Hidden 1 yr ago 1 yr ago Post by Balthazar007
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Balthazar007 Yin Yang Monk

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... to Bellum, a planet that is as magical as it is technologically advanced. There are many civilizations on this planet, and many different races that call this rock their own. The three main races you will find here are the humans, the beast-folk, and the elves. However, within each race, there are countless factions and sub-races. The possibilities are quite endless...



Time...

Time passes on Bellum, at a parallel pace to that of our planet Earth. For instance, the Northern and Southern hemispheres experience the same four seasons, and there are exactly 24 time zones. The map above has 15 columns (i.e. time zones), but there are actually 9 more not shown. These hidden columns contain a vast ocean and a few scattered islands, much like the Pacific Ocean.

So how does this all relate to the RP? Well, don't worry. We won't ask you to keep track of the exact day and time within your posts. Instead, we'll only mark the time of year and time of day, at the start of important IC posts.
Story Arcs...

As a new player/writer in this world, you will have one of two options. You can either create your own story arc, or join an ongoing adventure...

A story arc is but one of many stories being told in the world of Bellum. Each story arc is lead by a different player/writer, while I (as GM) work to fill the world with NPCs and backstory.

A story arc is made up of three elements. First, at the heart of any story, you have the characters. A new arc generally has only one main character and side characters controlled by myself and the player who started the story arc. Second, we have the plot. Of course, plot twists and improvisation can happen at any time, but it helps to lay out the plot of your story from the beginning, at least vague goals and milestones. Third, we have the setting(s). Like on a ship about to set sail, most passengers (in this case, writers) want to know where the story will take them. What locations on the map might they see if they join? But of course, just like the plot, there can be twists and turns along the way.

At the top of the first IC post, you will find a list of "ongoing story arcs". Below that, you will find "finished story arcs". If you wish to join an "ongoing story arc" contact the story arc's leader. If you wish to start a new story arc, post your ideas here in the OOC section.

Backstory...

Bellum is alive and thriving, even when you're away from your computer. We welcomed you with a teaser of what's in store, but now that you've come this far, let's unravel the tale.

There are three "main" civilizations on Bellum, depending on who you ask. These would be the Sutisu nation, the Riotifu nation, and the Mutrenu. Each nation controls most of the area on their respective continents.

However, the Sutisu and Riotifu continents are joined by a stretch of forested valley, known simply as The Bloody Divide. It is called this, because it is the main battle grounds for a generations long war known as the Great War. These two great nations hate each other's way of life, and they both want control of the river that runs through the Bloody Divide.

In the Southern Hemisphere, the Mutrenu nation sits peacefully, far away from The Great War's reach. Even still, they are far from blameless. You see, it is a poorly kept secret that not only do they trade with both warring nations, they also deal in weapons and military grade technology. Basically, the Mutrenu nation will do whatever it takes to make money.

As we mentioned in the beginning, there are three major races on Bellum: humans, beastfolk, and elves. Then, each race can be further divided into factions and sub-races. Let’s dive into this a little further…



The Crystals…

… are ancient artifacts that have been passed from hand to hand for as long as history serves. Very rarely does one person ever get the chance to hold more than one, but when that does happen they tend to go insane with power or worse, explode. For this reason, it is forbidden for one person to ever control more than one crystal at a time.

Each crystal has its own identifying color: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Violet. They all have the capacity to power a small city on their own or increase the powers of a warrior by ten fold and give them limitless stamina. They are alike in that way. However, they are different in a more subtle way.



Becoming a Crystal Bearer: If you want to be one of the six crystal bearers, and the crystal you want currently has no owner, all you have to do is ask. Being a crystal bearer, amplifies your character's abilities by a factor of 10.

Whispers and Secrets

I will occasionally send you a PM and I will title it “IC: …..”. These secret posts will give one of your characters secret information. Crystal bearers may get these in the form of their crystal talking to them, but anyone can receive a secret PM at any time. If you receive one of these messages, please don’t share it with anyone else, at least not through an OOC exchange. However, if two characters are interacting, you can PM the other person and fill them in.

Finally, if a secret is shared within the IC post, and your character wasn't a part of that conversation, please ignore the shared information. In the same vein, if you have multiple characters and I tell you a secret that applies to only one of them, please act as if your other characters do not know this secret (unless those characters could logically and easily share that information).

I won’t police how everyone handles world secrets, but it will make the RP more interesting for everyone if you play along.

Money

They say it makes the world go round. This is true for the real world, and it is true for this RP. Exactly how much it matters to your character, well that depends on the individual.

We won't actually be tracking every coin you spend. In other words, the "coins" section of your character sheet (found within your inventory), won't go up or down every time you buy something. Instead, we will be using that number to decide if your character could reasonabaly make larger purchases. For example, if you have "Coins: 1,000" and your character wants to buy a 10,000 coin motorcycle, I'd have to say no.

