PremiseYou find yourselves on a huge planet called Elins. Your year and day are almost equal, and which is thus turned to its Sun the same side.
In the Age of Unneeded Tears, a huge wall was built to separate the light part from the shadow part. However, since then the planet has turned significantly, and part of the lands behind the Wall had thawed. It's up to you to find what lurks there...
Playing by vote, with 4 characters generated initially. Example statistics and backgrounds are provided down below.
Each character starts with 2 Potential points, which may be spent to increase any of the numerical statistic by one or improve a knowledge of a specific school of art, war, or magic. The race chosen also influences your (basic and hidden) numerical statistics.
Your Health starts at 6. Incoming damage reduces your health. At exactly 0 Health, you are knocked unconscious and cannot act, but any passive special effects you have remain in place, including spells. At negative health, you die.
Your Spirit starts at 6. You spend Spirit on special attacks or to reduce incoming damage. Your Spirit cannot go below 0, and being at 1 or 0 Spirit leaves you Exhausted, reducing your physical damage twofold, rounding down.
Your Fury starts at 0. Each point of Fury increases any non-random damage you do (if any) by one. High Fury tends to make you narrow-sighted, reducing the number of opportunities you're able to see.
Your Agility starts at 0. Each point of Agility allows you to reduce incoming damage rolls by 1 at the cost of 1 Spirit. No damage roll can be reduced to less than 1 in this way. Should an attack have multiple rolls at once, this reduction applies to all of them at no additional cost. High Agility tends to make you easy-going, less abiding to keeping your promises.
Your Will starts at 0. Each point of Will reduces the Spirit cost of most abilities by 1, but not below 1. High Will tends to make you mentally resilient, but stubborn.
Your Shenanigans start at 0. Each poitn of Shenanigans increase maximal values of most rolls in the game by 1 (2 for damage rolls). High Shenanigans tend to make you search for the causes of your successes and failures not within you, but elsewhere.
Other numerical statistics may emerge at the course of the game (or if you manage to guess some and justify them for the character generated), but they're secret now.
A Title is an unique passive ability that provides some sort of bonus to a character. Each title can be either Small, Significant or Stunning. You can only start with a Small title, unless your background allows you more. You earn title levels by greater deeds throughout the game, as well as gain new ones, but you may have only one active at any given time.
All abilities are divided in Schools. The schools you're familiar with are provided by your background. Each school has several abilities (either special attacks, spells, or passive effects) and an associated statistic. Each time you increase said statistic permanently, you increase your School level and may choose to either learn a new ability with starting level not exceeding your school level or to boost an existing ability.
You may learn one level 1 ability from each of your starting schools. The exception is an Adventurer background.
Each time you learn an ability, you can choose to learn one at random.
Example schools include: Combat Proficiency, Critical Thinking, Primary Magic, Chaos Magic, Blood Rites, Artificing, Ley Walking, and others.
Example backgrounds include:
Adventurer. You are apt with worldly knowledge, picking up tricks here and there. You may learn one ability without knowing its School or meeting its requirements, but no schools.
Archeologist. You were delegated to investigate the site by one of the big cities' universities. You gain access to one Superb piece of equipment, Critical Thinking school, and gain +1 Will.
Thaumaturge. You spend life in crafting intricate enchantments from golden threads -- or mayhaps weave ether lines to wreak chaos upon those who oppose you. You can learn either Artificing or Primary Magic school, and another magic school of your choice.
Militia. You volunteered to keep the border safe, and are proficient in combat. You gain Combat Proficiency school and +1 damage to ordinary attacks.
The prevalent race of the planet is called Va'er, that sport average health and a natural attunement to luck (+1 Shenanigans). They are naturally slender yet short and sturdy to withstand the planet's windy landscape.
The frequent guests, visiting through intra-dimensional portals, and long-established trade partners are Mieta, one of the herbivores' races inhabiting their resource-scarse planet. Though not skilled in combat (-2 Health), their philosophy of self-restriction and natural patience allows them to have mental capacity beyond usual (+4 Spirit). Their skin is usually fair, and their eyes are somewhat weak.
The less-frequent guests, mostly tourists and world-travellers, are Humans, hardened by huge competition in their home world to be resilient beyond reason. (+2 Health, isn't knocked out at 0 Health). They are a bit more agile on average than other races.
Author
Topic: Dark Flame [mostly-text suggestion game, dungeon crawl] (Read 12240 times)