24 replies to this topic

[Ideya-Keeper]

hello to the new forum!

I don't come in here often, but this new RP board suits my interests, so much so i've already started planning a module for anyone who wants to take part.
this is in EARLY PLANNING stages; and so i'm advertising it here so that others can suggest things that will help me make this something the eventual players will enjoy and appreciate.

WARNING! THIS RP WILL BE -HEAVILY- AU and as such may not be for everyone.
this is the list of things i have down, which is being added to every minute.

EDIT: i forgot to mention that this will be held in the mature RP section; while there are no plans that make it so, at present, there most likely will be. please bare this in mind.

: Will be using a heavily modified version of the anime d20 system (hence the name) that will be pruned until it fits the NiGHTS into dreams setting within reason
: The canon characters (NiGHTS, Reala, and so on) will NOT be playable, those will be story-based characters that you'll be able to interact with, but not act as.
: Each player gets to make their own humanoid-Maren (equivilant of a first-level RPG character with a few bonuses)
: Action will take place in a mostly canon nightopia / nightmare, if slightly enlarged and expanded upon.
: The RPG system will be made as simple as possible (not even being used in some instances) so those who don't like RPGs (or those who want to get straight into the role playing) shouldn't be discouraged!
: A quick note on limitations: maren only, no divine magic (this includes paladins and the natural domains, so no druids either) and the arcane magic system is wizards-only.


the basic premise, subject to change and input from potential players, is as follows:

in this AU setting, the dream realm is not as sparse as indicated in canon; dreaming humans, while not aware of the dream realm in any concious scense, are far more common than in the game. this does nothing to diminish the rarity of ideya, however, because it empowers the humans to be more than a match for all minions and a lot of maren short of wizeman's personal servants.
this led to wizeman producing far more minions and maren than in the game, and while all of them, after his initial servants, were made from a basic humaren form, their diversity and variations easily match a social level to that of humans.

After NiGHTS, however, destroyed wizeman with the aid of a pair of dreamers and their red ideya, things became a little different.
the minions, without exception, are now crazed and will attack anything, including the maren, mindlessly.

with the two dreamers gone, NiGHTS is no longer in a posistion to defeat entire swarms of minions, and while still unmarenishly powerful, like the other elite servants, is in no way capable of dealing with all of them.

The maren are going to war.

those who embrace this new peace from Wizeman accept NiGHTS as a form of liberator, and will do anything in their power to keep their new-found freedom from what they now see as an un-noticed slavery.

those still loyal to Wizeman, while not openly hostile to NiGHTS just yet, will no doubt seek a way to return their master to the dream realm.

and those stuck between them, the last marens to be made by Wizeman before his destruction, may be the ones lucky (or unlucky) enough to find out the truth; is wizeman gone for good? are his elite servants? and what is going to happen if they come back?

[NNR07]

I'm very interested in this 8D! Count me in 83.

[Koji_Tsunami]

Awright! I'm in!

Is there some sort of form for how you have to
make characters. I understand the whole
"lack of godmoding" thing as well as anyone else,
but it would be nice if things were a bit more specific.

[Nellie Francis]

Sounds great and all, but...

If I am going to actually play in this RPG, I'd rather I actually don't play as a maren, more of a human. I hate it when you have to be this when you prefer to stick out like a sore thumb. And I mean that by a sore, seafoam-green-polished, Hello-Kitty-bandaged sore thumb.

Like what was said on a poster I found, 'Dare to be different'.

[Ideya-Keeper]

hey guys, my real-life work is mostly done, so now it's back to this for me.
thanks for responding so quickly, it's a good sign when i already have a few supporters and a few constructive questions / remarks.

and because it's helpful, I'll take the time to reply to what needs it (or can be done so)

thank you to both NN07, Koji and Submas for the positive support, i'm glad that this sounds fun already to at least a few people.

to answer what i can for Koji / Submas:

there shouldn't be much more in the way of character 'creation' than normal descriptive introduction; there'll be some things you need to consider about what you want to be able to do successfully, but by far the most important job any player will have will be the actual roleplaying scenes.
how this will be done is yet to be fully revealed; i need to make sure i have a system that is both simple, fun and most importantly working; i want to be able to allow anyone to join in and, while there will be the odd dice-roll (which i have yet to set a solution for, but i have quite a few ideas) the whole point of this will be to experiance the AU setting and to see just how people react to it.
this system, then, is yet to be shown off and that's why i'm not very specific just yet.

