Monsters at a Glance

Monster Spreadsheet

• General
  • Archetype
  • Species
• Traits
  • Archetype Trait
  • Personality Trait
  • Work Ethic
• Stats
  • Health
  • Attack
  • Armor
  • Threat
  • Size
  • Cost
• Mental State
  • Morale
  • Stress
  • Nerve

General Attributes

Archetype

Archetype Traits Spreadsheet

Every species of Monster belongs to an Archetype, which comes with a pool of traits. Each Monster gets a random archetype trait upon generation. Archetypes contain general themes that inform their design process. For example: the Bestial Archetype has cheap but cost efficient Monsters while the Draconic Archetype has powerful expensive Monsters that like to fight alone.

Our currently planned Archetypes are:

• Bestial
  • Attack+; Armor-; Cost Efficiency+
  • Survival; Hunting; Packs
• Undead
  • Health+; Attack-; Cost Efficiency+
  • Death; Infection
• Tribal (name pending)
  • Defense+; Cost Efficiency-; Stats+ in Groups
  • Jobs/Roles; Team-Work
• Draconic
  • Stats+; Cost Efficiency--;
  • Hoarding/Greed; Solitude
• Demonic
  • Stats+; Cost Efficiency--;
  • Corruption; Pain

Species

Monsters should be "tropey" so we can write humorous relatable dialogue. Examples might include Skeletons for their lack of organs, Ogres for their large size compared to other workers, or Dragons for their fiery temperament.

Traits

Each monster will have 3 different types of traits. For more information about these traits, see Monster Traits.

Archetype Traits

Each monster will possess one trait unique to its Archetype pulled from a pool of traits of varying rarity. These traits will follow the general trends outlined in the Archetype section and may affect a variety of stats under a variety of conditions. For more extensive details see the Archetype Traits Spreadsheet.

Personality Traits

Each monster will have a Personality trait in addition to its Archetypal one. Personality traits will tend to impact the Monster's stats but most importantly it will determine how it performs alongside other Monsters based on their Personalities. For more information see the Monster Personalities Page.

Work Ethic

Monster's final trait is Work Ethic. In contrast with Personality, a Monster's Work Ethic will tend to affect its Stress and Morale as opposed to stats and team-work.

Stats

Monsters have a variety of stats that effect how they perform at their job. The key difference between these stats and stats like Morale and Stress is that these stats aren't prone to change except when a monster "Levels Up" while Morale and Stress will change over time.

Stat Generation

In order to produce a more balanced game and ease the designing process Monsters begin with Unweighted Stats which allow for easy comparison between Monster Species. Two Monsters of comparable Unweighted Stat Totals will have similar overall power. The weighting of stat values is inversely proportional to its significance to the player. For example a single bonus point of Health is much less valuable that a bonus point of Armor in Damage Calculation, thus Health has a larger weight than Armor.

After consideration of a Monster Species' base stats, the Monster instance is generated with random stat variations. These variations follow a pseudo-normal distribution so that Monsters are most likely to be average with occasional outliers. This is important to the Hiring process so that players are able determine the strengths and weaknesses of the Monster being interviewed.

Health

Health is the Monster's maximum pool of HP. When HP is depleted to 0 the Monster will die and it will be up to the player to resurrect them. Having a higher Health value will increase the amount of damage the Monster can take before dying. HP is one of the most abundant stats because Monsters shouldn't die in one or two hits, for this reason Health has a high weight.

Attack

Attack is a Monster's ability to inflict damage. Its' base Attack may be modified by other characteristics for the final Damage Calculation but because Attack can greatly reduce the length of any bout of combat, Attack is a more valuable stat and has a lower weight than Health.

Armor

Armor is a monster's resistance to taking damage. Because taking damage effects the Monster's Stress and Morale as well as putting them closer to death, Armor is an incredibly valuable stat for both Damage Calculation and the long term health of your Monster. For this reason, Armor has a very low weight.

Threat

Threat is a static value that is not weighted or attributed in a Monster's total Unweighted Stat Value because Threat is not necessarily a beneficial stat unlike Health, Attack, and Armor. Threat determines what Monster enemy Heroes will target within a room. Some Monsters may prefer to take on aggro whilst others may want to avoid it.

Size

A Monster's Size determines how many can potentially be fit into a Room. A smaller Size is a good thing as it allows the player to fit more Monsters into a given Room. Size should be calculated in proportion to a Monster's Total Unweighted Stat Value and considered inversely proportional to its Cost. In other words, a powerful Monster should either take up a lot of space and Cost less or take up little space and Cost more.

Cost

Each monster will have a salary that the player must pay at the end of a cycle. Promoting a Monster might raise this salary but increase their stats. The base salaries will depend on the species in question but will be modified to be random within reason. Monster's cost should be inversely proportional to Size. See above for more details.

Leveling Up and XP

Monster's can "Level-Up" after they have accrued enough experience. This is done through the Supply Closet Department in the form of a promotion. Promotions will increase a Monster's base stats permanently. The increase in stats is based on the tier of the Promotion and will follow a quadratic equation.

Mental State

Morale

Morale is a stat that symbolizes how a Monster is feeling at any given time. Morale is subject to more rapid change than Stress and should be considered a "Damage Multiplier" during Damage Calculation. Morale is always beneficial but will follow an "S" curve which ensures that minimal investment into Morale is less rewarding.

Things that boost morale:

• Favored Room Type (+10)
• Favored Personality Types (+10)
• Getting Healed (+5)
• Time Off (+25)

Things that negatively affect morale:

• Taking Damage (-2.5 every 25% threshold crossed)
• Being Defeated (-15)
• Least favorite room type (-10)
• Least favorite personality type(-10)
• Stress Level (+5/0/-5/-10)
  • +5 Morale at 0-25 Stress
  • 0 at 26-50 Stress
  • -5 at 51-75 Stress
  • -10 at 76-100 Stress

Stress

Stress is a long term stat in contrast with Morale. This stat is affected by less factors than Morale and acts more as a slowly. This stat works into Damage Calculation and affects Morale. Stress affects damage negatively but because it is anticipated that everyone will have a little Stress, it will follow a quadratic curve so that small amounts of Stress can be tolerated but large amounts of Stress are much more significant.

Things that affect stress:

• Working (+2 per Cycle)
• Morale (+2/+1/0/-1/-2)
  • +2 at 0-20 Morale
  • +1 at 21-40 Morale
  • 0 at 41-59 Morale
  • -1 at 60-79 Morale
  • -2 at 80-100 Morale
• Time Off (-15 per week)
• Being Defeated (+5)

Nerve

Monsters can become fed up with work. If working conditions are too bad, represented by the Monster falling into both low Morale and high Stress thresh-holds for an extended period of time, the Monster can accrue a "strike" to its Nerve, 3 strikes and the Monster will quit. Strikes can disappear over time and Monsters that quit can be negotiated with to rehire them but it won't come cheap.

Name

Monsters have a first and last name, drawn randomly from pools based on the Archetype of the monster. Each name also has a random chance of instead being from a pool of very common human names. When a monster is upgraded, it has a chance of gaining a title, in addition to the names. The title has a chance of being pulled from normal ones as well.

Examples:

• Rawlik Snaggletooth
• Ted Stronargh the Destroyer
• Slurdis Wracklemore from Accounting