Tiere ("Beasts") is a Stat Grinder RPG conceptualized by Sandy87. Whether it will ever see light of day is anyone's guess, but past experience says not. Until then, it shall sit here and have a page.
At the Tiere Academy of Mastery, college students take courses in the local natural sciences in order to become a game warden to the fantastic. How they go about this is completely up to them, however. Want to study the animal's behavior to learn what sets it off and calms it down? Take a course in biology or get in some hands-on time at a local menagerie. Want to pay homage to a local spirit and pray for protection? Visit the local shrine, or explore to find a secret area and try to speak in person. Want to just lay the smackdown on anything foolish enough to challenge you? There's a nearby gym and a martial arts guru not too far out of town. Want to have others be the meatshield and lay the smackdown for you? Hire other students or just befriend them to the point that they're willing to work for free, or tame wild fauna to fight for you.
Characters will be kept here, in folders, rather than moved to a separate page, in order to avoid cluttering up the wiki with excess pages for a game which does not exist. Should the game ever be released, characters will be moved to a proper character sheet.
Tropes hopefully present in the final game:
- Alternative Calendar: Weeks are eight days long, correlating to a "rising" and "falling" phase for each of the four local spirits (naturally, actions will be mildly easier on days associated with the spirit of that action, easier still on the rising day - unless you've managed to seriously cheese them off, in which case they'll be harassing you worse then). Seasons are eight weeks long, and a year contains four seasons.
- City Guards: Seen around town. You can sometimes convince them to join you on your out-of-town adventures.
- Curse That Cures: Being hit with a fire-based attack while frozen will thaw you out if it would have inflicted a burn (those that wouldn't aren't hot enough to melt the ice).
- Elemental Eye Colors: The four spirits of the land, as well as some of the students who favor a certain element.
- Gratuitous German: Seen in names of people, places, and monsters. Nobody actually drops any German phrases, though.
- Because the author thinks there's enough Gratuitous Japanese Kawaisa out there and it's time the German language was associated with something less gruff. That and she thinks Everything Sounds Stupider in French (and Italian and Spanish aren't much better - romance languages, bah!), taking the other common European languages off the table.
- Level-Up at Intimacy 5: Higher relationship values open up various opportunities. These range from tag-team attacks with pets to asking someone to join you on an adventure as a friend rather than a hired mercenary, or even asking a spirit for a blessing.
- More Friends, More Benefits: Platonic friends, that is. Having two or more romantic relationships going at the same time is a bad idea, as getting caught (either by the other party or a friend of said other party) will end both relationships and give the player a reputation that makes future romantic overtures more likely to be rejected. Dating two friends is outright impossible, as they will talk about you. Checking for other romantic interests in a location before making a flirty move may hurt the relationship as well, though a sufficiently subtle character can get away with it.
- One Curse Limit: Averted and played straight. Most Status Effects stack with each other, but being frozen or petrified will prevent you from being poisoned or made to bleed from future attacks (since your soft squishy bits are rather hard at the moment).
- Relationship Values: Keep track of your friendship with professors, other students, civilians, and tame monsters.
- Romance Sidequest: Possible with other students, and maybe a few of the townsfolk (character rosters are currently in progress).
- Retreaux: The fights and overworld map for exploring are sprite-based and could be an early Game Boy Advance game. Movement about school and the town takes place as a Point-and-Click adventure.
- Status Effects:
- Bleeding - Causes HP loss for 2-5 turns before clotting kicks in and stops it; can also be stopped with Gauze. May cure poison if allowed to flow unchecked.
- Blindness - Attacks have a 50% chance to miss entirely and a 25% chance to only do half damage. Defense has a 25% chance to take double damage, since you can't see it coming. Can be remedied with Eye Drops.
- Burned - Causes HP loss for 5-10 turns. Lowers Attack, Defense, Speed, and Agility as well. Can be cured with Aloe Gel or Lavender Oil, the later of which also calms the monster attacking you.
