Looking for a diceless/systemless fantasy role play [ closed ]

[Carly]

Looking for a diceless/systemless fantasy role play with others where I can be one of the following (see below)
Does this inspire anyone ? A GM would be great ! But playing with around 3 other people would be awesome !

[Kathyan]

I'd be down for this

Do you anything in mind, like a preferred setting or what kinks would you to see involved here?

[firepyre]

I'm also interested, depending on what you envision. Probably more as a player than a gm, but happy to work on something collaborative. My preference would be for a game that has a strong storyline and interplay between characters, though some smut would be fine too. IMO Sexual tension > sexual intercourse.

[Carly]

my preference is to have a witcher like setting, it doesnt have to be that, but something simular would be good.

Generally I like crude sex being releavvent, but I amhappy to have it more moderated to suit other players.

Sexual tension is good for the long term. I was hoping for more adventure and mystery and world exploration really.

btw people,for those that stated an interest did you want to post pics of characters you want to play in the thread.

perhaps enough pic ideas could inspire a dm.

[firepyre]

Not against smut per se, but I do like to know what to expect. Definitely interested in the world exploration/adventure side of things.

I'm not very familiar with the witcher setting, but from what I do know I'd be up for something similar. As for chatacters, for me, it really depends on what the opening is, what sort of group we are, and what sort of characters others are playing. I often find myselfc playing  ordinary humans, just to balance things out.

I'd like to come up with some kind of hook before settling on a character, who we are, how we met(or will meet) and what we're doing. What kind of dynamic, or feel we're going for too. Are we experienced or novices? Are we good guys or not so good? Are we equal members of the group, or is yhere some kind of tension or imbalance present?

[Carly]

For intitial ideas, I was thinking that we are reletavely new at adventuring but do have some experience.
We would be relic hunters and solvers of mysteries that promise treasure and are mainly banded together to gain enough wealth to retire comfortably, but some of us may seek wealth to finance other objectives.

I think we have been together for about a year and get on well enough, we have different strengths and complement each other well.

If this doesnt sound good perhaps therre is a curse that was layed on our home land and we partied together to work out the mystery to solve the curse and free our people that were trapped.

I dont really want to be locked down into a story idea as I will not be the gm. I am flexible on what to do and why we are togeether as I want to go with what the gm has in mind.

[Kathyan]

I do like sex being relevant ^^(be it crude or subtle) but I also like a good story too and I love mystery and world exploration as well. I don't know about the witcher series either but from what I've seen the setting sounds cool. And I'm good either with us being the good or the bad guys, although the latter seems like it could be more interesting some kind of light tension between our characters would be nice too, like a brute who doesn't like magic by the side of a spellcaster who doesn't believe in solving everything with muscles or characters competing with each other for supremacy, but that's not required either. I'm fine if they are all very collaborative to each other.

And sure I can look for a few pictures for inspiration, I'll post some character ideas later on.

[HairyHeretic]

I'm not familiar with the Witcher setting, but I do have one I've been slowly kicking around (though little of late, been working on other ideas). Would this be of interest?

It started with the plague. Or ended with it, depending on how you look at things. Death stalked across the land, town after town, city after city, country after country. No one were spared. The rich fell alongside the poor, the wise by the foolish, the strong next to the weak. No one knows how many, all in all. It wasn't just one. It came sweeping like the waves on the tide. Five years. Ten. Twenty. No one knows exactly how long it lasted. When you're struggling to keep the fires of civilisation burning, some things fall by the wayside.

But we did. We surived. Well, our ancestors did. And over time, we regained our strength, regained some of what was lost, rebuild our homes and were able to look beyond the horizon once more. The world has changed greatly in the last century or two. How much so remains to be seen.


So, the plot bunny came nibbling. I have an idea of mixing the Kushielverse setting up a bit, adding a few dashes or two of 7th Sea, a bit of other fantasy elements, and seeing what I can come up with. A settling more fantasy than it was, building on the ruins of a fallen age.

Background:
Mysterious ruins are uncovered under a number of major cities, and in other scattered places, indicative of a civilisation that is lost to history. Scholars speculate it might be the mythical Atlantis, spoken of in ancient Hellenic writings. The first couple were found within a month or so, and when word spread, other nobles sought more, and occasionally found them.

At some point after that, the plague began to rise. Some blamed the opened ruins, or the artifacts taken from them. Some blamed angry spirits. Some called it a natural plague carried in from the East, or the South, by traders. In truth, no one really knows the origin. But it swept across every land, carried by those who were unaware of it, or tried later to flee it.

By the time it had run it's course, years later, well over half the population was dead. Without enough hands to work the land, crops withered and starvation stalked in the wake of the plague, famine and further pestilences adding to the death toll.

