Post by Frederic Bourgault-Christie on Jun 27, 2008 13:50:12 GMT -5
Rules / Sheet
First of all, in Muse Aegis you play yourself, at least at first. Over time, players may be able to acquire NPCs, pets, military forces and so forth under their control which will have enumerated stats. They may even earn extra characters.
The attributes are divided into nine groups of three. Each attribute at character creation will range from 20-1000. 20 is the absolute minimum of human behavior and potential, 1000 is the absolute maximum. By this reasoning, 20-75 is nearly crippled or at least desperately out of shape, 76-150 is average, 151-300 is above average, 301-500 is exceptional and 501-1000 is Olympian.
If you need a rule of thumb for calibrating your own personal stats, think about it this way. If you were to convert that attribute one-to-one to Strength, how much could you benchpress? If you believe you are positively in the top .1% of all humans regarding your Beauty, then 700 might be appropriate. If you feel that your beauty could "lift" as much as the average tough guy at the gym but isn't Strong Man material, then maybe 250 to 350 is more your speed.
The sheet looks like this:
HP (composite stat composed of 1 Endurance + 1/2 Stamina + 1/2 Discipline + 1/2 Build + 1/2 Strength; the average value for this, given an average human 100, is therefore 300)
Brawn:
Strength
Build
Endurance
Haste:
Agility
Dexterity
Speed
Energy:
Focus
Soul
Stamina
Paranormal:
Ki
Magic
Psi
Mental:
Intelligence
Wisdom
Craft
Affective:
Personality
Charisma
Beauty
Interactivity:
Perception
Assault
Protection
Potential:
Genetics
Genius
Passion
Achievement:
Serenity
Discipline
Study
Resistances:
Abilities:
Equipment:
Notoriety:
Note that Brawn, Haste, etc. (all the stats in italics) are not stats, they are categories of stats. You do not put ANY numbers into any of the categories, ONLY into the individual attributes. That means you should have 27 attributes total. Sometimes, the categories WILL be used for various things, and summed up, but they are NOT independent game artifacts.
Hit Points are the simple raw ability to take damage. There is a slight element of the old AD&D system where Hit Points going up from experience is partially due to increased experience and not entirely actual absorptive ability, but this is relatively minor. It should also be noted that ordinary humans suffer from the "Chunky Salsa" rule: Anything that would reduce your head to the consistency of chunky salsa will still kill you. In essence, certain forms of incredibly devastating attacks (say, having a giant red dragon burst from inside another one) either do instantaneous death or do massive amounts of damage no matter the proportion. There are special rules to override the
"Chunky Salsa" rule, however. Most organic species suffer from this as well.
Strength is simple raw muscular strength. One's Strength is exactly one's maximum single lift bench press limit; that is, whatever you can lift in one properly executed bench press is your Strength. I do note slight changes from Discipline and other factors that would change one's weight lift, though.
Build is the efficiency of one's design from a brawn perspective. A flabby character that can lift a heavy amount has high Strength but low Build. Bruce Lee would have lower Strength but higher Build. Superhuman levels of Build do exist and represent beyond-possible levels of muscle tone, density and design, not just size.
Endurance is one's general physical hardiness, hale, and so forth. Endurance is the single largest determinant of HP for most characters. It also helps amplify resistances (though this effect is only noteworthy after the 1000 Cap).
Agility is one's fast-flex motions and reflexes. It refers to one's capacity to act first (initiative), strike rapidly, and so forth.
Dexterity is one's slow-flex motions and one's precision.
Speed is generally the simple ability to get from point X to point Y. Note that this refers to one's ability to do so WITHOUT learned powers such as flight or teleportation. Every 25 Speed is one mile per hour. This means that Michael Johnson, the current fastest man in the world, is a 625. Notice that this is sprint speed for the first 100 yards or so. After that, speed drops off quite a bit thanks to the cap of Endurance.
One may ask, "If I can fly at 1000 mph, what's the point of speed?" Well, powers can be deactivated. Speed functions as a prerequisite for some abilities such as Zanzoken, Flash Step, etc. trees. But, more importantly, having too low of a Speed makes one's ability to control and be used to one's high ability-granted Speed limited. Also, after 1000, subsequent Speed bonuses will give bonuses to superhuman speed abilities.
Focus is the mental aspect of one's energy. It refers to one's capacity to focus on a task and fight through boredom, distraction or inner demons. Psychic attacks will usually take heavy tolls on Focus, but some that may be channeled through the body such as Force powers will also take Stamina.
Soul is one's spiritual reserves. Magic tends to run off of Soul, but this is hardly universal. Magis, for example, usually have high Stamina and Focus costs for abilities as well. This is one of their balancing factors, since many formal mages need Soul only or Soul and Focus at the most.
Stamina is one's physical reserves. Almost everything uses stamina, but most things use them very little.
It should be noted in the trifecta of Energy stats that almost everything characters will ever do is powered by and limited by these three stats. Simply the process of fighting or doing anything strenuous will whittle these stats down. When these stats hit zero or below, bad things usually happen.
Ki, Magic and Psi should be self-explanatory. These refer to one's punch and power with those mystic categories. For certain characters, a portion of their Ki, Magic and Psi will be added to Stamina, Soul and Focus, respectively. Starting characters will NOT have a base low stat. Rather, since the system is already keyed to normal human potentiality, different people will have different amounts within that range. Ki, for example, will be different between someone with extensive Tai Chi practice and someone who's never even seen DBZ.
Intelligence is also fairly self-explanatory. It only governs strict rational-logical type thinking, however. Don't worry; artistic types are covered later, under Genius. Intelligence is invaluable for characters who attempt to employ deductive reasoning, memorize complex information, or need to make scientific breakthroughs. Note that all sorts of different skills exist that may or may not require Intelligence.
Wisdom is a stat that represents someone's general spirituality, life experience and ability to provide advice. Generally, good shamans, clerics, priests, druids, Buddhist-type characters, monks and others with spiritual ties will want to develop Wisdom. However, not all have to. Passion (described later on) as well as Personality can both be alternatives, for those who want to be self-righteous.
Craft is practical motor-skills type of intelligence. Whereas Intelligence tends to be more academic and theoretical, Craft refers to grease monkeys, welders, and craftsmen with beautiful skills.
Charisma is one's interpersonal skill at dominating, convincing, attracting or impressing people with one's words, gestures and actions.
Beauty is one's physical beauty and sex appeal.
Personality doesn't just mean someone has something interesting about them as a person. It's a measure of integrity, force of personality, and so forth. In a sense, it can be considered to be ambition.
Perception refers to one's whole sensory apparatus. If you're blind as a bat, maybe 70 since you can still hear. I will note that particular things like nearsightedness, farsightedness, and hearing will need to be noted as Traits.
Assault is one's capacity and tendency to interact with the world offensively, by solving the problem proactively.
Protection is one's capacity and tendency to interact with the world defensively, protecting oneself and others reactively.
Genetics refers to the strength of one's genetic gifts. Mutants tend to need this attribute, as noted below.
Genius is one's status as a prodigy. Whereas Intelligence can be trained, Genius is more developed and molded. This is where artistic characters get their expression, as do talented and brilliant people.
Passion is one's soul power, one's potential to unleash one's inner emotional strength.
Serenity is one's capacity to stay serene and calm. It is essential for monk, Buddhist, Taoist, etc. style characters. But it is also the statistic that expresses one's ability to achieve inner spiritual talent. Serenity completes Passion.
Discipline is, generally speaking, willpower. However, it also refers to the capacity to mold one's powers using the application of discipline. Characters like Kuwabara and Xenocratis have high Discipline: They earn their powers through the dint of hard work, despite whatever innate talents they may or may not have. Meanwhile, Yusuke and Fred would have lower Discipline. Discipline completes Genetics.
Study is one's ability and desire to develop one's Genius.
Now, let's try some builds in action.
A mutant needs Genetics. That is what, say, gives Magneto incredible powers. Mutant psychics would have both Genetics and Psi. By using the Marvel system, where powers are sometimes represented as number of tons lifted, Magneto would have at least 200,000 Genetics!
