The Inheritance Race (Side-Plot Idea)

"It is with great sorrow that I've gathered you both here today... Your Father, Kell, has unfortunately passed away. And I have his will. You know how much your father loved games. How much he loved to gamble, place bets and partake in sports. So instead of... splitting his will between you, he has made it a game. During his final months, Kell ordered the construction of a giant maze. A trial... for you two. His beloved children, and he challenges you both to a race. Whoever can reach the maze's center... gets everything. The other leaves emptyhanded. Assemble a group of people you trust, with skills you deem necessary to reach the center. The rules can be found in the two boxes on the table. Inside, you'll find a keystone. With it, you'll be able to open the chest containing his will. Keep it close.

Best of luck, you two... To the victor, the spoils!"

The Inheritance Race is my side-plot idea. Now, if you're reading this expecting an expansive world of intrigue, this is not really the story for you. The Inheritance Race is just what you'd think it is. A Race between the two children of Kell, which take the NWC and PWC roles of the plot, in order to earn a massive, untold fortune which Kell amassed during his lifetime. This is intended to be rather short, and simple in its storytelling, so don't go expecting something as intricate as say Junction. This is more on par with say... the Ueitawa Side-plot.

This side-story is also going to be the testing ground for two massive changes I could potentially bring into the site. You can find them below if you want to read about them.

Plot Synopsis:

The Inheritance Race is the story about two siblings, and their race to earn their father's will for themselves. The challenge given by their late parent is pretty simple... be the first one to reach the bottom of Kell's Maze, with a key in hand. Anything is fair game. Any underhanded or honorable tactics may be employed. Whoever has the key at the end has earned Kell's favor, and with it, his immense wealth, power and prestige. Athara has become a world where the Supernatural has become the norm. The two siblings can of course bring people they trust along with them, in pursuit of this treasured will... As the maze isn't something one should tackle alone.

Kell's Maze houses a variety of puzzles, mighty beasts and challenges for those who dare enter it. It's a place where only the quick, cunning and strong survive... Nothing within its halls is fair, and everything is out to kill those who enter. Will you find the end, and bring home the victory? Or will you perish, forever lost as another victim of Kell's Maze?

Plot Structure:

Unlike Junction, The Race itself is structured in a simple way to make the race an actual part of how the plot progresses. Between each dungeon, you'll have a while to make social threads during the time the next dungeons are generated. So, you'll alternate between social and combat focused roleplaying. While the Social aspects are there, the big focus here will be on the combat, character progression, and ultimately the race itself. How the actual maze is going to be laid out remains a secret for now, but rest assured, there are multiple ways this could end... and what the winner does with the prize is up for them to decide. So... the winner essentially makes the ending.

You can think of the Race working somewhat like the Tower Of Tartarus, in a way.

Other mechanics will be explained in the plot itself, as well... this is enough of a text wall as is.

The World of Athara:

Athara, if some of you might recall, is the homeworld of Rianara, from the Junction plotline. Athara itself is a steam-punky, fantasy-lite world, with sprawling cities, automatons, expansive forests and ruins of the World's forgotten past. In this world, having supernatural abilities are the norm... being born without one is actually rather rare.

Society on Athara is governed by The Magistrate, a council of powerful supernaturals who control everything that goes on within the borders of the cityscape of Athara. Before his untimely death, Kell was part of the Magistrate himself, as its leader, being an influential man of vast wealth and power, and before his passing, as mentioned before, he built a massive maze within the ruins of an old civilization, hiding the key to his great wealth, and his title as a Magistrate. So, there's a lot to win here...

Both of Kell's children are bearers of the Wild Card, and thus can summon more than one persona, and its up to them to build a suitable team to take them to victory. The Race itself starts with everyone already awakened, and more members can be recruited later on.

There will be only one static NPC, which is the Butler, who acts as a judge. The rest of the cast rotate with each block.


Equipment and Dexterity:

Equipment is recieving an overhaul. Not too big of a change, but I wanted there to be more options and some progression in the way your character gears up in this plot. In fact, the whole Dex System is getting a revamp. Physical Endurance and Magical Endurance will only apply to the use of skills, while the use of weapons (and dexterity attacks from shadows) will utilize the defense of your current armor. In addtion, upgrading your Soulbound weapon will be much easier now.

So how does this all work? Well, Equipment now adds a base layer of defense against dexterity attacks. The defense value of the armor reduces the amount of damage you take by a specified amount. Let's say Tom is only wearing a chestpiece with 30 Defense, and nothing else, and takes a slash dexterity attack from a shadow with an Attack Stat of 60. Tom will only take 30 of that damage because his armor has 30 defense. Simple, right? And yes, for the most part it is that simple.

The Starting Soulbound of your character will, unfortunately, be replaced with a rather simple weapon. Instead, you'll get to pick a weapon your character has a preference towards. While your character can still use any weapon they happen to pick up, they'll have an inherent advantage when using one paticular type of weapon, be it swords, bows, clubs, axes, guns, etc.

But what about Forgotten? Well, instead of a Shadow Weapon, the Shadow rests within them, having been fused with their soul. They manifest themselves through the use of spiritually charged objects, like the weapons found inside the Maze.

You can have a secondary affinity for another weapon type through the use of a floating strength. The damage increase you get from an affinity for a weapon is equivalent to that of an arcana boost (so 15%).

Equipment does come in 4 different Rarity levels. The Rarity is denoted by the color of the text used.

Common – As you would expect, these weapons are for the most part a mundane pile of stats and nothing more. Only Weapons and Armor is found in this category. Accessories don't come in this rarity.
Uncommon – Weapons and Armor with some kind of small benefit attached to them, be it a small buff to damage, or some kind of pvp advantage. Here's also where you'll find the most mundane Accessories
Rare – Rare Weapons and Armor usually have one pretty good benefit or two smaller ones. Here's the more intricate Accessories.
Unique – These are exceptionally valuable for anyone who wants to get stuff done, often having one POWERFUL effect added. Alas, you can only wear one Unique piece of equipment. These are most often given to the characters who have accomplished extraordinary feats.

Example Weapon:

Example Armorpiece:

Stat Rework:

With the introduction of Weapon and Armor Stats, the Overall stat system is getting an overhaul. Dex is now replaced by Weapon Atk. So what takes its place? Well, Luck? Kind of. Instead of having Luck determining two things at once, making the stat kind of convoluted, it is getting split into two different statistics: Agility and Luck. YES.

So Agility works pretty much like how Luck works now, with the difference being that it does NOT affect critical hit ratio at all. It only affects Hit and Miss Chance. Luck determines whether you got a crit with a physical attack or not, be it related to Weapon attack or a Physical Persona Skill. Otherwise, the mechanics are the same. The rule of 10's still apply, like the Luck stat of old. You just don't get a higher chance to crit if your Agility stat is higher than your opponents, BUT They will take a 10% penalty to their hit chance for every 10 point difference in agility. Luck grants you a 10% higher chance of critting for every 10 points higher your luck stat is compared to your target. So now Agility is a strictly defensive stat, while Luck is a strictly offensive stat. Agility and Crit modifiers (like rebellion or Sukukaja) does only affect the rolls. For every 10% boost, you get 1 additional number on the die.

If you have any other questions, please let me know.