Fantasy Authority Sign Ups
So, with the my college semester finally winding down, I think I’m ready to start to start that RP that I’ve been talking about for the past two months. Now, in order to get the appropriate feel for the setting and characters of the strip, I’ll assume you’ve already read the 32-page first-draft fantasy story I posted here:
http://www.laughingwarlock.com/?p=434
OK, not really. That would just be insane. But it still couldn’t hurt to skim some parts of it just to get a basic feel for the setting and system I’m trying to get at (just don’t skip to the end with the big plot twist). The basic theme of this RP is equality in mythical races. The more powerful mythical creatures also have the most weaknesses. Which, at last brings us to the sign up system for the RP.
Everyone will start by taking a certain amount of “sets.” A set consists of one strength and one weakness of equal magnitude for your mythical creature. Since you’ll be acquiring an equal weakness for each strength you take, you’re allowed to take as many sets as you want. You can have zero (example: human), three (example: goblin), a dozen (example: vampire), or even fifty sets (example: reincarnated god long forgotten by mankind).
I’d like to stress that the strength and weakness should be equal in their magnitude. The weakness should be just as detrimental as the benefit of the strength. For example: If your strength is the ability to turn anyone who looks into your eyes into stone, your weakness can’t be something trivial along the lines of not being able to touch mushrooms. The fairness of your strength and weakness choices will go under the discretion of your fellow role players and me. The idea is that we shouldn’t feel cheated by the people who take more sets than the rest of us because their weaknesses make them equal to us. Also, for role-play authenticity, try and base your race on any pre-existing mythical creature. You can get as creative as you want in your choice and how you twist it around, but in the end it’s best to have at least some connection to tradition mythology.
Also, I’m aware that some advantageous won’t necessarily fall into the set system. For example, a human knight training in swordplay wouldn’t necessarily list his skill as part of his set, since he wasn’t born with his sword skill but was rather forced to learn it. That’s fine if you have sword skills or something along those lines, but I also know how quickly that can get out of hand. I can picture some of us slashing through dozens of unnamed henchmen using their trained skill as an excuse, thus upsetting the RP balance. So, keep this in mind. Everyone’s had training in something. If you spend your life learning swordplay, you’ll inherit the weakness of not spending your life learning magic. There are hidden trade offs not listed in the set system in the same way that there are hidden advantageous. Overall, just be fair.
The time setting is 1600 on the dot. It takes place in the real world, although mythical creatures may have affected certain parts of history and geography. We’ll get to that later, though (heh heh heh). If I recall, we haven’t determined a country yet.
So, without further adieu, here’s the sign up format.
Name: Pick a name that fits your race, starting country, or just any old name if it pleases you.
Race: Your mythical race, although the number of sets can appear later.
Gender: Boy, girl, or does this not apply to you?
Physical Description: What you look like. Both your race and what makes you distinct among your race.
Personality: How does your character typically react in certain situations? How can he be expected to greet strangers? All the usual questions that we’re used to by now.
History: What’s the back history for your character? Where did he come from? What makes him so mythical? What’s your motivation? Be as brief or as lengthy as you’d like.
Equipment: Mythical artifacts are a little hard to come by in the real world. They can be acquired through various means, but for now we’re starting off all characters with no magical items. You can have weapons made of jewelry and the like if their important to your character, but in the end they’re just extra shiny weapons. If you absolutely positively must have a mythical weapon as part of your character, you can register it as a set and have the weapon be an extension of yourself (or something).
Sets: List your strength and weakness here. One strength for every one weakness.
None of us are going to be members of the Fantasy Authority (which consists entirely of humans anway) and nobody can use the super special power source I wrote in my story (which is a confidential secret of the Fantasy Authority).
http://www.laughingwarlock.com/?p=434
OK, not really. That would just be insane. But it still couldn’t hurt to skim some parts of it just to get a basic feel for the setting and system I’m trying to get at (just don’t skip to the end with the big plot twist). The basic theme of this RP is equality in mythical races. The more powerful mythical creatures also have the most weaknesses. Which, at last brings us to the sign up system for the RP.
Everyone will start by taking a certain amount of “sets.” A set consists of one strength and one weakness of equal magnitude for your mythical creature. Since you’ll be acquiring an equal weakness for each strength you take, you’re allowed to take as many sets as you want. You can have zero (example: human), three (example: goblin), a dozen (example: vampire), or even fifty sets (example: reincarnated god long forgotten by mankind).
I’d like to stress that the strength and weakness should be equal in their magnitude. The weakness should be just as detrimental as the benefit of the strength. For example: If your strength is the ability to turn anyone who looks into your eyes into stone, your weakness can’t be something trivial along the lines of not being able to touch mushrooms. The fairness of your strength and weakness choices will go under the discretion of your fellow role players and me. The idea is that we shouldn’t feel cheated by the people who take more sets than the rest of us because their weaknesses make them equal to us. Also, for role-play authenticity, try and base your race on any pre-existing mythical creature. You can get as creative as you want in your choice and how you twist it around, but in the end it’s best to have at least some connection to tradition mythology.
Also, I’m aware that some advantageous won’t necessarily fall into the set system. For example, a human knight training in swordplay wouldn’t necessarily list his skill as part of his set, since he wasn’t born with his sword skill but was rather forced to learn it. That’s fine if you have sword skills or something along those lines, but I also know how quickly that can get out of hand. I can picture some of us slashing through dozens of unnamed henchmen using their trained skill as an excuse, thus upsetting the RP balance. So, keep this in mind. Everyone’s had training in something. If you spend your life learning swordplay, you’ll inherit the weakness of not spending your life learning magic. There are hidden trade offs not listed in the set system in the same way that there are hidden advantageous. Overall, just be fair.
The time setting is 1600 on the dot. It takes place in the real world, although mythical creatures may have affected certain parts of history and geography. We’ll get to that later, though (heh heh heh). If I recall, we haven’t determined a country yet.
So, without further adieu, here’s the sign up format.
Name: Pick a name that fits your race, starting country, or just any old name if it pleases you.
Race: Your mythical race, although the number of sets can appear later.
Gender: Boy, girl, or does this not apply to you?
Physical Description: What you look like. Both your race and what makes you distinct among your race.
Personality: How does your character typically react in certain situations? How can he be expected to greet strangers? All the usual questions that we’re used to by now.
History: What’s the back history for your character? Where did he come from? What makes him so mythical? What’s your motivation? Be as brief or as lengthy as you’d like.
Equipment: Mythical artifacts are a little hard to come by in the real world. They can be acquired through various means, but for now we’re starting off all characters with no magical items. You can have weapons made of jewelry and the like if their important to your character, but in the end they’re just extra shiny weapons. If you absolutely positively must have a mythical weapon as part of your character, you can register it as a set and have the weapon be an extension of yourself (or something).
Sets: List your strength and weakness here. One strength for every one weakness.
None of us are going to be members of the Fantasy Authority (which consists entirely of humans anway) and nobody can use the super special power source I wrote in my story (which is a confidential secret of the Fantasy Authority).