Thread: Let's give a Fantasy RPG another shot, shall we...

I miss the days when this forum was full of great RPG's, and based on some posts from earlier this year I'm not the only one. However, most of the more recent RPG attempts have ended up dying off, often due to simply not really getting off the ground in the first place.

As a result, I decided that - for a change - I'd try and start an RPG that was near ready to go. I've got a story pretty much planned, and I'm putting together some worldbuilding notes to post so that we have a decent world to work in. As people express interest, I'll post the worldbuilding stuff - if I've got enough prospective players, I'd like to have the profile thread up by the end of next week, and the actual RPG started within another week or two after that.

A rough outline for what I'm planning is to set it in a fairly standard medieval fantasy world, so that means your usual warrior, assassin, archer, mage, etc type classes are all options. It will be in the midst of a civil war, and the characters stuck in the middle; my goal is morally muddy, so no perfect King and evil rebellion or vice versa. Hopefully there will be plenty of reasons for characters to decide to switch sides - my plan is to provide the opportunities The characters will be able to start on either side, but they will come together for at least a little while early on, and things will move from there.

As for rules, the standard written RPG convention of no god-modding stands firm (the hand of the GM will not refrain from striking down Mary Sues after a warning has first been given). I'd like each player to run two characters; more chance of having people end up on opposing sides of themselves I'll aim to update once or twice a fortnight, depending how the story is going, so hopefully it won't get bogged down like a few of the rather unfortunate recent RPG attempts (may they R.I.P).

If there are any questions or suggestions, feel free to post them here - I'm not so set in my plan that I'm not open to change. If you're interested in taking part, post as well; that way I know I'm not planning something that's never going to go ahead.

And finally, to try and capture the interest of people like myself, for whom a little detail is never enough, I've prepared an in-world document about the system of magic you will be dealing with should you decide to join. A later document will explain a bit more about who is writing this
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Extract from ‘The Greatest Threat’:
Magic and the School:

Magic is a threat to all those who follow the teachings of the Almighty Shepherd. The danger it presents is clear to any who studies the history of this land; tyrant mages caused great suffering to our ancestors. While the School can claim it was they who displaced the tyrants, the observant scholar (if you, dear reader, will pardon the pun) can see that this was hardly a benevolent act. The new governments of the people that rose from the ashes of the tyrants’ reigns were inextricably bound to the power of the Schools; in truth the reign of the tyrants never truly ended, merely continuing under a friendlier guise.

It must always be remembered that it was mages who founded the Schools. Written history paints them in a favourable light; after all, did they not spread the knowledge of magic to all so that the powerful mages gifted their power by some freak of nature could not rule the masses? In recording their own history, these mages chose the name ‘scholars’ for they and their students; a pitiful attempt to distance them from the ‘mages’ they fought. Most modern ‘scholars’ take great offence to being referred to what they truly are; users of magic who are, by definition, mages. In the unfortunate situation where it is necessary to remain on civil terms with a mage, however, this perceived distinction should be remembered.

After the fall of the tyrants, the School established itself as the ‘great benefactor’, teaching magic to all those who would seek to learn it. They studied their power, learning how it was that the old mages had come to become as mighty as they had. Rituals were documented that would allow any mortal to acquire magical power - although, of course, these were kept strictly within the inner circles of the School, never to be made public. Despite this secrecy, the School claimed to be working ‘in the best interests of the people’.

The School itself established six great structures throughout the land, each one named after one of the magical aspects they so strongly revered: Life, Death, Mind, Body, Spirit and Soul. Cities grew around them, each becoming the centre of government of one of the budding territories of the land. While the School became so powerfully linked with the government, they still claimed neutrality; it is almost inexplicable that their ruse was not exposed more quickly. The School was centred upon the School of Life, and it was the surrounding city in which the territorial rulers began to meet to discuss matters which concerned the land as a whole. No sane man could call this merely a coincidence.

