Post by Pandora on Feb 2, 2018 21:53:02 GMT
You find yourself in a nothingness. At first it is silent and still, then ripples bring your attention to a young, pale-skinned woman with long black hair and proud red eyes, clothed in an ethereal dress of wisteria. She approaches you with a tale of a heartbreaking future in which the very earth cries in despair, scorched yet cold, and devoid of all life. Imploring you to help change that terrible vision, she tells you that you have the potential to surpass the rest of humanity and become a legendary being, a god who can shape the very essence of the world. Promising her help if you answer her hopes and suggesting to find others like yourself, she presses something into your hand before her figure fades to black. When you awake, you find a blossom in your hand, a never-withering reminder of a meeting once upon a dream.
Hi, Pandora here. You might know me in the PTU community as one of the main contributors to the Fancy Sheet. Now, I want to be upfront and honest about how I run my games. First, I won’t claim to be particularly experienced with tabletop rpgs, and I’m certainly not a savvy GM. I firmly believe in GM fiat, so rules lawyers are not advised to apply. Second, I prefer high amounts of roleplay and the occasional combat for settling important matters, so if you’re only interested in min-maxed characters, broken builds, or high quantities of battles, I suggest going elsewhere. But third, I’m an avid PTU fan like so many others on this forum. I know that games are usually scarce. However, I want to see the character you put your heart into creating, not what you make because so-and-so is making a character that’s too similar and you just want to have a “better” chance into getting a game. I understand that I can’t stop anyone from doing so, but know that all I want is to have happy players.
Anyway, I felt it was time to run a campaign that has been waiting for me to bring it out again, an ambitious sandbox world centered on the rise of legendaries and gods during the dawn of civilization. It is heavily inspired by The Blessed and the Damned (though the splatbook will not be directly available to players at the start of the campaign), but also influenced by the Anima Metaphysics section in Game of Throhs.
The World of Wisteria Promise
The simplest way to describe the time period of the setting is that it’s a pokemon world where humanity is in an early ancient era. If you’re not that knowledgeable in history, think about it as a time when superstitions are still widely treated as fact, and those who have so much to fear band together on their common ground, either keeping their nomadic traditions of old or fortifying themselves into stable towns and cities. Yet fights between different peoples aren’t uncommon; sometimes they’re just skirmishes, but those can escalate to proper battles and all-out wars. Furthermore, xenophobia stifles the growth of trade and communication, the idea of writing and reading barely exists in common daily life, and technology as we know it is greatly limited.
Humanity in this setting is mundane and realistic (your character being extremely out of the ordinary). In contrast, pokemon are magical and fantastic creatures, with the capability to be devastating. And with such a large world, the divide between man and pokemon widely varies between societies: some respect and idolize them, others are learning to trust and cooperate with them, and a select few hunt them as prey, but most view the creatures as powerful threats to their lives. Yet within this world filled with dangers, humans have managed to carve out a place in it and survive so far.
Lastly, for the sake of convenience in the game, everyone speaks the same language, and the known world is a pangaea-style continent with seas scattered through the middle and islands off the coasts. Important landmarks will be loosely kept track of unless asked for later, mostly because it’s hard to make maps…
Aspects: The Key to Transcending Your Destiny
The most important part of character creation this time around is that your character has an unusual and unique power they hold, whether they had it since birth or obtained it later in life through a miraculous event. You will choose one Aspect that your character will have limited control over at the beginning of the game. This Aspect can be almost anything of reasonable description that a god might be known for, such as natural elements and phenomena (Fire, Oceans, Storms) or qualities and concepts (Justice, Beauty, Death), and the more narrow the focus of the Aspect, the more potent with it your character will be overall (Mountains as opposed to Earth). Throughout the game, you may choose to call upon your Aspect to grant a non-mechanical benefit to your character or others, or maybe even cause an issue if you’re feeling particularly daring. If you’ve ever played with Fate Core or Accelerated, using Aspects to influence the story should be familiar (they are also similar to Traits in the current PTU 2.0 playtest.) I may also assign mechanics to your Aspect after your character has been accepted if your character lacks a class to reflect it.
