• Civ7 is already available! Happy playing :).

Mafia Signups: The Life and Times of Atto Ngoogol

How much do you hate Atto Ngoogol?

  • Whatever the answer to that one riddle was - yeah, that much!

    Votes: 5 45.5%
  • A whole lot

    Votes: 1 9.1%
  • A fair bit

    Votes: 3 27.3%
  • Hatred is an evil thing...if anything, in the end, I pitied him

    Votes: 2 18.2%

  • Total voters
    11

Earthling

Deity
Joined
Nov 9, 2008
Messages
8,518



Prologue

It was over 50 years ago near the end of the reign of the old King. In his time, political rule of the region had solidified like never before – there was peace, and good relations between the human nation and their neighbors, elves, dwarves, and more. The only political intrigue of the time, it seemed, was whether the King would abdicate in favor of his son in old age - he never did, but the crown passed down peacefully a few years later with the old King’s passing. Yet despite the seemingly good times, there was still trouble to be found somewhere, if you knew where to look. True, bandits were pretty well put out from trying anything near the major thoroughfares of the kingdom, and crime didn’t pay well in the outlands, small villages interspersed among the mountains or uninhabitable wetlands and the like. That still didn’t stop the Kingdom’s soldiers from their patrols and checking up on the peace, indeed, as the King grew older and cared little for more conquests some of the generals wanted to be extra vigilant.

So today a regiment of well-trained, eager, but, for a large part, inexperienced soldiers thought they marched against tangible threat, a serious objective their commanders had spoken of without any hint of joviality. Though some of the younger men had hardly seen real combat in these years of peace, they were prepared for it today, as there had been rumors of open rebellion in outlying lands. At the center of it all was a small upcountry village not too far from dwarven territories. This was the place where the generals of the army, the members of the King’s court, had all heard the intelligence about treachery and rebellion, such information secured by magical means no less. And it all seemed to fit, the village was home to a surprisingly diverse number of non-human races, traders from neighboring lands passed through often, and only recently had the territory ever been claimed as part of the grand Kingdom. The traditional religion and customs were still at the heart of these people’s everyday lives. So, It was determined the traitors would be rooted out and made an example of, just a minor blip in the history of these times, and so the soldiers in the late afternoon came openly to the valley.

The thing was, in all truthfulness the people in no way were in rebellion, had never even thought of it, and were shocked to have such a large contingent of armed fighters arrive at their lands. Though the people had been used to living in relative independence – they didn’t fear the King and didn’t have reason to, most had simply not cared. When pressed by the soldiers however, no man would admit guilt, nor sell out his neighbors who after all were not themselves guilty of treason either, the mood turned sour. The officers demanded harsher interrogations; the townspeople were defiant and arguments broke out. No one knows what started the fire, but well before the sun was down there was a lot of chaos breaking out.

The fire soon spread all across several acres of land, having already engulfed much the heart of the village. And finally, on the very outskirts those peculiar, oddly geometric dwellings, which the villagers knew were the proud handiwork of the aloof gnomish farmers, went up in flames.

The soldiers, in the end, had not found what they were looking for, and left in disgust, with few apologies to the innocent townspeople whose livelihood stood in ruins. Their reports would be indecisive and in truth the King and his court would not care about the matter, though a couple generals lost face. For the regular people involved this day was of far greater import though – there was great anguish, tears, and children shaken and wailing. But perhaps the most terrible look of all was on the face of a stout, middle-aged gnome who had witnessed the whole day’s events thing from the forest uphill.


Today

As soon as your group was together, you had to leave immediately, with the last blessings of the clerics and their wards that stood a chance of protecting you from more corrupt magic. The full details of what happened in the battle would be left to historians, you only knew of the incredible task that lay ahead. For you, the strongest, most trusted, most honorable, or most powerful individuals in this coalition of armies who could be spared, have been sent to hunt down the evil Gnomish wizard Atto Ngoogol and defeat him once and for all.

