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[escaped lurker]

(Didn’t perform the drain action yet because to be honest, I’m not sure what I’m applying it to. Are you just using it to make yourself look more attractive? Also, no they don't know about your Manipulation abilities.)
I'm thinking of removing encumbrance, any thoughts or opinions on the subject?

Why yes, that was the plan. Beauty-care can be surprisingly easy. Since it would seem, well, far-fetched to raise Persuasion with it, let's view it as him trying to boost his health.
Should that also be too ambigious, or not sit well with you, he transforms the dog into skincare-paste! "Vitalizing the skin with vitamins, while keeping it soft, moistured and glossy. And smelling of sweet santal. (Let's scrap the last part - if Sahal would fumble on that, to make it smell, well, bad, it would be for naught.)

As for encumbrance, I guess equiping the armors we encounter with a DnD-alike malus should work in the same vein.

"Now, now, that's a good boy!"
Stretching out his hand closer to the mutt, Sahals grin broadens into a full-fledged smile. And not an entirely nice one, mind him.

[LordBucket]

Trisha

You didn’t have time to complete all your actions because of the combat interruption

...ok. Then I guess, control the other skeleton and finish searching the room as per previous post.

I'm thinking of removing encumbrance, any thoughts or opinions on the subject?

I suggest handling it with common sense. It's a waste of your time to be calculating carrying capacities and itemizing individual weights for carried objects. Time that would be better spent writing thread updates. If somebody tries to put a howitzer in their back pocket, just tell them no.

[gman8181]

Tsk Tsk BFL. I'd like to have the turn up tomorrow but I'm getting a little tired of running this game when I don't even think you guys are enjoying it.

I mean we only have three players at the moment and I still can't get everyone's actions.

[escaped lurker]

Well, it certainly is a bit puzzeling. The system is not complicated - for the players, at least ;p -, the story-parts are well-written as far as I am concerned, and the story in itself bears great promise, depending on how you play it, and what you want to achieve.

Way I see it, my best guess is that the later could actually be the problem - people finding a goal for themselves in such an "open game". But there actually already was a discussion about the exact topic, and people decided that they wanted to take "the plot" into their own hands back then... Thinking on it, the lack of PC-Rivalary could also be a factor - but people should have known that when signing up - with a whole planet for each race...


Edit@Xanatalos; Well, that's more or less what the mentioned discussion was about, with the players saying they would rather create their own....

[Xantalos]

That's kinda the issue with open world games - you may want to try to introduce at least some type of plat, maybe something related to the original game plot?

[gman8181]

Well regarding the plot...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I was considering an overreaching scenario of sorts involving a struggle between the three planetary governments and two different competing void lords that the players could get wrapped up in.

Unfortunately no one really got to the point where I could implement that without feeling like I was railroading or pushing too hard. Especially after asking everyone if they wanted that sort of thing before.

Regarding PC rivalry... well I wanted to give everyone some space to adjust to the game and grow in power a bit. That said, it's not really that hard to achieve interplanetary travel with proper use of Manipulation; a point I believe which was brought up before. Even that is sort of a moot argument though when you take into consideration that most of the players started on the same planet.

In my great vision, I sort of pictured this blossoming into a long term hybrid of smaller scale adventure roleplay with games like the Godhood type of thing where the players who have been around longer play out like gods and the others play ascendant type roles.

Eh, the dream is sort of crushed though. I suppose in truth, I essentially just created the type of forum game I'd like to play with mechanics I found interesting. Perhaps I just didn't accurately convey what I was running, though I did try to be flexible with it. There were a few points where I mentioned that it was my first attempt at doing a multiplayer thread RPG and that I was open to critique and suggestions. LordBucket was very helpful in that regard, even if I did get the impression he was deriving more frustration than fun out of my game .

[King DZA]

From what personal experience I've had with many open-world type games, I've deduced that it isn't always about doing away with rails altogether and leaving the player to create a path completely on their own, but rather, providing the player with a healthy selection of different sets of rails to choose from, and then allowing them the ability to violently swerve off of any one of those given rails and ride valiantly into the horizon should they so choose.

