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Let's play Tenra! Get it here! I don't know what kind of game this is going to be, and neither do you! Let's find out together.  DO NOT APPLY WITH A CHARACTER SHEET. This is going to be different than the usual recruitment process.All I want from you right now is an elevator pitch for your character. Something brief, punchy, and to the point. Tell me about your character, who they are and what they do, in a paragraph, tops. This will probably give you some good material to pick your fates from, incidentally. I'll pick our players from the list of pitches. From there, we'll make characters and come up with a general plot. If we end up with a team of ninjas, that'll give us a different story than a bunch of poo poo-farmer peasants with looted guns, etc etc. We'll see how this ridiculous scheme goes. Pitches will be due by late Monday evening, early Tuesday morning USian time. You really shouldn't spend more than ten, fifteen minutes on this part. Tenra lives and dies by the players participating, both in scenes and as the audience. If you need to drop out or take a break, let me know and that's cool. But just slacking off is going to make the game suck for everybody playing. Please consider if you can regularly post before you apply.
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Apr 18, 2014 23:11
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Jugemu is a wandering swordsman whose true name is a mystery. After his master died in a battle in which he was spared, he abandoned the traditional path of a warrior and with it, his name, taking on an alias from a folktale. He lives from village to village and city to city, taking on odd jobs to pay for food and lodging. He's humble and courteous to those he respects, but those who cross him will find a fierce and cocksure opponent. He's none too keen on the Priesthood, seeing them as the reason his master died.
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Apr 18, 2014 23:27
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Toshiro is an easygoing young man who just reached senior status in college. That said, his studies have always been marred by feelings that he's being watched by something. He chalks it up to college stress and late nights, but it's actually heightened supernatural awareness. At one point he met face to face with what was following him: an eldritch horror from the great beyond. It was at that moment something inside him awoke and destroyed the creature with a single stroke. From that day forward, Toshiro's been working to control whatever the hell that was while also juggling his studies and social life.
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Apr 18, 2014 23:36
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What do you mean by post regularly? I can post everyday, but my day job will keep me from posting for a set of hours. Is that a problem? As for my character, My character is Iwada Hondo. He is the embodiment of the of the phrase "to live with your heart striving upwards." A hotblooded young man, he can't stand being second to anyone: he will be number one. Number one of what? Well the definition keeps changing. He's prone to getting into dumb contests, bad deals, and deadly fights: the perils of being overly masculine. It should come as no surprise that an idiot like himself can't hold down a job. With the few cronies who always follow him about, he likes to waste the few ryo that finds its way into his grasps on gambling, food, and booze.
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Apr 18, 2014 23:59
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Goto Goro is a God-breaker - like a ship-breaker, only with mecha instead of ships. There are a ton of "God-mecha" dotting the landscape, huge dead hulks left over from a long-forgotten war. Some of them get worshipped, some of them have towns built around (and in) them, most are just left alone to rust away. Every now and then, though, some salvager runs the numbers and decides it's worth breaking one down, and then all the freelance God-breakers descend on the site and strip the carcass down to the ground. (Most of what they get is worthless junk, but at the very least you can turn all the copper wire into cookware.) Goto's a big dude - you have to be, to wield a spanner as long as someone's leg - with a commensurately large bill for food and sake. Between that, and the constant fines for drunk-and-disorderly conduct, he's perpetually on the edge of bankruptcy, but he doesn't mind. He travels from work-camp to work-camp with a ramshackle cart loaded with scrap, pulled by his long-suffering donkey.
Clipperton fucked around with this message at 16:47 on Apr 20, 2014 |
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Apr 19, 2014 04:06
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Natsuyoda was one of the final releases of Summer Thunder, a line from Mabou Sakata's Sun of Summer collection that would go ignored by the public in favor of greater craftsmen. While she had been educated in the services that were meant to serve her master, her teachings were ignored by the monk who purchased, or rather adopted, "Summer" out of pity for her maker. When they returned to his temple, Summer began relearning a different kind of art, one that would take advantage of her tough wooden core: hand-to-hand combat. When Gi-Jimon had finished passing on his art, he offered Natsuyoda her new goal: rather than serve as mistress to one man, she would find glory in showing her strength to all mankind.
Double May Care fucked around with this message at 04:52 on Apr 19, 2014 |
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Apr 19, 2014 04:47
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Covok posted:What do you mean by post regularly? I can post everyday, but my day job will keep me from posting for a set of hours. Is that a problem? Regularly as in with frequency. Daily would be lovely.