These were dark days for the land, a continuation of the reign of the tyrants. However, out of the darkness came the First Shepherd, who brought the teaching of the Baashep to the people. He cast light upon the insidious workings of the School, and the people rose up against their evil. He found a blessed King amongst the commoners, and the Kingdom of Haladree was born. But despite the great light coming upon the land, the darkness retained power of its own. Those who did not trust in the wisdom of the Baashep defended the School, and not all of the government were able to be purged of its influence. However, the darkest of their studies - Life and Death - were made illegal, with all related documents destroyed so that this evil would never return to the world. Holy warriors even razed the School of Death, destroying the namesake of the most heinous of magical arts. The weakness of darkness was made clear in these days, for the Schools seemingly surrendered these powers without struggle. Perhaps the power of the Great Shepherd guided the men of the time with his loving hand.

The School that survived this era is much the same as that which exists today. Each School takes any recruit willing to taint themselves, luring in the poor and weak by offering their teachings for free. Few take up the offer, for they are either educated in the darkness that is contained within the School, or they have heard of the worldly dangers faced by those who learn the magical arts. Mages, as a result of their small number, command great prices for their services. It is a voluntary contribution that nearly all of these incredibly wealthy mages make back to the School that funds free education for the next corrupt generation.

Within each School, there are Students, Teachers and Learners. Students are new recruits, yet to undergo whatever the arcane ritual the School uses to convey full magical power. Prior to this ritual, a Student has limited ability in all fields of magic; afterwards they take on one field for life. Teachers are those who pass on the knowledge within the Schools, and spend their spare time studying magic and expanding the great School libraries. Learners are those who have been given their power, and specialised in a particular field of magic, but have not become Teachers. Learners are also known to travel, and gain employment in well paid positions outside of the Schools.

In order for the faithful to be aware of the magical threats they must face, I have prepared a summary of the magical arts taught in by the current day School:

Mind:
Mages of the Mind manipulate perceptions of the world, and are unique in their ability to restrict the magical powers of other mages. Ironically, they can make the night turn to day in the minds of their allies; more befitting of their kind is the ability to bring darkness into the vision of their foes. Powerful mages of the Mind can see events far beyond the place in which their physical form dwells, although the greater the distance they travel, the more draining it becomes. As well as travelling spatially, the most dangerous students of the Mind can see into the past. These mages have been known to be employed by those judges who lack the purity of mind to consider true evidence when crimes have occurred, preferring to place the fate of the trial in the hands of a corrupt mage.

Mages of the Mind draw their power from the Body, physically weakening themselves in order to perform their dark art. When they overextend themselves, they risk being crippled or losing a limb. It is said that the School maintains a hidden prison where poor souls who have delved too deeply into magic and suffered the consequences are kept from the public eye. When caught in battle, mages of the Mind will fatigue quickly, and be easily overpowered by physical force. In order to combat this, most mages who study in this field will strive for physical perfection, becoming perfect specimens of strength and athleticism. They are often competitive, for the power of a mage of the Mind is judged largely by their performance in challenges of strength, speed and agility.

Body:
Mages of the Body wield control over the human form; crippling foes, augmenting the physical attributes of their allies and healing are all within their grasp. Most mages of the Body find themselves employed as healers, restoring common diseases and wounds through their power, completely ignorant of the darkness that lies within the hearts of those who the Almighty Shepherd does not protect from the ravages of disease. When called to combat, mages of the Body are almost unique amongst magic users in their tendency to join a melee, for they will strengthen themselves beyond the capacity of any mortal and cleave through bone as though it was merely air. It is not unknown for them to first immobilise their foes, inflicting crippling injuries through their power.

Mages of the Body source their power from the Mind, creeping closer towards insanity with every spell they cast. When they try to go beyond their power, they destroy their own mind, leaving behind a shell where there was previously a human being. As they tire, mages of the Body become increasingly irrational, acquiring berserker tendencies when they are pushed to their limits. It is not unknown for them to turn upon their allies at the conclusion of a battle, when they can longer distinguish between friend and foe. A tired healer is likely to promote growth beyond the normal constraints of the border, generating abnormalities and cancers in their ‘patient’. In order to mitigate the damage caused by their powers, mages of the Body study pursuits of the Mind relentlessly, becoming the greatest of academics, unsurpassed in knowledge and wisdom.

