NESCraft III

[J.K. Stockholme]

Thank you Daftpanzer and Immaculate for sharing your resources, your advice, and letting me run a new iteration of this game.

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Warning: pixelated nudity

NESCraft is a sandbox survival crafting game where players brave a deadly wilderness. Their in-game avatars have a limited supply of Action Points to spend each turn to avoid hunger and death. Players may be hermits, wandering nomads, come together and form villages, or they may ponder the nature of existence and take succour from the spirits. The game is free-form and never-ending, as they once called these stories.

Joining
For the time being, new players who wish to join should message me - ideally all new players will be born into an existing family.

Spoiler Starting Traits :

Crafty: You are better at crafting items then most and are more likely to make durable items.
Hunter: You’ve an instinct for stalking prey – chances of a successful hunt are improved. Does not apply to predators who fight back.
Forager: You are a plant expert. Less likely to eat nasty plants and more likely to gather more better ones when foraging.
Stealthy: Quiet and careful, your odds of being spotted by predators you are trying to avoid or sneak up on are better.
Waterborne: Water is your element. All rolls involving traversing or hunting in water are more likely to succeed.
Warrior: You are a born fighter. Odds of good outcomes improve in combat. Does not apply when adversary is not fighting back (e.g. hunting game or defenceless creatures).

New players can also elect to let the GM choose some or all of the above for them.

Your avatar is born a fully formed adult with instinctive knowledge of plants, animals, crafting, and cooking. Your avatar, because they are the minion of a twenty-first century human player with access to the internet, also possesses a supernatural inventiveness and capacity for conceptualization.

Players should expect their avatars to perish. Whether by predators, starvation, illness, or old age, all avatars will ultimately die and be reincarnated anew.

All orders must be posted in-thread and I will only take the first several signups.

Action Points
Avatars have one resource to spend each turn, Action Points (AP). The default is 3 AP per turn, where each turn represents a full day-night cycle. AP cannot be banked or traded.

Common actions requiring the expenditure of AP include:

• Move/travel outside one’s area of vision
• Hunt, fish, forage for food
• A good night’s rest
• Craft or build something

AP on a given turn may be higher or lower depending on the conditions of the avatar. Failing to sleep or eat will reduce AP on the subsequent day. Eating well, being sheltered, among other conditions, will increase AP on the subsequent day.

Some actions do not require AP. These include:

• Picking up small objects in small numbers (rocks, sticks, your items)
• Refuelling a fire that is already going
• Moving locally (within your area of vision)
• Cooking and eating

Avatars can carry two items, one in each hand. Heavy items like timber and stone blocks require both hands. Appropriate equipment can increase carrying capacity. Clothing and armour do not need to be held like regular items.

World Map
This game features a world map. Most features on the world map are representational; e.g. a tree represents a forest. Landmasses are larger than they appear relative to creatures on the map. Sometimes features are intended to be literal – human avatars, buildings, and some animals are only as numerous as represented on the map.

Players can attempt to search for things that are not on the map, as some herbs, minerals, and even animals may be hidden.

Dice Rolling
Most actions will trigger a dice roll to determine their outcome. An avatar’s traits and the situational context will affect the roll. Players are encouraged to mention assets or advantages they have when doing something risky. Some actions may have multiple rolls (such as tracking then fighting an animal).

A number of dice are rolled and the top four are added together and compared to a target number. Target numbers go up or down based on local factors – equipment, injury, tiredness, etc. The number of dice rolled is a default of five plus one for each trait that applies to the context. You may roll fewer dice if you have suffered incredible harm, such as losing a limb, extreme sleep deprivation, etc. Degree of success or failure sometimes matters. Some advantages/assets won’t change the target number but will mitigate severity of bad outcomes.

Sometimes rolls will happen when there is no risk of failure, such as crafting, and will instead determine the quality of the successful outcome.

