WHAT posted:

It’s a blackjack joke. Because you stand in blackjack, you see? And in this game you use blackjack mechanics to... Anyhow. So yes, there’s a spreading disaster slowly growing from the ruins of your former school, and only you can do anything about it. Probably. There’s actually a good chance that you can’t fix this by yourselves? There’s just a much larger chance that if no one tries to stop it it’ll spread faster than you can run away… so.

The central gameplay loop is pretty simple. Move to a spot on the GAME GRID above and pick an adjacent square to attack. Initially, you won’t know what’s in them, but as you go on you’ll start to learn about the enemies and trials of this place. Next, roll 1d6. The enemy will do the same against all of you at the same time when I update, then it’s back to you. You want to hit a total of 12 (or as close as you can without going over), and the enemy wants to do the same - but lower level opponents must stand at lower numbers. When both combatants stand, we’ll calculate the difference between your final scores, and the winner will strike the loser that many times, dealing damage according to their Might. If you bust, you Overload, taking critical strikes equal to the magnitude of difference between your previous values +1. Don’t Overload!

Example of Play posted:

<sub>You roll 6 vs Baddie A, bringing your total to 6.
Jambo rolls 2 vs Baddie B, bringing their total to 2.
Zonk rolls 1 vs Baddie C, bringing their total to 1.
I update, Baddie A rolls 2 (2), Baddie B rolls 5 (5), Baddie C rolls 5 (5).

You roll 5 vs. Baddie A (11 vs. 2). You stand.
Jambo rolls 4 vs. Baddie B (6 vs. 5)
Zonk rolls 6 vs. Baddie C (7 vs. 5)

I update, Baddie A rolls 4, then 2, and must stand. Your round ends. They stand at 11 vs. 8 - you strike them 3 times at 2 Might each time for 6 Damage.
The others keep fighting their battles at their own pace, but you can start another round of combat against that opponent - or move away and attack another.</sub>

When you beat them (or in random events) you might gain a Spell, a powerful item that allows you to play with those mechanics a bit. You are, however, not very good at this whole magic thing - when you use a Spell, it's then on cooldown for three turns! You should have studied better!

One more thing: when you roll a 12 exactly, you have an Epiphany, gaining 1 Inspiration. Every four updates there is an Oscillation, where the whole team can collectively vote on how to spend their Inspiration to bolster their forces. At the same time, the forces of chaos will make their counterattack! But hey, worry about that later!

Character creation is easy enough: You are a CRAPPY STUDENT WIZARD. You have a NAME. You have 10 HP. Your MIGHT is 1D2 because SOME of you are slightly LESS CRAPPY. You have an ELEMENT (Pyra, Hydro, Terra, Aero). Your attacks deal damage according to your Element, dealing 1 more damage per strike to a vulnerable enemy and 1 less damage to a resistant enemy.

Now, once you have your character, to get started: Pick an Unknown square to attack and roll 1d6. That will reveal the enemy in the square and provoke them to roll against you in the next update. You cannot leave combat until the round is done (until both of you stand), so keep going.

You can only attack orthagonally, so only 11 people can get in right now - but if you want to join anyhow you can help by shoring up the defenses on one of the green squares on the map. To do so, roll 1d6+Might vs the listed value - if you beat it, it increases by 1. Yes, that's really easy. Yes, it will get harder.

Cloud Potato posted:

"Oh good! A chance to test out my cleansing fire! Time to burn!!"

Off In The Distance posted:

_{"Wait, cleansing fire...? Is this why the dorms always smelled of burnt hair?!"}

THE MONITOREUM posted:

The Monitoreum can be found here, It contains a lot of heavy details on game mechanics, combat archives, spell and enemy types, and whatnot. For the most part you won’t NEED to look at it because most relevant stuff will be posted in the updates, but it’s pretty handy as a resource, and it will be linked in every post along with the updated map. Imagine that it’s a big old moldy book full of magically animated pages, ooh, ah.