Civilisation seemed to fare better along the coasts, or at least fewer seemed to fall ill there. There were still loses, but not quite as many.

Over time, other strange things were noted. Few at first, but each year a few more stories, a few more reports.

Actual sorcery. Something awakened in certain bloodlines it seemed, that allowed workings beyond those seen before.

Strange creatures seen in the forests, the dead cities, the wild places. Creatures thought only myth, but real enough to kill.

Now:
Civilisation is stronger along the coastlines of the different countries. With no one to work the land for perhaps two centuries, many towns and cities are ruined and overgrown, haunt to beasts, monsters, and (so it is rumoured) feral things that were once people, lost to madness, and perhaps carriers still of the plagues that ravaged the world. Forests are overgrown, canals flooded farmland to swamp, and entrances to strange underground ruins dot the landscape.


The basic character of the Kushielverse setting and it's people would remain, the different countries and cultures recognizable, but with a fantasy twist on top of them. Magic and monsters are still rare, but seen as an existing part of the world. Much knowledge is lost, and countless treasures sit under carpets of dust and moss, lost to the ages. The 7th Sea swashbuckling would be the feel of the setting, with scope for urban and wilderness stories, politics and intrigue along with monsters and treasure hunting.

If you're not familiar with them, the Kushiel novels are set in an alternate history version of 12th century Europe, with limited fantasy elements (magic is there, but very uncommon). 7th Sea is a fantasy version of Europe as well, but more I think 16th or 17th century, with magic being a more recognized part of everyday life .. people know it exists, along with monsters, but it would be more commonly encountered around the nobility.

Is this a setting you'd be interested in?

[Carly]

Interesting idea Hairy !

Kathyan,firepyre what do you think of hairy's idea.

Kathyan I am intrigued with the idea of being badies. I have never tried that before.

[Carly]

Hairy, can we be badies like K suggested ?

[Kathyan]

That sound like a cool idea Hairy, I like it ^^

And you never been a baddie Carly? you'll love it, we have cookies xD

[HairyHeretic]

That's really up to you. Running an evil game can be something of a challenge, particularly if it devolves into stereotypical being evil for the sake of being evil, and going around kicking puppies just because you can :)

There's nothing wrong in the group being out for themselves, and aiming for wealth, power, prestige, or whatever you choose to amass. The methods you use to gain those, well, that's what makes you good or evil.

The setting I have is open enough that you have a lot of options.

Want to go exploring ruins for lost treasures? You can do that.
Want to get involved in political intrigue in the cities that form the bastions of civilization? That's an option too.
There's monsters and magic, sorcery and politics, sex, drugs and music with rocks in it :) Okay, maybe not so much of the last one, but you get the idea

The world was brought to the edge of destruction, countries fell apart, and now it's clawing it's way back to civilization once more. Vast areas are only nominally under control. Beasts stalk the forest and sometimes walk upright in the moonlight.

The world is waiting for you to decide what you want to do, and be.

[Carly]

Hairy, this sounds perfect !

Kathyan, how evil did you want to be ? What sort of things did you want to do ?

[HairyHeretic]

This might give you a few ideas of the feel I'm aiming for

Civilisation, along the coasts






And the frontier that pushes out from them






Ruins of cities




And what lies beneath them

[Carly]

HairyHeretic ! I love adventures with pictures !! We are so lucky that your interested !!

This sounds great !

[Kathyan]

Yeah there is little to no point in being evil just because you can do it, having a clear goal though and using whatever methods to achieve it is a totally different.

I like that there would be monsters and magic without being all that common, it gives a sense of mystery and horror. But we could go into a more political, intrigue style too, although if that's the case I would prefer that it wasn't too dense.

Kathyan, how evil did you want to be ? What sort of things did you want to do ?

Depends on how high in the society we are but I was thinking being able to force others to do our bidding with impunity (to a certain limit) would be a starting point, alternatively Carly you could be one of the people the bad guys used to harass and that just became one of us.




Yeah loved the pictures myself too

[HairyHeretic]

I enjoy GMing :)

Are any of you familiar with the Kushiel or 7th Sea settings? If not I can put together a bit of an info blurb that will help flesh things out.

[Carly]

 Kushiel or 7th Sea i know nothing about

[Kathyan]

I have only heard about 7th Sea but just about its name, I know nothing about it. About Kushiel, never even heard of it sorry but it'd be great if you could fill in with the basics of what we should know.

[HairyHeretic]

Okay. It's heading for 2am here, so I won't get a chance to write too much. I'll touch on the high parts though.



This is the world, or at least the part of it the game will be taking place in. Terre D'Ange, the land of the angels. It's equivalent to France.

