The Vanguard of Cheviel - Mercenary RP Interest Thread

[Rapier]

This is an idea that popped in my head randomly, somewhat inspired in FE9 and the Greil Mercenaries in particular, but it seemed to have potential. I thought of a mercenary RP focused on slice of life, character relationships/development as well as the mercenary band's proggression from an obscure fame ragtag band of misfits to a largely renowned group. No such complex story as evil sorcerers wanting to take the world, or big wars threatening to break the balance in the continent. There would be only 'ordinary' missions where the chars get to develop themselves, build up their group's name, and if they're lucky and witty enough, live to see another day (yes, I want deaths to be possibilities). I think I might include stats in this one, although I really don't want to.

I have the concept built in my mind, but I'm not going to think further without interest.

Maybe even posting this thread was a mistake, but whatever, it's 2AM I can't think right.

This RP is currently not accepting new subscriptions.

The Setting

Our story unravels in a medium sized continent, where the Empire of Astirania stretches from the center to the western inches of the land, including most of the nearby islands where the inhabitants were unlucky enough to live close to an expanding superpower. Or ex-superpower, since nowadays it is more centered around internal affairs and quarreling nobles. From the foundation of Astirania to its current days, the vassals managed to make enough pressure to lower the crown's authority to a bare minimum, where it is now safe to say that the Emperor's title is but a honorary one, recognized and valued as a strong polictical figure within the Empire and as its rightful representant in internal and foreign affairs, but not able to intervene in other nobles' properties by law. Some argue that the Emperor became a puppet in the hands of the most influent Kings within the Empire, those being the ones who actually rule. An imperialist political movement is slowly gaining support and strength...

Yet, for better or for worse, our group lies very far from the political conflict brewing in the Empire. In the western archipelago is the Kingdom of Cheviel, currently vassal of Astirania, where the nobles' quarrels leagues from their soil are eclipsed by their own problems. With the untimely death of the King, a young and naive successor heir rising to the throne, and nobles all too happy to influence the new ruler to complying with their own agendas, the kingdom slowly started to weaken itself from the inside. Banditry scaled, invaders from other islands have been successful in breaking past the borders and pillaging, and the adjacent kingdom from the mainland has been increasing their ranks as of late, its eyes set on an easy prey.

To address these issues, mercenary groups have been sprouting in the five islands that compose the archipelago, seeking to attend the increasing demand of capable warriors to secure the people and maintain order. You are one of these warriors, someone who was influenced to join a pioneer group of mercenaries for a reason. It is in Maeine, the southern and most trouble-ridden island in the Chevielan archipelago, that a small, experienced group of warriors, decided to settle in and found their own company. And they are hiring.

(I'll expand the setting if I see this RP has a chance of starting and being something decent, including descriptions of the islands and such.

If there is anything missing that you'd like to see, or any information about the setting that you need, ask me and I'll clarify. I'm also open to suggestions, as I know there are good writers around).

The Rules

- Be civil to the other participants

- Don't godmod. The characters, at the start of the RPG, are supposed to be either new at the profession or well trained enough to fight without dying in the first minute or a battle. They are not experienced soldiers or veterans (with the exception of the founders of the group). Having a character that dances through the battlefield, cutting through limbs with an enchanted slim sword, piercing steel and skin alike as if it were butter, is not permitted. Since your characters are newbies in the trade, I expect them to experience difficulties in fights. Teamwork should be a necessity.

- Don't control other people's chars, nor characters that are currently being controlled by the GM, even if it is a NPC or a generic enemy mook. Founder characters are not permissible for player control. When NPCs and generic mooks are not being controlled by the GM, the players may control them.

- Keep the game in a T-rating. That is, gore is accepted, but not too much description of it. Same about intimate relations.

- A rule may be added to the RPG after it begins, and other rules might be altered to better conform to the RPG's needs. Players will be advised of when that happens.

The Sign-Up Sheet

Name: ( )

Gender: (Are you a boy or a girl?)

