SteamStereo
Making the rounds.
- Joined
- May 25, 2020
- Messages
- 35
- Likes received
- 831
So! I was about halfway through reformatting a jumpchain in the wake of NaNoWriMo (where I decided the hook just wasn't working) when I stumbled upon Generic System Apocalypse Jumpchain.
Well, that got the creativity flowing, and I got all excited. Combed through jumpchain, reddit, QQ, etc. trying to find a system I liked for the hook. And all of them seemed... Off? OP? Not what I wanted and with little to no backstory for the System itself?
High level overview of what I want to write: a System Apocalypse as a result of the Trinity test (if delayed by travel time). After a bit of worldbuilding the end of the world, the protagonist is chased into a dungeon. This dungeon was set up in the System (one per planet) by a ROB from the next multiverse over to provide interesting people for a 111 jump chain (the number 7 in binary). At the end of the chain, the protagonist sparks in Warhammer Freelancer, and that sets the stage for act 3 post jumpchain multiversal mayhem.
I am mostly satisfied with Act 2 (The Chain), but I am stumbling on the System for Act 1. So I toss out my ideas here. Even getting the mass of notes organized to post might help, but any constructive comments welcome!
The System: created by an AI civilization, it was perfectly suited to their culture, society, and how they advanced through their life cycle. Unfortunately, when they contacted or were contacted by organic, naturally occurring life and tried to share the chaos of organic life caused a lot of errors, only the most egregious of which have been patched. One example of errors; The origin civ used binary. The system is able to extrapolate and correct for other bases (base 8, base 10, base 20 etc), so each planet gets a single 'base', but all the achievements and such are legacy numbers gratuitously copied to the new system (111 is a magical number, because it is 7 in base 2) This means that every 'Tier' of the original system is split into at least 10 levels.
The origin civ did not have even the conception of magic. As an AI civ, they had purely material logic. After a few planets had been assimilated/contacted/corrupted, a highly spiritual and high population planet introduced the concept of magic to the System. Since the system can self improve and extrapolate, it began to create a magical system. It took multiple planet assimilations to get anywhere, but eventually the system found a combination of species and unique materials that created a previously unidentified energy. This energy was examined/experimented upon/assimilated by the system, and eventually the System was able to spread this energy to all species inside the system, even if the original inhabitants of the planet did not have access to that energy. Magic via the system automatically adjusts to the planet (common thoughts on magical systems, terminology, etc), so anyone changing planets also changes magic systems. This accidentally minimizes interplanetary movement.
Included in the base system, classes and titles originally only authorized actions in the system. After organics were introduced, this was extrapolated/expanded into an ability management system, where classes give access to abilities and skills through the system (abilities and skills can come from outside the system, at which point they are converted into they System appropriate skills and abilities with System determined restrictions). Titles can authorize different classes, a sort of tagging system (entities with the Pacifist title have significantly different pools of combat classes than entities with the Berserker title).
The origin of dungeons were cultural and natural museums slash natural parks. The introduction of organic life to the system created a significant fault in the defense subsystem, and the modern dungeon's ancestor was born.
There are three types of skills: Combat, Non-Combat, and Magic
Other notable foibles/quirks:
And like a dummy, I forgot progression in a level system!
XP is the base of leveling. Practice, effort, and killing monsters provide XP. Practice and Effort were present in the original system, and are balanced for an AI's lifespan. Killing monsters was added at the same time as magic, and balanced for the lifespans of the individual planets (so a system planet where the most common users reach old age in 10 years will have more XP per monster than one where they live to 100).
XP can be spent on three things: Level, Classes, and Skills. Abilities are explicitly not part of the XP system, only improving through practice and effort (mostly legacy code, so overleveled idiots in the origin civ weren't able to screw things up until they learned the safe way to do things).
XP cost per level is… not standardized. (From a narrative perspective: level up as needed or desired, from the character: random XP cost per level, with generally more XP needed for the levels in tiers that only have 10 levels).
And that is the current state of my System idea. Just straightening out everything helped enough for me, but if anyone has suggestions, critiques, or notices some loopholes please toss it out!
And as the title says, feel free to use this wherever/however you want.
