At the Gates - Storypath Ultra

[Cottonmouth]

At the Gates is a fantasy game taking place in the world of Gaia with over the top stories about a motley crew of heroes trying to save the world. At the Gates is a love letter to RPG games like Final Fantasy VII & IX, Chrono Trigger and Dragon Quest series just to cite a few. Magic is everywhere.

The action takes place on the continent of Everend with 7 nations and the surrounding Outlands.

The 7 nations were in a relative stable situation until a year ago, Virtrumaria summoned a daemon that destroyed the border mountains leading to Invesse and are getting ready for a large scale invasion.
Nobody knew of the existence of Daemon until a year ago and from the research found by the other nations, Daemons come from Outlands where gates between their world and Gaia allow them to come and interact with the people of Gaia.

It's currently an arms race between the nations for Daemon summoning research as they possess incredible powers.


Short summary of the 7 nations:

Caparanite is a nation of hardy people who have carved a living out of harsh tundra. Orydonia is conversely a relatively peaceful nation of farmers and crafters who have tamed bountiful lands. The Federation of Eves is a group of island nations who recently won their independence and struggle to find an identity in continental politics. Invesse is an isolated nation that is dealing with its first ever invasion. Selacha is a confederation of rich coastal city-states who have banded together for mutual defense. Talpidium sits in the highest mountain range on Everend and boasts some of the best metalsmiths anywhere. Vitrumaria is a nation of determined people who have learned to tame the desert and now, daemons.


The game will start in The Federation of Eves but your character be from anywhere.

We will start with this story seed:

A Selachan pirate ship has been raiding aid ships headed towards Invesse. While the raids are happening in Invessan waters, they are only targeting Evesian ships. The government is unsure of how to handle the situation, unwilling to embroil themselves in an international issue with a nation already at war. You are a group of adventurers willing to step in and stop those raids.


When you make a character for At the Gates, you choose 3 paths:

Your Heritage, basically where you grew up and its impact on your life.
Paths: Caparan, Evesian, Exile, Invessan, Orydonian, Nomad, Selachan, Talpidian and Vitrumarian.


Your Upbringing, its the kind of life your character lived.
Paths: Artisan, Bootstrapped, Civil, Child of the World*, Defender, Faithful, Folk Medicine, Hunter, Legacy, Merchant and Raiders.

* Note that all characters no matter how they look are humans, the biological features/aesthethics can take inspiration from the land or animals, Child of the World just decides to take advantage of these features but you can be a frog warlord or just have some minor features with any paths combination.

Your Profession which is the role in the group:

Diviner: The healer/support with magic, study soul and mind.

Harrier: They are good at mobility and manipulating people.

Mage: While everybody can use magic on Gaia, a mage has focused their entire study on using the full power of Magic.

Warlord: Master of leadership and combat tactics, essentially protecting allies while intimidating foes.

Warrior: devoted to weapon and combat mastery, overwhelming obstacle with strength, not just physical.

It is currently in manuscript form and not all the chapters are out but well by next week should have most chapters to do create your character can already do most of it except the Arts, it is just a thread to gauge interest first and this will definitely be my first time to run, a group of 4 is probably ideal and I'm sure you have questions, so shoot and don't be shy.

 

[morcetyx]

Got my eye on Diviner I can't wait for the lore drop. I would love to know more about the different upbringings and how they relate to your world. Also lots of questions about how heavy into tabletop mechanics this will be, and things like will this by post by post or over discord voice situation?

 

[Cottonmouth]

Got my eye on Diviner I can't wait for the lore drop. I would love to know more about the different upbringings and how they relate to your world. Also lots of questions about how heavy into tabletop mechanics this will be, and things like will this by post by post or over discord voice situation?

Hey there well glad to hear, the short version you can be any upbringing in any of the nations:

The system is relatively easy, essentially you roll d10, 8 and above is a hit, 10s counts as 2 hits. You usually have to beat a difficulty and complications so you use your hits to overcome the difficulty of the actions and buy tricks. There are more to it but that's the basic.

