Introduction, interest check, recruitment
JasonSanjo
Your Overlord and Jester
Hey all!
Long ramble ahead, apologies in advance.
I've been keeping a project on the backburner: a quest, with the placeholder name of Mystery Falls. Basically it's going to be a paranormal conspiracy/mystery quest set in a large town (population ~50,000) somewhere in the northern U.S. (exact state to be determined, currently leaning toward Oregon or Washington).
There will be multiple mysteries both large and small, and depending on the MC's chosen background (yes, there will be a character creation portion at the beginning rather than me just providing a pre-made MC) some may or may not be directly involved with why the character is newly arrived in town.
For example, if the character's chosen background is as an FBI agent, then their reason for being in town in the first place will be to investigate one of the mysteries. Regardless of the reason for their presence, however, they will encounter multiple mysteries of varying size/length and severity. Whether you, as the MC, actually investigate them personally will depend on both your chosen background and your choices during gameplay. And yes - choosing not to investigate a particular, hinted-at mystery will see said mystery proceeding on its own in the background without your involvement, which may or may not impact you later on. Ignored mysteries will not be frozen in time until you get around to them. At the same time, though, take care not to spread yourself too thin!
The world itself will be a live-action or "realistic" mirror of our own Earth with mostly normal physics outside of the paranormal stuff, so no, don't expect anime or cartoon physics or the like, nor the exaggerated live-action stuff you might see in the likes of the MCU or The Boys.
Oh yeah, the paranormal stuff. The world will feature things you might expect from the realms of ghosts, aliens, cryptids, conspiracy theories (both real and imagined), and more. The overall setting and story will be mostly "serious", however not overly gritty, and there will be humor and plain oddities here and there.
Inspirations include, but are not limited to:
Primary: Twin Peaks, The X-Files.
Secondary: Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Stranger Things, King Falls AM, H.P. Lovecraft.
Tertiary: Scooby-Doo, Gravity Falls, The Twilight Zone, Welcome to Night Vale, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
The quest will be set sometime during the 1990s, so there will be cell phones but not smart phones. Just FYI.
The game mechanics will be fairly light and the quest as a whole will hinge more on role-play and choices in the vein of a choose-your-own-adventure or interactive novel. However, there will still be dice rolls and the like, and they will be split into two types: event rolls and skill rolls. The event rolls are essentially luck or random chance rolls that, in most instances, won't be affected by your skills but rather by the choices you've made influencing the likelihood of events occurring in a certain way or at all. Skill rolls, on the other hand, will be done using your "skills"... which are determined by something I like to call "archetypes".
Archetypes in this case work very similar to how things work in the likes of the Fate or Risus RPGs. Basically, you pick an archetype to represent a set of related skills, and whenever you're in a situation that uses one of those skills you get a set number of bonus dice depending on how relevant the situation is to the archetype in question, typically ranging from 1 to 3.
Let's look at two related archetypes: Hunter and Boy Scout. There is a lot of overlap between these two, but they do have somewhat different specialties.
Let's say you are in a survival situation in the woods - you need to make a base camp from existing materials and with the limited tools at your disposal. The Hunter archetype might then get +2 dice, whereas the Boy Scout gets +3, being more deeply specialized in survival.
Taking the same two archetypes, let's say you need to track down a wounded animal. In this situation, the Hunter might get +3 dice while the Boy Scout gets +2.
Taking the same two archetypes yet again: You need to use your hunting rifle to take down the wounded animal. The Hunter might get +3 dice, but the Boy Scout might only get +1 die.
In all cases, there is the possibility of bonus dice because of good roleplaying or previous decision-making (e.g. making preparations for the situation beforehand), again typically ranging from +1 to +3.
Additionally, if the MC has overlapping archetypes (in the context of the situation), then they will pick the archetype that provides the largest number of dice and then get an additional +1 die per each additional overlapping archetype. Taking the above Boy Scout and Hunter as the example, if the MC has both he might pick Hunter for tracking down a wounded animal to get +3 dice and then Boy Scout for an additional +1 die.
Oh yeah, and you always get 1 die as a base no matter what. Take note, however, that the scope of your success is determined by the number of successful dice rolls, so someone with more bonus dice always has a chance of a greater or more thorough success than someone with fewer dice.
