http://pastebin.com/3nW2MTGv - rough notes on Magic

So how should progression work for characters? I say there should be a fairly low upper limit personally but it'll probably be important to determine how often players get new points to spend.

>>37570446
Seems like we should get a handle on skills before we start saying how the level ups (or equivalent) work.

>>37570647
>>37570446I think we should set a cap on 'traits' that can be swapped out or replaced over time. Letting skills rust to replace with new skills kind of thing. So you start off with say, 4 class traits, maximum any one player can get is 10 or 12 though, awarded by GMs for good roleplay, completing missions, etc.

http://pastebin.com/VmaQKwdm
Well here's the pastebin for the races and general info.
It's chaotic because I've been writing it for myself at this point and it has a lot of things that aren't things and/or still unclear. So take most of it with a grain of salt.
The elves and Goblins are pretty much the only ones with any actual credibility and dwarves have a lot of extra fluff and shit that I've been writing for boredom or just as a thought.
I'll probably be quite inactive today myself because staying up the last night and having only 4 hours of sleep while in flu didn't surprisingly do anything positive to my energy.
I'll still keep an eye on this and keep writing shit on to the Pastebin.

>>37570702
you should put in the space harpies link.

>>37570807
So what's the story with humans?

SPACE ORCS.

They don't give a shit about technology or science, they just want to fight and conquer. In fact, they only arrived in the system after defeating a more advanced race through bringing swords to a gun fight. Realizing that the orcs weren't very clever, the race tricked the orc species into travelling through a wormhole into the new system with the promise of greater battle.

Unfortunately the orcs didn't have the attitude to fit in with the other races, and they didn't have the strength to conquer them. They've now been kept away in a distant corner of the planet, fighting among each other in an attempt to pass the blame about how badly they screwed up. Reactions to the orcs from other races varies from a complete dismissal as less than goblins to a cautious fear that even a lone unarmed orc is a danger to the an armed troup of magitech soldiers.

The race has no skill with technology or magic, though a few have been known to borrow from other races for weapons and body enhancements.

>>37571141
I have no idea. Care to try writing one?

>>37571205
I actually like this, the 'rar we wanna conquer everything' race with a decent explanation as to why they aren't running around blowing shit up.

Care to write up some more about them? Right now they sound a little too close to Warhammer Orcs crossed with WoW ones.

Can i join this rpg building project?

>>37571314
Just throw stuff in. It's a science fantasy hotpot.

>>37571314
>Open to any and all suggestions by anyone about just about anything.

Go for it. I believe we are 1 or 2 short on our 10 base races. Or try o write something about current races. Or just try anything. There may be regulars/people who control the postbins and shit but anyone on /tg/ can contribute

>>37571348
Thats part of why I like it. Its a ton of shit thrown together and because of that it all seems to fit for the precise reason that everything is pretty much random.

imo

>>37571205
Yeah I think that a less civilized race would be quite nice.
>>37570807
Added.
>>37571141
So far I think pretty much there isn't anything substantial written down.
>>37571205 also
Most general weapons use magic to work, but atleast Dwarfs prefer using conventional weapons because of their low magical affinity so shooty shooty bang bang weapons are a thing.
>>37571255
Currently Talatoceans and Satyrs are pretty much just in there, but only Talatoceans have anykind of background expalantion written for them which I don't actually have on my hand right now.

>>37571349
Oh yeah and I think I have been appointed the Pastebin Guardian...
Or more like I stabbed any person showing their pastebins and looted their corpses and started wearing strips of their skin to cover my own body.

>>37571385
I seem to remember Tals main thing was that most of their culture and thought processes were based on patterns.

I'm honestly not a big fan of them, though.

Satyrs were sort of kept on hold until the guy that wanted them said he'd come back, but he said he'd be around a few hours and it's the next day, so I'd say we open the spot. Naga fill the biological race role we wanted them for anyway.

1 more thing on Lizards: You wanted a larger more brutish variety and a smaller variety, right? And I believe you had it down at one point that they should have 4 arms like the Naga, are we still going with that? I'd personally say no.

Also HEY

>I think a less civilized race would be nice

You rich motherfucker, forgetting about the proletariat Goblins working under you.

Back for the time being.

On that magic link from the previous thread. Like the concept a lot, but it needs to be less forumlaic than they had, if only because using magic in any form shouldn't be a headache.

>>37571449
Agreed about lizards not having four arms. Naga got'em. Let them keep them.

And I do like the orcs, even if the goblins fill the less civilized role, but orcs fill it differently and they can be all over the goddamn place in ramshackle stolen ships and hiding inside of Nexus 0's unexplored portions?

>>37571480
>The Orcish Mafia

I think Dwarves and Orcs are sort f magical together, they could have a sort of criminal circuit running thruogh the shadier/less explored parts of the Nexus?

>>37571510
>Harpy prostitutes

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>>37571517
>Naga Drug lords

>>37571517
>>37571510
>>37571531
So the Orcs, Dwarves, Naga, and Harpies form the criminal groups as a rule?

That is when Harpies aren't being completely fabulous. Not sure if Naga should be Fabulous or not... Rich dwarves might be opulent, but not fabulous.

>>37571510
This does bring up the question of how law enforcement works in the Nexus; does each individual empire have their own set of laws, or is there some sort of unified legal system?

>>37571556
I wouldn't say as a defnite rule, though those would be the foundation to a sort of criminal/shady underworld.

Nagas would be fabulously opulent.

>>37571566
Likely mostly enforced by Humans and Elves (again, not a solid rule). I'd say a council with a rep from each race (except Goblins or Orcs) runs the place?

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>>37571556
>>37571531
Naga Enforcer

>>37571566
I think there should be a unified legal system put together by the dominant races in council.

It's composed of a lot of stuff that makes sense, certain rules that benefit some races more than others, and things that're so specific that you'd have to be a harpy or an uplift to understand them.

>One may not feed unlifted goblins after the hour of midnight but before the six in the morning.
>You may not wear more than seven distinct colours on your wings during rainstorms.

>>37571616
This was actually what I based my original idea for Naga appearance on until I switched to the more Cobra design.

I also thought of what was pretty much that exact sketch except with a Harpy in the grip 'cause it wouldn't pay up. Then I realized it would more likely be hired LIzards.

>>37571624
>Implying Harpies would ever put restrictions on how many colors something could be

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>>37571531
>>37571556
>>37571605
Oh wait sry. Fabulous naga(????)

>>37571566
I was thinking there's some kind of united council runs the place, it's mostly ignored, except when they call in the kill bots to put down any riots or threats to critical station infrastructure. The only absolutely safe places in the Nexus should be enclaves run by various exploration corps, and the embassies surrounding each wormhole.

>>37571624
Fun part about the harpies, given the entry in their thing, is that they're a giant meritocracy where nobody really listens to anybody else unless they've pledged fealty. "Laws? What laws! Oh! You mean the prince's rules... ooookay, yeah..." Might mean that any harpies who come through have to swear nominal loyalty to one of the harpy Princes/Princesses who control access to the wormhole to be allowed through? Or pay obscene amounts of whatever it is the current toll is.

>>37571657
Sultai 4 lyfe. Yes alot of my Naga inspiration comes from them. Sue me.

>>37571663
I like the "Yeah theres a government but no one really car-BOOM"

>>37571706
*Takes out wand*
You are now an mary sue. Hope you enjoy omnipotence

>>37571657
So we can agree that Harpies and Naga get into Fabulous-offs.

Something that might be hilarious is if Harpies think of anybody not dressed in LOADS of colors as completely feminine. After all, in their culture, the MALES are the ones who are all flamboyantly colored and the females tend towards more simple and dour colors.

>>37571706
Yeah, my theory is that the commanding council knows EXACTLY how much of a hodge podge of peoples comes through. Provided critical infrastructure, and shit with their labels on it aren't attacked, and no major riots break out? They literally give no fucks. Their job is to make sure none of the powers that be get an upper hand over one another and that Nexus 0 (which none of the members except the harpy and perhaps the dwarf council-members refer to as 'The Donut') remains open for business and keeps pumping those delicious raw resources from an untapped galaxy back into the old empires.

Ok so the 'Bruiser' type Lizard sketch is basically turning into a small cyborg T-Rex.

Bear with me here.

That said, what should Lizard bodily modifications be like, anyway?

>>37571789
lots of grips to pull them out if need be. Usually not imbedded far below the surface of the skin I imagine.

>>37571830
Oh, so it looks like they're just attached enough that they can tear them off?
Thats a little unsettling. I like it.

But wait, doesn't that whole thing contradict with the fact that their scales are supposed to be super tough? I thought they'd get like a health and regeneration bonus because of that

>>37571895
Just how I imagine them, but if you think there's better ways to make this work? Then go for it. I'm satisified with the naga and harpies so far. Let's see the cyborg t-rex image. Sounds awesome.

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>>37571782
>Female harpies meet pic related
>Pic related hits on slutty harpies
>Harpies reply they not into dull gays

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>>37571979
I have them concepted as knuckle-walkers because it was the easiest to draw. Not really a cyborg yet either, cause I didn't know what style of implants we wanted

>>37572043
I think I almost get this... but could you explain more?

>>37571449
I'd say keep the Satyrs so far, but if something better comes up we can switch them out.
Also I had even completely forgotten the 4 arm thing and I don't think they need that.

Also the goblins are a filthy race of subhumans!

>>37571510
I like the idea of certain races getting together for shady dealings.
So Dwarves, Orcs, Naga and Harpies are in together in a criminal organization?
Dwarves working as smugglers, Orcs as the muscle, Naga as drug creators and Harpies as dealers?

>>37571729
I'm a bit ashamed of how long it took for me to get your joke...

>>37571789
A bit bulkier than your average ones in my opinion. And easy to remove because they do switch them out rather often.

>>37571895
Someone pointed out that in scifi setting scales hardly offer any protection from anything more than a normal knife.
So maybe no bonuses offered from their skin, but maybe a trait that works in RP situations?
>>37572048
I don't really like the idea of knuckle walkers, but that's just because I've grown up with the more humanoid looking ones.

>>37572043
>>37572102
They see the knight as feminine person because he isn't wearing flashy colours like their males do.

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>>37572102
Hes not ornate enough. Harpy females equate tons of jewels and color with males and fashion. Your typical run of the mill harpy male prob lools like pic related so to harpies thats a MAN. That dull badass look humans like so much? Gay as fuck

>>37572104
>because Ive grown up with more humanoid ones

Exactly why I like the idea of it. It's a trip from the norm without straying too far. Don't worry, the smaller variety will be more traditional.

And I think it was actually me who made the comment about scales. Maybe scales could provide an armor bonus against non-magical weaponry, and they could just get a general health boost + regen?

>>37572143
I actually really like this idea. I like the idea of male harpies being flashy as fuck.
>>37572158
Yeah... Okay I'm fine with this.

>>37572143
Aaaaah! Okay I get it.

>>37572227
A Male Harpy would challenge you to a duel with his laser rapier after he tipped his giant feathered hat and throw glitter in your eyes before stabbing you to bits and carving his initials into you.

