Leaderboard

Hello, everyone! Your wonderfully evil Head Keeper here with an update about Ice Island. First off, I’m sad to say that my initial estimation of Ice Island being released by the end of this month is not going to be feasible. Our initial and current desire for Ice Island requires far more man-hours of work then we originally thought. The great golem, Axis, has been hard at work on populating the overworld of the island with wildlife and various other NPCs. Making NPCs that are balanced to be challenging, fair and realistic for what they are is a long process, but he is doing a wonderful job. There will also be far more locations and small ‘dungeons’ and encounters out in the world set up with DMkits that you will be able to solve and enjoy without needing a keeper at all. This requires a great deal of creativity, ingenuity and time. Coupled with providing for players on the current islands, this takes time.This is a lot of work and perhaps quite ambitious, but it should allow for things to flow more smoothly and at a reasonable pace for both players and staff to handle, while also giving our staff a chance to continue being players if they so desire. It’s important for us to be able to ground ourselves at a player’s level to avoid becoming murderous on PCs. Or, maybe that’s just me. On top of that, we are also writing detailed lore for the setting. While it is mostly for DMs, some of it will be released for players to view, like the magic lore we’ll be writing. To elaborate on that, any veteran WoW rper can tell that WoW’s magic lore is… all over the place. But, that’s what we get from Blizzard. However, with the setting we are playing in, we have a unique position to make things… more consistent. This will allow DMs and players to understand -how- magic works and provide a consistent experience for that. But, this allows us to build off a stable platform with more powerful rituals and spells and other magicy things, in a consistent way that both players and DMs can work off of. To note, we’re not reworking the basic of WoW’s magic, but rather, expanding them with the changes put onto them by the unique situation of the Doldrums. And perhaps, this will give players some tips on finding out why these changes happen! We have a few other things we will be working on to release with Ice Island. New building rules and clarifications. Territory and node control, and several other things. Ice Isle will have -one- neutral, mostly NPC controlled hub at launch for players. This will provide all your important NPCs and be the -only- safe area of the island at launch. The good news is! Players will be encouraged to change things up and build upon this foundation. I’ll release more information as we complete certain things to apprise you of our progress. But, know that while it is taking us a while to do it, we are taking our time so that the experience is fun out the door, rather then a few weeks or months down the road. Avoid tall grass, and slam that bottle of wine! You’ll need it.~

Everyone likes when they can do something unique. The concept of making a weapon or piece of armor that is "special" or unique to your character is always appealing and often a goal of some players. So here is a concept idea on how this could work. Guidelines: 1. Fair chances for everyone. This means that if there is a concept for crafting unique items, it should not be the case that there is these unique opportunities for just one or two persons out there, but for every person. So the concept should have this in mind. 2. Preset rules must apply. The properties of a unique item, how to craft it and the acquisition of it's components must be set in stone before players even know about it's existence. To realize this, I came up with the idea of basing the crafting of unique items on unique components. To give an example: Name: Black Dragon Scale Location: Can be acquired from a fully grown black dragon Usable for: Armor (Leather, Mail or Plate), Shields Properties: +10% Physical Damage Resistance, +25% Fire Damage Resistance Requirements: Profession Level of at least 75+ How does it work exactly? First a player must be able to identify the properties of the special ingredient. Then he must have the proper profession level to work with it. When he is ready, he can combine the special ingredient with an already existing crafting recipe in order to make the unique item. For example, an Outfitter could apply the Black Dragon Scale onto the crafting recipe for Nature's Armouring, thus giving him a unique item that has the same properties as the Nature's Armouring Token plus the properties from the Black Dragon Scale (more physical protection and fire resistance). The materials for crafting it are the same as the materials for the uncommon token plus the dragon scale plus, due to the nature of working with a special ingredient, a higher productivity cost. This could be handled by a paybox. Now all the balance taskforce has to do is come up with crazy ideas for special ingredients that could be worked into a unique item. A few more examples: Name: Void Essence Location: Can be acquired from Atropos the Stalker (Unique Boss-Level NPC at location XYZ) Usable for: Enchantment (Sigil or Aegis), Trinket Properties: Sigil (+20% Bonus Damage as Shadow Damage), Aegis (+50% Shadow Resistance), Trinket (+20% Shadow Resistance, 25% Chance on dealing Shadow Damage to deal an additional 15 Shadow Damage), Global (10% Chance on dealing Shadow Damage to hear whispers of the void, increasing willpower by +1 for 2 turns and raising fatigue by 5%) Requirements: Mystic Level of at least 80+, Can not be combined with other Sigils or Aegis, fixed crafting cost for Enchantment and Trinket (10x Loose Scroll, 5x Runed Carving, 2x Bottled Magic, 1x Void Essence) Name: Star Metal Location: Impact Crater of the ancient Meteor at location XYZ (guarded by Arcane Entropies) Usable for: Trinket, Weapon, Armor (Mail, Plate), Shield Properties: Trinket (+1 Energy per turn, increases maximum energy by +3, +25% Arcane Resistance), Weapon (+20% Bonus Damage as Arcane Damage, +1 Energy per turn), Armor/Shield (+30% Arcane Resistance, increases maximum energy by +5) Requirements: Profession Level of at least 80+. Must be smelted under extreme heat, a normal forge won't do.

