Thinslayer

An isekai roleplay

To flesh this out a bit more, I'm thinking we should require each player character to have a clearly defined Goal, a driving motivation for them to engage with the story. The characters don't necessarily have to implement it in-story immediately (since it's not always appropriate), but it should eventually become a key driver of their character. Whatever that turns out to be, it will greatly affect the kinds of items and powers they'll pick up on their journeys.

So it loops back around to role selection: players will be needing defined roles connecting their characters to the story.

EDIT: Nah, this isn't a good idea. We should let them decide on their own goals. This is hard. ;_;

An isekai roleplay

About leveling systems, I have a few notes.

We could do this Zelda-style, where accomplishing major objectives gives unique powers or items. In one story I'm (trying) writing, the main character has a time-travel power that initially lets him reverse time by five seconds once a day. Accomplishing key objectives allows him to improve this power a little, either by letting him go back further in time or do so more often. We could do something similar for the player characters; whichever power they choose for themselves, completing story objectives will let them improve upon it. They could also acquire important items, like a Baneblade or a new form of Plot Armor.

So if people are hesitant to do anything like tabletop gaming, we could use this minimalist system instead. Of course, preparing for it would be difficult without having their character sheets beforehand...

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While I mull over the leveling system, I have another question: 18+ content yea or nay? Obviously anything explicit would go to PMs.

An isekai roleplay

In the Anima Prime RPG system, the gameplay loop goes something like this:

• Decide whether to Maneuver or Strike. Maneuvers set up Strikes and can increase the power of Strikes. Strikes deal damage.
• If you decide to Maneuver, take some dice from your Action Pool (like Energy from those bad MMOs), and any successful rolls go into the Strike Pool (or Charge Pool if you "crit," used for epic moves). Complement your roll by describing your character doing something cool.
• If you decide to Strike, take some dice from your Strike pool and roll them. Successes deal a Wound on the target. Describe in your post what that looked like.
• When all enemies have fallen, the GM distributes rewards to all the involved players, such as a story McGuffin or a new Skill, kind of like what @The Irish Tree was suggesting.

There's obviously a lot more detail to the system, but that's my impression of its fundamental gameplay. As you can see, it doesn't require any sort of grid-based movement or anything; it's just abstracted enough to work for forum gaming.

An isekai roleplay

In that light novel, they have a sort of "system" or "divine voice". Should we have something similar? Perhaps, one of the players could control the leveling system? maybe I can? I don't know. Its just an idea. I don't want the players to be leveling their characters up all willy nilly and make themselves op. I want it to be challenging.

@Conejitoooo

In most of my RPs, there've been Haven Towers, which were built to protect civilization from Voidspawn incursions. And in one RP, they acted as a sort of System that created and maintained the rules of magic. So we could definitely implement something like that. But like you said, allowing players to grind would be detrimental to the gameplay experience, so we'll have to figure out a way to limit that.

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@Conejitoooo
Before that, I think we first need to establish the broader game mechanics it'll operate under. If the players are up for it, we could incorporate some sort of tabletop system. I did some research on the subject a while back, and I think the Anima Prime RPG system would work well for forum-based tabletop gaming. D&D is designed more around movement mechanics, which forum games suck at. There would be a somewhat high barrier for entry, in that whichever game system we decide on (if any) would require players to become familiar with it. So I'm hesitant to use any tabletop system at all unless a majority of players are keen on it.

If we're not using tabletop mechanics, we still have a number of other mechanical decisions to make, like what kinds of skills players can get, how they get them, how combat is resolved, and so on.

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@Zerofighter
@Omni5876
@Jenessa
@Wolvena
@TheFox
@WanderingDragon
@Benzaiten
@The Irish Tree
@Conscripts
@Zool
We should probably take a poll on this, as it's a major decision that will require a whole lot of work to set up. Who's interested in adding leveling mechanics to the RP?

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@Zool
Ooh, that's a fantastic idea. Leveling mechanics could be compelling if done properly. The light novel "So I'm a Spider, So What?" handled it super well.

Is anybody else interested in leveling mechanics? I know that can be hit-or-miss with this kind of RP.

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@Conejitoooo
All right, I have a few other ideas there, and it basically comes down to what kind of story you want to tell. Frankly, Rei could do just about anything you want her to with her background. She could do anything from waiting tables at an inn to leading a whole country. I'm leaning more towards her being some sort of rogue leader or something, because come on, "Void Queen" just sounds so badass. Or maybe she's a priestess who tries to hide her true nature from those who hate Voidspawn? Just an idea.

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@Conejitoooo
Hmm, good point. If Rei isn't a reincarnation, she'd most likely originate from the Empire of Hume, where magic is the most advanced. The creation of alternate forms of life sounds like something an Imperial Magus would get involved in.

Edit: I just remembered that doesn't jive well with the backstory we discussed for her. I gotta dwell on this a bit more.