Teen Titans, Dungeons and Dragons oh my!

So back in the day I used to do this DnD type of thing with some friends of mine involving teen titans. Overwhelmed with nostalgia, I thought it would be a cool idea to try and start a series of my own. Now I know what you're thinking, "But we're already doing roleplaying stuffs here!" True random person! But we can't/don't use canon characters here.

And I don't intend/expect this to be a major thing to take the place of our good ol forum here. I just thought that maybe it would be a nice diversion or activity people could get involved with while they wait for posts or whatevers.

I only have a setting in mind. Other important details like how will these little "DnD" sessions work is still up in the air. A very simple but enjoyable system could be whipped up, or we could just find a system to work with. There is a set of rules and stuff that exist for superhero roleplaying, and the one I used back in the day wasn't as complicated as DnD.

So anyone interested?

Da Roster
Mega - Blackfire
Speed Freak - (undecided)
Pika - Killowat, Bushido or Herald (undecided)
Saturnstormx - Raven or Starfire (undecided)
Wrath - Red X

ME! Im interested

Certainly sounds interesting, I would like to hear more if possible.

I'm a bit interested, I'll need some more details though.

Well so far what I have in mind is that the cast will be (for the most part) canon characters. Robin, Raven, Cyborg, etc. But with that in mind, I'm gonna go with what me and some friends did in the past and switch it up alittle. What I mean by that is, you don't have to try so hard to "play" the character as you may have read or seen them. I encourage adding alittle personal flair to them

Now imagine what would happen if the teen titans wee never a thing. Or rather didn't band together in the way they did in the show. I don't want to spoil too much at the moment until I get more things sorted, but the setting is edgier and darker then we might be allowed here. Swearing like a sailor yar!

And now for the part about where we'll be actually doing these little sessions. Well assuming everyone's schedules overlap alittle, we can use some kind of messenger like Skype or Yahoo. If anything we'll sort that out when we get to it.

Are there any other questions that I haven't answered?

Yes.

How would playing other characters work?

For example, if one were to play Red X, would they be roleplaying separately?

And dibs if that could work.

Funny you should mention Red X of all people, Wrath. The way me and my old rp group played it was that you simply picked a character, and were part of the "team" so to speak. For example: the members of the team in my old group was Robin, Raven, Red X, and Jinx. So don't worry about roleplaying "separately" or having to pick one of the original titans for the sake of being on the same team.

If you wanna be Gizmo, you can totally be on the team regardless if it has Cyborg or whoever in it.

And on the matter of Original Characters which someone asked, I would prefer it being canons simply because of nostalgia, and it's different then just taking your OC and posting on the forum. The only difference would be the use of dice and actual stats to decide things instead of... not using dice and actual stats. But with that in mind, I don't have a problem with OCs making cameos, or serving as an alternative in certain situations. Like with Kris since St was the only one to ask: I don't have a problem with you playing Kris in place of a canon, if said canon is... unable to work with the team. Like say your canon character gets beat to a pulp and tossed into the hospital for a time. Kris could under those circumstances be played in place of whoever you played.

And the same goes for any OC. If there's a situation where a canon cannot (does not) want to be apart of whatever the group is doing, then an OC can take their place. But otherwise, OC use is limited. Or I would prefer it limited lol

I also wanna mention that I don't plan on being the sole "DM" for every session. Meaning that anyone can take a turn and lead the session if they want xP

I'm from a different time zone so there may be times when I can't be on at the same time, will that be a problem?

Only if for whatever reason we have to cut a session short and end on a cliffhanger. Or do a "two parter" kind of thing. Hard to explain how your character disappears in the middle of a firefight, but we could always borrow your character for the sake of getting stuff done. Won't do it if you simply can't make it before we even start.

Now as for the scary part: the stats. Yes, there will be stats! Another different thing from the forum. Nothing quite as scary as DnD, atleast I'm going to avoid something like that. Since I can't find any relevant system to use (and don't want to buy one) I'm going to whip up a simple and easy to understand system using dice. And we'll develop it as we go because I'll be working on it forever if I try to think of EVERYTHING xP

In the mean time, we should probably start calling characters to play. I played Robin back in the day, but if anyone else wants em they're more then welcome to take em. And before I forget, certain characters might be iffy. Like the terrible trio, Plasmus, Cinderblock, and Overload. Depends on who it is and how important they might be for the story.

If we're gonna call characters, I'll probably be taking either Raven or Starfire. Raven's my first choice though.

Red X.

Do we have to decide right now, or can we take time to decide? Or is it possible to choose multiple people to play as, because I can't decide between Killowat, Bushido and Herald.

There's plenty of time to decide. I'm going to be working on the dice/stat system for us to use so there's no rush. And as for multiple characters, I had toyed with the idea of a "second team" that doesn't interact with the other one directly, but they're mentioned or referenced to alot. Like, team A is told the whereabouts of Killer Moth's lab because Team B successfully raided one of his safehouses and found a data disk. Stuff like that basically.