As your character grows, so too will their mastery over their power. Along the way, they may even gain more Aspects. These potential Aspects will arise from the characters’ actions and how others see them, so be wise in your decisions. These will separate those who would wield the furious might of the wind as a blade of chaos on the battlefield and those who would instead guide and protect weary travelers with gentle and calm breezes.
Ascension: What Does It Takes to Become Divine?
Although your character was asked to become a god, they were never told what it would take to achieve the task the first place, nor how far in the future the prophesized doomsday would be. So what is your character supposed to do? I might be sounding like a broken record, but this is up to you as well. The act of ascension isn’t clear-cut or easy. They can try to gain favor with a specific town and spread their good will from there, or earn a widespread infamy as someone to be feared and highly respected. Perhaps by simply trying to find their way in life, they will lead the world to become a better or worse place and leave a lasting mark.
All in all, this game is more about the journey than the destination. That isn’t to say that there isn’t something to grasp onto should you want more backbone in this campaign; there is a greater story if you want to find it and solve it, or even destroy it. However, I don’t consider it to be the main attraction, so don’t stress about it.
Character Creation
Your character may be of any age from a little kid to an elderly 40-something year old (because that’s usually how old people got historically). The backstory and starting area are of your own choosing as long as they adhere to the basic setting. Feel free to create their hometown down to the tiniest cultural detail if you want (though please have mercy on me with a suggested page limit of 4), or maybe they’re a wanderer and are far from home. Either way, if you want help fitting an idea into the world, I’ll be more than happy to work with you.
The basic crunch for your character:
Then, choose one of the following bonuses to start with:
If you decide to start with a pokemon, apply one of the following modifications:
**Obsolete Pokemon: Klink, Voltorb, Porygon, Magnemite, Grimer, Koffing, Solosis, Trubbish, Rotom, Ditto, Type: Null
Submitting Your Character
I am asking for character submissions in pre-arranged parties of two or three, though you may submit a solo character with lower priority for acceptance. (If you decide to submit a solo application, note that you will be playing a solo campaign if you get accepted.) I understand that this is a strange recruiting process for these forums. The hope behind this is to give you more freedom because you will know exactly whom you will be partying with while planning your character and don’t have to worry about overlaps as much, and to let you find people whom you can trust and communicate with, which is easier on me as the GM when you already have an established relationship. That being said, it doesn’t matter to me how you gather your fellow group member(s); I will facilitate with both dedicated Skype and Discord pre-game chats in the links shown here, so feel free to use them. Keep in mind that these group applications will be all or none, so it is in your best interest to look over each other’s characters. In your post, include whom you are partying with; you can give player names, character names, and/or a silly team name, but try to be consistent across everyone in your group so I don’t get confused.
Also, please answer the following questionnaire. These are not questions about your character, but rather about yourself. If you are uncomfortable with answering any of these on a public forum, you may submit the questionnaire via PM. Otherwise, I’d like these to be in your post with a link to your character sheet (which may be of any variety: spreadsheet, word document, Wikidot, etc.)
1. What is your posting rate like?
2. How do you feel about serious, real-world topics in games?
3. What is your usual play style like? Do you enjoy head-on battles, non-combat solutions, or a mix of the two? Is it fun to roll lots of skill checks?
4. Is meta knowledge important to you?
5. What is your preferred method of communication between Skype and Discord?
Overall, I will be accepting up to six characters, across three submissions maximum. As a clarification, these submissions will be treated as separate parties existing in the same world. Recruitment will close on February 25, at approximately 4 PM CST (GMT -6). Thank you for understanding.
