Post by Blitz on Mar 16, 2007 11:03:58 GMT -5
RPING RULES
Fundamentals:
The first thing to recognize is that this RP is a freeform RP. There is no way to roll dice along with any number of other ideas that most RP’s use. Also since it is difficult to plan games through the static nature of the internet, this RP is designed to give players an opportunity to develop their own characters in their own style. The only exception is in regard to playing against other players. This is where the following rules certainly apply in every case so the player with the best units and strategies will win. Other than that, the sky is the limit. However, keep in mind that a well-written battle will result in better rewards and better stuff in the long run. If a battle is well-written, then there isn’t any reason why a lone Acolyte can’t defeat an Ice Giant. However, if it is poorly written, then you risk incurring the wrath of the mods, which can result in bad things happening to your units. And no one wants that. So first you need to understand what all of the stats mean.
Level: This is the basic ability of your units. Levels determine what is available to your units, what skills they can learn, and if they are upgradeable. Units that are upgradeable can do so every five levels, but can only do it in towns with appropriate buildings. Just because I get my Squire to level 5, doesn’t mean he can automatically turn into a Knight. I have to take him to my town, or an allied town with a Stable. In your towns, upgrading is free, but other towns it is based on your agreements with other players and in mod run towns, your unit’s charisma. Levels are earned through battles, or are awarded from mods for freeform writing.
Also, whenever your leader levels up, they will be able to select a new skill, and gain 25 attribute points that they can add to their attributes. However they cannot add more that 5 points to any one attribute except for HP which they can't add more than 15 points. They also cannot add points directly to MP. As you'll see below, MP is affected by the character's Wisdom.
XP: XP is abbreviated for experience points. Your units start with 0 XP at the beginning of each level. This means no matter how much XP your units gain in a battle, they can only gain one level for it. Sorry, but this is to prevent power leveling. For each level 1-5, your units need to gain XP equal to 100*the unit’s level. After level 5, levels change for all units. It is easiest to level up for units that cost 1 leadership point, leaders and units that cost 2 leadership points gain levels a little more slowly. See the Leveling Guide for that info. All non-leader units gain 5 ability points every time they reach a new level for you to distribute as you see fit. XP can only be gained by the units involved in the battle or freeform. So if my party defeats a bunch of Orcs, only the units in the party level-up, not any units in my town(s). Enemy units give flat amounts of XP as such:
- Level 0 - 50 XP
- Level 1 - 100 XP
- Level 5+ - 50*unit level XP
You’ll notice that there is a jump from level 1 to 5. This will be explained in the section about requesting battles.
HP: HP is your unit’s hit points. Enemy attacks remove HP from your units and visa versa. When a unit reaches 0 HP, the unit is defeated. A defeated unit must be revived either through a Temple, a Life Potion, or an appropriate Spell. This equates to after battles as well. If all units in an opposing army, or your army are defeated, then that army loses. The winning army then gains the appropriate XP for all defeated units and goes on their merry way. If your army is defeated, then you must spend Gold in a town to start reviving them.
MP: MP or mana points allows your units to use spells. MP is equal to twice your unit’s Wisdom. Once a unit’s MP is gone in a battle, they cannot cast spells again until they find a way to replenish their lost MP. Some spells can refill MP, as can Mana Potions.
Strength: Strength is how much damage is inflicted in a melee or ranged attack. Unlike the Disciples II game, all units can attack with melee attacks. In order to attack with a ranged attack however, units must either have the skills Archery or Thrown Weapon.
Stamina: Stamina is how much damage your units can absorb. It is a percentage, so if your unit has Stamina of 10, and an enemy attacks with a Strength of 50, it only removes 45 HP. A unit cannot have a base Stamina above 50 unless affected by spells or by Town enhancements, and can never have Stamina above 90. Ranged and spell attacks are affected by Stamina.
Agility: Unlike the game, accuracy is too difficult to equate as a percentage. So instead Agility determines the abilities of each unit to dodge. To determine your units’ dodges, divide your units’ Agility by ten. The number you get is the number of dodges your unit can perform each battle, rounded to the nearest whole number. Dodges negate any one enemy attack, and affect melee, ranged, and spell attacks.
