Post by malice on Feb 8, 2011 23:27:00 GMT -5
Skyeraptor59: OOC: You are Toby, spelled "Tobe," pronounced Toby. Don't worry that it's your name forever, I just pulled it out of "To be Determined" so that you'd have a name for this one-shot. Your character has only had the name for a few days.
If you have any questions feel free to ask via OOC or in a PM.
Name: To be Determined ("Tobe")
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 178 lbs.
Eyes: Blue-Green
Hair: Brown
Species: Human/Esper
Abilities: Intelligence: 3, Strength: 2, Agility: 4*, Speed: 1, Durability: 4
Health: 20
Energy: 12
Regeneration: 4
Actions and Skills
==================
Locked: Close Combat 4
-Dual-Wielding
Locked: Ranged Combat 4
Locked: Charisma 4
-Social Skills and Leadership
Locked: Ranger 3
-Acrobatics and Black Ops
-Agility Bonus
Locked: Mastery of Phantom Dust 4
Skill boxes:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Modifiers:
Dust Affinity
Dust Resistance 3
Improved Initiative 2--3w
Targeting 1--3w
Equipment:
Wrist Timer
Challenges:
Compulsion to stick up for the innocent/helpless--5
Conflicting interests--5: Seeking humans in need vs. seeking skills, riches, fame, etc.
Esper--2
Guilty conscience--2
Psychological, per symptom--5: Impulsive, hot-head, stubborn, depressed, overconfidant
Also, I apologize for the long read. Since you're new to the world of Phantom Dust, it didn't feel right just to dump you into it without some intro. It's extremely unlikely that any more of my posts will be this long.
____________________________________________________________
Tobe and Kei sat around a large well-worn metal table in a room with mossy brick walls. Lit by a pair of buzzing tube-like bulbs, this room was the least comfortable they'd been in lately. Sadly it was also the one where they spent most of their time for the last two days.
Tobe had recently been found wandering the surface. This was a mystery to him, since he couldn't ever recall being to the surface, or being anywhere else before the last few days. He remembered waking up on an extremely uncomfortable stone slab in a room they called "the infirmary," no doubt because one would have to be infirm in the skull to ever want to go there.
He didn't even know his real name, "Tobe" was just the one he picked from the list they were rattling off when it became too tiresome to continue listening to potential names - none of which were his own.
The other recruit in the room was a young silver-haired boy named Kei. Unlike most of the people Tobe had met so far, Kei was not discovered above but born below. He had lived his whole life underground.
Tobe had just been discovered, checked, and then drafted. They were nice about it, but they were also clear that he didn't have a choice. It helped that every other Scout had the same story. No one had any memories. They were all just as lost as he was.
After being lectured about battle strategy, different skills, teamwork, and mostly the regulations involving the surface, today was the day that Tobe and Kei were actually going to the surface to fight their first enemies.
A series of footsteps drew their attention to the door, where their primary trainer thus far, a woman named Tsubutaki, entered leading five others.
Two of them wore the black shirts with red scarves that indicated Visions Officers. Tobe had learned that much so far. Visions Officers were Scouts with actual official duties, while most Scouts just did what was asked of them when it was asked. The other three wore different clothes unique to each of them. One was a woman, one was a young man, and one was so thoroughly dressed for the surface - mask, goggles, belt full of supplies - that with a covered face and a body efficiently adorned it was indistinguishable as a man or a woman.
"Okay guys, today we go to the surface. We're going to teach you the basics of capturing and using skills. This is the beginning of your training to become Scouts."
Tsubutaki motioned to the team of bored-looking people she'd entered the room with, all of them Scouts.
"We're going up with a big team to protect you, but don't think that means this will be safe or easy. We're here to try and keep things under control, but remember the surface is unpredictable and dangerous."
She looked directly into Tobe's eyes, but said nothing. Then she looked at Kei the same way, still not speaking. Looking again at Tobe, she twisted her lips, clearly thinking but apparently choosing to keep things awkward by not speaking. After another glance at Kei she swept a lock of hair from her face and finally spoke:
"Let's go."
They all filed out of the room but one of the officers, who waited for Tobe and Kei to exit before following.
