Hemirtal, Draft 01, CH 04 (Patreon)

Statistics

Statistics represent who you are in the world of Hemirtal. Are you a fighter, someone who puts his strength and constitution about all? Someone social, promoting your charm? A spy or a thief, using agility to get what he wants? Maybe you are a wizard, and magic is your thing?

Since you are creating your character, you get 3 points to assign to your statistic, as well, you can reduce your statistics by a total of three points to raise the remaining ones. Afterward, stat growth happens through actions, rewards, and spending fame to purchase more points.

James snorted. Whoever had written this up had no idea how a spy worked. Too many movies gave the impression a spy engaged in fighting or climbing a building. A spy’s main attribute was his charm and intellect. The game didn’t have an intelligence stat. That was interesting. Every game he’d played that used stats included it to determine how well mental tasks were done.

Which, considering James was doing his own thinking while inside the game, could account for the lack. Physical characteristics made sense, as did the magic one. It didn’t explain the charm stat. If he had to do his own thinking, wouldn’t charming another player be something he had to pull off on his own ability too?

Strength.

This is the statistic governing how hard you can hit, how much you can lift. Most fighting modules will have this statistic as a prerequisite.

Agility.

This is the statistic governing how well you throw and react to situations where balance is required. Most of the rogue modules will have this as a prerequisite.

Constitution.

This is the statistic governing how much damage you can take, and how long you can push yourself beyond your physical limits. Modules aimed at long durations tasks will have this as their prerequisite.

Charm.

This is the statistic governing your social status. How well, or poorly, others will react to you and be willing to do what you want of them. Most city governance modules will have this as their prerequisite.

Magic.

This is the statistic governing how in tune with magic you are, how easily spells are to cast, how powerful they can be. All magic-based modules have this as their prerequisite.

STG, 0,

AGL, 0,

COM, 0,

CHA, 0,

MAG, 0

Do you which to assign your available points now?

Yes/no?

“No.” He wanted to look at those modules first.

Modules.

Hemirtal does not have a class system, as do most other games. In the world of Hemirtal, you not only get to decide what the world will be, but who you will be down to the finest detail. Do you want to be a brawler who can pick a lock? Simply chose the hand-to-hand module and then add the Breaking and Entering module. Any combination is possible, and the more fame you have, the more specialty modules will open up to you.

Be who you want to be without fear. The world of Hemirtal will accommodate you.

Bold claim, James thought. How would the game handle someone who picked modules that didn’t work well together? Could they redesign their characters?

Retrain Tokens

For 100 Fame points, a Retrain Token can be purchased.

The Retrain Token allows the user to clear all their module slots and reassign any unlocked modules to them.

Without knowing how difficult it was to gain Fame points, James couldn’t know how expensive those tokens were, but that they were available at all showed the developers had realized sometimes idiots played these games.

He brought up the module list, and it was extensive.

Module: Bow

Rarity: Common

Prerequisite: Agility 2

Skill: Archery

Skill: Bower

Ability: improvised projectile: in a pinch, you can make an arrow out of anything lying around, at a penalty to accuracy and damage depending on the item used

Module: Breaking and Entering

Rarity: Common

Prerequisite: Agility 2

Skill: Lock-picking

Skill: Find Traps

Ability: Improvised tools: In a pinch, you can improvise the tool you need out of the materials around you at a penalty depending on the material used

Module: Two-Handed Sword

Rarity: Common

Prerequisite: Strength 1, Agility 1

Skill: Two-Handed Sword Wielding

Skill: blade maintenance

Ability: blade of convenience: when the blade of choice isn’t available, you can use other types of blades at a reduced skill.

The disparity in the first three modules he looked at told him he’d have a problem. He tended to play fighters in online games, but he also researched the games he played extensively so he could build the right character for the system. He knew nothing about this game, and he could spend his two days reading through all the descriptions and not know enough to decide.

He certainly didn’t intend on wasting this opportunity by spending it reading. He found a handful of the fighter-related modules.

Module: two-handed Sword

Rarity: Common

Prerequisite: Strength 1, Agility 1

Skill: Two-Handed Sword Wielding

Skill: blade maintenance

Ability: blade of convenience: when the blade of choice isn’t available, you can use other types of blades at a reduced skill.