Soul:
Mages of the Soul control forces beyond this world. They commune with ethereal beings, and bring them into contact with the corporeal world. These creatures cannot touch living flesh, but have can assault the minds of men, driving them into insanity or simply toying with their emotions. Alternatively, they can interact with inanimate objects, allowing the mage to seemingly move items with little more than a thought. In battle, they will turn their foes against each other by toying with their minds, and launch projectiles into the midst of an enemy army. The greatest of the mages of the Soul are known to practice ethereal travel, allowing themselves to be taken by ethereal creatures into their own realm, and return to the corporeal far from where they left.

Mages of the Soul receive their power from the Spirit, and as such become overwhelmed by fear as their courage drains away while casting magic. An exhausted Soul practitioner will flee a battle at all costs, even striking allies if they impede the path to safety. Where a mage of the Soul has attempted magic that is beyond their skill, they are left as paranoid wrecks, fearing that even their toes could betray them at any time. To prepare for this, mages of the Soul are almost invariably reckless, and delight in placing themselves in harms way. No risk gives them pause, often leading them into situations where they require the rather urgent attention of a mage of the Body skilled in healing.

Spirit:
Mages of the Spirit call upon their spirit within, and the elemental spirits around them, in order to acquire power over the natural world. Each human is born with an elemental spirit trapped inside them - the First Shepherd taught that it is this spirit that calls us to the ways of the world, and away from the Almighty Shepherd. Instead of righteously fighting this spirit, mages of the Spirit surround themselves in its power. Each of these spirits controls one of the natural elements - earth, fire, air and water - and as such each Spirit mage will have control over one of the four. They are the most obviously powerful on the battlefield, calling upon their powers to lay waste to their enemies.

Mages of the Spirit derive their power from the Soul. They gradually lose the ability to empathise as they weary; friendly fire is not unexpected when a mage of the Spirit begins to tire and ceases to care who is friend and who is foe, as long as any immediate threat is defeated. As a result, they live a life devoted to helping others, and learning to empathise as strongly as is humanly possibly. They delight in the arts, a field which allows them to spread great joy. Mages of the Spirit are an example of why mages are such a threat; they will befriend almost anyone, and yet turn on them as a result of their corrupt powers.

Thankfully, mages of Life and Death no longer exist. They differed from the other four in that they drew their powers from others, and had an almost unlimited capacity to manipulate the world around them. Mages of Death fed on Life, sacrificing others in order to fuel their dark magic. More perversely, mages of Life drew their power from Death, resurrecting the recently dead to power their spells. It was not unusual for a mage of Life to have one or several close companions travelling with them, who were killed and resurrected as required by the mage. It is possible for other mages to draw their power from sacrifices, but these occasions result in lasting spells that are far more difficult to control. They are almost never used, except by senior mages enchanting objects for one reason or another. Unlike mages of Life and Death, these sacrifices may be animal, and as such are not expressly disallowed by law.

One other type of magical abomination to be noted is the mages who study duel specialisations. Even amongst the so called ‘scholars’, these creatures are referred to as mages, for they have much in common with the original tyrant mages. By undergoing the power transferral ritual a second time, in a second field, they transform into a creature that ceases to be human. They sacrifice everything that feeds their power, and in return receive a limitless supply of magic and immortality. Very few go down this path; fewer still survive the ritual. Those that do live an all powerful life, but at a cost; they suffer constant pain as a result of their loss. A Mind-Spirit mage, for example, would be permanently crippled, and lack all ability to empathise. Bear in mind that Mind mages emphasis their strength above all else, and that Spirit mages live for others; this makes such a transformation unpalatable to all but the most power hungry of mages - perhaps a sign that the Schools are, thankfully, not quite as corrupt as they could be.

