Something would have to be done, the free agent could not be allowed to escape Crota. Xetil beckoned Yiralla over, it was time to put into place some contingencies measures...
✽ ✽ ✽
Iyra looked up in surprise. So, the wild card was still alive. She had pondered long and hard about the strange sequence of events that had brought the free agent to Myelad. Like Succera, she feared the hand of Eld in this. As unlikely as it seemed, somehow Eld had manipulated events to this state, but as a means to what ends… this she could not foresee. But the gods had well learnt to distrust and fear the machinations of Eld. She would have to prepare. Thoughtfully, she summoned Sara, it was time to put her in play.
✽ ✽ ✽
Here ends Volume I of the Gods’ Game.
Kyran’s journey in Myelad continues in Volume II – The Dwarven City.
Coming Soon!
Kyran’s Profile at the End of Volume I
Profile (Full)
Name: Kyran Seversan
Race: Elf
Combat Level: 10 (207,925/400,000),
Civilian Level: 3 (7,700/12,000 XP).
Health: 14 / 100
Stamina: 231/500
Will: 842/1020
Essence: 90/1200
Attacks
Physical: 10.6 (slash).
Mental: 16.3 (psi).
Spell: 17.9 (fire)
Defences
Physical Defence: 11.7
Psi Defence: 10.0
Spell Defence: 10.0
Body Attributes
Strength: 40, (-20%)
Dexterity: 61, (+22%)
Constitution: 50 (+0%)
Mind Attributes
Intellect: 102 (+104%)
Creativity: 53 (+6%)
Charisma: 36 (-28%)
Spirit Attributes
Divine: 0 (-100%)
Magic: 120 (+140%)
Karma: Slightly Good.
Traits
Nature’s Guardian, Long lived, Player's Mark, Vow of Binding, Player’s Interface, Commander Interface, Player’s Map, Inventory, Insightful, More skills, Multi-lingual.
Combat Specialist, Skilled, Beast Master, Magical Prodigy.
Combat Skills (21 SP available)
Beast Bonding: 17.8 (7 base)
Body Control: 16.3 (8 base)
Light Armour: 8.4 (7 base)
Psionics: 10.2 (5 base)
Psi Armour: 0
Telekinesis: 14.3 (7 base)
Telepathy: 16.3 (8 base)
Will Regen.: 0
Air Magic: 17.9 (7 base)
Earth Magic: 17.9 (7 base)
Essence Regen.: 0
Fire Magic: 17.9 (7 base)
Supportive Magic: 7.7 (3 base)
Wands & Staffs: 0
Mystical garments: 0
Spellcasting: 12.8 (5 base)
Water Magic: 17.9 (7 base)
Longbow (Racial): 0
Longsword (Racial): 6.4 (8 base)
Civilian Skills
Commander: 1.4 (2 base)
Feudal Lord: 0
Governor: 0
Mage Lord: 2.4 (1 base)
Scrying: 2.2 (3 base)
Travelling: 2.2 (3 base)
Nature Lore (Racial): 3.6 (3 base)
Vassals & Minions
Maximum allowed: 7 (10 base)
Current: None.
Combat Abilities (4 AP available)
Novice:
Beast Bond I, Extend Bond, Confusion.
Truesight, Fire Dart, Slippery Ice, Grasping Roots, Fire Shield, Ice Wall.
Base:
Calm beast, Mind over matter, Teleport (self), Mind shock.
Blend, Barkskin, Flaming Hands, Restore Health (Self), Water Armour.
Civilian Abilities
Novice:
Travel (self), Basic Scrying, Gather Plants.
Base:
Inspiring, Channel Essence, Show Hostiles (map), Show Portals (map), Show Plants (map).
Equipped Items
Full set of Chitin armour (20 base armour).
Basic longsword (6-10 base slash damage).
Bone shaman necklace (+2% earth magic).
Active Effects
Unconscious!
Bleeding (-1 HP damage/minute).
Concussed (-1% will regen. rate).
Afterword
Please take the time to leave a review on www.amazon.com or www.goodreads.com. I also encourage you to drop me a message on anything related to the Gods’ Game or otherwise:).
I hope you enjoyed the book!
Best Regards
Rohan
[email protected]
Primer on Roleplaying Games (RPG)
There are multiple and sometimes contradictory variations to the game mechanics of computer roleplaying games (CRPG) and massively multiplayer online (MMO) games. Rarely do two RPGs share the same game mechanics. This brief (very brief) primer provides a picture of only one slice of the whole, in that does not attempt to explain all variations of RPG mechanics, but only the specific game mechanics implemented in the Gods’ Game.
If you are familiar with RPGs, you will likely find, that while the Gods’ Game shares some common elements with your favourite game, it differs significantly in other respects.