- Chilled - Makes a character too cold to control their finer motor movements, thus cutting Dexterity. Will be removed by taking a fire attack; wears off after one turn in Summer, two in Spring or Fall, and four in Winter. Can be remedied by several warmth-inducing items.
- Confusion - Attacks have a 25% chance to miss, a 25% chance to hit an ally, and a 25% chance to cause the attacker to hurt themselves.
- Fear - Has a 25% chance of rendering a character unable to take any action and a 25% chance of overriding any attack or item commands with a defend one instead. Also cuts Attack, but raises Defense and Speed. Is removed when the one who inflicted the Fear is defeated.
- Frozen - Harmless Freezing. Stops bleeding and poison effects; can be reversed by a fire attack that would have caused a burn. May also wear off if the current season is not Winter (obviously, will wear off faster in Summer), though this will result in a character having the Chilled status for a while.
- Paralysis - Has a 25% chance to nullify all action for a turn. Also cuts physical stats Strength, Stamina, Fortitude, Speed, Agility, and Dexterity.
- Petrification - Related to Harmless Freezing; stops bleeding and poison effects. Does not wear off.
- Poison - Not a Universal Poison, though all cause HP damage and last 10-30 turns. Comes in several varieties, and they stack:
- Cytoxin - Reduces Strength, Stamina, and Fortitude.
- Hemotoxin - Reduces Strength, Stamina, Speed, and Agility.
- Necrotoxin - Reduces Strength, Fortitude, Speed, and Dexterity.
- Neurotoxin - Reduces Dexterity, Intelligence, and Wisdom. Increases likelihood of Confusion and Fear effects working.
- Sleep - Puts the character to sleep. Hitting them with an attack or using a sonic-based attack (against anything) will wake them, as will a companion character nudging them awake.
- Suck Out the Poison: Not an action that can be taken, but part of the battle mechanics. If a character is poisoned and then sustains an attack that causes bleeding, if the bleeding is allowed to continue unchecked until it clots on its own (2-5 turns), the poisoned status may also dissipate due to the volume of blood lost carrying out the poison with it (50% chance). This does not work if the poisoned status is acquired after bleeding begins, and of course requires the character to be able to withstand 2-5 turns of stacked HP losses.
- You Lose at Zero Trust: Ticking someone off can result in them deciding to come after you. Most characters don't care if you just ignore them (their friendship will drop to zero after a while, but won't descend into negative hatred), but outright antagonizing them will have consequences. The spirits may inflict a curse on you, and a professor who really hates your guts may knock a few points off your grade in their class (no, it's not fair).
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Sapient characters
TAM professors
?? Tiere
The founder of Tiere Academy of Mastery. TAM students
Arnold Hahn RC
Prefers hands-on approaches to study, meaning it's fairly easy to convince him to come along on an adventure.?? Heft CB
- The Napoleon: While not particularly feisty and not at all sensitive about his height, he does have spunk packed in a rather small package.
Sascha Knecht
Clever, but quiet. Has a Retchet companion named Kies.- Brainy Brunette: Of a lighter shade of brown.
Heinrich Kobbi
A tall but shy student; he feels his height makes him awkward around shorter students, particularly girls. Is also rather intelligent, though he tries to hide it because he feels it will make him even more awkward. Quite useless in a direct fight, but an excellent healer.- Cursed with Awesome: Most men would love to be as tall as he is, and quite a few (at least those out of high school) wouldn't mind his intellect, either. He'd gladly share both.
- Gentle Giant: Though lacking in muscles and girth, he's tall enough that he feels like a giant.
- Gentleman and a Scholar: What most people perceive him as, his opinion of himself notwithstanding.
- Healing Hands: Has low-level magical healing abilities. Eventually learns stronger spells, but mostly relies on his traditional medicine skills (this raises the effect of healing items).