After two flights of sheet-metal stairs they entered a large round tunnel, one end of which was a dead-end and the other end was the shabby barricade blocking the way to the surface - also constructed mostly of scavenged metal. Beyond the gate in the barricade - one could clearly see beyond due the fact that many of the holes in the barricade were plenty big enough to crawl through - was a long tunnel lit primarily by the light at the end. That light was the outside world.
An ill-looking man at the side of the tunnel giggled as the party of Scouts and Recruits walked toward the barricade. At the barricade, the group was greeted by a different, sane-looking, but also weary-looking man.
"Finally taking the recruits out?" the man at the gate asked Tsubutaki. The man was called Tetsuya, and his job was to watch the tunnel to the surface and control who goes in and out. He obviously knew why this group was going for the gate, because even as he asked he unlocked the gate and opened it.
"See you in about 15 minutes," Tsubutaki responded.
"Be careful," Tetsuya seemed to direct his comment especially at Tsubutaki.
Following her through the gate, the team of Scouts gained a noticeable spring to their step. Tobe had heard from multiple sources that even the Scouts who hated their jobs seemed to prefer the surface.
The light toward the end of the tunnel glimmered as multiple figures obstructed it: Other scouts returning from another mission. There were two of them, one with a long jacket and a pair of sunglasses and another with an high-collared vest and goggles.
"We got a couple monsters out there for you. We erased most of their stuff and slowed them down a lot. Have a good time." They both seemed to find what they said funny in an oddly bitter way.
"Thanks," Tsubutaki said quietly as she walked.
Then the group stepped out into the sunlight.
It was blinding at first, but as Tobe's eyes adjusted it was clear they were standing on an old roadway, largely ruined and in disrepair.
At his right, by the doorway, was another Scout who had apparently been standing guard at the door. High above him, about 50 feet up on an elevated section of the road, another Scout balanced on the barrier apparently keeping watch.
They were apparently keeping watch for the two other scouts below, who were laughing at the expense of a third, who staggered around with its back to Tobie for reasons not yet clear. These three were about 100 feet ahead of the group - or as he had been taught, close long range - and at first Tobe couldn't tell why the third scout kept staggering.
When one of the other two scouts suddenly conjured a blue ball of energy and threw it at the disoriented "scout", blasting it back and knocking it down, that Tobe realized why this "scout" did not seem all there. As it spun through the air from the impact, he saw its face, or at least the top half of what would have been a face.
This was not a scout, but one of the monsters he was here to kill. It was an "anthropomorphic type" as he was taught, and this particular one was called an Andro. Andros were distinguishable from others of their type because of their heads, which resembled the top half of a human skull balanced on a stick. The skull didn't have the appearance of human bone though, instead appearing manufactured of rusted metal.
"He's been blasted with enough status and erase skills to keep him in check so far, and they've been keeping him in place with Snap," the scout who had been guarding the door suddenly had decided to speak up.
"There's an eyeball around here somewhere too," he brought his hand up to his goggles and tapped a button at his temple, "there it is," he said looking to his right.
Tobe knew what he was looking at, but he couldn't see it. It was odd, but he somehow he knew further up the road, behind a barrier, there was a creature. He was even pretty sure he could pinpoint its location if he had to (OOC: Your Targeting allows you to track enemies on the battlefield, even when you don't actually have line of sight), and he also knew it could do the same…
"You know where it is?"
Tsubutaki had a pair of technical-looking goggles in her hand, apparently intended for Tobe's use. However she wore no goggles of her own, and could apparently tell that he didn't need them either.
Smiling, she withdrew the proffered gift and tucked it inside her jacket. "I guess you won't need these then."
"Some Espers can sense the enemy on the battlefield and don't need assistance. It doesn't mean they're automatically better than anyone else, just that they have one less area to work on," she turned to the shrouded scout and held out her hand, "you have the rookie arsenal?"
The scout pulled a pouch from its belt and threw it on the ground.
The group of scouts they had come out with began to spread out, apparently gaining position. One went to a far right flank; another ran up a set of metal stairs.
"Let it go." Tsubutaki told the two scouts who were restraining the Andro. They blasted the creature to the ground one more time and withdrew. "Head on down, you guys are coming up on fifteen." The Andro clambered to its feet and staggered off toward another piece of elevated road in the distance.
