I'm Starting Early This Year

Yep, it's time for 'Xiao's doing the NaNoWriMo' stuff!

Go read THIS. Consider it. Leave feedback either in this thread or in the LJ, whatev'.

Hop to it.

 

Oh I assure you, there will be much more fleshing out. It's just a brief thing anyways, sort of a way for me to get the actual idea to settle down and behave for ten minutes. *grin*

Incidentally, those Telvir? Turns out they're utter, utter bastards with delusions of racial perfection. Christ, no wonder the rest of the world alternates between refusing to trade with them and outright trying to wipe them off the map.

 

Doesn't starting early on NaNoWriMo ruin the point?

 

Ah, crap. I forgot about the existence of Na-No-Wri-Mo. All the more reason for me to finish my own work within the next couple weeks. I like the sound of yours though, and given the tripe that resides within film previews nowadays, it'd be refreshing and likely appealing to see.

Whether or not you cheat and give yourself a head-start, good luck with it. To be honest, I just want to advise you to plan ahead, even if you do so already. Foolishly, I tried general world concept, simple plot points and impulse writing to flesh out for my first feck'n novel. The trade-off is the amount of revision required. Not fun, but salvageable with patience. By my reckoning, there's a point where pre-planning and impulse join seamlessly. Finding it could be the key to quality creation.

 

I'm starting my planning early this year. And if I do start the novel beforehand, no worries - I just count the words I write IN NOVEMBER. I have a pretty solid plot here, but I definately need to fill it in quite a bit before the start of the month of fun hell.

Incidentally - this world is the chopped, altered, adjusted and thoroughly revised into something quite new world that started being developed in 'Fundamentals of Alchemy'. Some places aren't mentioned in more than passing, some have had their nature thoroughly changed, and the magic system is completely different, but it IS the same world. (Oh, and I put Tarant in there for y'alls.)

 

Not a bad start!

Liking how you're adding a heap of different elements into it - keeps away from the atypical scifi/fantasy genre bullshit. Not sure what alchemy is exactly, though. If it's the usual "maek potions" thing i might be a little more disinterested - maybe that something that should be elaborated on at some point?

Either way.

 

I haven't read it yet, but if this one also has a short, hot and feisty heroine it must be at least as good as the last one. 8)

 

Short, sarcastic, extremely loyal and surprisingly bitter. (And she has every reason to be bitter, too.)

As for magic, here's the very short version:

* Mankind cannot use magic normally. There was a war among the gods and the aftermath forced mankind to make pacts with elemental spirits - mankind gets magic, the spirits get physical form.
* Alchemists (also known as Binders and Witches, although the differences between groups are mostly semantic) bind themselves to one or more spirits. Each spirit grants them a minor magical power and the ability to control Essence, the fuel of magic. Essence is then used to make magical items - potions, explosives, all kinds of things, even a living broom. (And no, I'm not making that up, there is a recipe for a self-aware broom in my big book o' magic.) The more Spirits you bind, the more effective you are - but the bigger the chances of something going horribly wrong. One thing worth noting: once you bind your first spirit, you're not entirely human anymore. This comes into play with...
* Touched (or Mages, again, semantics) are descended from Alchemists, and are what happens when a bloodline gets enough magic built up in it. Essentially, these guys are more like your traditional fantasy mage, although their 'Primary' element determines a lot of what they can and cannot do. They can force Essence to do almost anything within reason, as opposed to Alchemists, who must obey Essence's natural inclinations. They use a fuckton more Essence than Alchemists, but their magic is a lot faster.
* There's this stuff called Sylphide, made from quartz crystals and magically-receptive metals. It's used to store Essence. Touched usually carry it for when they find places that are low on Essence or opposed to their affinity. They also use it for last-effort, end-of-the-line fuck-off big explosions when they don't have any other choice. Alchemists use it to store all kinds of Essence, as their work often requires multiple kinds of Essence.

That's the VERY SHORT version of my magic system. I'm not planning any massive infodumps or anything, but I do have this fairy tale in the works talking about 'Iris', one of the first Alchemists and the one who sort of set the stage for the others. I'd love to be able to use it somewhere.

 

The part in bold sounds dangerously like the magic system from Lionheart (that RPG about Richard and Saladin accidentally creating a rift and getting magic to humans in spirit form in their battles).

P.S. I'm not saying that you copied or anything - Just that it sounds very similar and perhaps some differentiation would be nice.