Rules:
Spoiler :

Firstly, normal Mafia game rules apply. Abide by forum rules, try your best and show good sportsmanship regarding the game so everyone can have fun. A summary of more specifics is as following:

1) All players are encouraged to be active and participate. At the very least, players must vote during the Day phase. A WoG, for those who do not know, is short for “Wrath of God” and is when a player is removed from the game by the GM for independent, external reasons, not gameplay reasons. Breaking other game or forum rules could result in a WoG but that’s unlikely I would hope. However - consecutive days without voting will result in a player being WoG’d, and replaced by a reserve player if possible.

2) The game will have alternating Day and Night phases. Day is 48 Hours, Night is 24 hours –these are estimates, not perfect, but I’ll try to warn you if updates don’t come around then. The times are set and won’t change for game-related circumstances, it would only be real-life or external concerns that could cause minor hiccups. (Living) Players MAY post in the game thread both at day, or at night.

3) Players may send private messages to each other – feel free to use the CFC PM system or other methods you desire. However, the following rules must be obeyed: Do NOT directly quote private messages from myself, the GM, under any circumstances, including your role PM, PMs about items, abilities, etc… Summarize the information in your own words if you must. You should also avoid directly quoting your fellow players as well from private messages (though quoting anything in the game thread is fine) without their consent – though if it’s something like a quicktopic where multiple players have access you know who you can quote and who you cannot. The short answer is: PARAPHRASE, do not quote, whenever possible or if you are at all unsure.

4) Dead players may not post on the public game thread, nor talk to still living players about the game. Living players should not talk nor solicit responses in the game thread, or privately message dead players.

Factions:

All players will belong to a faction. I will not specify the number or makeup of factions, but they are numerous, and all members of a faction share goals. Members of your faction are your teammates, not your enemies, and no, this isn’t a lie or trick by the GM, there really are no “infiltrators” on any faction, the faction you are with at the start of the game can be fully trusted as your allies.

With a player count of 26 players, there are N-2 factions, where N was an original ideal number between 6 and 15.
Victories:

All players have two Faction goals and a personal goal. The primary goal counts for 50% of Victory, the secondary goal for 30%, and the personal goal for 20%. For the majority of players, either your primary or secondary goal will include “Defeat the evil Gnomish wizard Atto Ngoogol.” Please strive to accomplish your victories as best as possible, within the game rules and forum rules and good sportsmanship. Victories are achieved regardless of survival, unless survival was one of your goals, but a player plays well and dies early they will not be and should not feel penalized, if their goals are still achieved in the end.

Names and Player Action

All actions and votes for a player must be done by their CHARACTER NAME. Do NOT vote, or send in orders, by a poster’s CFC name, they will NOT count.

Example: Earthling is the character Joe McFantasyPerson. You may nominate: Joe McFantasyPerson or send me an order at night to roleblock: Joe McFantasyPerson. nominate: Earthling, or roleblock: Earthling ARE NOT VALID.

The names of all characters will be listed in the OP, but not which CFC posters they are unless they die, (though there may be some clues players could work out as the game goes on, in particular through vote tallies or support vote so players should be cautious in considering their actions). Basically, your fellow players may decide to tell you who they are or decide not to and try to hide it.

Strength:

Characters will have a strength stat, which includes a base strength and an effective strength after modifiers are added, say from an item. Higher is always better, strength serves several purposes in the game such as influencing how a combat situation would be resolved. There may be other interesting attributes or qualities players will find of their characters as the game goes on.

Injuries:

Players may be injured during the course of the game, which generally does the following: prevents them from using abilities, prevents them from casting support votes, and their base strength is minimized to one for the duration of the injury. An injury will recover on its own without interference after two phases (day/night) from when it was received.

Abilities and Items

In this game, players may have abilities and items, though not all players are guaranteed to have both or either; factions may share some abilities or items as well. For any active ability, you must PM or otherwise clearly contact (say, on a QT) me, the GM, to use at the appropriate time (Day or Night). Some abilities or items are passive effects. Details on abilities and items will be given to players with their role PMs or for items when they acquire one.

