note about maxima 2024

src/maxima.md

@@ -11,4 +11,6 @@ Created by uzalu
 # Version
 {{#include version.md}}
 
+**Maxima 2024 is in development but not yet available to the public.**
+
 More details: [Versions](versions.md)

src/versions.md

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ Maxima has been in development since 2021.
 ## Current Version: {{#include version.md}}
 
 ## Version Notation Guide
-Namespace.branch.major.minor[.status][.major.minor[.status].[...]]
+Namespace.branch.major.minor[.status]
 
 *Square brackets denote optional sections*
 
@@ -15,12 +15,11 @@ Namespace.branch.major.minor[.status][.major.minor[.status].[...]]
 | Major | A number which increments when a major change happens |
 | Minor | A number which increments when a minor change happens |
 | Status | Release Status, like "alpha", "beta", "public", "unstable", etc |
-| Further Major.Minor.Status | Each new version can itself be in a non-complete state |
 
 ### Status
-**Alpha** means that the features intended to be present for the "launch" version are not all implemented sufficiently to work representatively.
+**Alpha** versions lack the full set of features intended for the "launch" version.
 
-**Beta** follows Alpha, when the launch features are implemented, but are not sufficiently refined for launch.
+**Beta** follows Alpha, when the launch features are implemented, but are not yet sufficiently refined or tested.
 
 ## Maxima Versions
 Sorted by newest first.
@@ -29,6 +28,9 @@ See [Volatile](volatile.md) for more details of upcoming versions.
 
 ### Maxima.2023.3.0.alpha
 *In Progress*
+- Willpower removed
+
+*Likely but unconfirmed changes:*
 - Minor Strain overhaul (details TBD)
 - Combined exhaustion/resistance challenges
 - Rest overhaul, mostly decoupled from both time and Willpower
@@ -36,6 +38,7 @@ See [Volatile](volatile.md) for more details of upcoming versions.
 
 ### Maxima.2023.2.0.alpha
 - Strain overhaul, including impairment, resistance/exhaustion challenges
+- Removed Sync
 
 ### Maxima.2023.1.1.alpha
 - Moved to mdBook

src/volatile.md

@@ -358,7 +358,7 @@ unconsciousness happens if enough impairing effects have built up to cause it. N
 ### Malady Terminology and Bounds
 Whilst "Strain" and "Impair" are great choices for their purposes, they don't fit as well in this new minor overhaul, since they are used as modifying terms and thus require "-ing" on the end. Perhaps 'grim' or 'acute'?
 
-## Rest: Disengage Willpower reward from time
+## Rest: Disengage Willpower reward from rest duration
 Grant willpower at the start of any downtime proportionate to the length of that downtime.
 
 This is to try to reduce the wasted effort with ad-hoc time management, particularly in deciding how long a given live-acted section has taken so as to subtract it from available rest, and continue with the practice of abstracting time management into willpower management instead.
@@ -392,6 +392,47 @@ either works, but the latter makes more sense as a separation from energy, which
 
 Neither are quite as general (to all possible character types) as ideal.
 
+### Rest based only on quality, disengage completely from time
+The above categories of rest are disengaged from time, and only refer to the quality of rest.
+
+Abrupt interruption could undo significant chunks of the strain heal, though arguably this requires tracking time in some sense, so perhaps best to just skip this.
+
+### Well-rested
+following every standard rest (not a respite or campfire), the character gains a bonus for being well-rested.
+
+the actual purpose of this is to prevent them resting again too soon. Characters would be disallowed from resting if they have the bonus.
+
+the bonus could be removed when gaining willpower from an accomplishment.
+
+the bonus could simply increase the willpower gained from that accomplishment.
+
+to prevent repeated respite/campfire, the bonus could be awarded for every type of rest, but give better benefits for better rest.
+
+players could retroactively apply well-rested to accomplishments which occurred since their last rest, but this should be avoided.
+
+players will be motivated to use their well-rested bonus, meaning the storyteller doesn't have to remember timings and the players get willpower in return, at a natural interval.
+
+the storyteller is allowed to remove well-rested if they believe enough narrative time has passed. This should be rare, and though it does involve tracking time somewhat, it's only an optional backstop.
+
+### Rest Synchronisation
+to solve the issue still left after the well-rested bonus solution above, which is opportunistic immediate sleeping after an accomplishment, even if doing such would be unbelievable (i.e. after winning a battle, but with more time-sensitive things to do), bonuses for synchronised sleep are available.
+
+if your character sleeps at the time time as the majority of the friendly characters in the area (or otherwise at a narratively appropriate time), you get bonus strain-heal.
+
+the following rest types are proposed:
+- respite: 1
+- standard rest: 2
+- luxuriation: 3
+- IF synchronised: +1
+
+### Disegage Rest from rest (comfort)
+assume actual sleep or other time-consuming rest doesn't exist, except where it's useful narratively, and just allow a generic non-descript rejuvination whenever the player is somewhere comfortable.
+
+### Comfort, further details
+standard rest can only be used when sleeping at the character's standard time, assumed to be whenever their social group sleeps or at night, if applicable.
+
+the rested bonus still exists, and has a level equal to the class of sleep (1-4), but you can still rest while you have the bonus as long as your type of rest is a higher level than what you already had, in which case it heals the difference.
+
 ## Components - Replacing Strain and Maladies
 Each character type (eg. humanoid) has a series of components.
 
