Hey there, if I pinged you that is because you had expressed interest in play-testing Realm of Bastions (TTRPG). If you are interested and want to make a character go for it, I'll be capping the amount of people in a single play by post campaign to 4 so if there is more interest I'll run more than one.
Included in the post and subsequent comments will be a game description, lore description, mechanic description, character generation process, and relevant materials for that.
As always if you have interest in reading the whole (250) page .pdf please message me and I'll give the download link.
The Realm of Bastions core rule-set will always be pay what you can as it is important to provide this to anyone who is interested in playing.
Realm of Bastions is a classless & race-less table top role-playing game that promotes shared story-telling. The world that it is based on explores many conflicts in society that are relevant even today, and the encounters may bring up a range of emotions. The Realm of Bastions is aesthetically inspired by Western, Science Fiction, and Fantasy genres exploring some conflicts present in those genres.
The Realm of Bastions is similar yet distinct from the modern world, and will contain themes relating to Technology vs. Magic, tradition vs. innovation, oppressors vs. oppressed, urban vs. rural, among others.
Each Encounter can be designed collectively as an entire group, a single person, or any number in between. The game is designed so that every part of the table top role playing experience can be done so through the Encounter building tools.
The intent of the game is to build friendship through the experiencing of challenging, gritty Encounters while role-playing characters that are capable yet vulnerable. Each player will make difficult choices with their character both in a narrative sense as well as within the mechanics of the game itself.
The game uses a large amount of options to create Actors and then Encounters for which to role-play these characters. The group of players then weave these Actors and Encounters together to create a shared narrative while progressing the Abilities of the Actors.
In the Play by post I will be creating the encounters, I will use another post as the "play by comment" post, this one is where I would like your character to be posted.
In the format of:
Name:
Statistics
Body:
Mind:
Spirit:
Current/Max Stamina: /
Life Paths Experienced:
Active Ability Pool:
Physical Inventory:
Mental Inventory:
Faction Limit:
Faction Points:
Dosh:
Equipment/Items:
Abilities:
Background
For each Life Path experienced please include one to two sentences describing the way the Life Path contributed to the development of the character. In addition please include a physical description of the character.
I'll provide a sample character to help make this more clear.
This is one of the first few times I have run this with others so please be patient and ask as many questions as you can they help me!
Mechanic Primer
Within the Realm of Bastions there are people from a myriad of backgrounds, with a wide variety of physical appearances, resulting in a rich diversity of people. A character made by a player becomes an Actor in the Realm of Bastion.
Read through this book to see the wide variety of Actors that can be created and discuss with the other players to decide if you wish to come from similar Factions or if a Quest brought all of the Actors together from wide ranging backgrounds.
Core to the Actors are attributes and abilities which come from the culmination of Life Paths experienced by the Actor.
A Life Path consists of two Arcs, Arcs are a collection of 3 Encounters, usually a Social, Exploration, and Combat encounter but can be comprised of any 3 connected encounters. The average duration of campaigns are around 13 Life Paths but there is no limit on the amount of Life Paths an Actor can experience.
Each Actor uses Mind, Body, Spirit as their attributes, while some Abilities may modify these Attributes they can only be permanently changed through experiencing a Life Path.
Each attribute starts at 1, and at every even number of Body one Skilled Ability is unlocked that can be learned from an appropriate Encounter. Every even number of Mind unlocks one Technology, Ancient Ways or Skilled Ability, and every even number of Spirit unlocks one Magic, Automaton System or Skilled Ability.
Every odd numbered Life Path after the first results in an additional Active Ability to be equipped (1 Paths = 1 Active Ability, 3 Paths = 2 Active Abilities, 5 Paths = 3 Active Abilities, and so on). There is no limit to the number of Innate or unequipped Active Abilities an Actor has. Ex: At three Life Paths every Actor has an Active Ability Pool of 2, a total of 3 Attribute increases or Gifts, and an amount of Abilities relative to their Attribute, usually 2.
One of the most important aspects of an Actor during play is the Actor’s Stamina, which is a representation of their physical fortitude. If an Actor’s Stamina drops below 1 the become Unconscious.
An Actors Maximum Stamina is equal to twice their Body and events during Encounters may reduce or replenish it. An Actor may find themselves in a situation where their Stamina is lower than the Maximum but never higher. Some Abilities may change the value of Stamina directly in addition to reducing or replenishing or even change the way that Max Stamina is calculated. When those effects end your Max Stamina reverts to what it was before the effect, and your Current Stamina if higher than your original Max Stamina is reduced to become equal. For example: Vojk has 1 Body so has 2 Stamina at the start of the Encounter. When he uses Psionic (Vitality) he has 3 Stamina, and when he is subsequently damaged by 1 he ends the Round with 2 Stamina. On their next turn they once again use Psionic (Vitality) to return to 3 Stamina
When an Actor’s Stamina reaches 0 they make a roll to maintain consciousness as a Long Action on their turn. A roll of 1-2 results in the Actor slipping into unconsciousness, a 3-4 resulting in a Partial Success, and a 5-6 being a full success resulting in the Actor regaining 1 Stamina. If no Player Actors are conscious the Encounter ends and new Actors are made. Unconscious Actors can be brought back to consciousness during a Relaxing encounter where another Actor with Knowledge of Medicine tends to their wounds. Non-Player Actors do not roll to maintain consciousness, but can be brought back similar to Player Actors during a Relaxing Encounter.
