Mangrale

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Aberrant Emissary (PMD w/ Fusions) [WIP]

Hello once again! The more I thought about it, the more I realized how important it is to say as much as I need to on the dungeon side of the RP while I still have the mind for it. That's not to say that this is the last word of course. That much will have to wait until I run a test scenario to try and gauge how all these features play together. I can't very well set up something with this many moving parts without at least some testing. For now, it's all about that secondary part of the "Dungeon Overview", the intro to actually reading the dungeon map. Again, there's more that'll come into the picture, but I may be able to leave it as that for now.

---

Dungeon Map Guide

Dungeon Map Guide

What follows is a working example of a Dungeon Map, a simple table-based grid that represents a single floor in a given dungeon, in this case one in multiple stages of completion. Following the parameters set by the DIT in play, limits are in place for the number of floors an actual dungeon has, with an average guideline on the number of spaces on each floor. Each navigable space will correspond to a piece of the map, as either a room, a corridor, or any part thereof. It is the DM's responsibility to prearrange all floor layouts to be encountered by any new run on behalf of a player team. Some floors can be planned ahead of time, but it might also be possible for the GM to stay one floor ahead of the venturing player team if they want.

The sample itself has been divided into two stages to showcase the same map at the beginning and end of a team's exploration, with all of its spaces revealed. Keep in mind that there was no space limit for this sample, so nearly every space is filled. Within Stage 1, the player team has entered the floor through the leftmost 1x2 room, and have passed through a sideways hallway piece and arrived at a cross-section where one of its three available paths requires a special condition to be met before entry. By Stage 2, every reachable space has been identified, leaving the final "orange" room in the bottom row with its special condition still in play. Real dungeons in the RP may have "Abbreviated (Cursor-Activated) Text" (ACAT) functionality for every identified map piece, containing additional information both narrative and practical.

Dungeon Map Samples

Stage 1

█	█	█	█	█	█	█	█	█	█
█	═	╬	█	█	█	█	█	█	█
█	█	█	█	█	█	█	█	█	█

Stage 2

█	█	╔	═	╗	█	╔	╗	█	█
█	═	╬	╦	╩	╗	║	╠	█	╣
█	█	╝	╚	█	█	█	╚	═	╝

Map Marker Key

• Active Cells (Highlighted Spaces) are for spaces where the player party is located.
• █ Black Full Blocks just mean a completely unknown and/or (currently) unreachable part of the map.
• █ White Full Blocks refer to open areas, and one or more blocks alongside each other make an open room.
• ╬ Box Drawing Characters (Double Lines) are for pathways and corridors within a dungeon
• █ Gray Full Blocks are also unknown parts of the map, but ones reachable by players from known, adjacent spaces.
• █ Orange Full Blocks are like gray spaces but can only be entered when certain conditions are met (i.e. locked doors and obstacles). Marker will be identified when accessed, and color will change to white when conditions no longer apply.
• █ Red Full Blocks signify room spaces where the stairs leading to the next floor will be found.

---

Probably another dungeon-related section in the farther future, but overall I may be up for moving on to something a little different, something to break up all the mechanical stuff I've been doing up until now. I'm gonna push myself to get back into some spritework for one, while I arrange another public spot on Aurora's "map". I'll let you know where my mind is at from there, but I'm pretty sure that crazy idea I totally thought of first can come start to come into focus. Sure I can tell you now, but I'd rather you be disappointment over it later. For now though, I appreciate you taking the time to read this update and hope you take care until I see you again.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Aberrant Emissary (PMD w/ Fusions) [WIP]

Hey again. I know I wanted to get "Food & Hunger" out relatively soon after the last one. It's short but no less important to what it means for the project, course adjustments may still be in its future. First thing that came to mind while writing it: I may have to tweak all the food item descriptions I already made to conform to this new mechanic. There will likely be more food options that will become available, and I'll have to determine whether "slightly" and "amply" from the games will be good enough descriptors in the end. For all I know, maybe having them correspond to "+1" and "+2" respectively will be just fine because everything to come will use them.

