Foreword

I am someone who can analyse the whole of the multiverse. During my travels and my observations, I found the curious concept of the System. Its almost always called something like that to, even if that does not necessarily make sense from its structure. 

I hate the System in all its many structures. It is a disgusting thing that generally does not make sense. It subsumes the ones it affects, manipulates them in ways that take away free will.

I am big on free will.

Oh, there are good systems there. Not many, but they do exist. Maybe I will use a chapter in this book to describe them. Maybe not. I do not yet now how long I will do this and how many I will describe, for I feel rage at the system. At some point all the writing implements in this room will be destroyed, and then this book will end. I have written the afterword already, although I might update it on occasion. 

This book will not be particularly well organized. I leave it to you, multiversal traveler, as a warning of which signs to look for, to know which worlds, which universes, to avoid.

Chapter I

First, lets talk about what a system actually is. A system is a fascinating, powerful thing, which controls at least a certain area of a universe and overrides the laws of physics in that area. The most basic laws can be changed at the drop of a hat. Gravity? Who cares about actual working gravity? Speed of light? Not even a suggestion, simply non existent if the System in that area does not like it. Chemical reactions? You better have a Skill to help you, or nothing would work. Depending on the system, everything, even breathing, requires a Skill.

Now, lets talk about Skills. A Skill is any ability that a System grants. Those might be internally, inside the system split apart into further categories, but on its most basic, all of that are Skills, even if they are called differently and Skills are used as a name inside the System for a subset of Skills. Confused? Do not worry, I simply use Skill as a shorthand. The definition of Skill we shall sue in this book is the above one, also every ability that a System grants or affects. 

So thats the basic definition of Skills done. I might expand it on a per system base, this is a generalized overview, which is not always correct.

There are more aspects to Systems that are generally there. Not always however all that influentially. Even Skills can be fairly uninfluential, but thats rare, because Skills are one of the most basic functions and uses of a System. They are its most powerful tool to ensure compliance, and thus responsible for the worst excesses of a System against free will.

The next major aspect is the idea of so called Attributes or Statistics, often called stats for short. They are commonly a weird mix of Skills and base modifiers for them. Stats also tend to act as a sort of base requirement for Skills.

Stats are split apart into multiple aspects, the amount and name of aspects differing for each System (although there are systems with the same Aspects out there, sometimes even in function, not just in name).

Common Stats, in no particular order and without any description attached to them are the following: Strength, Dexterity, Magic, Spirit, Wisdom, Intelligence, Constitution, Luck, Agility, Perception and Faith.

Not many systems have all of them, those that have tend to have far more. Stats are, in universes affected by a System, the one of the common ways to compare „power“ between two people, which also takes into account differences in experiences, although that strategy has many issues. Mostly because Skills tend to be more influential. There is another way used for comparison thats often better, but that also has its issues. We will get to that general aspect of Systems in a bit. 

Note that I said experiences, i will explain why in a bit. But first, lets talk about another common aspect of Systems.

Resource Pools. 

Resource Pools are pools of (normally) regenerating Resources, which are commonly used to fuel Skills. Not always, and not always does every Skill need a Resource, and its uncommon for there to only be one Resource. There are three main pools of resources.

Health, Mana and Stamina.

Health is again a weird mix of Skill and Resource Pool. It often, not always, mind you, but often, protects the System user from damage, or at least fatal damage, until the Resource Pool runs dry. Then you often die immediately, although not always again. 

It is freacking difficult to make general, always true statements about systems. Which is annoying, because at first glance they look so orderly. At first glance…

Health can sometimes be used to fuel certain Skills, but those tend to be rare.  It tends to be more of a Skill, to be honest. But its structured as a Resource Pool, and it does fulfill all the necessary steps of being a Resource Pool, in general at least. It is regenerating, well when its a System where Resource Pools regenerate, although that is not, as mentioned above, always the case, it can be used to fuel Skills, even if those Skills tend to be very rare and its generally sorted into the same subdivision as the other Resource Pools.