The Basics
A CRPG or MMO game is one in which you (the player) control a game character (avatar) as you explore the game world and complete objectives (quests), battle monsters (combat) and create items (crafting). An avatar in RPG nomenclature is a representation of the player in the game world. In the Gods’ Game, the avatars are the players.
Central to RPGs is the definition of the avatar into quantifiable characteristics. Each RPG uses its own system to define an avatar, although the concepts used across all games are usually similar. In the Gods’ Game, a player is defined by three primary sets of characteristics: traits, skills and attributes. All other characteristics such as health points (HP), essence pool, damage, resistances, etc… are derived (calculated) from the primary characteristics.
Figure 1: Player Characteristics in the Gods’ Game
Attributes are a measure of the player’s basic nature. They determine his inborn talent for wielding a particular skill and modifies the skills it governs accordingly. There are three basic aspects to all living beings: spirit, mind and body. In the Gods’ Game, all attributes are permanent and unchanging.
Traits are special characteristics of the player. They are immutable, and cannot be changed after assigning them (normally at avatar creation). Usually traits passively modify your skills or grant unique benefits.
Skill is knowledge. Collectively skills govern all actions – abilities and spells – that may be performed in the game. They are one of the most crucial aspects of the game. There are two categories of skills, combat and civilian, each of which contains various skill sets or skill trees. In the Gods’ Game a player cannot learn all skills, he is limited to the skills selected from his skill trees (of which he may only have 3).
In the gods’ game, combat mechanics (combat odds, probability to hit, etc...) are not rigorously applied. In a typical RPG, for a level 1 player to kill a level 100 player in one blow (single hitting) is normally impossible, however this is theoretically possible in the Gods’ Game through vital strikes (a strike to a critical area of your opponent) and surprise attacks.
As the game progresses, your avatar grows in power. This growth is measured by the avatar’s level.
Figure 2: Combat Levelling Process
Figure 3: Civilian Levelling Process
In the god’s game there are two levels to measure the player’s growth, a combat level and a civilian one. The combat level is a measure of combat effectiveness. Likewise, the civilian level measures competence in non-combative activities such as crafting, exploration and leadership. Each is levelled independently, and the player’s effective level is the higher of the two.
Levelling is achieved by accumulating experience points (XP) through th
e performance of meaningful activities (combat, crafting, completing quests). When you have accumulated sufficient XP, your avatar becomes more powerful (levels up).
Your avatar’s growth in power is demonstrated through its improved skills and abilities. You directly influence how your avatar becomes stronger (its character development). When you level up, you are given a pool of points: skill points (SP) and ability points (AP) and attribute points) to freely distribute to your avatar.
RPG Definitions
Avatar
An avatar is a representation (profile) of the player on the game world.
Buff
A status effect that increases a characteristic or applies a positive effect, such as increased attack damage, increased armour, etc.
Crowd control (CC)
The practice of disabling or disrupting attacks from a large number of hostiles to reduce the enemies faced by the player at any one time.
Damage over time
Damage that is applied gradually (over time).
Debuff
A status effect that decreases a characteristic or applies a negative effective, such as reduced attack damage, dazed, stunned, etc.
Health Points
A quantitative measure of the amount of damage the player can sustain before death.
Levelling
Process of improving the player’s characteristics (skills and abilities) after advancing a player level.
Line of sight (LOS)
Directly within your field of vision, unobstructed.
Regeneration
Process of recovering lost energy or health.
Stack
Used in reference to debuffs and buffs. In this context, stacking refers to the same effect from multiple sources applied accumulatively.
Game Mechanic Definitions
Ability Cost
The energy cost associated with performing an action. A novice or base ability costs 40 energy if used once off, and 80 energy/hour if activated. This scales with rank, so that a master ability will cost 200 energy or 400 energy/hour if activated.
Abilities & Spells
Abilities and spells are specialised actions that a player can only perform by learning the requisite ability (with ability points, AP). New abilities (including spells) are available for selection (unlocked) at each player rank (e.g. Rank 1 = Novice, at player level 1).
All abilities are active in nature and increase in power with the governing skill(s) level.
Armour
Armour increases defence of the same type.
Armour is categorised by rank and a player may only wear armour suitable to his rank. For example, heavy armour provides physical armour as follows:
Master:80-100 armour.
Adept: 60-80 armour
Journeyman: 40-60
Apprentice: 20-40
Novice:0-20
Material type does not affect the overall armour provided but adds special properties only.
Natural armour, is armour granted through special abilities, spells or traits and it stacks with other forms of armour.
