Glaciate: Absolute Zero

[PastelPhoenix]

GLACIATE: Absolute Zero​

OOC //

Welcome back to the Wasteland

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Little remains aside from the Great Sea of Ice that engulfs the land. Centuries of progress and human ambition were buried under the ice, and now the survivors try to carry what little shards of legacy they have. While humanity struggles, the other forces of the world prepare themselves. An ancient enemy prepares to settle a grudge, new life tries to find its place in the world, and demons from beyond still lurk the darkness. Something is stirring in the sea and threatens to wash away everything once more.

Six cities are all that remain of civilization in these lands, six cities only connected by the Grand Convoys that run between them. And that is where we find you, aboard one of the massive vehicles known as the Grand Convoys. Whether you were born here, or you joined sometime later in life doesn't matter, you're here now. Life on the Convoy can be tough, but it is upon your backs that life can resemble anything approaching normalcy for the rest.
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Magic

Old stories speak of a time when magic flowed freely, something humans could harness without the help of tools. But sometime long, long before the creatures known as Yog-ganth froze the world, humanity found its magic sealed within them, no longer answering their call. It took the creation of the Wands, revolver like devices designed to draw out one's internal magic and shape them with a variety of magical ingredients, to return magic to the people. The creation of the first wand prompted a sudden surge in the study of magic itself, fueling a technological boom. Magic produced vehicles that could replace burden animals, wands larger and more accurate than bows, new ways to spread news, even artificial life.

But those discoveries froze alongside the rest of the world. Wandcrafting is all that remains of specialized creation. The greatest creations of magic, including the Convoys themselves, are starting to break down and require frequent patching. People fear that the next break will be the permanent one. Groups are dedicated to relearning the secrets of old, but progress has been slow. Progress is progress, however.​

Gameplay

The original Glaciate followed a loose sandbox propped up by missions from three specific sources. For the sake of not bogging everything down and not having to create a million missions for each area AZ will likely use a system where a large, overarching plot/event plagues the area and the players can work towards completing it while not being bound to a specific mission.

The magic system from the first game will likely return. This requires a wand to cast spells, and each spell is made from various components. A wand is loaded with Spell Starters, small cylinders containing the necessary magical ingredients for the spell. A wand is bound to the internal magic of the caster, allowing the wand to select the correct spell with the caster's intent, negating the need to physically move chambers around (a flaw with early wands). The components of a wand can also be incorporated into other weapons (sword, crossbow, etc), however these hybrids tend to either suffer in spell capacity, spell accuracy, or both compared to a traditional wand.

Spell crafting is done by selecting ingredients with a specific magical property and combining their effects. Effects are up to personal interpretation from the basic description, so players are free to get creative with the combinations, combining multiple shapes, elements, and properties. The original ingredient list is below.

Spoiler:

Arrow - Cannae Root - A concentrated blast of magic that flies away from the caster

Barrier - Ironbark - The magic hardens into a translucent shield

Whip - Formine Vine - A long concentrated strand of magic from the source, very flexible

Slash - Iron Shards - A rush of magic with strong cutting properties

Spread - Ground Darkmantle Hook - Magic spreads forth in a cone shape

Wave - Wavestalker Shell - A wide spread of magic that travels in a wave pattern

Blast - Saltpeter - A powerful burst of magic extending in all directions from a single point

Flame – Salamander Flower Petals – The magic takes the form of intense flames

Freeze – Crystal Leaf – Magic takes the shape of extremely cold ice

Storm – Chargestone – Magic becomes charged with electricity

Gale – Highstrider fur – Magic gathers strong currents of wind

Hydrate – Aquamarine – Ambient moisture is collected and gathered in water form

Psudoearth – Pyrite – Magic hardens and solidifies into a substance similar to stone

Corroding – Slime residue – The magic takes a form similar to acid, breaking down most non-magical materials

Recovery – Brightpod – Magic begins to bind together wounds, mending bone, and can even repair non-animate objects with enough focus and energy

Delay – Corvis Feather – The magic activates sometime after its casting

Linger – Floatstone – Helps draw in ambient magic to fuel spells until they are dispelled

Arrest – Stirge Venom – Magic clings to the target, restricting and impeding movement

Enhance - Hydra Blood – Magic assists movement and senses

Levitate - Fogdrifter Antennae - Lifts an object in the air (Thanks Tigelreaf)

Weightless - Null Crystal - Lowers the restriction of gravity, producing a near weightless feeling (Thanks Tigelreaf)

Center - Iridium - Pulls physical objects towards the spell (Thanks Tigelreaf)

Light - Spark Salt - Creates a bright flash of light (Thanks Tigelreaf)

Growth - Sulfur/Sulphur - Causes the target to grow in size, can induce organic growth but the object returns to normal size when dispelled (Edited from Tigelreaf, explanation of changes below)

