The Endless Hunt: Info Thread

[Philip Overby]

This will be a thread for the Endless Hunt in which any out of character discussion can take place. If you have questions about anything, feel free to post your questions here.

I will (similar to the Trigger Challenges) post monthly awards for various good (or bad) deeds done during each season.

I will serve as the Game Master with input from Ravana. The various hunts' outcomes will be determined on how well the players role-play the scenarios given to them (meaning Good Roleplay=Great Rewards). Once I have interest from potential players, we will start the First Season, in which I'll go into more detail how each hunt will work.

 

[Philip Overby]

THE PLAYERS/THE HUNTERS:

myrddin173: Kristof Kovacs
Sparkie: Den Fowler
The Grey Sage: Sage Aeron Greymoore
Night Terror: Wisdom James
Arkius: Arkius
Phil the Drill: GM, various NPCs
Ravana: GM support


The Endless Hunt: What is it?

The Endless Hunt is a sub-game designed to fit into the world of Machiavel. Characters will take part in "Hunts" which can involve existing barons in the Machiavel world or other characters of their choosing. Each month there will be a "Season" in which various details will sprout up in regards to the hunting. Seasons may involve various surprises and may not be limited to only "monster hunting."

How do I play?

Right now, it's going to be strictly role-play. I'm hoping the game will bleed over into the main Machiavel game and vice versa. The main idea is just to create your character, decide what type of hunter he or she will be, and then 1 strength and 1 weakness.

How do I make a character?

There will be different Classes of hunters, who will have advantages and disadvantages in the various hunts depending on their selection. Think of the game as a text RPG version of Monster Hunter in a way. The game will be role-play heavy, so you have to rely on your role-playing ability in order to rise in ranks and collect bounties.

Here are the (tentative) Classes, although I may add more later:

Classes

Trapper-focuses on making traps to catch various creatures
Ranger-focuses on tracking skills and ranged weapons
Brute-a melee fighter who uses brute strength to fight bigger creatures head on
Whig-an aristocrat (maybe even a baron) who uses bloodhounds, hawks, or other animals to help track prey
Poacher-an outlaw who uses whatever methods necessary to catch prey, sometimes disobeying the laws of the season, these characters are often looked down upon in game
Hybrid-a type of character created by the player who utilizes methods of the other classes to lesser degrees

Each character will have a "Strength" and a "Weakness." These can be selected by the player and have to be approved by me. These are mainly used for role-playing purposes and help me determine how successful certain Hunters will be.

Each starting player only starts out with one strength and one weakness although they can gain more later.

Strengths

• Eagle Eye-can see further than the average Hunter
• Tracking-can follow tracks easier
• Man-Hunter-can find humanoid beings easier
• Beast-Hunter-can find beast-like creatures easier
• Hawker-can uses hawks for better hunting
• Hounder-can use hounds for better hunting
• Survivalist-can stay in the wilderness longer than others
• Powerful-is uniquely strong and can take down enemies with brute strength
• Quick Draw-is uniquely fast and can take down enemies with speed
• Perceptive-notices subtle noises, odors, and sights that can help them
• Medic-can dress the wounds of another person
• Marathon Runner-can move faster along the map
• Escape Artist-can run away from a fight
• The Power of Meat!-energized after cooking and eating a freshly killed beast
• Moral Outrage-energized when hunting evil men or beasts who prey on the helpless
  

Weaknesses

• Lack of Direction-can get lost rather easily
• Silver Spoon-perhaps too spoiled in real life to have any idea how hunting really works
• Weak Stomach-gets easily rattled or unnerved
• Bad Eyes-can't see very well
• Untrained-although may use a weapon, is not especially well-trained with it
• Blood Lust-loses sight of the prey due to over-enthusiasm
• Heavy Boots-doesn't know how to be quiet in the wilderness
• Timid-takes too long to take a shot or take out the prey
• Big Partier-has to have a giant group with him or her at all times, making hunting cumbersome
• Vulnerable to Elements-not cut out for extreme heat or extreme cold
• Recklessness-rushes into battle too quickly
• Showoff-wastes time in confrontations by making witty remarks and cool poses
• Lop-Sided-has an eye patch, peg leg, hook hand or some other reason for being weaker on one side
• The Flask is Half Empty-judgment clouded as a result of heavy drinking
• Soft Spot-judgment clouded when innocents are in danger, especially ________*
  *(specific soft spot chosen by player, e.g. "damsels in distress" or "when someone is drowning")