Each path essentially allows you to allocate attribute dots, skill dots and give you a perk (in the case of most heritage you get to pick between 2 perks options) while in upbringing, only one upbringing allows you to pick between 1 option between two perks.

For example let say, you wanted your character to have a Raider upbringing, maybe your diviner was raised on the fringe of society and had to steal and do crimes to get their food/shelter until they became a diviner and still have some skills from these days:

Attributes: Physical 3, Social 1 (means that how many dots you get to distribute in each attribute arena: like physical is Strength, Dexterity and Stamina for example)
Skills: Athletics, Larceny, Pilot (you get to spend 3 skill points however you want for the 3 following skills, so you could let say do 2 dots in Larceny and 1 dot in Athletics)

Now as part of being of your raider upbringing you get the following abilities:

Pilfer: You have a habit of picking up things that don’t belong to you. Once per session, you may take a single item from another character without rolling for an action. This item must be small enough to hide on your person. You cannot use this to take an item out of someone’s hand or take an item that is directly being observed or handled.

Throwing: You’re trained in using throwing weapons, giving you a precision that startles others. You may use your Athletics Skill when throwing a weapon. Additionally, you may purchase all Close Combat Tricks with your thrown weapon, except Breakup Grapple and Establish Grapple.

As you can see from the above, it gives you some abilities to affect the world and that's one path among the 3 paths that you can choose, your heritage will give you more perks and picking the profession (diviner) also gives you magic abilities, arts, skills, attributes too and starting gear.

So your basic setup could be:

Heritage: (Pick a nationality that you like) if you want some information on nations and the likes will be happy to oblige of course or if you are looking for something specific you can ask and can tell which one could correspond more to what you are looking for.
Upbringing: Raider
Profession: Diviner

Now on top of all that, you could say your diviner is a Rabbit human which again is mostly just aesthetic and you can look like whatever type of humans using features from the land or animals.

Currently only thinking of doing post by post. I will of course help and guide with character creation and do my best to make the character that you want to play.

 

[Whimstories]

Hello there! I would like to join your role, if you'll allow. I've been roleplaying for years and love character development and world building. I'm fairly new to TTRPG and dice checks, aside from the basics I learned from BG3. Regardless, I hope that I can help bring some enjoyment to your team!

If we're going for more roleplay over strategy, then I'd like to sign up as a Harrier or Mage.
Or, if it's going to be more strategy based, then a warrior could be fun as well.

Please feel free to ask any questions!

 

[Cottonmouth]

Hello there! I would like to join your role, if you'll allow. I've been roleplaying for years and love character development and world building. I'm fairly new to TTRPG and dice checks, aside from the basics I learned from BG3. Regardless, I hope that I can help bring some enjoyment to your team!

If we're going for more roleplay over strategy, then I'd like to sign up as a Harrier or Mage.
Or, if it's going to be more strategy based, then a warrior could be fun as well.

Please feel free to ask any questions!

You are more than welcome, the game will definitely be final fantasy like and tomorrow is even the release for the martial arts techniques and magic chapter, so pretty much we have everything to make a character.

It's all good being new is not a problem and will guide you through the process, try to think up of what kind of character you want to play. The job you start with, is just the beginning, you are able to pick side job as well and advancement job, so in general don't stress too much about your initial choice. Think of it, as what you want your character to be overall and there are room to get more from other jobs etc...

 

[Whimstories]

Wonderful! And thank you for a speedy response! I have a few characters in mind that could work. As for planning and going forward will there be a specific place to do so? Like another chat group/room, or here? Also feel free to DM me if that's easier.

 

[Cottonmouth]

Wonderful! And thank you for a speedy response! I have a few characters in mind that could work. As for planning and going forward will there be a specific place to do so? Like another chat group/room, or here? Also feel free to DM me if that's easier.

It's totally fine to do here, of course think about your concept and the likes. We can get started with the paths, just won't be able to the techniques/magic until at least sometime tomorrow and if you have questions about the world etc...shoot of course. I'll be around and will try to respond ASAP.