[LordBucket]

Tsk Tsk BFL. I'd like to have the turn up tomorrow but I'm getting a little tired of running this game when I don't even think you guys are enjoying it.

I mean we only have three players at the moment and I still can't get everyone's actions.

This is why I proposed a while back to simply post turn updates when you get turns and you're on, rather than enforcing synchronization. You have a couple players who are on daily, and generally get their turn submissions up within 24 hours of an update. And you have a couple flakes who only post turns sometimes, if you harass them.

By making everyone wait until everyone has submitted a turn...you're punishing the "good" and regular players, and making your own life more difficult because you have to constantly remind people to post. Also, like was mentioned before and demonstrated in my last turn...it's a bit of a problem if every player's turn has to take the same amount of time. Trisha apparently couldn't finish searching a room because that would have taken more time than the 2 minutes or whatever it was that other player's turns took up. That's frustrating for us, and it's not going to work. Like I mentioned when this last came up, what happens what somebody wants to make an interplanetary trip? Are you seriously going to have them just "sit out" for a dozen turns while other players have conversation-long turns?

I sort of pictured this blossoming into a long term hybrid of smaller scale adventure roleplay with games like the Godhood type of thing where the players who have been around longer play out like gods and the others play ascendant type roles.

I totally could become that...but you need to manage your players better. When 2-3 players are having to regularly wait days because of one slacker...that degrades the game for everybody. You don't want your "every day" players who are taking the game seriously to get bored because they're always waiting and having their turns truncated by the guy who posts one sentence once a week.

[gman8181]

Thanks for the advice everyone.

Yeah, your right LordBucket, it's just a little hard to muster up the energy to write posts when participation is so low. Granted I know some of you are really into it and active but still. *Shrug* You probably understand as a fellow forum game creator.

Turn will be up tomorrow night. I'm going to start letting in a couple more people to raise the count above four and start posting turns on a more frequent basis, regardless of whether or not all actions are in. Might even scrap the time system.

[gman8181]

Masters of Manipulation Turn

Spoiler: LordBucket (click to show/hide)

Name: Trisha
Appearance: Small, frail-looking girl with a perpetual cough. 5'2" 100 pounds, brown hair and eyes. Delicate.
Size: 5 feet 2 inches
HP: 20 + 1 = 21
Current HP: 9/21
Movement: 20 + 1 = 21
Encumbrance: 2
Protection: 0
Endurance: 1 (½)
Strength: 1 (½)
Speed: 2
Agility: 2
Dexterity: 2
Stealth: 3)
Perception: 2 (3/4)
Persuasion: 3 (4/6)
Manipulation: 3 (4/6)
Equipment: +1 grey shirt, +1 black pants
Inventory: 15 coppers
Followers: 3 devoted followers, 4 animated skeletons
Shack Inventory: 10 food items, 8 men’s commoner clothing outfits, 8 chairs, 2 beds, 2 tables, plates, silverware, 4 wooden logs

(Manipulation roll 15+3=18) (Manipulation roll 12+3=15) (Manipulation roll 16+3=19) (-8 health) Raw energy arcs out from your hands, hitting the skeletons and combating the magic that animates them. Within a few moments all of undead have been successfully dominated and now stand around you forming a protective guard while awaiting any simple orders you may wish to give. It’s really starting to become apparent to you why your teacher wasn’t a major power in the world. You go about checking the rest of the sarcophaguses to find that most are empty but ten of them still contain unanimated skeletons which could potentially be useful for later. Marching up to the altar with your retinue, you quickly understand where much of the funding your master had over the years went to. The gold base is welded to the altar but in itself isn’t that impressive. Any competent Manipulation practitioner could create or transmute gold if they had the time and energy. What is impressive though is the crystal orb. Just approaching the mysterious sphere, you feel powerful energies radiating out from it. As if sensing your presence, it begins to glow faintly and a voice calls out from it,
   “Hello mortal, a pleasure to make your acquaintance I’m sure. Don’t be nervous now, I won’t bite. Can’t bite really, I’m in another dimension.”
Expecting some sort of demonic deal, you’re temporarily unsure how to respond. Before you can the voice continues on.
   “Oh don’t worry, you don’t have to talk to me. It’s not like I’m sitting around on the other side here waiting for people to come communicate through orbs. The old man who owned this before made a few minor pacts with me for small little tokens but he wasn’t too interesting. Real small time guy. Anyway, no pressure to talk right now but feel free to come back later if you’re in the mood for some mutually beneficial business.”

