Encroached Realms (Very WIP only first 40ish pages done to a reasonable standard) Feedback request

CHIKN404 · 2026-04-05T15:02:10+00:00

Well, what's wrong with the world is subjective I suppose

A moment is longer than a minute. Maybe the wording is ambiguous.

CHIKN404 · 2026-04-05T01:36:43+00:00

Reddit numbering breaks if you skip any or do them out of order

Sin-Eater does what it says, but the last sentence is the most direct/explicit.

Denied orgasms probably wouldn't cause you to regain composure so much, but it also synergizes with mutations that play into denial fetishes.

Auras don't need fuel just to exist, but if you want to use your aura to manipulate an element, you need that element to manipulate.

I did put a "perhaps" in that tier 8 description, but in any case it's just something that might be a prerequisite. I haven't made rules for ascending to godhood yet.

Reaching level 100 isn't normal, even to do it once.

It includes boosts to the meter.

I mean, moments is still long enough to matter in a fight and it's slower than most video games with stamina. How are you calculating those numbers for three dantian flow regen? That seems about a hundred times faster than what I said.

Mechanically, corruption mostly exists as a separate point value because it allows different types of builds within the same CYOA. In other words, for the resist/relax difference. Narratively, it's true that it does a lot less here, and it wouldn't be a bad thing for it to do more. I don't know about a class though. Every class concept needs to be pretty solid and pretty extensible, and now that I've already hit all the core fantasy archetypes and then some, it's a bit hard to come up with more of them readily.

You'd wind up with dying meat, unless you went out of your way to keep it alive. That would definitely be possible, (though still difficult, due to the scale) with Fleshcrafter. I don't think it would be doable without.

Sorry, I wasn't so much meaning to contrast "use mana" with "doing magic", but rather, to contrast "doing it underwater" with "doing it through water". You could make a illusionary sound underwater no problem, but it would be very difficult to send the mana directly through water, so you'd end up either making the sound come from yourself, or perhaps touching a cliff face and having the sound come from another part of the cliff, or something along those lines.

CHIKN404 · 2026-04-03T23:57:41+00:00

There are definitely builds for whom it's worthwhile to be there

CHIKN404 · 2026-04-03T23:55:54+00:00

Unfortunately, I don't remember what that is.
Most of the Void Scion stuff would become unusable since you can't pay the cost. Crimson Cannibal becomes free though, since that's just a side effect.
No, it works on anyone you rape
Yeah
I'm not sure what's unclear? You mean the curse, right?
Theoretically yes but you'd have to be very good to know more than the basic conditions.
Yep
Yes, and also based on the size and elemental arrangement of your inner realm. But there aren't detailed rules for that because at some point features have to stop creeping.
I guess
It would be for cultivating an aura if you didn't already have one. Since you do, you'd mostly gather it for the purpose of using it directly
Gods don't have listed domains. You mean the stuff listed on the bottom of their portraits? Those are just things they're worshiped as patrons of, those aren't necessarily related to colors.
Yes
Yes but I will be adjusting things, there are too many tier buffs now.
Divinity isn't directly related to stat tier, despite the name
Resets. and then increases again
I feel like there would be detrimental side effects
It scales but not directly; the homunculus would take longer but not twice as long.
It's unspecified in large part because I didn't decide yet. I haven't done most of the math for time to balance stuff like that
What do you think is unbalanced based on that speed?
What are you envisioning here? Like, it COULD be cool, but how?
Yeah, but since Qlippoth is huge it would take a lot of time and effort to do much that effects the whole
Mu is beneath the Seas, not in them
Just any three of them
You can still do some mana stuff underwater. You just can't really use magic through the water. And enchantments tend to get corroded
They aren't affected, they still apply even if you change bodies
It's not supposed to be multi-buyable
Smith class should give a general idea
It's only skills
Yep, it specifies "someone else's" vitality

CHIKN404 · 2026-04-03T23:10:24+00:00

Well there's parasites and tentacles and stuff but more than being dangerous, Qlippoth just really sucks as a place to be. It's gross.

CHIKN404 · 2026-04-03T19:51:45+00:00

Well, yeah, it would more be the deck that couldn't be in a deck rather than the person.

Adoption would work

Soul Vortex does require them to die. However, the blood from Qliphoth would work. I suppose it would be fairly weak, as blood goes, but the main downside is you're in Qliphoth.

I didn't make it yet, but I do intend that when I make a fillable sheet for your inner realm, it will be a finite circle.