Hi, Pandora here. You might know me in the PTU community as one of the main contributors to the Fancy Sheet. Now, I want to be upfront and honest about how I run my games. First, I won’t claim to be particularly experienced with tabletop rpgs, and I’m certainly not a savvy GM. I firmly believe in GM fiat, so rules lawyers are not advised to apply. Second, I prefer high amounts of roleplay and the occasional combat for settling important matters, so if you’re only interested in min-maxed characters, broken builds, or high quantities of battles, I suggest going elsewhere. But third, I’m an avid PTU fan like so many others on this forum. I know that games are usually scarce. However, I want to see the character you put your heart into creating, not what you make because so-and-so is making a character that’s too similar and you just want to have a “better” chance into getting a game. I understand that I can’t stop anyone from doing so, but know that all I want is to have happy players.
Anyway, I felt it was time to run a campaign that has been waiting for me to bring it out again, an ambitious sandbox world centered on the rise of legendaries and gods during the dawn of civilization. It is heavily inspired by The Blessed and the Damned (though the splatbook will not be directly available to players at the start of the campaign), but also influenced by the Anima Metaphysics section in Game of Throhs.
The World of Wisteria Promise
The simplest way to describe the time period of the setting is that it’s a pokemon world where humanity is in an early ancient era. If you’re not that knowledgeable in history, think about it as a time when superstitions are still widely treated as fact, and those who have so much to fear band together on their common ground, either keeping their nomadic traditions of old or fortifying themselves into stable towns and cities. Yet fights between different peoples aren’t uncommon; sometimes they’re just skirmishes, but those can escalate to proper battles and all-out wars. Furthermore, xenophobia stifles the growth of trade and communication, the idea of writing and reading barely exists in common daily life, and technology as we know it is greatly limited.
Humanity in this setting is mundane and realistic (your character being extremely out of the ordinary). In contrast, pokemon are magical and fantastic creatures, with the capability to be devastating. And with such a large world, the divide between man and pokemon widely varies between societies: some respect and idolize them, others are learning to trust and cooperate with them, and a select few hunt them as prey, but most view the creatures as powerful threats to their lives. Yet within this world filled with dangers, humans have managed to carve out a place in it and survive so far.
Lastly, for the sake of convenience in the game, everyone speaks the same language, and the known world is a pangaea-style continent with seas scattered through the middle and islands off the coasts. Important landmarks will be loosely kept track of unless asked for later, mostly because it’s hard to make maps…
Aspects: The Key to Transcending Your Destiny
The most important part of character creation this time around is that your character has an unusual and unique power they hold, whether they had it since birth or obtained it later in life through a miraculous event. You will choose one Aspect that your character will have limited control over at the beginning of the game. This Aspect can be almost anything of reasonable description that a god might be known for, such as natural elements and phenomena (Fire, Oceans, Storms) or qualities and concepts (Justice, Beauty, Death), and the more narrow the focus of the Aspect, the more potent with it your character will be overall (Mountains as opposed to Earth). Throughout the game, you may choose to call upon your Aspect to grant a non-mechanical benefit to your character or others, or maybe even cause an issue if you’re feeling particularly daring. If you’ve ever played with Fate Core or Accelerated, using Aspects to influence the story should be familiar (they are also similar to Traits in the current PTU 2.0 playtest.) I may also assign mechanics to your Aspect after your character has been accepted if your character lacks a class to reflect it.
As your character grows, so too will their mastery over their power. Along the way, they may even gain more Aspects. These potential Aspects will arise from the characters’ actions and how others see them, so be wise in your decisions. These will separate those who would wield the furious might of the wind as a blade of chaos on the battlefield and those who would instead guide and protect weary travelers with gentle and calm breezes.
Ascension: What Does It Takes to Become Divine?
Although your character was asked to become a god, they were never told what it would take to achieve the task the first place, nor how far in the future the prophesized doomsday would be. So what is your character supposed to do? I might be sounding like a broken record, but this is up to you as well. The act of ascension isn’t clear-cut or easy. They can try to gain favor with a specific town and spread their good will from there, or earn a widespread infamy as someone to be feared and highly respected. Perhaps by simply trying to find their way in life, they will lead the world to become a better or worse place and leave a lasting mark.
All in all, this game is more about the journey than the destination. That isn’t to say that there isn’t something to grasp onto should you want more backbone in this campaign; there is a greater story if you want to find it and solve it, or even destroy it. However, I don’t consider it to be the main attraction, so don’t stress about it.
