INQUISITION

[Lord Calibur]

Hello! Cal here.

Here's the deal: I am new to forum RP. I have lurked for years, and I have GM'd tabletop games for about a decade, but I have never actually run a game via forum.
This PDF I've put together is a miniaturized/simplified rule-set and game explanation I have developed. The rule-set is based on my home-brew rules that I have been using for tabletop games for years. As my emphasis has always been on action scenes and plot, I have naturally found it easier to use my system than D&D or the Hero System.

I ask you all for some assistance. What I want to know is 1) If anyone is interested in this setting, 2) If you think it is necessary to include a complete archive of skills/equipment/etc, and 3) How Forum games normally employ this sort of thing.

Now, before anyone says "Just try joining a game", please understand that I have read a significant number of forum-based RP stories/games. My current thoughts are that most of the dice-rolling type stuff occurs behind the scenes via what this website calls "Conversations". That said, I am not opposed to trying someone else's game before putting this stuff together - I just want as much straight advice/criticism as I can get first. And yes, I do plan fixing up what I have here based on your criticism.

Please read my ridiculous PDF - Warning, my stuff is, as a rule, rated M for Mature for gore/violence, dark subjects, and language. Do you like/morally despise my setting? Are the rules sensible/dumber than salt? I am open to your ideas and criticism!


ULTRA-SHORT EXPLANATION OF INQUISITION:
Modern-day horror setting. You know Men In Black? You know Castlevania? Combine the two, and you get INQUISITION.
Conspiracies, violence, horror, and teamwork are at the core of INQUISITION.

 

[Heyitsjiwon]

May I just say that the system you have is pretty straight forward. I like it. That said, it appears that a lot of the character creation is going to involve communication with the GM, which isn't a problem as long as you're willing to put in the time and effort to see through it all. All in all, if you do end up going ahead with starting this RP, then consider me as one of your first applicants.

 

[Lord Calibur]

Thanks for the feedback, man! Assuming I get more people saying they like this idea, I will definitely run it - in a couple of weeks, at least. (I'm graduating my bachelor degree soon, so - you know.)
My GMing style tends to be extremely involved, so I'm not too worried about expending effort.

If this story happens, I'm thinking the party size would be between 4 and 6 members, all with low-powered characters. (That's the thing about horror as a genre - horror only works if the characters have a degree of powerlessness.) The team would need at least one priest, and I would allow one Were-character and one Half-Vampire (full vampires are too powerful/too crazy). A spell-castor may be alright if the character makes sense. In general, though, a team would be expected to be made up of mostly Humans, albeit skilled ones. If you wanna think up a character, I imagine the ideal team would be:

1 Priest (A psionic is basically necessary no matter how you look at it.)
1 Investigator (Must be human or otherwise not suspicious. Noire-style monologues optional.)
1 Enforcer (Armored, possibly powered, and intimidating.)
1 Magician (Someone who can dispel and provide the magical perspective.)
1 Monstrous (Half-Vampire, Were-Tarantula, some parody of Slenderman - someone who isn't straight-up human.)

Of course, I like it best when everyone surprises me with an unexpectedly effective combo.
Also? Please don't get the idea that you are restricted to the normal monster stuff. For example, you could play a Roaming Possessive Spirit, that hops from suit of armor to suit of armor. You could play a Kitsune spirit (as in a fox-trickster spirit), or someone who is possessed by a Spirit/Demon (though that's a recipe for disaster). Basically? If it has foundation in horror or folklore somewhere, I will probably consider it.

 

[Heyitsjiwon]

Ahh, that's great to hear. I was planning on making a character that is more from the eastern spirituality/mythology than western.

 

[Insidious Joe]

Reading this over, I have to agree with @Heyitsjiwon. I would also consider myself very interested. As far as carrying something like this out, I know there are sites that are dedicated to tabletop-esque games that could potentially serve as a resource for all involved, although I think that's entirely up to how you want to handle it.

 

[Void_coffin]

You have my interest good sir. I love the simplistic hand guide you have, and even the wording, but I've got some ideas for characters already brewing. Kinda curious as to what I'll be able to do considering ill have to see what the others want as well, but i can wait.

