gempire

Gems

“When a gem is made it’s for a reason. They burst out of the ground already knowing what they're supposed to be and then that’s what they are. Forever.”
- Rose Quartz

Gems are an intergalactic, asexual, humanoid species designed to conquer worlds. Their consciousnesses exist inside gemstones from which hardlight is projected out of creating their sudo-physical forms.

Creating a Gem

When creating a Gem, players start with 32 Proficiency Points(pp) to spend on choosing their gemstone, the era they were made in, and any proficiency ranks(SPR, CPR, E1PR, E2PR, E3PR, ADVR), Certifications, Gemstone Abilities, Hardlight Weapons, or Limb Enhancers they may want. Era 1 gems have access to all their Gemstone Abilities, Era 2 gems have access to their Era 2 and 3 Gemstone Abilities, and Era 3 gems only have access to their Era 3 Gemstone Abilities. Gems are rewarded with pp after accomplishments such as achieving a goal or navigating a sticky situation.

When creating NPCs that should be on par with the players, use around the same amount of pp to make them as the players have cumulatively used throughout the game.

Arms

An unoccupied arm or Arm Enhancer can hold 1 object at a time and it’s Base Stats become that of its Held Object.

Healing and Poofing

The only ways for gems to regain hp are to use special bandages over a period of time or by waiting to regenerate after being poofed. When a gems hp drops to 0 her body poofs in a burst of force leaving behind her gemstone. Upon being poofed, the gem does a Poofing Roll of 1d20. If the roll is 1-5 then her gemstone becomes cracked, but if another gem is on the same tile as the poofing gem then she can chose to catch the poofed gem which voids the Poofing Roll.

Cracking and Shattering

When a gems’ gemstone is cracked a her body begins to malfunction, and if she chooses to reform she has to do a Cracking Roll of another 1d20 and. subtract it from her Base Health. Now, if she would reform with negative hp then she must continue waiting until she can at least reform with positive hp. Additionally, cracked gems cannot do fusion dances.

If the Cracking Roll is 1-5 subtract 2 from the her Base Movement Speed, if it was 6-10 subtract 4, if it was 11-15 subtract 6, and if it was 16-20 subtract 8.

If the Cracking Roll is odd then subtract 1 from her Base Number of Arms, and while her gemstone is cracked she must roll to every time she tries to summon objects from it. If the summoning roll is odd then the summoning fails.

It is possible to fix a cracked gem though doing so requires special treatment, the most common of which is the application of an advanced plug fluid to the gemstone which nearly instantaneously reverts the gem and her gemstone to perfect condition. However, if a gem is poofed again while her gemstone is still cracked then she is shattered.

Default Abilities

Depending on her gemstone and the era of gem civilization which she was created in, a gem can use special Gemstone Abilities and summon Hardlight Weapons, but outside of those there are a few abilities that all gems have in common and can do effortlessly.

Artificial Gravity

A gems body adjusts automatically to the size of a local planetoid to simulate a uniform gravity across all reasonably sized terrestrial bodies. This way gems do not have to concern themselves with the caveat of movement as they go from one colony to another. This ability cannot be turned off.

Flash Light

A gem can project light in a cone from their gemstone to help illuminate where they are going in dim environments. The gem can control what direction the light shines in.

Dimensional Storage

Gems can carry any amount of objects inside their gemstones so long as the objects are narrower than the width of the gemstone, though other gemstones can not be stored. To summon a stored object the gem must have at least 1 unoccupied arm or Arm Enhancer. Summoning or storing consumes 1 Action Slot.

Form Regeneration

After being poofed, a gem must wait an initial 3 turns. After the 3rd turn she regains 2hp for every next turn she stays poofed until she reaches her Base Health, though she can reform her body anytime after the initial 3 turns. The gem can also choose to alter her clothes and the approximate humanoid form of her body before she reforms as well.

Caste-Position

A gem’s Caste-Position is where she falls in Gempire’s rigid caste-system and determines her general job and status in gem society. The playable gem with the highest Caste-Position is Morganite and the lowest is Bismuth, but the top Caste-Position is always Diamond.

Generally, the greater distance between gems in the caste-system the more commanding the higher gem will be to the lower gem, though this rule should always be evaluated and adapted to current and relative circumstances. For example, a Pearl serving a Diamond may be assertive towards a Peridot despite Peridots having a higher Caste-Position than Pearl.

The gems below are organized in order from highest Caste-Position to Lowest Caste-Position.