The Magic Reality Show (TMRS) - OOC

[Drainial]

• Name: Artemii

• Sex: female

• Age: unknown, probably about 120

• Height: 6,1"

• Weight: stones, 11 stone

• Appearance: Artemii might be pretty, it is difficult to tell. Her hair is cut raggedly short (kept that way by her own dagger) and would be white if it were clean which it very rarely is usually leaving it grey. The first thing anyone would notice about Artemii would be her clothes, or rather lack of them. Unlike more civilised sorceresses this disregard for proper attire is not in any way sexual but rather stems from the fact that she lives outside all normal society. In extreme temperatures she might throw on a bear skin cloak but for the most part she goes nude.

Her body is lithe and almost painfully thin with a very small bust and hips narrow enough to make a midwife wince with sympathy, not that she is ever likely to have children. Artemii is often but not always dirty, she washes when a steam is handy but is otherwise largely unconcerned with such social norms. Occasionally she will decorate her body with dyes taken from various plants and animals, usually for magical effect; these swirling designs cover much of her body but are for the most part faded.

She carries a staff about four feet long of sung wood from an iron pine. Her dagger is made from a shard of petrified wood with a hilt of sung wood.

• Character Class: Mage

• Character Statistics: WS3 - S3 - T3 - D 4 - I5

• Starting Equipment: Staff, dagger (is it possible to make it so that these can be combined to make a rudimentary spear?)

• Starting Skills: Power of Ghyran, wilderness lore

• Character Background: Everyone knows of the barbarism of the shades, everyone knows how they leave their new born infants to fend for themselves, helpless and alone, on the night they come screaming into the world. It is a source of great pride for the shade clans to know that each and every one of them had the strength and good fortune to live through that ordeal and a source of superiority to know that all those unworthy to be shades die before so much as a single drop of milk is wasted on them. What very few even amongst the shades know however is that not all of those who disappear on the night of their birth perish.

Artemii was not named such by her parents, they left her outside of the camp on the night of her birth as custom demands and if they had picked out a suitable nomenclature she has no idea what it was. When the proud parents returned in the morning they were saddened to see that where their new born baby had been left was nothing but scuffed bloodied earth and a few broken twigs.

The truth of the story, which Artemii barely knows herself, is that she was never destined to survive that night. A fox was on the prowl, hardly a terrifying hunter but more than strong enough to feast on a helpless newborn scarce three hours out of the womb. Naturally terrified of this strange new beast the baby screamed and the very plants responded, shuddering and sighing with distress. As the fox grew closer the babe’s cries grew more desperate and in a miraculous act a nearby tree branch swept down and crushed the offending vixen to a paste. Giggling now the baby that would become Artemii grasped hold of the branch and was pulled up to safety in the tree tops where she slept soundly.

The tale of how an infant survived in the forest is a long one but survive she did through the use of latent magic that burned strong within her. Feasting on the milk of deer, then fruit, berries and grubs the infant grew into a child and the child into an adult who was ready to hunt larger prey, and hunt she did.

It was not until about her fiftieth year that Artemii saw another living elf, a shade band moving though her part of the forest. Terrified and yet intrigued the girl kept her distance, but they were not to be the only elves she saw. Every now and again parties would cross through, mostly shades but occasionally merchants or mercenaries. It was from these that Artemii first got the idea of using tools and weapons, fashioning her own staff and dagger though magical means. Her magic was now more practiced though unlearned. If she had had the benefit of teaching she may have been a truly powerful figure, as it was her mere survival thanks to her magic was testament enough of her potential.

In time the girl found the courage to actually interact with one of the smaller parties, the meeting didn't go well with the elves first trying to capture her and then trying to kill her but she persevered and has since had some small measure of contact with the outside world. A shade band passing through from far afield was content to allow her a place by their fires in return for knowledge about the local area and it was from them that she first was given a name. She has little regard for it but it does for when one is required. In the dialect of that Autarii clan Artemii means crazed spirit of the wood.

It was not this band but another that Artemii was speaking with, supposedly in good faith, when one of the young shades clubbed her round the back of the head. Waking up inside some kind of wooden tent Artemii is far from happy and more than a little confused.

• Character Ambitions: To go home, although finding a mate who has no desire to control or civilise her is also a longstanding ambition.

• Inauspicious Day - Tuesday: dedicated day - Thursday

• Consecrated place: throne of vines
• Starting Components: 4 seedlings (throttling vine, Venus bird trap, iron wood pine, black rose bush), Pegasus egg, hippogryph egg, a sapling of a tree from the Petrified Forest (living stone)


I hope that is alright, I really should learn to say no to RPG's on this site, it seems I have an addiction. Ah well safer than heroin, cheaper too.