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Apr 19, 2014 06:35
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Dan Kimishima is a wandering scholar, always striving to learn about the world. He used to be a monk, spending his days practicing ancient and mysterious martial arts, but it can be boring staying cooped up behind stone walls day and night, and Dan wanted to see more of the world than just the same few mountains. So, one day, he just walked out, with nothing but the clothes on his back. A few days later, he realized he should maybe have packed a lunch. He survived his brush with starvation, however, and worked his way to becoming a research student at a small university. Now he spends all his time investigating strange rumors and unusual occurrences across the countryside, but the paperwork's getting to him. Maybe it's time for another career change...
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Apr 19, 2014 11:12
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Takatsukasa Tamiko is a former yoroi mech pilot-turned-kakari-rank shrine maiden and meikyo puppeteer who grew up with her beloved sister Tamako as the gunner on the yoroi mech Iron Maiden. Their trials as children were harsh, but they always had each other and stuck together through thick and thin---up until one battle where an artillery barrage hit Iron Maiden and the impact knocked out Tamiko. Forced to fight on her own, Tamako ejected Tamiko's unconscious body from Iron Maiden and tried her best to do the work of two people piloting Iron Maiden---unfortunately, the strain of managing so much input drove her insane, and she was locked inside Iron Maiden's cockpit by the neural interface systems, turning into a rampaging asura. After Tamiko recovered, she tracked down and disabled Iron Maiden with a crack team of monks, containing Tamako's soul in the process. The Shinto priesthood had always noted Tamiko's high meikyo mirror affinity, and that while she was still too underranked to operate the priesthood's special remote-control konghoki, they figured perhaps a konghoki operated by a soul familiar to Tamiko would be more responsive, and thus Tamako's soul was implanted in a konghoki and assigned to Tamiko, newly-promoted from taira to kakari rank for her efforts. Outwardly, Tamiko accepted her promotion and new rewards with pride and gratitude. Inwardly, she howled with pain and rage at a world seemingly capable of nothing but wanton cruelty and blind indifference to human suffering. Someone, somewhere, apparently noticed, as she has recently been contacted by a mysterious group of other masked folk claiming that both they and Tamiko share a mutual hatred of the priesthood... (It's still a paragraph! A paragraph that has been eating too mush sushi!) InfiniteJesters fucked around with this message at 20:04 on Apr 19, 2014 |
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Apr 19, 2014 19:56
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The Dead Man's Gun is an Ayakashi- specifically, a Tsukomo-gami born from a soulgem revolver, and the resentment of those killed by it and those who died carrying it as it passed from hand to hand. For the longest time it was simply a relic weapon that was widely presumed to be powerful, but cursed. Now? It's a person, and it's not exactly sure how to deal with the whole "Burdened by guilt and other emotions not typically experienced by guns" business. So it goes back and forth across the land, trying to stay out of trouble, but always finding it.
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Apr 19, 2014 23:47
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Once, in an unknown village, two yoroi armours met to fight. In the chaos of their battle, the granary was set aflame, and the people despaired. Many fled the village, but one girl was caught in the wreckage, cursing the yoroi pilots. It is said they both were driven mad by her ghost, unable to pilot again, and that she haunts yoroi armours. The great priest Genkū, most recently, was sent to quiet the onryō by meditating in an armour for thirty days without food or water. Now the onryō walks the earth, enlightened back to humanity, seeking a legendary village where akiyashi live like humans but apart from humans, where she can find acceptance as a lost soul.
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Apr 21, 2014 00:50
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A kongohki wanders the land, filled with half remembered dreams and half forgotten lives. It has to find the oni girl. When it sleeps (but it doesn't sleep?) it sees itself with living hands of flesh, covered in blood, surrounded by bodies. It has to find the oni girl. It can for that brief instant feel the overwhelming rage and despair as even more run up to attack it. It has to find the oni girl. It - he? - can see other scenes; a group of laughing oni, a very severe priest, a sobbing husband and wife, a mirror...but it can't see the reflection. It has to find the oni girl. What will it do when it finds her? It's hoping it'll find out before then.
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Apr 21, 2014 18:27
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Twelve or so hours remain! If you're gonna apply, now's the time.
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Apr 21, 2014 19:57
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Kansuke began life as a simple farmer, a life that was taken away from him when war erupted and he was conscripted as a foot soldier. As you might expect, Kansuke stood no chance against the varied monsters on the field of battle, and an enemy samurai didn't so much as blink as he cut the peasant warrior down. But thanks to either luck or cruel fate, Kansuke's body was one of the few chosen to be saved, and turned into a literal killing-machine: a Kijin. Battle after battle, Kansuke was forged into a weapon, gaining more and more mechanica as time went on, until suddenly the war was over. With no more fights to distract him, Kansuke finally realized what he had become, and that he could never show what remained of his face to his family. Taking up a vow of pacifism, he now wanders the land and puts what little he has learned about first-aid to good use.
