|
Post by notARobot on Oct 19, 2017 11:49:48 GMT -8
What I mean is, I don't know whether I'm supposed to improve skills I already have, become proficient in new ones, a little of both, or what. Ah, I see. It's my understanding that thieves and bards don't gain additional proficiency slots until fourth level (and every level divisible-by-four thereafter), so I think this time you just have to choose where to allocate your 15 points among climb walls, pick pockets, detect noise, and read languages.
|
|
|
Post by Daos on Oct 19, 2017 11:53:36 GMT -8
Different NPCs have different personalities, so becoming friends with someone really depends on how well you know them. It's actually really easy to befriend someone like Finbul, if you know what to do and say around him. Find out in the next chapter! Okay, you distribute the 15 points in the following skills: Climb Walls (50%) Detect Noise (20%) Pick Pockets (10%) Read Languages (10%) These skills are percentile based, so when you want to use one, you roll a 1d100. So your Pick Pockets skill is 10%, so you need a 10 or lower on a 1d100 to succeed. If you put all 15 points into Pick Pockets, it will become 25%. Or you can split your points up, putting a few in each skill to raise them slightly. So say, you could put 2 points in Climb Walls, 3 points in Detect Noise, 5 points in Pick Pockets, and 5 points in Read Languages.
|
|
|
Post by Ezeze on Oct 19, 2017 12:31:41 GMT -8
|
|
|
Post by Daos on Oct 19, 2017 14:11:34 GMT -8
So, prestige. I don't think I've spoken much about it since our newcomers arrived, and I probably shouldn't assume you've poured through the OOC thread archive, so now is as good as any time to bring it up.
Prestige is an important part of this game, so I made up a new mechanic for it. Tardiff is a very LN country, so all of its culture and taboos surround doing what is expected of you, obeying authority (whether from the crown and nobility or the church) and not disrupting the status quo. Indeed, most of the moral and ethical dilemmas you come across in this game will not be choosing between Good and Evil, but rather choosing between what you want to do and what you are obligated to do.
This game is also an exploration of things like classism and racism (well, fantastic racism, anyway), and so they play large roles in how the NPCs you interact with see you.
And that's where your prestige score comes in. It's essentially a measurement of how the local population view you. It affects their relationships with you, as well as your political standing in a given community. If your prestige is high, then people are more respectful of you. Lots of doors open up to you, also. However, if your prestige drops too low, bad things happen. Worst case scenario, the villagers might form a mob with pitchforks and torches and come after you. So the higher your prestige, the better.
Prestige can also be used as a sort of currency. If it's high enough, you can deliberately lower it without consequence. For instance, let's say your character falls in love with someone beneath their station, like a bastard, or a race that is considered inferior. Obviously, you would take a big hit to your prestige were you to marry them. However, if your prestige is high enough, you can take that hit and still be okay. In-game, this would mean the locals don't approve of your marriage, but they respect you enough that even after it's done, you're still well off. This is another reason why you want a high prestige. If it's high enough, you can trade it in so you can do the stuff you want to do.
Based on your background, you may start the game with a high or low prestige. Things that affect it are your race, breeding, and whether you are a local or not. As the game progresses, your prestige will go up or down depending on your actions. People have to witness things to affect your prestige, though. For instance, if you were having an affair with another person's spouse, that would affect your prestige...but only if people find out about it. If you keep it hidden from the public, it won't affect you. This is also part of the reason why I wanted everyone to have a dark secret. If that secret gets out, your prestige will drop like a rock.
Things that improve your prestige include acquiring wealth, acquiring political power or influence, marrying above your station, having a job befitting your station or that is above it (for instance, Ladonna waiting tables is fine as a peasant, but if she's still doing that once she's improved her station, people will start to look down at her for it), living a middle-class or wealthy lifestyle, following the law, being a faithful follower of Gonto (or at least pretending to), maintaining the status quo, doing things that benefit the community, acquiring lands or titles, associating with people above your station (especially if you are openly friends with them) or being in good standing with the church or the nobility.