To the North, across the sea are the Celts/Picts of Alba and Eire, seen as somewhat barbarous in comparison to the D'Angelines. Think woad markings and fierce tribesmen.

South East is Caerdicca Unitas, the city states that formed out of the collapse of the Tiberium empire. They'd be about on par with Terre D'Ange, though they'd see themselves as more civilised, due to their history.

North East is Skaldia, germanic tribesmen. Think Vikings with less boats and you're on the right track.

South West is Aragonia. They would also be on about a par with Terre D'Ange.

These would generally be where the characters would be from. I expect D'Angeline to be the most common, but if you want to play a wandering Viking, the option is there :)

The D'Angelines have a very liberal attitude towards all matters sexual. You can read more of the setting here.

http://kushiel.wikia.com/wiki/Terre_d%27Ange


As previously mentioned, civilisation exists mainly around the coasts. The interior lands are unknown. Oh, there are stories and maps from the time before the plagues, but a lot can change with the passage of decades. The current capital of Terre D'Ange is Marsikilos, on the southern coast. The City of Elua, once capital, is lost to the plagues. It likely lies in ruins now, but a fortune in treasure could still be within.

And beneath it .. beneath it lies one of the mysterious ruins that was found just before the plagues. Never fully explored, who knows what lies there.

Magic:
As mentioned, uncommon, but known to exist.

In Terre D'Ange, it's Porte ... the sorcerer can make a wound in reality, and either pull a blood marked object to them, or step through to where one is. These portals bleed and scream though. And if you want to see the far side of one, never, ever open your eyes when you walk through.

The Skaldi have rune magic, powerful symbols carved into objects, or sung into life with galdr.

In Caerdicca Unitas, a wise man knows not to cross the Strega, the Fate Witches. With their tarotka decks, they can see the lines of Fate that connect all things ... and pull on them.

The Albas and Eirans have glamours, where they call on the legends of the mythic beings that once walked their lands, and some say still do, channeling a portion of power that lies in stories and the hearts of all who know the old tales.

And, rumour has it of darker magics.

Of Hexenwork, brewed from unhallowed things, but reputed to give strength and power beyond that of normal men. And Sanderis, where someone has made a bargain with a spirit of great power. But each bargain made grants the spirit more influence.

Or so it is said.

If anyone wants to have magic, I can expand on what each can do. These are mostly swiped from a mix of 1st and 2nd ed 7th Sea.

And on that note, I'm going to hit the hay fairly soon. Have a little look over this, and if you have questions, I'll pick things up tomorrow.

[firepyre]

Seems very interesting. I'm not really familiar with either kushielverse or 7 seas, but I can probably school up easily enough, so what I'm most interested in is what we're taking from each setting, and where things diverge.

My initial questions are concerning non-human races, magic, and technology, and "power level". They're pretty much the same as everyone else's really.

Regarding technology, would I be right in assuming this setting is pre-gunpowder swords and sorcery? Any significant technological advances we should be aware of?

How rare is magic? How limited is it? Could you, for example, play a traditional fantasy sorceress within the setting, or is it more low magic, perhaps a lost art kind of thing?

Are there any non-human races? Terre 'd Ange seems to have a historical connection to some form of angelic race? Any others worth mentioning?

And most importantly, what power level do you have in mind?  Will we be exploring the world from a street level perspective, or are we movers and shakers? My vote is probably with street level. It allows more room for growth, and being relatively unimportant/uneducated would mean there's less our characters are expected to know about the setting, making it easier for us to explore.


I'm not really interested in being evil for evil's sake, but morally unscrupulous I can definitely do, so on board there. Had a look through my stock pictures, and I'm leaning towards maybe this:



I'd play the thuggish bald guy. A local with perhaps some Skaldian heritage in his family. Depending on where we go with the story, I'm envisioning him as a watch captain in a fairly rough part of town, who isn't exactly the most upstanding arbiter, perhaps complict in a corrupt local lord's schemes. Or he could be a mercenary, who isn't real picky about jobs or company. Or methods, for that matter.

He'd likely be a bit of a bully, so if anyone needs coerced into tagging along with us, I'm sure we can work something out.

[HairyHeretic]

I'd be taking most of the setting from the Kushiel books. From 7th Sea I'm lifting the idea of the mysterious ruins beneath the ground, some long lost civilization that isn't even recorded anymore, along with magic and monsters. I might lift a few secret societies from 7th Sea as well ... the Brotherhood of the Coast maybe.

As I hadn't set too much into stone yet, it will be easy enough to tweak what we use from each setting, depending on what everyone likes / doesn't like.

Non human races ... things like the standard orcs, dwarfs and elves, they don't exist. There are rumours and stories of other races. The inhabitants of Alba and Eire would tell stories of the Aes Sidhe, who held the land before they did. The Skaldi might talk of trolls and giants, far to the North, or the spirits of home and forest, but few could ever claim to have seen them.