"Skill is nothing without style"

Heading out for a while. When I get back I think I'll do some writefaggotry on the council.

>>37572308
You good on Lizard design so far?

What's the drow thing in the pastebin?

>>37572389
Someone suggested a race of Drow but it recieved some opposition and wasn't completely fleshed out.

I believe they're in the 'sort-of-maybe pile'

>>37572417
Looking back at the thread they were more expanded upon on than the space dwarves though? Not to mention Gate liked it.

All it needs now is appearance, we were kicking around making them brown Cyclopes I think

>>37572460
I seem to remember a lukewarm reception (probably partly because I dont like them lol)

>>37572482
What was bad about them anyway?

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ROAR MECHA T REX PREDATOR LAZER LIGHTNING BRASS KNUCKLES BRAAUUUGH

This design got a little juvenile but I think that was the right way to take it. For scales think armored alligator rather than elegant snake like the Naga.

I can also make an implant-less version for future reference if that would be preferred.

>>37572581
I just don't really like Drow.

They also seemed very similar to the already existing Elves, though that might have changed later on.

>>37572620
Again as said, they're not really at all related to the drow, as said multiple times. That being said, they're not really much like Elves. Being culturally against adding metal to themselves and magicless

>>37572581
A little too close to the elves, descriptively, and no one really wants drow in the setting. Original post-er said that "drow" was just a place holder name, but the image has stuck.

>>37572681

>Regardless, the first family, the mechanical one would have evolved into nation completely reliant upon science and technology. Children are born without (Or with barely formed) arms/legs and are given adaptive prosthetics which grow with them. Possibly other birth-upgrades. Very structured society, likely communistic but very based in war and warfare related things. I've been thinking they'd be heavy employers of mechs.

This just seems very very Elf. That would mean 2 races that both swapped out their bodies for robotics.

>The magic family would have evolved into a far harsher society. Smaller in numbers, higher in power. Born with the ability to leach mana/energy/etc which as a result can expand lifetime, restores/enhances appearance. Side effects of absorbing knowledge (Usually inconsequential) and feelings of the victim, and addiction. On the other hand, a lack of mana means they slowly cripple themselves, resulting in rotting limbs, degenerating appearance and other nasty things. They would retain the older family structured Drow backstabbing.

This seems more unique, though. Could probably run with this somehow if Drowguy kept going with it.

>>37572818
What about them are actually like the Elves though?

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>>37572848
TransGalaxia Elves have 'uplifted' themselves with Magitech, replacing most of their bodies with it for things like an expanded lifespan, more magical power, etc, believing it to be a logical next step in evolution.

The Drow's mechanical house was born pretty much helpess and basically had to be put on robot bodies to function.

>>37572894
...How is that much at all similar?

>>37572919
It is two races who have replaced their bodies with technology as their main gimmick.

A race needs a single identifying trait that is simple to remember for people to latch on at a glance. Sort of like that races' 'thesis statement. '

The one for both of them would be 'robot bodies'

>>37572945
The drow one would be "Integration into machinery". The limbs they can take off, remove. Not only is that encouraged, but people that do are thought highly of and more beautiful for it. The mechanics are considered tools and weapons.

In reverse, the Elves are considered higher for more of the mechanical upgrades, it's completely different socially, culturally and even in the way they do it. Drow are completely traditional mechanically, no magic at all. Elves on the other hand are completely magitech.

Look. Frankly, I think we need to discard the idea of them being drow. Who cares what the name or physiology of them is? The idea behind their society is rather cool, and if we can make it fit with somebody else? Then why don't we. Just because the original poster called them 'drow' is no reason to put the kibosh on the entire concept.

The one reason I'm neutral on these guys, rather than supportive of them, is we've already got two "integrated with technology as a major them" races. A third MIGHT be pushing it. But as long as that doesn't bother anybody else, I'm perfectly cool with keeping them in as something besides drow.

Anyway, give me a bit. I'm going to drop some tidbits of ideas about humanity and do write faggotry about the local Harpy Heirarchy all at once.

>>37573092
But Dwarves were pretty much the only ones to use technology that wasn't magitech/had very little magic. That would take away one of their main gimmicks as well.

And then Lizards are supposed to be the ones who liberally take off and put on new mechanical upgrades and such.

It's not that their Drow (even though I said that), I just think they overlap with far too much in their current state.

>>37573155
Yeah, I don't think we should give drow much more thought. As I understand, there'll be a race buy any ways so if people don't want to just play an elf and declare it dark skinned and pick variant traits, then they can probably design a drow down the line.

As baseline races go we should have the variety that people can look at them and come up with their own within those boundaries.

>>37573209
...But you wouldn't be able to make that drow race with Elves. They're completely different.

>>37573209
>You can make a character from another race with this elf, despite them being completely different, socially, culturally, magically, technologically and in appearance too

>>37573209
100% agreed here.

But I have to agree with >>37573183
There's a lot of overlap between this race and the elves and lizardmen, and even with the dwarves. I like some of the societal stuff for them, but it smacks too much of ideas we've used in other races so far.

THAT SAID! I am not at all opposed to somebody taking this information, and putting a new spin on it. I'd love to see something cool come of this.

Honestly? I say we drop:
>Regardless, the first family, the mechanical one would have evolved into nation completely reliant upon science and technology. Children are born without (Or with barely formed) arms/legs and are given adaptive prosthetics which grow with them. Possibly other birth-upgrades. Very structured society, likely communistic but very based in war and warfare related things. I've been thinking they'd be heavy employers of mechs.
entirely, and go with:

>The magic family would have evolved into a far harsher society. Smaller in numbers, higher in power. Born with the ability to leach mana/energy/etc which as a result can expand lifetime, restores/enhances appearance. Side effects of absorbing knowledge (Usually inconsequential) and feelings of the victim, and addiction. On the other hand, a lack of mana means they slowly cripple themselves, resulting in rotting limbs, degenerating appearance and other nasty things. They would retain the older family structured Drow backstabbing.
Seems a viable method of introducing an 'energy based lifeform' or vampires or something.

>>37573336
>>37573209
I can see the overlap with Elves, mechanical integration and all.
But dwarves? They're a complete mix between old technology and magitech. Lizard men aren't even in the question. They have hardly an overlap, the guy's only flaw was calling them Drow!

>>37573336
>energy based lifeform or vampires or something

I said that, and like the idea. "Energy Based Lifeforms" has me interested. I shall brew accordingly.

>>37573155
>Harpy hierarchy
>The flashiest male harpy with the most females is king
>The female harpy who looks impossibly beautiful while being dull, has the most concubines and with the "biggest assets is the matriarch

They are both equals and hedonist but different.

The females have the harpy who can best be described by humans as "impossible" cause shes is DA BOMB in terms of looks and assets yet looks dull at the same time.

The males have their king who in human words is "the gayest thing to ever get hoes". Hes IMMENSELY FEMININE yet is still masculine.

>>37573336
Why not just go with both?
Honestly don't see the problem at all with the mechanical drow

>>37573416
>complete mix between old technology and magitech

They have what is essentially the literal bare minimum of magic. The only Magitech they can use is the miniscule amount required to power Space Trucks, which they have become adept at using.

>Lizards aren't even in the question

Because two races that upgrade their bodies with technology, aren't very good with magic, consider the upgrades solely as tools and weapons, and are able to swap them out and take them off liberally clearly isn't similar in their gimmick at all.

>>37573455
then write it up and let everyone decide. I'll bow out of the discussion entirely on this point. The will of the anons takes precedent here, as it should in any /tg/ work. I don't feel particularly strongly about it one way or another here, I just think the magic-suckers are a more viable idea than ANOTHER cyborg focused race.

>>37573531
Not trying to shoot down another idea, but the more I think about these things the more they become Blood Elves with their need for what is essentially Mana.

Maybe Im just out of ideas and need to take a break.

I feel like the races so far are fine for now. There can be other existing races that aren't playable for the time being so they can be fleshed out later. Perhaps the existing races don't mingle with them often so details are sparse. I don't think we should get hooked up on trying to get a set amount of playable races when we already have a workable amount.

>>37573590
Pretty with you on that, but I liked the number 10. Might be too many anyway, now that I think about it.

I'll try working on the 'space satyrs' since the dude doesn't seem to be coming back.

>>37573585
It's not like we're not ripping off other things. They're also a lot like vampires, so what?

>>37573673
I personally was going with the 'everyone is to a barely controlled addict for mana' thing. Maybe thats just going too far. I never said it was neccesarily a problem, either.

>>37573731
...Uh, that wasn't like that at all in that though?
>Side effects of absorbing knowledge (Usually inconsequential) and feelings of the victim, and addiction
Drinking more mana means more addiction.

>>37573638
Were there any ideas proposed for the satyrs, yet?

Write faggotry incoming. Hopefully will give people some ideas to work with on Humanity since it's taken from the PoV of the current Human Councilman.

>Report to the United Nomadic Councils
>Councilman Bassam Temuujin

>With the recent shake ups in Harpy Space, the nomadic councils of humanity are rightly wondering how this has affected operations in the Nexus 0 zone. The answer is, as with most things, is complicated. I would argue that while relations with humanity and most of the other species that have borders with Harpy space have been absolutely affected by their ‘high princes’ being recently deposed and replaced by younger and more volatile, operations ‘Donut Side’ as many call it, have been barely affected at all.

>That said, there has been a recent shakeup in the middle layers of power, as former vassals and coterie members of the deposes princes and princesses have fled beyond the local galactic cluster to the relative safety of Nexus 0 and the galaxy it acts as the gateway too.

>The nominal leader of the quartet of Harpy leaders, and their representative on the council, is an oddity in Harpy Society. A Princess rather than a Prince. They do happen, but rarely at such high levels of power. Princess Mahtab has decided that rather than ruling from the shadows, as most of her more level headed sisters do by directing the volatile and hedonistic desires of their mates, she would far rather rule herself. She has personally seen to the dismantling of 6 other Harpy houses, and turned their former princes into willing members of her own Coterie, and is never seen without at least 4 of them at any given function in full dress armor, usually with some kind of holographic light show playing around them, even at council meetings. This includes only the primary members of her coterie, the full number of which are easily two dozen strong.

>cont.

>>37573863
>Princess Mahtab is far harder to deal with than the former Harpy representative, who was always open to backroom deals and things that favored him personally. Attempts to do so with Princess Mahtab have almost always resulted in us losing more than we could gain, and her dealings in the council room, rather than boasting and empty threats, are targeted blackmail and maneuvering for greater power to the Harpy principalities as a whole, rather than just to her own house. This make her dangerous beyond words, and the Nomadic Councils should seriously consider having her assassinated before she sets her eyes higher, such as to unite the principalities into an empire, something that hasn’t been attempted since the Harpies left their homeworld.