Initiative: Initiative determines which units go first in battle. The highest goes first, then the second highest until all units have a chance to take an action. In the case of a tie, then the tiebreak goes to the unit with the highest Initiative plus Charisma.
Wisdom: Wisdom affects how much damage your spells inflict. It also affects units with the Brew Potion skill.
Charisma: Charisma is your units’ ability to relate with others. It affects what neutral units you can employ, and what merchants will sell you. It also affects prices at neutral towns and what your units can use.
Wards: Wards are ways to counteract spells or aspect attacks. A ward only affects the next attack of that aspect. So if your unit is attacked by the Lightning spell, you can’t ignore the ward to prevent being hit by a Storm of Ages spell. Wards supersede dodges.
Immunities: Immunities make your units immune (hence the name) to any one aspect of attack. Units cannot have more than two immunities at any one time.
Leadership: Leadership is the number units that any leader can take with them. The number of units cannot equal more than your party leader’s Leadership points. Each party can have only one leader.
Leadership Cost: Each unit has a leadership cost. In most cases it is either 1 or 2. This means units with a leadership cost of two, takes up two points from their party leader. So if a leader has 4 Leadership points, then they cannot employ four Hill Giants, they can only employ 2 Hill Giants, or 1 Hill Giant and 2 Dwarves. Party leaders do not have a Leadership cost.
Learned Skills/Spells: As your units level up, you will be able to make some decisions. For your leader unit, every time they reach a new level, you can select a Skill that you can permanently add to your leader. You can only select skills up through the level the leader has achieved and cannot select the same skill more than once. If you don’t select a skill for level 2, you can select it instead at level 3 or 33. Your character never looses a chance to gain a skill.
This is a little different for non-leader characters. They require upgrading into new skills. For example, if a Squire upgrade into a Knight, the unit permanently gains the skill, Ride Steed. So even if the unit upgrades again, it will always have that skill. However this is not always the case. The Mountain Clans’ Mountaineer has a Water Ward, but the Ward doesn’t have a + in front of it, so that ward is only applicable as long as the unit is a Mountaineer. If it upgrades to a Hermit, then the unit keeps the Water Ward permanently because of the plus. It just gives you more considerations when upgrading your units. Non-leader units also treat Spells in the same manner. Spells can only be learned by upgrading or as a mod reward.
Spells are a little different for leaders. Most Mage faction leaders start with some spells, however to learn more, they have to either research them from a form of Mage Tower, or purchase them from a Merchant. In order to pay for researching a spell, you have to have Mana. This is best earned from Nodes that you control that give you a certain type and amount of Mana each week. However your party has to gain control of the Nodes in some way, either by winning a battle or building them in a city. You can also gain Mana as a reward from battles. Spells from your own race strictly cost the posted amount, non-race spells cost double Mana to research and double MP to cast in battle. There are however skills that can change that…
Traveling: Since there is no actual map that you can see, traveling across Nevendaar is a mostly imagined endeavor. If your party decides to travel to their capitol, then they will denote that they are traveling and then you have to wait the allotted real-time days for that travel. Likewise if you are traveling from a faction controlled territory to different faction controlled territory, it costs one real-time day to do so. So if my party is moving from the Holy Empire to Wotan’s Spine, I post that they are traveling in as creative way as I like, then the next day I can start RPing in the Mountain Clans territory. However, within each territory you can post as many adventures as your little fingers can bang out.
This doesn’t mean, however, that you can conquer a territory in a day if you like. You can move from any known location to known location in the same day, however your characters cannot travel to an unknown location, ever. So how do you find new locations. There are five ways;
1. Your character requests a battle and is awarded a location battle.
2. You have a character with the Pathfinding skill, and request a location battle.
3. Your characters find or purchase a map that directs you to a new location.
4. Another character invites your character to one of their locations.
5. Good RPing awards you a new location.
In all of these cases, what you do at these locations is up to you and what is available to you. If it is a battle request, you’ll be able to challenge the units for control of the location. Or the mod might let you find a merchant or mercenary troop where you can purchase new items, spells, or troops. Other locations are;
- Mines (grant additional gold per week)
- Nodes (grant Mana per week)
- Towns (can either be conquered and controlled, interacted with, or razed to the ground for gold, items, etc.)