The scouts who had already been outside began towards the entrance to the underground. The group of scouts who had accompanied Tobe thus far had taken over their duties.
This left Tobe, Kei, Tsubutaki, and the shrouded scout behind near the entrance. The unknown scout closed the door and bolted it. Then both Tsubutaki and the scout produced small glass cylinders from within their jackets. Tobe could see the vials were filled dust.
Tsubutaki opened hers and sprinkled a bit of the dust on the ground. Immediately Tobe could see different colored lights tumbling out of the vial and gaining purchase on the ground.
The shrouded scout took a few steps away from the area, and smashed its vial on the ground. Just as with Tsubutaki's, Tobe watched as the dust on the ground swirled up into brightly lit and different-colored spheres.
Those spheres were skills, and they were the whole reason they were out here. They were the thing they'd heard about most for the last two days.
"Got it," said the scout.
Stepping forward, the scout's hands were enveloped in a blinding light, which then lanced into the pouch that was on the ground - the one that contained the "rookie arsenal."
From the smoking crater that was once a pouch, the dust and smoke mingled nicely to spout spheres like those from the scout and Tsubutaki's vials, only these were more brightly colored. Tobe knew almost instinctively that those spheres belonged to him…
…and Kei, who ran forward excitedly to capture the first skill!
He waved his hand through a blue sphere, which didn't seem to do what he wanted it to do.
"Stop," said Tsubutaki, who was surrounded with less light and more swirling dust. She had apparently captured the skills she wanted from the dust in her arsenal.
"You two need to pick those carefully. Don't just grab the first things that come up. You have less than a minute, choose your skills together and then work together to take out the enemies!"
"You go first," said Kei, "I'll take what you don't take."
The dust had capsulated into seven different floating spheres of different colors. There were two white spheres, one yellow sphere, two blue spheres, one red sphere, and one green sphere.
Touching any of them revealed what they were, although Tobe didn't fully understand how. Whenever he touched them, he knew what they would do if he captured them, but the information just came to him without any clear channel of communication. He just knew…
Tobe knew what he was looking at, so it was just time to decide…
The two white spheres are Aura Particles. They increase your maximum energy by 1 each and immediately give you 1 energy any time you use them. They require no action or energy to use and are consumed by one use (They leave your skill boxes). If you want to capture and use one just say so and you have it.
One blue sphere is Wall of Fire.
Wall of Fire is a defensive skill that costs 2 to use and can block up to 6 damage. So if you know you can't escape an attack you use a defense skill. This would be a MURPG equivalent to a Force Field or Toughness you have to activate. You don't dodge, you block. If someone attacks harder than you defend, they destroy your defense skill but you are spared the damage.
Another blue sphere is Glacial Wall.
Glacial wall is another defensive skill. It costs 2 to use and can block up to 3 damage, but it has a special quality. When you block someone with this skill you freeze their skill boxes so that they can't do anything but allocate to move around. They can't use any skills at all for almost 2 panels.
The red sphere is Blaster.
Blaster is an attack skill. It costs 4 to use and does 4 damage. It's medium range, and pretty straightforward.
The green sphere is Heat.
Heat is a status skill. Heat costs 4 to use and gives you +1 damage but at the price of -1 energy recovered every panel. Your attack skills hit harder but you can't use them quite as often. Heat is usable only once, it leaves your skill boxes once you consumed it.
To capture and use Heat, just say you are capturing it and then spend the necessary energy.
The yellow sphere is Level Amp.
Level Amp is a special skill. It costs 3 to use and increases your maximum energy by 2. It is 1 use only though, so after you use it once it is consumed from your skill boxes (leaving an empty skill box).
To capture and use Level Amp, just say you are capturing it and then spend the necessary energy.
Remember you can capture any of these you want, but you only have 4 skill boxes available, and Kei has to pick through your leftovers.
Eventually more skills will spawn in the same spot.
___________________________________________________
Red spheres/skills are attack skills. These are the only way to directly damage your opponents.
Blue spheres/skills are defense skills. These let you block attacks whenever you can't avoid them, like when you're in the open or someone just has you perfectly in their sights.
You can still dodge attacks by allocating to defense normally, but attacks have homing and tend to get lots of free stones from situational modifiers (like homing, being at the correct range, and having high ground), so allocating to defense tends to run you out of energy quickly.
