DocRock

Black Star: Steampunk Fantasy Space Piracy

Sure, I can easily change stuff up. Like your suggestion, I can make him solely the record keeper, and have his navigation skills be put to work only if something happens to the current navigator. Or two heads are better than one type deal. One drives while the other plots the course and points out problems. I dunno, I'm completely open to suggestions or ideas. Wanna make sure there's more synergy than there is chaos, y'know?

Suddenly, My Favorite MMORPG has Become Real?! — A Log Horizon-inspired RP

Well of course, some splitting or solo play would be expected. Factions developing as interests evolve. But if you wanted to work together, that's an option. My friend Bone Daddy when he has time, might make his character a pal of mine, so we at least have each other watching our backs.

The current setting of the game does give me ideas for what we can try. Leonardo Da Vinci may get channeled at a point or two. I'll uh, wait to make my first IC until either you or some others go. Slight stage fright is never fun.

Suddenly, My Favorite MMORPG has Become Real?! — A Log Horizon-inspired RP

Name (Former): Christian Light
Name (Character): Indiana Jones(an inside joke on his part, due to his love of adventuring, and now he's stuck with it)
Age: 22
Appearance: Standing at an imposing seven feet due to his race of Dragonkin, Indiana was presumably a fire dragonkin, due to his red scale color, with a toothed snout and small, yet free moving eyes in his skull. He often wore traveling clothes, and while having horns, often tried to perch a fedora atop his head, one of the few times he bought an item that had almost no direct benefits in gameplay for personal appeal. He almost always has a crossbow handy, and various assorted items ready for usage, but thanks to the storage system, isn't usually visible.
Character Level: 40
Character Class: Artificer
Personality: A kind hearted player who despite his fearsome appearance, had a love for helping others. Whereas some who went his route did so for the power that came with being able to craft valuable magical items, he did it out of a love for adventure, to aid others. Why charismatic and confident in the game, this hides a nervous fellow, who was always nervous about fitting in, and in part took a path to stand out to inspire others. Studious and observant, his tendency to binge read information makes him both a valuable source of data, and a dangerous foe due to his extensive knowledge. While most players will just run in and slash, Chris will carefully investigate his surroundings, looking for hidden monsters, doors, or treasures. Or traps. He makes mental notes, and will, if able, leave markers for other players to know where to not step, or where hidden enemies are. Always check the ceiling, never know what's up there.
Abilities:
Dragon's Breath - A racial skill that allowed the player to breath an element tied to their race's heritage. In Indy's case, it was traditional flames, in a spread like pattern. However, it could only be used once a day.
Dragonscale - Takes reduced damage due to his dragonic nature. Unless its a weak spot, then its normal damage.
Identify - A basic spell that allows one to identify an item of a magical nature, its akin to appraisal.
Detect Magic - An omnidirectional spell that tells a user if any magic is present in an area, can be used to detect magical items, or opponents with magic, or hidden spells.
Other abilities will be implemented as needed or thought up(Not limiting myself here now, so much as I am just moving carefully, no need to be super crazy all at once).

Skills:
As a more hybrid-esque class, Artificers have a skill tree that revolves around the production of items, magical or not, but primarily magical. Combining features commonly found in crafting and artisan related classes, a good Artificer benefits from careful resource management, and careful time management. Not recommended as a class for beginners, or casual players, or for the more aggressive playing style of some. The Artificer takes their time, and as such, are seen as a valuable commodity in the game's economy, due to the ability of high level artificers to make incredibly rare and powerful items. Artificers are most commonly found in hub areas, but some can be found in the wilderness, seeking out dungeons or areas overlooked for rare items to add to their collection. While incredibly valuable, they aren't good for direct combat, instead relying on ranged combat or simple weapons, and are best when supporting a tank type class, or as the loot carrier in a party. While unclear what would happen with them in the new expansion, the adventurous nature of Artificers, and their overall usefulness as crafters, would likely benefit.