Acquired Traits
Avatars gain new traits after engaging in relevant actions enough times to level up in that area. At game start this list only includes the starter traits, and will expand as avatars acquire new traits from experience:

Spoiler List of Traits :

Crafty: You are better at crafting items then most and are more likely to make durable items.
Hunter: You’ve an instinct for stalking prey – chances of a successful hunt are improved. Does not apply to predators who fight back.
Forager: You are a plant expert. Less likely to eat nasty plants and more likely to gather more better ones when foraging.
Stealthy: Quiet and careful, your odds of being spotted by predators you are trying to avoid or sneak up on are better.
Waterborne: Water is your element. All rolls involving traversing or hunting in water are more likely to succeed.
Warrior: You are a born fighter. Odds of good outcomes improve in combat. Does not apply when adversary is not fighting back (e.g. hunting game or defenceless creatures).

Crafting
Crafting in this game is Minecraftesque with the caveat that players are not restricted to a predesigned list of items and can devise multiple ways to craft the same thing. Crafting is also simplified for ease of play. For example, while in-reality you may need a number of obscure materials to make certain kinds of things, in this game you generally can make something as long as you have the main ingredients (adding the obscurer stuff will improve product quality though).

Items have a durability score put in parentheses that represents the number of days of active wear-and-tear before the item breaks down beyond repair. A durability score of one means that the item will break by the end of the day. Active wear-and-tear means the item was directly used or suffered noteworthy harm. You can always reinforce an item for the same material and AP cost as making a new item; in this case, instead of giving the durability score to a new separate item, you add the old item’s score plus the new item’s score together.

Below is a list of all known crafting formulae:

Spoiler Crafting Formulae :

Rocks can be crafted by hand into Stone Tools (choppers, scrapers, pounders, simple knife, etc.): Improves chances of successful crafting; required for skinning animals and more complex crafting.

Sticks and Rocks can be crafted into a Stone Hammer: This tool is fit for combat but can also be used to assist in certain crafting or building.

Sticks and Rocks together can be crafted into a Stone Axe: An aggressive, swinging weapon that also serves as a tool for cutting down trees into usable Timber. For best results, swing with both hands.

Sticks and Rocks together can be crafted into a Stone Spear: An all-round decent weapon that allows you to keep a bit of distance from the target and can pierce the thick hides of animals. For best results, grip with both hands.

Sticks and Rocks together can be crafted into a Pickaxe: A rock-breaking tool. Not the most efficient weapon but does have particular armour-piercing qualities with a good strike.

Sticks and Rocks together can be crafted into a Hoe: For clearing and tilling soil, presumably you have something you want to plant.

Grass/Wheat/Crops/Bamboo/Sinew can be made into String or Rope: Multiple uses.

Grass/Wheat/Crops can be crafted into Linen: Works as a mattress or blanket for sleeping, and also as a stage-1 material for other things.

Grass/Wheat/Crops can be crafted into Bandages: these can accelerate the healing of an injury or (partially) mitigate the malus associated with the injury.

Sticks and String can be made into a Sling: You got yourself a ranged weapon that can use multiple ammunition types, such as Rocks. It cannot do much harm to armoured or thick-skinned targets. Requires two hands.

Sticks can be rubbed together to make a Fire: Stay warm at night. While eating, cook your food to make it tastier. You can really get a bonfire going by adding materials such as Timber. Fires can be kept going with local sticks without spending an AP as long as you remain in the vicinity to tend our fire, and there are sticks available.

With a little String, Linen or Wool or Hide can be crafted using Stone Tools into Clothes: environmental protection. Essential for life in cold climates. Wear double layers for even more protection; a combination of weatherproof Hide and warm Wool is great.

Uncured hide can be made into a Cured Hide with fire.

Uncured hide and Cured Hide can be made into Leather with fire and salt.

Trees can be worked with Stone Axe to make Timber: A furnace fuel and building material.

Rocks or rocky areas can be worked with a Pickaxe to make Stone Blocks: A building material for advanced buildings.

Rope and a Spear can be combined to make a Harpoon: superior fishing implement.

Bones, Grass, and Sticks can be crafted into Torches: useful for exploring caverns and warding off threats.

Sticks can be crafted into an Atlatl: a spear-throwing device useful only if you already have a spear.

Linen, skin, or hide can be crafted into a Satchel or Backpack: increasing your carrying capacity.