 

[Lord Calibur]

I'm glad to see some interest!

I have a question for everyone, which is mostly based on my inexperience with forum-RP: would it be better if we 1) used this website's dice-rolling system, 2) we used another site for dice rolling, or 3) I rolled everyone's dice for them?
I like to give participants the agency of rolling their own dice, but my system generally uses multiples of d6's. For example, say John Smith's DEX is a 15, and he needs to run out of a building that's collapsing. This building is collapsing rather quickly, so it's a difficult challenge - I'd have John Smith's player roll 4d6, or 5d6 if it's worse, to escape - he'd need to roll a number equal or lower than his 15. Of course, this only applies to skill rolls - combat rolls are universally always 3d6, but that's still more than a single die.

What do you guys think?

 

[Void_coffin]

Well, I personally don't have much experience with die roiling for an Rp. So, I think I would like to give it a try and see how it works out. Sides, I think I would trust my own luck rather then put my characters fate into another hand. If my role screws up...well my characters gonna gave a bad day cause of me.

 

[Heyitsjiwon]

I think that option 3 is the most effective/quickest.

 

[Lord Calibur]

Alright, so in my spare moments I've been continuing to ponder this game.

My thoughts? I appreciate you guys wanting to join, but I am going to need at least a few more applicants to really progress any further with this game. If you have friends you think would be into this game, send them my way to take a look!

For dice-rolling, etc: I am re-thinking it. I am used to running table-top games, but that may not actually be necessary with a well-thought-out and well-collaborated RP story-structure. I dunno, working on it. If we do dice-rolling, I will most likely roll the dice for you guys, but I am still looking into an alternative.

Also? I'm considering letting "players" control multiple characters, if they wish. I have been observing some other stories on this site, and I realized it may be restrictive to limit you guys to one character. Again, still thinking about it - I may not do that at all.

Finally, I have begun putting together an INQUISITION Database file for you guys. Once again, its main purpose is to streamline stuff, but it does serve the extra function of potentially giving you guys some more material to work with. Keep in mind that this thing is in no way finished, and will be continually updated throughout the setup process / throughout the game's lifespan.

Let me know what you guys think!

 

[Aeronfarron]

I am interested in this idea.

 

[Heyitsjiwon]

Looks good! If you don't mind, here are some extra things I thought up of:

Skills:
Reassuring Presence: CHA. Grant a confidence boost to allies (+1 to all rolls for 3 turns). Can be used to try and calm a panicked individual.

Saving Grace: TGH. When nearby an ally about to be attacked, can attempt to block an attack with your own body with a +50% to your armor points.

Traits:

Iron Wall: Can rarely ever be knocked down by normal means.

Hardened: You've seen some messed up stuff in life already that pretty much nothing can faze you. High resistance to mental attacks/debuffs.

Animal Lover: You are just naturally good at dealing with animals who all seem to love you for some reason.

Powers:

One Shot, One Kill: You know how to control your body so well that you can time yourself so that you can shoot at a moment where not even the beating of your heart will mess up your aim. Thus, you can fire one shot that you know will guarantee to hit a critical area unless the target somehow dodges the bullet either by sheer, stupid luck (they happen to randomly duck to pick up a coin right when you shoot) or super human perception and speed. Requires 1 turn to set up where you must be completely immobile to line up the shot.

 

[Void_coffin]

Hey, for more interest, why not put up an ad for the role play? It may draw in more interest, and I would love to see this come to fruition.

But I know I don't mind either way on the rice rolling, just let me know what I've gotta make my dude to swing his sword into somethings face and I'll role with it.

