Player's Handbook Book 2: On Scores and Measures

Preface

Welcome back. Now that you have finished Book 1. You're ready for a deeper dive into what our scores refer to. This book will be far more complex, but don't worry too much. You won't need to know anything in this book to survive here. But if you're curious how our Bio-Soul Scan gets its measurements. Then this book should give you the answers you seek.

Hello again, Glad to see you made it to the second edition. Just like in our first book, Anytime we need to explain something from a mechanical perspective and not a lore perspective, this handy quote box will be here to explain things. Oh, remember, please don't tell SAGE I am here. She doesn't know I exist. Not yet, anyway.

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Odd, I could have sworn I felt someone else on this connection again, just like last time. Eh, it's probably just some typical Quantum Interference. Either way, that's enough introduction; why don't we get into the meat of this book. But first, a quick refresher.

The 8 Stats: A Refresher

As you may remember, when newcomers end up inside the Nexus, we perform a scan of their capabilities. Newcomers are graded on 8 different stats, and a score is given based on how strong or weak they are in those categories. You likely already know the 8 scores, but in case you need a refresher:

Strength

Perception

Endurance

Charisma

Intellect

Agility

Luck

Spirit

In the first book, we listed the various "Prebuilds" that our scanners have been given the knowledge to detect during scanning. While the Prebuilds help explain in a general sense what the scores represent, it overgeneralizes what the scores actually mean in the grand scheme of things. As such, we are going to expand on what each of these scores actually refers to, starting from the top.

Strength

Strength is likely the most straightforward of the 8 scores. It refers to exactly what it says on the card, how strong an entity is compared to the baseline. Anything with a Strength score below 5 is weaker than the baseline, whereas any score above 5 is stronger than the baseline. For instance, a strength score of 1 is as weak as one can be when it comes to strength, while on the flip side, someone who has a strength score of 20 is 4 times as strong as the baseline. In order to quantify how strong someone is, we primarily take two different factors into account. The first one is how much damage said entity can do with a single punch, and the second is how much weight they could safely carry. The damage one can do in a single punch to a target has a 1/1 ratio with your resulting strength score, so a strength score of 5 can do a minuscule 5 HP of damage. By contrast, one's carrying capacity has a ratio of 1/25. So someone with a strength score of 5 could lift up to 125 pounds at maximum. Using both these scores along with some internal error checking, we can verify with a 99.98% accuracy how strong an entity is.

Hello again. Sage is being modest here. Given the fact we actually quantify those two attributes from your strength score directly, the Error Chance is actually far, far lower, assuming the luck bonus is correctly accounted for, of course.

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Odd.. that interference was back for a few moments again... Must be a hectic day in the Sea.
Anyways, your strength score also factors in to determine Combat Endurance and how strong your body is in general, though I will go into more detail on what those two measurements are in the Endurance and Spirit sections, respectively. Now then, let's move on to the next score on the list.

Perception

Perception is used to measure how perceptive you are to your surroundings. Anything with a Perception score below 5 is weaker than the baseline, whereas any score above 5 is more perceptive than the baseline. For instance, a perception score of 1 is as oblivious as one can be when it comes to perception, while on the flip side, someone who has a perception score of 20 is 4 times as perceptive as the baseline. In order to quantify how perceptive someone is, we primarily take two different factors into account, your accuracy, and your Visual Acuity. Accuracy has a 1/10 ratio with perception, meaning that a perception score of 5 would mean one has an accuracy of 50. Determining Perception from Visual Acuity is far more complex; however, it gives a far more accurate picture of how perceptive someone is, assuming one can do the algebraic function properly. Visual Acuity is calculated as F(x) = 20x/100, where x is the perception score we have gathered from your accuracy.

Those who are mathematically literate may have noticed that that formula uses perception to get the Visual Acuity score rather than the reverse. This is intentional, as we actually calculate both that score and accuracy from the perception score you determine when getting your character approved.

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Huh. That strange interference just came back for a moment. Either way, perception is also factored into measuring your strength of mind, though that will be explained in more detail when we get to the Spirit section. I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, so let's move on to the next score we calculate.

Endurance

Endurance is a measure of how much you can endure in one given moment. At first glance, Endurance may seem like a measurement of stamina, and in a way that would not be inaccurate, though it's closer to a score of how much pain one could endure, whether physical or mental. We quantify Endurance using two different factors, Health/HP and Defensive Will, though both of these derive their values from more than just Endurance. Health is actually broken into two separate scores, Combat Endurance and Health. Combat endurance is the measure of a subject's ability to take damage before blacking out and can be calculated by the formula below, though fair warning, this is very much one of the more complex mathematical formulas we use here: [(Endurance×2)+Strength]×10=CE. While Combat Endurance measures how much pain you can take before blacking out, Health measures how much pain you can take before suffering from CSF and actually perishing. Health is calculated from the formula below: (Strength+Endurance+Agility)×15=Health . In order to simplify things, both CE and Health get combined into a single score which in turn refers to your full HP.