I'm in as always Tsaeb

Delicious. Absolutely delicious. Now this is why I came back to this site. An RPG with purpose, with a plot full of the twisted layers of humanity and suffering.

I am so in.

Count me in

Nice to have you aboard, Renos, Nefie and Mystique. Judging by the number of members so far, I think the end of week profile thread was a little optimistic. However, as promised, some more info about the world in which the RPG will take place - the first entry is just general info, and not all that necessary, but the second piece may be of character building interest.

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An extract from ‘A Foreign Noble’s Guide to the Kingdom of Haladree’:
On the Poler calendar:

The current calendar in use in the kingdom is that of Shepherd Poleiac the Ignorant, known as the Poler calendar. It was implemented in YF 169, which coincides with the coronation of King Halad I. The Poler calendar records those dates beginning from the day in which the first Schools of magic overthrew the last of the tyrant mages, Year of Freedom (YF) 1. Note that this means that the construction ‘the year YF 1’ used by many commoners is incorrect; ‘the YF 1’ is the correct form.

Each year consists of 365 days, broken up into six months and the Week of Rejoicing. The six months are named after the elements of nature; Lightal, Earthas, Airos, Firal, Watan and Darnal, and each consist of ten weeks. A week consists of six days - Lifday, Bodday, Minday, Souday, Spiday and Deaday - named after the aspects of magic studied in the Schools of the time.

The one exception this is the Week of Rejoicing. This is the first week of each year, and does not include Deaday. It is celebrated as a festival across the entire kingdom, and commemorates the defeat of the tyrant mages. Every fourth year, Deaday is included in this week, and is recognised as a day of remembrance for all those who have died in combat defending the kingdom throughout its history. The first such day is recorded to have occurred in the YF 172.

Years preceding YF are notated as RT, or Remaining years of Tyranny. The year immediately prior to YF 1 is RT 0, with the year prior to RT 0 being RT 1, etc.

There are many calendars that preceded the Poler calendar, with most regions having at least one older model in use up until YF 169. The only one of these that was consistently defined was the School calendar, in which ES (era of the Schools) 1 was the year of foundation of the first School. This corresponds the year RT 64 in the Poler calendar. Previous years were referred to as BS, or Before the Schools. The year 1 BS corresponds to the year RT 65, with the year 2 BS being the year RT 66. The School calendar also had 365 days to a year, allowing for a year to year comparison with the Poler calendar; given that it is not longer in use, most readers will not require an intimate knowledge of School calendar unless they are conducting detailed research into the history of the conflict between the mages and the Schools.

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Extract from ‘The Cultures of Haladree’:
The Wolvwern:

Little is known of the people of Hekatre Forest. It is an autonomous region, known to have governed itself since before the Schools existed. There are no records of why the tyrant mages did not seize control of this territory, although some lesser scholars would suggest it is because they possessed magic beyond that of the tyrants. The preferred explanation is that a mage opposed to the tyrants governed the territory during the reign of the tyrants, and possibly still reigns there to this day.

On rare occasions, inhabitants of the forest have ventured into the King’s lands, although they have always refused to speak of their homeland. Common folk treat them with suspicion, but they would seem to be a wealthy people, and for this the merchants welcome them and the authorities tolerate them. They refer to themselves as the Wolvwern, and, during the day, wear clothing which leaves no skin exposed. Those few who have become close to one of the Wolvwern note that on the day following the new moon, they are nowhere to be found.

It would seem that the Wolvwern treat those who intrude upon their territory ruthlessly; no traveller has ever returned from a journey into Hekatre Forest. There has only been one known instance of someone returning from the forest; in the YF 569, a raiding party entered the forest in pursuit of Shepherd Alacane the Corrupt, who had travelled there 23 years earlier to spread the Baashep. Fearing the loss of their first Tainted Shepherd since the formation of the Flock, the locals entered the forest, destroying a Wolvwern settlement. They found the possessions of many travellers stored away, including those of their Shepherd. Subsequently, they returned to their village to mourn the death of their Shepherd, believing that he was yet another victim of the forest’s inhabitants.

