Drindall's Keep: Battle for the Sky

Subcypher Chatroom RPG

The place where role players come to play! If you want to start an interactive war, chat with real citizens of the town, or find other uses for your faction, this field can accommodate those desires. As with anything else, please try to keep your role playing appropriate... but you're still welcome to have a little fun!
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Tikvah
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Drindall's Keep: Battle for the Sky

Post by Tikvah »

Drindall Keep will be played in #Gowers, using the Subcypher Ruleset.

"You ready to become Count Drindall's newest supply of cannon fodder? -- Oh, don't look so startled, I'm kidding. The count takes great care of his retainers."

"I suppose I should introduce myself. The name's Finn Winters. I'm Count Drindall's right hand man. It's my job to talk to all the hopeful new recruits like yourself. You any good at fighting? Alchemy? Just really handy with a pitchfork? Good. If you can fight, the Count has room for you. He's trying to pick up as many warriors as he can before they all get drafted to fight the Mitan Empire.

"I can't say the job is easy, but it pays well. You get lodging and full access to the castle armoury, and in return you complete any assignment the Chief may give you. Fighting criminals, treasure hunting, collecting rent, it's all fair game.

"Sound good? Great. Just sign these papers and meet me here tomorrow. I'll be escorting you and the other new recruits to Castle Drindall."


Drostan
World Map
Region Map
The age of swords and shields, of knights and dragons isn't over quite yet. Guns are uncommon, and not the best weapon around. Instead, those seeking glory and loot will train themselves in the art of combat, and seek to buy the best quality Kismet they can, hoping for a place with one of the wealthy nobles always in need of more retainers.
The kingdom of Drostan lies to the south of the Dank Mountains, guarding the only pass to the Plains of Elkore. Trade through the pass has not only made Drostan wealthy, but also made it a target for the Mitan Empire lying to the south.
It would take approximately 3 days to traverse the length of the Kingdom by taking the main highway. If you are a government official and have access to the military transport portals, you could travel instantaneously to your destination, saving time and lowering the chance that you'll meet a group of highwaymen.

Kismet
If you are seeking power in exchange for little risk, look no further then the alchemists. They can give you Kismet, special abilities beyond an ordinary person's dreams. Each kismet is specially crafted with it's user in mind by men who have studied the science for years. Kismet are amazing abilities, but you must keep in mind that once you have bought one, you will never be rid of it as long as you live.
Kismets are special abilities that cost no pool points to use. However, for every Kismet you have, you gain another crit fail on your dice rolls. For example, Thomas the Wandering Swordsman has a kismet that allows him to shoot fire blasts. Every time he rolls for any action, if he rolls a 1, it's a regular critical fail. If he rolls a 2, it counts as a crit fail for his Kismet, and it will malfunction. Now, say Thomas gets another kismet that lets him teleport. If he rolls a 2 his Fireblasts will malfunction, and if he rolls a 3 his Teleportation will act out. This applies to any action requiring a dice roll, not just one where he was using his kismet.



Shop
Drostan has a currency made up of Copper, Silver, and Gold coins, each worth 100 of the last. Even though the Count supplies your basic needs, there are some things you may want to invest extra in to get high quality items. This is a list of common items and the usual price. Armour can usually be bought for the same price as weapons in the matching category.
A meal= 5 c

50ft. of rope = 3 s
Smoke bomb= 10 s
Flashbang grenade = 11 s
A set of clothing = 12 s
Healing pill = 20 s: Heals 5 HP at the end of 10 minutes

Common Weapon = 20-50 s: A common weapon that you could find in most general stores.

Elkore Weapon = 50s - 50g: A weapon imported from the Plains of Elkore, home of the weapon crafting masters. This weapon may have a damage bonus, and/or a minor effect.

Elkore Artifact = 10g This artifact has a Kismet embedded into it. While you are holding this item, you effectively have the Kismet. However, if the Kismet fails the artifact will be destroyed and you will lose the ability.

Cyclops Weapon = 50g - infinity: A weapon crafted by the cyclops, an ancient race of blacksmiths. Their secret crafting techniques grant the weapon unnatural strength and untold magical effects.. These weapons are extremely rare and sought after.

Character Creation

All of Count Drindall's retainers are equipped with: A water canteen, a cloak (1 asset to stealth in wilderness settings), a uniform, a 50ft coil of rope, a pistol (6d, heavy weapon, 200ft range, takes one turn to reload, one-handed)

Follow the regular creation rules listed in the Subcypher Ruleset In addition, each player may choose one Kismet, or receive 6 extra XP.

A Kismet costs 6 XP. If you want a Kismet that is free to use without any extra crit fails, you can fork out an extra 12 XP to have it stabilized.
When deciding on a Kismet, try to stick to a single ability that can be described in a single sentence or short paragraph. And note that the more powerful and versatile your ability is, the more horribly wrong it can fail, and the failure route is entirely in the hands of the merciless GM. Ultimately, the GM has final say on if an ability is appropriate, and will help you balance and translate it into gameplay terms.

