Black Zenith [Adventure RPG / Chapter Four: Fires of Heaven]

Black Zenith

This is a game in progress and additional players are not currently needed. Apologies for the mess of old broken links.

This game was previously located here. Also, this first post is horribly outdated and you probably shouldnt take it too seriously.

Welcome to Black Zenith, the continuation of my previous game, A New Dawn. This is an rpg-style game taking place years after the events of A New Dawn, in which we will follow the actions of a new team of player characters destined to walk a path none of them would have imagined. The game is almost entirely text based and uses a homemade d20 dice system.

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SpoilerPlease mind that it is not necessary to have read or participated in A New Dawn to play.

My sincerest apologies for the huge text wall below.

This game will probably last several months, so i would appreciate it if only people who know they are going to be sticking around for some time sign up. I will be putting significant effort into this project, so i will be expecting some degree of dedication or another from my players. Dont be scared off too easy, though - perhaps i will consider allowing for certain npc's to be written by interested readers or something similar - just inquire in the thread or by pm if you are interested in taking a smaller role.



The Story so far:

After a band of heroes defeated the twin tyrannical terrors who had been plaguing the realm for many decades, peace settled at last on our world, though the heroes were never heard from again. On that day, a golden sun of light Dawned and cast its rays of light over the land along with those of the everyday sun. According to stories only barely remembered, the coming of this sun had been told of long ago as a sign, though of what exactly, noone remembered. Nevertheless, people went on with their lives and humanity prospered over many years. Slowly, though, the golden sun began to darken, and as it darkened, so did the world bit by bit. Stories of dark creatures and ill tidings began to spread, and eventually smaller villages began to come under threat from these creatures; It was no longer safe, and strife had once again returned to our world. This is where the second chapter of our story begins.



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Now, before we go into explaining the rules, i should probably show you the character sheet, to give you an idea of what you are dealing with.

Name:
Race: (Most of anything allowed)
Gender:
Traits: (Certain things you are skilled at - you have 3 traits to start off with. More information found below)
Special Ability: (A special move only you can perform. More information below)
Combat Stats: (Stats represent different aspects of your character - i believe we all know how the combat variety work. You have 65 points to spend as you like, but check the rules on combat stats first!)

• Strength:
  
• Speed:
  
• Affinity:
  
• Constitution:
  
• Defense:
  
• Precision:
  

Social Stats: (Stats represent different aspects of your character - you use social stats when interacting with npcs, primarily. You have 30 points to spend as you like, but check the rules on social stats first!)

• Sincerity:
  
• Guile:
  
• Intimidate:
  
• Charm:
  

Class: (A summary of what your character is about - doesnt actually do anything - OPTIONAL)
Description:
Bio:
Current Occupation/Goal/Wish/Personal Objective or likewise:


Gamerules

Wall of text inbound. It is recommended to read atleast some of it.

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SpoilerThis section will be updated as new rules become relevant. Check back if you feel it becomes necessary.

Ordinary Actions

Ordinary actions are your standard 'do this, stab that' kind of thing. If it makes sense and you roll sufficiently high, you can probably do it! There is nothing saying that a fighter cannot cast a healing spell, though if you suddenly get the idea that you can fly, you'd probably have to state a good excuse, such as casting a spell, aswell as roll sufficiently, to pull it off. Also keep in mind that casting magic and likewise do not actually cost anything such as mana; If you roll well enough, you pull your move off.

Most ordinary actions are performed by rolling the d20 which usually lies on my table. This d20 is what will bring you victory or kill you, so fear it. Some actions may receive bonuses or penalties depending on who is performing the action or against who, or in what circumstances - in short, a lot of things may influence any such bonuses and penalties, but more about that later.

The effect of your action is determined by using your base Power and multiplying it with the multiplier shown on the dice rolls table below, aswell as adding whatever other bonuses you may possess.

Dice Results

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SpoilerAll Hit rolls of 20 and higher also receive an additional multiplier of 150% to signify a crit.
20: 200%
19: 190%
18: 180%
17: 170%
16: 160%
15: 150%
14: 140%
13: 130%
12: 120%
11: 110%
10: 100%
9: 90%
8: 80%
7: 70%
6: 60%
5: 50%
4: MISS
3: MISS
2: MISS
1: MISS

Power

Each character has a certain amount of Power - this represents how badass they are, you could say. Power is what is used to determine combat damage in conjunction with the dice. All player characters start off with 100 Power. Power is increased usually whenever i proclaim that the player characters gain a level, but there are other things that might increase Power, as well.

