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Discussions of Bara Magna


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Profiles Topic | IC Topic | OOC Topic | Game Rules

This is the dedicated OOC (out-of-character) topic for Ghosts of Bara Magna. Here, you can discuss anything and everything that relates to the game – ask questions, compliment each other's posts, advertise player run quest-lines, and more! The world is your very dry, very sandy oyster. You can also have OOC conversations in the official Discord server (link) if you prefer, although joining is not required in order to play and discussion is subject to that server’s rules.
That said, please keep such discussions limited to here and/or the game's Discord server, in order to avoid crowding the IC (in-character) topic.

For your convenience, the game's rules have been posted below.

Edited by a goose
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Nikarra - Kaelynn - Ronan - Muir - Donal Aerus - Montague - Kira - KouraLearu - Alteora - Fuacht - Caana Nessen - Merrill

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Profiles Topic | IC Topic | OOC Topic | Game Rules

The Premise

Ghosts of Bara Magna is an open sandbox TBRPG, designed to encourage player freedom and agency. Though there are plot threads, they’re just that: threads, for you to pull on as you see fit. I have as little an idea of what the future has in store as you do, and I can’t wait to see what becomes of this world, how you grow it and improve it far beyond what my imagination could ever conjure. Players are also encouraged to create their own quests or plots, whether based on an established element of the world or something entirely new – I would recommend seeking out mod approval for these, so that we can provide access to elements of our own toolbox. In an ideal world you should be driving the story of the RPG at least as much as me, if not even moreso, and I want to make sure the tools to accomplish just that will be at your disposal.

It's important to note that this is not necessarily Bara Magna as you know it; though I've aimed to stay true to the spirit of 2009, and what I believe to be the untapped potential of Bara Magna as a setting, this is not the canon Bara Magna. What does that mean in practice? Well, Agori and Glatorian have roughly human lifespans, leaning slightly longer than our own. This means that far more of the events of centuries past are long-forgotten; similarly, The Shattering as we know it cannot be assumed to have occurred. Not only is no one old enough to recall the cataclysmic event that left Bara Magna a wasteland, but Bara Magna should be assumed to be its own planet with its own history, not a fragment of a larger Spherus Magna. If the planets of the Solis Magna system were once connected, it was so long ago now that it hardly matters. Bota Magna and Aqua Magna do exist, but little is known about them beyond their clearly observable ocean and jungle coverage.

This has implications closer to ground level, too: things you may recognise from canon, such as the Great Beings or the Dreaming Plague, are not necessarily the same as you remember them. All this to say, don't assume that you know what you're in for – after all, I hardly created this RPG just to rehash what we've already seen. The mysteries of Bara Magna are mysteries once more, with answers that may yet surprise you.

 

The GMs

At present, the GMs are a goose and Bulik. Bulik can field any approval I can, apart from requests for Sand or Iron Tribe characters. Not much more to say on that, really.

 

The Rules

If you’re familiar with the absolutely iconic work that is Tuck’s Guide to Common Sense, the majority of rules (and plenty of other handy hints!) are helpfully outlined there. However, for convenience:

  • Every player must make one (and only one) post in the profiles topic, and update this with the profiles of each of their characters.
  • PCs are to be original characters. This doesn’t mean you can’t copy your favourite Ryan Gosling silent stare role, but rather, that you can’t play characters from canon.
  • When writing out of character in a post, you should preface what you say with ‘OOC:’. When writing in character, you should preface with ‘IC:’, the name of your character, and their current location. Furthermore, when possible, out of character discussions should be kept within the Discussion Topic or the RPG Discord server (link).
  • Given that PvP will play an important role in tournaments, I want to remind everyone that ‘autohits’ (see Tuck's guide for more info on this) are illegal, and to play your characters realistically. It’s okay to take a hit in a fight – in fact, having to apply creative thinking and improvisation due to injuries you sustain in a combat encounter often makes it more fun to write, and more fun to read. And combat, like everything else in the game, is about having fun; should issues arise, the GMs are prepared to referee, but we would prefer not to interfere.
  • Finally, most importantly of all, be nice to each other! As I said before, we’re all here to have fun – and though we all get emotionally involved in our characters and their experiences, it’s important not to let IC tensions bleed into OOC interactions. If you feel things are getting a bit too heated, be sure to take a step back, and if you need a hand in resolving things privately the GMs are of course here to help. That said, intentionally abusive or bigoted behaviour will not be tolerated. If you muck around, you will find out. Accidentally hurting someone’s feelings is something we’ll try to resolve as sensitively as possible; after all, these things happen. But there is a zero tolerance policy on racism, homophobia, transphobia, and bullying. Basically: just don’t be a prat.
Edited by a goose
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[BZPRPG PROFILES]

Nikarra - Kaelynn - Ronan - Muir - Donal Aerus - Montague - Kira - KouraLearu - Alteora - Fuacht - Caana Nessen - Merrill

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Just wanted to clarify a few things re. changes from canon.

In canon, it’s said that the Glatorian and Agori naturally have a metallic bone structure. Is that still the case for this world? I mainly ask because I’ve long been kicking around a concept for a Bara Magna tribe who honour their dead by using their bones to forge weapons, tools, and armour, allowing long-dead ancestors to “live on”, in a sense. It’s never really been a good fit for any past games, but I’m wondering if it might work here (provided you don’t think it’s too grim of a concept)?

How advanced is the everyday technology? Obviously, vehicles and limited cybernetics have been mentioned. But in canon there were vehicles like the Thornatus that had energy blasters, and Skrall shields were depicted (in the movie, at least), as functioning like giant buzzsaws (that seemingly had homing capabilities when thrown). So are power tools, energy weapons, etc. a thing in this game, or is the overall tech level generally more medieval in nature?

