SDMB RPG: The Rule of Three - Setup Thread

The Game Room
1

SDMB RPG: The Rule of Three

Welcome to the setup thread for the SDMB play-by-post RPG: The rule of Three, in the vein of the illustrious Fighting Ignorants and the years-long SD LOTR. In this thread will be a brief description of the setting, character creation rules and a player roster and party organization discussion.

[ul][li]What is the Rule of Three (RoT)?[/ul][/li]RoT is the new play-by-post RPG campaign set to take place on the SDMB.

[ul][li]What RPG system will RoT be using?[/ul][/li]RoT will use White Wolf’s Storytelling System (see: World of Darkness, Vampire the Requiem, Mage the Awakening, Werewolf the Forsaken, etc) with a few small modifications as required by gameplay.

[ul][li]What kind of setting will the game take place in?[/ul][/li]RoT takes place in a low-magic medieval fantasy setting similar to that found in Warhammer Fantasy Battles, The Song of Ice and Fire, Dragon Age, etc.

[ul][li]What kind of schedule will the game have?[/ul][/li]To be determined by the players. Right now I’m aiming for the schedule that seemed to work quite well for What Exit?'s LOTR campaign: Two days deadline to hear from a player, with play progressing as soon as everyone’s moves are in (I hope people post at least once a day excepting occasional delays - while I understand if you can’t keep up with that, I’d appreciate only people who can expect to play regularly signing up).

[ul][li]How many players do you need?[/ul][/li]The ideal number of players is six. I’ve already got spots reserved, so we’ve got most of the party filled up at the time of this post. That being said I’d love to hear from you even if you don’t make it into the original party; you can help us by being a potential replacement player in case a starting player drops out.

Notes on available character archetypes:

In RoT the players will be taking on the roles of the last surviving members of the Faramond family (a fallen noble house) and their entourage. While the details of your character will be left up to you, all player characters will fall into one of four broad groups:
[ul][li]Faramond family nobles[/li]At least two members of the group will have to be Faramond nobles, though there is no limit to how many characters in the party can do this. Faramond family nobles can be of any age or gender (at least one must be male) and can be any type of characters you wish, though they’ll all have to have at least basic martial training.
[li]Non-Faramond nobles[/li]These will be knights that have pledged service to the Faramond house, either before or after its fall. If they did so before they’re likely to be older. If they did so after they’re likely to be members of a disgraced noble family (who else but a fallen noble house would accept their services?). These characters will be martial knights and must be male for setting reasons.
[li]Peasant servants/slaves[/li]This group has the most wiggle room. You can play anything from the family’s old quartermaster, their steward or even a cook, guard, stable boy, smith or maid. These characters can be of any age or gender. You don’t have to be a simple slave; if you’re interested in playing this type of character we’ll discuss things in PMs and I’ll give you more details.
[li]Peasant hirelings (mercenaries)[/li]This group, like non-Faramond nobles, has little wiggle room. Your character is a peasant mercenary in the employ of the Faramonds. You don’t have to be a simple thug; if you’re interested in playing this type of character we’ll discuss things in PMs and I’ll give you more details.[/ul]
The ideal party of six will have three Faramond nobles, a single non-Faramond noble, a peasant servant or slave and a peasant hireling.
Notes on magic:

[spoiler]RoT is a low-magic campaign. The average person in the game world will never see magic in their lifetime. Spellcasters are feared and treated with suspicion and occasionally outright hostility. No one knows why some people are born with inherent magical powers and others are not, but of course everyone has a theory. Due to magic’s relative rarity only a single character in the starting party will be allowed to be a spellcaster. A spellcaster character can be a member of any of the four main groups discussed above, though it is perhaps best suited for one of the two peasant groups.

I won’t be posting a public list of spells. If you play a spellcaster I’ll send you a PM with the list. Keep in mind that this is a low-magic setting and the power-level of the spells might not be what you’re expecting. Many of them are very weak compared to what you might be used to.[/spoiler]
Notes on gender:

RoT’s game world is not as sexist as actual medieval society, but gender roles still exist. Female nobles can’t continue their birth house’s line and for that reason at least one of the Faramond nobles must be male. While female characters can have martial training and indeed even surpass their male peers, women knights going around pledging their services to other noble houses simply don’t exist. While it would be highly unusual you may play a female mercenary (expect both that character and whichever Faramond noble is responsible for hiring her to take flak for this in-character). Perhaps the best way to play a female character would be for her to be the spellcaster of the group.