@@ -420,3 +461,131 @@ it wouldn't be necessary to list a component until it was damaged, though with a
 
 ### Reflecting Stress/Exhaustion in non-humanoids using components
 For humanoids, stress/exhaustion falls under the psyche component, but where does it fall for a starship?
+
+# Exertia
+New name for Willpower which is more broadly applicable to different character formats.
+
+Using Stress as a negative form of willpower also works for this broad range.
+
+# Willpowerless, new dice handling
+Remove willpower. This will cause changes elsewhere.
+
+During challenges, rolling a dice to affect the base skill result no longer costs willpower, but does come with a risk. Any time a 1 is rolled, you take on 1 stress. You still get to choose which result you want to use for the challenge, and for that the following modifications apply:
+- 1: -3
+- 2: -2
+- 3: -1
+- 4: +1
+- 5: +2
+- 6: +3
+
+This reduces by a factor of 6 the amount of note-taking required during challenges (rather than reducing willpower by 1 per roll, you now only need to add 1 stress when rolling a 1).
+
+It also makes the rolls more satisfying/fun. Instead of the unpleasant draining of willpower in order to exceed, and the associated tedious resource management required with that, the limitation on exceeding is now risk. You can roll for free, but there's a cost if you get unlucky.
+
+This also opens wide the door for alternative dice. One idea is for a 'pyhrric dice', which adds stress on most results, but gives more consistent bonuses to skill in a challenge.
+
+## Morale
+Not a replacement for Willpower.
+
+Granted for accomplishments, in the amount of 1-3.
+
+Can be used, one per challenge, to increase the outcome by 1.
+
+Can be used, 1 for 1, to heal stress.
+
+## Proposals for the effect of Stress
+### Dice roll limiter
+If your chosen dice roll result in a challenge is lower than your current stress, you cannot gain any bonus (+X) in the challenge from it.
+
+This means that with 7 stress, there is no point to rolling any more.
+
+## Remove/Reduce Morale
+Seems minor, probably superfluous.
+
+Having spare morale at the same time as stress damage seems contradictory.
+
+This would be ok if it made sense to be able to "forego elation for the sake of results", but elation doesn't necessarily lead to results.
+
+Simply removing the choice, and only using morale if the user has no stress to heal, would be better, but that would make morale even less present in the ruleset than before.
+
+At this point though it could be more of an official condition than an actual resource. It may be that the notion of resources is unnecessary anyway. After this, we'd only be left with Growth and Passives, with Damage (formerly strain) being similar to a resource but more similar to general conditions (formerly status(es)).
+
+Having a spare, beneficial thing to give to players is probably a good idea, and may resolve some otherwise awkward tensions.
+
+## New encapsulation for Specials/Conditions
+
+Split Specials into Abilities which are triggered when the player wants to, and Conditions which are triggered when conditions are met. This gives them a doubly-sensical meaning since two senses of "condition" apply.
+
+The word "Trait" can be used for any Condition which is expected to be permanent, and these are what is limited by (what is currently named, but should be changed) Passives.
+
+Another way of defining "Trait" which might be more useful, is that they are held contingent on a Growth spend. This may fail for free (but optional) ones.
+
+under this regime, there's still not much to separate abilities and traits, and putting them back together we're right back where we started. Their main area of similarity is how they're acquired, which may be the more sensible point of categorisation for player-comprehension.
+
+## New General Conception (maxima 2024?)
+- this gets to the heart of what a ruleset is for: converting agreed-upon data into answers for subjective decisions.
+- everything the ruleset gets involved in is either a challenge or the stats needed to run them.
+- beneficial traits/abilities are purely suggestions, players can do them if they have the skill.
+- anything can be used as a skill, but only put points into something you think you'll be able to use in a challenge. Eligibility as a skill is self-defining instead of arbitrarily.
+- attributes without skill points are just descriptors, and could even be free. By this, we can use the common "character backstory" as actual rule-relevant stats.
+- (unsure) long challenges merely contribute to difficult challenges, though an extra eligibility check is required for if length is the only factor in the difficulty. For example, making a new vaccine would have a difficulty of 25 (extremely high), but this could be done in chunks if a player has the relevant skill. By this, the actual difficulty should be conisdered the 'immediate difficulty'. Hypothetically (but not explicitly), finishing the campaign may have an immediate difficulty of 1000, though it's possible for players to complete with skills at 10 or under, with enough time.
+
+### Attributes
+Replace Skills, and weave in damage, some specials, some status(es).
+
+Each attribute has several columns:
+
+- permanent positive (growth-exchanged beneficial points)
+- permanent negative (growth-exchanged detrimental points)
+- temporary positive (beneficial points which didn't involve growth exchange)
+- temporary negative (detrimental points which didn't involve growth exchange)
+- passion (player has 3 to assign, can assign however they want)
+
+there is also a section on the sheet for 'trackers'/'quantities', which includes anything non-unique (attributes are unique), such as number of hours spent on a project, physical items, etc.
+
+verbiage will need a lot of work, but let's settle the principles first.