Spoiler: Skeleton Stats (revised) (click to show/hide)

Name: Skeleton
Appearance: All bones
Size: ?
HP: 20 + 1 / 2bones = 11
Current HP: 11/11
Movement: 20 + 4 = 24 x 1.5bones = 36
Endurance: 0
Encumbrance: 0
Protection: 0
Strength: 0
Speed: 4
Agility: 2
Dexterity: 0
Stealth: 0
Perception: 0
Persuasion: 0
Manipulation:
Equipment: +2 Sword
Inventory:

Spoiler: escaped lurker (click to show/hide)

Name: Sahal Adnarei
Appearance: Even tallish for an Elv, Sahal sports (painfully cared for) silken skin in a bronze hue, skillfully braided (and not less cared for) auburn hair at buttocks length - most often accompanied by a diadem of some sorts - and deep-set eyes of limegreen coloration.
Size: 6 feet 4 inches
HP: 20+2= 22
Current HP: 22/22
Movement: 20+2= 22
Encumbrance: 2
Protection: 3
Endurance: 2
Strength: 2
Speed: 2
Agility: 2
Dexterity: 2
Stealth: 1
Perception: 2 (¼)
Persuasion: 2 (¼)
Manipulation: 1 (½)
Equipment: +2 (+ cold resistance) brown fur long coat, +1 fur underclothing
Inventory: 10 coppers
Followers: 8 burly men

The meat was poisoned. You bought it at a store meant for killing annoying strays. The dog jerks about for a bit before falling limply to the ground and you smile while setting to work. (Manipulation roll 20+1=21) Absorbing the dog’s essence into your own, your skin temporarily shifts rather unsettlingly before resetting with a beautiful new luster (Higher chance to get persuasion bonuses with those attracted to your gender). That completed, you set out to the extraction point to meet with your fellow patriots. The large transport shuttle hums vigorously as its boarding gear deploys neatly in front of you. You step aboard followed by your eight burly subordinates all armed with various deadly looking weapons, mostly melee but a few lightning arc blasters as well which should be nice. The last two smile broadly while lugging behind a large heavy looking crate with wheels. You’re unsure whether you should be happy that Sir Stahl took your suggestion so to heart or annoyed that in order to do so, he seems to have completely forgone subtlety.

While flying, you get to know your crew a bit. It seems they’re all very competent soldiers but with little tact when it comes to infiltration missions. Several of them have intimidating battle scars and all are ridiculously burly to the point of comedy. (Please don’t ask me to name them all haha, back stories for minions is too much work). One in particular seems a little more intelligent than the other brutes and you’re pleased to find he will be serving as your second in command. You’ll get to know him when you land.

The ship lands and you disembark, gazing around at the crummy looking district you’ve been assigned to. It’s larger than you were lead to believe but it really lacks culture. A frightening thought comes to you that there might not even be any good beautification shops in a place like this. A cold shiver runs down your spine. At least the boss set you up with a decent looking base of operations. Bedrooms for everyone and yours looks especially nice. There’s a main meeting room, a kitchen, two bathrooms and several other small areas that can be set aside for whatever. Also a large basement perfect for any ‘pet projects’ you may have.
“Sir, Major Amico reporting for duty.”
He passes you a small handheld cube.
   “That’s for communicating back to base. Seems like the better job we do stamping out the lowlifes, the better equipment we’ll get from HQ.”


