakest, which I think is the best - although the other two have their pros and cons as well.

If you have Consumables, you can indicate at what Vitality they'll be used - for example, let's say you have Invigorating Draught, which gives your character 1 Might for the duration of the turn. You can say "Dismas consumes Invigorating Draught at the beginning of any combat." or "At dropping to 5 Vitality, Reynauld uses [X]."

You can also indicate "[Character] stays in the back." This allows for them to avoid taking damage, but will cause enemies to apply their damage to the frontline characters, rather than spreading it across the party. This may be a good thing, if you've got a high-vitality character or one with armor - or it could lead to a very quick death.

Hopefully that's not too complicated. Really, if this all seems too much, you can ignore it - the default settings as is are pretty good, so these are just niche mechanics to get a small edge if certain players would like to add additional strategy. (This one's for you, G.)

[Cybernetic Socialist Republics]

I'll be adding this to the second post of the OP, but I figured that I'd post it in the thread so that folks wouldn't miss it.

COMBAT SETTINGS:

While combat is largely done behind the scenes, there are a few options you can indicate at the bottom of your post.

Focus Down The Most Lethal: It is what it says on the tin. Your chaps will prioritize attacking the enemy with the highest Might.
Focus Down The Weakest: Your fellows will prioritize attacking the enemy with the lowest Vitality.
Focus Down Stability Damage Dealers: If an enemy inflicts stability damage, your fellows will prioritize putting it down first.

The default is Focus Down The Weakest, which I think is the best - although the other two have their pros and cons as well.

If you have Consumables, you can indicate at what Vitality they'll be used - for example, let's say you have Invigorating Draught, which gives your character 1 Might for the duration of the turn. You can say "Dismas consumes Invigorating Draught at the beginning of any combat." or "At dropping to 5 Vitality, Reynauld uses [X]."

You can also indicate "[Character] stays in the back." This allows for them to avoid taking damage, but will cause enemies to apply their damage to the frontline characters, rather than spreading it across the party. This may be a good thing, if you've got a high-vitality character or one with armor - or it could lead to a very quick death.

Hopefully that's not too complicated. Really, if this all seems too much, you can ignore it - the default settings as is are pretty good, so these are just niche mechanics to get a small edge if certain players would like to add additional strategy. (This one's for you, G.)

Uh oh Yatzil is in danger.

[Lazarian]

Uh oh Yatzil is in danger.

Ah, that's actually why I added the options to stick certain party members in the back - you can protect those squishy sorcerers!

At the expense of all your other useful people, of course.

[Ceystile]

Finally finished the app, OP

Application For The Chosen
Party Name: The Plague Rats
Party Members and Classes:
Rastaban "Ras" Belfour (Sage/Alchemist/Steady Mind): The magic-less son of an imperial wizard, Ras channeled all his considerable talents into The Black Art. Before his dive into alchemy, the years spent apprenticing under his physician mother (and nearly dying of the plague himself) have given him an aversion to death that would rival a cat's hatred of water. Now that a second wave of pestilence has hit his beloved country, time is of the essence to create the Philosopher's Stone and put an end to Death once and for all.
Ansel Smith: (Soldier/Paladin/Precise Striker): A devout member of the Church of Scintillating Fire, Ansel's just spirit and upright heart are as large as the man himself. Sworn to serve his goddess in battle, he has decided to accompany his childhood friend Rastaban on this quest to fulfill his duty of protecting Her people from a dangerous but unseen villain...one that comes silently and kills slowly.
Grigory "Greylock" Volkov (Sufferer/Alchemist/Substance Abuser): A very brilliant but very unhinged alchemy student from the Northern kingdoms that was thrown out of his academy for dangerous and illegal experiments...he believes scientific progress is worth nearly any price and enjoys finding unconventional solutions to conventional problems (mainly as an excuse to blow shit up). As well as help his friends fight the pestilence, he also sees a chance to lift his own banishment.
Alicia von Norn (Surgeon/Bedside Manner): A determined, free-spirited young woman and the heiress to her country's throne, as future queen there was no way to stop her from lending her own medical skills to save her people, and thus she provides a morale-boosting and steady presence to the party (well, everyone except Rastaban seems to think so at least, due to the grievances that lie between them). Nonetheless, the two have agreed to put the tension aside for the sake of the objective...though if they can keep that up remains a mystery.
Cassandra Seagrave (Soother/Diplomat) Alicia's partner in battle and in life, this young poet and bard-in-training has a wit as sharp as her favorite pen and a tongue silver as the strings of her lyre. A mission to another world is the perfect thing to write an epic ballad about that folks will sing for generations to come (somehow the two-hundredth madrigal about Alicia's eyes was "played out"...ugh. Uncultured swine have no taste), and she could hardly let her fair damsel go on a dangerous quest without her could she?

