Alright, I figured I should write this before I ask people to try writing for the System Apocalypse anthology again. It’ll also pull together some information I have and created.
Apocalypse Timeline & Things to Remember:
- Apocalypse happens in early April
- Perks are given for when the zone initiation starts (at that moment).
- There is a 1 hour grace period before spawning occurs
- XP is provided for those spawning in high zone location, but only for really high level areas. 0-25 = 1000, 51-75 = 2500, 75 -100 = 5000, 100+= 7500
- For the vast majority of locations, there are no teleported creatures in the first few hours. So, the vast majority of monsters appearing are those that have evolved from Earth animals in the first hour.
- Teleported creatures start appearing as more and more Mana floods in to high level zones.
- Those in big cities do not generally get perks. Monsters can level, after eating enough humans / other creatures.
- Some locations have big bads teleported in that do damage. Some leave (who cares about the ants), other cause damage just by being: ” Santiago disappeared when an Air Elemental sucked up all the Mana and air in the region. Bangalore had a swarm of Liminir Locusts, flesh-eating insects that get into everything. New Orleans was flooded when a Leviathan surfaced nearby and got shot at by the navy. As I said, you got lucky “
System Details
- Basic Classes attributes between 5 – 9 (including free)
- Advance Classes get between 10 – 19.
- Classes are ‘idealised versions’ of what a myth, idea, profession is. The wider (more diverse and applicable) a Class is, the less powerful its Skills. So, a Mage would create a less powerful Fireball than an Elementalist who would make less powerful Fire Mages. Restrictions empower a Class, while flexibility decreases the power and increases Mana cost for Skills.
- Starting stats are anywhere from 4-24 generally (9-12 is the human ‘average’ range). Anything over 16+ puts you in the top %.
- Class Skills at the basic level have 5 tiers. Advanced 4. Master 3. etc. There are 3 ‘columns’ (generally) themed around ‘personal’ improvement, and 2 other ‘Class’ importance improvements.
- So, as an example, Mikito’s three columns are a body buff, melee or ranged Skills at her initial stage.
- Advanced Classes build upon Base Classes, providing more specialised abilities.
- For non-combat Classes, those 3 options work out roughly like this: ” On one branch, you’ve got production Skills—making things faster, cheaper, or just replicating. Then you’ve got the assessment or analysis Skills—things that let the Artisan get better at what they’re doing (personal improvement). Lastly, you’ve got the actual product Skills, which dictate what you can produce. Within each of those product Skills, you might have classes of items or tiers which can improve how well you produce items of that sort “
- Skills trigger almost immediately. Spells take a bit of casting time. Speed of casting mostly depends on intelligence (for distraction and sorting out spell formula and sensing Mana, etc.)
- It takes 5,000 XP to go up a Basic Level (up to Level 10). Then it increases by 5000 (10,000 XP) till 20. Continue in same format.
I think that’s the major notes for people creating stuff. Feel free to ask questions below.
Wow, thanks for doing this, I’ve always loved your books, but I admit I’ve had a few questions about some of the mechanics.
Starting off, Perks.
There seems to be quite a variation on what is available per person, and what the relative value of the chosen benefit is compared to the perk itself.
As an example, Mikito’s Naginata is a Big Deal in setting, yet it is implied that both she, and her husband, got one perk a piece, meaning they spawned in the 0-25 area.
It’s implied a few different times that you can get more bang for your buck through sacrificing your perk to help other’s, the minister that turned his church into a safezone would be another example, but that seems like it would be abused in the society you’ve set up, serf wise, which doesn’t explain the scarcity of Big Deal perk gifts.
The other main question I’ve got saved up has to do with the bonuses certain classes seem to get, how they’re balanced, and why.
In the beginning of book one, we’re given a look at two rare advanced class options. In addition to there stat distributions, skills, and resistances, which we can set aside as roughly equivalent, they both had additional features.
The Guard got a soul bound weapon, and 5 tech links, while the Knight got two Elemental Affinities, which are again a Big Deal in setting apparently.
I guess I’m just looking for the in character reason to chose Guard over Knight, obviously the real reason was you wanted to write about a transforming bike mecha, fair enough, but Saber was only possible do to a sudden windfall of credits that could not have been predicted or planed for when the choice was made, and banking on future tech use when your stuck in a level 100+ zone on a primitive planet without resources seems less then ideal thinking, especially when your alternative is two connections to fundamental forces that let you manipulate reality without mana cost, and are apparently rare as heck.
If it was a direct one to one trade off, tech or magic, it would make more sense, but by the end of the third book most of the cast rides off on mecha of their own, so the barrier seems to be more of a credit issue, rather then a class feature one.
Anyway, that always stuck out to me whenever I tried to imagine myself in the world you’ve created, which I do often, I love your books, I’d treasure any insight you chose to share about your world, but if nothing comes of this that’s fine to, I think I’ve rambled on long enough, thank you for your patience.
Hi Alec;
So. Mikkito’s husband not only sacricficed his Perks (and they spawned in a high Level zone, 50+) and his Class to get her her weapon. It’s part of her issue.
Perks (as explained in later books) are not given out normally. Most people are born in non-high Level areas, so they ‘register’ in areas that aren’t available for Perks to happen. ON top of that, the System is quite good at discounting things if say, someone goes to a Forbidden Zone, gets born – but is perfectly safe because they brought along a Legendary Class character. At most, they’d get a Small Perk. So, getting a powerful Perk is possible, but it’s dangerous.
You’re looking at it a lot from the perspective of having full information. John didn’t. He just heard tech & magic and went, hey, sounds fun. Also, he’s a modern man (see programmer) so the idea of tech (at that point, after having all tech disappear) was more comfortable for him than magic. And it wasn’t as if he knew what an affinity was at that point.
And only Mikito got a mecha. Though the combination of tech & magic is something that’ll pop up more in later books, but one thing John didn’t realise was how dependent the Erethran’s are in working in a group. So, yeah, in some ways, he made the worse choice.
Question. How many skill points would a charachter have to spend?
1 at Level 1. 2 at Level 3, etc, etc. For Basic CLasses.
Question the second. What’s the youngest you can be and get a combat class? Including special circumstances?
Six years old I believe is what I have. And that’s only with approval from their guardians. At age of majority (minimum 12ish) they will be able to do it without approval because they are considered ‘adults’.