- Ruins, temples, war party camps, etc. (will have more difficult opponents for better rewards).
Fundamentals:
The first thing to recognize is that this RP is a freeform RP. There is no way to roll dice along with any number of other ideas that most RP’s use. Also since it is difficult to plan games through the static nature of the internet, this RP is designed to give players an opportunity to develop their own characters in their own style. The only exception is in regard to playing against other players. This is where the following rules certainly apply in every case so the player with the best units and strategies will win. Other than that, the sky is the limit. However, keep in mind that a well-written battle will result in better rewards and better stuff in the long run. If a battle is well-written, then there isn’t any reason why a lone Acolyte can’t defeat an Ice Giant. However, if it is poorly written, then you risk incurring the wrath of the mods, which can result in bad things happening to your units. And no one wants that. So first you need to understand what all of the stats mean.
Level: This is the basic ability of your units. Levels determine what is available to your units, what skills they can learn, and if they are upgradeable. Units that are upgradeable can do so every five levels, but can only do it in towns with appropriate buildings. Just because I get my Squire to level 5, doesn’t mean he can automatically turn into a Knight. I have to take him to my town, or an allied town with a Stable. In your towns, upgrading is free, but other towns it is based on your agreements with other players and in mod run towns, your unit’s charisma. Levels are earned through battles, or are awarded from mods for freeform writing.
Also, whenever your leader levels up, they will be able to select a new skill, and gain 25 attribute points that they can add to their attributes. However they cannot add more that 5 points to any one attribute except for HP which they can't add more than 15 points. They also cannot add points directly to MP. As you'll see below, MP is affected by the character's Wisdom.
XP: XP is abbreviated for experience points. Your units start with 0 XP at the beginning of each level. This means no matter how much XP your units gain in a battle, they can only gain one level for it. Sorry, but this is to prevent power leveling. For each level 1-5, your units need to gain XP equal to 100*the unit’s level. After level 5, levels change for all units. It is easiest to level up for units that cost 1 leadership point, leaders and units that cost 2 leadership points gain levels a little more slowly. See the Leveling Guide for that info. All non-leader units gain 5 ability points every time they reach a new level for you to distribute as you see fit. XP can only be gained by the units involved in the battle or freeform. So if my party defeats a bunch of Orcs, only the units in the party level-up, not any units in my town(s). Enemy units give flat amounts of XP as such:
- Level 0 - 50 XP
- Level 1 - 100 XP
- Level 5+ - 50*unit level XP
You’ll notice that there is a jump from level 1 to 5. This will be explained in the section about requesting battles.
HP: HP is your unit’s hit points. Enemy attacks remove HP from your units and visa versa. When a unit reaches 0 HP, the unit is defeated. A defeated unit must be revived either through a Temple, a Life Potion, or an appropriate Spell. This equates to after battles as well. If all units in an opposing army, or your army are defeated, then that army loses. The winning army then gains the appropriate XP for all defeated units and goes on their merry way. If your army is defeated, then you must spend Gold in a town to start reviving them.
MP: MP or mana points allows your units to use spells. MP is equal to twice your unit’s Wisdom. Once a unit’s MP is gone in a battle, they cannot cast spells again until they find a way to replenish their lost MP. Some spells can refill MP, as can Mana Potions.
Strength: Strength is how much damage is inflicted in a melee or ranged attack. Unlike the Disciples II game, all units can attack with melee attacks. In order to attack with a ranged attack however, units must either have the skills Archery or Thrown Weapon.
Stamina: Stamina is how much damage your units can absorb. It is a percentage, so if your unit has Stamina of 10, and an enemy attacks with a Strength of 50, it only removes 45 HP. A unit cannot have a base Stamina above 50 unless affected by spells or by Town enhancements, and can never have Stamina above 90. Ranged and spell attacks are affected by Stamina.
Agility: Unlike the game, accuracy is too difficult to equate as a percentage. So instead Agility determines the abilities of each unit to dodge. To determine your units’ dodges, divide your units’ Agility by ten. The number you get is the number of dodges your unit can perform each battle, rounded to the nearest whole number. Dodges negate any one enemy attack, and affect melee, ranged, and spell attacks.
Initiative: Initiative determines which units go first in battle. The highest goes first, then the second highest until all units have a chance to take an action. In the case of a tie, then the tiebreak goes to the unit with the highest Initiative plus Charisma.
