The Dunhurst Custom Dungeon ~ 13 Floors Deep?!: RP Interest / Guide Q&A Thread

[Astral Harmony]

Current Guide Update: 10/14

Alrighty, time for me to become a more disciplined GM! The fans are counting on it! And now that Pokemon Umbral is becoming streamlined and I'm finally over my extreme addiction to video games, I'd like to toss around this other wacky idea that's in my head.

So, how should I put this? Not very long ago, the Kingdom of Herxweicht (I dunno how to pronounce it, either) sprung up from a collection of co-dependant villages into a kingdom powerful enough to rival other global powers. How is that even possible? Through a strange classification of magic called...

Architectury!

Yeah, I guess I'd better explain myself. Architectury is a bizarre form of magic that can construct customized dungeons in a manner of weeks that draw hordes of monsters to them. Architectury has been banned in other nations because there's clearly no desire to have monster-filled dungeons springing up everywhere. But apparently someone found a use for the magic after all. By creating custom dungeons, one can encounter custom monsters, and acquire vast amounts of custom loot. And that's how Julian Herxweicht, the hero who found a use for Architectury, built a kingdom in a mere couple of decades.

But these days Herxweicht, both the man and his kingdom, faces a crisis. Due to the sudden explosion in popularity for custom dungeons due to their benefits now being fully exposed, every superpower is hiring Dungeon Architects. And it wouldn't be a long time before Herxweicht gets swallowed up in this or that power struggle.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

And Julian's as desperate as they come by this point.

Julian Herxweicht: "She's the only Dungeon Architect still operating in my kingdom. And in order for our kingdom to stay on top, she's going to build a Custom Dungeon just southeast of the town of Dunhurst...thirteen floors deep!"

And gasp you should, my friends. There is no Custom Dungeon in the entire world deeper than ten floors at current, simply because things can get pretty...uhh..."volatile" beyond the fifth floor, and they only get worse as you go deeper and deeper. The thirteenth floor might just be the very mouth of hell itself, with artifacts that could decide the fate of entire nations.

Trisharte Ghascleft: "Thirteen floors, huh? The deepest I've ever built a Custom Dungeon is nine floors, but the Guild of Dungeon Architects did say I have a natural talent for this stuff. I can even do Spatial Swapping."

Spatial Swapping? The ability to convert one dungeon space into an entirely different kind? Changing environment and weather? On the fly? Even during combat?!

I'm gonna halt the story there and tell you about how the game plays out.

Each floor takes a week to construct, and on certain days you may need to assist Trisharte with certain aspects of the dungeon construction, like clearing out monsters, or gathering an item, or defeating a powerful monster that appeared suddenly. At the end of the week, Trisharte will have gathered enough power within the floor through constructing the dungeon which will make it possible to start construction of the next floor, but it'll also bring the "Floor Boss" into the dungeon which of course will need to be slain.

You, the players, can come from various races and backgrounds. Maybe you're an honorable elven guardsman hired by the kingdom to protect Trisharte. Maybe you're a centaur opportunist hoping to acquire power of your own by yoinking some artifacts. Maybe you're a fugly halfling trying to win the heart of that cute girl at the inn wearing the blue dress by proving your bravery. But with the dangers that one might encounter in a Custom Dungeon, you should work together.

There'll be various stock RPG classes with statistics and inherent skills 'n' traits, although you'll also be allowed freedom to do some extra customization of your own. I'll also create Racial traits and skills that further upgrade your character. I know I'll also be coming up with weapons that can take advantage of elemental or attribute weaknesses of the various monsters. Most likely armor as well.

If you're familiar with my other RPG, Pokemon Umbral, you can expect combat to flow like that, relying on the fresh and new streamlined system currently being tested and ironed out.

And I guess I should explain Elements and Attributes while I'm at it.

There are quite a few Elements here: Earth, Water, Air, Fire, Ice, Lightning, Light, Darkness, Healing, Poison, and Astral. They have a general Vs relationship going on. Earth & Air, Water & Lightning, Fire & Ice, Light & Darkness, Healing & Poison, with Astral being a rather non-elemental magic that does decent damage regardless of the target's elemental affinity. And don't you worry, mages: you'll be able to customize your magical aptitude as you please.