Mission:: When the first wave of the Scarlet Pox, a disease that manifests with a burning red pox and severe hemorrhaging hit the kingdom of Norn, the physicians worked tirelessly to find a cure, but to no avail with thousands of lives lost. The second wave seems set to be even worse, in desperation a young Rastaban turned from his medical studies and devoted himself fully to alchemy in order to create the Philosopher’s Stone. The Stone is known for two things, turning base metals into gold and the Elixir of Life, which can not only confer immortality on those who drink it for prolonged periods but cure any diseases. Unfortunately, the only known alchemist who ever created the stone was Hermes Trismegistus, who is said to have written down his codex in an ancient alchemical text known as the Emerald Tablets, and it’s these tablets that Rastaban and his party are seeking.

Starting Equipment: 1 Scholar’s Studies, 1 bottle

Rations: 15
Wealth: 15

[Lazarian]

Application For The Chosen

Very nice. Accepted.

[Ralnis]

Uh oh Yatzil is in danger.

Ah, that's actually why I added the options to stick certain party members in the back - you can protect those squishy sorcerers!

At the expense of all your other useful people, of course.

This makes me need to retcon one my Sorcerers. Instead magical berserker into straight Witch that made a pact with the Butcher.

[Cybernetic Socialist Republics]

yeah, not really liking the whole thing where there's 3 attack options and one is dedicated to attacking one specific type of sorcerer and does absolutely nothing else.

[Lazarian]

yeah, not really liking the whole thing where there's 3 attack options and one is dedicated to attacking one specific type of sorcerer and does absolutely nothing else.

Oh, sorry, I should have clarified - these settings are for PvE combat.

PvP is significantly more complicated, involving players making decisions every turn. I'd go as far to say that it isn't really autoresolved at all.

[Lazarian]

With that, we've got 3/7 players in already, so I'm moving the update target to this Sunday. Let's keep some good momentum going!

[G-Tech Corporation]

Hopefully that's not too complicated. Really, if this all seems too much, you can ignore it - the default settings as is are pretty good, so these are just niche mechanics to get a small edge if certain players would like to add additional strategy. (This one's for you, G.)

*spreadsheets intensify*

[Ralnis]

With that, we've got 3/7 players in already, so I'm moving the update target to this Sunday. Let's keep some good momentum going!

Trying to make a 5k intro and a 10k post. This, hopefully, should be out by Sunday.

[Talchyon]

With that, we've got 3/7 players in already, so I'm moving the update target to this Sunday. Let's keep some good momentum going!

I will get some good momentum going next week. I'm getting through this bear first.


Have some interesting thoughts as to what my goblins are going to say and do first though.

P.S. - It's not possible for one person in the group to take one action, and another take another action? Like if one wants to rest and the other wants to forage for food?

[Lazarian]

Trying to make a 5k intro and a 10k post. This, hopefully, should be out by Sunday.

Looking forward to it! (That being said, if you're struggling to get the post done by then, being on time should take precedence to lore - you'll have plenty of time to flesh out characters and such along the course of the journey.)

P.S. - It's not possible for one person in the group to take one action, and another take another action? Like if one wants to rest and the other wants to forage for food?

It would make sense, but I'm afraid if I did that I'd have to make five different tables for Scrounging and Recuperating (based on the amount of people doing each action), and I'd likely have to get into fractional rations/wealth. Neither of these prospects are particularly appealing, unfortunately.