An architect would need Study, Genius and Intelligence. That is, an architect would want the intelligence to properly process mathematics and make rational choices, the artistic range that Genius provides and the ability to achieve Study to create blueprints.
ADHD does not affect Intelligence, but it may reduce Study, Discipline, Genetics, Focus or Wisdom.
Characters maximizing Assault without developing associated attributes like Discipline or Serenity may find themselves easy to goad into attacking, unrestrained, etc. Similarly, characters maximizing Protection without Passion or Personality may find themselves losing the initiative to act.
Gunslingers need both Dexterity for the proper control and accuracy, Perception to see their targets well enough to hit and Agility to draw fast enough to matter.
After the main stats, there's a few other elements of the sheet to note.
Resistances come in a variety of categories. Percentile resistances reduce incoming damage by a set percentage. Block resistances have an expressed probability of reducing incoming damage of a particular source. Logarithmic resistances reduce higher amounts of damage more than lower amounts. Thresholds subtract a certain amount of damage; it will be noted if it does this after other resistances or before. Maximum Damage reduces Don't worry too much about these
Every character will start with the following three resistances:
Universal Damage Resistance - Percentile 0%
Pain Tolerance - X
Damage Resistance - X
Pain Tolerance's value is how much pain it takes you to lose a half turn. Damage Resistance is based on how much you reduce regular kinetic damage. Pain Tolerance for starting characters shouldn't really exceed 1/8 - 1/4 of HP, and Damage Resistance should probably be 2-5% at the highest.
Other resistances, and increases to these, are earned. For example, a firefighter may acquire Fire Resistance Block 60%/30 or Threshold 30. Some example categories are Fire, Energy, Cold, Water, Earth, Radiation, Bludgeoning, Piercing, Throwing, Concussive, Magic, Psychic, Ki and Electricity.
Abilities and Equipment are self-explanatory
Notoriety just refers to how known you are with particular people and factions. Characters start with none.
Now, we're done with character creation. The core conceit of the game is Imagination Points. These are the experience rewards one gets from every play session, every strategic idea, every plan that saves the group, every beautiful bit of in-character play and every defeat of a critical enemy. Imagination Points are traded on a one-to-one basis for stats. They are used to purchase abilities, unlock realms, signal trainers, etc. Of course, not everything has to be acquired by IP, but other things will be in-game events, currencies, and so forth.
Early on, characters will acquire their core powers. This should not be what you'd like to be right now after you just marathonned Get Backers. This should rather be a desire you've had for years. Think about this as what you might have answered if you were asked, "If you could have one superpower, what'd it be?"
1000 Cap
The primary limiter on character growth initially is the 1000 Cap. This is the gap between the merely Olympian and the superhuman. It takes a special experience and a special commitment to cause one to surge from the pre-superhuman level to the post-superhuman level. In game terms, after important encounters or character moments, the character will choose a new attribute to raise. Attributes thusly altered should be noted with an underline. For example:
Strength 1000
Eventually, of course, every character will release every 1000 Cap. After that, attributes are controlled by other factors...
Acquiring New Abilities
How new abilities are acquired varies from person to person. Mages may need to buy or acquire books to read, while psychics may just need to practice and train. Shamans may need spirit quests. No matter what, though, every character will have some abilities that they can purchase with Imagination Points without the aid of a trainer, book, or any other force (just at a time appropriate to an ability, even in the midst of combat!), and some they simply can't. These will be determined by common sense.
Fate Points
Fate Points are a special commodity that are used generally as a last resort. In a sense, Fate Points let the character be the GM for a second, or rise to an executive writing position. They can allow a dead character to rise again renewed, push the bounds of probability for an impossible plan, resist a particular curse or spell, guarantee a critical success at a skill or an attack, add an additional dice to a particular check, etc.
Every character begins with 1 Fate Point. New Fate Points can be bought at 100 IP for the first, 1000 for the second, 10,000 for the third, etc. They also can be earned, generally after defeating a major opponent or completing a major quest.
Attribute Checks
Attribute checks are done in a few ways. Some are simple one-to-one checks: If one has 4000 Strength, one does it; otherwise, one doesn't. Others are rolls with the attribute as a subsidiary bonus, similar to D&D. Most commonly, though, I'll use a few D100s. The D100s will be read as percents of a particular attribute. The standard for PCs and important NPCs is +1 the average.
For example, initiative rolls are for the average character are done by Agility + bonuses + 1-100% of Agility again. Meanwhile, for the PC, it's Agility + bonuses + 2-200%.
Let's say that Bob, a PC, has 2000 Agility whereas his regular enemy foe has 5000. Neither have any bonuses to initiative. His enemy rolls a 1: His total initiative roll is 5050. Meanwhile, Bob rolls 90 twice. That's .9 of 2000 twice, or 1600 x 2, or 3200. He has 5200. Thus, despite a substantially lower Agility, Bob moves first.
Attribute Limits
The other functional limits on attributes aside from the 1000 Cap are Top Heaviness Limits, or Attribute Limits.
Using attributes that are too top-heavy has both game mechanic and in-game character outcomes.
All attributes that are too high for other attributes to support will have in-game consequences. Someone with too high of Strength will find themselves breaking objects, being clutzy with their strength, and generally acting worse than the average bull in a china shop.
In game mechanics terms, every new point after a Top-Heaviness Limit has been reached will in most cases suffer from a diminishing returns algorithm. This means that every point up to double the limit will have 1/2 the return, every point after that up to triple the limit will have 1/3 the return, and so forth. For example, let's say someone's Strength limit is 2000. They boost their Strength to 4000. For any use of Strength, they will be at 3000. If they continue to raise it to 6000, since every point from 4000 to 6000 counted as 1/3 of the value, their Strength will be functionally 4666.667.
If someone chooses to, they can instead use their maximum attribute. But then expect commensurate penalties failing a control check. Too high of Strength for your Endurance? Torn ligaments.
Top-heaviness varies from stat to stat. Current algorithims are:
Strength: Equal to 75% of Endurance and Build plus 25% of Dexterity and Agility
Build: 75% of Endurance + 75% of Agility + 75% of Discipline
Endurance: 50% of Build + 25% of Strength + 25% of Genetics + 25% of Speed + 25% of Dexterity
Speed: 50% Dexterity + 25% Agility + 25% Stamina + 25% Strength + 50% Endurance + 10% Genetics + 25% Discipline
Stamina:200% of Endurance plus 75% of Discipline.
Focus:75% of Genius and Intelligence plus 50% of Passion and Study.
Magic: 75% of Passion and Soul, 25% of Focus and Stamina
Psi: 75% of Genius and Focus, 25% of Soul and Stamina
Ki: 75% of Discipline and Stamina, 25% of Soul and Focus
Genetics: 200% of Discipline plus 100% of Serenity and Study
Passion: 200% of Serenity plus 100% of Discipline and Study
Genius: 200% of Study plus 100% of Discipline and Serenity
Assault:100% of Wisdom + 100% of Serenity + 100% of Discipline
Protection:100% of Passion + 100% of Personality + 100% of Assault
Craft: 50% of Study and Dexterity, 25% of Intelligence and Genius
Wisdom: 75% Passion + 75% Serenity + 75% Focus
Discipline: 75% Serenity + 75% Focus + 75% Personality
Like all other algorithms, case-by-case alterations and Merits will change various things. Further, in-game consequences may vary from person to person. Someone with an explosive or hard-to-control ability may blow up instead of simply breaking objects.
Applying Attributes
These are fun, friendly and fast algorithms for determining from your attributes various elements of your character's abilities! Yay, math!
I should note that some of these algorithms may not produce entirely correct outcomes. They're rules of thumb. In the real world, someone with the top levels of human speed may run only three times as fast as you or I. There are diminishing returns, where those who train for years to build up a particular skill may only have two to six times what a completely untrained person in good health may acquire. Different exertions and skills scale differently. But since I'm sure you don't want to do logarithmic scales, we'll just do simple arithmetical formulas.
