Forum Curses: It’s Not My Dream Anymore
Quite frankly, the surreal sense of not being anchored to the world is not a pleasant one, not when it happens often enough to be tedious, but sometimes there are moments in which it feels necessary to the story of your life. Some things are just surreal, confusing, but exciting. Like, after the duel between the two champions of the Trial of Ashen Hills that William had just finished watching, along with half the rest of the school, it seemed. Everyone then seemed just to enjoy themselves, just in the present with no past, and no future but then.
Some of the students at Odysseus Academy had received the gifts a few weeks ago, and generally knowledge of them was kept to a certain few, but it seems that in the run up to the finale of the underground fight club league ran by students of the school, most, not all, students had found out about this match and come to watch at a small ancient arena that somebody had found a short distance north of The Eleventh.
WIlliam was blessed with one of these gifts, or, as some called them, Curses - due to the burden of having to manage powers much greater than they could comprehend - but, nothing had come of them other than the powers. They were just, neat, he supposed.
A short distance away, a young woman was on a walk, on an ordinary day. She was just trying to pass the time, but left her headphones at home and walking while texting on her phone was bound to end up with her slamming her head into a tree eventually. And also, what would be the point of being outside like this just to be glued to a screen? She had brown hair, glasses, although wasn’t wearing her usual fez today, for no particular reason. These were just some kids, partying in a field, probably. Not her business. Tammy turned to the left and began the 1 kilometre walk to The Eleventh.
As she turned however, and had walked out of earshot, everybody seemed to surge forwards to congratulate the victor of the match, Lucia Vengarl, struggling over debris left over from the fight. What William then only just noticed, is the look of sheer horror on many of the faces around the arena. Most people were celebrating, but a small few of them looked scared, of something that was nowhere to be seen. Levi, for example, the boy who was running the Trial, held up Lucia’s arm while almost quivering, and the usually impassive Kulvir stood beside the thin Martyn Night, seemingly trying to comfort the boy while also looking shocked himself. As people rushed forwards, somebody slipped on some litter thrown into the arena, a banana peel. Joe? Jay? William wasn’t certain on the name, but froze as they slipped and hit their head on an outcropping of rock.
The two women sat in a large house overlooking a garden, where yellowing plants wilted from the heat. The older one of the pair spoke first, the glass eye in her left socket glittering in the sun, whilst offering the younger one a glass of white wine. “Please, have a drink.”
“I don’t drink, Baroness.” She replied, politely shaking her head.
“Ah- I wasn’t aware, forgive me. Well, Doctor, I’m sure you’ve heard of the issues happening in the northern territories. Britannia. Terrorists from one of the minor districts, Hera, I believe’”
“I have- my latest reports also mention some militias further north. Do you know what we’re to do about it, Lady Dominion? The SOU can be deployed in a week if the State so wishes, I’ll make sure of it.”
“We’ll do nothing, Cronus has a loyal group from out west called the Citadel under the ABF. If they wish to rebel, let them. The State has larger issues to deal with.”
All of this has been caused by a series of increasingly convoluted, absurd and difficult to follow events that I do not expect you to understand fully, in which multiple students at the school Odysseus Academy in The Eleventh, Nyx District of North Guapo, suddenly gained unusual powers that some dubbed ‘Blessings’ and others dubbed ‘Curses’. Involving break-ins, fires, a minor war with a horse-maddened cult, a series of goldfish murders, an underground fight club, and an internet forum, and culminating in the tragic death of one students at the school - , , and Jay Meddle - but now, everything is peaceful. Many of the older students are moving on with their lives, spending one last summer together before they begin to drift apart. The Odysseus Academy Forums was handed down to the leadership of Lee Roberts. And, a crack team of detectives, bounty hunters and soldiers approaches from the south.
As it turns out, the cult grew some attention, having managed to steal millions of Guaponian Lira worth of military supplies by what seemed to only be sheer luck and garnered enough attention to be enemies of the state. However, it won’t take long until they work out that more is wrong…
Join The Game
There are four options to join the game:
I wish to play as a new character, who is a member or former member of Odysseus Academy.[!!! RECOMMENDED !!!]
You may choose to play as a new character, either as a current student of Odysseus Academy or one who has just left the school. As this game is Forum Curses, you must select a Curse for your character to use. And this time, I am unfortunately being quite strict about what counts.
