No forum without text rp. Or... no REAL forum.

[Roketter]

I'm all for it ^^

But i'd like it best if we played entire factions, that way we can have a much greater decision over what's going on, use a cast of characters, have battles, diplomacy, etc.

[Daemonwelsh]

Or we could have say 4 sides each with their overlord (PC), Chief Warlord (PC), Casters (PC optional), Warlords (Optional PC), and Mercenary Warlords (PC)
The overlord controls entire side, posts their turns production in a main forum.
Each side has their own forum which they participate in, which is separate from the main forum.
have a combat thread.

Chief Warlord gives commands, works with numbers, and manipulates their side.
Casters cast and talk+ other stuff (their overlord's discretion)
Warlords follow Chief warlords orders
Mercenaries have a separate board, can ally, can ask for fees from which they will use...

And the DM should design the surroundings of each sides capital, lay out a number of "Neutral cities (owned by no side)" and determine pop rates and smucker growth per turn.

Each turn lasts 1 week.

This is an idea as to how we could run this, which we could do either here or on Gaia... or some other thread if someone wants to make a forum for this stuff.

[Carinthium]

Should the game make new rules, or try to approximate Erfworld's? The latter would be fun if it could be pulled off.

[Crovius]

I don't think we should control entire sides. There is already a game, which I'm part of, that's doing that.

The point of this thread was to make a Play-by-post RPG set in the Erfworld universe.
We should maybe list races and stat them out, using Erfworld's simplified stat system and then certain races having either bonuses to certain stats, or a base for stats and then our characters are special versions. The unit types (stabber, archer, knight, caster) would be like character class.

Edit: Also, I only have access to the threads on here and back at GitP. I can not access Gaia or other sites that are forums first. I'm at work most of the week and this is the only time I am on at least a few times during the day.

[DevilDan]

I'd remained quiet, but I agree with the above: this is meant to be an RPG.

[Rizban]

My suggestion is this:

We would have a number of sides, each with their own flavor.
Each player would then function as a warlord for that side, with full control over their own stack but not over anything else. The side to which you belong determines the types of units which you can control in your stack as well as your abilities.
Warlords would be able to level up to increase their stats as they achieve victories, taking territory for their sides.

Each side could select one of their warlords as Chief Warlord. He would get a stat boost or something to reflect his leadership and would basically control what units are popped and would "sell" them to his "follower" Warlords. I.e., he sends them units, and they send him schmuckers, which he spends for training more units and paying upkeep. The chief warlord would probably never engage in actual combat but would basically act as the tactician for their side.


I'd definitely go with the simplified stat system suggested in earlier too.
Basic Stats can be found here
Stuff about magic can be found here
Possible player options?


Basically, this opens it up to play on the level of individual characters and on the level of entire sides.

[Daemonwelsh]

Okay, so we can do the RPG.
We need someone to come up with:
Terrain.
Stats.
Rules to play by.
-classes
-races
-XP system
-skills (if needed)
-feats (if needed)
-Combat rules
-Money rules
-a-mancy rule
-other

[DevilDan]

GURPS? D20?

[Rizban]

It would be best if we used a completely homebrew system rather than trying to make erfworld fit into another mold.

Personally, I'd go for a simple Combat+2d6 vs Defense+2d6 for combat.

Experience is based on the upkeep cost for a unit, i.e. upkeep = XP gained. XP needed to level is equal to current level squared * 1000, e.g. A 2nd level warlord needs to have a total of 2*2*1000, or 4000XP, to hit level 3. He would then need a total of 9000XP to get to level 4, just 5000 more XP from the last level up. Each time you level up, you can add 1 to any one stat (Move, Hits, Combat, Defense). You can gain/increase a Special every 2 levels, i.e. 1st, 3rd, 5th, etc.
Non-warlord units would level up faster (lvl*lvl*100?) but max out at some level (10?)

As far as the other rules go, most basic rules can be derived from the klog entries.

Move: number of hexes unit can move
Hits: number of hits unit can take before croaking
Combat: attack number (added to random roll)
Defense: defense number (added to random roll)
Special: special modifiers (the following specials taken from here)
- Leadership: adds bonus to Combat and Defense of all units in stack (including warlord)
- Fabrication: make small, non-magical items, repair items, re-purpose items
- Flight: flying air units, can't be hit by ground units
- Ranged: can hit flying units, and gets hits on attacking units when units enter hex before those units hit
- Fire: extra damage to certain units (such as siege)
- Poison: extra damage to living units (humanoids, gwiffons, dwagons, etc.)
- Regeneration: surviving units heal at the end of each attack in addition to start of turn, doesn't bring back dead units (meaning it's easier to weather multiple attacks on the stack, but not overpowered, since the stack can only make one attack in a turn)

[Crovius]

I'm designed a few homebrew systems. What races are we looking at? I'd go with base stats for races, and allow for a decent number = Human, the various kinds of elves, vampires, gobwins, marbits, twolls and decrypted all sound good to me. I can make classes, probably using archer, stabber, infantry, heavy, calvalry, and caster as the base classes, then make some PrCs, such as Warlord, Knight, specializing in a certain mancy, etc.

