Darkness Redeemed: OOC and Signups

[Hal Henderics]

For newcomers, and those who just like reading reminders, Darkness Redeemed is a long running, often rebooted game taking place in a setting known as the Trinity of Realities, a set of Dimensions which are known for their bizarre physics, incredible skill and item crafting, and constant crossovers.

 

In every sense of the word, it is a Kitchen Sink setting, built from the ground up and at every stage tailored to enable adventure, freedom, creativity, and fun, while retaining a firm structure and consistent rules which help to prevent exploitation and dominant strategy in gameplay taking place in it.

 

In theory, anything in this game is both viable and valid, whether you choose to be a spellcaster, a warrior, a priest, a rogue, or if you chose instead to be a psychotic hobo wearing unpowered VR Headsets for armor, who has fought with stuffed animals for so long that they have obtained supernatural proficiency in their use.

 

Ultimately, the choice is yours.

 

(For more information on the setting, the Links spoiler contains a link to the "Arcana Expositionautica", a repository of lore, facts, and information on finer details of the setting.  Feel free to ask questions in the discord, at which point I will answer them, and add them to the Expositionautica.)

 

Subplots

Spoiler

This game, much like Trespassers of the Multiverse Gaiden, follows a Subplot Format, in which I myself take a backseat between Main Plots, to allow players, if they so choose, to develop, devise, and ultimately run plotlines of their own, with foes and areas of their own creation.  Discussing it with me is always a help, if someone is interested in running one, though ultimately, it is not necessary to do so in order to participate in the game.  While you have the right to request the chance to run a subplot, you do not have the responsibility to do so.

 

Combat

Spoiler

During Combat, players and their foes take turns doing three things, mounting an attack, preparing a defense, and suffering the consequences of an attack launched previously.

 

When an attack occurs, two 1d20 Dice are rolled, one for the attacker, and one for the defender, the results of these dice are then interpreted by the GM, and registered as either a Hit, a Status, Both, or Neither, based on the circumstances at the time.  Even a higher roll may not guarantee that an attack or defense is completely successful, nor does a lower roll necessarily mean that one is a failure.  The result of rolls however, determine how an instance of combat is weighted and the consequences of an action decided upon.

 

At the beginning of combat, a number of Hits are assigned to characters and enemies, when an attack successfully counts as a Hit, one is removed from the defender, when zero Hits remain, that target is no longer able to meaningfully participate in that combat.

 

Noncombat

Spoiler

When an action is taken out of combat, crafting, training, or otherwise, two 1d20 Dice are rolled and compared, the first dice represents how well the person attempting it did, and the second dice represents how difficult the challenge proved, the GM will then interpret the results of these dice based on the circumstances at hand, to determine if an action is successful, and what precisely the result was.

 

A player may choose, if they are feeling frustrated with a goal, to "Take 20", at which point the GM will roll two 1d20, and, based on the result, assign a Quest which, upon completion, provides the means or experience needed to fully succeed at what they were attempting.  The more challenging the goal, the more challenging the quest.  Some Quests may be as simple as "Design and produce a tasty sandwich and eat it to refresh yourself", or as challenging and brutal as "Descend into hell itself to plumb a magma pool in the Demon King's Palace, and obtain rare crystals needed for your project."

 

Links (Not Mandatory)

Spoiler

Arcana Expositionautica

 

Legacy Main Document

 

Legacy Items Document

 

Legacy Politamap

Mana Types

 

World Map

 

Recipes

 

Character Sheet (Kind of Mandatory)

Spoiler

Name: (Should be self-evident.)

Age: (Should also be self-evident.)

Gender: (What do you consider yourself? Not the same as your biological sex.)

Sex: (What are you biologically? Not the same as your gender.)

Species: (What god-forsaken branch of the genetic tree did you fall off of?)

Appearance: (What do you look like? If you have alternate forms, their appearance should go here. Weapons and stuff are optional.)

Personality: (What are you like?)

 

Origin Story: (The shorter the better, remember to have some fun with it.)