Items may in general be given to other players or put up to vote if there are is no special consideration, as per standard rules. PM me and the item will be transferred to another player or put up to vote by the next update (this includes the Midday update if possible, I'll try to do so but can't guarantee it) if you wish to do so with any item(s) you have.

Special: Investigatory Abilities - no player has the ability to determine another player's faction, character name (as in, match your character name to your CFC name), or alignment (Good/Neutral/Evil) directly via an ability or item.

Nominations

What follows is equivalent to what would be a “lynch” in another Mafia game, however, in this game we do not have lynches, instead there are “nominations” for a champion. I must stress right now and immediately, do not gloss over this, this is NOT just a flavor thing, nominations are very different from lynches. If you only thoroughly read a single thing in the entire ruleset, please please please let it be this.

So, while you may in general think of this as equivalent to a regular Mafia game lynch, here are the details:
Each Day two players (this number may change as the game goes on) are “nominated” to lead the group forward against challenges they face, threats from the Dark wizard Ngoogol or elsewhere. Nominated players are not being voted to the noose from their fellow players, but chosen to fight external threats – this may yet be deadly, but do not just expect players to die like they would in a normal game’s “lynch.”

Each player gets a single vote for a nomination per number of nominations available, and may vote for any player. You may vote with vote: so-and-so or nominate: so-and-so or just bold so-and-so (but please see the above on names in general). Please do not edit votes in previous posts, make a new post and strike out votes as needed for your own convenience. Posts with edited votes will generally not be counted, especially if it would affect vote tallies game in light of the below.

Support votes also exist and are done in green; they still count as your vote, so a player can only make one vote, or one support vote for each nominee. If multiple people are nominated, you generally can't support more than one at a time. A support vote DOES NOT REMOVE nominations against another player. Instead, by supporting a nominated champion, the supporting player agrees to help that player fight and overcome obstacles before them. Players may also abstain, this does NOT count as “vote for no one to be nominated.” Regardless of the number of abstains, even on the very first day, the players with the two highest counts in nomination votes will be nominated. There will be an objective method for tiebreaking that should handle most cases but in some circumstances a tie could result in a coin flip.

Votes for items likewise follow a one-player, one-vote general principle. If a tie occurs, the item will come up to vote the next day.

There is also a final, likewise extremely important rule on nominations. Given the chaotic nature of magic both the land your foe put before you, it has been determined that the group should nominate a day’s champion as early as possible as threats may come out any time. Perhaps lingering magic wards and Ngoogol’s own exhaustion may prevent attacks at night, but at day it’s best to act with all due haste. So the rule is as follows:

Nominations will be tallied sometime on an hour (American Eastern time at :00 on an hour, or at any rate I’ll tell when “on the hour” corresponds to on the CFC clock, with something like “48 hours on the hour from this post”), chosen beforehand randomly, after the 36th and before the 48th hour of the day expires. The players nominated at that time are magically marked – they will be the day’s nominees even if players come to wish they could change it. Recall, again, the game has a 48 hour day, 24 hour night cycle. Votes for items or other purposes still count right up to the deadline.

I, the GM, will NOT tell you when this deadline is each day, except that it is random, no player can do anything to change it, and I will not be unfairly changing things as the game goes on either (As with any other random effects, I have a random number set already chosen that I could, for instance show to any bystander during the game, I’ll just use the next number off the set when the time comes). The actual game update will still come after 48 hours if I can manage it, or at any rate that’s when the day officially ends.

There is one exception – you can all know that for the first day, voting will last the full 48 hours.

So this may sound confusing, and you ask, what does this mean to you as a player? It means the following:

ANY AND EVERY NOMINATION/SUPPORT VOTE made in the first 36 hours of the day, after the morning update, is sure to count, unless the player later changes his/her vote. AFTER 36 hours, at any point on the hour, the votes may officially be tallied. Votes and vote changes after that WILL NOT BE COUNTED for the nomination tally (again, item votes are not affected by this rule). So, as a player, if you want to be sure that your vote is counted, vote in the first 36 hours. The evening update will not happen until after 48 hours, but at some point during that time voting may be closed, and if you vote afterwards, or change your vote, it may not be counted. Players are still certainly welcome to not vote, wait until the “last minute” to vote or change their votes and so on, that’s a valid strategy, just be aware of the dangers of playing with magics beyond your kin.

