This is a step-by-step guide on how to make your Adventurer.
Return to IndexIn a peotic sense, your character isn't just an Adventurer, but is also a person from another reality - our reality of the 21st century: a reality of cars and planes and commutes and bills and rent and hospital visits and job searches and credit scores and on and on and on... It's not wonder you left that reality. And yet, you're still you. Upon arriving to Neverreach, you're granted an option to make some cosmetic changes to yourself, start a new life with a little more control over your appearance. However, you cannot change your memories, your intelligence, or your personality - that part is up to you.
To get the point, first think about who you were on Earth. Were you a student? A parent? An employee or a contractor? Whatever you choose, think about the skills and talents you bring you, either by consequence of your job, your education, or your upbringing.
Choose a piece of paper to use your character sheet and first write down:
Next, you need to think about who you've decided to start your new life as. This is where you get to be creative...
You first appear in a circular study, a room lined wall to wall with hardback books. There are candles lit all around. Looking up, you see a glass dome peering out into a starlit sky. Looking down, you see a glass dome looking down over a vast and distance expanse of land, like looking at a projection map of Earth, only it isn't Earth at all but someplace else. Once you've taken in the view, you are approached by a being beyond human, yet gentle and assuming enough in its presence as like to an old man. You don't feel threatened in the least bit.
The being is tall and largely featureless, like a clay figure. The body is white and along the length of its arms and legs they turn a solid black. Its head is white and covered all around and down below to the torso with opening looking eyes.
In a betrayal of its unnatural appearance, it speaks to you in your own native language, "Before you begin, you need to think about who or what you want to become. But think carefully, because you only get one chance."
"How much time to do I have?" you ask first.
"As much time as you need," explains the creature. "Time works differently in this study."
"Where do I start?"
Thoughtfully, the creature begins, "Start with your Role. Nevereach is a world about working together and helping others. As an Adventurer, you have three to choose from."
Sensing that the creature is patient and wanting to be helpful, you feel couragious enough to ask, "What if I want to choose two of them?"
This isn't the first time he's been asked this question, and without a moment of pause he responds, "That's certainly allowed. As a hybrid you gain the benefits of both chosen roles but with diminished effectiveness."
Choose your role or roles and write it down on the sheet.
Please with your choice, the higher being prompts you, "Next, you need to choose your Class. It's what you specialize in. You might think of a class as like a lense through which the light of your Role is focused. In other words, while your Role indicates how you help your time, your class determines the methods." Seeing you're not quite certain what he's getting at, he follows up with, "For example, you could be a knight, a detective, a pirate, a ninja, a super-soldier, a magician, or even a merchant. Though while some ideas fit your Role better than others, any idea you come up with is valid."
The idea overwhelming to you, and now more than ever you don't know how to fit the idea into your mouth. You follow up with, "Can I have another example?"
Though the creature doesn't have a mouth, you get the odd sensation that he's smiling down at you, pleased to be creative in his own right. "Very well," he begins, "Let's suppose you chose to be a samurai. Your idea of a samurai is like that of an ancient warrior who wields a katana, a longbow, and rides a horse. That's not the full identity, but that's the idea, the heart of your class. Using this idea for your class, you have the power to bring this idea to life. You can conjure katanas, bows, and even steeds to ride. You could even fulfill the fantasies of a samurai, like that of cutting through solid steel in a single swipe, or using the spirit of the blade to destroy you opponents."
Your eyes sparkle with wonder and intrigue, and while the idea seems enticing to you, you pause to think for yourself: What do I want to be? Finally, you tell the strange being.
Choose your Class and write it down beneath your role.
The strange being nods its head and says, "Very creative. And with the light of your Role, I'm certain you'll bring something new to Neverreach."
"Is that all?" you ask.
"Not quite," explains the creature, "Though we're halfway through. There's another thing I need to ask: In terms of your body, what do you want to become? This is a bigger, more important choice, and I encourage you to think twice and even thrice about it, because you'll be unable to change it once you leave this area."
"What do you mean?"
