Fandom Gladius: A Multi-Fandom RP- OOC

[Shining Wizard]

The Mad Queen So hey, what happened to Alva's Detect Life (60 Feet) thing? Is there some weird story reason why she's reacting like she couldn't tell all of a sudden?
EDIT: And actually wouldn't getting on a spaceship be super bad for her and probably kill her outright?

Also just so everyone's on the same page a Zaku's crew compartment is in the torso, so it's more like the escape pod would have bisected it entirely. Kudos to DrBones for moving that along so fast btw we're actually going at a really good clip now.

 

[Specialist]

Waiting on Sleek .

 

[The Mad Queen]

The Mad Queen So hey, what happened to Alva's Detect Life (60 Feet) thing? Is there some weird story reason why she's reacting like she couldn't tell all of a sudden?
EDIT: And actually wouldn't getting on a spaceship be super bad for her and probably kill her outright?

She has to reach out and focus for that to work, she's an RPG character so this required successful rolls with a failure meaning she was unable to focus on the heartbeats of living creatures. Needless to say, it's difficult to focus if you've got a giant mecha trying to kill you.

Getting on a ship and leaving could be very bad, yes but so would staying on the Citadel. If she found a ship that could keep plantlife alive (and brought it with her) there's a chance of survival. That's not the case on the Citadel what with the Zeons out for her blood.

 

[Freshet]

Sleek - Yeah people are waiting for you pal, before they can do some stuff.

 

[Shining Wizard]

The Mad Queen I can't name a single RPG where sensory functions would just randomly crap out on you, but I guess that Bump Inc thing must be something really special. What's the system's basis, anyway?

 

[The Mad Queen]

The Mad Queen I can't name a single RPG where sensory functions would just randomly crap out on you, but I guess that Bump Inc thing must be something really special. What's the system's basis, anyway?

It was a custom D20 someone in our tabletop group made. It was by no means perfect and went through several iterations before being properly balanced out. Apparently a new version is being run today (was rebooted when universe got destroyed) but I'm not part of that group anymore so I wouldn't know what shape it's in.

This sheet is from pre-reboot, the balanced out edition Alva was in. This was another character I played. DM still has sheets for Alva and other characters but as we're not on speaking terms atm I can't really get them off her but I am going by memory as to what abilities she has.

Basically, you had your base stats and some special abilities but could create new abilities as well as improve old ones (and skills) using XP. New abilities cost a heck of a lot and required DM approval. This character in particular was a cybernetic Vampire hunter with a chip in her shoulder. Now i had considered playing her in this RP but her storyline was pretty much finished whereas Alva was introduced late into the game and never got a chance to be explored as much as Davenport or my other character from the game.

In terms of the system, there were a few types of classes, Agent (above), Powered (supernatural powers), Turned (Vampires, Werewolves), Slasher (Michael Myers type), Reanimated Corpse (zombies and some types of Vampire depending), Ghost, Charmer (Hannibal Lecter) and Assassin. Base stats were the same but abilities were different.

Turned had transformation, humanity and other kin. The other kin ability was their connection to things relating to them. A Werewolf would have dogs, a Vampire might have other undead and in Alva's case it was Fey and nature related stuff.
Transformation spoke for itself and humanity was about maintaining control. If they lost control they would switch into their other form and be under the control of the DM until they could make a successful humanity roll.

The agent sheet, courage speaks for itself (how much you can endure when facing supernatural monsters), respect was a charisma thing where you had reputation with the organisation so could command respect. More used for intimidation if anything, and finally there's experience which was a knowledge thing.
Agents weren't as powerful as the other type of classes but they had a various number of other advantages such as being able to access classified data, being in control of the notorious shock-collars and so on. That kind of play-style did encourage some players to abuse their authority though (especially with one guy, but he was an ass) so the DM eventually got rid of that particular mechanic.

 

[zontar]

So quick thing- that sheet isn’t for the D20 style sustems, I think you may have been lied to.

 

[The Mad Queen]

So quick thing- that sheet isn’t for the D20 style sustems, I think you may have been lied to.

She said she found the outline for a sheet online and we just used D20 dices for the system (again, that is the reworked sheet as we had previously been using D20s) I don't think it was her lying, more that she just didn't really know what she was doing going in (first time running a game and she decided to just make her own system rather than learn one). After all, the entire system was reworked like 3 times before it was properly balanced and then it was rebooted with some new changes.

She also had help from an experienced DM in balancing character abilities, enemies and the like as at first it was pretty broken. Key words being at first.