EXPLORATION posted:

A - Ozzy rolls 6, bringing their total to 6. Possessed Potion rolls 3, bringing their total to 3.
B - Benny rolls 1, bringing their total to 1. Animate Lantern rolls 2, bringing their total to 2.
C - Szymon rolls 6, bringing their total to 6. Flapping Grimoire rolls 5, bringing their total to 5.
D - Ning rolls 1, bringing their total to 1. Flapping Grimoire rolls 2, bringing their total to 2.
E - Gimlet rolls 6, bringing their total to 6. Pillar Of Salt rolls 1, bringing their total to 1.
F - Gizzard rolls 1, bringing their total to 1. Animate Lantern rolls 3, bringing their total to 3.
G - Bob rolls 1, bringing their total to 1. Animate Lantern rolls 5, bringing their total to 5.
H - Arthur rolls 2, bringing their total to 2. Pillar Of Salt rolls 6, bringing their total to 6.
I - Jimmy rolls 5, bringing their total to 5. Possessed Potion rolls 1, bringing their total to 1.
J - Adila rolls 5, bringing their total to 5. Flapping Grimoire rolls 3, bringing their total to 3.

ENEMY SPELLS posted:

Nothing all that exciting yet, but I was taking it easy on you - each turn, there's a chance enemies will cast a spell from a small list per enemy type. This is randomly rolled, but as they show up they'll appear on the grid list. Enemy Spells will start appearing next turn.

EXPLORATION - TURN 2 posted:

A - Ozzy rolls 1, bringing their total to 7. Possessed Potion rolls 3, bringing their total to 6.
B - Benny rolls 3, bringing their total to 4. Animate Lantern casts Bubbling Fuel! Animate Lantern rolls 1, bringing their total to 3.
_{Bubbling Fuel - On Overload, lose 2 HP and deal 2 Pyra Damage to opponent}
C - Szymon rolls 5, bringing their total to 11. Flapping Grimoire rolls 4, bringing their total to 9.
Szymon Stands with 11! Flapping Grimore Stands with 9! Szymon strikes Flapping Grimoire for 3 Pyro Damage!

DAMAGE MATH posted:

Wha? Okay, let’s break this one down. 11 - 9 nets two strikes, at 1 Might each. Additionally, since Szymon has a good elemental matchup, each strike strips 1 enemy Armour and deals 1 more Damage this round. Grimoire has 2 Armour, so the first strike strips 1 Armour and deals (2-1 Armour = 1) Damage, and the second strips another Armour and deals (2-0 Armour = 2) Damage for a total of 3 Damage! Clear as mud? Good! I’ll do the boring math stuff, but it’s all up on the Monitoreum if you guys want to check yourself. _{i don’t know why you would i have never made a simple arithmetic mistake in my life}

D - Ning rolls 6, bringing their total to 7. Flapping Grimoire rolls 2, bringing their total to 4.
E - Gimlet rolls 3, bringing their total to 9. Pillar Of Salt rolls 4, bringing their total to 5.
F - Gizzard rolls 2, bringing their total to 3. Animate Lantern rolls 5, bringing their total to 8. Animate Lantern Stands with 8!
G - Bob rolls 6, bringing their total to 7. Animate Lantern casts Bubbling Fuel! Animate Lantern rolls 2, bringing their total to 7.
_{Bubbling Fuel - On Overload, lose 2 HP and deal 2 Pyra Damage to opponent}
H - Arthur rolls 3, bringing their total to 5. Pillar Of Salt rolls 5, bringing their total to 11.
Pillar Of Salt Stands with 11!
I - Jimmy rolls 4, bringing their total to 9. Possessed Potion rolls [5,1,1], bringing their total to 8.
Jimmy Stands with 9! Possessed Potion Stands with 8! Jimmy strikes Possessed Potion for 1 Aero Damage!
J - Adila rolls 1, bringing their total to 6. Flapping Grimoire rolls 4, bringing their total to 7.
K - Bluemonty rolls 5, bringing their total to 5. Animate Lantern rolls 6, bringing their total to 6.

ENEMY SPELLS posted:

Enemies, particularly early ones, are pretty dumb, and will try to use spells they draw whether or not they’re useful or applicable (aside from Boosts - they will not push themselves over their Max Value, but may exceed their Stand point) This will not be the case for later foes, who will hold them in reserve until they’re of most use...

