Code: PIRULUK

Liliana groaned inwardly when Leivinia handily dodged her attack. Fighting fliers was always annoying. As Leivinia struck out at Liliana's chest, Liliana channeled the momentum from her stab into a forward dive, pushing off the ground with her free hand and performing several acrobatic flips to gain distance, landing facing Leivinia, Eleganz pointed forward, body crouched low. She narrowed her eyes as she waited for her adversary's next move.

Once the brawl had started, Symphony immediately moved back inside the elevator, taking up a seated sniper position. She unslung and reopened her rifle, setting it to its single round sniper configuration. Pressing it firmly against her shoulder, holding it steady, temporarily disabling her breath simulation. Linking to its optical node via a direct interface, she started to ready herself, preparing to fire. While she had been setting up, Heavensea had already inflicted a wound on one opponent, and was now approaching another enemy who was hiding behind a table. As the injured man started taking up a boxing stance, Symphony quietly aimed and pulled the trigger, causing a ballistic projectile to exit the barrel at a speed of 1.3 kilometers per second, targeted squarely at the man's exposed head. Not waiting to see if it hit, Symphony quickly adjusted her aim and shifted her barrel in the direction of the table, preparing to provide covering fire for her cute cat-eared friend.

Okay so... From what I can see, the biggest issues raised with the system are as follows: 1) Lack of a way to ensure the GM doesn't game the rolls 2) Calculations being too complex/the system in general being complicated 3) Lengthening the duration of RPs 4) Difficulty in upkeep So... I'll address these in order. 1) There really isn't anything that can be done about this, given this forum's nature as a non-real-time RP medium. But, if you think about it, it's not any harder for the GMs to game the system right now; GMs have the power to arbitrarily kill characters anyway by just stating that they were hit by a fatal attack. So this issue would exist with or without the system; the only difference is that the system provides a target for resentment. GMs should include a warning that it's possible to game the system when setting up, and ask primarily for the players' trust. 2) The system is complex because in real life, combat is complex; it's a dance between two partners. Your physique, skills and a lot of luck need to come together in a harmonius murderous orchestra to land a hit. That said, I understand the concern, so this is what I can do: I can continue working on this system, but make another simplified, less complex subsystem. Things I'll keep include grid-based movement and the damaging stats(I like the idea that using a Rapier requires a different stat from using a Dagger), but I can adjust the hit and crit calculations to make stuff easier. 3) I'm not too sure about this; the system allows you to compress multiple combat encounters into one, so if anything the time taken should in theory be reduced... assuming all players are active. What drags RPs the most is slow or lacking player activity. If players and the host can all play their part, we should be able to mitigate this issue. Again, I'll need to run a trial map to see how long a combat encounter might actually take. If it takes too long, I'll revisit this issue. 4) Naturally, if I do go ahead with this system, I'll create resources for it: namely, a Google Sheets document or - if I can learn how to package it - an executable. There will be more effort needed from the host, but these should help facilitate that a little. @GotWala I know about roll20. I would love to use it. But the problem is the same one that's plagued every individual who's tried to set one up: timezones. For instance, I live in a GMT+8 timezone. That's halfway across the world from most people on this forum. This presents a problem where the time I'm available is like 4am for everyone else. As such, this is not a practical solution :x sorry to disappoint :c

</3 :c

Funny you should mention test runs. If I get enough interest in this, I'll be doing a quick 3-4 player one map reroll campaign to test the system, both as a balance test as well as to see how long it takes for a battle. I was thinking about the weapon triangle, but I decided not to include it in the base system, instead leaving it as a suggested modifier. By placing all these world-specific subsystems into the mods, there's a higher level of customisation available for potential hosts. To clarify about the amount of work involved, character sheets/data would be upkept by purely the host, preferably on a google doc that everyone can see, but not edit. So the burden of additional work would fall largely on the host's shoulders.

