[Calaethis Dragonsbane]

The "Rules"...

As a foreword, these are just an idea so far, and if none of you want them, they can be scrapped. They're merely there as a reference to help you guys create a character and its capabilities.

The "system" (if you want to call it that) is pretty simple. I'll leave most of it up to you, as far as limitations go. They're just a guideline. Feel free to change things as you will.

So, here goes:
The system is designed so that a character has several categories of "abilities". (see below)

Attributes (your basic stats)
Skills (skills of what your character knows and what your character can do)
Magics* (a limited, incomplete list of "Spheres" - feel free to add more, should you so desire)
Weapon Mastery* (Weapons your character can use (well))
*The character's "abilities"
Signature Moves/Attack - I'll leave that up to you - but no more than three, unless appropriate.
Special Power - Like the above, but a single, innate power

The system's core concept is the character has one Major ability and two Minor abilities. The Attributes and Skills are really for reference and an afterthought, if you will. But anyway, moving on:

Attributes

Your key, primary stats. There are seven attributes and they are ranked on a scale of 1 to 5. Everyone starts with a single point/star/whatever in every statistic. The ratings are as follows:
1 is below Average
2 is Average (for humans)
3 is above Average
4 is Genius
5 is Superhuman

Now, the attributes are as follows:

Strength (Gee, if I have to explain this...)
Agility (Your speed, dexterity, etc)
Endurance (Your Constitution)
Intelligence (Somewhat obvious, but your ability to learn, retain knowledge)
Aura (your "charisma" and force of will)
Perception (I'm not sure how to explain it other then "your perception and ability to notice things)
Spirit (Your magic stat, the ability to control and resist it)

I'll let you decide your own amount of stats, but if you put 5 in every attribute, I won't be too amused, given that I don't want Avatars of Gods - or even Gods for that matter in the game. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Skills

Skills are fairly self-explanatory, and though I've tried to keep the list fairly simple, if you want to add more, feel free to. I've have absolutely no objections to anyone adding additional material. Skills have three levels of expertise to them: Novice, Adept and Master. I won't limit how many skills you choose or what level of proficiency you take, but I'd say about seven at Novice, pick another five of to Adept and finally, choose another three skills to raise to Mastery. But again, that's only a suggestion and feel free to take as many, or as little as you wish, or even add your own. Just... don't take every skill and put it at "Master", mmk?

If that's confusing, here's a simplified version:
7 Skills at Novice
5 Skills at Adept
3 Skills at Master

Physical - "Athletics"
Acrobatics
Riding
Swimming
Climbing
Sprinting/Running
Jumping

Misc/Worldly:
Alchemism (to create potions and the like)
Herbalism (using herbs to treat wounds/infections)
Tracking
Stealth
Pickpocket
Gem/Stone/Rock Cutting
Woodworking
Tailoring
Blacksmithing
Armoursmith
Weaponsmith
~ Crafting [..]/(if you feel the need to craft anything)

Mental:
Knowledges (Pick something, like Mysticism, Astrology or Forests or...)
Concentration (Concentration for Magic)
Discipline (Defence against Magic)

~Abilities~

The following are abilities: your character may select one Major and two Minor - if you select "Mastery" for Weapons, you cannot have a "Major" Sphere, and likewise, you may not have a "Major" Sphere and take "Mastery" in a weapon. Instead, you would have to take "Acolyte" in a weapon, or two "Minor" Spheres. Alternatively, you could take "Mastery" in a single weapon, and any combination of "Acolyte" or "Minor" Sphere, or "Major" in a Sphere and any combination of "Acolyte" or "Minor"... (let me know if that sounds a bit awkward or doesn't make sense).

Magic

Magic is divided into Spheres: "Major" and "Minor" (in case you'd not gathered that yet)

Major Spheres have five spells to them, but their lesser form, Minor only have three.

Here are a few examples of Magic Spheres (again, it isn't complete, and feel free to make your own up). Lesser versions are limited to the first three spells (as indicated), and greater gain access to the last two.

