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Shattered [CYOA]

wjw

Augur
Joined
Jun 6, 2007
Messages
287
Cool. We are A Nameless One. It's clear that we should try not to attract too much attention to ourselves.
The girl and the thugs are from Sakram. The letter hints that we should go there.
We basically know nothing of the place (except that his Thugs, that it can't be too far, and that we used to be there).
So it would be natural if we ask the girl some basic questions about the city. Does she even want to return there? (with the bandits and all that)
We have some time to spend. There is no need to rush this. Ask here some basic questions, about the history of the city, current situation. Who she is, what she does, details about the bandits... etc.
 

Karwelas

Dwarf Taffer
Patron
Joined
May 12, 2014
Messages
1,064
Location
"Mostly Harmless" planet
Codex Year of the Donut I helped put crap in Monomyth
Ah, yes, of course you can ask her about those things. Some of those may require roll for additional informations. Mostly personal questions.

***​

'So... Lilian.' you mutter, taking warhammer from one of weapon racks. Not many people liking shadows would use something like this, but there are certain advantages for those that do. Mostly that not many people expect strike of warhammer in forehead right from dark place. Dagger? Yes. Any other kind of smaller blade or sword? Hell yes, people usually stab each other in dark places. But not warhammers. 'Care to tell me more about yourself? I mean, we have some time.'

She looks at you, as she stabs air with dagger few times. 'Oh, of course.' she pauses for a moment. 'Well, I'm from Sakram, but I think I already told you. I work... worked there as scribe. Sort of.'

You rise your eyebrow. 'Sort of?'

'You see... I was rewriting books and scrolls for my mentor. He was teaching me how to read and write, back in time.' she smiles and nods to her memories. 'But few years ago, his eyes started to fail him. So... I decided to stay with him and help with his job. Simple story.' she nods to you, but you see how her expression darkens a bit.

'I see.' you nods. 'So... you said that those bastards outside murdered your mentor. Can I ask why? I don't see why bunch of thughs would want to kill old scribe.' you speak carefuly, tring to not make her cry again. She looks at floor for a while and sighs.

'My mentor old friend visited us night before my master death. He gave him something and asked to store something for him. I heard he died soon after that.' she shakes her head. 'Next day they came to shop and...' she quickly looks away, sobbing. You wait a while, but she don't speak again.

'I'm sorry.' you mutter again. 'Can you at least tell me something about those thugs? They work for someone, right?'

She turns to you, her eyes are still watery. But you see spark of anger in those when you mention them. 'Yes. For man called Astan, but most of folks from town call him Blacksmith. Mostly because he was blacksmith before he created his gang.' she spits on the cave floor. 'His gang is one of stronger in downtown. As for him... he is ruthless, dangerous man that would slit his own mother throat if it could give him some more power.'

You nods as she speaks. It wouldn't be first time when you heard or meet that type of man. It is suprising how many of lowborn people behave like machines when they get some power from themselves. 'How big is that gang?'

'I think... around fifty people? Maybe more.' she think for a while. 'Yes, I think something around that. Not many enough to rule downtown, but enough to matter there.'

Fifty... dangerous amount of people. But big enough to send around 10 people to hunt down some girl? No, unless... she have something they want.

'By the way. Do you know what was that thing your master had? It... may be important.' your short pause is enough to make her look at you for a while. 'Well, I only ask, of course.' you try to sound as convincing as is possible.

But after she looks at you for another while, she shakes her head. 'I have no idea. Had no chance to look at it.' she speaks quickly. Too quickly to hide her lie. 'They probably think I have it, but my master hide is somewhere.'

You nods as she speaks. Prehaps later you will have a chance to find out. There are other questions...

'Well... then I suppose you don't want to get back there?' she looks at you, like at idiot for asking that question.

'Of course that I don't want to get back there! I have enough problems right now and I don't feel like getting into hands of Blacksmith.' she mutters to you, shaking her head.

'Well, but do you even know what you want to do?' you rise your eyebrow again, taking leather armor from armor stand. Yes, it will be good enough.