General Efficacy Formula: (Dominant attribute or attributes for ability) + (Serenity, Study or Discipline for control) + (Passion, Genetics or Genius for efficacy) + (Assault if offensive or Protection if defensive)
Vertical Jumping: Every 200 Strength or 200 Speed contributes 6 inches to jumping height. So someone with 1000 Strength and Speed could jump 60 inches, which, coincidentally, is the current world record! Yes, this does mean that it'll take some time for you guys to be just by virtue of attributes making hundred foot vertical leaps.
For you mathletes, the formula is: (1/200 Strength + 1/200 Speed) * 6 inches (or .5 feet)
This means that the prerequisite for jumping 100 feet vertically purely by attributes is a sum of 40,000 Strength and Speed.
Horizontal Leap: The ability to leap horizontally. 1/200 of your Speed + 1/200 of your Strength is multiplied by meters.
Depth Tolerance: The ability to go as far as possible into the water. 1/7 Endurance + 1/7 Stamina is the amount of meters one can go into the water with scuba gear.
Regeneration: Regeneration per day varies from 1/20-1/10 the Endurance of the character in HP. That means if I have 1000 Endurance I will regenerate 50-100 HP a day. This number goes up substantially, by anywhere from a factor of 2 to 10, with proper medical care, rest, etc.
Holding Breath: Without training, pure oxygen, lung packing, or similar techniques, the maximum one can hold their breath safely while retaining consciousness is equal to 1 minute per 500 Endurance. A Serenity of over 1000 also adds 1 minute every additional 500.
Block Chance: Determined by Protection.
Counter-Attack Chance: Determined by Assault.
Survival at Below Zero: Zero HP does not mean death. It means unconsciousness. At zero HP, the remaining stages are: Fully Unconscious (this means more than a temporary KO and more like a condition that must be treated with CPR), Coma, Death, Obliteration. Death and Obliteration obviously have to be treated by revival, but Fully Unconscious and Coma are possible to be cured by healing and medical care, though usually in a more intensive way than traditional healing. Fully Unconscious and Coma can occur at zero HP. Death can occur only after Coma is passed through OR after injuries or continued attacks reduce the target to an additional negative amount equal to one's Endurance. So if one has 4000 HP and 1000 Endurance, then one can be at -1000 before one is fully dead. Obliteration requires Death PLUS reducing to negative HP again: In this case, -4000 HP. This is before archetypes.
Evasion: Every 10,000 Agility gives a base 1% incoming miss chance A miss chance is different from dodging: It is more like AC, in that attacks simply don't find purchase, whether that means being sluffed off, deflected, dodged passively, etc. This means that at 1,000,000 Agility, one will have a 100% base, which means that only attacks that have more standard accuracy can hit! Of course, this is only available under conditions where someone could reasonably dodge or move at all.
Damage Resistance: Every 1000 Endurance gives 1% more damage resistance for base humans. After 25%, it becomes every 10,000; after 50%, it becomes every 100,000; from 75-99%, it becomes every 1,000,000. This means that to have a 99% Damage Resistance (not the highest possible, but after 100% regular attacks won't harm the person unless they have an armor piercing effect), one must have 26,775,000 Endurance (25,000 from 1-25%, 250,000 from 26-50%, 2,500,000 from 51-75%, 24,000,000 from 76-99%)! The tipping point to 100% is at 50,000,000. Trainers will add bonuses to this.
Willpower Checks Determined by a weighting system where Discipline is 2 units and Serenity, Personality and Wisdom are 1 unit each.
DBZ Power Level: 1/50 Ki + 1/50 any other Ki attribute (Youki, Seikoki, etc.) + 1/100 Magic + 1/100 Strength + 1/100 Endurance + 1/100 Genetics after 1000 + 1/100 Discipline after 1000 + 1/200 Dexterity + 1/100 Psi + 1/100 Stamina + 1/100 Soul + 1/100 Passion after 1000. Other Bonus Attributes are sometimes added in, and Archetypes, equipment, Merits and so forth can change the power level.
Fast Learning Caps and Trainers
There is an interesting consequence of the attributes, as well as the force of imagination. Caps for gameplay to learn most things that players will want will be in the thousands, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands. Why?
Let's take the example of Edward and Alphonse Elric learning alchemy. They're both clearly geniuses at Einstein levels, maybe arguably superhuman, but not substantially so. Also, both had intrinsic, apparently genetic skill in alchemy. So their Genius and Intelligence scores would be in the hundreds or perhaps between 1000-2000 in a generous interpetation. Further, alchemy requires Wisdom as well, which they have thanks to some life experience but not enough to prevent them both from making childish errors. Perhaps somewhere between 150-300.
So why shouldn't a player with a Wisdom, Intelligence and Genius of 3000 be able to learn Alchemy?
Well, in a narrow sense, they can. If they take years to train.
More broadly: Ed and Al also had not only the general culture knowledge of alchemy's existence and some degree of basic principles, but also years of study before they blossomed into the characters one sees in the show. And even within the show, while they have certain crystallizing moments where they discover new capacities (like Ed when fighting Greed and surpassing even Kimblee in the art of manipulating bodies), they also have to engage in extensive, difficult research over the course of months. This is on top of training under Izumi and others.
The game's timeline will probably be within months or at most a few years. This means that spending years of study to learn magic, alchemy, science or medicine will be unlikely. Trainers can only partially bridge the gap.
For trainers (canonical characters or otherwise - trainers can be encountered NPCs as well), the important variables are time, expertise and the spending of Imagination Points. The first is fairly simple: How long will the trainer spend with the character? This determines what the trainer can focus on. Some abilities that require extensive study and time may be beyond the trainer's capacity to teach in a short window. Expertise must also be matched between the player and the trainer. If the trainer's powers are psychic in origin but the character in question wants to learn a ki-based alternative or analog, the ability to do that will depend on the character's ability to understand what the teacher is saying even when the teacher uses analogies or understanding from the psychic realm, and the teacher's ability to think creatively and change the lesson plan. People who train under others fairly close to them in demeanor, expertise, and archetype will find the process easier. Also, trainers vary in terms of how much expertise they have. Sean will find it much harder to teach Hadoken than Ryu. Nathan Petrelli is much better at flying than Peter. And Imagination Points can be spent during training to bridge the gap and acquire abilities otherwise unavailable.
Nonetheless, for most quick absorption methods that the game will use, relevant attributes must be MUCH higher. If, for example, it'd normally take five years of relevant study and work to acquire alchemical skills and the character wants to do it in five days, the attributes would probably have to be 365 times higher. Of course, smart planning can reduce the gap, but in the above example, there'd be an additional few months' worth of increase because of the lack of basic alchemical knowledge common to even ordinary citizens of Amestris (i.e. that it exists, what it generally can and can't do, etc.)
There are, of course, all sorts of in-game ways to bridge the expertise gap. Advanced psionics or mental abilities, either deployed by trainers, NPCs or players, can be used to absorb knowledge more rapidly. Abilities like Speed Reading can enhance the speed of study. Sharingen and other ways to observe, absorb, mimic or siphon abilities can be used. Mystic soul draining is certainly an option. Then there's time manipulation. If a character sat down with Izumi Curtis in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, there is a reasonable chance they could walk out with a full understanding of alchemy.
Additional Attributes:
The above 27 standard attributes are not the only attributes in the game. Others can be earned. Examples include:
Alchemy
Lightwave
Psynergy
Deception
Chakra (if you develop it in particular above and beyond standard ki)
Luck
The Force
Flight
Ranged
Rage
Gnosis
Energy
Archetypes:
Archetypes are important character elements. They represent having access to the proper abilities that can grow holistically and having the true nature and background in the area in question. Archetypes can be considered bonus racial categories, classes, etc. They can modify Top Heaviness Limits, derived values, open access to ability trees, etc.
IP Debt
One will often find that one wants to clear up just a bit more IP to get a bonus for particular training or what not. At approved times, one can spend more IP than one has! Every point that takes one below zero net IP, however, costs 3 in debt.. And you can only spend up to equal your current IP in negative. For example: If Jason has 10,000 IP and wants to get a 20,000 IP ability, he'll spend his 10,000 positive IP and then spend 30,000 negative IP to get the ability. This'll put him at -20,000.
