Post by Illyasviel von Einzbern on Mar 28, 2010 23:02:56 GMT -5
This is a thread to explain a few reminders that should be kept in mind when making a character. Why is this here? So you don't have to waste your time asking basic questions that would normally be asked!
For now, it's like our own little hint corner! Yatta!
For now, it's like our own little hint corner! Yatta!
General
1) Because we don't want to have people spamming servant creations, you are only entitled to have a servant if you also have a master character. You need to make a new master for each additional servant. To allow a suitable RP Flow, the beginning limit will be 2 servants per RPer, but this can be extended if you show that you can handle more.
2) No Magicians (as in REAL magicians or sorcerors) and no witches. This is both for original characters, and canon characters. When you have a guy like Zelretch who can kill a Type, who needs a Servant? Real Sorcery and Witchcraft is also supposed to have died out and extremely rare. Alicia is supposedly the last witch or at least one of the last. We don't allow them, nor skills that are a powerful curse that counts as witchcraft. ONLY some servants are allowed to get close into that territory.
3) No Vampires/Bloodsuckers (unless it's the Servant). We would prefer to keep to Fate and not stray out into Tsukihime (which is tempting, since this is Church territory).
4) Don't over-equip your profile. A magus is usually the superman, only wearing more clothes. They would not run around with gun sword and shield and bazooka and and and.... This is not an RPG where you have hundreds of armors in your item list. If you are not Gilgamesh, you have a problem. Also keep item you have on hand to reasonable size and number. Special items, that have magical points, are familiars etc, AND ESPECIALLY mystic codes require a spell slot. Even if you have a familiar you need at least a spell slot to control it. In short: Each special item requires a spell AND an equip slot. Example: Mystic Code consumes one spell slot, each special ability will consume another and a good MC could swallow up all your spells, bear that in mind.
5) We like to stick to the elements: Water/Earth/Fire/Wind. Multi-elements like Lightning are also fine. Ether is a bit difficult and we would like to refrain from using it. Shadow on the other hand is not allowed. It is considered rare, or rather 'unique'. Unique in the sense that it is unique to Dark Sakura. Sakura herself would have most likely become something like Rin, but she was turned into a second grail, by making use of a 'tainted' piece of the original, by a magus who helped in making the grail and is himself one of the oldest possible magi existing. Even if she was not Angri already, she already had the components. It is also important to note that she did not have any Anti-Servant Spells because of that, but it came with the 'Angri-fication'. NO SHADOW ELEMENT, NO ANTI-SERVANT SPELLS. I also need to add that most magi never heard about the grail war or servants, or they would not be so obsessed in thinking of themselves as Super Human, while being no more than a weak shadow of a servant. To highlight it: They don't know about servants, they have no chance to develop anti-servant strategies, they have no targets to practice and improve and so... they also can't have any anti-servant spells.
6) Sorcery Traits should not be overpowered. It is also not common to carry those traits around. Magic is in general dwindling and the War already has a lot of the best around. There are not too many 'super elites' on this world.
7) Don't push super stat increases for all and everything or multiple abilities into just one skill. Spells and skills should only have one ability in general. If you overload it, it can happen that the mod team will decide to reduce your total number of skills or spells. If you have problems on your first time to make something of your own, then just stick to the original skills and spells. They were written for a real important and obvious reason.
8) No High Speed Aria or Divine Words for Magi. Spells have to be done through Traumathurgy. This means self hypnosis more than using the word, because the word lost power, but this does not mean that it can be done without a word. The user basically just wastes the own prana because the word does not just use it by itself anymore. As seen by Caster, she still used her hands as well, sometimes with gestures, at otherwise just to point. Just looking at something will not be enough to cast a spell, if it is not a Mystic Eye. Runes employ the use of hand drawn symbols, instead of spoken words and could be said to be written words. There certainly might be other methods, but they are not canon and hold unknown power and worth. The spell system is here for a purpose and not to see what you don't want to use.
