We’re glad to announce that Tower Of Heaven {WG/Expansion RP} [18+] server had hit 600 members!
Unfortunately, only less than 50 Heaveneer RP members are active, so we’re hoping to encourage more activity with this post!
The anniversary draws near too and we’re planning a couple bigger updates along with a very special annoucement…
For those who do not know what ToH is yet:
Tower of Heaven is a fantasy rp, taking place in a mysterious, giant tower of 100 floors that has existed there since the dawn of mankind. It is a place of many mysteries, but most important, a place of widened waists~. Many of the tricks, traps and monsters here have a certain tendency to plump you up, making this weird trait one of the mysteries of this monolith! Come make friends or enemies, visit a variety of dungeons or set up your own adventures and story-lines for your character arcs. The world of ToH evolves with players, as they pave the lore with their interactions with the tower and their people. So come join us, and happy climbing!
We have a couple rulebooks written too! The rules were included to make the RP more immersive and engaging. They might seem daunting to read initially, but the players are only required to read the first rulebook to join the RP!
I looked over the rulebooks, and WOW this looks awful. It sounded like a lot of fun, but the way it’s described…Just no. The Class/Combat system was the death knell for me. I couldn’t understand it well, besides which what I did understand didn’t really suit my liking. It just doesn’t sound fun. Just restrictive.
Some of us find more fun through restriction, but we’ll gladly take this criticism into our hearts!
A rework of XP system and a couple other mechanics is on the way too.
We’re aware of how cluttered the rulebook is - but I think we’d need more proffesional help to organize everything. There’s a plenty of flaws too, but… well, unfortunately we can’t dedicate our full time to it.
Do you perhaps have any suggestions other than not liking it?
Edit: Welp, not much of a constructive opinion it seems!
We’ll gladly accept criticism, just tell us what’s wrong rather than grumbling
This was personally my first RP experience, and it seems to be more akin to DnD, though with much less rules, than a freeform RP.
I stayed for a long time now, and the place honestly grew on me, with a nice community and a very open fantasy world, from what I have also seen, the quality of RP is a bit higher than average I would say?
At least for those who prefer world-building and character interaction with nice kink support.
It’s a recommendation from me, also I do have to say they rulebooks could be better, and it is something that is actively being worked on.
So any suggestions are more than welcome!
A really fun server with the mods and owners trying their hardest to ensure everyone is happy and understanding of the rules. They accept everybody and are even patient with those who don’t understand and make a few mistakes- it’s really lovely. It’s fun to chat and can be intimidating at first, but everyone seems to make you welcome!
The rulebooks are easy to understand and you really don’t have to take in much to actually join in (it’s as simple as reading the first rulebook.) One of my favourite places to talk in on Discord and definitely a great server to RP in if you’re willing to do very light reading and don’t mind asking other to RP.
With all due respect, is it possible to get a link to the rulebook so some of us can read it without joining the server first? Might help some of us who are uncertain about whether to join or not.
Of course! Here you go:
The 1st rulebook is mainly about character creation - players are required to read this one.
The 2nd rulebook is mainly just lore blurbs and other stuff
The 3rd rulebook talks about the mechanics. It’s recommended for the players to read this, although not required.
We are aware of the general mess in the rulebooks. We’ve organized them a bit, but… yeah, stuff is still confusing. We’re planning something bigger for the anniversary of ToH (which happens in about a month) such as reworking the XP system, Immobility Limit and other important details that might give players problems.
For an “organized” RP, I dare say that this information is basic, with a couple extras thrown into the mix.
After reading this, I’d say this is remarkably in-depth. There’s a lot of lore to unpack here.
However, I’m noticing none of the rulebooks mention how combat or other checks are resolved. Does this use something similar to the standard D&D/Pathfinder system, the percentile system, or something more freeform like a coin toss or the whims of the DM?
It’s usually more freeform indeed (also, thank you for the compliment!)
The GM can decide whether the encounters are mainly played out by the fate of the dice or simply RPing it out. Usually it’s the latter, but the general concept stays the same! There’s just various styles of doing it.
IF YOU’RE NOT A FAN OF DEATH AND WON’T HAVE YOUR CHAR DIE THIS IS USELESS INFO FOR YOU
does this mean “death” is an optional mechanic and how is this handled in the long term?
In the kinks section of the first book, nothing is listed. Is this a play-by-ear type of thing or are there approved kinks that need to be cleared with the dm first?
Edit: sorry, I clicked the post key early by accident when typing this
Yeah, death is an optional mechanic.
Some people just don’t like it, so there’s no point in forcing it.
But just like it’s written in the rulebook, the characters get revived through a special dungeon.
You just write your kinks there. Sometimes people wanna see if their kinks are compatible with their partners. I suppose the main kinks are expansion related ones, though?