Escaped Lurker: I rather stupidly forgot to tell you that something has to be willing or dead before you can perform a 'drain' Manipulation on it. To compensate, I made the meat poisoned . Next time though, if you were to try that, you would first need to kill the animal because animals are never 'willing' to be sacrificed unlike some devoted sentient followers.


Alright ladies and gents. Going to try and do more frequent updates regardless of whether all turns are in, so just do your best and I'll do mine.

Also I'm going to simplify things a little bit for my own sake and so I can spend more time writing updates and less on book keeping:

No more "weight" encumbrance. I'll probably be implementing a 'light', 'medium', 'heavy' type of system where 'light' has no penalties, 'medium' reduces speed and agility by 1/4 and 'heavy' by 1/2. The latter two will of course have much higher base protection attributes to compensate for that and if it's unbalanced, I'll change things. *Feedback appreciated as always.

No more time keeping. Might do more frequent posts for some players if they give less actions to perform in a turn just to keep things balanced but overall you should all be getting more updates so long as you keep providing actions.


Skeleton stats are getting cut down. Bones shouldn't have that much health.

[LordBucket]

Trisha

Expecting some sort of demonic deal, you’re temporarily unsure how to respond.

I actually did already specify how to deal with this if it came up.


 * Talk to the void creature. Be polite. Listen to what it has to say. Don't volunteer information, but answer truthfully if it asks questions. Inquire neutrally as to what sort of deals it can make.

 * Order the skeletons to remain here, unmoving. Allow noone but me to approach the altar, but otherwise, take no action.

 * Return upstairs, Replace the boards over the cellar.

 * Eat to heal (I think I'm at 9/21, not 17/21)

 * Wait for my disciplines to return

[techno65535]

Name: Maya Loewenthal, though originally Issac
Appearance: White hair, not even 5' tall, maybe 4'10"/4'11", very slight frame
Personality: Those in the community see her as something of an enigma, not talking about her past much or why she came to this planet in the first place. She's rather secretive but generally rather kind to those who do talk with her.
Back Story: Issac had been the son of a farmer in a smallish community, quietly going to school and helping his family when he could. However he was also frequently the target of bullying at his school. He wasn't small or weak or sickly, yet he also wasn't rich. His family did alright but that wasn't enough for the other students as he didn't attend regular public school. His grades had allowed him to enter a somewhat prestigious high school on a scholarship. The others who were there just because their parents had craptonnes (yes, that's the technical term) of money and could barely pass the classes with a C. The worst of these was Clyde Newmann who came from a very prominent manipulator family and he himself was quite gifted as well. He also had a jealousy streak a mile wide and couldn't stand that some bumpkin could do /anything/ better than he. So Clyde set a trap for Issac.

One day after school Issac came home to see his parents tied up and gagged in the kitchen and Clyde behind them holding a knife. Clyde stabbed both the moment Issac came through the door and at the same time his friends slew the family's cattle in the barn behind the house. Using all this energy Clyde turned Issac into a girl. A small, weak girl that he intended to 'put into her place'. Thankfully for Issac his father had believed in being prepared and kept a pistol near the front door. As Clyde approached she managed to get it out of the drawer and shot him in the knee. She was then able to flee the premises and evade his friends when they came to help. That night she slipped back into the house and gathered what belongings she could and what clothing would fit her now much smaller form and set out to learn manipulation and get her revenge. She managed to get on board a ship heading to the Dwarven planet where she found a quiet place to live and took on the name Maya. She then began to study between doing odd jobs until she felt ready to get her revenge. That was two years ago and now is the time to put the gears into motion for revenge

Starting Planet: Dwarven (since noone else has chosen it yet)

[escaped lurker]

"Well, then we better concentrate on the task at hand. Gathering closer information on the whole matter should come first, but I would prefer it to be done in a subtle manner. Let two of the men ask around in the bars, but at least half an hour away from here. Something along the lines of being travelers, or having come here looking for work and wanting to know what the trouble is that they should avoid in these parts. Actually, make that four of them, in two teams. The people here might be already farther astray than we thought, so they should be prepared to hear unpatriotic slander - and sadly to let it go for the moment. Else, I would like to know our inventory in detail..."