Module: Club

Rarity: Common

Prerequisite: Strength 1, Agility 1

Skill: Club wielding

Skill: Wood woodworking

Ability: improvised weapon: in a pinch, any object with a handle can be used as a club

Module: Shield

Rarity: Common

Prerequisite: Con 2

Skill: blocking

Skill: Shield Crafting

Ability: Shield Bash You can use your shield as a weapon doing the damage as if your shield was a club of the same rarity

Module: light armor

Rarity: Common

Prerequisite: Agility 1 Con 1

Skill: Deflection

Skill: leatherworking

Ability: Improvised material: In a pinch, you can use materials around you for repairs if you don’t have the right ones at a defense penalty based on the materials used.

Module: heavy armor

Rarity: Common

Prerequisite: Con 2

Skill: Blocking

Skill: metalworking

Ability: Improvised material: In a pinch, you can use materials around you for repairs if you don’t have the right ones at a defense penalty based on the materials used.

Module: One-handed sword

Rarity: Common

Prerequisite: Strength 1, Agility 1

Skill: One-handed sword-wielding

Skill: blade maintenance

Ability: Thrust: You thrust your blade into your opponent causing a guaranteed critical (Bonus Damage). If you hit them, that is.

Module: Bow

Rarity: Common

Prerequisite: Agility 2

Skill: Archery

Skill: Bower

Ability: improvised projectile: in a pinch, you can make an arrow out of anything lying around, at a penalty to accuracy and damage depending on the item used

Module: knives

Rarity: Common

Prerequisite: Strength 1, Agility 1

Skill: knife fighting

Skill: Knife throwing

Ability: Backstabbing: if you can score a hit before being noticed, you gain bonuses to the damage and ability to hit.

James narrowed it down to one-handed sword or the bow, doing his best to ignore the nag at the back of his mind proclaiming he couldn’t make the best decision without any information. The distance the bow gave him would add safety, which his lack of knowledge might require, but the sword would do more damage, which would mean the danger would be shorter-lived.

Except he didn’t know enough, the nag repeated.

But he didn’t have the time to read all the documentation. He wanted to have fun.

“Wait. Do I have to read everything? Run the welcome or introduction video,” James said.

The area before him darkened and a man in a tabard with a logo that was familiar, but that James couldn’t place. Definitely something modern. Possibly the company’s logo? The man was middle-aged with dirty-blond hair a short beard and had the overall look of a bureaucrat.

“Welcome to Hemirtal, Stranger. You are part of the vanguard, here to set up the world for those who will follow in your footsteps. Fear not, Hemirtal doesn’t dictate how you will play your part, that decision is entirely in your hands. That you be an adventurer, exploring this world, finding dungeons, bringing back wonders and riches, or a merchant, moving goods from one side of the continent to the other, or even a politician taking control of one of the multiple towns and turning them into your holding, maybe, in time, your kingdom. You will play your part.”

The darkened area around the man became an aerial view of what James expected was part of the map, with fields, mountains, rivers. A continent. Some games had built a large play area, but he couldn’t think of one who had applied the term continent to it. It was always only a section of it.

“Hemirtal is populated,” the man continued, “but those people, those NPCs, are there to help you. To make your gaming experience better, not run things in your stead. No town will grow beyond with it is without your help, stranger. No cities will appear unless one of you wills it. They will populate your armies if you can convince them to join you, and—”

“Stop.” Convince? A shiver ran down James’ back. “How do I convince an NPC to do what I want?” (make a decision on if it’s a recording or an NPC and make that clear)

Skill.

Persuasion.

The skill of getting others to do what you want. A successful application of this skill will make the NPC more likely to do what you ask of them, regardless of their role assigned within the world of Hemirtal, effectively giving you control of that NPC (see companions and controlling NPCs)

Companions

Companions are any non-player-characters(NPC) who are under your direct control. Those characters are not limited to human-like beings, but also include domesticated beasts, and mind-controlled creatures (magically or through Charm). While NPCs are companions, they count toward your Party, and any drop they find is transferred to you.