She open her mouth, but don't speak. It seems that she either realized that she don't even have place to go, right now. 'I... I don't know. I can't come back, I just can't.' she mutter again, leaning on the statue.

'Well... you can think about that later, after we get hell out of here. In meantime, can you tell me a bit more about Sakram itself?'

'Huh.' she looks at you and grins 'You really don't know about anything, right?'

You glower at her, but nods after a while. 'It isn't damn funny.'

'Yeah, I think I would feel the same if I were you.' she start playing with her new knive as she speaks. 'Well, not much to tell about Sakram. Small city on trade route, like many others. Around five thousand people. Barely enough to call it city.' she shakes her head. 'I love it, but I will be honest with you - it is a shithole. Since end of war, route is almost destroyed. Barely few people want to travel through that part of it, while you can travel newly created road at the west. It takes more time to travel, but you don't risk destroing your carts. Or bandits, those sometimes happend there too.'

'Wait, you said something about war.' as you finish your sentence, she looks at you, shocked.

'Damn it, how much time you was there?' she shakes her head. 'I speak about Great War?' she looks at you again, but you shrugs. 'Come on! You had to heard about war between Partian and Werigs.'

When she says Werigs, you remember one of your memories... you served in their army. With Borad. You remember that. But she keeps speaking.

'And of course, Masked Lord forces.' you feel like someone would start ringing a bell in your head when she says "Masked Lord". You know she speaks about someone you know. Too well, prehaps.

'Masked Lord?' your voice is weak. You must hear it. She looks at you again.

'Damn it, you never heard about the Masked Lord? Come on, you had to hear about Azkaran, the Masked Lord and his Generals. Even kids from there heard legends... well, not enough time passed since then to call those legends, but I quess we can call those stories.'

You ignore her as she speaks. Azkaran. Azkaran. Azkaran. That name resounds in your mind like mantra. Your name. But not your real name. This is how they called you, before all of this happend. You remember now... at least part of it.

(Unlocked - Memory about Azkaran - you remember how with help of your followeres, later called your Generals, you took City and ruled it. Gathering more and more power and money, you quickly formed your own army and started fighting with weakened by war kingdoms, Partian and Werigs. With your own experience and tactical talent, help of your generals and many other people, you managed to create force big enough to possibly win that war. At the end, you meet with kings of both kingdoms on battlefield. Both of them knew it was last chance to destroy enemy. And you knew it was your chance to become a king yourself. Maybe even someone more powerful.

But at the end, you failed. During battle, you fought with most powerful people from both sides, alone and trapped. Did you... died? Did you truly died during that day on battlefield, trapped inside maelstorm of fire and thunder, killing both kings before you finaly succumbed to your wounds?)

When you finally come back to your senses, Lilian looks at you, worried. You shake your head, looking at her. Everything feel... fuzzy.

'You look pale... are you sure you don't need to drink. Or eat?" she sound worried, but you only raise your hand.

'Tell me... tell me more about that war. Who won during last battle. What happend. Please, tell me.' your voice is shaken, as your mind. But you must know.

'I don't know too much outside of stories... but, Masked Lord forces won, of course. After he killed both kings, he succumbed to his wounds and burned to ashes. I mean, he fought with those two in duel. All of them died. But Masked Lord Generals led their forces to victory.' you suddenly smile to yourself... in your mind. So you won after all. Your tactic of taking out kings succeeded. 'Few months later, war finally ended.'

'But... what happend to those generals? And kingdoms. Those still exist, right?' she looks at you even more worried.

'Of course... they were forced to give large part of their lands to Generals that created their own... well, lands. Peace treaty and other things happends. Usuall stuff after war.' she shrugs. 'Generals are now called Lords. And what happend to them... well, most of them have their own lands now. Group of... three, maybe four created their own fleet and sailed at the west, looking for something, nobody know what. Only one came back, on single ship. Really, I don't remember much of that stuff now.'

You nods... but there is one more thing you must know.

'Tell me... how much time passed since end of the war?' you ask, silently. Waiting for her answer seems to be an eternity.

'Right now...' she thinks for a while.

'It will be around fifteen years.'