Mana
The world of NESCraft is one of reincarnation, unseen spirits, and a supernatural energy that permeates the world and can be channelled by avatars.

Mana can be obtained through meditation (which costs 1 AP as an action) and through elaborate rituals involving the sacrifice of something valuable. As with other activities, these involve dice rolls to determine their effect.

Players acquire Mana as non-corporeal resource – they cannot lose it and can spend it whenever they wish. These are the basic uses of Mana known to all avatars at game start:

Spoiler Mana Powers :

Blessing: 1 point of Mana can be spent to bless a particular action or bless an entire day. Doing so will reroll the blessed action if it fails, or the first action that fails in a given day (if blessing the day). If the blessed action succeeds on its natural roll, or no failures happen in the day (if blessing the day), then the Mana will not be spent and can be used the next turn.
Divine Intervention: 1 point of Mana can be spent to try changing the behaviour of one pack of animals to that which the player prefers. Dice will be rolled, and failure may cause undesired outcomes.
Divine Hunger: 1 point of Mana can be spent to try draining the life-force of an adversary in combat with the player’s avatar. Dice will be rolled, failure may have adverse effects on the player.
Wisps: 1 point of Mana can be spent to try creating a magical source of light which will persist regardless of fuel source or location for some number of days. Dice will be rolled, failure may have adverse effects on the player

Further advances in the arts of Mana can be attempted to discover new Mana uses.

Fighting & Injuries
Avatars are going to fail. Failure to find food, failure to evade predators, failure to fight predators – players should play this game anticipating their avatars to fail and perish from these failures.

Predators are the chief threat in this game – whenever a predator is within an avatar’s area of vision there is an encounter roll for their behaviour. They may leave the area, draw closer to the avatar, or even attack. If they attack, an initiative roll will determine when in the day the attack takes place. Doing actions very close to predators can make things worse.

While failures will range in severity, full failures in the context of a serious danger – such as a full failure to combat a deadly predator – will always result in a major injury. Major injuries will significantly impair success on future rolls; multiple full failures where lethal threats are present will either cause death or permanent loss of body parts. As a GM I don’t want to kill avatars off without warning, so consider yourself unlikely to die when you are start a turn at full health (unlikely, but not guaranteed – multiple spectacular failures on the same turn against predators will be lethal).

Conditional Orders
I want to encourage players to write conditional orders for unexpected failure. If your actions are interlinked and assume success, make it clear what you want the GM to do if you fail. For example, if your first action is to get food, and your second action to make fire to cook the food - if you fail to get food on that first try, would you really prefer to make a fire, or would you prefer to spend a second AP on trying to get food again? Likewise, if you expect a predator could attack you, and you hope to do one or two actions before it happens, what is your backup plan if the attack happens at the break of dawn?

Karma
From time to time I will put out a call for role-playing posts. Like other IOTs of late, there will be an in-game benefit, in this case players will get a Karma point. As in NESCraft II, a point of Karma let's you reroll your next failed roll and take the better of the two outcomes.

 

[J.K. Stockholme]

Updates

• Dawn of Day One
• Day One
• Day Two
• Day Three
• Day Four
  
• Day Five
  
• Day Six
• Day Seven
• Day Eight
• Day Nine
• Day Ten
• Day Eleven
• Day Twelve
• Day Thirteen
• Day Fourteen
• Day Fifteen
• Day Sixteen
• Day Seventeen

Patch Notes

Day Two​

Cooked meat provides +1 AP bonus (as per prior NESCraft games), but cooking wild foraged food does not. Players can now instead eat two days' worth of foraged foods and obtain +1 AP for the next day.

The first number within the brackets of an injury indicates its duration in days.

Day Three​

Players who miss a turn's orders and are sufficiently far from other players will just sort of have time freeze for them; they'll be where they were the previous turn basically unchanged. If a player doesn't send orders and is too close to other players to just skip over, I'll figure out that later, but assume the player's turn will be sub-optimally played out somehow.

Karma
Like other IOTs of late, there will be an in-game benefit, in this case players will get a Karma point. As in NESCraft II, a point of Karma let's you reroll your next failed roll and take the better of the two outcomes.

