Wanna-be Overlords

[Bjorn]

The war between the Celestial Realm and the Nether Realm has reached a conclusion, and that conclusion is stalemate.  The Middle Realm lies devastated, and the upper echelons of both Demon and Angel society are gone, slain forever.  The gates between the realms are barred, and the process of healing and renewal has begun.

In the Nether Realm, healing is only ever done with a scalpel.  There's a big gap at the top, and the former middle-rankers are already making their opening moves, all intent on claiming for themselves the title of Overlord. Bargaining, intrigue, conspiracy, and outright violence make up the menu of the day.

You're not a big player, of course.  But with luck, guts, brawn, and brains, that will change... probably.

Characters will start off as demonic vassals of one of the current lords of the Nether Realm.  Your goal is to become the Overlord, by whatever means you find appealing: going it solo, setting up a puppet rule, or creating your very own democratic Dark Congress.  The goal is to have a fairly light-hearted game, with tons of rivalry and backstabbing; think Disgaea or Good Omens with a healthy mix of Paranoia.

The goal is to be forum-based, with perhaps occasional IRC sessions, depending on how things go.  The ideal would be to keep posting rates fairly slow.  I'd hope for one post a day minimum.  The premise should be flexible enough to accomodate a variety of posting rates, however.  Start date would be in early November.

The plan is to use the HERO system.  Character base is 75CP. By default, no points will be granted for Disadvantages.

The following house rules apply:

Code Select Expand


1) Eternal Damnation.   You're a demon, and there's no easy
  way out of Hell.  If your character dies, you will
  automatically be reincarnated in your home base (whatever
  it might be at the moment).  You retain all your
  memories, but can completely remake the character other
  than that if you so desire.

2) It's All About Who You Know.  Most of the power-ups
  through the game will be earned through Favours -- powers
  lent to you by other demons.  Perhaps you killed an
  archdevil's rival for him, or promised to retrieve an
  artifact for him, or someone has agreed to be a vassal;
  either way, you'll get some power (a new ability, or
  extra stats) in the form of a Favour.  That Favour might
  come with limitations or conditions, however -- fail at
  the task for which the Favour was granted, for example,
  and you'll not only lose the Favour, you'll incur the
  wrath of the gifter.  Favours will come and go, with
  shifting alliances, completed tasks, and betrayals.  You
  can use earned CP to "buy off" a Favour, letting you make
  it part of your own powers without the attendant
  restrictions.  But....

3) It's Also About Who You Kill.  If you're killed, you lose
  all your Favours.  What's more, if you're killed by
  another player, he can choose to take one of your Favours
  for himself.  On the other hand, there's the:

4) Obi-Wan Rule.  The character base for a reincarnated
  character is increased by twice his unspent earned CP.


(Earned CP will be earned at a fixed rate (probably something like 1CP for every two or four weeks of gaming without deaths), plus a bonus for earning a Favour.  Balance to be determined.)

Obviously, this is a bit of an experiment, so mechanics may get toyed with in the course of the game.  Frankly, I think I'm crazy for even suggesting this.  But, hey, the question is how many other people are crazy, too?

[Halbarad]

I'll go ahead and toss my hat into the ring for this one.

[Bjorn]

One thing I forgot to mention.  I'm still fleshing out the details of the story and setting, and ideally want to suit it to the characters that people want to play.  So feel free to come up with concepts, arrange for common histories between players, ask me whatever questions you want, etc.

[Carthrat]

I'll bite, but gimme a start date. >_>

[Bjorn]

Let's say Nov 14th.

[Irius]

Hmm, is there anywhere where we can check out the Hero system for those of us who are interested but lack any idea what the character creation system would look like?

[Dracos]

Bjorn, you are a taunting little bastard. =)

Dracos
who can't afford at the moment to commit at all. >_<

[Bjorn]

Hmm, is there anywhere where we can check out the Hero system for those of us who are interested but lack any idea what the character creation system would look like?

I think I have a link or two on another computer; I'll post them when I get home.

Beyond that, you might want to talk to Drac or Rez; they might have some resources for the previous edition, which at least gives you an idea.

[Dracos]

I can hook you up with 4th edition if you catch me at a good moment.

Dracos

[Carthrat]

Ditto. If you use irc.nabiki.com (our chat server) and join #elysium, I'll be able to toss it at you, or you can use my fserve and grab it off there.

<->

Bjorn, on the character re-development- just what stays the same and what can change, exactly? 'Memories' pretty much equals 'Skills+Everything' without a clearer definition. The only thing that I really see changing is your physical makeup (which can admittedly count for alot).

[Bjorn]

Bjorn, on the character re-development- just what stays the same and what can change, exactly? 'Memories' pretty much equals 'Skills+Everything' without a clearer definition. The only thing that I really see changing is your physical makeup (which can admittedly count for alot).

The only things that should stay the same are non-physical skills (Knowledge/Science/Professional skills, mainly).  Physical skills can be dropped or added at your discretion (your new body hasn't learned how to do/has instincts that allow you to do), as can stats and powers.

I'm probably not going to be very picky about enforcing even that much, however.  If you want to completely redesign a character from the ground up, give it a new name and personality, and get back into the fray, that's fine by me.  The "memories" clause is there just to provide some continuity -- you might have gone from a succubus named Lilith to being a ten-foot fanged monstrousity that calls itself Billy-Bob, but Billy-Bob still remembers all the game events that Lilith would have.

[Trunkyboy]

Back stabbing is always fun >.>  I'll get the Hero rules and read up on them, hopefully they won't confuse me <.<

[Olvelsper]

I'd like to throw my hat in too. Like Trunky, I need to study up on the Hero rulebooks. It sounds like it'll be a blast, though. ^^

[StormDragon]

I'm rather interested although it sounds a little confusing, but those details will be worked out over time, I bet.

[Yuthirin]

You bet your sweet ass I want a part of this.

I promise to post at a regular rate. I swear.