Introduction
Welcome to the play by email RPG Nimrodel: Legend of Ourissa. This RPG was created out of brainstorming when I was away in India, as well as at the request of Viktor, and was heavily based on his game Force Arcana. As a starting statement, I'd like to say that the last few RPGs I've run I've tried to make available to everybody, both old time RPGers and new players alike. This RPG I don't want to do that. Legend of Ourissa is designed for a small playerbase of people who have been in these games before, and the rules page is going to reflect that.
Updating rules
Updates will be posted Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The email deadline will be Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6 PM Pacific. Emails will be sent to Eldoreth@gmail.com, and some notification of what squad the action about should be in the topic so I can organise it easier. If an email is late I will accomodate it best I can, but may discount an email sent after the deadline. In most cases part of an update will be put up Mon/Wed/Fri night and the rest will be put up Tues/Thurs/Sat, and in some cases I may ask for another action email from a member the following day as a quest progresses.
Overview
In the Legend of Ourissa each player plays a group of characters in a rather isolated part of the world of Nimrodel, populated by four sentient races and a large mix of monsters and demons. In the land of Ourissa the balance of power, held for several hundred years, is starting to shift, and this will be the story of those people who change it, for better or worse. The rules page is to serve as a bread and butter explanation of how to play, while pages upon pages of background story and description
Character section
Governments
Each squad in the game will be affiliated with one of the "governments" in the game, either the city state of Ayotya, city state of Varans, a member of the Tribes, or a mercernary. These governments are explained in full in the Lore section, but the government a squad is affiliated with will denote their starting location as well as a few minor details in questing. It is important to note that just because you are affiliated with a government does not mean that you work for them. It simply means you are a citizen of that persuasion, or grew up there.
Leaders and Companions
Each squadron of characters will consist of a small number of heroes, that support each other on their quests and adventures. Although the social makeup of these squads may vary considerably, for simplicity sake the squads members are seperated into two categories, the Leader and his Companions. There is essentially no difference in gameplay between these members, excepting that the Leader will generally have slightly higher statistics. When creating a squad, one character will be identified as the Leader.
Class and class changes
Each character in the game has a specific character class, which shows how their character operates in their adventures and incurs many bonuses and advantages. Classes are gained by purchasing all the prerequisite skills and proficiencies, and then making an action to classchange to the class in question. Characters advance their class along a specific class tree, which is explained further in the character creation guide. You may not advance to a class on a higher tier until you have purchased all of the classes skills in a tier you are in, but with some restrictions you may classchange sideways or even down a specific class tree. This allows for multiclassing where a character may for example be a Knight with a skill from the Fencer class in addition to his Knight skills.
Further, classes provide bonus Attributes, which are also explained in the Players Guide section in detail. These bonus attributes affect your character only so long as they remain that class, and are exchanged for their new classes bonus attributes when they change class. For example, a Tribesman gets +1 Agility and +1 Stamina while he is a Tribesman, and this is replaced with +2 Strength, +2 Agility and +1 Stamina when he becomes a Valkyrie.
Attributes
Each character in the game has a number of statistics on their roster page, which in addition to their class and skills shows how good they are at various tasks. There are five attributes, and each character will have each of the five to some degree, the higher the number of an attribute, the better that companion is in that area. Attributes are increased through classchanges, magical equipment, and very rarely as rewards for completing a quest successfully. The five attributes and what they relate to are explained below.
Strength (Str) - The physical power of the character, Strength shows how hard they strike with their weapons and how much muscle they can put towards a task. Strength also shows how much equipment a character can carry into battle and over long distances. A character can carry as many items on their person as their Strength score plus 1.
Stamina (Sta) - The toughness and inner willpower of the character, Stamina shows how long a character can ignore their wounds before succumbing to them, as well as their natural ability to heal. While a character with a high Sta score will take just as much damage from a sword as a character with a low Sta score, they are much less likely to collapse in pain or fall unconscious. A character will heal their Stamina score plus 1 as part of natural regeneration, explained in the healing section.
Agility (Agi) - The dexterity and speed of the character, Agility shows not only how fast a character can move, but their finesse and skill in doing so. Agility helps a character to avoid attack as well as makes sure their attacks hit home, and gives a smaller bonus to the speed in which a spellcaster can cast a spell.
Intelligence (Int) - Both the cunning of the character, as well as their prowess at harnessing and controlling Ether, Intelligence is a broad attribute that covers many things. A characters offensive and defensive magical ability, as well as the speed in which they cast spells is governed by Intelligence. Some non magical skills are governed by Intelligence, such as Duellists Razor Wit, Wanderers Trapper and Commanders Terrain Mastery. Finally, a characters intelligence will help him solve many riddles and puzzles he will find in his questing.