Notes on nobility:

If your character is a noble, even a disgraced one, he or she will be expected to behave in a certain way towards peasants. Your character doesn’t have to be a douchebag but democracy-loving hippie flower child nobles really aren’t appropriate to the setting. Sorry in advance if that’s what you were hoping to play.

Notes on the system:

[spoiler]For those unfamiliar with White Wolf’s Storytelling System, it uses 10-sided dice. Each die rolled has a 30% chance of success (8s, 9s and 10s are successes), with a 10% chance of critical success (10s are a success plus a reroll). Stats are measured on a scale of 0 to 5, with those stats being used to determine how many dice are rolled. For example, if I need to throw something to you I’d add my Dexterity (say, 2) and my Athletics skill (say, 1) together for a total of 3 dice. Now let’s say that it’s windy, imposing a -1 die penalty. So I’ve got a total of 2 dice. I roll both and score a 4 and an 8. That’s a single success, meaning my aim is on and I throw the object to you successfully.

Skill specialties give characters a single bonus die to related rolls. So if I had the skill specialty, Athletics: Throwing, I’d have rolled a total of 3 dice rather than 2 in my above example.

The mechanics aren’t too important. For the most part you can simply describe to me what you’re attempting to do and I’ll use the mechanics to guage your success. The next post will have a simplified character creation process for you to follow.[/spoiler]
In summary:

[ul]
[li]The story revolves around the now-defunct noble house Faramond.[/li][li]At least two of the characters must be Faramond family members.[/li][li]Only one of the characters can be a spellcaster.[/li][/ul]

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Simplified Character Creation Rules

Before we begin: Please don’t post your character’s statistics in this thread. PM them to me instead. Feel free to use this thread to discuss the characters themselves, however.

1.) Determining your character’s attributes:

[spoiler]All characters have nine attributes organized into three groups. The groups and their attributes are:

Mental
Intelligence, Wits, Resolve

Physical
Strength, Dexterity, Stamina

Social
Presence, Manipulation, Composure

As stated above, stats are measured on a scale of zero to five (you start with a free point in each of these attributes, however). One point in an attribute represents a deficiency (example, a character with a Strength of one would be weak), two points is average, three is above-average, four is extraordinary and five is the human peak.

1.) Prioritize the three groups
First sort the three groups (Mental, Physical and Social) from order of most important to least important. For example, Bob the Cook will prioritize Mental, then Social, then Physical.

2.) Spend points
Your character will have one free point in each of his attributes (Intelligence, Strength, Presence, etc). Now allocate five points among your most important group. The fifth point in any attribute costs TWO of these points to purchase. So continuing our example of Bob the Cook, he could put two points into Intelligence for a total of three, two points into Wits for a total of three and one point into Resolve for a total of two. Or he could spend all five of his points to increase just one of those to five, leaving the others at one each (not recommended).

Next, allocate four points among your second most important group. As before, the fifth point in any attribute costs TWO of these points to purchase, meaning you won’t have enough to have an attribute in your second most important group with a score of five. Bob the Cook could put two points into Composure for a total of three and one point into both Presence and Manipulation for a total of two in each.

Finally, allocate three points among your least most important group. Bob the Cook could put a single point into Strength, Dexterity and Stamina for a total of two in each.

Brief attribute descriptions:

Intelligence: Your character’s raw cognitive capacity. Your character’s ability to remember, comprehend and learn information. A character with a high Intelligence is intelligent in an analytical sense, whereas a character with a low Intelligence is not.

Wits: Your character’s ability to perceive and react quickly (or not) mentally. It, along with Dexterity, contributes towards your character’s ability to evade attack (Defense is determined by the lowest of those two scores). A character with a high Wits is quick-witted and perceptive, a character with a low Wits is slow and absent-minded.

Resolve: Your character’s focus, determination and ability to resist coercion. It, along with Composure, contributes towards your total Willpower. Willpower measures short-term mental resistance whereas Resolve is more long-term. A character with a high Resolve is determined and focused, a character with a low Resolve is weak-willed.

Strength: Your character’s physical power and the ability to lift and move objects and to strike people and things and deal damage. A character with a high Strength is strong, a character with a low Strength is weak.

Dexterity: Your character’s finesse, quickness and ability to react quickly (or not) physically. Along with Strength, Dexterity determines how quickly your character can move. A character with a high Dexterity is graceful and quick, a character with a low Dexterity is clumsy and slow.

Stamina: Your character’s toughness and resilience. The key contributing factor to your character’s Health. A character with a high Stamina is tough and resistant to illness, a character with a low Stamina is weak and sickly.

