[OOC] Highrealm

Introduction

This is a tabletop game of my own creation, having never played other tabletop games before but have played rpg videogames and wanting to start something here. There will likely be some similarities but I'd like to have this be my own thing so that I have more creative freedom designing it. This will require some testing so it would be great if people are willing to help out in this endeavor and have fun doing it! Anyways, the basics are already developed so the game can be played, but advanced features will come out in the coming days by us figuring out what we want to have happen to make things even more fun and balanced. Want an ability to shoot lasers out of your eyes? Want a race of ninja cats? Suggest it and I'll see what I can do. The tone will be serious but not deathly so, so will always has room for some humor and awesomeness. 

It will be fantasy based with multiple different races, some taking inspiration from other common fantasy races but others completely new...as far as something can be "completely new" nowadays. Basically, expect old favorites fighting alongside fresh new ideas! 

To greatly help visualize what's going on in battlefield and to roll the dice in a fair manner we can use a free game that can be played in your web browser called Roll20, that link bringing you to the campaign used for this roleplay. However, the rest of the process outside of these two things will still take place here. The chat within the program can be used for quick stuff but the OOC and IC here should still be used on this site for the important stuff. Character sheets and the like will also be here so that function will not be used in the program either.

The IC will be used for our characters talking and to type out what happens during the battle in story form to make things sound even more interesting. Basically, instead of saying "I rolled a 8 so hit the goblin for 20 damage, reducing his hit points to 0" you'd say, "He swung his broadsword powerfully at the retreating goblin, smashing it against his helm and sending him crashing lifelessly to the ground". Not every single move needs to be documented in the IC, just the exciting points such as saying, "He bashed away goblin after goblin but they just kept coming, delivering multiple scratches across his weary body". Based on us knowing what happens we can also post certain details without waiting on each other to post IC (but can't say what they're thinking/feeling still). This means you can mention "the brave elf girl fighting at Adam's side darted off, taking down the robbed warrior as  Adam ran the other way down the hall" without having to wait for the person playing the elf girl to state this because you know it already happened during the game. This means that you can just go on and post in the IC whenever you're inspired by the events to do so.

As previously stated, I do have the page for this roleplay up and running but as you see I currently just have it as nearly blank, only a background and one character. Feel free to mess around on this page and get the hang of things. I have no attachment to the page so won't scream even if you obliterate it accidently (or...or was it truly an accident? *suspicious glance). 

If you see any problems, clarifications, or improvements that can be made with this roleplay in any way, please feel free to point it out. 

Without further adieu, let's get to the juicy bits!

Basic Lore #1

In the beginning, all energy in the universe was formed together into what's known as the Sphere of Existence and the Dark Cosmic Sphere, two massive structures that circled around each other for untold millennia. However, the must subtle of variations lead to the two eventually colliding, bringing about a massive burst of energy as they were thrown into different dimensions, in the middle of them the creation of the universe, gods, and spirits, both of which were beings of pure energy until they further coalesced with physical matter, the difference between the two being how much energy they had absorbed during their formation.

Although the gods inherited vast powers they were not invincible, all knowing, all powerful, etc. Rather, just like us mortals they all had strengths and weaknesses and squabbled amongst each other about how best to proceed from their current position. Some used their powers to achieve selfish goals, some wished to rule all gods, some wished to share their powers with others, while some just wanted to be left alone. Although most were against it, one group with multiple different motivations behind their actions banded together with the joint purpose of creating life, a thriving ecosystem other then their own stagnant one. It was this endeavor that was known as the nine years of creation.

Aedea, a goddess otherwise known as Mother Nature, was the unofficial leader of this group, and through her powers much of their chosen planet was transformed from completely barren to a state of life bearing. However, she still needed the help of others to work out the more detailed aspects of their specializations, such as but not limited to water, earth, and sky. Viralith and Taohlno developed animals and plant life, respectively, through cells created by the god Plesaudus. However, Thurssius, the "breath of souls", was the only one of them who could create new souls from stray energy capable of true consciousness. This lead to a combined effort to create the first sentient race, the ancestors, the greatest creation of the gods. Spirits placed inside living, mortal beings were now called souls.

