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Inheritance of mana- OVA campaign idea

Posted: Tue Jun 23, 2015 8:59 am
by Cloud
Hello fellow shelled warriors! My other campaign is on hold as the players that were most interested in that setting are busy. Though I have another ova campaign that I have been working off and on for about a year now. It began as a project for besm 3rd edition however I converted it to OVA. This is a fantasy setting inspired by classic video games such as secret of mana or breath of fire.

My elevator pitch goes as follows:
"Three powerful forces once battled to determine the fate of the world and even existence. The teeming darkness aka the dark blot commands the forces of chaos, whose goal is to consume reality. Auraluin the shield goddesss commands the forces of light, her goal is to save reality from the darkness. Finally, Golvellius the sword god whom once was the counterpart of Auraluin; now corrupted forms the forces of madness. These three forces and their allies fought terrible battles that shook our small world. In fact, the climax of this epic battle happened just 300 years ago! The leaders of each force have disappeared, ending the age and giving birth to the modern era. But things are not all peaceful in this world today, as each side still remains and continues fighting on their leader's behalf.

In this world, elements are central to one's way of life. Mana imbues this world and its people have varying levels of competency in its use. People that are just slightly gifted are forced into mana labor in order to provide goods and services to those whom have a greater connection to mana. Those with a greater gift are expected to help by joining guilds in order to protect the weak.

In this world, you are a member of an adventurers guild. The guilds of the world work together as a whole to help society, while gaining fame for their guild and perhaps building a name for one's self. Perhaps your goals are more Nobel, and you wish to seek change for those of lower station. Perhaps your goals are more personal and you wish to become the best swordsman of the age. Whatever your goals may be, there is something that makes you stand out from the rest. Player characters can through play unlock a special gift, known as inheritance that bonds to their very soul and grants them the power they need to achieve their goals or they can squander it all through bad choices. How will you use your inheritance?
"
My main reason for posting this is that I need assistance in helping design my fantasy races. My design goal in race creation is that abilities and weaknesses must be something not related to personality types as I believe in nature vs nurture. That said, here are the races I have for player characters.

I have pasted my character creation rules below
Ova character creation
Power Ceiling- 5 points for abilities . 10 additional points can be gained through weaknesses.

Combined effectiveness is going to be enforced slightly differently. It will begin at 5 but events can occur that will cause it to increase, but not for everyone.

Abilities are capped to 3 during creation. Some abilities will have some restrictions. They are listed below. Note that some restrictions are enforced for niche protection.

Inventor-only one player character can have this. Probably an ace at magicka technology

Minions-only one player character can have this. This is flavored as summoning spirits or creatures.

Teleport-not available in this game.

Time freeze- only one player character can get this. if they chose it, they will have to get endurance use or limited disabilities for taking it (disabilities do not grant extra points)

Unique ability – will have to be discussed before play.

Ability notes- some abilities such as magic and walking arsenal may slow the game down as the player can reconfigure things. I will let you make 3 predefined spells/items and allow you to create a new permanent spell/item after every few episodes.

Weakness restrictions- character weaknesses are taken to create a unique hero that has their own flaws. That said, many of these are based on personalities. Please make a hero you would find interesting and would root for despite their flaws. A character made that is utterly unlikable would probably be axed in a show or left on the cutting room floor so expect the same to be done for this game.

Perks-some perks are quite powerful and can lead to some powerful combos. If you find one that works, great but I expect it to make thematic sense with the world and expect powerful techniques to have very limiting flaws such as 1 time use. I expect that each person will chose an element and many of their supernatural techniques are typed to that element.

Flaws-these are normally fine and are used to limit powerful techniques. Inventive usage of a technique’s flaws can lead to some narrative perks and added flavor.

Playable races
All races except for human cost you one point to play. They come with built in abilities and weaknesses that cannot be bought off with abilities. Feel free to create your own.

Human
Humans are like regular everyday people. Because of the mana charged setting, humans can have any hair or eye color and unlike the witcher series, can be of any planet Earth skin tone.

Sprite
Sprites are a part of the fey race. They are smaller humanoids, reaching about four and a half feet in maturity. They have a longer life span than humans, reaching old age at 100, some live up to 150 years. They have long ears as with many of the fey race. They have human like faces with a wide variety of hair and eye colors. Many of them have multi colored hair, ranging from pastels to deep colors and within those an unlimited color combination. Sprites often are very magical in nature, tending to favor magically active professions such as magical labor or magicians. All sprites that are serious about martial combat will utilize their internal magical energies towards mastering their art. Sprites in general tend to have a more optimistic  outlook in life and love life. They are first to begin conflict with anyone that threatens peace. When the city of light was used most recently, many of the sprite peoples were sacrificed to fuel the weapon. There are a few still available in the world but not near as many as there were before.

abilities- heightened sense- hearing, sight 2, vigorous 3

Weaknesses-Bizzare appearance 1- no mistaking what you are… awkward size 2 (sprites are about the size of human children, making their way through a world built for humans and other taller species can be challenging sometimes.) Agism 1 – many other species always refer to you as a child.