>The Second most important member of the Quartet is Prince Xerxes, the harpy explorer who first came back from beyond the Nexus itself and charted the FTL aether paths allowing for exploration of the galaxy beyond Nexus 0. He is still highly regarded by most of the lower societal members of the Nexus, and while a nonissue politically, his house of ‘explorers’ causes something close to riots in celebrations any time his fleet docks back with Nexus 0. He is largely considered, as I have no doubt you know, to be the one to have started the gold rush past Nexus 0, and further, is seen as something of a folk hero for his willingness to hire anybody willing to plunge into the unknown. If the male harpy didn’t find politics completely inane and beneath his interests, it is quite likely he could oust Princess Mahtab, and if we can find some way of pressuring him to do so, it would be in our best interests, as it would be a safer option than outright assassination.

>>37573847
Only in that they would basically be our traditional Elves, affinity for nature, interested in terraforming. I believe the quote was "A race so vested in nature would be well served by having hooves" or something like that.

>>37573885
>Prince Jahan meanwhile is someone we have had immensely successful dealings with in the past, and is possibly the most level headed male harpy I have had the pleasure to meet, if one can get him out of his libraries that is. He pays premium for any new information about the new galaxy, or about any form of academic knowledge from the powers. He then sells this information back at nearly double what he paid for it to any interested parties. It is rumored he might be merely the front man for a consortium of information brokers and spies throughout Known Space, but I find this unlikely in the extreme. Is it not charismatic, nor powerful for a Harpy Prince, his holdings the smallest of any of the Quartet, and his coterie comprised of only 2 females and no further consorts, but his acumen as a scholar has earned him a great deal of respect and loyalty from other scholars throughout the station, and his libraries form the closest thing to a university this side of the wormholes.

>Finally, we come to Prince Jahangir. He is officially an investor and money broker for anyone attempting to set up operations on Nexus 0 or beyond, reputed to be fair and considerate, and not selling those who default on his payments to him into debt slavery when they can instead be added as subsidiaries of his own growing corporate interests. My own sources though tell me that he is one of the leading members of the local criminal syndicate, and I believe is marriage to the daughter of a leading naga criminal boss cements this firmly. I need more resources, and more time, before I can confirm anything, but if this marriage goes through, the drug trade on Nexus 0 will be firmly cemented almost entirely in the hands of a single pair of families united by this marriage. If this is the case, it’ll mean the criminal syndicate here will become exponentially more powerful, and we shall need to take counter measures lest they attempt to expand their opperations to the Nomadic Fleets.

>>37573905
>While none of these situations are directly related to the recent change in power in the Principalities, the influx of new blood will likely create a tipping point in any one of these events, and we must be wary and prepared to strike decisively, lest the wildcard Harpies make a move that permanently destabilizes Nexus 0 and throws it into war.

>Your Servant, Councilman Bassam Temuujin
>May Lost Gaea Be Found While Our Souls Still Burn.
>Transmission Ends.

There you go guys, hope you liked it.

>>37573925
Yeah, this is pretty dead now I realize it.

>>37573925
Nuuu don't kill the pretty Princess lady ; - ;

>Comes back to find the discussion was about Drow the whole time and not harpies
Kek
>>37573925
So the harpies are both prostitutes, hedonist, and political masterminds? Dang bruh dey da pefact weman doe amiright?

Nice writefaggotry was hoping you incorporate my post though >>37573425

>>37573992
Some Harpies being prostitutes doesn't mean it's an entire race of them. I'd imagine them to be able to be aristocratic when they're not high or partying given their flamboyance/inherent fanciness and need to impress.

I think its time to move on from races, was this going to be more freeform in terms of rules? If so are we going to make classes or just have characters be able to make up their own traits?

>>37573992
Unforunately I was busy writing it and missed that. My apologies. Physical looks didn't enter into it. But if you like I pretty much planned to incorporate your stuff when physically describing them.

Also, I think it can be safe to say that ANYBODY who gets to a position of any importance inside of a place like Nexus 0, no matter what they race, is either a political mastermind, or so close to being one it makes no nevermind.

I threw in the spy network thing about Jahan because the image of people going to him asking him for spy shit when all he's doing is scholaring about selling maps, charts, and technical read outs would be hilarious.

>>37574053
We were planning on doing classes, but there's some question about that right now. I'd rather stick with classes just for the moment.

Way I see it. We give each class 4 traits. Players can earn more traits as they play, to a maximum of 10?

Humans get a bonus 2 traits from any other classes they choose in addition to their starting class traits? Since they don't have racial advantages or disabilities. Think that works?

>>37574051
>>37573992
Also, the way I imagine harpies being is they desperately want to excel and be famous at whatever they do. Often that's "get as much pleasure as possible" but then there's harpies no body writes about, like the harpy who goes down to a damn death world and carves out a successful colony on it (which would likely have him drowning in pussy and bling)

>>37574102
2 or 3 starting class traits seems a little better. 4 means only 6 levels until they have the max. Maybe even just starting at 1 with 10 being the max level for a class?

>>37574157
That could be reasonable. My thought was that the players suggest their own traits and get them approved by the GMs after the initial 4, so it's not as big a deal. I don't think leveling up should be a COMMON thing in this game, and we want to keep the power levels reasonably close to one another right?

>>37574204
True. How about 2 from the class pool, then one "Character Trait" that they can make up (and get approved)? Then at level intervals (like 5 or 10) they could make accordingly more powerful Character Traits?

>>37573900
Actually not true, if you know anything about bio-mechanics. But, it's fantasy, so what the hell.
Something I've been toying with in my head that might suit them well is the idea of essence infusion. Satyrs aren't masters of complex, higher magics like the Naga with their alchemy and bio-mancy, or the Fae with their machine-man magics, or the Goblins with their mechano-mancy. However, they do have the unique ability to infuse the essence of one base material with another, allowing them to essentially fuse them into a whole greater than the parts. For instance, Satyr armor might be made of ironwood, which is wood carved into the appropriate shape, then infused with the essence of iron, making it far stronger and more flexible, without losing its light weight. Weapons might utilize this combination, too. Or, perhaps they fuse a stone axe with the essence of wood, making it hard and sharp, but flexible instead of brittle. And, so on. This would fit well with their being nature oriented, I think, and make Satyr shipwrights extremely popular, since they could produce wooden vessels as strong as steel. (The cost might be very high, too counterbalance the advantage of it. Maybe the larger the infusion, the more it takes out of the Satyr, to the point at the higher limits that the effort actually ages them.)

Just spitballing.

>>37574141
>Drowning in pussy and bling
Best thing ive heard all day.

So basically every harpy is a legit overachiever because they wanna be famous. They sound like the race that is THE best at everything if they want to be. Not mary sues but if they put their mind to something they get it done and dont stop till they get to a favorable point in which case they go to "sex and drugs" all day mode until they feel liking striving for more again.

>Harpy thinks he can get big off of politics
>Learns the political and social status of every world within 3 sectors
>Solves most every problem, becomes sector leader, goes home and starts 2 week orgy as a reward

>Harpy wants to be best mage
>Dives into eldtritch abomination territory
>Doesnt get distracted by madness or evil cause to focused on how many hoes he bout to get
>Succeeds. Proceeds to revolutionize magic in a system and keeps himself sharp by using every girl as a catalyst for his spells.

>>37574277
Okay, so we give each class 2 class traits, and then at level 5, they get a 'major' power, and at level 10 they get an 'ultimate'? Or would giving players the ability to eventually get a limit break type deal be too anime?

>>37574349
First off, I like these little mini summaries for what kind of magic each Race is adept in, gives people an idea of their particular magical variety. We need one of those for each.

And that sort of Fusion Magic (We could call it Synthesis maybe?) sounds really cool. Pretty unique. I really like it.

>>37574386
Pretty much exactly that. It also leads to a fairly high mortality rate. It took them a couple centuries to try to stop landing on their home star "just to prove it's possible! CAN YOU IMAGINE THE FAME OF THE FIRST PERSON TO LAND ON THE FACE OF THE SUN AND RETURN! THOSE GUYS WHO SAY IT'S IMPOSSIBLE JUST DON'T DREAM BIG ENOUGH!"

Harpies are not necessarily the brightest bulbs.

>>37574403
I wouldnt think of them like that, maybe just a trait fitting to their character/story. Like maybe if they are a roue from the streets of the back-alley mob-run areas of Nexus 0 they could get a bonus to lock-picking or something for example.

Then after they reach other levels, and their character has been molded by their experiences, they get a new skill that would reflect that. Not exactly like a 'signature attack' but just something more personalized.

>>37574440
This is utterly glorious.

>>37574462
Alright, that seems reasonable.

I'd argue each class should start with 3 traits though, and we discard the idea of levels. Players can apply for a new trait when it seems reasonable to them, citing the threads they've been active in and letting the GMs judge?

>>37574489
I thought so as well. It's why I went to the effort of archiving the Space Harpies Thread and then making a page about them. Because I knew one day there would be a need for them. This is that day.

>>37574277
I like the idea of combining the structure of classes with the ability to make up traits. (And I normally despise class systems.) I would advise strict guidelines on making up traits to help quell munchkinism.

I would also suggest a rules-moderate design. You'll never please everyone, but something that equally facilitates narrative and tactical roleplaying, even if it excels at neither, would probably appeal to the largest audience.

>>37574533
I like this plan, best one I've heard all day.

So we basically do this. Rolls are ONLY for conflict resolution, ever. If it's an uncontested action, it's purely narrative.

That makes it so that narrative is king except when one or more players are contesting each other or the GM of the thread? Seems good?

>>37574512
That idea seems fair. Would fit into the freeform model as well. That said, what if you got 3 class traits, and then EVERY trait you got after that was a 'character trait' personalized one. Or would that be giving people a little too much freedom? I just think it would be great to put your character's growth and experinces as a character into something more reflective of it is cool.

Like a Lizard that got nearly obliterated by a magical blast and after recovering they gain a bonus to Magic Resistance

>>37574413
Thanks. I've been wanting to use it in one of my own games for a while now, but never got the chance.

And, yeah, I definitely like the idea of giving every race their own magical niche. It adds to the flavor immensely.

>>37574386
>>37574440
I like that. Would explain why they wouldn't simply take over the worlds. A race that would take even the stupidest of risks in a heartbeat if it would seem like it would help them achieve their goal or if they don't they just get bored and go snort everything that doesn't move and most of the things that do move in their near vicinity.

>>37574577
Speaking on 'magical niches' , I know we've moved on from races but I am currently working on something that wuld deal more with 'mind magic' that would play into the mind/essence suckers discussed earlier.

>>37574575
I think every one is something personalized to them. Either awarded directly by a GM or requested by a player.

>>37574618
Sounds good. Any anon objections?

Maybe GM's could even put on negative character traits if the situation called for them? Or would that be too abusable?

>>37574586
That's pretty much it. Imagine a race that doesn't have a highly developed since of self preservation because they're too busy trying to be as bling as fucking possible to attract mates.

>>37574639
We'd need to put in some rules for negative traits and applying them. Also some rules for over ruling another GM.

My thing is that we make this as rules light for the players, but we make some fairly strict rules for GMs (especially GMs who opt to have a player character)

>>37574586
>And then slaascree(harpy word combination of pleasure and god) was born. Except he was a giant harpy who looks like the perfect androgynous cross of elaborate male and sexy drab female.