Many of the gods who were against this project from the start went from voiced displeasure to far more stern warnings and even outright violence when they saw the ancestors come to fruition, secretly threatened by what those mere mortals could be capable of if left to develop even further. With the other side not wanting to see all of their hard work be destroyed, this lead to a rift between the gods large enough to escalate into what's known as the First Creation War or the God vs. Spirit War. The side fighting the gods bent on destroying them needed a lot of help if they were to win, despite the aid of some gods of their own and most of the spirits, who largely wished to usurp the gods rather than be satisfied with their current subservient status. 

Spirits engorged themselves with different elements through the stray elemental energy strongly present during the creation period and the war that followed. The ancestors then used the elemental power of the spirits to combine with their own soul and change their bodies, gaining new abilities and even altering their appearances until they were no longer recognizable as an ancestor, becoming other races entirely. The two most ancient and powerful of them were the giants, who then turned into titans, and the drakannians. Both of these races had the most raw power infused within them as well as elemental power, the giants only at 20 feet tall becoming titans as tall as 500 feet and the eldest, most powerful drakannians becoming equally as large. 

Their combined powers became large enough to tip the scale, saving creation from it's premature extinction as more and more gods either gave up or even outright joined the mortals and spirits. What is known as the Great Pact was signed and magically enforced through a great power beyond any individual god, preventing direct interference from the gods outside of certain approved measures. Although this stopped the gods from preventing a lot of hardships that the mortals would face along the way, it also stopped them from causing it, so it was a sacrifice that had to be made. Some gods were able to give up their godly powers and become mortals, thus allowing them to interfere that way as part of a loophole, but this was a risky maneuver so most relied on followers to do their biding. Even if they retained a high level of power they could still be killed if they get too careless, which famously happened to a god named Phulantus who was slain by a lowly peasant.

Things were relatively peaceful until a power struggle between the titans and drakannians began. Now that they didn't have the gods to worry about they wanted to fill the power void for themselves. This war was even longer and more brutal then the last, reshaping the world through the collateral damage. The war only ended with the ancestors and other races forcing a ceasefire, but not before the population of both sides were devastated and even many others who were caught in the crossfire. With the titans unable to reproduce on their own and the vast available energy present during their creation dried up, they were doomed to near extinction as only the giants who didn't turn into titans remained to reproduce. The drakannians began to grow in number again but have still never recovered completely in population and didn't achieve their power status despite eliminating their titan rivals. In the end, this means that both sides lost horribly. 

Most of the races around at first either died out or changed even more so no longer exist in the state they had been during ancient times. As more and more showed up and managed to stay for longer periods of time, not shifting in powers and abilities so much as the spirits are loosing power to do so, various nations began to also come about rather then the one world government they had set up since the beginning of their creation. The ancestors have spread out to become many different races so very few still exist as they had those many years ago, their continued existence a supposed myth. The most numerous race by far is the elhdes, a race comprised of traits of elves, humans, and dwarves. Various races have now occupied and explored most of the continent now known as Highrealm.

Light spirits (angels) and dark spirits (demons) are allying themselves with different gods and the dark spirits have devastated certain smaller nations, threatening to once again throw the world into chaos if they cannot be stopped, but the various nations are not all cooperative with one another. In fact, war may be brewing once again...

Gameplay Mechanics

Stats

Health Points (HP) - Reach 0 and your character is out of the fight, at least for the time being. Around 80 HP is the average for a normal humanoid. This value doesn't normally increase as much relative to other stats because you cannot truly train being able to get stabbed in the heart and survive better, for example. People do indeed get tougher but this is mainly through defense to stop the damage from occurring in the first place.

Initiative (Init.) - This stat is important in deciding when they get their turn during combat, the higher the number the sooner it is. This stat doesn't upgrade upon normal level ups.

Movement (Mov.) - This stat is important in deciding the maximum amount of movement a character can make in a turn. This stat doesn't upgrade upon normal level ups.