Health

Exactly what it sounds like it might be about. So, why did i include this section at all? To inform you that newly created characters have 500 health, which will then be influenced by how high your Constitution stat is.



Traits

A trait is a representation of something your character is skilled at, such as swordfighting or combining two types of magic for greater results. In general, powers are passive bonuses that provide the defining basis of your character. A good example would be the ability to have a chance to make a 'combo attack' once a round, thus hitting an enemy twice rather than once [bluh bluh Remah]. Some things are also simply impossible to perform without a Trait to allow it, though such examples are rare at best.

This is a list of possible Traits. Keep in mind! These are only examples, and creativity is definitely encouraged here.

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SpoilerList of Trait Examples:

Combo: Chance to 'combo' on a particular type of action (usually either any attack or any buff/debuff, heal or whatever)

Gain a charge of an effect; At X charges, automatically activate a special effect or allow the use of an ability

Burning Touch: All of your non elemental attacks may be treated as fire elemental attacks.

Counterattack: Gives you a free attack when an enemy misses you with a melee attack.

Mana Resistant: Your magic suffers heavy penalties, but you also get a high resistance to magic.

Poisonous Blood: When you are injured, enemies may be poisoned when in melee combat. Can also be used to poison your ranged weapons.

Thick Headed: When you deal damage to yourself, that damage is reduced.

Bloodthirst: Boosts strength after killing an enemy.

Spry in a crisis: Increased chance to dodge when low on health.

Preparation: Increases precision in the first turn of combat.

Empathy: Increases affinity when an ally is badly injured.

Psychotic: You are completely off your rocker. Damage is improved, but always have 5% insanity.

Persistant: You do more and more damage for each consecitive attack against the same target.

Colourful: You have been blessed (or cursed) with Rainbows. Random events tend to occur to you.

Crack in Reality: You are not entirely of this world, or something. Anything that interacts with you in combat gets a negative effect to their next roll.

Sadistic: You gain large bonuses when your friends die.

Spellsword: Although a mage, you are well-trained in fighting, aswell. You add a margin of your Affinity to your Strength - however, your strength may never be higher than your affinity, or you will lose this benefit.

Executioner: You deal significantly higher damage to targets that are about to die.

Special Abilities

A special ability is a particular move only you can pull off. Doing almost anything, special abilities are almost limitless in what they can do; they all share some rules though.

Special abilities all need to be activated. Sometimes, doing so takes up your turn, and sometimes you will be able to perform another action alongside your special ability - it depends on the individual special ability.

Special abilities can buff you, debuff the enemy, or just plain deal damage or heal somebody. But that isnt hardly the end of what they can do - think creative.

All special abilities have a cooldown time. Some are higher than others, thus allowing for that ability to be more powerfull as well - its a question of balancing it out to fit you. Most specials would have a cooldown of 7 or 8 rounds, and you can specify if your particular special should have a shorter or longer cooldown, or just a standard cooldown, through it'll affect the power of the special by a bit.

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SpoilerExamples of Special Abilities:

Coup-De-Grace: Deals heavy damage to an enemy. If this attack would deal enough to kill the target, this action takes effect before any other actions.

Sacrifice: Kills yourself, but heals and revives all of your allies.

Chains of Destiny: Prevents an enemy from taking any actions for many turns.

In Shining Armor: You must defend these innocents, even if it kills you. You gain a serious defense buff, and draw all attacks towards you for a time.

Aid: This is used on another player using a Special, their Special gets a serious roll bonus!

Adaption: You change form to adapt as the situation changes. When you use this, you can choose a Power, Armor, or a Balanced form, giving you a permanent buff based on this form. This buff lasts until you use Adaption again, and on top of this, when Adaption is used, the buff is temporarily doubled for a short period.

Star of Hope: You summon a star of power with the ability to heal your allies. The Star of Hope knows what the GM is thinking, and will always heal the target who needs it the most. Lasts for a few turns.

Overcharge: You overcharge your next attack, causing it to become much more deadly. Instant cast.

Powertap Enchantment: Your weapon steals power from those it hits. After 3 succesfull hits after casting this spell, your next attack will unleash devastating effects. Instant cast.

