MECHANICS
STATS & STAT EDITS
Stats are the basis of each Player Character's ability; these will help, or hinder, the dice rolls that affect your character attempting to take an action or navigate a dangerous situation. Stats also correspond to soul colors, and the strength and channeling of those powers when each character experiences their awakening.
Though not mandatory in your STOPPING TOMORROW experience, a narrative that is central to your character, it is recommended that these stats best reflect their backstory and personal abilities, where points are allocated into places they may be strongest and lacking where they are weaker.
Every character in STOPPING TOMORROW starts with a base of twenty-five (25) stat points to allocate into whatever category the player deems fits their character or their desired campaign experience best. There will be more opportunities to collect stat increases through the course of the campaign.
The stats available are listed below:
STRENGTH
This stat represents your character's physical power, and will be integrated into actions and situations where your character needs to use their raw strength and muscle, such as: lifting/dragging items, fighting, or climbing.
CHARISMA
This stat represents your character's ability to influence others, and will be integrated into actions and situations where your character needs to talk through a situation, such as: charming, performance, deception, or intimidation.
CONSTITUTION
This stat represents your character's durability, and will be integrated into actions and situations where your character's health and endurance are in focus, such as: healing from sickness or injury and enduring strenuous conditions.
INTELLIGENCE
This stat represents your character's logical smarts, and will be integrated into actions and situations where tactic and rational need to be used, such as: strategizing, investigating, decoding, or identifying.
WISDOM
This stat represents your character's worldly and internal insight, and will be integrated into actions and situations where awareness and judgement need to be used, such as: perception, reading body language, recalling knowledge and history, and healing others.
DEXTERITY
This stat represents your character's agility and muscle fluidity, and will be integrated into actions and situations where nimble feet and moving light are a necessity, such as: acrobatics, stealth, dodging, finesse fighting, and trap perception and disarming.
Before Chapter 1 begins, you are welcome to make edits to point allocation as you get a feel for your character; however, you will NOT be able to make any adjustments during an ongoing Chapter in the campaign, though it will open again to management upon Downtimes post-Finale.
This excludes one stat, which will be locked to each Player Character: the stat relating specifically to your character's Soul Color. Once their Soul Color is revealed in Chapter 1, the stat relating to it (ie. DEX for Black Souls) will be unable to be edited further, aside from +1 bonuses earned throughout the campaign.
DICE ROLLING
Dice Rolling is a primary mechanic of outcomes during the campaign! All rolling will be handled by staff behind-the-scenes throughout ongoing Chapters; however, there will be an opportunity for Players to roll on their own, primarily during roleplays where the GM or Staff would not, such as downtime roleplays, or Chapter interactions between two or more Player Characters (such as a small spat/skirmish) if all Players involved agree.
Dice Maiden will be our Discord bot for dice rolling throughout the campaign. The command to roll is /roll d(number) without the parentheses. If you wish to include a Reason to the roll, the command is !(text) without parentheses.
For example; /roll d20 !orion persuasion would roll you a d20 dice, the reason showing that Orion was persuading someone or something.
MODIFIERS
In STOPPING TOMORROW, modifiers are added or subtracted from dice rolls to reflect the stats of every Player Character, and will be only known and managed behind the scenes by the GM and staff conducting dice rolls during Chapters. As we wish these to be accurate during the campaign, we recommend the stats to best reflect your character and their ongoing narrative for the best and most immersive experience.
Within the dangers of cosmic horrors faced in STOPPING TOMORROW, a single point may change the balance between success and failure.
STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES
Player Characters will all have Strengths and Weaknesses that apply to their narrative and overall personality; these things will be applied in actions and situations where they may shine and navigate a danger, or perhaps hinder them to flounder through it. Each Player Character in STOPPING TOMORROW should have three (3) Strengths and three (3) Weaknesses.
These will appear as a possible extra help or a possible extra challenge depending on what is happening through a Chapter, and can apply to potential diceroll modifiers.
For example; a character that has a Strength of Leadership may have an easier time rallying their team, and a character with a Weakness of Oblivious may have a harder time perceiving their environment or emotional nuances in body language.
CHARACTER DEATH
Player Characters can die in STOPPING TOMORROW. This status is PERMANENT, and you will no longer be able to participate within the campaign itself. However, this status can only happen for a few reasons:
- A Player fails to meet the five (5) post requirement during the length of a Chapter, and has not discussed a hiatus with ST Staff prior to the announced posting deadline.
- A Player chooses to leave the campaign for any reason.
- A Player chooses to kill off their character for any reason, including narrative purposes.
- A Player is removed from the group due to rule violations.
There will be several circumstances where your character will face deadly circumstances, but there will be even more opportunities to utilize them for narrative purposes, and save your character from the brink - unless any of the above reasons apply!
If you so choose to leave the campaign during a break between Chapters, Staff will consider the possibility of having your character instead become an NPC if it fits into the ongoing narrative of the campaign.
If your character dies or is removed from the campaign for any reason other than Player misconduct, you are welcome to continue participating in the Discord's OOC chats!
PUZZLES AND HINTS
Within STOPPING TOMORROW, similar to previous Paradise-style campaigns, there will be a chance to solve cryptic puzzles throughout the ongoing Chapters and downtimes to unlock snippets of lore or other important information. Puzzles and challenges will come in many different forms and styles, such as riddles and anagrams, or even internet scavenger hunts.
These puzzles and hunts will also include hints scattered about the Discord, campaign site, and Google Docs and sheets pointing to upcoming things such as Soul Shades and Soul Partners to tinker with and discuss with theories.
TEAMS AND CHECKPOINTS
Teams are a critical part of the campaign within STOPPING TOMORROW. These include a selection of no more than 9 potential cats fit together to take on the events of a Chapter; this will allow dynamics between Player Characters develop as they navigate situations where they will be forced to work as a unit or help one another from the brink when facing danger. A Player may be placed on the same Team for multiple Chapters, or it may change consistently throughout the campaign for balance.
If there is a user you DO NOT wish to be paired with, or a user you DO for character development and narrative purpose, please reach out to the GM or staff to ensure the best experience during the campaign.
When you are with your Team during each Chapter, you will often be faced with a Checkpoint. These are written and dropped by the GM to establish important lore, throw new situations and challenges at your Team, and respond to rolls taken on actions while keeping the Chapter moving along at an engaging pace.