Since you’ll be playing common mercenaries rather than epic heroes, your characters will find things that are monstrous, terrible, and unsettling. Fear defense will be a core mechanic. A fear check is an intellect-based defense roll, augmented by the Discipline skill. If a fear check is failed, your next action must be to flee, take cover, or a similar defensive move approved by the GM. If your failure is critical, your character will panic and their next action will be controlled by the GM.

The wealthy kingdom of Drostan is home to many intelligent, landholding creatures other than humans. If you would like to spend some XP on becoming a minotaur or a troll, talk to me in #gowers and we'll see what we can figure out.


Character Template
Name:
Skills:
Might Pool (0) Edge (0):
Speed Pool (0) Edge (0) :
Intellect Pool (0) Edge (0) :
Recovery Rolls (1d6 1): 1A ( ) 10M ( ) 1H ( ) 10H ( )
Effort Cap: 1
Experience: 0
Kismet:
Equipment:
Stash:
Bio:



Post your character in the Character Sheets thread, and remember to update your character sheet after each session. You don't want to lose track of your equipment and XP.
Last edited by Tikvah on Sun Jul 02, 2017 4:36 pm, edited 5 times in total.
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Skid
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Post by Skid »

I'll be making up a character sheet tonight. We come bug you on the chat for help with picking a Kismet, right?

And for anyone wondering about how to play and the general Subcypher roleplaying rules, you can also ask me. I wrote them.

Edit: Character posted.
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Post by bookworm »

I was hoping to be able to reuse Gareth because I'm terrible at character creation, but it doesn't look like there are magic users in this world?
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Post by Tikvah »

I would suggest making a new character for this campaign so it will be easier to adapt to a new world with new rules. You can have a character with similar abilities to your last one. In this campaign I have replaced Special Abilities with Kismets. The difference is that you can use them for free, (No points are taken from your pools) but every action there is a 1/20 chance they will misfire. Because of this it would be best to have only one or two that would be useful in a variety of situations.
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Post by bookworm »

I didn't mean the same character like copy over the sheet, skill and ability wise, I meant the same 'person' more or less. That's the part it takes me forever to do, adjusting stats to a new system is fine.
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Post by Tikvah »

I would suggest at least changing the name, but if you want a character of the same class/style it's fine. I won't make you play a club-wielding giant if you want to play a college graduate specializing in magic. Just don't make them identical twins.
Last edited by Tikvah on Fri Oct 07, 2016 3:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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bookworm
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Post by bookworm »

The name is the most difficult part. >_>
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Post by Tikvah »

If you need ideas for name, I would suggest going to behindthename.com. It has a pretty big database of names.
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Post by bookworm »

Thanks. For Ember Patrol I had to cycle through a name generator for several minutes until something sounded right. When I see what I'm looking for I know it, but I can't come up with it myself.
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Post by Skid »

So from character concepts thus far we've got a Tank (me), a Ranger (bookworm), a Fighter (Woody), and a Monkey Bard (Moontide).

For anyone looking at joining, but can't think of a character concept, the party could use any of:
An infiltrator
A berserker
A tactician
A pyromancer
A trapper
An illusionist
A medic
Last edited by Skid on Sat Oct 15, 2016 8:40 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by Woody »

Count me in!

When will we begin?
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Post by Tikvah »

I'll probably wait a bit to see if anyone else will join, then we'll have to find a day that will work for people.
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Post by bookworm »

I hope we get at least one more player.
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Post by Tikvah »

Alright, now we need to find a time that works for everyone. As a starting point, how does Wednesdays at 6:30pm PDT sound?

If anyone else still wants to join it's still definitely open.
Last edited by Tikvah on Sat Oct 15, 2016 10:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by bookworm »

That was my suggestion, so it works for me. If it really doesn't for someone else another day/time might, but that would be best.
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Post by Woody »

That is likely the worst possible time for me, unfortunately. I have church Wednesdays at 7. As for other days, anything on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, or Friday should work for me.
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Post by Old Brad »

Man, this looks like fun, but I don't think I really have the proper amount of time to devote to this. :(
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Post by Tikvah »

Hmm. Sunday would work for me. However, I know that Skid won't be able to make Sundays for the next two weeks or so. If people want to start sooner than that I can do Mondays until November, and then we would have to find a different day.
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Post by bookworm »

If Sundays are going to open for Skid we can wait until then. None of the other days Woody listed work for all others without really adjusting the time, based on what I heard in our discussion last night.
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Post by Tikvah »

My Mondays are free for a couple weeks, but if no wants to hurry and start before Sundays open for Skid then we can wait.
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