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Apr 21, 2014 22:32
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The Child of Gold, descended from a long line of masterful blacksmiths over countless generations. Each of the family has produced a masterwork of their own which is passed down through the family armory, locked away secretly in a new location by each in turn for their child to uncover. Their masterful bladework has made the family legendary over the years, but as technology has progressed the need for weaponry has evolved far from the balanced blade. Asuka, the current heir of the Kaneko family's secrets, works more with magical engineering than hammered metals. Forsaking the anvil, Asuka aims to create the new ultimate weapon to bring her name back into relevance. With millenia of outdated sacred knowledge from her family line, the new Child of Gold finds herself stuck in her experiments more often than not, and finds each experiment going awry far more often than not. (I don't really know much about TBZ besides ~anime~ so hopefully I'm not horribly off the mark with this. I've been interested in it though and figure I can just pick the PDF up for this thread and adjust to the setting, wouldn't hurt to have.)
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Apr 22, 2014 01:56
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Yukihira is the last survivor of a vassal lords kingdom that had been devoured almost incidentally as great dominions sought to expand their influence. His lord's fief had survived for so long due it for the most part surrounded by mountains, making it almost impossible for large armies to move through the land with any reasonable success, and thanks to the strong military clan that Yukihira was a part of he had more then enough skilled soldiers to make it a bloody undertaking to even consider undertaking. However what had really kept them alive was the lack of strategic importance of the land which was soon changed with the discovery of a soul gem mine within his lands. Now the three domains that surrounded his lords lands were determined to seize the land for the valuable resources that it contains. So Yukihira along with the rest of his family stood guard at the various passes that allowed entry into the land as they waited for the invasion to begin. When it finally came Yukihira made his assigned choke point bathed with blood as with his customised Zakt-8 no man could stand before his fury and thanks to the terrain no Armour could make it's way up to his post without being made an easy victim by it's more nimble opponent. For three weeks he made whatever fool came his way pay the ultimate price for their foolishness and for a time he actually thought that he might actually win, but due to treachery from within his lord was killed in the night by an armour unit that had been snuck through by a traitor. With that sudden development Yukihira's already bad situation turned for the worse as he now found himself surround by foes from both sides and so in an act of desperation he broke though the enemies rank before trying to make his way as quickly as possible away from what was once his home. Now by himself Yukihira has turned to work as a mercenary as he tries to find out the traitor that had betrayed his former lord and make him suffer for committing such a treasonous act.
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Apr 22, 2014 06:11
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A foolish young ninja once aspired to become something more than just a tool. The Fall provided an answer to that unvoiced wish of hers. The school was no more, the clan and the entire country, annihilated. Perhaps for the first time in her life, Chikage set off with no goal or objective in mind. And it was... fun, for a time. Still, it was hard to shake a lifetime's worth of being a living tool. Eventually, Chikage found her new peaceful, aimless life to be boring. Not having to murder innocent peasants or political dissidents was certainly nice, but she still felt something was missing. Chikage found that normal human life was much too boring for her tastes. So she abandoned all the peace she had gained and threw herself back into that world of wonderful heart pumping danger. Rather than sitting back and waiting for a strike of inspiration for some sort goal in life to come to her, Chikage decided to run out and go looking for some sort of goal to work towards.
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Apr 22, 2014 07:15
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Okay, applications are closed. So, Picks coming very shortly. For those that are selected, I want you to be thinking about the kind of story you want to tell - coming of age, fall from grace, a tale of revenge, whatever - and who you think would tie into that story. We'll crank out characters post haste, and then hit the zero acts hopefully by the end of the week.