Day Four​

There are now at least three player pairings in the world and so all new players who wish to join the game will be born into one of these groups. Children will only be born if there is actually a player to take on the child - so since there aren't any waitlisted players, no children will be born into the world for now.

Day Six​

As per comments on Double A’s orders, there will be a new mechanic for expanding your line of sight. By spending 1 AP to exit your vision cone or go to a suitable point of view (the top of a tall tree, a mountain), you can end your turn where you want to normally but retain a vision cone that expands beyond the normal range, centred from the location you spent the AP to survey.

From now on clothing degrades when exposed to the elements – i.e. whenever you spend a decent amount of time outdoors or outside of your immediate home area (like hunting, exploring, etc).

Also from now on meat is perishable and will last two days after which it is rotten, unless preserved somehow.

Day Seven​

I’m formalizing a rule on discovering things not visible on the world map – if you want to try and find something that might logically be somewhere but be hidden, use 1 AP to “search” for that thing. The dice roll will determine if its there and to what extent. This will only work in forests, caves, or other areas where there is a good reason a pixel art sprite wouldn’t just be there on the map. Specific herbs are the most important use-case since I didn’t populate the world with lots of specific herbs (I did populate it with vegetables and fruits though).

Day Eight​

You don’t need to tell me your eating every turn ya I have just assumed people will eat if they can and cook if they can, but you do need to tell me you will sleep because that consumes 1 AP.

On being a child:
You are both very young children. Whatever you do today (with an AP), you will gain a trait relevant to that activity that will be permanent. Next turn you will be teens/adolescents, and you can learn a trait from one of your parents by spending 1 AP working on that with them that turn. After that you will be adults and normal rules apply.

Day Eleven​

Special Plants
Since thomas.berubeg has started trying to find plants for cultivation, I’d like to let everyone know that there are sixteen high-value plants (cereals, fruits, vegetables, etc.) spread throughout the world. Players will need to explore to find them – these only exist as sprites on the map and have no hidden ones that can be found from searching for hidden things. Avatars that benefit from a diversity of food sources will be healthier and therefore have more Action Points at their disposal.

Day Twelve​

Turns are getting increasingly complicated! So please double check stats and tell me if there's anything mistaken.

A number of different game systems are starting to come into play that I've decided to formalize this turn, see below.

Animal Products
Animals (and insects) will generate animal products every several turns. Once they are ready to be sheared, milked, or harvested, a player must spend 1 AP to do so. 1 AP will cover up to 4 "animals" (four goats, four sheep, four bee hives, etc.). Prerequisite tools are sometimes necessary, e.g. shears for sheep; some tools minimize hassle or obviate a roll (e.g. beekeeper's attire eliminating downside mistakes/risk in harvesting honey).

Animals will graze or pollinate on their own and you don't need to worry about feeding them - unless you have too many animals in too small a space.

The "rule of four" will be generally applied for AP actions involving animals. So for example, 1 AP can build a pen/fence that will "cover" up to 4 goats/sheep whatever. You could have more than 4 animals in a 1 AP fenced area, but they will overgraze and wipe out the land and soil - unless you feed them with crops you harvest.

Animal Reproduction & Capture
I will roll a number of dice equal to the number of male/female pairs that are not biologically related (i.e. children aren't mating with parents), and if it rolls the target number (which is not that likely in any given turn), a child will be born. One turn of baby-hood before a child turns to an adult. Animals have a lifespan and will die. You'll need a decent number of adult non-biologically related animals to have a self-sustaining herd (otherwise genetic diversity is too low and so they'll die out eventually).

The same idea applies for traps to capture animals; a number of die based on number of traps (or lures or whatever, e.g. Immac's bee box), and a low chance any turn you get it. Direct capture is way more likely to work - e.g. you go and try to wrangle a sheep, or go to the place where the bees are and use the bee box there, etc. But ya low chance traps can be deployed and I'll roll for them each turn.