(Feel free to PM Phil the Drill or Legendary Sidekick if you want a strength or weakness not on the lists.)
Players are encouraged to form "Hunting Parties" in which they can hunt the various creatures together. However, if you prefer the "lone wolf" approach, that is perfectly fine as well.


So how do I win?

Well, like most table-top RPGs, you can't really "win." But you can succeed in the hunt. Players will have the ability to "level up" each Season depending on various criteria: how often they posted, if they succeeded in the hunt, how well they role-played, and other factors. Leveling up will enable players to purchase various new weapons, companions (for those who prefer hawking or hounding) and other upgrades.

In addition, they will get to add new strengths and weaknesses to their characters. Your equipment, class, strengths, and weaknesses will be determining factors in how well you do in various hunts as well. Part of the fun of the game, I think will be seeing your character succeed or fail base on the decisions you make in the different Seasons. I envision it as sort of like the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books, where your decisions can sometimes make you go "ooooooooooohhh crap!"

When does it start?

I'm aiming for a launch date for Monday, February 5th. The First Season will last one month and will be updated throughout February.

How do you find what you're hunting? (updated from Night Terror's question)

1. Rumors-these will be various rumors heard that will clue the Hunters to where the prey might be located

2. Posters-various posters interspersed that may give more detailed descriptions of what exactly the creature you're hunting looks like, sometimes the description may start off vague and may become more detailed as the hunt goes on

3. Tracking-various tracks will appear to let Hunters know if they are on the, uh, right track!

4. NPCs-other Hunters (controlled by me or possibly other moderators) may appear to clash with the players, offer help, or throw you off the track

And any other ways I may decide!

Where will the game be played? (Update Feb. 5)

I will post a thread titled "Endless Hunt: Season 1, The Fabulous Beast." All play for the month of February will be conducted in this thread (this is the main thread). Therefore, any of the main hunting game stuff you want to do will be done here. Any rewards, level ups, zone information, hints and etc. will all be posted at the top of the thread and updated as the season goes on.

Also within the thread you can use "Carriers" to relay messages to each other. You can introduce yourselves to other hunters, warn them, forge alliances, whatever you like. You can roleplay Carrier situations however you would like.

So for the entire game you will have 2 threads to reference:

Endless Hunt: The Info Thread (for any information regarding game play and such)

Endless Hunt: Season (number)(title)

Any other questions feel free to post in this thread and I'll give you answers the best as I can.

 

[Night Terror]

When out on the hunt, how will we know if we are anywhere near the prey, or if we succeed in killing it?

Also, is this more about actually catching the prey, or about being a badass storyteller? Either way I'm looking forward to this. :cool2:

 

[Philip Overby]

Good questions!

I will post several different ways throughout the Season to monitor how close various Hunters are to catching the prey. Once a prime location is selected, I will break down the hunting area into sections. The use of a map would be helpful, but for now I'll just post the different "Zones" and depending on what you select will depend on what you find. You may find a creature you weren't even looking for!

(Edit: I moved the info above to be located easier)

I think the overall key is what you said: badass storytelling. I want the game to have some established rules that will make it feel more like a game, but mostly since we are all writers, I think role-playing the situation regardless of success of the hunt will be the most rewarding aspect.

Once the First Season starts, I'll have all this information at the ready so players can jump in at any time.

 

[Arkius]

Am I allowed to join? I'm not in machveil, though I want to be. I messages ravana on Tuesday and they haven't answered yet.

 

[Philip Overby]

Yes, you are free to join of course! The Endless Hunt is a sub-game of Machiavel: Ambition so you are able to do both. If you want your actual baron to be a player that is fine, but if not, you can create a separate character for the purpose of the Endless Hunt.