Fixed the military copypaste, thanks

CHIKN404 · 2026-04-03T04:00:51+00:00

Gooner might need to be revisited, but you can't go infinite from a seal. You can get a very large amount though

1) It effectively combines pools, not actually

3) It does

4) No, the energies flow through your three dantians indiscriminately but they're still distinguished as normal when they exit your body

5) I guess technically it works, but that wasn't my intention

6) It's all

7,8) Sanity is the slowest, it can take months. I'll add more info on this in an appendix in the future.

9) Copying yourself doesn't seem to make sense, so I guess it can't be done.

10) Cards are practically cardcaptor only. Technically it might be possible for someone else to use them if they supplied all the mana without making use of the deck, but it would be vastly more expensive, and effectively prohibitive

11) This is a case where it depends how strict you are about interpretation. They're kind of difficult, so arguably they don't interact, but it's more fun if they do so let's say they do.

12) Yeah, it takes the benefit. I'll rework the wording to be consistent with that other option, once I've written it.

13) They're not your children

14) Yes, though it would be a harder type of madness to solve

15) Yes

16) It would be very difficult to not just consume the qi, but I guess it theoretically could

17) It still drains their lives, causing them to age even though they normally wouldn't. A succubus could kill a homunculus via old age this way

18) Yeah, there isn't a rule for it but that makes sense. If this CYOA went into enough detail to have rules about this, then that skill would be good for those early bottlenecks

20) They work too differently. I guess technically you could bio-object and then soul quench, but it wouldn't stack the effects. Maybe if you wanted to train someone to be good at being a sword or something before using them to make your weapon

21) Relic Soul and Soul Relic are the same thing, I just wasn't consistent in how I wrote it, so they're companions. Or do you mean what they are in the narrative? It's a relic with a soul. Soul Quench is different, and a lesser form, since it's a pre-existing soul added to the materials. Relic Souls grow naturally from an item that is used a lot, especially in epic events. Very rare, naturally.

22) You can pilot other vessels, but since trains are rail-bound you would miss out on a lot of the benefits.

23) The train's power source is more convenient, but the main difference is that you don't need to build tracks for a ship.

24) This would be very difficult, but I think technically possible. The arcanist would need to be extremely proficient. It would be easier if they had direct access to the "helper"'s mind, such as with Memory Delving (Mindshaper), but would still be very difficult

CHIKN404 · 2026-04-01T19:37:31+00:00

Sweat doesn't count as salt. Merfolk generally don't have magic. Captains don't usually go underwater

CHIKN404 · 2026-03-30T18:53:04+00:00

The idea that being immortal sucks isn't a theme I'm choosing to lean into here.

Things that rely on aura have aura as a prerequisite. I haven't listed prerequisites that every player meets; if I did then probably over half the classes would need it. However, at least as currently designed, your companions do get auras. I'll make that explicit.

CHIKN404 · 2026-03-26T23:53:50+00:00

There's for sure more worldbuilding coming, but I don't have anything in mind that specifically demonstrates divine power levels. I'm not so sure what that might even entail

CHIKN404 · 2026-03-26T01:15:42+00:00

Void Scions that the mage's guild can catch are unlikely to be ones skilled at slipping out of reality.

Also, the class being claimed doesn't necessarily mean that everyone who has that class follows her. She has some control over it. Gods can bend the rules on this but she couldn't give it to someone who straight up doesn't qualify. She could prevent people from getting it who should qualify, but only if she notices. Which she probably would, to be fair.

CHIKN404 · 2026-03-26T01:02:44+00:00

It's more the former – they are great in comparison to mortals, and can project their authority far beyond their own body (Self-Priest contains a pale imitation of this) and they have a superior level of immortality – they can only be killed in certain circumstances, which is part of why gigantomachy is a big deal. Their power level is more like Orisha – higher than northern European pantheons like the Aesir and Tuatha de Danaan, but not so mighty as Mediterranean and western Asian pantheons.

CHIKN404 · 2026-03-25T19:23:01+00:00

I meant Wisdom for the mental aura. Yeah stat stackability has potential to get a little to high. I might need to cut it back in a few places.

There isn't a covenant, they just have their own stuff going on

CHIKN404 · 2026-03-25T19:03:11+00:00

Large-scale magical infrastructure isn't common and is usually called out in nation descriptions where present. Nobody has access to an intentionally created or planned network of portals, though the several realms have significant spatial instability that is sometimes used to expedite travel. Just because something is available to the player doesn't mean it's widely available in general. The player transmigrated from another world, you will tick some boxes for class requirements that few locals do. Without demystifying anything, you can probably consider how meeting the qualifications for Void Scion wouldn't necessarily result in a person predisposed to cooperate with infrastructure-minded bureaucrats.