>He didnt kill the harpies instead he became their chief deity. Unlile the other gods(not the warp ones)he alone has control and the entire faith of the harpy race.

>The stupider and more dangerous a harpies plan the bigger the blessing to persue it and the bigger the reward.

>If a harpy planned on doing something considered impossible for most people they get an extreme blessing. If they succeeded? They get an orgasm that never ends but still lets them function. They go mad with pleasure and become the geniuses and leaders of harpy society.

How does this sound?

>>37574680
I don't think strict rules would be very applicable though. They could just be guidelines or something, like "If the situation has enough weight or is a sufficiently important facet of the character's development" or something like that?

Maybe they could be restricted to "Major plot points"?

I'm not good with writing rules...

>>37574573
Your ideas intrigue me, and I wish to subscribe to your news letter.

Some rules for how to play out narrative scenes will be necessary to avoid "Nuh uh!" "Yuh HUH!" situations, of course, but I'm all for leaving the dice behind. Perhaps a token system of some kind that allows you to spend certain amounts to dictate the intensity of the effect you can have on the narrative? Spend one token, and you can dictate a small change that won't effect the game much except on a personal level. Spend ten (or whatever) and you can potentially change the narrative game universe.

Of course, since this is specifically being designed for forum play, the tokens might not be needed. I admit to being relatively unfamiliar with the conventions of such, and whether or not there might already be rules for narrative effects already in existence.

>>37574600
Excellent. I liked the idea of mental vampires that he came up with. It was the cyborg bit I wasn't wild about. I wonder if there's something similar in mythology that might provide some ideas.

>>37574680

Agreed. Strict rules for GM's will help avoid abuses from favoritism. It won't stop them, of course, but it can at least lighten the effects.

>>37574808
I'm working on it. Its a little conventional in some areas and unconventional in others. Think Mindflayers crossed with vampires crossed with insects .

>>37574746
bit too close to 40k slaaneesh, but I love the silliness of it. I'd prefer it if we left it to the players to come up with their own religions and gods for each race. It could be really interesting to see what they turn up with, and it could show us a variety of philosophies and ideas present throughout the species that way.

>>37574751
Mostly I want to prevent GM favoritism from killing off this forum.

>>37574762
Nah, we keep the dice ONLY to avoid the nuh-uh! yuh-HUH! situations.

That said, if we wanted to go with Houses of the Blooded Larping system that might work too...

>>37574838
glad somebody gets it. The problem with asshole players can be solved by GM intervention, but Asshole GMs are MUCH more difficult to solve. Almost every story of an asshole player is backed up by an asshole gm.

I was thinking that terraforming was either extremely hard or extremely expensive so that we could really easily explain why people started flocking to the "Donut" being over population on the relatively few habitable planets.


I'm going to go to bed a lot sooner tonight than I did last night so that I might be actually of some use tomorrow. I have written some of this stuff down, but I'm going to start writing on my own speed tomorrow when I have time and I can read all the stuff you come up with.
If there is a decision on the rules, levels, traits and such I'd appreciate if someone would make one post about them explaining most of them so I can write them down instead of reading them from 100 different posts.

>>37574922
I'd think Satyrs would be the only ones capable of Terraforming, and it would likely take an absolute fuck ton of manpower, magic, and time, leading them to only do it for select reasons.

>>37574922
My theory is that 'terraformable' planets are rather rare.

Life bearing planets however? There's PLENTY of those! The trick, however, is finding ones without face eating bacteria.

Viruses are never a problem. Their RNA (if they have it) rarely, if ever, even slots in right with some other specie's DNA, so it's never an issue.

However, bacteria that eats the molecules present on the bacteria in your skin? And then excretes say, sulfuric acid? That's a big problem.

The issue is solved with lots and lots of engineering and specialist programs that have allowed various species to interact, but that's from decades of effort after each first contact.

Doing it for an entirely new biosphere takes time, and there's always MORE PLANETS out there to explore. That said, plenty of colonists go out, take the risk... hope they don't contract a bacterial infection that turns them into zombies or something, or that their magic will help ward it off if they do.

The biggest issue is just infrastructure. Most people don't want to live on a backwater planet without access to the internet!

>>37574969
And yeah, I'd say Satyrs and Naga each have their own methods of terraforming, Naga are better at adapting lifebearing planets to take new species, Satyrs at scratch building biospheres. Other species can do it, but at like, dozens of times the cost and energy.

>>37574848
Color me intrigued. My idea was to, in a way, redeem Kender by having them act the naive, "lovable" little scamps described by the books, but really be a bunch of psychic vampires that get high off of other peoples' emotions. That's why they're always so cheerful, and try to get people to adventure and have fun, because they want to suck up the emotions such activities create.

>>37575013
Ooh, I like the idea of Satyrs and Naga being forced to or mutually working together to bring a planet to life. I would imagine the Satyrs would be more in it for the sake of nature while Naga just enjoy meddling in life's webs or breeding new species that would be beneficial for them (or provide new Alchemy ingredients)

>>37574905
Never played HotB, but the system has been on my "I REALLY want to try this" list for some time, now.

>>37575078
Hmm. A veritable opposite of what I was thinking. Namefag up, write some shit down, and we can put the ideas against each other when we're done.

>>37575117
no need for them to namefag up if they don't want to. I want to make that clear right here and now. One of the things that turns /tg/ against a project is if it seems to be getting too insular.

No one needs to name fag up to contribute to this setting. No one. Period. If It wasn't for the fact I'm working on organizing the rules and base line setting and keeping us on track, I'd not name nor trip fag up. Too many good world building projects piss off /tg/ by seeming to be too much about the personalities of the people contributing and not enough about world building.

So just kindly asking everybody to -never- tell somebody to namefag up to write something for this project.

If you want to get a name and/or a trip, that's entirely a personal decision, it shouldn't even be implied that it's anywhere near necessary to put out stuff and have it taken as seriously as anyone else in the project.

>>37575181
I'm a newfag, sorry. I just thought it would make it easier to tell it was them,

Stressing from the OP
>Open to any and all contributions by anyone about just about anything

>>37575013
>>37575091
Ditto. Naga/Satyr teamups would be great, especially since they'd have to reconcile not only their very different cultural values (pseudo-Hindu vs pseudo-Greecian), but also their, possibly antithetical, motivations. Would the Satyrs be happy with the Nagas treating it like one big science project, ignoring what The Mother might want for her new children? Would the Naga have the patience to deal with the Satyrs' constant proselytizing, and objections to the serpents attempts to "improve" things? Only time, and a lot of RP'ing, could tell.

>>37575248
OH GOD I LOVE IT

IT IS BURSTING FLAVOUR AT THE FUCKING SEAMS AND LEAKING OUT THE BOTTOM

This is why I like the hotpot. Random shit leads to interactions like this.

>>37575181
>>37575238
apologies if that was an over-reaction, but again, seen too many cool projects go sour because of that tendency... there's a stigma against name and trip fagging on /tg/ except when necessary, such as Quest OPs or organizers on world building projects. It's best never to ask people to name fag or trip fag unless it's absolutely necessary for them to do so to participate (civ builders and skirmish quests for example).

Anyway, can't wait to see both interpretations!

Meanwhile, I'm going to start work on classes, getting 3 traits for each one.

Merc:
1) Weapon's Expert: Able to use one entire class of weapons defined by the player at character creation. Use your imagination.
2) Rolling with the Punches: Able to ignore the first attack in any fight
3) Tactical Memory: Able to recognize the tactical value of any bit of terrain. Bonus to taking cover against ranged attacks during fire fights.

>>37575248
loving this idea so much now you have no idea.

>>37575181
A good thought, and one I wholeheartedly support. I'll probably namefag, anyway, though. Wouldn't want my genius attributed to someone else, after all.

I'll write up a treatise on the "Kinder" (name TM. Original idea. Doughnut steel.) tomorrow and post it when I get home from work. Would do it tonight, but I don't have the time.

>>37575314
Should I save mine for that epic clash then? I'm pretty close to finishing.

>>37575298

>Weapon Expert
>Playing Dwarf or Goblin

I am a master with Wrench-class weaponry.

>>37575365
this is exactly what I hope to see come out of it.

>>37575380
>Orc

ME MASTER OF PROJECTILES
*Throws Dwarf party member*

>>37575341
However you prefer. It's going to be consensus as to which one, if not both, gets used, anyway. The only reason I' m putting mine off is because I haven't slept in three days, and I can feel myself fading. I'm going to crash soon whether I like it or not.

>>37575415
I will wait then. When you're ready just post that it's Kinder time or something and if I'm online it'll go down.

>>37575408
Oh God.

Orc and Dwarf mercenary partners. He throws the Dwarf as the Dwarf rains down fire with his shotgun or whatever as the orc charges in and they just fuck shit up.

Orcs have to be Race 8/9.

>>37575441
I'll go polish my pistols, then.

Sleep well, /tg/.

>>37575415
>However you prefer. It's going to be consensus as to which one, if not both, gets used, anyway. The only reason I' m putting mine off is because I haven't slept in three days, and I can feel myself fading. I'm going to crash soon whether I like it or not.
Sleep tight anon! Can't wait to see your stuff.

So namefag/harpyfag here. Heres the harpy summary:

>Hedonistic race
>Capable of flight
>Extremely attractive species with males being 100% feminine yet highly masculine
>Females extremely sexy and impossibly endowed yet prefer to look dull
>Have high willpower and can focus on one task
>Love to do almost anything as long as a rewars comes about
>Tribalesque society
>Low intelligence only focused on pleasure
>Main focus other than becoming famous(something the excel at)is having an extreme number of mates.

>>37575640
>High Willpower.

Are Harpies a Magic race? I'd say they'd be a mix of physical/social skills. I know what you mean though.

I would propose that they arebn't exactly motivated by a reward, per say, but more focused on having fun or a memorable, bombastic exeperience. Get a high from something other than their many narcotics.

>Low intelligence
How low are we talking? I saw it more as like someone smart but with ADD or something. If we go by Gate's story up above, Harpies can be intelligent if it leads to their racial obssession with glory.

Well I had the original harpy stats... and they're now gone because sup/tg/ fucked up. The entire first thread is gone now. Fuck.

Anyway, the Harpies originally had flight, drug imparement (but not damage) resistance, a random bonus to getting shit done as long as they did it as flamboyantly as possible, they had trouble resisting temptation, had increased prices on gear not custom made for harpies, and had deficits towards being subtle.

>>37575898
>Increased prices on gear not custom made for Harpies

That is to get it custom made, right?

So every Race gets 3 bonuses and 3 penalties?

>>37576213
Ehn, that's probably the way we need to swing it right now yeah.

Humans are the only exception. They have only one benefit because they get NOTHING else. They only get to get an additional class feature from another starting class at character creation.

Unless we change that. Little sad nobody has decided to run with the structure presented for humanity in the writefaggotry I put up... but then the silliness of the harpies is a powerful draw.

>>37576306
Well, not as many people can get into writing stuff for humans because unless there's some kind of obvious twist everything is pretty much unconciously assumed and therefore boring to write about because we ourselves are humans.

