Magical Realm Cyoa/Diaspora/System

System of the World

One of the fundamental differences between Diaspora and the other realms is that its nature, physical structure and theme really create radical change in how things work. While outwardly Diaspora appears to have the same natural and physical laws as the rest of the universe, this is not actually the case.

There is no gravity in Diaspora, because if all mass was attracted to all other mass in the same physical location, then all of the dirt and water and other material in each of the 'Dyson Spheres' that make up the realm would accumulate in the center of each reality-bubble, rather than around its outer edge. Instead, there is a constant acceleration of 10 meters per second away from the center point of each bubble which provides an effect which is nearly indistinguishable from gravity, but is not gravity.

You'll note that the above effect would prevent a sun from forming to provide light and heat in Diaspora. That is true, and the shining point of light in the skies above each realm of Diaspora may be suns from the inhabitants perspectives, but scientifically they are not stars.

I'll leave the other physical differences between Diaspora and the regular universe as exercises for the imagination, and instead discuss the most important difference for the Players - the 'Character' system. Upon entering the realm of Diaspora, a person is 'assimilated' by the universe to be a 'Character'. There is no distinction between PC and NPC, and while Realm Lords and other powerful beings can actively prevent this effect, it manifests in unassimilated individuals as a continuous itching sensation over their entire body, and all creatures who have been assimilated by the realm will see an unassimilated as a horrific 'non-person' and fundamentally wrong.

Being assimilated and having a 'Character' means three things:

1) A Character Sheet complete with 'status' screen, as shown on the main page.

2) An Inventory system, again shown on the main page

3) A Skills list with descriptions of all active and passive skills

Each of these is described below in detail. Note that the only one of the above which is not purely descriptive in nature is the Inventory - which does not need to be used, but makes many things simpler. There are complete descriptions for all 3 'effects' below.

Attributes

Each Character Sheet comes with six attributes:

Short	Name	Description
str	Strength	Strength is a measure of a person's physical power. Strong people hit harder, are better at lifting, and are generally more physically able. As a Character's strength increases, they gain access to skills and powers which improve damage, melee combat, carrying capacity and may even increase the size of their inventory. Strength based special abilities also allow for alternative means of damaging creatures or items, such as the ability to crush, tear or break.
vit	Vitality	Vitality is a measure of a person's health and fitness. Vital people are tougher, can go longer without rest, and heal more quickly. As a Character's vitality increases, they gain access to skills and powers which boost stamina, reduce damage taken, improve their healing rate and may even grant regeneration. Vitality based special abilities can also prevent certain types of damage, such as broken bones or bleeding.
agi	Agility	Agility is a measure of a person's reflexes and speed. Agile people are faster, better able to dodge, and have better hand-eye coordination. As a character's agility increases, they gain access to skills and powers which boost movement, improve evasion, increase accuracy and may even grant or improve specialist skills like stealth and slight of hand. Agility based special abilities and attacks rely on coordination and timing to produce results better than what brute force alone would be capable of, such as disabling attacks and improving critical hits.
int	Intelligence	Intelligence is a measure of a person's cleverness and speed of thought. Intelligent people think faster, have higher mana capacity and find learning new skills easier. As a character's intelligence increases they gain access to skills and powers that boost mana capacity, improve initiative, make spells more powerful and may even grant 'meta-skills' that affect other skills and skill use in general. Intelligence based special abilities and attacks generally rely on mana so can be thought of as 'natural' spells, like Mana Shield (which absorbs physical blows by diverting HP damage to MP).
wis	Wisdom	Wisdom is a measure of a person's willpower and decision making ability. Wise people make better decisions, regenerate mana more quickly, and are more difficult to sway with deceptive arguments or mind-altering spells. As a character's wisdom increases they gain access to skills and powers that boost mana regeneration, grant insight into themselves and others, allow them to project confidence and may even allow them to generate a mystical aura (effects of aura vary based on individual). Wisdom based special abilities allow the user to make better choices by allowing them to pierce deceptions and illusions, or grant extreme recovery speeds for other abilities.
luk	Luck	Luck is a measure of a person's fortune. Lucky people find that the world tends to work in their favor. Luck is the most esoteric of the attributes and does not generally grant special skills and abilities when raised. However, scholars are aware that a number of secret skills and magics rely on a high level of luck - though access to these is also limited by situations and have other requirements. Because the lucky do not often find themselves being questioned extensively by scholars, little else is known about luck.