If you want to make a character for the Endless Hunt, just send me a private message detailing the following:

1. Name
2. Class (as selected from above)
3. 1 Strength (something your character is good at when hunting)
4. 1 Weakness (something your character has trouble with)

I'll be making a list of Strengths and Weaknesses today on this thread if you want to pick from them (edit: they're available now above!)

Thanks for the interest!

 

[Ravana]

Baroness Sigrelyn may be joining at a later date… assuming I can come up with an appropriate weakness for her.

—No, strike that: I just realized what her weakness ought to be. Now I just have to figure out how it might interact with everything else. I'll PM you. She won't get started until next month anyway, since this hunt is already well along.

 

[Philip Overby]

Glad to see you're interested in joining Ravana!

This post is an update to the end of Season 1 and what it means for your characters. Also important news regarding Season 2.

First, announcement for Season 2. Legendary Sidekick will be taking over for Season 2 due to me being out of pocket for March with family visiting me. I will still be involved in the game, but won't be able to focus as much time on it. So please welcome Legendary Sidekick as the GM for Season 2!

So now what happens that Season 1 is over?

Well, first I want to thank everyone for playing! This has been a lot of fun for me and I'm glad there has been such good participation. With the end of Season 1 you will receive a variety of rewards for playing that will go over to Season 2 if you so choose to continue the Endless Hunt. (A new thread will be created for Season 2)

Remember, the Season ends on February 28th, so please return to the Bounty Post before that date to receive your rewards for your various bounties. If you have a bounty in your possession and want to turn it in, be reminded that the hunt is over if you go to the Bounty Post. You can continue hunting until February 28th.


What are the rewards and how do I get them?

Everyone will receive this for playing:

1. Player Level-up:a. one new Strength OR b. delete one weakness, meaning you are rid of it(these will be chosen by the player)

We will be updating new Strengths and Weaknesses in the coming days leading into Season 2. If you have an idea for a custom Strength or Weakness, pitch it to Legendary Sidekick so he can approve it.

2. In-game Rewards: in addition to your "level-up" you will receive in-game rewards from NPCs and for returning a bounty, these will be given out by Legendary Sidekick and myself in the main Endless Hunt thread. So look there for info regarding that.

3. GM Level-up: also, I will give you some Strengths and/or Weaknesses based on your role-playing throughout Season 1. These are skills that I am applying because of how your character interacted during the game.

Also if you want to play as a different character, I'm sure that would be completely acceptable. It's a possibility that I'll be playing next Season (yeah!) so I would start as a Level 2 character. In that case, you would be allowed to make a new character with 3 Strengths and 2 Weaknesses or 2 Strengths and 1 Weakness. I think for the interest of the game though, it makes more sense to use your character from Season 1, but it's up to you!

So what about Season 2?

I will leave any info regarding Season 2 to Legendary Sidekick. He's done an awesome job as my "guest NPC" so I'm happy to have him running the game for Season 2. In the future, we may swap off control of the game so as to keep it fresh or continue to share duties in controlling the game. Also big thanks to Ravana for letting us use his world as host for this game.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Captain One-Eared Jack

"Somewhere, about a hundred an' fifty miles due south o' Helderau, is a small island.

"The empire has no interest in this 'useless' place.

"There is no law here.

"...

"Active oh-what?

"Speak inna my good ear, Gunnie."

 

[Reaver]

Don't look now...

The following two characters would love to join Season 2:

Manimus Ultimus (A gladiator-type with certain peculiarities.)
CLASS: Brute
STRENGTH: Powerful
WEAKNESS: Show-off

REAVER (Well,come on, need I say more?)
CLASS: Hybrid
STRENGTH: Quick Draw
WEAKNESS: Blood Lust

​

I look forward to joining this game!

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Roku-Roku Island

EDIT - For Season Two, I'm going to gradually expand the map.

Current map:


The first post on the Season Two thread will always be updated to show the full map, which will update automatically thanks to the gallery feature. (It will update here as well!)