As the GM/QM, however, I can always rule that a lack of a relevant archetype in a given context means you cannot possibly succeed no matter what (If the MC is someone who's never studied any kind of medicine nor picked up a scalpel in their life, they're not going to succeed at neurosurgery, sorry).
Now, technically, you can still attempt an action in spite of the above... However, if you do, it will be determined by an event roll with what is likely to be a nigh-impossibly high difficulty (That aforementioned neurosurgery? Yeah, 99% chance of critical failure with horrendous results, basically).
In summary:
Base: 1 die
Archetype: 1-3 dice
Archetype overlap: 1 die per additional overlapping archetype
Roleplay/Preparation: 1-3 dice
Actions will be determined by voting, which may be further nuanced by player discussion before the action is carried out. Typically I will be providing a number of pre-made options, with players being allowed to make additional write-ins if desired. Discussion is highly encouraged, and as mentioned good roleplaying or just good ideas can earn you bonus dice.
One other thing: Since I'm not myself a resident of the U.S., I will certainly get things wrong in regards to U.S. culture, society and local laws. When this happens, please inform me so that I may make corrections accordingly. This also applies to any technical subject with which I am not personally familiar. Thanks!
Oh, and a word of warning... You can die in this quest. How likely death is, however, is largely determined by your choices and archetypes, and in most situations it will be made clear if a given situation is dangerous or unknown to the MC, giving you plenty of warning beforehand. Some of the mysteries will only feature the risk of death if you make multiple bone-headed decisions in a row, whereas others will be potentially lethal no matter what (Get into a shootout with an armed gang? Yeah, you're only gonna be able to mitigate the risk of death, not nullify it entirely). Should the MC die you will have the choice of picking up the quest with a new MC, who can either be an NPC encountered by the previous MC or an entirely newly-generated MC (Perhaps someone investigating the old MC's death?).
Oh yeah, and one more word of warning: Due to IRL constraints, I cannot promise super-frequent updates. If there is interest, however, I will try to update as often as possible.
Yet another word of warning: This is my first time running a forum quest, so please do expect me to mess up how the forum mechanics work every now and then.
Long ramble ahead, apologies in advance.
I've been keeping a project on the backburner: a quest, with the placeholder name of Mystery Falls. Basically it's going to be a paranormal conspiracy/mystery quest set in a large town (population ~50,000) somewhere in the northern U.S. (exact state to be determined, currently leaning toward Oregon or Washington).
There will be multiple mysteries both large and small, and depending on the MC's chosen background (yes, there will be a character creation portion at the beginning rather than me just providing a pre-made MC) some may or may not be directly involved with why the character is newly arrived in town.
For example, if the character's chosen background is as an FBI agent, then their reason for being in town in the first place will be to investigate one of the mysteries. Regardless of the reason for their presence, however, they will encounter multiple mysteries of varying size/length and severity. Whether you, as the MC, actually investigate them personally will depend on both your chosen background and your choices during gameplay. And yes - choosing not to investigate a particular, hinted-at mystery will see said mystery proceeding on its own in the background without your involvement, which may or may not impact you later on. Ignored mysteries will not be frozen in time until you get around to them. At the same time, though, take care not to spread yourself too thin!
The world itself will be a live-action or "realistic" mirror of our own Earth with mostly normal physics outside of the paranormal stuff, so no, don't expect anime or cartoon physics or the like, nor the exaggerated live-action stuff you might see in the likes of the MCU or The Boys.
Oh yeah, the paranormal stuff. The world will feature things you might expect from the realms of ghosts, aliens, cryptids, conspiracy theories (both real and imagined), and more. The overall setting and story will be mostly "serious", however not overly gritty, and there will be humor and plain oddities here and there.
Inspirations include, but are not limited to:
Primary: Twin Peaks, The X-Files.
Secondary: Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Stranger Things, King Falls AM, H.P. Lovecraft.
Tertiary: Scooby-Doo, Gravity Falls, The Twilight Zone, Welcome to Night Vale, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
The quest will be set sometime during the 1990s, so there will be cell phones but not smart phones. Just FYI.