When first given a character sheet, these attributes are literally just estimated descriptions of the attributes a person already has. An average score for a normal human on earth is 20. The scores themselves range from 1 and up, with no specific upper end. Ability score increases are linear - a Character with a strength of 20 can lift twice as much as a Character with a strength of 10.

Each Level (see below) a person gains gives 5 attribute points which can be applied on their Character sheet. The Sheet itself tracks these points, as well as the attribute changes. Once applied to an attribute, the points are forever gone, and there is no 'undo' or 'cancel' which can restore them. This is because attribute points, applied to attributes, cause a fundamental change in the individual - the increased scores is not a magical effect so much as the reality of the individual changing so that they do actually have the capabilities listed on their sheet. Again, a Realm Lord or other powerful individual can resist this change - but permanent attribute increases of this type are always a net gain.

Attribute increases may also come from training, quests of special events. For example, if a man lifts weights from a long time without stopping, then their strength will increase by 1. The time required for this is proportional to their current strength, and the weight needed to cause an increase is also proportional to that strength, so as a person's strength increases it becomes more and more difficult to raise. The same applies to every other attribute. Luck is the only attribute which cannot be actively raised this way - gambling and winning do not increase luck.

Some effects can permanently decrease attributes, but those decreases are representative of the effects and not the other way around. For example, if a magical effect causes a wasting disease to reduce someone's muscles at very fast rate, their strength score would decrease proportionally. This is not the universe causing reduced muscle mass through a lower score, but rather the universe tracking a change in a persons score.

Because the attributes of a person are maintained by the realm's theme, so long as a person remains within Diaspora their Character's attributes are never reduced without direct (and generally magical) cause. That is to say, a man can get their strength up to 100 through exercise, and then lay on a couch eating potato chips and never moving for the next fifteen years. At the end of that time, in any other universe, their strength would be greatly reduced - but in Diaspora their strength score would still be 100, and they would still be able to lift as much weight as just after they had stopped exercising.

Those who leave Diaspora will change naturally based on whatever universal rules they are in, and will have their attribute scores re-evaluated when they come back to Diaspora.

Races

Every Character has a Race. For humans, this race is generally human, though occasionally they come up as novan, elite human, elite novan, or for those who are not native to Diaspora, outsider. Demihumans and monsters also have races, with a far more diverse set of names, qualifiers and accompanying differences.

A person cannot change their race - at least, not directly. They may use permanent transmutation magic or advanced scientific means to change themselves into something different, which will change their race, but they cannot alter who and what they are simply by changing something in their Character's status screen (unlike Class, below).

Every race has a description, a few passive or active abilities, and a few attribute modifiers. For example, humans get the Adaptable quality, and a +5 to Luck. Elite Humans get Adaptable, Fast Learner, and +5 to all physical attributes (Strength, Vitality and Agility). Novans and Elite Novans are similar, except they have the Fast Learner quality instead of Adaptable, and get an additional +5 to Intelligence and Wisdom on top of the normal human bonuses.

Note that not all races are equal or balanced. Some races are simply better than others - chimera are as intelligent and wise as humans but also breath fire, have poison stingers, and are stronger, tougher and more agile than even elite humans. This does not make humans any less capable, and chimera have not replaced humans as the dominant race of Diaspora, so obviously there are balancing factors at work - but they are not mechanical, nor are they part of Diaspora's theme.

There is no definitive list of races in Diaspora - there are hundreds of different demihuman races (possibly one for each of the realms, since it seems that particular demihuman races are much more common on certain minor realms). Their classifications are listed on the main page. There are also hundreds (if not thousands) of monster races. If you want a good overview of those, pick up the 3.5 set of monster manuals (volumes 1-5) for a good starting point.

Classes

A Character's class is the job that they perform.

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.