Example: One day, Charlie has three votes for him, Alice has four votes for her and Bob has three, after 36 hours have gone by. It’s still day, players can keep posting, and changing their votes and so on. It turns out this day, after 5 more hours, is when the votes are tallied, but the players don’t know that. So any player who changes their vote between 36-41 hours would have that counted, any changes after 41 hours actually wouldn’t count, and so the tally and writeup I will make at the end of the day would not reflect that. But regardless, if, say, David wanted Bob nominated he would be smart not to wait until the very end of the day, like 47 hours in, before voting – or else run the large risk that vote would not count.

Magic System

Players will have the opportunity to solve puzzles, riddles, or something similar during the daytime, providing a small strength boost or penalty if they are nominated or involved in any conflict during the day. To our mundane, human world such challenges for the mind are the closest we can get to represent overcoming some magical challenge, counterspell, or so on which gives a benefit to your character if you succeed, or penalty if you fail. Puzzles will be provided at the midday update, so a player who wishes to solve the day’s puzzle must say so beforehand, and will be committed to doing so – if you change your mind, don’t do it or give a wrong answer, you will suffer the penalty.

So, state in bold that you "want to solve a puzzle" BEFORE midday to be eligible that day. Other players may help (or hinder) players to solve a challenge even if their character will not be giving an answer. Any lengthy discussion of a puzzle that would take up a lot of space in the game thread, it would be nice to spoiler to not create excessive clutter, though lively and exciting discussion of the puzzles I hope will be part of the fun.

Character Creation

All players should participate in the character creation process. However, players who do not will still be (grudgingly :p) welcome, I’ve got enough material to handle any such problems. Hopefully that’s few in number as the more I get from players on character creation the quicker the game and final role PMs get put together. So here’s what I would need from players:

Firstly, Do NOT share with other players your plans for character creation before the game, that includes this thread. When you are satisfied with your character, or if you must do so in an iterative process, PM me the details and stats you choose below.

During the game, you may tell people about yourself as a character, your name or alignment or whatever. However, you are still forbidden to discuss character creation mechanics – you can’t say “I put a 3 in strength during character creation and this is what I got” or “I asked for an evil character but didn’t go into specifics so Earthling gave me this character.” Talk to me if you have any questions or other circumstances to consider.

Absolutely Mandatory: Your Character’s Name

Absolutely Mandatory: You have 4, note the final value here is FOUR points to spend on attributes for your character.

The categories are:
Strength, Ability, Item, Other.

You may put 0-4 points in Strength or Ability, 2-4 points in Item, and 0-1 points on Other. In the broadest sense, this influences what your character would have in terms of regular Mafia game concepts – more points in strength means a directly higher starting strength stat, more points in ability means a more powerful ability, or points in Item to ensure you get an item. Put a point in “other” to get something that may be all around more interesting, powerful, useful, or so on with your character, rather than a standard-ish role you might expect is close to any other Mafia role. Example: let’s say some player may wind up with a good chance of being a roleblocker, a common mafia game role. A player who puts 3 points in “ability” could just get a solid roleblock ability, and that’s it. A player with 2 points in ability and 1 point in other could get something more complicated/interesting.

Keep in mind everyone will be on a faction with some number of allies. However, you will not know or coordinate with your allies during character creation. But there are reasons to consider each choice and how you want to play – if you opt for a powerful item for instance it means that even if you get into trouble it may yet help your allies. Likewise, consider drawbacks: like if you have too low strength and you could be in danger of being easily wiped out. Ultimately feel free to stat out your character how you like given background, or goals you would hope to accomplish, or how you want to play the game, and so on.

Important/Mandatory: Your preference for your character’s alignment, in terms of Good/Neutral/Evil.

Recommended: Your character’s race (like elf or dwarf or orc or whatever you want, within reason), nationality, religion, or such important details

Recommended/easy: Your Character’s favorite food, color, and animal, plus equivalent fun fluff details, but I’d like those to start.

