Requiem <M> OOC thread (open)

[Ashen Star]

Hello folks.  I'm Ashen.  I've been looking at threads to find one to join, but there aren't many that are open that appeal to me.  So, I figured that instead of waiting for one to start I could just start one myself.  So this is the OOC post / post of interest.

Some Favor First.

Ralthgar, demonic porcupine, glared down at the town along side the gray ribbon of water cutting through the narrow valley.  Requiem, some one had called it back in the last village that Ralthgar had burned.  Or maybe it was 'Reqieeeee' after all; it was kinda hard to understand beings after he quilled them.  Still, any place this big had to have loot and Ralthgar was all about the loot.  And the ladies.  And the screams.  He was a very multifaceted person really. So he flexed his claws and got ready for some murder and mayhem.  Probably more on the Mayhem side of things.  Murder ended the party too quick.

So he huffed to himself and started to trundle towards the town wall.  There were farmers in the fields.  Great place to start.  You could find out about adventurers and others that needed to be popped off first.  Nothing ruined mayhem like some ex-farmer turned hero.  Ralthgar hated farmers who turned hero.  So with a humph he leapt over the wall and strode up to a rat working a hoe along a row of melons.  Pulpy fruit exploded under his feet.  The rat looked at Ralthgar with wide vacant eyes.  He actually had the audacity to smile.  "Are you here to kill me?"  Ralthgar blinked.  This wasn't following the script.  There should have been yelling and screaming and begging before asking to be put out of their misery.  The demon porcupine shook him hard.  "Where are your heroes?  Who protects you?  Who speaks for this town?"

"No one," the rat wheezed.  "No one.  No one."

Great.  A crazy.  They took all the fun out of the slaughter.  He dropped the rat back to his melons.  Hopefully later on he'd be adequate sport.  The rat begged Ralthgar to come back and kill him as he knelt in the row.  He strode right up to the front gate and roared, "I am Ralthgar the Ruthless!  Slaughterer of innocents and devourer of babies!  Surrender, and be spared the brunt of my wrath!"

The townspeople looked at him a moment.  Only in a few faces was there a fleeting moment of apprehension, maybe even fear, but the predominant expression was one of indifference.  They looked at him, spoke to each other in soft murmurs, and then returned to their work.  Ralthgar slumped.  Terror he was ready for.  Adventurers he was ready for.  Creatures to combat or deal with he was ready for.  Not... being ignored.

Of course he made a good show of it.  Leaping on a few of the slower ones and tearing them limb from limb.  But aside from a momentary instinctive lurch of panic they died with barely a sound.  Some of them actually looked hopeful!  Yet even after six grisly murders there was yet for any opposition to present itself.  The few beings armed as guards weren't even paying attention to the viscera flinging monster in their community.

Well, this was a let down.  Ralthgar huffed as he stumped down a street.  Even stealing these people's things wasn't a thrill if they just watched boredly.  He tossed gold coins into the gutter in a dejected huff as the sun was setting.  As far as he was concerned this had to be the worse town he'd ever come to.  These beings had found a perfect Ralthgar defense... banality.  Time to move to somewhere a little more exciting... and... where was everybody?

Ralthgar stood, his loot tumbling to the street as he looked around the empty cobble stones.  The sun had vanished behind the mountains and it was getting dark.  Fast.  There wasn't a single being to be seen.  Nor could he see a single light in any house.  Not even a candle!  His spines began to prickle as he looked around, and for the first time in a thousand years the demon felt fear digging into his gut.

From behind him came a growl.  Ralthgar was an expert on growls; he'd perfected fifty seven different variants.  This was a beastial growl... a supernatural growl... and something else.  Whatever.  A good fight was exactly what he was after!  "Come on!  Bring it!"  He spread his arms wide, claws extended and quills bristling.

Something whooshed besides him, jerking him off balance.  He struggled to keep his footing, looking for the source?  Spell?  No, no chanting or words or flashy flashy.  Well he'd show them!  He!  He...

...he was missing is arm.  His left arm ended in a ragged stump right above the elbow.  It'd happened so fast he couldn't even feel the pain that was coming.  Then a second whoosh past him on the right, knocking him around and almost on to his face.  He stared at the right arm... gaping at the bloody stump ending just below the shoulder.

The growl returned ahead of him.  His eyes bulged as he looked into the darkness for some sign... any sign.  "Who are you?!"  He screamed.
The rat's voice echoed in his ear.  "No one.  No one.  No-"

There was a whoosh and Ralthgar's head vanished in a bloody fountain.  The sound of a great wind filled the narrow street, but not a paper was stirred nor a shutter banged.  A moment later the street was empty, with only the stain of blood between the cobbles to show Ralthgar had just been here.


So end flavor text.  

As you might realize this story is set in Furrae.  Requiem is a town seemingly normal but with a dark secret.  Beings wonder at the secret and how they can use it to protect themselves.  To the creature council the town is an abomination and threat to all supernaturals.  But for the inhabitants it is simply a melancholy town they can never ever escape.

So rules.  Most creatures and beings are allowed.  If you play something god awful powerful expect to be taken out first.  It's called the Worf effect for a reason.  One big rule is that no one can be a local.  Maybe you're a being trying to find a safe haven.  Maybe you're a creature trying to find what happened to others of your kind.  Maybe Relthgar owed you money and you came to collect.  Maybe you're a being adventurer looking to discover the secret.