Example classes:

Class Name	Requirements	Description
	Abilities
Child	Race: Any Human or Demihuman, Starting Class	Children in Diaspora are generally well protected by their communities from the dangers of the world. They are encouraged to learn, play and grow stronger. The children of the seven great cities are generally taught in schools, while in the lesser realms education may be somewhat ad-hoc. But even those growing up on the frontiers usually have access to books and learn the basics of literacy, math and the skill system.
	Curiosity - Children are innately curious and full of wonder in the world. Increase experience gains for skills by 25%. Training times for intelligence and wisdom are also reduced by 25%.
	Innocence - Children are less susceptible to certain kinds of danger. Monsters of significantly higher level will often ignore children as 'unthreatening' or even protect them from other dangers.
	Just Run (Active) - Children are taught from an early age that the best defense is to get away and keep away. While the child is running from something they consider dangerous, their movement speed is increased by 50% and evasion increases by 25%.
Merchant	Wisdom 25, Luck 10, 1000 Xan, Quest: Shopping for shops	Merchants are the normal source of items and equipment in Diaspora. While it is possible to go directly to the source when you want to buy something, like going to a blacksmith for a sword or a farmer for produce, it is quite possible that they won't have what you want on hand. A merchant almost certainly will, as long as they have a store of the correct type. More importantly, they will have many different kinds of things, and as much of it as you need!
	Sell - When someone comes into your shop and wishes to buy something, and the item is both available in the city you are in (offered for sale by a tradesperson or other owner) and of a type appropriate to your shop (potions for item shops, weapons for equipment shops, etc.), then you may offer that item as part of your shop's wares. The customer may then buy that item from you (negotiation skills apply) and you take a percentage of the money from the transaction as the item is sent directly from where it is currently stored to the customer's inventory.
	Buy - When someone comes into your shop and wishes to sell something, you may purchase it yourself or opt to have it placed in your town's general items pool. The customers may then sell that item to you (negotiation skills apply) and you either take the item or a percentage of the sale in cash while paying for the item from the town's wealth pool.
	Negotiate (Active) - A good merchant always gets the best deal he can while leaving the customer satisfied. This skill increases your profit margins. Opposed by the customer's negotiate skill.
Adventurer	Quest: Looking for Group!	Adventurers in Diaspora are generally most interested in one of three things - fame, fortune or experience. No matter what their preferences, they generally found out very quickly that specialization is important and find a better class.
	Curiosity - Adventurers are far too curious for their own good. Increase experience gains for skills by 25%. Training times for intelligence and wisdom are also reduced by 25%.
	Let's go to the Inn (Active) - Adventurers have a knack for finding adventure almost anywhere. Whenever an Adventurer does not have an active quest, they may go looking and find a new quest very quickly. These quests may not be level appropriate. Increased skill level makes them somewhat more level appropriate.
	Just Run (Active) - Adventurers learn very quickly that the best defense is to get away and keep away. While the adventurer is running from something they consider dangerous, their movement speed is increased by 50% and evasion increases by 25%.

Skills

For now, skills are adequately covered on the main page.

Inventory

For now, inventory is adequately covered on the main page.

Experience, Quests, and Levels

Those who live in Diaspora gain experience - for Diasporans, this is an aspect of nature, not a function of intelligence or neurology. Doing different things grants different amounts of experience, as well as different types.

Characters have experience points which they gain from:

Slaying monsters	The simplest means of gaining experience is killing things. There is a simple formula for experience gain from this based on respective character levels. While popular with adventurers, this is generally considered the hardest way of gaining experience, and the most dangerous.
Completing quests	Quests (described below) always result in experience gain if completed successfully. Some very difficult quests also give experience when failed.
Learning new things	Experience really is a measure of a person's experiences. Those who have learned more and experienced many things have more experience than others. Thus, learning something new - either by going to a concert and listening to beautiful new music, or composing a poetry to find out what it's like, or even reading a really engaging book that teaches you something important - all those will give a small amount of experience by themselves.
Living life	Just by living, day to day, people gain experience. Specifically, living one day gives one experience, even if nothing new or interesting happens. This doesn't happen if the person gains experience in any other way during a day.

Characters also gain experience towards their skill levels, separate from their experience points. Each skill tracks experience and level separately. Skill experience is gained through continuous use of a skill or finding clever new uses for that skill. Sufficiently clever uses for a skill may even result in the creation of a new skill (which generally is better or more specialized, but starts at level 1).