Presence: The power of your character’s personality. Presence is more than just looks (indeed, the Striking Looks merit covers that more appropriately), it represents your character’s command over the attention of others. A character with a high Presence is assertive and, indeed, has a strong “presence”, a character with a low Presence is the opposite.

Manipulation: This measures your character’s charm and charisma. A character with a high Manipulation is charismatic and persuasive, a character with a low Manipulation is not.

Composure: Your character’s restraint, poise and social and emotional fortitude. A character with a high Composure is calm and composed, a character with a low Composure is reactive and likely emotional.

Obviously what each stat means exactly for your character is up to you. But these are good guidelines to follow when determing your character’s attributes.[/spoiler]
In summary:
[ul]
[li]Prioritize the three attribute groups: Mental, Physical and Social.[/li][li]Allocate five points among your most important group.[/li][li]Allocate four points among your second most important group. [/li][li]Allocate three points among your least most important group.[/li][/ul]

2.) Determining your character’s skills:

[spoiler]There exists twenty-two skills (seven Mental, eight Physical and seven Social skills). In an effort to keep this already-long post as short as possible I won’t be including a Bob the Cook example or a description of each skill like I did with the attributes. If you have a question regarding any of the skills just ask, either in the thread or in a PM.

**Mental **(-3 unskilled)
Academics, Crafts, Investigation, Magic, Medicine, Politics and Warfare

**Physical **(-1 unskilled)
Archery, Athletics, Brawl, Larceny, Ride, Stealth, Survival and Weaponry

**Social **(-1 unskilled)
Animal Ken, Empathy, Expression, Intimidation, Persuasion, Socialize and Subterfuge

As with attributes these stats are measured on a scale of zero to five. Notice that next to each group name is a listed “unskilled” penalty. This is the dice penalty your character receives when attempting to use a skill from that group without any ranks in that skill.

Keep in mind when allocating skill points that your character must have a reason for those points. It wouldn’t make sense for Bob the Cook from my previous example to have a Weaponry of 4, for example, though he could get away with 1.

No characters will be allowed to start with a skill rank of 5 in any skill.

Unspent points are lost. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing. Don’t look for a way to use unspent skill points if spending them wouldn’t make sense for the character.

1.) Prioritize the three groups… again
Just like with your character’s attributes you need to prioritize the three groups. You can prioritize them in a different order than you did for the attributes.

2.) Spend points
Allocate eleven points among the skills of your most important skill group, keeping in mind that a skill rank of 5 isn’t allowed during character creation.

Allocate seven points among the skills of your second most important skill group.

Allocate four points among the skills of your least most important skill group.

3.) Determine skill specialties
As described above, a skill specialty grants your character a bonus die to related rolls. Specialties can be anything you can think of. The Athletics skill can have specialties for running, throwing, jumping, swimming, etc. Your character can have multiple specialties in the same skill, but it can’t have multiples of the same specialty.

Characters start the game with three skill specialties. You can use them however you like across any of the three skill groups. Use the specialties to define your character. For example, Bob the Cook might have the skill specialty Crafts: Cooking.[/spoiler]
In summary:

[ul]
[li]Once again prioritize the three skill groups: Mental, Physical and Social.[/li][li]Allocate eleven points among your most important group. [/li][li]Allocate seven points among your second most important group.[/li][li]Allocate four points among your least most important group. [/li][li]Pick three skill specialties.[/ul][/li]
3.) Determine your merits:

[spoiler]Merits are similar to attributes and skills in that they’re measured on a scale of zero to five. Unlike attributes and skills they’re not used to in rolls. Instead, merits are purchased to give your characters certain advantages and to further define them.

As with skills, I’m not going to include a full description of each merit. If you have questions as to the details of a particular merit just ask, either in the thread or in a PM.

Characters begin the game with seven points to distribute among merits. This list of merits is what’s currently available; more may become available as play progresses. Costs are listed in parentheses. Note that some are ranges, such as 1-3, while others are either/or, such as 2 or 4.

