Thursday, June 25, 2015

Alterman Core Cast

Hi. Sorry this is late. And incomplete. I'll get to the civilians when I finish making them.
Anyway, this is my attempt at making a Super Sentai type series. I think it takes place a few years after someone comes back from Pendulum, and shows the government her powers.

Alterman Vell: The hero, his Alterman armor is light grey. Upper middle in strength, speed, durability, and endurance, his special power is to massively increase his armor’s friction at will, which allows him to tear off other Altermen’s armor, which is normally too slippery to hold. As such, he has the vast majority of the nonlethal Alterman takedowns on record.
Probably found his Alterman helmet in a public area.

Alterman Jann: The Crimson Alterman. Has the highest Alterman or civilian killcount in the series, although the latter is mostly accidental. Rough physical parity with Vell, his unique power is his Compression Claws, which draw in as much matter as possible, usually in the form of compressing air until it glows.
Spends the majority of his time transformed, and has sped up his recharge time massively to facilitate this, through as yet unknown means.

Alterman Sev: The first Alterman to ally with Vell, her armor is orange and black. Very high strength and speed, but has the lowest endurance on record. Due to her very short activation timer, she took quite some time to discover her unique ability, which turned out to be an immobile, invulnerable state, that also requires significantly less energy than normal operation.
She figured out how to change her armor's standby settings, including form, and so her activation sequence is to don her glove and make a fist.

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Dhovii (Binding Universe)

Hi. Sorry if the author has been even less punctual than usual, the he has been distracted by Sufficient Velocity.
It turns out that GMing is fun, but difficult.

The Dhova Class Experimental Ultra Heavy Multitheater Combat Robot is one of the most advanced mecha yet created in the Fourth Timeline. Using Kardashen legs modified to integrate Kallen-style rockets, an enormous, segmented body, and the newly developed Sunbreath plasma cannon.
It takes the form of a robotic eastern style dragon, with gunmetal grey segments, each with a pair of legs attached, and a spherical head, primarily occupied by a plasma projector, which takes up the entire front of its otherwise featureless face.
It can fly at speeds comparable to those a tank can drive, and its ground speed is only slightly lower. It can also climb on solid surfaces, including those that could not naturally support its weight, due to the same gravity manipulation that allows it to fly. Primarily, though, it doesn’t use this ability much, simply being much lighter than it appears, as it is displacing most of its mass into a pocket timeline, where it also stores its ammunition.
It can be piloted or autonomous, and the autopilot is smart enough that p pilot must be quite well trained to grant notable improvement. Long range teleportation is possible with either, although the addition of a powerful Mage as a source can cut the charge time from fifteen seconds to five. Short range teleportation is also possible, but shifting the vast majority of the structure into its pocket timeline is almost always more practical.
Lastly, a linkup of eight Dhovii in a circular formation, forming a much thicker wormesque form, has recently been developed. Among other things, it is much faster in straight lines, flies by ion jet rather than the now linked foot rockets, and can act as a teleportation gate.

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Prismatic Universe Intro

There are three base elements that make up the universe; Light, Darkness, and Material, although some claim vacuum as the fourth, as it is necessary to all function.
Darkness is the most well studied element. It suffuses the vast majority of the world, granting substance and size to all common materials. Its aspects are believed to be shielding and healing, granting form and stature.
Light is the second most studied, although much less popular, as while it facilitates almost all movement, direct exposure causes extensive decay very rapidly, neutralizing the Darkness that suffuses it.
Material is the last and least studied element. It is fractal in nature, and infusing it with Darkness will cause it to swell indefinitely, although it does have a minimum size that it cannot be reduced beyond simply by removing the Darkness. Its shape can determine the propagation of Light through it, forming the basis for reactions and movement. In its pure form, it is called a Prism, and is capable of manipulating Light without taking damage in the process. This may occur naturally in some people, although the phenomenon is not widely observed, and has not been studied.
An interesting phenomena has been observed, in that when dense concentrations of Light or Darkness are gathered, they can be used to affect significantly more than a larger but less pure mix. This has led to much speculation, and the currently dominant theory is that what can be manipulated of Light or Darkness is merely a marker for an external force,  that proceeds to act on its opposite on a rapid but periodic basis, and appears in larger concentrations when its markers are closer. This has also done very little to dissuade the religion that anthropomorphizes them, and is seen as evidence for the universe being two gods locked in combat.
Perhaps most notable, however, is the fact that People can manipulate Light and Darkness, separating them out and concentrating them. This allows manipulation of the environment, by spreading Darkness to reshape matter, and the strategic destruction of obstacles, by projecting concentrated light at them.
The first, known as Darkshaping, is widely studied, well viewed by society, and a somewhat popular vocation, as it allows one great advantages in construction or movement, and can even be used to heal, if employed carefully.
Lightweilding, on the other hand, is badly received in general, as it is extremely difficult to practice with any modicum of safety, only really good for destroying things, and remarkably difficult to stop externally. This has mostly restricted it to dangerous idiots, extensively trained military units, and a rare few reasonably sane, cautious individuals trying to study it, which has led to much less knowledge about its workings or advanced uses than its counterpart.