[Calisson]

Sooo.....

<drumroll>

The inscription to The Magic Reality Show is now declared closed!

still waiting for some administratives documents missing from two Candidates.

- Magic Lores represented:
Aqshy (Fire): Marcelus Lycanius (smiler666)
Ghur (Beast): Kairus (Kinslayer)
Hysh (Light): NONE
Chamon (Metal): - name TBD - (Syjahel) (edited)
Ghyran (Life): Artemii (Drainial)
Azyr (Heavens): NONE
Ulgu (Shadows): Vaelreth Velkyn (Dalamar)
Shyish (Death): Arhast Kynthan (Malus99)
Dhar (Dark): Kaladeth (Khel)
Khaine’s cult: Metarchis Avax (Red...)

Lightning falls under any of those lores still available?

That's typically Heavens. Along with hail, wind, tempest, blizzard, tornado, thunder, even comets! Its power comes from the stars & planets, so that's good for astrology as well.
Light would work too, but it has more to do with anti demonic powers and protection.
Your choice, as nobody else will register.

[Kinslayer]

My original draft character was an Azyr Mage, but I couldn't quite get it right so moved on to a Beastmaster instead. Good to see someone else took that on though rather than leaving it blank.

Looking forward to the start of the game.

[Red...]

Awesome, it's my first RPG game on D.Net, so I'm excited to get going Of course, that means I'll probably get knocked out by the end of week one, but here's hoping!!

[Smiler666]

Not too sure about my character's background, its kinda sped through so as not to hold things up so I may return to it and expand later, but for now its good enough that I'm not holding the group up. Roll on big magical brother.

[Calisson]

Funny how smiler666's character reminds me with someone...

[Smiler666]

Oh yeah... I didn't notice that while I was writing. And heres me thinking I was being all clever and original. As you'll see Marcelus (over-)compensates for his heritage almost completely opposingly to Kayla.

[Malus99]

That is one hell of a collection of RPers, I'm gonna get my but seriously kicked aren't I? This should be fun

[Drainial]

Calisson just a few queries. First as a general point with the forty day preparation time how does that work? Obviously we can't do it in game since we will have no idea what challenges will need to be met in forty game days time if indeed our characters even last that long/the game does. We can put it in the background but are there any limits on this, major spells only for instance, or situations that were likely to emerge?

Just on my own character is it possible to combine my dagger and staff bayonet style to create a spear which can be detached? This is more for background than anything though I suppose it might be useful in combat.

Secondly for my character is it possible for the items to be related but different, particularly can I have four seedlings each of a different plant to be used as the spell dictates or do they have to be identical?

Finally back to general matters, in spell casting how specific are you going to be on whether a spell counts as well known or not? Do slight modifications of purpose count as a wholly new spell? For example if I wanted to animate a tree branch to reach over a chasm and allow Artemii to cross would that be a spell known only in theory and as such incur heavy penalty or can it still count as well known since it is related to awakening of the wood?

[Calisson]

- H. Casting duration: 40 days preparation: REMOVED!
I expected it to be used for a non-player character, or in the background. The perfect example is your character's sheet, the wish to combine your dagger with your staff: that is exactly what I had in mind.
I picked up 40 days because after 40 days in a desert, you're ready to accumplish incredible things.
But you're right, it's too long. I will make it 9 hours preparation and 3 hours casting.
In order to stay consistent, I will reduce the +0, too, for 5 min to prepare, +1 min to cast.
Preparation allows other activities, think about what you can do when you concentrate for a performance: you can walk, you can even talk if you're a girl. Definitively no combat during your concentration.


Combination:
Yes, you can! You have magic powers, after all.
Write the combination spell, cast it and see what happens.
You can do it on the first day, in addition to the quest.


Items: Yes, the only requirement is 4 mundane (little value, easy to find), 2 precious (high value), 1 unnatural (impossible to find in RL).
Having four dirrerent seeds increases the roleplaying performance!


Slight modifications are OK. See the example of animating the rat: as long as the spell remains in the general spirit, I will accept it. Just be reasonable when you twist it.
If there is a minor deviation, fine.
If there is a serious deviation but the spell is still recognizable, make it +0 rather than +1.
It's up to you to roleplay your explanations in a convincing manner!



