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Editing on book 1 is nearing completion. In periodic breaks from Magic is Programming, I've fleshed out some more details for Skill Unlocker. I've also identified some areas that I could use some suggestions for.

Here's the non-spoiler parts of what I have so far:

Background:

Set in the near future, or possibly an alternate present, of Earth.

Set primarily in the US.

The System arrived on Earth 5 years before the story begins.

The arrival of the System did not directly disrupt things.

No throwing everyone in a life-threatening tutorial.

No swarms of monsters spawning out of nowhere to threaten humanity.

No preventing existing technology from working.

It was very much not a destructive kind of apocalypse. People just started gaining more capabilities.

The System has given no hints as to its origin or purpose, aside from the obvious fact that it empowers people, and efforts to investigate its origins, purpose, and means of operation have borne no results.

Dungeons started spawning all over the world soon after the System arrived.

Dungeons are heavily concentrated near major cities and famous locations. They rarely ever spawn in wilderness areas.

Vatican City is an especially major hotbed of dungeon formation, among others.

Whenever a dungeon spawns, the System issues a quest to everyone nearby to clear it. People approaching it afterward also get the quest, and the area covered by the quest notification expands the longer the dungeon remains uncleared.

Research efforts into dungeons have found ways to detect when a dungeon is about to form, but that is practically redundant with the System quest notification, and their origins and mechanisms remain mysteries.

Dungeons technically can breach, but this was only discovered because a research team intentionally prevented anyone from clearing it for an extended period of time. The consequences proved not worthwhile.

While dungeons are extradimensional spaces filled with fantastical and sometimes valuable things, only the rewards for clearing a dungeon can be taken out of it.

System-based advancement:

You can gain skills by successfully performing a basic function of the desired skill a requisite number of times.

The more skills you have, the harder it is to gain new ones.

Using a skill to perform a basic function of a more advanced skill can upgrade or evolve the skill.

Compatible groups of skills can be merged into more versatile and powerful skills.

There are several publicly-known skills that lead to literal magic.

Skills have levels.

You can also gain achievements for doing various things, which give related bonuses, and a lot of them are easy enough to have become ubiquitous.

Once you have enough skill levels, you can gain a class.

What class you get depends on the combination of what skills and achievements you have and your personality, behavior, desires, and motivations.

Classes grant additional skills to cover any major class-relevant gaps in the skillset you already had and may evolve some of your skills.

Classes also have levels.

I have not yet decided whether to include stats in this System or not. I'm leaning toward leaving out stats.

Experience points and levels can be earned through training, overcoming challenges, and especially by clearing dungeons. The System is quite generous with XP rewards.

People with great authority, influence, and/or fame also gain XP passively over time.

Above a certain level, XP gains are heavily reduced. You can push higher despite the reduction, but the penalty escalates the higher you go. The reason for this soft cap is unknown.

There have been dungeons that were dangerous beyond the level of the soft cap. Clearing such dungeons without great risk requires a combination of high-level delvers, expensive high-tech equipment, and creative blatantly-unfair tactics. At least one such dungeon has been outright nuked.

Setting details:

The new US president campaigned for election primarily on the basis of his class, which is some kind of leadership class with a plainly-clear honesty-and-competence slant to it. Skills that can identify other people's classes are common, and at every election campaign event, he invited all attendees capable of it to personally identify his class. Once in office, he followed through in full on the expectations he set in his campaign.

Putin got assassinated and replaced by an elite Russian soldier who cleared several dungeons early on and got ambitious with his high System level. The new Russian leader is very militaristic, but also very focused on dungeon delving rather than war with other countries. He believes that an exceptionally high personal level is the ultimate source of security and that clearing dungeons is the best path to achieve that.

China declared all dungeons to be government property and instituted a power-leveling program for its leaders. Its politics and style of government remain largely unchanged.

The capabilities of magic are gradually permeating society.

Many major research efforts are focused on various kinds of magitech.

Development of better AIs has been handicapped by the fact that no AI has ever gained a skill or achievement from the System.

Now, for things that I would like suggestions for. Note that the only compensation for any suggestion I use from this post will be the existence of the story that uses it.

What should the US president's class be? I've considered Honest Politician, partly for the obvious joke - "Identify me and behold for yourself what was believed to be impossible!" - but I'm not fully satisfied with it.

What major international tensions would make sense and be potentially interesting story elements, in particular with some aspect of the System contributing to them?

What sorts of societal transformations due to the System would you find logical and interesting to read about?

Any other thoughts that come to mind?

Comments

Drew Monney

Question. Are skills/classes inheritable? For politics and plot, maybe a group/family that works on similar skills forming guilds and “discouraging” competition. Five Families, Mafia-Style politics. I’d also think that “mind control” via hypnosis or mass media would be an interesting skill to have as a leader. Like Cassandra from the Iliad but opposite, “Everyone believes everything I say!” Secret/Legendary/Epic skills with very specific unlocks? Jedi—> must have 30 year old virgin achievement + physics degree + career in plasma technology + knowledge of Star Wars and biochemistry.

