Character Guidelines

Alright. Now that we've got a more stable character system, I'm rewriting this entire post to cover it. Don't expect this to be a final draft. What with losing the entire damn thing when I tried to post it the first time, I don't have the patience to cover everything right now and will do so in future updates.

Right then, introduction. In order to participate in the roleplaying on this forum, you must first post a character profile here in the Tiger Dojo as others have done. This guide will attempt to explain what you need to write within those profiles. For all of you current players, feel free to edit your existing profiles as much as you want while reading through.

To know what you need to write in your profile post, you first need to select a class. In a Nasuverse setting such as our own, there are basically four classes of characters you can play. The primary classes in our particular setting are the Magus and Servant. Most characters on this board will probably fall into one of those two classes. However, to allow for more flexibility and to expand our potential number of players, I've tacked on a few more. These 'extras' are the Vampire and vanilla Human. Before I go on to describe each of these, you're probably wondering why 'Master' isn't in the list of classes. Allow me to explain.

Master: A Title, Not A Class
The only thing one must do to become a Master is form a contract with a Servant. There are no special requirements necessary to be able to do so, and as such any average joe can walk up to a masterless Servant and form a contract with them. Vampires should also be able to manage this without difficulty, and obviously a Magus wouldn't have a problem forming a contract either. Summoning a Servant is an entirely different ordeal, as that requires magical talent, but that's only one way to become a Master.

Taking all that into consideration, 'Master' would be an awful vague class. That's why we use it as a title instead. In the profile, the word 'Master' is to be placed in the 'class' field after the character's actual class. For example, a Human who also happens to have formed a contract with a stray Servant would have a class field that looks like, 'Class: Human (Master)'. The word 'Master' should also be placed in front of the character's name in the subject line of the character profile. Example: 'Master Yuumitsu Saijo'. If the character ever loses their Servant or command spells, the Master title should be removed from both of the aforementioned locations using the post edit feature.

Command spell location and current number should be noted on the character page when the location is revealed. You can also explain it's design, if you wish.

Magus: The Modern Spellslinger
Wa ha ha. And you thought I'd never get around to it. Now, I bring you the remodeled Magus section complete with stats!

Magi are little more than humans with open magic circuits. As such, their character pages will resemble a human's, for the most part. There are other means by which a human can produce magecraft-like effects, but for the point of this guide, a 'magus' is defined by magic circuits. If the circuits are not open and cannot have mana channeled through them, the character would function as a normal human and should be labeled as such (in other words, use the 'human' class instead, at least until they become an actual magus). If the character is somehow creating active magic circuits every time they cast a spell (i.e., Shirou), they would fall under magus as well. Note that all magi should use most of the human stats as well, since they're just humans with the potential for magecraft.

Below is the format for posting magus stats. I expect you to have all of these typed out or written down somewhere, but I'm extending a bit of trust so we can have a bit more fun guessing at everyone's attributes. Items marked with an asterix (*) do not need to be filled out on the character page until revealed within the roleplaying (use ???'s like we do for Servants).

This first group of stats is mostly for fun. I'm not going to meticulously count mana points everyone has for casting things; it's just a guideline for when your character would be getting tired of slinging spells around. It's worth noting that most magi use the mana from their surroundings to power their spells, so an average spell would only cost them 2-5 units of their own mana (destructive spells like fireballs would be a bit more, say 10-15), disregarding spells stored in the Family Crest (which would be even more efficient).

