!!!READER PARTICIPATION EXTRA!!!

As those of you who read the notes already know, when I originally conceived the idea for The Misplaced Hero, I only iterated the ranks up to 20. I mean, There was plenty of time to get the higher levels set down by the time I needed them, right?

Here’s the list I used in writing book 1,

Rank Total beginning XP................................... XP to reach next rank

1 -300 ...........................................................................600

2 -900............................................................................900

3 -1800........................................................................1800

4 -3600........................................................................3600

5 -7200........................................................................7200

6 -14400......................................................................9000

7 -23400....................................................................11000

8 -34400....................................................................12500

9 -46900....................................................................14500

10 -61400..................................................................15000

11 -76400..................................................................16000

12 -92400..................................................................17000

13 -109400................................................................18000

14 -127400................................................................19000

15 -146400................................................................20000

16 -166400................................................................25000

17 -191400................................................................30000

18 -221400................................................................35000

19 -256400................................................................40000

20 -296400................................................................50000

Somewhere between back then and now, I've lost the notes and formulae. I vaguely remember them taking a lot of time, and not being precisely what I wanted, even then. But they were (I thought then) reasonable.

So, some time in the past week, I started over. The observant of you will probably notice the next time Jack's stat sheet makes an appearance, that he's lost about 60% of the XP he had. Don't worry, he's not gonna feel it.

The new system is a lot more linear. Initially, I was using a percentage formula that added various percentages to the previous level advancement requirements, with the specific multiplier changing at various levels, evolving into what I think I remember as being straight up linear increases above a certain lvl. Frankly, it was very D&Dish, owing to my days as a 2nd ed DM in prehistoric times.

It worked fine up through lvl 20. Well, it worked okay. It may even have worked beyond that. We'll probably never know.

Trying to recreate it gave me a terrible migraine and nearly caused Chapter 14 to miss my self-imposed upload schedule. Even the lowest factors I could plausibly claim to be reasonable started reeling out of control around lvl 14 or 15. And I mean WILDLY out of control!

REMEMBER, KIDS... ALWAYS KEEP NOTES, AND WRITE EXPLANATIONS OF THEM TO YOUR FUTURE SELF. WITH TIME STAMPS. YOU WILL NOT, IN FACT, REMEMBER WHAT THAT SCRIBBLE YOU’RE WRITING NOW MEANS FIVE YEARS FROM NOW. ASK ME HOW I KNOW.

So I took a page out of Bethesda's book. Not a direct copy, obviously, and even Bethesda isn't alone in using it.

Take Fallout New Vegas, unarguably the greatest single Player RPG of all time (or so I'm told). There's a long algebraic formula posted with multiple wild cards that supposedly explains how to determine the XP requirement for a given level. The actual process can be much simpler. Take the required to next level total, (say, 200 to get from level 1 to level 2), and add 150. Next level, you start with that 350 and add 150 to get 500XP. Rinse and repeat. Up to lvl 50, if you’ve got all the DLC.

FO4 only adds 75, although the lvl cap is when the game crashes at lvl 65,536.

Fallout, FO2, and KOTOR online use a ludicrous scale that adds a 1000 point progression . So, lvl 1 - 2 is 1000XP. 2 - 3 is 2000. 3 - 4 is 3000, and so on. The only differences are lvl caps.

Other games use other systems, but the gist is, computer games tend to use linear systems rather than the complicated, layered, and convoluted systems of Pen and Paper games.

Given all of that, I decided to split the difference and add 500XP requirements to whatever the prior next level requirement was. In the world of The Misplaced Hero, the ranking structure looks like this, up to rank 20, at least. You’ll note it starts at rank 0 rather than 1. The ungifted fit into this structure, or will someday.

Rank Total beginning XP .......................XP to Next Rank

0 ..........0.........................................................300

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

1 .......300........................................................800

2 ......1100......................................................1300

3 ......2400......................................................1800

4 ......4200......................................................2300

5 ......6500......................................................3100

6 ......9600......................................................3600

7 ....13200......................................................4100

8 ....17300......................................................4600

9 ....21900......................................................5200

10...27000......................................................3300

11....30300.....................................................3800

12....34100.....................................................4300

13....38400.....................................................4800

14.....43200...................................................5300

15.....48500....................................................5800

16.....54300....................................................6300

17.....60600....................................................6800

18......67400...................................................7300

19......74700...................................................7800

20......82500...................................................8300

If you’re the noticey type, you might notice that rank 20 under the new system is at 82,500XP, where, in the old system, it was at a ridiculous 296,400XP — with an additional 50,000XP required to reach rank 21! Jack ain’t got no time fo’ dat!

