Castlevania-style RP...G.

[The Great Nevareh]

So, anyway, I was listening to some of my favorite tunes from that game and I came up with what is most likely a brilliantly stupid idea: I wonder how a romp through a Castlevania simile with home-brewed characters with extremely limited rules, done in mostly-freestyle with a few basic RPG hallmarks such as hit points, some stats, and inventory would go. So, I spent about an hour dreaming up a simple system and now I'm going for it. Please guage some interest or something! Yeah!


In the House of the Lord of Darkness
(VERY AMBIGUOUS! Subject to title change.)

The year is 1626 , After Seal (AS). Sixteen-hundred twenty six years ago, the great Goddess sealed away the world of order and light from the onslaught of the Darkness and the Chaos. Goddess valiantly remained outside of the seal of her own making to defend it for all time, making her land eternally safe. The people rejoiced, and they formed great nations and societies which lived in great peace and prosperity.

And so, for fifteen hundred years, this is how it was.

Then the Borders appeared.

On the very edges of the Sealed Lands, strange peoples began to appear. They were not warlike; In a point of fact, they were no more martially-oriented than any of the peoples residing in the Sealed Lands already. Yet, there were legends of peoples like these who were feasting upon and enslaving the ancestors of those in the Sealed Lands long before the Goddess, in her great goodness, sealed them away with the glory of the Sun. These peoples had a similarity verging on absolute likeness to the men and women inside of the Seal, and were even sexually compatible with them, thus capable of siring half-breed children. There was nothing inherently BAD about the new race.

However, this still held dire ramifications for the people in the Sealed Lands. Did this mean the Seal was weakening? Did the Darkness and the Chaos find a way of breaking the seal? Is Goddess dead? Has she forgotten about her children in the seal? Would the new people inside the Sealed Lands manage to send word to their kin outside and eventually result in a breach of the Seal?

So, the peoples of the Sealed Lands, in their infinite wisdom in the year of 1502 After Seal, mounted a massive campaign of genocide for those (termed Vampires) who had newly arrived. The Vampires didn't stand a chance.

And that's the last we heard of THAT.

Needless to say, SOME of those Vampires survived. Some of these survivors bear a grudge to this day (since some of them are still alive due long life-spans), but most have forgiven (strangely enough) the terrible treatment that they suffered at the hands of the people of the Sealed Lands.

Though these grudge-bearers aren't the source of the intrigue which this story deals with. Instead, this story's catalyst was one of the men who had ordered the genocide.

His name was Albain.

Albain, for some reason that is unknown until to this day, rebelled against the Light and allied himself with the Darkness and the Chaos. One of the Vampires used an ancient and forbidden process to give Albain the long life-span that they possess, thus effectively making Albain one of them. Albain then made contracts with beings from Outside of the Seal and summoned them into the Sealed Lands. His dwelling became a perverted sanctum of the Darkness and the Chaos, and took on a life of its own, roaming the far countryside in the Borderlands.

However, the leaders of the Sealed Lands did not know what to do or how to do it. They never officially announced that the Darkness and the Chaos had gained a foothold in their world. And so, there was no chance that the nations of the world would react once again and destroy the fiends from another world.

Then, in 1526, after more than 20 years of encroaching terror and doom, a woman who is now known as Dae Sacratus Fellana appeared with two companions at the gates of the Hell House, keep and manor of Albain- Castel-Albainia (snrk! giggle!).

She entered, wielding her holy sword and using the magicks of light and solace, with her allies, Arin Sactratus Fellanor, the exorcist-prodigy of the county of Marin, and van-Zandt Sanctorus Fellanor, a magician-fencer of the Circle of the Nine, and banished the taint and stain from the countryside and slew the Lord of the House of Darkness. When the fighting was over, there was nothing left of Castel-Albainia after a brilliant white column rumored to have been sent by Goddess herself to obliterate the taint that had been left by the Hell-House.

None of this information was ever released to the peoples of the Sealed Lands, but there were rumors. Plenty of rumors, which turned swiftly to legends and to myths. There were also left-over Fiends and Daemons who had not been destroyed in the wreckage, but these Fiends and Daemons agreed to live peacefully out of sight of the people in general, and life was good.

