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NOW COMPILED FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE The Rules |
The Basics: Stats and Abilities
You begin play with 22 points, which must be divided up among the four statistics (Strength, Defense, Intelligence, and Resistance). At character generation, you cannot have any stat above 10, nor any stat below 1. Statistics have no upper limit, but they cannot drop below 0.
Fundamentally, abilities are used to damage other sponsors, and each ability will state the amount of damage it deals (such as "Your Strength + 4"). Unless the ability states otherwise, all [Physical] abilities are opposed by Defense, and [Magical] abilities are opposed by Resistance. For example, that "Strength + 4" ability's damage looks like: your Strength + 4 - the target's Defense. Other abilities do not deal damage; instead they might bestow a [Status] Effect, raise a defense that triggers when they are next attacked, etc. Read the rules for these special abilities carefully, if you plan to use them.
When you post abilities, you must use a certain syntax, which is essentially: "Use of ability and level* on {target sponsor(s)}." You can vary that in any way you wish, but the ability you use and your targets must be clearly indicated.
*Or specific ability: for example, you could post "Level 3 Black Magic," but it's easier to just say "Black Sleep".
All parameters of an ability are finalized once you use it. While many abilities can be affected retroactively, you earn XP and stat tokens once an ability is used, regardless of how it is altered; and targeted are checked when the ability is used, even if it is later redirected. For example, your Chain Smite cannot fizzle merely because one target had a [Defense] ability he cast on another target Redirected by an unrelated player.
Many abilities grant you special abilities as you level them up (for example, obtaining Deathblow at L3 Critical Strike). These abilities must be used specifically, since they're not the same as their "parent" ability. For example, if you posted "Using L3 Critical Strike on Olcadan," that's not the same "Using Deathblow," even though getting level 3 in Critical Strike also gets you the Deathblow ability.
Getting Some Action: The Action Pool
Instead of "votes" or "points," each sponsor instead has an "Action Pool" of 12 Actions per round. This means that you can use twelve abilities that cost one action to use, 6 abilities that cost 2 actions to use, or any combination thereof. Each ability lists after its name the number of Actions required to use it.
Traits are special abilities that do not require Actions to use, but are instead limited by the number of times you can use them. Traits never count against your Action Pool.
Trees are not actual abilities themselves, but rather a "group" of abilities that you can purchase or improve as you level up. (For example, you buy levels of "Geomancy," but you actually use the "Binding Vines" ability.) The exception to this is Smite. Smite's three abilities must be used individually, but every level improves all three of them; you do not get new abilities, since Level 1 of Smite lets you use any of them.
Certain abilities directly add or subtract to your Action Pool. These abilities indicate whether they "happen first" (applying immediately), or "happen last" (they must always be your last action in a Half or Round). If the ability that gets you a bonus action that "happens last," such as Haste, is negated or dispelled, then you retroactively lose that action. However, it does not count for Action Burn (see below).
Actions that are not used by their deadline at a round's ending, or that have failed, cause you to suffer Action Burn. Action Burn deals you damage equal to the average of your statistics (or [Str + Def + Int + Res] / 4) + the number of the current round. For example, if you had 6 in every statistic, and had two Actions in round 5 that suffered from Action Burn, you would take 22 damage. There is no way to reduce, redirect, or negate this damage. Damage dealt or healed by actions taken that caused Action Burn only deal 1/2 damage. Note that damage-dealing or healing abilities are checked last in the event that you do provoke Action Burn.
Use your actions properly and wisely. It will matter if you don't.
The Action Pool: Special Actions
In addition to the normal actions that are used up by abilities, some abilities require or grant you use of "special actions," which are as follows:
Bonus Actions: Abilities such as Celerity
grant you bonus actions above and beyond your normal pool of 12. These actions are not affected by any action or ability-based restriction (such as the Defense Cap), unless specified otherwise. For example, if you have a bonus action from Haste, it does not count against your Ability Cap (you could use it as your fourth ability in one hour without risk of Burn). Bonus Actions unspent at the end of a round do not count for Action Burn.
Feint Action: [Private] abilities require you to use a Feint Action. A Feint Action is an action that uses any ability you possess as normal. However, you may later PM the host, and reveal that that ability was a Feint Action, and that you are instead converting it into a [Private] ability that you possess. No one knows that you did this, although perceptive sponsors who check their damage totals might notice something amiss. The target of the real [Private] Action and the Feint Action must be the same, and therefore both must have identical target fields (both must be 1 Sponsor, for example). Some abilities may be exempt from this restriction. You may not use a [Status] Effect ability or a redirect ability (such as Spell Turning) as a Feint Action; this includes abilities that attach [Status] Effects. The host will disregard your request to turn the [Status] ability into a Feint Action if you attempt to do so. You must PM the host to indicate which action(s) you are using for a [Private] ability within one hour of posting the Feint Action.
Minigame Action: [Minigame] abilities draw from your allotted Minigame Actions. See the "Minigames" section further down.
"Oops..." - When Actions Fizzle
When actions are improperly used or targeted, they are said to "fizzle." A Fizzled action has no effect of any kind-- it is just as though you didn't use the Action at all. However, a Fizzled action will count for Action Burn if it is not corrected by the end of the round.
Correcting a Fizzled action uses the following syntax: "Correcting use of ability and level on {target sponsor(s); changing it to {legal target(s)}," or some similar variation.
A corrected Fizzle must use the same ability unless the ability itself was used illegally (such as attacking a sponsor a third time while you are afflicted with Horror), and must also target the same sponsor(s) (unless a sponsor choice was illegal). For example, if your L5 Elemental Fury fizzles because you only chose two targets, correcting your fizzle would require you to select a third target-- not three new targets, and not a new ability.