Sean Roach

Cincinnatus. Dungeons that are in one territory but threaten another. Alternatively, dungeons that bridge two territories, resulting in neither being free to clear them without the okay of the other. “Farming” dungeons. Not letting them die, because they’re good training. Especially near well-known military basis; Drum, Knox, The Citadel, Annapolis, etc. IRS agents dropping in on dungeons to make sure the people who clear it declare the spoils. Reality TV shows, that are purportedly just the stars wearing a GoPro, (but, which get a LOT of editing, and seem to have more “drama” than there should be in a healthy, functioning, group). Dungeon tourism. Seriously. Visit Mexico City. Explore the dungeon under the pyramid. Must sign a waiver.

GeistInMachine

President should have the 'Diplomancer' class An interesting tension could be a skill arms race, some skill has been identified as in the national interests of major countries and they are powerleveling users of it. Think chess in cold war, but practical. Maybe somthing astronauts would get, and it leads to a new space race?

TUSF

China regarding all dungeons as state owned makes sense, but then prioritizing power-leveling their leaders only really makes sense as a response to what happened to Russia and Putin. If anything, I imagine every country will prioritize leveling loyal soldiers and generals, with only some exceptions. About the US president's class, whatever it is, I imagine there'll be a lot of conspiracy theories about the President ACTUALLY having a political oriented class that lets them lie about their class. Lying about being honest, and all.

Autoskip

If nothing else, it sounds like having a “family business” would result in a fairly standardised list of skills that the family has, and it would be easier to learn skills if you’re regularly around people who have already gotten them.

Drew Monney

Agreed, but I felt that idea may be hard to implement as it’s almost too close to the “family soul plans” from MiP.

Autoskip

I feel like the new US president’s class *shouldn’t* be anything directly to do with presidency (after all, he had to get the skill before he got the job), but I’m blanking on good class names. That said, having a verifiably honest leader sounds sooooooo nice.

Krystalfox1232

As for societal changes you could have people looking back at history and realizing that this may be a cycle system/dungeons apear and the after what ever the "goal" of the system is it dissappears as a theory based on ancient myths and legends.

Krystalfox1232

You could also play off of this by making some of the cretures/monsters not necessarily hostile in the way of murder every one but instead they want to conquer ex Egyptian God's were powerful highly intelligent creatures that escaped and took over Egypt.

Krystalfox1232

Last thought is you could also have stealth dungeons appear and by that I mean a dungeon that does not show up on any kind of sensors/skills in a secluded/hidden area near civilization such as inside a cave, under the water on the coast of a lake/ocean, inside a mosileum, or inside of a abandoned building. These would be extremely rare and something that does not happen right away untill say people start to get comfortable and complacent. You could even have these one have better organized/high intelligence races inside that would after the seal breaks launch an offensive to capture teritory such as say elves, dwarves, dragonkin/lizardfolk, orcs, goblins, other things from myths and legends. It might also be interesting to explore the possibilities that these in particular are bridges to other sytem effected worlds with inhabitants that knowledge of the system/dungeons did not fade away into myths and legends and have been preparing to invade since then.

Krystalfox1232

The idea for the system being cyclical I got from nature as it has cycles to ot ex iceages, seasons, water cycle and many more. The idea of bridges to another world beyond just a poket dimension as well as why we lost knowledge of this is record's of it were lost in things like the burning of the library of Alexandria and other such events or lost in the dark ages with the fall of empires and such and only myths and legends remain.

Sean Roach

Another one. "Solomon".

Th3pineapple _

For the US president I think Man of the People could be a good name for his class. I also think it would be neat if there were types of classes, either officially designated by the system or unofficially by the people. For example the president could have a paladin type class where if he intentionally breaks his oaths he losses his class but in exchange his class is stronger then normal, like old dnd paladins. You could then also have it where certain types of classes tend to go into certain professions, like healing classes go into Healthcare fighting classes into the military. Then it can be an interesting note if someone has a type of class that isn't normally in a particular field.

LucasTheLost

President's Class: Of the People, by the people, for the people. (But really just "For the People") National achievements. "As a citizen of the United States, visit all 50 states" with a little known upgrade for visiting the territories as well. And another upgrade for visiting state capitals. A trivial one for visiting your own state's capital that, yes, people born there would get automatically. Travel type achievements like this should boost "social" stats if you have such things. Enter/Clear a dungeon, enter a dungeon in your country of birth, enter a dungeon in your state of birth. If you don't want The System to be that politically aware, you could tier such things based on distance from place of birth. Is the system aware of cities? Does it support some sort of settlement that can aid govermening that territory? "Visit the level X settlement closest to your place of birth", visit a level X settlement at least Y km/miles/quatloos from your place of birth. "Enter/clear dungeons nearest to N different settlements." At which point a "canned hunt" could be a kindergarten field trip. Get those achievements early! (Especially if they improve growth rather than something like a flat bonus to some stat[s]). If you can get a "cleared" achievement just for being inside when it was cleared, and clearing achievements could simply being there, you could sell tickets. On the other hand, if the system wants to discourage travel, then the relevant achievement bonus might be something like "+N% XP in the dungeon closest to your place of birth". Why would you not want that extra 25% (or whatever)?