9) Masters CAN fight servants, but they are pitiful at it. Even the best reinforcement can basically just allow them to survive. Although strange, I might just say that a reinforced master can reach 'F Rank Stats', which are for quite obvious reason below the lowest Servant Rank E. Souichirou might at times have perhaps had F+ or eventually E, thanks to Caster's Age of the Gods reinforcement with an amount of prana at her hands that other full loaded Sabers at times could only hope to get. He also had his unorthodox and totally unknown style which gave him the upper hand to kill the low leveled (thanks to Shinji) Medusa and cause problems for Arturia.
He was totally helpless after the secret was revealed, and Bazett!? Her servant fought first, let himself get beat up, while Bazett helped a little and then used his NP to project his own damage on the enemy. This leads to a decline in power on the servant and an easier match for Bazett, who still in most situations required her NP to finish the enemies off. The only time she ever 'matched' a servant was a fight against assassins.
10) Stats are not all. Classes will also influence the stats as well as abilities and although not as important for the mod battles (if we need them), stats are also not indicating a similar ability. Medusa was faster than Chu Chulain and yet their AGI stats were identical. One might interpret that their are actually numbers for a level and that each letter stands for a range, in which the aforementioned number can be found.
THIS POINT IS NOT TO MAKE YOU CONFUSED, BUT LESS WORRIED ABOUT STATS. Most of the time you are supposed to RP, eventually have a skirmish with our 'hopefully growing' pool of monsters and some chars that are really the 'villains'. You won't be killed off on day 1, because your stats are not up to par.
11) WARNING!! This section should be read by all newbies who don't have any RP EXP on this board and make a new character. Making mistakes here can occur too easily. Not all spells a magus can use (repairing items), reinforcing materials etc. need to be listed, as they are just too basic for them. This is causing certainly some confusement in a couple of readers now, but they don't need to be in any listing. BUT ALL COMBAT SPELLS and ALL SKILLS THAT GO BEYOND A BASIC LEVEL have to be listed. Unfortunately it is not possible to explain what a magus can do normally and what not, which is why it will only be used as a plot device and we don't encourage the frequent use. If we see someone overpowering a basic skill, the posts have to be modified or will be deleted. Jedi Skills of Mass Hypnosis, Battle Reinforcement, Skilled "NASU" Healing, Special Kinds of Reinforcement all DON'T count as Basic Skills.
12) When typing spells and noble phantasms try to use clear and concise wording. Bad communication can kill a profile.
Magi
Because of the confusion created by some accounts here, it is important to show just how much Prana is a good estimate, depending on the age of the family.
Let us first define a few things:
* Generations - How many leaders has your family had? This does not equate to generations of children, but the number of people who have become the leader of your family. Unless your family has really bad luck and their leaders die like animals, 50 years per generation is the minimum. So a 100 year old family would have at most, 2 generations of leaders.
* Age - Defined in years. How many centuries has your family been around?
A Young family would be anything below 400 years. These families still have little to show for their work, and so will most likely have less than 200 prana.
A Middle-aged family would be in the range of 400-700 years, and will have a maximum of 300 prana or so.
An Old family runs the gamut from 700 years all the way back to the Age of the Gods. Now normally, you would think "That's a lot of prana", but no. You see, in the Nasuverse, magic is in a state of decline. Magical creatures are slowly disappearing from the world, in fact there are almost none left. The oldest and most powerful family in the world is the Barthomeloi family. And even then, they "only" have between 1800 and 2000 prana, and ONLY because they have a special power that boosts the number and quality of their magic circuits.
Let me make this clear now, that if your family is more than 1500 years old, there is a high probability that you will start decaying. Just like the Einzberns, who started decaying even before that, and lost the power to use the Third True Magic 1000 years ago. So based on this, let's clarify the meaning and ratings of Old.
At 800-1000 years, the best you will be getting is 500 prana, unless they are exceptionally gifted. At 1500 years, your cap is 800 prana, which is really, a lot. Most Servants have "only" 1200 prana in them. Okay? So remember!
These are the regular numbers. Those that are "exceptionally gifted" will be more heavily scrutinized.
Below 400 = 200 at most. (avg magus only has 25)
400-700 = 300 at most.
700-1000 = 500 at most.
1000-1500 = 800 at most.
Beyond 1500 = less than 800 unless they're exceptionally gifted. And those are hard to find.
Remember!!! The average magus is supposed to only have 25 Prana in total! Everything beyond 800 will be usually cut off and the mod team does not need to explain in lengths anymore.
