Affairs of Darkness ((OOC and Signup.))

Signup and OOC thread for a new campaign I'm be starting soon!

Setting:

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Mysterious disappearances have been occurring around the town of Ponyville starting with the disappearance of the local mail mare's young filly, followed soon after by the mail mare herself who went searching from her. There have also been sightings of a strange mare, covered head to hoof in clothes made of leaves that are perpetually out of season and wearing an unusual and unsettling mask lurking around ponyville.

The two simultaneous occurrences have piqued the suspicions of her Royal Majesty Princess Luna of Equestria. In order to find out what's going on she has dispatched the Affairs of Darkness to the small town to investigate.

The Affairs of Darkness as a secretive organization consisting of members from across all races reporting directly to the Princess of the Night. They're dispatched when situations are out of hoof for the standard royal guard. Eccentricities and personality quirks are excused so long as they produce the desired results. When something goes bump in the night in Equestria, the Night send them to go bump back! ((I couldn't resist.))

After an encounter with the mysterious masked mare, the Affairs of Darkness finds themselves teleported to another world, one where the faces are familiar but nothing is the same.

Game Information:

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The party will consist of the Affairs of Darkness team sent to investigate and, if possible, resolve the situation growing in Ponyville by Princess Luna herself.

This game will feature 2 homebrew races to choose from in addition to any of the existing official ones as well. The Dragonnel and the Seapony!

We will also not be using the standard item document, though equipment will be present in the game. It'll tend to be homebrew items made by me that grant some kind of utility benefit as opposed to direct combat ones.

Unique Race Builds will be permitted with approval by me.

Please don't take the combat Talent "Miracle."

I am aiming for a party of 5 right now, of which we already have 4, I may expand to 6 players but that's still not certain. I will also be offering some bonus exp for each member who provides me with some story on their character's past. Something related to their goals, their home, or who they care about in particular, for a grand total of 125XP for everyone if all 5 potential party members provide one that's suitable.

Special Player Races:

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Dragonnel:

Seapony:

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The Party:
Ramsus - Paper Reign the ...???
thematthew - Chris the Adaptive Entity!
Caden2112 - Scarlet Flare the Dragonnel!
Xel Unknown - Shock Therapy the Electro-Unicorn!
Cardbo - Thorn the Earth Pony!

Ok, I really hope whoever player #5 ends up being is a Seapony. (Also whoever they are should be prepared to get commentary/advice from the group considering the group in question. For example, be at least decent in Stealth. We'd all like an entire team that's good at that as so far, so good there.)

Right, since I made this mistake the last two games I tried to join, I'm just going to register my interest right now before starting work on my character. Seems like a cool concept, so I don't want to be locked out by someone diving in before me.

EDIT: Okay, assembling a Seapony - can I trade out Pack Mentality and Cultural Knowledge for a Cutie Mark and Scent Tracker? My character as she's shaping up has a very... sharky feel to her.

EDIT2: Done, except for combat stuffs! Silky Wake

EDIT3: I found Ramsus' character's ultimate doom! Agent 008, Forbidden City Cop! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYXUApTIb_o&t=1h24m20s

Wow, this sure filled up fast.

I also find it amusing that none of the characters thus far are textbook standard races... my own characters would fit right in.

Dusk Raven wrote:Wow, this sure filled up fast.

Actually, it seems to be the new thing around here; build a game, and then instead of open recruitment, you fill up the slots with people you're already playing another game with (Hayate did the same thing with his new game). Then recruit. So it didn't fill up, there was just only one slot to begin with.

I think that "thing" comes from most GMs around here seem to need some propting before they feel up to open random person apps.

Personally I like Ping's sheet. But I'd also enjoy seeing what Dusk wishes to make. :3

Yeah, I'd kind of like to see concepts as well in case things happen to go bad for someone.

That said, crazy berserker is a go. XD

Caden2112 wrote:Yeah, I'd kind of like to see concepts as well in case things happen to go bad for someone.

Considering Miracle is not allowed, I'm guessing either nothing is going to go bad or everything is...

A seapony writing challenge? We'll see if I'm up to the task... though I think Pingcode's got a solid entry. I also laughed at the document title. XD

As for me, I... well, I'd simply have to make something based off this image of Chrysalis, which I saw before becoming a brony. I thought it resembled some sort of aquatic creature and ending up creating a persona for her (as I often do with great art).