The amount of Equipment Inventory Space is equal to the Actor’s Body, and the amount of Intangible Inventory is equal to the Actors Mind, the limit of an Actor’s amount of faction points for each faction is equal to the Actor’s spirit. (Ex: Kola has 4 Body, 1 Mind, and 1 Spirit and can have Two Weapons (Or ranged weapon and ammunition), One Worn Item, and 4 Items in her physical Inventory, one Intangible, and 1 Faction Point per Faction. She has 8 Max Stamina, and an Active Ability Pool of 2.)
Faction points must be declared by the Player at the start of Combat or Social Encounters, during Exploration Encounters if an appropriate obstacle uses a Faction & you have a Faction point with that faction may expend one Faction point to resolve that Obstacle. Each Faction Point used allows a Player to improve the starting Disposition of an NPA that shares the same Faction by one level per point used or used in place of Dosh. After being used a Faction point is depleted until completing a Downtime Social encounter with that Faction.
Every Life Path must include a Faction and Setting appropriate to the Setting Cluster chosen by the Player or rolled at random.
The first Life Path can be considered an Actor’s childhood to adolescence, the second path is to young adulthood, and third is the Adventuring Age at which the Actor enters into play. Each Life Path beyond this is all considered a part of the Actors Progression. A Player may roll 1d6 to determine where each Life Path occurs or choose a Setting Cluster for each of their three life paths: 1-2 A life path in the Outers Setting Cluster means the Player can choose a Gift Ability or increase Body, Mind or Spirit by 1. In addition the Actor receives 1 Dosh or 1 additional Faction Point. 3-4 A life path in the Middles Setting Cluster means a choice of increasing Body, Bind, or Spirit by 1 and receiving 2 dosh or 1 additional Faction Point. 5-6 A life path in the Inners Setting Cluster means a choice of increasing Body, Mind or Spirit by 1, and receiving 3 dosh per path. In Addition Subtract 1 Faction Point from a Faction not in the Inners Setting Cluster.
After 6 Encounters another Life Path has been experienced by the Player Actor (PA), choose one of the Factions & Settings from one of the Encounters experienced to serve as the basis for the Life Path. Receive the benefits from a Life Path in Inner, Middle, or Outer as well as a Faction Point from the Faction you interacted with during that Encounter. An increase to your Attributes and Active Ability Pool occurs immediately. Any Active Abilities unlocked with an Attribute increase from a Life Panel must be obtained from a Learning Encounter with an appropriate trainer. A trainer is a Non-Player Actor (NPAs) with a similar type Active Ability from a Faction & Setting chosen by the Storyteller. NPAs that have a Pneumatic Active Ability can train PAs in Pneumatics, NPAs with an Earth Magic Active Ability can train PAs in Earth Magic, NPAs with a Social Active Ability can train PAs in Social Skills and so forth.
Mechanic Primer pt. 2
Encounters are broken up into Rounds, Descriptions and Turns. A Description is when a Player uses one to two sentences to describe what their Actor’s current appearance is, what their actions may look like, what their Actor is feeling, the Description is up to the Player.
A Turn is for an individualized, specific Actor utilizing their Action(s), and the Round consists of each Actor having a Description and a Turn. Actors can be Player’s Actors (PA) or a Non Player Actors (NPA) and the Round is split into two sections: the Player Actors’ Turns and the Non Player Actors’ Turns. To determine if the PA or NPA Turns occur first refer to the Encounter’s Tone. A Roll Off means that the Player who chose the Faction rolls against one of the Player who chose the Tone, the higher number wins, if the numbers are the same the Actor with the highest Body results in their Turns occurring first. If more than one Actor has the Highest Body the Actor with the highest Mind has their Turn section first. If more than one Actor has the highest Mind the Highest Spirit results in their Turns occurring first. If more than one Actor has the Highest mind, those Actors Roll Off with ties Rerolled and the highest number choosing the order of Turn sections for the Encounter’s duration.
During the NPA Turns the Player that chose the Faction determines the order of each Actor, during the PA Turns the Players collectively decide upon the order of each Actor for the duration of the Encounter.
Every Round before an Actors turn their Player has a Description phase, where they say or write one to two sentences about their Actor. Players that choose the Faction, and Setting have additional Description phases. At the start of each new Round the player that chose the Setting has a Description related to the Setting itself, while the player that chose the Faction has a Description for each NPA.
During each Turn an Actor can take One Long Action, Two Quick Actions, or Four Brief Actions in addition each Actor may use a Free Action if available (An Actor cannot take more than Two Free Actions in a Turn). Some Abilities can Quicken an Actor and Slow an Actor causing an Action to change from one type to another (Blocked ↔ Long Action ↔ Quick Action ↔ Brief Action ↔ Free Action). For example an Actor quickened to Free Actions would be able to make at most 6 Actions (Two Free Actions and Four Brief Actions).
When performing actions that impact another actor an opposed roll will be used, the default opposed roll is rolling a 1d6 against another 1d6 with the higher roll succeeding but other abilities or actions may specify another dice roll needed or an alteration to the opposed roll format. Please refer to any Ability description or the section for that Ability (ex: Magic/Earth) for more information on a specific Ability. The Distance used to resolve conflicts within an Encounter are within the range of Adjacent ↔ Close ↔ Far ↔ Distant. Adjacent Range is usually Melee or about 1-2 m around, Thrown Attacks, Magic, and some other skills are Close Range 3-10m around, Ranged Attacks are Far Range 10-20m around, and beyond that is Distant Range. Each Movement Action can move one step on the Distance spectrum, for example if an Actor uses one movement action they could go from Close to Far or Close to Adjacent whereas if they took two movement actions they could go from Close to Distant. In addition when moving an Actor requires a reference point (Another Actor or an aspect of the Setting) For example Kola uses a Movement action to move away from a Sentry resulting in Kola being at a Far distance from the Sentry.