Farming
Similar to animals, once planted, plants will have a maturation period of several turns and require 1 AP per 4 plants rounded down (e.g. first four plants, 1 AP, 6 plants, 2 AP, 8 plants, also 2 AP). Plants require daily watering of 1 AP following the "rule of four" (i.e. 1 AP per 4 crops, rounded down), whether manually or by an irrigation system. Mature plants producem multiple yields so intended result is that harvest day of a given plant means a lot of food.

Weather & Seasons
I've decided against trying to add weather (at least for now). As a rule, just assume that there is regular rain and sun in temperate and tropical regions. Deserts don't get rain. There are no seasons in this universe either.

Crafting Clothes
Just a reminder that each category of clothes (upper body, hands, head, lower body, feet) is a separate use of one animal hide or other fabric/material. So tell me what you want to make and describe it, otherwise I'll just make something of my own choice.

Cooking Nutritious Meals
Okay I've decided to formalize that idea I hinted at last turn regarding getting more AP from having a diverse set of foods. Cooking thus far is free - because what players are cooking is not complicated. A good meal by contrast, that will cost ya 1 AP. The minimum ingredients for this cooking action are 4 different ingredients from different food groups. 1 AP will convert one days' worth of each of those 4 items into 3 nutritious meals. These meals will provied a 2 AP bonus rather than a 1 AP bonus. Generic forageables do not count as an ingredient - meats, animal products, plants represented by their own sprites on the world map, those are all good.

RP Request: Culture & Religion
So folks are starting to get a sense of their culture and religion and I'd love to get some stories from players about what their culture and religion look like in more detail. Lots of "praying" going on that I'm not sure how to describe in the updates, so I'd love to know what prayer, meditation, or alternative practices that do the same idea you are doing! Everyone is welcome to do a write up; Karma this time is by player, not by tribe, so everyone gets Karma for themselves for the write up (max 1, but naturally you can write as much as you like). Stories elaborating on things you've already done, religious rituals/practices, the belief system that your character is developing (ala Ailedhoo's hatred of the sun or what have you), whatever you want I'd like to hear!

 

[Immaculate]

Physical Appearance: male, bright white skin, huge mane of bright green hair (like a troll doll)
Starting Location: temperate or tropical forest (near others please)
Starting Trait: hunter or forager (whichever is used less by other players)

 

[Ailedhoo]

Physical Appearance: male, light brown skin, ginger hair
Starting Location: a temperate isle with a hill.
Starting Trait: waterborne

 

[thomas.berubeg]

Physical Appearence: Female, Copper Skin, Red Hair
Starting Location: Temperate forest
Starting Trait: Forager

 

[Everblack]

Physical Appearance: Female, light pale skin, long blond hair
Starting Location: Cool, Open area
Starting Trait: Crafty

 

[Kyzarc Fotjage]

Physical Appearance: Female, olive skin, short brown hair
Starting Location: Cool, mountainous area
Starting Trait: Crafty

 

[Belgarion95]

Physical Appearance: Male, tan skin, short, short black hair
Starting Location: Forest, any type
Starting Trait: Stealthy

 

[J.K. Stockholme]

Alright signups are closed for turn 1 but feel free to post a signup for a waitlist and I'll add players as I feel I can manage updates.

 

[Double A]

hey can I be that elephant

 

[J.K. Stockholme]

Dawn of Day One​

"A blazing sun rises over this mysterious world, moving with noticeable pace above the curved horizon. It will complete its journey across the sky in just a few hours. Life stirs into action, ready to make the most of the day.

"The usual daily dramas begin to unfold; predators cause stampedes of prey. Rowdy animals squabble with each other. Clouds and rainstorms gather and disperse. Yet, this morning is different. It begins with a thunderous sound and a flash of light, followed by glowing orbs plummeting to the ground: the first batch of newcomers have arrived..."

Daftpanzer (NESCraft I)
​

Immaculate​

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Traits: Hunter
Status: Healthy. Fed. Rested. Warm.
Action Points: 3
Inventory: nothing
Stashed Nearby: nothing

You wake up on the bank of a river nestled inside a tropical rainforest. It's warm and humid. You are surrounded by all kinds of plants. Animal noises come from all directions - primates to the west, crocodiles feeding on tropical fish downstream, strange coloured birds making beautiful mating calls very nearby, and the sound of elephants in the distance.