Spoiler:

Of course, I'll have to do some pretty significant modifications, given that the persona I created was basically a mix of Dagon from The Ocean Hunter and Cthulhu. I could still keep her personality, and even some of her power, but... there could be some interesting directions I could go in with that.

Paper Shadow wrote:

Caden2112 wrote:Yeah, I'd kind of like to see concepts as well in case things happen to go bad for someone.

Considering Miracle is not allowed, I'm guessing either nothing is going to go bad or everything is...

More the GM finds it to be OP and keeps everyone alive too easily.

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And Dusk, sounds cool, don't think to limit yourself to just making a seapony, but make whatever you with to. :3

I believe DB's major concerns with Miracle was that it can basically full heal someone from KOed and that it'd practically force him to focus fire on whoever had it. Which is actually a reasonable concern.

Ramsus wrote:I believe DB's major concerns with Miracle was that it can basically full heal someone from KOed and that it'd practically force him to focus fire on whoever had it. Which is actually a reasonable concern.

Ah yes, I forgot about that factoid too.

Hmm, you think I could take a version of Weather-Crafting that instead affects bodies of water only?

Is this game going to be PbP?

Z2 wrote:Is this game going to be PbP?

Yes.

Dusky, I don't know if DB will go for 6 players but, Ping's got a pretty solid character there. So my advice would be try to make something we don't have, not to compete with Ping.

Ramsus wrote:Dusky, I don't know if DB will go for 6 players but, Ping's got a pretty solid character there. So my advice would be try to make something we don't have, not to compete with Ping.

A sound strategy... I'll have to set my diabolical hydromancer aside for the time being, then.

Silky Wake's Short Story

Spoiler:

Additional Notes:

Spoiler:

Aaand it looks like things have kicked off.

I forgot to post that I didn't think I could keep up with Pingcode's entry...

recruitment is once again open!

As we lost our Seapony, that's certainly what I'd like to see of our replacement but, that's just me. If whoever signs up doesn't want to make their own combat built, the one thematthew and I made for the character we lost never got used. Here it is, if you'd be interested. (It uses some custom combat talents thematthew and I came up with, in case you go, "What? I can't find that thing in the official document!")

Spoiler:

So I'm going to toss up Thorn if you'll have him.

My initial thoughts: That is not a Seapony! =(
You're going to need to take another Utility since DB is allowing me to skip Magical Tricks to just take IW. My suggestion would be Read A Lot About it, so that you have training in Stealth. I really wish you hadn't taken Laughter since there are useful/reliable elements still not taken.

Edit: I'm also not sure we're using that version of Eagle Eye since we're using my Skill Support stuff.

Overall the combat build could probably use some work. It's not absolutely terrible but, doesn't seem particularly great. I don't have the energy right now to go into specifics of ways to improve it (maybe thematthew could help with that later). Some specifics I can say though are that: Traitorous Confession is just something I feel is more potentially damaging to the party than helpful. It'd be nice if you chose a Special that did something that didn't just self-target (Knight's Presence is quit nice really if you want to tank).

Ramsus wrote:My initial thoughts: That is not a Seapony! =(
You're going to need to take another Utility since DB is allowing me to skip Magical Tricks to just take IW. My suggestion would be Read A Lot About it, so that you have training in Stealth. I really wish you hadn't taken Laughter since there are useful/reliable elements still not taken.

Edit: I'm also not sure we're using that version of Eagle Eye since we're using my Skill Support stuff.

Switched my element to Generosity and switched some other stuff around. Whats the Skill Support Stuff?

Overall the combat build could probably use some work. It's not absolutely terrible but, doesn't seem particularly great. I don't have the energy right now to go into specifics of ways to improve it (maybe thematthew could help with that later). Some specifics I can say though are that: Traitorous Confession is just something I feel is more potentially damaging to the party than helpful. It'd be nice if you chose a Special that did something that didn't just self-target (Knight's Presence is quit nice really if you want to tank).

Eh..I took Harrowing again. Its too good to pass up, especially for a dedicated Sapper build.

By Harrowing did you mean Despair? This is a much better special, thanks. Btw, I proposed a while ago a version of Meditate that would hopefully settle people's qualms about it. I'll post it here and you can see if you/DB like it.

[-3] Meditate - Minor Utility
For your next two turns, you deal +1d12 damage on attacks that have two or fewer targets.