Attributes are subdivided into Weapon and Physical. Weapon Attributes decide how your weapon does damage: Slashing, Piercing, Blunt, Explosive, yadda-yadda-yadda and these can be effective or ineffective against certain Physical Attributes. Physical Attributes indicate the target's body and include stuff like Human, Dragonic, Aquatic, Skeletal, Spectral, Armored, Mechanical, Floral, Undead, Aerial, Amorphous, and Lightweight. These Attributes can be affected by both Elements and Weapon Attributes, and they'll apply to your characters as well, so pay careful attention to what you decide to create. I'll probably have a bunch of examples of everything up within a week or so, so right now all I'm really looking for is interest. No point constructing a dungeon thirteen floors deep if no one wants to explore the damn thing, amirite?

[Aldurin]

This is interesting, I'm game for it.

[Arcanum]

Interested

[Red Mage Black]

Tossing my chips for interest in as well.

[phil_]

Why is no one posting in the game I'm playing!?

I mean, I'm interested. Does a post explaining your new streamlined violence arbitration system exist somewhere in the Umbral discussions? Could you link it?

[Astral Harmony]

Well, we haven't even created characters yet, but judging from the avatars of the users, I get the feeling we're going to have a group of heroes as eccentric as they are brave.

And now that I'm just off of work, I'll explain more about how your characters will power up.

When you complete a mission, you will gain in power from both your Race and your Class. Basically, you and your class level up. For example? Oh, uhhh...lemme try something here...

- Race (High Elf): Health 2-4 / Magicka 5-7 / Power 1-2 / Endurance 1-2 / Focus 4-6 / Resistance 3-5 / Speed 2-3
- Class (Wizard): Health 1-3 / Magicka 4-6 / Power 0-1 / Endurance 1-2 / Focus 3-5 / Resistance 2-4 / Speed 1-3

These won't be the actual statistical boosts of that race or class, I'm just trying to think out loud, but basically after a day in which you guys complete a mission, I level you up and do two shitloads of dice rolls to determine how well you boost. Hope you roll high!

After that, you also get Skill Points with which to apply to your various skills and Growth Points to apply to your stats as you see fit. Right, another example might be in order here. Let me think here...

- Weapon (Dagger): Rank 1 > Rank 2 = Damage +2 / Speed +3 / Crit Damage +10%
- Magic (Fire): Rank 1 > Rank 2 = Damage +3 / Chance of Burning +5% / Learn Pyrolauncher

Once again, these are just examples, I'm just playing around with ideas in my head right now. It will take a certain amount of Skill Points to advance up the ranks, but take note that it'll cost different amounts of SP depending on the Race and Class. For instance, a magical class doesn't need to pay as much SP to advance up those magical ranks as it would, say, a Berserker. And a Thief can earn ranks in Dagger more easily than a Knight.

As for Growth Points and their effect on your stats, it's just easiest to know that your Race and Class will apply to it as well. Dwarves can raise physical stats like HP and Power by spending less GP, and it'd be even easier if the Dwarf is a Warrior or a Monk or something physical like that.

The general idea is that at least up to the tenth floor, I'd like to make it possible for you guys to master up to six different skillsets with some considerable stat boosting.

[Aldurin]

You're not going to apply minor differences based on gender? If so, do we choose or are you using your GM authority to declare all of our characters to be bisexual females again ?

[Astral Harmony]

The streamlined system is pretty simple to figure out. Basically, when you attack, I'll add up the offensive statistic you're using (Power or Focus) to the damage of your attack (based on your weapon or spell) along with appropriate buffs and other factors, roll some e-dice for crits 'n' stuff, then subtract it by the enemy's defensive potential (Endurance or Resistance) and that will equal total damage inflicted. Healing will also work this way, except Resistance won't be around to lessen the healing power. I mean, you want to be healed for more, right?