Mund is a world where even the most mediocre adventurers reach level 14 or 15 over their careers. Jonkins the guildmaster is a solid 80. Hell, there’s a rank 30 mouse wizard. We don’t yet know how high the hero who eventually killed Mohrtgauth was, but it must have been at least as high as a backwater guildmaster.

So, have you noticed that I haven’t been asking questions yet?

Skills: they’ve been mentioned a time or two. At the end of book 1, Jack has a number of them he hasn’t allocated yet. We don’t know how many, or how often they’re granted. That’s another bag-O-worms. 3 per level? 2? 1? 3 every other level? 4? Or 5 every 5 levels? Should he really be able to rapidly pile them on, or should it be a much more calculated and critical choice to make on each purchase?

Some games have level caps; FO’s was 20. FO2's was 99. FO3's was between 20 and 30, and FO;NV’s was between 30 and 50, depending on which DLCs you shelled out for.

And some do not; FO4, FO76 (at least functionally)

Same with anime heroes. Some of them peak at 99, or 999, or whatever, and some just keep leveling and getting stronger as they progress until they can one-shot gods.

Stat Caps: Most games and stories have stat limits. Strength, for example. Fallout, it’s 10 without modifiers. KOTOR, it’s 18, much like D&D (or 16, depending on who you ask). Other games, the max wanders around all the way up to 25 or more. In some system anime, strength can go clear up to space. I’m looking at YOU, Solo Leveling. Sung JinWoo reaches a strength of 128 before he’s reincarnated as the Monarch of Shadows.

In some systems, what you start with is what you finish with. Start with Str 10, that’s where you are forever. Hope you can find some good gear.

Current Lore for the world of Mund is as follows (torn from the notes)

Basic stats, scale 1 to 100:

1: Strength. Median human male is 10, median human female is 7 (10/7), median mouse is 1/1, median goblin is 5/4, median hobgoblin/drugand is 15/13, median devil is 20/15, etc. An elder dragon would be up around 100, plus whatever modifiers it’s granted by its special abilities.

2: Agility. Median human is 10. A common housecat is around 40.

3: Perception. Median human is 5.

4: Intelligence. Median human is 20. Stats above median grant bonuses to things such as mana count, wisdom, and perception, as well as experience earned.

I've left the full descriptions for the following because they diverge somewhat from the standard.

5: Wisdom. Understanding of the world and its phenomena. Ability garnered from experience to understand potential outcomes and shift them to personal success: Base human begins at 2 and progresses to 10 by old age. At 15 years of age, expect an ungifted to be around 4. At 30, 6, at 40, 8. Double this for ‘average gifted.

6: Endurance. A combination of stamina and perseverance. Ability to exert physical/mental force over a given period of time: Base human adult ranges from 3-5.

7: Toughness. A facet of strength, but not tied to it. Ability to withstand physical/mental force: Base human is 4-10. A mouse who refuses to give up might be much higher, although its strength is minuscule by comparison.

8: Charisma. Charm. Ability to be liked. Ability to shift outcomes of personal interaction in a favorable way: Not necessarily tied to good looks. Base human ranges from 10-40. Base gifted from 30-50 due to the power they exude.

9: Chance. Luck/favor of the gods. Serendipity: Chance is a percentage modifier rather than a straight stat. It equates roughly to luck, but isn’t a perfect match. Base human starts at 10%. A very lucky ungifted might reach 20-30%. Gifted are generally the same. Practically, chance maxes at 60% for top ranked gifted without bonuses granted by items. The only way to raise your chance percentage is to survive low rolls. Each natural 1 failure that’s survived ups chance percentage by 1%, with a hard cap at 80%.

So, here come the questions. Well, quest for opinions, at least.

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SEE?

New Progression System. Seem good? Too steep? Not steep enough?

Skill Points, Frequency. Every 5 levels seem reasonable? Too often? Too seldom?

Skill Points, Quantity. The equivalent of 1 point per level, according to frequency? Fewer? More?

Rank Cap. Should characters just keep ranking up as long as they’re gaining XP (and not peaking)? Or should there be a level cap?

Stat Caps. Is Jack stuck at his current stats? Never to grow stronger? Or will he gain points in his basic stats? If so, how far? Like Sung JinWoo, will he become the angel of death, with Str 324 or will he top out somewhere between where he is now, and a Str 125 elder dragon?

There are 5 questions. I'd appreciate 5 answers, 1 per category.

It goes without saying that, if none of the choices for a given category fit what you'd like to see, you're welcome to post in the comments what you'd have chosen had I included it.