Adventures in Animism - An adventure RP - [0/8]

Adventures in Animism

In the primordial sea of stars, universes are born and destroyed by Time. It creates billions of galaxies, filled with lifeless planets, and lifeless stars. Time cannot create Life, and this is why it created The Universe. A singular entity to enter universes of Time's creation, and use it's powers to bring life into existence. The universes had started being something. Something more than an empty space designed for doom.

But all must come to an end. Thus, The Universe had to create Death, a force which destroyed all the Life it had created. This caused The Universe great strife, having to create something to destroy what it had once made, but what else could it do? It was a servant to Time, and that would never change...

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In one of these many universes, a certain kind of life existed. In this universe (one of The Universe's personal favorites), all sapient beings (referred to as Shells) possess Cores. These Cores determine what a being's physical appearance will be like, and affect it down to the atomic level. These Cores follow a few rules, in that they cannot die (but may age if their form allows it), they cannot be sapient beings, there cannot be more than one Core per Shell, and that the Core must be somewhere in the universe that the Shell will go sometime in their life. It is thought that the Cores are placed randomly in the universe, but this is not the case. However, like many of The Universe's subtle machinations, it goes unnoticed. These rules have been broken in the past, but stand true nearly all of the time. When a Shell is fatally wounded, they will rebirth at their Core. This allows them to be essentially immortal, as long as their Core is not destroyed. However, they retain any non-fatal wounds, which must be healed through other means. This means that Shells are notoriously hard to kill, and wars are waged for millennia. The re-birthing process takes some time, however, so there is a period of waiting. Shells must still satisfy needs, however, if their Core requires it, such as eating, drinking and sleeping. All beings possess some amount of Aspects, which are based on what that being has done or is made of.

These beings live on various planets, and are extremely wide-ranging, from sentient blobs to giant creatures made of teeth. On one of these very planets, in a small, unnoticeable town on the western side of the great all-encompassing continent of Gaea, a group of adventurers reside within a Tavern. And not just any tavern, no, but the Rusted Toad itself. Famous for its collection of Ales that are guaranteed to incite projectile vomit, the Rusted Toad is about as low as you can get. Not even seedy, because the likes of those who visit seedy bars are too upper class for the Rusted Toad. No, only one kind of person visits here.

A dirt-poor, inexperienced, newbie adventurer. Which is why you are here. With your group of companions, you hope to find great riches, the secrets of the universe, or something. Really, a better beer would do it for you, but hey, aim for the moon so you can miss and inevitably fall crashing down back to earth, but hopefully in a place better than where you are now.

But that is for later. For now, a simple question will do. Who are you?

Welcome to Adventures in Animism, a game based off of a lore universe I had sitting around, combined with some more complex systems that I want to test out. This will be a mix of plot-based RPing and D&D style adventuring, hopefully striking a balance between the two. Probably not, but one can hope.

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System
Cores and Aspects:

The Core is essentially the phylactery of your character, and if it is destroyed, and you are dead, there is no coming back. However, while it remains intact, you will be able to be resurrected. If your Core is destroyed and you remain alive, you may go to a certain practitioner of magic and transfer your Sapience to a new Shell. This is obviously unpredictable. Your Core also provides the basis for your Aspects, which react differently depending on what enemy you face, and can be manipulated or provide benefits. Aspects can be gained or lost, as well. All creatures have Aspects, even those without Cores.

Stats:
You are given 24 Sides to start with, and through playing you may gain more. You may distribute these Sides throughout your Stats, and the dice rolled for that stat is equal to the number of Sides you gave it. The 4 skills are Efficiency, Perfectionism, Improvisation, and Hastiness.

Efficiency is about taking a balanced approach to problems, using your materials wisely for a moderate quality and speed result.

Perfectionism is about using your materials to the full extent, producing high quality results over a longer time period.

Improvisation is about spontaneous decisions, using your materials in inventive ways to produce varied results.

Hastiness is about speed, using your materials quickly to solve a problem, however half-baked the solution may be.

The dice you assign each stat will be used depending on the context you make an action in. Say, for example, you want to make a hang-glider. If you choose to make one as quickly as possible, Hastiness would be used. If you wanted to make one as efficiently as possible, Efficiency would be used. If you wanted to spend time making the best hang-glider possible, Perfectionism would be used. If you wanted to try something different and make a hang-glider out of bats strapped to a giant IV bag, Improvisation would be used. However, the bonus applied would be based on the corresponding Skill (in this example, Crafting > Transport > Vehicles would be used, or Adventuring > Travelling > Air.)


E.g. 24 Sides

Efficiency: 1d6
Perfectionism: 1d6
Improvisation: 1d6
Hastiness: 1d6

if you have multiple lower-sided dice, you're more likely to be successful, just at a lower effectiveness. If you have 2d10s, for example, and roll 2 10s, it'll be less effective than rolling a 20 on a 1d20.