High ranked and old magi usually have a rather strange personality that will make them orthodox, stubborn, inflexible, hateful of modern technology, quite antisocial to 'normals' etc. With great power comes great responsibility and 'personality handicaps'.
Everything is also written in the character template (and more). Including the number of spells etc. ( spell number is 5 )
Servants
1) No full gods. Demigods are permissible, but full gods are a no. Fallen gods, who for some reason fell to lower levels of divinity are fine. Even Medusa was mortal before her fall and counted as a heroic spirit despite her demon element and the fact that she was a man made goddess. When in doubt, remember! A Heroic Spirit is generally a human who has achieved artificial divinity as a perfect being because s/he did something to the benefit of mankind, and people have heard about it!
The servant has to be a mortal man or woman. If it is a fallen god or demi god it is justified, if they were really forced to live a mortal life, immortal gods are not. Medusa for instance was a man made goddess, BUT she was mortal. Her sisters for example would not be allowed. No demons, angels, gods, fairies, dwarfs, elements!
Because we need to draw the line somewhere, we need to orient ourselves on the original myth (or one version). If you can't find one where the god has fallen and become a mortal, we can't allow such a major rewrite. The only one who can offer you a way out would be Nasu. For instance, Medusa/Tamamo/Herakles would probably not land on our list if not for Nasu, although Herakles at least had his adventures as a mortal demi-god and not a divine spirit or monster.
This also extends to phantasms and other legendary aspects of the character! Unless you have an incredibly good reason, do not rewrite the character to give them extra weapons! If your idea of a Servant is Bedivere who retrieved Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake after throwing it in the lake, and also retrieved Avalon but never told Arturia that he did, you should think over your concept again. Remain within the mythical bounds for Phantasms! Once again here, your only escape is what Nasu has written!
If you can orient yourself on a Nasuverse Character and wish to create something similar, by using the same ideas, it might be rejected. Please ask the mods before you write the profile and eventually waste your time. ASK THE ADMINISTRATION FIRST!
2a) No figures from any later than the 19th Century! Because it's so easy to save the world nowadays (Just sign a petition to save the rainforest, and you already have!), 20th century and modern day heroes simply don't make the cut!
2b) Future heroes like Archer are freak accidents caused by a time loop. Furthermore, he only became a Heroic Spirit because of a contract with Alaya, which means that anybody who wants to become one of those has to do the same! Still, if you insist on creating a future Counter Guardian, then ASK THE ADMINISTRATION FIRST! You should also be aware that Counter Guardians are basically just characters with some potential that just managed to get some help from Alaya to be actually capable of doing anything.
They are usually not loaded with great legends, stats or abilities. Most CG would be actually weak servants and they can only become a Heroic Spirit if they evolve from the CG status into a real hero. You can bet that this is hard.... Heroic Spirits were monsters and so they had their high stats and did not help from anyone.
3) Your Heroic Spirit MUST conform to one of the seven classes of Saber, Archer, Lancer, Caster, Berserker, Rider, and Assassin. If your Heroic Spirit doesn't qualify, then s/he is not eligible to be a Servant. SLIGHTLY altering the story of a Heroic Spirit to fit them into a class is permissible, but will be heavily scrutinized by the Administration! And try to keep a Noble Phantasm suitable for that class. It would be odd to be an Archer and have in the end only Sword Noble Phantasms. You need to at least shoot them.
4.) Don't take your overdramatized myths so serious and for full. It is even hard to recall how often you can see comments like 'The Saracene Knight slashed at the creature, but the sword only broke. Rinaldo used the moment to get a good punch at it and it swayed to the side, numbed by his strength. A counter followed. The horse kicked out with a strength that could split a mountain, and when it hit Rinaldo he almost fainted.' Does this mean that his Horse NP could have EX str and because Rinaldo just fainted, could he have END A+++? Rinaldo so strong that he hit the horse with A++ STR? The answer is NO!!!!!
Legends are full of weird stuff and monsters that could not be hurt by 'ordinary' weapons, which is even more funny when people consider that the regular weapons were copper or eventually iron in some legends. Gilgamesh and Herakles are what you need to keep in mind as the maximum and tune your legends DOWN!