Magic in the Doldrums Magic in the Doldrums does not act quite the way it normally does on Azeroth. Everything feels off, different or harder. This document is merely a baseline for what player characters dabbling in each type of magic or rather, how each class or magically inclined race would feel in general. Keep in mind this does not provide the reasons for WHY magic works this way, merely what your character would be able to easily tell. The reasons for why and more things in particular must be found out through Role Play. DISCLAIMER: You are not owed an OOC explanation for the reasons as to why. Just know there are actual reasons for this. Also, keep in mind currently this is all fluff for your role-play experience and the reasons behind this may play into your experience here, such as events and the like. There is no heavily enforced negative for this in the RPG currently. Non-Magic Classes/General: As all living things in Warcraft’s setting have life and spirit energy, they to would feel this very essence be drained from them. Their strikes weaker, their resolve against a blow harder to muster. A warrior may be especially affected by this, but even a commoner or a mage will feel their strength be lesser than it would otherwise be. Arcane: None can sense or find the leylines of Azeroth in the Doldrums. It is as if they don’t exist. Arcane has to be pulled from different sources. Be it an object full of mana and arcane energies, or from the ambient arcane magic in the Doldrums. Upon washing ashore, any mage worth their incantations would notice this, and part of the journey is finding out how to more effectively do what you need. Spells, rituals, everything requires more power in the Doldrums to accomplish compared to Azeroth. Upon casting a spell, an arcane user would ‘feel’ something pulling at the energies. Teleportation does not work. Portal magic simply fails, as this relies on the use of leylines. Blinking, however, does work. Including long distance blinking(though this is -extremely- dangerous and, due to high inaccuracy, can easily result in death.) Holy: Upon calling for the Light, any user of it can tell that something is off. It is harder to call the Light to you and use it, and while on Azeroth using the Light would empower and reinvigorate one, here it does not. You still feel fatigue from casting with it. The important thing to note, is any light user could tell this is not the Light’s doing. It is being pulled -from- them forcefully. And one must work harder to maintain its use, just like Arcane users face. It can still be called upon anywhere in the Doldrums. Shadow: Much akin to Holy and Arcane, it is harder to cast and use shadow magic in the Doldrums. Users would note it is being -heavily- pulled from them, specifically in the direction of Black Finger. Necromancy - Necromancers would find all their attempts to raise undead be futile. All the ways one would raise a corpse into undeath upon Azeroth merely do not work here. This does not mean it does not work at all, but it must be ‘discovered’ how it works. Nature: Nature magic users, druids is particular would be able to tell something is off drastically for them. The Emerald Dream in the Doldrums feels off, not quite right. Still retaining the blessings of their patrons(i.e. Can still use cat form), nothing else feels right. One can not simply enter the dream and it requires more effort to use nature magic then it did on Azeroth. Elemental: Right off the ‘boat’ a shaman can tell something is wrong. The links with elementals one had established is clearly gone. It is as if an Azerothian Shaman went to the outlands to try and summon the powers of their elemental patrons on Azeroth. However, it is important to note that minor shamanistic magic still works, though it is harder to summon just like every other type. Even a beginner shaman could tell that perhaps the magic that does work is a welcoming gift. Fel: Fel and demonic summoning is a tad different on the feel. Much like every other type, there is a strong pull working against the character casting a fel spell or working a fel ritual. Upon casting a spell, the pull is a tad stronger. And summoning demons, even ones that were tied to the warlock on azeroth is impossible. Much like necromancy, the way one did it on Azeroth merely does not work. Playable Magical Races Undead: Undead in the Doldrums feel fatigue. They get tired. This is a completely different feeling from what they would be used to. The shadow magic used to keep an undead’s body together is being pulled from them. See Shadow. Night Elves: Kaldorei, or night elves would not play much differently here, but they would notice they have -no- connection to the tree on mount Hyjal. All the boons granted(protection against disease, ect.) are gone. Blood/High Elf: Quel’/Sin’dorei do not feel any connection to the Sunwell. However, they do feel the pull of arcane from their bodies, meaning the need for arcane of fel to feed their addiction is stronger here and requires more than they would’ve had to deal with on Azeroth. Highborne: A combination of Night elf and Blood elf. The connection Highborne from Kalimdor had to the Hyjal tree is gone, and on top of that, they face a magical addiction that is harder to deal with here. Oddities Tides and Stars: A keen eye and observant person would know that the Doldrums has no tides and the stars change every night. Current, wind, gravity all still exist, but these two things are an odd and easy to discover bit of information. Credit to the original artists for the pictures. I don't own them, I just have no money or artistic talent. Yay, google.