"What's happening here is going to be fit over you, in a manner of speaking, like a costume. It doesn't replace what you already have, but reshapes and disguises it. However, there is a feature Neverreach offers you called your Cores, and these are your abilities natural to this universe. You have four Cores to invest into."
After explaining, the creature appends, "Don't think of this as a replacement for your own faculties, but a power to tap into. Having a high or low Mind Core won't make you any more or less intelligent, but it will show through in other ways."
"How do I choose?" you ask.
He reaches behind himself into someplace hidden and away, and pulls out a handful of blue marbles, which he then offers to you. You take them, noting as you do that the palm of his hand is warm and smooth.
"Here are five marbles," he says in an wiser tone, "Each marble represents a point of growth in a particular Core."
Getting creative and feeling just a bit of a challenger, you ask the creature, "What if I point to make myself fly? Or see in the dark? What if I want to be become a vampire?"
Another good question, which the higher beeing seems to relish. Smiling through his hundreds of eyes, he says, "You very well may. if you want, you can become a different race altogether. But the changes must be substantiated with one or more of the marbles. For example, if you wish to see in the dark like a wolf, it'll cost you one marble, and if you wish to jump extraordinarily high, it'll cost another marble."
You have 5 points to distribute into your Cores. Each Core starts at 1 and can go up to 5 but no higher.
If you wish to change from a human into something else, choose your new race and distribute at least one point into a key feature.
You return one marble to the higher being and tell him, "A point this towards..." listing one Core after the other, until all the marbles have left your hand and returned to his. Once your hand is empty it's just the two of you in the heavenly study, to which you ask, "What happens next?"
"I shall tell you about source of your powers in Neverreach, the Grabbag."
"The Grabbag?"
"There isn't actually a bag involved; it's just a name the designers came up with. With that beign said, it functions very much like one, in that what you need is always in there." He reaches out his hand before you with the fingers spread out as if about to catch something and says, "For example, returning back to the samurai class, I mentioned you could summon a katana." At the mention of the word, you sense magic flash invisibly and all of a sudden a katana appears in the air above his hand and is quickly caught handle-first. You see a dozen eyes peering back at you from the reflection in blade. "It's easier for me since I am what I am, but for you, you'll need to declare the name of what you want and expend an amount of mana into the Grabbag."
On your character sheet, write down your starting mana as having 20 points and 5 stamana points.
"Can I do it now?" you ask with wonder.
"Not until you leave and enter the world below. But for now, I shall teach it to you, starting with mana." The katana vanishes and his palm opens up before you again, now with twenty marbles suspended in the air in a slowly rotating circle. "Think of each marble as like a point of mana. Mana is the energy which is used by the Grabbag to bring your ideas to life.
"For each point of mana you invest into a creation, the more effective it becomes. From the beginning of your adventures, one point of mana will be sufficient to do anything you need, but if you need to do something superhuman or accomplish a particularly large task, you can invest more mana to make something exceptionally effective. As your venture further into dangerous territory, more mana will become necessary to take on larger tasks.
"Mana doesn't naturally regenerate. The mana spent on a creation is held in ransom by the Grabbag until its creation is dispelled by you, after which over the course of resting for several hours will our mana finally return.
"There are two kinds of things the Grabbag can create: items and powers."
You nod your head in understanding, rolling over the potential creations in your mind. You ask next, "You said more mana will be required as the challenges get harder. Is there a way to grow it?"
"As your level increases, your mana reserve will increase by 20%. This increase compounds on the others. At level 1 you only have 20 mana, but by level 10 that'll increase to 100, and by 50 you'll have over 150,000."
"That's a lot!"
"A lot for now," corrected the higher being, "But for then? It'll be enough."
"But wait a moment," you exclaim, "How do I increase my level?"
"By gaining experience points, which are gained first by completing quests and missions." He holds out his hand again, and this time an array of blue marbles appear, ordered over each other in three rows of five. "You will require 15 experience points to increase your level, and it remains the same for every level."
You ask, "How long is that supposed to take?"
"That entirely depends on the difficulty of the task you've completed. But to put it simply, the harder the quest, the more experience is awarded."
