maxima 2025 initial notes
2025-01-20

remove stress, replace with blunders
- on rolling a 1, the next roll is a blunder roll
- rolling a 6 skips the blunder, and allows more rolls
- rolling a 5 causes a harmless blunder, no side-effect
- rolling a 2-4 causes a mundane bad side-effect
- rolling a 1 starts a cosmic blunder, do a cosmic blunder roll
- on a cosmic blunder roll, every result is final, and causes an external bad-luck incident
- this could be a sudden power-outage, freak meteorite, one of the NPCs reveals themselves to be a psycho killer, etc.

vigil, an optional resource
- vigil can be spent to skip blunders, as if you had rolled a 6 on the blunder roll
- it is restored by {accomplishments, name WIP}, which includes successes in difficult tasks, transitions from difficult tasks to relaxation, and possibly fulfillment of vocational/passion needs

rest removed
- the above-mentioned {accomplishments, name WIP} for transitions from difficult tasks to relaxation covers what used to be rest.
- this strongly disengages rest from time, since all we're noting is the transition point

accomplishments renamed
- the closest candidate is probably "reprieve"

challenges renamed (possibly)
- rename to "checks"

continued notes
2025-02-21

vigil renamed back to willpower
- merely for recognisability
- this could be on a per-game basis

willpower restored from hazardous->tense->calm transitions
- both transitions grant 1
- storyteller has a right to enforce diminishing returns on trivially-repetitive examples

guidance for traits
- consider the following: "if it can be a modifier, it should be, otherwise make it a new source"
- a better definition might be useful

rating scales
- for each modifier, a different scale may be needed
- for example, a human and a starship have completely different levels of "strength"
- checks should always be within 0-10, checks may compare within such groups, or across them
- therefore, some modifiers require a {scale/multiplier} to allow both types of comparisons
- for example, a human may have strength 8 (on the human scale), and an android may have strength 4 (on the android scale). This would mean the android has below-average strength FOR AN ANDROID, which is still vastly more than the human in this case, even though his is high for a human. For the case of strength, for a star trek android, the multiplier might be x8.
- if a multiplier would be lower than x2, usually don't bother
- always try to use integer multipliers
- scales should always be internally linear, which means you might need several scales for what seems like a sensible category
- the scales don't refer to anything prescriptive, it just defines 10 as being "the highest the ruleset wishes to track for this category of character"
- some scales may need to be shifted, not just multiplied, so they may define a new minimum. This minimum does not correspond to 0, but to 1. 0 is always neutral (no improvement)
- this is not specified for the baseline class (usually humans)
- probably negatives should ignore scales

racial boilerplate
- similarly to professions, races (other than the baseline race, usually human) will need a boilerplate modifier to shift certain skills into the relevant scale
- these will always have +1 and -1
- baseline class (usually humans) don't have this

2025-02-22

willpower restoration based on entering safe, comfortable and/or recreational state, after something difficult
- the difficult thing has to be meaningful
- 1 point of willpower restored for each of: safe, comfortable, recreational
- ! the subjectivity of this isn't appealing, better to find a better way

damage
- doesn't apply to every roll, applies at a storyteller-initiated check
- consider combining this check with the restoration transition from tense to calm
- this would also naturally cover the adrenaline effect
- this check could still be performed on a damage source if it exceeds 5 (or another number of the storyteller's choice)
- any reward to the player should be balanced to discourage the storyteller calling the check until they're confident the player would fail it, keeping the game running smoothly
- the maths required the run the check should be very simple, so the storyteller can track the feasibility of the check passing, and keep combat moving (only applicable when damage amounts are high)
- ! this would imply that injury is necessary for restoration, or that everyone has to go through a check on every such transition
	- however, these checks could be triggered on any reprieve for an injured character
	- this will sometimes be inconvenient, and defeats the notion of the storyteller gambling on winning
- ! any rewards will sometimes induce players to ASK for such a check to be run, even though it's meant to be a bad thing
	- this might not be so bad, players would then have the ability to gamble on winning or not
- ! there's no neat way to mark which damage has been "checked for", so any check must be independant of this need

sources & modifiers layout
- melt the concepts of sources and modifiers, each line is just a line
- worry instead about the fields available
- this expands to include "willpower" or similar, which will now just be a line with a quantity
- the distinction between group and sub-item will be defined separately
- still only two levels of grouping are allowed
- checks can still only use one per group
	- could help ensure this by requiring that each line's name is unique in its group
- this would require guidelines on when to group something
- this would remove the requirement for a "character source"
- we would still need a good way to ascertain the Balance of a character, i.e. which modifiers to include

2025-03-06

consider going back to using stress rather than willpower/vigil
- unsure whether we'd use creative blunders or just stress-gain on 1-rolls

resistance checks
- rolls not allowed, for simplicity
- must only happen once, when damage is being received
- lowers damage taken by 1 for each point the relevant modifier is over the damage being taken
- reistance cannot lower damage below 1
- immunity (trait/source) is required to block the damage entirely
- ? consider counting 10 as immunity (may need to be gated sometimes)
	- likely to be gated by the same plausibility requirements which custom modifiers have

faint checks
- difficulty is total damage minus 7
- dice-rolls are allowed
- if passed, heal {2/3?} stress

work checks
- doubles stress to attempt (raise to minimum of 1)