Recommended/a little work but c’mon. A couple paragraphs of backstory. Here, I think I’ve said this in some other posts and may quote from them in the future, the idea is the following – we have a generic fantasy setting, so feel free to come up with interesting stories, it will make things more interesting for all players hopefully.



Signups ARE OPEN.

Frequently Asked Questions moved to next post (character limit :D)



edit: please don't vote in the poll till after the conclusion of the game thread :p
 
Signups:

1) Darth Caesar
2) Camikaze
3) choxorn
4) sprig
5) DaveShack
6) Kennigit
7) landlubber
8) rhawn
9) robbiecon
10) Chairman Meow
11) Zack
12) Takhisis
13) Duke Blackstone
14) taillesskangaru
15) Seon
16) mgsmuhammad
17) DrumStudent
18) CivGeneral
19) Jarrema
20) Love
21) civplayah
22) Catharsis
23) bestrfcplayer
24) TheLastOne36
25) classical_hero
26) dcmort93
27)
28)
29)
30)
(will add more as needed, at some point I'll take a few reserves before more signups though just in case)

Reserves:



Frequently Asked Questions:
Spoiler :

Q: How in the world do you pronounce that awful “Ng”
A: Like a “g” expect when it’s pronounced like an “n”

Q: Can we have a quick summary/review again on Character Creation?
A: You get Four (4) points for stats. You can put 0-4 in Strength, 0-4 in ability, 2-4 in Item, and 0-1 in Other, for a sum total of 4. Please provide the other details for your character as listed - name and alignment are also mandatory at the least.

Q: Can we have more details on the game's setting?
A: The game setting is a generic fantasy universe, in roughly a "medieval" era. At the least players can expect the setting would welcome traditional fantasy staples - elves, dwarves, orcs, kingdoms and royalty, magic armor and artifacts, wizards and priests and so on.

I'm not trying to limit players to a specific setting, or think in terms of a set of rules like, say, Dungeons & Dragons - in character creation and the game plot you're welcome to think of what you like best that fits reasonably well. Everything about how the game works follows Mafia game rules or rules I've already laid out - you don't have to know anything about "rules" or "stats" for any fantasy universe to participate. There are a few more details on the overall setting that you'll see in writeups and as always I'll welcome various aspects players flesh out, their homelands in a distant kingdom or backstory NPCs or whatever.

Q: Confused about "Magic" and the "Puzzles" - can we have more details?
A: Yeah I could see this needed a little more clarification. So, During the DAY, before midday, any living player may declare (you should probably bold) that you intend to try your hand at magic, ie. solve a puzzle, riddle, etc...

If any player does so, I will present a puzzle, this is possible from Day 1 - if no one does so there will be no puzzle that day. Any player who declares they will do so MUST give an answer by the end of the day (the full, 48 hour day here is fine) or automatically suffers the penalty. If a correct answer is given, that player receives a minor strength/magical boost during that day phase; an incorrect or failure to answer is a minor penalty. A player need not be the top candidate for nomination nor cast a support vote to solve a puzzle; conversely, correctly solving a puzzle could certainly help players in the latter categories with a little boost.

Again, other players may help or hinder you discuss and solve the puzzle - hopefully not to the point of entirely overwhelming the game thread guys, but within reason, but you have to volunteer in advance to be one of the ones answering it. (There is also no limit to the number of players who can attempt to do so though. Basically, for each player the decision is entirely their own, you could ignore this the entire game if you wanted to, scared of magicks or untrusting of wit)

Q: Can I request my own ability/item/etc...?
A: This has come up during character creation of course so I can clarify things a little bit.

First and foremost, players should focus on their stats to reflect what they think there character is like. Magic-practicing characters of any sort are of course welcome by the way, in case anyone was confused on that, and you could most easily reflect such with ability/item rather than strength probably. But I've had a couple queries that maybe didn't realize that, fantasy magic is part of the game world and can be part of your character. So, if you have something in mind that suits your character, first start off with your stats.

