![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
However, if I were, I'd want to have some sort of stat system, because Lackey brings out HUGE amounts of potential Sueage (sewage?) which is fine in novels, not so fine in ensemble RP. I'd probably use something terribly simple. Like:
Stats
Mind: Intelligence, mental quickness, etc.
Body: Physical strength, agility, toughness, all that stuff.
Spirit: Potential for magical ability. That's it.
Every character would have 13 points to divide among the three. Mind and Body have to have at /least/ one character point in there. Spirit doesn't have to have any, but that's the highest potential any of your Gifts can reach. Cap on all stats is 10. 3 or 4 is considered average human, with 6 or 7 being average powerful nonhuman (kyree, gryphon, Companion, firecat) in Body and Spirit. 3 or 4 is average in Mind for all creatures.
Gifts
You get your Spirit x 2 points to distribute among all the Gifts your character has. This assumes a character age of 15. For every five years older a character is, add 5 to starting points. For every five years younger, subtract 5 base points. If this reduces you to zero or below but you have Spirit, it is assumed that your character has dormant Gifts that may awaken with age or under stress. Gifts have a maximum of 10, and no Gift can be over your Spirit level. A Gift of 10 is a Vanyel or Firesong level Gift. Available Gifts:
Mindspeech
Foresight
Farsight
Fetching
Empathy
Animal Mindspeech
Firestarting
Channelling
Healing
Earthlore
Bardic Gift
Mage Gift
Wild Talent (A limited Gift that doesn't fall into any of the above categories)
Note: Companions do not Choose people with the Healing Gift.
Skills
Skills are largely 'choose your own'. You get Mind x 2 points to choose skills that would be mental and social, and Body x 2 points to choose skills that would be physical. GMs would have final approval on any skills, and reserve the right to limit skills as is reasonable. One language is a skill. One weapon is a skill. For every 10 years a character is older than the base age of 15, the multiplier for starting skill points increases by 1. So, a 25 year old character gets Mind x 3 and Body x 3 starting points. For every 10 years a character is young...never mind. Do not try and app a 5 year old character. Just don't.
Character Types
Heralds
A Herald is assumed to have Mindspeaking at 3. He gets this for free, but may add points in chargen to boost it, or take them away to boost other Gifts. A Herald with Mindspeaking of 1 can only bespeak his Companion, and then only when not under stress. A Herald with Mindspeaking of 0 cannot communicate with his Companion mentally at all, unless he has Empathy, and except for the moment of Choosing. As mentioned, Heralds cannot have the Healing Gift, and the Bardic Gift cannot be their strongest Gift. Heralds are bound by their duty to Valdemar and her people, and have responsibilities that they take /very/ seriously. Companions are white, with blue eyes, and silvery hooves that make a peculiar sound, almost like ringing, on cobblestones. They talk to their Chosen, and to other Companions, but generally no others. Only one Herald has been repudated in the entire history of Valdemar, and it isn't your character or their mentor/father/mother/lover/sibling/friend.
Healers
Healers generally /only/ have the Healing and Empathy gifts, but they have them strongly. They are trained at the Collegium, along with medics and non-Gifted healers and midwives. Healer characters get +2 to Healing and Empathy, but any other Gift costs 2 points per level instead of just one. Healers are bound to use their gifts to /help/, not harm, and not for selfish purposes. Healers trained in Valdemar are also bound to support Valdemar and her people. Heralds trained in more...pragmatic states, such as refugees from the Empire, may know and be okay with most aggressive use of their gifts.
Bards
Valdemar is unusual in having an organized Bardic College, and in actively seeking out youngsters with bardic talents to train. Bards fufill a large amount of roles for Valdemar, and use their gifts in her promotion and defense. Any Bard caught using the Bardic Gift for selfish purposes will have their gift walled off and be expelled from the Bardic College. This does happen on occassion. The Bardic Gift is a manner of projective empathy: using music, the Bard can make an audience feel certain things. He must be making music, or at least talking to get his gift to function. Bards and Minstrels recieve free skills: Persuasion (2/Mind), Music Knowledge (2/Mind), and Field Medicine (2/Mind). They also have Bardic Immunity, which means that no one can legally punish a Bard or Minstrel for singing a particular song, or not singing one. Keep in mind the word 'legally'.