- Huge School Girl: A Gender Flip of the usual female who's worried about being too tall.
- Intelligence Equals Isolation: His opinion, at least; he really dislikes complements on his intelligence. He's not good at hiding it, though, so most people are at least aware he's got a brain between his ears even if he doesn't rub it in their faces.
- Kindly Vet: Since Tiere Academy primarily deals with fantastic animals, he's got shades of this as well. He's not particularly good with them, but he's as gentle as he can be.
- The Medic: His primary role if the player chooses to recruit him.
- Muscle Angst: Actively avoids tough physical activity on the basis that it may cause him to bulk up, thus rendering him even larger and more awkward. Has the unfortunate side effect of making him very soft in a fight.
- Nice Guy: He makes a point to be extremely nice due to the fact that he fears a large body with a large personality would scare others away.
- Squishy Wizard: Don't put him in direct line with someone else's fist. Just don't.
Jana Kohlmann
Niece of Ina, the apothecary woman; often visits her aunt a few times a week.- Cuteness Proximity: Despite thinking her aunt Ina is a bit off, she loves her Flitzenwhelps.
- Thicker Than Water: Her tolerance of her aunt's eccentricities stems mostly from familial loyalty.
Town residents
Steffen Gestein
The gruff, serious captain of the town guard. If you can befriend him, he may decide to join you on your adventures out of town, but he's impossible to hire; money simply isn't a motivator for him.- Jerk with a Heart of Gold
- The Napoleon: Part of the reason he is as gruff as he is stems from needing to win respect from troops who may be a full head taller.
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: You can't hire him as a bodyguard, since that would require him to leave town and thus leave his men without their leader.
- Loophole Abuse: If you befriend him, he'll join you for an adventure or two, since his job is to protect the city and its citizens, and as a Tiere Academy student, you are technically a citizen even if you're outside the city walls. Thus, to properly protect you, he must accompany you.
- Stay in the Kitchen: He does not believe women should be allowed to fight and thus is highly annoyed when politics force him to hire female guards - though at least his chauvinism leads him to simply assign them less dangerous patrol routes, rather than making their lives difficult (aside from the occasional snide comment). He'll also tell a female player that her place is not on the front line, though after he sees her deal a certain amount of damage to wild creatures, he may change that attitude.
- Stone Wall: His primary battle strategy is built around a solid defense.
- I Call It "Vera": This mentality is so important to him that he named his shield rather than his sword. He calls it Vorposten, or "Vanguard".
- Younger Than They Look: His extreme dedication to his job has lead him to take patrols in all sorts of weather, including the blazing heat of summer. Apparently he forgot his sunscreen, since his face is dark and leathery.
Ina Kohlmann
An older lady who runs the local apothecary. She'll sell you several herbal concoctions, some of which are incredibly useful and some of which are largely not. Also keeps several Flitzenwhelps, which can be seen around the shop (and which make a door chime unnecessary).- Child Hater: Up until their preteen years, at least. At least part of the reason she's an Old Maid is that she flatly refused to give birth, and dislikes the idea of raising someone else's kids. To her, babies and small children are annoying. She finds the yapping of a Flitzenwelp is downright musical compared to them.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: She dresses a little funny and likes to babble on about her herbs and monsters.
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: Sometimes, what she tells you has value.
- Crazy Cat Lady: Crazy Flitzenwhelp Lady
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Though her age has turned some of her hair white, the rest of it remains black.
- Empathy Pet: Her favorite Flitzenwhelp, a red one named Recke, normally mimics her expressions.
- Deathbringer the Adorable: Recke is German for "warrior" or "hero". Recke is about as heroic as your average pet chihuahua.
- Parrot Pet Position
- Friendless Background: Her only friend in town is her niece.
- Go Mad from the Isolation: While she sees people daily, owning a shop and all, part of her eccentricity is blamed on the fact that she never married and thus lacked human company.