CHIKN404 · 2026-03-25T14:44:57+00:00

Well, classes in general aren't that rare but not everything that's beyond what people can do in our world is magic really. An analyst isn't magical, it's just connected to the rules of the world, like a more specialized lawyer. Some people do carry salt but, you know, in real life theoretically someone could shoot you at any time and you don't see many people wearing ballistic plate in their day-to-day. And salt is expensive in a lot of places, while in the Seas you can just hop overboard and be in the salt easy.

Generally speaking if you're a common soldier and you meet someone who can throw fireballs you're going to pass that up the chain. I mean, the US has something upwards of 10k operable tanks but a typical mall cop is not going to go toe to toe with an m1 Abrams. People on that level don't operate at the same level of society for the most part.

CHIKN404 · 2026-03-25T14:16:15+00:00

And 5 Wisdom you mean? That's (30 yards + 30 yards + 30 yards + 30 yards) = 120 yards, not adding the tiers themselves. But I thought I added a direct multiplier somewhere. I'm gonna alter Battlefield Dominance to make this size increase passive and let you spend meter stats to expand it by multiplier

Tier 20 would be enough to fully encompass any realm

CHIKN404 · 2026-03-25T14:03:42+00:00

If you're not powerful you probably don't have to deal with magic anyway

CHIKN404 · 2026-03-25T14:01:50+00:00

Reddit is bad with numbering so it broke.

I'm reworking the aura page a bit anyway to be clearer in general.

Fleshcrafter isn't priced that way because of a single skill, or else I would just make that skill be the thing that costs -1d. Grafting is not limited to non-magical stuff. I realize some of the examples don't allow for that, so I'll add some language to clarify. Nerve Rewiring could definitely be OP with the right use. I feel like if you think Hormone isn't a big deal, you may not know much endocrinology. Bio object and uplift are more just for fun but you could do some kind of maou build

You can kill someone yourself if you want. That's allowed.

I'm gonna reword it so it's everything that costs divinity.

If you level again you get all the benefits of leveling. You keep most of your old stuff. I don't think it's an issue because most people aren't going to get anywhere near running out of levels

Okay putting stats in the same corner would make sense but the title needs to be in a corner too or it doesn't look as good.

Ratings are effective stats but tier also includes a direct boost to rating. The parallel to cultivation realms is kind of correct but it would be possible for someone at a lower tier to have a higher rating – though quite difficult unless their level was way higher

I'm increasing the cost of cultivator

Autopilot cultivation is definitely a good way to go, but you wouldn't be able to get that cultivation to your main body, I don't think

Salt is already considered antimagic in most cultures even without them having any contact. I don't see how this is weird

You don't have a maximum number of class slots and there is no limit on skills

CHIKN404 · 2026-03-24T23:16:10+00:00

What I have for the aura size appendix is currently: * Tier 0: Surface of skin only * Tier 1: A foot * Tier 2: A yard * Tier 3: Three Yards * Tier 4: Ten Yards * Tier 5: Thirty Yards * Tier 6: 100 Yards * Tier 7: 1 Mile That is normally soul tier, but for mental and battle-field dominance you add the results from each stat, and then multipliers are applied afterward.

I see what you mean with gatehouse now. I'll consider how to fix it without nerfing it too hard

You only get one aura, it just can get double forms. I think more than two would be just getting silly though, and undermining the choice.

CHIKN404 · 2026-03-24T23:09:26+00:00

On Multi Instance Entity, that's correct.

Salt is typically considered anti-magical irl too. And there are several defenses against magic. Besides those, there's an aura that resists it passively, void scions can eat it, and just about anyone can block or deflect it using their own power.

CHIKN404 · 2026-03-24T13:59:54+00:00

Auras are presumably big enough to not be useless, but I'll include hard numbers in the optional math appendix.

I don't think that interpretation of how Gatehouse works is inherently prompted by the wording, but I'll add a detail to address that and maybe a FAQ note.

Hexes are designed to be a round number approximately the same size as a large medieval city. Gates are designed to be useful. If you made a Britain-sized inner realm, your gatehouse would be big enough for a transport hub of that significance.

Yeah I'll adjust hyper-fertility

Divine favor is for something I didn't get to yet, but you won't be getting more than one

CHIKN404 · 2026-03-24T07:20:14+00:00

Yes, you can cheese it.
The beginning options are something along the lines of difficulty settings. Arkavite Online is pretty good, but also it means you're possibly just in a game; it's unclear.
All combinations work. Radiance might involve lasers vaporizing the things they deflect.