Character Template
Name:
Apparent race:  (After Cubi and other shape shifters can appear as something else at the start)
Age appearance:
Appearance: (Here is where you have your wall of flavorific description)
And ripping off... er, inspired by Sheppard's game I'm going to use a version of his special attribute system.
S- Strength
P- Perception
E- Endurance
C- Charisma
I- Intelligence
A- Agility
L- Luck.
Stats go from 1-6.  Beings start with 2 in each.  Creatures with 3.  Beings have 4 additional points to apply where they wish.  Creatures have 2.  You can reduce some stats to improve others.  You can reduce a stat to zero but it's not recommended as you'll automatically fail that action.
Edge:  Creatures pick one.  Beings pick two, as any being who survives does so by their skills.
Mighty: you either have bulging muscles or scare the bajesus out of others.
Tough: Either you're a species with a shell or you're tough as nails.
Sharp: Your sensory skills are bar none
Charming: Whether you got a sexy body or have the gift of gab folks open up to you.
Scholarly: What don't you know?
Wiry: Either your grandmother was a ferret or you need to cut back on the sugar.
Blessed: Something must be looking out for you.
Fighter: When it comes to swinging swords and weapons you excel.
Brawler: Who needs swords when you got fists of steel?
Arcane: Sometimes you just need a little magic.
Sneaky: Locks, pockets, what is it with you and picking?
Oracle: Some higher power is looking out for you... right?  Right?
Creature abilities are going to be played a little more loosely.
Lastly please send me a PM telling me...
Your race:
Your background:
Your reason for coming to Requiem:
What do you want from the story:

Let's see if this takes off and interests people.  I'm probably going to cap it off around 8 players but we'll see.

[Ashen Star]

Example character
Lacunae
Mouse
Late Teens
Lacunae appears as a homeless waif by the unperceptive.  Her stark white fur is off set only by her delicate pink nose and eyes.  She wears a much patched dress and ragged cloak to hide her small and thin frame. Expressive red eyes watch fearfully at the world around her, and she works up her courage to ask if someone could spare a bit of bread or cheese.  To the perceptive, however, her rags are a touch too clean to be truly homeless and her fur smells far cleaner than someone that lives on the street should.
PMed  to me:
S- 1
P- 5
E- 2
C- 5
I- 3
A- 4
L- 3
Edge: Charming
Race: Cubi, whatever clan Mink is (cause he's adorable!)
Background: Lacunae's been around for almost three hundred years.  She made it through SAIA due to her keen senses and ability to look pathetic.  She feeds off the hope and joy of others and so often pretends to be a damsel in distress.  Unfortunately, her combat skills have made this somewhat a reality as she often relies on others to keep her safe.
Motivation: Lacunae's come to Requiem after she was discovered as a Cubi.  Her 'protector', thinking she was trying to steal her soul, turned on her. Now she's come to Requiem looking for someone to take care of her and being intrigued by the mysteries of the city.
What I want: Active play time. It's no fun when you have to wait a month for someone to respond.

[Ashen Star]

Last bit: Actions.

I know what you might be thinking: why have attributes?  Well once per week you can perform an =ACTION=.  I roll a D6.  If your attribute meets or exceeds the roll, you succeed on your action.  Play it out accordingly.  I might also send a PM of an action taken against you.  (BTW, if anyone knows an effective dice rolling app I'd be all ears).

If you have an attribute of 6, you can only fail if I roll a six followed by ANOTHER 5 or 6.  So a 6 attribute is powerful but not flawless.

If you have a 0 attribute you succeed only if I roll a 1 followed by another roll of 1 or 2.  So there's still hope... albeit slim... of success.

So how do edges work?  If you have an edge, instead of rolling one dice, I roll two.  So say you have an Intelligence of 5 and the Arcane edge.  You want to fry a beasty with lightning Merlitz style.  You declare an =ACTION: lightning bolt on the beasty=  I roll a 6... and a 5.  Congradulations, you hit it.  I might also tell you in the PM that you killed it so you can describe its death accordingly.

Please trust that I'm being as honest as possible with my rolls.  I don't want to cheat or manipulate.  Just adding some uncertainty.

[Tapewolf]

Interesting - I don't think I've seen someone sign up and immediately post an RP before    I hope you find some takers.  Welcome to the board, and don't forget to read the rules if you haven't already done so.

[techmaster-glitch]

Interesting - I don't think I've seen someone sign up and immediately post an RP before 

Oh, there's been a few...it's just that none of them went anywhere

   And something you might want to be aware of, Ashen; there is only -one- RP here that uses any sort of numeric stats at all, and I think it doesn't even requires rolls. I don't think most people here are used to that style of play for a forum RP (I know I'm not).
   Just tossing that out there.

[Ashen Star]

Just something to try to help people get a grasp on their character.  If it doesn't work we can drop it and go straight back to freestyle.

[techmaster-glitch]

Just something to try to help people get a grasp on their character.  If it doesn't work we can drop it and go straight back to freestyle.

   This forum is a pretty small, tight-knit community here. The chunk of people who roleplay are smaller and tighter still. Everyone's generally experienced enough to be confident in the creation of their own characters (no one needs to 'get a grasp' on them), and we almost never have any issues with god-modders or powergamers. In fact, in the opener for most of the RPs around here, the GM just outright states up front that there will be nothing of that sort, and that they will be the final arbiter on what does and does not constitue bad form in roleplaying. Going back to how this community is both small and experienced, this works pretty well.
   Also, in our preferred freestyle method of play without roles or stats, people here are again generally good at letting the GM describe whether actions succeed or fail, so instead of "I do this and it works", we go "I try to do this and see if it works".
   I'm just saying, your likelyhood of getting some players will increase if you don't have anything in the way of numeric stats or rolls at all from the beginning, as some here will find that pretty restrictive compared to what we're used to.

[Ashen Star]

Then maybe they'll look at it as a challenge.  Could you make a being character according to the criteria I set out?