Technology ... probably about 14th century-ish. There may be a few artifacts recovered from the ruins before the plagues hit which have strange powers, but those would be relatively few and far between.

Gunpowder I hadn't decided on yet. Kushiel doesn't have it, 7th Sea does, but there is a few centuries between the two settings. Do we want it in or not? I don't mind going either way.

Magic is pretty rare. Probably one person in thousands. Porte and Strega tend to run in bloodlines, frequently in the nobility, whereas rune magic and glamour are more widely available, but they have to be learned, rather than being somewhat innate, so the numbers kinda balance out. There are other magics (from 7th Sea) from different countries, but since it's unlikely you'd have anyone from much further away, I haven't touched on those. If you're curious about them though, I can write something up.

The standard AD&D type mage doesn't exist.

Power level is up to you. I wouldn't be thinking too high though .. street level to poor/lesser nobility maybe? 7th Sea is a swashbuckling setting, where everyone plays a hero. You're the Three Musketeers and Sinbads of the world. Kushiel is much more shades of grey, with heroes, villians and everyone in between, but that's the difference between the setting of a series of novels and one of an RPG :)

In terms of story, I can think of a few options. If you want to go dark, I can swipe some stuff from Blades in the Dark and work up a thieves guild type campaign. That could expand out to political intrigue, or dungeon crawling if you wanted to go those ways. Prospective Jack Sparrows could move things to a focus on the Brotherhood of the Coast, and the rumours of a new found land across the great western ocean.

If you want to go more standard adventuring, set up in a frontier town. Less politics, more dungeon crawling and monster of the week :)

There's not a great deal of inter-country troubles at the moment .. most are still trying to get their feet back under them, and take care of their own internal troubles before they go looking further afield. Trade still exists, though mostly water based, which puts pretty much the entire Mediterranean into play. Want to take a jaunt to the island of Kriti and explore the fabled ruins there? That's doable.

http://kushiel.wikia.com/wiki/Carthage

The map in this article will show a better view of around the Med, and all those countries could be prospective ports to call in.

At the end of the day, we're all going to be telling the stories together, so what kind of stories do you want to tell? :)

[Carly]

Name: Lora Strane
Race: Terre D'Ange (Camlach)
Gender: Female
Age: 22

Background

Lora grew up with loving parents that were healers that had their mind set on her marrying well and raising children. Frequent escapes from her room to explore the world ended up with Lora learning the art of lock picking and stealth.

When her parents were killed by armed intruders, Lora took to the streets and stole food to keep alive. One Camlach swordmaster noted her agility and took her in to learn the art of swordplay and maybe make a name for herself at tornaments. Years of grueling training and considerable talent coupled with her natural agility made Lora superb with a blade and frequently she was ranked in the finalists when tornaments occured. The money she won by being a finalist many times was enough for her to secure a horse named coal and high quality adventuring gear and be tutored in the art of horse riding and mounted combat as well as throwing knives, then her mind turned to the world and sort to explore its wonders, uncovering lost treasures and solving mysteries.

Talents and skills
Sword (superbly skilled),throwing daggers,stealth,riding,mounted combat,pick locks,healing kit use,rope use

Flaws
Is bad at basic math, can often be cheated in transactions involving money.
Specialised with swords, she is not a very good fighter if a sword or dagger isnt in her hand.
Is trained for tornaments, meaning she doesn't dirty fight, and dirty tactics can suprise and overwhelm her.
Is prone to sulking if she doesn't get her way, this can go on for hours and she is miserable company when it does.

Equipment
Worn: High quality Leather boots and leather gloves,leather leggings and cotton shirt
Weapons: Superb quality Bastard Sword, trio-of-throwing-daggers,small sturdy knife
In pouches:coin pouch (40 gold), lockpicks,flint and steel,healing kit,sharpening stone,vermin repellant
In packpack: An assortment of maps, silk Rope and grapple,1 week of rations,3 waterskins,lantern and 3 x oil flasks
In saddlebags: bedroll,blanket,1 x week of horsefeed,horse care kit,winter furs, extra 3 water skins,vanity kit,hygenine kit,mess kit

[HairyHeretic]

If you want to go with a D'Angeline noble, this link has a listing of some of the noble families

http://www.terredange.net/library/noble_families.html

You might find something you like, or you could always come up with one of your own if you prefer. If she's good with a blade, she might be from Camlach, probably somewhere in the South of the region, where it borders Eisande. The central and northern parts of the province were likely lost, so this would effectively be a borderlands of civilisation type territory at this point in time.

Does that work for you?

[Carly]

just going for coffee then i will have a look see :)

thanks hairy for your interest in us !