Or in this case just snatch that pebble they are weakly holding in their fingers while using their powers… I’ve never understood why many stoners would not hold tight their in-use stone in a closed fist while rocking it…
Actually, Tony, those words are classic (optionally Massive Multiplayer) Role Playing Game tactics, both PVP (Player versus Player) and PvE (Player versions [non-playable] Ennemy). 😉
So Vadik’s comment was an analogy as to how similar our team of heroes is to a classic medieval-fantastic team like those of Final Fantasy games. You have the following present in our team :
-> The monk class (high damaging bare-handed melee fighters, medium-light defense). That would be Kyri, though Herrik used to fill that spot as well.
-> The knight/paladin class (heavy armor, melee weapons, heavy defense, team tank). That would be Ben replacing his father.
-> The warrior/berserker class (high damaging melee fighters using massive weapons, heavy defense). Grim is here.
-> The cleric class (healing and defensive magic, very light defense). Gog is definitivly here, and in this scene Cole is here too.
-> The mage class (high damaging ranged magic users, very light defense). Jon, Cole, Pablo and Kyri all can fill that spot (even though Kyri has higher defense)
So yeah, we are only missing 2 classes : the thief (stealthy melee weapon user, weapons are light but critically precise, medium defense) and the ranger (ranged weapon user, sometimes critically precise, medium defense). I guess Bolo could be either of those. 😉
Oh yeah, absolutely. 🙂 You are correct, and more so, our heroes actually had their basis in the classic Dungeons and Dragons role playing game.
Herrik (not in the group now) – was a monk/assassin
Bolo (not in the group now) – Thief
Kyri – Ranger/monk
Vandric – Fighter
Gog – Cleric
Ben – Paladin
Jon – Magic User/Thief
Pablo – Magic User
Cole – Magic User
I’ve never mentioned this before, but the Endstone characters themselves are based off D&D characters (most with the same names!) that my friends and I played in a long running D&D game many years ago.
The fact that the Endstone characters are based off actual people (people tend to “role-play” close to their actual personality) helps me tremendously in writing. Since I base their personalities from my friends, it’s easy to make the characters distinctive.
Even though they are tweaked for the Endstone story, Pablo, Ben, Herrik, Bolo, Gog, and Vandric are all very much like my friends who played them in the game (although I’ve added aspects of my own personality to Pablo). As the lead characters, Jon and Kyri are more universal, although Jon represents a rational aspect of myself and I definitely identify with Kyri’s cantankerous hate of human society and her love of simplicity and nature. Colindra is an exaggerated amalgam of various clever women I have met in my travels through life.
In case you were wondering where this all came from…. 😉
Another RPG classic, even though i have yet to get to it myself. But Herrik as an assassin ? Kyri and Jon as thieves ? WTF ? I can’t see any element pointing in those directions, not to mention assassin and thief are usually the same class, sometime one is an advanced version of the other.
Likewise, fighter and monk are usually the same class or one is an advanced version of the other, so Grim cannot be a fighter as classes go. He’s not about speed, agility, and precisely aimed bare-handed hits. That’s why i mentionned clas family, the warrior/berserker class, that is as heavy and well-protected as knight/paladin but a lot more aggressive. Where knights will tank ennemies to protect allies, berserkers will smash the ground to take out ennemies in a whole zone and stunt their own allies nearby. 😉
As for Ben, he can’t be a Paladin, as he lacks (holy) magic, that’s why i said he’s rather a pure knight. 😉
It’s specially hard in the stoner world to classify that way stoners as various types of magic users as they just have to swap stones to swap abilities, though. Only reason we can classify Gog as cleric is because he’s never let go of the Healstone (except when down) nor has he ever rocked anything else.
Actually, Jon stole the Endstone back in the day and that’s what set Kyri’s story in motion. So he does have a thieving side to him. Plus, he’s the CFO of Goldman Sachs in another life so there’s definitely a criminal element to his personality. 😉
Oh and I think you misread. Kyri is not a thief at all. She’s originally a ranger but I added monk capabilities because of her character arc.