I want to suggest a drastic change in how character creation and progress works. Reason: The way Unknown Shores works right now is not very appealing to new players or returning players. Most of our current population is made up of decked out characters that have reached their desired max level or XP threshhold, a point that takes several months to reach. Some characters are even so advanced, they have reached a point of growth that would take a new character more than half a year to reach, if not longer. This is very disheartening and discouraging for new players or returning players. It puts a very noticeable pressure on people to stick to that one character they are playing, log in on them every single day and pump every point of productivity they have into it's growth, but even then they know that they will never really catch up to the veterans. Creating an alt and spreading your productivity over two characters will make it even worse. I brought up a simple question on the discord recently where I asked: "If you would play on retail WoW, do you feel that need to level up your character to max level first and deck him out with the transmog you want, before you actually go into roleplay with him?" It is true, even on retail, most people like to level to max first before they think about roleplay. Most people don't like doing roleplay while being some low-level character in leveling gear that doesn't have access all the areas and possibilities the game has to offer. And on Unknown Shores, we are currently suffering the same problem. You create a new character and you feel like you are not "ready" to really play him yet. Because compared to most others on the server, your character isn't really good at anything. He is a low level guy in leveling gear. And due to how productivity works, you can't even get him really into the game with power-leveling. You are stuck with literally "waiting" 3 months or more until you get to the point where you feel on a level playing field with all the others. The other day I made a new character with the intention to just roleplay with him. Not care about productivity or leveling or any of that sort, just roleplay. Since currently, I am putting all my productivity into getting my Panda to max level. So I made this troll. He is supposed to be a hexxer, witch doctor, that sort of deal. Since I was going to stay at 0XP with him for many months due to how the system works, I gave him a supportive build for combat. At least then he can be a bit useful, healing and buffing. Combat was never going to be his focus anyways, his focus was to be roleplay. Act out his role as witch doctor and spirit speaker. I got my chance to play out my character later that afternoon. I was asked to speak to the spirits and do some divination to find something. Perfect. I even had put points into the new Skill system for divination, since that is the purpose of my witch doctor. I got a Keeper and then did my thing, emoted out the ritual and stuff. Then I got told that for proper divination or scrying, there are rules. For example, I need a minimum of 5000 XP to do it. And my immediate reaction to it was "You are basically telling me that I have to afk-park this character away on the beach for over a month, log in on him every day to push my 70 prod into his XP pool, until I reach 5k XP and then I can finally play him?" It is not only me. A lot of other players feel the same problems with the RPG. So here I am with a proposition. Proposition: TL;DR: Spreadsheet Example for new Character Creation Every new character starts pretty much maxed out. There will be no further progression, leveling or any of that sort with productivity after character creation. This means that new characters will always be on a level playing field with everyone else, even with the veterans. Of course veterans will still be stronger than a fresh, new character since they will have better equipment and things like that. Progression may also be possible in the form of special events or special items from events. Other than that, think of "progression" the way it was back on Legacy/Prologue. You progress your characters story, the friends and enemies he makes and the name he makes for himself in the world. That has been a recipe for success in the past, I don't see why it shouldn't be here. And the RPG can continue to be what it does best: Bring some form of order and balance to the game. It is a good "ruleset" of what a character can and can't do and it makes combat events that much faster and more enjoyable for everyone. Those were always the true, biggest weak points of Legacy/Prologue, where the question of what your character can and can't do mostly dependet on GM nepo and your performance during combat was entirely based on luck (/roll 20). What about veterans / old characters? Will they be reset? Here is what I propose: Leave every old character as it is. They can keep their attribute points and profession levels as they are now. In some cases, that will make them permanently more advanced than any new characters, but since we are speaking of only a few select individuals here I don't think it'll be that big of a deal. Besides, I guess they have earned it. Naturally, every old character will also have the option of a reset to make use of the new character creation. What about people making crafter alts / gaterer alts? Yes, this is an entirely new problem that would come up with this new character creation. This can be solved in a few different way. In the past, account-wide productivity was the safety-measure here that prevented people from abusing the system with gathering alts. This new character creation however would require some slight alterations. What I would propose here, and I believe that would be the easiest solution, would be to make productivty "per character" instead of account wide. Come to think of it, with this new character creation you would no longer need productivity to level up or raise skills. The only purpose of productivity with this new system would be... to spend it on gathering. Or learning a language. So if someone doesn't have a whole lot of time to play every day, that wouldn't be that big of a deal. It's not like they would fall behind in combat XP... or raising their crafting skills or anything. That means, we could change it so that a new character starts with 0 productivity and he gains 3 productivity every hour he spends being online. No more offline-productivity gain. Maybe raise it even to 6 prod per hour. Who knows, the numbers can be tweaked here. The general idea is, that a character only gains productivity if he is actively played. Some other alterations can be made as well. In any case, I firmly believe that there is ways to make gathering or crafting alts "not viable".