A Curse is similar to what appears in Arcane Odyssey, but with a few more creative liberties involved. You can choose an elemental power and be able to transform into that power to attack, evade and defend. You may instead choose to use a Blessing, which has more unique abilities. To deter people from doing this because oh my god this has not worked out in the last games, you have to write at least a three paragraph essay on why you should be able to do this and I will grade it and I will only allow you to use a Blessing if it is to a certain standard. Have a backup just in case. If I accept you will be the cause of all my agony.
Combat will be explained later.
I wish to play as a player character from Forum Curses: The Second Act
You may choose to play as a character from Forum Curses: The Second Act during this game. You may only do this if you participated in Forum Curses: The Second Act and you may only play as the character you were playing in this game. There is one exemption to this rule - if you get written permission from the original person playing a character you may choose to play it, but I expect a degree of continuity between the personality in FC:2A and here. In addition to their previous Curses, Ray Lumin is in possession of a shapeshifting axe called Acumen and Lucia Vengarl is in possession of the poisonous rocket trident called Avolition.
Some characters cannot be selected:
Max PRAVILNA – Is no longer in this universe.
David BLADEMAN – Is no longer in this universe.
Fargo CANTALOUPE – Is no longer in this universe.
Gabriel Banks – Is no longer in this universe.
Arkenheilor FERZORIK – Is no longer in this universe.
Apolo CAELUM – Curse has undergone major lore-based changes.
Ladnas CREED – Curse has undergone major lore based changes.
Jay MEDDLE – Character is deceased after the events of Forum Curses: The Second Act.
Macy BARION – User is banned.
Nick ZECHROTH – User is anoned.
Sage SAGE – What the hell, Sock.
Characters who can be selected but have undergone changes to their Curse:
- Myles SATURN – User of the Sun Curse rather than the Star Curse.
I wish to play as a non player character from Forum Curses: The Second Act [Come on, surely you can think of something new…]
You may if you do not wish to create a new character, play as a minor secondary character from FC:2A. The characters available under this option are:
- Dante DARK, the Shadow Curse.
- Edel NASIR, the Metal Curse, Copper Variation.
- Gary CREEK, who has been altered to use the Flare Curse.
- Marcio STONE, the Paint Curse (Pink).
- Rob Jones, the Blood Curse.
I wish to play as Lucky Nolastname
You may choose this option if you are Unlucky. The guy, I mean, not just unlucky. This character cannot be played by getting written permission from Unlucky. Unlucky does not have to choose to play this character and can either not participate in this game, or select a new character to play. Whether or not Unlucky is playing this character, this character will have a major role in the story and is armed with Ardour, a magic shotgun, as well as the same luck-based powers which affect those around him. How is this its own unique option, you ask? Lol.
Signup Rules
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You can play this game even if the only sentence you’ve understood so far is this one. You need zero prior lore knowledge.
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You must select one of the four specified options to play with.
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If your character does not have a name already, you must choose a name. This can be as stupid as you want it to be.
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If your character does not already have an age, you must choose an age. Any character who had an age in Forum Curses: The Second Act will be six months older than they were then so they may be older than
- Odysseus Academy characters must have an age between 14 and 18.
- Former Odysseus Academy characters must have an age between 18 and 19.
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If your character is an Odysseus Academy character who does not have a Curse yet, you must select a Curse. Rules for this are specified above. You cannot select a Curse another character has, and I will specify if this is the case. Make up some Lost/Ancient magic to base it on if you have no ideas.
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Lucky Nolastname has a Curse/Blessing/Whatever, but his combative abilities are based around the shotgun.
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Move on to ‘Combat Rules’ and then design an appropriate move set to submit. You may confirm that your chosen Curse is available before this.
- You do not need to complete a combat moveset right now. You may begin playing the game without doing this, but may not participate in battles until you do this.
Combat Rules
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Read carefully. You must design an appropriate moveset to play the game. If you have questions, please ask.
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Combat is based around a custom text-based battle system that I have created and will be running to manage fights in this game. All you need to do is design a set of skills to use during fights.
- To use a skill you just have to say ‘I use {skill name}.’ Rolling a die is not necessary as this is built into the battle system already.
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You may have up to four [LISTED] skills. [LISTED] skills can be used at any point during a Player Move which you have permission to act in.
