Editing Magical Realm Cyoa/Diaspora (section)

== '''Skills and Magic''' ==

Every person in Diaspora has a name, a class, a level, a set number of HP, MP and XP, six attributes (Str, Vit, Dex, Int, Wis, Luk) and a number of attribute points they can distribute.  They have a skill list, an inventory, and a status screen that they can access.  People with the Observe skill can use that skill to learn some or all of this information, depending on the level of that skill.  People with the Deceive skill can hide that information from others, or give false answers.

All 'screens' and 'notifications' appear as semitransparent blue rectangles which can be ignored by the person with a minor effort of will - so that they don't distract that person at a critical time.  A person can access a screen simply by saying its name ("Inventory", "Status", "Skills", etc.) and dismissed notices can be recalled or will re-appear at regular intervals.

[[File:Diaspora_Status_Screen.jpg]]

Many people in Diaspora have the Observe skill.  This skill allows you to look at someone else's status screens.  Some people have a high enough Observe skill rank to see the entire screen, and even parts of their skill lists, inventory, their emotions, and other things that are normally hidden.

Different races have different attribute modifiers.  Attributes never start at less than 5, and never start at more than 20, but some races have an easier time of increasing some attributes, and harder time increasing others.  Some races also start with specific skills, like Claw Attack or Flight.

[[File:Diaspora_Breathing_Skill.jpg]]

There are two types of skills - active and passive.  Active skills need to be activated, and come with a range of activation methods from stating the name of the skill to performing specific activities.  Passive skills are 'always on', and generally provide static enhancements.

Magic is not a single skill, but rather a complex set of skills - each spell is a skill which must be learned and raised independently, and most styles of magic have numerous additional skills associated with them to enhance specific aspects of magic or particular classes of spells.  For example, a common Engimancer skill is 'Summon Greasemonkey', which allows the Engimancer to create small simian helpers made from engine grease.  A Pyromancer on the other hand might have the 'Enhanced Flames' skill, which increases the damage done by Elemental Fire spells.

[[File:Diaspora_Mana_Arrow.jpg]]

A spell is any skill which has an MP cost.  There is no distinction between 'spells' based on purely magical ability and 'techniques' which are partly or entirely physical - if it costs mana to use, it's a spell.

There is some fairly regular math inherent to the universe, based on levels, attributes, skills and other things, but the exact numbers are irrelevant to a general discussion.  Only the overall numbers are important:
Attributes range from 1 up, with values below 5 being extremely rare, and values above 100 also being quite rare, though there does not appear to be an upper end.  A value of 20 is average for an adult, for everything except Luck (LUK), which appears to start at 10 and never change unless the person spends points on it.  A few rare races get a LUK bonus or penalty of +/-5, but it is incredibly rare to see a Luck over 50.

All other attributes can be raised through either Training, or spending points.  Generally, raising an attribute through training gets harder as the attribute gets higher - a score of 10 in strength can be raised to 11 with a day of weight lifting, but going from 20 to 21 would take at least a straight week of 8-hour days, or 3 nights a week at the gym for a month.  Using points also has diminishing returns, but less drastically - it takes 1 point for every 10 points of the attribute to raise it by 1, with a minimum of 1.  So raising an attribute of 1 through 19 costs 1 point per attribute point, while raising it from 20 to 21 costs 2, then another 2 to get it to 22, and so on.  So raising an attribute from 10 to 31 costs a total of 33 points.

A character gains 5 attribute points per level, but does not need to spend them immediately.  Going up a level costs current level squared times 100 XP.  XP is gained by completing quests (varies depending on difficulty, but is generally 10-50% of what's needed to gain a level at current level), solving puzzles (varies depending on the difficulty of the puzzle, generally 10-1000), killing monsters (monster's level x 10), and performing the duties of your class (a Child might need to do chores, getting 1-5xp per chore, while a Gate guard might need to stand guard for a number of hours to gain 5xp, or defeat an attacker for a 10% bonus to the defeated attacker's xp).

Classes are generally based on the person's job or title.  Classes give bonuses and skills appropriate to the job (Game Play skills and Chore skills for children, Perception and Toughness skills for Guards, etc.).  Skills gained through jobs may be kept even after changing jobs, but static bonuses from having a job (bonus damage to undead from the Zombie Slayer job, for example) only apply while that is your job.  If a person keeps a skill when not using a class, that skill counts towards their maximum.  Changing classes is mostly a matter of intent - when you no longer want to be a Child, you can choose to be something else.  Getting access to the best classes is mostly a matter of completing quests that offer Classes as rewards, but normal classes can be acquired through simple effort or even by signing up with the appropriate guild.