5.) Don't amuse the mods too much by coming with strange ideas like your servant 'tamed' a concept and is so over powerful. Galahad obtained the real grail and so can use it. He was chosen by the angels and send to heaven. In brief.. he obtained a vessel with powers he has in the legend never used and died. -clap clap clap- Amazing power. The Nasuverse has no Angels, or the Almighty God and dying means to return to Akasha. In brief, he got the grail and died. The concept can't be used for the Nasuverse. He would have to rely on the powers he had before 'dying', just like Herakles had his skills before becoming a god. NP have to be used in the Legends.
Just obtaining an item, does not mean anything. It also is important to remember, that breaking a weapon in a legend also turns this into a part of the legend. If the hero breaks a sword in the legend, they could only summon a broken sword in the grail war, with few exceptions able to be made on the 'summoned in their prime', but legend is more important than this real nice option.
Some basic tips on Qualification:
Saber: Has to be known for a sword! This is OBVIOUS! The owners of Excalibur, Arondight, Durendal, Balmung/Gram, Hrunting, etc all qualify, as long as the sword has a name, and is known enough! Sabers have balanced stats in all areas and will have no obvious weaknesses! They get the bonus MGI RES ability thanks to being of the Knight Class. Riding is also a class ability of theirs, but it won't be spectacular compared to Riders, obviously.
Archer: Has to be either known for a bow, or a specialty in ranged attacks! Gilgamesh is an Archer because he likes to rain Noble Phantasms on people who're unworthy of fighting him! GARcher is also one because he likes using a bow, AND Unlimited Blade Works can ALSO be used to shower people with swords! WhichGilgameshsome people might not have enough of. Archers can survive without a contract to a Master longer thanks to Independent Action. Bonus MGI RES for being Knights.
Lancer: Has to be known for a lance/spear/javelin/stick with a blade on one (or both) ends! This is again, OBVIOUS! It has been observed (and joked to be an unwritten rule), that Lancers are usually Irish. This doesn't have to be the case for you. Lancers have excellent AGI. Bonus MGI RES for being Knights.
Caster: Has to be a magus! Merlin, Morgana,Lord Voldemort, Medea,Gandalf, etc! Probably one of the easiest classes to fill, just pick a random legendary wizard, and voila! Casters gain Territory Creation, which makes magecraft cast in their home base more effective! Tool Creation allows them to make items like elixirs or something.
Berserker: MUST have gone insane at one point during his lifetime! Hercules went bonkers after killing his family! Lancelot slowly descended into madness after that whole Guinevere affair! Joan of Arc MIGHT have flipped her lid when she was burned alive! Berserkers can trade Sanity Points for Mad Enhancement, which makes them more powerful! Be warned, however! Berserkers take massive amounts of prana to efficiently control! If you're not a homunculus like Ilya, good luck not getting killed when you turn on this class ability!
Assassin: Has to be... well... an Assassin. In the earlier Grail Wars, the additional condition was that only one of the nineteen leaders of the Hashashin, a Hassan, could be summoned. Sasaki Kojiro was only summoned because he's a violation of the rules. They don't need to be Hassans. Choose freely. Assassins have Presence Concealment, which hides their presence from other Servants!
Rider: Has to have a mount for a Noble Phantasm! Alexander the Great had an Ox CartChariot, and Medusa had a Pegasus! Note that the mount need not have been something they actually rode, but must at least be associated with them! In the case of Medusa, she gave birth to the Pegasus. Riders have high-speed (thanks to their mounts) and high Noble Phantasm Ratings (again, their mounts). Also, because they have to ride on a mount, their Riding skill is always top notch!
4) Fictional Characters that are OBVIOUSLY Fictional are not allowed! What Sasaki Kojiro meant by his nature as a Fictional Heroic Spirit is that the character Sasaki Kojiro is fictional, but there was an actual existing Samurai who happened to develop the exact same technique that his legend speaks of! This Samurai was the one who was summoned as Sasaki Kojiro!
In short, NO, you CANNOT summon Darth Vader as a Saber, not matter how famous he is, because there was no actual person who went around swinging a lightsaber and using the force!