Life/Healing Sphere
Cure
Antidote
Heal
Regenerate
Restore Life (not resurrect)

Death Sphere
Commune with Spirits
Summon Spirits
Command Spirits
Drain Life (not slay)
Steal Soul (prevents spirit passing over)

Ice Sphere
Freezing Touch
Diamond Shards (icy daggers: thrown)
Ice Strike (lance of ice: thrown/from the sky)
Freezing Ray (long ray of freezing ice)
Storm of Ice (ice shards fall from the heavens)

Fire Sphere
Fiery Blaze(short range flame attack)
Searing Torch (touch attack)
Jet of Flame (long range attack)
Smoulder (touch attack that reduces living targets to ash over time and melts non-living)
Incinerator Cloud (area of effect spell that sears and burns all within it)

Enchantment
Hypnotism
Bewilder
Charm
Control
Dominate

Animal
Commune with Beasts
Calm Beasts
Charm Beast
Summon Beasts
Share Mind

Illusion
Split Reflections (up to five projections of yourself)
Projection (project an illusion up to a short distance)
False Strike (confuses opponent with fake attacks)
False Aura
Clone (Create illusionary self that lasts a long time - just how long depends on the caster's power and will)


Shadow
Shadow Image (your shadow fights for you // may be multiple shadows depending on the light)
Shadow Merge (Hide in the darkness)
Dark Strike (ranged attack that damages opponent with their own shadow)
Control Shadows (control other's shadows)
Shadow Shroud (shroud the entire area with shadow)


Battle Magic
Shield (spherical globe of invisible force surrounds you or ally)
Enhanced Strike (your blows do more damage)
Armour (Invisible force protects you or ally)
Multi-Strike (strikes several times rather then just once)
Avatar (invisible force surrounds you and chosen allies rendering you invincible for a short time against all but the strongest magicks and attacks)


Divination ~ Ydalon
Mindread
Detect Magic
Foresight
Scry
Find Trouble

Protection
Sentry
Blend
Spiritward

Osteomancing ~ Narar
Bone Armor(Shape bone of ally or self into armor, very intimidating)
Spines(Spines protrude from any part of the body at will)
Freeze the Core(Stops enemy movement by freezing skeleton in place, muscles still work)
Seize the Core(Control enemy movements by controlling skeleton)
Boneless(Dissolves target's skeleton into base elements, for good or worse)

Darkness ~ Zakaria
Blacklight (darkens (a small) area even during daytime and does minor damage to those within it by sapping at their life)
Esoteric Circle (acircle of protection - minor dark lightning strikes any who would enter without permission/ally of the caster)
Dark Demise (A ranged strike that does moderate damage but temporarily blinds the target by filling his eyes with darkness)
Night's Harbinger (Deploys a dark cloud which is close to impossible to see through and day becomes night for a short while. Whilst inside, the caster is completely concealed and has five 'dark lances' of dark energy to discharge at whom he chooses.)
Shadow Eclipse (Dark energy is cast in the form of a shadow as though the sun was blotted out, hence the name 'Eclipse' at the target in a cone-like area of effect - though the ray comes from the caster, not the sun or any satellites, natural or otherwise).

Hidden* ~ Isokla
Conceal (person blends in with natural surroundings more readily)
Invisibility (conceals person completely from sight)
Undetectable (the person is completely undetectable from sight, sound and other mundane means of scrying)
Untracable Presence (The person cannot be tracked, leaves no tracks and his/her presence is little more than a 'void' both magically and mundane)
Apathy (the person cannot be read emotionally, physically, mundane or magically; cannot be traced, cannot be analysed, is completely devoid of emotions, signature energy, magic, etc. It is not so much an effect as an absence of effects)
*Division magic of equal or higher level may counter this sphere

Other Elemental Spheres could include:
Earth
Air
Water
Storm
Sun

-if you do wish you have an elemental sphere, base it on the "Ice" one, but feel free to make it unique.

Martial Abilities (or "Weapons")

As previously noted, Weapon abilities have two categories: "Acolyte" and "Mastery". Mastery is the best you can be and Acolyte is proficent - or "able to use". It's really that simple.
The list is unfinished and you can apply it to almost any weapon (within reason - no Far Eastern style weapons please, or anything that isn't medevial 'psuedo European' for that matter...)
Remeber that you can only pick One Major Ability and two Minor Abilities, so choose carefully as it will only apply to a single weapon or magical sphere.