EDIT: Outside of one bad player who had something against me it was a good run, especially after it was tweaked. Game ended up having two different DMs in the long run, with the original DM doing a more casual thing with missions and a plot in the background that eventually led to big encounters and the other one (the more experienced guy who'd helped her balance things) told a more conspiracy based big story thing involving Eldritch horror and the like (he did do the campaign that led to the universe being destroyed as part of the reboot as well).
I'd like to have seen where the story would have gone post-reboot but sadly I had to leave the group of my own accord. Currently I run D&D on Tuesdays with a wonderful group and I keep in touch with some of the Bump Inc players so it's not that big a loss in the long run.

 

[Specialist]

'Fore I post again, I don't just wanna abandon Sleek unless I'm positive they're going to return shortly.

 

[Ennuis]

Specialist
Going by what he said in the discord, he has no idea when/if he's going to post.

 

[Specialist]

Shoot; I don't think I'm a part of the Discord. Also has anyone heard from Rysesaka ? And I've a quick idea for my next post; I'll have that up by tomorrow morning. Thank you for the information Ennuis !

 

[Shining Wizard]

The Mad Queen Sounds cool, yeah.
How do contested actions resolve in Bump Inc?

 

[The Mad Queen]

Shoot; I don't think I'm a part of the Discord. Also has anyone heard from Rysesaka ? And I've a quick idea for my next post; I'll have that up by tomorrow morning. Thank you for the information Ennuis !

Breezy mentioned they'd be busy for a while as well. They did say about trying to get a post up on Monday or Tuesday but wasn't sure.

The Mad Queen Sounds cool, yeah.
How do contested actions resolve in Bump Inc?

Depending on the ability, the players would roll the skill. Endurance would be for more physical stuff like taking a hit or being poisoned while intelligence was for mental effects such as mind control. Stealth and perception were the opposed skills of each other (rolling perception to beat someone's stealth roll) and the like.

 

[Shining Wizard]

The Mad Queen So it's just d20 + stat for everything?
I mean, it's nominally a system, yeah. But if that's the case, then what function do the classes serve?

 

[The Mad Queen]

The Mad Queen So it's just d20 + stat for everything?
I mean, it's nominally a system, yeah. But if that's the case, then what function do the classes serve?

Yup.
Classes had some district differences with each being better at particular things. The Assassin speaks for itself, a very stealth-based class. The Assassin in our group was pretty much invisible for most of the game to the point where we though he was dead in the finale until he wished for something that was basically a running joke to be implemented in the new universe. Assassins had lower endurance though making them kinda glassy much like your D&D Rogues. High damage, high stealth but can be killed by a gust of wind.

The Brute and Turned were more physical, your tanks more or less although the Brutes suffered from low intelligence based rolls and the Turned had a chance of losing control to balance them.

The Trap Master (one of the slasher types) was your grown up Kevin from Home Alone. High intelligence, good at disarming traps, setting them and outsmarting opponents but suffered from disadvantages physical wise. Given the two most notable trap masters in media (outside of Predator) are a child and a cancer patient this makes a whole lot of sense.

The Charmer (Hannibal Lecter and another slasher type) could potentially mind control opponents if their stats were high enough but like the Trap Master had lower physical stats. I'd say they are the bastard child of 5th edition Bards and Killgrave from Jessica Jones.

The Walking Corpse was similar to the Brute but had some differences. For one, their endurance was lower but their intelligence higher. Nobody used this class during the time I played the game so I never got to see it's potential.

The Powered was a more vague class, where the character had a supernatural ability such as summoning or having elemental powers. Skills were mixed but they were balanced by having several rolls. One to active the power, one to see how powerful it would be and one to not lose control. This led to some funny scenarios as the notable one in our group had the ability to summon items (and later on, living things). One time he tried to summon a tank and ended up summoning a fish-tank for instance.
Kinda like your 5e Chaos Magic but for an entire class. Nobody ever became a plant pot from what I know.
I played a Powered in one session of the reboot who was an exorcist.

The Ghosts were your scouts. They couldn't really do a lot of damage without possessing something/someone or using telekinesis but outside of supernatural means couldn't really be hurt. We had two ghosts in our group though one sort of dropped in and out of sessions.

Finally, the agent. Your bread and butter class. The leader of the team of supernaturals who had access to gadgets, hidden details and the notorious shock-collars to keep the other non-agents in line. Yeah, the collars were a problem so the DM eventually nerfed them and introduced a means of other players getting rid of them permanently.
If you give the players a means of being a dick for no reason without repercussions then rest assured they'll abuse it. I think the collars were done away with altogether in the hard reboot but I wouldn't know as I only played like one session of it.

 

[Shining Wizard]

The Mad Queen But how did you actually implement these differences given it's just flat stat + d20 for everything?

 

[The Mad Queen]

The Mad Queen But how did you actually implement these differences given it's just flat stat + d20 for everything?

Adding and subtracting from rolls, advantages, disadvantages and things costing more with XP points. For example, it would be a lot more expensive for say, a Brute to buy intelligence points with XP than an Agent, and a Trap Master could actually get a discount.
The Brute would get minus or even an outright disadvantage (roll twice, take lower result) on intelligence rolls while a Trap Master would get the same on strength rolls.