@ all players.
I'm ready to start... as soon as Syjahel provides the missing character sheet.
When it's done, I'll post, and you'll have 48 hrs to answer.
When all of you will have posted (or at latest 48 hrs later), I'll start the first poll for 24 hrs.
Unless you want different speed, let me know.

[Dalamar]

I have a suggestion. Give extra bonuses for extra time taken to cast the spell, to utter the incantation better, to gain more focus etc.
As it is right now, every time I try to cast a spell my little sorceress seems to end up vomiting all over herself... or keeps failing if the side effect isn't strong enough.

For example. I'm making sure that the spells is cast properly (the spell has to be possible to cast after applying the side effect i.e. rolling a 6 will make the spell happen) and take six times as long to cast it, so in effect that 6 needed to get the spell should come up eventually, and if it's cast with mild side effects, there's no chance to miscast (but the spell has to be "castable" on 4+ before side effects are added).

Just a thought. This is supposed to be a challenge of mages, but each time I try to use magic for first challenge... I end up with results along the lines of "I need to get a 6 to cast it successfully... or a 4 but I will lose an arm >.>)

[Khel]

Wait, it's going to take 3 hours to cast a single spell? So if we eventually get to fighting each other, how are we going to use spells on each other?

[Dalamar]

In matter of life or death, a spell of dizzyness after overcoming your opponent is nothing.

A vomiting episode lasting a year and one day... is bad.

[Calisson]

@ Dalamar, there is already such bonus for what you ask.
The side effect is not "chosen" by you. Its value is determined by your other choices for the spell and the casting conditions.
But don't worry, I will never allow a dice to roll a side effect which leads indirectly to certain death (except the worst miscast, of course).


@ Khel, casting a spell is going to take as short as 2 seconds or as long as 12 hours. The quicker, the least effective, of course. It would be the same if you wanted to set a trap in RL.
In case of combat, obviously only the quickest spells will work, but that speed has a cost: -1 to cast.
In the course of an adventure, if you can spend 6 minutes on a spell, you will gain +0 to cast. If you can spend 12 hours, you will get +1.
Reflex actions are not accurate as well thought actions!


@ Dalamar again.
Yes, menial effects are bad when they last long.
However, their strongest effect is just to force you to roleplay. I know a RL friend who is seasick in a bus, in a lift... He works, still.
Also, you can always cast another spell to solve your small problem.


@all.
What did you expect, finally? You are a mere level 1. No wonder why decent spells are so hard to cast.
Your "combat" spells will not be anything such as killing at distance. Rather use them to give you an edge advantage and roleplay ensuing natural actions.


Example:
During a combat, you wish to create magic blindness with your power of light (1). Yeah, that would be cool!
A+0 aggression. B+1 well known. C+1 1 guy. D+1 2m. E+1 for 6min.
F-2. G+0. H-1. I-2. J+0 (average between shouting and light concentration).
K must be +0 detrimental, lasting 6 minutes. Total -1.
If you want to increase your chances, you post a really fluffy description and gain +1.
New total +0, i.e. you cast it on 3+.
You get 66% chances to send the spell at your opponent and 100% chances to get a detrimental effect for 6 minutes.
By the way, detrimental is not that bad, it's just a hindrance. Sure something you want to avoid during a combat.
However, your opponent may resist the spell: he will get an I test, with a modifier equal to the margin by which you have cast the spell.

This is when you see that your "combat" spell are not really efficient. Hey, you're a mere level 1!

So real direct combat spells ought to be left for stronger mages. What about more modest spells?
Had you rather tried another spell: Protection of the Light: yourself irradiate so much light that your opponent is bothered when he looks at you.
A+1 protection. B+1 well known. C+1 1 guy. D+2 self. E+1 for 6min.
F-2. G+0. H-1. I-2. J+0 (average between shouting and light concentration).
K must be +0 detrimental, lasting 6 minutes. Total +1.
If you want to increase your chances, you post a really fluffy description and gain +1.
New total +2, i.e. you cast it on 1+, certain success.
During the next 6 minutes, you may suffer from dizziness, but every time your opponent aggresses you, he will get a penalty equivalent to the margin of success you just had.

As you see, Level 1 is not powerful but can already achieve things.
The actions besides magic are still paramount for a Level 1.

You will see in the course of the "week" that you can achieve powerful things sometimes.
It will be during the second week (with 7 newcomers) that you will see more powerful magic.


@ all.
As the mathematicians of you may have noticed, the scale to go from -1 to 0 or 0 to 1 is more or less logarythmic, i.e. each step is more or less 10 times like the previous one.