So, for lore purposes - it's too dangerous to go scrounge about in ruins or the wilds alone, and your fellows are all codependent and need quality time together to get substantial benefits from recuperating.

[Talchyon]

Also, OP, any chance you can put a link to the IC on the main page here? Thanks.

[The Empire of Tau]

Children of the Undergod

Mankind has made the mistake of faith - barring themselves from pleasures and excessive for a so-called good life. A justification to explain their worthless lives of misery and hardships. These false beliefs merely serve to strip a man of his true desires. All of them believe that their collective pain will bring them closer to salvation in the afterlife of false paradise. To restrict themselves for the purposes of high and noble self-sacrifice - a false dichotomy that humanity has come to believe.

To worship the Undergod is a purely selfish ordeal - encouraged to follow their darkest dreams to their ends at any cost. Suppressing such wants is a falsehood that will merely strip your freedom and escape from his awful world. It is easy to simply relish in the Undergod’s pleasures but few will ever get to truly experience true excessive. To reach the greatest of all black sacraments and become one of those who, for eternity, torture the souls of the damned - a pleasure far greater than the lies of Heaven.

Mission: To the surprise of the Dark Lord, God’s literal death did not usher in the obliviation of the Followers of Light. The fucklets, being stubborn and resilient as they are, have found the resolve to continue the struggle against Hell. Furthering the Undergod’s frustration is the recent disaster at the Battle of Skylight, which resulted in a humiliating defeat. This allowed the Glazic Ministers and Inquisitors to uncache the treasured archotech of the fallen satellite. The Undergod is now…more than irritated at the roaming bands of prestigious Glazic Knights adorned with recovered suits of ancient power armor. Even the Grand Inquisitor himself has an ancient weapon blessed not too recently, a so-called “M16” - a relic of humanity’s distant past. Thankfully, this is a minor setback in the long term. None of the fucklets have a damn clue on how to recreate any of this ancient technology. Yet..no one is clearly winning or losing.

With the conquest of the moral realm coming to a grueling stalemate, the Undergod sets its sights on other matters to sustain the attritional rates. An expedition to the continent of Northern Europe has gone missing…in an attempt to enslave the local tribals and primitive pagan barbarians.

Starting Equipment: Two Short Spears, 20 Rations, 10 Wealth.

Catotigernos Rutilus [Soldier] (Manhunter)
A former slave turned Dark worshiper, Catotigernos is a foremost expert on cutting his fellow man. He takes great pleasure in the act of combat and violence, a common characteristic among those involved in spilling blood in the name of the Undergod.

Crescentius Clineas [Soldier] (Unshakable Warrior)
Another soldier of the Undergod, Crescentius is a true disciple that has witnessed the true horrors of Hell itself without succumbing to insanity and despair. A warrior capable of fighting against demons and other horrors not aligned with the Undergod.

Athanasius Demetrias [Soldier] (Beast Hater)
The pagan barbarians have the tendency to summon deadly spirit animals from thin air, and Athanasius was brought along for the purpose of slaying said animals. Funny enough, the man is also an enjoyer of animals…the demonic variant.

Fauna Lupus [Sage] (Religious Scholar)
A former follower of Sol-Orthodoxy, a heterodoxic offshoot of Hard-Glazed doctrine, Fauna was found in the mines after brief combat with the northern barbarians. In an odd twist, she follows now Primevalism, which is a “heterodox” belief of the Undergod.

Eutropius Sacerdos [Surgeon] (Dissection Expert)
There will be bodies, and Eutropius is there to cut them open for the purpose of “research.” Of course, he is also here to bandage any wounded but that is secondary.

[Lazarian]

Children of the Undergod

There’s technically nothing wrong with the app, but the mission is a little vague.

I’ll give some time for Elerian and Osty to finish their apps before I make any decision on this one - pending for now.

[Elerian]

Application For The Chosen
Party Name: The Mediums (This name sucks, so lemme know if anyone has a better one)
Party Members and Classes:

Madame LeMond (Seer, A Foot on the Other Side) - Madame LeMond is a well known Californian Parapsychologist and Psychic Medium. She was hired by Lily to help find her boyfriend Adam and unwittingly brought the group to another dimension.