The higher being adds, "But please keep in mind, unlike other systems, you cannot grind for levels by fighting monsters or performing tedium. You have to complete actual tasks. They don't have to be have been given out by the guild or recognized in writing, but what you do must be meaningful. You must make the world a better place for your work." He pauses then, but realizes he must add on something important and appends, "By taking on challenges beneath your level, the amount of awarded experience will be diminished by 20%, which also compounds as the difference grows."
Shrugging, you say, "That sounds easy enough. Is there any other reward for completing a quest?"
"For a matter of act," begins the higher being, "There is. They're called Landmarks.
"To put it simply, a Landmark is a special creation, an item or a power, awarded to you by the Grabbag for having completed a quest. Unlike other creations, a Landmark cannot be dispelled and always has a mana level equal to your own level. But you can invest more mana at any time and dispell the mana as normal.
"And keep in mind, it's Neverreach that is coming up with the Landmark and not you, though you do have some degree of influence by what you do during your quest. The Neverreach system is always watching, looking for inspiration."
"Wow," you say with wonder, "Then by the time I reach level fifty I'll have hundreds of Landmarks, right?"
"That is correct," says the higher being, "But you must choose between amassing an arsenal of Landmarks versus leveling-up faster. But, we're almost done and there's one last lesson I must impart to you..."
"With all that you are," resumes the creature, "It's important to determine your strengths and weaknesses."
Astonished, you ask, "Why would I want any weaknesses?"
"Because other beings like myself will honor your sacrifice and reward it with strengths." To illustrate this, he raises both hands with the palms up and evenly laid-out. A red marble appears in the left hand and a blue marble in the right. "Neverreach respects a balance; it admires the complexity it adds to your adventure. It's not mandatory, but you're encouraged to look at your role, class, and cores, and come up with at least a few strengths complementing a few weaknesses."
Eyeing the red marble warily, you ask, "What do strengths and weaknesses do though?"
"They can impact you anywhere, but ultimately a strength's purpose is to increase your chance of success in a given task, while a weakness does just the opposite." As he speaks, more blue and red marbles appear in his hands. "Strengths and weaknesses respective to your core represent natural highs and lows. Your class's strengths and weaknesses help further define what you're good and bad at. What you create with your Grabbag can be give strengths and weaknesses to help specalize it." By the end of his elaboration, an equal number of marbles are held in both black hands.
A strength and weakness can affect you in any way you want, so long as the impact is meaningful; strengths shows your strong points, while a weakness exposes a weak points. Understand the cost of a strength is its corresponding weakness; if you only experience the strength but not the weakness, then you stole it.
Strengths and weaknesses measure their impact with a point system similar to Cores and Grabbag efficacy, which is also impacted by your level multiplier before checks. The point value ranges from 1-5, where a strength adds and a weakness subtracts (mininum 1).
Add some extra depth to a strength and weakness by adding in conditions that activate under special circumstances.
Tapping your chin thoughtfully, you answer the higher being, "All right, I have an idea for a few."
"I'll be the judge of their balance. Tell me your ideas..."
An easy conversation follows, after which the higher being concludes, "Very good, I believe we're finished."
You look down through the hole in the floor and down at the vast stretches of Neverreach. You remember hearing somewhere that there were over 30,000 different realms to explore. You say to the higher being, "I guess I'm ready to head down then."
"My final advice," says the higher being, "Would be to seize the moment between this place and the starting area to pick out your attire and prepare some equipment to begin your journey with." He concludes in a friendly manner, "You will want to start off on the right foot."
Clothing and other pieces of aesthetic are free to create from the Grabbag, and while not usable in a competitive sense, help to outfit you.
If you wish to, you can spend mana on creating items before starting the campaign.
Staring out, you're granted 20 silver, which is equivalent to $20 (in 2020).
"Will I ever see you again?" you ask.
"One day, in the very distant future when all this is past." In a certain finality, he steadily reaches out a black hand with one extended finger to touch your head. "Farewell, adventurer." In the instant the tip of his finger connects you're vanished from the study. You awaken later, a bit disoriented and without memory of the study in the sky nor of the kindly creature who helped you start your journey, but you remember the lessons, which matters the most.
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