Backstory:
An American player, who moved to Japan as part of his studies, and was part of Heaven's Door, a crafting guild dedicated attaining status as one of the top guilds in the game via various trades. An aspiring archeologist in the outside world, and a college student in his final year, Chris was a lore fanatic, digging into the game's secrets whenever new information came out, using his love for exploration to roam the world, whether by himself or with others. While Dragonkin weren't as common as other players, due to being in part, seen as "ugly" by most, Chris's own love for dragons, especially the western types drew him to the often overlooked type. Mix in his love of adventure, and it explains his pick of the more recently added artificer. In part why he named himself Indiana Jones. He was frugal with his ingame resources, only buying accessories he felt were really needed, though it wasn't unheard of him to spend a lot of game currency on rare magical items or components, partly making him a lower ranked member of the guild, despite being the valuable Artificer class. He tended to keep to himself even with the guild, often spending long times away, with only one or two other members tagging along. But those were his friends, who he cherished, and took care of. He often gave them the magical items he made, preferring the support role, due to a slight aversion to extreme violence. For him, it wasn't about being the best, but about enjoying the journey along the way, and a small blog he ran when not playing, chronicled his experiences from just going out and enjoying the world the developers had crafted, seeking out the lesser visited areas, even if it meant hours of work just to get the perfect picture.

As the hours ticked down towards the servers going down to add in the new update, Chris had returned his character to his workshop at the Guild Headquarters, for safety reasons, adding finishing touches to an NPC he'd been working on incase he ever had to go out by himself again, as admittedly, the long hours aloe did in fact, bother him, having no one else to share them with in real time, even if a creature he had made, as opposed to a friend, was that person. It didn't bother him, perhaps a clue to his own aloofness, or his desire for well, a sibling. That was the curse of an only child, let alone a stranger in a foreign land. So he had created a hunter NPC elf named Meg, after another game character, or at least their nickname, and as the time slipped away that night, he had turned from working on her skill tree, racial traits, and equipment, to personality. It was easy enough to code in the character's personality to be a bit of a big sister type figure, but not in the aggressive "I'm going to beat the crap out of you if you don't behave," but more the "We're in this together, so let's get going." A fellow explorer in other words. He had no idea just what was waiting around the corner for him, for while he was aware of the strange bug, due to commentary in the chat rooms, he had paid it no mind, chalking it up to a random bug that would be fixed come the new expansion. And such things always happen to other people, right?

Other:
Chris, despite not being one to spend resources where they were not "needed", decided to invest time, patience, and resources into making his NPC Meg, perhaps a hint to his own occasional sense of loneliness. Meg, being an elf he programmed to be like well, a friend and a sister. So imagine his surprise when she came to life, and started playing the part of a sister. His extensive knowledge of the game's lore and inner workings, and exporative nature means he's been almost everywhere a level forty player can go, and well, he's gathered information from others. While unaware of what's to come, that knowledge is going to come in handy later.

Suddenly, My Favorite MMORPG has Become Real?! — A Log Horizon-inspired RP

That's a nice character sheet! Mine feels lazy in comparison, haha. I actually based my character's personality on my own to a bit, as I'm a pretty shy person in real life. And well, I love dragons, and playing around with them. Our characters should meet up eventually, if that's fine?

Be ready for a good time, because its Indiana Jones the Magic Dragon time.

Long-Term Character related question thing

Mhm, very much so. Not everyone is suited for a given topic, and neither is the given thread suited to all. I've had this experience before, in part why the multiverse setting appeals to so many, as well as setups for those who wish to do their own thing to do so without say, disrupting the larger story. It's why you'll find folks recreating the Goku vs. Superman fights somewhere else, while say, the main threat on one world is free to progress without fear of a stray attack ruining their plans.