I don't think anyone should be "in charge". In fact if we're going to run this like an RPG then we should all be playing as either Barbarians or all be on one side with the DM representing our Ruler.

Ideas? Suggestions?

Rizban, I like your format for stating a character. We'll probably use something similar to that.

[Rizban]

Gobwins, Marbits, Twolls, Elves, Giants, etc. are natural allies. So far, the only units who can form actual Sides are the humans and vampires (which are merely augmented humans, no?).

Natural allies would function as additional troop types that you can hire out if you control a city in their natural territory. They don't raise armies and fight on their own apart from the various Sides. To make them Sides of their own would be very unlike the Erfworld setting. Have them setup mechanically like their own sides (own treasury, units, and upkeep), but only use them if they are allied with one of the Sides. Otherwise, they simply defend their territory without ever attacking.

[Crovius]

Ok, so then no racial modifier for the players? Sweet, that makes creating a character easier. I'm guessing every player would start as a unit with leadership (casters and warlords, but some non-warlords seemed otm have leadership in the comic, or at least it didn't seem like they were warlords).

I can worry about the stats for natural allies later then.

So what should the base stats for a human be? They should set the standard to compare how strong allies are, since humans in every system have "average" stats.

We know what the stats are.
LeveL: All units level up, which increases their other stats.
Move: Is it going to be based on 1 move being a large distance(like a city coudl be 3 spaces away and it would take 3 days for an Infantry witha Move of 1 to reach, or should 10 move be considered a decent day's march and cities could be seperated by 100 move or even more?
Hits: Obviously a units role will give it more or less hits (Heavies should have a bunch, Siege too, and Infantry won't have more than a couple whiel casters are "squishy") but should the role add to hits or should role determine hits? Hits would replenish at start of turn.
Combat and Defense: Personally I think role should add onto a base stat. And when they fight, is the difference the number of htis dealt to the loser, or does the loser just take a point of damage for every lose (in which case a unit with a lot of hits could survive losing to several enemies)
Specials: Every Special should be broken into Ranked Specials with leveling up allowing improvements, or the Special is constant and starts as strong as it will always be. Specials will include any damage besides normal, and movement besides normal move, things like LEadership and Casting, and combat rules that apply to that unit. Also includes if a unit is mountable or can mount other units, etc.
Type: From what I read units are either Light or Heavy. Flying is a Special. Warlord is just a good unit with Leadership and some Specials. Infantry, Archer, Calvalry, Siege, Stabber, Knight, those are all roles that determine how the unit fights, while Light and Heavy are indications of realtive size.
Juice: Used mainly by casters but also by units with natural specials, this would be similar to mana and is drained by using specials liek casting spells or belching a ball of fire or shooting a sticky string, etc. Juice would replenish at start of turn, same as Hits.

What do you guys think? I just need an idea of if the layout is good and what to put in the stats for human. I'll give my opinion later.

[DevilDan]

I'd like us to consider moving carefully, using magics whose effects we understand, abilities of which we know somethings, and races that we've seen already. We can keep expanding this "world" as Erfworld unfolds. For example, we've only recently learned some of the abilities of turnamancers.

Regeneration has now been deprecated, it seems, retconjured out of existence.

[Rizban]

Regeneration can still exist, it's just not a Natural Special of Twolls. It was only retconjured on the Twolls themselves. If you read that entry that was retconjured, Regeneration is still in the main text box.

[Daemonwelsh]

We know what the stats are.
LeveL: All units level up, which increases their other stats.
Move: Is it going to be based on 1 move being a large distance(like a city coudl be 3 spaces away and it would take 3 days for an Infantry witha Move of 1 to reach, or should 10 move be considered a decent day's march and cities could be seperated by 100 move or even more?
Hits: Obviously a units role will give it more or less hits (Heavies should have a bunch, Siege too, and Infantry won't have more than a couple whiel casters are "squishy") but should the role add to hits or should role determine hits? Hits would replenish at start of turn.
Combat and Defense: Personally I think role should add onto a base stat. And when they fight, is the difference the number of htis dealt to the loser, or does the loser just take a point of damage for every lose (in which case a unit with a lot of hits could survive losing to several enemies)
Specials: Every Special should be broken into Ranked Specials with leveling up allowing improvements, or the Special is constant and starts as strong as it will always be. Specials will include any damage besides normal, and movement besides normal move, things like LEadership and Casting, and combat rules that apply to that unit. Also includes if a unit is mountable or can mount other units, etc.
Type: From what I read units are either Light or Heavy. Flying is a Special. Warlord is just a good unit with Leadership and some Specials. Infantry, Archer, Calvalry, Siege, Stabber, Knight, those are all roles that determine how the unit fights, while Light and Heavy are indications of realtive size.
Juice: Used mainly by casters but also by units with natural specials, this would be similar to mana and is drained by using specials liek casting spells or belching a ball of fire or shooting a sticky string, etc. Juice would replenish at start of turn, same as Hits.