Stamina (Stam.) - This stat is needed to carry out almost all non-magical (and even some magical) actions such as moving and attacking, different actions taking different amounts of stamina to do. Reach 0 and they can no long take any actions that require stamina. They cannot go into the negatives.

Spiritual Essence (SE) - This is used for magical abilities both what you'd normally think of as magic and also for physically enhancing your character and doing many different types of special abilities. Abilities that also have your character do physical actions might very well require both stamina and essence to carry out.

Strength (Str.) - The primary component in determining the damage of a physical attack, but can also be handy in other scenarios as well such as how much they can carry on their person before being slowed down.

Magical Power (MP) - Otherwise known as magical strength, magical power is like strength but for your character's magical abilities.

Defense (Def.) - This is used to physically negate, at least partially, the effect of attacks. It can be thought of both as blocking them with weapons and shrugging them off when they hit, both achieving the same purpose.

Magical Defense (MDef.) - This is used to help block magical attacks. Attacks that hit both physical and magical would go against the average of both stats.

Skill (Skl.) - Primarily used when trying to land a hit with an attack by having your skill turn into accuracy (Ac.) at a 1 to 1 ratio. However, this stat may be used for other things then just accuracy.

Mobility (Mbl.) - Primarily used when trying to dodge a hit from an attack by having your mobility turn into dodge (Dg.) at a 1 to 1 ratio. However, this stat may be used for other things then just dodging. 

Intellect (Int.) - The number from this stat can be used for various purposes when a character's intelligence is needed.

Charisma (Cha.) - Persuasion, Intimidation, and Charm are the three major categories making use of this stat. Although they can all be upgraded at once through charisma, focus can be put into any one category to put more of a bonus towards that one in exchange for less points in the others. This stat doesn't upgrade upon normal level ups.

Luck (Lck.) Luck (labeled as chance under weapon stats) changes a character's dice rolls from how it's stated by default. High luck adds more variation to the possible damage, meaning that you roll dice with larger numbers, 1 more sided dice for each additional luck. Luck also can be used for other calculations, including adding one critical hit chance per 5 luck and subtracting one critical miss chance per 5 luck (but cannot subtract the last one). This stat doesn't upgrade upon normal level ups.

Battle System Concepts

Counts and Initiative - Battles don't have turns where enemies and allies alike wait for the other to move their entire forces before proceeding with their own turn. Instead, things rely on the initiative of characters to take action. This leads to the all important aspect of counts. Each turn begins with the character with the highest initiative and then counts down by one until it reaches the next highest, then the next highest, etc, until everyone has had a turn and then the next turn begins at the highest initiative again. 

If more than one character shares the same initiative then the playable characters go first, deciding on their exact order amongst themselves diplomatically or in games such as rock paper scissors. Players can willingly lower their initiative by any amount down to 0 at any time before taking their turn, but initiative also lowers unwillingly upon taking actions or being hit by actions that would slow your character down. Likewise, it can be raised by abilities. Having an initiative of 0 means that you cannot take your turn.

Stamina - Actions taken in battle require your character's stamina, but don't worry, stamina recharges by 20 points every turn but cannot go higher then the character's stamina. 

Movement - Moving a single space requires 2 stamina by default. Your character can move up to as many spaces as their movement value in a single turn and if they have enough stamina remaining to carry out the movement. Some obstacles require additional stamina to pass as well as if they're burdened by too much weight. Movement doesn't have to be done all at once and can be carried out in any order.

Each space is roughly 6 feet in length from one side to the other, although this measurement is 1 nuel, a unit of their own measurement in universe. A nuel is close enough for melee combat.

Attacking and Defending - To attack an enemy your character must first get into range, which varies depending on the specific attack. There are two parts to the basic attack; hitting and damage. You must first see if the attack will hit before applying any damage that may come about as a result. This concept will be explained in the two sections below.

Hitting (Accuracy and Dodge) - Attacks have a certain percentage of hitting based on the attacker's accuracy (Ac) against the defender's dodge (Dg), starting at a base value of 50% hit chance by default should the Ac and Dg have the same value. Every 1 point in Ac adds 5% to the hit chance while every point in Dg subtracts 5%.