Charisma (Cha) - The social ability of the character, Charisma influences a characters skill in any situation that does not involve combat, whether it be convincing a nobleman to help you on a quest, or trying to solve an ancient riddle. Charisma does not necessarily only affect the social magnetism of a character. Evil, ugly individuals can be quite charismatic in their own way.
Luck (Luk) - A more or less special ability, Luck is a statistic which has no direct influence on anything specifically, but has a way of helping out essentially everything that the character does. A character with a high Luck score will cheat death, win when he should lose, and find opportune help along his way. Every character starts with a Luck score of 1, and cannot increase this score through normal means. Only magical items, some class skills, and quest rewards can increase a characters Luck.
EXP
As a character trains and progresses in their questing, they will gain experience points, which can be used to purchase class skills and weapon proficiencies, as well as to change class. Experience cannot be lost, it can only be gained and spent on skills and abilities. Unused EXP points do not provide any bonus to the character. It does not take an action to purchase skills and abilities like it does items from the shop.
Skills and Proficiencies
As a character progresses they will gain skills and proficiencies, purchased through EXP. While explained more in depth in the Players Guide section, they will be briefly illustrated here. Proficiencies are used to show a characters ability with weapons, armor, and in specific types of terrain, and are normally prerequisites for advancing to a particular class. Skills are special abilities unique to a specific class. If a character changes class to a class that is not part of that particular class tree, for example changing from Huntsman to Barbarian or Huntsman to Tribesman, they may pick one skill from the previous class to retain, but all their other skills are lost.
Healing and dying
In the midst of a battle or as part of a dangerous quest, heroes of all varieties become injured, and eventually die. While the ether filled world of Nimrodel naturally heals peoples injuries with an unprecedented speed, it has always been the case that it is much easier to incur wounds than it is to heal them. Characters in a squadron have a hit point score, that is always some number over one hundred. As they are injured or fatigued from their actions, their hit point score will drop, and as they rest and tend to their wounds it will gradually increase again. At the end of every event or battle involving a character, he will take injuries and his HP score will drop below 100, 100 always being the maximum.
At the end of every update, characters that were not involved in physical combat that day will regenerate HP at a rate equal to their Stamina score plus one. Some class skills, such as Barbarian and Telepaths Regeneration, will increase this number. Skills that increase the regen rate will regenerate HP even on days in which the character enters combat. If a character makes an action to Rest, their natural regen rate will double, althoough the amount regenerated from special skills will remain the same.
Characters who have lost some of their HP will continue to act at the same level of ability despite their wounds, but this does not remain true when they have recieved significant amounts of damage. When a characters HP falls under 50, their status will change from OK to "Injured". Injured characters can still operate as normal, but will do so at a reduced level of skill. If a characters HP falls under 25, their status will change to "Seriously Injured". Seriously Injured characters cannot make a full range of actions for their squad. They can move and rest, and participate in quests that do not expressly involve combat, but they cannot actively participate in battles and quests involving combat, although they may be attacked, and if attacked they will fight at a seriously reduced level of ability.
Clearly, when a character reaches 0 HP, they die. Dead characters are dead, and must be replaced with new characters. It happens to every hero sooner or later.
As a final note, it may be that in the course of a quest, or through the Merchant skill Hireling, a squad may come under the jurisdiction of weaker NPC "minions". While minions fight and die the same as any Companion, their more simplified nature in statistics is shadowed in the way they take damage. Minions do not have an HP score, instead they are simply either OK, Injured, Severely Injured, or dead. Minions will recover their status one level every day that they are not involved in an action of a companion in the squad.
New squad members
There is no set and concrete method for gaining new Companions to a squad after squad creation at joining. However, it is entirely possible, and will happen as a result of specific quests, or through use of the Hire action. There is no limit to how large a squadron may become, but due to the limitations of gameplay it is unlikely that ye olde Webmaster will let a squad exceed around six characters.
Actions section
The above is essentially all the information you need to know to join the RPG, and from here you can move to the Joining page to create your squad. However, what you are going to do with your squad each day has not yet been properly explained, and a detail list of possible actions and types of quest and combat is listed below. Note that this is in no way all of the actions allowed to a character, and this is an RPG where originality will be praised and allowed more than most. However, for the sake of helping people along, the below actions have been listed and explained.
