GENERAL: Ability Components

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Abilities

An ability is a special function that a character is capable of learning/utilizing, depending on the lore piece. For example, magic users are capable of learning spells and creatures might have some special retractable claws. Both of these can be considered abilities.

• A combative/combat ability is an ability that is capable of being used in a conflict encounter, which can range from an event monster attacking a town to just fighting bandits.
• A non-combative ability is an ability that is incapable of being done in a conflict encounter.

 

That said, whether they be magical or not, all abilities written into a magic/creature/race/invention/et cetera have to be balanced. We have laid out a number of sections for you to read and understand what you should be taking into account when designing abilities for your lore. Each section will have a tl;dr summary at the top of it, followed by a spoiler with a longer description. If you something here or in the other criteria pages confuses you, please contact a story member or post on our FAQ, found here. Formatting for an ability is as follows:

Spoiler

Ability Name + Labels

For example “Fireball of Doom – Non-Combative / Enchantable” works here. It’s really up to you, this is a straightforward part. Just make sure it’s not memey. The label is described in a section down below.

 

RP Description

This is the RP description of the ability and its capabilities. You do not need to cover mechanics or block distance or things of that nature, just what the spell does RPly.

 

Mechanics

This is the OOC description of the spell that covers things like emote counts and other specifications that you need to be aware of. Make sure you include everything that is talked about in the Ability Components

 

Red Lines

This section is put under each ability and covers any restrictions that the ability may have.

 

Ability Components

Abilities are made up of a number of components. These need to be properly accounted for to create the ideal ability. When creating an ability, please keep in mind that we do not want to see glass cannons (an explanation for this can be found here).

 

Labeling Abilities

Abilities are required to be labeled as either “combative” or “non-combative”. You can do both, just note that the “combative” variety of the spell should be limited in what it can do. We are giving people more freedom in what their abilities do for “non-combative” spells, under the premise that they recognize it is incapable of being used in combat.

Spoiler

There have been a lot of cool abilities and ideas implemented in lore, but unfortunately there is a good portion of people who try and bend it in a play to win style. Due to this, it is harder for us to allow more creative/freeform spells that would, outside of combat, be really cool to have done. As such, we’re making these labels required to allow the non-combative spells more freedom/creativity, so long as they can not be used inside of combat. They can have combative counterparts, but those will be limited.

• Non-combative spells will be allowed more freedom in what they can do, under the premise that they can not be used in combat.
• Combat spells will be put under more scrutiny, as it is typically combat where OOC issues and powergaming/play to win tendencies crop up.
• Mixed spells will be allowed, where you have a spell that can do something out of combat and then has a function in combat. It essentially needs to be written twice however. The first time showcasing their non-combative capabilities and the second showcasing their combat capabilities/restrictions.

 

Timing

Combat spells should have emote counts, such as 3 emotes to utilize the ability. Non-combat spells can have either emote counts or IRL timeframes. If your non-combat ability takes a lengthy amount of time, use IRL or narrative time.

Spoiler

How long does it take for the ability to be used? This is primarily for combative abilities, as it’s imperative for the caster to understand how to emote it out. For combat situations, you should refrain from using IRL time as a means of timing the ability as it’s not uncommon for a situation to be drawn out due to L-OOC confusion or other problems. For example, a channeling fire spell stating that it “lasts 5 minutes” is not good as replies to RP can be drawn out, but something along the lines of “lasts 5 emotes” would suffice as even if problems arise, you can track the emote counts.

 

Using IRL time as a cooldown after the combat encounter ends works though as the combat has ended. For example, if you write that the above ability can only be used once an hour, you can easily track that once the encounter ends and there’s no potential issue of things getting dragged out.

 

If it is an out of combat ability, an emote count OR length of time can be provided. For example, brewing a complicated alchemical concoction could take longer than a day, so there’s no need for exact emote counts.

 

Effects

Any effect that an ability causes need to be thoroughly written out. A spell that disorients should describe how it disorients a person, along with how long it lasts and any interaction with other abilities.

Spoiler

What the ability does must be described as detailed as possible, otherwise it becomes hard for the user to convey how people should react. For example, a spell that disorients someone should describe how it is doing so. Dizziness, inability to think straight, loss of depth perception, et cetera are all different ways that disorientation could be done, so you should be clear in order for the victim to RP it properly when hit. The severity and length of the effect should also be described. Does it last for a few emotes? A day? Etc.

 

When coming up with effects, you also need to account for existing lore and their playerbases. If your ability targets plants, you should account for it going against druids and balance it. Reaching out to these playerbases to discuss the lore is not a bad idea to ensure that both sides are happy with the results.

 

Counter

All abilities that effect someone or something (typically in combat) require a counter of some sort, even if it’s mundane. Firing a magical crossbow? Counters can be as simple as using proper armor or the fact that the spell moves slow enough for people to jump out of the way if they saw it coming.