THE MONITOREUM posted:

ENEMY DAMAGE posted:

Enemy damage is displayed counting up on the combat grid. Jimmy smacked his opponent, an Animated Potion, for 1 Aero Damage, neither weak nor strong against his element, so it’s listed as such on the grid. Once the Damage equals or exceeds their max HP, the enemy is dead. Having completed a round, Jimmy can now disengage if he wishes or continue the fight.

The full Monitoreum can be seen here.

EXPLORATION - TURN 3 posted:

A - Ozzy rolls 2, bringing their total to 9. Possessed Potion rolls 5, bringing their total to 11.
Ozzy Stands with 9! Possessed Potion Stands with 11! Possessed Potion strikes Ozzy for 2 Hydro Damage!
B - Benny rolls 4, bringing their total to 8. Animate Lantern casts Explosion! Animate Lantern rolls 2, bringing their total to 5.
_{Explosion - On victory, deal 10 Pyra Damage to opponent and die}
C - Szymon rolls 5, bringing their total to 5. Flapping Grimoire rolls 5, bringing their total to 5.
D - Ning rolls 3, bringing their total to 10. Flapping Grimoire rolls 4, bringing their total to 8.
Ning Stands with 10! Flapping Grimoire Stands with 8! Ning strikes the Flapping Grimoire for 2 Terra Damage!

WEAK ELEMENT posted:

Terra is weak against Aero, so you deal 1 less Damage… but always deal at least 1 Damage per strike, so hurrah!

E - Gimlet rolls 5, bringing their total to 14 - GIMLET OVERLOADS! Pillar Of Salt auto-stands at 5. Pillar of Salt strikes Gimlet for 10 Terra Damage, slaying them! 1 Innovation gained!

DEATH posted:

Oops! Down goes another brave mage, beaten to death by a… big rock. Fear not, you can hop right back in immediately - AND you get a point of the metacurrency Innovation for your troubles. Check out the Inspiration Tab in the Monitoreum for more details.

F - Gizzard rolls 6, bringing their total to 9. Animate Lantern continues to stand at 8.
Gizzard Stands with 9! Gizzard strikes the Animate Lantern for 1 Hydro Damage!
G - Bob rolls 4, bringing their total to 11. Animate Lantern rolls 6, bringing their total to 13.
Bob Stands at 11! ANIMATE LANTERN OVERLOADS! BUBBLING FUEL DEALS 2 PYRA DAMAGE TO SELF AND 3 PYRA DAMAGE TO BOB! Bob strikes the Animate Lantern for 4 Aero Damage, slaying it!

VICTORY posted:

You done it! When you kill an enemy, gain a random spell of your element, their element, or neutral. See the Wizard Spells tab for more!

H - Arthur rolls 6, bringing their total to 13. Pillar Of Salt auto-stands.
ARTHUR OVERLOADS! Pillar Of Salt Stands with 11!
Pillar of Salt strikes Arthur for 10 Terra Damage, slaying him! 1 Innovation gained!
I - Jimmy reinforces E8 to 2!
J - Adila rolls 6, bringing their total to 12. Flapping Grimoire casts Papercut! Adila takes 2 Aero Damage! Flapping Grimoire rolls 1, bringing their total to 8. Flapping Grimoire Stands with 8! Adila has an Epiphany! Adila strikes Flapping Grimoire for 6 Terra Damage, slaying it!
_{Papercut - Instantly deal 1 Aero Damage to opponent}

EPIPHANY posted:

Boy Adila had a busy round! Epiphany occurs when you hit your Max Value exactly, and does a few things. First of all, you gain a bonus Critical strike on top of whatever other strikes you got. Second (and importantly, the team gains a point of Inspiration). This is how you’re SUPPOSED to gain it, rather than from deaths.

K - Bluemonty rolls 4, bringing their total to 9. Animate Lantern rolls 5, bringing their total to 11. Bluemonty stands at 9! Animate Lantern Stands at 11! The Animate Lantern strikes Bluemonty for 2 Pyra Damage!

THE MONITOREUM posted:

DATA REVEALED posted:

See how there’s a few Spells showing up? The N/A means there’s no spell in that slot - meaning that a Spell was triggered, but no Spells were selected. Aren’t you lucky!

The full Monitoreum can be seen here.