Character Creation
Your character may be of any age from a little kid to an elderly 40-something year old (because that’s usually how old people got historically). The backstory and starting area are of your own choosing as long as they adhere to the basic setting. Feel free to create their hometown down to the tiniest cultural detail if you want (though please have mercy on me with a suggested page limit of 4), or maybe they’re a wanderer and are far from home. Either way, if you want help fitting an idea into the world, I’ll be more than happy to work with you.
The basic crunch for your character:
- Trainer level 5
- You can take up to two supernatural classes only if one or both classes are related to your chosen Aspect. You must still meet all prerequisites. You may ignore the Elemental Connection/Mystic Senses exclusivity clause for this purpose.
- $5000 spending cash to use on gear (not including pokeballs, TMs, evolutionary items, arcane weapons, or miscellaneous technology-related items). Weapons are $500 for Crude and $3000 for Simple. Any money not spent is lost.
- 1.05 Playtests Materials: All + Dark Shadow’s Ultra AlolaDex
- Banned Splatbooks: The Blessed and the Damned, Do Porygon Dream of Mareeps?
- Banned Edges: Apricorn Balls, Basic Balls, Poke Ball Repair, Paleontologist
- Banned Features: Pokemaniac, Poke Ball Crafter, Arcane Training, Playing God
- Banned Classes: Capture Specialist, Juggler, Paleontology Research Branch, Gadgeteer Research Branch, Arcanist, Rune Master
Then, choose one of the following bonuses to start with:
- Bonus 1: Extra $5000 spending cash (subject to same rules)
- Bonus 2: Free Fine Weapon
- Bonus 3: Free Type Sync Feature (ignoring skill prerequisites)
- Bonus 4: Two free Skill Edges
- Bonus 5: One Level 10 non-pseudo, non-legendary Underdog pokemon.
If you decide to start with a pokemon, apply one of the following modifications:
- Your starter may be a pseudo or non-Underdog pokemon.
- Your starter may have a single egg/TM move on its starting move list (following playtest Tutor restrictions).
- Your starter may have up to two egg/TM moves on its inheritance list.
**Obsolete Pokemon: Klink, Voltorb, Porygon, Magnemite, Grimer, Koffing, Solosis, Trubbish, Rotom, Ditto, Type: Null
Submitting Your Character
I am asking for character submissions in pre-arranged parties of two or three, though you may submit a solo character with lower priority for acceptance. (If you decide to submit a solo application, note that you will be playing a solo campaign if you get accepted.) I understand that this is a strange recruiting process for these forums. The hope behind this is to give you more freedom because you will know exactly whom you will be partying with while planning your character and don’t have to worry about overlaps as much, and to let you find people whom you can trust and communicate with, which is easier on me as the GM when you already have an established relationship. That being said, it doesn’t matter to me how you gather your fellow group member(s); I will facilitate with both dedicated Skype and Discord pre-game chats in the links shown here, so feel free to use them. Keep in mind that these group applications will be all or none, so it is in your best interest to look over each other’s characters. In your post, include whom you are partying with; you can give player names, character names, and/or a silly team name, but try to be consistent across everyone in your group so I don’t get confused.
Also, please answer the following questionnaire. These are not questions about your character, but rather about yourself. If you are uncomfortable with answering any of these on a public forum, you may submit the questionnaire via PM. Otherwise, I’d like these to be in your post with a link to your character sheet (which may be of any variety: spreadsheet, word document, Wikidot, etc.)
1. What is your posting rate like?
2. How do you feel about serious, real-world topics in games?
3. What is your usual play style like? Do you enjoy head-on battles, non-combat solutions, or a mix of the two? Is it fun to roll lots of skill checks?
4. Is meta knowledge important to you?
5. What is your preferred method of communication between Skype and Discord?
Overall, I will be accepting up to six characters, across three submissions maximum. As a clarification, these submissions will be treated as separate parties existing in the same world. Recruitment will close on February 25, at approximately 4 PM CST (GMT -6). Thank you for understanding.