Guild Quest ~ discussion [OOC, signups, "devlog", etc]

[Hallan Parva]

hi let's get to work


~Guild Quest~
An Experimental Fantasy RP
aka "some thing from some guy that will eventually die out some day"
hnnnnnggg why can't I make the font size 250 ;_;



As an aside, I like how Freeman's handling his Cutstuff Adventure RPG by saying "things will probably not be optimal at first so I reserve the right to balance while we play". He's basically been tweaking damage values and such as the game moves on. Note that because a lot of the older content planned out is around two or three years old and because I've also been making new content and revising things over the last two months or so, something somewhere is going to be broken and need fixing. Also there's the fact that the totally original do-not-steal damage formula hasn't been properly tested yet. So there's that.

Also there's going to be lots of Skype quotes. LIKE THIS ONE RIGHT HERE

[1:48:28 AM] SmashMan.EXE: I'm literally taking these old files from forever ago, reading things, going "this is cool this sucks this sucks this is awesome" and rewriting them
[1:48:28 AM] SmashMan.EXE: and also adding in other things because some people are dorks who play non-humans
[1:49:01 AM] SmashMan.EXE: like Freeman and Cutstuff Adventure sorta... except with more stuff :/
[1:49:14 AM] SmashMan.EXE: welcome to Smash Is Bad

Probably the most asked question I've gotten (people on Skype, mainly) is "Smash, how the dongs are things going to work this time? Don't you ever plan things before you announce them?" Yeah, I'm sort of running things from a stone tablet, and yeah I'm sort of pulling material out of my ass when I realize I missed something, but for the most part I have a really really good idea of what I'm aiming for. Part of the reason I'm doing this is because I thought it would be fun to just say "fuck it let's go" and share my ideas and things with cool people I sort of know, and have fun doing it. Part of the reason is also because as imaginative as I can be, I'm nowhere near perfect, so there might be some really neat ideas that show up and I could be like "wow I would have never thought of that" and then it can just get slapped into place like a shiny new part to the Guild Quest machine. Also part of the reason is because it'll HELP ME GET BACK TO FUCKING WRITING

I have generally found to enjoy the writing style that Smash tends to have. It tends to hold a large array of continuity which helps add to the ever expanding universe that seems to always exist. Connections made with other locations he created merges all of his new realities with his old ones which helps build his imaginary realm into a larger universe.

So basically you generous folks are going to run around in the world of my creation and do things in it. Cool. Like in most RPGs, characters can run around on the overworld and do things like talk up the townsfolk, buy items, eat some food, maybe take a nap. Sometimes characters get shoved into battle which is pretty standard as well. Select your abilities, take turns beating the snot out of each other until the other dudes die and you totally don't die, get some Experience, maybe get some neat swag, and move on with whatever it was you were doing. Actually, I'm a filthy liar; the battle system is actually pretty different than the cookie-cutter JRPG norm, but I'll go into depth in a later post.

[1:06:35 AM] Captain Rugal Bernstein of the Sky Noah: what the heck is a guild quest
[1:06:43 AM] Captain Rugal Bernstein of the Sky Noah: I've slightly heard of it from your ramblings
[1:07:11 AM] ToadeyPlusB: hi I'm typing up a front page for the inevitable thread
[1:08:16 AM] ToadeyPlusB: basically Guild Quest is my go-to original world for fun things with cool people, the sort of "pride and joy" of my works (co-founded by Shina woo)
[1:08:40 AM] ToadeyPlusB: we actually attempted an RP of it before somewhere else, but two of the main players dropped out for reasons and everyone else didn't fricken post aaaaaaaaaaa
[1:08:56 AM] ToadeyPlusB: basically this is "what happens when you punch a forum game with storyline"
[1:09:06 AM] ToadeyPlusB: or, more accurately, "what happens when you punch an RP with game mechanics"
[1:10:22 AM] ToadeyPlusB: Guild Quest is your tried-and-true fantasy JRPG-style adventure featuring quests given to you by The Guild (gasp), led by the two Guild Masters Jasper and Vilrich
[1:10:51 AM] ToadeyPlusB: except supercharged with unexpected dungeon mechanics, crazy characters, unconventional character classes, and Vilrich
[1:11:06 AM] ToadeyPlusB: I wish I could explain Vilrich better but... yeah, he's just sort of "Vilrich"
[1:11:13 AM] ToadeyPlusB: you have to experience Vilrich in order to understand Vilrich