So with that in mind, we could easily have another set of characters if everyone feels up to it. I would like to avoid having everyone's 2nd character be in the same session to avoid roleplaying with ourselves. But doesn't mean they'd never meet eventually xP

So yeah. Take your time with deciding. I still have a couple projects being worked on at the moment aswell. Plus there's work, but I'll be giving it some attention whenever I can.

In the mean time, I'll add a list of everyone interested and what character they've picked for convenience.

Okay, so bare with me as i try to explain in greater detail how everything will work. If any of you have played or heard of DnD before, then you'll understand the basic premise. Except for combat and determining the outcome of certain situations, everything will be done via a messenger like Skype. All actions will be done like you would on the forum. Writing it out, and roleplaying what your character does or thinks. I hope I don't need to explain that any further xD

Now like I said, everything else will be done via a dice roll much like in DnD. Depending on what you roll and the difficulty of whatever you're doing, will determine what happens. Then you rp what your character does based on the roll. The basic example of this is if your character is trying to sneak up on an enemy, and tries to sneak attack him. If you succeed, rp what your character does to reach that point. Or if you fail, depending on how bad you fail, rp how your character's sneak attack failed.

There is also something I'll do from my old group where depending on how detailed or cool your "post" is, I might reward you with an extra die or a bonus to your roll for example. The same rule goes for anyone wanting to take a crack at running a session.

Now I (hope) know that atleast one of you is curious as to how everything will start. Before I get into that, let's go into bare bones of the stats and mechanics. I've already said several times we will be using dice, different kinds for different things. The first die will be a D20, which will be primarily used to determine IF you succeed or fail at anything you need to roll for. Hitting an enemy, picking a lock, sneaking into Raven's room undetected- everything. Basically you will be given a difficulty (a number I have in my head or written down somewhere for quick reference) that you must meet or beat in order to succeed. Fail your stealth roll, and Raven notices you sneak into her room where she promptly throws you out a window.

Then there's damage, which depending on the lethality of the source, will use any kind of dice that best fits it. Simply smacking someone across the face does not warrant a die roll. But hitting someone with a small rock would hit for 1D4 of damage. There will also be two kinds of damage, lethal and non-lethal. For simplicity, the only difference for now is that one can and will kill you if you take too many of them. The other one "CAN" kill you, but takes longer. When your character or an enemy's HP drops to 0 from a non-lethal attack, they're just knocked out cold. I might try to use this as something more practical when I think of it, but for now it just gives everyone the option to kill or not.

All basic attacks (unless noted) will use D6s to determine damage.


With that out of the way, let's get to how our characters will stack up. But before I forget, you can write down their appearance and background up to the starting point of the story as you would on the forum. But that depends on whether or not I will be posting this stuff up for archival purposes. Otherwise, just focus on the stats and keep your character sheet somewhere for quick reference.

Now for zee stats!

Power: An all encompassing "offense" stat that doesn't just mean how strong you are physically. This could also mean how strong you are in terms of power, like Starfire's Starbolts, or Raven's telekinesis. All in all it determines how much damage you do, and the success of rolls where "brute strength" is used.

Dexterity: Where agility, finesse, or skill is required. Things like slipping out of rope or restraints, or whether not you are hit or hit. Like I said, it also determines whether or not you dodge an attack, or hit an enemy primarily.

Intelligence: How knowledgeable or experienced your character is about the world around them. Determines the success of "sense" rolls and rolls that give you alittle more information about your surroundings. Everyone gets 1 free point in Int. Your "mana" is equal to your int stat x3

Endurance: How able you are to endure physical or mental hazards. Determines how effective poison, control and status effects are against you. It also determines how many hits you can take. Everyone gets 1 free point in this stat. Your HP is equal to your Endurance stat x5

Hit Points: If you've ever played any rpg game ever, you know what this is.

Energy: This is your "mana" pool that determines how often you can spam special attacks or powers.


I had thought of adding skills, but believed that would over complicate things for everyone. So any "skill" roll required will just use one of the stats above to make it easier for everyone. If everyone wants to later I can add skills but for now this will suffice.

Now since this isn't a MMO or anything, I'll explain how a turn of combat will go. Depending on the situation, everyone will roll for initiative with 1D20 and add the result to their base Dex. Or to make things easier, one side goes first. Depends on the situation.

Now here's a basic example of how combat would go.

Thug A goes to attack Starfire! He rolls a 13. He has a Dex of 1 which equals 14 in all. Starfire rolls a 10. But her dex is 5, so she narrowly avoids taking a hit.

Now let's assume he hit her. He rolls a D6 and rolls a 3. His strength is 2, so he does 5 damage in total. Starfire takes 5 damage.

Now let's look at some more advanced examples. Assuming she was hit again, Starfire's Archetype is the Heavy Hitter which gains a point of damage resistance per level. She is level 3, so her DR is 3 which reduces the damage to 2.

Again assuming he hit her, Starfire could use one of her powers and deploys an energy shield that raises her DR by another 2 which nullifies the attack completely.

Now let's assume he WOULD have hit her, but Starfire uses her "flight" power which adds a +2 to her dodge roll. She avoids the attack.

That's the basic rundown, there are many more examples of how combat could go, but that would take forever. All you need to know is that the Attackers must roll to determine if they hit you, and you roll to determine if you dodge the attack or not. If the Attacker's roll is equal or higher to what you get, then you take a hit. Anything less is a miss, no matter how small.

