Union's Fist Info Thread

[styles1005]

Well, if you (or someone else) were to put it on the forum as a forum game like Roll to Dodge, I for one would play it. On the other hand, I don't know if anybody will be willing to risk shadowmaster's wrath .

[Dixie]

I really liked your (Zero) overall concept. As has been stated, now that the world's basics have been nailed done, you need to better define the human factor. But it is indeed interesting, and has potential, imo.

Some random comments:
- I really imagine this having a somewhat cool, slow-paced, tropical mood or something. Like, Chrono Cross or Final Fantasy X, something along those lines (as far as setting mood goes).
- If water is so revered, what about ice? Isn't it somewhat like a frozen-water-prism?
- Your world is pretty tied around lights... With which shadows usually go. I'm not sure how it could be integrated, but it would be ncie to have some sort of shadow technology. If light is searing and burning, concentrated shadows could be freezing. Concentrated shadows could obscure a light source, maybe even muff sounds (great for stealth), but would be torn asunder by concentrated light.
- Optic Fiber (is that translated right?), albeit pretty fragile, can be used to carry information. It could allow for computers, robotics, etc. But wouldn't replace electricity and wouldn't allow motors and such stuff... Is this within the scope of your setting?
- About weapons: Where does their light come from? DO they have some sort of lens that should not be obscured, else the weapon be turned off?
- I'm not really convinced by the accelerators. Shouldn't the light just be a continuous flow? A laser gun could just fire an unending laser, couldn't it?

Apart from that: I'm not a big fan of big-evil-guy-laughing-madly-and-trying-to-destroy-the-world plots, unless pretty well rendered, personally. I think "just" a general setting, having ideas for a few important issues, some factions disposed around it with sometimes conflicting goals (and means) could do it. The players can place themselves somewhere in it all, and if the thing is well done, action (and plot, to some extent) should ensue mostly by itself.

[Zerovirus]

...Didn't think about Ice! Perhaps in poorer areas Ice is used as a sort of replacement for the high quality Prisms, or maybe in the northern regions Ice is used in conjunction with or replacement for Prisms.

I'm not sure about shadow technology. Imagine if our world were a campaign setting and someone said "Since everything runs on electrons, which are negative, shouldn't positrons be a major part of tech as well?" Obviously it's not, and I'm inclined to represent darkness only as the enemy factor, the stuff that Light is to banish.

I was imagining a semi-magipunk western setting with frontiers and stuff, but really the world lends itself to any scenario the DM can come up with.

Optic Fibers can be harvested from the stems of certain rare crystal plants. This, combined with complicated microprism chips, can be used to produce the equivalent of computers in the highest of societies. These plants are difficult to cultivate (the secret is that the plants must be near a crack in a leyline vein and thus few spots are suitable for such growth).

The technology levels of the world itself is pretty diverse, ranging from hunter-gatherer frontier towns that collect the wild-grown, more powerful natural Prisms, to advanced Crystal Spires and Toga cities that have transportation systems acting literally at lightspeed known as the Laserwalks.

The light comes from chargers which derive power by charging from the orbital suns, most of the time. Higher quality chargers will have higher speeds and more base damage. I'm aware this isn't exactly realistic, but when you're fighting the Syphons, the equivalent of an average flashlight is quite the powerful beam of evisceration to these shadow creatures. Light-infused weapons will have extra bonuses against Syphons (the undead equivalent here), similar to Smite or Holy attacks by clerics and paladins. Besides that, the lasers also cause cutting damage, heat damage if fired in bursts, and plain kinetic damage(which I recognize is not quite realistic but gameplay trumps realism).

The acceleration cubes are more of a gameplay factor than anything else; they're about equivalent to, say, the plusses on longswords and such in a more conventional high fantasy game, but they only apply to the range of the weapon. More accel cubes allow longer ranged weaponry. Conversely, delay cubes produce shorter ranged weaponry but are also necessary to set up time-delays for machinegun-style suppressive fire. Quantity or Quality, I suppose.

I'll post an example of weapons design later, in case people don't know what I'm blabbering on about.

[wesfreak]

I read the post and think it's a well developed fantasy plot setting, but one question kept nagging me: If water is sacred and important, what do people drink?

[Zerovirus]

Just because it's sacred and important doesn't mean that people don't drink it In fact, that may be one of the reasons why it's important- it provides sustenance for life as well, another thread to tie into its mystic qualities.

[Zigg]

Can a mod split that please?

[johndh]

I've got a couple well-developed backstories rolling around in my head, but one is currently being made into a Glest mod and I'm thinking of using the other for Nanowrimo...

@Zero: You've got some good ideas, but I'm not too keen on everything revolving around crystals and light. Maybe it's an important part of their technology and their power source, but I feel like you've gone overboard. See: this.

[styles1005]

@Zero: You've got some good ideas, but I'm not too keen on everything revolving around crystals and light. Maybe it's an important part of their technology and their power source, but I feel like you've gone overboard. See: this.

Like I said:

Ehh . . . it's sorta crystal-this, crystal-that, crystal, prism, cool-sounding names, more crystals, more prisms . . . you get the idea.