As for the others, it’s all a very loose interpretation. I’m obviously going for something original with Endstone, and I’m just using fantasy/adventure conventions as a base and tweaking them a bit.
Also, based on what you wrote, I think there might be some differences between D&D and the RPGs you play. I admit I’m a bit behind in games. I stopped playing all electronic games about ten years ago in order to focus on art so I really don’t know about character classes anymore. Lately, I’ve played a little Diablo, but that’s about it.
Anybody can steal things, that does not make them thieves as defined by the classic RPG class systems. Thieves are stealthy close-range fighters that use light weapons to perform critical strikes. Weapons such as daggers usually work like a charm. That’s why thieves sometimes can evolve into assassins. I don’t remember Jon using any of those…
As for ranger, they are actually revy similar except they trade stealth for ranged weaponry, such as bows and arrows. Again, not remembering Kyri using any of those. :p
I know it’s a loose implementation but still there are some base elements. And you have these elements within your universe, just not distributed the way you visibly think they are. ;P
So yeah so far Kyri has shown us monk/mage capabilities, and while she does master melee weapons in a martial art manner she usually fights bare-handed so she’s still a monk 😉
As for Jon, so far he’s a pure mage. 😉
—————————————-
Here’s a global recap in case you need it, of course that’s a mish mash of many games but still represents the classic views of those classes :
KNIGHT
Heavy armor, heavy defense, 1-hand heavy weapons (swords mostly), shields. Good melee offense, but tends mostly to take hits instead of other to protect them.
PALADIN
Advanced knight. Gains access to basic holy magic : healing and defensive magic mostly, a bit of offensive light but that only works on undead creatures.
WARRIOR / BERSERKER
Heavy armor, heavy defense, heavy offense. Usually uses 2-handed heavy weapons and attacks with blind fury. As such, while he’s well protected, he’s not good at protecting others. Although, great offense can be a great defense too…
THIEF / ASSASSIN
Stealth, medium defense, no armor, uses light weapons (daggers), often dual wielding them, and knows how to perform crittical hits.
RANGER
Medium defense, no armor, uses daggers like the thief when forced to, but prefers to remain at greater distance and use ranged weapons like bows and arrows. Sometimes can magically enchance arrows.
CLERIC
Like all magic user : light defense and no armor. The cleric focuses on advanced holy magic, used for healing and defensive spells mostly. A few offensive light spells can be used on the Undead. All magic known by Paladins are child’s play compared to what a Cleric can use.
MAGE
Like all magic user : light defense and no armor. This one is a glass canon, dealing damage and inflincting offensive support with order-based spells and elements related to order, like Water, Ice, Earth and Wind. He has a few summons too, but nothing really impressive
DRUID
Like all magic user : light defense and no armor. This one is nature-oriented and as such has mostly support spells, both offensive and defensive. But he also is a master of summonning, and that’s his main specialty.
SORCERER
Like all magic user : light defense and no armor. This one is a glass canon just like the mage, and in fact is the mage’s Chaos counterpart, focusing on more chaotic elements like Fire and Lightning. He also uses more offensive support spells in the form of curses than the mage does
NECROMANCER
Like all magic user : light defense and no armor. This one is the death counterpart to the druid, focusing all his spells on powerful curses and undead summonning. He also has more directly offensive spells based on draining ennemies (either their energy or life force). Being so close to the undead has made the necromancer vulnerable to Holy Light magic.
—————————————-
And that’s it for the quick recap. I personnally would love changes and twists on the mecanics of those, don’t get me wrong, as long as the changes can be explained properly. 😉
But as far as classic games go, that’s what we’ve been given over the years
Unlikely that 2 gods of the stoner world would have the same modern world reference. But i guess that’s defenitivly a deity in its own right. We’ve seen the goddess of deers through her modern world deer skull symbol (the tatoo on Kyri’s back) though i can’t remember her name. My guess is that Uggo is the god of dogs. 😉
Gog makes me think of Spaceballs and the Mog. 🙂 Not fair, probably, but there is it.
Mog? Hahaha. Very fair I’d say. 🙂
“I’m a Mog- half man, half dog. I’m my own best friend.”
Always shoot the cleric first. Then the mage.