---

Food & Hunger

Food & Hunger

• All characters (PCs and NPCs alike) will need a balanced supply of suitable food in order to carry on without disruption
• 7 total "Status Conditions" make up all possible stages that define a character's current level of hunger
  ○ Example - Starving ─ Hungry ─ Peckish ─ Full^(Healthy) ─ Stuffed ─ Overstuffed ─ Bloated
  ○ Certain penalties apply the closer characters near the "starving" and "bloated" statuses and the longer they stay there
• "Hunger Checks" are set times when characters must eat food or be knocked down a stage of hunger
  ○ Occur 3 times a day: Mid Morning (Breakfast), Mid Afternoon (Lunch), Mid Evening (Dinner)
  ○ Even applies to teams within dungeons (10 turns = 1 subdivision of time)
• The number of stages gained upon eating depends on what you eat and when you eat it
  ○ Example - Food that raises only a single stage, eaten during a hunger check, will only keep you at your current stage

---

As annoying as it may be to tally, every in-game day, whether IC-relevant or not, will carry a toll on the settlement's stores of food. Some work will need to be done, but I believe that I may be able to streamline it to a certain degree. And just in case anyone's worried about worst case scenarios, I'll say right now that I'm not about to let things get so dire that everyone will wind up starving and scrounging for food to keep from fainting. For one thing, the outpost won't be without its outside support in the form of shipments. But even if all else fails, if the worst should happen (and no one else has the will to continue, more importantly), then the outpost will be abandoned and its game over, so it's not like anyone will have to live with the result of such failures for very long. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Until next time.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Aberrant Emissary (PMD w/ Fusions) [WIP]

Hello again! With so much on my plate, I wanted to say what I wanted on what I'll call "Times of the Day" for this short update. While the visual aid I made is rather crude, it should get the point across. From wanting to help make the "Early, Mid, Late' divisions more relatable, I made the last row to see them correspond to actual clock readings (not to be referenced in IC posts but just a way to understand it better here). Would I say it's clean and perfect? Of course not, but after settling "Afternoon" as starting at 12 p.m. and following the 2 hour rule, everything fell where they did. It got easier to live with after I reacquainted myself with the difference between "Midnight" and "Mid Night".

---

Times of the Day

Times of the Day

• Part of "setting info" to be included in all IC post headers for scenes taking place within a given day
• Every given day will be divided into 4 general stages
  ○ Example - Morning → Afternoon → Evening → Night
• Each of these stages can be further divided with one of the modifiers: Early, Mid, and Late
  ○ Example - Early Morning → Mid Morning → Late Morning → Early Afternoon, etc.
• All 12 subdivisions at 2 hours each still add up to a 24 hour day

Morning ________________________________ Early │ Mid │ Late 6-7A.M. │ 8-9A.M. │ 10-11A.M.	Afternoon ________________________________ Early │ Mid │ Late 12-1P.M. │ 2-3P.M. │ 4-5P.M.	Evening ________________________________ Early │ Mid │ Late 6-7P.M. │ 8-9P.M. │ 10-11P.M.	Night ________________________________ Early │ Mid │ Late 12-1A.M. │ 2-3A.M. │ 4-5A.M.

---

Again it should be mentioned that there will be certain spans of in-game time that encompass multiple days, players able to choose when their posts take place. That means that a decent number of days will likely be skipped by everyone, which will progress things along at a reasonable pace. Furthermore, not mentioned in the list but which obviously will be a thing, the time of day dictates a lot of what every character will be doing. For example, although maybe not the most accurate thing nowadays, I'm likely to run with the "8-hour sleep" rule wherein, for this setting, in order to wake up comfortably for breakfast (likely at "Mid Morning"), you'll need to start sleeping at "Early Night". A strict regiment may very well be in our characters' future, but at the very least there'll be a status ailment attributed to not getting enough sleep. Anyway, more things might come to mind later, but the final decision on "Food and Hunger" will be up next so I'll see you then. Later!

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Aberrant Emissary (PMD w/ Fusions) [WIP]

Hello again. I'm back to drop this latest update in my attempt at making all that stuff I mentioned earlier "official", this time with those points about leveling and ranking. There might have been a better format for laying it all out than just the bullet points it started as months ago, but honestly I was taking too long to think of something and wanted it over with so I hope what's there is easy enough to follow. I can't discount the possibility of someone joining who's never even touched the games, so it's with them in mind especially that I write this. There's plenty of reasons to give this RP a pass, but being kept in the dark on how anything works certainly won't be one of them.

