Step City

..........................................WIP

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• Vibe: With a capital V, = your powers.
• Vibe Attribute: The specific effect a vibe produces--ex: an Ice Vibe's Attributes include: Snow Attribute, Freezing Attribute...
  • Attributes must fit within the context of your vibe! Vibes need to stay in their lane- if an Ice stepper wants to have water powers or general temperature manipulation, they must state it in their application. Always speak to mods before adding new powers.
• Vibe Energy: Stepper's current 'charge' or 'stamina', how much 'vibe' (lowercase v) one has, referring to the actual charged 'battery power' of a Vibe.

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• Baseline Charge

Steppers generate a small charge from basic vibe or ‘charge’ from kinetic movement. It’s ONLY enough for very weak manifestations of Vibe, such as a stepper’s Passive Vibe Attribute (see below) or cantrip/fluff effects.

• Building and Storing Vibe

Dancers must build up or store power to be at peak form in battle. Vibe dissipates quickly (you'll lose almost all in 1/4 to 1/2 day without dancing). Vibe storage is limited; with buildup, one might have enough to get in a good Opening Move, maybe 1-2 followups, but after that steppers must actively perform dance moves in battle to use vibe. On top of that, Vibes in general operate under D&D-style “somatic components”--they require movement, gestures, sick moves to pull off! The exception to this are Vibe Singers, who instead use their voice. These are detailed later.

• Passive Vibe Attributes

Powered by basic kinetic movement, these ideally include harmless/aesthetic/involuntary effects like a glow, sparkles, or body temperature changes. These must be WEAK. Think D&D non-damaging cantrips instead of full spells. They should almost exclusively be used for fluff & social rp, not fights.

Large scale illusions, blinding light, impenetrable darkness and the like require actual dancing to maintain, or else the stepper will be drained before they can even fight!

Passive Vibes must be related to the overall vibe (no 'icepowers but my passive makes me look like a purple unicorn').

• Vibe Sentience

The effects of STEP Tower have twisted the technology and the people of Step City in strange ways. In-game, characters are free to think that their Vibe has taken on a life of it's own... However, Out of Character, Vibe abilities cannot themselves be sentient. Vibe CAN react with the steppers' subconscious, and can seem like it has personality (it's your OC's brain knocking. It can be a great tool for sharing internal thoughts/feelings!). But if you’re looking to play another character, app them!

• Losing Control of Your Vibe
  • Too Much Vibe: It is possible to have too MUCH vibe, to explosive results. People can become overwhelmed, and lose control of their abilities. Most of the time, one user can’t generate enough energy to lose control of their own vibe. This is more often triggered by receiving a boost from an outside source--either another vibe user that is able to ‘boost’ powerlevels, or a Flare event.
  • Out Of Vibe: Occasionally, users will hit rock-bottom when it comes to energy levels. Vibes are so intrinsically linked to people on the island, some have never lived without them, so for specific users, this can cause psychological symptoms or distress. Of important note: you can’t manifest outward abilities without a vibe to power them.

• Non-human Vibe Users
  • Animals: Animals can’t dance, but some can generate a small amount of vibe through movement, allowing for very minor, mostly superficial Vibes (streaks of light, etcetera).
  • Bots: Vday caused something… strange. Previously, bots were of limited intelligence, designed for specific tasks around the city, repairing or catering. But following Vday, some of the bots--a limited few--changed, developed GROOVE and rhythm, started dancing and generating their own vibes. Gained INTELLIGENCE. Nobody knows if it was a tinkerer changing these bots to something more, or the very essence of the STEP Tower itself that caused it.

• Vibe Boosts
  • Drugs: Ivy, Fonk and Ambrosia provide miniscule, moderate, and extreme boosts to Vibe (in that order). These boosts are applied to Vibe power output, and not the ‘charge’/duration. These drugs run HOT and FAST, and hit users with strong withdrawal symptoms, weakness (physical and Vibe) and fatigue. They can be useful in a fight, but can come with several drawbacks.
  • Boost-Vibes: Some Steppers are able to temporarily boost the Vibes of their partners. These effects are only temporary, effecting a person either only when actively dancing with the partner, or until the end of the current dance battle.

• 'Multiple Vibes' and Multiple Dance Styles

The short of it: NO. The long of it: multiple attributes within a vibe. If an Ice Vibe Ballerina watlzes, they still create Ice Vibe effects. They will not produce flames or puppies.

• Alternative Ways to Fuel a Vibe

The majority of steppers on the island activate their Vibes through dance. Hence the slang “steppers”. Vibes can be seen a bit like ‘bending’ in Avatar, where their usage requires direction by moving the body. Also a bit analogous with ‘somatic components’ in D&D.
However, some Vibes don’t connect well with dancing, and require an alternative mode to activate them. Although much rarer, these users instead utilize singing or performance to activate their vibes. Examples include Vibers with supersonic screams, mind control, or area-effects like causing plants to grow uncontrolled.

It’s important to keep in mind that dance-steppers can’t just activate vibes by singing, and vice versa. If Dance-Steppers are sorcerers, Performance-Steppers are bards.

• Vibe Resistance & Conflicting Vibes

The purpose of this section is to define an upper limit to resistances, not a lower limit. Characters are allowed to be vulnerable to any Vibe of your choice, including their own, which can lead to interesting dynamics, feelings, and drama towards their own Vibe.

Damage resistance and vulnerabilities is inherent in some Vibes, but outright immunities are restricted. Environmental resistances can come into play with many Vibe users, examples being electricity-users resistant to their own electricity, to avoid being electrocuted. This can also give them some level of resistance to live wires, as well as other electricity Vibers.

If two steppers of the same strength have the same or similar Vibe, for example both have fire, neither should be objectively stronger than the other under normal circumstances. However, they can still trade damage, and neither is entirely immune to the attacks of the other; the effects may behave like tug of war. You can discuss out of character how this works, roll dice for bigger conflicts, but do not assume your OC will dominate the other.

But a stronger stepper--specific examples being a boss fighting an underling--would still be able to damage and overpower someone with the same Vibe.

• Vibe Vulnerabilities

Vulnerabilities help make your character’s Vibe well-rounded. Vibes should have weaknesses and drawbacks, the most straight-forward possibilities being Pokemon-like vulnerabilities. Examples being fire Vibes being weak to water Vibes because they can’t catch, water Vibes being exploited by electricity Vibes.

Less elemental drawbacks can include singer-based emotional manipulators being unable to affect people who can’t hear them sing (either through earplugs, or being deaf).

• Vibe Permanence

Vibe can affect things around it, and these changes can be permanent. Example: fire Vibe setting fire to a structure, or earth Vibe reshaping rocks. Vibes can also create constructs, but these are temporary. Examples: constructs of light and energy.

• Flares

During the ‘Flares’ event, the above rules can be temporarily bent or even broken, causing fantastical changes! But most changes were not permanent, and all Vibes returned to the ‘status quo’ after the event. That doesn’t mean they didn’t cause lasting psychological trauma.

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wipwip

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If you're looking for ideas for vibes, or want to stay away from what's already been done, click here for a full list of active vibes in Step City.