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Apr 22, 2014 08:32
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Picks! This was a lot harder than I thought it'd be. I chose based on a theme that clearly developed, and that's less than human wanderers. We may well be asking ourselves what it means to be human if we're not careful. My apologies to everyone who didn't get in, but with any luck, someone'll run another game soon. Our provisional players are Waffleman, as The Mendicant Swordsman Rather Watch Them as The Monastic Kugutsu unseenlibrarian as The Dead Man's Gun Alien Rope Burn as The Redeemed Ghost Professor Cirno as The Oni Girl Fled Across the Desert and the Kongohki Followed and provisionally sentrygun as Our Tinkering Foil Go ahead and start playing around with your character sheets. If you've got a really firm concept in mind, go for it, but it couldn't hurt to keep in mind the basic capabilities of everybody else. I have some tasks for everyone individually, in addition to the general request to think about the story and cool stuff you want to do. Waffleman: In keeping with the apparent theme of the game, would you be amenable to being a full-on samurai? RTW: I want to know more about Gi-Jimon. Tell me about his style of martial arts, his relationship with the temple and worldly affairs, and most importantly, why he would be compelled to adopt such a worldly trapping as the care of an artificial life. unseenlibrarian: Tell me about one incident in the Gun's life(?). I also want to know if you're picturing the ayakashi as an object actually wielded by one of the other characters or a previous victim or something else entirely. ARB: More details of all kinds. Does your restless ghost look back on her life with regret, nostalgia, relief that it's over? And tell me more about Genku. Cirno: I suppose the big question is whether or not you had a particular end result in mind. To consider: do you want the mystery resolved in this game? Do you have an end thought up or do you want me to surprise you? sentrygun: You have extra homework. Not only do you need to familiarize yourself with the system and setting in short order, I need some more defined concepts. As written, there's nothing quite like what you pitched in the background. Tenra's weapons of war are weird. Miyazaki-type spirits are summoned, either for use as-is or bound to weapons or even people to impart their powers. The mecha are powered by magic muscle fibers and charged by the literal hearts of the native people of Tenra. Cirno's character is a damned soul bound to a magic mirror/computer. The latest revolution in weapon-making is actually mundane things, like rifles or non-magical mechanical computers, since you can mass produce those. On top of all of that, the Shinto Priesthood is basically the Illuminati and Aperture Labs rolled into one, controlling technology that's indistinguishable from magic and bringing the hammer down hard on anyone who bends their rules. So, your task is you contextualize your character a little more. The core concept is great - young artisan breaks with her family's traditions. I wanna know how. Are you a Shinto priest who's joined the rebel faction that wants to dispense technology to the masses? You could be convinced that harnessing the ayakashi spirits to weapons is a great idea, which'd play well with at least two of our other PCs. Are the weird-rear end cybernetics of the setting the future of the species? Are you on the lam from the Priesthood after you came up with one too many good ideas? Are you the inventor of a martial art that's as much forging as it is using the weapon? And that's all stuff I came up with off the cuff. We can fit pretty much any kind of mechanics into this concept, but the Tenra setting is just crammed with plot hooks and cool stuff to latch multiple players to, so I'd like to tie things in a little closer. Find a cool thing you want to do out of the rulebook, and then give the setting a read-through.
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Apr 22, 2014 09:13
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The Gun now wields itself- it's formed a body, though since the body isn't fully real, it can abandon it temporarily and reform it, or move it in ways that bodies don't normally do. (Thus Ayakashi powers) It's actively uncomfortable with letting others use it now, because the previous wielders tended to live unhappy lives, punctuated by violence. It's a little bit afraid (And it can feel fear now) that this means the same for it in its new life. A story from when the gun was forged: The local lord's son was forever getting into duels; it did not matter with who; soldier, peasant, wandering monk; he'd find some reason to be offended by them and pick a fight. In his most recent fight, he lost his weapon, and so he turned to the village gunsmith to fashion a new weapon. He had forgotten, apparently, that he had challenged the gunsmith's son to a duel some months back on some pretext and murdered the man. Still, the gunsmith outdid himself, making a true masterpiece of a soulgem revolver. And if his spite and hatred for the lord's son were worked into the very wood and steel of the weapon, well, who can say? But the next time the lordling challenged a man, it was a wandering samurai, who transformed and took him to pieces before he'd even quite finished drawing his new weapon. The Samurai noted the craftsmanship of the gun, and though he himself favored his bare hands or melee, took it with him on his journeys, until it too ended in blood and death. I will probably also toss up an incident from after the gun came to life, later when I'm a little more awake. Storywise, the Gun is basically "Bad man who wants to atone but is afraid it's too late", or "The gunslinger who's forced to strap on the guns for one last fight after he's retired, only from the perspective of the guns being strapped on" with a side order of "Wanderer who just wants to pass through peacefully but keeps getting involved in local troubles."
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Apr 22, 2014 10:46
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I did indeed have one in mind - or rather, I have a potential end. Whether or not it happens remains to be seen. The man who became the kongohki died surrounded by the men he murdered - the men who in turn who had set about on an oni village, leaving on accident but one survivor. The man learned of the one survivor who vanished in the massacre. He had a choice - find her and protect her...or count her as already lost and be driven by revenge. He thought he could wash the blood away with more blood. If his family would forsake him in this, then he would spit on them even as they sobbed in front of him. As a living man, his story began when he accidentally revealed the existence of a small tribe of oni to a human town. It ended as madman, howling even as he was put down, surrounded by the dead - some of whom were guilty only of being in the wrong place - and placed in a mirror But those are the memories of a dead man. All the kongohki was left with was an overwhelming desire to find the girl. Will he remember why he's looking for her, or what he did? Maybe he'll completely misunderstand and assume she was responsible for everything! And how does/will she react to this obsessed suit of armor trying to track her down? Maybe SHE thinks he's trying to hunt her down and brutally finish what was started! I suspect that's up to the game! As for what kind of story, I imagine the (currently) unnamed (I'll think of a name I'm sure) kongohki is maybe a tale of redemption, probably a tale of obsession, and very clearly a tale of revenge (and the price thereof). That severe priest is still alive, after all. That village is out there somewhere. And the kongohki probably still gets that stirring whenever he sees the oni being mistreated. ( I've kinda left the details a bit bare, like how he accidentally revealed the oni, or what exactly his relationship was to them other then a positive one, or who the priest is, or WHY the oni were all killed, etc, etc. I figure this makes a good enough framework to start painting on. If you want more - or less! - let me know )
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Apr 22, 2014 10:54
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Woo! I'll pick up the PDF and start looking over it.