The second most common experience gain is from completing quests. Quests are any action or activity which:

Granted Quest	A person asked you to do something	The old man at the inn wants you to find the MacGuffin, or the farmer wants you to protect his fields, or the local lord wants you to rescue his daughter from monsters. Usually provides moderate experience and some monetary rewards.
Personal Quest	You strongly desire to accomplish	You set out to avenge your parents murder, or you seek a cure for the lycanthropy problem you just found out about. High experience rewards, and occasional intangible benefits.
Realm Quest	The realm of Diaspora itself is asking you to do	You've just reached level twenty and your intelligence is now at one hundred, so the Realm offers you the chance at the High Wizard class if you can find a specific spell in a particular dungeon. Highly variable rewards.

Quests may have requirements before they can be undertaken, they may have specific costs in terms of goods or money, and they generally have unique requirements for completion. All quests give experience based on the level of difficulty and the costs of the quest. Some quests also give physical benefits (payment in the form of goods or money) or intangible rewards (access to new classes or skills). As a Character does things to gain experience (killing monsters, going on quests, experiencing new things, etc.), their level increases. Higher levels require progressively more experience to attain. Each level a person gains increases their HP and MP based on their vitality and intelligence respectively. Not bothering with a formula. Every level gives a person 5 attribute points to spend on attributes. This is described in the attributes section above.

Economy

The Economy of Diaspora is unique because it is driven partially by the realm's Theme, partially by the inhabitant's Skills and Magics, and based primarily on the availability of the standard currency unit, the Xan.

It would take several pages of text to explain how the Diasporan economy differs from a normal economy, and more to explain how its economic model actually works. That explanation would be boring, and thus will not be included. Instead, here is a descriptive example of how the economy of Diaspora works.

A man (the Shopper) walks into a merchant's shop with 1000 Xan in his pocket. The shop is a standard item shop - the walls are covered with shelves, on which rest potion bottles, bundles of herbs, coils of rope, numerous kinds of tools, and so on. It is much like an old-time general store from a western movie - except there is only one of every item. The Shopper asks The Merchant to show him the shop's inventory - which is brought up on a pop-up screen which both the Merchant and the Shopper can see, but no one else. That is the full extent of the Merchant's need to participate in the transaction, unless the Shopper wishes to start selling things as well.

The Shopper is then presented with a list of items. Each item's description can be examined, its Character effects noted and detailed, and unless the Merchant is using the Black Market skill all descriptions will be accurate and thorough. The Shopper then goes through the catalog, chooses the items he wants from the list, selects a quantity for each item, and the total cost of items will be shown. The Shopper can now buy the items (assuming he has enough Xan) and the items will be placed in his inventory (assuming he has enough item slots there). If there are issues with the inventory, delivery can be arranged via the Merchant, who will likely charge a few Xan for the service. There is no haggling involved in this process - the two individual's relative negotiate skills ensure that the deal is the best on the Shopper is going to get.

You'll note that, despite that there is only one of each item on display in the shop - and in truth, these items are there purely for display, and many of them might not even be physically present in the shop - the Shopper needn't worry about availability. This is because the items purchased are supplied from wherever they currently exist, not from some storage local to the shop itself. The items in the shop must be available for purchase from a Craftsman or Tradesman within the town, or from a private owner, or occasionally from the town or city's item pool. In the case of a private owner or item pool, there will actually be a limited quantity of items available and if the customer tries to raise the quantity above what is available then the quantity they select will max out at what is available.

However, if a Tradesman or Craftsman is selling goods, there is no limit on quantity. None. As long as sufficient funds are available, then the goods will be provided. The difference between a Craftsman and a Tradesman is what they provide to merchants (and a single individual may be both at once). A Craftsman is someone who creates finished products in a workshop from raw materials and other goods, like a Blacksmith. A Tradesman provides raw materials like lumber or metal, like a Lumberjack or Miner.

