[OOC] City of Jade

[Vec]

@Eklispe

This is what I had in mind, yes. I'll stick with it like that and we'll see how it goes.
Anyway, I'm off to shower!

[jumpadraw]

@Grueslayer

Well, finally got my character done. He might be a tad bit cliche, but I tried to make him a little unique. Anyway, what do you think?

Akio

Akio

Profession: Mercenary

History:

Akio doesn’t remember much about his family. He doesn’t like to think about them, and the clearest memory he has is of the whip they used to punish him. The scars still cover his back, and though the pain has long since faded, his dreams are plagued with the harshness of those that were supposed to love him. The cruelty was too much for him to bare as a child, and he soon found himself fleeing from his home, letting his overwhelming sense of misery drive him further and further from the land of his birth.

Akio had no other family that he knew of, he had no friends. He wouldn’t return home though, not for all of the riches of the world. He didn’t care if his parents had a reason for the pain they caused him. He didn’t even care if they would now recognize the error of their ways. To return home at this point would probably mean an even greater punishment than he had ever received. Instead, he resorted to thievery, stealing as he traveled from town to town. His skill grew, and he was actually able to live somewhat comfortably, or at least as comfortably as a homeless thief could. Still, it was only a matter of time until his luck would run out. This happened when he picked the wrong man to rob.

He looked like an easy target. He was a foreigner, with a strange accent and a look of a man who was lost and confused, like a wounded animal. Akio followed him closely, until he found his chance to strike, grabbing the man’s money purse as subtly as he could. Instantly, the seemingly drunk foreigner snapped into action, grabbing for the young boy’s wrist. Akio wrestled free, and ran as fast as his legs had ever carried him. He was quick and athletic, but the foreigner somehow proved to be faster. At first, Akio feared the worst, that he would be turned into the guards, or that the man would gut him on the spot. Instead, the foreigner did something that would change the boy’s path forever. He handed him back the coin purse, and smiled. No, not smiled. laughed.

The boy had spirit, that was for sure. Better still, he wasn’t afraid of getting his hands dirty. He told Akio as much, and that a boy like him was something he needed. He then said that the boy could run off with the money he had, or he could choose another walk of life, one that would supply him with a hundred times the amount in the purse, as well as a newfound purpose. The promise seemed too good to be true, but Akio couldn’t pass it up. The man told Akio to call him Noble, and led the boy to an encampment full of men that were armed to the teeth. Noble told the boy that his group was a bit unconventional. They were a band of mercenaries, of warriors for hire, most were just barbarians, farmers seeking a better life, even a few ronins. Noble took the boy in as his own, and began the arduous process of teaching him everything he knew. Despite his gruff appearance, Noble was a skilled martial artist, combining several techniques he had “picked up” over the years and teaching him to use his enemy's weaknesses against them. Soon, Akio found brotherhood among the men. They were thieves, killers willing to sell their services for the right amount of money, but to Akio, they were good people.

Eventually, Akio grew up, matured from boy to man, and though Noble taught him more skills every day, he was now a trusted member of the group, a respected member. Not all good things last though, and one day, Noble took a job that he told Akio very little about.
Noble decided to enter a place known as the City of Jade, alone. He never said why, or who had given him the job, and despite the trust he put in Akio, he refused to tell him anything. Akio was in charge of the group until he returned. Without Noble’s guidance, the mercenaries would be missing their moral compass, their sense of direction. They would look to Akio for guidance and leadership. He was to keep them together and to await Noble’s return. Noble never did return though, and as days dragged on to months, he decided to follow after him. He said a few quick goodbyes to his many friends, and set off to bring Noble home, or at the very least, lay him to rest. He would not lose the family he had worked so hard to find...

Master: Noble
Admittedly, Akio doesn’t know much about his master’s history. What he does know though is that Noble is a skilled warrior, and an inspiring leader. He likes to joke a lot, and sometimes it is difficult to tell when he is being serious. Oftentimes, he seems to make light of very serious matters, as a way to ease tension and sadness, and it usually works. While many know of Noble and hate him, there are also several villages and cities that are very grateful towards him as he has been a great help. True, Noble’s moral compass seems to easily tilt towards whoever has the deepest pockets, but he ultimately has a good heart, and has sometimes served those most in need, even if they didn’t have a penny (or a yen, or a gold coin, or whatever currency is in this rp) to their name. He would tell his troops that it was simply a long term investment, a way to get their name around and in turn get more people willing to hire them, but Akio knew better. Overall, Noble’s a scoundrel, but a loveable one.