>>37576385
I guess. Basically, my idea is that for whatever reason, humanity had to leave earth, and in the process lost the location of it. Now they exist in massive nomadic fleets, most often of hollowed out asteroids and comets towed by big ships.

Bump
>>37575740
I think they have extremely high physical and social skills like extremely. I mean how could the guys pimp walk so well and how could the girls walk with dem hips without day high physical stat?

Also they do have high social and high intelligence but to keep them from being the mary sue race they have THE worst case of ADHD. I mean if its not sex, getting more concubines, or a goal they set they wont be on it for more than a second. Drugs dont even disable them cause their brains move that fast. Combined with the fact they are utterly bird brained keeps them from creating a decadent harpy intergalactic empire.

>>37577500
Did we decide on a definite list of stats?

>>37577559
No but they should have max stats...and 2 severe disabilities that make those mary sue stats mute.

>>37577572
Naw, no "Max stats". Wouldn't make much sense for them to be physically stronger than an Orc, would it?

I'm fine with the generalization that they have high physical (Though whether this is strength, dex, general athleticism, endurance or whatever is up in the air) and high social but below average Intelligence and Willpower

>>37577630
Hey how come the pastebin is private? I need to see how stats work. Or will you tell me?

>>37577717
The Pastebin is private? What?

Apparently it is.

I have no idea.

>>37570291
You already failed, you've become a circlejerk

>>37577839
What did he do?

>>37577872
I think someone making the Pastebin private is a defnite start ._.

>>37577908
>>37577872
You've become a tightly knit community which rejects all outside ideas for entirely flimsy reasons. On top of this you've spent a huge amount of time doing next to nothing and have nearly nothing to show for it.
Oh and, everyone who has a name is obviously more important that anons. See the whole Naga affair with Gate Technician.

>>37577936
I'm a little confused given that it appeared without my imput beyond "naga would be cool." and "what you guys have come up with is awesome."

But if the anon's concensus is that it's bad to have names for this? I'll lose the name. No reason to keep it if it's driving people away.

>>37577717
>>37577771
And I have no idea what's going on with the pastebin. It wasn't like that before...

Stats were:
Athletics
Vitality
Duplicity
Brains
Willpower.

I'm dead against stat boosts for harpies. We've gotten their traits nailed down already, no reason to expand it beyond the 3 good traits and 3 bad traits already made.

>>37578153
Pretty sure Harpies getting stat augments implied other races would as well.

Why can't each race be really unique and have the 6 traits (except humans) and stats that are better or worse in some areas than others (with humans likely as a sort of baseline)

>>37577936
We respected Tech's opinions on Nagas for the same reason we didn't want to do anything to Satyrs until the guy who suggested them came back (and never did)

The Drow discussion probably makes this issue seem far worse than it is, and I take full responsibility in making it seem like that.

>>37578235
Honestly? Because it feels like too much. If the rest of the guys are on board with it then I'm in no position to argue. I just thing 3 advantages, 3 disabilities, and players assign their stats as they see fit.

>>37578291
You're in a position to argue. Everyone is. Argue to the death.

I can see it being too much, though. Just seemed logical in my head.

>>37578291
Probably stat changes or whatever would be applied through traits, if they are at all.

>>37578235
Example: Goblins don't have 'high int' but they get an int BOOST only for building stuff, where as one of their disabilities would be the lack of focus.

They'd be perfectly capable of powering their items by themselves, so it's not simply a low capped willpower.

Because our stats are so general, it follows that simply 'capping' them doesn't make sense. Somebody can have high duplicity without being dishonest for example, that honesty instead would be represented by a trait.

>>37578387
some Goblin Traits could be

Mech Savant: Bonus to INT rolls when machines are involved
Goldfish: ...

Actually I'm not really sure how to make low attention span into a mechanic.

With the Duplicity thing, would it be something like
Trait Name: Bonus to Duplicity Rolls while lying?

The bonus could scale with your stat too, unless that would be op.

>>37578492
I think flat bonuses are probably the way to go?

>>37578555
Probably. My thought process on the scaling thing was so that it woudlnt become irrelevant in the lategame. But I guess you can't just ride on your genes forever.

>>37574922
Really bothers me, he's the guy who was running the pastebin and it suddenly goes private? I wonder what could have happened...

>>37578629
Yeah, it's really not cool. Makes >>37577936
more understandable.

I apologize.

>>37577936
I joined LITERALY tonight and all my suggestions were taken into consideration and even agreed with. What did OP do wrong?

>>37578841
>OP
I meant the entire thread.
Not to mention now we're getting into the false apologies part, which will even further drive off people. Not that there was many in the first place anyway.

>>37578862
Alright start from da top cause tonight is not my night. Whats wrong with the thread m8?

>>37578862
I really don't see how apologizing that someone made the Pastebin with information private without telling anyone is a false apology, but ok.

>>37576927
So kind of like Gargantia (anime)

>>37579390
DAMN YOU, JAPAN!!!

What are the main similarities (aside from the destroyed planet), we can probably differentiate them sufficiently.

>>37579390
I'd like to know as well? First time I've heard of this anime.

>>37579937
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gargantia_on_the_Verdurous_Planet

This is a summary but I was interested in the specifics

>>37579995
Well the specifics would be humanity had to leave Earth and have started living in giant space ships and have been doing so for so long that they forgot where Earth was.

>>37580059
Same basic idea here for our humans. So any way for us to mix it up?

>>37580114
Well an ice age destroyed anime earth so maybe we could say that terrorists fucked shit up and we had to just gtfo. And only a small fleet was able to leave so it took a long time for humanity to become a big faction and in that time they wondered around and then sort of got lost and eventually found a wormhole to the nexus?

>>37580195
perhaps some group managed to make the big red button go off? Massive nuclear fallout and nuclear winter?

Or set off bombs in the caldera of the yellow stone super volcano and fucked shit up that way?

>>37580400
Maybe a terrorist organization or cult wanted to purify the world or something by exploding various active volcanoes including yellow stone?

>>37580541
that could do it. Humanity has to gtfo or die for the most part due to ice age. Barely a sliver escapes. Takes ages and ages to recover, building new fleets from whatever they could grab as they moved out and explored. Discovery of magic soon after might have invalidated vast amounts of previous recording technology?

ded

>>37580624
Thats a good basic background for humans. How much more fleshing out should we give it?

>>37580807
Well what kind of culture would they have developed? What magic? I'd imagine they'd have really good 'tool' magic? Not weapons, but things to do useful things?

Not sure personally.

File: 1316310256215.jpg (60 KB, 640x305)

60 KB JPG

>>37580975
Humans are scavengers
Pic related

>>37580975
On the topic of magic, how did all the other races discover magic? Was it from relics from the lost civilization that had been discovered or just people doing science until they discovered sentient beings have this magic thing?

>>37581206
I'd say the latter. We've been avoiding ancient precursors for ANYTHING except the Nexuses. I think that's what makes them even more mysterious and wonderous.

>>37581196
I really like this. They don't have the outstanding ability of other races and have to work with what's left out for them to use and make do with it.

>>37581462
makes sense, which is why they get an extra class trait for their racial benefit. They have to be adaptable as fuck.

(also I'm getting a little freaked out about how close we're making these dudes to a game me and some friends are developing... if there were sapient asteroid people and an ancient war between technological and biological transcendent species going on, it'd be freakish)

So how do we make equipment work?

It should be more interesting that spend creds get shit.

Any thoughts? Perhaps a combination system? You buy a pistol body, that has X slots, you can spend more to get more stuff in each slot?

>>37582478
That could work. So you could attach like a scope or maybe something magical to enhance power. Perhaps you change the type of ammunition it fires aswell

>>37582585
so what does equipment do then? Do we put in actual stats? Or do we just say "This weapon gives +X to rolls when fired"? and then the various extras give further bonuses when certain conditions are met?

>>37582657
I'm not sure what the base weapon should do (I'm new to roll-playing) but I agree with what you said about the extras

>>37582840
I'd say that each base weapon has slots and it has a base level improvement score. Upgrades can be applied to them that give bonuses in specific situations. This applies to ALL forms of items and equipment?

So armor gives bonuses when making an opposed check to not take damage, a shield unit gives it a further bonus when it's against energy damage?

>>37582874
That seems like a pretty good way of doing things. It adds a nice level of customization. (side note: I'm going out to dinner so I wont be around for an hour or so)

bump for reading

>>37577717
Yeah sorry. That was my bad...
It seems I accidentally switched a wrong Pastebin to private before going to bed...
That's what a flu combined with minimal sleep gets you I guess. It's back to unlisted now.

>>37583662
Thanks for the heads up dude.

Anyway, so here is our current trend.

1) Player chooses a race, this has 3 advantages and 3 disadvantages, unless it is human, in which case it has nothing racial attached.
2) Player chooses a starting class, which gives them 3 class traits, 4 if human.
2a) Players advance based upon GM approval or gifting of traits based on their roleplaying. They can have a maximum of 10 class traits.
3) player chooses 2 weapon proficiencies.
4) The major form of customization comes from items. Items have a base level function, which gives a general bonus to specific tasks. To get a bonus for a combat item, the player needs to be proficient in it. Items have another stat in addition to their bonus, which is their number of customization slots. These allow for the purchase of additional item traits for the item in question, which expand the number of bonuses it gets depending on the situation.

I think that's our full character customization situation?

Also an example of an item would be:
X Class Sniper Rifle:
+6 to damage (-3 if close range), 3 slots.
>Scope: +3 to long range attacks
>Heartbeat Monitor: +3 to attacks from surprise.
>Delicate Balance: +3 to the first attack made in any combat scene by the user of this item.

So if the player is making his first attack, at long range, from surprise, then he'll get a whopping +15 to his roll, ontop of any other modifiers he might have.

>>37584012
Okay, instead of pulling these numbers out of our asses.

What should the 'average' be? We're currently working on the theory of 3 = average for the stats?

Should we do the same for bonuses?

3 is an average bonus or deficite? 1 is a tiny one, 5 (or 6) is a large bonus? Perhaps any roll modifier should be capped at 5 or 6? So you need to get gratuitous stacked bonuses before it can get beyond that? (like the situation with the sniper rifle there, it's a pretty impressive goddamn bonus, and you only ever get it once really).

Maybe double digit bonuses to rolls are REALLY special? Able to be gained only temporarily and in the most specilized of circumstances? Requiring players to really work to stack their bonuses in most circumstances?

fucking hell. What the fuck good is suptg if it's going to erase our old threads? Do you guys know of any other good archival websites?

>>37584175
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=TransGalactic

might as well vote for the new thread... maybe it'll survive. If nothing else we got some sort of listing of what we've gone through. The archive at least records thread number right?

>>37584202
night everyone! I'm going to bed, hope the archive sticks this time.

What name could we give to the humans faction? I was thinking maybe the United Space Fleet of Humanity (totally not influenced by UNSC (halo)) or maybe the Wandering/Wayfaring Alliance of Humanity (totally not influenced by GAH ((gargantia)

>>37584012
>Player chooses 2 weapon proficiencies

Do we want 2? Maybe 1 for some classes like Magitechnician and 2 for classes like Merc, Knight or Warrior?