---

Assorted Features & Mechanics

Assorted Features & Mechanics

All of the hiders below should correspond to a certain aspect of the RP. All of these, as far as I'm concerned, probably don't need their own main hider section, whether they're minor or straightforward enough to explain. This seemed like the best way to go about it, since I didn't want to bog the post down with too many outward-facing hiders, if that makes sense. More topics and edits will be added as I see fit.

Player Leveling & Experience Points

Player Leveling & Experience Points

• All player characters, whether part of a team or not, will have a level (certain NPCs will also)
• Level partially determines rough strength in relation to opponents, as well as learned moves and certain evolutionary potentials
• At the start of the RP, all PCs that are to make up the first team will be either level 1 or 2 (everyone else's may vary)
• A PC's current level determines the EXP required to progress to the next level
  ○ Example - lvl 1 needs 1 EXP, lvl 2 needs 2 EXP, etc.
• EXP is earned by each PC through certain actions
  ○ The primary method will be through running dungeons, specifically as a reward once the team successfully extracts
  ○ Other methods will become available over the course of the RP, likely as a means to build EXP at a faster rate
• Every dungeon will be assigned to a Team Rank, which will determine the amount of EXP received upon a successful run
  ○ Example - Normal Rank = 1 EXP, Bronze Rank = 2 EXP, etc.

Team Ranking & Mission Difficulty

Team Ranking & Mission Difficulty

• 10 total Team Ranks for all teams to progress through over the course of the RP
  ○ Example - Normal → Bronze → Silver → Gold → Diamond → Super → Ultra → Hyper → Master → Guildmaster
• The PC team at the start of the RP will begin at Normal Rank
• Each Team Rank has a range of recommended player levels under them, for where players ought to be as the team progresses
  ○ Example - Normal Rank = Levels 1 - 10, Bronze Rank = Levels 11 - 20, etc.
• 15 total Mission Difficulty Ranks that classify all jobs teams will come across
  ○ Example - E → D → C → B → A → S → ★1 → ★2 → ★3 → ★4 → ★5 → ★6 → ★7 → ★8 → ★9
• Team Ranking determines what Mission Difficulty Ranks will be available to choose from among jobs
  ○ Example - Normal = E-D, Bronze = D-B, Silver = C-A, Gold = A-★1, etc.
• The amount of Rank Points (RP) a team earns upon job completion is based on difficulty ranking
  ○ Example - Rank E = 1 RP, Rank D = 2 RP, Rank C = 3 RP, etc.

---

Only minor changes here and there really seemed necessary, so if you saw the original list, then this really isn't gonna surprise you, I'd say. I thought about laying down all the mission ranks for each and every team rank (TR&MD, Point 5), but in truth, things like that as well as "RP" requirements for teams to move up to the next rank will continue to be under consideration. Honestly they feel like suggestions rather than hard rules, at least until they're tested for real. On top of that, I'm willing to bet that most players couldn't care less about such finer details, so long as the game remains engaging enough all throughout. To anyone else, a pointer or critique will be appreciated.

Just a while longer and I'll be ready to continue delving back into new features and points on the continent. I have something stupid and reckless I want to try, but there needs to be at least one more public POI on the "map" (no literal map is involved) before I start to unveil what that is. It was something I actually thought of before I heard someone else mention it in passing. It's doubtful that too many would be interested in it when all is said and done, and it probably sounds cooler in my head, but I'm too curious to not look into it if nothing else. Anyway, I hope that the new year has been fair to you so far. Catch you later.

What Are You Listening To?

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Aberrant Emissary (PMD w/ Fusions) [WIP]

Hello there. Thanks for taking a look at the last update of the year. I wanted at least one update on what to expect from the "Dungeon Overview" section I'll add to the grand info post. It's lacking that part about how to read the dungeon map, but I'll finish up that part on my own before moving on to the next stage of development. It'll more or less be what I already showed before.

Just to reiterate, this is partially for anyone who might somehow see themselves making dungeons along with me in the future, as unlikely as that is. Anyone else may want to know just how far I'm willing to go when it comes to this major feature, yet I'll understand if this is something you'd rather not pay mind to right now, on the off chance that you don't see the need and would rather leave certain things a mystery until they're applied in the RP proper.

---

Dungeon Overview

Dungeon Overview

While it's very likely that I will be the only one to create any and every dungeon that this project sees (no hate, it's all good), I wanted to leave this here to explain what I believe should go into each one anyway. The initial uncertainty of actually running all of this notwithstanding, the idea is to emulate a good deal of the mechanics of the games as reasonably as I can. That includes both all the information that goes into making a dungeon as well as what it takes to run any given dungeon for a party of players.