Hi o/ You probably know me. If you don't, I'm Acqui, and this is possibly the second time I'm embarking on a highly ambitious project for this subforum (the first being Vyker/The Worlds Apart project, which fell apart due to lack of interest.) Today I'm here to bring you a new idea, known as A.R.T.S. (Acqui's Relatively Tactical System) // A.L.T.S. (Acqui's Less Tactical System) This forum, which has a high number of combat-oriented RPs, surprisingly has a lack of stat-based RPs. This is especially odd when you consider that a large number of our players here come from D&D backgrounds. This system, inspired by a number of Fire Emblem RPs over on another forum, seeks to fill this niche by providing an outlet for streamlined, tactical combat. The Problem: Combat is something that can cause a lot of grief to a host. When is it time for a player to stop getting lucky and avoiding an attack? When is it appropriate for a boss to finally stop dodging and take a hit? When should a boss take damage, and how much damage should he take before he goes down? The ambiguity when it comes to battles can be the source of many a headache for GMs and players alike. In addition, in these RPs, it's common for many players to skim over their battles with the mook characters, in favor of reaching the boss fights quickly and accomplishing objectives. This can cause the battle to feel less like a battle and detract from its intensity. With this system, we replace the subjectivity of battles with pure, hard, stat-based combat to streamline the process and facilitate the management of the RP, so you can focus less on fighting and more on the meat of a collaborative storytelling experience: the character interactions. The Proposal: The ARTS/ALTS is a system which attempts to take grid-based tactical combat/tabletop combat and port it over to an RP-by-post format, based heavily on the system used by Shin on the SerenesForest forum (more on this later). By utilising a visual map and stat-based combat, it is possible to more clearly outline and define the tactical objectives of a combat situation. The Map: A.R.T.S. Base System. Powerful, adaptable, complex. A.L.T.S. A Simplified version of the ARTs. Lightweight and minimalistic. For people who really hate numbers. Call and Response So, now that I've typed all that out, I'd like to get a brief sensing: Is anyone interesting in using this system to host/play? If so, I'll expand on it (skills, magic, terrain, etc.) and start compiling resources for use (tilesets, sprites, digital art, Excel Spreadsheets, etc.). If nobody's interested in this, then I won't work on it any longer and move on to other things. Let me know ^^

The corners of Liliana's mouth turned upward ever so slightly as Leivinia charged her. Despite Jin's intention to take her on, it seemed Liliana would get her desired matchup, after all. As Leivinia's weapon was about to impact her, Liliana quickly brought her body low to the ground and to the side, using her left hand to support Eleganz as she caught her opponent's weapon on the flat of its blade, redirecting it along the length of the rapier and away from her, sparks flying as the two weapons moved along each other. As their weapons disconnected, Liliana used the inertia from the opposed motion of their weapons to arc down her blade and initiated a quick stab at Leivinia's exposed back.

Symphony muttered under her breath as she quickly hid herself behind the larger power-armored Mira. She didn't like it when people pointed guns at her; it tended to result in a lot of expensive maintenance after. The situation was causing her to make a decision, and she was really bad at decisions... Still hiding behind Mira, she neurally toggled the microphone's setting from <<Human>> to <<Snow Yousei>>, then quickly brought it to her mouth, shouting in a high-pitched, singsong voice. "Hello everyone! Are you fired up? Symphony's secret live is starting soon, so please watch me warmly, okay~" The moment she spoke into the microphone, high-frequency soundwaves began to pulse outward from it in a radial fashion, covering a circular area with a 35 meter radius. Naturally, the microphone also functioned as a microphone should, amplifying her voice, but any utterance beyond the first syllable was truthfully redundant. The soundwaves pulsed outward, creating a high-pitched whining that would go unnoticed by most ears, but was tuned such that it contained frequencies which were tweaked to render 94.62% of Snow Yousei immediately unconscious, with another 4.392% experiencing severe disorientation, and the last 0.88% unaffected. Hopefully this enemy was one of the 99%.

