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Dungeon of Bad Ends (Homebrew System)

You can pm me or post it here. I'll need to approve it before it goes into the profile thread.

General reminder that site rules require that character profiles include age
 
Alright, so we have a profile thread here, with two completed profiles and one that's nearly complete. As I said, you can PM your character sheets to me for review, or if you want you can post them here for more general discussion.

So, I'm going to try to start up the RP thread this weekend--but that doesn't mean you need your character perfectly sorted out by then. We'll start in the safe haven, and you'll have a little time for the characters to get to know each other before heading into the dungeon. The absolute latest I want to start the dungeon, though, is next Friday (ie, May 11). We might start it earlier if everyone's got their character built and everyone is satisfied with the save haven stuff, that's just sort of a deadline.

Somebody asked for more details on the setting and story, to help flesh out their character. I want to give you guys as much freedom as I can to come up with characters and backstories that interest you, but I know I often benefit from some structure to work off of, so here's what I've got:

--The basic plot is that a holy city, formerly devoted to a goddess of justice and beauty, has been overrun by devotees of a god of madness and desire. They've perverted the altars and artifacts that once spread the goddess' blessings so that their god's corruption can spread throughout the land. Each harvest yields less than the year before, and people and animals are slowly losing their minds. Some are enthralled by the corrupted city and go into it to serve the dark god; on top of that, the priests send out raiding parties, taking food and captives from nearby settlements. And while the people living closest to the city get the worst of it, the corruption is spreading little by little and more distant territories are starting to feel its effects.

--Your overarching goal will be to purify as much of the city as you can, by fighting your way to altars and offering prayers/sacrifices there. Eventually you may be able to makes your way to the high temple at the heart of the city and break the dark god's influence on your world. Even if you don't manage that, though, purifying as much as you can will push back against the corruption, slowing or even reversing its spread for a while. If nothing else, you'll be buying time against the ruin of the world.

--The overall aesthetic, at least for the holy city and the neighboring territories, is gonna be as much "gothic horror" as it is "high fantasy." Darkest Dungeon has been mentioned several times; I might also suggest Castlevania or Ravenloft as reference ideas if you're familiar with those. You will be seeing your share of common fantasy enemies, orcs and goblins and such, but much like their human counterparts they'll be corrupted by the dark god's influence--although maybe they didn't have as far to fall in the first place.

--Your character doesn't have to be from the immediate vicinity; for the most part, feel free to make up the details of their civilization and culture.

--I say "for the most part" because there is something a lot of fantasy settings do that irks me and which I would like to avoid, which is where each race lives mostly isolated from all others, and has their own consistent culture across the entire species (except for humans). Like, by all means make a civilization that is almost exclusively populated by dwarves, but understand that other dwarves may be living in other cultures, some of which are integrated with other races.

I think that's all I've got on the setting, honestly. I hope that is helpful to somebody.
 
Just made two additions to the rules thread, if anyone is interested.

First, something I've been working on for a couple of days, a list of pre-designed/pre-approved talents and weaknesses. Nobody has to use these, but anybody is free to, and maybe it can serve as inspiration.

The second thing is, I've increased the climax damage when your Purity drops to 0. Initially, I had thought 5 Purity damage dealing 3 damage and making the target lose a turn was pretty satisfactory, but since the damage is spread across three stats it wasn't actually making much progress towards defeating an enemy. I think that dealing 2 damage to each stat is going to be a more satisfying payoff, although Purity attacks still probably aren't the most efficient method of defeating your foes. (It's more versatile than powerful. Also, fun!)
 
Yeah, I think we're about full up for now. If you'd like, though, I can get in touch with you if some people leave the game and we need new members.
 
*rage*

You put up a whole list of sample talents & weaknesses!

*rage*

Would have made my life easier if they were there first!

*rage*

:D
 
Ha, yeah, sorry about that. It was sort of like with the worldbuilding--I thought if I put up a list, people might feel bound by it. Even if they didn't limit themselves to exactly what was on the list they might not feel comfortable straying too far. But, then I thought, if it were me, I would really appreciate a list of samples; even if I didn't end up using any of them it would give me a good baseline to work from and I'd feel more comfortable. So, sorry for not getting them up sooner.

Made some more rules additions. I put together some quick rules for splitting the party--widely agreed to be both a bad idea and something that every group will want to do. I added a bit more to the combat section about melee range, and I feel like my wording there was super clunky, but hopefully it was clear enough. Let me know if it's not. Also, I added a bit more about the relics, specifically about when you can equip and unequip them. I also included a rule for cursed relics.

I also added a few more entries to the sample ability list.
 
Okay...I now has a serious question about combat (yes, I know the intent is for the PCs to have a rough time as they traverse the dungeon...):

* a PC is defeated (and therefore removed form the game), when any core stat reaches -5
* an orgasm delivers 2 damage to each of the core stats
* most basic attacks deal damage to one or more core stats

So...that potentially means that one or more PCs could be removed from the game per combat scene...am I right? Or have I misread something?

