I am currently writing up a fairly complex mini-game that has three stages of competition:
1). Mapping, Navigating, and Utilising a randomly determined Marketplace, including micro-quests and random events (attacks, happen-stance, etc.), toward the goal of completing a list of items/ingredients/invitations.
:: During this stage, as Wins are accumulated, Power increases, making Tests easier to pass as well as earning spending coin. At each graduation to a higher Power score, a Test to gain employment with an Adventurer is offered. Declining or failing a Hire Test instead rewards the character with a Booster Die, used to slightly improve one's odds in any Test by substituting its result, if better, with any one die in the normal pool.
:: Since the Hire Test can be refused, it is possible for some characters to voluntarily remain at that stage.
2). Hired On-
:: Winning the Hire Test results in the second stage of the game, in which the character acts as either a Hireling, or a more-trusted Hench, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, and a possibility to switch types during play.
:: Exposure to traps, creatures, and environmental hazards has treasure and continued personal development (prowess and skill) toward the goal of the Graduate Challenge as its reward.
3). Graduate Challenge-
:: In this final stage of the game, the character has gone from a simple errand-runner to an Adventurer, if terribly naive about the scale of dangers and riches that await those good enough to live by their wits. Now, they must face-off in a true combat to rank the Graduates and determine what grade of Adventuring Party each is hired by. Ranking low can dramatically reduce the PC's chances of survival, but that will have to wait for RPG sessions, because, by this time, a fully-formed RPG character has been created, ready to get the chosen system's (by default, UWoM) scores converted and standard count (coin) determined toward equipping.
I'd say more, but I'd better get back to writing.
--I'll blog around the next few days, but may be otherwise silent.
See you in a few.