Ambidextrous (3): Your character is equally proficient with both his hands.
Armor Proficiency (1-3): Your character can use light, medium and/or heavy armor.
Brawling Dodge (1): Your character makes good use of his unarmed combat skills when adopting a defensive posture.
Disarm (2): Your character can attempt to disarm enemies.
Eidetic Memory (3): Your character can clearly recall nearly any detail.
Fast Reflexes (1-2): Your character acts with improved initiative.
Fighting Finesse (2): Your character favors agility over power when attacking with a specified weapon. Requires dexterity 3 and weaponry 2.
Fleet of Foot (1-3): Your character can move quickly.
Giant (4): Your character stands over seven feet tall and weighs more than 250lbs.
Inspiring (4): Your character can rally his allies, restoring willpower.
Iron Stamina (1-3): Your character can more easily shrug off the effects of fatigue or injury.
Language (1-3): Your character can speak a language. Available languages are Arcadian, Farfolk, Mountainfolk and Old Bunic.
Natural Immunity (1): Your character can more easily shrug off sickness.
Quick Healer (4): Your character recovers from injuries twice as quickly as others.
Spellcaster (4): Your character is capable of performing magic and receives a free level one spell and two free level zero spells. Must be taken at character creation.
Striking Looks (2 or 4): Your character is attractive.
Strong Back (1): Your character can lift and carry greater weights.
Strong Lungs (1): Your character can hold his breath for longer periods.
Toxin Resistance (2): Your character can more easily shrug off toxins and poison.
Weaponry Dodge (1): Your character makes good use of his weapon when adopting a defensive posture.
Willful (4): Your character has an extra reserve of willpower.[/spoiler]
In summary:

[ul]
[li]Allocate seven points among the list of merits available at character creation.[/li][/ul]

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So far I’ve got Autolycus, Mosier, Malacandra and lunaticlucas as more-or-less confirmed players.

Hoopy Frood, appleciders and Wolverine have all also expressed interest.

The ideal party number is six. I could possibly be convinced to go up to seven but more than that and the party starts to become a war band. If you’re interested in signing up please feel free to say so here. I fully expect that not all of the above players will be able to join meaning that there might be some open slots. And even if there isn’t we’d love to have you as backup replacement players in the event a starting player drops out.

Once we’ve got a group settled on I’ll send out primers and we can hammer out characters here in the setup thread. But remember not to post your character stats here: Send them to me via PM.

4

[Aragorn]You have my sword[/Aragorn].

Not that I have any clue what my character is yet. The big wheel it keeps on turnin’.

5

Update me from “more-or-less confirmed” to just vanilla “confirmed”

6

To clarify what I said at the end of “Notes on available archetypes”,

This is like saying that the ideal D&D party has a fighter, a cleric, a wizard and a rogue. This is not set in stone and you guys can feel free to mix it up if you wish. Though the bit about there having to be a minimum of two Faramond nobles and a maximum of one spellcaster were rules.

7

I’m aboard, undecided what to play as yet.

8

Count me in.

I’m pretty much fine playing any role/background. I’ll happily take a sneaky type role (noble or not) or the magic-user if no one else is interested in those.

But really, I’m fine with any type or role. If you have a GM-bribe type role you have in mind that fits in with the plot, ACM, I’m happy with that as well. (i.e. The type of role where the GM dictates some things your character must have but in exchange for a few railroad tracks you get some other benefits not typical. I’ve played them before, particularly in various one-shot tabletops and LARPS, and they can be fun. But I assume in a full-out campaign, there’s less need for them.)

9

Assuming lunaticlucas is still in Hoopy Frood makes five total players so far (out of six). I’ll start prepping a general primer that I’ll send to each of you when we get the full party and we can get started on figuring out who’s going to play what.

10

Put me on the list as a potential replacement, please.

11

If I know very little about table-top RPG’s, would I be able to play?

12

Sure thing.

If you’re willing to learn and able to post regularly it shouldn’t be a problem. We can help you with creating your character and I handle everything after that on the mechanics end.

13

I’d love to play, if you’re still not full. I’m posting now to hold a place, and I will read more carefully and flesh out a character tonight.

14

Assuming Mahaloth decides to play and lunaticlucas confirms his reservation you would put us at seven. I’ll run for seven, but let’s all try to make it a group with a character dynamic worth the extra effort. :smiley:

Edit: Later today I’ll send out a general primer to everyone (Mahaloth, confirm if you’re deciding to give it a go and I’ll send you one as well - don’t worry, there isn’t a rush, we’ve got time) to be followed by more specific follow-ups based on what characters each of you would like to play.

15

Primers sent to everyone but Mahaloth (pending confirmation) and Autolycus, who has a full inbox.

16

I’ll play. :slight_smile:

17

I’m confirmed.

18

Great. I sent the primer to you.

Booya!

We’re officially full up. Of course I’m still welcoming replacement players.

19

Please put me on the list as a replacement player; this sounds fantastic.

20

Thanks for the flexibility! How do you want to break down the character archetypes for seven? Simply one extra Faramond noble, or some other way?

In any case, I’d love to play as a non-Faramond noble.