Now, I still can't guarantee things that may not be feasible in game balance. But I will make an honest effort to include your suggestion for, say, an item or ability if possible, or at least the spirit of it. Examples: A player puts most of their points in ability and suggests their character should have a scanning-related ability - that could be done. I can't guarantee specific requests like, "I want to scan somebody for what they do at night" as things still have to be balance between factions and players as a mafia game.

Finally, of course, in your character background mentioning things that aren't in your stats is always fine, but just don't be disappointed, I don't want any misconceptions if something doesn't appear. For instance, if you say your character fights with an axe, but have no points in Item, you're probably not going to get an axe - but it can be written as a part of your character anyway during writeups and the like, you just wouldn't get an "Axe" item. On the other hand if this example character put two points in Strength and two points in Item and talked about their history of training with dwarven masters or something - then yes, I could try to honor that request as is.

Keep in mind I really do have a LOT of "possible" abilities and items I can assign, so nobody has to try to come up with their own custom ideas. If you choose ability/item you'll get something useful, interesting, related to your faction, etc... anyway, it's only if you think you're absolutely dying to have something like our axe-character above - if so, just make that clear to me and I'll try to honor your request.

Q: What does the "Other" stat do?
A: Again, the main purpose of this should be in the sense of customization, in a particular area among Strength/Ability/Item as mentioned. By far the biggest and clearest distinction I can make is - a player would see a difference if they put 3 points in something and 1 point in Other, versus 4 points in something, which would just get them a strong quality in the sense of a normal Mafia game. Now, players can't put one point in each category (2 minimum in Item) anyway, but a point in "Other" probably does less if you spread out points elsewhere anyway - it's to make a distinction that you want something special/customized in a particular field. Continuing an example above, a character really wanting something specific along abilities/items would probably do well with a point in other, where I again would most easily be able to try and honor your request, so you don't just end up with a normal Mafia game's "you can roleblock" ability or something.

Q: Ok, now I'm getting confused, what should I do to just try and win/succeed at the game?
A: I'd really like to say players will experience multiple avenues and possibilities for success. Don't stress out over character creation in terms of game mechanics/optimization- if you have an idea of a character you want to play, be true to your idea. Take just the couple minutes to think what's really the key trait being Strength/Ability/Item for your character to have, and then leave the rest to me - I would really hope I can say you'll end up on an interesting faction with teammates eager for the game too and the overall factions/goals of people will be balanced.

So everything really could be important or players could succeed with what they're given in different ways. Magic as far as things go should be fun and interesting in the game, but it's not an end-all be-all. Basic Strength is really straightforward but should never be underestimated. I know everyone likes to have abilities/items/etc... to always use as well. And there's nothing wrong with your "normal" Mafia game abilities/roles anyway of course too, some players are going to have that anyway, and a character isn't "worse" to not have a unique faction-related ability or something versus the same example of, say, a roleblock.

And of course, after the first days of the game it's far more important how you interact with your fellow players and make decisions than what exact item/ability/whatever you just started out with, no one is going to win on their own just like that.

Q: How do support votes work, and what risks do they carry?
A: A support vote, as mentioned in the rules, you have to vote support: so-so. with your vote to support someone. Players will probably be able to figure out more exact risks and rewards from supporting someone as time goes on. Though, generally, yes, the characters doing the supporting do not bear the largest risk of death or injury, that would be the nominee, and they may help the nominated player to avoid it, and altogether work towards defeating Atto Ngoogol.

So the short answer, which I guess I can spell out as players should figure it out on their own - if you are the only person supporting someone else (like, supporting your teammate for example) then it could be rather obvious to other people *who* you are, and of course you take into consideration the other risks and rewards of support votes like preventing the person from getting hurt/dying and overcoming Ngoogol. So again, supporting your teammate to save them from possible death could probably be worth it even if your identities get known, as an example, or not, it's your decision. You can always attempt to nominate somebody else instead of supporting anybody with your vote, and you can of course support anybody you want even if not on your team too, you're free to do whatever you think best with your vote.