After taking into account the hit percentage you roll a 20 sided dice (called the hit dice) to see if the attack does indeed hit. The easiest way to think of this is pretending that each number gives 5% more hit chance to your current hit chance, so rolling a 1 gives +5%, rolling a 2 gives +10%, rolling a 3 gives +15%, etc, or simply multiply the number by 5 for an easy calculation. Reaching 100% or higher total hit chance scores the hit while anything less is a miss. For example, you have a 50% hit chance and roll a 10, which can be thought of as adding 50% hit chance, resulting in a hit. Another way of thinking about this is that the odds of you rolling that number or higher matches the hit percentage. Rolling a 10 out of 20 was 50%, so it means your 50% chance hit did indeed hit. If you have 75% hit percentage then 75% or higher of the dice would hit, meaning you only need a number as high as 5 out of 20.

A +100% roll (20 on the 20 sided dice) is indeed counted as 100% chance of a hit (unless a specific ability negates this) even if you need more then +100% to hit the opponent based on them having way more Dg then your Ac (at least 11 more to subtract more than the 50% given by the base hit percentage). This allows a very lucky strike against an opponent they couldn't normally hit should they roll the 20. For more information, see the "Critical Hits" section.

On the other end of the spectrum for critical hits are critical misses. To see more information on this, see the "Critical Misses" section.

Damage (Attack and Defense) - If the attack hits successfully then the target's defense power (Def) is subtracted from the aggressor's attack power (Atk), and if the number is positive then that value is subtracted from the target's HP, otherwise the attack is considered blocked. 

To get the Atk value you add the attacker's strength or magical power depending on the type of attack, plus 20, plus attack bonuses from equipment and abilities (only if they go along with the physical or magical attack in question), plus the value of a 10 sided dice (called the damage dice) roll. To get the target's Def value you must add their defense or magical defense and defense or magical defense bonuses from equipment and abilities, defense being for physical attacks and magical defense for magical ones. If an attack targets both physical and magical defense, average the two defenses together and round down.

Critical Hits - A roll of 20 on the hit dice is always going to hit even if their accuracy is not normally high enough. However, if they would have hit anyways then the 20 results in a critical hit and does three times as much damage. Additional critical hit chances appear based on how much overkill your hit percentage is. For every 5% over 100% hit chance (before your roll), it adds one more number to the hit dice that would result in critical. Therefore, a 105% hit chance would critical with a 20 or 19, a 110% hit chance would critical with a 20, 19, or 18, etc. 

Critical Misses - A roll of a +5% (1 on the 20 sided dice) is counted as a miss no matter what the odds were. This is called a critical miss. Additional critical miss chances spring up the lower your hit percentage is. For every 5% below 50% hit chance (before the dice roll) there are, that adds one critical miss number going up from 1. Therefore, someone with a 40% hit chance would critical miss a 1, 2, or 3, adding on two additional chances based on being 10% below 50%. You may say, "But you'd miss anyways, right, what's the point?" Well, critical misses are sometimes used for other stuff such as breaking your own weapon rather then just failing to land a blow.

Convincing the Enemy and Emotional States - Although hard to do, it's possible to turn enemies into allies, surrender, or retreat give your charisma stat, most noticeably. Enemies can change their emotional state based on how the battle is going, which can make it easier to convince them to retreat or surrender, for example, if they're getting routed and fear for their lives. You can only talk to them on an individual bases if in an adjacent space but can shout up to 5 spaces to effect everyone within them. How tough specific enemies are to convince is up to the game master but certain races are different values on average, things like monsters often impossible to convince.

Battlefield States 

A battlefield state can be applied to combatants and can alter the way things normally go, triggered to shift the battle in your favor if played correctly, although beware because the opponent can do the same to you. The following is the available (incomplete) list of states. In the examples, opponents are considered enemy team members and allies are considered playable characters and their allies. Therefore, an "opponent fighting allies" isn't a backstabber, but is fighting the enemy team.