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Apr 22, 2014 14:04
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Sure, I'll be a full-on samurai. I'll have to look over the PDF a little today/tomorrow and I'll try to get something together.
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Apr 22, 2014 14:27
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unseenlibrarian posted:The Gun Rad. I think I've got a pretty good Zero Act worked up for you. Is the Gun trying to just make it in this tough old world, or do you have a definite end point in mind? Waffleman_ posted:Sure, I'll be a full-on samurai. I'll have to look over the PDF a little today/tomorrow and I'll try to get something together. Also rad. Please accept an additional two aiki as a bribe to seal the deal. Tell me more about your former master. ProfessorCirno posted:The kongohki Okay. I think that'll work for the time being. What does your character do when they are not pursuing the oni girl? Presumably you have to stop and ask directions every so often, interact with other living things while traveling, etc. What's your character like when it's not on its relentless quest for revenge? For everybody: Anyone have an issue with getting sheets up and starting the game by this Friday? Earlier would be better, but I don't expect everyone to have an immediate level of system mastery.
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Apr 23, 2014 02:53
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Jugemu's master, Tsubaki Sanjuro, acted as a sword of the Shimeki Clan. Unlike Jugemu, Sanjuro had not gone through the surgery to become a samurai, and was against Jugemu having the procedure done, though he never made that known and respected his pupil's decision. In his teachings, he stressed humility and respect, and often scolded Jugemu for his arrogance in battle. Sanjuro did not have children of his own and saw his apprentice as the son he never had, Jugemu seeing him like a father. One day, the Shimeki Clan was attacked by warriors acting on behalf of a clan from the rival court. Sanjuro and Jugemu fought hard against the attackers, but Jugemu was unable to prevent them running Sanjuro through. He was able to drive the attackers away after that, but being unable to protect his master caused him to lose faith in the political structure of the world, abandoning his duties and wandering Tenra. I should be able to put something together on Wednesday.
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Apr 23, 2014 03:16
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I think I can get my stuff together by Friday, it doesn't seem impenetrable. I very clearly misunderstood how mechs work so I'm wheeling around trying to pin exactly how I want to put Asuka together, but I suspect this soulgem stuff should make the Kaneko family vault hilariously dangerous.
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Apr 23, 2014 03:56
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Gi-Jimon is a practitioner of Tsukyumin-ryū, focusing mainly on Fudōshin, attuning one's body to the earth and bringing its weight toward their opponent, specifically in forward strikes and rarely grappling. The idea is to disarm and subdue the opponent in as few strikes as possible without losing ones footing in the process. Gi-Jimon is master of the Myōri Monastery, established recently enough to have turned over three generations of young people wishing to join the Shingon Buddhist lifestyle. The temple itself is off the beaten path and has thus been experiencing a decline in followers. The dwindling numbers have left a select few less-than-pure monks worried about the bottom line. As for why Gi-Jimon chose to adopt Natsuyoda? One of the many aspects of the Bodhisattva four-fold vow is to guide all sentient life to nirvana while on ones own journey. He believes this applies to those willfully given life by other "unnatural" means. Additionally, being able to pass on the teachings of his temple would allow Myōri to grow to prosperous levels. The fact that his disciple is a kugutsu would only add to the message of universal tolerance (and provide a neat bit of publicity). Perhaps most pressing was the fact that Mabou Sadaka had passed of old age several days before Gi-Jimon found his workshop, containing diagrams, grands, and Summer listlessly rehearsing her tea ceremony without the guidance of her artisan. Her peace of mind was of the greatest importance. Gi-Jimon sees it not as materialistic, but as another stepping stone along the way to enlightenment. While Gi-Jimon had taught Natsuyoda the ways of Fudōshin, she has taken to a much more swift method of striking. He's found that kugutsu of her manufacture absorb information like sponges, allowing her to "output instructions" at a superhuman pace. Despite foregoing the deliberate pace of Tsukyumin, Gi-Jimon can't help but praise Summer's knack for the techniques. I kinda already built a sheet months ago for this character, though the pitch motivated me to rewrite it. Natsuyoda Age: 23 Sex: F Concept: Seeking nirvana based on her master's teachings Archetypes: Kugutsu Runaway, Fist of Merciful Kannon, Hard Luck Karma Cost: 70 Attribute Penalty: 0 Primary Attributes: Agility, Empathy, Station BOD: 6 AGI: 8 SEN: 4 KNO: 3 SPI: 5 EMP: 8 STA: 6 Vitality: 11 Soul: 16 Wounds: L: ()()()()()() H: ()()() C: ()() D: () Fate: Misfortune: Death of your most precious thing (2) Goal: To be the strongest in all Tenra (3) Skills: Unarmed Combat (4), Art of War: Fist of Merciful Kannon the Thousand-Armed (3), Perception (3), Pursuit (3), Persuasion (3), First Aid (2) Equipment: Sun of Summer amulet, Summer Thunder rosary Equip Cost: 0 Martial Arts: Damage +4 Special Abilities: The Butterfly Dream Double May Care fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Apr 27, 2014 |