Green spheres/skills are status skills. Status skills change your base stats, for example by increasing damage or the amount of energy you recover every panel. They can also inflict status conditions, like paralyzing someone or dazzling them.
Yellow spheres/skills are special skills. These skills don’t fit into other categories, they just do lots of different things.
White spheres are always Aura Particles. You capture these and can use them immediately for free (No action, no energy cost). They are then consumed and gone.
Tobe's
Health 20/20
Energy 12/12 (Recover 4 a panel)
-This is your normal MURPG energy pool, you play all colorless things from this pool. You can't use it to power skills, you use it to power your actions which can combine with skills. This pool can't be affected by enemy attacks or by skills. You will always recover 4 a panel, and you will always have a max of 12.
Aura 5/5 (Recover 2 a panel)
-This is your secondary pool of energy. This pool is the only one that can power skills, and it is the only one affected by skills. Aura Particles increase the maximum of this pool by 1 and also give you 1 energy in this pool immediately. Heat decreases the per/panel recovery rate of this pool by 1. Level Amp would cost 3 Aura to use, but would raise your maximum Aura by 2, which increases your Aura recovery and lets you regenerate up to a higher maximum.
If it's unclear how Aura works, I'll give an example.
Say you wanted to capture and use the Blaster skill. You would go to where the skill spawned and capture it (Capturing takes no action, getting to the skill requires movement).
If you wanted to shoot blaster at someone you would spend 4 Aura. Simple enough?
If you want to really aim your shot and make sure it hits though, you could combine blaster with Ranged Combat, Mastery of Phantom Dust, or both. So you could allocate as much as 8 energy from your normal reserve into Ranged Combat and Mastery of Phantom Dust, and 4 Aura into the Blaster skill to combine with the others, +1 from Targeting and that would net you a 13 stone attack.
Except instead of spending all 12 of your energy, you spent 8 of it and 4 of your Aura, because your Energy powers your actions and your Aura powers your skills.
A skill's cost is its minimum and maximum Aura cost. You can't spend less than 4 Aura to use Blaster, and you can't spend more than 4. You aim the skill with your energy reserve (Stones in Ranged Combat), you just activate it with your Aura. However since it requires at least 4 energy Blaster is always at least a 4 stone attack.
If you have any questions feel free to ask via OOC or in a PM.
Name: To be Determined ("Tobe")
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 178 lbs.
Eyes: Blue-Green
Hair: Brown
Species: Human/Esper
Abilities: Intelligence: 3, Strength: 2, Agility: 4*, Speed: 1, Durability: 4
Health: 20
Energy: 12
Regeneration: 4
Actions and Skills
==================
Locked: Close Combat 4
-Dual-Wielding
Locked: Ranged Combat 4
Locked: Charisma 4
-Social Skills and Leadership
Locked: Ranger 3
-Acrobatics and Black Ops
-Agility Bonus
Locked: Mastery of Phantom Dust 4
Skill boxes:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Modifiers:
Dust Affinity
Dust Resistance 3
Improved Initiative 2--3w
Targeting 1--3w
Equipment:
Wrist Timer
Challenges:
Compulsion to stick up for the innocent/helpless--5
Conflicting interests--5: Seeking humans in need vs. seeking skills, riches, fame, etc.
Esper--2
Guilty conscience--2
Psychological, per symptom--5: Impulsive, hot-head, stubborn, depressed, overconfidant
Also, I apologize for the long read. Since you're new to the world of Phantom Dust, it didn't feel right just to dump you into it without some intro. It's extremely unlikely that any more of my posts will be this long.
____________________________________________________________
Tobe and Kei sat around a large well-worn metal table in a room with mossy brick walls. Lit by a pair of buzzing tube-like bulbs, this room was the least comfortable they'd been in lately. Sadly it was also the one where they spent most of their time for the last two days.
Tobe had recently been found wandering the surface. This was a mystery to him, since he couldn't ever recall being to the surface, or being anywhere else before the last few days. He remembered waking up on an extremely uncomfortable stone slab in a room they called "the infirmary," no doubt because one would have to be infirm in the skull to ever want to go there.
He didn't even know his real name, "Tobe" was just the one he picked from the list they were rattling off when it became too tiresome to continue listening to potential names - none of which were his own.
