Hidden 6 yrs ago 6 yrs ago Post by William Cade
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William Cade

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Inspirations


Games: Apocalypse World system (Powered by the Apocalypse), Fudge system (The Unexplained), World of Darkness, and Call of Cthulhu and Trail of Cthulhu.

Movies: Black Death, The Road, Valhalla Rising, Season of the witch, The Reckoning and many more.

Bleak: The Abyss for PbP


He fell to his knees and reached out to the neutral sky with blood soiled hands, “God forgive me!” The monk bowed his head and trembled in his battle-soaked robe.

“Cheer up monk, you did God’s work.” A man in dingy chainmale said as he scanned the horizon.

The sun never cuts through the clouds, it is either grey or night. Bright sunny days are legend here, only spoken as ancient memory. The abyss is the unseen presence that rolls through the hill, fields, forests and mountains. This land is cursed and its heroes are too.

“Let’s ride out!” shouted the crusader

They rode toward the darkness leaving blood and smoke behind them. The monk’s head wobbled with each trot and his mind was lost as though he were searching for the light he lost just moments ago. The crusader rode up to the monk and offered a water filled leather pouch.

“Drink.”

Water poured down the monk’s chin.

“They were innocent.”

“Not one of them knew our lord’s prayer. You better rest boy. We haven’t even found our witch yet.” The crusader tapped his horse and galloped to the front of the line.


This is Bleak: The Abyss, a grim unforgiving rpg where the adventures not only fight the creatures that frequent the muck and mist, they also struggle to keep their sanity and integrity.

Something different is that I have adapted the game to play by post forum. This is the pbp beta test of a game I have been working on.

Character Creation


Weak, Normal, Journeyman, always 2nd and master are the descriptors to be given to the attributes listed below.
2 attributes get “weak”
3 attributes get “normal”
2 attributes get “journeyman”

No one starts at master or always 2nd

The descriptors tell a player how they will role-play when a given situation that needs to be addressed using an attribute.

For example: A character with weak ferocity should not narrate his/her character like they are a battle master.

Attributes:
Instinct - reflexes in battle
Discovery - this tied to intelligence - the ability to think out of the box
Ferocity - strength
Wellness - how physically active your character is
Magnetism - people want to be around you
determination - your mental strength in difficult situations
Awareness - how sensitive your character is to their surroundings

Can you improve your attributes?


The answer is yes.

How?


In the OOC players say I think I have improved….

The other players ask these questions:

In what ways did you attempt to use this attribute?

It what way did the use of a given attribute add to the story?

Did you take a fail to make the story more interesting while using the attribute?

Are you willing to make take an abyss point for the desired attribute?

Desperation Move


What if I want to use a weak attribute as a desperation move? After all, even the things we suck at can be possible.

For non-combat: a character can open themselves to the abyss to successfully gain in sight into a discovery that they would otherwise not have been able to, or a character with low magnetism can seduce an individual or incite a crowd to riot, or to heighten one’s awareness, but they will have to take an abyss point.

For combat: If you chose to fight a losing battle, such as a warrior against 10 fighters or a character that has weak combat descriptors — choose 2 abyss points or permanent damage

• Head: metal plate, loose an eye, deep scar etc. -1 to magnetism
• Torso: surgery (remove a rib etc.), deep scar etc. -1 to wellness
• Arms: loss of a limb, loss of extremities, permanent brace etc. -1to determination
• Legs: loss of a limb or foot, permanent brace, limp, cane etc. -1to instinct

What are abyss points?


Everyone born in Bleak was born with the abyss. There are stories of an ancient past called the days of light, but those are only stories to people living in Bleak today. The Abyss is the darkness that dominates Bleak, it drives people mad, spawn chthonian entities and breeds the plague.

All characters start with one X out of 5 toward the abyss. Once a character reaches 5 abyss points they are lost. They go mad, or anything your imagination can muster.

How else do we get abyss points?


While character’s in Bleak are morally grey, they do have a reason to live and that reason is tied to their drive for light in their own way.

A protector is driven to protect the weak, but if they let the weak die because of another goal then they would also take an abyss point. Drive and backstory are completely up to the player.

Another way is to use special moves. Each archetype has a special move:

Monk: God's Light – it cuts through the abyss, but the abyss pushes back.

Crusader: God's Rage – example: an innocent is hurt opening the Crusader to the abyss.

Heathen: Sacrifice – opens the abyss to gain insight or divination

Physician: Surgery – begins to go mad – losing touch with humanity.

Skills


Skills are directly tied to attributes. If there are 2 attributes within a skill then combine.

For Instance: A warrior has Journeyman in both ferocity and instinct -he/she will be a journeyman level in the skills of melee and climb. Or if he/she has normal in determination and journeyman in instinct – then we minus from the strongest attribute, which would be normal in both swim and survival. If he/she is weak in determination and journeyman in instinct. Then he/she would be weak in swim and survival. If he/she is always 2nd in instinct and normal then swim and survival would be normal and etc.

If you have 2 weak descriptors, then you can attempt with a massive fail and choose and abyss point or physical damage. But you will be rewarded a learning point in that particular attribute at the end of the chapter.



Archetype chose one: Heathen, Crusader, Monk, Physician
Looks:

Background:

Drive:

Attributes and descriptors:

Abyss: X _ _ _ _

Skills (copy and paste table):

Gear:

This is the 1st beta test - feel free to help make the game better and more pbp friendly.

Thank you for your interest!
Hidden 6 yrs ago Post by Stekkmen
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sounds fun. i'm ready to do God's work as a crusader

Hidden 6 yrs ago Post by William Cade
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sounds fun. i'm ready to do God's work as a crusader


Excellent. Just need a couple more people and we will get started.