LucasTheLost

Skill combo suggestion: Something that combines into "Olympian", a bunch of skills that harken back to the original Olympics. Sprint, throw (hammer/javelin/discus), ling distance running, jump, etc Rare combo: something that echoes the labors of Hercules. Sounds like more of an achievement. Achievement: take a female animal shape and hold it long enough to conceive and give birth to/hatch that child. The Loki/Slepnir special. Separate achievements for mammals, reptiles, against, fish, etc. Mother of All achievement for gaining at least N different ones. Another set of achievements for siring children across species. And that's how you get beast men. And possibly Werewolves. Bonus points if both parents were transformed humans. And it might not even be a crime at that point, just a kink. Illegal achievements. "8 counts of bestality for holding the following achievements..." Various achievements that are basically just crime tracks (but also help commit said crimes) theft (based on vale of stolen items), various flavors of "killed someone", in terms of preparation and degrees of helplessness. Achievements for dueling (entered your first duel, won your first duel, a tiered "won N duels" set), killed N opponents in duels. System backed duels flavoring could depend on how you want your system to treat people. A "to first blood" option that could stop a thrust to the heart as soon as the skin is broken is going to make people much more likely to enter one one... and this seems like a fairly benign system as such things go. "No equipment" duels, "fixed equipment" (basic stuff provided by the system), "anything goes (pay to win)". Combo skills for various kinds of historically acurrate soldiers. Different (and superior) achievements for killing enemy soldiers in a declared war vs outside of one. System would need to know about declared wars (possibly through settlement/nation interface)

LucasTheLost

With the internet still working, there will be a lot of people sharing knowledge of achievements and skill merges. "Open source" builds. Including some bad info (mess up the steps so people get something inferior, or even harmful. "Say HASTUR three times". Serial Killers posting "how to summon an eldritch horror" instructions, claiming it will summon "The Wise and Benevolent blah de blah who will offer you a boon", when really there's no containment and it'll just eat your soul. Kicker: the serial killer gets a little more powerful each time their Patron eats a soul. What might end up on something like "wikileaks" or a dark web reddit? An ethnic cleansing achievement for killing N of each of M different races. Shudder. How to hide or remove specific achievements.

LucasTheLost

What if the system recognized several other species as people? Whales, elephants, maybe some of the larger octopi? Did any "mythological" creatures come out of hiding? Some countries will probably require you to register some skills. USA? Not so much, the 2nd amendment types would be all over that. "You can have my fireball spell when you pry it from my cold dead hands". Do pre-system actions qualify for achievements? Do sporting events grant XP? What about victory xp? What if they only grant victory xp in a FAIR game? As soon as someone pays off a ref, the players' /coaches' XP tanks?

LucasTheLost

Impacts of various heightened sensed on society: Investigators who can smell who was at a crime scene and what their last few meals were, or spot fingerprints and trace evidence from across the room. Technical types who can sense magnetic fields and flowing electricity. Your local auto shop could diagnose many problems trivially. How about a programmer that doesnt need a debugger because their class & skills make them think and sense so quickly that they know what's going on and can keep track of it all, and trigger interrupts. (Also able to crash any program/OS running on an unshielded computer, or make it do stuff) A Dr. With a heightened sense of smell could diagnose many things by smelling the appropriate bodily fluid. Bonus points for passive X-ray vision, or sonar. Super ultra bonus points for figuring out how to merge several career-relevant senses into a single skill. "Diagnostic senses", "investigatiive senses", perhaps granted when you have those senses and take the relevant class. A welder that can arc-weld bare-handed, and just uses tools for precision, and doesnt need a MIG kit because they can just keep the oxygen away from the molten aluminum. A welder that doesnt need heat to shape and fuse metal, just "mana". How long before mana is brought to everyone's house on wires just like electricity?

LucasTheLost

Truth detection skills vs the law, and "no self-incrimination" amendment. Maybe an amendment that having an "illegal" achievement isn't enough to prove guilt, but is more than enough to be "probable cause" for warrants and such. Can the court "seal" or remove illegal achievements to avoid "double jeopardy". Possibly a "paid your debt to society" achievement for people who served their terms. It would counter all the good sides of the crime achievement plus maybe some kind of "get you back on your feet" bonus?