 

Effort: A measure of a character’s experience with tactics and tools, Effort is applied to tactics, spells, skills and equipment to prepare it for the rigors of combat, without effort, things brought into combat may behave unpredictably, in a way you are unlikely to be happy with.  Points of Effort are distributed during Plotlines, and between them.

 

Traits: Traits represent key aspects of your character's nature and methodology, weighing appropriate rolls.  Characters may have up to three traits, though if they choose to have fewer traits, then they will be more impactful as a result.

 

Example Traits:

 

Hilariously Arbitrary Devotion: This character has chosen a very narrow focus to their work, but more importantly, a strange focus, one that they force to suit many situations, and take beyond it's normal scope.

 

The Gambler: This character loves nothing more than to bet it all on slim odds, with grand gestures and fantastically mad tactics.

 

Pocket Aces: This character has chosen to keep on hand a great many solutions to their problems, leaving their standard methods of problem solving filled with pieces from many professions.

 

Capabilities: A Capability represents a character's stock of techniques, tactics and tools which they have deemed ready for the rigors of combat, things which they have tested until they have turned tried and true.  A capability has an "Effort" value, which determines how seasoned it is, and how powerful.  Items, abilities and stratagems which are not listed as Capabilities can be unpredictable at the best of times, but are not strictly barred from being used in challenging situations.  Characters may start with up to 10 Capabilities, among which they have 10 Effort to divide among them.  The fewer the better.

 

Character Sheet (Blank)

Spoiler

Name:

Age:

Gender:

Sex:

Species:

Appearance:

Personality:

 

Origin Story:

 

Effort:

 

Traits:

 

Capabilities:

Discord (VERY MANDATORY)

[StormLord]

Spoiler

Name: Tick

Age: 705,775,000 seconds and counting.

Gender: Male

Sex: Male

Species: Human

Appearance: Tall and well dressed with an odd look at almost all times.

Personality: Obsessed with gears, machines, ticking, and the like.  Usually not harmful, but certainly capable of ultraviolence when called upon.

 

Origin Story: Hails from the clockwork town of well...Clockton.  He's out adventuring to expand his abilities of mechanical construction.

 

Effort:

 

Traits:

 

Clockwork Golemancy: Tick specializes in clockwork mechanics, golemancy, and directly related fields(such as fabrication) leading to advanced capability and knowledge in those fields.

 

Iron Will: With an unrelenting desire to solve problems even if it means chiseling down square pegs to fit round holes by hand Tick's Channeling and Magecraft are often doped with a disproportionate amount willpower.

 

 

Capabilities:

 

Clockwork Spider: Made of primarily copper and invar with a few steel reinforcements and a platinum core.  It serves a primarily utility role with a number of tools useful both in and out of combat such as three flavors of welding, saws, drills, hammers, etc.  Has a small onboard dust engine for low ambiance environments or high mana demand tasks.

4 Effort.

 

Invar Mail: What is says on the tin, a set of light chainmail made of invar. 

1 Effort.

 

Steamwork Crab: A large construct with a specialized ruby/tin core that powers its steam functions.  Can produce a high pressure blast of steam in combat and boasts impressive armor, but running primarily on a dust engine reactor limits long term efficacy.

3 Effort.

 

Dust Staff: A simple staff made with gypsum and sand to create and control large clouds of particles.

2 Effort.

 

 

[Endlessblaze]

Spoiler

Name: Sled 

Age: Roughly Two months old 

Gender: Male  

Sex: Male 

Species: Human Clone (Original species not yet known) 

Appearance: Sled is a Human clone, though possess a few non human traits, originally from mutations that he has kept, and like his "Siblings" The presence of his soul and the magic he uses has drifted his appearance away from what it once was when he first emerged from the pod.

