Tabletop Roleplaying Thread

[Dreamaniaccomic]

Yes, yes we do.

Alright, I think I finally figured out the base classes for Orbahlen:
Physical
Soldier: Trained warriors, capable of becoming so skilled at armed combat that they resemble a force of nature.
Role(s): Heavy armor tank/fast swordsman/well-rounded combatant/skill-reliant fighter.
Brawler: Untrained warrior, unless you count the degree from the Tavern of Hard Knocks. Brutal and uncomplicated, but effecient.
Role(s): Kamikaze fighter/lightning bruiser/damage sponge/close-combat specialist.
Tracker: It doesn't matter how you travel or the distance you go; if a Tracker is payed to find you, he will. If he's also been payed to kill you, there's a good chance he'll be able to do that as well.
Role(s): Skill-reliant fighter/ambusher/close-to-far ranged fighter/close-mid ranged and melee fighter.
Noble Fist: Weapons? The only weapons a Noble Fist needs are the ones on the ends of his arms and legs.
Role(s): close-combat specialist/nonlethal damage dealer/lightning bruiser/ fighter with magic abilities.
Captain: Whether they use strategy, combat experience, or force of personality to lead the group, the Captain excels at controlling the battlefield and improving the abilities of their comrades.
Role(s): combat leader/out-of-combat leader/melee support/general support/crowd control.

Mystical/Technological
Channeler: Their power is not their own; they are merely an instrument through which higher powers touch the world. Whether that touch is one of destruction or healing is left to the Channeler.
Role(s): Healer/Damage output/mix-and-match.
Shaman: The power inherent in all natural things belongs to the Shaman. Elemental storms and feral might, the strength of stone and a bird's flight: These are the Shaman's gifts.
Role(s): Buffer/Damage Output
Mechanic: You say magic, I say fuel source! Due to the nature of the mechanic's craft, they have the potential to achieve much greater variety in their effects and uses then any magic user. Or they can blow stuff up in really pretty explosions.
Role(s): Skill-based caster/Damage Output/secondary healer.
Revenant: Their life is dedicated to higher powers. Gods, ideals, concepts... if one can have faith in it, it can be a source of power to a Revenant.
Role(s): Buffer/Healer
Magician: What is the path to strength? A walk through a good library, says the Magician! Through intellect and rigorous study, the Magician weilds powers that only a few dream of.
Role(s): Mix-and-match/Damage Output/Buffer.

[Dreamaniaccomic]

As an addition to my last post, I've had a few ideas for Prestige Classes:

Atoner: Servants of Nelha, the Dream Goddess, who have sworn their lives to redeeming her for the act of sundering the world.
Skyknight: An order that refuses to be secretive, duplicious, or mysterious in any way. A faith in the power of good that is so strong it corrupts those that try to corrupt it. Those who have sworn to uphold good anywhere the sky floats over the land (Which means everywhere.)
Gadgeteer Genius: Don't ask them to fix something unless you want a dozen upgrades (some of which are downright weird) and a bizzare paint job on it. Do ask them if they have any death rays in stock, they're the best you'll find anywhere.
Keel's Coppers: They can tell where they are in a city based on the feeling of the street beneath them. They're honest, straightforward, and will only accept bribes in the form of coffee and doughnuts. They can take you down so quickly you'll still be blinking away stars as the judge reads your prison sentence. They are policemen, as trained by John Keel.

[XIVcaliber]

Since we're all describing settings, it's about time I unveiled mine.

[INSERT FANCY NAME HERE]

It's set in a medieval/steampunk setting, with extravagant cities and diverse locations. Around the world are eight temples, each built in order to enshrine the greatness of the eight elemental warriors.

Before I get into classes, I want to balance and verify the main feature to this campaign: the element system. When you first create your character, you choose one of four elements to represent the magical abilities of your character. Obviously, they're fire, water, earth, and wind. As you fight, you gain elemental EXP along with regular EXP, which grants you new spells and/or spell-like abilities, and eventually allow you to move into a new class of attacks, or a sub-element. The tree goes as such.

Chart tiem!

Elemental Chart.jpg (66.64 KiB) Viewed 1939 times

This is obviously a rough schematic. Notice these are four of the eight elements I described before. That's because light, darkness, force, and time haven't been included yet. Here are descriptions are the elements and their sub-elemental classes.

Fire: Attacks that often have strong power, but are in a concentrated area. Common after-effects are burning and asphyxiation.
->Smoke: Generally does no damage, but instead spreads malicious effects over wide areas.
-->Fume: An expansion upon Smoke. Includes damage in the equation.
->Magma: High damage output and high energy cost. Often destroys armor.
-->Volcano: An expansion upon Magma. Massive damage, extraordinarily high energy cost.
-----> Sol: Apocalyptic fire. Keep away from small children.

Water: Draws upon nearby moisture to lower energy cost. Arid areas require more energy, etc. Generally low damage.
->Ice: Freezes nearby moisture. Can immobilize enemies.
-->Mist: Spreads beneficial effects across a wide area.
->Vapor: Generally no damage, impairs enemy's abilities.
-->Geyser: An expansion upon Vapor. High damage, massive disorientation.
-----> Neptune: Ever wondered what Noah felt? Yeah.

Wind: Often hits multiple enemies at once, at a medium rate of damage. High energy cost.
->Lightning: Chain attacks for massive damage and stun!
-->Current: An expansion upon Lightning. Channel effects and damage through multiple enemies.
->Dust: Wide-area moves with virtually no energy cost. Often does little to no damage, but causes asphyxiation.
-->Debris: An expansion upon Dust. Adds damage and a higher energy cost.
----->Thor: THUNDER! THUNDER! THUNDER MAGIC, HOOOOOOO!!!

