Of Regents and Roleplayers Roleplay Thread

[The Warden]

Jake in deep concentration, trying to figure out what moves he should make. He took another look at his character sheet, his guy was Priest, so, at this moment he probably wouldn't have any damaging magicks. 'Say Lacer, what skills do the early game Priests have?' he inquired.

There's no issues in asking, heck, it was Lacer's game afterall. It wouldn't be suprising if he just up and made some skills on the spot, but, Jake added the thought to write them down afterwards, it would get confusing.

[Hydra of Ages]

Olivier's eyes lit up briefly. Though the accent garbled it a bit, it was always a pleasant surprise to hear his mother tongue. "[i]C'est bon.[/i]," he replied casually, looking around a bit. "[i]Cet endroit est un décharge. Mais, c'est prévu.[/i]" he added with a sigh, before a winning smile. "You all may call me Archer," he said as he sauntered to the table, still smiling a bit. "I presume you all have received character sheets already? Perhaps you might spare one for myself?"

He noticed Matt, but elected not to respond. The child was evidently either being sincere in his enthusiasms- in which he didn't deserve much of a response- or he was being sarcastic in his enthusiasms, in which he deserved even less of a response. Also, there were girls around, and he couldn't squander his time with other simpletons.

"I imagine this game will have severe limitations due to the physical restrictions of the language it's based on... but I suppose I can cope," he said almost theatrically. He had a character written up already -though he'd never admit it- and wanted to start showing up everyone else as quickly as possible.

[Supreme Gamesmaster]

"Well, I'm glad you made it," said Lacer pleasantly, recalling in good humour how the French boy had been so cat-like about his joining -- making it perfectly obvious that he rather wanted to join without actually stooping so low as to say so. If nothing else, he would be an amusing player to manage. "Here's your sheet. Sorry I couldn't give you a good copy before like everyone else, but it's quite a simple sheet, so it shouldn't take long to fill it out."

Then Jake asked about priests, and Lacer inwardly said: [i]derrrrrrrrrrp[/i]

"Er, funny story about priests," Lacer said awkwardly. Apparently, the myriad healers of the game were expecting an MMO-type premise, where they'd actually be able to fight. Oh, well. It was only fair that he come up with something.

"The trouble with staff-wielders is that they have very low combat ability," he explained. "Their strength is horrible, of course, and they don't get access to magical attacks until promotion, which... won't be for a while. The good news is, they survive better than other mages, their staves land critical hits every other attack in spite of being so weak, and they can heal most allies to full health without much effort. You can attack or heal a nearby ally on any given turn, and some staves let you use other abilities as well. You have a Heal for now; it's a fairly weak healing staff, but it'll probably heal almost everyone to full health anyway."

Huzzah for Radiant Dawn! He'd never thought equipping staves would ever help him. He'd have to draw up some battle stats for staves, but that wouldn't take longer than five minutes.

In any case, he decided, it would be best to caution the players as to the... unique traits of his... inspired game. "The thing with this game," he explained, "is that no unit can really stand alone. Myrmidons are made of glass, Mercenaries pale before lance wielders, and Dragon Riders have a lot of special weaknesses in spite of their high stats. Thankfully, you all picked diverse classes, so if you play well, you'll cover each other's weaknesses. You'll have to work together to survive."

[Quiksilver]

Gracie twitched her lips a little bit in response to the newcomers French speaking, though in reality she had no idea what he was saying. Hopefully, something nice.

Catching the end of what Lacer was saying, Gracie swiveled his head towards him. "What's this about weaknesses? Can you explain to me about troubadours, then?" Gracie, though sweet, was not so painfully naive as to actually ask what her class did, but she was grasping at straws, having only been provided with a scant two or three sentence summary of what being a troubadour was. So, she appreciated the chance to learn more about the character. "Also, what's this about not using magic? Isn't that the point of the Mages?"

[Supreme Gamesmaster]

Yes. This question he could answer.

