Kingslayers: The Protagonists

Ta-daa! Here's the final results of the Kingslayers character creation thread. Like most of their defining aspects, the portraits were selected from a set of options presented for each character. On the whole, it seems like people's votes gave us a team of seasoned experts with a rather serious bent, rather than, say, a ragtag bunch of misfits. Which is not to say that the game won't have its humorous moments- I suspect that at least one member of the group will turn out to be quite a deadpan snarker. Still, we'll have to see how things go from here. . .assuming, of course, that I can be remotely on-task about this. I'm not going to lie, these personal storytelling projects are always some of the hardest things for me to stay committed to. Still, I'll keep you posted.

Art Credits: From left to right, Honesty Algebra, Makani, Eiji Kaneda, and unknown.

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Kinglsayers: Character Archetypes

This was a fun little exercise, I have to say. Kinslayers' character creation process was meant to take the same flexible approach as the rest of the game: I suggest options for how to succeed, and the audience votes and/or suggests alternatives. In this case, I started with the 4 "roles" the 4 party members would be serving in, and then supplied a set of options for the forms that role could take.

The fun bit was that these roles- muscle, guide, investigator and negotiator- were decided on based on the needs of this particular plot, rather than the gameplay system or the genre. It gave me a chance to approach things from a different direction than having a tank, healer, artillery, and so on; an interesting first step in coming up with the characters for the game.

Muscle: While most of the party will presumably be decent in a fight, this will be the real go-to character when things get violent.

A: Killing Machine. Forget codes, forget honor. . .it'd be a stretch to even call this character a warrior. They've always been a prodigy at using violence to end the lives of others, simple as that.
B: Martial Artist. The character's dedication to mastering the arts of physical combat is almost an end in and of itself. They might be a monk, or just a disciplined swordsman with a spiritual side.
C: Tactician. This character's excellent situational awareness and decision-making skills have helped them lead many an outmatched group to victory.
D: Veteran Soldier. The character has held a variety of military occupations in his time. Surviving that kind of life requires a wide variety of skills that range far beyond just marching in proper formation and knowing how to hold a blade.

Investigator: Remember when I said the premise would be something like Sherlock Holmes pursuing Dracula? This fellow will be our closest thing to Sherlock Holmes.

A: Gumshoe. Classic Noir private detective. Will probably play the part to a shameless degree- trenchcoat, fedora, cigarette, the works.
B: Medium. A spiritualist with a limited array of inborn abilities, including the ability to "read" the memories of objects and perceive activity on the ethereal plane.
C: Profiler. An expert at reading people and predicting their behavior.
D: Scientist. Specializing in the realm of forensics, a realm of science that's achieved a moderate level of advancement in part thanks to divination magic; will probably be something of an artificer.

Negotiator: The party face, an expert at handling social obstacles.

A: Ambassador. The character's a veteran political mover and shaker, an expert at negotiating bureaucracies who always has a few strings he can pull.
B: Psychic. As telepaths go, his raw power is less than average, but his skill in wielding it makes him excellent at subtly manipulating people's minds.
C: Underworld Agent. An expert in working with those on the wrong side of the law, and perhaps in using various less-than-legal tactics himself.
D: Spy. An honest-to-goodness espionage operative, skilled in tradecraft and the art of deception.

Guide: The party will be visiting plenty of strange and exotic locales over the course of our story. They'll need someone to lead the way.

A: Adventurer. One of those crazy folks who makes a career out of going into very dangerous places and coming back with lots of loot.
B: Cosmopolitan. A well-traveled soul with plenty of experience when it comes to dealing with foreign cultures.
C: Tracker. An expert huntsman, whether his prey's an escaped fugitive or a dire wolf.
D: Savage. Born and raised by an "uncivilized" people, completely at home in the wild.

Tune in next time to see the characters /tg/ settled on!

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Kingslayers

This one of those ideas that I've been sitting on for a while now. I'd like to try something along the lines of a certain innovative little story/game that transpired on 4chan's /tg/ sub-board back around the start of the year, called Ruby Quest. Like Ruby Quest, Kingslayers will be a game where a cast of player characters act according to the suggestion of the anonymous members of /tg/'s audience. But naturally, there'll be some wrinkles on the original formula. . .

Kingslayers will be set in D&D's Eberron campaign setting, with a core cast consisting of a 4-person adventuring party. The core plotline of the game will be one of mystery and investigation; Sherlock Holmes on the trail of Dracula as the villian pursues a dastardly plot taking him Around The World in Eighty Days.

The biggest difference between the format of this game and that of Ruby Quest is that I can't draw. At all. I'll be able to provide a variety of reference images, but for the most part we'll be dependent on my ability to set the scene via the written word, god help us all.

The other major difference will be that Kinglsayers is going to incorporate some significant game mechanics. Each of the 4 PCs will have a basic set of stats that read like the cliff notes of a D&D character, except that the numbers will instead be used in a die resolution system adapted from trigger discipline- so the dice will dictate the degree of the character's success as well as the factors that led to said success. The goal here is to keep things interesting. . .

More information to come soon.

Art Credits: Unknown, sadly.

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