>>37584450
I think we'd be more poetic and just call the fleet itself "Humanity"

Will we be able to pick negative traits in order to get more points?

>>37587898
emergency bump

>>37584450
>>37586806
I was thinking the United Nomadic Fleets (it's what I wrote in the original thing) but I do agree that "Humanity" is just way more poetic! Let's go with that.

>You are the Fleet, the Fleet is You. We give our life for the Fleet, for Humanity, until we can once again find our home.

Also I'm thinking 2 weapons just so people have the opportunity to pick a melee and a ranged weapon if they really want.

>>37587898
I'm not sure? What do you guys think? Should people be able to take negative traits? Or perhaps they should just be able to incorporate negative factors into their suggested traits to get more powerful abilities?

>>37589811
I think a drawback could have to be attached to more powerful character traits.

>>37589933
Sounds reasonable. Maybe that's the deal with Racial Traits?

Rather than 3 advantages and 3 disadvantages, they all have a good thing and a bad thing about them?

Like Flight has:
>+You have wings, you can fly
but it also has
>-You have wings, and no hands. You need custom equipment unless it's specifically made for your race in the first place.

Things like that?

>>37590205
That's pretty much the system already. Harpies already have those, except it was an increase to price on stuff that isnt custom-made.

I still think Harpies should have hands but most people seem to disagree with me ; - ;

>>37590205
I always hated the harpies that have wing arms. Its stupid to me. Make it so

>Large wings-Great flight
>Your wings are kinda cumbersome and hinder your stats on the ground. Also you need special clothing fit for your wings

>>37590250
Hey, dont worry bro, i think they should have hands too.

>>37590250
I agree to bruh

>>37590283
>>37590250
Honestly i like to imagine that there are two kinds of harpies, one with smaller, less effective wings but have hands, and another with full, large wings but no hands

>>37590250
>>37590283
Well we could always go with the wing-hands from Everyday Monster Girls and just make them less dexterous than normal hands. I still think that anybody with winds integrated with their arms is going to need some kind of specilized equipment. Also it's a pretty big deficite when compared to the fact that Harpies can get +3 on -anything- they choose as long as they're willing to be loud and proud about it.

http://strawpoll.me/3478040

*starts ringing bell*

HARPY HAND STRAWPOOOLLL!!!

It is 3:25 here. One with the most votes at 4:00 is the decided method. If something happens like there's 2 that stand out against all the others which just have a few fringe votes then a re-vote will be called.

>>37590655
Ok scratch the 4:00 thing, will probably just eliminate options as the preffered ones begin to become more clear

>>37591100
we currently have a pretty clear winner. We can just let it slide though for the time being. Let players describe their own harpies and just include the whole equipment flaw anyway because, no matter what we put on them, they are not going to be able to wear a normal suit of armor, wield a normal gun or sword.

>>37591187
I wouldn't call 2 out of 4 votes a "clear winner".

Probably gonna do something like that, though. I like how Harpies actually have a legit reason to be scantily clad and not wear armor all the time. Cause they wouldn't be able to fly.

We could have like a condition where they can't fly if they are wearing anything too heavy. Like say we'd have a list of materials, and if they have anything equipped that's from higher up the list in weight they can't fly anymore.

But why would a Harpy wear something so clunky and ugly anyway

>>37591252
getting too complicated I think. Remember, KISS. We don't need to add tons and tons of systems and rules for players to remember. Just make it simple modifiers.

>>37591328
I wouldn't say it's toooo complicated. I think people would be able to remember "If it's heavier than (some lightweight thing) I can't fly in it.

Thoughts, anons?

If we were going all-out and actually coding stuff I'd say your Strength stat would affect what you can wear and be able to fly, but I know that's not happening.

>>37591448
My issue is... if Harpies are used to flying. Why would they -ever- wear something too heavy to fly in? It'd be like a human wearing armor too heavy to move in? It just doesn't happen. All of their armor would be made to fly in, all of their equipment developed for use in flight or at least to be able to be carried while in flight.

During their middle ages, they'd have been using flight as a primary tactic. Their armor at the time, as bulky as it would have gotten likely, would have taken that into account.

>>37591533
by which I mean, why would their future-materials based armors be more cumbersome than that? And why would they wear that when their entire cultural history of warfare would have taken flight into account... in the same way our cultural history of warfare takes 'walking' into account?

>>37591533
But they aren't the only culture around and some players might not consider that. We might have someone playing a Harpy Warrior who comes across some kind of Orcish Magitech Plate Armor and wants to pick it up.

And if they buy the thing, then wouldn't having it modified to fit them (as they must with all non-Harpy armors) wouldn't it decrease it's effectiveness?

>>37591620
Their body structure is so different from anybody else's that they're not going to be WEARING anything but armor made for harpies... so you're not going to end up with armor that isn't light weight enough to fly in, because the very shape of the armor, in the first place, has to be made for a harpy to wear it. Thus, nobody else is going to buy it. So why make it overweight so then none of the harpies buy it?

>>37591654
thus why you just tell them "all your gear costs a flat 1.25x more than the listed cost unless it says specifically made for harpies in the description."

>>37591654
I might not be understanding you here.

On the issue of buying, yes they aren't going to be wearing anything not made for Harpies (hence the price hike). But wouldn't fitting it for Harpies make it less effective, since you have to accomodate them by making it lighter (therefore having less actual physical armor)?

And then we have looting. Do we just say "Harpies cannot loot armor from Non-Harpies"?

>>37591654
Or are you seriously going to tell me that a harpy can wear more than the abdomen and helmet sections of human armor? (and maybe pelvis, MAYBE)

When they have wings for arms... and bird legs?

>>37591738
I was even thinking of whether players could loot stuff or not. Most armor is probably going to be custom fitted in the future no? And even if it's not, I'd just put a flat ban on people looting armor from outside their race.

There's just going to be too many segments that couldn't possibly fit.

>>37591742
>And bird legs

I thought they'd have more humanoid legs just with talons and the bird bits more on the feet than the entire leg.

>>37591784
I think a Blanket "You cannot loot armor from someone unless they are the same race as you" is the best way to go. How could a Dwarf or Goblin wear Human armor?

The Harpies would just get the price hike because their physiology is so different that alot of things like their wings have to be accounted for in making it.

>>37591847
pretty much my thoughts. Naga, Satyrs, and Harpies have the most divergent bodies. So they'd be the ones who have the price hike.

>>37591884
God damnit I didnt even consider them.

OK, HOW ABOUT:

You can only wear armor that is specific to your race.

It's race(s) would be specified next to the name.

Like you could find (Material) Cuirass (Human, Elf, Satyr, Naga, blah blah blah)

Druid Leggings (Satyr)

Naga wouldn't even be able to equip lower body armor. Ok this is starting to get complicated again.

>>37591988

WHAT IF WE JUST SAY FUCK IT AND SAY SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF WHERE IT ALL JUST MAGICALLY FITS LIKE HOW ARMOR MAGICALLY CHANGES TO YOUR GENDER IN YOUR INVENTORY

>>37592138
I think for the harpies it was to balance them a little bit, so if we just want to say fuck it for armor, we'd have to come up with something else for that.

>>37592242
I meant aside from Harpies. Because double fuck it suspension of disbelief. We can just say Naga can't wear boots and lump leggings in with boots like everyone does nowadays

>>37592138
>>37592282
I agree with this. In the end its all suspension of disbelief. If we really NEED to know how the naga wore those clothes we could say its made from:

>Keth leather-Special leather that molds itself to the users shape. Very popular

>Vrakin metal-Bioliquid that binds with the flesh and blood of the wearer allowing them to shape it to the specifications of the wearer. If touching a material for long enough the vrakin metal can copy to that materials shape and mold it for the wearer

Completely unrelated to anything, Naga greeting other Naga need to say "Managa".

Figure it out

>>37593359
kek

>>37592138
This could work, but we'd have to give the Harpies something else. Perhaps they're more susceptible to damage as a whole due to hollow bones?

Would be a pretty appropriate counter balance to flight?

>>37596084
So full list of Harpy traits would be:

1) Flyer: Can fly and has bonus to airborn maneuvering checks, but has hollow bones and takes a deficit to outright defending itself from damage.
2) Harpy culture focuses on fame and prestige above all else. Harpies gain a +3 bonus to any check they choose, provided they do it as flamboyantly as possible. Harpies however take a -5/6 to any subtle action, and must always leave behind a signature any time they were trying to be anonymous (such as when they steal something).
3) Harpies are drug addicts in the extreme and have a long, long, history of drug abuse to the point it is nearly endemic to the entire species. Harpies gain a bonus to resist the impairing effects of any drug (barring damage), however they must make a willpower test any time they're offered an intoxicant by anyone barring a mortal enemy.

Those look good?

What should the 3 traits be for Goblins?

>>37596648
Ideas for Goblin Traits:

1) Building Savants: Gain a bonus to every form of crafting check, but take an equal deficit towards 'academic' knowledge.
2) Something to balance out "Goblins are socially stigmatized because most of them are dumb as rocks and barely sapient"
3) Something to let them work together naturally in large groups perhaps? But not do so well independently? I kinda imagine goblins as these gremlins who tend to swarm over machines improving or repurposing them amazingly.

Naga... not sure for them, but atleast one trait should be: "Gain a flat +1 to two stats, but suffer against biological based attacks against you due to a lack of a naturally improved immune system"? or something?

>>37596648
Ooh, I really like those. I especially like the drawback for the last one. I would specify that the Hollow Bones things only means a susceptibility to melee damage.

>>37597012
Could the Savantism be anything involving mechanics? So they'd be good at repairs and such too? or do you think it should just be for crafting itself?

2 would likely be a penalty to social things, not sure what the upside would be.

Three seems very interesting but might pidgeonhole Goblin players into feeling like they have to playwith more Goblin players to get the most out of their character.

>>37597129
Maybe the upside for 2 is that, since people tend to overlook them, they get a bonus to blend in/go under the radar?

>>37597178
So stealth rolls? Not sure how to translate that into a tangible bonus

Also Harpy Strawpoll

http://strawpoll.me/3478040/r

Has stayed with a consistent top vote of hands for just about the entirety of its existence so I think thats just about confirmed.

>>37597129
my thing was they work better in ANY group... just goblins LIKE working in groups. They have the social stigma, but they don't HAVE to work with goblins, the point is they do better in a group of players than solo.

And yeah, upside to social stigma is bugging me a lot.

>>37597178
That I like a lot.

>>37597282
Same way that 'harpies get a deficite to being subtle/anonymous' works for them, only in reverse. They get a bonus to any roll where they're trying to go unnoticed.

>>37597484
redo with just the top two options since the last two votes could swing it either way?

ALVANIX...!

I'm callin' you out, boy. Your critters vs my Kynder. You man enough to face me?

>>37597805

http://strawpoll.me/3480664

>>37597915
SHIT SON

LETS DO THIS SHIT

SOMEONE MAKE A STRAWPOLL

YOU GO FIRST BRO

LETS GO

>>37597973
Comin' up.