His eyes are green and his hair is white, He has a single twisted horn spiraling off the left side of his head. A spine (Yes. A spine. Made of bone. And coated in numbing posion. It is somewhat adhesive) is also growing from his head, forming an idiot hair like protrusion. It grows incredibly rapidly, but he has learned to snap it off at any length of his choosing with a flick of the head and an enteral magical "pop" 

He wears a Black fur Hooded cloak, with light armor made of some sort of black fabric, and purple metal scales. The hood has long rabbit ears on it, so he usualy wears it down. He is almost never seen without his purple shield and staff, though they are clearly not the exact same metal as his armored scales on close inspection.  A White Scabbard made of a stone called Pearl Hematite is at his side, containing Black Edged Sunshine. He also has a small metal adorned book on a chain on him to. His private journal and notebook, which is meant to open only to his will. He is wrapped up in a shadowy aura due to the presense of a certain pendant around his neck. 

At any moment of time, he may or may not be followed by various "Undead" minions made of metal and crystal, Spectrobes large or small, or Agate, a Gem he created accidently, depending on who he has taken with him and where he is. 
 

Personality:  A usualy friendly individual who loves to make things and learn things, seeking to grow in skill, power, and help others along the way. He has a habit of going against the grain and doing things his way, even if his way is odd, or requires a fair amount of extra effort, Especially when in the workshop. Combing things that don't combine, going through extra steps to use something that's not suitable for a task on its own. Even his weapons are quite non standard for the whole "Paladin" gig. Somehow though he makes it work, and usualy comes out satisfied with the job. Despite his good intentions he is not the best at reading social situations which can sometimes make things complicated. 

Don't call him edgy or a manlet or anything of the sort. He hates that.
There have even been times where he has had nightmares over being edgy and dreamed himself desperate enough to don the skeletal cutie maid outfit (Yes thats a thing) to negate the edge. Anything but that. Though he has gotten somewhat better about his self confidence in this regard as time has passed.

 

Origin Story:  A Nutrivat Brand Clone, who was formed along with several others in an abandoned lab after the equipment mysteriously reactivated. His Soul was illegally obtained in some fashion, rendered insane, and then mindwiped. Along with his fellow clones he set off on adventure and began to learn. He quickly became interested in both Death magic, and Necromancy. Becoming a Paladin of Death soon after. He has traveled between worlds, Battled the avatar of a Celestial Dragon, And accidently created life. He doesn't exactly do things the normal way, but he does them.

 

Effort:

 

Traits:
    Contradictory: Sled delights in working many fields, and doing them all incorrectly.

 

Capabilities:

Remembrance: A vaguely sentient SkullSteel shield. Created Via Alchemy. It has the image of a horned skull on it, and a purple flame burns inside the almost-ring created by the horns. It is capable of reshaping itself in the face of attacks or when other impacts are about to hit it, forming metal skulls on its surface to bite down and grab things. This dosent only work on physical matter, This shield treats even magic as though it were a solid substance, and can even halt Alchemical blasts in its grip. It also allows its wielder to project a light which allows one to see "Death" and some hidden things. It is among Sled's first ever creations. Polishing it with underworld ritual oil has given it a nice shine and a chance to reflect some types of attack   [Effort 2]


Sled's Staff: A Staff made of SkullSteel, though by now its been upgraded with other things. It can turn various kinds of mana into various magic skull things, similar to Skullsteel mana, and store them in its orb. The skull on top has one eye filled with a plutonium coin (Don't worry, Its shielded) the other, a Siberian Amethyst. It has been enhanced with  a chip of PowerMetal, Bones taken from a removed mutated leg from a previous body, and can project a scythe of solid mana from itself. Sled has even learned to manipulate the scythe into doing various cool things. It is among Sled's first ever creations. Polishing it with underworld ritual oil has given it a nice shine  [Effort 2]


Black Edged Sunshine: A holy shortsword made from the horn of a unicorn carved into a blade edged with Black Pearl Steel. It is wrapped in a radioactive flame borne of purified necromancy. A lead-lined Pearl Hematite scabbard ensures no radiation can escape. It has been fitted with a holy symbol of Pluto, made from the alchemically altered halo of an angel. This symbol controls the radiation via Sled's intent, containing it in a short field around the blade. It is perfect for slashing apart curses, malign magic, and demons alike.
[Effort 1]