Submas, to answer what you said about "where" this will take place, while i'm primarily an IRC-RP fan, because it's instant, with this kind of setting i need to be able to have pre-set descriptions ready, and IRC is not a fan of any kind of text over a paragraph long (it's not even that, in 99% of cases, but some scene-setting is unavoidable) and while NID does have access to a standalone IRC channel (thanks to Sairus and his mods) i don't think enough people know about it to use it as a medium....

so the RP/G will be taking place in the mature-RP forum unless the entire thing has a sudden shift in that direction. it gives people a place to re-read what's gone on, whether they are players or just interested in the story.

also, one last quick note for Nellie:
I understand the desire to be a little unique among others, but sadly the fact is that in this setting the humans aren't currently playable for a number of reasons..the least of which is that a human player's background, traits and motivations are completely different and removed from the maren's.

in saying this, i always wish to be open to suggestions, so i wll not say that it can't happen - just that it needs to be looked at from the angles of game, plot and character interaction first. this is precisely one of the reasons i announced this so early.

[The wise Kitsune]

If you dont mind me asking...what exactly is an AU?

[Ideya-Keeper]

i hate making posts unless i have something important to say, but in this instance i need some input from potential players.
the main system is allready taking shape (the maren race has it's racial package already!) but two issues i want to bring forward for player input:
FLIGHT right now is a free perk based on on your character's level (starting at first and going up steadily in ability) but this obviously does not take practice or dedication into account: would players prefer to have a naturally progressing ability or one that improves with effort? if it's effort-based, then be warned that your natural ability to fly will have to be limited!
the second issue is the magic system, this is a little more complex, especially if you haven't seen the anime d20 system before.

wizard-based magic is that each wizard knows a selection of spells based on their level and finding new magic to learn, they get a set of slots per day that they may fill up and cast as they see fit (the vanilla method)
while this isn't included right now, i may lift the restriction if it's wanted enough:
sorcerer-based magic is that each sorcerer gets to know a few spells based solely on level, and may cast any of those spells up to the amount they may cast per day.
the anime d20 system takes things a little differently:
each player buys an ability that allows them to cast magic (known as dynamic sorcery) that allows them to cast cantrips (0th level) at rank 1 and going up to rank 10 (9th level magic) their spell limit is determined by a pool called energy which they gain per level and each spell will drain a certain amount of energy per casting.
this is a system i've not used before but would be willing to test out.
there is also an OPTIONAL method that will, unless the game takes a HUGE shift, NOT be allowed in this module (perhaps in the future):
non-energy dynamic sorcery is extremely hard to learn but has NO energy cost associated; there is NO limit to the amount of spells of that rank of mage-craft that the character can cast.

those responding to the above two questions should PM myself, please!
Ideya Fairy - while right now i'm planning on just HuMaren characters (and the potential for a human or two, as per Nellie's request) i DID plan on allowing other species of maren in future modules, should it prove popular (For example a Catmaren with higher dexterity but lower intelligence.) and possibly a race that defies gravity completely, rather than just being able to fly.

QUICK EDIT:
Kitsune, AU stands for Alternate Universe, or simply, a setting that takes the basic canon of NiD (the game) and either distorts it or adds to it in some way (for example, a game where NiGHTS never rebelled, or in this setting, where there's an actual maren society of some kind, as well as wide-spread weapon use and magic.)

progress to report: the HuMaren race is almost finished, i only need to test their balance via a few headache inducing math-crunches, then i'll start seeing about the main characters and plot.
human characters as yet are still not viable, but that's one issue i'm still thinking about.
things i can think of off the top of my head: whether or not currency will play an issue, the minion's statistics, death and healing, one or two surprises.
when this will kick off: give me about seven days to make sure everything's ready, then we'll see about participants (2/3 days) and finally kicking off the introduction (one day for that to be written)

[NNR07]

i hate making posts unless i have something important to say, but in this instance i need some import from potential players.
the main system is allready taking shape (the maren race has it's racial package already!) but two issues i want to bring forward for player input:
FLIGHT right now is a free perk based on on your character's level (starting at first and going up steadily in ability) but this obviously does not take practive or dedication into account: would players prefer to have a naturally progressing ability or one that improves with effort? if it's effort-based, then be warned that your natural ability to fly will have to be limited!
the second issue is the magic system, this is a little more complex, especially if you haven't seen the anime d20 system before.

Hmm... I like the idea of natural flight that improves as the time goes on...

[Ideya-Keeper]

I'm about to go to bed for the night, but before i do i thought i'd give everybody a little something to help wet their appetite and to help show-off the thoughts and ideas behind this game.
right now the only race ready to play is HuMaren, however i do think i'll try to include CatMaren (high-dex, low int) and possibly one more to be finalised.
the magic system hasn't received any news and as such i'm waiting until at least one magic-interested person talks to me.

i did mention something special...

here's the description for a new skill that you can put points into each level and will become progressively stronger the more you do (sort of like a special attack you can train to be as strong as you like.)

SONIC BOOM:
The dream realm allows a great many things, and ever since the minions lost their minds, the maren have taken to learning new feats inherit to their dream-state.
one of the newer 'tricks' discovered is the ability to distort the air around them during flight, and careful manipulation of this lets them do the recently impossible:
a maren can fly past a minion at normal flying speeds and still produce a powerful sonic boom, capable of shaking up anything hit by the shockwave and leaving them more open to attack.
powerful sonic booms have even been known to blast minions onto the floor helplessly, and rumors exist of the ability to 'flashboom' - to create a sonic boom from a standstill.

