Arcana Royale
Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 5:36 am
Years ago there was a magic renaisance with new keys being discovered and old keys being brought to incredible levels. However as individual mages gained new powers they became secretive and soon started battling each other for other's secrets and to protect their own. Soon magic was outlawed and mages hunted down. Now the magic ban has been removed and countless adventurers and would be mages search for the lost and hidden magical research.
This is an adventuring game. You can basically decide your backstory and who you are. This is a fantasy world, with magic playing a large role in society. You're free to explore it as you please.
Create a character
------------------
You have 1000 points to create a character with.
Attributes transfer at a 1-1 ratio.
It costs 10 points to level up a skill. You are limited to rank 5 in any particular skill right now.
1 point gives you 1 gold piece. 1gp equals 10 silver piece.
Name:
Age:
Sex:
Bio: Please give any relevant info for your character, including any significant characters, plothooks or storylines. Having travelling companions requires points, as explained below.
Attributes- Remember, attributes are bought with points at a 1-1 ratio.
HP: How much damage you can take
MP: How much mana you have to cast spells.
AP: How much you can act in one round.
Fighting Style
--------------
Pick your weapon(s) of choice, preference between an Aggresive, Balanced or Defensive approach to combat (these are stance types), and preference between Dodging or Parrying. You gain ten free Skill ranks to split between your weapon choice, stance choice and Defense Choice. Your skill rank limit is raised to 10 for these skills.
You may choose Arcane Keys as a fighting style as well. However you only get five free skill ranks instead of 10, and your Skill Rank limit is 7.
Skills
------
Skills are basically anything you want your character to be good at, besides magic. Physical or mental Attributes (besides HP, MP and AP), combat skills, learning a trade (weaponsmithing, sailing, etc) useful adventuring skills like picking locks or tracking, communication skills like bluffing or negotiating. No skill ranks in something assumes average ability.
You can also spend points on social or other misc. benefits such as a position which offers you priestege, political or military power (although it will be limited. No setting yourself as a King), allied NPC's (that travel and fight with you), a source of wealth (aside from general cash), a positive reputation, significant equipment, owed favors or connections to criminal or political influences or basically anything you can think of.
You may take negative skill ranks to represent a disadvantage or inability at something. Each negative rank gives you 10CP back. You are limited to 3 negative ranks per skill. You may not take more negative ranked skills than you have positive ranked skill. So if you have six positive skills, you can't take more than six negative skills.
You can also take negative levels in some of those misc. benefits I mentioned. Examples of that would be having enemies, a bad reputation, owed debts, having your influence destroyed, etc.
Magic
-----
Spells are cast through the use of magical energy (called mana), arcane Keys (called Keywords) and through the use of an Arcane Focus. MP is a character's innate store of mana, which is replenished through sleep and resting.
Arcane Keys (short for Keywords) are the basis of spells. Symbolized as words, they represent actions and targets for spells. For example, an Arcane Key could be "Create." However, if you also knew the Key "Fire", you could combine the two to "Create Fire." The rank of effect would be dependant on your skill in both Keys. A spellcaster with a single rank in Create and Fire could create little more than a spark. However a practied spellcaster with Twenty ranks between the two could create an inferno.
A spellcaster must practice and experiment to improve their ability to use a Key. Keywords are all skills. As one improves their skill with a Key, they can do more complicated things (like combining Keys) and generally require less mana to cast spells.
Arcane Keys are required for spellcasting. If you want to be a spellcaster, you need to learn to use as many Arcane Keys, as you can. There are two types of keys. Action Keys, represented by a verb, and Target Keys represented by a noun. Action keys are nessecary to do anything. Being skilled at Target Keys enhance your spell casting ability a lot, but aren't always nessecary.
Leveling up Actions makes you better at that action. For example, you would be able to create stuff faster, more efficiently and with greater quantity or quality.
Leveling up Targets makes you better with that object (or creature, property, or whatever). With the previous example of fire, you could control it at a much hotter degree, a wider area, shape it how you please, etc.
A focus is an object or action used to cast a spell. By concentrating mana into the focus, one conserves mana and enhances the spell. How its enhanced depends on the focus in question. You don't need a focus, but it helps immensely. You can spend skill points on improving your ability with an Arcane Focus. Its not nessecary, but it makes your spells more effective when they're used with that focus. There are a number of Focus objects for sale, but you can also use stuff like your voice, gestures, your body (any part of it) or pretty much anything, even if its not for sale normally. All of these can be improved with skill ranks, and so can casting without a focus.