Guild Quest has its set of rules to follow and a lore to abide by, but for the most part it's surprisingly flexible and we could set up a bunch of different adventures, silly or epic or involving mildly irritable flutist lizardfolk. The same could be said about character creation. Basically I didn't like how many systems basically made you think about your final character at the start of the game, due to the way they handled stat bonuses and penalties for classes or races. With Guild Quest, the goal was to encompass several clearly defined class archetypes, but give players some freedom in creating and levelling their character. Instead of a bunch of classes with specific prestige levels or a small pool of sharply contrasting roles, there are five beginner classes that branch off into sixteen champion classes, with many second-level class choices being shared by more than one beginner class. Instead of races or character types that have detailed and specific benefits, there are four general body types that characters can be classified as, with each body type having its own traits to separate different characters, but still being broad enough to encourage creativity for the character without sacrificing backstory or playstyle.

[2:42:42 AM] SmashMan.EXE: I think I managed to fit everything ever into four body types
[2:42:44 AM] SmashMan.EXE: gj me
[2:43:02 AM] Korby: i enjoy that the "races" are just body types
[2:43:16 AM] SmashMan.EXE: well they sort of are
[2:43:20 AM] Korby: it's a unique mechanic and doesn't make me stressed out over what i want to be when i grow up
[2:43:45 AM] SmashMan.EXE: bodies have some slight stat shenanners to make you feel special
[2:43:59 AM] SmashMan.EXE: or if you're a Spirit have fun playing Battle Network lol
[2:44:26 AM] SmashMan.EXE: but it's nothing drastic like OH MAN I'M AN ELF ELVES ARE SOOOO MUCH SMARTER THAN HUMANS I JUST HAVE SLIGHTLY LOWER PHYSICAL ATTACK IS ALL
[2:44:36 AM] SmashMan.EXE: because personally I think that's stupid
[2:44:53 AM] SmashMan.EXE: unless you're a Spirit in which case how's that damage multiplier taste lol

If it feels like I'm being vague as hell, it's sort of because that's on purpose. Cold Fusion and Korby already know what I'm plotting, but I'm intentionally leaving out specifics for two reasons. First off, I'll probably end up forgetting something vital anyway and someone's going to ask me a question that I totally failed to answer and I'll look like a total noob. Second off, I'm partially testing my defined grid of classes, weapons, and body types. I mentioned this earlier in the Spamthread G.O.D. thread, but I'm curious to see if I've managed to adequately covered all the bases of RPG character conventions, even with a system as free-form and loosely defined as the one currently fueling Guild Quest. I really don't think I left anything out but I can't be too sure just yet!

[1:49:48 AM] Korby: do you specifically have to specialize in a weapon if you pick a class
[1:50:08 AM] Korby: like will i lose my wizardy powers if i'm not flailing a stick or book
[1:52:41 AM] SmashMan.EXE: what do you mean
[1:55:25 AM] Korby: do i have to use a staff/tome if i pick a wizard or could i be different and equip, as an example, an axe
[1:55:30 AM] Korby: same goes for everyone, really
[1:58:10 AM] SmashMan.EXE: class weapons just means you're better at using those types of weapons
[1:58:46 AM] SmashMan.EXE: specifically, you can use higher-tier weapons of that class
[1:59:07 AM] SmashMan.EXE: if your class is really bad at a certain weapon type, you might get attack penalties
[1:59:16 AM] SmashMan.EXE: but yeah you can totally put an axe on a wizzrobe
[1:59:21 AM] Korby: neat
[1:59:34 AM] Korby: i totally have an idea for what i want to go for then

That's pretty much it for introductions. Go ahead and comment about... well, anything, really. Or don't, it might be a while before posts decide to roll in. If I go over a core gameplay mechanic (like the battle system!) in a future update, I'll go ahead and link to it in this space down here.