Controlling NPCs

Through the use of Charm-related skills, you can gain control of NPC, having them become in effect an extension of yourself. Any rewards they gain for accomplishing quests are transferred to you. Note that while being programs, NPCs are designs to have personalities. Those include likes and dislikes, desires as well as fears. When away from your direct influence, and NPCs’ personality may cause them to balk against instructions you gave them if those go against who they are, so chose carefully when sending someone away to do your bidding.

James smiled. This game basically had a social manipulation aspect. The idea he could control a town was intriguing, but he’d need more than two days for that. But being able to manipulate the NPCs in it without controlling it would be a challenge in and of itself.

“Filter the modules, give me only those with Charm as a prerequisite.”

The list was longer than he expected.

Module: Supplication

Rarity: Common

Prerequisite Charm 1

Skill: Begging

Skill: acting

Ability: notice wealth: using your begging skill, you have the ability to distinguish the wealthy from the common folk, no matter how hard they try to hide it. On a successful use of your skill, you can tell how much money someone has, with a +/- (50-half begging skill)% variance.

Who would someone want to play a beggar? James wondered, then remember this was only a module. The ability to beg might not be what was useful. Knowing how much money someone had would be useful for anyone looking to lighten their pockets.

But it wasn’t what he was interested in.

Module: Manipulation

Rarity: Common

Prerequisite: Cha 2

Skill: Persuasion

Skill: Acting

Ability: Insight, Using your Persuasion skill you can roll (Passive) for insight on the motivations and desires of NPCs

There it was. This was the module he wanted. Especially with the ability to figure out what an NPC wanted. It would let him craft his requests to each one specifically. He picked it.

Warning. Manipulation requires Charm 2. You currently have Charm 0. Do you wish to assign 2 of your 3 available points to Charm?

Yes/No?

“Yes.”

You have one stat point left, do you want to assign it now?

Yes/no?

“No. Can I gain skills outside of adding Modules?”

Gaining Skills.

New skills can be gained through obtaining new modules, through actions, through spending Fame, and through completing quests. Note that at character creation, three common skills can be picked.

Obtaining modules: each module grants two skills, along with a bonus based on the rarity of the module.

Actions: by performing actions over and over (an action is performed when it results in a win/fail situation) it is possible to gain the skill. Gaining a skill is more difficult than raising it through the initial subsequent levels. Note that magical skills cannot be gained in this way.

Purchase: skills can be purchased using Fame, with the rarity of the skills governing how much it will cost.

Quests: certain quests will grant skills as part of their rewards. If a skill granted is already part of the character, then it gains a level bonus based on the rarity of the quest. Note, certain skills can only be gained as the result of finishing a quest.

Three skills didn’t seem like much, but it gave James a way to have combat skills, unless he wanted to go with magic? Not without knowing more about how it worked, which meant needed time he didn’t have. If he wanted to enjoy the game.

He picked Archery, One-Handed Sword, and Blocking. Now, he’d have a way to hold his own against those NPCs he couldn’t manipulate.

His last point he put in Agility. From the Shield module, blocking was based on constitution, but both the archery and sword used agility. He considered taking advantage of being able to lower a stat, he didn’t expect to need the magic one in his time here, to raise the others higher, but the nag couldn’t help that the fact the stats started at zero, instead of a higher number had to indicate how bad it was to go in the negative.

With that done, he accepted the character design.

Name: William Cobbler

Race: Human

Advantages: none

Disadvantages: none

FAME 0/0

Statistics

STG, 0

AGL, 1

COM, 0

CHA, 2

MAG, 0

Companions: None

Module Slots Available: 0 out of 0

Active Modules: Manipulation

Abilities: Insight

Skills: Acting-15, Archery-1, Blocking-1, One-Handed Sword-1, Persuasion-15

He stood, ready to get to the town and see how easy it was to manipulate the people there, but was stopped by a message appearing before him.

Welcome to Hemirtal, William. As you have just arrived. Here is a quest to help you get used to how the world function.

Quest: It’s only fast food if you have to chase it.

Get yourself a stick and go kill five rabbits.

Reward: 5 cooked Rabbit Meat, 1 Fame point

James stared at the message. He should have pick club as his weapon skill, he decided. He picked up the branch he’d used before and turned to face the clearing that was glowing in soft green light. The rabbits were peacefully munching on the grass.

He tightened his grip on the club.

That wasn’t going to last.

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