Magic Circuits: (Used to convert mana and cast spells. Average magus has about 20. More circuits is obviously better, but there are a lot of mages with few circuits that can produce far greater effects than others simply due to high circuit quality)
Mana Capacity: (Absolute maximum amount of mana a magus can contain. Average magus has a max of 20-30 units)
Mana Regen: (Amount of mana units regenerated per day. Average magus gets 6-10)
Circuit Efficiency: (Ratio of mana used to output effect. Average magus has a 1:1 ratio, meaning one mana spent produces the effect of one mana)
*Magic Trigger: (Mental image or predetermined state required to activate magic circuits. A mental image might be as simple as imagining firing a gun. Predetermined states get a bit trickier, since it means a character can only activate their circuits under certain circumstances, such as being in danger or by inflicting harm upon themselves)

*Talent: (Talent Name -- Be creative!)
(Description)
A relatively unique ability the magus possesses. For example, Shirou could 'trace' weapons, Rin could store magic in jewels, etc. Typically talents come with a drawback of their own. Kiritsugu had a limited time control that could speed up or slow down his own body movement and functions, but he would incur physical damage whenever 'his' time 'snapped' back to the real world's time. For all intents and purposes, you could consider this the magus version of a Noble Phantasm, but it usually won't be anywhere near Phantasm level.

*Traits: Any additional noteworthy magical traits a character has. None of these should be as powerful as your talent, it's just a place to note extra things that don't really fit elsewhere.

*Elemental Affinity: (Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, or Void)
Most mages have the ability to manipulate at least one element. Two is rare and three is rarer still. Very few extremely gifted mages can equally use all five. Occasionally a mage with an affinity that is entirely different from the above categories pops up. An example of this could be something similar to the 'blood magic' a character in Tsukihime used (although his was more of a special ability than magic. It's just an example, damnit). Other quick and dirty ones would be 'light' and 'shadow'.

Origin: (Noun or verb. Ex: Worthlessness, Stillness, Severing, Refutation, Taboo, Consumption)
The 'mold' with which all reincarnations of a being are made. Basically an instinct planted in a given human or animal. All living beings have one. Typically doesn't effect daily life much, but if one is Awakened to their own Origin, they become unable to resist it. A person is usually capable of greater things if they follow their Origin, especially if it's done intentionally. Again, everyone has one but ultimately it's not all that important for most people. Just be creative. It probably won't ever be revealed in the roleplay, so this one's manditory on the character page.

*Family Crest: (Location if applicable, if not 'None'. Crest location should be noted on the character page, but the ability doesn't need to be revealed until it has been used in the roleplay)
Thaumaturgical Crests are usually handed down in families. They are essentially magic circuits engraved upon the flesh of a magus. Appear as a glowing tattoo when activated. Invisible when inactive. Crests are supposed to contain numerous spells from the family's line, but since both of the mages I know of that have had them in the Nasuverse have only used them for one ability, they only grant characters in F/ce one additional spell or ability they wouldn't otherwise have. The ability is fairly cheap and easy to use, or at least cheaper and easier than it would be without the crest. If you can't think of or don't want another spell, the crest can grant a passive boost to one or more other spells or abilities the character already knows. Examples of this are Rin's Gandr (inexpensive active spell) and Kiritsugu's time manipulation (passive boost).

After those, you can note other details on their training or arsenal. I'm not going to set any standards here, but most mages have at least some ability to manipulate neutral objects or perform 'supportive' spells, such as bounded fields, provided they've recieved the training for them. Unless affected by a talent or element, these skills don't come naturally. Being self-taught is okay, but it will usually produce clumsy results. Arsenal and training notes do not need to be included on the character page until they're revealed in roleplay.

Servant: The Gamebreaker
These are the most powerful beings you'll be able to play. Servants are Heroic Spirits or Antiheroes that have been summoned by a Magus to participate in the Holy Grail War. They function as extremely powerful familiars and are based on human legends. They also come in seven classes of their own: Saber, Archer, Rider, Lancer, Berserker, Caster and Assassin. The Type-moon Wiki's Heroic Spirit page has all you need to know (and far more) about them, so I'll note only a few things for clarification before we get down to statistics.