I am just annoyed at the fact that Systems just cannot be consistent. Even internally. If the inconsistencies would be between different Systems, yes, that would be nice, but it just is not the case. Annoying. Annoying. Annoying. Annoy

Well, there goes my keyboard. I have another one, do not worry. Oh well. First one down, countless more to go. Actually, I could count them, but I do not want to. I want to be surprised when I run out of them. I also have a few spare computers lying around. It makes it more fun to write this guide, you see.

And I need every bit of fun I can find. Its important to warn you, dear multiversal traveler, of the danger and false opportunity that Systems offer, but it is also a task I could have lived without. This Guide likely will not end up being comprehensive. But it will hopefully offer a starting point.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

But enough of that, let us talk about the second Resource Pool.

Mana.

Mana is very often used to fuel Skills that can also be called spells. 

I say spells, but to be honest, they do not deserve to be called that. Real magic is far more impressive than what such an annoying thing like a System can produce. But for lower magical universes, I guess, they are spells, and sometimes even fairly impressive ones, even if its common for them to be incredibly restrained in their effect and scale. But enough of that, I am currently not talking about the subtype of Skills thats commonly called Spells, but instead about the Ressource Pool thats commonly used to fuel those skills.

Mana is a Resource Pool, because it is commonly regenerated up to a maximum value, as is common for Resource Pools, as well as used to fuel Skills. It does not tend to be used in any other way, unless a Skill affects it. Or a Trait or Perk, what those are we will talk about in a bit. The only thing you need to know right now, is that Perks and Traits are often used in very similar, if not identical ways, and are the first basic concept I have shown you that is not near multiversal in Systems.

For me, Mana is essentially the basic template for Ressource Pools. Its quite common for it to be the Ressource Pool that best follows the basic definition of them. 

The last, but not least, well, ok, I am joking, it is not uncommon for it to be the „weakest“ least influential Resource Pool, is Stamina. 

Stamina is a Resource Pool that should be used more, but rarely is. Sometimes its used to fuel daily tasks, like walking. But that tends to happen when there is a Skill for walking, which uses it. But not always.  There are always Skills that use it as fuel, if Stamina is available. They also tend to be very common, generally more common than Mana fueled Skills. Although Stamina fueled tends to be weaker, less influential. 

So Stamina can be on either extreme of the Health Mana scale of extreme application of Resource Pools. I am not formulating this very well, I know. But I do not like to need to do this, so…

So let us talk about a completely different thing thats also near universal.

Levels. 

Levels are an easy way to be mislead about powerlevels in Systems, even though they pretend to be the authority on powerlevels.

I hate levels. I hate them. I despise them. They just do not make sense, do not do what they pretend to do and are, in general, an annoying system.

Sorry, no idea where that has come from. Really no idea…

So levels. A System pretends that your live goal should be to level up, to get more power, more Skills, more Stats. Levels commonly give a bit of everything in that regard each time. How much depends on the System, and if available, on the Class, a concept for directly after I am finished with this concept. 

You can gain levels in a variety of ways, but the most common and most universal is through experience. Remember that I used experiences earlier? That is why. Because experience in a System is not something you experience. It is a resource that is not regenerating, gained from an outside source through doing certain tasks that are not Skills (although Skills are commonly used in the process to gain experience) and so on.

There are generally two major sources of experience available, although the exact way the show up can differ significantly. 

The first and generally quickest way is combat. It is often, but not always, necessary to kill to gain that experience. What exactly offers experience and how much differs for each System. A common way to exclude a source of combat experience are levels. If an entity you are attacking is x levels beneath your level, you gain no or reduced experience. 

It is of course the most dangerous way, but thanks to the System and its tricks there are always more people to be adrenaline or rather experience junkies. 

A common way of the System to influence behavior is a sort of addiction to leveling. It ensures that leveling up feels like a drug, so that someone affected by the System wants to level more, and quicker. Because the quickest way is combat, many go that route. Fascinatingly enough the support structure of those worlds does not tend to collapse immediately under the weight, which does not really make sense, but that is a story for another time.

Systems often want combat to happen, well if they have wants, which I am not necessarily convinced of. 

The second way to gain experience, which sometimes does not even exist, is what the System calls crafting. The production of goods, be that through farming, enchanting, woodworking and so on. The possibilities are endless. As long as the System acknowledges the existence of the craft, of course.