Thanks for reading, and here's hoping for a successful RP for once.

Also, as a closing note: MODS I DIDN'T KNOW WHERE THE HELL TO PUT THIS so please don't get mad at me if I did it wrong

[Ceridran]

Yeah, I would sign up immediately, had that been open.

It's too bad past Ceridran hasn't prepared anything.
Time to do that.

[Jatea]

ok so basically Smash originally wanted to see if his Guild Quest system thing was thorough enough to handle nearly everything

so he was going to ask Cold Fusion to make a character so he could filter it through the system

but then he gave the task to the rest of us
and then he invited everyone on the forums to do the same

and then everybody was confused because Smash is keeping everything kinda hush-hush

but yeah I think all the guy wants is creation of characters
that are fun, well-written, and fleshed out

and then I threw together a thing on the morning of daylight saving time
finished it later
and now it resides in the character catalog

Argus, the Silver Picket Man

also functions as a bump because I also want to see where this goes

[Hallan Parva]

So from various Skype and 8BDM server conversations I've successfully managed to confuse nearly everyone.
That's cool and all, but how about I actually talk about some specifics? Sound good? Okay let's go for it.

We're playing this via forums, right? I remember seeing that thing that was on a livestream where someone was doing a thing using some kind of engine thing and it was kind of a tabletop boardgame thing and everyone was using skype but that's just frustrating to get together for (...)

I honestly thought this much would've been clear, but yeah things are most likely going to be shoved in Cutstuff's general direction. The stream in question was done by Coldy and his college buddies, and while they were probably having the time of their lives, I can agree that -- to an outsider's view, at least -- things seemed a bit uncoordinated and dragged on for a while.

However, I'd still love to run through part of the game in a Skype call, if only because Skype calls are amazing and usually end with good quotes, okay ideas, and lots of bad jokes. If there were to be a group (most likely Korby's because he seems down with it) that would want to do that, I'd still end up archiving everything twice so people who weren't there understand what happened; first as a text log summarizing the party's actions, and second as an audiocast because some people really enjoy listening to us lean against the edge of sanity.



okay enough of that let's talk about battles

(click to show/hide)

Probably the most important concept is that both equipment and combat heavy rely on a system of Stars. Nearly everything a character can do is ranked a certain number of Stars, and has a number of times it can be done before needing to recharge. I guess you could think of everything as "skills" or "cards", to help simplify things a little. Even a default attack is a rated skill and takes up a slot in a character's loadout. Though there are eight slots for skills to be equipped, the limit in both space and Stars requires a bit of thought on what to bring to each adventure, instead of just abusing your best attacks over and over like in a regular RPG.

During battle, players can load skills to use during that turn, or they can spend the turn to pause and Collect their thoughts. Characters have three limits that change how they play in battle, partially influenced by their Class, Body, and equipment. These three limits (Focus Limit, Single Limit, and Multi Limit) determine how many actions that character can take in a single turn. On a character's status sheet, this information would be presented as Limit: 3, 2/4 -- with 3 being the Focus Limit, 2 the Single Limit, and 4 the Multi Limit. Understanding these values is vital to understanding how your character best performs in combat.

Okay, remember how skills are rated by Stars? Each skill's Stars rating not only affects how many skills can be equipped at once, it also affects how these skills can be used in battle. The three limits brought up earlier reflect the total number of Stars that can be played by a character in a single turn. The Single and Multi Limits are for characters who take more than one action during their turn. In the previous example (Limit 2/4) a character can use up to ???? worth of skills, but no single skill can be worth more than two Stars. This character might choose to use a skill with ?? and two skills with ?, or the character might choose to use two ?? skills, or they might choose to use the same ? skill four times in a single turn. Take note that regardless of how high an individual character's Multi Limit might reach, there is a maximum of five skills per character per turn that is always in effect.