Among the Shepherd’s possessions were fragments of a diary, the only known writings from someone that has lived among the Wolvwern. They are reproduced below:

Lifday, 1 Lightal, YF 546
The week of celebration has ended, and I now set out to do the work of the Almighty Shepherd. I fear the task at hand - Hekatre Forest hardly has a welcoming reputation - but the Baashep must be spread to all of the scattered, lest the Flock remain lost to their Almighty Shepherd. I have little time to spare, for I must leave while conditions are favourable, and I pray that I will live long enough to write of a new Flock amongst the trees of Hekatre.

Minday, 3 Lightal, YF 546
I have made camp on the outskirts of Hekatre Forest; tomorrow I enter the territory which I have heard spoken of in whispered voices since my childhood. I know that I am being watched, but it seems that I am safe for the moment.

Spiday, 5 Lightal, YF 546
My work will seemingly be far more difficult than I had first imagined. While the natives - who refer to themselves as the ‘Wolvwern’, have not shown any malice towards me, they worship a heathen god almost without exception. At least among our lands, it is merely ignorance that the Flock must combat; here misinformation is rife. As far as I have been able to gather they worship the moon, and associate it with a god in the image of a wolf named Wolvwirren. Their entire culture is built around worship and ceremonies; they do not seem to even distinguish between priests and lords, for they are one and the same. I fear that to begin preaching the Baashep casually would cost me my life; such is their reverence of this Wolvwirren. For now, at least, I must appear to assimilate into their culture, in the hope of learning how best to show these heathens the errors of their ways.

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It has been a long time since I have written. The heathens come for us now; they will arrive any moment. I do not even know what date it is, but I fear that whatever the day is, it shall be my last. We set ourselves apart from the heathens so that they would not corrupt us with their ways, and that we would not have to fight them. Despite this, they would destroy us in their ignorance. We shall fight for survival, but I hold no illusions as to the result of the battle. Let it be known that it was the heathens that destroyed us, and let revenge be taken.

It would seem that the Shepherd's last words were honoured by his kin; all of the inhabitants of the village in which he dwelled were slaughtered. In fear of retribution, however, no man has since set foot in Hekatre Forest, and the Wolvwern remain largely a mystery.

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Note that the Wolvwern are intended to be playable, but none of the non-Wolvwen should know much - if anything - about them beyond this entry. If anyone would like to play a Wolvwern character, I'll have a supplementary document prepared to send via PM so that their character actually knows a little bit about their own culture. Feel free to ask for it if you're interested

It's good to see that you're being very thorough Tsaeb, though I would like to ask more of you with a pm

No problem Nefie. As it stands, I'm probably running the risk of being too throrough and not getting the RPG off the ground at all rather than not being thorough enough. As an aside, if anyone can come up with 6 decent names for territories/the inhabitants of said territories, it would be rather helpful. Naming things is not my strongest point, and I hadn't planned on going quite so in depth as creating a naming conlag just for the RPG.

Harimth - The Harim
Skolak - Skolmund
Only got two I'm afraid. Also, you're not being too thorough zabe

*bounces* Is excited will read after exams are finished.

not so sure if this is a good time to do it. Doesn't seem like hardly anyone is on these forums anymore. I had asked a question several days ago about a resume to be sent in with a query and it still hasn't been answered, but you can clearly see my thread on the front page so it didn't get trounced by a lot of other people's threads.

Hi all,

Just letting you know that I probably won't be able to get internet access for the next few days, so lack of activity here is not a sign of creator neglect, just inability to post.

Tsaeb I'm dying to join this if you'll have me?

Ly, you may have just saved this RPG from being put on the backburner for a few months - based on the numbers I had, I was going to put this one away 'til my summer break (not as bad as you Northern Hemisphere folk would think it sounds, given that I'm an Aussie). However, with you on board, I think I might trying getting it going in the next fortnight or so. Glad to have you

Pleasure's all mine Tsaeb
Thanks dude

I may also be able to rope short tooth into joining as well if ya want?
I'm not sure but he might be up for it?