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Narrative Roleplaying Mechanics Early Alpha Outline

Inertia: The defining aspect of all conflicts, something’s Inertia is counted against that of its target in order to determine outcomes. This applies on both metaphoric and literal scales.
In both cases, an entity’s Inertia is its Acceleration times its Presence, and while something without much Presence may gain Acceleration rapidly, it requires much more Acceleration to achieve the same effect. Inversely, something or someone with great Presence requires enormous effort to have their Acceleration changed by an external source.
Inertia is preserved between conflicts unless it is directly resolved, and
On a personal scale, someone who charges into a conflict against unsuspecting opponents may win despite a disadvantage in skill, equipment, or numbers.
On a larger scale, if an organization has one decisive victory, they have a significant advantage in the following conflicts, with one side often being able to turn a small, hard won triumph into the beginning of a major offensive.


Presence: Also known as Personality. Presence determines what a character or object is capable of, within their accepted roles. It also determines how much of the Narrative they are allowed to affect, and in what ways. Presence accrues naturally with Development.
Presence is not restricted to single characters or items. Organizations, types of equipment, and even settings all have Presence and can gain more - this is why an anonymous man shooting the leader of the local country can be used to start a plot, but if it causes a major paradigm shift in a well established setting, at least one of the parties involved
must have a compelling reason for it to happen.

Development: The standard way to gain Presence, Development happens as something changes, shows more of itself, achieves goals, and reacts to events. Archetypes allow shortcuts for this, providing Presence in exchange for roles that must be adhered to, although sufficient Development can let a character grow out of them. Archetypes also create a liability, as one of the only ways to lose Presence is to act contrary established character without good reason, and the wrong Archetypes may force a character into choices that are counterproductive to their goals.

Foreshadowing: Essentially, Development for an action, increasing the action’s Presence. Foreshadowing is when earlier events hint at a conclusion, giving bonuses to a later action. Bonuses are based on subtlety, correlation, and number of events used, but Foreshadowing may also cause an action difficulty, such as when a plan is revealed before its execution.
Depending on the form, a single event may be used as Foreshadowing repeatedly or only once; for example a bomb is mentioned as missing as opposed to a line of poetry one character quotes obsessively, although this is obviously somewhat flexible.
If
not fulfilled, Foreshadowing becomes Loose Threads and counted against Inertia if not properly converted to Plot Hooks first.

Archetypes: Characters, objects, organizations, and settings that fit certain archetypes get a Presence bonus dependant on , such as Big Guys being able to survive more damage and hit harder, or Lovable Losers being able to survive risky situations mostly on luck, although not necessarily unharmed. Characters who act against their archetypes get a Presence penalty, unless they Develop out of it naturally, although some archetype breaking actions are themselves archetypes.
The assembled Character Archetypes are far too numerous to list here, and have their own section.


Backstory: Technically a subset of Archetype, it allows the use of prior Development for extra Presence, albeit in a reduced form until properly explained.

Person Type: First Person Characters are the most directly powerful, often being practically invincible when reasonably clever, but are the most vulnerable to blindsiding or missing important details, making them particularly susceptible to Retroactive Actions.
Second Person Characters are quite rare, mainly due to the difficulty involved, but are easy to develop very quickly, making them popular for introducing a character or establishing a significant change in their abilities. Otherwise, they carry most of the same advantages and disadvantages as First Person Characters.
Third Person Characters are the second most common, and allow the best sensory and foreshadowing abilities, at some cost to ease of Development. Very popular for large groups, as first person can be difficult to keep track of with more than two viewpoints in one area.


Retroactive Action: A way to avoid Foreshadowing penalties, instantly gain Inertia, or simply provide Consistency bonuses, Retroactive Action is the term for declaring events that have happened but not been described. It cannot contradict established facts, although it may contradict a character’s beliefs, so long as the sequence of events stays plausible. Should not be confused with Time Manipulation or Memory Manipulation, whose effects and presence vary by setting, although overlap is frequent.

Retroactive Trap Setting: So long as a character has plausibly had the time and appropriate resources to do so, they may declare that they set a trap somewhere they have been. This is only possible if they have not used those resources since then, the trap has not been noticed by the target, and the resources presence has not been noted, although mentioning their lack allows a Foreshadowing bonus. Significant bonuses for First Person characters, but frequent use degrades success rate until a cooldown period has passed. Despite this, it combos pretty well, as individual traps are not counted as uses of this ability, just periods where they’re set up since the last set was revealed.
Primarily used by Analytical Geniuses, as one of the hallmarks of the class, although it often synergises well with High Speed Improvisers. Subset of Retroactive Action.


Retroactive Communication: A character may reference communications that happened offscreen, often to request support or alter the environment (such as warning civilians to evacuate an area) or to provide Development, so long as there was a plausible period where the character could have done so. Subset of Retroactive Action, favored by Leaders or almost any kind of Pragmatist, but not uncommon elsewhere.

Retroactive Planning: A character may retroactively announce a set of action to be part of a plan, so long as they had a plausible opportunity to make it, that allows them to collect a significant Foreshadowing bonus as long as the plan is followed. As with normal Foreshadowing, however, announcing a plan too early acts as Foreshadowing of heavy opposition, if not outright failure, and explaining a trap before an opponent is fully subdued may allow them to break free.

Retroactive Skill Development: If a character has room in his backstory or recent past, they may spend unused Development to retroactively gain a skill or other ability, appropriate to the character and circumstances. While skipping the potential Development opportunities to retain Inertia carries no inherent penalty, poor Foreshadowing will lead it to be counted against Development cost, severely penalizing the acquisition of skills that should already have been used.