Alert - The standard battlefield state, having no special bonuses applied. A character can only be one of the three at any given moment; Alert, Cautious, or Unguarded, but other states can be active in conjunction of one of these three.

Cautious - The character in this state looses 15% Dg. The difference between this and alert is that they might have their hands on their weapons and are suspicious of the opponent but not outright prepared for imminent battle.

Unguarded - The character in this state looses 30% Dg. They have no idea of the possibility of a fight or, for some very odd reason, doesn't care in the slightest, not even enough to dodge properly. 

Unaware - If the opponent is unaware of an ally then that triples the Dg penalty of the current state they are in with alert being a 20% Dg penalty. Even with 8 less Ac then their Dg, a character would still have a hit percentage of 100% against an unguarded, unaware opponent. 

Dazed - The effected character cannot take any action and has 0 Dg.

Unconscious - The same as dazed.

Furious - Must only target the object of their fury.

Surrounded/Surrounding - Surround the opponent by having more than one ally on adjacent squares to them. The surrounded opponent looses 10% Dg against all attacks from surrounding allies should there be two allies surrounding them, 20% Dg if three surround them, 30% Dg if four surround them, etc. The opponent has the option to focus on a single ally, diverting the Dg losses towards the other allies in equal amounts. For example, if three allies surround them then the opponent can remove the 20% Dg loss from one and give 10% each to the other two, making those two allies even more likely to hit due to now having 30% Dg removed from their opponent while those two allies attack.

If an opponent is unaware of an ally then that ally does not count towards the surround state for Dg calculations, clearly not doing anything to keep them at bay or distract them if the opponent is not even aware of the ally.

Levels

Character Levels

A playable character has a max level of 100 and a minimum level of 1. Leveling up can be achieved by getting experience points awarded through multiple means, mostly through combat or other scenarios that would test one's abilities. Level 1 requires 10 experience points to level up and each subsequent level requires 10 more than the previous. This means that to go from Level 2 to Level 3 requires 20 experience (not including the 10 put into the character's level upon achieving Level 2), going to Level 4 from Level 3 requires 30 experience, etc. To make things simple, take what level your character is currently at and add a 0 to get how many experience points you will need to level up. Level 99, for example, would need 990 experience to get to Level 100.

Leveling up does three major things:

1. A judge of a character's relative power, a number which is sometimes used in game as well for certain rare calculations.

2. Gives your character stat upgrades.

3. Upon leveling up you'll get a certain amount of points to be placed into your character's Class Levels and Skill Levels.

Class Levels

There are 5 Class Levels (not including Incapable) which are listed as Beginner, Trained, Skilled, Expert, and Master. Almost every class can be upgraded along these levels by adding points into it, starting at Beginner and working your way up. Each level increase requires 10 points placed into the class. Here's a chart to show the points needed for all Class Levels. 40 points is the most that can normally be placed into a class.

Beginner - 0 to 9
Trained - 10 to 19
Skilled - 20 to 29
Expert - 30 to 39
Master - 40

Each gain in Character Level provides one point to put into a Class Level. This means that a character can only master 2 classes and be skilled in a third by the time they reach level 100.

Skill Levels

There are 5 Skill Levels (not including Incapable) which are listed as Beginner, Trained, Skilled, Expert, and Master. Almost every skill can be upgraded along these levels by adding points into it, starting at Beginner and working your way up. Each level increase requires 5 points placed into the skill. Here's a chart to show the points needed for all Skill Levels. 20 points is the most that can normally be placed into a skill. 

Beginner - 0 to 4
Trained - 5 to 9
Skilled - 10 to 14
Expert - 15 to 19
Master - 20

Each gain in Character Level provides two points to put into Skill Levels. They don't have to be placed into the same skill. You can only specialize in one aspect of a skill while trained, two for skilled, three for expert, and four for master. A specialization is something like the attack's strength, range, casting speed, etc.

Races

The following is an incomplete list of races containing basic information on them.