Things that damage your prestige would be doing anything embarrassing or dishonorable, marrying below your station, having a job beneath your station, living a squalid lifestyle, breaking the law, worshiping a deity other than Gonto openly, trying to break the status quo (like the Equalists), doing anything that harms the community (especially if it's for selfish reasons), associating with people beneath your station (including just being friends), or upsetting the church or nobility.
(Note that, as adventurers, your characters are probably destined to do some of these things. Adventurers regularly upset the status quo just by existing, but that's okay. Part of the fun, I think, will be juggling adventuring with being respectable.)
Now this is a new system, untested, so I may need to change this later on if it becomes too hard or easy, but for the time being, I'm going to say that everyone should have a goal to have a prestige of at least 10 by the end of the arc (when the party reaches 5,000 XP). This should be enough to get you an audience with the baron, who is the most important and prestigious person in the village. You can then ask of him a single boon.
On the other hand, if your prestige drops to, let's say, -10, then the villagers turn on you and you'll likely be formally exiled or run out of town. (If you are about to do something that will drop your prestige to -10 or lower, I'll warn you ahead of time, at least for the first arc.)
That said, I've calculated everyone's new prestige scores from the last chapter, and here are our current totals:
Ladonna: 7 Ryan: 9 Theron: -3 Katya: 4 Jherek: -1 Lillian: -1
A score of '0' means either you are completely unknown or just that the locals have no strong feelings one way or the other about you. A positive score means the people like you, a negative score means they don't like you or look down at you.
If the party is successful in their mission, they'll get more prestige points (how many depends on how you accomplish it).
|
|
|
Post by Daos on Oct 19, 2017 16:05:09 GMT -8
Also, personal goals! I asked everyone for personal goals before, so now I want to offer a chance for anyone who wants to add new goals to their list, remove them, or modify them. Here are everyone's current goals: Ladonna1.) Find out the fate of Ethen's brother Davion 2.) Find out Rebekah's secrets 3.) Help convince Jacob's daughter, Myra, to marry Ingot 4.) Play matchmaker with Norm and Felicia 5.) Learn more about Hazel 6.) Volunteer for church work with Mattin 7.) Influence Damon to be a good leader for Sennah's sake Ryan1.) Improve his relationship with Damon Theron1.) Aquire significant wealth, learn valuable information, and/or form alliances with powerful or well-connected folks around Buho 2.) Develop a relationship with Coha 3.) Uncover what really happened to his mother and siblings the night he left Deteris Katya1.) Become a knight 2.) Marrying Jherek 3.) Bring worship of all the gods and druidism to Tardiff Jherek1.) Acquire enough power to become respected, despite his race 2.) Acquire enough gold to become 'happy' 3.) To make his parents proud of him LillianNone Let me know if you want to make any changes.
|
|
|
Post by HorizonsDream on Oct 19, 2017 16:32:56 GMT -8
HP Roll
arin9Bsd1-41-4
|
|
|
Post by notARobot on Oct 19, 2017 16:37:35 GMT -8
Theron's prestige at the beginning of Chapter 3 was -3. In the chapter summary you posted earlier, you mentioned that he gained a prestige point through his apology to Aunt Gilly. But in the post about the prestige system you just made a couple hours ago, you've listed Theron's prestige as still being -3. Shouldn't it be bumped up to -2 now, or did he lose a point somewhere along the way and I just missed it?
|
|
|
Post by Daos on Oct 19, 2017 16:46:22 GMT -8
Okay, sorry about that. I just went through my notes, and it looks like what happened is when I posted his prestige at the beginning of chapter 3, it was actually -4. I made a typo.
|
|
|
Post by notARobot on Oct 19, 2017 16:52:02 GMT -8
...do you mind if I ask where the extra -1 came from?