Symphony suppressed a look of annoyance at Reggi stealing her spotlight. Idols must be generous, must always smile. She quickly moved herself and hid behind Mira, grabbing the human's power-armored hand in her own small fingers and hugging Mira's arm tight with the arm holding the microphone, playing the part of the little Nienian girl afraid of the big, bad humans. Her assault rifle was hidden from sight by the entirety of her frame, and her left hand squeezed Mira's right in a series of calculated presses; presses which, assuming Mira's armor allowed tactile sensations to pass through, conveyed a message in Morse, which if she knew how to interpret would say "Me Open Mouth, Plug Ears."

Symphony followed aftwr the rest, jumping down the shaft, grabbing onto the edge of the open panel, then lightly dropping onto the floor below. She blinked several times when she saw the large amount of dead people. Was the food in this cafeteria thing really that bad? Noticing the three people sitting in the middle of the room, she levelled her rifle and took aim. But she stayed her hand. Symphony might be an impulsive, excitable, overly optimistic bundle of robotic joy, but she was an impulsive, excitable, overly optimistic bundle of robotic joy with combat experience, and said experience was telling her it was generally a bad idea to provoke peoplw who were seated calmly in the middle of a room filled with bleeding dead people. Quietly backslinging her rifle, she moved her right hand to her thigh, causing a compartment to open up and deliver a white wireless microphone into her hand. It was slightly longer than the palm of her hand, causing the bottom to protrude slightly when she gripped it, and had a pink ribbon trailing from its end. Within her enclosed fingers, a wire snaked out from the handle of the microphone, attaching itself to a port in her palm, the whole process concealed by her fingers. She gave a meaningful glance to her lovely cat-eared partner as she primed the microphone, selecting <<human>> as the configuration.

As the destructive results of Symphony's impulsive actions show themselves, she stowed her tongue back in her mouth, but kept the wink. The hand that was scratching her head shifted to her front and formed a V-shape, as she grinned and remarked, "You were saying?"

Symphony thought hard about what Heavensea said. ...she had a point. But the thing was so annoying! ...but she still had a point. But Symphony definitely didn't think that shooting the panels and doors would really do anything. ...Well she hadn't really been thinking about anything so it was kind of a moot point. She shouldered her rifle and scratched her metal head with her free hand, one eye closed in a wink, her tongue sticking sideways out of her mouth. "...Tehe~"

Symphony heard her cute Michi partner say something or other about the other path, but she was too preoccupied fuming at the stupid unworking elevator to care. It was like a metaphor for how this stupid security system was blocking her own ascent to the peaks of idolhood. Growling under her breath, she was vaguely aware of Heavensea asking her something from behind, but that could wait for a bit. She unslung her microphone stand and swung it outwards. Making whirring noises as its various components shifted around, the microphone stand rapidly disassembled and reassembled itself, leaving a white assault rifle, complete with trigger, guard, handgrip and stock. It was longer than the width of Symphony's chest, and looked rather heavy, as well. A compartment in its side opened up, revealing a feeding chamber. Simultaneously, a compartment on Symphony's arm opened up, displaying a neatly folded belt of ballistic ammunition that seemed to run all the way up her arm and into her back. She skilfully tossed the rifle upwards into the air, the motion causing the start of the bullet belt to exit its storage, flailing in the air. With speed born of practice, Symphony grabbed the belt with her left hand as she caught her rifle in the right. In the same motion, she swiped her left hand over her right arm, causing the belt to enter the feeding chamber, whereupon the rifle promptly locked the first round in. Squaring herself to the front, the rifle pressed firmly against her shoulder, she began firing at the panel, at the doors, at basically everything.

Running ahead of the group, the first thing Symphony noticed was that the floor was awfully sticky. From the texture and colour, it seemed to be blood. She frowned. Why would people just leave blood on the floor like that? That was highly inconsiderate. Now she'd have to wash off her feet. Good thing she was waterproof. Her eyes traced the pool of blood to its origin, seeing the female corpse on the ground, knife sticking out of her neck at an awkward angle. Tilting her head, she wondered briefly how this person had died. ...oh well. Paying it no mind, she walked up to the elevator and started pushing every button she could find. At least one of them had to open the thing, right?

