Trials & Tribulations in TTRPG

If you've read my previous post, welcome to the World of Cortis! Or the World of Name Pending like all of these regions and locals.

I stumbled onto this world map on random fantasy map generator and I really liked it so it spawned a whole idea about what kind of dangers and history it had. Or at least a semblance of History since Fabula Ultima is ultimately a collaborative world building game but you can't make something out of nothing so I've written as much as I am capable of imagining on what kind of History the World of Cortis has had.

TLDR: The world is very much based on my obsession(?) on the Chinese Zodiac with the 12 Houses; this idea of making Fairy Tale characters like Cinderella, Peter Pan etc, into like proper FFXIV summons; And also this thought I've been having about escapism, depression, real world politics to some extent and how much current technology just sucks you into enjoying content w/o much introspection or brevity to have the discussion of introspection. It's just ingest, ingest, ingest. It's very FFXIV, if you hadn't realized lmao. There's also a part of this where I liked to imagine what would have happen to extinct animals in a Fantasy setting lol

Established Worldbuilding Notes

Several hundred years ago, when the Age of Ice had yet begun and Dragonkind still ruled the skies, a dark omen was uttered which would mark the end of Dragon rule.

The Floating Dragonic Continent of "Heaven's Mandate", crashed onto the continent of "Insert Name Here". It separated the realms and begun the Age of Ice, the encroachment of which still chills and freezes the land to this day.

Since then, Dragons ceased to be.

Legend states that the Dragons were brought into the world of Cortis by the Ancient Celestials, the First Pantheon of Cortis, to be the stewards of their creations. And so they taught critterkind, the First of several Heavenly Arts, Spiritism.

The House of Dragons, despite ruling the skies of Cortis for several millennia, rarely deigned to interfere in the struggles of earthbound critters.

Long ago, before the Sundering of Cortis, the Rhinoan Empire conquered the realms of under one banner before setting their sights towards the Dragonic Continent.

With their scientists, they created the first magitecks, the mechanics of which are still studied, researched and excavated with wonder to this day.

The towers they constructed to reach and penetrate the floating continent, however, would be destroyed by the Dragons and 12 Noble Heroes. Their civilization, their research, was left to ignominy for much of history until just recently. Their race swallowed by the Earth as extinct as the Mammoths who would later fall to the Ice.

The 12 Heroes would later form the 12 Houses of whom were "gifted" the lands of the now defunct Rhinoan Empire by the House of Dragons and effectively become the New Monarchs of Cortis.

In the years of, heat radiated the realm of Cortis in an unquenchable manner, leading to drought and famine for many.

A bastard Dodo from a lowly lord from the House of the Rooster would later emerge preaching fraternity, liberty and equality for all, disparaging the greed and avarice of the New Monarchs of Cortis.

Assembling the 1st Free Feathered Legion, they marched to free the realms of Cortis from the Monarchs. They would, however, fail in this endeavor with all of Dodo-kind burnt in Phoenix Fire.

Despite this, Dodoeocracy still prospered and the first democratically elected Republics would be formed, ostensibly free from Monarch control.

During the Rise of the Rhinoan Empire, lay scattered across the world were magical artefacts deemed of Dangerous Antiquity. Capable of summoning Titan-esque beings of pure power, these artefacts could reshape the very fabric of the realms of Cortis. Making it one of many objectives by the Rhinoan Empire to gather and dispose of when found.

These artefacts are often of mundane make but with a unique characteristic; a glass slipper, a conch-shell necklace, a green tunic with a feathered cap, etc.

Adventure Hooks/Dangers of the World

Voice of the Frozen: Rumors persists of an army of undead wyverns being amassed in the frozen wasteland, circling a gigantic block of ice.

Treasures of the Deep: Buried deep within the ocean lies the fallen remains of the Draconic Continent where crumbling towering spires of Rhinoan make still jut out in opposition to scaled overlords, ripples of its machinations are still felt in waves. Divers beware.

A Reptile's Banner: Empire, that is the word of the century. As the "Insert Name Here" Military marches forward, claiming land and resources from the 12 Noble Houses, claiming themselves to be the true stewards of Cortis, descendants of the noble House of Dragonkind.

What's the best way to die that would create the least amount of annoyance for everyone involved?

It's the thought that crosses your mind as you rush headlong on the path that had led you to this point in your life.