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23 minutes ago, Nato G said:

Just wanted to clarify a few things re. changes from canon.

In canon, it’s said that the Glatorian and Agori naturally have a metallic bone structure. Is that still the case for this world? I mainly ask because I’ve long been kicking around a concept for a Bara Magna tribe who honour their dead by using their bones to forge weapons, tools, and armour, allowing long-dead ancestors to “live on”, in a sense. It’s never really been a good fit for any past games, but I’m wondering if it might work here (provided you don’t think it’s too grim of a concept)?

How advanced is the everyday technology? Obviously, vehicles and limited cybernetics have been mentioned. But in canon there were vehicles like the Thornatus that had energy blasters, and Skrall shields were depicted (in the movie, at least), as functioning like giant buzzsaws (that seemingly had homing capabilities when thrown). So are power tools, energy weapons, etc. a thing in this game, or is the overall tech level generally more medieval in nature?

Tragically, bones are just regular bones here, as cool a concept as that is (no concept is too grim for me tbh).

Technology is a mixed bag; the technological advancements that there are are thanks to Great Being technologies that have been recovered, but that's mostly just accounted for vehicles, cybernetics and weapons. The point of comparison @BULiK has used, which I think is pretty spot-on, is the state of post-apocalyptic technology in Fallout, with the extreme disparities of advancement, where people can have energy weapons but still be living mostly in wooden shacks.

As far as your specific examples, 'energy blaster' weapons are still a step too far at the moment. The tech that we do have has been reverse-engineered, or uses scraps and ingenuity, like the Thornax weapons; this is still a post-apocalyptic desert, with resource scarcity. If energy weapons appear, they're more likely to be still-functioning GB tech given out as a quest reward.

This all plays into the overall uneven state of technological advancement; the Agori and Glatorian have been inheriting and reverse-engineering GB tech, rather than progress being a slower, more balanced process.

TL;DR: technology is better than medieval, but much of it is reverse-engineered and still cobbled together. More futuristic sci-fi things like laser weapons aren't within the capabilities of Agori and Glatorian to make.

Edit: Power tools are an odd one; due to the fact that people are more familiar with making cybernetics mods, thanks to reverse-engineered technologies, if someone has a power tool it's more likely that their arm is a power tool, rather than just having an electric drill or jackhammer.

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Nikarra - Kaelynn - Ronan - Muir - Donal Aerus - Montague - Kira - KouraLearu - Alteora - Fuacht - Caana Nessen - Merrill

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To add on to those examples and since you brought it up, because Skrall shields are kinda buzzsaw-y (especially in movies and promotional material) I opted for having my PC Skrall's hand be able to rotate to make the shield like a buzzsaw instead of the shields themselves being tech items. Things being more cybernetics than tech 'items' is a different frame of mind to think about than normal, but it can be compelling. Maybe a skrall could captain america throw his boomerang shield with a high tech arm tractor beam? I'm curious what wild impractical uses of sufficiently advanced technology people will think up for the sake of the rule of cool depending on what they want to do with their characters.

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Visit www.BZPRPG.com to view my project of archiving BZPower's RPGs, and also access the BZPower Roleplaying Wiki

BZPRPG Profiles - Ghosts Of Bara Magna Profiles

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34 minutes ago, BULiK said:

To add on to those examples and since you brought it up, because Skrall shields are kinda buzzsaw-y (especially in movies and promotional material) I opted for having my PC Skrall's hand be able to rotate to make the shield like a buzzsaw instead of the shields themselves being tech items. Things being more cybernetics than tech 'items' is a different frame of mind to think about than normal, but it can be compelling. Maybe a skrall could captain america throw his boomerang shield with a high tech arm tractor beam? I'm curious what wild impractical uses of sufficiently advanced technology people will think up for the sake of the rule of cool depending on what they want to do with their characters.

yeah i was really giving the watsonian explanation there

to go doylist, cybernetics are just Really Cool, as is limiting the more alien technology to ancient gb stuff. the driving factor in why people should have jackhammer arms instead of jackhammers is very much just Rule of Cool

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[BZPRPG PROFILES]

Nikarra - Kaelynn - Ronan - Muir - Donal Aerus - Montague - Kira - KouraLearu - Alteora - Fuacht - Caana Nessen - Merrill

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  • 2 weeks later...

Been a busy week on my end so I've only now caught up with the happenings in the game so far. Really cool stuff! I'm going to try and get some skrall stuff moving in the next few days (hopefully), get the squad together. There's also going to be some more direct quest hooks dropping soon

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Visit www.BZPRPG.com to view my project of archiving BZPower's RPGs, and also access the BZPower Roleplaying Wiki

BZPRPG Profiles - Ghosts Of Bara Magna Profiles

Exo-Force RPG Profiles - Six Kingdoms: Apocalypse (Knichou, Berys, Arnex, The Taku, Exuze)

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15 minutes ago, Daniel the Finlander said:

ill be honest, i was never a huge fan of the bara magna setting (even tho i got 5 sets from it), but the idea of rping as an ice tribe slave trader is tempting

metus my beloved

I really liked Bara Magna as a setting, just

Not necessarily what they did with it

'bara magna, only Cool' is the driving philosophy here

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[BZPRPG PROFILES]

Nikarra - Kaelynn - Ronan - Muir - Donal Aerus - Montague - Kira - KouraLearu - Alteora - Fuacht - Caana Nessen - Merrill

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Hello everyone, friends new and old.

I’m slowly putting together a character for this RPG as I dust off these old joints.

Once they’re active, it will take a bit of time to get them to a location where they’ll be available to players, but as soon as I do, I hope I can join you all in crafting this wonderful story!

Good gaming, and see you around!

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"This spot marks our grave; but you may rest here too, if you like."

 

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