Actions are split into three seperate sections. Each character in a squad is allowed to make one action per update day, from the list or from the players imagination, but only one action may be made. Sqad actions and Combat actions must be made by the entire squad in order to occur, with the exception that Severly Injured companions/leaders do not have to make Combat actions. The further note about Combat Actions is that one squad attacking another squad, whether in a friendly or hostile manner, cancels the victim squads actions made for the day. Special actions denote specific skills that are available to certain classes. While it is not required that a character have the skill allowing the action in order to perform it, the odds are severely stacked against them succeeding if they do not.
Squad actions
Move
The squadron packs up its belongings and travels to a destination. More specific rules on this are explained in the Map section of the Players Guide.
Quest
The squadron departs on a quest. The specifics of the quest will be detailed on the Quests section of the Tales page, and the outcome will be written in the Events section.
Combat actions
Friendly battle
An often planned battle either within a squadron or between two squads, Friendly battles do not necessarily mean an organized duel, but they mean battles in which the characters do not want to kill each other. While injuries will not be as severe in this type of combat, the amount of experience gained will somewhat decrease.
Hostile battle
Similar to the Friendly battle, with the exception that in this case the characters do want to kill each other. Both the amount of injury caused and the amount of experience gained will be greater than a Friendly battle.
Ambush
Although both Friendly and Hostile battles can occur as the result of one squad attacking another against its will, an Ambush is a battle in which the attacker tries to take the defender by surprise specifically. These battles are generally somewhat rushed, so the amount of experience gained will be lower than that of a Hostile battle, but the element of surprise will give the attackers an advantage. It is of note that many of a defending squads skills, such as Blacksmiths Temper or Thanes Inner Strength, cannot be used in a battle in which they are ambushed.
Prepare
A squadron that believes it is going to be ambushed can prepare against it. A squad that takes an action to prepare will not actively attack another, but await attack and plan their defenses. If they are engaged in a Hostile battle or an Ambush that day they will be ready, and gain the advantage over the attacking squad as if they were the ambushers themselves. As an additional note, squads that make a Prepare action and are not attacked will regenerate HP normally.
Single actions
Shop
The character goes to market and purchases equipment and items for their squad. Only one character in a squad needs to go shopping, and may buy equipment for every character in the squad. However, Tradesman classes obtain skills that allow discounts on specific shop items, and for those discounts to apply the character with the skill must be the one making the action.
Hire
The character attempts to find another companion to join their squad. The chances of this succeeding are based on a lot of things, but the characters Charisma stat will play a reasonable part.
Rest
The character rests and tends their wounds for a day, doubling their natural HP regeneration as explained in the healing section.
Train
The character practices their abilities for the day, gaining 10 EXP. While this will not be written in the way a quest or a battle is, if the player makes an RP post about the training, the EXP gained may increase to 20.
Work
The character goes around completing small jobs for the local populace for the day, or gathers items in the wild for sale. The squad gains 2 gold. As above, if an RP post is made about this action, the amount gained may increase to 3 gold.
Special actions
Gather information
The character seeks out specific hard to find information from local sources. The player should indicate in their email what kind of information is being sought, and a response will be written detailing what the character finds.
Find item
The character attempts to find a specific item for sale that is not normally found in the shop. Up to three items may be searched for in one action, but the fewer searched for the more likely you will be to find them. The characters charisma score will help this action.
Advance scout
The character moves ahead of the squad, watching the movements of enemies and relaying them back to the rest of the squad. Like with Gather Information, the player should indicate what kind of information the character is scouting in their email, and a response will be written detailing what the character finds.
Enchant
The Conjuror enchants or imbues an item with magical properties. This action can only be undertaken by someone with the specific skill, and is explained in detail on the message board.
Craft
The character uses a specific craft skill to manufacture an item for the squad. This action can only be undertaken by Blacksmiths creating weapons and armor, Chemists creating potions, or Enchanters creating golems. The rules for these creations are explained in detail on the message board.
Scrying
The Sage uses his wisdom and skill with the waves of the ether to see the future. The player should ask a question of the game master in email upon making this action, and it shall be answered. Only characters with the Wisdom skill can make this action.
Steal
The character attempts to steal items either from another squad in the same location, or from the general populace. This action will be incredibly difficult to accomplish by those without the Steal skill, and will become easier as the Thief advances to higher tiered classes.
Tracking
The character attempts to track the movement of an NPC character or an enemy squad. This action will be incredibly difficult to accomplish by those without the Tracking sill, and will become easier as the character advances to higher tiered classes.
Prayer
The Cultist attempts to recieve guidance from their patron diety, in the same way that a Sage attempts to see the future through Wisdom. Prayer operates in the same manner as Scrying, excepting that it is less likely to succeed. Any character can make the Prayer action, but only characters with the skill have any assurance of it succeeding.
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