Zeroth

♦ A New Era ♦ - A My Hero Academia RP

@pkkenAre we each to just figure out a self-introductory way of getting past each obstacle, under the assumption that we're all to succeed, or will this be a drawn-out challenge where we'll have to make our attempts, wait for the teachers to react, and then make our next move until it's ruled a success?

Fire Emblem: Weight of the World

@AquantheIt's not the professions/classes, it's the narrative role--@Leos Klien is asking about a Captain of the Guard, who travels with the party to protect the Prince, and as Captain would effectively be second-in-command (and given Eli's current lack of leadership ability, the de facto leader) of the group save for those Royal Knights like Rhea that are kind of between a Captain and direct bodyguard to the Prince. But Maize already does that.

Edit: Imagine if LotR had two Gandalfs, not just in terms of two wizards, but two people fulfilling the same niche in the story. Or two Gimlis/Legolas etc.

Fire Emblem: Weight of the World

@Leos KlienI think Maize already kind of fills that role, but I'm not 100% so you might want to ask @Solace. We have a lot of sword users and not many lance or axe ones, though, and only a couple ranged units with one healer. I also don't think we have any of the super-heavy armored classes like the Armors (usually translated as just Knight, but specifically the ones that promote into Generals), and we don't have any Thieves either.

Edit: Also only two Laguz, one of whom isn't in the party yet, and the magic users thus far are just the Prince (All anima elements) and Fei (thunder) with no Light or Dark users.

Fire Emblem: Weight of the World

_{G O R O U}

Leaving Greymont City

---

Gorou mounted wordlessly behind Rhea, his long arms reaching around her--and his hands taking hold of the saddle horn, rather than her waist. She probably wouldn't care, or even feel it through her armor, but best not to try the patience of a woman who would now hold his very life in her hands. He checked, then double checked, then triple checked to make sure his sword was secure as the Wyvern began to trot behind the horses...then, as they passed through the castle gates and began to spread out along the Walk of Magi, Icarus's pace rose. The wings rose and fell with a languid flow, scales and muscle rippling. Then they beat faster, harder, the air thrumming under their power. Once, twice, thrice--

The dragon leaped, and they were airborne, and for a moment Gorou felt weightless. Then it felt as if Icarus had struck the ground, but no, it was only his wings giving that last, full extension before they reached true flight. They rose up, certainly not soaring above the clouds or anything that the swordsman had imagined in his head, but far enough that the streets of the city lay below them as if painted upon the world's largest canvas. The drake's wings now flapped in a steady rhythm as he circled the rest of the group down below, rising in a spiral before leveling out. Gorou's body tensed without his conscious will, as he used his core to adjust his balance and keep the nausea at bay. He swallowed to pop his ears, and the equalized pressure helped his inner ear stabilize as well. Once he had a feel for the rise and fall of Icarus's body, it wasn't that bad--not even as bad as being on the ocean.

The capital of Estala was revealed to them in all its glory--and its shadows. As they crossed the Walk into the city streets proper, the city watch lined the roads and kept the citizenry at bay. These people were simply happy to catch a glimpse of their beloved prince, and of the proud knights--and a few mercenaries--who would accompany him to rid their land of those dastardly pirates. Others, whom were only now visible to Gorou because of his newly attained height, were not so elated. Gorou's mouth dipped slightly at the corners as he watched the diversity of the city at work. Estala prided itself on the multitude of cultures that had begun to mingle within its borders; some had come because other countries were at war, others had come to seek opportunity...and some had come because they heard that Estala prided itself on its diversity, which meant it was all too eager to bend over backwards to accommodate them.

It was one thing for the old clans like Gorou's to mix and mingle with the "modern day" Estalans--they were also Estalan, they just happened to still have traditions that were very old. They still followed the same laws, believed in the same interpretations of religion, spoke the same language. And in a similar way, the modern day Estalan culture was not altogether removed from the old ways--Lady Jauna's court fashions, and the styles of woven tapestry or of painted artworks, their old legends. All of these things still bore the mark of the old ways, though subdued and often re-purposed. That was one thing, for customs to change, to grow, to be used in different ways. That was simply the mark of Time.

But for Estala to throw open its arms to any and everyone was another thing entirely. Tourism, mercantilism, these things were good. Gorou didn't begrudge the few Ibionese he had seen among this gathering--they were mercenaries, and a minstrel, and they would be gone when they had done their part and earned their coin. But the Ibionese were of Ibion, not of Estala. The Anarcans were not of Estala. Cessians, Mirivans, the Laguz, none of them were Estalan. If they wanted to come from those places, and make Estala their home--and speak Estalan, and wear Estalan garments, and act like Estalans--then fine.

But Gorou did not want them to make Estala like those other places, and if they "took pride" in their diversity too far, that was what would happen. A nation could not claim to be "multi-cultural" and still be a united people. And Gorou suspected that the immigrants also knew that.

