Finder's Keepers Discussion Thread
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Story Thread
Greetings fellow roleplayers,
This is the discussion thread for the upcoming story. I don't even have a name for it yet, but I have a few ideas for its plot. First off, though, I'd like to set up the ground rules. All discussion about the story occurs in this thread; no one may post in the story thread except when explicitly allowed to do so. This is intended to keep the story clean and readable. This thread is for us to propose, critique, and vote on additions to and editions of the story. All comments, questions, criticisms, praises, character apps, hate mail, spam, and such like all go in this thread, and are not to pollute the story thread.
Equipment in this story must work differently than usual. Currently, the system is far too complicated to effectively utilize in the story, and often gets ignored. Knights wearing Valkyrie armor will get hog-whalloped by a shadow villain just as easily as knights wearing Azure Guardian, and that's not right. So here's how equips work:
Each status is symbolic of a story function:
*Poison symbolizes either sickness or corruption. Knights with resistance to it can't get sick or become corrupted.
*Curse symbolizes any kind of magic that prevents knights from doing something. Characters resistant to it (in any quantity) cannot be cursed.
*Shock reliably interrupts characters at inopportune moments.
*Freeze completely encases a character in ice, allowing villains to monologue for a bit.
*Fire causes characters to stop what they are doing and try to put it out, rendering them helpless against those who inflict it. It also disfigures them sometimes.
*Stun makes characters dizzy, so they will miss more often and stumble around as if drunk. They can't dodge or hit worth beans.
*Sleep works normally. Characters resistant to it cannot be forcibly put to sleep.
Any resistance to a status renders the character completely immune to that status, so you never have to write about your character having it. Lack of resistance to a status means that you have to sometimes make your character suffer it. Any penalty to a status means that your character will always suffer from it. Resistance to a damage type gives the players permission to shrug off attacks of that type. Lack of resistance to it means that you must always report some kind of negative reaction to being hit by that type.
Effects of damage types:
*Normal damage causes traumatic damage and pushes characters around. Effects can include bruises, doubling over in pain, and being tossed like a ragdoll.
*Piercing damage puts cuts or holes in your characters, and typically draws blood and causes scars.
*Elemental attacks will burn and char your characters.
*Shadow attacks will also burn and char your characters, but will also cause extra pain. Characters must always cry out when effectively damaged by shadow attacks. They should also deal psychological damage to the characters when appropriate.
I've also tweaked the upgrade paths for a bunch more items:
1* Prototype Rocket Hammer => 3* Stable Rocket Hammer => 5* Warmaster Rocket Hammer
0* Punch Gun => 1* Pummel Gun
0* Stun Gun => 1* Super Stun Gun
0* Hatchet => 1* Heavy Hatchet
0* Beast Basher => 1* Big Beast Basher
0* Slime Slasher => 1* Super Slime Slasher
0* Robo Wrecker => 1* Rugged Robo Wrecker
1* Dark Reprisal => 3* Dark Reprisal Mk II => 5* Dark Retribution
0* Vitasuit => 2* Vitasuit Plus => 4* Vitasuit Deluxe
1* Fractured Mask of Seerus => 3* Flawed Mask of Seerus => 5* Perfect Mask of Seerus
I've taken the liberty of simplifying the roles of the various abilities and UVs:
*Increased health makes the death of a character less probable.
*Family damage bonuses allow characters to skillfully exploit the weaknesses of that family.
*Weapon damage bonuses mean that victims must report greater damage against characters with said bonuses.
*Attack speed increases allow characters to attack and defend more deftly.
*Charge time reductions allow characters to utilize their charge attacks more often. Also allows bombers to use their bombs more actively, e.g. throwing them, planting them in the heat of battle, etc., instead of having to arm them from behind cover first.
As you can see, upgrading will be a fairly major part of the story. Armor that has 1) all the same defensive types as the weapon that's challenging it and 2) is of greater star level than said weapon cannot be damaged at all by that weapon in this story. Hence, it will be important for characters to properly equip themselves before challenging their foes.
I have also tweaked the mechanics and lore of some equips:
*The Sealed Sword line is Almirian in origin, and can only be found in pedestals around Almire. They are never discovered in variants higher than 3*.
*The 3* Great Defender can be upgraded to the 4* Almirian Guard (uncursed Blackened Crest), but only upon admittance to the Almirian Crusaders.
*The Stone Tortoise can only be obtained from Tortodrones. It cannot be crafted from a Drake Scale Shield.
*The 4* Darkfang Shields can only be obtained from Darkfang Thwackers.
