Adventuring is an option for members wishing to obtain specific items or rare event blessings. Similar to quests, Adventures come with a dash more unpredictability and much more specific requirements for completion. They are also significantly more dangerous and come with severe consequences when it comes to failure. However these story lines offer players a great way to obtain special group items as well as raise their characters stats.
Integral to our Adventuring system is our newly developed stat system which should be reviewed before attempting a scripted Adventure or Dungeon.
Adventures and Dungeons are semi-limited per character due to the dangers attached to them and their valuable rewards. These limits are minimal, typically allowing for only one of each to be taken on per season (aka per month) per character.
Available Dungeons and Adventures are on a rotational basis through the group. They will change from time to time and can be viewed HERE.
Unlike other group activities, Adventures/Dungeons are primarily processed via note. That's right, this system requires your involvement!! Players wishing to take on one of our Adventures/Dungeons need to note the group before they ever begin a sketch or start writing! The entire Adventure/Dungeon will actually be played out via the note, allowing for players to react immediately to sudden turns or surprises.
Once the adventure has ended, players must then submit the required number of submissions in order to claim the loot they earned! By playing out the adventure via note, we hope it will provide players with enough moments or scenes recreate via image or write about in more detail.
Players should note the group with the title of the chosen Adventure/Dungeon as the subject. Included in the note should also be the following form filled out:
Leading Character: Name and link to their design or ref
Is their magic unlocked? Yes or no
Assisting Characters? List any assisting characters going along on this adventure
Magic unlocked? Yes or not
^^ Confused about this? Please keep reading! ^^
Each adventure/dungeon comes with a Challenge Rating, a measure of how dangerous and difficult each particular mission is. All of our adventures pose some sort of danger but some are more daunting than others. These challenge levels not only relate to literal dangers your character may face but how high of a 'survival save' characters need to make in order to avoid these consequences. Mods either roll a d20 die or roll via an RNG generator from 1-20 to see if they make the save for the dungeon/adventure. Tougher dungeons/adventures require higher rolls to succeed, thus making them mechanically more difficult. The more difficult a dungeon/adventure the more severe the consequences are as well but the greater the reward.
Should a character roll a 'Critical Success' or what we call a Nat 20, they will get a bonus item included in their loot and also receive 'advantage' on the next stage of their adventure/crawl.
Should a character roll a 'Critical Failure' or a 1 out of 20, they will suffer the worst of the consequences listed and the adventure/dungeon crawl ends.
Players may always choose to turn back or give up on an adventure or dungeon without further consequence to their characters health at any time. Any loot they have gathered when they choose to leave the adventure/dungeon will be tallied at that time.
Roll needed to save: 8 or higher
Consequences:
- Character receives a minor injury
OR
- Character escapes unscathed but looses 30% of their loot.
OR
- Character encounters a relevant monster/enemy
Roll needed to save: 13 or higher
Consequences:
- Character receives a moderate injury
OR
- Character escapes unscathed but looses 50% of their loot.
OR
- Character encounters a relevant monster/enemy
Roll needed to save: 16 or higher
Consequences:
- Character receives a severe injury
OR
- Character escapes unscathed but looses 80% of their loot.
OR
- Character encounters a relevant monster/enemy
Rolling with Advantage or 'Having Advantage'
When we say a character has advantage on a certain roll or ability check this means when we roll our 20 sided die we roll it twice and take the higher of the two numbers.
Rolling with Disadvantage or 'Having Disadvantage'
When we say a character has disadvantage on a certain roll or ability check this means when we roll our 20 sided die we roll it twice and take the lower of the two numbers.
Players who want to take on harder dungeons/adventures but don't want to risk loosing their characters may have other herd members assist them in their quest. Assisting Characters increase the odds of success for the character who is actually leading the dungeon trek or adventure. You can only have up to 2 assisting characters per adventure but they modify your chances like so:
Addition of 1 Assisting Character: +2 to save rolls
Addition of 2 Assisting Characters: +3 to save rolls
Having magic unlocked also increases your chances of success for dungeons/adventures.
A lead character who has their magic unlocked adds an additional +2 to their save rolls.
Assisting characters with unlocked magic adds +1 to save rolls (this stacks)
So how might this affect your dungeon crawl/adventure? Say you send your lead mare on a dangerous adventure. Her RNG roll is 12, which would mean she fails and would suffer from a consequence. Lets see how having assisting characters changes this!
Example:
Having 1 assisting character ups her roll to 14 so she would still fail. But what if her magic was unlocked? This makes her roll a 16 and she passes!
If she had taken 2 assisting characters she would have had a bonus of +5 to her roll making it a 17 and still a pass.
This lead mare, taking two assisting characters with all of their magic unlocked adds 7 to that original roll, making it a 19!
See how quickly the odds change?
Inevitably on adventures, your characters may run into some...less than friendly types. Elysium is home to numerous other species after all. Some of these beasts are friendly while others are less so. Characters always have the option of fleeing from combat but for those not afraid to take on a challenge, they may engage in battle with these foes!
Our battle system is fairly simple and automated to the players convenience. Should a threat arise and challenge your character(s), it will always be included in the admin comment left on your submission alongside gemstones earned, items found etc. Battles will primarily take place through comment chains until a resolution is met. This allows for players to decide if they want to continue the fight or disengage before their character suffers serious injury. This also allows for players to make calls on what attacks they want their character(s) to use and when(this is more important for characters capable of making magical attacks). Players wishing to engage in combat may choose to break the battle down into 'Rounds' or may set a limitation for admins to follow.
Limitations being things like:
Continue combat until PC's reach or fall below a x amount of health. Then flee.
Continue combat until NPCs perish.