Ailedhoo​

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Traits: Waterborne
Status: Healthy. Fed. Rested. Warm.
Action Points: 3
Inventory: nothing
Stashed Nearby: nothing

You wake up on a grassy island - the sound of waves crashing on sandy beaches in all directions. You are dry and already feel the heat of the sun beating on you. Colourful birds chirp in a nearby forest, while dozens of oversized hogs wander around the isle. You also find mysterious hard rocks right next to you.

thomas.berubeg​

​

Traits: Forager
Status: Healthy. Fed. Rested. Warm.
Action Points: 3
Inventory: nothing
Stashed Nearby: nothing

You wake up to a strange beast sniffing you - a small hog that flees as you stand up. You feel the heat of the sun, but enjoy the modest humidity. You are in a clearing surrounded by forests and shrubland, with herds of hogs and deer in your line of sight. Gorgeous butterflies move about and you notice a bright red plant in the forest to the west.

Everblack​

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Traits: Crafty
Status: Healthy. Fed. Rested. Chilly.
Action Points: 3
Inventory: nothing
Stashed Nearby: nothing

You wake up in an enormous cloudy grassland. You feel a cold wind from the north that makes you shiver - the sun cannot compete with wherever that cold air comes from. You are near a river and a lake, both teeming with fish. Diverse creatures roam the horizon - antelope, horses, and cattle.

Kyzarc Fotjage​

​

Traits: Crafty
Status: Healthy. Fed. Rested. Chilly.
Action Points: 3
Inventory: nothing
Stashed Nearby: nothing

You wake up at the base of an enormous pair of mountains. The air is cool, and combined with the wind, you feel a little cold. You see hills to the east, on top of which are numerous small wooly animals. Proud birds roam the skies. A horse finds some shade not far to your south, and your eyes catch two bears in that forest. The sound of the ocean is faint but your instincts tell you it lies beyond the mountains.

Belgarion95​

​

Traits: Stealthy
Status: Healthy. Fed. Rested. Chilly.
Action Points: 3
Inventory: nothing
Stashed Nearby: nothing

You wake up with a light dew having formed over your body. You are wet and a little cold, on the bank of a river and under foreboding clouds. To your north you see a gigantic, dense forest - you know not all that lies inside, but do hear the howl of wolves. Along the river animals come and go, including horned game, foxes, and hares. You can just make out at the top of the river the edge of a lake.

--

Orders due for Friday May 29th!

 

[Immaculate]

You did a great job. Those maps are gorgeous. Congrats!!!

 

[Angst]

Physical Appearance: Female, pale with dirty brown hair
Starting Location: Cold temperate
Starting Trait: Crafty

 

[Everblack]

Turn One:
1. Gather strong stick and sharp rocks to help craft spear
2. Go to river to spear fish hunting. (Carefully)
If success in hunting
3. Eat and sleep next to bush with spear in hand to defend self.
If no success
3. Forage for food (next to the meerkat to see what are those green sprout in the ground)

 

[thomas.berubeg]

Turn 1:
1) Walk towards the river to the eastish, next to the mountain
2) Forage as I go
3) Sleep under a bush.

 

[Immaculate]

Orders:

1) make a spear
2) hunt northeastwards... that snake looks tasty... but I'll be opportunistic
3) sleep

 

[Kyzarc Fotjage]

Orders:
1) make spear
2) hunt one of those sheep for its tasty flesh
3) sleep up that birch tree on the eastern hill

 

[Belgarion95]

Turn 1 Orders:
1) Make a spear
2) Sneak along the river towards the lake, hunting for a meal
3) Sleep in the tall grass

 

[J.K. Stockholme]

You did a great job. Those maps are gorgeous. Congrats!!!

Thanks!

 

[Ailedhoo]

1st Order

1) gather grass and craft rope
2) use nearby sticks and rocks to craft stone spear with the rope attached to make myself a stone harpoon.
3) with my newfound harpoon proceeds to spearfish: the northern shoal/school of fish will be my target.