pronounshe/him
729written posts
offlinecurrently
Update to say that the project has taken on a new life. The dragon bonding proved to be too much of a problem to develop, and I don't think I can produce enough art on my own to fill up enough dragon species. Plus, running a Pern site and an original dragon riders site would be too much for my tiny little brain to handle, so we're going with a more simple Original Fantasy with an optional 5e system because I love the idea of character progression. HOWEVER you do not have to play with the stats and progression. There will be an alternate versions of the profile once I'm done with the skin that's JUST the basic bio and none of the stats and stuff, so you don't even have an ugly blank space on your profile.
Some aspects of the project we're keeping: - Open Race Creation and free multiracial characters - You can either use an approximate 5e race for your character (i.e. a leonin for an anthro tiger character or a high elf for a character that's half orc, half high elf), go statless, or use Tasha's Custom Lineage rules. Similar to Final Fantasy, all kingdoms are multiracial and there are plenty of opportunities for characters to have different backgrounds than the usual ones. There are orc magicians and paladins, and high elf barbarians. Note that we do allow players to play things that might not always be playable on fantasy sites, such as dragons or magical talking animals.
- Religion is open and diverse - While we'll be using Faerun gods for some of the base worldbuilding, you're welcome to have communities worshiping different sorts of gods. Our only requirement is that real world religion not be used. The gods of Arcanum are not hard-confirmed as in some fantasy settings, so there's even room for atheists and agnostics to exist and not be immediately invalidated. Your character can even be considered a god if they're powerful or charismatic enough.
- We're keeping the tech level as "fantasy tech" as considered in World of Warcraft. This is especially useful for transportation between the regions.
- We'll stay lenient on powers for statless characters, provided the players are willing to play respectfully in the sandbox. In fact, even statted characters are expected to play nicely in the sandbox. Going around and randomly killing people's characters is not allowed, no matter how many cool magic items you buy and how high of a level you get.
- FC rules will remain similar: any illustrated source is fine. Your own personal art, commissioned or self-drawn, is fine. We will also give the option to go without FCs in the event that you don't want to use them for various reasons. I'm already designing the skin with default graphics so profiles without graphics don't look ugly.
- Jcink Premium, possibly still 16+ with 18+ boards for adult members. If we get enough people who join the project who do NOT want it to be 16+, we will consider making it 18+.
Some new aspects of the project I'm working on are: - 5e stats and progression. Build the craziest characters you can imagine. You can even forgo combat effectiveness for the more fun utility spells, because we're a RP site that rewards even non-combat RP so your wizard that doesn't know any combat spells never has to see a fight.
- Players can start with one Level 5 character. This is so that everyone starts with at least one semi-strong character.
- The Game Assistant Role, which is a non-staff role that exists to introduce new players to the 5e mechanics and help them build and level up characters. It'll be its own discord role with a channel where you can ask a Game Assistant for help and they can DM you to help set up a character; if you prefer to not have Discord, I will be putting a list of them on the site and you can put a help request in the board too!
- Worldbuilding detailed enough to find a place to spring off of, but not so detailed that it stifles creativity. This is a hard balance to walk, but we're trying to make sure that people have room to tell stories while also providing a world that feels alive.
- Canon roles that can be killed or replaced. Players can adopt site canons and play them as they please. These canons come with some basic story setup and some hooks and ideas for where they want to go.
- A possible companion system for an alternate character progression; level up a powerful ally for your character and take them into battle with you! (this is low priority and I'll be hammering it out later, possibly well after the site opens, but for those attached to the original dragon riding idea: this is for you.)
For those curious about the site lore and plot, basically we're set on the continent of Arcanum. It was once mostly conquered by a yuan-ti empire, but 15 years ago a great calamity tore open the fabric of reality over the yuan-ti's island. Since then, strange things have been happening on that side of the continent. However, the rest of the continent seems to mostly be concerned with the empire's collapse and the socio-political-economic implications of its fall. Players are given the chance to play with the collapse and any adventures they might come up with, or play it like a slice-of-life.
|
 avatar and hover by phobic art, commissioned for me |