Spoiler

Any ability that can affect a person or area should have some kind of counter. It does not necessarily need to be a magical counter either. For example, if you have a spell that is cursing someone with an illness, you could write in the counter to be a type of alchemical/mundane medicine. Counters should not be a niche thing either unless the effect is minor. For example, if your cursing spell can result in someone’s death, the counter for it should not be some obscure herb that only a small handful of people have access to. Or if it’s some magical entity, the only weakness should not be thanhium.

 

Lethality

Abilities should not be insta-wins and need to be appropriately scaled in terms of lethality. Below we break it down into range and emote counts when it comes to lethality.

Spoiler

The ability itself should be balanced, especially if it is combative or has negative effects on people/areas. This is done in order to have fairness in combat when lore is utilized. It may seem fun to mimic games where you can play as god-like people, which is fine when you’re fighting NPCs. On the server however you’re fighting people and no one wants to just get blasted into oblivion with no chance of fighting back. We want to limit the amount of cheese there.

 

• Ability targeting: How your ability targets people is very important and something to keep in mind when writing your ability. The target/opponent should have a chance to dodge or react to the ability being utilized. 

  • Short Range (Physical Contact): Abilities that require physical contact between the user and the target shouldn’t allow for someone to walk up, place their hand on someone, and invisibly gank them. Instead, the ability should be visible to some extent or should have some build-up that can be felt to allow for the target to react.

  • Medium Range (Attacks within /rp distance): Abilities that harm people from afar should give the target a chance to dodge or react to the ability in some regard. Projectiles should be visible when being fired at someone. Any ability that involves a tether or connection to their target should also have some method of neutralizing the ability prior to connection, beyond just making the target flee the effect radius.

  • Long Range (Attacks coming from outside of /rp distance): Any ability that allows you to target people from long range can not be lethal or near-lethal and should have a few different ways to counter it. This should be reserved for things like mild curses (e.g. giving someone an illness or minor pain).

• Versus players: These spells are meant to impact things such as characters or event monsters. When designing these, you need to balance the emote count versus the severity of the spell. Emote counts below will be including connection emotes.

  • 1 emote ability: This should be reserved for very minor non-combative abilities. It also should not be applied to any magic/creatures/etc that need to connect/focus to use their magic.

  • 2 emote ability: Factoring in connection/focus/loading times, the 2 emote ability is essentially the bare minimum most things will take. Damage for a 2 emote ability should be low. Something that can knock a person down or bruise them, but not much else.

  • 3 emote ability: This is the standard emote time found in a lot of pieces, often structured as “focus/load, aim, fire”. Broken bones or large gashes are examples of the damage that a 3 emote ability could cause. In most instances it won’t be fatal, but will still be something to be wary of IRP.

  • 4 emote ability and above: At the 4 emote mark, the abilities can start to be lethal. However, these spells should be highly visible and not something you can hide by mumbling for 4-5 emotes and then unleashing some giant spell. In addition, while the emote count can go as high as you want theoretically, spells that do widespread damage (e.g. blasting everyone in a 10 block radius) will be highly scrutinized and should come with heavy downsides.

• Versus  environments: These abilities are the ones that directly target the environment, such as tainting land or polluting masses of water.

  • Anything major that messes with the build itself requires PRO approval should it be within a regioned area owned by a player.

  • Any negative impact to the environment that lingers (e.g. taint) should be balanced. Walking into the area shouldn’t spell instant death for the adventurer.

 

Versus Environment abilities should neither instantly kill people nor should it be incapable of being removed. Also bear in mind that you will need PRO/RO approval if you intend to cause damage block-wise to things. 

 

Energy

An ability, when combative/effecting things or people, should not be something you can spam endlessly without tiring. Your ability should consume energy and you should detail how many times it can be used in an encounter before the person is incapable of using it. This should also be balanced/tie in with the rest of the abilities. So you shouldn’t have 10 combat abilities that can all be used 10 times in a combat scenario.

 

This energy should not be tracked by arbitrary number systems. Keep it simple and in single digit numbers. Someone shouldn’t have to pull out a calculator to figure out what they can and can’t do in a combat situation.

  

Red Lines/Restriction

All abilities should have red lines that dictate the limitations of the spell, outside of their general mechanics. We do not want to see a million red lines, as with the rule regarding “if it’s not written, you can’t do it”, helps cut down on that.

Spoiler

Any ability should come with restrictions/red lines that dictates clearly the limitations of the spell outside of their general mechanics. If you leave things vague, it becomes open for people to abuse. As such, all red lines/restrictions should be concise and easy to understand. Bear in mind, the red lines/restrictions is not the end all be all when it comes to the ability limitations. Your mechanics section is just as important.