I'm going to go through my own Umbral Guide (It's in the first post of the Pokemon Umbral Theatre 36 (http://www.nuklearforums.com/showpost.php?p=1190583&postcount=1) thread but that's for Pokemon Umbral and this one'll be less complicated), keeping what I'd like to use, putting it information relevant to this game, and making alterations as I deem necessary. Then I'll call it The Dunhurst Custom Dungeon Guide and plop it in the very first post here.

And that was very mean, Aldurin. Pokemon Umbral only has like...what, seven bisexual females tops? Tops! I've made it a point to cut back on the bisexual females. For the kids, yo.

I'm not entirely sure about different stats between males and females. I mean, I sort of feel bad already because it's like I'm forcing you guys to pick only certain races and classes that best meet the kind of character you'd wanna play.

Additionally, my latest in crazy ideas: Secondary Race Categories! No, I don't mean that you're half-Dwarf, half-Centaur, I'm talking about being a Vampire! Or a Werewolf! Or a girl with no personality or acting talent or physical attractiveness who is bizarrely in a love triangle with said Vampire and Werewolf! And these add stat boosts and other stuff to your character as well.

[PyrosNine]

Pyros is interested! I had an idea for an MMORPG-lite that used a similar concept of a society based about dungeon building- in mine it was Disgaea style "item dungeons", where you planted a given item, and then depending on that item's properties it would create the dungeon (a healing leaf would make a plant themed dungeon full of cleric/plant monsters) and the problem was someone found a ludicrously rare and powerful item to build a dungeon and it threatens to consume the world. Players would be able to make their own private dungeons and play other player's dungeons to get the sacrificed items therein as well as level up to be strong enough to handle the big dungeon.

So I am interested!

I also haven't played an RP for a while and my attempts to have a social life have all failed horribly, so I am game!

[Astral Harmony]

EDIT #5: Alrighty, changing this post 'round a bit. I've uploaded my current progress on the guide and attached it to the bottom of the first post. At the top of the post is going to be the date it was attached so you know if new information has been added. Would've accomplished more but work's been a bitch. Halfway done with work for now, though, and I'm hoping to have the guide completely finished before I have to leave for the weekend to go handle other business. Or, at the very least, I'd like to have enough done so that you can actually go and create your characters. This means I need to at least finish up the stat templates, level up stat templates, racial characteristics, class stats, class level up stats, weapon and magic templates and...well, I think that's all you might need for now. I'd appreciate it if y'all fine folks might have a gander at it whenever it's updated (plan to update it daily) and see if you can't pick out any possible balancing issues or generate some additional ideas. I'm not a licensed RPG creator, after all, and I'm basically creating this guide from scratch.

Stat Descriptions:

HP: Health Points. Reduced by recieving damage. When reduced to zero, you are unable to contribute to the battle until revived.
MP: Magic Points. Reduced by using magic or having your MP drained. If lower than the cost of casting a certain spell, you cannot cast that spell.
SP: Spirit Points. Reduced by using spiritual techniques. If lower than the cost of using a certain technique, you cannot use that technique.
Pwr: Power. This is added to the damage of your physical weapon attacks or spiritual technique to determine your damage potential.
End: Endurance. This reduces the damage you recieve from physical attacks and spiritual techniques.
Fcs: Focus. This is added to the damage of your magical weapon attacks or spells to determine your magical damage potential.
Res: Resistance. This reduces the damage you recieve from magical attacks and spells.
Spd: Speed. This determines your placement in the attack order. You can slow down to attack later in the order but you will need to buff your speed in order to attack faster.
Tek: Technique. This determines your chance of landing any kind of attack, physical or magical. Tek can rise above 100%. It is subtracted from the enemies' Rfx to determine your true chance to hit.
Rfx: Reflexes. This determines your chance of parrying or dodging attacks, both physical and magical. Rfx can rise above 100%. It subtracts from the enemies' Tek to determine your actual success at dodging.
Dsp: Desperation. This determines your chance of landing a critical strike for x2 (Critical) or x3 (Devastating) damage. You can buff this, but nothing can reduce this percentage.
Imm: Immunity. This is your ability to prevent status effects from successfully hitting you. It subtracts itself from your enemies' chance of inflict a certain status to determine your true chance of immunity.