- Skills can be of one of three categories:
- [ATTACK] skills deal damage and can apply effects to both the user and the target. They can also be used as healing abilities.
- [SUPPORT] skills can apply effects to both the user and the target.
- [DEFENCE] skills do not have a target. They will apply a ‘Defence Effect’ to the user, and can also apply other effects to the user if designed to do so.
- No more than three of your [LISTED] skills can be an [ATTACK] skill at this point. The other skill(s) must be [SUPPORT] or [DEFENCE]
- Skills can be of one of three categories:
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You may have an unlimited number of [UNLISTED] skills. These are skills that can only be activated by certain effects, or by certain story points by requesting permission to use it.
- By unlimited, please don’t make too many of these. If there’s more than you reasonably need they will be denied.
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You may have one [SETUP] skill. This must be a [SUPPORT] skill which can only apply effects to the user. [SETUP] skills can be used where your loadout requires an effect to function that you want to have before combat starts. [SETUP] skills will be used at the start of a combat encounter.
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Effects of the same name are the same for every character, player or NPC. If somebody has already created a ‘Bleed’ effect, for example, your ‘Bleed’ effect will work in the same way as theirs.
- Check the discord for a list of all available effects (or make your own!).
Preset Modifiers (Required)
Required to participate in combat events.
- When creating a character you must choose your stat modifiers. These can be improved throughout the game. At this point you have a list of preset archetypes to choose from, but you may improve (or, downgrade) any of these later in the game. If you feel that your character has grown stronger after a story point, you can request a change to your stats.
Preset Modifiers To Choose From
HP - Hitpoints, The amount of damage you can take before being taken out of the fight.
ATK - Attack, Increases outgoing damage you deal.
RES - Resistance, Decreases incoming damage you take.
DEF - Defence, Increases potency of Defence type abilities.
BNS - Bonus, A flat (additive, rather than multiplicative) bonus to all attacks (ignores further modifiers).
OPTIONS
A | 250 HP 1 ATK 1 RES 1 DEF 1 BNS
B | 250 HP 1.05 ATK 1.1 RES 0.9 DEF 0 BNS
C | 250 HP 0.9 ATK 1.05 RES 1.1 DEF 0 BNS
D | 275 HP 1.1 ATK 1.15 RES 0.8 DEF 0 BNS
E | 250 HP 1.1 ATK 1.05 RES 0.9 DEF0 BNS
F | 250 HP 1.1 ATK 0.95 RES 0.95 DEF 5 BNS
G | 200 HP 1.2 ATK 0.8 RES 0.8 DEF 25 BNS
H | 300 HP 0.8 ATK 1.3 RES 1.05 DEF 0 BNS
I | 275 HP 0.1 ATK 1 RES 1 DEF 50 BNS
J | 225 HP 1.15 ATK 1 RES 0.85 DEF 0 BNS
K | 300 HP 0.9 ATK 0.9 RES 1.2 DEF 0 BNS
L | 200 HP 1.9 ATK 0.825 RES 0.825 DEF -50 BNS
M | 225 HP 1.1 ATK 0.85 RES 0.6 DEF 10 BNS
N | 250 HP 0.8 ATK 0.8 RES 0.8 DEF 20 BNS
O | 250 HP 1.05 ATK 1.05 RES 0.8 DEF 5 BNS
P | 300 HP 0.6 ATK 1.1 RES 1.6 DEF 0 BNS
Creating Abilities (Required)
At least 1 ability is required to partipate in combat events.
Creating Abilities
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When creating your skills use this format:
- Skill Name (Must be unique, unless you want to share a skill with another player)
- Skill Category
- Skill Attack (If Applicable)
- 0-20 (Light Attack) (Can have up to three of these to begin with)
- 20 - 40 (Medium Attack) (Can have up to one of these to begin with)
- 40 - 60 (Heavy Attack) (Can have up to one of these to begin with)
- You cannot have stronger attacks at this stage.
- Skill Defence (If Applicable)
- Between 1 and 1.3.
- You must provide an additional name for the ‘Defence Effect’
- Attack AoE (If Applicable)
- Is the number of additional enemies of the same faction as your original target that are also damaged (these enemies do not have effects applied to them)
- Up to 5. I expect attacks to be weaker if they also hit AoE.
