Dice rolls are 1d10 + Stat + Proficiency + any applicable bonuses, such as Boons.
You may spend 3 Tension to Overdrive for a retroactive +5 to your roll (a Determination Overdrive), or +3 to an ally's roll (a Teamwork Overdrive). I will also automatically overdrive to avoid exhaustion or unconsciousness.
It is possible to critically succeed (on +5 on skill checks and +10 on combat rolls) or critically fail (by the same margins), but rolling a 1 or a 10 does not automatically crit in either case. It is possible to crit retroactively by Overdriving.
Your stat bonuses have names:
Vigor grants a Strength bonus.
Agility grants a Dexterity bonus.
Spirit grants an Aura bonus.
Mind grants an Intuition bonus.
Resolve grants a Guts bonus.
Dice are rolled on a first come, first serve bonus. You only roll for Deedee.
We leave the tavern, Matriarch Jatu and I, emerging on a street by the riverside. Empty, this time of day, with Aurora's merciless sun enforcing a siesta to every peasant and lord that doesn't want heatstroke. But an adventurer commanding the cool breeze and a priestess of the fires of passion should be fine. I hoped.
We take our positions, ten meters from one another - enough distance that we'd need to advance to trade blows. Neutral game territory, time for the better fighter to carve out space. Jatu curtseyes to me, and a misspent youth where I never committed to either aikido or karate compels me to bow, before we take up battle stances.
Fucked up that neither martial art I dallied with were from Dad's Korean culture. Even Deedee's shtick was a combination of Shaolin styling and high fantasy bullshit. Not that it matters, and it's not like, say, Kevin Moon could even find a taekwondo dojang even when he went looking for us both.
It's apparent that I'm woolgathering a second too late when Jatu takes a running leap at me.
I step forward for the intercept, hoping to catch her with a solid uppercut as she lands. But when I commit, she falls short - and falls, period, flattening onto the ground with a swaying roll I don't have time to react to and slashing my stomach twice, two chops after the other that looks like drunken flailing to anyone not just hammered by it.
I let the breath out of my belly with a grunt, backpedal and roll my belly to avoid the worst of it, giving me enough space to counter with a stomp. She can't roll all of the way out in time, and a blow aimed at her knee hits just below her hip instead.
Jatu grimaces in appreciation of my technique as she bounces to her heels, swaying, both from the pain and in a pseudo-drunken stance to keep me off balance.
It was working, I'll say that much. "I didn't know drunken boxing was a thing here," I wheeze.
"They revere Flamma as a goddess of fortune in Zhong'guo," she says, singing the tones. "And in their colonies and port towns down the Mouth of Bast. When we studied at the temple in Qaahira we swapped recipes for port and beer along with flail, glaive and fist fighting techniques."
I laugh despite myself. "How did you end up in a... Yberian fief, terrorizing the vinters?"
"Impress me and I'll tell you," she says, and grins.
I take a deep breath and recenter myself. Then I lunge, a Whirlwind Claw sweeping horizontally at her torso.
This time, when she bends back under it and twists to the side, I'm not surprised. Baffled at how she can twist like that, but not surprised. I realize the angle her kick is coming from - a crescent described by her foot as she flips her entire body - too late to dodge, but not too late to roll with the blow to my head.
It hurts like hell and my vision swims for a bit but I'm a fucking Adventurer, beloved of the damn Gods, and it takes more than that to concuss me. My stumble backwards is controlled, and I gather the deep breath I take between my palms, healing winds wicking away the pain in my side and my head.
When Jatu rises with a roll of her torso I couldn't attempt at half her apparent age, I see her eyes slit in shock as I shove spellwork into her torso at point blank range.
"GALE BLAST!"
She's thrown back by the force of the blow, coughing, flying hips - first away from me as I straighten up and prepare for whatever kind of flying kick or rolling punch or Jackie Chan vs Simon Yuen bullshit maneuver the catte can throw at me.
I am not prepared when she takes a deep breath and exhales fire at me.
(But she's a Flammite, so maybe I should have been.)