It costs 20CP to raise the rank of an Arcane Key. It costs 10CP to raise the rank for use a specific kind of Arcane Focus.
Some example Keys
Verbs
-----
Detect
Create
Control
Protect
Destroy
Call
Nouns
-----
Mind
Creature
Fire
Illusion
Wall
Seal
Air
Storm
Energy
Game Rules
----------
Skills and Action points (AP) are the basis of the system. Skills are measured in ranks. A Skill Rank makes gives any given action work better for less effort.
Action points represent overall measure of your physical and mental capability for action in a short period of time while under stress. In otherwords, what you can do in a combat round. Action points replenish at the start of every round, however fatigue from damage can reduce AP for the duration of combat. During each round, opponents split their action points into attack and defense (or also movement, spellcasting or non combat actions)
The more action points put into an action the more effective it is. I will never explain the specific numbers involved, but a general rule of thumb is to think of it like with skills. 10 Action points goes up one rank of Effectiveness. However, your level of skill and things like equipment bonuses will change that.
Spell Casting
-------------
When you cast a spell you need to decide on your intended effect, how much of your AP you are using to cast it, what Keys you are using and what focus, if any. The most significant advantage of not using any focus at all is surprise. I'll give the results and how much of your MP it drained.
You can find texts and scrolls with spell formulas which have a predetermined effect.
The Combat Round
----------------
When you face off with an opponent (or multiple opponents), you need to split your action points between what you want to do. If you want to go full on offense, if you want to attempt to defend against any of the attacks (generally a smart idea), if you want to move, if you want to cast spells or whatever. You also need to decide your stance.
The three basic stances are Aggressive, Balanced and Defensive.
Aggressive: You intend to attack first. Your opening attacks are stronger, but you are at a disadvantage if forced to defend.
Ready: You are ready to attack or to defend at will. You're balanced between attack or defense.
Defensive: You are prepared to defend yourself. Your defense is enhanced, but offense is weakened until you take the Initative.
Offense: Unless you are purely trying to defend yourself, its always a good idea to put some AP into offense. You can simply "Attack", which is usually a good idea, but you can also put AP into manuevers. A manuever is an action you attempt at some point during the combat round, and it grants you a significant advantage if performed successfully. Examples are critical attacks, disarming, tripping, grappling or whatever you wish to do. A failed manuever usually puts your opponent at an advantage.
Defense: Similiar to Offense, you can spend AP on "Defense". There are two basic types of Defense, the Dodge and the Parry. When you spend AP on defense you need to pick one or the other. You can spend AP on both if you want to. Parrying is blocking or deflecting blows with a shield or with your weapon. Dodging is moving to avoid attacks. The advantage of that over Parrying is that you combine movement with defend, allowing you to try and put yourself in a better position while defending. Otherwise, you would have to split AP between movement and defense. In addition to the basic defenses of Parry and Dodge, you can attempt defensive manuevers, which are attempts to counter attack, or give yourself an advantage for a followup action.
---------------------
Here's an example combat round. The player in this example is drake. Sam is the opponent.
Drake is a sword and shield fighter.
HP: 60
AP: 200
Longswords (R6)
Parry (R4)
Dodge (R2)
Sam is a spear fighter.
HP: 75
AP: 180
Spears (R 8)
Parry (R2)
Dodge (R5)
Drake and Sam stand 10feet apart on the grassy plains. Sam holds his spear ready and stands his ground.
Drake decides on an aggressive stance, and splits 100AP into Dodge, with a 50AP into general offense and a 50AP Rush attack to get past B's superior range.
Sam decides on a Balanced Stance. He splits 80AP into Dodge, to keep out A out of reach. He splits 80AP into Offense, and 40 into a critical lunge attack. Keep in mind that Drake doesn't have access to this information. The only thing he gets to see is Sam's equipped weapons and armor, stance and position.
Drake moves forward, sword raised to attack when he closes.
Sam responds with a vicious jab at Drake's head.
Drake dodges. Sam quickly steps back.
Sam jabs twice more. Drake dodges both easily and rushes!
Sam dances backwords, braces and makes a powerful lunge attack.
Drake narrowloy avoids it, but Sam follows up with two more jabs, keeping Drake at bay.
Drake misses the third jab as Sam jabs his spear point at his face, drawing blood along his cheek.
Drake steps back, Sam presses with a fourth jab, but Drake nimbly dodges away from it.