Dungeon Information

Dungeon Information

Below is the Dungeon Info Template, a blank framework for the special compound tables that are meant to list out all vital statistics for every dungeon in the RP. Fully completed Dungeon Info Tables are to be used as references by each dungeon's respective DM, the one who'll run it on the players' behalf. Naturally, I'm ready to handle all such duties, and so intend to log all finished DITs together in their own separate storage, kept private for when they're needed. All stats of the sample are explained below and there will be areas where "Abbreviated (Cursor-Activated) Text" (ACAT) will be incorporated, so keep that in mind.

■ Dungeon Info Template

■ Dungeon Name_{│Flavor Text│[Linked Team Rank / PC Level Range]}

---

---

Floors = _ │ Ave.Spaces = _ ______________________________________________ Special Floor: ______________________________________________ Features:	◽ Rest Stops _____________________ ◽ Dungeon Shops _____________________ ◽ Monster Houses _____________________ ◽ Extra Party	TILES & TRAPS _________________________________________________________________

FOUND ITEMS

____________________________________________	____________________________________________	____________________________________________

ENCOUNTERS

Full DIT Breakdown

Top Header Dungeon Name - What the dungeon is (or will from now on be) known as Flavor Text - Optional little note as a first impression Linked Team Rank - Earliest Team Rank for entry into the dungeon (also determines EXP received upon successful dungeon extraction) PC Level Range - Recommended player levels on first run (indicative of enemy levels) ___________________________________________________________________ Checklist ✅ or ❌ Rest Stops - Extra rooms in between certain floors where the party can rest and access items stored back home Dungeon Shops - Item shops in predetermined dungeon rooms, complete with an owner and wares Monster Houses - Room-filling ambushes of numerous enemies from among the dungeon's denizens Extra Party - Additional (possibly DM-controlled) party that will also roam the dungeon floor(s) ___________________________________________________________________ Found Items Contains all items either found on the ground of spaces or dropped by certain enemies The first entry will always be a value range of PoKé (every instance will be RNG'd within that range) Example - Oran Berry │ 2F-3F │ 📊 After the item name are the floors it's found in 📊 = ACAT marker for percentage spawn rate on spaces followed by drop rate for every eligible enemy Example - GROUND=20%(All) │ DROP=30%(Poké A)

Floor Setup Floors - Total number of normal floors within the dungeon (not counting special floor) Ave.Spaces - Average number of spaces each floor can contain (give or take a space) Special Floor - Name of the additional floor (or the boss room) at the end of the dungeon, if applicable Features - Special terrain and/or weather conditions featured within the dungeon, if any ___________________________________________________________________ Tiles & Traps Contains all special tiles and traps found in the dungeon The first entry will always be the stairs type (either ascending or descending) Example - Wonder Tile 📊 📊 = ACAT marker for floors found and percentage chance of occurring in a given space Example - 1F-2F │ 15%(1F), 25%(2F) ___________________________________________________________________ Encounters Contains all wild enemy pokémon found within the dungeon and all their accompanying information Enemy Picture = ACAT marker for its general info Example - Bulbasaur │ Grass/Poison │ LVL 5 The smaller box contains two ACAT markers side by side 💥 = ACAT marker for the enemy's ability and moves Example - ABILITY=Overgrow │ TACKLE(Normal/Physical), etc. 📊 = ACAT marker for floors found and percentage chance of spawning on a space Example - 1F-2F │ 20%(1F), 30%(2F)

---

I can only hope that everything is as clear as it can be. Changes to the template itself were in order, most notably to my own little addition to the feature checklist. I have certain ideas I want to explore when it comes to dungeons and I suppose it's up to you whether you want to know of them now or experience them the old fashion way when the time comes.

That should do it for now. I'm currently closer to opening this RP for real than I've ever been before, and I couldn't be more pleased with how it's shaping up. There's much to be done still, and while I may not have the clearest picture for what the end looks like, I know what the next step is. More importantly, I'm eager to scrounge up what time I have to reach it. That's not something I take lightly. You give up a few things chasing something like this, but it's one year on, and I'm not tired yet. Anyway, thank you for your attention, even if it was only this one time. I hope you have a really great new year, and if you're as interested in PMDAE as I am, I'll do what I can to make sure of it. See you soon.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Aberrant Emissary (PMD w/ Fusions) [WIP]

Hey guys! With life sorta settling down for a bit, I wanted to get some small updates to mechanics out of the way before I get on to recording the comprehensive (hopefully) guide for dungeons. Depending on how "involved" these somewhat related features are, additional guides of sorts may also be in order, but I'll decide on that later.

