No. And I'm very thankful that they aren't.

@Justa Username: No, there are no stats. All I meant earlier is that I was going to list character's powers and special abilites to see if everyone was balanced. I have looked everyone over, and I think most everyone should be good to go. There are a few characters that might be underpowered, but they can gain new abilites or equipment during the story, or maybe they'll be just that badass.

Either way - we're not doing any actual stats, it's a free-form RP, and basically all of the (in-setting for NPC) mechanics are on the trope page already. The elemental system is for vulnerabilities and bonuses, (NPCs ONLY) but there are no hard numbers even for them.

edited 23rd Apr '12 5:31:14 PM by Sonzai

Ah. It just seemed like you inevitably introduce them as guidelines for character actions...

That was the misunderstanding, and I'm happy to admit that it was my mistake for not clearing it up better, but since your characters are from other universes, they use their own rules (read: write them doing whatever you want), and don't have any rule-based system they follow. (Unless their home universe does, in which case they follow their own system.)

In fact, even for the in-setting NPCs, there are no RPG-like stats either, the elemental system is like a set of magical laws, like the laws of physics. Even the Critical Existence Failure-style damage is a special property of life-force in the setting. In fact, if you don't use any magic, and only operate with nonliving matter, the world this RP is set in (Domatu) functions identically to ours. (Like gravity, magnetism, chemistry, etc.)

As much as stats are great for balance, I want this to ideally be a much more creative exercise, in that you aren't bound by set actions or rules, and you can do anything (and more, with special abilites) that one could in real life. Heck, try to invent modern technology if you want to.

I tempted to give DDR Baka Hammers that result in no damage other than a Cranial Eruption, because I'm guessing the characters that appear might have provoked him to use something like that a few times.

But that means allowing you to hurt characters for no better reason than your guy's irritable. :<

I really haven't been keeping track of what's been going on...

*looks back at last 4 pages of posts*

...Well, that was awkward.

Anyway, no issues with starting on Friday on my part, but now I'm wondering if one character is enough. (Might need some magic to balance the might...)

DDR can be Brutal but he ain't going to hit people just because they piss them off. They have to act like idiots (they are Baka hammers) or insult Ribbon.

Well if you want to, go ahead. Just remember, you should make another character because you want to make another character, not because you feel you need to make another character.

I'm still averse to it. Unless this ends up as utterly ridiculous as Ranma... >.>

I know. It's just that in the original planned 'verse (which never got out of my head because there were too many fantasy RPs at the time), the Black Knight was supposed to be one half of a pair... among other changes along the way. (For starters, it would've been the Black Queen.) Guess I'll bring the other half in and tweak accordingly.

edited 24th Apr '12 12:17:14 AM by Pyrite

So... not using Aria after all. Time to rewrite a character, hurrah! And edit a few things.

• Name: Maria de la Mort
• Age: 112, though she's more eleven-ish. Ten-to-one maturation rate; Reapers grow slowly once they reach childhood.
• Gender: Female
• Species: Grim Reaper. Where she's from, this is an entire species, dedicated to moving the souls of the dead across and protecting the dead. Despite looking pretty creepy and tending to speak with an echoey voice, they're no more evil or dark than most other people. Well, aside from the whole 'finds graveyards and such comforting' thing. That's where they set up shop, though.
  They tend not to die easily; their most advanced magical technique is actually consciously harnessing a survival mechanism. As such, unless it's a one-hit KO or they're unconscious, wounds tend not to do more than slow them for a few hours. This, and their other abilities, somewhat makes up for being about as physically capable as they look and not really a muscular species.
• Appearance: That left arm? Made of bone. The right? Effectively invisible unless it's wet.
• Basic powers/skills description:
  • Intangibility. Works on a 'level' system, conferring more effects as you move up levels. 0 is base, 1 can pass through people and their attire, 2 is semi-translucent and confers resistance to non-aimed magic (but interacting with things on a lower level is impossible, save for the scythe's ability to bridge a one-level gap), and 3 is invisible and silent. Thing is, she can't see people any better than they can see her. Due to inexperience, it takes fully ten seconds of concentration for Maria to shift one step and she can't safely move to 4 or above.
  • Reaper's Scythe. She's not the best with it and mostly relies on the fact that it can hop up and down a level at will, making non-enchanted weaponry and armour useless. Doesn't leave physical wounds, either. Effectively, it attacks hitpoints directly.
  • Death Reversal. The harnessed instinct mentioned above, this allows fatal—or potentially fatal, given the situation—wounds to be healed. Maria can stabilise someone who's dying and, given five minutes more, heal the wound.
  • Blood Control. Something Maria has a natural affinity for, despite it not being associated with the Reapers. Since her own weapon doesn't cut, it tends to be her injuries providing the ammunition, but in a packed battle she'll be better off. She mostly shapes blood into spikes and fires it, since she's otherwise incapable of participating in ranged combat... and since she's not the fastest and is rather small, it's hard to get IN range.
• Any other info: Nightmare Fetishist. Also loves fluffy things.
• Any relevant prior adventuring or interdimensional work experience: Some adventuring experience, not much.