Results:
Drake
HP: 45/60
Sam
HP: 75/75
---------------
I finally figured out how to do a decent version of that rules system without being too complicated (I hope) Plus I realized I wanted to do something a bit more focused on D&D style adventuring than a pure battle club or something RP heavy like GotWP. If I didn't explain anything clearly feel free to ask. Its pretty unusual I think.
This is an adventuring game. You can basically decide your backstory and who you are. This is a fantasy world, with magic playing a large role in society. You're free to explore it as you please.
Create a character
------------------
You have 1000 points to create a character with.
Attributes transfer at a 1-1 ratio.
It costs 10 points to level up a skill. You are limited to rank 5 in any particular skill right now.
1 point gives you 1 gold piece. 1gp equals 10 silver piece.
Name:
Age:
Sex:
Bio: Please give any relevant info for your character, including any significant characters, plothooks or storylines. Having travelling companions requires points, as explained below.
Attributes- Remember, attributes are bought with points at a 1-1 ratio.
HP: How much damage you can take
MP: How much mana you have to cast spells.
AP: How much you can act in one round.
Fighting Style
--------------
Pick your weapon(s) of choice, preference between an Aggresive, Balanced or Defensive approach to combat (these are stance types), and preference between Dodging or Parrying. You gain ten free Skill ranks to split between your weapon choice, stance choice and Defense Choice. Your skill rank limit is raised to 10 for these skills.
You may choose Arcane Keys as a fighting style as well. However you only get five free skill ranks instead of 10, and your Skill Rank limit is 7.
Skills
------
Skills are basically anything you want your character to be good at, besides magic. Physical or mental Attributes (besides HP, MP and AP), combat skills, learning a trade (weaponsmithing, sailing, etc) useful adventuring skills like picking locks or tracking, communication skills like bluffing or negotiating. No skill ranks in something assumes average ability.
You can also spend points on social or other misc. benefits such as a position which offers you priestege, political or military power (although it will be limited. No setting yourself as a King), allied NPC's (that travel and fight with you), a source of wealth (aside from general cash), a positive reputation, significant equipment, owed favors or connections to criminal or political influences or basically anything you can think of.
You may take negative skill ranks to represent a disadvantage or inability at something. Each negative rank gives you 10CP back. You are limited to 3 negative ranks per skill. You may not take more negative ranked skills than you have positive ranked skill. So if you have six positive skills, you can't take more than six negative skills.
You can also take negative levels in some of those misc. benefits I mentioned. Examples of that would be having enemies, a bad reputation, owed debts, having your influence destroyed, etc.
Magic
-----
Spells are cast through the use of magical energy (called mana), arcane Keys (called Keywords) and through the use of an Arcane Focus. MP is a character's innate store of mana, which is replenished through sleep and resting.
Arcane Keys (short for Keywords) are the basis of spells. Symbolized as words, they represent actions and targets for spells. For example, an Arcane Key could be "Create." However, if you also knew the Key "Fire", you could combine the two to "Create Fire." The rank of effect would be dependant on your skill in both Keys. A spellcaster with a single rank in Create and Fire could create little more than a spark. However a practied spellcaster with Twenty ranks between the two could create an inferno.
A spellcaster must practice and experiment to improve their ability to use a Key. Keywords are all skills. As one improves their skill with a Key, they can do more complicated things (like combining Keys) and generally require less mana to cast spells.
Arcane Keys are required for spellcasting. If you want to be a spellcaster, you need to learn to use as many Arcane Keys, as you can. There are two types of keys. Action Keys, represented by a verb, and Target Keys represented by a noun. Action keys are nessecary to do anything. Being skilled at Target Keys enhance your spell casting ability a lot, but aren't always nessecary.
Leveling up Actions makes you better at that action. For example, you would be able to create stuff faster, more efficiently and with greater quantity or quality.
Leveling up Targets makes you better with that object (or creature, property, or whatever). With the previous example of fire, you could control it at a much hotter degree, a wider area, shape it how you please, etc.
A focus is an object or action used to cast a spell. By concentrating mana into the focus, one conserves mana and enhances the spell. How its enhanced depends on the focus in question. You don't need a focus, but it helps immensely. You can spend skill points on improving your ability with an Arcane Focus. Its not nessecary, but it makes your spells more effective when they're used with that focus. There are a number of Focus objects for sale, but you can also use stuff like your voice, gestures, your body (any part of it) or pretty much anything, even if its not for sale normally. All of these can be improved with skill ranks, and so can casting without a focus.
It costs 20CP to raise the rank of an Arcane Key. It costs 10CP to raise the rank for use a specific kind of Arcane Focus.