Earth: Low energy cost coupled with high damage and low range.
->Plant: Grow your own, or use them to suffocate things.
-->Nature: An expansion upon Plant. Or, suffocate things with trees instead.
->Stone: Bolster your allies or deal damage in the form of rocks.
-->Metal: An expansion upon Stone. Bolster your allies MOAR or deal MOAR damage in the form of metal.
----->Atlas: Ever thrown a mountain at someone? Yeah.

Q&A:

Q: So, how does this all work together with my class?
A: There are only three classes. Melee, Ranged, and Magic. Each one has skills/spells catered to the player's elemental path. For example, a Warrior would learn Fire Slam as a first skill instead of Fire Ball like a Mage would.

Q: THREE CLASSES?! WTF?!
A: Don't worry. Your class bears little to no meaning on your character. The class is simply a representation of your weapon set and class skills, each character can gain a weapon proficiency or the like and become a more specific fighter, such as a Swordsman or a Crossbowman. Mages can use more than one element to diversify their class. It works sort of in a Fallout 3 style where your actions with your class eventually narrow it down.

Q: Fine. How does elemental EXP work?
A: Killing things gets you elemental EXP. As you gain more, you unlock new abilities/spells until your element levels up. When this happens, you choose a sub-element and continue gaining elemental EXP. Your previous elements will gain EXP along with your new one, so, for instance, if you leveled up your element from Fire to Magma, you would still gain Fire attacks until you've learned them all as well as gaining new Magma attacks.

Q: This system sucks.
A: I know. I'm working on it.

[VonGentlemen]

Well, as long as I can have skills named after Amorphis songs. I'm fine.
Some are as follows

Silent Water: Practically any water spell
The Smoke: A smoke Spell
Skyforger: Wind spell
Silver Bride: Earth/Wind union?
Born From Fire: Fire spell
Two Moons: Earth/wind?
Mourning Soil: Earth
Higher Ground: Earth
Smithereens: Earth and/or fire?
The Sky is mine: Wind
My Sun: Fire/wind?


Hooray for using blatant refrences!
Although, I do think naming skills after Amorphis songs is a totally good idea.

[niko2pico]

Ideas for the captain class
Minor spells similar to bard but with a better offensive or healing selection
Strategies: When the criterion of a strategy is met a buff is received from it
Phalanx fighting: When adjacent to an ally you receive an armor boost
Hit and Run: When you move and attack in the same turn you deal bonus damage
Supporting fire: You take an attack of opportunity when a friend makes a melee attack against an enemy
Suppressing fire: If the enemy fails a fortitude save they are unable to move the next turn
Flank Breaker: When attacking the an enemy after they are attacked by a friend extra damage is dealt

Battle cries: Boost the team's abilities

FIRE FOR MAXIMUM EFFECT! All attacks dealt that round deal the max possible damage (ie a 1d8 would deal 8 damage), at level 20 it causes all attacks made that round to crit.

ALL HANDS ON DECK! All team members are brought to the top of the initiative order

SUPPRESS THAT ENEMY!

MAN THE HARPOONS! bonus against giant enemies

ABANDON SHIP! gives an armor class and movement bonus for retreats.

[VonGentlemen]

What about:


IT'S A TRAP!: Negates enemy feints and similar.


Also, Niko, I am so aroused by your new avatar.

[niko2pico]

This is one for either
a. Xivilain
b. The Group during critical battles
c. Aerial, during ship v ship battles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvSp2m7I ... page#t=189

[VonGentlemen]

Oh, by the way, anyone notice how Gunther keeps talking about how he is gathering materials and such for working on his perk list and talking about how he should be able to hopefully do it soon.
Is it just me, or could he have totally finished by now?

[niko2pico]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO don't rush it Andre. Do you remember what happens when he rushes it?

[VonGentlemen]

Actually, I'm more of saying I doubt it will ever be done.
Rushing it now is like asking to have it done at lesser of a normal pace.

Also, session this Thursday?

[niko2pico]

IB induction ceremony. It means a lot to my parents for some reason.

[VonGentlemen]

Same here.
After, maybe?

[niko2pico]

Maybe so long as no food is involved

[Dreamaniaccomic]

I have found the theme for airship travel in Orbahlen.
The beginning is for regular travel, later parts would be a preliminary to ridiculously large-scale battles.

[niko2pico]

sounds good.

[XIVcaliber]

GYAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH!!

Sorry, I didn't keep Xivlan in with the pills this morning.

[VonGentlemen]

Mmmmmmmkaaaaaayyyyyy' people, Baron Von Gentlemen has a quick question.

Assuming you could grow up and be whatever you want to and have whatever job you want, what would you have?
What would your occupation be, and what would you do?

Just wondering.

Oh, in news that I swear does not relate to my question above (I swear), I started inking some stuff for my new idea (Although I still put in ungodly amounts of hours into my normal campaign, this is just a side and pet project), and I decided to use my very own system for it! Hooray!
It's pretty cool so far. The main focus of it is to aviod adding solid numerical values to things, as to heighten a sense of unknown and player normality. The DM does most of the rolling, while the players only roll for some of their actions and such. Additionally, the players are not told what their health is or have solid values to attach to their attributes.
It'll be somewhat cool. I'm inking out the item distribution system at the moment.

[niko2pico]

Lawyer

[XIVcaliber]

Teacher, with knowledge areas in literature and psychology.

[VonGentlemen]

Wunderbar!
In also unrelated news, anyone think they can make a session this Thursday?
Gunther offered to host at his place.