"The staves [i]are[/i] magic," Lacer explained. "Lower-level staves only heal, but higher-level staves do all kinds of things. They can teleport people or boost a stat for a few turns, or even put enemies to sleep or drive them mad and have them turn on each other. They're definitely mages, but they're support type.

"The advantage of a troubadour is that it has a horse. So while it's worse in battle than a priest or cleric, it can ride around and support units more effectively. You aren't as good on your own, but you'll be crucial to your teammates."

[GreyCat]

Myrmidons are glass, that he agreed with. Glass with metal blades. On roller skates. Smiling a bit from the metal image, Cale tried to sort things out in his head and work out the gist of what Lacer was saying. "So, basically, The Myrmidons should hit and run while letting the mercenaries and the rest handle the brunt of the muscle work. With the stave wielders at the back supporting us?" he asked slowly. That was all he really got from 'glass,' 'pale,' 'magic stave,' 'support' and the rest of stuff Lacer said. But he still had questions. "Where does the move come in? Can Loki take two steps forward, hit and run three steps back or something like that?"

[Supreme Gamesmaster]

"Movement is more of an approximation," Lacer sighed. "I'm regretting putting it in at all. Basically, it means that the horse riders can move farther and faster than the infantry, by a ratio of about seven fifths. The problem is that there isn't really a system of spaces, and the movement is very intuitive. I imagine the scale of movement will change as the game goes on, to facilitate fun. Sort of an Evangelion scaling process.

"As for your proposed strategy, well, that's up to you," he finished with a bit of a twinkle in his eye. "But of course, no battle plan survives contact with the enemy, as I'm learning now."

[Justice Master]

"Heh," Matt let out. He wasn't expecting a response and was ultimately happy to not get one. He listened closely to talk about Cale's class, for it was his too. "Hmm, interesting," Matt started to ask, "but are there any weapons we start out with? And by that I mean ALL of us." That was kinda bugging him, although he couldn't pinpoint why. Oh well, he had at least gotten some of the annoyance out of his system by the rude greeting to the hustler, who didn't sound like a hustler. More like a jock, which Matt hated even more. Hurray.

[fenrir]

"So, I presume Dragon Riders can swoop in to pick off rather annoying threats, then back off before the mages or archers come in?" These words were the few spoken out of choice, and what a feat that was for him. He was glad with his choice of class, it meant that he had excuses to back out in fights when he pleased, which was all he really needed. As for the newcomer, he felt a bit indifferent. He was definitely not the type of guy he would be friends with, or want to be around in general. Truth be told the others didn't pique his interest either, so he would have to bare with them for now.

[Naimo]

Maria said nothing to either Jamie or Archer as they entered, although she acknowledged them with a friendly nod that wasn't curt. She just didn't have a talkative nature.

However, seeing as they were now getting into the RP, she would have to say something. She cleared her throat, and then suggested, "Well, it seems that my character is-" Here, she gave a cursory glance at everyone else's character forms and stats. "-the physically strongest in the group at the moment, and besides, I currently possess no magical weapons or skills. I'm going to need to conduct close-range combat if I even want to land a hit, so ... well, you can work it out for yourself."

[Otaku-sama]

Jamie percieved the new arrival, Archer, with indifference tinged with contempt for how much he fit the stereotype of the snobby Frenchman. She cared much more for the free food and the game at hand. While munching on a bag of steak flavoured chips, she scanned her character card. She was very satisfied with her character: he didn't mess around with all the strategy and magics the other characters had to deal with, but simply just had to smash the enemy's face in with his bare hands. He wasn't too slow for his size either.
"Well, since my guy has high health and and strength, maybe he should go ahead and attract the attention of the animals, so that the others can kill them," Jamie said after swallowing a mouthful of chips, "Plus, I think my character would probably do just that."

[Supreme Gamesmaster]

"You've all got basic weapons," Lacer said blandly, without betraying any emotion. "None of you are slowed down by your weapons at all.

"Oh, and hitting and running won't work nearly as well as you think it will," he added, as calmly as an afterthought but with a strange gleam in his eye. He wasn't about to make life easy for the players, after all. "Once you get close enough to attack, those animals are going to fight back. The question is, who can dodge and who can take hits? You'll have to stick it out for at least one round."