Or in this case just snatch that pebble they are weakly holding in their fingers while using their powers… I’ve never understood why many stoners would not hold tight their in-use stone in a closed fist while rocking it…
Words to live by…. or die by. 😉
Actually, Tony, those words are classic (optionally Massive Multiplayer) Role Playing Game tactics, both PVP (Player versus Player) and PvE (Player versions [non-playable] Ennemy). 😉
So Vadik’s comment was an analogy as to how similar our team of heroes is to a classic medieval-fantastic team like those of Final Fantasy games. You have the following present in our team :
-> The monk class (high damaging bare-handed melee fighters, medium-light defense). That would be Kyri, though Herrik used to fill that spot as well.
-> The knight/paladin class (heavy armor, melee weapons, heavy defense, team tank). That would be Ben replacing his father.
-> The warrior/berserker class (high damaging melee fighters using massive weapons, heavy defense). Grim is here.
-> The cleric class (healing and defensive magic, very light defense). Gog is definitivly here, and in this scene Cole is here too.
-> The mage class (high damaging ranged magic users, very light defense). Jon, Cole, Pablo and Kyri all can fill that spot (even though Kyri has higher defense)
So yeah, we are only missing 2 classes : the thief (stealthy melee weapon user, weapons are light but critically precise, medium defense) and the ranger (ranged weapon user, sometimes critically precise, medium defense). I guess Bolo could be either of those. 😉
Oh yeah, absolutely. 🙂 You are correct, and more so, our heroes actually had their basis in the classic Dungeons and Dragons role playing game.
Herrik (not in the group now) – was a monk/assassin
Bolo (not in the group now) – Thief
Kyri – Ranger/monk
Vandric – Fighter
Gog – Cleric
Ben – Paladin
Jon – Magic User/Thief
Pablo – Magic User
Cole – Magic User
I’ve never mentioned this before, but the Endstone characters themselves are based off D&D characters (most with the same names!) that my friends and I played in a long running D&D game many years ago.
The fact that the Endstone characters are based off actual people (people tend to “role-play” close to their actual personality) helps me tremendously in writing. Since I base their personalities from my friends, it’s easy to make the characters distinctive.
Even though they are tweaked for the Endstone story, Pablo, Ben, Herrik, Bolo, Gog, and Vandric are all very much like my friends who played them in the game (although I’ve added aspects of my own personality to Pablo). As the lead characters, Jon and Kyri are more universal, although Jon represents a rational aspect of myself and I definitely identify with Kyri’s cantankerous hate of human society and her love of simplicity and nature. Colindra is an exaggerated amalgam of various clever women I have met in my travels through life.
In case you were wondering where this all came from…. 😉
Another RPG classic, even though i have yet to get to it myself. But Herrik as an assassin ? Kyri and Jon as thieves ? WTF ? I can’t see any element pointing in those directions, not to mention assassin and thief are usually the same class, sometime one is an advanced version of the other.
Likewise, fighter and monk are usually the same class or one is an advanced version of the other, so Grim cannot be a fighter as classes go. He’s not about speed, agility, and precisely aimed bare-handed hits. That’s why i mentionned clas family, the warrior/berserker class, that is as heavy and well-protected as knight/paladin but a lot more aggressive. Where knights will tank ennemies to protect allies, berserkers will smash the ground to take out ennemies in a whole zone and stunt their own allies nearby. 😉
As for Ben, he can’t be a Paladin, as he lacks (holy) magic, that’s why i said he’s rather a pure knight. 😉
It’s specially hard in the stoner world to classify that way stoners as various types of magic users as they just have to swap stones to swap abilities, though. Only reason we can classify Gog as cleric is because he’s never let go of the Healstone (except when down) nor has he ever rocked anything else.
Actually, Jon stole the Endstone back in the day and that’s what set Kyri’s story in motion. So he does have a thieving side to him. Plus, he’s the CFO of Goldman Sachs in another life so there’s definitely a criminal element to his personality. 😉
Oh and I think you misread. Kyri is not a thief at all. She’s originally a ranger but I added monk capabilities because of her character arc.