Some example Keys
Verbs
-----
Detect
Create
Control
Protect
Destroy
Call
Nouns
-----
Mind
Creature
Fire
Illusion
Wall
Seal
Air
Storm
Energy
Game Rules
----------
Skills and Action points (AP) are the basis of the system. Skills are measured in ranks. A Skill Rank makes gives any given action work better for less effort.
Action points represent overall measure of your physical and mental capability for action in a short period of time while under stress. In otherwords, what you can do in a combat round. Action points replenish at the start of every round, however fatigue from damage can reduce AP for the duration of combat. During each round, opponents split their action points into attack and defense (or also movement, spellcasting or non combat actions)
The more action points put into an action the more effective it is. I will never explain the specific numbers involved, but a general rule of thumb is to think of it like with skills. 10 Action points goes up one rank of Effectiveness. However, your level of skill and things like equipment bonuses will change that.
Spell Casting
-------------
When you cast a spell you need to decide on your intended effect, how much of your AP you are using to cast it, what Keys you are using and what focus, if any. The most significant advantage of not using any focus at all is surprise. I'll give the results and how much of your MP it drained.
You can find texts and scrolls with spell formulas which have a predetermined effect.
The Combat Round
----------------
When you face off with an opponent (or multiple opponents), you need to split your action points between what you want to do. If you want to go full on offense, if you want to attempt to defend against any of the attacks (generally a smart idea), if you want to move, if you want to cast spells or whatever. You also need to decide your stance.
The three basic stances are Aggressive, Balanced and Defensive.
Aggressive: You intend to attack first. Your opening attacks are stronger, but you are at a disadvantage if forced to defend.
Ready: You are ready to attack or to defend at will. You're balanced between attack or defense.
Defensive: You are prepared to defend yourself. Your defense is enhanced, but offense is weakened until you take the Initative.
Offense: Unless you are purely trying to defend yourself, its always a good idea to put some AP into offense. You can simply "Attack", which is usually a good idea, but you can also put AP into manuevers. A manuever is an action you attempt at some point during the combat round, and it grants you a significant advantage if performed successfully. Examples are critical attacks, disarming, tripping, grappling or whatever you wish to do. A failed manuever usually puts your opponent at an advantage.
Defense: Similiar to Offense, you can spend AP on "Defense". There are two basic types of Defense, the Dodge and the Parry. When you spend AP on defense you need to pick one or the other. You can spend AP on both if you want to. Parrying is blocking or deflecting blows with a shield or with your weapon. Dodging is moving to avoid attacks. The advantage of that over Parrying is that you combine movement with defend, allowing you to try and put yourself in a better position while defending. Otherwise, you would have to split AP between movement and defense. In addition to the basic defenses of Parry and Dodge, you can attempt defensive manuevers, which are attempts to counter attack, or give yourself an advantage for a followup action.
---------------------
Here's an example combat round. The player in this example is drake. Sam is the opponent.
Drake is a sword and shield fighter.
HP: 60
AP: 200
Longswords (R6)
Parry (R4)
Dodge (R2)
Sam is a spear fighter.
HP: 75
AP: 180
Spears (R 8)
Parry (R2)
Dodge (R5)
Drake and Sam stand 10feet apart on the grassy plains. Sam holds his spear ready and stands his ground.
Drake decides on an aggressive stance, and splits 100AP into Dodge, with a 50AP into general offense and a 50AP Rush attack to get past B's superior range.
Sam decides on a Balanced Stance. He splits 80AP into Dodge, to keep out A out of reach. He splits 80AP into Offense, and 40 into a critical lunge attack. Keep in mind that Drake doesn't have access to this information. The only thing he gets to see is Sam's equipped weapons and armor, stance and position.
Drake moves forward, sword raised to attack when he closes.
Sam responds with a vicious jab at Drake's head.
Drake dodges. Sam quickly steps back.
Sam jabs twice more. Drake dodges both easily and rushes!
Sam dances backwords, braces and makes a powerful lunge attack.
Drake narrowloy avoids it, but Sam follows up with two more jabs, keeping Drake at bay.
Drake misses the third jab as Sam jabs his spear point at his face, drawing blood along his cheek.
Drake steps back, Sam presses with a fourth jab, but Drake nimbly dodges away from it.
Results:
Drake
HP: 45/60
Sam
HP: 75/75
---------------
I finally figured out how to do a decent version of that rules system without being too complicated (I hope) Plus I realized I wanted to do something a bit more focused on D&D style adventuring than a pure battle club or something RP heavy like GotWP. If I didn't explain anything clearly feel free to ask. Its pretty unusual I think.