Samantha (Soother, Trained Therapist) - Samantha is a close friend of Lily’s that ended up being teleported to a new world after their paranormal ritual went wrong. Samantha was a Clinical Psychologist and avid hiker before entering the new dimension.

Lily (Sufferer, Otherworldly Obsession) - Unfortunately it was Lily’s desire to reunite with her missing boyfriend Adam that brought the five to their current destination. Her obsession with finding him led the trio of friends to Madame LeMond’s house on that fateful night.

Ryder (Scout, Hunter) - Ryder is a close friend of Lily’s that ended up being teleported to a new world after their paranormal ritual went wrong. Ryder worked at a local sporting goods store after moving to Isla Vista from the American Midwest. Ryder is an avid outdoorsman and went hunting and fishing in his youth.

Officer Boakes (Soldier, Manhunter) - Officer Boakes’ only relation to the four other members of the party is having the poor luck to live two doors down from Madame LeMond. He’s been a sworn Officer of Isla Vista for over a decade and worked as a detective.

Mission: After Lily’s boyfriend Adam went missing under strange circumstances, she found it impossible to move past his disappearance. A few months later Lily sought the help of Madame LeMond, a local psychic in her town of Isla Vista California. She had hoped that maybe Madame LeMond would be able to locate Adam. With no family in the area, Lily brought her two closest friends along for support. After arriving at Madame LeMond’s residence, the four of them begin a ritual, the hope being that the dead or some other being might offer some clue as to Adam’s whereabouts.

Something went horribly awry as the house began to shake, and strange lights began to dance along the walls. Unable to stop the ritual, the four could do little but watch in terror as their surroundings began to change and transport them to another world. Officer Boakes who lived two doors down was just finishing a shift and came to investigate the otherworldly lights and screams of terror. Just as Boakes entered the house, the ritual was completed and the five unfortunate souls were transported to another dimension entirely. Now their only goal is to return home to Isla Vista, and perhaps find Adam if he still lives.

Starting Equipment: 15 Rations, 11 Wealth, Lucky Dice, and a Club

[Talchyon]

OP -

Hope it's ok. I'm wanting to change the name of my 5th character from "Grak" to "Grnak".

(Also, can we get a link to the IC on the main page here? Thanks).

[Lazarian]

OP -
Hope it's ok. I'm wanting to change the name of my 5th character from "Grak" to "Grnak".

(Also, can we get a link to the IC on the main page here? Thanks).

Pretty much any minor change is fine by me.

And, right, gotcha. IC is now in the OP under the big “Things Betwixt” text.

[Talchyon]

OP -
Hope it's ok. I'm wanting to change the name of my 5th character from "Grak" to "Grnak".

(Also, can we get a link to the IC on the main page here? Thanks).

Pretty much any minor change is fine by me.

And, right, gotcha. IC is now in the OP under the big “Things Betwixt” text.

Thanks OP!

Also, I had more time than I thought, so I made my first post for my greedy goblins. Hope you like them.

[Lazarian]

Also, Elerian and Tau - both apps are accepted. Welcome!

Update is coming down the pipe tomorrow evening. As a side note, I will not be retroposting - if you don’t post in the cycle, you’ll lose the turn (unless I’ve made a specific exemption). Not trying to be harsh - I just have too many players to be consistently backtrack.

[Ovstylap]

Also, Elerian and Tau - both apps are accepted. Welcome!

Update is coming down the pipe tomorrow evening. As a side note, I will not be retroposting - if you don’t post in the cycle, you’ll lose the turn (unless I’ve made a specific exemption). Not trying to be harsh - I just have too many players to be consistently backtrack.

Hi Laz, I've made a start on my app but have got a major deadline coming up so Monday would be the earliest I can get something up

[Ceystile]

Got a draft in the works, guys

[Lazarian]

A particularly good Easter dinner has basically knocked me out for the count - so I’m moving the update to tomorrow. Folks that haven’t posted yet have another day to do so.