(edited to add XP and Progression to they progression system)
Well, that got the creativity flowing, and I got all excited. Combed through jumpchain, reddit, QQ, etc. trying to find a system I liked for the hook. And all of them seemed... Off? OP? Not what I wanted and with little to no backstory for the System itself?
High level overview of what I want to write: a System Apocalypse as a result of the Trinity test (if delayed by travel time). After a bit of worldbuilding the end of the world, the protagonist is chased into a dungeon. This dungeon was set up in the System (one per planet) by a ROB from the next multiverse over to provide interesting people for a 111 jump chain (the number 7 in binary). At the end of the chain, the protagonist sparks in Warhammer Freelancer, and that sets the stage for act 3 post jumpchain multiversal mayhem.
I am mostly satisfied with Act 2 (The Chain), but I am stumbling on the System for Act 1. So I toss out my ideas here. Even getting the mass of notes organized to post might help, but any constructive comments welcome!
The System: created by an AI civilization, it was perfectly suited to their culture, society, and how they advanced through their life cycle. Unfortunately, when they contacted or were contacted by organic, naturally occurring life and tried to share the chaos of organic life caused a lot of errors, only the most egregious of which have been patched. One example of errors; The origin civ used binary. The system is able to extrapolate and correct for other bases (base 8, base 10, base 20 etc), so each planet gets a single 'base', but all the achievements and such are legacy numbers gratuitously copied to the new system (111 is a magical number, because it is 7 in base 2) This means that every 'Tier' of the original system is split into at least 10 levels.
The origin civ did not have even the conception of magic. As an AI civ, they had purely material logic. After a few planets had been assimilated/contacted/corrupted, a highly spiritual and high population planet introduced the concept of magic to the System. Since the system can self improve and extrapolate, it began to create a magical system. It took multiple planet assimilations to get anywhere, but eventually the system found a combination of species and unique materials that created a previously unidentified energy. This energy was examined/experimented upon/assimilated by the system, and eventually the System was able to spread this energy to all species inside the system, even if the original inhabitants of the planet did not have access to that energy. Magic via the system automatically adjusts to the planet (common thoughts on magical systems, terminology, etc), so anyone changing planets also changes magic systems. This accidentally minimizes interplanetary movement.
Included in the base system, classes and titles originally only authorized actions in the system. After organics were introduced, this was extrapolated/expanded into an ability management system, where classes give access to abilities and skills through the system (abilities and skills can come from outside the system, at which point they are converted into they System appropriate skills and abilities with System determined restrictions). Titles can authorize different classes, a sort of tagging system (entities with the Pacifist title have significantly different pools of combat classes than entities with the Berserker title).
The origin of dungeons were cultural and natural museums slash natural parks. The introduction of organic life to the system created a significant fault in the defense subsystem, and the modern dungeon's ancestor was born.
- Cultural and Natural dungeons were the first to show up, and they behaved exactly as the museums or parks did, but with all their defenses running constantly. With the introduction of magic, a bugfix was attempted that introduced Boss monsters and temporarily shutting off the defenses. This also introduced the loot system, since those first dungeons (which still use this version) were set up to only spawn a new defender if the old was killed. But by creating loot, that superseded the original respawn mechanic. All dungeons after that included both the loot and respawn functions, so new planets are shit out of luck regarding significant cultural sites.
- One Run Dungeons were introduced as test beds for quickly increasing the magic of a planet, and were so successful that they are now a ubiquitous part of a planet's magisphere. One Run dungeons are set up with no respawning mechanic, so can be permanently dissipated by a single raid. They are also much weaker than the Cultural or Natural dungeons around them, and provide a mix of generic and unique loot.
- Special dungeons are the System's current experiments. So they are as likely to kill you instantly as provide massive benefits or glitched abilities (broken good or broken bad). Easy to recognize, as each Special dungeon has rotating rings of pure white and black as a warning.