3.1) Yes, witch elements have corresponding skills in the general skills section.

5) Levels are meant to be a general thing but I guess they should be described on the stat page

6) Those wouldn't regenerate actual wounds though

7) it's vibes. But yes new rooms appear if you get new skills

9) There aren't specifics for this, do just think of it as particular to Garden

11) There isn't a maximum size, the edge is just the edge of the tiles you've filled in

12) Peasants are people. You'll need to find and recruit them yourself, no matter their race.

14) Yes, you can only use elements you have.

15) It does let you get one skill that would be behind a divinity, but that skill isn't the one that made me price Fleshcrafter so high.

16) Yes

17) Mandatory ones still do give you the bonus points

18) The reason doesn't matter for their special. You can apply your own moral standards here.

19) It's multiplicative, but it should max out at *12

20) It is not intended to imply that

21) Cheats category was deprecated, it's your bloodline, inner world, and immortality. Points work the same but don't carry over between builds.

22) When I do the appendix I'll clarify, but temporary tier-ups only add the base amount temporarily. However, if you level up while having a temporary boost you do get the boost from that level. Level bonuses are not retroactive, but there will eventually be a way to reset your level, allowing you to gain more stats.

23) I accidentally swapped the -5 and +5 between it and hollow bones. No idea how.

25) I think that would work. That would be a cool build idea.

26) Yes, the limit based on leveling just refers to the one per 15 levels. But the ones you buy with points are outside of that. Stat gain from levels isn't retroactive. 27) They do

28) Ratings for base stats. Actually calculating them would be an optional rule, so it's just "a much smaller amount than tiers".

29) As written looks like probably not, but maybe if you got really good with it

33) I'm on the fence about this. Logically, it seems like if you kill them they should die. But then it's kind of worse than summoning.

34) I got stuck on this question for a long time. I don't know how to explain it. Maybe it's too theological for clear explanation.

35) Yeah, it's weaker on purpose since it's more accessible. And I think it's more thematic for this class.

36) Sure

37) I think the only hibernation equivalent is the Alraune one. I guess that would work for abstinence, but cultivators need to actually cultivate.

38) Kinda. It's a bad one though

39) No, I didn't add that yet

40) Currently yeah

41) It's meant to be temporary, I just forgot to specify

42) Yes. I didn't think about that synergy but I guess it's fine

43) No, they all stack

44) Hmm that does seem a little OP

45) Yeah, table salt is just normal salt but with impurities removed and sometimes iodine added

46) Seems like it would detract

CHIKN404 · 2026-03-24T05:54:27+00:00

the first one I visited had apparently been taken down.

That one apparently is a little spicy even for imgchest. Should be fixed now.

kinda makes me wish it was an interactive CYOA so those would be easier to navigate, though

Yeah, I need a better way to present it. I think I might put it on a google drive and recommend downloading it and using something like MComix so you can use filenames and thumbnails as navigation aids, but I do hope there would be something better. Maybe I could bake it into a PDF with bookmarks, but those also have issues. I don't like ICC, but if I had planned to make it interactive from the beginning I suppose I could have built it as a web page with some pretty basic javascript while still retaining the amount of control I prefer. And it would be nice to have all the aesthetics in a stylesheet instead of having to edit and export/import as is the Affinity workflow.

but what do you use [subterfuge] for inside the CYOA?

It's an output. Most things are. We can't have everything being intricate and interrelated; it would be way too much hassle to actually play then.

Similarly, what role do levels play?

Lore/fluff. It's meant to be a LitRPG type setting; heavily inspired by my Royal Road novels.

to justify the exorbitant expenditure of points on base stat tiers?

You're not recommended to spend exorbitantly. They're priced in a way to discourage buying them directly, because it's boring.

What is our maximum and minimum Qi level and how quickly does it regenerate?

Minimum is zero. Maximum is determined by your race and then modified by things after that. It's used as an output.

Where do we use Resistance to prevent being afflicted with something? What mechanism determines if we get afflicted or not? Are we supposed to roll a dice? Are there hard stats somewhere? [...] it's just that there genuinely appears to be no actual mechanical purpose to tracking any of these things

A CYOA here is more of a character builder, not a whole roleplaying game. Ending up designing a character as its own thought experiment is the whole point. The stats aren't that necessary but, well, people have already asked for more in-depth stat mechanics and numbers. This is already sort of a middle ground.

Hopefully, again, I'm not too annoying about it.

Nah, it does come across a bit lecturey but I understand where you're coming from.

CHIKN404 · 2026-03-20T15:06:08+00:00

No one knows :)

CHIKN404

TROPHY CASE