@ Syjahel
Missing your stats. I'll PM you.


@ all.
I will post this afternoon the first post of the story.


EDIT (Fri Oct 28, 2011 5:21 pm)
The game has started.
The Magic Reality Show (TMRS) – Now playing

[Drainial]

Callison, it is a minor point but I edited the consecrated place and chosen items in my post here but the old ones are in the game thread, any chance of you altering it. It doesn’t make much difference game wise I suppose but for backgrounds sake.

[Calisson]

@ Drainial: Done.

[Red...]

I made my first post for the game in the game thread.

I think I have done it all okay, but it's my first time doing this kind of RPG, so may not have it perfect. Hopefully you can forgive any minor indiscretions Do let me know if I've done anything wrong though, and I will ensure to fix it for the next round of posts.

[Calisson]

@ Red: well done for being the first to post, and doing it so well. I'll do the maths for the spell myself, that's fine.

A.-1 magic object.
B.-1: although you took the name of an actual "spell", the RoK in the army book serves to bring more attacks.
Here,we're doing the consecration of a CoB, which is clearly in the fluff but it is nowhere an actual "spell".
C.+1 handful.
D.+2 touched.
E.-1 more than a day (it will no longer be a valid CoB if you fail to think about your new CoB during a full day, see paragraph J).

F.-2 level 1.
G.-1 wrong day of the week.
H.+1, as you're doing nothing else in the day, you may well consacrate your full day.
If the first attempt failed, casting again the same spell does not require to concentrate again.
I.-1 mundane.
J.+0 shouting but light concentration.

Total so far: -3, therefore
K.+1 terrible side effect , lasting 10 years...
for a total of -2.
+1 Bonus for the fluff, last modifier -1 to the dice.
(note: In my magic system, 6 is good, 1 is bad. It is not an "I" test as it should. I realized that only today).

Your CoB will be well made if I roll 4+ instead of the usual 3+ for an I5 Mage.
The detrimental effect will last ten year (it will fade off progressively). With Khaine as a patron, obviously dread visions are a safe bet (I would pick that effect unless I rolled naturally a miscast).
The very good point is that the CoB is fairly mobile and in the following days, you'll have no longer "wrong" days.
You could have used your unnatural component, the odds would have been improved by 1 and the detrimental effect, too.

See the dice results on Sunday evening!

[Syjahel]

Here he is Calisson, as promised! If the items or anything else are too far off then let me know and I'll change them.