Gob
Gob in this setting are the relatives of sprites. Gob tend to have a knack for getting into trouble. Their inquisitive minds lead them to be natural travelers.  Gob tend to have green, purple, brown, tan or lighter skin. Their skin is often rough to the touch. They tend to have long ears and noses with thick course hair. Males tend to shave their hair bald or wear intricate cuts, with spots being longer in one place than the other. Females often vary their hair styles wildly. Many female Gob are into cosmetics. The cosmetic appreciation often makes them both the ultimate allies and rivals of Sprite women. Gob live for a long time, often reaching 200 years old before old age. Gob reach maturity rather quickly, reaching physical maturity about the same rate as a human.  Their wanderlust takes them to many locals and their longevity allows them greater freedoms in where they ultimately reside permanently.

abilities- heightened sense- hearing, smell 2

Weaknesses-Bizzare appearance 1- no mistaking what you are… awkward size 2 (Gobs areabout the size of human children, making their way through a world built for humans and other taller species can be challenging sometimes.)

Lamina- *note i took inspiration from both breath of fire and my life with monster girls...
Laminas were created by the dragons during the age of mythology. Laminas are a race of female serpent people. The upper body of a Lamina is that of a human woman. Their lower half is similar to that of a snake. Their skin tones range from brown to a pale skin. Their eye color can be any color as with their hair. Some Laminas may have snake like iris and may have further enhanced sense of sight. Some Lamina have scales on parts of their skin and a Lamina will shed her skin every once and awhile. They have an enhanced sense of smell and taste. Their tongues are strange in that they can stretch out to over half a meter in length. Laminas posses extraordinarily large amounts of physical strength, and their tails have large crushing power as well. Laminas tend to be susceptible to cold environments and weather and tend to avoid areas that have colder climates.
As far as personality goes, Laminas tend to be very passionate. They tend to fall in love quickly and when they fall in love, they fall hard. As such, Lamina are fiercely loyal and will go through great lengths to protect their loved ones. Lamina are physically compatible with humans despite their lower halves. If such a union were to occur, males are born humans while females are born Lamina.

abilities- beautiful 1, heightened sense- smell, taste 2, tough 1, strength 2

Weaknesses-Bizzare appearance 3- Some people have irrational fear of snakes and you are a giant snake woman… Vulnerability: Cold 2

Hawken
Hawken are people of the air. Hawken are much like humans, however they are quite thin and unable to gain much body mass due to the fact that they are built for flight. They have wings attached to their arms that allow them the power of flight. They have a keen sense of sight, able to see far distances with ease. Their bodies however have somewhat less denser bones and are not as hardy as a result. In addition, they tend to have bird like features. An example of this is maybe one hawken will have a long beak like nose. Another perhaps has tuft like hair. Their hair eye and feather colors tend to be on the darker side of the spectrum though sometimes a light shade will appear. As a people, they tend to be iron willed and cautious. They tend to live about as long as normal humans, though sometimes longer. They prefer to live in treetop villages or in mountains, basically anywhere that favors tall places. They were instrumental in providing wartime communications beyond enemy lines and act as good scouts and spies.

abilities- Flight 2, perceptive 2

Weaknesses- Bizzare appearane 1, Frail 2,

Kasaikara
Kasaikara are peoples borne from fire. Their skin tones tend to range from any shade of red, to jet black. Their hair is always long and wavy. Their eye color tends to be of bright colors while their sclera is black. They are about the same size as humans physically. They tend to live about as long as well. Their hands are clawed, giving them a natural weapon. They have a natural talent with the element of fire. Only one known Kasaikara used the element of water. He was known as Hiro Yuki and he was one of the top mercenaries that fought for the forces of light 300 years ago. Many of these peoples were also sacrificed during the final firing of the city of light, however history did not seem to note their sacrifice. As such, they can be quite touchy about the subject as their peoples helped protect the land but noone seems to care. Personality wise, the Kasai tend to be passionate. They wear their emotions on their sleeves. They also tend to be empathetic to others and make great comrades. They are also physically compatible with elves, lamina, and humans, passing random traits to offspring. The offspring will be the race of the mother with physical traits from both.

abilities- attack 1- sharp claw, agile 2, Tough 1, Vigorous 1

Weaknesses-Bizarre appearance 2- vulnerability water element 2

Please help me figure out how to get their abilities to and weaknesses to make sense with each race costing 1 point to play!

If you are interested in this world, I have written a blog that has a ton of details here: https://zalmute.wordpress.com/category/ ... e-of-mana/