In order for a Craftsman to provide goods, however, they must spend at least one hour per day, per good offered, in a workshop where that good could be produced, and have access to a source of materials for that item based on the crafting rules for that item. They don't need to spend their time there producing that item, of course - most Craftsmen spend their workshop time studying, reading for pleasure, or entertaining themselves in other ways. Many married couples who are both craftsmen have large families. Alternatively, the Craftsman may use their time to produce higher quality or uniquely crafted items - such side projects do not interfere with their production of their provided items, and actually improves their relevant skill to allow them to provide newer, better products to the merchant at a later date.

From the Craftsman's point of view, when a person buys an item that they produce from a Merchant that they have agreed can sell their produced item, then the money for that item, less the Merchant's percentage (based on the Merchant's negotiate skill) and less the cost of materials (based on the material's source). If the source a materials for the craftsman is direct from a Tradesman or from that same merchant, no further deductions are made. But if another merchant is involved, then their percentage is deducted as well. A Craftsman will always receive at least 10% of his costs in profit, creating a minimum profit to the Craftsman (which can again be increased through Negotiate skill.

In order for a Tradesman to provide goods, they must spend one hour per produced material per day (and that may something like hardwood, softwood, pinecones, resinous saps, etc. for a lumberjack) in an area where they can gather that resource. Other than that requirement, and the need for tools, they are as free in how they use their time in that location as the Craftsman in his shop.

Things get even more interesting if more than one craftsman or tradesman is providing the same item to a merchant (who may want multiple sources in case one of them gets sick and can't provide inventory on a given day). In this case, the funds from the purchased item are divided evenly among all providers. And since the Xan is an indivisible unit of currency (there are no half-Xan), transactions which would result in only partial-Xan being provided effectively set up 'IOUs' within the system so that in the next purchase, those who are 'owed' get first dibs on the currency units.

And none of this requires the intervention of the parties themselves. Much like a modern just-in-time banking transaction with a middleman doing all the accounting work, the universe itself transfers all the materials, moneys, and even seems to provide the labor necessary to actually harvest, transport and manufacture the product.

The only issues in production arise when more than one locale is necessary to produce an item. Extremely high quality items, including most enchanted items, generally require materials from several areas. In this case, such materials must be shipped into the location where the craftsmen exist. And then, the items are either actually produced by the craftsman, or else bought from a merchant in quantities limited by the availability of the least-available resource.

Perhaps with sufficiently advanced magitech, such material scarcity issues could be resolved, but for now that is a limiting factor on the Diasporan materials economy.

As for the prices of items, those are set based on the relevant negotiation skills of the Tradesmen. Since the individual tradesmen providing the materials have little to no cost themselves, then theoretically they could charge nothing for their goods, and the end product would in turn cost little or nothing to produce, depending on the willingness of the craftsmen to charge nothing in turn. But the Tradesmen themselves must, invariably, go outside their own homes to a location which, at the very least, is on the outskirts of the civilized and well defended areas of cities and towns, risking their very lives for their livelihoods. Under these conditions, there are few if any Tradesmen willing to provide materials without cost, and all of those are paid in side-benefits which provide other drains on the economy. As such, the primary source of cost within the Diasporan economy is danger and/or hardship.

Which is very interesting, because the primary source of wealth in the Diasporan economy is surviving danger and/or hardship. The Xan can be gained from:

selling items	A process which will not be explained here, but which has only slightly more interaction between the participants than buying
completing quests	Which are either 1) dangerous (see below), 2) rare (sufficiently so as to not be economically important), 3) paid for entirely by the quest-giver (thereby economically neutral)
killing monsters	Which provides wealth directly in proportion to the danger of the activity
gathering treasure	Which provides wealth directly in proportion to the danger of the activity

And, equally interesting, the most direct economic sinks where Xan are removed from the economy are:

enchanting items	In addition to rare components, the Diasporan form of enchanting requires the sacrifice of the currency
giving quests	Kind of like a universe-tax on income, transactions in the form of quests take a percentage of the offered Xan rewards roughly in proportion to the experience generated by the quest.
Using powerful magics	Most of the magics which provide the best defenses against natural and monster-based hazards, as well as those used to claim territory for civilization, require Xan

So, in essence, the economy of Diaspora is driven by the forces of Danger and Safety (or Hardship and Comfort), rather than Supply and Demand.