***

You may find roll thing in "convincing" word. I will place rolls for certain things in links like that, so you can always see results. I will post character sheet and a little bit more about leveling and skill system soon.
 
Last edited:

Karwelas

Dwarf Taffer
Patron
Joined
May 12, 2014
Messages
1,064
Location
"Mostly Harmless" planet
Codex Year of the Donut I helped put crap in Monomyth
Hey, everybody.
I have some good and bad news. First, good news - mechanics are finished. Fairly simple system, including skills rangs. Bad news... well, my keyboard is dying and while I write this half of buttons don't work. Custom keyboard layout saved my ass a bit, but I simply can't write update like this. Also two days left for my final exams, so after that I'm free like fucking bird, so you can expect much more updates. If I will be lucky update and mechanics will appear in two days. But don't count on it.
 

Karwelas

Dwarf Taffer
Patron
Joined
May 12, 2014
Messages
1,064
Location
"Mostly Harmless" planet
Codex Year of the Donut I helped put crap in Monomyth
Sheet, people, final exams finished. It was damn tough journey, but I passed and I'm ready to continue. Mechanics are finished (you don't even know how creating systems to this thing helped me to don't stress out) and will appear as I write those.

Expect a bit RPGish system similar to that from Epic (skills levels and such things)
 

Karwelas

Dwarf Taffer
Patron
Joined
May 12, 2014
Messages
1,064
Location
"Mostly Harmless" planet
Codex Year of the Donut I helped put crap in Monomyth
To make it as fast and simple as possible to read. Here we go:

Health: As you have Gift of Body, you are much tougher then normal people, even if you are weakened after your awakening. Still, you must be careful with wounds, as those deadly for normal mortals are dangerous also for you. Here is small scale of possible health statuses:

Uninjured - healthy and unwounded body, bruises and light wounds for normal people. You don't have to tend to your wounds as those will regenerate on it's own in short amount of time.
Barely Injured - you are wounded, enough to bleed for a while, but you still don't need any sort of help in that status. Stoping the blood loss will help those regenerate faster, but other then that, you are still capable to fight and you are probably even more dangerous, as you may be... well, pissed off now. :lol:
Injured - here starts actual danger for you. Wounds on that status would be very serious for people without your Gift, but you still can fight, after you bandage your wounds and take care of blood lost. Type of damage and wounds may inflict upon your speed.
Badly Injured - on this status, normal person would either be mortaly wounded or dying. No joking here, from now on you really need help if you want for your wounds to regenerate or pray for that you will be lucky enough to somehow tend to your wounds yourself.
Near Death - if you are here, things looks bad. Even with your Gift, your wounds may be deadly. (and will be if you don't get any sort of help. Or, what would be more useful right now, healing magic. Powerful sort of healing magic) Normal person on this status would be good only for necromancy.

How your wound status changes? After you are wounded, of course. Jokes aside, there isn't any sort of points for this one. After each update, you will get small summary of things that could change in your equipment or status, so you (and me) can always see what changed during past updates. Simple and clear... I hope.


Skills (and "kind" of attributes"): Your character, right now, is average men with certain... talents (Stealthy skills, due to your choices during first updates) and of course, Gift. While during your adventure you will be able to become more powerful then average person (and you probably will) - for now your character is as normal as you and me. Yes, yes. I know that people are different, but you aren't one of normal people. This is why I decided to create system of attributes stolen based on treave one from Overlord.