When thinking about the value of a Coin, it might be easier to compare it to the US dollar, in the real world. If you were to do that, you would get about 10 USD to 1 Coin. This means, most small items would only cost you a coin or two. Around ten coins could buy you a low end luxury item or a moderately expensive ticket of some kind. A hundred coins, now we're talking about custom items and lavish expenditures. And so on...

Now, Bellum, while not perfect by any stretch of the means, is still a future society, where robots (for the most part) do the manual labor. Due to this, not everyone is required to work. In fact, more than half the world's population are "unemployed". Their basic needs, as well as the basic needs of everyone else, are covered by social services. There is free "housing", free "food", free "clothing" and free "healthcare".

You can find these free services in any building marked with the "CSC" logo (Civil Services Center). These buildings are one stop shops for all your essential needs. They are found in every city and town in the world, and they are funded and supplied by the Mutrenu government.

However, just because they all receive the same base support from Mutrenu, they are still managed by their local city government. Some cities supplement their "CSC" buildings, making the services they offer even better than normal. Some cipher off funds and provide as little as needed, just enough not to get in trouble with the Mutrenu government.
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Hidden 1 yr ago Post by Balthazar007
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Balthazar007 Yin Yang Monk

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It was a rush job in the end, but we made it happen!

@Renny@Spin The Wheel@Vec@Neianna86@Crimson Flame@Sanity43217@ARedneckWizard@Inertia

I will answer all OOC question here in the main thread from now on. Now, I must get ready for work.
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Hidden 1 yr ago 1 yr ago Post by Spin The Wheel
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Cool, will get a character sheet up soonish. Oh, but first, did you want us to start in a particular city or is anywhere fine? I'll be putting my character in a place where humans are regardless.
Hidden 1 yr ago 1 yr ago Post by Balthazar007
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Cool, will get a character sheet up soonish. Oh, but first, did you want us to start in a particular city or is anywhere fine? I'll be putting my character in a place where humans are regardless.


Anywhere will be fine, but don't commit to a location yet. I'll be adding more info to the OOC first post tomorrow, info that will help you decide better.
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Hidden 1 yr ago Post by Balthazar007
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@Renny@Spin The Wheel@Vec@Neianna86@Crimson Flame@Sanity43217@ARedneckWizard@Inertia

When you click on the world map now you will find descriptions of all the world's largest cities, as well as some of the smaller ones. I will have all the smaller cities included, by the end of the day today.

However, everyone should continue to refrain from choosing a starting location as of yet. Just focus on your character sheets for now, if you have any world questions that would effect their biography though, let me know.

Hidden 1 yr ago 1 yr ago Post by Balthazar007
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@Renny@Spin The Wheel@Vec@Neianna86@Crimson Flame@Sanity43217@ARedneckWizard@Inertia

Alrighty then!

When you click the "World Map" hider, you will now find another hider called "Map Key". Click on that, and you will find all the cities and strongholds marked on the map. I'll do elf villages one at a time, as I have someone who wants to make a character from one of them. Who are my elf players again? Let me know if that's you.

Tomorrow, right at midnight (Eastern Time), I will post the first IC post. Anyone with an approved character at that time, can go ahead and start posting. And here is the synopsis of the story:

We will begin on a day called Armistice's Eve, the day before the world wide holiday, Armistice Day. As the name suggests, Armistice Day is a ceasefire day between the two warring nations in the Great War. Armistice's Eve is also called the day of retreat, where fighting is supposed to start grinding to a halt. Cities all over the world will be preparing their feasts and festivities. Some will have already gotten an early start.

Wherever you wish to start your character is completely up to you, but I'd suggest finding at least one other partner willing to start at the same location. This way you have someone besides me and my NPCs to interact with. That being said, if you want to lone wolf it, I'm perfectly happy to provide you with NPCs to interact with.
Hidden 1 yr ago 1 yr ago Post by Spin The Wheel
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Alright, here's what I got so far. Have a look and tell me what you think.



Not sure what kind of power level we're working with in terms of magic, but I tried to err on the weaker side since I'll probably be more of a physical guy.
Hidden 1 yr ago 1 yr ago Post by Balthazar007
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Alright, here's what I got so far. Have a look and tell me what you think.



Not sure what kind of power level we're working with in terms of magic, but I tried to err on the weaker side since I'll probably be more of a physical guy.


I like your character a lot, and your writing is easy to read.

There are only a few things that need tweaked. His race would be "Beastfolk: Highland Cow", and his faction would be "Giant Foot Tribe: Bighorn".