However, there was a secret cult that sprang up around the now martyred G-d-figure of Albain, a cult which shunned the light offered by Goddess and instead embraced the Darkness and the Chaos. This group roamed the countryside in the area of where Castel-Albania used to be and gradually built a temple that eventually was larger than the original structure of Castel-Albania, all in secret. This cult prophesized the return of Albain to lead them to the embrace of the Darkness and the Chaos. All in all, though, the cult itself, when it meets, causes no trouble and is generally ignored by the local population.

In 1602, 100 years after the original Perversion of Albain, this temple became the epicenter of another... disturbence. The area became shrouded under a cloud of ill omens, and the temple of Castel-Albainia began once again to grow into a huge, looming structure, and became a fortress. In 1622, the onslaught once again began, Demons, Fiends, and Vampires coming out of this sanctum and subjugating those who resisted. However, some of these Demons, Fiends, and Vampires did not necessarily like how things were run, and deserted the army that they had previously agreed to join.

Now it is 1626, and once again a small group of warriors approaches the Hell House, Castel-Albainia to stop the taint of the Darkness and the Chaos from covering the Sealed Lands.

Character Parameters:
Race: Every character is of some race. The available races are:

Human: Humans are the most versatile and the least durable of the available races. They can use any weapon, any armor, and any relic they find and are not restricted by alignment to use. Humans have 6 hit points.

Half-Breed: A Half-Breed is a cross between the ill-named Vampires and a Human. Half-Breeds are more durable than Humans, but cannot use any item that is a Chosen or Holy item, as selected by Goddess Fellana. However, Half-Breeds CAN use shapeshifting abilities that Humans and Chosen cannot. Half-Breeds have 7 hit points. Alucard is an example of a Half-Breed.

Vampire: Vampires are more durable, agile, and able than Humans or Half-Breeds. Vampires cannot use any weapon, armor, or item that is not a Vampire weapon, armor, or item without mis-using it, and Vampires must "feed" upon the blood of something several times a day. What it is is of no import, so long as it isn't their OWN blood. A Vampire cannot fight another Vampire without risking falling into Thrall of that other Vampire. Vampires can use shapeshifting abilities. Vampires have 8 hit points.

Chosen: The "Chosen" champions of the Sealed Lands, as selected by Goddess. Chosen are more agile, more magically adept, more EVERYTHING than humans. Chosen can also ONLY use weapons and armors Chosen by Goddess Fellana, and cannot use relics at all. Chosen get a bonus combat Style. Chosen have 8 hit points. Richter Belmont (nay, MOST Belmonts) is an example of a Chosen.

Fiends: A "Fiend" is a human who has been touched by the power of the Darkness and the Chaos. In exchange for losing part of themselves they gain superhuman abilities, much akin to the Chosen. Fiends must use unpropertied or Darkness and Chaos weapons and armor. Fiends have a chance to fall into Thrall of any superior Fiend, Daemon, or Vampire they come across if they do not possess a Relic that makes them immune to such things. Fiends have 7 hit points. An example of a Fiend in the Castlevania series is Soma Cruz.

Daemons: Daemons are otherworld beings that possess extreme strength, speed, durability, etc. etc. that makes them the most physically adept at anything. However, Daemons automatically fall into the Thrall of a superior Fiend, Daemon, or Vampire, and Daemons cannot use any weapons or armor.


Statistics:

You get FIVE points to distribute between FOUR things.
Prowess: This fuels your weapon styles and skills in terms of damage and accuracy.
Constitution: This is your ability to resist damage and status ailments such as Stone, Poison, and the like.
Aura: This fuels your magical abilities and skills in terms of damage and accuracy.
Will: Your "soul buffer." This helps prevent damage from using special attacks. Will also helps prevent falling into Thrall for Vampires and Fiends.

You get two "Styles" for combat and magic use. One style might be "Beneficiary Magic" and another would be "One-Handed Greataxe," thus the character would be able to heal himself/herself and others as well as be able to wield a Greataxe one-handed. Pick any two styles you like and feel free to make any up. Just be warned that there are some things that can only be accomplished with Magic and there are some things that can only be accomplished with weapons. Also note that you cannot heal other players unless one of your Magic styles is entirely unusable for attack. Also, an entirely defensive style is necessary in order to Ressurect an ally at a high level, or an entire magical style for the sole purpose of Ressurection in order to use it in the very beginning. Be warned that you cannot "pick up" new styles after the game has started- you're stuck with whatever you pick.

