Oh boy, you guys are posting fast. I'll get something up when I get back from work.

@Zeroth, I have some questions about the shield spell. Mainly, does it work both ways? From what I understand it creates a spherical shield around the target which protects from a certain amount of damage, but does it also prevent that person from attacking?

Say I put a shield around a Goblin, can he reach his hand through the shield or does he feel a wall in front of him? If I put a shield around a Wisp and it fires a mana ball, does it go through or hit the inside of the shield?

Now that I think about it, how much does it stop exactly? Is it watertight, airtight?

I could have some fun with this spell.

@King Cosmos I hope it works both ways. I see that as the Pixie's most versatile spell. We'll, at least for now.

@King Cosmos
Rather than an actual wall or barrier, the aura that appears around the target is meant to be an indicator that the spell is active on them. What Shield actually does is a buff on the target—it essentially raises your Defense. So right now it wouldn’t allow all those creative uses—remember we’re still basically at level one. For higher ranks of the spell, or other spells you learn later on, barrier traps, platforms, etc may be possible. I like your thinking though!

@Guy0fV4lor
Calm down there, Zaheer. XD

@Zeroth how fast can I manipulate objects within my body?

@Guy0fV4lor
What do you mean by manipulate? Like shooting them out, or fitting things together or what? Also what are you planning to do with it?

@Zeroth to use objects like rocks as tools

For example, sucking up a rock and using it to grind up the crystal inside me

Or, say I'm grappling another creature, can I also use said rock to repeatedly bash its face?

Edit: (just thought of another one) sucking up water and mixing it with other substances inside me

Edit 2: Another question; can I dissolve objects without digesting them?

Edit 3: (why is there no end to my curiosity?)

Two more questions;

First, as a slime, is slamming myself against others pretty much my only attack?

Second, can I consume mana crystals despite having no spells?

@Guy0fV4lor
The thing with the Wisp corpse is okay, but normally tool usage is not something associated with the slimes. You COULD possibly learn some skills or figure something out involving tools, but it’s going to take time, practice, and creativity.

You couldn’t generate enough force to use an object inside your body as a weapon while grappling at the same time.

Mixing substances could be done. Just keep in mind it’s inside your body, not a safe test tube.

Dissolving an object or grinding it up would require you to digest it.

At this point yes, your only option is to use Tackle over and over.

You can consume the crystals. At full MP the experience is like a short lived sugar rush.

Also everyone CAN speak, because you all have humanly intelligent man nds. All the monsters can communicate to a degree, but players can fully speak out loud.

@UltraCraftGames
You uh, might want to really consider some of the implications of Peter’s situation here. Are you sure you want to take that course of action? It’s fine if you do, it just may have some consequences...

I realize now that I’ve done so much world building that some things which are obvious to me are not to you guys, and for you to be self motivated to explore this world you may need info. So everyone please ask any questions you have about the environment or the monsters or whatever and I’ll try to either answer or give leads and clues in my posts!

@Zeroth as a followup, can I partially digest, say, a mana crystal, and spit it out as a fluid?

(Since liquification would involve digestion)

I also have a rather morbid question, when against larger creatures, if I somehow manage to get inside their mouths, can I slip down their throat and go into their lungs?

Hmm i think i might edit it out.

@Zeroth Well i edited it out. Now its less aggresive. And yeah attacking an entire goblin camp on your own is a bit reckless XD

@Zeroth

Aha, well, being able to talk makes things a bit easier. Ash hasn't really tried or wanted too though, so it's fine as far as the lizard's concerned.

I don't have too many questions myself, I think I understand most of the lizards physiology and abilities.

Well, actually - regarding the 'Alchemy I' skill. How exactly does that work? You said the characters have a basic understanding of their abilities, so it'd be useful to know how that functions in practice. Like, does she look at an herb or something and have a general idea of how it'd possibly react with other things? Or does she have to do some trial and error with making something first?

*uses shield spell to suffocate people*

I was thinking of making a submarine and going to see what's in the water actually.

Or, well, not me personally, but I'll happily make a shield for one of you idiots.

Rather than an actual wall or barrier, the aura that appears around the target is meant to be an indicator that the spell is active on them. What Shield actually does is a buff on the target—it essentially raises your Defense. So right now it wouldn’t allow all those creative uses—remember we’re still basically at level one. For higher ranks of the spell, or other spells you learn later on, barrier traps, platforms, etc may be possible. I like your thinking though!

Oooh, that's disappointing. That's actually really disappointing. It makes sense though, we are the lowest level possible.

More of a general question before I start making my post. Is it possible to discover new spells just through experimentation? Say I try casting my healing spell over and over, then try to tweak how I do it to get a different effect, would that produce results? Maybe as a side effect of my skill giving me better insight into that kind of thing?