Okay, putting up my companion character now - and GenderFlipping the Black Knight. (This was how it should've been.) (Please refer to the previous post for changes - no details altered aside from name and gender.)

• Name: Giles of Arcadia
• Age: Strangely enough, appears to be in his mid-twenties: time in the interdimensional realms does strange things to you.
• Gender: Male
• Species: Human
• Appearance: Dresses in the hat, cloak and general garb of a Final Fantasy Red Mage, but he uses a cane-sword instead of the typical longsword or rapier that one would expect. Dark hair, dark eyes, almost deathly pale.
• Basic powers/skills description:
  • Handicap: Took an arrow to the knee some injuries in the past which left him relatively frail. Walks with a slight limp; if pressed, may not be able to run as quickly as the average person.
  • Magic: Uses Power Words and Runic Magic, with a variety of Standard Status Effects.
  • Smooth Operator: Skilled in bluffing, trickery and deception - equally skilled in figuring out if someone is trying to pull the same trick. Also has a way with words in general, and can be very persuasive should the need arise.
  • (As a side note, Giles can make the Black Queen snap out of her rage with relative consistency. It's not a given, though.)
• Background information:
  Giles of Arcadia: Diplomat, Mage, companion of the Black Queen. Claimed he would follow her into Hell if she asked - and did so, even as the flames of war consumed the Four Kingdoms.
• Any relevant prior adventuring or interdimensional work experience: Has been fighting alongside the Black Queen for the longest time. Nothing surprises him any more - or if it does, he doesn't show it.

edited 24th Apr '12 10:16:11 AM by Pyrite

...Ack, and now I feel like I need to point out that Kirai is a Consummate Liar, seeing how that's another character with the ability to easily discern lies. Um... She lies so much that it's pretty much to her what regular conversation is to others, so, um, yeah.

...Sorry, I'm just a little worried that someone will accuse her of lying the moment she first opens her mouth and she won't work out how she's planned at all (sorry, this has happened to me before with a similar character and it completely ruined them and left me unable to write them, so, um, yeah). So yeah, um... Just pointing that out. Sorry. >.<

Point taken - I'll bear that in mind when the RP starts, and try not to blow your cover. Liars need to stick together, after all. (Besides, he's good, not perfect.)

edited 24th Apr '12 10:37:07 AM by Pyrite

Well, here goes.

The Black Duke

• Name: The Black Duke (real name forgotten).
• Age: Thousands of years.
• Gender: Male.
• Species: Wraith.
• Appearance: The Black Duke appears to be a tall man wearing long, black robes that cover his entire body sans his hands. Those are covered by black metallic gauntlets. However, without his robes he is practically invisible — he's just a man-shaped patch of slightly whiter-than-normal air. When viewed through a magic-detecting device, however, his real, past form is revealed. It is that of an old man wearing long, white robes and sporting a long beard.
• Basic Skills Description:
  • First of all, the Duke is incorporeal. It is both an advantage and a disadvantage; an advantage, because most physical things pass through him, and a disadvantage, because he is very limited in his interactions with the physical world. He can manifest (ie, make corporeal) his hands for short whiles, but it tires him greatly and he usually does not bother.
  • His 'touch' is deathly-cold to living creatures, sucking the very life-force from their bodies. However, he does not gain it; it is transported away. He can direct it, just not into himself. It can be used as a form of healing, but it is very limited and he doesn't bother healing people he does not care about anyway.
  • His shrieks have a bad effect on most people's health. It varies from species to species and from person to person, and they can induce anything, from nosebleeds through madness through fear to syphilis. However, as with most things, he does not bother shrieking much.
• Any Other Info:
  • Origin: Taste of Nu-Pagadi, a dead RP hosted here for a short while.
  • Personality: contrary to his appearance, The Black Duke isn't evil. He leans more toward the apathetic, why-do-I-care-it's-all-the-same view of the world. His main interest is to find a cure for his curse, something that will let him die and rest in peace. However, since he's been trying to that for a few millennia, even that isn't enough to stir him out of his stupor most days.
• Former Experience: Centuries of fighting angelic assassins, though that was quite a long time ago. Lived most of his 'life' in a Wretched Hive Of Scum And Villainy.