Martial Arts (boxing/wrestling, etc)
Bow
Sword
Spear
Sling
Quarterstaff
Morning Star
Hammer
Lance
Dagger
etc

Signature Move/Attacks & Special Powers

Your own personal, unique, individual... ...signature move. Basically, something you have that no one else can do - or if they can, you specialise in it. But yes, feel free to create anything you like, but do keep it within reason - so no DBZ Earth-shattering planet destroying, immortality techniques...

If instead, you want a special ability, such a spell or something, if you choose Magic as your Major Sphere instead of Weapon Mastery, that works too - so long as it isn't again, earth shattering. Personally, I would suggest no more then three Signature Moves and only a single innate Special Power at most. Aside from that, you've pretty much completed your character stuff, save for the background and the like.
Congrats!


Currency – Redone

The last attempt at a currency system on my part was needlessly complex, so I have simplified it this time.

There is a simple two coin type tier system:
Crowns & Pennies

(10) Ten Pennies (CP) is worth a (1) Single Crown (SC)

Pennies come in copper
Crowns come in silver

And just to mess you folks up,

There is a third, final coin – a golden sovereign (GS).

A golden sovereign is worth (50) Silver Crowns (and subsequently, (500) five hundred Pennies)

Pennies tend to be smaller than their counterparts, being 2.5 cm in diameter.
Silver Crowns tend to be the highest form of currency that anyone aside from Merchants, Minor and Upper Nobility and of course, Royalty will use. It's rare to see gold coins in use, as gold tends to be valued a lot more highly in this world than in ours. Copper tends to be regarded as the lowest form of currency, and some 'classier' merchants won't accept it. Generally, its regarded as the currency of the peasentry - so even if you have bagfuls, it may not buy you anything within the upper regions of a city (unless you know where to look). Likewise, most peasents won't accept gold - usually because its too valuable for them to use.

You can assign yourself however many coins you wish, but as a general rule of thumb, I personally wouldn't recormend you take more than [i]5 Silver Crowns at the very, very most and even that may be excessive. Two SCs and a few Pennies should be more than adequet. Unless you're a noble, in which case, I'd suggest no more than three Gold Sovereigns

~~~

There are coins of higher value than a gold sovereign but right now, they're not that important. I may list them later on though. They tend to be rarer and only used by nobility/upper merchants/those-dealing-with-large-amounts-of-funds and those within the city

Added: 04/03/06
Level Up Rules

The system is based on “points” – with which you can increase your character’s performance in an area(or areas) of your choice. Points can be “stored” and kept for later use.

3 to 7 points are awarded* (per mission/quest/story advance/DM’s discretion)
*(sometimes this may be more or less depending on the situation – there will be exceptions to this rule)

Costs are as follows:
An attribute costs 8 points to increase to 2 or 3; it costs 12 points to raise to 4 and 16 to raise to 5
A skill raised to Novice level costs 2 point
A skill raised to Expert level costs 4 points
A skill raised to Master level costs 6 points

Adding new spells to a magic sphere costs:
5 points first spell
7 points second spell
10 points third spell
15 fourth spell
20 fifth spell

Martial skills raised to Acolyte cost 3 points
Martial skills raised to Expert cost 5 points
Martial skills raised to Master cost 7 points

Signature Attack: Minor costs 10 points
Signature Attack: Major costs 15 points

Important: There are several ways of justifying your newfound abilities – the most common is:
You must train “IC” when adding new skills, magic or whatnot. Either before or after you add it. That way you don’t just suddenly “gain” a skill with no prior training.

Alternately, another path is to say the character always knew it but never realised it – this isn’t a good choice unless it’s well RPed however. Such as suffering from amnesia and slowly recovering memories, or memories of a past life.

Thirdly, there is the “awakening” classic DnD “sorcerer” style method – where a character awakens to his newfound abilities. Again, this is a bit of a cop-out, but in certain situations, having a “trigger” can be played very well.

Finally remember that just because you’ve added it to your sheet, you need not actually use it immediately. More often, it is better to wait and justify everything IC before actually ever using an ability.

~~~
Edit: I hate tags and keyboards that aren't sensitive enough to know when you hit the keys...

[ 03-04-2006, 08:14 AM: Message edited by: Calaethis Dragonsbane ]