If a character only uses one skill during their turn, they may be able to use skills more powerful than they normally could. This is where the Focus Limit comes into play. The Focus Limit represents the maximum number of Stars that can be played by a character if they only use a single skill. In the earlier example (Limit 3) our character can use a move worth ??? if used by itself, which could not be used if the character chose to activate multiple skills. Note that some skills might have hollow Stars in their rank; for example, ??? means it costs 2 Stars to equip that skill to a character but 3 Stars to use that same skill in battle.

Alright, now for that Collect command. Remember how I also said that each skill could only be used a certain number of times before it needs to recharge? Yeah this is where that's important. If a player runs out of points for their skills, they cannot fight, so what can be done to remedy this situation? Collecting allows a player to set aside their turn to partially recharge all of their equipped skills. When a player Collects, damage they take during that turn is slightly increased (to be exact, the enemy gets a one-Level bonus to their Power). While it may be reckless to do so without proper protection, Collecting can be done for as many turns in a row as the player likes, opening up a chance for a huge comeback! However, if the player is Downed during a turn spent Collecting, their skills won't recharge at all, so don't leave yourself vulnerable!

Well that certainly took long enough. Tune in next time, I'll be covering character types and the class system.



[12:07:21 AM] ToadeyPlusB: formatting the battle post
[12:07:27 AM] ToadeyPlusB: TGOT's post took me a little off-guard for a little
[12:07:33 AM] ToadeyPlusB: >a little for a little
[12:07:39 AM] ToadeyPlusB: gj me 10/10 sentence structure

[Tengu]

SIGN ME THE FUCK UP

[Jman]

(click to show/hide)

I'd like in on this

[Colonel ServBot]

Well, is there any sign up expiration date or anything? Like, when do we NEED to sign up by? I'm still looking into this, so far, I'm pretty impressed. It's also very interesting. So I might sign up later or not if I can actually get around to reading/ being able to post.

[Hallan Parva]

Normally I'd wait until I finish the character creation post, but there are actual replies this time so I'll go ahead and answer things.

Well, is there any sign up expiration date or anything? Like, when do we NEED to sign up by? I'm still looking into this, so far, I'm pretty impressed. It's also very interesting. So I might sign up later or not if I can actually get around to reading/ being able to post.

Technically I haven't even started sign-ups yet, but I've already taken note of everyone who said they'd like to be a part of it so I can go around and remind them when I put up the character sheet. This would also be a good time to mention that I only plan on taking on a very small group of players at first (around four to eight), to better focus my efforts on creating a quality RP and giving each character the time and attention they deserve.


The battle post took a while getting up, but only because I had to retype the whole thing twice to get the wording to a point where I believed it would be the most understandable and the least confusing. Character creation should be up sometime tomorrow, if not late tonight.

[Gumballtoid]

Tell ya what, I'll just get my foot in the door for when sign-ups do show up. I have mild interest in this.

[Thunderono]

I'm somewhat interested, but I have have only the vaguest of ideas on what the hell's going on here so that's a definite maybe

[Ceridran]

I've essentially already signed up beforehand, but hey: just making it clear.

[Galactan]

Sign me up, too.

[Colonel ServBot]

I guess I said I'd be interested in playing, but to also make it clear, I guess sign me kind of up.
However I may or may not withdraw later on due to time constraints or not, so far it looks like my schedule is clear. So cool.

[Dr. Freeman]

For some reason a skype call makes this sound more appealing.
Sign up maybe I don't know

[Captain Barlowe]

[6:32:08 PM] Captain Rugal Bernstein of the Sky Noah: wait smash
[6:32:12 PM] Captain Rugal Bernstein of the Sky Noah: did I already sign up or no
[6:32:24 PM] ToadeyPlusB: I think so ?????
[6:32:28 PM] ToadeyPlusB: I don't remember
[6:32:31 PM] Captain Rugal Bernstein of the Sky Noah: well I didn't post in the topic
[6:32:41 PM] ToadeyPlusB: also I'm working on character stuff woo

well I guess I'll join for fun and profit