I realise this may be basic to most people here, however, there will be more than just this and I'm trying to generate some input to help speed this along... the more you talk back to me, the faster I'll be finalising things ready to play!

[Ideya-Keeper]

I -can- use a system sort of like you're suggesting for the experiance, Submas, because it removes a lot of hassle over some things.
for example, if you want a system where your abilities improve based on what you use (skill-exp) then it's very easy for me to just tone down the damage you can do at the start and add in, for example, weapons that improve as you do at a similar / slightly higher line than magic-like abilities (because of the danger of getting into melee range, you NEED a bonus to make it worth it compared to sitting back and blasting away)

the dream-magic idea isn't bad, but it DOES mean one or two problems come up:
let's say I go ahead and make up a whole new division of magic based on focal ideas such as 'weather' 'healing' 'time' etc etc.. and while i can do that, it'll take time and even more input from you guys and it STILL not be everyone's cup of tea.

also, i'm considering allowing humans to come in and act as lucid dreamers; IE, they manipulate the dream around them to help the rest of the players..

items will of course be involved.
i'm just not sure how yet.


the entire game would never be as simple as 'stick NiGHTS into a d20 environment" because of the nature of the setting, but some constants HAVE to be set.
oh well, back to the drawing board for me for a few more hours.

[The wise Kitsune]

Ok..sound interesting! Count me in.

[YamiLover13]

This does sound very interesting. I may join but it will be awhile. I still need to draw my maren and I have midterms coming up so....yeah it will be awhile. The drawing will take about 7 hours or more to do because of planning, coloring, and the fact that I slow. Unless of course you want to read thorugh 2 paragraphs worth of description and still not fully understand what the creature looks like....

Anyway, I will probably be a late entry do to those reasons. Can I still join up later in the story or so?

[Aura24]

This sounds pretty good and interesting. Can I jon?

[Nellie Francis]

also, i'm considering allowing humans to come in and act as lucid dreamers; IE, they manipulate the dream around them to help the rest of the players...

That sounds awesome. Even a small paragraph like that wafts of awesome.

Though.. I was thinking of allowing humans to attack enemies with those orb-things (chips?) like Helen did in the JoD trailer, but still, that kind of thing also works.

*thumbs-up*

[Ideya-Keeper]

hey guys, quick update sorry.
because our local area got hit with an influx of colds and coughs, and i, as usual, caught one JUST as i was being productive, i've hit a bit of a delay.

of course, once i'm well again nid20 will continue on, and it doesn't mean i've stopped thinking about it - just nothing's being done as 'work'.

will speak to you all again when i'm better, have fun RPing

[Koji_Tsunami]

Great.
I have no idea of how this game system is going to work.
I understand Flight, but not Magic, which despite multiple posts
on your part I still don't quite get.
Rats.

[The wise Kitsune]

Yeah..Im sorry but I think Im leaving this party early. I feel like if I play,I will always be lost. Sorry..but...um...bye.

[NNR07]

Yeah..Im sorry but I think Im leaving this party early. I feel like if I play,I will always be lost. Sorry..but...um...bye.

;___________;

Aww... We'd always be glad to help you 83.

[^_^ Go Dreamer]

Wow! This sounds really great!! Count me in! (Um...... if its ok with you.) ^-^

[iNSOMNiAC]

I'm all good for this, I guess. o.o Sounds like nice, organized fun.

But, um. . .

Is this going to be in a program of some sort, instead of the forums? That's what I'm getting, for some reason.

EDiT: Wupz, Mature section, haha. I missed that in your original post. xX'
oo'

Weee~*goes back to coloring iNSOMNiAC's reference sheet* ^w^

[Ideya-Keeper]

hey guys.
it's been quite a while, i'm sorry D:
it turns out my 'cough / cold' wasn't really that simple.

try three bottles of cough mixture, multiple boxes of painkillers, and FINALLY a week-long perscription of anti-biotics to make it leave my chest.
yeah, not fun.

as a lot of you have probably guessed by now, my ideas and motivation to plan any kind of RPG died in the water within a week of falling ill; it sucks, yeah. i was hoping to actually DO something before my imagination and desire to play DIED on me.

so i'm sorry to announce i myself won't be making any kind of campaign for you guys to play, and i offer really, really late (but really really meant) appologies for stalling as long as i did.

but hey, with so many imaginative people on the forums i'm sure it won't be long before there's a whole heap of RPs to suit anyone who wants to take part. (i haven't even been on here to look at other posts, that's how out of it i've been D: )

if ANYONE wants whatever writing i have on my d20 system, or even if they just want the odd idea thrown into something they want to do themselves, please feel free to message me.
with that really pathetic excuse out of the way, i wish you all the best of gaming.