Skills:

Skills are divided into three categories. Combat, Adventuring, and Science. These split off further into Melee, Ranged, Magic (for combat), Problem-solving, Travelling, Wisdom (for adventuring), Crafting, Analysis, and Utility (for science). Each skill you have is split into Theory[T] and Practice[P]. You can learn the Theory of a skill by studying, or being taught, and this increases the rate at which you learn the associated skill in Practice. If your Theory level in a skill is more than 150% of your Practice level, you will gain a 1.5x multiplier to learning in that skill. This applies for every 50% of your Practice level your Theory level has (e.g. Theory level: 150% Practice level, 1.5x Practice skill level rate, Theory level: 200% Practice level, 2.0x Practice skill level rate… etc.) Practical skills provide roll bonuses as you level them, but if your associated Theory level in that skill is less than half of your Practice level, the rate at which you increase your Practice level will be decreased. The Practice level of a skill is levelled by using that skill.

You must level a general skill (i.e. Melee, Problem-solving, Utility) a certain number of times before you can specialise further in that levelling tree. You start with 12 points to put in the general skills, but you cannot specialise any further at character creation. The points put into skills in character creation will apply to both the Theory and Practice level of the skills.

Combat:

Combat will be played through players and enemies being represented on an ASCII map, and performing 'freeform' actions within the combat scenario. They may use environmental features etc. to their advantage, and inventiveness is encouraged! Rolls will be performed based on how the action is performed, and what is done within the action. Damage taken will be using a sort of Chunky Salsa system, but it will vary depending on the Aspects your Shell possesses. Death will occur, but, as explained in Lore, you will revive at the location of your Core. Wherever this may be in relation to the party, who knows?

Try not to die.

Adventuring:

During adventures, the party will travel from one location to another, for a variety of potential reasons. RP will occur during this, and once players have ceased RP/actions(crafting, studying, etc.) time-skips will begin. Depending on the method of travel, environment, and other factors, encounters will occur after these time-skips. These encounters can be small, irrelevant things to entire derails, but they will always occur. Gotta keep things interesting.

Crafting:

Crafting is mostly freeform, and if you have the tools/facilities and materials required, you can make whatever you choose. I will have to approve these crafts, but once I have they will be rolled depending on the context and what Skill is used, like any other roll. Certain Aspects may provide benefits to crafting.

Equipment, Magic, and Other Miscellaneous things:

Equipment can be found or crafted throughout the game, but you get starting equipment. Magical items exist in this universe and are quite common, but the enchantments range from utterly useless to godlike, so there are a lot of in-betweens. Items may be enchanted, but this process is difficult and requires a lot of magical power, and a special facility. Light armor is less defensive but more easily moved in, medium is a balanced middle ground, and heavy is really defensive but harder to move in. Mystical is armor that doesn't really provide defense in the typical sense, and provides some other kind of defense, or a different effect altogether.

Magic is performed through either Wands, Staves, Scrolls, or Spells. Wands can be found/crafted throughout the game, and are rechargeable scrolls, essentially. They do not require magical power from the user, but they must have some way to recharge magical power once they deplete themselves. Staves can be found/crafted throughout the game, but unlike wands do not have any innate abilities (aside from making good clubs sometimes), and are merely a channeling device for magical users. Magical power flows through them and is enhanced, occasionally given certain enchantments and allowing certain spells to be cast. Staves do not require recharging, but they drain magical power from the user. Scrolls are consumable spells that, when cast, will dissipate into thin air, providing the magical power required for the spell to be cast (as magical power functions similarly to energy does, except it can be channeled easier by intelligent beings). Most shops will sell Scrolls, but more complex ones must be bought at magical stores, or crafted/found yourself. Spells are magical power given shape, and can be cast through differing means. Some spells require simply a chant and hand-waves, but others will require a ritual sacrifice, etc. Staves bypass these requirements, but can usually only cast a small range of spells. A truly experienced spell-caster can use their body as a channeling implement, and obviously some Cores provide better magical power than others.

Artifacts are magical items that provide no bonuses in of themselves, but have been enchanted to possess special properties. These cannot be crafted, only found throughout the game. They range from unique abilities like summoning demons from another plane of existence, to generic inventory extending bags.

For die rolling, the lower chance a number has to appear, the bigger an impact it'll have (i.e. 1 on a d20 will be worse than a 1 on a d10.) Bigger dice mean bigger failures, but also bigger successes.

((Any questions on the system can be asked, and if needed I will add some info.))

