Play-by-Post Recruitment Thread

[ElectricPaladin]

My character could easily be changed to female without any changes to background so happy to play as such.

Your call. As long as we can keep it tasteful, I'd be particularly entertained by a dispossessed noblewoman going around gambling and being irresponsible and seducing the sons and daughters of planetary governors. It would be a nice change of pace, and 40k is the future, after all.

[Wildeybeast]

Your call. As long as we can keep it tasteful, I'd be particularly entertained by a dispossessed noblewoman going around gambling and being irresponsible and seducing the sons and daughters of planetary governors. It would be a nice change of pace, and 40k is the future, after all.

Hey, I'd always assumed that other people would think guys playing girls characters is weird, but I'm cool with it. Noblewoman she is. I will need to think of a new first name though.

[ElectricPaladin]

Here is the way this system is going to work. It's a FATE hack, largely lifted from John Wick's excellent Houses of the Blooded RPG, with a few alterations of my own.

Characters

Firstly, every character has five Virtues. The Virtues are: Strength, Compassion, Cunning, Beauty, Integrity, and Wisdom. You will note that I have listed six Virtues. You can only have five of them; one is your Fatal Flaw. You have a rating of zero in this Virtue and can never have any dice. You will need to rely on other sources whenever you need to create a dice pool in that area of life.

Every Virtue is associated with one of the things you can be in this game. Strength is associated with Astartes and Orks. Compassion is associated with Humans and Tau. Cunning is associated with the Mechanicus. Beauty is associated with the Eldar. Integrity is associated with Psykers. Wisdom is associated with the Inquisition. If you belong to that group, you can not have that Virtue as your Fatal Flaw. It's possible to belong to more than one group. You can be an Astartes Psyker, for example. In that case, you are simply more limited; there are two Virtues you can't chose as your Fatal Flaw. You also get a bonus point in that Virtue for being a part of that group. If you belong to multiple groups, you only get one bonus point, but you can choose which of your Group Virtues you get.

Virtues have the following functions:
• Strength: Killing things, performing feats of physical prowess.
• Compassion: Connecting to your fellows, understanding them, empathy.
• Cunning: Gathering information, deceiving people with your sneakiness.
• Beauty: Manipulating people with your charisma, creating art, communicating
• Integrity: Holding your ground against temptation and the horrors of the Warp
• Wisdom: Knowing things

You also have two Aspects. An Aspect is a descriptive phrase that tells the world something about your character. Aspects should be descriptive and tasty. You want to pick things like "For the Emperor and Sanguinus!" or "Big guns never tire." Honestly, a lot of the shorter quotes in 40k books could be Aspects.

You also have a Name, a Family (for Astartes, this is probably his Chapter; for Eldar, it might be his noble family, or it might be a reference to her Craftworld, and a Concept, which are also Aspects.

The way you use Aspects is this: you spend a FATE point (more on those later) and get either +2 bonus dice or a reroll. This is called Invoking the Aspect. You can also do this to someone else's Aspect to give yourself the same benefit. This is called Tagging an Aspect.

The trouble with Aspects is that anyone else - including the GM - can bribe you with FATE points to do something in character, but bad for you. For example, if you have the Aspect "Honored son of Dorn," and some Space Wolf is trash-talking on Dorn and what a wuss he was compared to Russ, I can offer you a FATE point to get up in his face about it. If you refuse, you have to pay me off with a FATE point.

Aspects are also given to you by Maneuvers. Basically, anyone can make a roll to put an Aspect on you (or anything else, including an object, or the scene). They can then do all that stuff we just described with this new Aspect. So, for example, if I make a roll to hit you with a flamer (and take a penalty for the complexity of putting an Aspect on you instead of just hurting you) I can put the "on fire" Aspect on you. Then I can, say, tag that aspect to make you either bleed a FATE point or lose your action putting the fire out. Normally, Aspects someone puts on you fall off after one use, but there are ways to make them "stickier." Additionally, injuries and other negative conditions? They're also Aspects.

You start each chapter with three FATE points. You will get FATE points back when bad things happen to you. You will spend them for bonus dice. You store extra FATE points in awesome and stylish gear - a tattered red cloak for a Magus, an awesome hat for a foppish young Imperial lord, a purity seal for an Astartes.

Finally, you will get some Skills - which add to dice pools . You'll get some Stunts, attached to your Skills, which are special talents. Psychic powers will work this way.

And then there's how your character will advance:

After a chapter
• Tweak Aspect
• Move one skill point
• Recover one condition one rank
• FATE refreshes.

After a story
• Tweak Aspect
• Move one skill point
• FATE refreshes
• +1 Skill Point
• Recover all conditions one rank

After a novel
• Tweak Aspect
• Move one skill point
• FATE refreshes
• +1 Skill Point
• Recover all conditions
• +1 Aspect OR +1 Virtue

System

The way it works is this:

1. Normally, we're going to keep the mechanical stuff to a minimum. Lots of narrating, playing out lines of conversation post by post, stuff like that.
2. When I ask for a roll - or you ask for a roll - you assemble your dice pool. You add up the appropriate Virtue (or none, if it's your Fatal Flaw) with your Skills, any bonuses from Stunts or special gear, and decide if you're going to spend FATE points to get bonuses from Aspects. This gives you a number of dice.
3. Then, you decide if you are going to make a wager. This means reducing your dice pool by groups of two dice at a time. For every two dice you remove, the reward if you succeed goes up by one.
4. Roll the dice.
5. Every 5 or 6 is a success. If you get less than 3, you fail. I - or whoever you're dealing with - gets to narrate what happens. If you get 3 or more - it doesn't matter how many - you succeed to a degree based on how many dice you wagered.