Muffle - Breezeswoop feather - Blocks the creation of noise (Thanks Birdy)

Cacophony - Bell-flower - Creates a shrill noise

Difficult Components: Requires two ingredient slots to use

Twin – Prism Glass – Two copies of the spell manifest from the same source at the same time

Overload – Draconic Blood – The intensity of the spell increases, potentially creating a spell strong enough to overpower other spells

Cloak - Chameleon Scale - Magic clings to the target, making it invisible to the naked eye, fails on targets larger than human sized (Thanks Birdy)

Lost spells: These effects are known, but the knowledge of what created them was lost to the Freeze

Drain - ??? - Draws all magic towards itself, nullifying active spells

Overwhelm - ??? - An incredibly intense flare of magic that overpowers almost all known spells

Magic has various laws that limit its power. The main two are:
1) Magic cannot create organic life, nor can magic cannot restore the dead. Any organic material created by the growth component, or a similar spell, will slowly revert back to magic, leaving the object in its original state.

2) Magic is not permanent, it is constantly degrading back to ambient magic. Spells can persist so long as they are fed magic. The lingering component runs off of ambient magic, and once the magic has been consumed, the spell fails. A bridge built with the help of magic must stand on its own as a bridge, or it will fail when the spells end.

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Theming

The original Glaciate didn't really embrace the setting as well as it could have, in my opinion. Starting off in a green area was a mistake, and aside from description little felt like the wasteland it should be. My plans for AZ is to try and foster a better sense of danger and the difficulties of even surviving out in the wasteland now. The overall number of cities was dropped as one method of implementing this, as well as the convoys being in a rougher shape than before.

As always, feedback regarding this change is welcome.
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In a nutshell this is my basic idea. I've debated on this for a bit now, but think I want to try and revive what was my favorite RP to create. There was a lot of lore and just general fun had in the short time it lived. Feel free to add any comments and questions, I want to work with everyone to make this work.

 

[Junier]

Wow, it'd be awesome to Glaciate come back again! This is definitely one of the more enthralling fantasy settings I've seen here on PC. I'm excited to see your new approach!

To kickstart the discussion: what sort of overarching events are you playing with at the moment? In what ways specifically will the sandbox element be parsed down? There's not enough presented here about G:AZ's world for me to really throw out ideas, though I'm sure there are others who have more vivid memories of what was established prior.

I suppose, then, reintroducing this world beyond magic system -- like, bringing in details on the land and the overall lore established prior -- could also help to circulate discussion and reel in some feedback.

 

[PastelPhoenix]

Sorry about that. I wrote this up at work and it was a matter of post it and refine later, or work on it tomorrow and put up with blocked resources.

To begin with lore (more of how the world works, but lore works too), I kept a google doc of all the questions that came up first time around: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1H2ExhmmCzZ3LYVG5wYFhbvvO4Y2ytS-XysNs596uqls/edit?usp=sharing. I can also work to posting all the bestiary and misc posts from the first Glaciate thread over also.

Also my idea for the events aren't really bringing down the sandbox too much (despite my issues with sandboxes prior, but mission based just isn't what I see Glaciate being), but constructing a larger narrative. To take an example of how it was in G1 vs G:AZ let's take the first area. Baybrook was split into several areas with an individual theme (swamp, city, riverside, caves) and each one had missions inside it relating the the three groups. In G:AZ I would combine all the areas into one larger area and have an overarching event for the area. For example, the Hydera gang was present in almost all of the areas of Baybrook, rather than give 5-6 different Hydera missions I would give a large objecting "Hydera Gang Presence". I would describe their presence and activities within there (active recruitment, occupying the riverside area of town, poaching technology and native hydras) rather than a specific "Hunt Hydra", "Recover Artifact X", or "Kill Leader Y". Hopefully being a little more vague and freeform will help keep it from being "quest"-like. Each thing the player does gets added to the consideration of the mission, and when its time to move on everything the players did shows some impact on the area which can impact other areas or show a change if the players have to return to the same place (both long term and temp changes).

Hopefully this makes sense. I'm tired and kinda rambly at the moment. I can further clarify if need be.

 

[Chemist Wooper]

I would join. Just the spell making concept is werid to me. Sorry for the one-liner.

 

[Songbird]

Just the spell making concept is werid to me.

I'll go through this step by step.

1. All people have "internal magic", it's like mana exclusive to the user.

2. Wands are gun-shaped tools. They channel and manifest the user's internal magic.

3. Spell starters are refined versions of magical ingredients, which are loaded into wands. Combine different spell starters to get different effects.

4. ???

5. Profit.

 

[Chemist Wooper]

K. This has me hooked gonna join. if this actually will become a thing.