Redraft 3: Wisdom

I feel like the Spanish Inquisition.

4 numbers, I started with 1.

Working on the final room I thought, what does effort, luck, and gold have to say here? You discover a secret in this room, like you can in many of the rooms, but what mechanically happens?

I've played a lot of tabletop and computer RPGs over the past few years and what I like most is seeing a character change. And that has to happen mechanically - it makes you play the game differently. A character whose numbers change has certifiably seen stuff. Most often this is done through an experience system.

Kobold Dungeon Tester's new experience points are called Wisdom. They give you a bit more effort to spend when you find enough of them. I was going to swap out Luck for Wisdom, but Luck provides that lumpy difficulty curve I need. Adding a you must be this Wise clause to a room isn't as fun as knowing your luck is completely spent, or as fun as getting it back. So Wisdom exists in addition to the other stats. This required a rewrite of all the passages.

A lot of the rooms welcomed the mechanic, encouraging investigation whilst letting me add kobold lore or terrible puns. A few may need work.  Ultimately I feel it reads a bit better because the room wants to be explored. I've had timid playtesters run past harmless rooms, now at least there's a bit more reward than perhaps a gold coin if they turn over every rock.

(You might balk at the idea that people don't want to stop and read. I did. The reason for it is that first number. Add one number to your story and it becomes the metric for the whole experience. Choose your numbers wisely - no pun intended.)

This update has 30-something passages, including Nim of the Stones, The Festering Limerick (thank you onelook.com for helping me rhyme), and the Library - which has an info-dump of lore. I've also reduced the map and removed the weird exit bar for a list of exit options. Desktop versions to follow, just the online version for now.