- Old Maid
- Maiden Aunt: Though she's not particularly doting, her niece is at least old enough that her dislike of children no longer applies.
- Thicker Than Water: Averted, as she'll tell you. Her affection for her niece is due to the fact that the girl seems to care about her and her pets, rather than because she's her brother's daughter.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Cabbages, especially purple cabbages.
?Ort?
One of the four commanders of the city guard, ranked just beneath Captain Gestein. He's in charge of the afternoon shift.- City Guards
- Commanding Coolness
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: Despite the fact that he has seen more than his fair share of action (including having to arrest children for breaking and entering - school lets out in the middle of his shift, turning many hooligans loose), he still believes that humans as a whole are good people deep down.
Spirits
The local spirits who preside over the area around the school. Some worship them as gods and goddesses, though whether they are truly deities or simply powerful magical spirits is a matter of great philosophical debate (due to the way some take this as Serious Business, it's generally considered a topic best discussed outside of school and away from polite company). Offering them money or gifts may earn favor, which can result in small bonuses to stat gains. Ignoring them has no consequences, however, unless you've personally met and befriended them (in which case they take offense like any other ignored friend). Can also be fought as boss-level monsters.
Kunnen
A genderless humanoid spirit of wit and study; tends to become popular with the students around exam time. Its primary season is autumn.- Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Long, straight, brown, half in a bun shaped suspiciously like a rock.
- Meaningful Name: Comes from the German können for "proficiency" or "savvy".
- Our Spirits Are Different
- No Biological Sex: Not a trait of all spirits.
- Physical God: Considered such by some.
- The Smart Guy: For a given value of "guy", at least.
Munter
The male humanoid spirit of mischief and merriment; is also associated with combat. His primary season is summer.- Elemental Hair Colors
- Everyone Loves Blondes: Spirit of mischief and merriment.
- Shonen Hair: Looks a bit like flames, though is not actual Flaming Hair.
- Meaningful Name: Munter is German for "lively" or "frisky".
- Our Spirits Are Different
- Physical God: Considered such by some.
- Personality Powers: He's a feisty-tempered fire wielder.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Though he's not evil, his idea of a good time can get a little rough, and he's not at all above practical jokes at others' expense. They're also more of an orange-red than blood-red.
Ruerung
The female humanoid spirit of friendship and frivolity; is also associated with emotions. Her primary season is winter.- Elemental Hair Colors: Short, white, straight, and soft - like fresh snow.
- Hysterical Woman: She's associated with just about any emotion that doesn't involve actually attacking someone (that's Munter's territory). This includes the emotions of fear, panic, and wanton weepiness.
- Meaningful Name: Comes from the German rührung for "emotion".
Visen
A genderless humanoid being stylized as the spirit of nature; tends to be popular with the locals due to its ties with farming and animals. Its primary season is spring.- Cute Little Fangs: Has a pair visible when it opens its mouth.
- Meaningful Name: Comes from the German word wesen for "nature".
Beast species
Aerial Mammals
Flitzenwelp
A tiny species resembling a long-haired dog with furry butterfly wings, large wing-like ears, and a fanned tail. Comes in various colors, but is not Color-Coded for Your Convenience; it's just cosmetic.- Cute, but Cacophonic: Most of their attacks are sonic-based, barring the usual small dog tactic of ankle-biting.
- Cute Little Fangs
- Killer Rabbit
- Mix-and-Match Critters
- Ridiculously Cute Critter
- Sonic Stunner: Some of their barks induce paralysis.
Griffin
Your typical griffin, being a combination of bird of prey and big cat. Comes in four subspecies: Plains Griffin (lion/bald eagle), Forest Griffin (tiger/Philippine eagle), Speed Griffin (cheetah/peregrine falcon), and Mountain Griffin (snow leopard/gyrfalcon).- Our Gryphons Are Different
- Elemental Powers: All have Air, but each subspecies has its own second element:
- An Ice Person: Mountain Griffins.