"Hmm, I wonder what happens if I try to cast heal of two people at once?"

*Oberon learned Curaga*

@Guy0fV4lor
You could, but it’d basically be like vomiting so that liquified crystal would not be very, uh, sterile.

You could! But be aware you would risk simply helping them eat you as well!

@Rune_Alchemist
Because of the sort of segregation between “narrative” use of the skills and “gameplay” so to speak, I’d actually like your opinion on whether you prefer the skill as is or if I should rework it a bit. Originally I intended it to “Increase chance of success” when attempting to, say, mix together a healing potion. But unlike a tabletop we aren’t really rolling dice (or at least you guys aren’t) and in the narrative sense something either works or it doesnt, it doesn’t work at 46% effectiveness or fail randomly. Would it be better to have it boost the power of things you make with Alchemy instead?

@King Cosmos
It IS possible to create new spells, or skills, or many other things through experimentation! That’s exactly what I want to encourage! But the thing is, you may not see results immediately or you may have to piece together bits of information from trial and error.

See, the way I’ve been doing this is that every time someone does something, I try to think of applicable skills. Depending on what they do, how often, how creative, how interesting, how good they would logically be at it, etc, I assign certain values behind the scenes. The definition of skill, after all, is doing something well because one has practiced it.

For instance, Ardur the Pixie got a system message that he was “experiencing a fast rate of Skill Progression” because something he did was an effective way of learning or getting better at something in particular. When he, or any other character, reaches a certain threshold in my behind the scenes calculations, he will unlock a new Skill or cause an old one to increase in rank.

It’s sort of like Skyrim, except you can’t immediately see the perk tree.

@Zeroth I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS!!!

Do I grow larger as I eat stuff? Does it depend on what I eat? Can I split into multiple slimes?

You doe know what you eat is the thing that comes the most into play in health.

@Zeroth, I thought the message about skill progression was a sign that his idea of rapid strength training was paying off, but the way you worded it makes it sound like he was just grinding his restoration skill if we are going by Skyrim terms. Is grinding levels by repeatedly casting a spell actually a thing here?

Presumably that would just give you a stronger version of that spell, with not much variety. Whereas trying new things would grant you more varied spells and abilities?

I have to say, I really like how you are handling this RP.

@Zeroth

Well, if you want my humble opinion -

Yeeea, having something 'increase the chances of success' is a little odd - especially in something like alchemy or chemistry. As you said, it either works or it doesn't. If you know something interacts with something in a certain way, then you just have to figure out the right amount of whatever substance gives you the desired result. It either works or it doesn't - there's not much of an in between. As far as I am aware, I've been out of chemistry for awhile now so I could be terribly wrong, and not really a narrative problem but eh.

(Also, just a note - I think I'ma change the end of that collab post a bit, especially depending on the outcome of this little discussion since if Ash knew what to do with her skills, she'd likely keep both the flesh and herb and see what she could do with them. A tiny bit of an oversight on my part, really.)

Increasing the potency of them would be a simple solution, though I don't think the skill itself would have much room to grow if that was all it did. Also it'd perhaps run into an issue where the skill would cap off at a certain level or just get to the point where it was ridiculously OP if she made something like a firebomb or something. Easy mini nuke in the making, but that is me assuming what exactly can be made with alchemy. (Ever play the Atelier series? That's what I'm roughly basing my understanding on at the moment). Perhaps it could start off as a simple strengthening ability, but turn into something else later?

Perhaps something that allows her to do otherwise extremely unique things with alchemy instead of the standard potion making? I'm unsure what constitutes exactly as alchemy in this world of yours, so I'm guessing a bit here.

If you wanted it to be in a similar vein of 'increasing the chances of success' it could be something as simple of a skill that lets her know how well and how efficiently a material could work with another? At a low level it'd only be a general idea of perhaps how 'good' or 'bad' a material would react with another. At higher levels it could let her know how potent an ingredient is, how well an ingredient would react with another, and if that particular ingredient had any special or odd properties.

Basically just a type of analysis skill for alchemy. Effectively, 'increasing chances of success' would be written in practice as 'I can tell how well this reacts with something, but now what the effects are until the skill gets stronger/I discover it myself through trial and error.' With the 'chance increasing' bit basically more or less being intuition, a bit of educated guesswork, and previous experiences. sort of. Not sure if I'm explaining it right, but that's the best I got at the moment. The skill itself would get stronger by discovering new items/ingredients and using said item and ingredients in alchemy. A helpful tool, but one that only grows as the user explores their alchemical abilities.

---

Okay, went on a bit of a rant there but there's a few ideas from me xD

@King Cosmos do you plan on visiting the pool?

Do you plan on visiting the pool?

No, I might go to the Goblin camp. It's the place where all the magic is being thrown around and I want to get a look at that.