 

[Lord Calibur]

Looks good! If you don't mind, here are some extra things I thought up of:

The funny thing about Skills/Traits/Powers is that many of the concepts that go between them are surprisingly interchangeable. I actually like your submitted ideas, but many of them could apply to different areas. For example, your "Reassuring Presence" would normally just be a "Leadership" skill, but as a Trait it could be a permanent +1 to Morale based rolls for all nearby allies (assuming your character has not panicked), or as a Power it could be a one-time-per-battle instant-recovery-of-team type maneuver. But yeah, I'll be happy to take down ideas you guys have!
Specifically referring to your "One-Shot" power, I have to turn it down because of game mechanics. One of the action maneuvers that any character may take is the "Aim" action, which sacrifices anywhere from half a turn to a full turn to lock onto a target (cool breathing, focus, etc), and increases their likeliness of hitting. Aim is based on INT, and on a successful roll per half-turn increases your attack roll by a +1, or higher if you have the Aim Skill. I should probably add the Aim skill to the list. That said, there's no reason we can't have a The Golden Shot style power - based on a LUK roll, the person is capable of finding the exact perfect moment to shoot.

If you need something to go off of, the difference between Skills/Traits/Powers is this: A Skill is 1) something your character learns, and 2) a modifier for die rolls and abilities of your character. Skills are the "normal" way of accomplishing a task - they do not tend to break the rules.
A Trait is 1) a physical, mental, social, or otherwise constant aspect of your character, and 2) a modifier for how your character is played. Traits are normally only acquired at the beginning of the game, but slowly develop over the course of a campaign - they can be physical representations of character development. A trait is totally capable of breaking the standard flow of the rules - my guides did not give many examples like this, but I remember a character who had a Medical Precision trait, which increased their critical-range when utilizing melee-blade attacks.
A Power is 1) an abnormal ability belonging to your character that, for whatever reason, could not reasonably be learned by any ordinary human being, and 2) an activated ability that your character may use in or out of combat. Powers, unlike Skills in particular are specifically expected to break the rules of the game in specified ways. When devising a power, understand that there are only three ways of obtaining powers - By level a skill near the maximum rank (so the power will be directly based on the skill), by having a trait that gives it (like Lycanthropy or Psionics), or by otherwise obtaining it in the story (like from a magical artifact or something). Powers do not necessarily have to be limited in their uses, but they do need to have balances to keep them from totally breaking a game.

Yes, I will be updating the guides with this stuff.

Hey, for more interest, why not put up an ad for the role play? It may draw in more interest, and I would love to see this come to fruition.

I was thinking about that. How exactly does the whole "ad" thing work for this site? Is there a specific forum I'm supposed to work with, or am I supposed to submit one of those banner things, or what? I have to admit I am kinda in a state of confusion about it.

But I know I don't mind either way on the rice rolling, just let me know what I've gotta make my dude to swing his sword into somethings face and I'll role with it.

Did you really just say "rice rolling"? That is the best possibly-intentional typo I have ever seen.
Anyway, I am still figuring out the dice-rolling deal. The real reason why it's so difficult to figure out is that it basically changes how this entire game will play out - I would love to give you guys as much freedom as possible to create your own inventive story posts, but dice-rolling will no-matter-what get in the way of that.
The options are, right now, A) We abandon the dice rolling entirely (which I am opposed to), B) I roll all the dice, and simply tell you guys whether or not you can do the thing (which is lame as hell) in a private chat, C) We use the dice-rolling mechanic inside of the Forum, effectively interrupting the flow of the posts, or D) We utilize an alternative dice-rolling option and discuss actions/flow in a private chat before posting to the main forum (which would be time-consuming).

There was basically a moment where I realized that my system was intended for a fast-paced tabletop game, and that does not necessarily translate to a forum-based game. I would rather keep the system I currently have in place, but I may need to simplify its use or something. I could probably use some feedback on this - this is easily the biggest issue on my agenda in regards to this game happening. (Assuming everyone who has posted to this forum joined the game, we technically have enough players to start a campaign. Now we would just need to wait until I have gotten my graduation stuff out of the way.)



Thanks to everyone for the feedback so far! This is exciting.

 

[Asuras]

These beings are weak to silver 100% of the time - they can generally instantly heal from any
physical attack that doesn't use silver. They can still drown, or die in nuclear hellfire though.

That's reassuring.

As for the issue of an advertisement banner, I can help you there if you'd be willing to relay what you'd like to see in the image/text.