How do item transfers work?
You can give an item to another player or put an item up to vote like in many previous games - generally things should happen by the next Day/Night phase. Giving items will be a general exception to character name rules - don't give an item to another character, you have to give an item to another player (eg. "Give an item to Earthling") and have the item transfer agreed to/confirmed.





Feel free to ask questions, or for clarifications, or point out mistakes, or if there's anything missing in the thread. Also note we'll probably be hosting this and not the Simpsons one, again sorry to Simpsons diehards.

Oh, and the game looks to start around December 27 as we are finishing up the signup phase now.
 
No, you shouldn't. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

PM me all details of your character, name, stats, and so on. POST NOTHING ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER CREATION IN THIS THREAD. Partly because players shouldn't be coordinating with others (again, the "we all want to be evil and be on the same team" example) but more importantly, you'd probably be at a large disadvantage if you do so.

You may share details like your backstory as mentioned above during the game if you want, or not, I'd ask players don't metagame and talk about the actual *process* of designing their characters during the game. So again, once the game starts, if you want to tell someone your strength, ability, whatever, that's fair game. Don't do so now, and during the game don't talk about the actual process, like "I asked Earthling to be on evil team with a strong ability"

edit: made some edits to rules to clarify things, and I'm sure the FAQ may grow kinda large.
 
In. Sounds like a really good setup.

Request: can you please give an example of what you expect from 'Your character’s race (like elf or dwarf or orc or whatever you want, within reason), nationality, religion, or such important details'? For example, would being a Taoist African Grey Parrot be acceptable?
 
Regarding Camikaze's question, civplayah's too I guess: The game setting is a generic fantasy universe, in roughly a "medieval" era. I don't want to limit players to certain preconceptions or a specific setting. But ideally there should be some consistency.

What you suggested, is stretching it, but it is good you thought of an example and asked, it'd help all players. So you'd certainly be welcome to just say you're a Taoist or invent a fantasy religion of similar philosophy, African likewise could work as a description of your characters origin, but you probably could not easily be an awakened parrot just on a whim. Let's try to go with roughly humanoids at the least.

I know I didn't write up the exact intro here yet, that will come with the game thread, the direct happenings prior to the start of the game, but your character should ideally have some motivation as to why they'd be an adventurer - or a soldier or priest or some other profession that got involved in this conflict against the dark wizard Ngoogol. Again, a Parrot is probably not likely going to fit.

But really I want to give players wide latitude, most of those categories shouldn't directly directly affect gameplay besides being an influence on what faction you may be placed on, or influence other players if they find out something about you. But yes, there's a point where things go too far - I think I said as an example a while back for instance, a half-dragon, half-mermaid character with a cheesy and obvious, also probably won't cut it.

However, I'm willing to consider a variety of ideas and even bend things for something silly if there's good justification. It won't result in anyone being overpowered or underpowered in terms of their stats and abilities, and ultimately if there's a lot of good backstory or reason that can be worked into something such that other players wouldn't be upset or angry, we could have someone be "Race: Superintelligent Parrot-Man." But that probably would cause trouble if there was no good reason for it, and that aspect of a character would probably result in hostility or negative reactions from other players, but then again that would be more of a deterrant than a hard rule to something like that.

Thanks for asking though, hope that helped. Again, there's no particular hurry, and I hope I'm not asking too much on characters, I know some people won't provide much in background or the small stuff and that's fine, I'm not trying to waste folks' time - there are just the few major things to consider when you sign up.
 
Why is there a minimum of 2 in Item? :p
 
Stop voting on the poll yet peoples...it's for after the game...for this who did it Ngoogol ngows it was you!

choxorn - I can give a simple answer if it wasn't clear. The intention is for a player to know pretty well if he/she is getting an item or not. It won't be a perfect guarantee, but this way it's much closer to 90+% sure in that those who put points in Item will get an individual item, those who don't won't. If players could put "1" point in item that just wouldn't work, I'd worry about too many people doing that, and either I couldn't give them items so it would just result in, say, boosting strength or something anyway, or I would would have to pile up relatively weak items into the game, or give players with only 1 point a significant item anyway - in short, just wouldn't work. Hope it causes no real hassles though.