When one is in IP Debt, all of one's IP goes to clearing the debt. Further, they are unlikely to be able to level up abilities or stats from encounters. So be careful!
List of Archetypes
Kin of Imagination -> Master of Imagination: These are very important since they make the algorithms to acquire abilities much less prohibitively expensive. For example, the ability algorithm goes like this:
Default: x4 x9 x16 x25 x36...
Kin: x2 x4 x8 x16 x32...
Master: x2 x3 x4 x5...
So an ability with a million base cost and 4 levels total would cost 576,000,000 under the first scheme, 64,000,000 in the second and 24,000,000 in the third.
Kin of Imagination gives a x5 to all THL that stacks with all other Archetypal and Merit-based raises to THL. Master of Imagination lets one ignore THL entirely.
Meanwhile, Archetypes go as follows:
Default: ^2 ^2 ^2 ^2...
Kin: ^2 ^2 ^2 ^2 ^2...
Master: x100 x100 x100 x100...
Under Master, any time that it'd be cubed, it's x10,000, and any powers of four are x1,000,000.
Overly Competent Person -> The MacGuyver
Apprentice Mage -> Mage -> Wizard -> Sorceror -> Archmage
Neophyte Shaman -> Medicine Man -> Shaman -> Master Shaman -> Shaman Emissary
Lay Celebrant -> Priest -> Abbot -> Bishop -> Hierophant
Martial Monk ->
Light Warrior
Cabin Boy -> Sea Dog -> Pirate -> Corsair -> Captain
Superhuman -> Mega-Hero (or Villain) ->
Giant -> Tribal Giant [Storm Giant or similar] -> Gigas -> Titan [or]
Frost Giant
Druid -> Arch-druid
[Jedi] Youngling -> Padawan -> Jedi Knight -> Jedi Master -> Jedi Grandmaster
Sith Student -> Sith Apprentice -> Sith Lord
Jensaarai Apprentice -> Defender -> Saarai-kaar
Demon -> Archdemon -> Demon Lord -> Demon God [or] Ravana ->
True Daemon [virtually impossible to get]
Devil -> Tempter -> Archdevil -> Grand Admiral -> The Satan [virtually impossible to get]
White Belt -> Intermediate Martial Student -> Black Belt -> Sensei -> Grandmaster
Commoner Spark [Spark with a highly focused, individual power; can take multiple Commoner Spark levels, and usually must] -> Spark -> Royal Spark
Gestalt -> [cubed] Gestalt Force (an archetypal improvement)
Enchanted Weapon Superhuman
Symbiont
Matrix Warrior -> The One: Discovery -> The One: Nascent Awareness -> The One: Truth -> The One: Tribulation -> The One: Sacrifice
Magi [2,000,000 base] -> Awakened Magi [high enough level to be aware of UM] -> [cubed] Universal Magi
Shinigami -> Seated Officer -> Lieutenant -> Captain -> Commander of the 13 Court Guard Squads [virtually impossible]
Genin -> Chuunin -> Jounin [varies: Sennin -> Kage for Naruto ninja]
Sorcerer Supreme ->
Cryo ->
Hero [general heroism; branches outwards to options such as Mythological Hero, Action Movie Hero]
Drone -> Zergling -> Tarrasque -> Cerebrate -> Overmind
Honorary Spirit Detective -> Spirit Detective
SOLDIER ->
Jumper
Light Robot -> Robot Master -> Robot Man
Meta-Aware Character (knows that he or she is a character in a roleplaying game)
Mechanics-Aware Character (knows the rules of the universe in the roleplaying sense and how to take advantage of those)
Red Mage -> Red Wizard
Black Mage -> Black Wizard
White Mage -> White Wizard
Sinistral -> Archetypal Sinistral [Sinistral with additional power] ->
Lord of Sinistrals [virtually impossible]
Saiyan -> Oozaru Saiyan -> Super Saiyan -> Legendary Super Saiyan -> Super Saiyan 2 -> Angel Super Saiyan [SSJ3] -> Devil Super Saiyan [SSJ4] -> Dragon God Super Saiyan [SSJ5]
Namek -> Awakened Namek [Piccolo when fused with Nail] -> Super Namek -> Kami -> Guru [virtually impossible]
Buu -> Super Buu -> Pure Buu
Bodhisattva -> Buddha
Wiseguy -> Made Man -> Capo -> Godfather
Green Lantern -> Honor Guard -> [cubed cost] Corps Commander
Wolfpack Alpha
Beastmaster ->
Broken One [stage can be skipped] -> Draenei -> True Eredar ->
[optional] Dreadlord -> [optional] Eredar Daemon Lord
Guru -> Prophet -> [power of 4 cost] Messiah [almost impossible]
FOXHOUND -> [optional] Snake [or] Big Boss [or] Enfant Terribles
Mentalist -> Psychic -> Master Psychic -> Mind Melter -> Psychic Paramount
Lackey -> Henchman ->
Mad Doctor -> Mad Scientist -> Super Scientist
Villain -> Overlord ->
Hatchling -> Drake -> Wyvern -> Dragon -> Draco [almost impossible] [or] Dragonflight [almost impossible]
Cyborg
Quincy -> Master Quincy
Deific Servant -> Demigod -> Godling -> Avatar -> Deity -> God
Angel > [Seraphim or Cherubim or Thrones] -> [Dominions or Virtue or Powers] -> [Principalities or Archangels]
Whitelighter -> Elder
Witch -> Charmed One [virtually impossible]
Constellation [virtually impossible]
Highlander Immortal -> [power of four] Victor of the Prize
Novice Alchemist -> State Alchemist [or] Independent Amestrisian Alchemist -> [cubed] Master of the Philosopher's Stone
Werewolf -> Garou -> Sept Leader -> Spirit Leader
Loup Garou [Garou species with two lives]
Vampire -> Vampire Prince -> Golconda -> Antediluvian Progenitor -> First [almost impossible]
Dhampir [or] Daywalker [or] Half-vampire [or] Resisted Vampire
Humonculus
Ghost -> Phantom -> Wraith -> Specter -> Spirit
Fairy -> Fair One -> Fairy Noble -> King [or] Queen [or] Puck
Hollow -> Ancient Hollow -> Gillian -> Adjuchas -> Vasto Lorde -> Arrancar -> Espada [prerequisite for gran rei cero]
Mask Haunted -> Vizard
Bount -> Wielder of the Sigil
Endless [virtually impossible]
Supernatural Intelligence -> Lovecraftian Entity [virtually impossible]
Cyber-Knight Squire -> Cyber-Knight -> Hermit -> Dream Sage ->
Lord
Naaru
Cowpuncher -> Cowboy -> Western Hero
Dragon Tribesman
Copy Ninja
Konoha's White Fang
Konoha's Flash
Sharingen User
Uchiha Clansperson
God (or Goddess) of Flash
Keyblade User
Video Game Character -> [has numerous subsets: Fighting Game Character, 8-Bit Character, etc.]
Star of War [unique]
Demon Hunter
Bounty Hunter -> [optional] Star Wars Bounty Hunter
Lich
Nascent Mutant -> Mutant -> [cubed] Omega-Level Mutant
Wizarding Student -> Wizarding Graduate
Blue Mage
Sorcerer Supreme
Zealian Guru
Omnitrix Wielder
Rock Superhero
Stormwind Human
Death Knight
Mummy -> Inheritor of Set -> Servant of Osiris
Chrono Trigger
Zatoichi
Man With No Name
Necromancer ->
Half-Saiyan [gets more raw power than Saiyan but less of the recovery-power gain]
Apprentice Blacksmith -> Blacksmith -> [optional] Spirit Smith (Masamune, Melchior)
Note that all Archetypes can be taken in different directions than the above noted! For example: Krillin, Yamcha, Tien and Chaotsu are all Superhumans but they develop down a different road from Mega-Heroes.
Without Kin of Imagination, the cost to go up to the next level of an Archetype is squared, and in some instances cubed or taken to the fourth power.
First of all, in Muse Aegis you play yourself, at least at first. Over time, players may be able to acquire NPCs, pets, military forces and so forth under their control which will have enumerated stats. They may even earn extra characters.
The attributes are divided into nine groups of three. Each attribute at character creation will range from 20-1000. 20 is the absolute minimum of human behavior and potential, 1000 is the absolute maximum. By this reasoning, 20-75 is nearly crippled or at least desperately out of shape, 76-150 is average, 151-300 is above average, 301-500 is exceptional and 501-1000 is Olympian.
If you need a rule of thumb for calibrating your own personal stats, think about it this way. If you were to convert that attribute one-to-one to Strength, how much could you benchpress? If you believe you are positively in the top .1% of all humans regarding your Beauty, then 700 might be appropriate. If you feel that your beauty could "lift" as much as the average tough guy at the gym but isn't Strong Man material, then maybe 250 to 350 is more your speed.
The sheet looks like this:
HP (composite stat composed of 1 Endurance + 1/2 Stamina + 1/2 Discipline + 1/2 Build + 1/2 Strength; the average value for this, given an average human 100, is therefore 300)
Brawn:
Strength
Build
Endurance
Haste:
Agility
Dexterity
Speed
Energy:
Focus
Soul
Stamina
Paranormal:
Ki
Magic
Psi
Mental:
Intelligence
Wisdom
Craft
Affective:
Personality
Charisma
Beauty
Interactivity:
Perception
Assault
Protection
Potential:
Genetics
Genius
Passion
Achievement:
Serenity
Discipline
Study
Resistances:
Abilities:
Equipment:
Notoriety:
Note that Brawn, Haste, etc. (all the stats in italics) are not stats, they are categories of stats. You do not put ANY numbers into any of the categories, ONLY into the individual attributes. That means you should have 27 attributes total. Sometimes, the categories WILL be used for various things, and summed up, but they are NOT independent game artifacts.
Hit Points are the simple raw ability to take damage. There is a slight element of the old AD&D system where Hit Points going up from experience is partially due to increased experience and not entirely actual absorptive ability, but this is relatively minor. It should also be noted that ordinary humans suffer from the "Chunky Salsa" rule: Anything that would reduce your head to the consistency of chunky salsa will still kill you. In essence, certain forms of incredibly devastating attacks (say, having a giant red dragon burst from inside another one) either do instantaneous death or do massive amounts of damage no matter the proportion. There are special rules to override the
"Chunky Salsa" rule, however. Most organic species suffer from this as well.
Strength is simple raw muscular strength. One's Strength is exactly one's maximum single lift bench press limit; that is, whatever you can lift in one properly executed bench press is your Strength. I do note slight changes from Discipline and other factors that would change one's weight lift, though.
Build is the efficiency of one's design from a brawn perspective. A flabby character that can lift a heavy amount has high Strength but low Build. Bruce Lee would have lower Strength but higher Build. Superhuman levels of Build do exist and represent beyond-possible levels of muscle tone, density and design, not just size.
Endurance is one's general physical hardiness, hale, and so forth. Endurance is the single largest determinant of HP for most characters. It also helps amplify resistances (though this effect is only noteworthy after the 1000 Cap).
Agility is one's fast-flex motions and reflexes. It refers to one's capacity to act first (initiative), strike rapidly, and so forth.
Dexterity is one's slow-flex motions and one's precision.
Speed is generally the simple ability to get from point X to point Y. Note that this refers to one's ability to do so WITHOUT learned powers such as flight or teleportation. Every 25 Speed is one mile per hour. This means that Michael Johnson, the current fastest man in the world, is a 625. Notice that this is sprint speed for the first 100 yards or so. After that, speed drops off quite a bit thanks to the cap of Endurance.
One may ask, "If I can fly at 1000 mph, what's the point of speed?" Well, powers can be deactivated. Speed functions as a prerequisite for some abilities such as Zanzoken, Flash Step, etc. trees. But, more importantly, having too low of a Speed makes one's ability to control and be used to one's high ability-granted Speed limited. Also, after 1000, subsequent Speed bonuses will give bonuses to superhuman speed abilities.
Focus is the mental aspect of one's energy. It refers to one's capacity to focus on a task and fight through boredom, distraction or inner demons. Psychic attacks will usually take heavy tolls on Focus, but some that may be channeled through the body such as Force powers will also take Stamina.
Soul is one's spiritual reserves. Magic tends to run off of Soul, but this is hardly universal. Magis, for example, usually have high Stamina and Focus costs for abilities as well. This is one of their balancing factors, since many formal mages need Soul only or Soul and Focus at the most.
Stamina is one's physical reserves. Almost everything uses stamina, but most things use them very little.
It should be noted in the trifecta of Energy stats that almost everything characters will ever do is powered by and limited by these three stats. Simply the process of fighting or doing anything strenuous will whittle these stats down. When these stats hit zero or below, bad things usually happen.
Ki, Magic and Psi should be self-explanatory. These refer to one's punch and power with those mystic categories. For certain characters, a portion of their Ki, Magic and Psi will be added to Stamina, Soul and Focus, respectively. Starting characters will NOT have a base low stat. Rather, since the system is already keyed to normal human potentiality, different people will have different amounts within that range. Ki, for example, will be different between someone with extensive Tai Chi practice and someone who's never even seen DBZ.
Intelligence is also fairly self-explanatory. It only governs strict rational-logical type thinking, however. Don't worry; artistic types are covered later, under Genius. Intelligence is invaluable for characters who attempt to employ deductive reasoning, memorize complex information, or need to make scientific breakthroughs. Note that all sorts of different skills exist that may or may not require Intelligence.
Wisdom is a stat that represents someone's general spirituality, life experience and ability to provide advice. Generally, good shamans, clerics, priests, druids, Buddhist-type characters, monks and others with spiritual ties will want to develop Wisdom. However, not all have to. Passion (described later on) as well as Personality can both be alternatives, for those who want to be self-righteous.
Craft is practical motor-skills type of intelligence. Whereas Intelligence tends to be more academic and theoretical, Craft refers to grease monkeys, welders, and craftsmen with beautiful skills.
Charisma is one's interpersonal skill at dominating, convincing, attracting or impressing people with one's words, gestures and actions.
Beauty is one's physical beauty and sex appeal.
Personality doesn't just mean someone has something interesting about them as a person. It's a measure of integrity, force of personality, and so forth. In a sense, it can be considered to be ambition.
Perception refers to one's whole sensory apparatus. If you're blind as a bat, maybe 70 since you can still hear. I will note that particular things like nearsightedness, farsightedness, and hearing will need to be noted as Traits.
Assault is one's capacity and tendency to interact with the world offensively, by solving the problem proactively.
Protection is one's capacity and tendency to interact with the world defensively, protecting oneself and others reactively.
Genetics refers to the strength of one's genetic gifts. Mutants tend to need this attribute, as noted below.
Genius is one's status as a prodigy. Whereas Intelligence can be trained, Genius is more developed and molded. This is where artistic characters get their expression, as do talented and brilliant people.
Passion is one's soul power, one's potential to unleash one's inner emotional strength.
Serenity is one's capacity to stay serene and calm. It is essential for monk, Buddhist, Taoist, etc. style characters. But it is also the statistic that expresses one's ability to achieve inner spiritual talent. Serenity completes Passion.
Discipline is, generally speaking, willpower. However, it also refers to the capacity to mold one's powers using the application of discipline. Characters like Kuwabara and Xenocratis have high Discipline: They earn their powers through the dint of hard work, despite whatever innate talents they may or may not have. Meanwhile, Yusuke and Fred would have lower Discipline. Discipline completes Genetics.
Study is one's ability and desire to develop one's Genius.
Now, let's try some builds in action.
A mutant needs Genetics. That is what, say, gives Magneto incredible powers. Mutant psychics would have both Genetics and Psi. By using the Marvel system, where powers are sometimes represented as number of tons lifted, Magneto would have at least 200,000 Genetics!
An architect would need Study, Genius and Intelligence. That is, an architect would want the intelligence to properly process mathematics and make rational choices, the artistic range that Genius provides and the ability to achieve Study to create blueprints.
ADHD does not affect Intelligence, but it may reduce Study, Discipline, Genetics, Focus or Wisdom.
Characters maximizing Assault without developing associated attributes like Discipline or Serenity may find themselves easy to goad into attacking, unrestrained, etc. Similarly, characters maximizing Protection without Passion or Personality may find themselves losing the initiative to act.
Gunslingers need both Dexterity for the proper control and accuracy, Perception to see their targets well enough to hit and Agility to draw fast enough to matter.
After the main stats, there's a few other elements of the sheet to note.
Resistances come in a variety of categories. Percentile resistances reduce incoming damage by a set percentage. Block resistances have an expressed probability of reducing incoming damage of a particular source. Logarithmic resistances reduce higher amounts of damage more than lower amounts. Thresholds subtract a certain amount of damage; it will be noted if it does this after other resistances or before. Maximum Damage reduces Don't worry too much about these
Every character will start with the following three resistances:
Universal Damage Resistance - Percentile 0%
Pain Tolerance - X
Damage Resistance - X
Pain Tolerance's value is how much pain it takes you to lose a half turn. Damage Resistance is based on how much you reduce regular kinetic damage. Pain Tolerance for starting characters shouldn't really exceed 1/8 - 1/4 of HP, and Damage Resistance should probably be 2-5% at the highest.
Other resistances, and increases to these, are earned. For example, a firefighter may acquire Fire Resistance Block 60%/30 or Threshold 30. Some example categories are Fire, Energy, Cold, Water, Earth, Radiation, Bludgeoning, Piercing, Throwing, Concussive, Magic, Psychic, Ki and Electricity.
Abilities and Equipment are self-explanatory
Notoriety just refers to how known you are with particular people and factions. Characters start with none.
Now, we're done with character creation. The core conceit of the game is Imagination Points. These are the experience rewards one gets from every play session, every strategic idea, every plan that saves the group, every beautiful bit of in-character play and every defeat of a critical enemy. Imagination Points are traded on a one-to-one basis for stats. They are used to purchase abilities, unlock realms, signal trainers, etc. Of course, not everything has to be acquired by IP, but other things will be in-game events, currencies, and so forth.
Early on, characters will acquire their core powers. This should not be what you'd like to be right now after you just marathonned Get Backers. This should rather be a desire you've had for years. Think about this as what you might have answered if you were asked, "If you could have one superpower, what'd it be?"
1000 Cap
The primary limiter on character growth initially is the 1000 Cap. This is the gap between the merely Olympian and the superhuman. It takes a special experience and a special commitment to cause one to surge from the pre-superhuman level to the post-superhuman level. In game terms, after important encounters or character moments, the character will choose a new attribute to raise. Attributes thusly altered should be noted with an underline. For example:
Strength 1000
Eventually, of course, every character will release every 1000 Cap. After that, attributes are controlled by other factors...
Acquiring New Abilities
How new abilities are acquired varies from person to person. Mages may need to buy or acquire books to read, while psychics may just need to practice and train. Shamans may need spirit quests. No matter what, though, every character will have some abilities that they can purchase with Imagination Points without the aid of a trainer, book, or any other force (just at a time appropriate to an ability, even in the midst of combat!), and some they simply can't. These will be determined by common sense.
Fate Points
Fate Points are a special commodity that are used generally as a last resort. In a sense, Fate Points let the character be the GM for a second, or rise to an executive writing position. They can allow a dead character to rise again renewed, push the bounds of probability for an impossible plan, resist a particular curse or spell, guarantee a critical success at a skill or an attack, add an additional dice to a particular check, etc.
Every character begins with 1 Fate Point. New Fate Points can be bought at 100 IP for the first, 1000 for the second, 10,000 for the third, etc. They also can be earned, generally after defeating a major opponent or completing a major quest.
Attribute Checks
Attribute checks are done in a few ways. Some are simple one-to-one checks: If one has 4000 Strength, one does it; otherwise, one doesn't. Others are rolls with the attribute as a subsidiary bonus, similar to D&D. Most commonly, though, I'll use a few D100s. The D100s will be read as percents of a particular attribute. The standard for PCs and important NPCs is +1 the average.
For example, initiative rolls are for the average character are done by Agility + bonuses + 1-100% of Agility again. Meanwhile, for the PC, it's Agility + bonuses + 2-200%.
Let's say that Bob, a PC, has 2000 Agility whereas his regular enemy foe has 5000. Neither have any bonuses to initiative. His enemy rolls a 1: His total initiative roll is 5050. Meanwhile, Bob rolls 90 twice. That's .9 of 2000 twice, or 1600 x 2, or 3200. He has 5200. Thus, despite a substantially lower Agility, Bob moves first.
Attribute Limits
The other functional limits on attributes aside from the 1000 Cap are Top Heaviness Limits, or Attribute Limits.
Using attributes that are too top-heavy has both game mechanic and in-game character outcomes.
All attributes that are too high for other attributes to support will have in-game consequences. Someone with too high of Strength will find themselves breaking objects, being clutzy with their strength, and generally acting worse than the average bull in a china shop.
In game mechanics terms, every new point after a Top-Heaviness Limit has been reached will in most cases suffer from a diminishing returns algorithm. This means that every point up to double the limit will have 1/2 the return, every point after that up to triple the limit will have 1/3 the return, and so forth. For example, let's say someone's Strength limit is 2000. They boost their Strength to 4000. For any use of Strength, they will be at 3000. If they continue to raise it to 6000, since every point from 4000 to 6000 counted as 1/3 of the value, their Strength will be functionally 4666.667.
If someone chooses to, they can instead use their maximum attribute. But then expect commensurate penalties failing a control check. Too high of Strength for your Endurance? Torn ligaments.
Top-heaviness varies from stat to stat. Current algorithims are:
Strength: Equal to 75% of Endurance and Build plus 25% of Dexterity and Agility
Build: 75% of Endurance + 75% of Agility + 75% of Discipline
Endurance: 50% of Build + 25% of Strength + 25% of Genetics + 25% of Speed + 25% of Dexterity
Speed: 50% Dexterity + 25% Agility + 25% Stamina + 25% Strength + 50% Endurance + 10% Genetics + 25% Discipline
Stamina:200% of Endurance plus 75% of Discipline.
Focus:75% of Genius and Intelligence plus 50% of Passion and Study.
Magic: 75% of Passion and Soul, 25% of Focus and Stamina
Psi: 75% of Genius and Focus, 25% of Soul and Stamina
Ki: 75% of Discipline and Stamina, 25% of Soul and Focus
Genetics: 200% of Discipline plus 100% of Serenity and Study
Passion: 200% of Serenity plus 100% of Discipline and Study
Genius: 200% of Study plus 100% of Discipline and Serenity
Assault:100% of Wisdom + 100% of Serenity + 100% of Discipline
Protection:100% of Passion + 100% of Personality + 100% of Assault
Craft: 50% of Study and Dexterity, 25% of Intelligence and Genius
Wisdom: 75% Passion + 75% Serenity + 75% Focus
Discipline: 75% Serenity + 75% Focus + 75% Personality
Like all other algorithms, case-by-case alterations and Merits will change various things. Further, in-game consequences may vary from person to person. Someone with an explosive or hard-to-control ability may blow up instead of simply breaking objects.
Applying Attributes
These are fun, friendly and fast algorithms for determining from your attributes various elements of your character's abilities! Yay, math!
I should note that some of these algorithms may not produce entirely correct outcomes. They're rules of thumb. In the real world, someone with the top levels of human speed may run only three times as fast as you or I. There are diminishing returns, where those who train for years to build up a particular skill may only have two to six times what a completely untrained person in good health may acquire. Different exertions and skills scale differently. But since I'm sure you don't want to do logarithmic scales, we'll just do simple arithmetical formulas.