>>37597973
>>37597915
You guys made me wait long enough.

LET THE MAGIC-SUCKER OFF BEGIN!

(This will take several posts)

Kynder are a race of natural empaths who find the emotions of other sentient species to be intoxicating, to the point that they can actually become addicted to emotions if not careful, and will seek out situations that will provide them with their “fix”. Or, seek to create them.

No one knows where the Kynder first came from. The first known record of them occurs some three hundred and fifty years ago in the Annals of the Theocratum, which describes them as “a charming and vivacious people, seemingly dedicated to making life fun for everyone around them”. Since that time they have become common all across occupied space, with Kynder enclaves cropping up on every planet and space station, or traveling in little caravans from one local to another. Most are settled and happy to be so, but some, about twelve percent, naturally prefer a more nomadic lifestyle, always eager to see new sights and meet new people.

Physically, Kynder are the smallest of the races, rarely topping four feet in height, with slender, elfin builds. They tend toward somewhat triangular faces, and look remarkably childlike through most of their lives. It is, in fact, quite easy to mistake them for children, especially if one fails to notice their pointed ears. (Some Kynder have been known to take advantage of this, even going so far as to have their ears surgically or magically altered to look like human ears, instead.)
Their small size, builds, and looks belie their exceptional strength, though. They have simian-like musculature that, on a pound for pound level, makes them the strongest of the un-augmented races. This, combined with their small and lightweight frames, is what allows them to make the incredible gymnastic displays that they’re known for, and what allows them to hold their own in battle against the larger races.

>>37598110

On a personal level, Kynder tend to be easy to like. They are a charming and charismatic people, and very friendly. They are also natural empaths, which sometimes allows them to pick up the mood of a person or situation and adapt their tactics accordingly. This isn’t always reliable, though, as they can normally pick up only strong emotions or the general emotional state of a large group of people. Finer uses of their ability is difficult for most, although some have a natural talent for it that makes them better than average.
This same ability, and the fact that they can get high off of peoples’ emotions, can also make them somewhat manipulative. Whatever “flavor” of emotion attracts them, they will seek to foster that emotion in people and situations so they can feed off of the results. Usually, they prefer the more positive feelings, like happiness and desire, so their efforts are beneficial and even welcome. Those with darker tastes, however, can cause real problems if not kept in check.
Kynder, as a people, have no particular talent for magic. They’re quite happy to use magic and magical items produced by others, but rarely produce their own. Some individuals are born with the necessary traits to become mages of one sort or another, often focusing on illusion when they do. (Natural, given their empathic ability.) But, as a race, they just don’t “do” magic.
They are, however, very good at using other species’ magical devices. Given enough time, a Kynder can figure out what something does and how to use it. They get no special bonuses to do so, most of the time. But, devices that would leave other beings scratching their heads as they try to work them usually give Kynder no problems.

>>37598141
(Writefaggotry ahoy!)

The drums thundered, and Quilby could feel the crowds’ growing anticipation running up and down her spine like a lovers’ tongue.
Face growing flush with pleasure, she shook her slender hips to the beat, and the crowd cheered. Their growing happiness washed over her, a thousand ephemeral butterfly caresses on her brain.
The lutes chimed as she began spinning in a slow, languorous pirouette that sent one of her veils fluttering across the stage. The anticipation of the men watching grew even stronger as hints of flesh were revealed, and sparks of desire radiated from them like needles of white hot pleasure that pierced her skin and made her pulse race.
She smiled to herself, letting them catch an almost-imagined flash of pink. Their desire increased even more, making her vibrate with pleasure as the men’s emotions coursed through her.
The music soared, and so did she, leaping skyward as her veils fluttered around her. Nothing could match this, the ecstasy of the dance combined with the ecstasy of their emotions as she drank them in. Better than any wine, better than any drug, it was a high that nothing else could ever match.

These things are like the complete and polar antithesis to mine lol

>>37598169

The Delfort twins were fighting again, their anger making Lorin shiver with delight. Yet again, he thanked the Goddess that he had found this job at the daycare center. Children felt with an intense purity that no adult could ever match. Happy, sad, angry, envious; Whatever they felt, it was absolute while it lasted. And, for Lorin, it was ecstatic. They didn’t hold onto their emotions as long as adults did, but that was perhaps for the best as far as he was concerned.
The little spikes he received throughout the day could be almost overwhelming. If they lasted any longer than they did, he feared he might lose himself in them. It had happened to more than one Kynder, his mother being one of them. He feared becoming just another emotion junkie, living only for the next high.
Still, as the twins suddenly stopped arguing and started playing again, their happiness hitting him like a little orgasm, he couldn’t help but wonder if that wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

(One more after this)

>>37598187
Good. More options to choose from.


The young woman’s fear as the man grabbed her and pulled her into the alley drew Tanaquil to the scene. The man was huge, maybe six feet in height and well muscled, with a scarred face that told of a life of violence. The woman was on the small side and otherwise fairly average, clearly no match for him as struggled in his arms as he he drug her into the shadows where they couldn’t be seen.
He slapped her hard enough to loosen her teeth and clamped a hand over her mouth, hissing, “Quiet, now. We’re going to have some fun, you and me. Play nice, and I’ll let you go when I’m done. Try to scream, and I’ll kill you slow. Understand?”
The woman made a noise like a trapped animal, but nodded, tears leaking from her eyes. “Good”, the man started to say, only to grunt in pain as he slowly sank to the ground, his legs suddenly gone numb. He twisted around- as much as he could, anyway, given that he couldn’t feel anything below his waist, or make his legs move. Standing over his prone form was one of the Kynder, a child-like young male with tousled blonde hair, a cheerful face and twinkling eyes. In the Kynders’ hand was a little dagger, blade thin enough to slip easily between the vertebrae of a mans’ spine, and glistening wetly in the moonlight.
e’s Tanaquil. What’s yours’?”
“M… Margo”, she stuttered. “Margo Johnsdottir.”
“Nice to meet you, miss Margo. He didn’t hurt you to bad, did he?”
She shook her head. “No. No, he hit me pretty hard, but it just bruised me.”
(This is a long one. Be patient.)

>>37598241
“That’s good. I hate men like him, amateurs who don’t know how to create a proper emotional atmosphere.”
“What?” she said, frowning in confusion. Tanaquil just gave her a cherubic smile, dimples flashing.
“Don’t worry about it”, he told her, fist lashing up to punch her in the sternum with rib cracking force. The blow drove the wind out of her lungs and doubled her over, leaving her helpless as Tanaquils’ horrible little dagger silenced her as easily as it had silenced her attacker. Then he took a moment to cut her hamstrings before laying her down beside the would-be rapist.
“I have to tell you, I honestly can’t tell who’s fear and anguish is more delicious”, he said as he easily grabbed them both by the hair and started dragging them both further into the alley. “I can’t you who’s fear and anguish tastes better. You’re both delicious in your own way. I think it’s going to take me hours of work on both of you before I can make a decision.”
He giggled obscenely. “This is going to be just delightful.”

(I tried to show several different ways the addiction could be approached. Hope I succeeded.)

>>37598288
Done. These were written really quickly,so you'll have to forgive the poor quality.

>>37598241
Shit. Part of this one got deleted. Let me try to correct it.

>>37598241
Can't change it. Here's the missing segment.

“Hello”, Tanaquil said. “I’m sorry to have hurt you, but I think you’re a very bad man, and you were about to do something terrible to that nice lady. I had to stop you.”
“No!” the man groaned, trying desperately to get his legs to work. “NO!”
“Yes”, Tanaquil told him cheerfully. “Don’t try to deny it. You know it’s true.” The little dagger licked out with terrible precision and punched a tiny hole in the mans’ throat, paralyzing his voicebox. “Now, hush a moment while I take care of this poor woman.”
The man gurgled, clutching at his throat, and Tanaquil turned to the woman, who was shaking in a combination of lingering terror and relief. “Hello. My name’s Tanaquil. What’s yours’?”
“M… Margo”, she stuttered. “Margo Johnsdottir.”

Did Drake actually return with more stories or he was swallowed up with hot Hawk sexings too?

>>37598141
>>37598110
So they're biologically strong, psychic and mechanically/magically intuitive?

>>37598431
Hawks sexings we imagine.

Anyway, these guys are a bit too happy and not enough 'leaching emotions off of other people' for my taste... I do like the pound for pound strongest, but might want to rephrase it a little so it's still made clear something like an orc or a lizardman would probably tear them to pieces, given their dimunitive statues and low poundage? (might be better to give the orcs the pound for pound strongest unaugments from a personal veiw point, but Kinder being as strong as an unaugmented human even for their size would be really damn impressive)

File: Slaath.jpg (1.11 MB, 1928x1908)

1.11 MB JPG

Slaathe are an insectoid race, the embodiment of the word "paarasite". Their most notable feature being the ability to feed on the mental essence of others. This feeding must be done regularly, lest the Slaathe grow magically and physically weak, but feeding too voraciously will quickly result in the development of a powerful and unresistable addiction. Since this feeding fuels a Slaathe's magical power, they must strike a careful balance, lest they go over the edge, or, more horrifyingly, become weak.

Slaathe are quite tall and spindly. Many wear obscuring cloaks to mask the four large legs that sprout from their backs, which folded under a cloak, often give them a hunch-backed appearance. These legs are often used for subduing prey, or in more desperate situations, for impaling enemies.

In addition to their mental parasitism, Slaathe survive on a more physical kind as well, sucking the vital fluids from prey for sustenance. Many Slaathe keep some kind of animal (or even sapient creature) in stasis within their domains, draining them little by little and allowing them to recover before feeding again. This stasis is achieved with a strange sort of webbing that the slaathe is able to spit up, which has a physical and mental numbing effect.

(1 of 2)

File: IMG-20061003-00503.jpg (310 KB, 1172x1028)

310 KB JPG

Despite their hard exoskeletons and carapaces, Slaathe are not the most physically powerful race, even taking their back arms into account. They rely more on magic, the numbing toxins that leak from their fangs and claws, or preferably, to just not get into conflict at all, manipulating their situations with words.

Though Slaathe are physically repulsive and most find their mental and physical diets abhorrent, none can deny they have a way with words, and a strange sort of allure. Perhaps it is simply their vast intelligence, or perhaps in feeding on a person's mind, they catch glimpses of it, and know exactly what the person wants to hear.

Slaathe society is cutthroat to the core, positions of power being won by who is the best manipulator or the most silent killer. It is every Slaathe for themselves, which they believe is the perfect environment for someone to thrive. It is common Slaathe slang to refer to a governing system as a stack of cards, someone being murdered or otherwise ousted as "Shuffling the deck".

Forgot to put into the summary I wrote that they secrete the numbing toxin through any of their claws, such as the ones on their back legs or around their face. Or their hands. You know, those too.

Their magic is pretty much mind magic, looking into people's minds, controlling them, or driving them insane, etc.

>>37598519
Comparatively strong. A normal Kynder is as strong as, or maybe a little bit stronger, than a normal human. The difference is that all that strength is coming in a much smaller package, allowing them to use their musculature to manipulate their own bodies more effectively than a human could.

