FATHOM Discussion Thread

It's the first MS RPG of 2018! Discuss here!

 

Welcome to the site, PB. Feel free to introduce your heroine.

 

Will Suny be an Oceanid? That's a high magic race, and she could be an island dweller.

(If she wants to refer to herself as "Island Elf," I'm fine with that. Elves aren't a thing, but nymphs are pretty much elves except that there are no male nymphs... or child nymphs or old lady nymphs. They all look about19, with perfect skin. Suny, if a nymph, tans well and doesn't burn easily. If she's out in the sun a lot, her blondeness whitens and her tan browns.)

I'll add a section on Might and Magic today so everyone knows what their characters can do in battle. Magic can do a lot if you find a magical item (which you won't in the tutorial level), but every race has default magical abilities.

 

I think you may need to be a member for a while before you can post images. Not sure. But you can link to the DeviantArt image if you want.

 

You get creative control on monstress looks, but not stats or size.

The human portion is human-sized, which means an Arachne or Kentauride would be rather large. As for what to do with those dice... it depends on the bestial half. In the case of a spider-woman, you would roll Shoot dice to shoot a web. You'll climb effortlessly (no die roll) and you can make a (gross) rope for your allies. The drawbacks will be having a huge spidery butt that can't easily fit into a doorway, and you'll tend to freak people out.

 

Drider is more like what I was thinking.

 

I wasn't thinking of having companions. I would say she doesn't start with one, but maybe there could be one in her future if you play an Amazon who wants to be a beast-rider.

For Monstresses: half-woman, half-animal, human-sized, no shape-shifting. You get a movement bonus based on what the bestial half can do and your Fight and Shoot dice may include natural weapons, if it makes sense to. Oh... and you only have one head, so snake-woman: yes; Medusa with snake-hair: no. There's also a Greek Myth monstress who has a pack of wild dogs for a lower body. That's too weird, even for me!

 

Yes, rolls are made online. My preference is rolz.org, as long as everyone can get into it. (There was an announcement a while back that said there would be trouble for European users, so if that's the case we'll need to allow for different die-rollers.)

Rolz.org changed a bit. It seems you need to have a password for your nickname. Registering is free, so I registered as HAM'ster and created a Dice Room called "Fathom." I set up a wiki page to show all of the dice codes.



So if you look at The Sidekick's rolls (last three rolls; left side), let's say he's playing an Amazon surrounded by a horde of bear-asses (donkey-legged satyrs with a bear's upper body). They strike a heavy blow, so she needs to roll a 2 in DEF. She rolled a 3! (It was a 5, two 6s and a 2, but all you need to know is the grand total.)

Then she hits back. She rolls a 4, but notice one die came up as 6. (See the light bulb and text "6s:1") This triggers a combo. She re-rolled 1 die and gets another hit. A total of 5 bear-asses get clobbered! (Wimpy enemies just need to get hit once.)

Also... check out the right side of the screen. Anyone who enters the "Fathom" Dice Room can click on the book symbol (upper right, under the words "Dice Room") and see the "wiki" I created. It displays base HP and dice for each heroine, and in blue, you can copy-paste dice codes for 1, 2, 3 or 4 defense dice. In maroon, you have dice for attacks and non-combat skills (which I'll explain later).

 

Okay... I REALLY gotta get to that Might and Magic post!

Quick version for now: you basically have three types of magic characters...

Fairy/Oceanid - these are genuine magical girls. Each has her own infinite source of magic: fairy dust and water, respectively.

Tin Maiden/Huntress - these are techies. The Huntress has high-tech traps and the Tin Maiden has an attachment. The one on the card uses a rocket booster, which can give her a flaming kick attack or flight (though not nearly as maneuverable as a fairy). But if you prefer a plasma cannon, that's fine. For a more magical flavor, make her sing like a Keledone (Hephaestus' golden maidens) to blast enemies with sound or benefit allies with a bardic effect.

Amazon/Monstress - these are Warrior types who don't really do magic. Magic dice are battlecries.

Oh... @Orc-Knight, an Amazon calling her beastly mount sounds like a proper battlecry Magic to me!

 

My thought is that once you decide what you want, we can take the playable race as designed, then you throw in some personal flavor.

So far it seems we have...

PB = Suny the Oceanid
Orc Knight = either an Amazon (beast-rider) or Monstress (spidey type)
Devor = Tin Maiden or... not

Oh--and the dice are both. I actually tried working it out so you'd have different amounts of dice for ATK and DEF, but it just became one more thing to keep track of.

I actually wanted the Tin Maiden to shoot well and the Monstress to be magic, but for non-combat stuff, Magic dice are rolled for mind-based skills and Shoot is rolled for nature/hunting/stealth skills. So I went with Monstresses being natural archers or web-slingers, and Tin Maidens can have blast attacks or some other use of technology that's helpful rather than harmful. Oh... and multispectral vision is a thing: seeing through walls, taking life-readings. Also, the Tin Maiden could be formerly a human whose soul is inside a fem-bot. It could even be a man literally trapped in a (metallic) woman's body.

Pick a heroine that sounds fun and add a twist. Chances are I'll say yes... though the dinosaur mount will need to be found in-game. he more I think on it, the more I like the Amazon having a big, dumb pet. The dinosaur should probably know how to swim.