Blues, Nobles, and Diplomats
Unaffiliated students are called 'blues' for the light blue uniforms they wear. Most often they are noble children, sent to the capital to get education in the scholarly arts by day, and in the political arts by evening at the glittering Court. They are usually unGifted, although some nobles have started to send sons and daughters who show signs of the Mage Gift, in particular, to Haven to be trained by the new Herald-Mages and Alliance Mages. Those who are not Chosen may find themselves courted by several magical orders, like White Winds, who have recently sent envoys to Valdemar to represent their own interests. The Guard has also started to talk about taking mage-recruits, after seeing what the Empire's mage refugees could do. Another faction of Blues are students from various social backgrounds who have come to Haven with recommendations from priests, their lords, and guildsmen speaking to their intellectual gifts. They gather and learn for the pure love of knowledge, and with the hope of serving the Monarch and country in their own way. With these, there are the adult nobles and guildmasters who come to Haven to protect and promote their interests, give the Monarch information about their lands, create alliances against their rivals, and pursue political power. Finally, the Alliance has brought a flood of diplomats and envoys from most of the known world (and a few places no one knew about until they showed up!), all of whom are staying in the Palace and the surrounding areas, and most of whom speak only a smattering of Valdemaran. Blues, nobles, and diplomats recieve free skills: Persuasion (2/Mind), Court Ettiquette (2/Mind), and 5 points to spend in whatever skills they like, to reflect scholarly or noble training. However, noble characters who are /not/ students must be at least 20 years old, and envoy or ambassadors must be at least 25.
Outlanders
Valdemar is, for a medeval nation, positively cosmopolitan. Especially in the time of the Alliance, some years after the Mage Storms. The mysterious Shin'a'in and Hawkbrothers each have embassies in Haven, as do the Kaled'a'in, the Southern Empire, several neighboring nations, and even, recently, Iftel. The markets of Haven are being flooded with strange, exotic new goods, even magecrafted ones, and the Guilds are reacting with equal parts greed and dismay. Meetings of the Alliance Council are frequently turned into shouting matches by old grudges, suspicions, ignorance, and power plays all spring up in the wake of the Mage Storms. The common people are wary of the outsiders and the changes they bring, especially as many of the Outlanders do not understand the way Valdemar works, and run afoul of local customs with depressing regularity. The local Guard do their best, and word has it that the Mercenary's Guild has sent emissaries to seek permission to establish a Guildhouse in Haven, as well.
Thus, characters can be from a variety of civilizations and cultures. However, keep in mind that if Valdemar is not your native home, you will have a lot to learn. Everything from language on up. A Karsite may find Valdemar's insistance on 'There is no One True Way' to be the basest of heresies, regardless of Solaris' reforms. A Hawkbrother or Shin'a'in is likely to be uncomfortable, to say the least, in the city with all of its teeming, gawking, loud masses. Keep skills and reactions appropriate to your class. Also, know the culture you're apping! If you have questions, ask admin.
Conflicts
In conflicts, compare relevant stat + skills. Or Spirit + Gift. The one with the higher score will win any conflict, unless the circumstances are very strange, or players consent to the lesser character defeating the greater.
Advancement
Every week that your character posts at least once, you get 1 point to spend how you like. Everything costs 1 point to raise, except stats, which cost 5 points to raise per level.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject
*ducking and running*
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
... also, for amusement value, when your comment popped into my gmail? I got the following as advertisements:
[fears the Valdemar Advertisements!]
From:
no subject
...and the scary thing is, that doesn't sound too far off from being a legit Lackey chara. Or Lackey plot. XD
From:
no subject
...I have far too much fun figuring out Sues, I do... )
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
...actually, the funny thing is, the original version of the character I proposed could be made viable (and so could the second, but it'd take more work and essentially revert her back to being the first version before modifying down to where the first version goes). There's relation-to-canon-character, but the direct relation is minor, and the indirect relation is even moreso, so it can be used simply as a background with no real Special Awesomeness. Mage-gifted Shin'a'in who don't want to become a shaman ARE sent to the Tayledras, and with a cousin already there, she'd be able to find the place easily enough AND be a shoo-in for adoption. Visiting Darkwind is a stretch, but if she was supposed to be Chosen, something would draw her to Valdemar - or draw her Companion out there - and that's as good a reason as any. The blood-path mage can be skipped, it's only there for Sueness, and she could be Chosen upon arrival in Haven. It's a little strange still - but no stranger than Elspeth, who has the added cachet of Kerowyn for a teacher AND royal blood.
...damn you, now I want to PLAY her. XD
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
...that should be, "There's relation-to-canon-character, but the direct relation is a minor character, and the indirect relation, while a major canon character, is a rather tenuous connect at best."