So, what are skills? Skills represent some of the most basic and yet most fundamental abilities your character possesses. As your character advances in experience, they can gain new skills and improve their existing skills dramatically. This post describes each skill, including common uses and typical modifiers. Characters can sometimes use skills for purposes, and with other attributes than those noted here, at the GM’s discretion. To roll a skill with its standard modifier, click on a skill in the Skills section of your [RPG Handbook]. There are currently four levels a skill can have. When you perform a skill check, the roll is 2d10 + (Attribute / 2) rounded down + Skill Bonus. If you are rolling a raw attribute instead of a skill, the check becomes 2d10 + Attribute. You may also roll skills with alternative attribute modifiers using a command. For example, to investigate something in a magical way, you might roll an Investigation (Willpower) check. To make a roll as such, you would type in .rpg check <attribute> <skill> <advantage/disadvantage>. Advantage and disadvantage are modifiers that are also used by GMs to make rolls easier or harder depending on your current status. The bonuses for training in a skill are as follows. Untrained: +0 Trained: +3 Expert: +6 Master: +10 You gain skill points at the following XP levels. Expert skill points are used to upgrade Trained skills, and Master skill points are used to upgrade Expert skills. 0 XP: 2 Trained Skills 2000 XP: +1 Trained Skill 3000 XP: +1 Expert Skill 4000 XP: +1 Trained Skill 5000 XP: +1 Expert Skill 6000 XP: +1 Trained Skill 7000 XP: +1 Expert Skill 8000 XP: +1 Master Skill Therefore a character with 10,000 XP will have a total of: 2 Trained Skills, 2 Expert Skills, and 1Master Skill. The generally expected Difficulty Classes(DCs) you will have to pass are as follows. Easy (12), Medium (14), Hard (18), Very Hard (26). Note, these are subject to change depending on your GM, and are used as a general guideline. Skill Use Example: Billy is an untrained Human Rogue with access to two basic skills. He places them in Athletics and Stealth. There's a large devilsaur that a GM is piloting, currently devouring anything that it happens to come across. Billy, being the spry lad that he is, decides to try and hide behind a tree. The GM then requests Billy to make a Medium difficulty stealth check, which is a DC14. He clicks the skill, and ends up rolling a 15. He gets 11 from his base roll, 1 from having 2 Dexterity, and then another 3 for having Trained his stealth. If he hadn't trained his Stealth skill, he likely would have been spotted by the towering beast. PHYSICAL SKILLS Acrobatics involves the flexibility of the body. Say you wish to walk across a tightrope, do a few flips or maintain your footing in a tricky situation. Athletics involves the endurance of the body. Running, jumping across gaps, swimming. Observation is a character’s ability to, well, observe. This could be their peripheral vision, actively observing and noticing more details, or simply their awareness of what is going on around them. Investigation is different from observation, as it encompasses a character’s ability to actively discover information and details. For example, a character stumbles into a murder investigation and is tasked with piecing together clues and discovering who the killer is. Or, a person is searching a ancient tome for knowledge on how to open the door of a ruin. Medicine is pretty self-explanatory. This skill covers all NON-MAGICAL healing. But also medical knowledge. As in, bandaging, surgery, knowledge of the body. (Aka, you know where the patient's lungs are.) And their ability to discover the illness and apply appropriate treatment. Stealth is a character's skill to sneaky-sneak their way around and remain undetected. This is pretty easy to understand the applications it would have in context. Engineering represents a character's and comprehension of how things work. For example, building, planning and getting a water-tower to work would fall under this category, but so would being able to craft an arcane construct fully. Survival is the knowledge and ability to live off the land. Being able to recall the way you came in and need to back-track to leave, in a maze-like dungeon would be using this skill as the check. So would foraging for food, or building a camp in a hostile place. Martial is you capabilities with Blade and bow. Being able to stab an enemy in a weak point on their armor, or