Psychic only in that they are empathic.

And, yeah, intuitive is good word for it. They don't get bonuses to use/repair/whatever. They're just really good at figuring out what something is and how to use it in the first place.

http://strawpoll.me/3480857

Just a thought, but might there be a way to combine the two into something entirely unique? Something that's more than 'brain sucking bugs' or 'cute but junkie halflings'?

>>37598909
All of that writing and they really are just as simple as that.

God damnit brain ; - ;

>>37598872
I don't think we need a strawpoll for this right now, not everything needs a strawpoll except for the most divisive stuff (like the whole harpy hands argument).

We have two ideas here that have enough overlap that we can potentially combine them into something REALLY unique here? And isn't that what's best about /tg/'s design processes? When we turn out completely crazy awesome stuff like this? Like when we figured out "you know what would be awesome? Drug dealer naga."

I think we can get something similar here. So why don't you guys, rather than going right for the polls, sit down, talk it out now that you've presented your ideas, and fuse them into something REALLY cool?

>>37598669
That's actually what I meant, physically. See >>37598831

I actually don't see them as happy, for the most part. Even the most "in control" Kynder is an addict to one degree or another. They spend their lives working to get their fix on a regular basis. And some of them have some pretty depraved tastes in emotions, as story #3 shows.

I actually thought about making them true emotional vampires and sociopaths who can only feel strong emotions when they steal them from others, but couldn't see a way to work it, mechanically. If anyone has ideas on how to do it, I'd be glad to change it.

>>37598979
I'd honestly say they're too far apart on the spectrum. Like I said, they are like exact, polar opposites, down to their physiology even,

This isn't me trying to put my idea over his, though. If you have an idea as to how I'd be game.

>>37599073
Well what if we had a dimunitive race of arthropodal type creatures, not quite full insectile but close?

They have the ability to leach off of other species' emotions and magic (represented by an ability that lets them absorb mana when spent by somebody near to them). They also, however, have a more indepth method, which involves physically biting into the subject and leaching from them that way?

The species has only recently been allowed into the galactic fold, accepted after a large internal civil war between those who felt the outside species should be seen as prey, and those who felt cooperation was necessary, and even to be encouraged. They have spent a long time proving themselves, but there are still radical elements. Their natural affinity for manipulating and understanding magical systems that weren't created by them however has lead to them being more widely accepted by the galactic community than they might have been in ages past.

Unlike the goblins, who are by and large stupid, and the orcs who are new comers and haven't settled down yet, these guys have had centuries to work past prejudices despite their baser instincts? So while there are always the various psychos and wackjobs, by and large they have settled into their own niche, that is accepted, if found a tiny bit creepy by most other species?

>>37599073
I can see one way to join them.

The Slaath are astral beings who can sense our world, and the delicious emotions flowing through it, but can't quite physically interact with it. Years of trying availed them naught, until one day they stumbled upon an unknown race of diminutive, still developing humanoids on a remote planet called Krann.
The humanoids, known as "Kynder", were a psychically active species, and the Slaath discovered that they could, if the Kynder were willing, insinuate themselves into the Kynder's brain, merging in an unholy union that was beneficial for both. The Kynder gained heightened physical abilities from the Slaaths manipulation of their bodies by altering their brain chemistry, and the Slaath gained hosts that would allow them to seek out other beings and the emotional energies the Slaath crave so much.

>>37599281
My big thing is that the Kinder are too... well human in many ways, and the Slaath are so diabolical that they'd be KoS by most other races and thus unplayable...

I think we need some middle ground? Alien, but not evil?

>>37599322
again, still makes them so moustach twirlingly evil that nobody would really accept them...

also that's not really fusing them into one race so much as changing one of them enough that it can effectively be two races in one body.

>>37599281
This guy's got the right idea.

>>37599368
Also it means people would be playing as his race ; - ; subtle manipulations are subtle

I thnk what the core things to combine would be the Slaathe's parasitism and "social graces", along with the Kynder's sort of more "mental connosouir"-ish attitudes of preffering different "flavours"

>>37599368
I was seeing it as more of a true merger. The Slaath gain a corporeal body, but become locked in it as well, the two personalities merging. That said, I'm not vested in the Kynder as emotional suckers idea. The other ideas are quite good, too.

In fact, the more I think about it, the idea of them actually being a race of charming, abnormally strong for their size confidence artists with a knack for sussing out technology and magic, with a strict honor code of "a deal for a deal" to make them more interesting, appeals to me. My goal was more to redeem the Kender than to make vampires. (I like lost causes, obviously.)

>>37599447
Agreed.

>>37599281
I'd rather not have another fucking ugly race again. Lets just go with kynder and dump the Slaath

>>37599628
; - ; hey I worked kind of hard on those drawings sort of

>>37598670
>>37598815
This doesn't work as a PC race. It's like a Drow in a paladin campaign. In fact, these are more drow than the drow that were proposed before.

>>37599628
Why not have both? Some people like playing characters that aren't classically beautiful. Variety is the spice of life, after all.
And the spice must flow!

>>37599655
I suppose. But people wanted a mental parasite race and that's what I came up with.

>>37599694
>Some people like playing characters that aren't classically beautiful.
To which we have NEARLY EVERY SINGLE OTHER RACE.

>>37599694
I PLAYED SPORE TOO.

>>37599698
Then we should shunt them into the "NPC" Race territory and make them a darker version of Kynder.

>>37599732
DESIGN A PRETTY ONE THEN. THE ENTIRE KYNDER VS SLAATHE THING STARTED BECAUSE WE NEEDED A 10th

>>37599773
cant we combine them, though? ; - ;

>>37599732
?
Most of them can be seen as quite attractive (given personal tastes, of course).

>>37599733
So did I, but I honestly don't know what you're referring to.

>>37599834
Ok. So what are the absolute core things about the Kynder that define them in a single sentence. Besides the fact that they are named after a fun chocolate treat for the whole family

>>37599810
>cant we combine them, though? ; - ;
Why do you care? At least it's being accepted, unlike the drow race you shunted out for no reason.

>>37599810
>DESIGN A PRETTY ONE THEN.
Well, I tried. Not like it actually stuck though.

>>37599900
I didn't like them and argued against them. Never once did I say "These are not going in and thats final". Which I have no right to say anyway.

>>37599934
Oh shit the plot thickens.

We might be going about this the wrong way. Normally, you come up with a race, then figure out the mechanics. In this case it might actually be better to figure out the mechanics first, ie "Exactly how do they vampirize emotions, story- and rules-wise", then build a race around it.

Or, just toss the vampirism, which can be problematic in and of itself. As >>37599655 pointed out, a species that in any way feeds off of other sentients is going to be problematic in play, and be hard to make acceptable to the "prey" species' in-game. PC's and NPC's alike are going to have problems with them if not handled properly.

>>37599628
what if they looked sorta like those ant girls? The tiny ones with 4 arms and grey skin and multiple eyes? I can't remember the artist's name, but he does a lot of monster girl hentai.

As far as I can tell, we only have 2 really ugly races, which are the lizardmen and naga... maybe... oh well orc and goblin too, but your mileage may vary there...

also what's our full race list now?

1) Human
2) Harpy
3) Naga
4) Lizardmen
5) Goblin
6) Orc
7) Satyr?
8) Elf
9) Kynder/Slaath?
10)???

I'm missing one...

>>37599976
Not like it matters. In the end Slaathe are basically an Evil Race. That doesn't mean they aren't going to be used, for an Evil campaign or some such and NPCs that would be fine. We don't need to LIMIT ourselves to 10 after all.

>>37600072
Drow? Dwarves?

Not sure if Satyr actually got in.

>>37600088
exactly

>>37600137
OH RIGHT DWARVES! HOW COULD I FORGET?

Anyway. so yeah, that's our full list. And people liked the idea of Satyrs... but we've been waiting for Satyr dude to get back about them, but he never did.

>>37599885
Well, if we kill the addiction, then abnormally strong, child-like beings with a gift for figuring out how to use devices and (possibly) natural empathy, who like being underestimated. More and more I'm also liking the idea of expanding on that with a moral code that's the exact opposite of Kender, in that they believe that all trades must be as equal as possible, and that intentionally unbalancing a trade is not only immoral, but possibly deserving of anger, even vengeance, on the part of the one wronged.

>>37600072
Naga gonna' wind up fetishy. Mark my words.

>>37600158
Well since we had the drow race already written up and expanded upon we may as well throw them in

>>37600057
When I come up with a race I draw them and then write everything up based on that but that's just me.

>>37600137
I think Satyr are still going strong. Just not overly developed. No one has spoken against them and there was some cool fluff with them and Nagas.

>>37600174
Maybe if they get the Naga/Lizard treatment and come from the same (very very far away) planet, and sort of try to emulate the differences that this sort of thing could take?

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>>37600214
Can't be helped

>>37600214

>>37571531 is what my idea for them was. I went more snake less girl specifically to not be fetishy.

>>37600331
Which in the end will make nearly no one play them, make them hard to relate to, and generally end up with them as a wasted race. There's nothing wrong with them being "fetishy", even as you had drawn them they are fetishy, just more of a niche fetish.

>>37600331
>>37600373
Honestly, to avoid this issue we should simply add in levels of blood purity which is more/less valued within different factions inside the naga faction itself. Less blood purity means more human-like features, more means more snake-like features.

Bam, done.

>>37600072
Those one squid things? Talatoceans?

>>37600373
So a not sexy race is a wasted race because no one will play as a race they won't fap to?

I guess we can cross Dwarves, Goblins, Orcs, Elves and Taleoceans off the list.

>>37600428
If anons say this is how to go, then so it must go.

>>37600496
I just said they would be fapped to by someone out there. I'm talking more about identifying as one of those characters.

>>37600585
I don't see how a snake person is any harder to relate to than a bird person, a lizard person, a Goblin, or a cephalopod.

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>>37600331
This was my suggestion, so we're definitely on the same page. However, this is one case where fetish and non-fetish actually go together. In mythology, naga ran the gamut from giant-goddamned-get-it-AWAY-from-me-cobra to fully human. And, typically in the stories it was the nagini that looked human.

>>37600698
That could very well be a Nagini in the picture, actually. (Assuming this is an asian Naga and not a Hindu one.)

>>37600632
The cephalopod isn't even in. A bird person is still majority human. You're correct aabout the lizzard person.

>>37600698
So the Blood Purity idea would go well with the mythological tie-ins of 4 arms and alchemy.

My proposition is that they all still have 4 arms, and that among Naga society more cobra is considered better.

>>37600745
We were going for pseudo-Hindu with the Naga more or less.

>>37600749
I thought people liked the Tals, even though I didnt.

Also its so nice seeing anons from other threads show up again ; u ;

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>>37600745
Hindu ones were pretty human too mate.

>>37600774
>and that among Naga society more cobra is considered better.
We have that sort of theme already with multiple other races, no much point overlapping so much. Just like how we have so many cyborg races.

>>37600806
True, true.

I was thinking more a "traditional standards of beauty" thing like big tits or something rather than a real prejudiced divide. But I can see the overlap.