Age: (No child soldiers allowed. I'm only accepting ages of 16 and above)

Appearance: (Images are acceptable, but I require at least two lines explaining how your character looks, in any case)

Personality: (I'll accept if you want to summarize and leave the rest to show in the RP, but I require at least two lines expounding on this)

Skills: (What your character is good at. Multiple skills allowed, of course. Is (s)he the best cook in the village he came from? Is (s)he the best swimmer, runner or hunter? Is (s)he decent at the forge or at tailoring? How well does (s)he fare with a weapon? Veteran combatants are forbidden. This has nothing to do with FE skills)

Gear: (What your character carries)

Bio: (Your character's origins, the events that made them what they are today, as well as their reason for joining the group)

Contracted Peers

- Alicia

- Ava

- Judas

- Petros

- Reginald

- Sybil

- Vaso

The Founders

Name: Blair

Gender: Girl

Age: 27

Appearance: A slightly tan skinned woman reaching out to 5'8 feet, of muscular build and enough strength to armwrestle with the strongest men in the military and win most matches. Her sand blonde hair is kept low, descending from the back of her head to the end of her neck, when she does not outright tie it behind her. Her eyes are black and hard, her nose long and thin. She dresses dark brown clothes and pants behind her armor, and a cloak of the same color is tied to her back.

Personality: Blair's best known for her impulsiveness, straightforwardness and strong will. Meaning that if there is something she feels like saying, she will most definitely say it, if not rub it into people's faces without much concern for their feelings. And few things are going to get her away from doing or upkeeping what she sees as fundamental. The few who managed to shrug and accept that facet of her personality have known her better side, especially her loose tongue after a few drinks, being someone prone to making jokes in a bar table and telling funny tales that sometimes are factually questionable and that most people don't believe at all, but agree-to-disagree by delivering laughter. She is also a committed woman, ready to defend her cause with all force she can muster, as well as care for the safety and well being of people she respects.

Skills: Skilled with an axe, can wear heavy armor without being hindered too much, knows how to ride horses yet prefers to go by foot, is athletic enough to run one third of a mile with heavy armor and a full mile without, is compulsory about keeping places tidy and clean. Terrible with words, cooking and organization in general. Mediocre marksmanship - has issues hitting anything that is over six meters from her.

Gear: Wears an iron armor and wields a medium sized axe. On her waist, she binds a couple of hand axes in case she needs to hit something far away, even if she is bad at it. All of her equipments seem like they've seen better days. Her armor is missing its shoulder parts and there are cracks between the stomach area that could be lethal if exploited.

Bio: Born from an average family in the main island of Cheviel, Larne, localized in the middle of the archipelago, where she lived an ordinary life with her parents and older brother, helping tend to her family's small farm and to the animals. Known for her imperative and impulsive attitude, as a girl she played in the nearby forest with a couple of children, being one of the fastest runners and managing to get farther than most of her peers. She was always invited for team races, but hardly invited for sports teams where she had to throw something, as the others noticed she had terrible targetting.

When she was 6, her older brother, 16 at the time, entered the military academy of Larne. Once, she said jokingly that she wished she'd grow up faster in order to join her brother in the academy and work with him, but the thought about joining the military only came five years later, after her brother graduated and came back home with his own tales. She hardly saw him come back home, being busy as an official and sometimes having to travel from island to island whenever duty demanded, but when she did, his tales were delightful. When she turned 16, she decided to seek a military career like his sibling, seeing it as an opportunity to seek another job unrelated to tending to animals for her entire life.

Her first years on the military academy had been rough, not only because of the exercises - which were taxing on their own, but because of the discipline and emotional control that she lacked. She was oftenly punished for being too impulsive, for arguing with superiors and for pushing one of her peers' body - as well as the table - forcefully toward the ground, as the result of an armwrestling competition, when he said a woman could never dream of defeating him. Five years later, she was approved and joined the Royal Army as a soldier. Unfortunately for her, the first years had her act as a bodyguard and escort for nobles, running around from place to place on their leisure, which bothered her more than anything she went through her academy years. Her wish was made true when action came knocking on her door - but, unfortunately as well, it knocked the door and the building with her inside, at the same time: The death of the King and the rise of the youngest heir in the story of Cheviel. The slippery slope for the state of chaos Cheviel would be drowned into.