First off, Heroic Spirits have to be (or have been when they were alive) mostly human. Demigods are fine. Gods and demons are not. It's best to stay away from greater beings like those. In the event that you feel that you simply must play one, you may embellish the legends as much as is plausible to technically make the character you want playable. A god who fell from grace and lived as a human is acceptable, as would a human that was possessed by a demon. Just remember that the Heroic Spirit is the human element of these beings. For example, say that the aforementioned god was forced to live the rest of his days as a human and he became a fantastic spearman during his human life. The Servant summoned would be the human 'version' of this god, which means that he would only have access to the abilities and powers he had as a human. The same goes for the other example; the man possessed by the demon would be the actual Servant, but he would be able to use whatever powers he was granted by the demon possessing him, would act the same as he had while possessed and may even call himself by the demon's name.

Rituals used in summoning Servants vary greatly and are mostly decorative because the Grail itself does the majority of the work. Barring botched summons and item interference, the Servant and Master they are summoned to will always have similar personalities or, at the very least, share a very strong feeling or goal. It may be possible to summon a specific class if one can keep focused enough to do so, but it's impossible to summon a specific Heroic Spirit on concentration alone. Items used to summon a particular Servant are generally (but not always) artifacts that relate to that Heroic Spirit in some way. In reality, the items might not even be used on purpose. Their mere proximity to the ritual may be enough to influence the summoning.

In the case of a failed summoning, a few things could happen. The Servant summoned may incur a handicap or two (such as memory loss or failure to establish a link to the Master for energy transferring), or a 'fake' Servant may be summoned in place of the real one. 'Fake' Servants are typically just wandering spirits that were sucked into the summoning spell, and they tend to assume the persona of a lesser-known hero or villain. Though they are marginally less powerful than a true Servant, they still possess abilities well above what is possible for a normal human and can easily become a threat to a real Servant if underestimated. (Note that anyone playing the Assassin class must play a 'fake' Servant due to the fact that there is only one Antihero eligible for that class. This means that you cannot play the real Assassin because he(/she)'s an original Fate character and that would be against the rules)

I'll rewrite the stats portion later. All this retyping is giving me a serious headache.

Vampire: The Bloodsucker
Check this page for details. I'm not going to explain them just yet. Anyone who wants to play one should tell me ahead of time so we can discuss the specifics.

Human: The Fuji-nee of F/ce
To be (re)written.

As far as characters go, is it just going to be first come first serve for the types, or is there going to be some kind of lot drawing thing (xP this other forum I played used this method). Also when should we begin posting characters?

EDIT: Forgot one thing, how far can we bend the identities, for example, In the series Saber represented King Arthur, a male, when Saber was a female.

Good questions. For the time being, it's first come first serve for Servant creation. Most heroic spirits can be summoned into more than one class, so it probably won't be an issue until there are more people. A lot drawing system might be incorporated in the future, however, for summoning purposes. An example being, one person has a magus but doesn't want to create their own Servant and two other people each have a Servant that haven't been summoned yet, so a game of chance would decide which servant is summoned. I'm still toying with the idea, so it's far from perfect.

As far as bending identities, if you can come up with a feasible reason to bend a legend a certain way, by all means feel free. Continuing your example of Saber, Merlin had disguised her gender and made her appear male so that the masses wouldn't revolt due to having a female king. As long as you can explain it as a possibility, anything goes.

Post characters whenever you like. As soon as we come up with a good name for the city that the story is to be set in, I'll open up the roleplaying board so we can actually use them.

Ok, thanks I think I'm going to take caster. Oh and if you need any help with the city just ask.

You can set stats to whatever you like, but be sure to try to align them with the spirit you plan on making a servant out of. I've been using the original characters' stats as points of comparison, but I tend to forget that not everyone has access to the statistics from the novel. If you want, I can post a list of them or something. I might think up some limitations on stats and skills later if it becomes necessary, but we'll see how it works without them first.

Feel free to post characters anytime. I believe Aliosis wants Archer when he comes around, so everyone's servant choices so far are fine since they conflict with one another.