---

Times of Day
This is an inevitable consideration if I really want to make everything feel a bit more like a simulation, if that's the best way to put it. We've already taken a major step in that direction with the calendar, and I intend for any given day to be further divided, though I may be a tad iffy on exactly how to go about it. The simple answer would be the straight up clock (hours:minutes) approach.

But I feel like just a general division into phases might do the trick instead. I'm referring to "Morning - Afternoon - Evening - Night", with further specifics like "Early, Mid, and Late" to encompass all parts of the day. This will surely keep it simple for all of us, especially when it comes to our post headers. And all 12 subdivisions at 2 hours each still add up to a 24 hour day anyway. With that, it becomes a matter of determining how long certain actions take, some likely to be preset by me while players can have a say on others.

Food and Hunger
This connects with that "resource management" thing I mentioned in that earlier dungeon update. As early as the classic food items, I knew hunger was going to factor in when traversing a dungeon; it was the "how exactly" that I left on the table until now. And when it comes down to it, "hunger checks" for every party member after a predictable number of turns feels like the way to go, the working number I have in mind for now being 10. By moving a space on the map or completing a round of combat, a turn will have passed, and after 10, all members will have to either eat food or be marked down to a lower status condition, with "starving" being the lowest you can go before overall health is affected.

Now where things get really experimental is that I also want hunger to continue being a thing outside of dungeons too. It may be just a matter of setting the "hunger checks" at the right times, likely in the morning, afternoon, and evening. Food will be a resource, and every pokémon (PCs or otherwise) will need enough food to make it through the day smoothly.

---

That all might be a decent summary of it all for now. This all started as an idea for a PMD game that makes the player into the guildmaster or town mayor, a town/guild management layer that ties it all together. At this point, I reckon this project may be destined for the tabletop section out of all of them once development wraps up, certainly a first for me if no one else. Anyway, thanks again for catching this update. I'm sure you're reading this out of simple curiosity by this point, but I appreciate it nonetheless. I'll push myself to get the next update, likely the dungeon guide, out sooner than this one. See you next time.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Aberrant Emissary (PMD w/ Fusions) [WIP]

Hello! First off, not dead. Secondly, I'm back after a while to post my progress after what time I had to work with. There was some finagling here and there over how a dungeon's details should be laid out, especially considering how certain elements like the number of loot items and enemies can vary significantly over the course of the campaign. Now of course, I've never made anything like this before, but I believe I have something approaching a functional template, which I arrived at by piecing together what significant bits came to mind for that first lowest rank dungeon, and then stripping it all out, leaving just the formatting behind. Have a look!

---

■ Dungeon Info Template

■ Dungeon Name_{│Flavor Text│[Linked Team Rank / PC Level Range]}

---

---

Floors = _ │ Ave.Spaces = _ ______________________________________________ Special Floor: ______________________________________________ Special Terrain:	◽ Rest Stops _____________________ ◽ Dungeon Shops _____________________ ◽ Monster Houses _____________________ ◽ FOE	Tiles & Traps __________________________________________________________________

FOUND ITEMS

___________________________________________	____________________________________________	____________________________________________

ENCOUNTERS

---

I thought about showing you all the full version for the first dungeon, but I kinda thought to keep it a secret for just a little longer. In it, I've taken to using plenty of abbreviated text for the finer details. Perhaps more annoying still, I very much intend to see all tables forcibly extended horizontally for accommodate everything included in later dungeons. The online references (bulbiedia and such) I used had additional things recorded, but I hope I've zeroed in on the most relevant. There may be changes in the future.