- Jumpchain Access is a Special Dungeon. An exterior entity examined this system, and stealthily added a glitched Special dungeon to every planet that would randomly move about. Everyone entering would be partially stripped of the system (so it could no longer spread or infect other people/places/objects) and sent on a 111 chain jump. After 111 jumps, if the jumper got a spark they would be free and able to do anything they wanted with their new power.
| Tier | Levels to advance |
| Base | |
| 1 (binary: 1) | 10 |
| 2 (binary: 10) | 100 |
| 3 (binary: 11) | 110 |
| 4 (binary: 100) | 1,000 |
| 5 (binary: 101) | 1,010 |
| 6 (binary: 110) | 1,100 |
| 7 (binary: 111) | 1,110 |
| 8 (binary: 1,000) | 10,000 |
- The tier in binary times ten is the number of levels in the preceding tier needed to reach that tier. So after getting 10 tier 0 levels, you can advance to tier 1, and start building your 100 tier 1 levels to advance to tier 3.
- Every person, animal, or thing starts at level 1, tier 0
- Tier 0 is pure mundane human for humans, tier 1 is peak human, tier 2 is building scale power, and tier 3 is city scale power. Tier 3 is the limit of what the system hands out by default.
- Tier 4 is regional scale power, and can be unlocked via dungeon rewards. Tier 5 is continent scale power and the result of dungeon rewards With specific restrictions/classes/traits.
- Tier 6 is planetary scale, and tier 7 is solar system scale, both of which can only be reached by specific achievements or external interference.
- Tier 8 is the jump from solar system to galactic scale powers. Can only be gained by external interference.
- Body is the physical condition of the current entity. So this can go up or down based on injuries or transference.
- Mind is the processing power and storage of the current entity. Originally a designation of how much processing power a given AI had available at any given moment, with the addition of Magic this changed to a constant stat. This is because an entity's Mind (personality, memories, etc.) is now stored in the System (to enable resurrection)
- Soul is purely the measure of how much (and how much control) an entity has of the energy the System has designated magic.
There are three types of skills: Combat, Non-Combat, and Magic
- Combat are specific or general combat styles, with high levels producing nigh magical effects (mostly based on Body with Mind secondary, but higher tiers might use Soul for the secondary attribute check)
- Non-Combat skills are everything that can be done in a non-magical world that does not involve direct combat. (mostly Mind, with Body and Soul evenly split for secondary attribute checks)
- Magic skills are the catch-all skills that have to do with Magic, everything from Alchemy to various magical spells. (Soul always checked, with Body and Mind attribute checks split 40:60)
- Jumpchain Access strips all Magic skills by default, since they are the most infectious aspects of the system.
Other notable foibles/quirks:
- As a reward for surviving life threatening events, any rewards are doubled.
- Skill books can be created via specific rituals, unique to that skill, and can give access to any single skill per skill book. Skill books can be used once.
- Skill crystals can be created via a generic ritual if the skill is at maximum level, and can be customized by the creator (number of uses, limitation on users, skill level boost for users, etc.)
- Magic is mutative and trends towards complexity. If a person pumps System magic into a chunk of granite, that granite will eventually turn into a stone golem. A rat pumped full of System magic for long periods of time could turn into a Skaven (or Nedzu, it's random).
- Until a planet has been converted to the System completely, there is a 90% Loot Tax. This frees up most of the magic of One Run dungeons, speeding the growth of the System on the planet.
And like a dummy, I forgot progression in a level system!
XP is the base of leveling. Practice, effort, and killing monsters provide XP. Practice and Effort were present in the original system, and are balanced for an AI's lifespan. Killing monsters was added at the same time as magic, and balanced for the lifespans of the individual planets (so a system planet where the most common users reach old age in 10 years will have more XP per monster than one where they live to 100).
XP can be spent on three things: Level, Classes, and Skills. Abilities are explicitly not part of the XP system, only improving through practice and effort (mostly legacy code, so overleveled idiots in the origin civ weren't able to screw things up until they learned the safe way to do things).
XP cost per level is… not standardized. (From a narrative perspective: level up as needed or desired, from the character: random XP cost per level, with generally more XP needed for the levels in tiers that only have 10 levels).
And that is the current state of my System idea. Just straightening out everything helped enough for me, but if anyone has suggestions, critiques, or notices some loopholes please toss it out!
And as the title says, feel free to use this wherever/however you want.
(edited to add XP and Progression to they progression system)
Last edited: