An Adventure Time Roleplay, Starring Original Characters
Somewhere, the war is over. Somewhere, people reel in shock at the appearance of GOLB, and sigh with relief at his subsequent disappearance. But the world has an occasionally annoying habit of continuing to turn and, sure enough, another day dawns on the Land of Ooo. And another. And another. Days turned into years. Heroes turned into myths.
And yet this isn't about the past. This is about now, where a group of brave new heroes rise up to forge their own legacy. Will it be a legend of heroic sacrifice and valorous deeds? A cautionary tale about the dangers of poor hygiene? A ballad sung by screaming guitar warriors about risking it all for love? It's a mystery.
Whichever way it goes, it starts with would-be heroes answering the call to adventure. Posters have spread across the land, seemingly overnight, which simply read:
HELP. HEROES NEEDED. BREAKFAST KINGDOM.
And you are a hero, aren't you?
Name: Perhaps it was a name given to you by your parents. Perhaps it was a name given to you by friends. Perhaps it's one you've chosen for yourself because it sounds awesome.
Species: Ooo is a strange place filled with even stranger things. Want to be a party bear? A creature forged out of candy? A robot? A vampire? A dog? If the world was an oyster, it would be your oyster.
Physical Description: If you've got a picture, you can use that and things will probably work out. Otherwise, provide a description of what your character looks like. Or both. Pictures and words. Do they have cool scars? How about not-cool scars? You might also want to mention about things like how they move - perhaps they've got a limp from a broken leg that hasn't healed properly! A dead-eyed stare from seeing their comrades fall in battles against monsters! If any of you play Limpy The War Veteran, I'll know where you got the idea from.
The Concept: Here we're going to get a bit mechanical. This should be a phrase or sentence that sums up your character, saying who you are, what you're about. Try to think about both how this cool concept would help your character, and also how it'd make things more difficult for your character. For instance, let's take Finn. Finn's Concept could be "Heroic Teenage Human". He's good at being a hero, but being a teenager, he's still struggling with emotional maturity and all the baggage of not quite being an adult. If you want help with this, ask away.
The Trouble: What's the thing that gets your character into trouble? A nemesis that keeps bothering you when you're trying to be a hero? A deep-seated fear or weakness? An obligation to friends or family members? We could give our Finn the trouble "In Love With Princess Bubblegum", for instance. As with the Concept, if you're not sure, ask about it. I'm not going to bite.
The Bonus Aspect: This is another opportunity to help define your character a little further. While their Concept is going to be central to their character, this Bonus Aspect gives you space to add a little flourish. Perhaps you want your character to be super strong, so you write down "Never Met A Boulder She Couldn't Lift". Perhaps you want a hoard of treasure, so you write down "Has A Huge Hoard Of Treasure". Perhaps you want a sweet sword, so you write "Bearer of the Thrice-Cursed Sword of Faradoom". As with everything else, if in doubt, or if you want to bounce some ideas, ask away.
The Approach: Last of the mechanics, I swear. We're going to look at how your character prefers to solve problems. You'll be putting these in an order to determine how good you are at solving problems in that way, from "best" to "worst". Hopefully they're fairly self-explanatory but - as always - feel free to ask for clarifications. Careful, Clever, Flashy, Forceful, Quick and Sneaky.
TL;DR - Mechanics work behind the scenes and are mostly there for when I need to arbitrate something, like "does the mutant fish in a top hat successfully bite you?" or "just how hard did you punch that giant?". This is just to give you an idea of how it works if you're interested in that.
The mechanics of the game are going to be very non-intrusive, and mostly involve me rolling four dice at my desk to adjudicate outcomes of certain things. It's based rather loosely on Fate Accelerated. If you're interested in maximising your chances to succeed on things, playing to your best approach and taking into account your Concept and Bonus Aspect will give you the best odds. So in our Finn example, you're more likely to succeed at doing something heroic that you approach in a flashy way, than, say, trying to solve a mystery by studying in the library in a careful approach. It's basically rewarding you for playing the character you've made in the way you've made it.
But, and there's always a but, notice that thing which says "The Trouble" and how your Concept comes with some draw-back. Sometimes we might add complications to things. In our Finn example, he's trying to fight some mutated goblins, and he receives a call from Princess Bubblegum just as he's about to hit a pesky goblin. However, the good news is that dealing with these drawbacks will bank you a bonus which might be the difference between success and failure at a later date. Karma at work, or something, but mostly it's to reassure you that taking a trouble or concept that comes with significant drawbacks isn't going to make your character entirely unplayable.