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Apr 23, 2014 03:59
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Yurie doesn't remember her past well. She remembers being buried alive when the yoroi armours clashed over her village, the anger she held at the village, her parents, yoroi armours - has torn through her memories and tainted them. The home over her burned, but as things moved to silence, snow covered the wreckage, chilling her to sleep. Since then, she has spent a long time thinking like a flame, lashing out at anything that comes close in an attempt to sate her anger. But it only burned brighter when she acted, tying her to the living with every tragedy. To young yoroi pilots, she was a nightmare, taking over their mirrors and locking them in their cockpits, making them relive her experience being trapped under a fallen building, complete with terrifying renditions of the fate that befell her village. Her visitations to adult pilots were more rare, seeking out pilots who had harmed people carelessly or harmed young people (in or out of an armor). The rare times she did, however, adult pilots found themselves tormented, dead, or both. An assemblage of lords met, all having had vassals whom suffered at the spirit's hands. They beseeched Genkū, a buddhist priest known for his holiness despite his lowly beginnings. A former thief, Genkū had been enlightened when trying to rob a reclusive hermit, only to have the hermit invite him in for tea and offer him any belonging he needed. Genkū could not bring himself to take anything, and upon drinking tea moistened by his own tears of guilt, was enlightened. Genkū then went on to become a wandering monk, often preaching to those thought beyond Dharma - drunks, gangsters, prostitutes, and others. He was also famous for driving out evil spirits in his wanderings, which drew the lords to request his services. Genkū at first admonished them, proclaiming the haunting by Yurie was brought upon them by their own desire for war and conflict. But Genkū realized that the spirit had brought many daimyo together who would in ordinary circumstances plot war and strife against each other. He agreed to aid them, but only if they took the spirit of cooperation their meeting that brought them together, and engaged in perhaps what may have been a passive-aggressive length of group meditation. Genkū followed reports of the spectre, only to arrive too late several times. After Yurie trapped a child in her armor in a nearby province, Genkū was able to arrive in time to seal the spirit in an armour. For thirty days he withstood her anger and frustrations, in a cockpit that burned with the heat of the fire Yurie had struggled under, to the cold of the snowfall that came before her death. Even the local lord eventually begged for him to come out, but he refused, for he understood what drove Yurie to kill. The spirit was bound and furious, but it had no reason to kill him. He simply had to wait for Yurie to understand that... not that survival was simple. It was still a hell all its own. Eventually, the spirit's anger weakened, Genkū refusing to feed its fury. With her power ebbing, the anger did as well, and for the first time in many years, Yurie began to experience self-awareness, her thoughts colalescing. He walked her through the confusion, and those who awaited the outcome of this exorcism saw him emerged with a young girl wrapped in his robes... before promptly collapsing a few steps outside the armour. There were whispers about Yurie, but the girl seemed perfectly human - confused and eccentric, speaking an old-fashioned dialect - but still there were whispers. Yurie got treated... warily, doubly so in the Winter, when Genkū fell ill. The lord that had once worried about Genkū's time in the armour overlooked events... and suspected Yurie's work hand in it. Which may - inadvertently - been true, but only for the strain Genkū had undergone in the armour. Perhaps he had taken on her Karma in his way, but if so, he took it with him to the grave. Over the winter, Genkū would tell Yurie legends of a hidden town of akiyashi that looked normal to outsiders, but where secretly akiyashi accept her own. As he weakened and passed away, the lord sooner thereafter sent warriors to deal with Yurie quietly. They failed. Yurie was still very much "dead", as they found out. It's said the lord was driven mad that night, this own dead soldiers cursing his name... not that they really died. But he never knew. Yurie could see to his torment, even with her diminished power. She could travel through walls and claw into his mind. Her former self would have killed him outright... but whether or not his fate was a mercy is a matter for sages to debate. Yurie left that night, seeking the place Genkū spoke of. Her old life only came in her in scraps and scents, an occassional reminder or flash of memory, but she didn't look back. Her past was like a weight trying to constantly drag her down. She could only move onward. pre:Yurie, Armour-Haunting Onryō Archetypes: Onryō, Wanderer, pre:Onryō (Akayashi species) Karma Cost: 50 Skills: Stealth (2), Willpower (2) Attribute Penalty: 2 Primary Attributes: Body, Spirit Equipment: Yohjutsu abilities
