Oh dear. It seems after a
It's not all bad, though, since the stuff you came down here to get is still here. Why, you might hardly notice there's no escape, being so busy with your findings!
What stuff is that, you say? Well, all explorers have a main goal: Either Knowledge, Wealth, or Fame. Many explorers also have a fondness for a second goal, and few will pass up a third when it comes their way.
All items have a value in these three categories, with certain items tending towards certain properties. Gemstones, for instance, are usually valuable and can gather attention fairly easily, meaning they have high Wealth and decent Fame. You can't generally learn much from them, however, meaning they typically have low Knowledge. Pictograms, on the other hand, are usually worthless but insightful, meaning largely the opposite.
To harvest a treasure, you use one of your Attributes. The attributes are Strength, Agility, and Intellect.
Remember, some items defy their type and provide unexpected benefits. Generally speaking, however:
Intellect is used to harvest Knowledge
Agility is used to harvest Wealth
Strength is used to harvest Fame
The highest attribute an item usually has determines the attribute needed to harvest it- for instance, gemstones normally have high Wealth, meaning you use Agility to gather them, even if the stone actually provides higher Fame than Wealth in this case.
Once harvested, an item remains in your inventory. You are assumed to have infinite inventory room. Assuming you make it out alive, your total score is assumed to be equal to the total value of your goal attribute among your items, plus two-thirds your secondary goal, plus a third your tertiary goal. If your primary goal is Knowledge and your secondary goal is Wealth, for instance, your total score would be the total Knowledge of all your items, plus 2/3 the total Wealth amongst all your items, plus 1/3 the Fame amongst all your items. For obvious reasons, if you do not state otherwise it is assumed your goals match up with your attributes. Note that you may trade items with other players.
In the event that multiple players go for the same item, each makes a roll as normal, and the higher roll ends up with the item. In the event of a tie, whoever posted first seized the initiative and has claimed the item. Otherwise, you are free to make (or break) any agreements or divisions of loot you see fit.
The roll to harvest an item is a simple d6, regardless of attribute used.
1 = Terrible Failure. Item loses 1 point in highest attribute.
2 = Bad Failure. -1 penalty to next attempt to harvest that type of item (other than retries of this one).
3 = Failure. You can try again next round, or simply move on.
4 = Success. You harvest the item.
5 = Good Success. +1 bonus to next attempt to harvest that type of item.
6 = Outstanding Success. Item gains 1 point in highest attribute.
All explorers start with one attribute at 3, one at 2, and one at 1.
Oh ho, but what's this? It seems you can use your attributes to boost your result! Once per day, you may activate a given attribute to apply its bonus to an appropriate roll, turning abject failure into phenomenal success, or at least less abject failure. Furthermore, each increment has its own bonus that can be activated. If you have 2 Strength, you may activate a 1 Strength bonus and a 2 Strength bonus once each per day. As a final bonus, Attributes may be activated AFTER your roll by specifying them as a condition- that is, you may specify to activate your +1 Agility bonus only if you roll a 2 or 3. You must still declare this use ahead of time, however. You may not activate more than one attribute bonus at a time, though you may activate both items and attributes at once.
Attributes aren't just good for amassing treasure, however! They can also be essential in overcoming Impediments. Impediments are things that seem to have been put there solely to get in the way of your glorious looti- er, research. Impediments come in the form of Creatures, Obstacles, and Traps.
Creatures will generally attempt to shamble over and eat your brains. They are defeated with Strength, and doing so nets you Fame.
Obstacles are overt physical barriers or hazards. They are defeated with Agility, and doing so nets you Wealth.
Traps are intentional attempts at stopping your progress and/or vital functions. They are defeated with Intellect, and doing so nets you Knowledge.
Generally speaking, the roll to overcome impediments is identical to that to harvest an item. There are some exceptions, however.
1 = Terrible Failure. Impediment deals 1 damage to you.
2 = Bad Failure. -1 penalty to next attempt to defeat impediment of that type (including further attempts at this one).
3 = Failure. You can try again next round, or simply move on.
4 = Success. You defeat the impediment (or 1 hp of it).
5 = Good Success. Defeat the impediment (or 1 hp of it) and gain a +1 bonus to next attempt to defeat impediment of that type (including further hp of this one).
6 = Outstanding Success. Defeat impediment (or 1 hp of it) and gain +1 of its attribute (Fame, Knowledge, or Wealth).
Note that many impediments have hit points. In this case, each success does away with one hit point and provides similar rewards for each point depleted. This also means that multiple people can benefit from defeating a single impediment.
Finally, impediments that are engaged hit back, by attempting a similar roll to the players. This can make failure to overcome an impediment somewhat more dangerous than failure to claim a treasure, as well as making it handy to have several people ganging up on a given impediment. Of course, unskilled hands can do more harm than good here.
As you can see, in many ways impediments are nothing more than treasure! Except treasure doesn't generally deplete your hit points. Oh, did I mention you have only 5 hit points? At 0, you tend to die. But fear not, for a good night's rest in a secure location will recover one hit point, as well as your attribute uses. Hurray! Of course, several issues apply here. For one, sleeping in the same place over and over tends to attract attention. Secondly, not everyone is likely to get injured and depleted all at once, and they're not likely to be keen on sitting around and waiting for you to get better and take their treasure. If your allies do not all sleep with you, sleeping will take 10 turns. This can be a lot of time for the restless to advance past you- or get themselves killed, of course. Note that sleeping alone is also not the safest decision in the world.
Now, as for the pyramid itself. There will be a map, but it'll essentially be a stick-and-node affair, so verbal descriptions should usually do. For the most part, individual tiles or the like won't be relevant anyway- you'll walk up to a statue and start to loot it, or walk over to a mummy and hit it over the head, without too much fuss for who's precisely where. If text won't do, I'll upload a map or type out a code map or something.
Finally, items. You may start off with three items from the list below. Unless otherwise noted, items with flat bonuses function similarly to attribute bonuses- once per day, you can activate them to get a bonus on an appropriate roll. Two exceptions apply, however: First, items with bonuses higher than +1 do not grant additional lesser uses, so a +2 bonus means a single +2 bonus, not a +2 and a +1. Secondly, items without the [Reaction] tag must be declared prior to use- they cannot be used in stated conditions the way attribute bonuses can be. On the bright side, you may activate any number of items at once, and they stack with attributes.
All explorers start with 5 hit points, three items, and one attribute at 3, one at 2, and one at 1. Attributes are Strength, used to amass Fame, Agility, used to amass Wealth, and Intellect, used to amass Knowledge.
The main goal is escaping alive with the most stuff. You get stuff by either finding it in a room, or having stuff find you in a room. Each turn will generally be a new room, with new stuff, but if you don't see anything worth your time, you can move ahead to the next possible stuff. Note that this increases the likelihood of you being eaten or something. Conversely, some people will find it worth their while to spend multiple turns in the same room.
Especially at first, progress will simply be "forward" with forays to the left, right, or wherever extra chambers lie. At some point you'll start to get clues about which way is out and which way is in, at which point you'll have to start weighing the options of getting out alive with what you've got, or sticking around and getting more. "Winner" is generally whoever gets out with the most stuff, but if you consider yourself victorious for leaving with nothing but a bejewelled loincloth and a fellow explorer's soon-to-be stuffed head, so be it.
I expect turns to be fairly swift once I actually get everything set up, so you can probably expect a day or two between each turn.
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Topic: Pyramid Escape! (Not dead! Just resting) (Read 3304 times)