Legendary/Mythic Characters who are not obviously fictional may be summoned.
5) With the exceptions of Arturia Pendragon and Gilgamesh, canon Servants are open to summoning, so long as the personalities are compatible, or a properly-justified catalyst exists. But bear in mind that they have to be new copies, without knowledge of previous wars. In the case of Arturia, this is to prevent exploitation of information acquired from previous wars, amongst other issues, such as the fact that the Grail ATE her, along with everybody else, in the Fifth War. In the case of Gilgamesh, the King of Heroes is called that for a reason. He's too broken. When making a canon Servant, ASK FOR PERMISSION FIRST! We'd also prefer to see more OCs.
6) Even Servants can only under rare conditions have a Reality Marble. It must have really been a part of their legend. Dragon Summoning is also out of the question. Especially for non casters. If you can summon one, it would cost too much prana. If you could summon a living one, its stats would be extremely low and it would be a useless dragon. Also try to keep other summons in check. It is awkward if a Saber becomes a summoner.
7) High prana is rare even with servants. There needs to be a good reason for that, otherwise keep it at C or lower.
On 'Trusted' Characters:
The truth is that some characters cannot be passed, not because of powers, nor because of political and religious sensibilities (Creating, for example, an ultraconservative Right-wing Fundamentalist Christian Republican who happens to diddle little boys on the side will NOT amuse anybody), but because of their very character concept. For simplicity's sake, they will be divided into three categories: Canon Characters, Church Overseer, and 'Secret-Backstory/Plot' Characters.
1) Canon Characters are, as the term implies, characters from across Nasuverse Canon. Any character could theoretically be applied for (save for the participants of the Fifth War, and most of the Fourth War participants; they are already dead). Such a character, if made, would be 23 years older than they were when introduced, unless they are immortal. However, the catch is simple: How would they know of the Grail War? Furthermore, why would they arrive to participate or be connected to the Grail War? Saying that Tohno Shiki is vacationing in Lucca will not work out.
Lookalikes are only possible if they are close relatives and even then we expect a very good explanation.
Another point to note is that of these characters, it would be best to PM a Staff member or to ask on the Chatbox before posting a character sheet.
2) Church Overseers are members of the Church who oversee the Grail War. Playing a role similar to Kotomine (Minus the obvious bias), they are meant to act as 'Mod Police', providing an IC reason to take care of unruly members. That is the extent of their functions - they cannot be masters, they cannot interfere with the War in any other manner (except to slay Grail Beasts). Because of this, they are less fully-fleshed characters than auxiliary plot devices.
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A note on the above two:
These characters can be created. However, it has to be on a trust-based position. Sadly, there is no concrete way to quantify such a position. If you wish to play one of the two, then PM a Staff member. If they accept you, then all is well and good; they trust you. Do not abuse that trust. Inversely, if they do not, then they do not trust you. Simple as that.
I am sorry to say this. But it is the truth. As you get on the board, as you chat on the box, you make friends, establish a reputation... that is how it is with any forum, with any place of socializing.
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3) Sometimes you have an amazing plot in mind. Sometimes you have an awesome backstory for your character. But what's the problem? It is too amazing for you to tell anybody about it. How do you circumvent that? You slap on a perfunctory and completely false backstory and then move on, nudging your secret plot along.
Is this the way to go?
NO.
Even though the details of your plot may have been held secretly until the middle of the RPG, the Staff reserves the right to veto, retcon, and otherwise wipe out the offending parts. In fact, the more retcon there is, the more damage there will be, and likely, the more serious the consequences.
So, in a nutshell, don't do that.
The backstory exists not just so that people can have an idea of who they are dealing with, but so that the approving Staff can work out inconsistencies and unrealistic snags with them. Having your character be a secret dragonslayer who rides Odin in his spare time would not fly, no matter what.
However, that is not to say that we are unreasonable. If you want your secret plot to remain on the down-low, then all you have to do is to PM a mod with a draft of the secret backstory and plot, so they can approve it. For all you know, they might even offer suggestions to improve it!
This, unlike Canon or Church Characters, does not require any sort of 'trust meter' to be filled out. Make all the zany, insane ideas you want. Just run it through the Staff first to prevent headaches.