Pondering that they were quite unsubtle, it might be needed to do some of the work himself. Not to dismiss that these warriors should like the whole "Leading by Example"-kind-of-leading. Oh well, best to get this over with as soon as possible...

"... and thinking about it, you will accompany me to do the same. First-hand information is always best, as far as I am concerned. Having said all that - how is the morale of the men?"

One can never be prepared enough. Having a bodyguard of sorts certainly was a step into a direction that Sahal found positive. Quite so, even.


Send out 2 teams of 2, they are to listen in on the bar-talk, especially about what it is that pains this district - obviously posing as commoners.
Do the same with Major Amico in tow.
Inquire into the mens morale, and what that heavy-and-smile-worthy-crate holds.
Leave 2 men to unpack / set up / guard the base in the meantime.

(( I was under the misconception that living beings would be best, and that a kind of will-roll would settle the matter. So killing them, it is? Allright, understood and noted.  ))

[gman8181]

Masters of Manipulation Turn

Spoiler: LordBucket (click to show/hide)

Name: Trisha
Appearance: Small, frail-looking girl with a perpetual cough. 5'2" 100 pounds, brown hair and eyes. Delicate.
Size: 5 feet 2 inches
HP: 20 + 1 = 21
Current HP: 21/21
Movement: 20 + 1 = 21
Protection: 2
Encumbrance: light
Endurance: 1 (½)
Strength: 1 (½)
Speed: 2
Agility: 2
Dexterity: 2
Stealth: 3
Perception: 2 (3/4)
Persuasion: 3 (4/6)
Manipulation: 3 (4/6)
Equipment: +1 grey shirt, +1 black pants
Inventory: 15 coppers
Followers: 3 devoted followers, 4 animated skeletons
Shack Inventory: 8 food items, 8 men’s commoner clothing outfits, 8 chairs, 2 beds, 2 tables, plates, silverware, 4 wooden logs

   “Oh, I was honestly going to wait for you to come and offer me a deal. Normally mortals come and ask for something like a minor enchanted item or some void minions in return for sending me sacrifices. See, I’m strong so I can create little things from myself that you would normally need to kill a servant to get. So that means I can trade you things that don’t really cost me anything but time to heal. You get items for a little less sacrifice than you’d normally have to spend and I get some nice snacks to make myself even stronger. Of course if you’re more interested in employment opportunities, that’s a possibility too but first I’d like to get to know you a little better and see what you’re worth. For now let’s just keep it professionally business oriented.”

You leave the altar with your skeletons behind to guard it. Climbing back into the house, the boards are replaced and you go eat (-2 food item / +10 health) (Natural Healing + 5 health) and wait for your disciples to return.

It takes a while but eventually you see your male follower Zucht walking up the pathway with a rather intoxicated girl in tow. The two individuals are still a few minutes away from the door so now would be a great time to make any last minute preparations if you were so inclined.

Spoiler: escaped lurker (click to show/hide)

Name: Sahal Adnarei
Appearance: Even tallish for an Elv, Sahal sports (painfully cared for) silken skin in a bronze hue, skillfully braided (and not less cared for) auburn hair at buttocks length - most often accompanied by a diadem of some sorts - and deep-set eyes of limegreen coloration.
Size: 6 feet 4 inches
HP: 20+2= 22
Current HP: 22/22
Movement: 20+2= 22
Protection: 3
Encumbrance: light
Endurance: 2
Strength: 2
Speed: 2
Agility: 2
Dexterity: 2
Stealth: 1
Perception: 2 (2/4)
Persuasion: 2 (2/4)
Manipulation: 1 (½)
Equipment: +2 (+ cold resistance) brown fur long coat, +1 fur underclothing
Inventory: 10 coppers
Followers: 8 burly men