? can't roll to boost from 0
- would help with ensuring the impossibility of rolls which used destroyed limbs for example

new damage model (consider)
- individual components can be either damaged or disabled
- bring back "strain", combined stress and pain, and measure it for faint rolls
- damaged components reduce relevant checks to a maximum of 3 success rating before boost
- disabled components reduce to 0, and prevent boosting (always fail)
- ! not great if we need to track gradual damage to a component

any 'strain' system is factoring in: pain, damage, disability
- all three are gradients, and vary almost entirely independently
- disability is very likely to be at least as high as damage
- pain is very likely to increase when damage increases
- subsystem damage is indepedently scaled from overall damage, but may contribute to it
- all eventualities can be covered as follows:
	- pain is only game-mechanics-relevant when counted as total, not localised
	- damage is only game-mechanics-relevant when counted as localised, not total
	- disablement can be relevant in both cases
	- disablement is usually equal to the other rating (pain/damage) in each category, but can vary
		- it may not be possible for it to vary lower than the other rating

boost requires lowest roll result be used?
- probably won't use, but worth considering

generification of damage
- treat damage as no different than other modifiers
- when damage is taken, it just changes modifiers much like a status effect would
- ! status effects would have their own source, how do we decide whether a source is needed?
	- we distinguish sources where they are either quick/sudden to attach or detatch
	- thus a curse, sudden to attach, is separate
	- an injury is not, since it isn't a discrete thing, just damage to the character themselves
	- tracking discrete things which don't themselves effect modifiers is unnecessary but allowed, like a bullet in a gunshot wound
- stress replaced with fatigue and directly increased by pain from damage
	- fatigue is, after all, usable in a similar way as stress to refer to wear to non-living things
- the name fatigue is more apt, given it directly causes incapacitation, where stress is more psychological

use term "collapse" instead of "faint"

potential future skills system
- skill experience sets the minimum score
- skill knowledge sets the maximum score
- some skills can't have knowledge
- energy is spent to go from minimum to maximum
- minimum just means the "effortless level", you can choose to score lower
- ! exertion applies to both "strength" and "surgery", perhaps "experience" and "knowledge" are wrong

damage, integrated
- each injury is a source
- sources can have levels
- levels are absolutely-scaled, refer to how hard it would be to get rid of a source
- this also applies to curses and similar
- within the source, there can be modifiers showing what functional damage an injury does
- this neatly fits in with the stuctures, using sources and modifiers exactly as intended
- this means damage is not a discrete system, but it is a common usecase, so should be categorised as such in the ruleset
- it is possible to use this system in the same way described in maxima 2024, since it's at the storyteller's discretion how precise to be

checks boolean vs numeric output
- difficulty is only necessary if you want a boolean output
- conceive of it differently: difficulty isn't part of the check, the check is just rating your performance, the difficulty is "outside" the check where applicable
- the sheet could be restructured to indicate this
- this is particularly important for work checks, in which difficulty is really not needed, but at most the player would define it. It differs because we want a numeric output, not a pass/fail output.
	- if we don't reconceive of difficulty, this would also require the player to be able to carefully manage how difficult something is to them. However, we should reconceive difficulty, so ignore this.

difficulty is two things
- the difficulty of a task measures both the total work required, and the minimum skill level of that work
- for most TTRPG checks, they are near-instant, so the work required equals the skill required
- but for some checks, particularly long/work checks, the work required is far higher
- this is the difference in principle between "normal checks" and "work checks"
- ! dissolving the categorical difference makes it harder to justify doubling stress/strain/fatigue
	- see below about returning the strain, a decision based on reasoning from the reality of work

return to strain, and the 2024 boost-cost system, reasoned from reality/work
- what we're actually measuring with stress/strain/fatigue, given the way the boost system works, is not "effort", "energy", physical or mental pain, but in fact the consequence of screwing up, even if that screw-up is caught before it has its effect.
- so really it means the result of not applying attention/vigil
- there's no word which accurately captures this, but strain is broad enough that it easily covers it, whilst also being much more accurate than "stress" for its other effect of causing collapse, and also for including "pain", which it now does
- returning to the maxima 2024 boost-cost system (add 1 strain per 1-result) means the word refers to both screw ups which happen, and those which are caught, which makes it far more useful at reflecting reality, as well as streamlining the boosting process by requiring fewer decisions from the player.
- if it refers to both of these, we can far more easily account for how to factor in skill/work difficulty, as discussed in the previous note section.

best to disengage resource usage from check frequency
- the next two sections concern this: rolls system, and focus system

boost (rolls) without resource usage
- roll as many times as you want
- you must use the latest roll
- the first 1-result causes a simple failure if used
- the second 1-result causes a catastrophic failure if used
- consider: 2-result and 3-result add 1, 4-result and 5-result add 2, 6-result adds 3

focus system
- player can create a focus source, with a modifier granting +2 to anything
- this adds 1 strain
- it's a way to achieve the resource-costing effect of boost, but keeping resource-usage disengaged from check frequency (since it covers multiple checks)
- ! it may be overpowered, and it's not very RP-compatible, but there's no good way to make it 'temporary'
- perhaps allow the user to add up to 3 strain, increasing the bonus by the same amount?

strain can go below zero temporarily, merely to control order-of-events optimisation
- since strain heal stops at 0, it will sometimes be more efficient to spend before healing
- this will cause tension and awkwardness
- let strain dip below 0, and be added to from below that point too, but only at the storyteller's generous discretion, as actions which could have been performed before the heal
- as soon as the player enters a different context, for example a tense situation, any strain adds are treated as first raising the strain to zero, then adding.

intricacy
- the storyteller can add 1 to intricate check difficulty for tense situations, 2 for hazardous

background work definition
- to convert progression of a persistent task to background work (doesn't lock your character into it), it must contain a narrative time-skip

health
- replace "strain" with a modifier "health"
- better use of the modifier structure than "strain"/"fatigue"/"stress"
- CAN go positive, but only from some forms of reprieve, and possibly limited to maximum positive values
- some principled way to prevent acquiring this must exist, or at least a clear special case