- Attack AoE Multiplier (If Applicable)
- Unless you have a reason for it to be otherwise, it should be between 0.8 and 0.9
- Effects (Self)
- Effects applied to the user of this ability
- Effects (Target)
- Effects applied to the target of this ability.
Creating Effects (Optional)
– All content in this section is OPTIONAL completely and does not need to be considered to play this game. It is only for people who wish to customise their abilities better. You can use generic effects, or use no effects at all if you so wish. –
Creating Effects
- If you have created a status effect that has not been created already, please follow these instructions to create the effect. Since this has all been hardcoded into a battle system, you must follow these rules else it doesn’t work:
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Your effect must have a unique name.
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Effects have two values that can count down. If either of these hit zero, the effect is cleared from the target.
- Time is used by all effects. At turn end, the Time count decreases by one on every active effect on the field.
- Stack is used by some effects, but not all. Upon one ‘usage’ of an effect that utilises Stack, its count will decrease by one.
- Your effect must be provided with a Length. This is the initial Time an effect starts out with. If you wish for an effect to last effectively forever, this is also an option.
- Your effect must be provided with an Initial Stack. This is the initial Stack an effect will start out with. For effect types not utilising Stack, this must be equal to 1.
- Your effect must be provided with a Maximum Stack. This is the maximum Stack an effect can possibly have. Beyond this point, Stack will not increase. For effect types not utilising Stack, this must be equal to 1.
- If a target that already has the effect is applied the effect a second time, that effect instance will have its **Time** restored to its **Length** and its **Stack** incremented by its **Initial Stack** up to the **Maximum Stack.**
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Effects must have one of the below types. These effect types work exactly as stated below and rely on creativity to maximise their functionality.
- Shield
- Target gains temporary health equal to its **Stack.** This temporary health takes damage separately to the main health pool.
- Defence
- Applies an additional modifier between 0 and 2 towards resistance from incoming attacks. A modifier below 1 causes the target to take more damage and a modifier above 1 causes the target to take less damage. Can only be applied to self via Defence skills. This value can be higher than normal resistance modifiers, up to about 1.5 is recommended.
- Reduction
- Applies an additional modifier to any of these four stats:
- Attack
- Resistance
- Defence
- Bonus
- The modifier can be between 0 and 2 for the first three stats and any value for Bonus. I recommend for this to be kept between 0.85 and 1.15, or -10 and 10.
- Applies an additional modifier to any of these four stats:
- Counter
- Activates a Specified Ability when hit for Stack total hits. Stack decreases on each activation.
- This ability can be any ability, but since it is likely to be applied to yourself, I recommend choosing one of your own abilities, [LISTED] or [UNLISTED]
- Activates a Specified Ability when hit for Stack total hits. Stack decreases on each activation.
- Catalyst
- Upon use of Specified Ability, apply Specified Effect. Stack decreases on each activation.
- Both the Specified Ability and Specified Effect can be any ability or effect.
- Upon use of Specified Ability, apply Specified Effect. Stack decreases on each activation.
- Limit
- Upon Stack reaching a specified Limit*, clear this effect and apply a different Specified Effect.
- This can be used to ‘charging’ type effects as well as ‘expenditure’ type effects (such as ammunition) but the effect will always count upwards, so you’d have to have Ammo [Expended] rather than Ammo [Remaining].
- Upon Stack reaching a specified Limit*, clear this effect and apply a different Specified Effect.
- AbilityAlteration
- Upon use of Specified Ability 1 instead use Specified Ability 2 and decrease this effect’s Stack.
- EffectAlteration
- Upon Specified Effect 1 being applied to the target by any means, instead apply Specified Effect 2 and decrease this effect’s Stack.
- Randomise
- Upon this effect being applied to the target, do not apply this effect and instead apply any effect from a provided List of Specified Effects.
- DiceMod
- [ATTACK] skill dice rolls used by the target are increased or decreased by a flat value. If this value is 20, the skill will always crit, else the skill will continue to have a 1/20 chance of critting.
- Upon this effect activating, its Stack will decrease.
- DoT
- Deals flat damage or heals flat health at turn end.
- BonusBonus
- Flat damage bonus (Positive or negative) by the effect’s Stack.
- Gel
- Every [ATTACK] skill used while under this effect will additionally apply another specified effect for Time turns.
- Shield
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Combat Progression
Combat progression follows this layout:
- When a fight starts, automatically all [SETUP] abilities are used for all participant NPCs and players (NPCs take priority).