If I suggest we take another look at your Concept, it's probably because it's not immediately obvious how it can be used to provide a drawback. Or because you've wrote "all powerful" as your concept, and that's a bit much, isn't it? It's a bit much.
Careful involves paying close attention to detail, taking your time to make sure you succeed. Lining up a shot from long range with your bow and arrow, or picking your way through a lock. Clever is about thinking fast, about solving problems and taking into account all the factors around you. A clever swordsperson knows the style their opponent uses and uses the right style to counter it. A clever inventor knows which wires not to cross when building a robot. Flashy is about style, about being the centre of attention. A flashy fighter will find more success swinging off chandeliers. A flashy general delivers amazing speeches to inspire their troops. If it's about making a scene and standing in the spotlight, you're looking at flashy. Forceful is more about applying strength, or implied strength, to power through obstacles. You want to kick down the door? Forceful! You want to stare down the Lich? Forceful. You want to use magic to cast a spell that blows up everything around you? Forceful. Forceful isn't subtle. Quick is about moving, well, quickly. Nimbly dodging a blow. Interrupting a monologue with a punch to the jaw. Leaping out the window at the last second just before the alchemy lab explodes behind you. Sneaky is about deceiving, being stealthy and misdirection. It's not just about being able to sneak past the guards - it's for talking the Captain of the Guard out of throwing you in jail if you get caught, and for being able to shout "Look! Behind you! A bear!" in the middle of a fight in such a convincing way that the guards fall for it.
Rule 0) Don't be a dick. I know, really, it goes without saying. We're all here to have a good time, so let's treat each other with respect, understanding and patience.
Rule 1) The usual rules about trying to god-mode, controlling other's characters and the like. I probably don't need to tell people not to do all these things, but just so we're sure, don't do it. Don't. Stop.
Rule 2) Communicate. The OOC is always there for ideas and suggestions, and if you're shy about that sort of thing, my Private Message inbox is open. If you're not happy about the game, if you want to tweak your character sheet, if you want to suggest some awesome new rules, if you're not sure about something or whatever it is - talk to me. Making sure that everyone is enjoying themselves is one of my jobs as the GM, and hopefully you'll feel okay about telling me when you're not enjoying yourself so I can fix the problem.
Rule 3) I'll start things off with asking people to try and post at least once a week, which is hopefully a reasonable balance between keeping things moving along and not leaving anyone behind. If you're involved in the game and feel like you can't keep up, let me know and we'll twiddle things around. If it looks like everyone is comfortable hitting that once-a-week post schedule, we can collectively decide whether to try getting more posts in.
Game Status Currently the game is in the planning stage as we collectively wrangle characters. In character posting is due to start early January, 2020. Expected date for first IC post - January 6th.
Hopefully character creation is clear enough to go through, and as ever, I'm open to answering questions, discussing ideas and collaborating. Either drop me a message in my inbox or, if you don't mind it being out there for everyone to see, post here. Once again, thank you for showing an interest in the game, and if there's anything I can do to make your game better, let me know!
Hey, just dropping by to declare my interest in this. I saw the interest check and noticed that you weren't taking any new applicants unless a spot opens up, so let me know if the situation changes.
Shall do @Ryik, consider yourself Top Of The List. Life is difficult at the top, but I'll trust you can handle it well. Honestly, if it looks like there's a possibility I can handle additional players, I may even be able to open things up a bit once things get going. I just don't want to risk biting off more than I can chew for my first game, and a small group is going to be part of that.
Thanks for the character submission @BCTheEntity; I've PM'd you back with my thoughts and a bit of Extra Homework, as it'll be a few weeks still before I'm back from my own personal version of The Nightmare Before Christmas and whatever horrific things I'm required to endure to keep up appearances for New Years. As an aside, and related to your character, I've got a thing about jellies and skellies. I had this whole idea for my tabletop group about an NPC called "Skelly Jelly", who was a skeleton trapped in a jelly. At some point, he is consumed by jealousy, and becomes "Jelly Skelly".
Here's an animated gif of him thinking hard. Most of my notes for campaigns are, it turns out, just weird drawings and sketches.
@Ucalegon Oh boy, that is a fun concept. It's funny how you and I have had similar thoughts before, but I'm glad you like my chap either way; I'll have him shifted to the Characters tab lickity-split. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else comes up with, too!
I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else comes up with, too!