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Character Sheet
Name:
Gender:
Core: (Can be anything that isn’t sapient. If you wish to bend these rules, PM me. Determines your character’s Aspects, and is the centre of your characters design.)
Aspects: (Decided by me based on Core.)

Description: (What your character looks like, what they’re made of, etc. Lots of detail is appreciated, as this affects Aspects. Your character must be designed based on your Core. e.g. Core: Treasure Chest, Description: Basically a mimic.

Please be more detailed than my example.)

Background: (If you wish. If you fill this in I’ll be more likely to approve your sheet, so, yknow. World Lore is kinda up to you, and the more detailed backgrounds make the world more detailed...

Because I spent a lot of the time making this system without a real setting ._.)

Stats: (You get 24 Sides to start with. See the Stats section of System for more info.)

Efficiency:
Perfectionism:
Improvisation:
Hastiness:

Skills: (You start with 12 points to put in the general skills, but you cannot specialise any further at character creation. The points put into skills in character creation will apply to both the Theory and Practice level of the skills. See the Skills section of System for more info.)

> Melee: 0
Combat > Ranged: 0
> Magic: 0


> Problem-solving: 0
Adventuring > Travelling: 0
> Wisdom: 0


> Crafting: 0
Science > Analysis: 0
> Utility: 0

Equipment: (You begin with two pieces of equipment, one Weapon, and one piece of Armor. You may have a total of one Weapon equipped ((unless you can dual wield)), three pieces of Armor ((one Head, one Torso, one Legs)), and two Artifacts equipped at one time. Weapons and Armor do not have set damage/defence, and instead use a Type, and the way in which you use it determines which stat-dice is used.

Equipment Templates:

Weapon:

Name:
Aspects: (Decided by me, depending on description and what it is)
Type: (Ranged, Melee, or Magic)
Qualities: (These are custom, and are unique qualities of your weapon. They can provide a passive effect or access to a certain active ability, or something else. Will need to be approved by me.)
Description: (What the weapon is made of, what it does, etc. Much detail is appreciated, as this determines the basic functions of your weapon.)

Armor:

Name:
Aspects: (Same as weapon)
Type: (Heavy, Medium, Light, or Mystical)
Qualities: (Same as weapon)
Description: (Same as weapon, except about armor instead of weapons.)

Inventory: (Arbitrary items go here, as well as crafting materials/tools, books for research, or spare equipment. You may have up to 3 items of actual significance.)

Example Characters:

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LumberhackName: Damocles
Gender: Male
Core: A sword hung aloft by a single thread.
Aspects: Metal, Royal, Golden, Forged, Beard, Wood

Description: A towering figure taking the form of a cruciform sword hovering with the tip of the blade mere millimetres above the ground; draped around his cross guard is a coronation mantle and floating in place, ringing the bulbous pommel that passes for his head is a simple crown, as simple a crown may be at least, its front dimly shines, the light scanning from side to side, marking his ever-vigilant gaze.
Background: Practical and paranoid, regal and restless, Damocles very much embodies the quintessential nature of his Core, and it is because of this that he sought to abandon the qualities that form his very being. If the price of power is to sleep no more, then he shall have none of it. Kings are doomed by nature, merchants have their enemies, and even physicians have their concerns. You know who don't have problems? Lumberjacks. And so Damocles set out to become a lumberjack. For years he would dutifully fell trees and haul them into town, caring not for any greater purpose nor any plans beyond the present. It was in this self-appointed duty he found peace, and yet, there was always that ever-familiar tinge of wariness whenever he entered town, that sense of danger in the air, that caution which guided his movements, altered his steps. In the time he spent in the wilderness he grew no braver, that is to say, he was a coward, and so he sought to rectify that too the only way he knew how - by becoming an adventurer. If there was going to be danger, then let him see it, head on, a swing of the blade, a bolt of the arcane not some phantasm that haunts his imagination, immaterial and insubstantial.

Stats: 24/24

Efficiency: 1d8
Perfectionism: 1d14
Improvisation: 1d1
Hastiness: 1d1

Skills: 12/12

Combat
Melee: 4
Ranged: 0
Magic: 0

Adventuring
Problem-solving: 4
Travelling: 0
Wisdom: 4

Science
Crafting: 0
Analysis: 0
Utility: 0

Equipment:

Weapon: Felling Axe
Aspects: Wood, Metal, Forged, Magical, Industrial
Type: Melee
Qualities: Without Thought, Without Effort (This weapon when used without thought or effort, that is when using Perfectionism and catching a foe off guard or chopping something inanimate without any hurry, zips through its target's form with seemingly no resistance) Lumberjackery (This weapon is good at felling trees)
Description: A simple woodcutter's axe suitable for felling trees, and in a pinch, men. It has a steel head and an ash wood handle. For nineteen years Damocles has wielded this axe and it still looks as if it had just come fresh from the grindstone.

