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Blade Bind -

TheCorsair

TheCorsair

Fruit Bat Vampire
Joined
Dec 17, 2013
Cowards and faint-hearted runaways
Look for orations when the foe is near:
our swords shall play the orators for us."
--Christopher Marlowe, Tamberlane the Great​

You are one of the Blade-Bound, bearers of ancient swords of incredible power. No force on Earth can stand against you, except one of your own. You possess the strength of will and the strength of arms to reshape nations, to change destinies, to save or rule the world.

You are one of the Blade-Bound. Others bear Blades of power as well. They seek their own goals, pursue their own agendas. They are an unearthly force, and they can stand against you.

Your Blade is an ancient thing of incredible power. It whispers to you in your dreams, pleading and demanding that you obey. As long as you possess the strength of will to bind it, however, it will do your bidding.


So this is based on an indie RPG I encountered recently (quick start rules available for free here). I'm looking for four to five more players, who'd like to try and build a world and then tear it down or rule it or both.

If you're interested, check out the character sheet and then grab a deck of cards with the jokers. Deal yourself two cards, and post them here to determine what your concept and knot will be. Also, post a couple of ideas about what sort of setting you think would be cool: historical fantasy? Modern? Science fiction? Feel free to include an element that is non-negotiable, but that can be tweaked to fit the consensus setting.

Here's a quick rundown of the character sheet:

Name & description: Kind of self explanatory, right? You might want to hold off until you find out what your concept is, though.

Will: This is a measure of your ability to control your Blade. As long as it's equal to or greater than your Blade's power, you're in charge. If the Blade grows more powerful, though, you become a puppet of the Blade. Your Will is strengthened by protecting and strengthening your Threads, and weakens if they are successfully attacked.

Blade: The Blade you control, and that seeks your submission.
Enmity: The Blade your Blade hates.
Power: This always starts at 2. You can freely increase it at the start of a duel with another Blade-Bound, and must increase it if dueling your Blade's Enmity.
Resonance: This starts at 0, and represents the fuel you can use for your blade's special attacks. Your maximum Resonance is equal to your Power.

Relationships: This is how you relate to each of the other Blade-Bound in the game. You know each other already. Oh, yes you do.

Concept: This is who you were, before you found your Blade. Even now, it shapes who you still are.

Knot: This is the thing that you find to be most worth fighting for. An ideal, a person, a treasure.

Threads: These are your goals, and the things that build your Will. As you succeed at them, they grow stronger. If they are destroyed, you become weaker. Loose too many, and you could lose your soul.

You'll be creating three, to start with. One should always be "I will protect my knot". The others have a three part structure:
1. "I will", "Nobody will," or "A specific Blade-Bound will".
2. "Destroy", "Defeat", "Control". Other words can be used here, of course.
3. Someone else's knot, or another Blade-Bound.
 
As a demonstration, I'll draw my two cards for my character: seven of spades, and king of hearts. That makes my concept a selfish or co-dependent callous teacher, and my knot is a government department. And for extra fun, I'll randomize my gender. I'm... female.

More details will come as the world gets fleshed out!

For my setting ideas, I suggest that we play in a contemporary setting that has an ancient war raging for control of these Blades. Lots of opportunity for sword-based magics to be unleashed in urban areas as these ancient weapons vie amongst one another for dominance over the Earth. My non-negotiable detail is that my character is the head of a multi-national task force designed to police the Blade-Bound, attempting to kill or control them. She currently keeps her possession of one of the Blades a secret, but uses her knowledge of the weapons to train her subordinates on ways the Blade-Bound could (theoretically) be defeated. She's a good technical instructor and administrator, but has no concern for the lives of her agency. They are all pawns in her game.

Yes, this agency could utterly bite her if her Knot is lost. Potentially self-destructive behavior is half the fun!
 
Zeth said:
This game uses cards. How are you going to do that on the forum?
Click to expand...

That's a good question. My plan - such as it is - is to PM people their hands when a duel breaks out.
 
Well you can mark me down as interested. I just dueled Xanaphia in roll20 using this system and lost. My cat boy must be avenged!
 
Zeth and I tested this out in Roll 20 and it was a lot of fun in realtime! Definitely stealing the system for use at a later date. I think there is potential over forums, but it could get bogged down as well. At least I am here to see how it plays out.

I drew the Ace of Spades and the Jack of Hearts
 
Ace of Spades gives you the following concept: a violent, volatile, antagonistic ascetic.

Jack of Hearts means your knot is a leader or visionary.
 
Zeth, your concept is a protective, fond, or supportive student. Your knot is a ship or other large vehicle.

Dancrilis, your concept is a professiona, detatched, or civil lover. Your knot is a mentor or teacher.

I think four people will beenough for this game, so niw for the fun part! Your Blades!

I've got Buluc Chabtah, a Blade resembling an Aztec macuahuitl (a wooden sword with obsidian teeth). It hates Templar.
Xanaphia has Set, a Blade resembling an Egyptian khopesh. It hates Vargr.
Zeth has Templar, a Blade resembling a European broadsword. It hates Set.
Dancrilis has Vargr, a Blade resembling a jagged bat wing. It hates Buluc Chabtah.

With 4 players, we each have a base Will of 3.

Now, we need to work out the setting. I was proposing something set in the modern age, with shadowy occult conspiracies and the like. What does everyone else want?
 
Are you thinking our modern age (real countries etc) or thinking a world that is technologically equivalent but different?

I was thinking of city states and no real countries and much of history unknown (from the war you mentioned about control of these Blades), so some unknown wonders (possibly even the blades) could be ancient forgotten technology from before the war or actual magic (a debatable distinction).
This might allow us to enter new items with ease - if we decide on discovering a race or Dwarves there could be some questions, are they genetic mutations from baseline humans? a race brought over from a different plane of existance? do even they know where they came from? does it matter? etc.

For character I am thinking an assassin formerly in the service of your multi-national task force (which I would see as fairly secretive and backed by unknown powerful interests rather then an open force) - before she turned on them after she gained her blade (she saw them as betraying her - the force likely disagrees on who betrayed who).
 
I was thinking of our modern age as a start, but your near-future "maybe Earth, maybe not" sounds cool as well. And your expanded character concept sounds pretty cool. Any thoughts on who your know is, yet?
 
Just posting up a character sheet which I think covers that somewhat.

Thinking my element to include would be that extraplaner creatures are very rare, can only manifest briefly (normally to strike bargains of some kind after being summoned,or in odd cases to offer one without being summoned) and whose thought patterns are not really comparable to plane bound creatures (a entity that likes fear might make you fearsome or expose you to terrors and it might think it is doing you a favour either way).
 
I approve of the setting ideas put forth so far. Vaguely modern, vaguely magical.

My character is going to be a fanatical worshiper of a cult religion. She is devout, and believes that the appearance of her bound blade is a sign from her God to convert to cut down nonbelievers. She also believes the the voice of God speaks through her blade, commanding obedience and surrender to the teachings of the cult leader (her knot). Currently, she is his top lieutenant, leading violent crusades to amass new adherents to their faith. He has charged her with acquiring more blades to the cause, or converting those who are already bound by blades.

I was thinking vaguely Christian, as a basis for this cult. More or less drawing on Old Testament brutality. Which makes me disappointed I didn't get Templar.

The Blades:
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(Are we using the resonance powers?)
 
Awesome! Thanks for finding those pictures!

And, yeah. We'll be using the resonance powers. I just hadn't written them up for everyone yet.
 
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