CYOA scores and traits preview

 

Fortitude: A measure of both a creatures power output and endurance. A lower score suggests a weakness of the body and possible difficulty in a physical altercation, though this very rarely prevents an agent from working on a case with tool or partner assistance and can give more moments of reprieve to refresh the senses. A higher score reflects being able to operate longer without rest, ability to act in a physical altercation, magic resistance, general health, and other such things. An over-reliance on this skill can result in greater vulnerability to sanity risk and lessened haste with prolonged exertion.

 

Sanity: A measure of a creatures mental fortitude and, as a consequence, their theoretical breaking point. A low score may be a sign that the subject is in one way or another vulnerable to dark magic or other negative influences, though such moments can have situational advantages. A high score suggests a better ability to continue operating under pressure, handle encounters with abnormalities successfully, resist info hazards and cognition hazards, persist under low morale scenarios, and other such things. An over-reliance on this skill can result in eventual withdrawal and/or disassociation.

 

Perception: A measure of a creatures senses and how well you can act on that info they provide. A low core suggests a subject who may miss the various things going on around them, even crucial details, though this has the advantage of resistance to info hazards and cognition hazards if the subjects perception fails to acknowledge them. A high score shows in tracking multiple nearby events simultaneously, keen hearing, correctly acting on intuition, parse many threads of seemingly contradictory information into a cohesive hypothesis, and other such things. An over-reliance on this skill can result in sensory overload and greater risk of damage from cognition hazards.

 

Sociability: A measure of a creatures ability to speak and converse in regular conversation, interviews, and negotiations. A low score may suggest antisocial or asocial behaviors, an inability to ask the questions to achieve the desired answers from an interview subject, poor sense of discretion, and poor coping skills for adverse social conditions; these are forgivable and overcome by other skills but not ideal for an agent representing the EBSI to the public. A high score reflects the ability to ask relevant questions in a timely manner, have both interviewees and suspects feel at ease to reveal more information, make friends, remain unbothered by adverse social conditions, notice when information is omitted or falsified, and other such things. An over-reliance on this skill can lead to accidental exposure of classified information, unwanted attention, and over-conformation to social pressure.

 

Haste: A measure of a creatures speed, both in physical action and task completion. A low score suggests a low gallop speed or preference to leisurely trot when moving between areas, a need for more time to complete dexterous actions, poor flight and aerial maneuvering, the inability to keep a firm track of time passing, and a general lack of punctuality; while not ideal for time sensitive cases, this may provide more opportunities to perceive and take in details from the surrounding area or ponder case details while the hooves/talons are occupied. A high score shows in a high gallop speed and a quick trot speed even when not intentionally hurrying, easier and faster completion of dexterous activities, fast and flexible flight in winged creatures and other such things. An over-reliance on this skill can result in missed opportunities to witness or perceive events or passing details, as well as extra exertion on the subjects fortitude and wasteful micromanagement of time.

 

[QM note: While haste may seem like a crucial skill to have in a quest like this where time is tracked, it is critical that you know that it is not so much more important than the other skills that the rest aren’t carefully considered in balance. Please avoid trying to micromanage time (The time will pass anyways), two weeks in game is plenty of time to find success in this quest even with a low haste score. Things that will pass time include: Moving locations, dialogue options, investigating scenes, searching/looting, resting, and activities with other characters present or aware. Things that will NOT pass time (when done by the PC) include: Item inspection, planning, introspection, dressing/undressing, and other things I haven’t thought to write down for sure yet.]

 

Magic Affinity: A measure of a creatures possible affinity with magic and magical items. It is NOT a measure of whenever the subject can cast magical spells naturally the way most unicorns do, but of how well they can interface with magic and control it when given the means to do so. A low score can show up in being unable to interface with a magical item at all, poor resistance against counter-able spells, and a lack of understanding of how advanced kinds of magical effects work or confusion over whenever an effect is a spell or an abnormality in action. A high score suggests the ability to determine whenever magic was used in a crime scene and what kind of magic it might have been, ability to interface with complex magical objects without triggering traps, recognition of a spell as it is cast and subsequent identification of how to counter it, recognition of effects that are not magical in nature, and other such things. An over-reliance on this skill can result in increased vulnerability to dark magic and sanity damaging effects. Please not that all agents of EBSI are required to report symptoms of MIM and EMC to their supervisors, and have regular checkups after missions with excessive magical energy or unidentified abnormalities.