Lucius Annaeus Astra Seneca

• Name: Lucius Annaeus Astra Seneca.
• Age: 25.
• Gender: Male.
• Species: Human (Nanohaverse).
• Appearance: Lucius Annaeus is a short, bulky man. His face is is pointed and angular. He sports a small, black van Dyke, and keeps his hair short. His nose is prominent and beak-like. His eyes are brown. He usually wears normal clothes - TSAB uniform*
  Erio's uniform here◊ is a good example
  , that is — but he insisted on being allowed to wear a longcoat over them; he fought the bureau's bureaucracy and won, so he wears one almost all of the time.
• Basic Powers/Skills Description: Basically, Nanohaverse magic.
  • Device: Cladivos is a glaive-like Intelligent Device. Its standby form is that of a dog-tag with its name on it, similar to Storm Raider.
    Its normal form is that of a glaive, with a Cartridge System near its blade.
    It has two extra forms: One is a gladius-like sword, with the Cartridge System situated on the back of its blade (similar to Laevatein's); the other is of a composite longbow.
    Personality-wise, it is similar to Lucius: Calm and collected.
  • Barrier Jacket: A black longcoat covering a silvered lorica segmentata. Comes with black, fingerless gloves and army boots.
  • Magic:
    • System: Modern Belkan.
    • Mage Rank: AA+.
    • Role: Front Attacker (think Subaru).
    • Mana affinity: Frost.
    • Transport Capabilities: Limited flight; not very good with it, but good enough to cover ground quickly. Prefers fighting on the ground, though.
    • Magic Colour: Light blue.
    • Signature Spells:
      • Name: Stoischen Schrägstrich (German for Stoic Slash)
      • Magic System: Modern Belka
      • Category: Melee
      • Description: Lucius conjures a blade of blue-white energy. The blade can then be used as a sword, as a boomerang, as a 'sheath' of sorts to cover Clavidos's blade in order to enhance its striking power.

      • Name: Himmel Streik (German for Sky Strike)
      • Magic System: Modern Belka
      • Category: Shooting
      • Description: This spell conjures two small energy energy blades from Clavidos's tip. They are then shot at Lucius's enemies, and, shortly before reaching their target, split into two smaller blades which strike from two different directions - usually one comes from above, thus the spell's name.

      • Name: Stoischen Schild (German for Stoic Shield)
      • Magic System: Modern Belka
      • Category: Shield
      • Description: This spell conjures a shield similar to Tri Shield, but with the additional benefit of storing the attack's power. It is then possible to convert that power into a boost for Stoischen Schrägstrich. There's a drawback, however: Above a certain power level, this spell cannot hold the attack's power and shatters.

• Other Info:
  • Origin: Nanoha: Lost Logia Hunters, another dead RP.
  • World of Origin: Mid-Childa.
  • Clavidos's Schwertform and Standby form; Clavidos's Glaiveform, with Stoischen Schrägstrich boost.◊
• Previous Experience: Chasing dangerous smuggled objects in Mid-Childa with the TSAB Ground Forces 108th battalion, and chasing dangerous Lost logia with TSAB Riot Force One; Aqua is his commanding officer.

edited 25th Apr '12 4:21:06 AM by desdendelle

I have half a mind to see if I can use Aqua instead of Maria. Just to have someone else knowing the magic system and desiring to test him. =P

If you do, we could develop their interaction properly this time. And I can play him less foolishly...

On the other hand, that means one of the most badass melee fighters... would be seven inches high.

For those interested. Yes, in the thread itself she was Mr. Roman's superior. XD

But who would assume the kistune tail hugging if you were to switch?!

Actually, swapping Ami seems a better idea. I'll be using her in something else soon enough, anyway.

@Raineh Daze: Maria is accepted! Note that she won't actually be a reaper in this universe (i.e. capable of processing souls in-setting), but her healing skills, etc. will still work, and she might be able to have a better time trying to communicate with the in-setting reapers/spirits/God of Death, etc.

Also, using Aqua might be fun, because then she might actually be the shortest character in the party at the beginning. (There's an NPC guide that I'm pretty sure is shorter than everyone else right now.)

@Pyrite: Giles of Arcadia is accepted! And, of course the Black Queen is still accepted as well.

@Everyone who has a lying character or with truth-detecting capabilities: For players detecting other players, since you write their reactions, I'm expecting it to be harder to detect than with NPCs. If someone is really good at lying, then only perhaps with powerful concentration or magical assistance one might be able to tell if they're lying, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. The NPCs will either guess (the experienced and/or suspicious characters) or use an explicit magical spell that enables that ability. And for characters detecting NPCs, I'll either point it out if it's obvious, or you say your character is using the special ability and I'll write the result.

@desdendelle: The Black Duke is accepted! Lucius Annaeus Astra Seneca is also accepted, as long as his power level is in line with the rest - because it's pretty hard to quantify power differences across series.

As far as the tone of the RP goes - it's adaptable to what everyone wants the RP to be. I'll adjust it between silly and serious based on everyone's characters/actions/reactions, and it may vary based on what is going on at the time. Right now, I feel like it's leaning towards 'balanced' or 'slightly serious', but we'll see what happens.