+
+skills are now permanent positive, damage/strain is now temporary negative, specials/statuses which would have induced disability is now permanent negative, and those which would have induced situational benefits are temporary positive.
+
+for now, strain/damage is going back to the effect it had in early maxima 2023 versions, where it just directly affects success rating in a challenge. This is way simpler and fits in nicely with the rest of the system, but it would be good to remove this again later.
+
+acquiring negatives will require the storyteller's approval and management. There will be a limit on negatives (similar to the passives resource, which will be removed), and for each one, the maximum negative rating the player can choose is defined by the storyteller according to the breadth of the attribute name. An ultra-specific negative attribute at 10 would give 10 growth, but never be relevant, so it's not balanced. The more specific it is, the lower the limit on how far negative it can go.
+
+the attribute name should be thought of as "when is this relevant?". Usually a single word is sufficient, but if one needs to be more specific, one should be.
+
+#### Notes on Negatives
+Negatives can be added, for which the player can receive Growth (maybe renaming). There could be defined lists of growth values for taking on such weaknesses, and/or the storyteller can determine them on the fly. There is a limit to how many of these players can add themselves, to reduce memorisation weight for the storyteller. The storyteller should always be aware of these negatives and apply effects relevant to them when they can. This is much less cumbersome than having to remember negative traits, which often have complex triggers.
+
+Players can still put points into negatives, and would do so if they believe they will be useful in challenges. For example, Ginger CHOSE to have "fat" for its benefits. Skill points here would not denote the degree of fatness, just the value of it, so that a fatness of 10 might not physiacally look difference than a fatness of 0 or 1, it just provides better benefits of fatness.
+
+possibly, players could also add negative points to a descriptor, making it worse when it's bad, but giving them more growth in return. They could still add positive points too.
+
+#### Problems
+
+exhaustion rolls happen when the storyteller reckons the player will fail them - if they have a big permanent negative, they would be very likely to fail them. A possible solution is to remove temporary from both positive and negative, use damage as its own column, and then allow any number of temporary attributes to be used during a challenge, but only one permanent one.
+
+#### raw notes - chronological and disorganised
+
+attributes, modifiers, stacks. Modifiers are only needed because of the way damage, specifically exhaustion challenges, works. Exhaustion challenges aren't really needed if each attribute/modifier can affect any challenge, so remove them, and reintegrate attributes and modifiers.
+
+idea: when a character is at 10 stress, they roll a panic dice (name wip). 6 heals 3 stress, 5 heals 2, 4 heals 1, 1-3 feint, with lower values feinting more consequentially.
+
+adrenaline can return, ignoring the reduction from damage in challenges. An exception is needed for extreme damage.
+
+to properly reflect the structures of attributes, we would have to include, for each attribute name/scope a list of sources, with each one potentially providing positives or negatives, the source is permanent or temporary (possibly some sources provide some of both, though possibly this is self-contradictory). This, however, would lead to a lot of copying, if, for example, some item affected 5 attributes, we'd have to copy its name onto all 5.
+
+better to have subheaders within attributes which contain all the items contingent on them. For example, "character" would contain the 'permanent' attributes, and then each item which affects attributes would be a subheader, and all its effects would be under it, even if other items added similar effects. By this means, we no longer need to differentiate permanent or temporary on any attribute, though if there's multiple attributes with identical names, but different sources, we will need to add their values up during play.
+
+On character sheets, a source line would be denoted by a "x1" at the end, for quantity, whereas an attribute line would be denoted by a "+1" and/or "-1" at the end for bonus/malus. Each source is a section header, and the "character" section doesn't need one.
+
+sources are not always stackables, notably "damage" as a source isn't stackable. By convention, start a source line with a hash?
+
+If anything non-permanent must be in its own category, it's kinda awkward to add new status effects, since they are a source themselves... not particularly, the only differences are the hash character and the newline. We could write the descriptions so that they can just be copy-pasted and fit the standard formatting.
+
+in this system, it makes more sense to call all these 'modifiers' rather than 'attributes'.
+
+change 'growth' to 'balance' or similar (something to imply "weight"?) and reverse the polarity, so the + and - numbers on permanent-modifiers make sense. Start with 0, you can't play unless it's less-or-equal to the number the storyteller defines (perhaps we could actually use the term "level").
+
+boosts in challenges are applied LAST. This allows some hope for players with excessive damage (until they hit 10, then they start rolling panic dice), which means they'll keep rolling and probably GET to 10, but it also reduces complexity by allowing us to determine the ingoing success rating once, before any rolls.
+
+these notes are being formalised [here](/2024.html)