 

[Shining Wizard]

The Mad Queen But earlier on in the conversation you said that all XP costs were worked out on a one-to-one basis by the GM, so how would people get discounts to XP costs?

EDIT: Also how did Alva make a root grow out of seamless, solid metal in a tunnel that is explicitly beneath the outer rim of a space station and is thus not actually anywhere near soil or plants, anyway? Is she carrying seeds with her or something?

 

[Freshet]

Man, Simon the Clawbug truly is a perfect killer. No one even questions her alibi or the many hole marks noting that they were responsible for good chunk of the bodies while gypsies were mostly roughing people up (ie. not outright murder) and spooking them.

 

[The Mad Queen]

The Mad Queen But earlier on in the conversation you said that all XP costs were worked out on a one-to-one basis by the GM, so how would people get discounts to XP costs?

EDIT: Also how did Alva make a root grow out of seamless, solid metal in a tunnel that is explicitly beneath the outer rim of a space station and is thus not actually anywhere near soil or plants, anyway? Is she carrying seeds with her or something?

Sorry I wasn't clear. When I said the one-to-one basis thing was for abilities, I meant new, custom abilities players came up with. On the sheet I posted there are two abilities listed "Upload" and "Nanite Surge" and both required the one-on-one thing while all other xp points didn't require approval, just xp given by the DM for completing missions and the like. There was also an xp pool for new characters so that they wouldn't be too far behind.

Also, I made an edit to that post given it didn't make much sense now that you mention it.

 

[Shining Wizard]

The Mad Queen To be honest the resolution on that picture is so absurdly tiny as to make everything after the stats unreadable. But wasn't this supposed to be Alva's sheet?
And I've never heard of a game having XP set aside for mid-campaign additions, since most have rules for starting at higher grades from character creation.
So XP was given purely for the completion of an adventure and disconnected from role/activity/accomplishments, then?

 

[The Mad Queen]

The Mad Queen But wasn't this supposed to be Alva's sheet?
And I've never heard of a game having XP set aside for mid-campaign additions, since most have rules for starting at higher grades from character creation.
So XP was given purely for the completion of an adventure and disconnected from role/activity/accomplishments, then?

No, like I said I can't get Alva's sheet as the DM and I aren't on speaking terms but posted a sheet of an older character an an example of the system.
XP was given out for completing missions/adventures but would occasionally be rewarded for other things such as activity and accomplishments.

 

[Shining Wizard]

The Mad Queen Is there a reason you don't actually keep your own character sheets, by the by? Because I have all of mine in a file. It seems weird to have to contact your DM whenever you want to see your own guy that you made yourself. That being said, if you played the exorcist one game, and this guy in another game, then when did you play Alva?
Also, what sort of activities and accomplishments?

 

[The Mad Queen]

The Mad Queen Is there a reason you don't actually keep your own character sheets, by the by? Because I have all of mine in a file. It seems weird to have to contact your DM whenever you want to see your own guy that you made yourself. That being said, if you played the exorcist one game, and this guy in another game, then when did you play Alva?
Also, what sort of activities and accomplishments?

I've forgotten to bring my own file with me on a few occasions, so I entrust DMs with my own character sheets. I have a file for character sheets in a few games I run but with the Tuesday group they bring their own given I have to carry several books, a laptop, two notebooks full 'a notes, a DM screen (5e), counters and a big ol' marker for a grid map. I also told them it would be better if they kept their own in case I forgot one week. Given the distance between where the game is run and where my house is it's not like I can pop out for 30 minutes and pick things up.

I swapped between several characters in between missions. I had Davenport (the sheet above), Noodles (another character mentioned in Alva's backstory) and Alva for the older game, while I made the exorcist for the hard reboot of the world and system. Basically Bump Inc had a big HQ where all the characters more or less lived so people could swap between the multiple characters they made.
The game had two DMs, with one other guy running the odd mission so I tried to have a separate character for each as they were all very different. The creator of the game had more relaxed missions so I used Alva, the more experienced DM went full Suicide Squad/Task Force X (the comics) so I used Noodles and for the 3rd guy I used Davenport as it was a mixed bag.

In terms of the activities and the like, outside of missions (in which you gained more XP for how successful you were) there was HQ related stuff like helping NPCs out of jams, solving mysteries and so on.

 

[Shining Wizard]

The Mad Queen But what does the gear you take to your weekly game have to do with your character sheets from several unrelated games in the past that you apparently only had one copy of the character sheets for and gave to your GM? I mean, all that really does is highlight to me that you know how much a GM takes to a game, so why would you make them keep track of your character sheet too? That just seems like a dick move.
Also, for how many sessions did this run, exactly? Because this seems like a really complicated setup you had for such a basic system.