Defense

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SpoilerBefore your attack may actually do damage, i will roll with another d20 to determine if your attack hits at all. Basically, you will have to bypass your targets defense to land your attack, first, much like how D&D's Armor Class works. This is usually not a problem as Defense tends to be low, but that doesnt mean you get to ignore it stat-wise, unless your character is not based off of dealing damage, as only damage-dealing actions or attacks are required to make this extra roll to hit at all.

Stats

Stats define many aspects of your character, as i am sure you guessed. They work much in the way of D&D stats, but dont mind that if you did not play D&D. See below for details concerning each stat.

At character creation, you have 65 points to spend between all of the combat stats. The lowest score you can have in a combat stat is 4, and the highest is 20.

You also have 30 points to use on social stats. The lowest you can have in any one social stat is 2.

Please mind that Combat and Social stats are completely independant of each other.

Combat Stats:

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SpoilerStrength - Increases physical damage with melee weapons.

Speed - Increases physical damage with ranged and thrown weapons.

Affinity - Increases damage and healing with magic.

Constitution - Increases health.

Defense - Represents your ability to deflect, block or evade blows, depending on your character. Decreases the chance you are hit.

Precision - Increases your chance to hit.

Social Stats

Unlike combat stats, most social stats do not require a d20 roll to be effective - you simply have them at their number and they make certain things available / unavailable, or similar.

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SpoilerSincerity - This stat represents how trustworthy you are. Some characters may refuse to talk to anyone with a very low score in this stat, while others may have similar quirks concerning this stat. This stat also helps with leadership and authority, and whomever has the highest Sincerity might end up as the groups leader. A high Sincerity doesnt necessarily mean that you really are Sincere, though, just that you come off as being Sincere, thus it is also a usefull stat for lying.

Guile - You look like you know what you're on about, whether that be the arts of the magician or that of the thief. Some characters will laugh at or ignore characters with a very low Guile, believing perhaps from their manner that they are incompetent or otherwise, while others may show respect or fear towards one with high Guile, though most characters simply dont really care. Guile also works in combination with some of the other social stats, intimidate being the most obvious.

Intimidate - Depending on your score in this stat, you are more or less capable of being scary and intimidating towards those around you... Or you may look incapable of hurting a fly. Some fellows simply need the crap scared out of them to comply, and higher intimidate may save you from some specific situations.

Charm - This stat represents your characters likeability and how others discern your character. Someone with a low Charm would likely come off a jerk whether or not that would be the case. Charm is the stat used in, for instance, a friendly conversation, but it also has many other uses.

Stats and their Effects

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SpoilerYou probably noticed the combat stats up there. So, strength, speed, affinity, precision and defense all share one table, while constitution gets to have one all of its own. Here goes.

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SpoilerConstitution

5: 50%
6: 60%
7: 70%
8: 80%
9: 90%
10: 100%
11: 110%
12: 120%
13: 130%
etc

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SpoilerStrenght, Speed, Affinity, Defense and Precision

0-1: -5
2-3: -4
4-5: -3
6-7: -2
8-9: -1
10-11: +0
12-13: +1
14-15: +2
16-17: +3
etc

So, in the unlikely event that i have not yet managed to scare you off, good luck with signing up; I will wait for a few days to give anyone who happens to be interested sufficient time to sign up. This is not first come first server; I will choose and pick among the sign ups. Let it be noted that those who have played A New Dawn have already been granted a free reservation, through. That said, i am looking for a total of 7 Players.



Arts!

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Thunderpaw

Bohw

Mayor

Daril, Bohw and Thunderpaw

Echo

Selphy

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Also Selphy

More Selphy and Mayor (Also Bohw i guess)

Nos Reaper

Bunni Civilians

SHIPPING GRID

Knight Thunderpaw

Fashion Bohw!

Tnunderpaw

Mayor as the Scrap Golem

Bohw

Mayor & Savannah

Human Myra

Shipping Grid #2!

Brace Yourselves

Asian Bohw

Original Concept Bohw

Casual Bohw

Traditional Myra

Corshar

Asian Bohw

More half-imps

Tribal Saide

Selfless Mayor

Heromode Thunderpaw





No Wind Favor

'Let the lord of chaos rule.'

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Chapters of Black Zenith:

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Spoiler[video=youtube;UDqLX5lQm3c]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDqLX5lQm3c[/video]

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Spoiler[video=youtube;afUXaLt344o]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afUXaLt344o&feature=related[/video]

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Spoiler[video=youtube;AJIxx1lO_p0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJIxx1lO_p0[/video]

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SpoilerHidden Tracks