I have to say, it’s not my cup of tea (too much freeform and dependant on player/gm interpretation of anything written and not written), but it seems good for those that like that kind of game.
It has laid down the basic of what is considered ok while playing with others (consent and in general some tips and rules), which is the most basic but also important thing. The death optional rule is one example, but also the kink tags and the pvp consent.
It introduces to the setting people will play in, the class system sounds anything but restrictive: it’s a framework for people to build upon, and the level system is there to avoid a seasoned veteran (more involved in play) from having his ass kicked or being surpassed by the new guy or someone that casually plays once or twice. And considering the freeforming, consent and everything, unless it’s in some very particular situation the level gap I don’t see it being ever too much big for players compared to the challenges they face. SO the level seems to me more like a rewarding system for those that plays and contribute to the community more, instead of being a “true” gamistic mechanic like in dnd, where leveling up actually gives you more skills. Nothing stops here a lowlevel character from gaining a lot of things, or an highlevel character to basically remain the same from when it was lvl 1 (although it’s probably encouraged the contrary). So, in the context of freeform rpgs, it seems to me like a good thing instead of a bad thing.
This said, as I mentioned before it’s not really my cup of tea due to what was said at the start: too much freeform means that if you are someone that likes challenges you have to “fake” the game as challenging by writing your character actions and reactions as such. This probably become more obvious if you end up paired with people that instead likes to win everything easily. The death optional rule works also as an example of what I am saying in this instance.
In the end only one thing matters though: Have fun everyone, and congrats for the big numbers! I hope for your community to grow (in more ways than one perhaps?).
Great example of constructive criticism, thank you!
Yeah, another example is veteran players being the only ones able to progress and fight on higher floors… Which sucks, because due to this we managed to climb maybe a couple floors in like a year. So with this pace, getting to F100 will be rather worthwhile lol
It isn’t stated anywhere in the rulebook, but we encourage the players to write in some fancy new power or something every 10 levels (or 5 for something more minor). Or just generally we tell people that their powers can grow stronger as they level.
The difficulty scaling is the main issue of ToH indeed. We’re hoping to fix that soon!
Thank you for the nice words! We’re mainly striving to hit for broad audiences, yet encourage the player that are more on literate side to participate (reading the rulebook usually scares weak RPers off lol, sorry to say but I think it’s obvious that not many people are a fan of " makes u very fat " RP).
No probs, as the grumbling and complaining man when it comes to rpgs, I am happy to give my two cents xD
Anyway, the only way you can scale up the difficulty is by having an actual system of successes and failures. This can happen by static stats (you need a certain stat value or ability to accomplish something), rolls (easy enough to explain… In which case I would consider a pbta kind of format for rolls, which is pretty easy and failforward when you understand how the moves works as framework) or token system (you have x tokens to spend to accomplish things during a mission), or a mix. Without that, any difficulty will be dependant on the mood of the player and dm (the first by saying if they can do something or not while writing, the second by blocking things the player might write… which I can see it’s not the greatest thing for a freeform).
There is nothing you can do about it without implementing a system of failure and success (or at least successes and successes with cost).
Instead my personal opinion about level problem:
If you think the power level of… well, levels, is too high, you might consider to adopt a prestige system. Instead of scaling difficulties, level (or prestige) is there only for players interactions between eachother (and pvp) and unlocking resources (both personal and not), aka the old gaining or upgrading powers. This way you still have a power level between characters, but instead of making it impossible collaboration with lowlevels and high leveles, high levels just have more efficient powers and resources. Threats would be divided between goons, standard, elite and bosses (with bosses having more wound threeshold, powers and whatnot).
This however requires you to write clearly about leveling up powers and whatnot, and the scale of powers in different “tiers” of upgrade. For instance, a first lvl aoe would be able to take down a group of goons, but not a standard one (not alone at least). A single target action could take out a standard one, not an elite. This is not considering buffing and debuffing effects though, which would require to have player threesholds (or at least a set of conditions that they can suffer and healing might solve, or some buffs counter) and whatnot unless it remains only when it comes to damaging monsters (aka buffs and debuffs makes one way or the other higher the effects of attacks (a minion killing attack buffed would kill standard, a standard debuffed could be killed by a minion attack).
To make the scaling of powers more gradual, you need to have most the times players picking up utility features or new resources, or new options, without empowering previous ones. This might be a good idea for an upgrade to an existing ability every 10 lvls, while every 5 you get the smaller things.
We’re here to proudly announce that Tower of Heaven has reached 1 year of runtime and today is its anniversary! We’ve finished working on a bigger update which reworks the most core mechanics and fixes (hopefully) several other issues (such as unfair arenas, difficulty scaling, levelling system rework, colosseum rework, reorganized classes and races)
Not only that, but today we’ve also reached 700 members!
Full changelog is avalaible in one of the annoucement channels!
Come drop by and celebrate in a new Vault at the End of the Time event and remember:
