[RPG] A Monsters Beginning (Fantasy World)

[JDNNP52]

A MASSIVE "Thank you!" to CaedmonCousland for letting me borrow his ruleset to base my own on! I love his story 'Highever Shall Rise', which was a big inspiration for this quest.

Quest Rules (NSFW rules will be added if we move towards that territory)

Attributes (Stats): There are 12 attributes. Six attributes for personal dice rolls, Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma, and six attributes for territory management dice rolls, Diplomacy, Martial, Stewardship, Intrigue, Learning, and Piety. Basic DnD and CK2 attributes. Piety has to deal with all things magic rather than your relationship with the church or temple.

I am setting a general range for what the numbers mean.

• 1-10: You are on a pathetic level for an adult human. You have no place trying to use an attribute on this level in anything important.
• 11-20: You are on the level of an average human. Nothing exceptional, but also not humiliating. A 15 means you are right in the middle. Half of the 'average' adults will be better than you, and half will be worse. In Martial, most irregular soldiers will be on this level.
• 21-30: This is the point at which one shows talent or specialization. It takes no small amount of focused effort to reach this point under normal circumstances. In Strength, most knights will be on this level.
• 31-40: You are not just talented or accomplished anymore. You are a standout in this field. There are likely only a handful of people in a larger country who can match you. Kings, Archons, and Emperors will vie for your services or be desperately trying to kill you and shall be willing to give out great rewards towards that end.
• 41-50: Wow, you are on a completely different level. At lower than 45, you will still be a once-in-a-lifetime genius in your field. If it's higher than that, your talent should be measured on a historical scale. Later generations will tell stories of you. In Learning, you'd be an Aristotle/Da Vinci/Einstein-level genius. The education of later generations will revolve around learning your works, and scholarly reputations will be forged on their ability to prove/disprove/improve your theories and works.

I am imposing the 50-stat limit. Each rank will be harder to advance further, meaning I'll give less and less stat increases. There will be constant 'Improvement Quests' (if you find some way to train that skill) probably till you hit 21. After that, you'll likely get increases for completing hard tasks and achievements as extra bonuses. Rarely will you get a direct Improvement Quest, and only when you unlock a rarer task. Once you hit 41, everything beyond that will only be obtainable for great 'national' achievements; Martial will require winning national level battles, Diplomacy will require forging national treaties, Learning will require making advancements in something that will benefit just about everyone in Thedas, etc.

Rolls: About the rolls. There shall be a 'Threshold' based on the difficulty of the task, and you must beat the threshold to succeed in the task. I shall roll a 100-sided die to contribute the first points. After that shall be the Attribute score related to that task. Then any bonuses that apply.

There can be demerits based on your own traits or acts, but also occasionally targets shall have their own traits that help them as well. Conducting a battle against a great general obviously means you are facing him, and his traits. An inverse of this is that some tasks allow you to add another's traits to your own score, like when you cooperate with a fellow monster against another group.

Example: You wish to exterminate an adventurer party. You lead your small army of monsters against them. This moves it from personal stats to territory stats. The threshold is 60. Roll (37)+ Martial score (18)+Novice Warrior (+5)=60. Barely managed it.

There can be multiple thresholds, which basically mean that there are different levels of 'success'. In the example, the threshold might have been shown as 60/80. Only achieving the 60 mark means you did succeed in wiping out the adventurers but suffered heavy losses to your force. Getting 80 would have meant your losses were lower as the Party surrendered once it became clear they would lose rather than fight to the last.

There is such a thing as Critical Success though. This means hitting or exceeding 100 in your role. Getting 100 means you succeeded as much as could be expected. In the example, a score of 100 means you managed to ambush the Adventurers, and you suffered barely any losses at all as they were quickly overwhelmed.

Getting a Critical also means you get to reroll for 'further success'. If you fail this roll, it won't cost you anything. However, further successes will be beyond what could normally be expected, like having lucky finds, lowering expected costs, gaining traits, etc. In the example, getting a critical and then rerolling a 64 might mean your troops gained morale or found better loot. A reroll of 94 might mean you captured enough of the party, and they revealed important information about other adventurers in the area. Two critical successes might mean you showed yourself to be very good at leading troops without alerting targets. There is a cap of four Critical Successes in total. By that point, a bandit hunting missions would mean you found them all knocked out drunk, they had a great deal of loot, all their prisoners were unharmed, and the cave they used as a hideout was actually connected to an ancient elven ruin that you could later choose to explore. You really can't get more than that.

Generally, Crits will stack in this way.

• 1st crit (first roll): Completes the mission to the best of mundane means.
• 2nd crit: Gain beneficial information to yourself or territory
• 3rd crit: Locate an unusual object, treasure, or resource.
• 4th crit: Gain a special trait that will help with this particular task in the future.

Rerolls work by a different system, though. All your bonuses no longer work on rerolls. However, any extra score from your last roll will be included. If you originally got a score of 125, you get a 25-point bonus to the reroll. If you had a score of 183, you get an 83-point bonus to a reroll. This reroll scores are a total of (dice roll)+(leftover points from previous score)+(Attribute score).

Attributes, and their effect on bonuses and number of choices: Your attributes have a few more effects on how things play along. Whilst previously stated that your attribute score is added to your roll score, it actually doesn't do so when your score is too low. Similarly, higher scores provide you the ability to accomplish more tasks in that field than before.

Here is how it goes.

• 1-10: Your score is not added as a bonus to your roll score, at this point. You are only able to choose a single task per field.
• 11-20: Your score is added as a bonus to your roll score, at this point. You are still only able to choose a single task per field.
• 21-30: Your score is still added, and shall always be so. I shall no longer mention it. You now are able to choose two tasks per field, every turn.
• 31-40: You are now able to choose three tasks per field, every turn.
• 41-50: You are now able to choose four tasks per field, every turn.

Reputation vs Relationship: A matter of group vs individual. You have a relationship with a person. You have a reputation with a country/city/race/etc. Reputation is harder to get, typically requiring multiple efforts long term or a major achievement. The scale of the group you are earning a reputation with also matters. It is easier to gain a reputation with a city than a country.

Time vs Turns: Each "turn" will be split into about three chapters. The first chapter will have The choices. The second chapter will begin you doing those tasks and then listing any further problems that need to be dealt with. The third and final chapter will show how you chose to deal with any problems that came up and the final rewards (if any) that you earned. Each three chapter structure should take about one to two weeks of in story time.

Money: This world primarily uses Gold, Silver, and Bronze coins. Each gold coin is worth ten silver coins. Each silver coin is worth ten bronze coins. Five bronze coins would be the equivalent wage for a day laborer. Enough for dinner, a room at the inn, with enough left over for breakfast and lunch tomorrow.