I can't bring up my wards in time, I'm so shocked, and feel the incredible heat roll over me, and something in me decides the fight needs to end now and I'm running and leaping at her before I can think about it. Trailing fire from my poor tails as I achieve liftoff, I backflip, raising both of my feet above my head in a somersault, aimed directly at the square of her chest.
"GRYPHON! TALON!"
And she just bends over double and I sail over and past her, landing in a crouch with my back to her.
"KIIIiiick?"
Jatu Almez, the High Priestess of Flamma in Viacruz, master of the Drunken Fist, grabs my ankle, and I know I can't win this.
"I yield," I say, very quickly. "I'm banishing the wind to put myself out."
"Good idea," she says, releasing me, before cawing laughter as she straightens. "Let me patch you up, buy you a drink."
"Yes, Priestess," I say, as I snuff out the flames - and drop to one knee, gritting my teeth, as my burns start to throb. "Please, Priestess, this hurts like hell."
She passes me a cup of something that smells fruity and herbal. I drink it without hesitation, and immediately feel some relief.
"Thank you, Priestess," I say, exhaling heavily.
"Enough of that, Priestess. Call me Jatu," she says.
"Alright, Jatu," I say, cautiously. "I guess that wasn't very impressive."
She snorts. "You had your moments," she said. "Self taught?"
"Unfortunately," I say, holding out the cup for more healing potion.
She pours it. "As long as you're here to find out who's been ruining my grapes - our grapes - I may as well help fix that."
I look into the cup of herby, fruity potion in my hands and shudder all down a body that's no longer badly burnt. Mundane healing magic, man. "Please. We need all the help with the investigation we can get," I say.
A short one, but I wanted to make sure I posted again before the month was out.
Changed a place name because whoops, wrong referent.
ETA: Specifically, the city mentioned - An'fajr Al'qaahira or just Qaahira - is the capital of Khemet, a major trade port near the southern leg of the Mouth of Bast, before it opens up along the southwesternmost continent of Mundus (keeping in mind that it's Americas are considered the easternmost). The name means either "The Conquering Dawn" or "The Dawning Sun," depending on who you ask; the city used to be called Urbesol when it was an Omphalan fort.
Hmm, the plot of that so far reminds me a bit of some things I've heard about Cardfight Vanguard. Sounds like a neat, fun little project; good luck with it!
Hmm, the plot of that so far reminds me a bit of some things I've heard about Cardfight Vanguard. Sounds like a neat, fun little project; good luck with it!
Empathy Understand others. Share - and thereby lessen - pain.
Good for: Clerics, Therapists, Diplomats, Bleeding Hearts
Empathy lets you see into the hearts and souls of others, and more easily wear your own heart on your sleeve. It lets you notice social cues and hidden pains others would miss - and therefore to act on them, start to heal them. Hidden sadnesses, secret pining, subtle joy in those that should be bereaved, or resentments that undetected would go off like a bomb under your feet.
High empathy lets you really feel for the people you meet - cry at their sorrows, punch walls at their rage, and generally makes you even more unhinged and emotionally unstable than your second puberty already makes you. But with low empathy, however, you'll blunder into emotional landmines that blow up any chance of having a meaningful conversation.
Drama All worlds are a stage, so weave together a hell of a yarn.
Good for: Investigators, Rogues, Actors, Liars
Drama helps you see the worlds as stages, and to act upon them. It will enable you to lie, to spin whole cloth from threads of pure confabulation - and to notice other people weaving tales with the same kind of yarns. If someone lies, your Drama will know. If you lie, your Drama will give a masterful performance.
At high levels, Drama will make you incredible at improvised bullshit - and liable to add some embroidery to what really ought to be the plain and simple truth, while searching for hidden threads of deceit in the most straightforward statements. But without Drama, you find it hard to believe that someone would just go on the internet and tell lies, because you don't lie yourself - and that quickly adds up to an adventurer lying six feet under.
Party of Six Tank, bruiser, mage, assassin, sniper and you are a team - now act as one.