A corrected Fizzle takes place at the exact same time the original ability did, for purposes of other abilities which interacted with it. I will be keeping track of abilities as though they hadn't Fizzled, so fixing them is seldom a problem. However, such "retconning" is time-consuming and can sometimes interfere with later events (such as choosing a target with an active Defense ability, then triggering it with a corrected Fizzle).
You will be allowed a few (typically no more than 3) Fizzle corrections per round, though we may be more or less forgiving depending on how good or problematic a player you otherwise are being. We will be more lenient regarding abilities that Fizzle because of an opponent's ability usage (such as using the Fear ability to lower your Ability Cap).
There's only so much time in a round-- and that means that you have to pace yourself, or face the consequences. You can use up to three Abilities per hour without any negative repercussions. Traits and Abilities that do not require Actions do not count against the Hour Limit. If you use four or more abilities in the same hour, you take Action Burn damage for each such ability. Note that certain abilities expend two or more actions. These still only count against the Hour Limit once.
There's only so much time in a round-- time that really shouldn't be spent dealing with just one or two other people. You are allowed to target no more than three Abilities of any sort on any one sponsor. If you try to target one sponsor with an ability four or more times, these successive attempts fail. This does not include yourself; you may only benefit once from the Imperfect Self Rule, but as many times as the rules otherwise permit from Abilities that specify "You" as a target. (As nearly all of those abilities are [Defense], the Defense Cap will probably come into play first.)
There's only so much time in a round, and only so much of that time can be spent aiding others when there's fighting to do. The Defense Cap limits you to being able to spend no more than 50% of your Action Pool, rounded down on any and all [Defense] abilities. For example, if you have 12 Actions, you can spend, at most, 6 Actions in a round on [Defense]. Bonus actions don't count against the Defense Cap.
At no time may a sponsor enter into negative "hit points." If a sponsor is at 0 damage, and receives healing from any source; the healing is simply discarded, and that target sponsor remains at 0 damage. Damage taken in previous rounds cannot be healed in the current round; damage totals for each round are kept separate, and then added to the total at the end of each round.
In a nod to realism and strategy, S18 allows you to target yourself with an ability-- even if the ability only allows you to target "other sponsors." (Abilities that "Affect you" do not count against the Imperfect Self limit.) You may use any such ability on yourself anyway once per round. If you try to benefit from such an ability more than once, the ability Fails, meaning you take Action Burn. So be careful. As a corollary, you can never force someone to activate the Imperfect Self rule (such as with Dominate); if you try to do so, the ability fizzles; you can still issue another order.
Every "normal" action (that is, neither a [Private] nor [Minigame] action) you take awards you experience points (XP). How much XP you acquire for using a given ability depends on its type, as follows:
Abilities do not normally need to be "successful" to grant XP (Power Attack still grants you 10 XP, even if the target Dodges it). The exception is with [Status] Abilities. A Status that cannot take effect by any means (such as targeting a sponsor with 0 Actions in his pool with Poison) grants no XP, and Fails.
Note that many abilities may have multiple tags, such as [Offense] [Status]. The [Status] tag has primacy: all Statuses are worth 3 XP, whether offensive or defensive. [Private] abilities are always worth 0 XP, unless the ability specifies otherwise (such as Trap Card). The [Defense] tag means that the ability does apply toward the Defense Cap.
You may buy the first level of any ability set at any time, provided you have enough XP. After that, you must level up abilities in order, Level 1 (L1) through Level 5 (L5). The exception is for the four base abilities (Poke, First Aid, Magic Missile, Heal); you may buy their upgrades in any order. For normal abilities, you are assumed to always be using the highest level you have purchased (so once you have L5 Cleave, you should always indicate the four targets you can attack). However, you may choose to use an ability at a lower level if you wish. If you use an ability incorrectly (such as only indicating one target of Cleave), the ability fizzles.
Stat Tokens : For every damage-dealing [Offense] action that you take in a round, you receive 2 "tokens," and every [Status] that you use in a round, you receive 1 "token." You may trade in five tokens in exchange for increasing any one of your statistics by 1. These bonus points may raise a statistic above 10. You may exchange multiple "tokens" at the same time. Tokens will be awarded at the midpoint and end of each round, and, like your XP, must be spent or held in reserve in your first gameplay post of a round.
The Judges' Station: The hosts have ostensibly brought the sponsors to entertain them, among other things, and reward those that do it well. Every time you describe one of your actions in a written post, you gain +1 XP for doing so. (You may describe any ability, except [Private] and [Minigame] abilities.) Each description must consist of fifty words that describe, at least in part, the action referenced. (If you type fifty words worth of "lol", for example, you will not be awarded any XP. lol.) If that sounds like a lot, it's not. By the time you finish this sentence, you will have just read 100 words, starting with "the."
Ego Boosts Special Awards: In each round the hosts offer special awards to certain players. They are as follows:
Except for First Blood, which has its own criteria, the winners of Awards are determined by a vote taken among all sponsors after the midpoint. Any given sponsor can only any award once; any nominations for him again are ignored. You may not vote for yourself. Note that for all awards besides First Blood, there is the possibility of a tie. If one player wins, he receives the +10 XP. If two sponsors win, each receives +5, and may be eligible to win again. If three sponsors win, each receives +3, and may be eligible to win again. (You cannot earn more than +15 XP from these awards. You will no longer be eligible to win after receiving that amount, and any XP beyond 15 is lost.) If four or more sponsors tie, or if everyone ties at 1 vote; no one wins the specified Award that round.
Most Minigame rules, if any; are mentioned in each round, and tend to be specific to the round in question. However, all rounds share the following rules in common.
The following terms are used in the text of various abilities:
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AND THAT'S ALL, FOLKS! WELL, AT LEAST FOR THIS SECTION... The End |