The other recruit in the room was a young silver-haired boy named Kei. Unlike most of the people Tobe had met so far, Kei was not discovered above but born below. He had lived his whole life underground.
Tobe had just been discovered, checked, and then drafted. They were nice about it, but they were also clear that he didn't have a choice. It helped that every other Scout had the same story. No one had any memories. They were all just as lost as he was.
After being lectured about battle strategy, different skills, teamwork, and mostly the regulations involving the surface, today was the day that Tobe and Kei were actually going to the surface to fight their first enemies.
A series of footsteps drew their attention to the door, where their primary trainer thus far, a woman named Tsubutaki, entered leading five others.
Two of them wore the black shirts with red scarves that indicated Visions Officers. Tobe had learned that much so far. Visions Officers were Scouts with actual official duties, while most Scouts just did what was asked of them when it was asked. The other three wore different clothes unique to each of them. One was a woman, one was a young man, and one was so thoroughly dressed for the surface - mask, goggles, belt full of supplies - that with a covered face and a body efficiently adorned it was indistinguishable as a man or a woman.
"Okay guys, today we go to the surface. We're going to teach you the basics of capturing and using skills. This is the beginning of your training to become Scouts."
Tsubutaki motioned to the team of bored-looking people she'd entered the room with, all of them Scouts.
"We're going up with a big team to protect you, but don't think that means this will be safe or easy. We're here to try and keep things under control, but remember the surface is unpredictable and dangerous."
She looked directly into Tobe's eyes, but said nothing. Then she looked at Kei the same way, still not speaking. Looking again at Tobe, she twisted her lips, clearly thinking but apparently choosing to keep things awkward by not speaking. After another glance at Kei she swept a lock of hair from her face and finally spoke:
"Let's go."
They all filed out of the room but one of the officers, who waited for Tobe and Kei to exit before following.
After two flights of sheet-metal stairs they entered a large round tunnel, one end of which was a dead-end and the other end was the shabby barricade blocking the way to the surface - also constructed mostly of scavenged metal. Beyond the gate in the barricade - one could clearly see beyond due the fact that many of the holes in the barricade were plenty big enough to crawl through - was a long tunnel lit primarily by the light at the end. That light was the outside world.
An ill-looking man at the side of the tunnel giggled as the party of Scouts and Recruits walked toward the barricade. At the barricade, the group was greeted by a different, sane-looking, but also weary-looking man.
"Finally taking the recruits out?" the man at the gate asked Tsubutaki. The man was called Tetsuya, and his job was to watch the tunnel to the surface and control who goes in and out. He obviously knew why this group was going for the gate, because even as he asked he unlocked the gate and opened it.
"See you in about 15 minutes," Tsubutaki responded.
"Be careful," Tetsuya seemed to direct his comment especially at Tsubutaki.
Following her through the gate, the team of Scouts gained a noticeable spring to their step. Tobe had heard from multiple sources that even the Scouts who hated their jobs seemed to prefer the surface.
The light toward the end of the tunnel glimmered as multiple figures obstructed it: Other scouts returning from another mission. There were two of them, one with a long jacket and a pair of sunglasses and another with an high-collared vest and goggles.
"We got a couple monsters out there for you. We erased most of their stuff and slowed them down a lot. Have a good time." They both seemed to find what they said funny in an oddly bitter way.
"Thanks," Tsubutaki said quietly as she walked.
Then the group stepped out into the sunlight.
It was blinding at first, but as Tobe's eyes adjusted it was clear they were standing on an old roadway, largely ruined and in disrepair.
At his right, by the doorway, was another Scout who had apparently been standing guard at the door. High above him, about 50 feet up on an elevated section of the road, another Scout balanced on the barrier apparently keeping watch.
They were apparently keeping watch for the two other scouts below, who were laughing at the expense of a third, who staggered around with its back to Tobie for reasons not yet clear. These three were about 100 feet ahead of the group - or as he had been taught, close long range - and at first Tobe couldn't tell why the third scout kept staggering.
When one of the other two scouts suddenly conjured a blue ball of energy and threw it at the disoriented "scout", blasting it back and knocking it down, that Tobe realized why this "scout" did not seem all there. As it spun through the air from the impact, he saw its face, or at least the top half of what would have been a face.