• Name: Vanatyr
• Sex: Male
• Age: 130
• Height: 6’6”, slim build
• Weight: see above, I have no idea about this sorry
• Appearance: Vanatyr is a somewhat classic Druchii male with long black hair down past his waist. Not one to spend too much time out of doors he is paler than average, with oddly light grey eyes, as if all the colour in him had gone into his locks. He is notably quick on his feet with agile and dextrous hands, traits that might have served him well had he applied himself to a martial career beyond the usual military service. He has a thin smile and a face that is expressive when he allows his interest to show, otherwise something of an intellectual mask. Vanatyr has a small cheek scar that some might take to be a duelling mark, but is in fact what happens when you make your first mistake with an alchemical crucible. He dresses in dark robes and often a functional leather apron, boots, and gloves, as hot metal he now knows is detrimental to the skin. He also has a nightmask with crystal eye pieces that he uses to protect his face – it’s not a helm, only a face mask to stop acid splashes, metal shards etc when working. It’s only worn for work; he’s too vain to hide his face all the time. NB His clothes and protective facemask (if he has them) won't serve as armour.
• Character Class: Mage.
• Character Statistics: WS 3 – S 3 – T 2 – D 5 – I 5
• Starting Equipment: Staff, metal-bound and shod ironwood with delicate filigree work inlaid into the wood. Dagger, a fancy blade that is beautifully etched with acid to bring out the swirling patterns created during the forging process.
• Starting Skills: Power of Chamon (Metal) (1), Alchemy (1)
• Character Background: As a child of a good family, Vanatyr was educated and given the chance to choose himself a respectable career, like the military or perhaps the priesthood of Khaine. That he had an aptitude for alchemy was regarded as a bit of a nuisance by his merchant parents, who saw this as a rich man’s hobby and not a terribly useful one at that. However, because he has three competent older siblings (two sisters and a brother), he was allowed to carry on. When his oldest sister became head of the family due to a ‘tragic hunting accident’ she allowed her little brother to keep on playing with his metal toys so long as he kept his ambitions away from statecraft and kept her in suitable diplomatic gifts – after all, there are many ways to deploy a blade in politics, not just through the heart.
This Vanatyr has been pleased to do. He has made a career out of being a extremely talented metalworker, preferring delicate jewellery and artisan stilettoes to heavy metalwork, horsehoes, swords and the like. In fact he thought he had hidden the fact that he has an unnatural aptitude for working metal – it just seems to flow under his hands – from everyone, having convinced them that he is just very, very good at smithcraft.
Obviously this is not the case.
It was late at night when Vanatyr was roused from sleep by the Black Guard who had come to escort him to the Witch King, or so he’d assumed when he was rudely dragged from his cosy slumber. He’d briefly thought things were looking up when he heard that instead of ordering his impalement and execution for being a secret vauvalka, Morathi herself had taken an interest in him, after all one hears such tales ... But no, instead he’d been enlisted in some kind of magical tournament to test in public the skills he cannot admit to having in the first place. Isn’t life just one bloody thing after another.
• Character Ambitions: Widely reckoned to be as cold-hearted as the metals he sculpts, this is in fact not true. Vanatyr is extremely interested in people. In fact, so much so he would love the chance to take one apart, component by component, just to see how they fit together ... perhaps one day he can replicate the Druchii form in metal. But until then, he enjoys constructing things with tiny metal moving parts. Not necessarily anything other than decorative, pretty things; society always has a market for intricate jewellery, though he would like to break into the hidden blades and poison rings market.
• Inauspicious Day: Monday - Dedicated Day: Saturday. (+1 to cast on dedicated day, -1 on inauspicious day).
• Consecrated place: When the time comes, dowsing for metal-bearing rocks with a small brass pendulum, Vanatyr will construct an altar out of these and mark it with the runic sign for Metal in his own blood. For the iron, you know. And the attractive colour.
• Starting Components: 4 Mundane: 1 small brass pendulum, plain, on a fine iron chain; finely powdered iron filings; some pure bloodthorn charcoal for forging at high temperature; flux (for aiding soldering) - 2 Precious: 1 glass vial of Hydra’s stomach acid; one small pure iron meteorite - 1 Unnatural: a tiny piece of the metal once rumoured to have been used to make the gates between worlds the Old Ones created (not a piece of an actual gate, that’s too powerful O_o).



Tell me why, I don't like Mondays ... Calisson I have no idea about how I'm going to use the spells except make them up and hope for the best, I don't own the Warhammer Magic books ...

Ah well.

What could go wrong??

[Red...]

@Syjahel: Much though it goes against my Khainite lust for bloody victory and contempt for puny chivalry... A full list of metal spells - with generalised descriptions of their effects - is given on Dice of Doom at:

http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2011/04/warh ... -of-metal/

@Calisson: Thanks for the reassurance and for the spell calculating totals - I will look forward to the result

[Syjahel]

Thanks

I won't mention your selfless act of altruism to Khaine if you don't! We can pretend you did it to lull me into a false sense of secuirty.

[Syjahel]

[very sorry, mobile broadband should be gone in a week. Then I hope - no more double posts ]

[Kinslayer]

I'm still getting to terms with the layout of the game but don't want to wait and become a late poster, so I will skip over all the other character Bios for now and read those when I have the time - I'm assuming it's almost like 8 miniature games ravelled into one at this point, so I don't necessarily need to know what others are doing to post (but I understand that it will help).


A question, also. I assume in the poll we vote for who we wish to go into the pit? Not who we wish to survive (as we would all vote for ourselves, being cold-hearted selfish Druchii!)?

[Calisson]

@ Kinslayer
You don't need to go through all character bios. They are a nice reading, sure, but not a necessary reading.
It may be useful some day.
I placed the bios there as an easy reference just in case.


The poll question will be:
Who made a poor performance and should be sent to “the pit”?

< checking with the Admins to monitor for suspect new druchii.net members who don't post but cast votes >


@ Syjahel
A little bit more about Metal inside the Storm of Magic book:
The symbol is a flying eagle, symbol of power and nobelty (and high ego, too).
Metal Magic is dense and has a tendency to sink into the soil.

You had an excellent guess of the use of diverse metals including of meteoric origins.
Don't forget quicksilver as a lovely metal for Metal Magic.

[Kinslayer]

My post is up, I think I did it right... Please feedback on my performance and spell modifiers Cal

@< checking with the Admins to monitor for suspect new druchii.net members who don't post but cast votes >

Hey, I said we were lowlife selfish Druchii, but I never said we'd cheat