- Making a Splash: Forest Griffins.
- Playing with Fire: Speed Griffins.
- Shock and Awe: Plains Griffins.
- Elite Army: Plains Griffins live in prides like lions. One alone is tough to take on, but you're likely to be contending with three to five at a time.
- Jack of All Stats: Mountain Griffins. Not exceptionally high on any one stat, but make up for it by inflicting more Status Effects.
- Lightning Bruiser: Forest Griffins, though not as fast as Speed Griffins, are still quick but have offense and defense to go along with it.
- Shout-Out: The Speed Griffin is named for a piece of random background banter heard in the Hanged Man in Dragon Age II, and it is a fire elemental due to the griffin from Dragon's Dogma having lightning powers and the lion/bald eagle coloration.
- Status Effects: Various subspecies will deal out different ones in keeping with their elements:
- Plains - Paralysis, Bleeding.
- Forest - Poison (Hemotoxin), Bleeding (these stack).
- Speed - Burn, Bleeding.
- Mountain - Confusion, Frozen, Poison (Neurotoxin), Bleeding.
Peryton
A combination of pheasant and deer.- Herbivores Are Friendly: Played straight for most of the year, though averted for males in autumn. It's breeding season, and if you're not a female in heat, then you must be a rival to be challenged and beaten.
Aerial Reptiles
Drache
A basic, Western-style dragon with four saurian legs and large wings. Very large and powerful. Males are known as drakes, females as dames, and juveniles as dragonettes.Longgon
An Eastern-style dragon with a long body, small legs, and no wings that flies using magic. Tends to be rarer than other dragon types.Wyvern
A typical wyvern design, having a bat-like body with wings for forelimbs and short hind legs.- Dinosaurs Are Dragons: They resemble pterosaurs with some attendant dragon features.
- Our Dragons Are Different
Aquatic Reptiles
Leviathan
A large, sea-dwelling dragon that occasionally comes close to shore when breeding or pursuing food, posing a danger when startled.- Dinosaurs Are Dragons: They resemble pleseiosaurs but spew fire when above water. They can do it underwater, too, but this mostly causes a flash of light and a small plume of smoke that quickly dissipates; these are used in social displays for mates and territory claiming, not for actual fighting.
- Graceful in Their Element: They are slow to the point of being a Mighty Glacier, but this is only due to the fights taking place in the shallows or along a shoreline. If you were fighting underwater in the deep, you'd be facing a Lightning Bruiser.
- Our Dragons Are Different
- Playing with Fire: Despite living in water.
- Predators Are Mean: Considering the only time you see them, they're either hunting food or in the middle of mating, it's no wonder they're upset you interrupted them.
- Stock Ness Monster: Tends to behave like one, scooting along the surface of the water and then diving again. However, no one will call you crazy if you claim to have seen one.
Land Mammals
Retchet
A large, tawny-brindle hound, similar to the saluki but with erect, fox-like ears. Has no inherent magical abilities, but is drawn to magic anyway - this includes humans with magical abilities such as the PC.- Deathbringer the Adorable: A retchet is also another name for the hounds of the Wild Hunt
, known for killing those who merely witness it. While these retchets are about as dangerous as your average large dog (i.e. they have a pretty powerful bite), they're by no means a portent of death. - Killer Rabbit
- Predators Are Mean: Averted. It's largely friendly and curious and is one of the easiest creatures to tame.
Land Reptiles
Lindvyrm
A poisonous, flightless relative of dragons, having a long, serpent-like body and two stout legs.- Dinosaurs Are Dragons: They resemble a Tyrannosaurus rex whose absurdly tiny forelimbs kept shrinking right on into nonexistence.
- Our Dragons Are Different
- Poisonous Person: Can inflict both Necrotoxins and Neurotoxins.
- Predators Are Mean: Oh yes, in this case. Lindvyrms have a distinctly bad temper.