|
|
|
Post by Daos on Oct 19, 2017 17:03:15 GMT -8
Ummm...let's see here...ah, okay. I see what happened. It was the bracelet. That was retconned in after he entered the game. I updated my notes, but forgot to make a formal mention of it. He never was actually arrested, but the rumor that he might have stolen it got around (largely thanks to the watch, who believe he is guilty, so they spread the word). And because his prestige was already low, it was easy for people to believe. Actually, I think Theron was originally at -6 or -7 or something. That was back when he was homeless. And his uncle was a (rumored) war deserter. I think that was why I talked you out of those parts. I was worried his prestige was so low that even one slip-up would have pushed him over the edge. This is also another reason I was worried he might get caught with the Stenn op. That'd would have been another -3 if he was caught. And then if they searched him and found the bracelet, which he had on him at the time, he'd get another -2 for that.
|
|
|
Post by GravityEmblem on Oct 19, 2017 17:04:58 GMT -8
And Lillian is -1 because...she doesn't talk to people?
|
|
|
Post by Daos on Oct 19, 2017 17:09:09 GMT -8
Tardiff is built on Gonto values, and one of Gonto's big values is community. Everyone working together, friendship, family, etc. Lillian is a loner. She lives alone, she doesn't talk to many people, and she keeps to herself. So people view her with suspicion. It feels like she is hiding something or up to something, and that puts the locals off a bit.
|
|
|
Post by notARobot on Oct 19, 2017 17:10:07 GMT -8
Yeah, either of those situations would have put him in an extremely tenuous position, reputation-wise. As it is, at -3 he's not doing so great, if we're supposed to be aiming for +10 by 5000 XP. I'll have to mull it over and come up with some in-game reason for why he wants to work on raising his prestige.
Thanks for the explanation!
|
|
|
Post by Daos on Oct 19, 2017 17:55:59 GMT -8
Well, there are lots of generic reasons to want to raise prestige. Respect, power, and influence being chief among them. There might be more personal reasons, too. For instance, Justin originally wanted to meet with the baron to ask for a boon (he wanted to be introduced to the count, in hopes of persuading him to lend an army to help the marquis he once served).
Anyway, Ladonna and Lillian are now both fully leveled up. Once Nuke rolls for Ryan's HP, I can go ahead and start up chapter 4 tomorrow.
|
|
|
Post by Ezeze on Oct 20, 2017 5:30:59 GMT -8
Is it safe to assume, then, that our prestige will not follow us between towns? Similarly is it safe to assume that carrying out the mission the way Ser Walls tells us to will result in more prestige? Is Prestige harder or easier to gain if you've got a lot of it? EDIT: That's Katya's idea of a threat, huh? Listen, it worked. It makes a little more sense when you look closely at the ways Jherek depends on Katya. He needs her to act as a grounding, centering force in his life. She is his safe haven, and she threatened to destroy that. Also, when you consider what Jherek actually gets out of his misdeeds. Gold, sure, but gold only has as much value as you attach to it. What running with the Wyld Boys does for Jherek is shore up his sense of self, make him feel like he is in the right when everyone in Buho thinks he is wrong. It's a boost to his ego. If his little Kat started doing bad things and was better at it than he is? - that's actually a serious threat. Jherek's got two lives - one in Buho, one out in the woods being a bad guy. If Katya had just left him it would have destroyed his life in Buho, but he would still have had his life out in the woods. So she didn't threaten to leave him - she threatened to do something that would have disrupted both of his lives. Also...I'm really curious what would've happened if Jherek had gone with the second option Katya offered..."alright, cool, let's go on a murder spree" The game would have gotten very interesting very quickly. Katya would have backed up her words with action, even if she said them thinking that Jherek probably wouldn't force her to; going "sure, let's do this" would have required him to A) care less about Buho than Katya thinks he does, B) be less remorseful about the murders than she thinks she is, and C) Be more secure in himself than she thinks he is. I've never actually had a Paladin fall during play - off screen or before the game started, sure, but not during play. It would have been a first for me.
|
|