With limitations, admins can then roll the battle without pausing between each round. This allows for faster combat and the quickest results for players. The entire battle will be summarized in the admin reply letting players know if their characters received any injury and what they earned in combat.
Battle Rounds
Players who elect to have their combat broken into battle rounds allows for more player control over the battle itself. The character(s) and the target (s) will each get a full turn to try and attack. Once both have used up their attacks the round is 'over'. From here, players may choose to flee or continue the battle giving mods specific instructions on what they want their characters to do.
Perhaps they want all the involved characters to gang up on one specific foe or they wish to use a magical attack available to their character. Admins will never assume or guess what sort of magical attack a character will use, so Battle Rounds are the only option for magical combat. Battle Rounds will be automatically selected for combat involving Blights as most will opt for magical attacks.
The combat will continue in the comment thread until either: the player chooses to have their character(s) flee, the targets perish or the character(s) perish. There is no limitation on how many rounds may occur in a battle, it is entirely up to the player.
Round One Protection
To help balance combat and to keep things fun, players can rest assured that their characters can not be killed round one of combat. Even if an attack hits and exceeds their health maximum the character will be left with 1 hp at minimum. This will allow players to retreat if they need or want to. However, should a character remain in combat for a second turn this protection will be lifted.
When their health hits 0, the character will be declared dead.
When adventuring or even exploring a dungeon, characters may also face challenges that have nothing to do with combat. Characters navigating a disorientating maze or even faced with a knowledgeable but deceitful NPC may find themselves relying on other skills to continue forward. Perhaps your character has uncovered the correct path to a great treasure hoard but a sleeping giant guards the stash. Rather than attack him, players could opt to sneak around the giant. This would call for a stealth check which falls under their Agility stat.
Or perhaps a character finds themselves trapped with a horde of goblins approaching. Suspecting they may not win the approaching combat, they could opt to try and frighten their foes away. This would call for an intimidation check which falls under their Charisma stat.
Another option, and one most likely to be utilized by players, is the ability for characters to make investigation or perception checks. Whether they're lost or unsure of a correct path to take, the character could pause and take the time to look around. Such checks are also great for sniffing out potential danger before entering into a new situation or locating items tucked away and out of sight.
These types of checks also apply outside of Adventuring and Dungeon Crawls.
Characters who stumble into side quests or are even taking on regular quests are always welcome to make checks like these to uncover more information. Of course, the amount of information characters and players receive always depends on the rolls.
Players/characters will be asked or made to make ability checks when attempting to do something "off script" so to speak. Checks relating to physical stats (such as strength, agility, and stamina) will only be required in combat situations or while taking on adventures/dungeons. Characters doing fantastical feats for fun or for the artist flare will never be subject to checks (unless the players requests them).
This means, if your character is battling, say a Vulcanos Dragon the player can not just say, write or draw about their unicorn lifting the dragon onto its back and tossing it into a pool of lava and winning the battle. This is a very extreme example!! However if the player did want to attempt to push the dragon into the lava they would be welcome to do so! However it would require a strength check.
This goes for all stats, even non-physical ones (charisma and intelligence).
Say for example your dashing lead stallion is attempting to smooth talk his way past a rival on an adventure. He would have to make a charisma check to see just how convincing he actually is, in the eyes of this rival.
More examples for each ability are listed below!
Above we touched on an example where a character attempts to push a dragon into lava. When characters face off against opposing forces they will make what we refer to as an Opposed Ability Check. In our above example, we would roll for the character but also for the dragon as he doesn't want to be pushed into lava. The character with the higher check wins. So say our bulky unicorn rolls a 19 and the dragon rolls a 7. The dragon would then be pushed pushed into the lava! Admins may also include reasons why such impossible checks happen for the sake of 'flavor'. Perhaps the Dragon had crick in his neck and that's why he lost. Or perhaps he slipped on a banana peel he mistakenly didn't see!
But say the unicorn only rolled a 13 and our dragon scored a whooping 25. That would mean the unicorn would fail to push the dragon into the lava and the admin responding to the battle would get to decide what the dragon does. Perhaps he would just shove the unicorn back or simply hold the character in place with a smirk and snide remark. It's up to the admin!
The addition of these checks and rolls is to add a touch of RNG to our stories and adventures. After all, you never know what the dice will roll and in some cases it could result in a rather hilarious and entertaining outcome.
Strength determines how effective a character is at applying brute physical force. Strength is involved when climbing, swimming, or jumping (both broad and high jumps).
Strength Checks will be made for things such as:
breaking free from bonds
tipping over large objects
pulling heavy objects
pushing or pulling against an opposing force
The measure of speed and dexterity. How nimble a character is and how quick they are on their feet
Agility Checks will be made for things such as:
balancing in precarious situations
racing an NPC
performing acrobatic feats
performing stealthy maneuvers
The measure a character's physique, toughness, health and resistance to disease and poison.
Stamina Checks will be made for things such as:
fatigue based checks
endurance situations
capability of shaking off the effects of poison or disease
A measure of how commanding, charming and confident a character is naturally.
Charisma Checks will be made for things such as:
when trying to convince someone to see your point of view
attempting to quell a verbal fight
when attempting to blend in or appear 'natural' in a new situation
when attempting to intimidate or frighten someone
when attempting to inspire or encourage someone
A measure of how clever your character is, how much they know, and their ability to use logic and reasoning.
Intelligence Checks will be made for things such as:
attempting to recall details about a place or thing
attempting to recall important history or obscure details
when investigating an area for threats
perceiving the area around them
shaking free from some magical effects
Art credits: Hiokami-chan, DodgerMD, Trinirtysilph, rareaji and KTlasair of Deviantart