shoot a foe in the head from a tree. Anything really physical focused combat wise would fall under this skill. MAGICAL SKILLS (Note: Magical Skills are currently separated into different 'schools'. The definitions may change or be worded differently in the future.) Destruction encompasses almost all directly offensive and destructive spells of all magical types. Those versed in this skill have high offensive power and masters can pull of extremely devastating moves. This covers destructive ability on all magical classes: Mages, Warlocks, Druids, Shaman, Priests, Paladins and Death Knights. Any spell that has the sole purpose of damaging a foe calls into this category. Examples: Firebolt, Frostbolt, Felfire, Shadowbolt, Wrath of Nature, Moonfire, Holy Fire, Smite, Consecration, Ebon Plague and so on. Alteration encompasses spells that directly alter an object or person in various ways. This is a fickle and versatile school, spells from which cause changes on their target, encompassing magic used by all magical classes. Examples by classes of magic: Arcane: Polymorph, transmuting silk to iron, earth into quicksand or mud. Slowing the fall of something by making it light Elemental: Various environmental effects, causing storms or lifting pillars of rock from the ground. Divine: Purifying corruption and removing various unholy taint. Those skilled in the light can alter the weight of their weapons or their armor by infusing them with enough right. Unholy: Conversely, tainting the soil or objects with unholy energies. Molding bone or flesh. Raising undead and manipulating souls also falls within this school of magic. Shadow: Manipulating void energies, infusing something with shadowy energy. Fel: Curses and various other cantrips. Curse of Weakness, Tongues, Exhaustion etc. Enhancement is the school of imbuing people or object with surges of -temporary- power. The effects vary from what type of magic the caster is able to wield. Infusing allies or weapons with magical power and generally bolstering something already in the world falls within this category. Examples by Magic Type: Arcane: Arcane Brilliance, temporary weapon and armor enchantments Elemental: Windury, Rockbiter, Flametongue Weapon, Elemental Blessings Shadow: Shadow protection, infusing a weapon with shadow energy, mind protection Light: Various blessings, empowering weapons and armor, protection from evil magic, inner fire, etc. Fel: Fel Armor, Imbuing weapons and armor with fel magic Planeshifting: The magic of manipulating the planes of reality, space and time. Spells from this School include all sorts of teleportation: both short range and long rage, as well as the summoning and conjuring of entities and elemental forces. Skilled users of these magics can also use them offensively. Note: Keep in mind that Teleportation is not such an easy feat. See the Doldrum's Magic Lore post. Examples: Teleport, Portals, Blink, Summoning Elementals, Demons or other entities. Rituals of Summoning, Summoning Souls from the Pit. Domination: The magic of influencing others through charm or brute mental force. Domination is the school of mind influence. Causing fear, hysteria, Bloodlust, lust, heroism... that is what a good manipulator is adept at. In addition to the influence of the mind a skill Dominator can create visual, auditory or sensual illusions to confuse or cripple their enemy. Examples: Mind Control, Mind influence, telepathy, all types of illusions, binding and enslaving elementals, demons or undead, as well as wrestling control over them if they already have a master. Preservation is the school of magical protection and/or healing. No matter from which source a skilled preserver is able to infuse magical energies in ways beneficial to them or those around them.The school of Preservation encompasses all types of healing and certain types of protections. Examples: Holy, Shamanistic and Druidic Healing, Magical shields and wards that cover a wider area as well as magical protections around buildings and sites. Divination spells reveal information, whether in the form of secrets long forgotten, glimpses of the future, the locations of hidden things, the truth behind illusions, or visions of distant people or places. Example: Scrying, Visions of the future, magically discovering traps, treasures or hidden objects. You get skill points to put in various skills based on your total XP. Said skills are used in various regards when a GM is present as well as with locations that they create.