This was not a scout, but one of the monsters he was here to kill. It was an "anthropomorphic type" as he was taught, and this particular one was called an Andro. Andros were distinguishable from others of their type because of their heads, which resembled the top half of a human skull balanced on a stick. The skull didn't have the appearance of human bone though, instead appearing manufactured of rusted metal.
"He's been blasted with enough status and erase skills to keep him in check so far, and they've been keeping him in place with Snap," the scout who had been guarding the door suddenly had decided to speak up.
"There's an eyeball around here somewhere too," he brought his hand up to his goggles and tapped a button at his temple, "there it is," he said looking to his right.
Tobe knew what he was looking at, but he couldn't see it. It was odd, but he somehow he knew further up the road, behind a barrier, there was a creature. He was even pretty sure he could pinpoint its location if he had to (OOC: Your Targeting allows you to track enemies on the battlefield, even when you don't actually have line of sight), and he also knew it could do the same…
"You know where it is?"
Tsubutaki had a pair of technical-looking goggles in her hand, apparently intended for Tobe's use. However she wore no goggles of her own, and could apparently tell that he didn't need them either.
Smiling, she withdrew the proffered gift and tucked it inside her jacket. "I guess you won't need these then."
"Some Espers can sense the enemy on the battlefield and don't need assistance. It doesn't mean they're automatically better than anyone else, just that they have one less area to work on," she turned to the shrouded scout and held out her hand, "you have the rookie arsenal?"
The scout pulled a pouch from its belt and threw it on the ground.
The group of scouts they had come out with began to spread out, apparently gaining position. One went to a far right flank; another ran up a set of metal stairs.
"Let it go." Tsubutaki told the two scouts who were restraining the Andro. They blasted the creature to the ground one more time and withdrew. "Head on down, you guys are coming up on fifteen." The Andro clambered to its feet and staggered off toward another piece of elevated road in the distance.
The scouts who had already been outside began towards the entrance to the underground. The group of scouts who had accompanied Tobe thus far had taken over their duties.
This left Tobe, Kei, Tsubutaki, and the shrouded scout behind near the entrance. The unknown scout closed the door and bolted it. Then both Tsubutaki and the scout produced small glass cylinders from within their jackets. Tobe could see the vials were filled dust.
Tsubutaki opened hers and sprinkled a bit of the dust on the ground. Immediately Tobe could see different colored lights tumbling out of the vial and gaining purchase on the ground.
The shrouded scout took a few steps away from the area, and smashed its vial on the ground. Just as with Tsubutaki's, Tobe watched as the dust on the ground swirled up into brightly lit and different-colored spheres.
Those spheres were skills, and they were the whole reason they were out here. They were the thing they'd heard about most for the last two days.
"Got it," said the scout.
Stepping forward, the scout's hands were enveloped in a blinding light, which then lanced into the pouch that was on the ground - the one that contained the "rookie arsenal."
From the smoking crater that was once a pouch, the dust and smoke mingled nicely to spout spheres like those from the scout and Tsubutaki's vials, only these were more brightly colored. Tobe knew almost instinctively that those spheres belonged to him…
…and Kei, who ran forward excitedly to capture the first skill!
He waved his hand through a blue sphere, which didn't seem to do what he wanted it to do.
"Stop," said Tsubutaki, who was surrounded with less light and more swirling dust. She had apparently captured the skills she wanted from the dust in her arsenal.
"You two need to pick those carefully. Don't just grab the first things that come up. You have less than a minute, choose your skills together and then work together to take out the enemies!"
"You go first," said Kei, "I'll take what you don't take."
The dust had capsulated into seven different floating spheres of different colors. There were two white spheres, one yellow sphere, two blue spheres, one red sphere, and one green sphere.
Touching any of them revealed what they were, although Tobe didn't fully understand how. Whenever he touched them, he knew what they would do if he captured them, but the information just came to him without any clear channel of communication. He just knew…
Tobe knew what he was looking at, so it was just time to decide…
The two white spheres are Aura Particles. They increase your maximum energy by 1 each and immediately give you 1 energy any time you use them. They require no action or energy to use and are consumed by one use (They leave your skill boxes). If you want to capture and use one just say so and you have it.