First, her bodyguard job became harder when the population grew anxious and upset with the sudden change. Some opportunists tried to force demands to the crown, which led her to join the guard to deal with all dissidents that posed a threat. With the increase in thievery, she also oftenly accompanied nobles and protected estates from unruly mobs, some of them suspiciously organized. After many years worth of uprisings, she was stationed at the isle nearest to the continent, at the eastern side of the archipelago. For her joy, her brother was also deployed there, and both managed to fight together in the battlefield as she wanted so much. Rumors that the neighbor country was raising its own retinue alarmed the kingdom and issued diplomatic tensions between both. She participated in skirmishes between both countries, where she increased her fame and received her first promotion.

When the other islands of the archipelago were invaded by raiders, pirates and what seemed to be trained soldiers from independent countries to the south (although unable to pinpoint which countries or prove who was the culprit, because the ships and arms bore no flags), the retinue located in the eastern isle was divided. Half would deal with the invaders, while the other half held their ground against their neighbor. These years became the most frustrating ones in Blair's life. With an unskilled commander who was suspected for earning such title because of his connections to other influent nobles, they started losing battles and casualties among the army increased. Once, when trying to stop invaders from reaching the land, their fleet was completely decimated, and during the escape from her ship, Blair would've drowned if not for the help of one of he peers who knew how to swim well . Since then, the army adopted a passive stance toward the invaders, focusing on protecting the forts and scouting the area. They were ineffective in preventing the pillaging and enslaving of the citizens unfortunate enough to lack a trained militia.

All that led her to leave the military, tag with a couple of peers who were also unsatisfied with the situation of the Royal Army, and form a band she pompously decided to name as the 'Vanguard'. If she could do little for her country as a soldier, she'd do more as a mercenary. And if the Army could not effectively protect the citizens, then she would find a way to by sticking close to them, and helping them form a militia among themselves.

Edited July 5, 2015 by Rapier

[Nanami Touko]

Sure.

[kaldson0]

Sounds really cool.

Edited July 1, 2015 by kaldson0

[-Cynthia-]

How does the group become largely renowned just by doing 'ordinary' missions?

[Acacia Sgt]

How does the group become largely renowned just by doing 'ordinary' missions?

Perhaps because of how they handle them? If they do enough, are efficient or something about it, and stuff like that, they can become well-known through the land?

[Toogee]

How does the group become largely renowned just by doing 'ordinary' missions?

They help some noble out of a situation, or they help a village in need. Renown spreads through word of mouth.

Anywho, you'll have to set up some sort of stat system if you want "death to be possible". No one will do it willingly. If you don't want stats, maybe a "choose your own adventure" setup, in which someone making the wrong choice leads to...bad things.

I'm interested in seeing more.

[Rapier]

How does the group become largely renowned just by doing 'ordinary' missions?

Sorry if I did not word that part correctly. I didn't mean they will be hired for tidying up and cleaning inns missions when I said 'ordinary'. I meant we won't see evil wizards wanting to conquer the world, big wars that bring chaos upon the continent, zombies from the future and Dark Dragon Gods, that such thing. However, their missions will have variable degrees of relevance, be it helping a village with their bandit problems, be it escorting a noble, guarding a household, freeing hostages, invading a pirate base of operations like Leif in Chapter 2 etc.

If you don't want stats, maybe a "choose your own adventure" setup, in which someone making the wrong choice leads to...bad things.

CYOA sounds cool, but I know less about it than I know about setting up a stats game.

I idealized this RP with the possibility of things going wrong. The group could become infamous if the missions aren't handled well. Suppose there is a bandit problem in a town, and these bandits are invading houses and approaching citizens. If the group allows them to get their hands on too many citizens, their fame should decrease. I want to make it count, and I want to let the players think about the best inductive way to finish missions with the least casualties, but I need to think of how such a system would work in practice.

I guess I could include a system similar to visual novels. Ask players how they will handle the situation, let them post, then avaliate given the circunstances. This could lead to arbitrariness of results, though...

Perhaps because of how they handle them? If they do enough, are efficient or something about it, and stuff like that, they can become well-known through the land?

Yes. While they will not be recognized as legendary heroes like the Greil Mercenaries in FE10, they can become quite famous depending on how well they handle missions, and what kind of missions they take.

I'll make a sketch of my idea and present it in proper format, since there seems to be a bit of interest around.