 

I've never played Lionheart but I think I want to. Talk about WTF. I was more inspired by my desire to fuck all the gods I came up with last year, have a way of saying 'there were elves, they CAUSED all that bullshit' to the creepy elf fans, and just because it sounds fun. Working out all the spirits has been a hoot.

...NO. No, no, no, no, no, FUCK no. Hate Warhammer. HATE it. *quiet fuming*

 

Most enjoyment I ever got out of warhammer was sitting $200 worth on a plate and watching their pathetic, painted faces melt into fucking obscurity.

That was 40k, though. I meant eldar not elves...

 

My friend's gaming group invited me to join in a session of them playing 40K RPG. They were fairly powerful and covered all bases, so I just rolled up a fairly random Psyker and went nuts. She was COMPLETELY bald, blue-skinned, and had multiple personalities.

First sign something was wrong - GM insisted that I not get any XP to make me even remotely on par with the rest of the party. 'Oh well,' said I, 'Warhammer is a very different system to what I'm used to, whatever.'

Second sign something was wrong - everyone, even my friend, basically ignored me. Occasionally they were all 'Hey, blue chick, can you help carry this?' or 'can you make light?'. I could carry things, and I had taken a light power, so I was useful. Not VERY, but I was contributing.

Third sign something was wrong - during the break, I had a quiet word with GM me occasionally rolling a dice under the table for my multiple personalities, to be completely random as opposed to just weird. GM both a.) told me I couldn't roll dice unless the entire party could see it and therefore ASK about it, and b.) he wouldn't roll it for me himself, which would at least make sense. When I pointed out that he'd approved the idea when I first mentioned the multiple personalities thing, he called bullshit.

That was when I called bullshit. The game was boring, the system was retarded, the GM was a dick and the other players were ignoring me unless they needed a torch. I acknowledge that with a good group, I might have enjoyed it, but I had a shit group and never want to play again.

 

Woah, 40k RPG? News to me. I was talking about the 'tactical tabletop' shit which involved heaps of crappy models that were more fun to melt then actually use. Still have the (huge) rulebook somewhere.

Never tried a pen & paper rpg, although having a fucktard GM along with players stupidly more experienced players would likely ruin it for anyone.

Wouldn't worry about your magic system being similar to Lionheart - it's fairly obscure, and people are more likely just to brush it off if it's just one aspect of the story. Copying (which you haven't done) the whole setting would be something else, though.

 

I have friends who play with the little plastic/metal men. I'm now so immune to it that they don't even register anymore - except when my friend drops his paint cloth on my helmet, anyways. *explodes*

I started playing the 2nd Edition Returners Final Fantasy RPG in early high school, discovered D&D 3.0 and a fun GM a couple of years later, and never looked back. I occasionally run low-level one shots m'self, just for the hell of it. It's a lot of fun if you find the right group. It's just that, well... finding the right group can be a pain in the arse.

I definately haven't had anything to do with Lionheart so it won't bother me in the least, except that now I kinda want to play it. If you're not careful one of these days I'm going to turn up on your doorstep, you know that right?

*goes back to filtering, adjusting and tidying her Spirit list - she wants one for EVERY SINGLE COMBINATION, and that's quite a few... 9 Elements, eight pairings each...*

 

I might go back and play that game at some point (tabletop 40k) but most likely not. These days I use to GW stores for getting hero miniatures for my D&D campaigns (I hate the plastic, prepainted stuff WoC sells in boxes). Plus, one can make someting that actualy resembles one's character.

Caity - I would definately like to know more. Need new creative input. Before brain rot becomes permanent.
And I know what a bad DM and group is like all too well (No casters!?! Well, shit okay, gonna need a lot of potions. No combat classes!?! Great. This couldn't get any better. We're gonna be fighting lots of undead!?! Fuck. Thats it right? Oh, the rest of you want to spend 200,000 gold on an absolutely useless portal instead of some fucking magic weapons!?! I am outta here.)

 

I still remember the session where the GM sent a level 1 party of Fighter (moi), Sorcerer, Rogue and feckin' useless Wizard up against Wererats, without giving us any source of silver and without warning us to buy some silver weapons beforehand.

Oh yes, and I was heading for the Lasher prestige class, so my whip couldn't even scratch the fuckers... *grumble*

I have played in a successful all-caster party, but it took some serious balancing. Let's see... two Sorcerers, a Wizard, a Favoured Soul and an Arcane Trickster (moi). It was a total hoot.