TVTropes builds a campaign setting!

"If possible" is the working assumption here. I've been busy and will continue to be so for a while today, so it all depends on what evening is for you.

There's no great urgency, just trying to avoid too much lag again. Btw how's your arm doing?

The King In The Silver Cloak

There were a line of kingdoms on Ezom. A single woman in a silver cloak full of clever toys tore them down with her drive at the head of a popular revolt. Rumoredly, she was helped by a number of Paragon Gifts, of the Speaker and the Fighter (Combined to be called the Gift of the Conqueror Paragon). She declared herself king of all the lands she conquered and quickly replaced all the tyrants she overthrew. Her kingdom now lives in the dual grip of fear and love for her. Her frequent absences from the thrones and forays to help her people and keep them in line have lead to her semi-mythical status, stories told of her exploits, both wonderful and terrible, and greatly expanded upon with creative liberty.

Blurgh. Voting in a minute.

Also, discussions need to be had on Gifts. Like, what constitutes a Gift? What powers them? What weaknesses exist in them to keep them from being strictly better than non-Gifted in every way?

Rarity

The gifted seem like they are determined by soft magic, much like who is a mutant in the marvel universe.

That is basically what a Gift is

"Rarity" is not a good answer. This isn't nineteen eighty-two; player characters are not generated by lucky rolls.

That really depends on the game, which doesn't matter to us remember.

We should still proceed as though someone's going to put numbers to it eventually.

ETA: Nevermind, go with whatever. I've been thinking, and I believe I'm going to officially bow out of Domhan Scéal. Nothing against any of you, but, overall, I feel like a lot of this could have been handled better with a bit more structure. Furthermore, I'm creatively quite dried up right now. There's a lot going on in my life, and I have little energy to spend on doing much of anything at the moment. I am glad that I can leave this project in very capable hands- and I do plan on seeing the finished product when it happens.

Ádh mór agus síochána,

Alex McClellan

edited 8th Aug '12 1:56:00 PM by Exelixi

Alright, hate to see you go but I understand. I certainly see us having something of a base design soon anyways.

Though something has been bugging me for a while now. DS is more of a fantasy world then campaign setting, to be honest with what we've put into it this could be many different campaign settings all within a shared world.

I think this view of DS as a shared world with interconnected campaign settings certainly helps us not only from the world building perspective but helps us and any game designerw who are converting or building DS into a system.

For a role-playing game, "rarity" is good for something like Gifts because it is flexible: a GM running a superheroes game won't get a headache trying to make sure that his players are being awesome and another GM can ban it for a horror game. Isn't that how Exalted and gods and other superpowered beings inmost fantasy setting works?

edited 8th Aug '12 2:52:17 PM by IraTheSquire

Not most, no. Unless the game is specifically about the protagonists being The Chosen Half-Dozen, there's no switch that says "you're all strictly better than everyone else," or, worse, "this one guy is strictly better than his friends."

The big thing I look for in such things is Mutual Exclusivity. There has to be something that stops a character from being a Gifted Wraith Werewolf Dancer Juggernaut Shaman Mystic.

edited 8th Aug '12 3:03:28 PM by Exelixi

I'm not talking about protagonists/P Cs because G Ms can just ban those templates from being used by players. For example, if I want to I can ban players from playing Exalts in Exalted because I want to run a horror campaign about helpless mortals. Most settings do have certain entities that are strictly more powerful and thus "better" than others. Gods in fantasy are an example (yes, they do need worshippers most of the time but that's not much of a weakness compared with what they can do). The fact that they exist in the setting doesn't matter for the game itself, because it is up to the GM's discretion to allow what type of power level the players can be at.

edited 8th Aug '12 3:14:11 PM by IraTheSquire

Even if there was an exclusivity clause, a DM could always Rule Zero that out. The 3.5 DMG said it best "These aren't rules so much as guide lines" - granted I think that exact phrasing was said by Jack Sparrow but the sentiment was the same.

As for in-universe, this was the reason I created Viek. As an in-universe balancing agent. Nothing can be strictly better as long as he exists for he gives everything weakness in one way or another, due to his being the god of weakness.

If their is any kind of great advantage something has Viek can be used during or after creation to form a weakness for said thing, and have it still be justified.

Plus Elemental Brands established that an over amount of magical energies can cause physical bodies to break down. Modify this a bit and it allows these epic Chosen half-dozen characters to be created but at steadily increasing risk of random and horrific death.

People get their chosen half-somethings and we get the piece of mind that these power-houses will likely die before they enter the first cave.

edited 8th Aug '12 3:23:41 PM by Vyctorian

I think having them "dying at random" is too much of a weakness that makes them unplayable (might as well as take it out completely). I really like the Limit system in Exalted which not only gives powerhouses a weakness but also forces them to role-play. I'll say that let's give the Gifted an obsession that they have to follow (according to what their Gifted area is) or else they go nuts and indulge in their obession in such a way that is devastating.

edited 8th Aug '12 3:45:41 PM by IraTheSquire

Perfection.

Like Malkavians.

And by "they go nuts" I mean "they risk going nuts". As to how exactly that works I'll leave that to discretion for now (we can go the Exalted method of a track: resisting too much will explode into disaster, or simply they gain something by following their obsessions and they won't get it if they resist and they have to do it anyway if they fail).

Honestly, that sounds a bit like a Geis. "You can't do this/have to always do this. On the plus side, you have superpowers."

I haven't read Geist yet, but I take my inspiration from Exalted.

... No, hon, a Geis is an ancient Irish curse-oath-blessing-thing.

Basically, a Druid or god or similar hits you with this thing that says, like, "never shall you eat the meat of a bull" or "never shall you turn down a duel" or such.

Keeping the Geis- IE doing the thing- means that you will do great things. Breaking it means you're fucked.

Too much magically boons effecting your mental stability. I like that.

The Gift serves as an explanation of a power rather than a power itself and only one of several explanations.

I am super strong because...

...I have a particular gene in me that has become active and gives me that strength

...I trained really bloody hard

...I was subject to a wizard's experiment

Of course, Gifts, being the expy of the mutant gene, open up the door for uncontrolled Body Horror. But ultimately, you have a list of abilities that can be explained in a number of ways. While yes, IC, their is nothing stopping someone with a Gift and a Racial power going off to Dedicate training before tripping over a Blessing but OOC you have rules that are supposed to stop that.

Oh, right. I thought that was spelt "Geas"?

edited 8th Aug '12 5:15:40 PM by IraTheSquire

Exel: Sorry to hear you're not going to be an active part of DS anymore. I hope that you'll at the least drop by and give us your imput from time to time.

So, besides Exel, anybody still not voted in the last ballot? Ira?