STR - Strength. This attribute is all about using your character... strength, during any sort of activities. Overpowering enemy in close combat, moving some kind of heavy object and so on.
DEX - Dexterity. This one is all about speed and agility. Pickpocketing someone, stealth, but also dodging blows during combat. Simple, but important.
CON - Condition. Everything about health and status of your body. How much you can take before you faint from fatigue, how far you can push your body, how long you can run before you will be forced to fall on the ground to take a breath.
INT - Intelligence. This one is rather kind of special for your character - you are as smart as any hivemind can be, my players, so I can't exactly say that this show intelligence of your character. I can't measure your intelligence with stat, after all. This one is about ability to learn something new or remember something from your past. Higher it is, you learn faster, your memories may be clearer and appear more often. May sometimes be used for roll about knowledge rare enough to see if your character can know about something or in memories.
WILL - Willpower. You can say that it is strength of your mind and will. Higher this stat is, your mind can endure more. (so it will be used mostly during either some kind of torture session, where your character is under heavy kind of mentally pressure, resisting psionic attack and abilities. And of course, probably most time - in your mind. In a time, you may learn to uncover your memories not only by reacting to outside stimulus, but also by your pure willpower. Other then that, you sometimes will be able to "alter" your memories to learn more about things that happend or unlock other kind of memories connected to one that you will alter.
CHA - Charisma. This one is a bit tricky - it touches any kind of social relations you may have. Convincing, threatening, bribing or bargaining with someone. But don't get this one wrong, you always have chance to use your own words or arguments during those. This attribute just may make it easier. After all, not everyone are born as diplomats... but anybody can covince people of something, with right words.

Attributes ranks: I decided to use simplest system I ever saw: F-A one, same as treave use. There is damn reason why people use this in schools, so why not here? I hope treave won't mind much about that one.

F is normal human level, while higher, up to A, touches more and more exceptional kind of things that you may do. Highest one is S - Special or Godlike, like you could say. During rolling, attributes are important. There are certain ranks caps during some things. If you attempt to do something exceptional, I look at your attribute rank. If it is one level too low, you get -10 to roll. If it is two levels too low, you get -20. Three = -30. Below three levels, it is usually autofail, but during very important roles, you may get a chance to do it. Same is with higher ranks: One level above cap +10, two +20, three +30. Above three ranks, it is autowin of roll. This system is also used during skills.

(+) and (-) also are used. Plus is used to show your progress in getting to higher level and it is much less important, but it still show that you are a little bit more powerful with B+ attribute then someone with only B. (it isn't used in F-A/S system, it is just to show your progress here) Minus is to show if you are somehow currently weakened. (unless you lose more then five minues, which lower you entire attribute rank)

So it is:
(+) - (+++++) - Five pluses increase your rank.
(-) - (- - - - -) - Five minuses lower your rank.


Skills: Here we go with skills. How those go? Well, I also hope it is simple - skills have it's ranks too. What is difference? Well, you can see your progress, at least it is clearer then attribute ones - each time you train a skill (actually use your time during choices to train certain skills or let you someone learn how to use it. Doing things during other choices may also help, but that may be very slow) or use it frequently, you gain points to skill pool. Your skill pool is very important - on it's your skill is based. Let me quickly show you how that works.


Skill ranks:
Untrained (0-25 points in skill pool) - your character don't have much of experience in that skill. Of course, you may still attempt to do those, but I can't guarantee it will be a success. Better train before using it or let someone else do it.
Trained (26-75 points in skill pool) - your character learned basic things about this skill. You may be sure that now at least you will have slightest idea what are you doing. Still, not as good as you could be and you are sure that many people may beat you on this field.
Experienced (76-150 points in skill pool) - finally, you start actually getting better at this! You aren't master yet, but you came a long way since you tried you first time. Fighting skill - you are starting to be a pretty good fighter. Pickpocketing - very good, you actually started to get things from other people without raising too much unwanted attention. So pretty much - good job, but there is still a long way before you can call yourself truly best.
Expert (151-249 points in skill pool) - well, well... look who we have here. You may start calling yourself an expert on this field, because you truly are one. You are way above average people, but there are still better then you. Remember about that... but be proud of yourself.
Master (250 points in skill pool) - you have come a long way, but you are finally here - at the top. You may be one of those people that create stories about amazing deeds. Prehaps you are, because you are certainly able to be one of those. There aren't much people who could enter the lists with you. And if there are... they can call you master of this skill.

Master isn't exactly the highest rank. There are also Master+ ranks, but I'm still working on those and there aren't any characters that you could meet with that level of skill, at least not for long time. All right, now... how does that work with rolls?