 

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Traits found in EBSI agents:

 

Alcoholic:

You have a need to consume alcohol regularly. You take less penalties to rolls when tipsy or drunk, but take more penalties when blitzed or when sober for more than 4 hours. You do not loose sanity when drunk unless in the same room as an abnormality.

 

Smoker:

You have a need to consume tobacco smoke regularly. You get +1 to rolls concerning sociability sanity and recover more from resting, but going more than 2 hours without smoking tuns into -1 to sociability and difficulty resting. You gain no ill effects from being in a smoky environment.

 

Gambler:

You have a strong impulse to play games of chance and take risky endeavors, even when it’s unwise. You have access to riskier options but turning down opportunities to gamble or attempting to stick to safer options will have steep difficulty checks.

 

Connoisseur:

You gain double the effects from food and drink, both positive and negative. You may have access to extra food related dialogue options.

 

Hard To Please:

Sanity gains <1 will round down to 0, but sanity gains >1 will be doubled. Go big or go insane.

 

Brilliant Darkness:

You will gain bonuses to your checks with lower sanity; the lower your sanity, the greater the bonus. Isn’t this a consequence waiting to happen?

 

Early Bird: (*incompatible with Night Owl)

You gain more benefits for resting between 8 pm – 4 am, and gain +1 to checks for all skills 2 hours after waking if rest conditions are met within two hours each way.

 

Night Owl: (*incompatible with Early Bird)

You gain more benefits for resting between 3 am – 11 am, and gain +1 to checks for all skills 2 hours after waking if rest conditions are met within two hours each way.

 

Pacifist:

You gain more non-violent options to try during any encounter that risks a physical altercation, but have few or no options to incite violence or attack beyond countering or blocking attacks.

 

Nosy: (*incompatible with Uncaring)

You tend to stick your snoot in other creatures business, whenever or not you should. You’ll have a +1 to perception rolls and checks concerning dialogue, conversations, and voices, but you’ll also have difficulty choosing to do other things instead or tuning voices out, no matter how much you might wish to (up by a difficulty threshold).

 

Uncaring: (*incompatible with Nosy)

You don’t like other creatures sticking their snoot in your business and have no qualms about returning the favor for anything beyond what your job requires. You’ll have a harder time picking up on dialogue, conversations, and voices beyond the creature you’re actively talking to (up by a difficulty threshold), but you’ll have a much easier time ignoring things you have no interest in hearing and leaving stupid situations you have no need to stick around for (+2 to sanity and haste rolls in these situations).

 

Wings For Days: (Hippogriff only)

You fly x4 as fast as your base speed, but tread ground at only half speed. Have fun investigating in indoor settings, because there are lots of them!

 

Hardy Horn: (Unicorn only)

For a unicorn, their horn is the precious conduit of their magic but still a vulnerable body part; you don’t have to worry about that. Your horn is invulnerable to all damage and can be used as a weapon with no penalty, but casting advanced spells will be bumped up by a difficulty threshold.

 

 

Tales For Tales: (Zebra only)

Ponies hear stories of the old countries zebra rhyming conventions, why disappoint them when you can play to this linguistic invention? You’ll get +3 to sociability with non-zebras for your poetic tells, but take sanity damage for not resting from these poetic hells. (Take this option to make the quests pacing thrice as long, I can’t help but add it so you can all suck my shlong)

 

The Nose Knows: (Saddle Arabian only)

You have an intrinsic sense of where to go when there’s no clear path, but it leads you to somewhere nice as frequently as it does into trouble. Sure you can’t harmonize with nature like an earth pony can, but you can get into some incredible adventures you’d otherwise miss.

 

Withdrawn:

Sometimes keeping to yourself is the best thing to do. Gain half the effects from conversation, both positive and negative.

 

Academy Forged: All your training to become a royal guard before you switched to this kind of job pays off in a physical altercation. You can endure one more hit than you normally would, but your options will favor violent or forceful actions in most choices.