I'm going to say his species, on average, lives to be about 125 years old. This explains why he would look young in human form despite being in his late teens. That being said, can you simply put his age down as a number? (E.g. "17")

Also you didn't put any Key Items, which you don't need. However, I could imagine that traveler could have given him a weapon, staff, amulet, or something else if you would like, and it can be a magic item of some sort. I leave that up to you.

Finally, how long would you say it's been since he left Numgam? This will help me with deciding his starting coins.
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<Snipped quote by Spin The Wheel>

I like your character a lot, and your writing is easy to read.

There are only a few things that need tweaked. His race would be "Beastfolk: Highland Cow", and his faction would be "Giant Foot Tribe: Bighorn".

I'm going to say his species, on average, lives to be about 125 years old. This explains why he would look young in human form despite being in his late teens. That being said, can you simply put his age down as a number? (E.g. "17")

Also you didn't put any Key Items, which you don't need. However, I could imagine that traveler could have given him a weapon, staff, amulet, or something else if you would like, and it can be a magic item of some sort. I leave that up to you.

Finally, how long would you say it's been since he left Numgam? This will help me with deciding his starting coins.


He's basically fresh off the boat right now, no money to speak of (probably).
Hidden 1 yr ago Post by Balthazar007
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<Snipped quote by Balthazar007>

He's basically fresh off the boat right now, no money to speak of (probably).


Yeah, you can make his money 0 for now.

How about I make an NPC character sheet for this guy and say we came over on the boat together? If that sounds good to you, describe this guy to me in a little more detail, specifically in regards to his occupation. How did he afford the boat ride, or was it his boat y'all rode on? I'll handle the rest, assuming you want to go this route.
Hidden 1 yr ago 1 yr ago Post by Vec
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<Snipped quote by Spin The Wheel>

Yeah, you can make his money 0 for now.

How about I make an NPC character sheet for this guy and say we came over on the boat together? If that sounds good to you, describe this guy to me in a little more detail, specifically in regards to his occupation. How did he afford the boat ride, or was it his boat y'all rode on? I'll handle the rest, assuming you want to go this route.


I think they'd probably have gone their own separate ways. But now that I think about it, the boat thing is pretty important. I'm thinking that bartering for passage with animal skins and/or rare herbs is the most realistoc option.
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<Snipped quote by Balthazar007>

I think they'd probably have gone their own separate ways. But now that I think about it, the boat thing is pretty important. I'm thinking that bartering for passage with animal skins and/or rare herbs is the most realistoc option.


Sounds good. So can you add "Travelers Pack/Bag/Satchel" as a key item. Call it what you will, but this way you don't have to list regular survival items, herbs, and such within your inventory.

And you can start with 20 coins, as someone would have tried to buy some of the herbs and stuff off of him. Having heard a little of the importance of money, and since they were trying to buy herbs that were of little value to him, I'm sure he would have made the trade/sell. Or leave your coins at zero if you think he would refuse the buy/trade, up to you.

With these changes, you will be good to post your character to the "Characters" tab.
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Hidden 1 yr ago 1 yr ago Post by Renny
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I'm here and accounted for. Been a rough couple of days but I'm gonna start on my character sheet now.

Gonna finish this tomorrow, I gotta prepare for work in the morning.

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Hidden 1 yr ago Post by Balthazar007
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I'm here and accounted for. Been a rough couple of days but I'm gonna start on my character sheet now.


Hope things are turning around for you in the real world. Glad to see you!
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I need a slight extension on the time for making a character sheet. Don't know if I'll get one posted before having to go sell my crafts.
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I need a slight extension on the time for making a character sheet. Don't know if I'll get one posted before having to go sell my crafts.


No problem, thanks for letting me know. I'll extend your claim to the blue crystal till Thursday. 👍
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I don’t think I’m going to join. Sorry.
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Hidden 1 yr ago Post by Balthazar007
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It has begun!


I know I said I would wait till tonight, but I just couldn't. I have set the scene and if any early birds (I'm looking at you @Spin The Wheel.) want to get started, they can. However, there is no rush. I just didn't want the inspiration to write to escape me later on tonight.

Starting tomorrow, unless I hear from the people who had reserved them in the "interest" thread, the following crystals are back on the market:
The Orange Crystal
The Yellow Crystal
The Green Crystal
The Violet Crystal
If you would like to extend your reservation of a crystal, do what @ARedneckWizard did, and let me know.

Right now, I have the scene set for Tempum City, because @Spin The Wheel has expressed interest in starting their character in that city. If you want to start your character's journey in a different location, I will add an opener for that location as well.

Thank you everyone! I'm excited to get this thing started! I hope you are as well!

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I don’t think I’m going to join. Sorry.


That is okay. I won't tag you in future posts. I didn't see your message until after I posted that last OOC post.

We'll be here if you change your mind.
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