Same as attributes. Actually, those are connected. Bonuses from both sum into each other (if there is usage of skill during choice, because there not always is. Let's say you are picking a lock - you may get certain bonuses from high dex. But forcing your way through the door with kick? You use only STR attribute, of course), but not always skills are used. Other then that - there are skill rang caps and those work same as attribute ones - one rank above your level = (-10) to roll, so on to level/rank three. From that, it may be autofail. Same with success = +1 = +10... and above three levels, autowin. Only exception is Master level, where you can sometimes autopass rolls on even Experienced level, if you aren't under heavy kind of pressure and in battle.


Mind: Here is one of another systems in Shattered - memories and mind. Your mind is area where you can get anytime you want, but remember that this isn't free action and put you to into certain danger. While you are in your mind, your body is lying around in kind of slumber without any protection, unless you actually are prepared for this. It also work as sleep, so you can do it without worring about that one... but about food and water, yes. I suggest do it only when you are sure that everything is safe and you are prepared, because those travels may be long under some circumstances.

In your mind, you can do several things. First one, is exploring your memories, one of most important elements of mind. By doing this, you progress with your backstory of learning about your past. However, to explore those memories, you must first somehow stimulate those to appear as "pillars" in your mind. How you do it? Ask, learn and listen. Simple as that. During memories, you can't be harmed or locked inside your mind. It is safe bet, unless update itself says so. Some memories may not exactly be those at first glance. Remember, your mind is shattered and there are reasons why this happend.

Second things - you may fight within your mind. With what? Hard to say. One of those fights was Doubt, but he was rather to show you that something like that exist. With enough of memories unlocked and explored, you may attempt to fight another of those things. If you win, you may gain many things - special abilities, informations, new memories. However, you aren't as safe as during memories - you still can be forced out of your mind (which hurts and may cause damage) or worse. Think twice before attempting to fight with thing within your mind... you may not be ready.

Third... and more things - explore memories you already cleared, unlock new things about your mind and... even find some more suprises. I won't tell much about this now, as I want it to be a suprise. It will be a while, but I'm certain you will like it.

Memories of Power/Knowledge: Last, but not last... I was thinking about this one for a longer while. It took me a while to think about it and I decided to implement it to Shattered. Everybody have moments where we felt that we did something amazing, right?

Our hero is quite special case here, as memories of his accomplishments are quite powerful. Powerful enough to work on him even now, while he isn't his old self. Sometims, you may unlock Memories of Power/Knowledge. What those do? Well, to make it simple - it make your character abilities equal his old. You may do things that normally would be impossible for your in your current stance. Memories of Power make your use this memory to gain power of body for a short while (so I mean physical activities here) while Knowledge ones, your mind.

Treat those as second chances (you may vote whenever you want to use those, but remember you lose them after you use it and those will be rare, very rare. Rare enough to make you think if it will be worth it) or certain way to push your plan despite big obstacles. Those also will be autoused if certain chain of failed rolls happend and it would mean your death if you would truly fail. Of course, as long as you have some of those left...


This is all for now. Character sheet is on it's way, along with your skills and attributes. We will see if I will manage to finish it today.
 

lightbane

Arcane
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
10,157
Welcome back, Karwelas! Don't worry about stealing being inspired by treave's systems. It's not like he patented the thing and is going to turn his universe into a franchise (complete with plushies).
That being said, I believe skill numbers go way too high. I mean, a skill with a number of 200+ sounds like it will take forever to raise/grind it to that level.
 

Karwelas

Dwarf Taffer
Patron
Joined
May 12, 2014
Messages
1,064
Location
"Mostly Harmless" planet
Codex Year of the Donut I helped put crap in Monomyth
Welcome back, Karwelas! Don't worry about stealing being inspired by treave's systems. It's not like he patented the thing and is going to turn his universe into a franchise (complete with plushies).
That being said, I believe skill numbers go way too high. I mean, a skill with a number of 200+ sounds like it will take forever to raise/grind it to that level.


I see the problem and I plan to lower master level cap to 200. Along with balancing other levels.
 

lightbane

Arcane
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
10,157
But that can't be! Erdrick rarely used targeted attacks, he doesn't shove live explosives on people's pockets and he lacks an Intelligence score (even though he considers himself fairly smart, regardless of what the Codex ends up choosing as the course of action).
 

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