Yosh.
The Black Duke: Curses! I rise again!

And I have just realised that none of my characters are known for being overly... y'know, bright. So, Ami, with her sole ability being situational, for Aqua!

Refer to Des's bio for links to terminology.

• Name: Aqua
• Age: So... she wasn't exactly a new Unison Device, and she was recovered pretty shortly after Belka's fall... so... three or four hundred years. On the other hand, outside of battle she acts her apparent age, which is seven or so.
• Gender: Female
• Species: Unison Device
• Appearance: Firstly, and most importantly, is Aqua's size. She's tiny, unsurprisingly, and somewhat waifish even then. Really, she looks like she ought to eat a lot more—or that her hair is leeching all of her growth. Wavy, knee-length cerulean hair that must be longer than she is... and ridiculously hard to deal with if not for the fact that she can just ask someone else to help wash it. Her eyes, naturally, match, and Aqua's features are very soft-looking.
  Her strangest trait, beyond even the stupidly long hair, is wearing a white swimsuit everywhere as her basic attire. No shoes, nothing: just the swimsuit . It makes sense from a practical standpoint, given her normal tendencies, but...
• Basic powers/skills description:
  • Device: Kabbelung. This Armed Device has no less than four parts: bracers with the cartridge system (miniaturised, of course) built in, gauntlets, and greaves. All four somewhat make up for the fact that Aqua can't really hit that hard, and she still has to use magic to achieve much.
  • Barrier Jacket: Ready for it? A bikini. A bikini with lots and lots of frills, as well as a pleasant light-blue on dark-blue polka-dot pattern. It's not as if the amount of coverage directly affects defensiveness, she's more concerned about being even harder to hit (due to a speed boost) than defence given her size, and so...
  • Magic:
    • Magic Colour: Navy blue.
    • Mage Rank: S+; she's had a lot of time to earn her rank.
    • Magic Style: Ancient Belkan
    • Mana Conversion Affinity: Water. Tends not to be as useful as the others, in a combat sense.
    • Transport Abilities: Flight. Obviously.
    • Rare Skill: Mana Drain. Due to corrupted programming, Aqua has lost her unison abilities—as well as the ability to size up to anything above the age of about seven—and gained this. If she attempts to unison whilst in contact with somebody, they will rapidly find themselves drained of mana and Aqua herself sized up slightly. Naturally, against an enemy with lots of power, she's quite happy to keep this ability on whilst punching them incessantly.
  • Signature Spells:
    • Name: Tsunami
      Magic System: Ancient Belka
      Category: Short-Ranged Bombardment
      Description: Her most recently learned spell, Tsunami does exactly what it sounds like. Mostly useful for inside areas, where it can just sweep everything clean in a wall of water, it creates a block of water and smashes it into the target at high speeds. Naturally, this is tiring.
    • Name: Kabbelung Eins, named before the Device.
      Magic System: Ancient Belka
      Category: Personal Buff
      Description: This spell vastly increases Aqua's strength, so she uses it nearly constantly. The duration is a default of twenty seconds but for every cartridge (of the limited supply she has) used, the duration increases by another ten. Ever wondered what it feels like to be hit in the face with force enough to knock out an unprotected opponent? Now you can experience it!
    • Name: Kabbelung Zwei
      Magic System: Ancient Belka
      Category: Personal Buff
      Description: Take the above, half the duration, and double the strength boost. Despite the balancing, it's still far more draining.
• Any other info: A Blood Knight who acts childishly when fighting isn't an option. She's not too good at the non-combat sides of her position, especially the paperwork (her spelling is downright atrocious) and is surprisingly well liked by her subordinates. Except maybe the new guy. Then again, her first impression on him was basically assault...
  And she gets a chance to meet Mr. Boring again! Hurrah!
• Any relevant prior adventuring or interdimensional work experience: Technically both, given the way that the Nanohaverse works, but the magic system's a bit consistent for that. On the other hand, she does have at least fifty years of seeing new worlds and ancient relics, coupled with centuries as serving as an enabler for a powerful empire that subjugated all they came across.
  Have to wonder whose side she was on in the Saint-King Unification War.

edited 24th Apr '12 2:36:58 PM by RainehDaze

Hm, should I have LAAS come from Riot Force One? I wonder. Yes, I know: He's got an Overly Long Name. Also, Rain: isn't Clarice a Naga? D&D might be confusing me, but AFAIK Lamia are leonine centauroids.
EDIT: You know what? I'll add that.

edited 24th Apr '12 1:01:06 PM by desdendelle

Ever since one guy depicted Lamia as this, it's been a name. Since naga are pretty much snake deities, this is a safer bet. Also, fairly certain that naga can shapeshift, which I don't want.

edited 24th Apr '12 1:05:16 PM by RainehDaze