(I'm not asking because I expect the PCs to be able to survive everything that comes their way so the can triumph over evil...but I would expect that they'd make it past at least one combat, maybe two, before they start falling to the Bad Guys...)
 
It is possible for somebody to get taken out in the first battle, but in the game I ran in the earlier draft of this system, the heroes didn't lose anyone until the fifth battle. The accuracy of attacks is only about fifty/fifty, so damage doesn't accumulate too fast, and the party typically outnumbers their opponents--not by a lot, but by enough that you usually don't have to go one on one with the bad guys. Now, some of the mechanics have changed, but mostly not in ways that would make combat much tougher or easier. I think the biggest change in that regard isn't the purity/orgasm system, it's the switch from numerical bonuses and penalties over to advantage/disadvantage.

It's worth keeping in mind that most abilities--not all, but most--that damage Agility or Will, also allow you to negate the damage either by breaking free, or just defeating the enemy that inflicted it. So damage to those stats is not going to accumulate very quickly between battles, and even within a single combat, if you can take out the enemy that's grappling/hypnotizing/whatevering you before they can take you down to -5, then all the damage they've dealt will be undone. Strength damage does stick around more, but that's why healing abilities get more leeway with it. (If you compare some of the sample healing abilities, Lay on Hands can be used during combat and more times per scene, compared to Meditate.)

Also worth noting that, at least to start with, your enemies are going to be frailer than you, and are not going to be taking the most ruthlessly efficient approach to combat. I try to play them based on their knowledge and mentality, which means they don't necessarily know the best way to defeat the heroes, and also they're going to base some of their tactical decisions on emotion rather than crunching the numbers. For example, the sample grapple I listed makes the target vulnerable to your tease; a fair number of enemies are going to have something like that. Tactically, it's usually going to be more efficient to just keep grappling and try to subdue your opponent with Agility damage, but most of the time they're going to mix teasing into the grappling because that's the kind of lech they are, and also just because that's more fun and in keeping with the spirit of the RP.

Of course, it's possible I've miscalculated, and the new rules are going to make combat more perilous than I expected or intended; if that turns out to be the case, then I'll go ahead and nerf the enemies and/or cut down the number of encounters between safe haven visits.
 
So the RP thread is up; feel free to drop your character into town and roleplay for a bit. We will enter the dungeon on Friday (May 11) at the latest, but if everyone is ready before then we can move on. Currently everyone but Tenshi has their character ready; Tenshi also hasn't dropped by the OOC thread so far, so I may drop them a PM to see whether they're still interested. If so, they'll have until Friday to finish their character; otherwise we'll start the dungeon without them, though they'll still be free to bring in a character the next time we return to the safe haven. And, if they're not still interested, then we can get started in the dungeon whenever everyone's satisfied in the safe haven.
 
Ohp, my bad, thanks for catching it. I've corrected the link in my post as well. (I'd better go make sure I got the one in the first post right as well.)
 
So, I've contacted both Tenshi and SmokyKisses (who expressed interest in the recruitment thread, but ultimately didn't let me know if they wanted to join). Tenshi says they've got more on their plate than they expected, and has bowed out of the RP. I haven't heard back from SmokyKisses yet, but it looks like they haven't been on the site in about a week. For now, I'm going to assume they're not interested.

That leaves us with a party of four, which is perfectly acceptable if you all would like to proceed with the current group. However if you want to pick up another player or two, there are a couple of people who asked to be contacted if spots opened up, so I can invite them to join us if you all would like.

EDIT: Also, I'm setting up a dice log on this site recommended by staff, since Blue Moon doesn't have a dice function built in. If I'm understanding correctly, you'll need to register an email address with the site, and then let me know what it is so I can invite you to the log. Currently our log is "576 - Morathor's Blue Moon Log"
 
Oh, I've been meaning to mention this, but Davian, the image link you included in the profile thread doesn't seem to work. Is it supposed to be the same one you sent in the PMs, or a different one?
 
So I haven't heard from caelcormac in about a week... I PMd him but haven't gotten a response, so I don't know if he still wants to play or not. Although I'm not taking his name off the player list at this time, I have invited Jovialtraveler to join us. I'll plan on moving us along into the city some time this evening.
 
Sweet.

(psst...maybe the GM could do the GM-thingy and remind Jovialtraveler that Character profiles are supposed to include character age...just sayin'... ;) )
 
Oh shoot, yeah. Thanks for the reminder, Sync. I'll send them a PM as well in case they get that sooner, but yes character profiles need to include ages per the site rules.
 
Okay! First dungeon post is up! For those players who haven't posted yet, as long as you get something in before we move on to the second scene/room/area, it should be all good.
 
Maybe a roster of active players/characters somewhere in the front of this thread, perhaps...?
 
So currently my plan is to post tonight with the results of everyone's actions/rolls, if anyone wants to get in another post of their own before then.
 
Does anyone else have anything they want to do in this scene? If not, I'll roll for Kerrish to try and break down the door, and depending on the results of that you all can decide what to do next.
 
Yes, sorry - I have been quite busy recently with job-searching. I’ll do my best to be more active now.
 
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