   “Morale is fine sir. All the men are right off break and in quite good spirits. It’s also a rather pleasant surprise to have private bedrooms. It’s been quite a while since that’s happened. Ah the box, yeah seems like the boss has given us an assassin droid to bring along. Nasty SOBs if I do say so myself. Not made for large scale conflict but great for taking out individuals when they’re alone. They get up real close and personal with these real sharp bladed arms and SLICE. Just like that.”

Two teams of two are sent out to perform undercover type work in the local bars. They seem a little too excited about the prospect but Major Amico assures you that they’re well trained enough to get the job done. You then head out with the Major yourself to another seedy looking bar in order to gather intel. Some men are left behind to unpack and you should be able to get a better idea of the team’s equipment upon returning.

The place smells of puke, alcohol and dead dreams. A man who looks like he’s trying to pull of the pirate look, watches you warily with his non patched eye as you walk through the door. (Persuasion roll 13+2=15) You nod cordially to the bar man as you get closer and he nods back. The Major buys a drink to fit in and the two of you casually sit down in a dark corner while listening intently to the conversations going on around you. (Perception 19+2=21) Almost too easy. Just a little bit away there is a small huddled group of people talking in just audible whispers.
   “We’ve just gained another shipment, plenty of melee weapons and armor.”
   “What about ranged weapons?”
   “Not as many as we need but things will just have to go along as planned anyway.”
   “So have they been moved to base yet?”
   “Not yet, we’ve got people unloading them from the port as we speak.”

((Freshly dead is best ))

Spoiler: techno65535 (click to show/hide)

Name: Maya Loewenthal aka Isaac
Appearance: White hair, not even 5' tall, maybe 4'10"/4'11", very slight frame
Size: 4 feet 11 inches
HP: 20 + 1
Current HP: 21
Movement: 20+2= 22
Protection:
Encumbrance: light
Endurance: 1
Strength: 1
Speed: 2
Agility: 2
Dexterity: 2
Stealth: 3
Perception: 2
Persuasion: 2
Manipulation: 1
Equipment: +1 short shirt, +1 shorts
Inventory: 20 coppers
Followers:

The old dwarf hands you a purse of coins and you thank him graciously.
   “You did a good job cleaning up the shop kid. Feel free to come back if you ever need more employment.”

Leaving the butcher shop you walk swiftly through bustling crowded tunnels, navigating back to the small little apartment you call your own. Rent is cheap but it would be nice to have a place of your own some time in the future. You’ve been practicing Manipulation in here, trying to complete your education through self teaching and after a long time of struggle it’s really paid off. You can actually perform Manipulations with a fair degree of competency now and you feel yourself getting better with every day you utilize your skills. Very soon you’ll be ready. The people responsible for what happened to you will pay the ultimate price for their actions.

[LordBucket]

Trisha

now would be a great time to make any last minute preparations if you were so inclined.

No, just stick to the plan.

When they come in, greet them casually. Play along with whatever charade Zucht is using. Talk to the girl and try to get useful information from her. Regardless of the result, kill her, drain her, and use the energy to give myself permanent nightvision, preferably with no visible sign of the alteration. Loot her clothes, take her money, clean up the mess.

If all goes well, congratulate Zucht on a job well done and give him some downtime. Advise him to avoid going into the basement because there's stuff down there that might kill him if he's not careful. Take 2hp from Zucht and invest it in making him more physically attractive. Smooth out his face and tan, remove moles or scars, etc. If you've ever seen a makeup: before and after that's basically what I'm going for. Alter his basic coloration and look so that he look like he's just stepped out of a beauty salon even when he's just getting out of bed.

If there's leftover from the girl I drained, give myself the same treatment.

Wait for the next disciple to come back.