So the corners of his mouth dipped slightly as they passed through the city, and the Laguz at their trading post cast suspicious glares all around them--strange that they would come to a place full of Beorc, if they mistrusted Beorc so, but of course Estala pitied them because they had it so hard in other places, so no doubt some of them came here because it was easy to find helping hands--and gullible ones--in Estala. And the Ibionese traders, in their bright silks and carrying many goods on the backs of their horses, spoke in the fast-paced Ibionese language that no Estalan could understand--but if you were here to trade with Estalans, why not speak Estalan, unless perhaps it was easier to exasperate a customer into buying something at an inflated price if he couldn't understand you. And so on and so forth.

But now they were out of the city, out onto the roads that began as perfectly aligned bricks, then turned to cobblestone placed wherever it would stay, then finally to gravel and dirt. Plains stretched from the city walls off into the distance, gentle hills swelling up here and there and the occasional tree breaking the line of sight. Off in the far distance, turned blue and blurry by the air between there and here, a great forest stretched on until the human eye could see no further. Beyond that would be other sights just as fine...and, further still, the ocean with its restless waves and salty breeze--and the pirates they hunted.

For the moment, the midmorning sun was warm but the air was cool, and no clouds broke the endless expanse of the sky. Gorou lost track of time simply taking in the view from atop a wyvern's back, but at some point he remembered the dame and finally spoke to her.

@Ambra"So...is there anything else you wish to know, that would assuage lingering doubts?" he said, trying not to raise his voice too much even though the beating of Icarus's wings made it necessary. "I assure you, there's nothing to worry about--even if you didn't have me at your complete mercy up here." He smiled a bit, to indicate that was a joke--then he remembered that of course she couldn't see him, being sat in front of him, and now he just felt awkward.

Fire Emblem: Weight of the World

@AmbraHow high will Icarus fly, and what will his position be relative to the party--will Rhea and Gorou be flying ahead to scout, or just cruising along while keeping a lookout from above, or what? Also, anything I should make mention of in regards to landscape, people, or anything else we'd be able to see from up there?

♦ A New Era ♦ - A My Hero Academia RP

@Dead CruiserNo one indicated it was a "big problem," or that it suddenly made them unable to play their character. All that was said was basically "A ranking won't mean much if the player can't match it," followed by "It's also worth double-checking from the opposite direction, so that the character doesn't outdo their ranking," and then "Yeah I had that problem before, here's how I dealt with it."

There wasn't any need for "If you want your character to be SO SMART but then can't play it, that's your fault!" with the implication that the writer themselves would be a dumbass, or that others were whining because the stats suddenly made them unable to play up their special snowflake.

♦ A New Era ♦ - A My Hero Academia RP

Removing stats from the equation, if roleplaying a smart/dumb character is difficult or unwieldy for you, then don't do it. We plan to base stats around the CS, and if you wrote "my character is SO SMART" and then can't play it... well, whose fault is that?

@Dead Cruiser

Except maybe sometimes people don't write characters with different traits--smart, dumb, strong, weak, charismatic, ugly--because they're saying "look at me my character is SO X!" and instead write characters that way because they've never tried writing that type before and want to do something different. Or maybe they acknowledge that, in general, stories need to have varied casts. Or maybe they believe good characters need a variety of traits that can be positive, negative, or neutral.

I don't personally care whether we use stats or not--they're meant to be a comparison to weed out Sue behaviors, a progress bar to incentivize character development, a guide to what role different characters might serve in a team, etc. All good and well. But if they're being used, what's wrong with discussing the pros and cons to using them, and the things that players might want to be aware of when writing under such constraints?

"Don't try to do things if you can't do them well from the start! If someone is in the process of learning but makes a mistake, well whose fault is that?"

♦ A New Era ♦ - A My Hero Academia RP

I could make a character who's S in Intelligence but that doesn't mean squat if I myself can't solve a simple riddle. Mental stuff is best left to solo authors since he can easily feed the answers to his character because they're "Smart", but you can't really do the same for characters you don't directly control.

@Lucius Cypher

There's also the issue of a smart player trying to play a dumb character--maybe it's not as difficult as the reverse, but I've already brainstormed a couple of scenarios with my character, Kenichi, where I suddenly realized "No, it wouldn't really make sense for him to do that because he wouldn't have access to that information like I do." That's a problem that always comes up in regards to Meta knowledge, but it also accounts for a person trying to write a character below their own intelligence level--we might have known something for so long, or it might have come so easily to us, that when other people don't have that level of knowledge we're surprised--"I thought everybody learned that?" The end result, for authors who aren't careful to double-check what they've written, is a character who is supposed to be dumb somehow either outdoing people smarter than they are, or causing a character who's supposed to be average to have to up their intelligence to genius level, and the genius has to now do tenth dimensional equations in order to keep their title.

♦ A New Era ♦ - A My Hero Academia RP

@pkkenWill the players all be in the same school year, or will they be separated out by their ages? I know Japanese high schools have "three years" as opposed to the way Western (or American anyway) usually do it but I'm not sure if that means they have 1 less year of secondary education or if it means their last grades/years are equivalent to Sophomore, Junior, and Senior and what would normally be the Freshman is instead the last part of junior high/middle school.

Fire Emblem: Weight of the World

@AmbraYep, fine by me. I'll wait a bit for the others to saddle up before I post again.