[Aldurin]

I like the races. Are the Physical/Technical/Magical supposed to be build paths we choose at creation, or are they something we choose at each level-up?

Also, I don't think the forum leaves notifications about when a thread gets edited, so you may need to double post to get people's attention (I only found out about this update to the rules because I decided to manually check the thread.)

[Astral Harmony]

They're builds that you choose when you create your character.

No updates to the guide so far. Been having a bitch of problems creep up on me, internet connectivity issues being the least of it. Once the Umbral post is done, I'll try to smash into it full force.

[phil_]

Could you put some priority on them there pixie fairies? Seems like the only small race, so I'd like to see what their deal is beyond flavor.

[Astral Harmony]

Roger that, m'lord. I think I can squeeze something out before I have to go to work this afternoon. Right off the bat, you can expect them to be difficult to hit, able to fly at will (usually), often very fast, and weak versus explosive force. Explosive force is one of the best tools you can have against small opponents, which will also be some of your very first enemies.

[phil_]

Cool beans. Another thing to think about: you mention elves a lot in racial descriptions and in the signup, but only elf-like Zephyron are available to play as. Was this intended or an oversight?

[Astral Harmony]

Kind of intended, but I'm not against creating elves. I guess I'm just more excited about it when I'm created races you don't see in nearly every other RPG you come across. I'll probably end up doing some work after I'm done with the other races. But all I can think of are the Elder Scrolls Wood, High and Dark Elves. And if I recall correctly, the Orcs in that game are an elvish race as well, just...horribly, horribly disfigured by their god being eaten and partially digested or something similar. I forget.

I'll update the guide with the statistical setups for the Sprites right after this, but I'll just go and put it right below here to help.

- Base Stats (Magical): HP 25 / MP 50 / SP 15 / Pwr 3 / End 4 / Fcs 18 / Res 20 / Spd 8 / Tek 80% / Rfx 50% / Dsp 10% / Imm 10%
- Base Stats (Technical): HP 35 / MP 30 / SP 21 / Pwr 5 / End 6 / Fcs 5 / Res 5 / Spd 15 / Tek 105% / Rfx 70% / Dsp 15% / Imm 10%
- Level Up Stats (Magical): HP 1-2 / MP 8-12 / SP 0-1 / Pwr 0-1 / End 1-2 / Fcs 4-6 / Res 5-8 / Spd 1-3 / Tek 0-5% / Rfx 5-10% / Dsp NA / Imm 1-2%
- Level Up Stats (Technical): HP 2-3 / MP 2-3 / SP 2-3 / Pwr 1-2 / End 1-2 / Fcs 1-2 / Res 1-2 / Spd 4-6 / Tek 5-10% / Rfx 10-20% / Dsp 0-1% / Imm 0-1%
- Racial Characteristics
* Runic Burst (Once/Battle): +50% Dam to HP, Half of dam also applies to target‘s MP, Fire Element
* Lightweight Attribute (Passive): Nullifies Tek bonuses from enemy attacks, weapons and spells and the “Must Hit” bonus. 70% Weak to explosives.
* Aerial Attribute (When flying): Nullifies some Earth element magic. 70% Res to Earth element. 70% Weak to Ranged weaponry. 50% Immune to “Wing Injury” as opposed to most flying units. 100% Immune to Gravity.

Guess I'll point out some stuff for this one:

- Some attacks offer bonuses to your Tek (chance to hit your target), like the dagger, the blunderbuss, all that jazz. Small enemies can nullify those bonuses just by being tiny. And there are certain attacks that both you and your enemies might possess also have a Must Hit bonus, which ignores the user's Tek and the enemy's Rfx and hits regardless.

- Not all Earth elemental spells with affect the ground level, and individual spells will be listed as whether they're resisted to the ground or could hit things in the air.

- Wing Injuries and Gravity are two different status effects that both ground the victim, but through different means. Creatures of the Lightweight attribute cannot be grounded by Gravity. But damage to the wings (or gas pockets or whatever they use to fly) will drop them. Fortunately, you are small, and your wings are also small, and aren't as exposed as they are for most creatures, so you gain some immunity to be dropped hard.