Sometimes leveling up Skills also gives experience. Which reminds me, Skills generally have levels. Leveling them up consists, in general, out of using them, so it tends to be fairly easy, if time consuming. 

But lets end talking about experience here, and go to the next point I mentioned.

Classes. 

Classes are a fascinating thing. A useless, weird and annoying thing, yes, but  that makes them no less fascinating.

Classes are something you get levels for, which influence how much and what you get in return for the levels. In some ways, for most systems, if you know which class he has (and, of course, the classes progression of Stats and Skills and so on) you have a fairly good idea how powerful someone is. But not always. For there are more ways to gain Stats and Skills then merely leveling up your class, at least commonly. Not all of those are possible in every System, and sometimes none are possible, but here are some of the most common:

Certain feats, often called achievements can result in a plethora of boni. They also tend to be very dangerous. So not necessarily the best thing. 

When the earlier mentioned Traits and or Perks exist, those also offer advantages.

Sometimes you can increase stats through certain trainings. Or have some other source of gaining them, like rare drops of monsters or similiar. Drops are essentially a System way to fuck the economy. Sorry, I mean to ensure infinite resources are available and you just need to do very dangerous things to do that. One of the most common resource gained through drops are coins, so have fun with inflation. Not that it will affect anything. Stupid Systems. 

Ah, where was I? Right. I was talking about further sources of power, which can make judging the powerlevel of the person you are meeting very difficult.

Skills can sometimes be learned/teached. Which, considering how powerful they can be, means a massive issue with judging powerlevels. And still, everyone will get it wrong in System worlds, I guarantee you.

Oh well, best not to think about it, that leads to anger and stupidity.

The next aspect I want to at least mention is, in my opinion, a sub aspect of classes.

Professions. 

Professions are most commonly classes for crafting, although there is overlap in both directions. They are weird and inconsistent and I hate them. See a theme?

Yeah, I dislike Systems. Who could have guessed after reading my fine guide? No one that is, I am sure.

And if you really believed that, I have something to sell you over there in the universe inimical to all matter, life and energy. You will certainly be able to use it, it is a great value!

Back to the next point I want to talk about: Perks and Traits.

I put them into the same group, because, to be honest there is not much difference. A small rule of thumb thats generally true is that Traits are inborn while Perks are gained. But not even that is anywhere close to universal. Also, sometimes only one of the two exists, in fact, that is fairly common. 

They give additional power. A Statpoint here, a bonus to Statpoints per level there, a Skill over here, and so on and so fort. Perks and Traits can be very powerful and influential. In fact, it is quite common for them to be some of the most influential aspects of a System, when they exist.

Now lets talk about species. Species are the most common source for traits, you tend to be born with them, but sometimes you can change them if you are in a System based universe. 

Sometimes you can level them and „naturally“ „evolve“ them.

That is not how evolution works you freaking moron who designed this bullshit!

They are also sometimes called race, for some reason. Why? No idea.

What else that is fairly common and that I should talk about in this introduction?

Hm. No, I think that was everything for now. I might remember more, then I will put it somewhere. I am certain. Maybe. 

Oh, right, we should talk about how the System shows up.

Thats fairly important, I think. Good that I remembered.

So, there are a few main ways of how the System shows up or rather, how someone affected by the System can see what the System gives that person.

The first way is a sort of System Window, where you see your Stats, your Resource Pools and their current levels (as well as the regeneration of those), your Skills and everything else the System offers. Including your experience, although there are Systems that do not tell you your gathered experience. Or a lot really. This System Window is fairly easy to call up upon, at least in general terms.  It is the most common way. Depending on the System, those around you might or might not be able to see that you are looking at your System Window, and might even be able to see whats in it. 

Hey, this reminds me of the apprisal or identify skill. That thing is insanely common. And not common at the same time. It is a weird little thing. IF you are forced to use a System, that Skill could be your most powerful weapon or a fairly normal thing. Still getting it and leveling it should be a priority.

Ok, back to how you can see what the System gives you. The second common way is some sort of object, often a stone, which you need to touch. Sometimes you need someone else to translate what is shown for you. Those objects have a tendency to end up in the local church, which makes sense. Be wary, though, the Deities might actually be real.

And weird in power, but thats a given for entities calling themselves Gods in the multiverse.