[Hydra of Ages]

Olivier finished up his character sheet within a couple minutes.

"Voila!" he declared, smiling down at his creation. His shaman may not have been a devil worshiper, but perhaps that description wouldn't be too far off the mark anyway. He used black magics, lived for far longer than anyone had any right to, and abused taxes more than the french nobility of old; what wasn't there to love?

He really couldn't wait to get to the actual roleplaying, but alas, gameplay took priority...

"So, I have a Shaman," he started after a moment. "How would I go about attacking, and with which would I use to attack? Do I have some sort of basic offensive spell?"

[Supreme Gamesmaster]

Lacer smiled a more pleasant smile. He'd hoped someone would choose a Shaman. Dark magic was so much fun...

"You've chosen well," he said amicably, not giving away much in his voice. "You're starting out with a basic offensive dark magic spell, yes. But almost all other dark spells have some kind of special ability. I highly recommend working well with your more physically inclined teammates, though, since you're rather slow and likely to get torn apart. The good news is, you don't have to engage the enemy in close combat. Your magic works from afar.

"Now, then. You all need to decide what you're going to do before your turn ends. So all these strategic questions are good. That said, I doubt you'll die in one shot if you miscalculate. Try experimenting a bit."

[The Warden]

Jake didn't even realize some more people had arrived, until he looked up from his sheet. He gave a friendly nod to them both, before returning to his sheet. Whilst thinking he was tapping his nose; he was a Priest, so his priority was to stay in the back and make sure other people didn't get hurt. If he remembered correctly he boosted his magic stat to give a more powerful heal in the early game. 'Well, for my turn I think I'll pass on it. I can't engage those critters in battle, and my main use is in healing the others. So, yeah, I'll pass' he announced.

'Unless, do I have like a, remove curse spell?'

[Supreme Gamesmaster]

"No Flow Break, sorry." Lacer smiled wryly. "It would be rather awkward to have you doing something like that in what's essentially a test run of the battle system. Though that's actually an interesting idea..."

Lacer produced his beloved notebook. It was hopelessly battered, having fallen prey to dogs' jaws more than once and being several years old besides. And yet, he still wrote in it. One day, he resolved, he'd get a new one -- but only when this one was fully extinguished. There were still pages left, so he refused to let it go.

He picked up a pen and twirled it for a moment before scrawling: [i]Flow Break staff?[/i]

[Naimo]

Maria stood by her argument, and after briefly thinking it over, began.

"Well, I'm definately going in for close combat. If I remember right, Beastmen - or Beastwoman, in my case - have the highest HP, so ... I guess I could take a few knocks from the enemy and still be alright."

It was unusual for her to be this talkative, or so serious, but no matter how much of a fangirl she was, she also liked playing games, and seeing as this was going to occupy her time for the next few weekends, there was no harm in taking this in a more solemn manner.

[GreyCat]

"Loki is going to attack too," Cale added as well. Not like they was anything else he could do. He ran his eyes over the form he filled out. "Loki isn't all that strong, but he is fast. He may be able to get and extra hit in. And hopefully dodge a counteract." Hopefully. As he skimmed the sheet, he realized their was no mention of items. What if the priest were too far or preoccupied to heal them? To make sure, check it again. Arriving at the same conclusion, he voiced his concerns. "Um, Lacer, do we have anything like potion we can use?" Healing was going to be very import for Loki and the other Myrmidon. Glass can only take so much.

[The Warden]

Jake gave a Cale a friendly shoulder whack. 'Don't worry' he sai and winked.

'I'll have Haelg move about two steps towards the enemies, or three...hmmm, actually Lacer, my healing spells. What are their ranges? I need to know so I can figure out what the safest distance is more my Priest' he commented. This was a really confusing role playing game, it seems like it was patched together from a few other pieces, oh well, at least this gives some great oppertunities to suggest new innovations to make the game more fun.