And of course, since I imagine an eyebrow or two has been raised because of the last of that checklist, I'll say that it's by no means a new concept when it comes to dungeon crawling, but I liked the idea enough to feature it in the future, with a decent idea of how to implement it. It isn't that I'm looking to push players to go through dungeons faster, merely that I like the tension that it brings. Needless to say, this info is for the DM's eyes only, you understand. Anyway, that'll be all for now. Sorry again for the delay. Till next time.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Aberrant Emissary (PMD w/ Fusions) [WIP]

Welcome back. This latest tangential game feature of mine hasn't been the most engaging to build unsurprisingly, but it's no less necessary for the kind of experience I'm aiming for. A PC's Level/EXP and Team Ranking would preferably be less so an allowance from the GM, and more so an attainable reward rooted in player decisions, from delving into dungeons to choosing what quests to take on, for the sake of a rewarding sense of progression. That's the idea anyway. But make no mistake, I have no real idea what I'm doing. The Explorers games have given me a clear framework along with its Team and Mission Difficulty Rankings. But what I have in store might only be a crude attempt at imitating its inner workings. But let's give it a go anyway!

Player Leveling & EXP
Very quickly I found that EXP "by the enemy" was out of the question, mostly because of how annoying it would be to tally. Instead I scaled everything back to make it as manageable and simple as possible. Have I gone too far in that direction? Probably. Yet it's the process of trial and error (me learning things the hard way) that appeals to me so much. Anyway, here's the plan.

• Current level determines the EXP required to level up (lvl 1 needs 1 EXP, lvl 2 needs 2 EXP and so on)
• EXP is earned by each PC through certain actions (especially completing dungeon runs)
• Every dungeon will be assigned to a Team Rank, which will determine the amount of EXP received upon a successful run
  (Example: Normal Rank = 1 EXP, Bronze Rank = 2 EXP, etc.)

Team Ranking & Mission Difficulty
Naturally, my first instinct is to run with all the unique Team Ranks (Normal to Guildmaster) and the Mission Difficulty Rankings (E to ★9) from the Explorers games. They aren't in contention, but everything else I got is pretty up in the air. See for yourself.

• A range of levels is recommended under each Team Ranking, for where members ought to be at that point
  (Example: Normal Rank = Levels 1 - 10, Bronze Rank = Levels 11 - 20, etc.)
• Team Ranking also determines what Mission Difficulty Ranks will be available to choose from among jobs
  (Example: Normal Rank = E - D, Bronze = D - B)^{(As of now)}
• The amount of Rank Points (RP) a team earns is based on mission difficulty
  (Example: D.Rank E = 1 RP, D.Rank D = 2 RP, etc.)

That's where my mind is right now. As you can imagine, the exact total amount of RP a team needs to reach the next rank cannot be set in stone for now. The Explorers games seemed to have always set Bronze Rank with 100 pts, but I might only follow suit as a tentative mark as I see how quickly players progress towards it within that first in-game year. I'm sure I've made mistakes somewhere in here, but regardless, some of it will be ironed out with testing. Anyway, I'll be back eventually with more on dungeons sometime later. Take care until then.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Aberrant Emissary (PMD w/ Fusions) [WIP]

Hello again. This one might be a little shorter because, while I am indeed piecing together what I want for the first dungeon, I wanted to take a bit of time to consider (aloud) one aspect of dungeon classification and by extension player progression. If anything, it'll help me have a clearer grasp on what my options are.

In the Explorers games, Exploration Ranks are (unless I'm missing something) milestones attributed to the PC and their partner as they progress through their adventures, signifying their level of experience as explorers. Could be wrong but, to my knowledge, nowhere else is ranking mentioned in the games than when it is applied to the player's team. I don't believe it's revealed what the other guildmembers' ranks are. And there certainly isn't some manner of ranking for the Wigglytuff Guild itself, because it's very much the only one in the story.

If I'm on the mark thus far, then you can probably see where I'm going with this. As this project is shaping up as of now, ranks may have to carry more weight. There will be at least one adventuring team made up completely of PCs at the start of the story, with its own name and ranking ("Normal" to begin with). That ranking will be tied (either directly or indirectly) to the members' literal levels and the levels of any new PCs that may join that team down the road. The team's rank will also determine what dungeons and jobs will be open to them.

Will that wind up with us tracking team rank points throughout the story? Possibly. It might not be that hard to do, but I suppose a good method to fall back on could be to tie rank progression to certain checkpoints in the story. Other teams might come into play too though, either of PCs if interest grows to support it, or even side characters as the outpost itself grows in size. I'll be taking a look at the ranking/points scale that EoS used and coming up with a path forward. Thanks for listening to me talk aloud here. I'll be back soonish.