Alien Rope Burn fucked around with this message at 14:35 on Apr 24, 2014 |
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Apr 23, 2014 05:12
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Futzing around with chargen now, kongohki is a bit hard since the three presets are pricy and come with seemingly random stuff like three swords...and the pregen kongohki character appears to have not followed the rules of it's own archtype! The way I see it, his memories have begun to leak and the seal's starting to crack a bit, but not so much that he's fully regained himself; just enough for certain character traits and some fleeting visions to pass through. My character serves as a sword and gun for hire as he moves between territories. Even as a kongohki, money is needed for things; repairs, ammunition, soulgems, bribes. The oni can be secretive already, and this one has a long head start. He isn't overly picky about his jobs. In some ways he resembles a samurai or kijin, working as a mercenary while always looking for leads. He's served as soldier many times (sometimes on opposing armies at different times), a momentary bodyguard, even a bouncer for a particularly rowdy establishment in a war-torn city. While theoretically he could demand high prices, he tends to be more interested in keeping occupied then a large payday. He will, however, absolutely not, under any circumstances, assist with oni hunting. And he's not quite sure why. Though it never asked, it's possible the kongohki is being hunted as well. When it began receiving those brief flashes of memory - and that steady instruction to find the oni girl - it simply fled in the night, escaping it's master and creators without word.
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Apr 23, 2014 07:00
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"Jugemu" Age: 25 Sex: M Concept: Wandering masterless samurai Archetypes: Wanderer, Samurai Karma: 65 Attribute Penalty: 0 Primary Attributes: Empathy, Agility, Spirit Station Requirement: 2 BOD: 5 AGI: 7 SEN: 5 KNO: 4 SPI: 7 EMP: 8 STA: 4 Vitality: 12 Soul: 22 Wounds: L: ()()()()() H: ()()() C: () D: () Fate: Goal: To be truly free Emotion: Hatred of Weaknesses Skills: Information (3), Notice (3), First Aid (2), Willpower (3) Equipment: Walking stick, traveling clothes, Samurai build Equip Cost: 35 Special Abilities: Samurai transformation Weapon: Greatsword-Damage +5 Battle: 3 (+3 to BOD, AGI, and SEN when activated) Regeneration: 1 (1 point of Vitality a round) Soulfind: 1 (Sense human or larger life in a 10m radius) Possession: 1 (Binding shiki) Soul Point Cost: 5 to activate Duration: # of rounds equal to spirit Soulgems Implanted: 15
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Apr 23, 2014 15:48
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ProfessorCirno posted:Futzing around with chargen now, kongohki is a bit hard since the three presets are pricy and come with seemingly random stuff like three swords...and the pregen kongohki character appears to have not followed the rules of it's own archtype! Yeah, I'm used to hacking the archetypes a bit if I have a specific concept. Speaking of which, my sheet is up!
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Apr 23, 2014 20:52
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Rather Watch Them posted:Natsuyoda Okay, I'll buy that. If you're not married to a particular reason for leaving, your Zero Act is probably going to be G-J sending you out into the world to gain experience in the worldly matters and expand your horizons. If you're wedded to the concept, don't feel like you have to change, but the immediate thing that struck me reading your sheet is that you might consider Merciful Kannon instead of Fist of Acala. Using Empathy as your attack stat seems like it's squarely in a kugutsu's interests. Again, don't feel pressured to change if there's a specific thing you want out of Acala. Alien Rope Burn posted:Yurie Cursory examination says your new archetype checks out. I'm assuming you knocked it down by the "You are a weird-looking mofo" price as well. Does Yurie know anything or care about the armour pilot that originally brought Genku into her (un)life? ProfessorCirno posted:Kongohki Yeah, the book cheats and says "These archetypes probably don't work with our own generation system! Welp!" and that's jut a bit of a cop out. Are you named like a typical kongohki, along the lines of "Iron Tiger" or "Excellent Obedient Soldier" or what have you, or are you going by a nickname you picked up elsewhere, or something not quite remembered? Do you know the secret of heart engines? Waffleman_ posted:Jugemu's sheet Looks good! You seem ready to go. Is there anything you wanted to cover, establish, or try and get out of your Zero Act?