Spoiler a bit more, nothing crucial though :


When you look at it this way - everyone is going to have a Strength stat, of course, even if you put zero in strength. But don't get me wrong, strength is an important thing to consider -it's the easiest to understand, really, but not to be neglected, I don't want to give that impression.

"Other" is just what it says for now - purposeful customization. And the better description you have for your character in other ways, the more this helps get you into an interesting spot with interesting role stats/abilities on a faction.

So simply put, everyone has to have a Strength stat of some sort, even the most minimal. Most folks will still have something along the lines of an ability to consider - even if you don't put any points there and don't get an individual one you may still mooch off your faction...but not everyone is going to get an item. Overall I don't know how the balance will work out, there are a few dozen "possible" abilities/items I've written up and not all of them will be in the game, it'll depend on how players design their characters and what factions end up put together. Much easier to explain in retrospect but I can't spoil things now.

Of course, there will always be exceptions - in particular regarding overall factions. It's not going to be possible and players shouldn't expect, for every player role to literally end up with the same effectiveness or power in every way- what IS intended, is that all factions will wind up balanced with an appropriate shot of accomplishing their goals and winning. And all players, comprising those factions of course, WILL have something interesting to their role, no one is going to have a bland/vanilla character without something to do or no importance to their faction. But at the same time everyone individually won't all be able to have their own major ability, item, etc... each on their own.
 
I'm thoroughly hooked on games of this type, so IN.

Something isn't clear. A character gets some number of points that are divided among stats? But if I was reading the right thing it seemed the minimums of all stats added together was more than the available points. Does that mean some stat will end up with 0 points?
 
The minimum is zero, and it's expected players will have a 0 in at least one category, as yes, there's not enough to go around in everything. I think I'm happy with the point values and distribution and to be honest things are going to vary a little - the goal is for players to have a feel of what they want with their character. Everything could work and is close to equally important imo, and you've got the three big categories of strength, ability, or item to focus on, though players may find additional powers and bonuses with the faction they are on or with their allies, this is for individual qualities.

So the major point is - *these* "points" are for character creation, you have 4, and you decide exactly how you want to divvy them up. These aren't going to be the actual "stats" you would find in a character's role PM for instance - for example, a 0 in Strength will still result in your character having a strength score; a 2, 3, 4 in Strength does not mean your character will have a 2, 3, or 4 as their actual exact Strength score.

But thanks for asking. And really, everyone feel free to take your time or ask more about character creation. The goal is for players to be as happy as they can be with their characters, when the game starts, to mitigate all that sadness when bodies start dropping you know ;)
 
Well I'd be annoyed at Perfection if my solid state exam hadn't gone pretty well and I'm still riding the high off of that, as it were (I think :p). And also there is the funny story of him lurking through (and surviving, to Innocent Victory) the last game I hosted.

But I'm going to make Perfection an exception to the exceptions list. If others are still really eager to play but can't make a character and I'll have to do more of that, they're still welcome (though this early into signups, I'm sure anyone who wanders by can figure things out for themselves). But he'd have to make an effort at a character of his own and some commitment to being around to participate regularly (which we know he won't, but thanks for the lolz anyway)
 
Yes, that's why I didn't put you on the signups - keep pestering the thread if you want but if you don't make your own character and are able to play I won't bother you, don't worry. If someone else isn't going to be able to make their own character fully or something but wants to play they're still welcome just as a record - though again, I think everyone can manage that anyway.

Also a little bit of a bump here. But I'm sure we'll get a good amount. I just looked over some of my notes and make some rather specific guidelines for what to change with each amount of players we get, so anywhere from around 27-40 now should work exactly, and even then things should go alright with a little winging stuff, I think we'll get 30ish signups anyway though.

Thanks to everyone's who submitted good characters so far by the way. I hope the setting and game can live up to your expectations, we're not exactly running a perfect "tomb of horrors" archetype here but y'know, don't let yourselves down on the paranoia. :)
 
Top Bottom