Armor: Fake Beard
Aspects: Nature, Hair, Beard, Magical, Rough
Type: Heavy
Qualities: Comfortable Fit (This armor can be equipped by just about anything) Immaterial (The armor itself takes the form of an aura of lumberjack essence that protects the user)
Description: No lumberjack is complete without a beard! This thick bushy beard has an adjustable band of elastic, allowing it to be comfortably secured to just about anything.

Inventory:

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Oh deerName: Lawrence Penningsworth the Third
Gender: Male
Core: An oak tree
Aspects:

Description: A wooden deer. His hindquarters look as if they belong to an immaculately carved statue of wood, but the further forwards you go, the more natural and tree-like his appearance becomes, his head being the trunk of a tree that branches out into two leafy "antlers".
Background:

Stats: 24/24

Efficiency: 2d5
Perfectionism: 1d2
Improvisation: 1d2
Hastiness: 1d10

Skills: 12/12

Combat
Melee: 0
Ranged: 0
Magic: 0

Adventuring
Problem-solving: 8
Travelling: 0
Wisdom: 2

Science
Crafting: 0
Analysis: 2
Utility: 0

Equipment:

Weapon: Laser Monocle
Aspects:
Type: Ranged
Qualities: Lock-On (This weapon has increased accuracy) Powered by Class (This weapon draws power from its environment, becoming more powerful the classier the setting it is used in is)
Description: A glass monocle that fires a beam of pure classiness at the wearer's foes.

Armor: Perpetually Wet T-Shirt
Aspects:
Type: Medium
Qualities: Damp (Greatly increased resistence to fire, greatly descreased resistence to cold)
Description: A simple black t-shirt that is perpetually wet, making it heavier than normal in exchange for making it harder to ignite.

Inventory:

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Slimy ShadowsName: Fortuna
Gender: Female
Core: A shadow puppet theatre
Aspects:

Description: They ressemble the fruiting body of a slime mold enlarged by a few orders of magnitude to be the size of a child. Its sporangium takes the form of a spherical lightbulb stained with thin films of shifting black slime, as the slime moves around the bulb, the shadows they cast form a phantasmal figure around them, the bulb where their heart should be.
Background:

Stats: 24/24

Efficiency: 2d3
Perfectionism: 2d3
Improvisation: 2d3
Hastiness: 2d3

Skills: 12/12

Combat
Melee: 0
Ranged: 6
Magic: 0

Adventuring
Problem-solving: 2
Travelling: 0
Wisdom: 0

Science
Crafting: 0
Analysis: 2
Utility: 2

Equipment:

Weapon: Mixtape
Aspects:
Type: Ranged
Qualities: It's Fire (This weapon deals incendiary damage and may ignite sufficiently flammable objects) Faithful (This weapon always returns to its user after being thrown)
Description: A brass casette tape with a casing scratched and slightly dented from use, it's still perfectly functional however.

Armor: Wings of Leather
Aspects:
Type: Medium
Qualities: Transform (If the wearer rolls well enough for a movement-related action, the jacket fans open like a pair of wings briefly allowing them to fly with a burst of speed)
Description: A simple leather jacket brought from the market, it provides rudimentary protection to its wearer.

Inventory:

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Real Science™Name: Angelica Primm
Gender:
Core: A fire extinguisher filled with anthrax
Aspects:

Description: An avian creature with a nozzle for a beak, pressure gauges for eyes and a handle for a head. Their body is a silvery silvery grey with wings covered with thin plates of bright red metal layered ontop of one another instead of feathers.
Background: A self-proclaimed mad scientist with a dubious OH&S record and even more dubious work practices.

Stats: 24/24

Efficiency: 0d0
Perfectionism: 0d0
Improvisation: 4d6
Hastiness: 0d0

Skills: 12/12

Combat
Melee: 0
Ranged: 0
Magic: 0

Adventuring
Problem-solving: 0
Travelling: 0
Wisdom: 0

Science
Crafting: 12
Analysis: 0
Utility: 0

Equipment:

Weapon: Roll of Duct Tape
Aspects:
Type: Magical
Qualities: Ensnare (This weapon can ensnare foes) Poor Weapon (This weapon is actually really bad at being used as an actual weapon and doesn't deal much damage) Duct Tape (This is a roll of duct tape)
Description: Half a roll of duct tape used to hold together many an abominable contraption with varying results.

Armor: Lab Coat
Aspects:
Type: Light
Qualities: SCIENCE (Wearing this makes other more likely to believe that the wearer is a doctor of scientist)
Description: A white lab coat slightly charred from many an explosion.

Inventory:

Pretty much first come first served. 8 players will be approved for this, and a waitlist may appear later on if attention is super high.

Here's a discord, too.