That's also why I enjoy the idea of a sandbox. Sure, a nice backdrop story, such as an interstellar war, is often good to keep activity going(or to frame what's going on), but often times just letting folks loose can produce interesting results. I have a map somewhere that is the result of this, where a Magneto dragged an entire desert over to a more mild climate landmass, just so mutants or visitors wouldn't have to brave the dangers of whatever lay in the ocean(as the series lore had massive kaiju ready to wake up and rain havoc on unsuspecting travelers, such as four variants of their own Godzilla, or just giant slimes for the lols), or a Sauron set up shop next to a Skeletor, and somehow the two got along.

It was weird, whimiscal, and downright strange at times. There was even a Goku Black who hung out by himself in the mountains, after scaring the pants off the entire writing group for a time. To a Neo Metal Sonic who attained incredible power, by somehow going unnoticed by CC and OC players alike, until it was too late and "oh hey kids you snooze you get bamboozled."

Though I feel as if I strayed a bit from our line of discussion. Not that rabbit holes are bad, merely that they can lead to...interesting lines of dialogue. That said, if you want to discuss things further, one on one rather, PMs here or DMs on Discord work well. You might like the six part series I put together on the lore of one specific series, only because well, our lore for the writing group at the time needed an overhaul, I had time, and was driven. I do plan to eventually, either as GM or finding someone willing to be a GM for me, do a fantasy/science-fiction thread drawn from the Rune Factory series, and yes, its because I have an absurd amount of love for that series, despite its endless hiatus. That and the place I came from with its shutting down nature upset plans for a campaign I had intended for the interested masses. Campaign in the sense that its a given plotline, and see who steps up to do word battle with series of raid bosses, and just general adventuring. To get back on track, it really is just finding the right set of players to work alongside, and to have good co-DMs who share the vision you have, or can cover your weaknesses(such as if your weakness is building tension, but strength is world building, bring in a co-DM who can handle creating tensions).

We were all young once, and we learn from our mistakes, usually(unless you're this one guy I met, who has to be obsessed with the idea of making extremely edgy OCs who break series lore, or just is a nightmare to shift through. Imagine someone doing a composite of all things, a Leviathan, to a point where it contradicted itself at numerous points. Utter headache, always liked flexing and trying to be OP just to kick over people's sandcastles, and then duck and run when called on their godmodding or powerplaying. And then act like it wasn't them later, or lie about stuff.), and in some cases, we live with our cliches. I mean, my character I like the most still suffers from a slightly changed version of her mother issues, where instead of craving attention, she wanted to make their mother pay for all the actions they had committed. Getting the Loki treatment in Avengers from the Hulk can do that. Course, that was a result of the plot, mother ran away when she was little, came back years later as a probably brainwashed, masked villain serving their creator against their will.

There's no way to balance power and stats unless you set an upper limit in the thread, and even then, it can constrict ideas. Say someone wants to do a really fun power(my friend loves thermal energy manipulation, and that's a tricky one to fit into some stories, due to the amount of applications it can have, akin to why tech manipulation is spooky), they might not be able to. I personally think that an upper limit should be flexible, and if things do get out of hand, to introduce elements that help those who have say, gotten stronger than anticipated. In other words, offer different options to different folks. Different types of plot, in other words. I hope I'm making sense. When it comes down to it with characters, I tend to follow a simple method, are their powers justified, clearly explained, and logical? Like if say you have a Fate Gilgamesh type character with a treasury(akin to mine, though their collection is a cross between Gate of Bablyon and Unlimited Blade Works(by accident actually) in terms of how it actually functions), what are their notable items or gear, and why did they get them, how?

Sometimes, its fun to just make a character for the sake of making, for the sake of improving yourself as a writer. Its partly why I stuck to one character where I came from, so I could clearly track my progress. Use the character or their setting as a testbed for new ideas, and if they don't work, trim off what doesn't work until it does work, or repurpose as needed. So for example, if the first attempt at a given plot line doesn't work, take the time to refine it, determine what went wrong, and reboot as able. Roleplaying is a form of writing, and thus an art, so one should take the time to make it beautiful, but not be afraid to reframe ideas as they come. Okay, now I'm really unsure if I'm making sense, or if my rambling has just gone down into pure randomness.