Attributes
Attributes are fixed characteristics of the player. They are in essence characteristics that defines a player’s aptitude for a particular skill. Consider for example, the skill air magic which is influenced (governed) by the magic spark attribute:
Player A with a low mark spark of 40 (-20%) and base air magic skill of 10.
Player B with a high mark spark of 80 (+40%) and base air magic skill of 10.
The effective air magic skill of Player A is 8 (base skill of 10 modified by attribute modifier of -20%), while that of Player B is 14.
In all instances, attributes directly modify the players base skills.
In the Gods’ Game, there are the three categories of attributes: spirit, mind and body.
Base Skill
The unadjusted skill of the player, i.e. the skill before application of any trait or attribute modifiers.
Body
The body is the shell in which your mind and spirit resides. It is composed of three elements: strength, dexterity and constitution.
Civilian
Encompasses all aspects (skills, ability, etc…) that cannot be used in combat, and does not influence combat.
Civilian Level
A player’s civilian level increases as he gains civilian experience points or completes quests. At each civilian level, a player gains 3 civilian skill points and 1 ability point per civilian skill tree chosen.
Combat Level
A player’s combat level increases as he gains combat experience points or completes quests. At each combat level, a player gains 3 combat skill points and 1 ability point per combat skill tree chosen.
Combat Mechanics
There are no combat mechanics that determine the success of a strike or hit. There are however combat odds (probabilities) calculated by the game based on the respective skills of the combatants.
In the normal course of events (with both opponents possessing the same attributes and skills), a player 10 levels lower than his opponent will never successfully strike (0% chance). Likewise, a player 10 levels higher than his opponent will always land his strikes (100% chance). A player 20 levels higher than his opponent will always critically strike. The combat odds change by 5% for every skill level difference.
Defences
It represents your ability to avoid hostile actions. There are three forms of defences – physical, psi and spell. Each is a measure of your ability to negate hostile actions of the same energy type. All defences scale with the effective level of the player, and may additionally be increased through the armour skills (heavy armour, medium armour, mystical garments and psi armour).
Divine Essence
A refined form of essence generated by sentient beings through their faith and belief in the divine.
Effective Skill
The adjusted skill of the player after all modifiers including attribute modifiers, trait modifiers, item modifiers, etc...
Essence
A measure of spiritual energy. The maximum available essence pool of a player = highest spirit attribute (divine or magic spark) x 10.
Execution Time
This is the amount of time taken to complete an action. There are the following execution categories:
Instantaneous~ 1 seconds.
Very Fast ~ 5 seconds.
Fast ~ 10 seconds.
Slow ~ 30 seconds.
Very Slow ~ 60 seconds.
Glacial~ 300 seconds.
Experience Points (XP)
Players require experience points (XP) to increase their player levels. There are two types of XP in the game, combat XP, and civilian XP. Combat experience is gained primarily though kills in combat. Civilian XP is gained through the use of civilian abilities.
Karma
It is the sum of a sentient’s actions over all its incarnations. Karma influences race choices before reincarnation. It does not however impact everyday interactions. It will impact interactions with higher beings.
Mind
The mind is consciousness or sentience. It is composed of three distinct attributes: creativity, intellect and charisma.
Player Level
Either combat level or civilian level.
Primary characteristics
The three primary characteristics of an avatar: traits, skills and attributes.
Psi
Also referred to as psionic. Refers to abilities originating from the mind.
Rank
Skills, player levels, abilities, classes items and various other aspects may be categorised according to rank. Ranks are allocated based on the respective levels:
Grandmaster – 100+
Master – 80-100
Adept – 60-80
Journeyman – 40-60
Apprentice – 20-40
Novice – 0-20
Resistances
Resistances is measured in percentage, and it reduces dam
age taken from a successful hit by the indicated percentage.
Skills
All actions that may be performed by a player are grouped under a skill. Each skill is a measure of the player’s capability in successfully executing these acts, e.g. a player’s fire magic skill is a numerical measure of his capability to cast fire-based spells and the power of these spells.
Players are awarded skill points (SP) when they level up. Once a player increases its skill, he is automatically granted all the requisite knowledge for that skill level. Skill increases the power and success rate of the applicable actions, e.g. higher one-handed skill level increases the damage a champion does with a sword as well as his chance to hit.
A skill level may not exceed the player level of the character (combat or civilian).
Skill Trees
They are the group of skills (skill sets) that the player is able to learn. Without the required skill tree, a skill cannot be learned (i.e. SP cannot be invested). During avatar creation, a player chooses his skill trees. A player can choose a total of three skill trees from 6 available combat skill trees and 6 civilian skill trees.
Spirit
The spirit is life. It is composed of three attributes: divine spark, magical spark and karma.
Stamina
A measure of physical energy. The maximum available stamina pool of a player = constitution x 10.
Traits
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