- The enemy, if it is a powerful boss, may use an opportunity attack or two after this.
- Combat is split into ‘Turns’ and ‘Moves’.
- ‘Turns’ are units of time in which all on-field NPCs will act, and players will be given opportunities to act.
- DoT damage occurs at the end of each turn.
- NPCs have a ‘speed’ value, which determines when they act within a turn in relationship to other NPCs.
- Moves are windows in which either an NPC has been assigned to act by the combat system, or one which has been assigned as a ‘player move’.
- During a player move, any player may take an action by using one of their abilities. The first player to announce (in the thread, or in a case where the Forums are down, in the discord server) ‘I use {ability name}’ will get that turn and use that ability.
- You may sometimes be in a position where you do not have permission to act in a move, and you’ll not be allowed to do this.
- Unless not enough players are online, you can only act once per turn at most.
- You are forced to cycle attack skills. You cannot use the same attack skill multiple times in a row unless it is a light attack. Heavy attack skills need a break of two skills between uses and medium need a break of one attack skill between uses.
- Each support/defence skill has a break/cooldown of two as well.
- During a player move, any player may take an action by using one of their abilities. The first player to announce (in the thread, or in a case where the Forums are down, in the discord server) ‘I use {ability name}’ will get that turn and use that ability.
- ‘Turns’ are units of time in which all on-field NPCs will act, and players will be given opportunities to act.
Other Rules
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Please join the discord server to participate in this game. In this server, you’ll find a full rulebook for the game. Head to #fc3-rulebook to see rules. Head to #fc3-data to see a full list of all currently available effects, claimed curses and abilities.
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Ping me once you’re in the server in #social-place with your forum username so I can set you up.
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You cannot participate in this event if you are banned from the discord.
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#fc3-feedback can be used to make complaints about the game, its balance and gameplay. I will try to adjust as things go along to make things best for everyone.
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Be polite! Be friendly! Participate in the group effort! This game is 80% user-driven RP!
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If you aren’t polite or friendly, you will be removed from the game.
- You can complain about me, but do not harass other players.
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If you are asked to roll a dice (which will only occur outside of combat , please either use #fc3-dice in the discord server, or ping Discobot in this thread. I’m trying to stay away from external dice rolling systems. I know you rig it ItsNotMe. Only I’m allowed to rig the dice this time.
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Tupperbox is enabled in the server, a guide to set this up is in #fc3-tupperbox.
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Use of this is optional and restricted to the discord server (ofc). Abuse will get your permissions taken away.
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RP can happen in the discord or thread. Try not to spam the thread too much, but it’s not that big of a problem now that I have streamlined everything.
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If you have questions, ask! Ask away!
“Hey… Calypso…”
“Calypso… Calypso- wake up.”
The young woman opened her eyes to see grass, and then rolled over to see sunlight. Standing in that sunlight was Jane Heres, looking over her with concerned eyes. “Calypso, what the hell are you doing out here. Somebody could have stepped on you and broken your elbows. Imagine that. Broken elbows. Way to ruin your summer.”
Calypso freaked out, making unintelligible noises while thrashing around on the ground. “I mean- I- just, like lying in fields. Yes. That’s it. I like lying in fields. I mean. Sorry to be in your-. Just the field. You should try it some time. Why- why are you even out here, anyway?”
Jane appeared to try and suppress laughter at the sight. “I’m on a walk, why are you out here?”
Calypso went silent, and stopped shaking. “Um…”
In fact, Calypso had no idea why she was out here lying face down in a field, but weirder things had happened. Usually she knew, but just… not today. Jane held out her hand, “Get up, the others are off at the train station, seeing Kulvir off. I mean I never really liked the guy but- they wanted to say goodbye.”
Calypso hesitated and took her hand, pulling herself up off the dirt. “I um-”
She quickly let go and Jane glanced at her hand which was now covered in a layer of ink. “Oh- you have ink on your hands? Have you been drawi-”
Jane then looked at Calypso’s hands, perfectly ink-free, and then into her indigo eyes, her mouth slightly ajar. “I uh-”
At that moment, something occurred to Jane that had eluded her for months. Something occurred to Jane that was rather obvious to everybody else. It occurred to Jane that Calypso-
Welcome To Forum Curses Act 3: It’s Not My Dream Anymore