I'll end here, since I'm unsure what else to do or say, to get back on track and the like. I hope this was enjoyable for your reading pleasure, and good for a response. I am enjoying our discussion.

Black Star: Steampunk Fantasy Space Piracy

Name: Drako Jones
Species: Dragonborn(Bronze)
Faction: Pirates
Synopsis of Character: A Dragonborn from a destroyed world, whose love of knowledge and loner nature as an interstellar archeologist attracted the wrong attention. Has a good heart, and kindness in his eyes.
Synopsis of Role: Fluent in multiple languages, proficient with navigator tools, map making, exploration, and magical item analysis and creation. Knowledge in both practical and random information, Drako is a skilled writer, having kept multiple journals of his adventures, and has knowledge of various world customs, and is a good translator when the need arises. He's a bad cook though. Has a pesky habit of going left whenever the choice of left or right is presented, which can cause problems, but he also seeks the secret to immortality, though for what reasons are unknown.
Relation to Ship/Crew: Record Keeper/Lookout/Backup Navigator

Don't have a good picture, but hope this works. I can make changes as needed. Did my best to adapt the Artificer Class and Archeologist background to the setting. Feedback would be very welcome.

All-Verse: The Initiative

Roger that, I'll make something soon, as I got home a bit ago.

Suddenly, My Favorite MMORPG has Become Real?! — A Log Horizon-inspired RP

@PKMNB0Y
Made changes, removed or changed cash shop references to making more in game sense, and tweaked the skills for Artificer, going for a more descriptive approach rather than a specific list of stuff. If Abilities need that treatment too, I can change things around as needed. Plus as we go down the line in story, I can probably expand on abilities or spells as needed. I have a bit of a plan for what's gonna happen from my end at least in story, until other elements occur, and make for new plans. Gotta be prepared for anything, aye?

Suddenly, My Favorite MMORPG has Become Real?! — A Log Horizon-inspired RP

@DocRock: Well, if it's feedback you want, it's feedback you'll get. Lessee...

I'd recommend reading the form out loud to catch any grammatical or spelling errors, but let's dig into the form itself.

1. Japanese server, American player? I do believe proxies are a thing, but I guess it's on us for not implying that there were global servers. If you can come up with justification (e.g. transfer student or study abroad or something), it's fine.
2. You can get away with being relatively vague in regards to what a character can or cannot do in terms of abilities or skills. Hell, I'm expecting a lot of people to make stuff up on the fly, so no need to explicitly limit yourself to what you have there. It's fine to be vague.
(Besides, MMO skill trees are giant. No need to make it a list, basically.)
2.5. I think I'd consider 'investigation' a personality trait more than a skill, but details.
3. You can cut out most of the stuff after the character gets chucked into the game world and use that as an intro instead. No need to place that into the backstory when it isn't really 'backstory' as much as it is current events.

That's my 2AM two cents.

Edit: Right. No cash shop races. That's NG. I'd appreciate if you could tweak that.

@PKMNB0Y

Alright thanks, tbh, I was writing it at about one am myself, and rushing(since at the time I had to get off early), so if I did overlook some spelling or grammar errors, whoops. I can fix up the skills, and change stuff that are implied or outright stated as cash shop to normal stuff. I can also slip investigation into personality, and go for transfer student route. Same for removing the bit at the end about arrival. Anything else? I'll make the changes when I get back from my winter term class, early morning college courses are painful.

Monsters and Men: A One Universe Comics Presentation

Ooh, that could work, hell, Light could be aware of the good Professor, and that's why Mega Man was sent to New York(after a possible detour in Townsville, if that could get confusing), or Monarch related stuff. Anything's possible.

Robotic Kaiju, meet the natural disasters countermeasure, Gamma. And now the song the Megas did is stuck in my head, weee-
Meme aside, I'll take your idea under consideration IceHeart, I'll have the time to come up with a reply while out anyway.