 

[The Grey Sage]

Island 9 looks... lllovely... *shudder*

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Technically, it's one volcanic island. I drew it up Monster Hunter-style, which basically means I split it up into numbered areas connected by paths.

The only difference here is that you actually travel the path instead of seeing a LOADING screen.

 

[The Grey Sage]

Ah ha! it makes sense now... *off to look up Monster Hunter*

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Here's an in-game map from Monster Hunter Tri for the Wii (the only U.S.-released MH game).



The little house at the bottom (between 2 & 1) is Base Camp. You have 10 numbered areas for hunting. (The grey paths are where loading screens pop up.) I personally found this style of map very easy to work with. You just tell another player "I'm heading to 3," for example, and everyone knows what you're talking about.

Hopefully, numbering the ares will make it easy for me to keep track of you guys in season 2. But I'll tell you something else that numbering the areas does for me... it makes it easy to figure out how strengths and weaknesses fit into the game!

Just to give you an idea of what I'm doing behind the scenes, here's a little something I threw together.

Area ​	Leads to​	Strengths​	Weaknesses​
1 Bear Bottom Beach	2, 3, 4, 5
2 Daisy Dock	1, 6
3 Sweet Painted Cave	1, 6, 9		Bad Eyes
4 Tiger Woods	1, 5, 7
5 Ivy Tower	1, 4	Hawker
6 Rainbow Fall	2, 3, 8
7 Lion Head Peak	4, 8, 10	Hawker
8 Endless Chasm	6, 7	Hawker
9 Firewalker’s Folly	6, 10
10 Black-Eyed Peak	7, 9	Hawker

Besides giving the areas stupid names, I came up with strengths and weaknesses that make sense for each area. For example, having a weakness of "bad eyes" might make it impossible to navigate the dark cave (area 3). The "hawker" strength can work to your hunter's advantage when on higher ground. In every area there is a strength or two that can help and a weakness or two that can hinder.

There are also some secret areas that are not on the map, which can only be found by hunters with specific skills. I also removed a column before posting which tells about a certain danger that will occasionally strike in certain areas... I didn't think that was very important to post here.

 

[Devor]

When does season 2 start? I'm debating on joining in or not. It looks like fun but my free time has been cut down a lot.

Would the same map be used in season 2?

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

The Roku-Roku Island map is the season 2 map.

I think Phil and I will change the area every time. Also, it's pretty much a casual game. Check out the season 1 thread to see how Phil and I were running it.

I have to say it's a lot of fun! He want me to GM season 2, so just send me your character(s) if you decide to play. I'm thinking of starting on Leap Day (since season 1 is still going) but I might post the thread this week just so hunters can start to interact. The season will run through all of March.

 

[Philip Overby]

Yes, please join Devor! Like Sidekick said, the game can be whatever you want it to be. If you don't have much time to post, you don't have to. Of course posting a lot is encouraged and will help your character in the long run. Season 1 finishes up on February 28th, so Season 2 will start directly after that. Of course if you don't want to jump in immediately, I'm sure it's ok to join mid-season (right?)

I'm debating my role in this next Season as I won't have much time to post, but I think I'll have enough time to casually get involved. Looking forward to it! Any info regarding the actual game is posted at the beginning of this thread.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Yeah, jumping in mid-season is fine.

Just PM me a character with a name, a class, a strength and a weakness. (See THIS POST for the list of classes, strengths and weaknesses.)

Although you'll be playing a "level one" character, you don't really have a big disadvantage vs. the "level two" veterans. I'm not keeping track of "stats" or anything. Just think of theses strengths and weaknesses as guidelines as to how your character should act or what (s)he should be able to do.

Also note that you can create a party and have more than one "main" character. Reaver has two, and since he's shown his stats, you can see how he has a different class, strength and weakness for each.

Oh... one more thing. Season One players, I need to know your stats for Season Two (after leveling up)!

 

[Devor]

Okay, I'm in. I'll send a PM to His Legendariness soon.