Were you a good friend? A good son or daughter? Did you perchance forget to check if you had left the oven on before leaving for work and was the incessant ringing drowning your ears due to the pain or a call from the insurance company about how your premium has doubled since you lived in a "category 2 flammable property"? 

What did that even mean?

Perhaps you should have spent more time working on other aspects of your life instead of trudging through this incessantly blinding rain to a dead end job that you barely care about. Like that art project you wished you had submitted to that one exhibition in college, or that networking event where most of your peers had gotten better starts in life.

It's not like you remember their names anyways.

And maybe that's it, you wonder.

Did you leave a spark of a memory of yourself in this life? Or were you just a barely finished hexagonal grape PNG texture like in the critically acclaimed MMORPG, Final Fantasy XIV, with an expanded Free Trial up to Level 70 with no restrictions on playtime?

Not perfect, but maybe at least a funny meme.

Not like it matters now, as the blood begins to pool from your open wounds, mixing in with the rainwater beside you.

You really shouldn't have rushed the pedestrian light.

In your dazed state, you could barely see the truck having swerved to the side, the driver side door open, as footsteps hurriedly walked over to you.

You can barely hear the clamor of sirens and cars and other pedestrians.

Was this it? Would this be the end?

Maybe your last thoughts should be about your friends who have all moved on with their lives, your family who call you night after night wandering when you would ever get married, your dog who would rather pee on the carpet instead of the perfectly good pad right beside it, or maybe even about that one Manager you want to royally @#$! before ending your mortal coil.

You didn't even have the decency to die right.

Instead, you wonder, with some dry humour, if there is a next life, if your next life could be better, if it will have magic knights and sword wielding wizards like in those games you used to play and draw about. Maybe in that world, you could be the Hero, instead of whatever it was you were now... Couldn’t you be the Hero the world needed?

Wouldn't that be a laugh?

---

Bright light. A curious furry hand... a paw?

you really miss a lot about yourself when you stop reading books for pleasure and just constantly ingest internet content.

This variant rule is inspired by the Persona series and is meant to be used with [[Technospheres]]. It is meant to facilitate quick switches between Mnemospheres but also constrain the Level of a PC when using Mnemospheres for better game balance.

Mnemospheres can now be switched around with the Use Equipment Action during a conflict but Hoplospheres still cannot.

The Total Level of Mnemospheres being equipped by a Player Character must be equal to or lower than their current Player Level.

This variant rule is inspired by the Persona series, specifically Persona 3, and the [[Pressure & Stagger]] optional rule. It is meant to simplify weapon types to strike physical weaknesses to lessen the amount of equipment that PCs would need to switch around with but also keep weapon categories seperate in terms of skills.

Weapon Categories are now simplified into 4 Damage Types:

- Slashing: Swords, Flails, Daggers - Piercing: Spears, Bows, Firearms - Striking: Brawling, Thrown - Bludgeoning: Heavy, Arcane

If playing with [[Pressure & Stagger]], due to the condensed physical weaknesses of the enemies, the following changes can be applied to to buff them.

This variant rule is inspired by the Persona series, specifically Persona 5, and the [[Battle Superiority]] optional rule. It is meant to add options to Battle Superiority beyond gaining an extra turn whilst avoiding the possibility of hoarding them.

You gain Superiority Points only through the following ways:

- When a Player Character deals damage to one or more enemies, if one or more of those enemies are Vulnerable to the damage dealt and none of them are Immune, Absorb or Reflect, the Player Character gains a Superiority Point. A Player Character can only generate Superiority Points during their turn, and only once per turn - A Player Character must spend their Superiority Point immediately when they receive them.

A Player Character may spend their Superiority Point in the following ways:

- Once More. The Player Character gains an additional action. - Baton Pass: The Player Character passes their turn to another Player Character. This Player Character may act immediately outside the usual turn order. If that Player Character has already been the subject of a Baton Pass for that round, they may not receive this benefit again until the start of the next round. - Downed: The Enemy gains the downed status effect. Downed enemies suffer the same effects of staggered from [[Pressure & Stagger]] playtest with one change.

Downed: A downed creature recovers from the status effect at the end of the current round and will act first on the next round, regardless if it's a Villain Conflict or not (If playing with Alter Initiative rules). If multiple enemies are currently suffering from downed, all enemies who suffered from downed will act first, ignoring normal-turn order rules.