One blue sphere is Wall of Fire.
Wall of Fire is a defensive skill that costs 2 to use and can block up to 6 damage. So if you know you can't escape an attack you use a defense skill. This would be a MURPG equivalent to a Force Field or Toughness you have to activate. You don't dodge, you block. If someone attacks harder than you defend, they destroy your defense skill but you are spared the damage.
Another blue sphere is Glacial Wall.
Glacial wall is another defensive skill. It costs 2 to use and can block up to 3 damage, but it has a special quality. When you block someone with this skill you freeze their skill boxes so that they can't do anything but allocate to move around. They can't use any skills at all for almost 2 panels.
The red sphere is Blaster.
Blaster is an attack skill. It costs 4 to use and does 4 damage. It's medium range, and pretty straightforward.
The green sphere is Heat.
Heat is a status skill. Heat costs 4 to use and gives you +1 damage but at the price of -1 energy recovered every panel. Your attack skills hit harder but you can't use them quite as often. Heat is usable only once, it leaves your skill boxes once you consumed it.
To capture and use Heat, just say you are capturing it and then spend the necessary energy.
The yellow sphere is Level Amp.
Level Amp is a special skill. It costs 3 to use and increases your maximum energy by 2. It is 1 use only though, so after you use it once it is consumed from your skill boxes (leaving an empty skill box).
To capture and use Level Amp, just say you are capturing it and then spend the necessary energy.
Remember you can capture any of these you want, but you only have 4 skill boxes available, and Kei has to pick through your leftovers.
Eventually more skills will spawn in the same spot.
___________________________________________________
Red spheres/skills are attack skills. These are the only way to directly damage your opponents.
Blue spheres/skills are defense skills. These let you block attacks whenever you can't avoid them, like when you're in the open or someone just has you perfectly in their sights.
You can still dodge attacks by allocating to defense normally, but attacks have homing and tend to get lots of free stones from situational modifiers (like homing, being at the correct range, and having high ground), so allocating to defense tends to run you out of energy quickly.
Green spheres/skills are status skills. Status skills change your base stats, for example by increasing damage or the amount of energy you recover every panel. They can also inflict status conditions, like paralyzing someone or dazzling them.
Yellow spheres/skills are special skills. These skills don’t fit into other categories, they just do lots of different things.
White spheres are always Aura Particles. You capture these and can use them immediately for free (No action, no energy cost). They are then consumed and gone.
Tobe's
Health 20/20
Energy 12/12 (Recover 4 a panel)
-This is your normal MURPG energy pool, you play all colorless things from this pool. You can't use it to power skills, you use it to power your actions which can combine with skills. This pool can't be affected by enemy attacks or by skills. You will always recover 4 a panel, and you will always have a max of 12.
Aura 5/5 (Recover 2 a panel)
-This is your secondary pool of energy. This pool is the only one that can power skills, and it is the only one affected by skills. Aura Particles increase the maximum of this pool by 1 and also give you 1 energy in this pool immediately. Heat decreases the per/panel recovery rate of this pool by 1. Level Amp would cost 3 Aura to use, but would raise your maximum Aura by 2, which increases your Aura recovery and lets you regenerate up to a higher maximum.
If it's unclear how Aura works, I'll give an example.
Say you wanted to capture and use the Blaster skill. You would go to where the skill spawned and capture it (Capturing takes no action, getting to the skill requires movement).
If you wanted to shoot blaster at someone you would spend 4 Aura. Simple enough?
If you want to really aim your shot and make sure it hits though, you could combine blaster with Ranged Combat, Mastery of Phantom Dust, or both. So you could allocate as much as 8 energy from your normal reserve into Ranged Combat and Mastery of Phantom Dust, and 4 Aura into the Blaster skill to combine with the others, +1 from Targeting and that would net you a 13 stone attack.
Except instead of spending all 12 of your energy, you spent 8 of it and 4 of your Aura, because your Energy powers your actions and your Aura powers your skills.
A skill's cost is its minimum and maximum Aura cost. You can't spend less than 4 Aura to use Blaster, and you can't spend more than 4. You aim the skill with your energy reserve (Stones in Ranged Combat), you just activate it with your Aura. However since it requires at least 4 energy Blaster is always at least a 4 stone attack.