[Nanami Touko]

Anywho, you'll have to set up some sort of stat system if you want "death to be possible". No one will do it willingly.

Just gonna harp on this, in every single no-stat RP I've seen, I haven't seen a single person willing to kill their character to fit the circumstances. There's only been one really good no-stat RP and that was a pretty tightly knit group, so if you want people to actually die in this, you'll need stats as a way to make it that there's no way of getting out of death, because I promise you people will try to slip around it in almost any way they can.

[Snowy_One]

The problem with stats is that a series of bad rolls can end a character that's been in the group for years just because the enemy managed to constantly spam critical hits. Not to mention it makes bosses a ***** to balance because accidentally overpowering him can result in the entire RP going down in flames.

Maybe mark missions where death is possible with a symbol? Or offer some sort of '0-HP cushion'? IIRC in D&D a character had to reach -10 HP in order to actually die and, should they stabilize, they would survive (assuming no further damage and party victory). Or in Valkyria Chronicles a 'dead' unit had 2 turns to be evacuated or else they would die for real.

Also, what if a character dies in a mission? Will they just... vanish... in the base topic or will the unit be gone for good from the topic when they leave until they return?

Anyways, I might be interested; especially if there are solo/small-group missions. That way it can be more personal.

[Toogee]

The problem with stats is that a series of bad rolls can end a character that's been in the group for years just because the enemy managed to constantly spam critical hits. Not to mention it makes bosses a ***** to balance because accidentally overpowering him can result in the entire RP going down in flames.

I totally want this to happen. I want to have a small personal group of mercs do missions and grow to become friends. Then Gigantus the Skullcrusher shows up, shows every member why he's called Skullcrusher, and ends the RP in a blaze of glory. At the end, a little kid holds up one of the fallen merc's helmet and vows to continue their legacy. A sequel RP takes place a decade or two later.

[Nanami Touko]

Yeah I think that if you do go with stats then just do what you want to do, and if things go awry with the group getting beaten/the group trucking someone, roll with it. It'd provide for a more interesting narrative, imhotep.

tl:dr i agree with 2g

[Acacia Sgt]

I totally want this to happen. I want to have a small personal group of mercs do missions and grow to become friends. Then Gigantus the Skullcrusher shows up, shows every member why he's called Skullcrusher, and ends the RP in a blaze of glory. At the end, a little kid holds up one of the fallen merc's helmet and vows to continue their legacy. A sequel RP takes place a decade or two later.

This reminds me of SW with Yukimura at Osaka...

... it would certainly have my vote for such an ending...

[Crysta]

I'd be willing to try it out.

Being a fan of tabletop D&D and MUSH RP in which things can go terribly wrong and lethal things can occur, I have no problem offing a character. Of course it hasn't really happened to me in a long while, but that's because I've watched others make the mistakes for me. :D

charging the heavily fortified castle by yourself is a bad idea

Edited June 24, 2015 by Crysta

[Snowy_One]

I totally want this to happen. I want to have a small personal group of mercs do missions and grow to become friends. Then Gigantus the Skullcrusher shows up, shows every member why he's called Skullcrusher, and ends the RP in a blaze of glory. At the end, a little kid holds up one of the fallen merc's helmet and vows to continue their legacy. A sequel RP takes place a decade or two later.

Yea... Things like that make me want to stay away as it makes you come off as a cruel GM intent on killing characters.

Edit: I mean from the 'you can really die' thing; especially with no safety net or anything to at least provide a bit of leeway. Not this as Rapier hasn't spoken yet.

Edited June 24, 2015 by Snowy_One

[Nanami Touko]

oh no, losing snowy's interest

whatever shall we do

[Lance Masayoshi]

I would be interested in this though im bad with RPs

Let's see how this plays out.

[momogeek2141]

I'm interested.

[AnonymousSpeed]

I'll go ahead and say I'm interested. I mean, I'm interested in roleplaying and general, but not being involved in a legendary war to save the continent is an idea I find interesting, being more...standard, even though growing to become accomplished mercenaries is obviously not standard for most people. But it's more standard than the heroes of FE games. Whether or not it's stats, I can live with it, unless it's no stats and I become the token person who dies.