[phil_]

I'd appreciate it if y'all fine folks might have a gander at it whenever it's updated (plan to update it daily) and see if you can't pick out any possible balancing issues or generate some additional ideas. I'm not a licensed RPG creator, after all, and I'm basically creating this guide from scratch.So, I've done a little of this with what's there. So far, compared to Humans, no base stats or stat growth is better in every attribute. Every stat block is better than human some places, worse is others. So, that bare minimum of balancing is there. While you could balance more, I'd let it slide, just because one, we're not fighting each other; and two, this isn't going to be cracked apart by the entire internet nor sold, so some unbalance is fine. Getting it done is more important for now than slotting everything into a perfect DMGTANKHEAL DPS equation.

Asking for a clarification, but "X% Weak to Y" is subtracted from Res or End when applicable, and "X% Res to Y" is added to Res or End when applicable, right? Also, "X% immune to" is added to Imm; whereas "Immune to" with no percentage given means actually, fully, "I can stand here all day" immune, no dice rolled, right?

Also, is there natural healing, like "Rest 8 hours for +xHP +yMP +nSP" or "Everyone dusts off and is ready to roll 100% after each battle" or "Use TENT to rest;" or do we need to burn healing spells and potions until we die?

[Aldurin]

70% Weak to explosives.

Now I can only think of a Borderlands character, hunting down Sprites using an explosive shotgun.

[Astral Harmony]

Characters should have their HP, MP, and SP fully restored between battles. Status effects, whether benefitial or negative, will also be negated.

As for consumable items, those won't be replaced until you clear your mission (aka all battles for that day complete and you exit the dungeon). You'll encounter treasure chests that will have some items and some enemies will be holding items that you can steal or will be dropped upon their deaths, and I think there may come a time I'll throw certain other situations (like maybe a strange merchant monster that allows trading or a cute mascot NPC who functions as an item bank of sorts).

As far as items are concerned, you're going to have a lotta slots that I think will differ between physical, magical, and technical types.

*thinking* Regardless of type, you're going to have multiple slots for weaponry. I guess...oh, maybe 6 or 8 for physical, a little less for technical, and only so much for magical. Some weapons, like daggers, 1H-sword, and bombs only take one slot. Greatswords and rifles will take two, and there'll be some ridiculously big weapons that occupy more slots.

I'm not sure how much more effective some weapons will be than others. Many of them might just be weaker, but have benefitial effects (like being far more effective against certain attributes). For example, a Silver Sword won't do as much damage as a Steel Sword, but against Vampires or anything else weak to silver weapons, it can be pretty damn devastating.

You'll have other slots for various pieces of armor, accessories, and consummables. I imagine technical types will have more consummables than the magical, and magical maybe a little more than physical. And when it comes to weapons, armor, accessories, and consummables, Dunhurst will be outfitted to provide you with refilling and swapping out all of these between missions. Dunhurst is going to have a lotta weird shit. Got this idea for a bakery called Epic Cake Time (run by Chizuru Suzuki the Black Kimono, ha) where she can bake a kickass herbal cake for you once per mission that can offer significant boosts for the entire party when battle isn't going well. Also plan to create some combat NPCs that you can drag down there with you to supplement your abilities and take advantages of enemy weaknesses you aren't equipped to deal with at the time.

The way I see it as far as weaknesses and strengths go, I think I'll do the resistance or weakness before the defensive stats come into play. For example, oh, let's say the enemy's total offensive effort (weapon/spell/attack damage + appropriate offensive statistic) ends up being...for simplicity, 30. You got 30% resistance to the attack's element or attribute, so uhhh...*calculates*...9 out of 30 is shaved off before you take damage. That leaves the enemy with 21 and your appropriate defensive statistic is 9. 21 minus 9 is 12 so that's the damage you end up taking. If there's something to the right of the decimal, I usually round up regardless of what it is. That's what I do in Umbral, anyways.

EDIT: The guide has been updated with four new races because I let my imagination run away with me again. Two of these are elves, one is for Spriggans and another for half man, half spider Arachne. But that's my limit! You want more races, you'll just have to request them specifically. Once I'm done with the Umbral post, I plan to pound the shit out of that guide.