Gods - Gods have been around since time began, although some can potentially become them or loose their status later on. They're generally much more powerful than any normal mortal but there are exceptions. They're very diverse in the types of magic that they can employ and how powerful they are at it. 

Spirits - Created alongside the gods but often with far less power. They are extremely diverse, some with what could barely be called a consciousness while others are intelligent as humans or greater. If a spirit has magical powers it's often related to a single element. A spirit can join a soul of someone to become one with them and give them magical powers. The spirit often looses it's consciousness but not if it has a strong enough one.

Giants - Giants are among the oldest of races. They have immense physical prowess and in some cases, even in magic. Their sizes vary greatly from 8 feet to 40 feet tall, originally being around 20 feet but have spread out and changed over the many years of their existence. They look mostly human but some can appear more rugged like how cavemen are stereotypically portrayed as. This depends on the individuals because there are beautiful giants as well. Some giants appear sort of like their elemental power in certain ways.

Titans - What were once giants, the titans grew to even greater size and power in an effort to combat the gods and later the drakannia by way of ancient magical arts. They have no reproduction and most were killed in the war so very few titans still exist, the ones that do often secluding themselves. Due to an increase in magic their bodies often take on the appearance of it even more completely then the giants, so ice titans have their skin coated completely in icicles, for example. The maximum size of a titan is highly debatable and rumors claim of a 500 foot one, making the tallest giants only go up to their ankle should that be true.

Drakannia - The drakannia were created alongside the same time as the giants and hold immense power in general, although weaker races of beings have spawned from them. Some are called dragons as their informal name, but often only for the winged ones. Drakannia do not all have wings but most have a dragon-like body to some extent. They never stop growing, their babies about the size of humans and the largest elder on record able to rival the titans in size. They come in different types such as fire, ice, etc, able to breath out and otherwise control their element to an extent. They got into a massive war with the titans. Many on both side were killed, which the Drakannia still haven't recovered from as far as population size is concerned, originally said to be as common as birds. Drakannia and giants still feud quit often, although not on such a large scale, drakannians seeing giants mostly as a food source rather than something to send huge invasions forces against.

Ancestors - The ancestors were the first sentient race created by the gods and from which spawned many other races. Rumors of their continued existence are debatable.

Elhdes - The most common race and spawned from the ancestors. There's further distinction amongst their race by the slang terms "human, elf, and dwarf" based on certain qualities that they have, but they're basically just like different ethnicities of elhde. Due to their great diversity, however, many differences can indeed come about amongst different elhde groups as they traveled around the world. Some look like normal humans but common qualities in all groups, especially in the elves, are pointed ears. They can be large or small in stature, the elves being the largest and slimmest, then the humans, then the dwarves. However, the human ethnicity shows the greatest diversity so can be very tall or very short to match the other two groups in height. Their body shapes and facial features can also be realistic all the way to more cartoony looking, capable of having unique features such as massive noses, a squat body, bizarre mustaches and eyebrows, etc. Imagine Wario and Waluigi type people.

Abilities

There are abilities that can be learned based on the character's unique abilities, their race abilities, their level abilities, their class abilities, and their equipment abilities. The list of abilities will be filled in the coming days and whenever new ones are thought up and approved for use.

Equipment

Equipment will be things like weapons, magical trinkets, items, armor, etc. Like abilities, the list will have to be created in time. We clearly have no time to wait for this massive amount of information to come out so equipment will only be put in as it comes into importance.

Future Updates

Sooner

*Character sheets
*More of the common races and short descriptions of them
*various nations
*Average stats for the starting level for easy reference 
*Major class names and basic information about them
*Some abilities 
*Status effects

Later

*More abilities
*Some equipment
*Additional gameplay mechanics that should be added
*Implement your suggestions
*Start a campaign idea once things are tested out more
ImportantNobody

ImportantNobody

UltikanaRe O God Among Gods, O Lord Above All Lords

Primal Conundrum Amazonian

ImportantNobody

Primal Conundrum Amazonian

ImportantNobody

UltikanaRe O God Among Gods, O Lord Above All Lords

ImportantNobody