Some magic-use items such as Rings, Tomes, and Wands don't require styles to use. You CAN fight entirely with a Magical style using a Ring, Tome, or Wand, throwing out fire that seriously hurts for free.

All all other weapons require Styles. And fighting unarmed counts as a style.

Acceptable kinds of styles: Fire Magic, Dual-Swordplay, Stickfighting.

Unacceptable kinds of styles: Instand-Death Sword, Natural Disaster Magic, Building (or Monster)-Wielding, Every-Weapon Style.
Be encouraged to use weapons in your styles that other players aren't using so you don't end up fighting over weapons you find.

You can start out with whatever you want so long as it doesn't have a property and it isn't grossly out of place. A property is like "Chosen" or "Darkness." This DOES mean that all Chosen start off unarmed. Also note that the weapons you start with will have an attack bonus of zero and the armors you start out with will have a defense bonus of zero.

How Combat Works:
You make a pose- You're attacking or defending somehow. Everyone acts at once, and not one at a time- thus, everyone attacks at once and the defenders all act at once UNLESS THEY'RE ATTACKING. Also, don't control your opponents, please. Because I'm a cheesewhore and the like, if Player 1 and Monster 1 are attacking eachother at the same time, then Player 1 gets precedence in terms of attack- so if Player 1 kills Monster 1 with that hit, then Player 1 doesn't have to suffer Monster 1's attack.

Your Prowess/Aura (depending on whether or not you're using a weapon or a kind of magic) combined with an appropriate Weapon/Tome/Wand/Ring determine the damage you do.

Armor absorbs damage. Thus, armor is nice. More powerful armor is nicer. Stamina is also pretty good in this vein.

Most of the time, there are four things you can do in a combat round:

1- Attack with either a weapon or a magick. This is generally how you kill stuff. This is also the domain that healing yourself or other people falls into, as well. You can attack everything in your attack range or you can double your weapon/tome/ring/wand bonus by targeting a single opponent. Thus, there is little to no effective difference between mowing down several opponents or eviscerating just one.

2- Defend against incoming attacks. This doubles your armor class and stamina against any number of attacks and can, sometimes, nullify damage.

3- Maneuver. Maneuvering is what you do to close distances between you and your opponents, MAKE distances between you and your opponents, hide behind stuff, etc. etc. Any basic attack that might have hit you now misses you automatically if you maneuver, making this GENERALLY the better alternative to Defending. However, if you're dealing with something that's chasing you/a long ranged attack and you aren't getting cover, then Maneuvering doesn't usually help all that much.

4- Attack wildly and with passion. This means dropping whatever pretense you were having about defending yourself and throwing yourself entirely into the blow. This move doubles your Prowess or Aura rating in terms of dealing the blow, but drops your Stamina rating from your damage soak, and you suffer backlash damage equal to either Prowess or Aura minus your Will.

Sometimes there are other things you can do, such as jump over gaps, manipulate switches, open or break open doors, climb up a ledge, attempt to break out of Thrall, et cetera.

WHAT IS A RELIC?

Relics give you superpowers. Ta-daah! They effect the entire party that can experience the effect of Relics from the moment you get them on, and you can turn them off as you like. A relic can give you the ability to breathe underwater, the power to jump extra high or extra far, the ability to glide through the air, the power to turn into a bat (if you can shapeshift), or the ability to blow up or knock down walls. Relics are kind of important and are undroppable. Note that there is NO garuntee that you'll find them all, so you don't have free reign to play as Fiends and then hope for the best in terms of finding the Relic that nullifies Thrall.

I'll add to this as the need arises, but that's about it. Interest Guage/Unwanted But Probably Needed Criticism Go! <p>[---------------------------]
"There is great disorder under Heaven, and the situation is excellent."
-Mao Tse-Tung

"I eat the talking bees because I am George Washington Christ"
-From "Bob the Ball"</p>