[Supreme Gamesmaster]

"Potions... good question. Ah... no, you don't have any, though they do exist. They're much weaker than healers, though, and once you get going, they won't help much." He probably should have thought this out better, Lacer reflected. Then again, improvisation would be his modus operandi for most of the game, as any good gamemaster's should be. It was best to get some practice and let his players shape the world.

"As for the healers themselves..." Lacer frowned a bit. It wouldn't be fair to copy Fire Emblem in this respect, but... Oh, he'd let intuition and the fun of the game carry it. Evangelion scaling returned.

"They'd have to be fairly close to heal an ally," he decided. "They certainly don't have the range of a Shaman. As for fighting, though, you're in a forest. I'd say there'd be ample cover for a healer to move in close and heal an ally while they're still fighting, if that's what you were wondering."

[Quiksilver]

"That answers my question as well." said Gracie, beaming at Jake. "I'll have Roxanzia stay back and support with her stave, although I don't think I'll need to hide behind trees and all, what with my horse..." In her mind, Gracie could already see the battle taking place; a group of misfitting adventurers, looking on guardedly as otherworldy animals stalked the forest around them. Hmm. That wasn't a bad picture, actually. She might make that one of her paintings, actually. Now sufficently pepped up about the RPG, Gracie leaned back in her chair and rubbed her hands together in anticipation. "I won't have Roxanzia move at all; I'll just have her prepare and wait for the battle to commence, if that's all right." Her eyes flickered over to Lacer, trying to see what his reply would be.

[Justice Master]

Matt was quite happy with what had been answered, and felt it was time to tell his plan for Krade. "I beleive Krade is going to fight with whoever chooses to join me." Not much went through Matt's head, in fact, it is beleived by himself that nothing went through his head at that time. He just... sat there, mindless, or appearing to be. He didn't seem to have anything to say, just silence. It was real strange, seeing that Matt loved to converse usually. It was probably the snotty frenchman that did this.

[Supreme Gamesmaster]

Lacer raised an eyebrow at Gracie's hesitance. In what sort of game would it be illegal to stand still? A poorly designed one, he supposed.

"I don't see any reason why you shouldn't be able to stand still," he said. He really didn't have any way to comment on the strategic aspect of everything -- it wasn't as if they'd be facing tough enemies; any strategy would probably win.

"So Krade, Loki, Amaeniiya, and I believe Gutrencha are set to advance. Haelg is going to advance a very small amount, and Roxanzia will stand still, as she can more or less ride to heal anyone on the battlefield. That leaves Valay and Jericho... our hard hitters, as it were. What will you do...?"

[fenrir]

"Uh..." Phil paused briefly, what was his strategy? Well, Jericho was a Dragon Rider. That allowed him to pick off the particularly tough enemies, or the ones that might threaten the others. "Well... We're in a forest right? I'll fly overhead and pick off an archer or something..." He was fiddling with his character sheet now. At least his character had an important role to do; namely swooping in to ravage their backline while still being able to take a few hits from a guard, then flee back to his teammates for a heal. Rinse repeat and their archers are gone. He could also do that with the mages, hell, anything he wanted to.

[Supreme Gamesmaster]

Lacer smiled at Phil's attentiveness. "Well, you were certainly paying attention to your weaknesses," he said pleasantly. "But there are no archers or mages here for you to worry about -- just cursed birds and bats. I'll retain your strategy, though -- you're putting your wings to good use."

The fact was that Jericho was supposed to be doing what the myrmidons were doing and vice versa -- but he wouldn't comment on that. It would be interesting to see their strategy unfold. Perhaps it would work better than Lacer anticipated -- after all, this was an untested system.

"Well, then, that just leaves Valay, unless I'm much mistaken." He turned to Valay's highly entertaining creator with a twinkle in his eye. "Do you think you have a handle on what your character is capable of? Knowing that your comrades are advancing, will you do the same, or will you wait and launch the attack when you have the initiative?" Both were valid strategies, Lacer thought, especially in an intuition-based game like this where defence of weaker party members was so much easier than in a stategy-based (or worse, party-based) game.