Wisdom: Wisdom affects how much damage your spells inflict. It also affects units with the Brew Potion skill.
Charisma: Charisma is your units’ ability to relate with others. It affects what neutral units you can employ, and what merchants will sell you. It also affects prices at neutral towns and what your units can use.
Wards: Wards are ways to counteract spells or aspect attacks. A ward only affects the next attack of that aspect. So if your unit is attacked by the Lightning spell, you can’t ignore the ward to prevent being hit by a Storm of Ages spell. Wards supersede dodges.
Immunities: Immunities make your units immune (hence the name) to any one aspect of attack. Units cannot have more than two immunities at any one time.
Leadership: Leadership is the number units that any leader can take with them. The number of units cannot equal more than your party leader’s Leadership points. Each party can have only one leader.
Leadership Cost: Each unit has a leadership cost. In most cases it is either 1 or 2. This means units with a leadership cost of two, takes up two points from their party leader. So if a leader has 4 Leadership points, then they cannot employ four Hill Giants, they can only employ 2 Hill Giants, or 1 Hill Giant and 2 Dwarves. Party leaders do not have a Leadership cost.
Learned Skills/Spells: As your units level up, you will be able to make some decisions. For your leader unit, every time they reach a new level, you can select a Skill that you can permanently add to your leader. You can only select skills up through the level the leader has achieved and cannot select the same skill more than once. If you don’t select a skill for level 2, you can select it instead at level 3 or 33. Your character never looses a chance to gain a skill.
This is a little different for non-leader characters. They require upgrading into new skills. For example, if a Squire upgrade into a Knight, the unit permanently gains the skill, Ride Steed. So even if the unit upgrades again, it will always have that skill. However this is not always the case. The Mountain Clans’ Mountaineer has a Water Ward, but the Ward doesn’t have a + in front of it, so that ward is only applicable as long as the unit is a Mountaineer. If it upgrades to a Hermit, then the unit keeps the Water Ward permanently because of the plus. It just gives you more considerations when upgrading your units. Non-leader units also treat Spells in the same manner. Spells can only be learned by upgrading or as a mod reward.
Spells are a little different for leaders. Most Mage faction leaders start with some spells, however to learn more, they have to either research them from a form of Mage Tower, or purchase them from a Merchant. In order to pay for researching a spell, you have to have Mana. This is best earned from Nodes that you control that give you a certain type and amount of Mana each week. However your party has to gain control of the Nodes in some way, either by winning a battle or building them in a city. You can also gain Mana as a reward from battles. Spells from your own race strictly cost the posted amount, non-race spells cost double Mana to research and double MP to cast in battle. There are however skills that can change that…
Traveling: Since there is no actual map that you can see, traveling across Nevendaar is a mostly imagined endeavor. If your party decides to travel to their capitol, then they will denote that they are traveling and then you have to wait the allotted real-time days for that travel. Likewise if you are traveling from a faction controlled territory to different faction controlled territory, it costs one real-time day to do so. So if my party is moving from the Holy Empire to Wotan’s Spine, I post that they are traveling in as creative way as I like, then the next day I can start RPing in the Mountain Clans territory. However, within each territory you can post as many adventures as your little fingers can bang out.
This doesn’t mean, however, that you can conquer a territory in a day if you like. You can move from any known location to known location in the same day, however your characters cannot travel to an unknown location, ever. So how do you find new locations. There are five ways;
1. Your character requests a battle and is awarded a location battle.
2. You have a character with the Pathfinding skill, and request a location battle.
3. Your characters find or purchase a map that directs you to a new location.
4. Another character invites your character to one of their locations.
5. Good RPing awards you a new location.
In all of these cases, what you do at these locations is up to you and what is available to you. If it is a battle request, you’ll be able to challenge the units for control of the location. Or the mod might let you find a merchant or mercenary troop where you can purchase new items, spells, or troops. Other locations are;
- Mines (grant additional gold per week)
- Nodes (grant Mana per week)
- Towns (can either be conquered and controlled, interacted with, or razed to the ground for gold, items, etc.)
- Ruins, temples, war party camps, etc. (will have more difficult opponents for better rewards).