Death Palimage Armor: An armored top of some sort, and armored hot pants, made by sled from multiple threads, cloths, metals, and combinations there of, of various types. Despite the fact its technically light armor, its actualy fairly protective. Due to the matrials it was made from, Including a reactive padding, a Kevlar like thread, A gummy like metal thread that hardens on impacts, and Black Silk, a durable metal cloth which allows one to smell pain as a pleasant scent. The black silk (And some regular thread that blends in well) is the only cloth that can be seen from outside the armor. On the armor's exterior in various places are scales made of a purple metal, not skull steel, but something he calls "Armored Bubble stuff" They are resistant to life magic, which tends to wash off of them, and slightly stronger then copper.  Polishing them with underworld ritual oil has given them a nice shine and a chance to reflect some types of attack [Effort 1]


Railgun Cloak: A Black fur hood with bunny ears, and a platnuim clasp attached with black threads. As sled moves it build up an electrical charge. When full the users next movement is incredibly fast and powerful, and the user becomes wrapped up in a protective skull made of sold lightning during it. Making it both a viable means of attack or simply a way of covering a lot of distance. Sled has used it to leap high into the air, and land elsewhere, or crash down on large foes, and to cross great distances in a single dash.  Sled can use magic to charge it up to full at will, greatly reducing the time he has to wait.
[Effort 1]

Blender Style: Sled has a self-taught fighting style revolving around the use of Scythes, enhanced magical movement, and rapid spinning
[Effort 1]

Dark Mage: Sled has various dark magic spells and necromantic spells available to them. Not only that, but he has a pendant which allows him to cast these spells as cantrips (Effectively making them instant or near instant) however casting spells as cantrips do reduce their power. Additionally so long as he wears the pendant he possesses a shadowy aura and a weakness to light magic. He also uses various mana types to attack and cause a wide array of effects.
[Effort 1]

Minions: Sled keeps supply of minions and allies loyal to him. Exotic undead, Spectrobes, Agate. Though he may not keep them all with him at all times, or take them on every mission keeping a few on hand, or at least on call, is a good idea. From great beast which dig through the earth, To metal spider knight zombies with laser cannons. 
[Effort 1]
 

 

 

The game continues! Sled is ready for action baby!

 

 

 

[Powder Miner]

I love the concepts I get for this game

Spoiler

 

Name: Shields

Age: It's kind of hard to tell. Sounds like an adult man.

Gender: Goes by he.

Sex: Impossible to see, but sounds male.

Species: It's pretty much impossible to tell.

 

Appearance: Shields is covered in his namesake -- he is, as far as anybody can see, a walking mass of shields, full-sized shields that overlap and shift as he moves, allowing him to move seemingly unhinderedly but yet never showing even the slightest glimpse of what's underneath. For smaller parts of his body and joints, multiple bucklers instead cover him. He has one visibly articulated limb -- one hand is in a lantern shield, a gauntlet with full knuckles and palm that does obscure what is underneath but which can be used normally. His other arm simply has its shield covering as a cylindrical mass, ending with a buckler that caps it off, with a bump in it curving out slightly. The shields on his body obscure most of the rest of the shape of his body, making him seem almost like a thick humanoid golem, with no visible articulation or feet, simply shields that shift to let him bend his legs. His shoulders are probably incredibly broad, and a little low down, but it's hard to tell.

 

Personality: Shields is a remarkably soft-spoken, philosophical individual. He nearly never shouts, and always makes sure to listen to what other people are saying. When he speaks, he can be somewhat long-winded, but the way that he speaks often sees discussions of fate or roles in the universe or philosophy quietly spoken but spoken with conviction. Shields is a patient individual, too, and it's very difficult to make him interrupt something or burst into action. Actually, maybe a bit too patient and philosophical, as he often responds to things late enough that they've already escalated by the time he gets involved. 

 

Shields really, really likes shields, and invariably the quickest thing to catch his attention will always be the prospect of a new and exciting shield.

 

Origin Story: Who knows? This guy just shows up covered in shields and coveting shields, and seems to be happy enough to adventure with people for better, more magical shields.

