Hey guys. I am developing my own tabletop RPG / campaign setting, and I wanted to start doing weekly 1-shots to start testing out rules and mechanics. Looking to see if anybody here would be interesting in joining something like that. I would likely host sessions on either Friday or Sunday nights, schedule depending, ideally sometime around 7pm - 10pm EST. I am looking for around 2 - 4 players each week. (They don't necessarily need to be the same people every time, so if you want to just pop in one time, or every now and then without committing long-term, that's cool too.) The first session will use pre-written characters and will focus on testing combat balance.
Without further ado, here begins general synopsis / game summary:
Quickie summary:Essentially, D.A.N.T.E. portrays a world filled with magic and wonder. People, being terrible, mostly use this magic to kill each other constantly. This is exacerbated by the fact that in Parthanasia, nobody stays dead for long. It's pretty easy to just slip back through to the physical plane, the only real consequence being that when you pass through the "Black Curtain" back to the material plane, you pick up a nasty mutation along the way. These can be cured easily, if you have a little coin. The main reason mutations are an issue is that if you and your party are trying to get through a tough dungeon, the average battle is going to kill half the party or more. Rather than "can we all stay alive and finish the dungeon", the challenge in D.A.N.T.E. is "can we avoid dying so much that we are too mutated to continue". If you TPK, the whole party gets booted out of the dungeon, and all the monsters you killed inside respawn. (They come back with FUN mutations too!)
The overall tone I'm shooting for is "gleefully silly while simultaneously morbid and macabre at times". It's a world where the average passerby is as likely to set you on fire as shake hands with you, coming back from death is trivial but sometimes involves your eyes spontaneously falling out, and the primary mode of covert assassination is potato. Parthanasia is a world with some serious problems, and big things happening in the background that could easily spell the end of all living things forever, but most people are too caught up in shortsighted casual homicide to do anything about it.
Major features: - Death isn't permanent, but when you come back, you come back with
horrifying FUN mutations!
- Super high lethality, fast-paced combat!
- Area-based movement removes grids and measuring. (Like FATE zones, but far simpler.)
-
Simple grappling mechanics; move, grapple, and throw an opponent in 1 turn! (Opposed 1d20 check for grapple control, 1d20 roll to throw. DONE!)
Player handbook excerpts: 
Sample classes: (Magical) - Contraror: Dispel magic, mind altering effects, and general trickery. Redirect the spells of other mages, or turn it upon themselves.
- Elementor: EARTH, FIRE, WIND, WATER,
HEART LIFE! High-mobility magical swiss army knife, adept at manipulating their environment.
- Golemancer: Create magical beings who punch things! Wear a golem as armor, tame rogue elementals, summon and command a small army.
- Mortphage: Don't fear death, master it! Benefits from (normally rare) helpful mutations, and utilizes the Dead Zone itself as a weapon.
(Non-magical) - Acrobat: Uses incredible feats of athletics to stay one step ahead of their opponents. Able to perform most combat actions while airborne.
- Tinkerer: Master of improvised weapons and assorted environmental shenanigans. Can kill you 10 different ways with a teacup.
- Spellbane: Born with the natural ability to shrug off magical attacks; able to shield themselves and others from arcane assault.
(There will be 18 magical and 9 non-magical classes in the finished game. I already have most of them planned out, but they aren't all fleshed out yet. It's intended to mix and match 2+ classes most of the time.)
Playable races: - Humans: As inventive as they are sociopathic, humans were the first race to harness the power of magic, despite being one of the youngest.
- Dwarves: Stout, humanoid rock elementals who are born from the mountains themselves. The materials used in creating them (hardness of stone, type of gems in skeleton) have an effect on their physical aptitudes. Industrious sorts who work better while drinking.
- Frost Elves: Naturally occurring humanoid ice elementals; often fiercely territorial and spitefully temperamental.
- Half-giants: Born of either a human father / giant mother, or two half-giant parents. They can choose to live in either human or giant society, but typically don't fit in very well either way. Usually very good with horses, but only able to actually ride the largest ones.
- Beetles (rename pending): Exceedingly hardy giant insectoids. They get along well with most races but have a long-standing feud with the Aardwolf.
- Aardwolf (rename pending): Jackal-like humanoids. Subsist primarily on insects, and are known to occasionally hunt the very same giant elephant-bugs worshiped by the Beetle race. This, along with disputes over territory, is the primary cause of their ongoing rivalry.
- Bats (rename pending): Subterranian bat-like humanoids. Are able to glide short distances when jumping from height. Largely unknown to other races until later in the timeline.
- Dragonfish (rename pending): Humanoids inhabiting deep oceans, divided into two major tribes on either side of the main landmasses. They maintain a certain amount of trade with various seafaring races.
Character stats: HP - Health points, the amount of damage a character can survive before dying.
MP - Mana points, the amount of energy a character has per day for spells and skills.
STR - Strength, which measures the raw physical power of a character.
DEX - Dexterity, which measures the reflex, coordination, and balance of a character.
PER - Perception, a character's awareness both of themselves and their surroundings.
(There is no "intelligence" type stat, as ability with magic is determined by the appropriate class level, and
how smart the character acts is determined by the player's in-real-life smartness attribute.)
Combat - Grappling:
During a grapple, certain things behave slightly differently from normal combat. On their turn, the aggressor has access to two additional options for their combat action:
Crush Attack - Basic Attack that never misses, with damage of 1d20 + (STR/2) + 4.
Throw - Treat grappled enemy as Ranged (b) thrown weapon.
When a grappled character is thrown into another character or breakable object, both receive damage. If thrown character survives, handle damage normally for both. If thrown character dies, the person or object hit is instead struck by damage equal to thrown character's Defense plus HP at time of launch.
All text content, maps, and diagrams in this manual, as well as the Death Wisp motif are © Zachary Stiles 2012.
You may redistribute this manual in whole or in part if you credit him and do not charge anything for it.
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That's all for now! Tell me if you're interested, of if you have any questions!