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Apr 24, 2014 03:06
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Not really, I'm just gonna go where the story takes me.
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Apr 24, 2014 03:20
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I already planned for her to be of Kannon the first time around. I figured I wrote myself in an Acala direction with my intentions, but I find Kannon much more appealing. 
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Apr 24, 2014 03:45
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grassy gnoll posted:Cursory examination says your new archetype checks out. I'm assuming you knocked it down by the "You are a weird-looking mofo" price as well. Yes, though slightly less than the normal Akiyashi template. It's a bit tricky, but along the lines of the sample Akiyashi character, I'm presuming she looks normal, particularly during the day, but at night there are more cues (hitodama? moonlight shining through her? cold to the touch? that sort of thing), and when she uses powers it's entirely obvious that's she's going all J-horror. Of course, she probably still comes off as odd and maybe somewhat anachronistic speech-wise, but not blatantly inhuman in casual contact. There's been about two generations since her "death", for the record, should it come up. As for the pilot, she probably remembers them only vaguely, and honestly was probably too distracted with her rediscovered experiences to worry too much about them. She'd feel bad if confronted with it, and the pilot likely hasn't forgotten, but she's still detached from the reality of what she did to people. Alien Rope Burn fucked around with this message at 05:34 on Apr 24, 2014 |
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Apr 24, 2014 05:25
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Alright, I've hacked the kongohki archtype up a little bit; swapped out weapons and one of the mechanica. Let me know if it's ok or not ok! Also, a question about Soulgems. I know weapons start each session, and that you can buy extra soulgems with karma. Once you use those soulgems, are they gone for good? And I know gunpowder weapons recharge at intermissions; do soulgem weapons? Officially my name is Blade Cutting Through Rebellion (slightly ironic!). Unofficially I mostly call myself Tankyuusha. There WAS a man named Hideki. And I very most certainly do not know where heart engines come from; finding out might lead to Bad Things, given my past of horrible bloody murderous revenge. Or fun things! But probably both things. pre:
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Apr 24, 2014 06:04
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Soulgems are used and done, I'm afraid. That's the price you pay for actually using ammunition for the Really Good Stuff. On the plus side, you can buy five of 'em for a kiai at intermission, so it's going to be pretty hard to run out. Looks okay on a glance. Worst case scenario if I miss something, for anybody, is that we just fudge it from the point we notice something is amiss. We're currently holding for unseenlibrarian and sentry. If you guys would like to intertwine your characters in some fashion, now would be a superb time to do so. There might be aiki bribes in it for you if you come up with something cool.
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Apr 24, 2014 07:38
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grassy gnoll posted:Rad. I think I've got a pretty good Zero Act worked up for you. Is the Gun trying to just make it in this tough old world, or do you have a definite end point in mind? The Gun is mostly just trying to make it and find some measure of peace. Things being as they are, and being what he is, he may not ever actually manage this. (Ideal end point for him might be "Sheriff of the Ayakashi town Yurie's looking for". Good end is "Still wandering, but slightly hopeful after managing to make up for his misdeeds before he woke up" Bad end is probably something like "Destroys self after being forced to kill someone he didn't want to hurt" or "Consumed by spite and regret, goes on murder spree and has to be put down, possibly by being thrown into nearest volcano like a pistol version of the one ring") Watch this space to get the sheet up sometime later today. Gonna have to hack together my own archetype as well because man, what are the book Ayakashi even supposed to -be-? Edit: I am totally down if someone wanted to run across the Gun before he was a person and get caught up in one of the various awful murder/revenge ballads that make up a cursed weapon backstory. unseenlibrarian fucked around with this message at 09:46 on Apr 24, 2014 |
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Apr 24, 2014 07:42
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Hey ARB, what would you think of Yurie and Tankyuusha being somewhat silent travel partners? Both are out looking for something specific, and while the thing they're looking for isn't really related, I figure Tankyuusha has some faint desire not to be COMPLETELY alone, even if they rarely actually talk to each other, and Yurie could probably use something big and strong to scare away would-be ne'er do wells. I'm thinking they've made something of a quiet agreement to travel with each other until their searches take them in different directions. Though that would also depend on how Yurie would feel about Tankyuusha supporting them through war and mercenary work - including working alongside other Armours.
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Apr 24, 2014 08:07
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Would unseenlibrarian be down with having Natsuyoda escort Gun? Here's my rationale: What better way to find atonement than with a Buddhist nun? She would believe Gun reincarnated into its current state from a large helping of karma and would seek to set it on the path to cosmic enlightenment like Gi-Jimon did with her. Plus, I think they could learn from each other's special brand of object-centric inhumanity. One's a humanized wooden doll without a heart. The other's a cursed and possessed gun without a body. But I'm cool with whatever happens.
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Apr 24, 2014 14:25
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