*Liliana waves* "Hi~"

勿論, 雑種。 存分に足掻くがいい。 Subtitles(Gil English): Naturally, Mongrel. Feel free to struggle to your hearts' content. Subtitles(Acqui English) *raises and waves hand frantically* MEEEEEEEEE!!!! I'M STILL HERE YO!!!!!!!! Let's get this going! YEAH!!!!

I just had a very vivid mental image of the Norn sisters as chefs rather than seamstresses.

"Uwaaaaaah~" It was hot. Way too hot. Symphony would have started sweating, if she had any sweat glands. Thankfully, Nienians were dispossessed of such organs. It was still hot, though. The commander had pointed the way forward, but there were two paths. They knew not what lay at the end of each branch, and they were in unfamiliar, hostile territory with no intel. There was no guarantee that either path even led to the base they sought. Analysing the situation, Symphony concluded that logically, the most prudent course of action would be to search their current area thoroughly for anything which might give a hint at which path to take. Logically, they should gather clues, discuss, and apply reason and elimination to identify which path was correct. Logically, it was a ridiculously pointless idea to put a mecha in a cloth dress and disguise a weapon as a microphone stand. Screw logic! Idols live for the moment! Without a second thought, Symphony backslung her microphone stand over her shoulder and dashed straight into the right-side tunnel.

"'Kaaaaay~" Symphony tottered over to her GUARDIAN, lifting its heavy cloth skirt and touching a panel on its outer right thigh. With an explosion of sound and pop music that reverberated throughout the hanger, the panel slid open and revealed a hidden compartment, its interior painted a baby blue. From within, she grabbed and removed a large white microphone stand, its height ending just below her neck. Closing the panel, she ran off to join her partner in the dropship, microphone stand in hand. Stepping through the doors, the first thing she noticed was that the interior was dreadfully dull. Not nearly enough bright flashy colours. The second thing she noticed was the tense atmosphere which seemed to permeate the air. She frowned a bit, then decided to pay it no mind, throwing herself into the seat next to Heavensea, balancing the microphone stand on her knees and squeezing the Michi girl in a tight hug, nuzzling against her arm, one metal hand playing with her friend's pointy ear, rubbing and stroking it gently.

To be honest I'm kind of disappointed that Blackseed didn't have a bigger reaction to the fact that one of the mechas was in a dress.

Yes but the mock battle in ViVid was the only one with a high number of CQC users. The idea of magic in the Nanohaverse is that it doesn't cause permanent damage; Even Teana in StrikerS walked away relatively unscratched a while after being hit by Nanoha's Educational Bombardment . However, both of our characters are using bladed weapons; if we don't mitigate the damage with Crash Emulate we might end up killing each other during a Mock Battle, and that isn't exactly a very desirable outcome for the TSAB. Crash emulate is meant to simulate battle conditions while cutting the physical damage. Oh, and when I say crash emulate I'm referring more to the whole broken leg broken arm damaged nerve system thing than the points.

by the by, I assume we're using the Crash Emulate system?

Liliana stepped forward, standing with her back to Shou, facing the opposing team, a hint of a smile beginning to form on her face as her blood raced in anticipation of the duel. Particularly, she kept an eye on Leivinia. The girl, from what Liliana had seen on the balcony, seemed to be a speed-based fighter. This would be very educational. "If you don't mind, sir, let me handle defence. My fighting style relies more on counterattacks than offensives, so a protective position will play to my advantages."

At the unexpected tap, Symphony jumped, forcing her to immediately initiate a complicated juggling act to keep her handheld from dropping on the floor. After several seconds of this, she swiped the phone out of the air and stowed it in a side compartment. She looked around and spotted Freya leaving the room. "Ah! 'Kaaaaaay!" She nimbly jumped off the bar stool and grabbed hold of Heavensea's hand, attempting to pull her along with the shout of "Let us venture forth, Heaven-chan! Into a world of money and idols!!!!!"