 

Effort: 

 

Traits: 

Hilariously Arbitrary Devotion (Shields): Shields is a man who is very clearly obsessed with shields, and whose entire repertoire is based around his remarkably large quantity of them.

Martial Artist (Aura): Instead of being a magician, Shields is actually a martial artist, one that specializes in Aura, and using it to infuse items and passively aid his movements.

Strange Bloodline: His heritage, though here unspecified, is... bizarre.

 

Capabilities:

Covered in Shields (1): Shields is... covered in shields, and every time he is hit by an attack, it will hit a randomly selected shield and potentially trigger its effect if it has one. However, the vast majority of Shields' shields are mundane, with a couple of bucklers having minor magic reactions, but not many. This list does include more powerful shields he has below.

Hard-Light Lantern Shield (2): The most powerful of the shields that Shields possesses, the Lantern Shield has smaller shields on it which, well, don't actually do much but be shield-y. The most magical part of this lantern shield is that instead of normal lantern oil it has hard-light oil, which can be burnt to project a force shield, but only as long as the oil lasts. It regenerates every three days.

Shield-User (7): Blocking, moving while being covered in over thirty shields and bucklers, punching somebody with a shield, using a shield to deny some sort of dangerous terrain, maybe even deflecting gusts of wind, etcetera, whatever you can think of to do with a shield and some Aura and effort, Shields can probably do it.

 

 

[Yours Truly]

Well, this character sounds like a Mary Sue out of context, but to be fair that's mostly Shade's fault by this point

 

Name: Mag(nificent) Wizord
Age: Roughly two months

Gender: Male
Sex: Male
Species: Oni 

Appearance: Mag is a complicated person, with two bodies connected as one, he is both the physically imposing and heavily mutated Oni with light blue skin, three eyes, and spiky green and gold hair, and the red eyed, golden twisted dragon of machinery melded into it. He is learning to fully appreciate the fact that even his weaker body is capable of crushing most opposition with powerful arm magics.

Mag 2.0 Drawing

 

Personality: Mag is quite bluntly more than a little bit of a jerk, having spent the better part of his short lifespan by doing whatever the hell he wanted, whenever the hell he wanted, and however he wanted to sate his boundless sense of curiosity and desire to improve himself, he's quite used to getting his way and the fact that his reckless efforts have led to a loyal student base and a flying base instead of getting himself killed has done very little to convince him otherwise.

That is not to say that Mag is incapable of compassion or altruism, for one thing he honestly believes that he is doing what is best for his students by being harsh and demanding with them, he's died and came back to life to better study his art after all, why wouldn't he demand something less from his students? Especially when he wants all of them to surpass him in their own way. And if teaching them how to wield even a fraction of his power means throwing them into a pit with the indestructible killing machine he told them to make an hour earlier, then so be it, he's always there to step in if they ever genuinely get into trouble after all.

When you get right down to it, you could say that Mag is a dick who cares about people and petty ideals like 'justice' and 'fairness', who is at least generous enough with his help or materials to possibly blanace out whatever damage he deals to the environment with his latest venture. 
 
Origin Story: Having quite literally no memories of his actual past and no real inclination to pursue any art in particular, Mag has developed himself into a man of many hats in the two months since his birth in that Nutrivat facility, having become a martial artist, aviator, astronaut, alchemist, blacksmith, harsh but wise teacher, great and powerful Wizard, father of a fledgling deity, golemancer, spaceship, death to an ecosystem, defender of the weak, genuine priest of an indifferent deity, and capitalist in the time it took for some to take week long naps. Mag doesn't quite know who or what he is yet, but he's not going to let that stop him.

Effort:

Traits:
Martial Devotion: Having realized his own nature as a stolen soul inhabiting the cloned body of a man he never knew long ago, Mag strives to master his own body and refine it into a deadly weapon, often redefining what he is to suit the occasion and further empower himself, having become a human, a radioactive mutant with a third eye, and a human mutate cyborg before. Mag knows that his body is but another tool for his soul to master and refine into a deadly weapon, he's quite literally done it once before after all, shouldn't be too hard to do it again.

