2/28/2011

5/24/2013 12:45 AM

4569

0

85 wins / 48 losses

Confederate Earth

unpublished

In a time torn in two, where do you stand?

School of Assassins

unpublished , coauthor

You are only a child when your parents are killed in front of you. When you are taken to an orphanage, you find that it is a front for the School of Assassins, where you are given the choice to be one of them. This is an indirect continuation of Homo Perfectus 8. Knowing any of the Homo Perfectus series is not a necessity to reading this story. I would like to thank October, ugilick and maheusz for their help with this story.

The Way of All the Earth

unpublished

For death is the enemy of every man, and the last enemy to be overcome. *Contains* Instances of Intense Violence Unsettling Themes Sexual Content Mild Language Gore

Live and learn man.

I didn't mean to discourage you at all! I was only addressing your approach to an issue. Not saying that your experiment was a bad idea. I think if executed well, this will be a worthwhile endeavor.

Working on fixing this. This has confirmed something I was afraid of.

I don't know exactly what you're shooting for here, but they way you have presented it sounds somewhat insulting. It sounds as if you are 'inviting' people to an 'experiment' where you are going to 'help' them be better roleplayers. You give the impression that you don't like the way everyone else roleplays so you are aiming to fix it. This is of course an outside perspective, from someone not on the list.

Lets divide this in parts for clarity: Tiers: I think it goes without saying that having tiers is important. Until we know how the system works your current settings are the best we are going to get. Setting a maximum number of points for each skill was a wise decision. More on tiers later. Stats: Strength: What does this do? You said it was a necessary stat, but didn't give it an enumerated function. Strength foremost should likely play into the extent of damage dealt in a successful melee blow. More on damage and melee vs ranged attack later It would also make sense that Strength plays into grappling and the like. But more on alternate attack forms later. Speed: This stat determines turn priority. Which is an important function. In case of a draw, we roll for priority? Other than getting to go first, this isn't very important, unless it doubles as a defensive stat. Which case it is an exceedingly powerful stat. If that is the case than there really is no reason to have any other defense than speed, (Or is there? More on this problem later.) Which means I would suggest, foremost, disallowing the use of speed as base defense. More on stat modifiers later. I would suggest instead that Agility be the name of the speed related defense mechanism. Which leads to speed being underpowered...Again. It needs a double function that doesn't break the game. Offense: The present system for confirming a hit is elegant. (But could get bogged down as the number of die increases with the tiers. More on tiers later.) However, without further advancement of the system, there is no reason to have more than one offensive capability, and further, no reason not to max out your sole ability. This will get very repetitive, and you guessed it, predictable, which is interesting. I'm pretty sure predictable combat is bad. More on skill decay later. Another concern is that until movement and distances are accounted for, staging combat between ranged and melee combatants, or, heaven forbid, warriors capable of both, would be...strained. More on movement later. Finally, the way a fighter postures him/herself in combat needs to be coherent with what one is trying to achieve. More on stances later. Defense: Assuming speed is disallowed as a defense technique this is where the power gamer is going to stack all his leftover points. 1 to speed, 1 to strength, 5 to Short sword, 5 to dodge, 3 to shield. Because you defensive capabilities are also you hit point value all extra stats should be allocated to it. This is a problem without an easy solution. A hit point system needs to be put into place. The system will likely have to deal with not only physical fortitude, but psychological prowess, not all combatants fight on terms of flesh and blood. More on fortitude and Will later. AND? This is where the strategy is supposed to start, but this is also where your system stops! What about hiding and sneak attacks? What about illusions? Mental attacks? Dual functioning abilities? Where is the room for a battle of wits? I'm out of time tonight, but I'll head back here tomorrow and put in some more thoughts. Right now I'm thinking we need a few more obligatory skills, Strength, Speed, Constitution, and perhaps Will, Perception, Deception/Stealth. Also to come, Combos, and Staggering.

I absolutely adore this. I'll put in my two pence about its function if you don't mind. I would love to see this work out smoothly into a really functional and even strategic way of dealing with forum game combat. It may need a very fair DM to make judgment calls at times however. I do realize there is another thread, but that is for characters. I don't want to get mechanical discussion in the way of cosmetic development.

I would think that it depends on how explicit you are with it. Endmaster has gotten away with some pretty crazy stuff. If you want to see the extent of our tolerance read Love SICK and, I don't remember the name off hand exactly, A very special choose your story.

Please?

She lives!

I haven't minded the meshing of ambiguous and hard numbers, I have been bothered by the recurring issue of taking for granted what my people have and have not. More description would be awesome. Not really knowing what's going on has bugged be a bit from time to time. But the game has been so much fun that I've been easily able to overlook it! And I hope to continue to overlook it in future turns.