We can choose make abyss points permanent or at the end of each chapter we can role play rituals/prayers to minus abyss points by one.
Hidden 6 yrs ago Post by Stekkmen
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i am a fan like a steady march towards madness while fighting against overwhelming evil for the greater good
Hidden 6 yrs ago Post by William Cade
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i am a fan like a steady march towards madness while fighting against overwhelming evil for the greater good


Nice! This is a small group game. We will start the OOC on Monday.

Let me know, if there is anything you need to know.
Hidden 6 yrs ago 6 yrs ago Post by William Cade
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OOC


@Stekkmen

The OOC has started. Please post your character sheet below
Hidden 6 yrs ago Post by Stekkmen
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sorry i've been offline.

uh, can you explain the skill system to me? i'm confused by at the dis and dets
Hidden 6 yrs ago Post by William Cade
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Sure thing.

Det. - Determination

Dis. - Discovery

and so on

So First choose 2 attributes to be "weak", 3 to be normal, and 2 to be Journeyman.

Lets say I want to make a Heathen.

Type: Heathen

Name: Aed (means fire which I could use for my back story and maybe ritual method)

Instinct - Normal (even though he's aging he can evade and move relatively well, more so from experience than athleticism)
Discovery - Journeyman (life long practice in investigating nature and occult activities)
Ferocity - weak (because of his low wellness, his strength was not what is was.)
Wellness - weak (maybe because of his age)
Magnetism - Normal (he's a bit strange, but not off putting)
determination - Journeyman (he has to be pretty determined to have low wellness and have the will to survive in a world like Bleak.)
Awareness - normal (He used to be sharper, in spotting things in the world, but his vision is starting to slip just a bit.)

Of course we can make a warrior type heathen, or whatever we want. But I chose this to illustrate that attributes need to be tied into a backstory. Moreover, you can narrate your reasons for your attributes anyway you want in your backstory as long as it makes sense.

Okay now on to skills. I will not put them in hide mode (this time):

Esoteric
Research (dis.) - Journeyman
Witch Hunting (dis. and det.)- Journeyman (but since he is a Heathen, we can use this for hunting darkness that is trying to destroy his village or something.
Demonology (dis. and det.) - Journeyman (well versed in the dark gods of his belief system)
Herbalism (dis) Journeyman - (someone to call on when medicines, or edible plants need to be found and mixed)
Divination (aw. and det.) Our Heathen has (normal awareness and Journeyman determination) we minus from the strongest trait = normal
Machinery (dis.) Journeyman (but he is a Heathen so his machine skills might be something like simple pulleys and planes, probably not gears. etc
Alchemy (dis. and aw.)= normal

and so on

Tactics
Range (ins.)
Melee (fer. and ins.)
Jump (ins.)
Climb (ins. and fer.)
Swim (ins. and det.)
Survival (ins. and det.)
Stealth (ins. and aw.)

Oratory and performance
Inspire (mag. and aw
Acting (mag. and aw)
Music (dis. and ins.)
Silver Tongue (mag and aw.)
Seduce (mag and wellness)
Etiquette (mag)
Languages (dis. and aw)

Hidden 6 yrs ago Post by Stekkmen
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so if I have journeyman in one and weak in another the sub-skill will be normal?
Hidden 6 yrs ago Post by William Cade
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Exactly. As the game goes on and you improve those combination tied to a given skill will improve too.

When creating your character sheet can you please place the skills via the hide button.
Hidden 6 yrs ago 6 yrs ago Post by Stekkmen
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ok. i'll work on a character sheet but you should move all the parts that need to be used into one place for ease of access

edit: yeah like Cs doesn't even have a name slot and I have to search for skills and attributes which is a hassle
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Hidden 6 yrs ago Post by William Cade
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@stekkmen

I will have a formal character sheet - depending on how the play-test goes. Thank you for the observation.

I know it has been forever. If you are still interested, I will have a story up, within the week. If not, I understand.

Please tag my name, if you are still interested.

Hidden 6 yrs ago Post by Menhir
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@William Cade
Can you tell me a little more about the mechanics?
For example:
How are contested actions resolved?
What determines whether or not something is a "losing battle"?
Can you give me a numerical value for the ratings?
Does this system use static or dynamic degrees of success?
Hidden 6 yrs ago Post by William Cade
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@menhir That's a good question. It is something I have been thinking about. This game that I am making is really for tabletop, but I wanted to try a diceless free form version.

I was thinking, now I am not sure how it will work as this is the first test, that it will be narrative based.

So for instance, your character gets into it with a seasoned fighter, let's say a well known guard of a nobleman and your character is weak at fighting. How would you narrate it? Would your character be able to put up a good fight? or through narration would he have to find other ways around the problem? It would be left to the creativity of the players to narrate the resolution based on their skills and the problem that is presented.

If you have any idea on how to make a pbp game with resolution and with out tedious tables or dice - your idea would be most welcome.

Kind of want to try out a test story - to see what works and what doesn't - all those who help will be acknowledged and hopefully we can come close to a Guild specific game.
Hidden 6 yrs ago Post by Menhir
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@William Cade
Well if you specifically wanted a high-lethality, low-power diceless system with support for divine blessings and the like I'd suggest the Unisystem Diceless rules as outlined in All Flesh Must Be Eaten. The pure-narrative variant tends to be very deterministic, however.

Would you like a .pdf copy, or just the diceless rules segment in text format?
Hidden 6 yrs ago Post by William Cade
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@Menhir I would like that! I am aware of pure narrative being deterministic, and may be a bit naive to believe that people would put the story first.

In any case I would love to see the Uni-system diceless, maybe I will be able to pull somethings from it.
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Okay, I've PMed it to you.
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