General Efficacy Formula: (Dominant attribute or attributes for ability) + (Serenity, Study or Discipline for control) + (Passion, Genetics or Genius for efficacy) + (Assault if offensive or Protection if defensive)
Vertical Jumping: Every 200 Strength or 200 Speed contributes 6 inches to jumping height. So someone with 1000 Strength and Speed could jump 60 inches, which, coincidentally, is the current world record! Yes, this does mean that it'll take some time for you guys to be just by virtue of attributes making hundred foot vertical leaps.
For you mathletes, the formula is: (1/200 Strength + 1/200 Speed) * 6 inches (or .5 feet)
This means that the prerequisite for jumping 100 feet vertically purely by attributes is a sum of 40,000 Strength and Speed.
Horizontal Leap: The ability to leap horizontally. 1/200 of your Speed + 1/200 of your Strength is multiplied by meters.
Depth Tolerance: The ability to go as far as possible into the water. 1/7 Endurance + 1/7 Stamina is the amount of meters one can go into the water with scuba gear.
Regeneration: Regeneration per day varies from 1/20-1/10 the Endurance of the character in HP. That means if I have 1000 Endurance I will regenerate 50-100 HP a day. This number goes up substantially, by anywhere from a factor of 2 to 10, with proper medical care, rest, etc.
Holding Breath: Without training, pure oxygen, lung packing, or similar techniques, the maximum one can hold their breath safely while retaining consciousness is equal to 1 minute per 500 Endurance. A Serenity of over 1000 also adds 1 minute every additional 500.
Block Chance: Determined by Protection.
Counter-Attack Chance: Determined by Assault.
Survival at Below Zero: Zero HP does not mean death. It means unconsciousness. At zero HP, the remaining stages are: Fully Unconscious (this means more than a temporary KO and more like a condition that must be treated with CPR), Coma, Death, Obliteration. Death and Obliteration obviously have to be treated by revival, but Fully Unconscious and Coma are possible to be cured by healing and medical care, though usually in a more intensive way than traditional healing. Fully Unconscious and Coma can occur at zero HP. Death can occur only after Coma is passed through OR after injuries or continued attacks reduce the target to an additional negative amount equal to one's Endurance. So if one has 4000 HP and 1000 Endurance, then one can be at -1000 before one is fully dead. Obliteration requires Death PLUS reducing to negative HP again: In this case, -4000 HP. This is before archetypes.
Evasion: Every 10,000 Agility gives a base 1% incoming miss chance A miss chance is different from dodging: It is more like AC, in that attacks simply don't find purchase, whether that means being sluffed off, deflected, dodged passively, etc. This means that at 1,000,000 Agility, one will have a 100% base, which means that only attacks that have more standard accuracy can hit! Of course, this is only available under conditions where someone could reasonably dodge or move at all.
Damage Resistance: Every 1000 Endurance gives 1% more damage resistance for base humans. After 25%, it becomes every 10,000; after 50%, it becomes every 100,000; from 75-99%, it becomes every 1,000,000. This means that to have a 99% Damage Resistance (not the highest possible, but after 100% regular attacks won't harm the person unless they have an armor piercing effect), one must have 26,775,000 Endurance (25,000 from 1-25%, 250,000 from 26-50%, 2,500,000 from 51-75%, 24,000,000 from 76-99%)! The tipping point to 100% is at 50,000,000. Trainers will add bonuses to this.
Willpower Checks Determined by a weighting system where Discipline is 2 units and Serenity, Personality and Wisdom are 1 unit each.
DBZ Power Level: 1/50 Ki + 1/50 any other Ki attribute (Youki, Seikoki, etc.) + 1/100 Magic + 1/100 Strength + 1/100 Endurance + 1/100 Genetics after 1000 + 1/100 Discipline after 1000 + 1/200 Dexterity + 1/100 Psi + 1/100 Stamina + 1/100 Soul + 1/100 Passion after 1000. Other Bonus Attributes are sometimes added in, and Archetypes, equipment, Merits and so forth can change the power level.
Fast Learning Caps and Trainers
There is an interesting consequence of the attributes, as well as the force of imagination. Caps for gameplay to learn most things that players will want will be in the thousands, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands. Why?
Let's take the example of Edward and Alphonse Elric learning alchemy. They're both clearly geniuses at Einstein levels, maybe arguably superhuman, but not substantially so. Also, both had intrinsic, apparently genetic skill in alchemy. So their Genius and Intelligence scores would be in the hundreds or perhaps between 1000-2000 in a generous interpetation. Further, alchemy requires Wisdom as well, which they have thanks to some life experience but not enough to prevent them both from making childish errors. Perhaps somewhere between 150-300.
So why shouldn't a player with a Wisdom, Intelligence and Genius of 3000 be able to learn Alchemy?
Well, in a narrow sense, they can. If they take years to train.
More broadly: Ed and Al also had not only the general culture knowledge of alchemy's existence and some degree of basic principles, but also years of study before they blossomed into the characters one sees in the show. And even within the show, while they have certain crystallizing moments where they discover new capacities (like Ed when fighting Greed and surpassing even Kimblee in the art of manipulating bodies), they also have to engage in extensive, difficult research over the course of months. This is on top of training under Izumi and others.
The game's timeline will probably be within months or at most a few years. This means that spending years of study to learn magic, alchemy, science or medicine will be unlikely. Trainers can only partially bridge the gap.
For trainers (canonical characters or otherwise - trainers can be encountered NPCs as well), the important variables are time, expertise and the spending of Imagination Points. The first is fairly simple: How long will the trainer spend with the character? This determines what the trainer can focus on. Some abilities that require extensive study and time may be beyond the trainer's capacity to teach in a short window. Expertise must also be matched between the player and the trainer. If the trainer's powers are psychic in origin but the character in question wants to learn a ki-based alternative or analog, the ability to do that will depend on the character's ability to understand what the teacher is saying even when the teacher uses analogies or understanding from the psychic realm, and the teacher's ability to think creatively and change the lesson plan. People who train under others fairly close to them in demeanor, expertise, and archetype will find the process easier. Also, trainers vary in terms of how much expertise they have. Sean will find it much harder to teach Hadoken than Ryu. Nathan Petrelli is much better at flying than Peter. And Imagination Points can be spent during training to bridge the gap and acquire abilities otherwise unavailable.
Nonetheless, for most quick absorption methods that the game will use, relevant attributes must be MUCH higher. If, for example, it'd normally take five years of relevant study and work to acquire alchemical skills and the character wants to do it in five days, the attributes would probably have to be 365 times higher. Of course, smart planning can reduce the gap, but in the above example, there'd be an additional few months' worth of increase because of the lack of basic alchemical knowledge common to even ordinary citizens of Amestris (i.e. that it exists, what it generally can and can't do, etc.)
There are, of course, all sorts of in-game ways to bridge the expertise gap. Advanced psionics or mental abilities, either deployed by trainers, NPCs or players, can be used to absorb knowledge more rapidly. Abilities like Speed Reading can enhance the speed of study. Sharingen and other ways to observe, absorb, mimic or siphon abilities can be used. Mystic soul draining is certainly an option. Then there's time manipulation. If a character sat down with Izumi Curtis in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, there is a reasonable chance they could walk out with a full understanding of alchemy.
Additional Attributes:
The above 27 standard attributes are not the only attributes in the game. Others can be earned. Examples include:
Alchemy
Lightwave
Psynergy
Deception
Chakra (if you develop it in particular above and beyond standard ki)
Luck
The Force
Flight
Ranged
Rage
Gnosis
Energy
Archetypes:
Archetypes are important character elements. They represent having access to the proper abilities that can grow holistically and having the true nature and background in the area in question. Archetypes can be considered bonus racial categories, classes, etc. They can modify Top Heaviness Limits, derived values, open access to ability trees, etc.
IP Debt
One will often find that one wants to clear up just a bit more IP to get a bonus for particular training or what not. At approved times, one can spend more IP than one has! Every point that takes one below zero net IP, however, costs 3 in debt.. And you can only spend up to equal your current IP in negative. For example: If Jason has 10,000 IP and wants to get a 20,000 IP ability, he'll spend his 10,000 positive IP and then spend 30,000 negative IP to get the ability. This'll put him at -20,000.