Now, here's how wagering works.

In general, when you succeed at a roll, you either get to answer a yes or no question, or you get the answer to a yes or no question, depending on how important it is to the plot. This means that I have a lot of freedom to let you do the narrative work for me.

For every point of wager, you get to add one more fact.

For example

You walk into your chambers. You ask me: "is there anyone lurking within."

I say: "I dunno, roll your Cunning" (Cunning is the Virtue of gathering information from your environment).

You roll, and succeed, with three points of wager. I reply with "I don't have any particular ides, so go for it" (in order to streamline the process, I will probably package this information with another post I make earlier in the process).

You say: "someone is in the room, it's a woman, she is tainted by Chaos, and she steps forward saying 'I have a message for you, Magos.'"

I say "damn… I'd better get to creating some plot here!"

Some of the dice rolling will be handled in PMs, but in general, it's open. This is one of those games where I want you to metagame in order to produce better plot!

I will compile this - and all the details I left out - into a document and post it later.

Any questions?

Also, feel free to start dreaming up those Aspects!

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

Seems pretty simple to me.
Virtues: Strength, Compassion (I wanted this to be my flaw), Cunning, Integrity, and Wisdom.
Flaw: Beauty

Aspects:
Personal: "Through faith; suspicion."
Bonuses to resist Charm tests made by NPCs
Name: "By the Ordo Malleus, I condemn you."
Bonuses to damaging Daemonic/Chaotic NPCs

Did I do that right?

[ElectricPaladin]

Seems pretty simple to me.
Virtues: Strength, Compassion (I wanted this to be my flaw), Cunning, Integrity, and Wisdom.
Flaw: Beauty

Aspects:
Personal: "Through faith; suspicion."
Bonuses to resist Charm tests made by NPCs
Name: "By the Ordo Malleus, I condemn you."
Bonuses to damaging Daemonic/Chaotic NPCs

Did I do that right?

Basically... yes.

First of all, I would allow you to have Compassion as your flaw. I wasn't perfectly clear - you can drop a "species" Virtue from your groups. The "Human" and "Ork" and "Eldar" groups are only mandatory for "everyman" Human, Ork, and Eldar characters. If your character is really strongly something else (ie. a Fire Warrior, an Ethereal, a Weirdboy, whatever), then you can drop the species affiliation.

Also, your name should include an actual name, and an explanation for why that name grants that bonus (ie. you are named after a famous hero, you were named by someone who had certain intentions for your life, etc.)

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

In which case, Compassion will be my flaw.

So...
"By the House of Kane I denounce you!"
Kane is the surname of a very famous Rogue Trader family in the Exquinox Sector, known for their cut throat methods and demand for tribute.
Due to this, the Family is extremely wealthy, able to pay any warrior or diplomat to side with them.
To earn the wrath of House Kane is almost certainly a death sentence.

Silas is definitely not sound of mind.

[ElectricPaladin]

In which case, Compassion will be my flaw.

So...
"By the House of Kane I denounce you!"
Kane is the surname of a very famous Rogue Trader family in the Exquinox Sector, known for their cut throat methods and demand for tribute.
Due to this, the Family is extremely wealthy, able to pay any warrior or diplomat to side with them.
To earn the wrath of House Kane is almost certainly a death sentence.

Silas is definitely not sound of mind.

Yes, yes, YES! EXACTLY!

[Wildeybeast]

So:

Lady (former) Aventina Gloria Artemis Serendipita Locke IV (though frequently uses variations and contractions of this, along with a great many aliases.
Virtues: Stength, Compassion, Cunning, Beauty, Wisdom
Fatal Flaw: Integrity

Family motto (aspect): Safe as a Locke - For millennia House Locke were guardians of the Helios Sector, renowned as loyal servants of the Emperor, respected, admired and feared by those they protected. Thanks to their downfall, amongst the noble classes this phrase is now a byword for the fragility of power in the Imperium and used to mock those who think in their arrogance think themselves untouchable. Amongst the lower classes the name of House Locke still carries connotations of reliability and trustworthiness, as for all they exploited their power amongst the rich, they were always careful to maintain the love of the people.

Unofficial family motto (aspect): Money is the key to every Locke - This phrase has been used by and against the family Locke, signifying both their (former) immense wealth and the connections and power it brings, along with the weaknesses many family members have had for money over the generations.

Personal motto (aspect): Only the Emperor shall judge me - Does what it says on the tin. Aventina feels that only the Emperor himself is fit to stand above her and will bow to no authority save his. Since he hasn't sent her any personal commands (yet...) she will damn well do what she pleases.

How does that sound?

[ElectricPaladin]

Here is a revised Virtue description:

All Virtues have a group association:

• Strength – Aspect-Warriors, Astartes, Fire-Caste, and Orks
• Compassion – Ethereal-Caste, Humans and Tau
• Cunning – Air Caste, Mechanicus
• Beauty – Eldar, Water-Caste
• Integrity – Psykers
• Wisdom – Earth-Caste, Inquisition

Groups in italics are "weak" associations. They represent "everyman" characters. If your character is really strongly defined by another part of his concept (ie. more defined by being, say, an Inquisitor than being Human), then you can drop it.

This means that you are the kind of person who has given him/herself over completely to a cause and abandoned the principles of your species. Think about how ordinary humans react to Astartes or Inquisitors who give up on Compassion or how Eldar society reacts to an aspect warrior who is so dedicated to violence that he gives up on beauty. You are probably a jerk or (at least a little bit) crazy.