Level: this is somewhat of a no brainier.
Move: I would think that this should be based off of Erf, as a high move would be like 60 or something, and allow a person to travel to 3 different cities in a turn. maybe 20 move would allow a unit to go from one city to another, with most units having downwards of 10.
Hits: base off of HP system of say D&D 3.5? or similar, with each level granting a roll of the dice, which adds that many hits to your character?
Combat and Defense: One stat which adds bonuses in combat to a person's roll.
Specials: we know there are things like master-class, and novice, so it would make sense that people can level their specials. have a separate table for this than XP, where they earn points to put into their specials by performing acts which are part of their specials... I.E. Casting more spells would allow a character to cast better spells. Scouting more would allow a scout to learn more things about what they scout. things like that.
Type: similar to class. possibility of multi-classing?
Juice: could be changed to fatigue, with each turn it refills.

[Rizban]

Level: I'm thinking that you can either increase two base stats or one Special by one point per level, meaning that you can't increase a base stat and a special, i.e. two of one or one of the other. Can't add +2 to one basic stat either.

Size: Light, Standard, and Heavy. Standards are humans and similar. Lights are things like Marbits, Gobwins, Bats, and anything significantly smaller than a Standard (Stanley would be considered a Light). Heavies are things significantly larger than Standard, such as Twolls, Giants, and Parson.

Move: Should be low. Each unit of Move is equal to a full hex, at least it is in the comic. Infantry would have a move of 2-5, Mounted would have a Move of 4-7, Flying units would be just about anything from 5-30, depending on the unit.

Hits: Again, why are we trying to emulate an existing system instead of trying to emulate the Erfworld comic? It should be very simple, like in the comic. You lose a fight, you take a Hit. Stabber A and Stabber B fight, B loses, B takes a hit. Hits are increased just like any other stat; i.e., you can choose to increase it when you level, otherwise it stays the same.

Specials: Definitely should be able to level them up.

Type: No multiclassing. That's not something done in Erfworld.

Juice: I am very against renaming this. Juice should be what powers your casting, yes, maybe some of your Specials too. Casters would obviously get far more Juice than Warlords.

Remember though, this is going to be far more focused on individual units than on massing huge armies. Needing to roll out individual attacks between units isn't going to be an issue if you have only a few units. It's not like you're going to have to be rolling for 100+ units in a turn.


Casters vs Warlods: Remember, casters can lead stacks, but they do not add bonuses to it. Casters are distinct from Warlords. If you want to play a Caster, you'll be far more focused on your own character than on your squad, which won't be nearly as powerful as a Warlord's. What I think this means in Erfworld mechanics is that the Caster and Leadership specials are mutually exclusive. You just can't have both; however, there are some exceptions. Units created solely by Mancy get your Caster level as a Leadership bonus (as evidenced by Wanda granting bonuses to Uncroaked and Decrypted); however, I'm thinking such units either decay over time or are unable to level up themselves. Uncroaked, for example, decay over time until they unpop, while Dolls created via Dollamancy would not decay but would permanently be at the level at which they were created, unable to improve.

[Rhyme-o-mancer]

I'm very interested in this, as evidence by my app on the other page.

I like the idea of each person fulfilling a role for a side (Overlord, Chief Warlord, Warlords and Casters). It wouldn't seem like Erfworld if we were all just barbarians. This shouldn't be Dnd, this is Erfworld.

[Crovius]

I'm very interested in this, as evidence by my app on the other page.

I like the idea of each person fulfilling a role for a side (Overlord, Chief Warlord, Warlords and Casters). It wouldn't seem like Erfworld if we were all just barbarians. This shouldn't be Dnd, this is Erfworld.

Yes, but this is an Erfworld RPG, we aren't making the RTS game, that's the other game being worked on, which I'm part of the testing time.

[DevilDan]

I was hoping for a more traditionally structured RPG myself.

[Rizban]

I agree that I want a traditionally structured RPG, but "traditional" doesn't mean "D20 clone." I'd personally rather not play a forum based RTS, but without at least some minor RTS elements (sides, stacks, obtaining 'ally troops' from your cities, etc.) it just wouldn't be Erfworld. Much like in the comic, the RTS elements will be mostly flavor and help to drive the story without being the main focus.