I'm alternating between looking forward to and mildly terrified by. With your character up, hopefully that'll help inspire folks - it's certainly made me start scribbling furiously in my notepad to add some new elements to what I had planned.
A character for consideration, that can of course be discussed further beyond the CS itself either here or in PM. Do you want puns? A sad display of power from those above mortal beings? A numbskull who probably shouldn't exactly be trusted with a gift but was given it anyways for kicks, with a nemesis that probably takes things a little too seriously while also being pathetically childish at the same time? Well, look no further than...
-NAME- Shelbert
-SPECIES- Nut Person, more specifically of the pistachio variety.
-PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION- Shelbert is a Nut Person of short stature, standing at around three feet tall with a few inches thrown in. His green-colored body is mostly covered by a beige-colored shell, but splits to protect the sides of his body while revealing his center mass; Making his face and upper body visible. The shell sort of resembles an overly popped collar as it exceeds over his actual height by a slight margin; Making it look like if he were to land upside down, he'd get stuck in the dirt via this extended shell sticking into the ground.
-THE CONCEPT- Puntastic pistachio martial artist stuck in a divine squabble above his pay grade.
-THE TROUBLE- Has a nemesis who wields an opposite power to his known as the Darn Hand that morally guides it's wielder to do nefarious deeds and defeat the user of the Gosh Hand. Personally, Shelbert is a bit prideful and his ego can be easily scarred.
-THE BONUS ASPECT- Guided morally by an obnoxious higher being via a gifted power known as the Gosh Hand; Which grants Shelbert his strength as long as it's used to aid others or on his quest to defeat the Darn Hand.
NOTE! When considered 'defiant' by the Gosh Hand, by either neglecting heroics or doing nefarious deeds himself, or just going against what his 'supportive higher being considers right, Shelbert's strength is greatly reduced.
NOTE! 2 The user of the Darn Hand has similar strength to Shelbert himself, but has the approach of Forceful, Clever, Quick, Careful, Sneaky, Flashy. Tending to rile up trouble or aid in doing so by collaborating with others. While neither Hand has met the other, they can tell the other's identity with something as simple as eye contact. Neither is aware of how pointless and childish their situation is, and may never truly know the extents of the childish argument of a game they're apart of.
In the opening post you mention rolling dices on your table, I think that is fine, but just in case you didn't know, the guild also has a rolling system of its own with public results.
Name: Swamp Wizard, nicknamed "Swampy"
Species: Wizard
Physical Description: A tall human-like female with pale lilac-colored skin and darker turquoise hair... most of the time, as sometimes she spouts a color scheme more fit for the local biome, if away from her home. She has a lanky figure and dark pupils, her hair is typically kept short, when not she keeps it braided. For clothes, she keeps to a tunic and a cape, sometimes spicing it up with a lily-pad hat or an eel belt.
The Concept: Aloof yet anxious low-class wizard
The Trouble: Takes a lot of notes and pictures of everything she comes across because it might be useful later, ends up with too many of them to remember where the helpful ones are.
The Bonus Aspect: Thinks transmogrification is a viable solution to most problems, even the banalest ones.
The Approach: Clever, Sneaky, Forceful, Quick, Careful, Flashy.
Am supposed to be hard at work at the moment, so this is a quick post to say that I'm liking both our nutty friend and Swampy. On the dice front, I will play with it tomorrow and see how it goes - the system I'm mangling for this uses d6 that are marked with two blank faces, two plus faces and two minus ones. So as long as I remember which numbers correspond to which symbols, it'll work out.
What exactly goes into the Bonus Aspect? Like, I wanted to play a crafty, tinkerer type, so I want them to have a big backpack, y'know as you do. But I also liked the idea of them having a little animal friend, essentially a familiar but without the magic. Would I only have to pick one, or?
Quick reply because I've got twenty minutes of work time left then I'm going to roll into bed!
Personally I would say that a big backpack is a mundane enough piece of equipment to be bundled in with a concept of tinker, and have the animal companion be the bonus aspect. The backpack full of tinkering stuff could be like a knight's sword - it's a given that knight's have a sword, and thinkers gonna tinker, so you get tinkering stuff. If the backpack was filled with stuff not related to the concept (like a bag of... um, fish?) then it'd make sense as a bonus aspect because "tinker" doesn't often bring to mind images of someone carrying a backpack full of salmon.
Unless the concept is "bear tinkerer", maybe.
I may need to come back tomorrow morning and provide a better reply!