As for the others, it’s all a very loose interpretation. I’m obviously going for something original with Endstone, and I’m just using fantasy/adventure conventions as a base and tweaking them a bit.
Also, based on what you wrote, I think there might be some differences between D&D and the RPGs you play. I admit I’m a bit behind in games. I stopped playing all electronic games about ten years ago in order to focus on art so I really don’t know about character classes anymore. Lately, I’ve played a little Diablo, but that’s about it.
Anybody can steal things, that does not make them thieves as defined by the classic RPG class systems. Thieves are stealthy close-range fighters that use light weapons to perform critical strikes. Weapons such as daggers usually work like a charm. That’s why thieves sometimes can evolve into assassins. I don’t remember Jon using any of those…
As for ranger, they are actually revy similar except they trade stealth for ranged weaponry, such as bows and arrows. Again, not remembering Kyri using any of those. :p
I know it’s a loose implementation but still there are some base elements. And you have these elements within your universe, just not distributed the way you visibly think they are. ;P
So yeah so far Kyri has shown us monk/mage capabilities, and while she does master melee weapons in a martial art manner she usually fights bare-handed so she’s still a monk 😉
As for Jon, so far he’s a pure mage. 😉
—————————————-
Here’s a global recap in case you need it, of course that’s a mish mash of many games but still represents the classic views of those classes :
KNIGHT
Heavy armor, heavy defense, 1-hand heavy weapons (swords mostly), shields. Good melee offense, but tends mostly to take hits instead of other to protect them.
PALADIN
Advanced knight. Gains access to basic holy magic : healing and defensive magic mostly, a bit of offensive light but that only works on undead creatures.
WARRIOR / BERSERKER
Heavy armor, heavy defense, heavy offense. Usually uses 2-handed heavy weapons and attacks with blind fury. As such, while he’s well protected, he’s not good at protecting others. Although, great offense can be a great defense too…
THIEF / ASSASSIN
Stealth, medium defense, no armor, uses light weapons (daggers), often dual wielding them, and knows how to perform crittical hits.
RANGER
Medium defense, no armor, uses daggers like the thief when forced to, but prefers to remain at greater distance and use ranged weapons like bows and arrows. Sometimes can magically enchance arrows.
CLERIC
Like all magic user : light defense and no armor. The cleric focuses on advanced holy magic, used for healing and defensive spells mostly. A few offensive light spells can be used on the Undead. All magic known by Paladins are child’s play compared to what a Cleric can use.
MAGE
Like all magic user : light defense and no armor. This one is a glass canon, dealing damage and inflincting offensive support with order-based spells and elements related to order, like Water, Ice, Earth and Wind. He has a few summons too, but nothing really impressive
DRUID
Like all magic user : light defense and no armor. This one is nature-oriented and as such has mostly support spells, both offensive and defensive. But he also is a master of summonning, and that’s his main specialty.
SORCERER
Like all magic user : light defense and no armor. This one is a glass canon just like the mage, and in fact is the mage’s Chaos counterpart, focusing on more chaotic elements like Fire and Lightning. He also uses more offensive support spells in the form of curses than the mage does
NECROMANCER
Like all magic user : light defense and no armor. This one is the death counterpart to the druid, focusing all his spells on powerful curses and undead summonning. He also has more directly offensive spells based on draining ennemies (either their energy or life force). Being so close to the undead has made the necromancer vulnerable to Holy Light magic.
—————————————-
And that’s it for the quick recap. I personnally would love changes and twists on the mecanics of those, don’t get me wrong, as long as the changes can be explained properly. 😉
But as far as classic games go, that’s what we’ve been given over the years
Chief Financial Officer of Goldman Sachs – it still cracks me up!
Uggo? Who’s that? Is he, like Elvik, supposed to be a reference to somebody in pop culture?
Unlikely that 2 gods of the stoner world would have the same modern world reference. But i guess that’s defenitivly a deity in its own right. We’ve seen the goddess of deers through her modern world deer skull symbol (the tatoo on Kyri’s back) though i can’t remember her name. My guess is that Uggo is the god of dogs. 😉
The dog god, Uggo the Alpha. As for the reference, we shall see… 😉