I await seeing the Skullcrusher saga unfold. Being more serious, if things do end up imbalanced, that would actually be fairly interesting to play around with, seeing how carrying the team or not affecting things much can impact a character. That's one thing I like about roleplaying, these scenarios you normally didn't consider show up and show things that wouldn't have otherwise been shown.

[Toogee]

I await seeing the Skullcrusher saga unfold. Being more serious, if things do end up imbalanced, that would actually be fairly interesting to play around with, seeing how carrying the team or not affecting things much can impact a character. That's one thing I like about roleplaying, these scenarios you normally didn't consider show up and show things that wouldn't have otherwise been shown.

This. That's why I think death could be very important. There's no safety net in real life. If this is to be a slice of life, that is certainly a big part of the mercenary life (I would imagine). What if a popular character gets killed off? What if the leader dies? What will keep the group together? We would never find these things out in a non-stat RP; no one would have the guts to do it. The randomness of the dice could let anything happen.

Spoiler alert: Skullcrusher shows up to kill off the new crew too. It's like his hobby or something.

[AnonymousSpeed]

Spoiler alert: Skullcrusher shows up to kill off the new crew too. It's like his hobby or something.

Well crap, is there a Skullrepairer or something?

[Snowy_One]

This. That's why I think death could be very important. There's no safety net in real life. If this is to be a slice of life, that is certainly a big part of the mercenary life (I would imagine). What if a popular character gets killed off? What if the leader dies? What will keep the group together? We would never find these things out in a non-stat RP; no one would have the guts to do it. The randomness of the dice could let anything happen.

Spoiler alert: Skullcrusher shows up to kill off the new crew too. It's like his hobby or something.

Ummm. Yes. These things happen in non-statted RP's too. Except that they're usually actually done with player consent and planned as opposed to a GM being an ass and siccing some mega-boss on the party. I've seen too many rotten GM's do stuff like that, even when death isn't around, to be willing to discount that.

[Nanami Touko]

It isn't as fun if it's planned, imo, at least when it comes to tough enemies/death.

It's more fun to spring a surprise on the players and have them work a way around it or just deal with the consequences instead of planning it out with a GM and then having it unfold. That way, you get natural reactions to things, whether they be surprise, anger, confusion, whatever. You get them, and everyone gets to be shocked.

[Snowy_One]

It isn't as fun if it's planned, imo, at least when it comes to tough enemies/death.

It's more fun to spring a surprise on the players and have them work a way around it or just deal with the consequences instead of planning it out with a GM and then having it unfold. That way, you get natural reactions to things, whether they be surprise, anger, confusion, whatever. You get them, and everyone gets to be shocked.

Funny. I thought there was supposed to be character/player separation. Not to mention the only 'surprise' would be frustration when the die refused to come up right as opposed to a true shock. I am very uncomfortable with a GM being able to drop an insta-kill boss on the party and potentially tank an entire RP with 0 safety-net as it is just begging for an unbalanced fight or a total party wipe.

Besides this isn't all that set in stone ATM. Raiper may not even be statting this if he does. I'm not sure how he'll confirm a character HAS been killed then without OOC consent but that's a different problem to be dealt with all together.

[Nanami Touko]

raiper? lol

you're just clinging onto the extreme example that 2g made. obviously rapier, or any good GM won't drop insta kill bosses on anyone. but if there are going to be challenging things, i don't trust people on sf to be able to write them out properly without stats. stats are a limit, a confine that stops people from godmodding, accidentally or on purpose, and with how many people in the RP section get attached to their characters, i can't see anyone willing to kill them off if things go wrong without a huge argument.

i'd rather we not have to deal with how to consent for a character being killed because i've seen, first hand, the problems that can cause, and even if it leaves people upset, stats will make it so that no one can argue "well x did this to survive mleh mleh"

those kinds of arguments are no fun.

[Crysta]

IMO the key is to skew the stats and circumstances slightly in favor of the player characters and make them have to actually work at it to lose (through dumb decision-making rather than poor stat rolls - and make them have to work together), but small failures well within the realm of possibility so it doesn't function like you're simply playing through a pre-written script.

And yeah, assuming Rapier wants this idea to actually be popular and story to actually culminate from this idea, he's not going to do "rocks fall and everyone dies". Expecting the absolute worst is silly.