Equipment: Boa staff, shurikens

Technique: Detection

Chi:2

Luck:0

[Grueslayer]

@jumpadrawI think it's cool as hell; I was hoping we'd get somebody with a bit of a mercenary attitude. It's neat that he's a foreigner as well. Add him to the list!

His Luck is 5, a pretty popular number it seems.

[jumpadraw]

@Grueslayer

Yeah, at first I was going to make him a brave and noble samurai, but I wanted to shake things up a bit with a mercenary from a foreign land that valued money more than what was "right". Spices things up a bit.

Haha, well, that, and I'll now have an excuse for messing anything up or not knowing stuff in this RP!

[Eklispe]

The climb up Wua-Sho has been a miserable one, of blood and sweat and ever thinner air. Animal attacks, starvation, freezing, exhaustion, all these dangers pale to the hardest obstacle you've yet faced in your journey; that of simple, mind numbing attrition. The mountain doing all it can to turn

@Grueslayer

Some people do this for fun. I feel like pretend doing it for fun is a universally better option ^.^

[POOHEAD189]

Characters looking good so far.

[Grueslayer]

Well we've started but anyone who hasn't finished their character yet doesn't need to be in a hurry.

And if you have a specific entrance in mind you can PM me and we'll work it in secretly.

[POOHEAD189]

I should have time to make a character this weekend, my friends.

[Vec]

I have a question for everyone. Should we meet at the top of the stairs? What I mean by that is, should we assume that everyone took a different path to the top and didn't meet each other while climbing the mountain, or assume that everyone has already met and they are climbing together?

I think that the former is better, since I don't know if there would be conflicts between characters or not, if they meet before reaching the top...

[Grueslayer]

@VecMy intention is that you would mostly meet at the clearing at the foot of the stairs, that way your characters could interact before reaching the city proper.

But since no one's posted yet I am worried that maybe I've confused everyone. What do you guys think?

[Fancy Party]

I'm fine with meeting at the base of the stairs. I'm just sort of waiting for someone more experienced to post first. I haven't done a game like this in a while and the first couple posts generally set the tone for games like these, so I'm waiting for someone else to start off before I make a post.

[Eklispe]

Nah you're good, I was just catching up on other RPs since you said no hurry for this plus little lazy, I'll get a post out for this real quick.

[Vec]

there's my intro post :0

[Eklispe]

Stop doing stuff after me and making it look more impressive.

[Grueslayer]

Great opening posts guys! I'm excited to see how your encounter plays out.

[Vec]

@Grueslayer Thanks. So, could you elaborate a little on how you think we should go about strengthening our characters? I mean, is there a stats system you have in mind, like Strength, Endurance etc?

Chi is an essential part ofc, since it helps calculate the damage, but how do we go about increasing our Chi?

[Grueslayer]

@VecI'm glad you asked! Your Chi is increased by performing a specific number of "events", the most common of which is defeating opponents who are of comporable or greater strength than yourself. Since your Chi is now two, it would take two opponents to increase your Chi.

Other events would include receiving training from someone stronger than you, making great discoveries, or havng a particularly powerful moment of character development. It's a loose system.

Luck will increase as your Chi does.

You'll also be able to gain new techniques and improve upon your own, though I'm not entirely sure how to handle that yet.

So it's not a very heavy system mechanically, but I wanted to keep the stats basic to avoid driving people off who aren't used to this sort of thing.

And as for everything else there's always room for improvement, so new additions or changes can be made with group consensus.

[Vec]

@Grueslayer

I see. Increasing Chi seems pretty straightforward then. Defeat a number of people comparable to, or stronger than yourself, equal to your level of Chi at any given time.

Or, increase it through various other means through character development and plot interactions.

Since there isn't a set stats system in place, we would have to individually "write out" how our characters get stronger whenever they level up, and as for how they could gain new techniques...

I guess it could all come down to battle experience & "development posts", as in, the number of times our characters have engaged in battle, as well as the number of posts pertaining to our characters training/practicing/studying. We could set a goal for say: 5 battles & 2-3 posts of character development around techniques as a requirement for us to be able to unlock said technique. This gives us the chance to elaborate more on each character's techniques as well as increases the chances of character interaction between player characters since they might want to spar or train together/share insights etc.

Of course, that's just a random idea of mine. All in all, this system is quite similar to one one RP I'm in, as in, It is loose and versatile, and allows players more freedom when writing out their characters.

I like it.

[Grueslayer]

@VecI had something similar in mind as far as training for techniques went, actually. I'll ruminate on this and have the details worked out by tonight.

[sassy1085]

@Grueslayer
I'm done with my character