Hello again, thought I should slide in real quick to give a bit of trivia. Combat Endurance and Health were originally going to be two separate "Health bars" which would get damaged differently by various attacks, as well as require far more complex procedures to heal back up Health as compared to Combat Endurance. This was all a part of a massive Comba t overhaul that we have since discarded. During the streamlining and discarding of said overhaul, we chose to combine the two health bars we were preparing to design into 1 single health bar.

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Huh. That strange interference just showed up again. Either way, Endurance also factors into your Defensive Willpower and the strength of body score. We will go into more detail on what those are in the spirit section. Now then, on to the next score on the list.

Charisma

Charisma is one of the more complex scores for us to measure, though it refers primarily to how persuasive you can be to others. Any score below 5 would mean you would be more or less completely incapable of convincing people of anything, whereas a score above 5 would mean your persuasion skills are above baseline. Charisma is primarily related to your strength of mind score, as well as your Offensive Willpower, both of which we will cover in more detail in the Spirit Section.

Intellect

As the score implies, Intellect is a score of how intelligent you are. Anything below 5 being lower than average intelligence, and anything above 5 meaning one has higher than average intelligence. Intellect can be derived from your IQ using the formula below: IQ/20 = Intellect. So a score of 5 means you have an IQ of 100, while a score of 1 has an IQ of 20. A score of 20 would have an IQ of 400 or 4 times the baseline of an average human. Intellect also factors into your Strength of Mind, Defensive Will, and Offensive Will scores, which we will go into more detail on in the Spirit Section.

Agility

Agility measures how Agile you are. It's primarily derived from two factors, your evasion score and your maximum speed score. One can derive Agility from max speed by dividing Max Speed by 2. As such, an agility score of 5 would have a max speed of 10 mph, and an agility score of 1 would have a max speed of 2 mph. Agility can also be derived from evasion by dividing evasion by 10. Agility also factors into Strength of Body, which we will go further into in the Spirit Section

Luck

Luck measures how lucky you are. It's a tad harder to quantify Luck directly, given it cannot be derived from its own score. However, it does factor into something we call a "Luck Bonus," which alters all other scores we measure. As such, we can indirectly derive one's Luck by cross-referencing the other scores and checking how they are off from what the formula says they should be. Luck can then be derived by dividing the outlier amount by 2. From there, the Luck Bonus can be cross-checked with all the other measurements to ensure the discrepancy amount is the same on all attributes we measured.

Spirit

And now for the last one, Spirit. Spirit is a measurement of how strong your Spirit is. Spirit is one of the more complex measurements we take, as it factors into multiple different scores. The most vital one is Strength of Spirit, which factors in with Strength of Mind and Strength of Body to determine your maximum capacity to store magical energy. This cap can be calculated using the formula above:

Strength of Mind: ((Perception*3)+(Charisma*3)+(Intellect*3))= Strength of Mind.

Strength of Body: ((Strength*3)+(Agility*3)+(Endurance*3)) = Strength of Body

Strength of Spirit: Spirit*9= Strength of Spirit

Mana Cap = (Strength of Mind + Strength of body + Strength of Spirit) + Luck Bonus

On Defensive and Offensive Will

While Spirit does not factor in for Defensive Will or Offensive will, both of these scores are completely vital when wielding magic, especially when your ability is meant to affect another Sentient entity. Willpower is quantified via 3 separate values. Defensive Will represents your capacity to resist those attempting to impose their will on you. Offensive Will represents how strong your mind is at suppressing the will of others. And the final value is a combination of both, something we call a Will Quotient. When someone attempts to impose their will on another, the formula decided if they succeed is below:

(Attacker OW - Target's DW)/100 = Total Chance the attacker's ability works.

Will Quotient primarily factors in for something else entirely, though that is a story that warrants its own book, so you'll have to wait until Book 3 for me to explain what WQ is used for.

Postface

And that does it for Book 2 of our player's handbook. Hope this helped explain how we get the measurements for newcomers and natives alike. In the next book, we'll cover how one gets stronger on our systems, as well as explain Power Sums and Power Classes. Until next time though, I'll see you in the Nexus.