*Owlite equips can only be found in Owlite locations and upgraded by the Owlites (they have gremlin monster family stats, btw).
*Magnus-style weapons are strong enough to OHKO most enemies.
*Autogun-style weapons can act like fully-automatic miniguns. They also have a burst-fire mode that is identical to their in-game usage.
*Shard bombs are used like grenades, and throw shrapnel when detonated. The Sun Shards line throws energy bullets.
*Blast Bombs are used like grenades.
*The Cautery Sword inflicts fire status.
*The Cold Iron line inflicts freeze status.
*The Cyclops Cap is now basically a Spiral Pith Helm with built-in Knight Vision Goggles.
*Dark Reprisal is 1* again.
When submitting extras or supporting characters, please follow these basic arsenal guidelines:
*Valkyrie wearers always carry Fearless Rigadoons and Scintillating Sun Shards.
*Angelic line wearers always carry a Flourish line sword and Sun Shards line bomb.
*Snarbolax wearers always carry the Barbarous Thorn Shield, Barbarous Thorn Blade, and Dark Briar Barrage.
*Deadshot wearers always carry Silversix line guns.
*Silvermail line wearers always carry Cold Iron line swords.
*Skelly line wearers always carry Skelly line shields.
*Vitasuit line wearers always carry Scarlet Shields.
*Chroma line wearers always carry Vile Striker line swords and Salt shards line bombs.
*Drake line wearers always carry Hunting Blade line swords.
*Vog Cub wearers always carry Fangs of Vog.
*Ironmight Plate wearers always carry a Sudaruska, Iron Slug, and Big Angry Bomb.
*Volcanic Plate wearers always carry a Triglav, Callahan, and Irontech Destroyer.
*Jelly line wearers always carry Jelly line shields.
*Magic line wearers always carry an Owlite line shield (except Chaos)
*Ancient Plate wearers always carry an Ancient Plate Shield, Sudaruska, and Iron Slug.
*Cobalt line wearers always carry Defender line shields, Calibur line swords, Blaster line guns, and Blast line bombs.
These rules are *only* enforced on NPCs. PCs can wear whatever they want. NPCs may not wear costumes.
This story takes place an unknown time after the events of Spiral Knights, in an alternate universe from The Fangs & Return to Cradle. It could be mere decades, or it could be centuries. Even the location is not known; the characters won't know until they've explored. It could be Isora, Ilsola, Sol'Fork, or Cradle. I happen to know where this takes place, but I can't say yet. ;)
The story follows the struggles of our characters as they try to survive in this dystopic world they live in. Some characters are hunting the Channelers, some are running from the Enforcers, and others are trying to bridge the gap and create peace. There is a major, major supervillain to contend with at the end of this story, but I can't tell you who it is yet.
There are several factions in this game: Imperium, Almire, The Great Colony, Free Traders, Exiles, and Unaffiliated. The Imperium is ruled by the Morai, and controls the worlds of Ilsola and Isora. It pretends to be benevolent and caring, but we know better. Almire is a small but powerful kingdom led by the young Lord Vanaduke and his High Chancellor Lord Brandell. The Great Colony is a very technologically advanced nation of furry creatures called "gremlins," and is led by King Tinkinzar, who is not known to be very docile on the interplanetary stage. The Free Traders are gremlins who have separated from the Great Colony to form their own group. They used to hail from a city called "Emberlight." The Exiles are a band of Channelers who have been driven from the Imperium and no longer associate themselves with it. The Unaffiliated are individuals who do not hail from any other faction.
The allowable races in this game are human, gremlin, Stranger, devilite, language-capable beast, or sentient construct. Devilites are humanoid, and do not resemble the devilites in Spiral Knights. Gremlins also take on a more humanoid appearance, and humans are more realistically-shaped than the Spiral Knights.
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I propose that the upcoming story be about "Keepers" vs. "Channelers." Keepers are normal creatures, capable of doing only normal things. Channelers can channel their internal energies to do amazing things, like generating thunderballs, organically powering cybernetics, augmenting their physical abilities, and such like. The thing is, due to their increased energy usage, they must consume extra food and resources. The government has whipped up a frenzy about this, claiming that if Channelers are allowed to reproduce and multiply, they will consume the planet's resources faster than they can be recreated, thereby destroying the environment. And as everyone knows, the environment is more important than human life. Thus, the Channelers are now on the run or in hiding.
Players may choose to be either human (knight), fiend (humanoid devilite), gremlin, or reasonably sentient beast or construct.