 

[Void_coffin]

Did you really just say "rice rolling"? That is the best possibly-intentional typo I have ever seen.
Anyway, I am still figuring out the dice-rolling deal. The real reason why it's so difficult to figure out is that it basically changes how this entire game will play out - I would love to give you guys as much freedom as possible to create your own inventive story posts, but dice-rolling will no-matter-what get in the way of that.
The options are, right now, A) We abandon the dice rolling entirely (which I am opposed to), B) I roll all the dice, and simply tell you guys whether or not you can do the thing (which is lame as hell) in a private chat, C) We use the dice-rolling mechanic inside of the Forum, effectively interrupting the flow of the posts, or D) We utilize an alternative dice-rolling option and discuss actions/flow in a private chat before posting to the main forum (which would be time-consuming).

Well, I may have an idea. How about within the main forum and our post, we roll our own dice. (Proably by some numbers generator, I'm sure we can find one for your dice.) And depending on the roll you can React in your post of what effect our dice had. If you've noticed in most fouram based role plays, Its all action and reaction. Person A will post an action, Person B will post a reaction and then Person A will write a reaction. The cycle flows, with have our dice, and you (Or us depending on the sitution) can tell what effect our dice had. Like say our role was close to our desired number, maybe we can roll again and push for our action. It could create more variety in responses instead of "No, you can't do that" and "Yes, you can do that."

Or we can say screw it all and go to Rice rolling.

 

[Lord Calibur]

As for the issue of an advertisement banner, I can help you there if you'd be willing to relay what you'd like to see in the image/text.

Sweet! I've never had to think of an ad before, though. Hmm...

I suppose my preference would be an image of a dark, abandoned/foggy city street, with something like "They are watching you." and "INQUISITION" at the bottom right or something. I'm not terribly skilled with advertisement (which is insane considering my Communication degree) for something like this, but I would want the ad to demonstrate the atmosphere I'm trying to go for: that sense of being hopelessly outclassed by the unknown.

"They are watching you. Judging you. Guiding you.
They are the ephemeral.
You are the pawn."
- Augurist Felmontague

Thanks for the offer!

Well, I may have an idea. How about within the main forum and our post, we roll our own dice. (Proably by some numbers generator, I'm sure we can find one for your dice.) And depending on the roll you can React in your post of what effect our dice had. If you've noticed in most fouram based role plays, Its all action and reaction. Person A will post an action, Person B will post a reaction and then Person A will write a reaction. The cycle flows, with have our dice, and you (Or us depending on the sitution) can tell what effect our dice had. Like say our role was close to our desired number, maybe we can roll again and push for our action. It could create more variety in responses instead of "No, you can't do that" and "Yes, you can do that."

Or we can say screw it all and go to Rice rolling.

I suppose that may be the best way of going about it - it would certainly simplify the situation. I still need to be able to see that no die-rolls were cheated, so we kinda need to figure out that numbers-generator situation. I'm gonna keep an eye out for options.

And, friend? I'm gonna go Rice Rolling either way - just try to stop me!


For everyone: I have updated the Inquisition Database, and attached the updated version to the initial post, as well as posting it here. Thanks for all the feedback!

 

[Void_coffin]

I suppose that may be the best way of going about it - it would certainly simplify the situation. I still need to be able to see that no die-rolls were cheated, so we kinda need to figure out that numbers-generator situation. I'm gonna keep an eye out for options.

And, friend? I'm gonna go Rice Rolling either way - just try to stop me!


For everyone: I have updated the Inquisition Database, and attached the updated version to the initial post, as well as posting it here. Thanks for all the feedback!

Mhm...Not really sure on that one, but i'm sure we can come up with something by the time this game starts. Though, Would you mind if we came to you with ideas for new monsters? Just tossing back ideas for things down the road.

Not if I take your rice away. Mwahahahaah!

 

[Lord Calibur]

Though, Would you mind if we came to you with ideas for new monsters? Just tossing back ideas for things down the road.

Not if I take your rice away. Mwahahahaah!

Oh, please, by all means: If anyone has ideas for monsters, characters, or whatever, send them my way by Conversation Message or in this forum.

You fiend!