I would also like to encourage you to rp how the result played out. Like if you hit them, describe what your character does or how they hit them. Stuff like that basically.

Now one more thing before I tell you more about the actual setup itself. Archetypes. These will be our "classes" which will give our characters alittle bonus or two, and also 5 points locked into specific stats important to that Archetype.

Acrobats
The "rogue" of the group who values agility and skill more then power or strength.

Ability: Every time an Acrobat dodges an attack, they counter damage equal to 1d4 plus half the acrobat's dexterity.

Pow: 1
Dex: 4
Int: 1
End: 1


Heavy Hitters
"Heavies" for short, these are the warriors/bruisers of the group who values power and durability above all else.

Ability: Heavies roll 1d8 instead of 1d6 when dealing damage. Gets 1DR per level.

Pow: 3
Dex: 0
Int: 1
End: 3

Spellcasters
The "mages" of the group who values destructive powers or crippling abilities over physical prowess.

Ability: Energy is equal to x4 the Int stat

Pow: 2
Dex: 1
Int: 3
End: 1

As I said, the archetypes have 5 points already locked in for you. But since I doubt many of you will be comfortable with just that, you can have 5 more stat points to lock in where ever you want. If you want to be alittle more tanky as a spellcaster, go ahead. I want you to build the character the way you want within reason.

Now as far as powers go, I don't really have a stat-based means to tell you when you get a power or special attack. Same goes for experience. With that in mind I may just go with a situational based means of determining these. Like after a difficult mission, we could just assume they leveled up. Or if I feel as though someone did more then had to compared to everyone else, the same rule applies. We'll see what happens.

Now everyone will start with one power. For now I don't see the need to clamp so many limits onto what you can or cannot do. Just keep in mind that the more powerful it is, the more energy it costs ATLEAST. You could also have a downside or two to balance it out if you want alittle more power.


Now it doesn't really matter what your character sheet looks like as long as it has all the important info on it. But here is an example to give you an idea:

Blackfire
Archetype: Heavyhitter
DR: 1
HP: 15
Energy: 6

Pow: 5
Dex: 2
Int: 2
End: 3

Powers
Flight: -1E: +2 to Dodge or Attack rolls (once per turn)

Apperance: ((Optional since we're playing canons, we can just easily look a picture up))

History: ((Also optional))

Now you should be able to make your character sheets. If any of you need help with anything just let me know

And finally the setup! The last thing you may or may not need to add to your character sheet should you choose to do so.

Like I said in my first post, what if the teen titans were never a thing? Or at the very least, not with the same people, or the same way. Wrath wants Red X, and I will most likely be using Blackfire. So our team would not be exactly like the original team. With that in mind, we won't be running around fighting crime either- atleast not for the same reasons.

The group will be a team of metahumans, who have been recruited by SOMEONE we all know. Our characters may not know who they are, atleast not at first. Our team will work for...

-cue dramatic pause-

Slade.... OR Brother Blood. That's quite the major difference from just running around fighting bad guys right? Well, that was one of the things I found so appealing when I did this back in the day. What if, the team worked for Slade? Or in this case, Brother Blood depending on how everyone wants to go. Now it may sound impossible, but let's look at it this way: Slade is deceptive, and can be very persuasive in one form or another. Brother Blood uses mind control.

And since a few of our characters aren't exactly heroes, this wouldn't be too hard to work around. The basic premise would be that everyone was recruited, either willingly or by force in one shape or another. I already have something in mind for Blackfire for Slade. Now the only notable difference would be that Slade makes his authority clear, going so far as use certain devices to impose his control on others. Brother Blood's control would be subtle, and no one would probably notice that he's controlling their minds until it's too late. I'm not saying however that either one of them is more cruel then the other, just that Slade will lie and act sincere when it best serves his interests. But he has no problem with being cruel if it serves his purpose. Brother Blood may not have to resort to anything but his mind control. We'll see how it plays out.

How you want your character to end up working for one or the other is up to you to decide. Again, if you don't want to include a history that's fine. It would only matter if I wanted to put any of these up anywhere for archival purposes. If you just want to keep stats on your character sheet, go ahead. And then we can just figure out why everyone is there in character.

Now that's the bare basics. I hope everyone has a good idea of how this will work, and once everyone has their character all squared away, we can work out a time and a messenger to use to begin. Also, for dice rolling, just google Dice Rollers and the first result should be Wizards.

So are there any questions?

No questions, more concerns.

If our mana is equivalent to triple our Intelligence, 1d4 is way too much. Wanting people to have powers is fine, but why is regeneration even an issue if people are getting mana back at a good rate? You're giving 5 points for us to put anywhere, so we get 15 minimum points. I know it wasn't a strict example, but in your example flight was 1 point. You get at least 1 point per turn because of dice. So arguably you'd never run out.

But if that really was just an example, that's fine.

Second concern, Slade. Slade was, as everyone knows, a very inaccurate representation of Deathstroke. He's fine, but I'd prefer we use him a little more accurately.

Other than that, sweet.