Pledged.

Pledged.

THROWBACK

Updated.

this was moved to a document instead for easy editing the link's here

The Pit of Souls Somewhere in the Doldrums there is a pit, this pit has in the Shadowlands been carved out as the domain of an entity which draw in the souls of the dead. The majority of souls, especially the more powerful, are eventually taken here. While within the Shadowlands as spirits, arcane magic is impossible to perform, the light refuses to answer your call and your body is ethereal and cannot affect much if any change to the environment. Calling on the Shadow is effective, but cannot bring you out of the Pit nor can it be used to communicate with those still alive outside the Shadowlands. The Mechanics. ■ Player spirits are always drawn into the Pit, NPCs are looser and up to the discretion of the DM. Player characters are assumed to possess 'powerful souls', relatively speaking. ■ Attempting to bring a spirit back would first mean to create a temporary breach into the Pit and call that particular spirit out. This runs the risk of releasing other souls trapped within the Pit. Creating a breach is difficult and requires someone familiar with the Shadowlands in particular or with Shadow magic in general. To create a breach for the Soul of someone trapped in the Pit to escape into the Shadowlands, a ritual must be held that requires the caster possessing something of personal significance to the deceased. This ritual is dangerous and the consequences may be dire even if successful, before it can be cast knowledge of it must be acquired. ■ The Souls of the Dead may attempt to break out of the Pit, the mechanics of which are revealed to those who have died. ■ Communication with a (player) soul that has escaped the Pit is a ritual which requires some power (10 shards of mana or equivalent) and a DC14 Willpower check. This can only be done by Priests, Shaman and Necromancers, characters that ought to have this sort of knowledge. If several people, of those classes, work together, the DC is lowered by 1 per character successfully rolling the DC14 Willpower check. If successful the communicating players may speak a short phrase which is conveyed across the veil. The spirit may then offer a short reply. If successful the communicating players may speak a short phrase which is conveyed across the veil. After the first reply, before each new one, the casters must again succeed a DC14 Willpower Check or the connection will be severed. This ritual can only be cast once a week. ■ Resurrection is a difficult process, one must first acquire the knowledge of how to create several necessary reagents, and then of the ritual of resurrection itself. These reagents require masters of their respective crafts.

Updated.

This is pretty great, thanks!