When one is in IP Debt, all of one's IP goes to clearing the debt. Further, they are unlikely to be able to level up abilities or stats from encounters. So be careful!
List of Archetypes
Kin of Imagination -> Master of Imagination: These are very important since they make the algorithms to acquire abilities much less prohibitively expensive. For example, the ability algorithm goes like this:
Default: x4 x9 x16 x25 x36...
Kin: x2 x4 x8 x16 x32...
Master: x2 x3 x4 x5...
So an ability with a million base cost and 4 levels total would cost 576,000,000 under the first scheme, 64,000,000 in the second and 24,000,000 in the third.
Kin of Imagination gives a x5 to all THL that stacks with all other Archetypal and Merit-based raises to THL. Master of Imagination lets one ignore THL entirely.
Meanwhile, Archetypes go as follows:
Default: ^2 ^2 ^2 ^2...
Kin: ^2 ^2 ^2 ^2 ^2...
Master: x100 x100 x100 x100...
Under Master, any time that it'd be cubed, it's x10,000, and any powers of four are x1,000,000.
Overly Competent Person -> The MacGuyver
Apprentice Mage -> Mage -> Wizard -> Sorceror -> Archmage
Neophyte Shaman -> Medicine Man -> Shaman -> Master Shaman -> Shaman Emissary
Lay Celebrant -> Priest -> Abbot -> Bishop -> Hierophant
Martial Monk ->
Light Warrior
Cabin Boy -> Sea Dog -> Pirate -> Corsair -> Captain
Superhuman -> Mega-Hero (or Villain) ->
Giant -> Tribal Giant [Storm Giant or similar] -> Gigas -> Titan [or]
Frost Giant
Druid -> Arch-druid
[Jedi] Youngling -> Padawan -> Jedi Knight -> Jedi Master -> Jedi Grandmaster
Sith Student -> Sith Apprentice -> Sith Lord
Jensaarai Apprentice -> Defender -> Saarai-kaar
Demon -> Archdemon -> Demon Lord -> Demon God [or] Ravana ->
True Daemon [virtually impossible to get]
Devil -> Tempter -> Archdevil -> Grand Admiral -> The Satan [virtually impossible to get]
White Belt -> Intermediate Martial Student -> Black Belt -> Sensei -> Grandmaster
Commoner Spark [Spark with a highly focused, individual power; can take multiple Commoner Spark levels, and usually must] -> Spark -> Royal Spark
Gestalt -> [cubed] Gestalt Force (an archetypal improvement)
Enchanted Weapon Superhuman
Symbiont
Matrix Warrior -> The One: Discovery -> The One: Nascent Awareness -> The One: Truth -> The One: Tribulation -> The One: Sacrifice
Magi [2,000,000 base] -> Awakened Magi [high enough level to be aware of UM] -> [cubed] Universal Magi
Shinigami -> Seated Officer -> Lieutenant -> Captain -> Commander of the 13 Court Guard Squads [virtually impossible]
Genin -> Chuunin -> Jounin [varies: Sennin -> Kage for Naruto ninja]
Sorcerer Supreme ->
Cryo ->
Hero [general heroism; branches outwards to options such as Mythological Hero, Action Movie Hero]
Drone -> Zergling -> Tarrasque -> Cerebrate -> Overmind
Honorary Spirit Detective -> Spirit Detective
SOLDIER ->
Jumper
Light Robot -> Robot Master -> Robot Man
Meta-Aware Character (knows that he or she is a character in a roleplaying game)
Mechanics-Aware Character (knows the rules of the universe in the roleplaying sense and how to take advantage of those)
Red Mage -> Red Wizard
Black Mage -> Black Wizard
White Mage -> White Wizard
Sinistral -> Archetypal Sinistral [Sinistral with additional power] ->
Lord of Sinistrals [virtually impossible]
Saiyan -> Oozaru Saiyan -> Super Saiyan -> Legendary Super Saiyan -> Super Saiyan 2 -> Angel Super Saiyan [SSJ3] -> Devil Super Saiyan [SSJ4] -> Dragon God Super Saiyan [SSJ5]
Namek -> Awakened Namek [Piccolo when fused with Nail] -> Super Namek -> Kami -> Guru [virtually impossible]
Buu -> Super Buu -> Pure Buu
Bodhisattva -> Buddha
Wiseguy -> Made Man -> Capo -> Godfather
Green Lantern -> Honor Guard -> [cubed cost] Corps Commander
Wolfpack Alpha
Beastmaster ->
Broken One [stage can be skipped] -> Draenei -> True Eredar ->
[optional] Dreadlord -> [optional] Eredar Daemon Lord
Guru -> Prophet -> [power of 4 cost] Messiah [almost impossible]
FOXHOUND -> [optional] Snake [or] Big Boss [or] Enfant Terribles
Mentalist -> Psychic -> Master Psychic -> Mind Melter -> Psychic Paramount
Lackey -> Henchman ->
Mad Doctor -> Mad Scientist -> Super Scientist
Villain -> Overlord ->
Hatchling -> Drake -> Wyvern -> Dragon -> Draco [almost impossible] [or] Dragonflight [almost impossible]
Cyborg
Quincy -> Master Quincy
Deific Servant -> Demigod -> Godling -> Avatar -> Deity -> God
Angel > [Seraphim or Cherubim or Thrones] -> [Dominions or Virtue or Powers] -> [Principalities or Archangels]
Whitelighter -> Elder
Witch -> Charmed One [virtually impossible]
Constellation [virtually impossible]
Highlander Immortal -> [power of four] Victor of the Prize
Novice Alchemist -> State Alchemist [or] Independent Amestrisian Alchemist -> [cubed] Master of the Philosopher's Stone
Werewolf -> Garou -> Sept Leader -> Spirit Leader
Loup Garou [Garou species with two lives]
Vampire -> Vampire Prince -> Golconda -> Antediluvian Progenitor -> First [almost impossible]
Dhampir [or] Daywalker [or] Half-vampire [or] Resisted Vampire
Humonculus
Ghost -> Phantom -> Wraith -> Specter -> Spirit
Fairy -> Fair One -> Fairy Noble -> King [or] Queen [or] Puck
Hollow -> Ancient Hollow -> Gillian -> Adjuchas -> Vasto Lorde -> Arrancar -> Espada [prerequisite for gran rei cero]
Mask Haunted -> Vizard
Bount -> Wielder of the Sigil
Endless [virtually impossible]
Supernatural Intelligence -> Lovecraftian Entity [virtually impossible]
Cyber-Knight Squire -> Cyber-Knight -> Hermit -> Dream Sage ->
Lord
Naaru
Cowpuncher -> Cowboy -> Western Hero
Dragon Tribesman
Copy Ninja
Konoha's White Fang
Konoha's Flash
Sharingen User
Uchiha Clansperson
God (or Goddess) of Flash
Keyblade User
Video Game Character -> [has numerous subsets: Fighting Game Character, 8-Bit Character, etc.]
Star of War [unique]
Demon Hunter
Bounty Hunter -> [optional] Star Wars Bounty Hunter
Lich
Nascent Mutant -> Mutant -> [cubed] Omega-Level Mutant
Wizarding Student -> Wizarding Graduate
Blue Mage
Sorcerer Supreme
Zealian Guru
Omnitrix Wielder
Rock Superhero
Stormwind Human
Death Knight
Mummy -> Inheritor of Set -> Servant of Osiris
Chrono Trigger
Zatoichi
Man With No Name
Necromancer ->
Half-Saiyan [gets more raw power than Saiyan but less of the recovery-power gain]
Apprentice Blacksmith -> Blacksmith -> [optional] Spirit Smith (Masamune, Melchior)
Note that all Archetypes can be taken in different directions than the above noted! For example: Krillin, Yamcha, Tien and Chaotsu are all Superhumans but they develop down a different road from Mega-Heroes.
Without Kin of Imagination, the cost to go up to the next level of an Archetype is squared, and in some instances cubed or taken to the fourth power.