The game mechanics will be fairly light and the quest as a whole will hinge more on role-play and choices in the vein of a choose-your-own-adventure or interactive novel. However, there will still be dice rolls and the like, and they will be split into two types: event rolls and skill rolls. The event rolls are essentially luck or random chance rolls that, in most instances, won't be affected by your skills but rather by the choices you've made influencing the likelihood of events occurring in a certain way or at all. Skill rolls, on the other hand, will be done using your "skills"... which are determined by something I like to call "archetypes".
Archetypes in this case work very similar to how things work in the likes of the Fate or Risus RPGs. Basically, you pick an archetype to represent a set of related skills, and whenever you're in a situation that uses one of those skills you get a set number of bonus dice depending on how relevant the situation is to the archetype in question, typically ranging from 1 to 3.
Let's look at two related archetypes: Hunter and Boy Scout. There is a lot of overlap between these two, but they do have somewhat different specialties.
Let's say you are in a survival situation in the woods - you need to make a base camp from existing materials and with the limited tools at your disposal. The Hunter archetype might then get +2 dice, whereas the Boy Scout gets +3, being more deeply specialized in survival.
Taking the same two archetypes, let's say you need to track down a wounded animal. In this situation, the Hunter might get +3 dice while the Boy Scout gets +2.
Taking the same two archetypes yet again: You need to use your hunting rifle to take down the wounded animal. The Hunter might get +3 dice, but the Boy Scout might only get +1 die.
In all cases, there is the possibility of bonus dice because of good roleplaying or previous decision-making (e.g. making preparations for the situation beforehand), again typically ranging from +1 to +3.
Additionally, if the MC has overlapping archetypes (in the context of the situation), then they will pick the archetype that provides the largest number of dice and then get an additional +1 die per each additional overlapping archetype. Taking the above Boy Scout and Hunter as the example, if the MC has both he might pick Hunter for tracking down a wounded animal to get +3 dice and then Boy Scout for an additional +1 die.
Oh yeah, and you always get 1 die as a base no matter what. Take note, however, that the scope of your success is determined by the number of successful dice rolls, so someone with more bonus dice always has a chance of a greater or more thorough success than someone with fewer dice.
As the GM/QM, however, I can always rule that a lack of a relevant archetype in a given context means you cannot possibly succeed no matter what (If the MC is someone who's never studied any kind of medicine nor picked up a scalpel in their life, they're not going to succeed at neurosurgery, sorry).
Now, technically, you can still attempt an action in spite of the above... However, if you do, it will be determined by an event roll with what is likely to be a nigh-impossibly high difficulty (That aforementioned neurosurgery? Yeah, 99% chance of critical failure with horrendous results, basically).
In summary:
Base: 1 die
Archetype: 1-3 dice
Archetype overlap: 1 die per additional overlapping archetype
Roleplay/Preparation: 1-3 dice
Actions will be determined by voting, which may be further nuanced by player discussion before the action is carried out. Typically I will be providing a number of pre-made options, with players being allowed to make additional write-ins if desired. Discussion is highly encouraged, and as mentioned good roleplaying or just good ideas can earn you bonus dice.
One other thing: Since I'm not myself a resident of the U.S., I will certainly get things wrong in regards to U.S. culture, society and local laws. When this happens, please inform me so that I may make corrections accordingly. This also applies to any technical subject with which I am not personally familiar. Thanks!
Oh, and a word of warning... You can die in this quest. How likely death is, however, is largely determined by your choices and archetypes, and in most situations it will be made clear if a given situation is dangerous or unknown to the MC, giving you plenty of warning beforehand. Some of the mysteries will only feature the risk of death if you make multiple bone-headed decisions in a row, whereas others will be potentially lethal no matter what (Get into a shootout with an armed gang? Yeah, you're only gonna be able to mitigate the risk of death, not nullify it entirely). Should the MC die you will have the choice of picking up the quest with a new MC, who can either be an NPC encountered by the previous MC or an entirely newly-generated MC (Perhaps someone investigating the old MC's death?).
Oh yeah, and one more word of warning: Due to IRL constraints, I cannot promise super-frequent updates. If there is interest, however, I will try to update as often as possible.
Yet another word of warning: This is my first time running a forum quest, so please do expect me to mess up how the forum mechanics work every now and then.
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