Multidisciplinary: Mag has sought out many teachers and sources of power during his relatively short life span, obtaining an impressive array of skills both magical and mundane that he devotes proper time to master and unify into a coherent whole.

 Capabilities:
Secarmancy 1: Mag dabbles in the magical school of Secarmancy, wielding the black blade of the first element to cut the mana emitted by his soul in ways that program them into deadly magical spells, he has yet to truly master this art despite his blade's best efforts to instruct him, but he is still willing to learn.

Arm Magic 3: Having been the first to learn how to wrap his right arm in a constantly spinning mass of mana, Mag is also the only member of the party to seriously pursue the study of General Right Arm magic, having refined it into working with both hands after an encounter with a master of soul resonance convinced him that all he really needed to do was change how his soul's mana flowed out of his body entirely. Mag doesn't use any special implement to use Arm Magic, having mastered it enough to apply it to basically any situation...and also because he accidentally subsumed his perfect channeling gauntlets into his draconic second body.

「Spin」 2: By closely imitating the golden ratio, one can harness a seemingly limitless amount of energy by simply 「Spinning」an object or a mass of mana, on top of it's many other effects. Having almost killed himself on multiple occasions by modifying his own soul and body to wield it's power, Mag's draconic body has further modified his soul orb to allow it to 「Spin」freely, which he uses to spin almost perfect steel balls struck by a giant golden white hammer called the Second Element.

「Hamon」 1: Having had a bizarre journey in the town of Wind Knight's Lot due to a strange dream, Mag was granted the ability to use 「Hamon」by a Master Zeppeli after fending off ghouls and aiding someone's fight against a vampire. Unfortunately he has yet to learn how to wield it to its full potential.

Student Body 1: Mag has his own private army of students to contend with, having taught them an eclectic mix of skills based on what he has learned, they are unfortunately more quirky and varied than they are powerful, but they are still students after all, and always ready to handle whatever the hell it is their teacher decides is important today.

Transformation 2: A freak accident involving antimatter has led to Mag accidentally subsuming his extensive cybernetics, armor, and weaponry into a draconic body created out of a lava tyrant butterfly/red dragon clone subsumed into his mass. Allowing him the use of a large and clawed body connected to a second body with his former likeness and third eye, and transform his true body into a variety of arrangements...potentially, as he is currently only capable of transforming into a large spaceship that propels itself through space using pure super spin energy.

 

[Chevaleresse]

Name: Gun

Age: About two months, chronologically. Physically in his early teens. 

Gender: Male? 

Sex: Male

Species: Human

Appearance: A red haired and red eyed boy about average height, but startlingly muscular. 

Personality: Gun is polite, kind, and devoted to his craft. He generally wants for little that anyone can actually give him, and by extension tends to be free with his time. Singleminded, yet easily distracted by a sufficiently intriguing problem. Tends to be diplomatic, occasionally to his regret, as this typically deprives him of a chance to test his kit. 

 

Origin Story: A clone from an aged Nutrivat facility, started down the seldom-trodden path of powder guns due to a chance encounter involving a dimensional door, an angry monster, and an assault rifle. He's been puttering around the country avoiding Nutrivat and looking for trouble alongside his group since then.

 

Effort: 0

 

Traits: 

 

The Gunsmith: Guns quite literally define his existence. While he's branched out from traditional gunpowder in places, Gun has worked on developing a firearm to suit every situation, or at minimum something that looks and acts very much like one. His weapons have begun to strain comprehension, existing and operating partially in extradimensional space

 

Capabilities: A Capability represents a character's stock of techniques, tactics and tools which they have deemed ready for the rigors of combat, things which they have tested until they have turned tried and true.  A capability has an "Effort" value, which determines how seasoned it is, and how powerful.  Items, abilities and stratagems which are not listed as Capabilities can be unpredictable at the best of times, but are not strictly barred from being used in challenging situations.  Characters may start with up to 10 Capabilities, among which they have 10 Effort to divide among them.  The fewer the better.