Good for: Free Companies, Cops, Team Leaders, Rag-Tag Bands Of Idiots
Ever gotten so deep into the flow of a game that you become a finger on the team's hand? Party of Six is your ability to do that - to know your own team well enough to anticipate what any member of it would do or needs now. Drop a heal preemptively, haste your tank, knock the melee dude just into the squishy mage's range. All in a days work when you're the healer in a Party of Six.
At high levels, you're an extension of the will of the team - no matter how shortsighted or idiotic that will may be. It makes you the best at the kind of plans you've drilled on, and the worst at thinking outside of the box you've collectively made for yourself. But with a low Party of Six, you'll be tripping over yourselves, drawing aggro you don't need to, and unable to heed shorthand advice that may just save not only your life, but five others.
Millennium Actress Hunches and gut feelings - the key to your dreams, in waking life.
Good for: Roleplayers, Mystics, Artists, The Utterly Deranged
You unlock the door to your subconscious with the key of imagination: Millennium Actress. A dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind, of personas, of potentialities. There are at least 108 ways to be you, and this lets you peer into some of these other worlds, gain insight into what the present you cannot see, collapse the waveform of the future into the now.
At high levels, Millennium Actress invests the mundane with meaning, imbues life and consciousness to the inanimate, allows you to converse with the dead or your equipment or voiceless creatures - you know, things you can't do with a solid grip on reality. With low Millennium Actress, however, you have no imagination - and the only you there is, is who you are now. And you already know what it's like to be stuck as your present self, don't you?
Lorewise Mundus lives and breathes. Breathe with it and know it.
Good for: Loremasters, Historians, Willworkers, People Fleeing Earth
Lorewise is the skill of knowing what Mundanes know - of absorbing the background radiation of the thousands of years of simulated history of Another World Online, just so stories and daily prayers, truisms about the way it's always been done. The sort of thing it usually takes a lifetime in Mundus to learn, picked up by osmosis; stuff that if you lack it is as subtle and as jarring as talking about a blue old good sword.
With a high Lorewise, you can pass as a Mundane with flying colors, and intimately know everything that everyone on Mundus knows to be right - marking you with a ruthless and mystical mindset distinctly alien to a human being from a modern Terran secular liberal democracy. But with a low Lorewise, everyone will know you're one of those bumbling idiot Adventurers from foreign shores, and treat you like the murderhobo it's safest to assume you are.
Mainline update tomorrow, with any luck. I've already started on it.
Wait.
Wait are these skill points mechanically in the game.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
our empathy has been measured and its a number and the game is storing it and it can be buffed and debuffed
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Was this from character creation. Did the number of points we casually put in some stat back when we were just making a char for fun affet our actual psychological processes and fundamentally change who we are?
I mean OF COURSE this is possible for the game but this actually being tracked and affected by character creation is, like, genuinely unsettling for me.
Wait.
Wait are these skill points mechanically in the game.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
our empathy has been measured and its a number and the game is storing it and it can be buffed and debuffed
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Was this from character creation. Did the number of points we casually put in some stat back when we were just making a char for fun affet our actual psychological processes and fundamentally change who we are?
I mean OF COURSE this is possible for the game but this actually being tracked and affected by character creation is, like, genuinely unsettling for me.
These particular skills? No. This is me joking around with the Disco Elysium skill format, with some help from QuantumVaudeville's amazing art.
Are there Numbers that are prescriptive of our character's capabilities, including their personality traits, social skills, and worldview, rather than being descriptive of them?
The very thought of it explains why Hikaru is an anxious guy.
There are at least 108 ways to be you, and this lets you peer into some of these other worlds, gain insight into what the present you cannot see, collapse the waveform of the future into the now.
These particular skills? No. This is me joking around with the Disco Elysium skill format, with some help from QuantumVaudeville's amazing art.
Are there Numbers that are prescriptive of our character's capabilities, including their personality traits, social skills, and worldview, rather than being descriptive of them?
The very thought of it explains why Hikaru is an anxious guy.
