Marmello's Menagerie 2

Underdogs of the Underworld

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Game Description

A group of up to 10 players engage in a weekly ongoing hero builder called Marmello’s Menagerie.

In this game, each player has a custom tabletop RPG-style character with stats, equipment, and item slots. Players take turns entering Marmello’s Menagerie, the main setting of gameplay. Inside the menagerie, there is a monster guarding a pile of loot. Players may pay Gold to purchase items of their choice (if the monster is defeated). If a player is killed by a monster, that player loses the game. The last living player wins!

At the start of each week, every player gains increasing amounts of Gold, a new monster is released, and the loot available resets. Players heal to max and regain all abilities.

Here is the catch: at the end of each turn cycle, two players enter the menagerie to duel to the death. The loser gets revived and has to go first into the menagerie the following week. Keep in mind, going first means facing the monster. The duel will NOT be live-streamed, but players can wager their Gold on the winner. Instead, each duel will have an epic, dramatic synopsis written and publicly announced. Winning as an underdog or betting on a winning underdog gives a higher ROI.

Item Types

Starter: Items given to all players at the start of the game. These cannot be sold, traded, or unequipped.

Gem: These items upgrade other items, but unlike normal upgraders they can be moved from one item to another. This transfer can only happen once per weekly cycle. Transferring gems is an action that allows you to move any number of gems not already moved this turn.

Dependent: Dependent items adjust one stat based on another stat ("Formula abilities"). These items update only when you level up. Dependent items do not interact with each other during updates. If unequipped and reequipped, they will remain inactive until your next level-up (as the dependent stat resets to 0). Consumable Dependents update all of your dependents immediately upon consumption.

Treasure: These items, usually economy items, cannot be sold, upgraded, forged, and are unaffected by most other item abilities.

Chest: Each week there are two chest items, but a single player may only purchase one of these per week.

Ritual of Pain: These items all come with a curse and can be acquired anytime from Queen of Pain. These items stay available throughout rounds and one more is revealed each week cycle.

Curse: Curses have some sort of negative effect and cannot be unequipped except by a remove curse effect. Whenever you buy a cursed item it is equipped automatically.

Spell/Scroll: These items give a single charge-based ability. Players may only activate 1 spell item ability per turn.

Holy Spell: Like a spell, but affected by holy modifiers.

Basic Equipment: Equipment slot items with fundamental effects.

Magic Equipment: Equipment slot items with unique effects.

Tech Equipment: This equipment is either partially or entirely reliant on manatech crystals to work. Manatech crystals are like upgrade items for these items, except that you may move manatech crystals between your items once a week. In these items, “Y” always refers to the number of manatech crystals.

Potion: Often consumable items with temporary effects.

Consumable: Items with this lose their value and cannot be sold once their charges are used. Their charges do not reset each week, but they stay in your inventory after use.

Artifact: These are the most powerful equipment items. There can only be one of each of these items unless they are quest, starter items, or self replicate.

Trader Item/Auction Item: Items purchased from the trader or in auction. These cannot be sold or traded to NPCs.

Upgrade: This item may be consumed to upgrade another item. This increases the other item's net worth by the upgrade's net worth. Upgrades can be unequipped from their item but cannot be applied to a new item once they have been used.

Quest Item: Items acquired by completing a quest. These can be sold only if they have a gold value on them and cannot be acquired by non-quest methods.

Ultimate: Effects that fundamentally change the game. These abilities have 1 greater slot and infinite lesser slots. In ultimate's blue text only applies to the greater version of the ultimate and purple only to the lesser.

Super Power: Items with this type always have ability power equal to your level.

Lesser Ultimate: Only one item with this type may be purchased each week (includes greater ultimates). These are available from the start of the game. All ultimate abilities have a lesser version. You must decide at the time of purchase whether an ultimate is going to be its greater of lesser version.

Companions: These are entities that have their own stats and set of actions. They act on their owner player's turn.

Eggs: Eggs are companions but they level up every time you level up. Once they are above level 0 they gain bonuses when they level up (see monster leveling section).

Trap: These are items that can interact with other players during their loot rounds. They can be placed on any tile inside the menagerie with the exception of spawn tiles. (you cannot spawn trap). Triggered abilities in traps are non-optional and automatic. You can trigger your own traps. Once a trap is triggered that instance of the trap cannot be triggered again until the end of the current loot, duel or monster round.

Slots

Rules for Entering the Menagerie: Anytime you enter the menagerie, you may only bring one item per slot with you.

If you buy or acquire an item for a slot you have currently filled, the currently equipped item in that slot automatically pops off and is placed in your inventory in the void.

Miscellaneous Slots:

Equipment Slots:

Tangible Slots:

Slot Special Notes:

Base Stats

Stats are listed by their name followed by their default value. Companion stats are also modified from these starting values.

General Stats:

Defensive Stats:

Exploration Stats:

*Note: These are not base stats, so effects that give +1 to all base stats ignore these.

Conditions

Hidden: Creature cannot be attacked or targeted by enemy abilities. Making an attack against an enemy with line of sight to you always ends this condition

Disarmed: Creature cannot make basic attacks until they spend an action to remove this condition.

Goaded: You can take no action besides basic attacks and move actions that move you closer to an enemy.

Slowed: You may take only one action per turn.

Stunned: You cannot take actions.

Charmed:

Restrained: Your speed becomes 0.

Ethereal: While ethereal, you cannot take actions or move, and you are hidden and invulnerable to creatures not in the ethereal. You can however perform basic attacks against other creatures in the ethereal if they are already within range. Note, you may not enter the ethereal by an ability while already in the ethereal.

Prone: -5 dodge and -5 accuracy. Removing prone conditions takes an action. Flying creatures that take the remove prone action may move half there movement speed rounded down as part of the same action.

Blinded: -5 dodge and -5 accuracy. All creatures are hidden from you.

Combat

Turn Order: Turn order is determined by initiative. Initiative is a contest high roll where each player rolls a d8 and adds their speed or their mount's speed if it is higher.

Actions: On your turn, you get two actions. You can use an action to activate an item, move, or perform a basic attack. One turn represents 6 seconds of time.

Basic Attacks: All players begin with the basic attack Natural Attack. To perform a basic attack, choose a target within a number of tiles of your character equal to the range. Roll a d20 and add your accuracy. If the sum result is equal to or exceeds the opponent's dodge, they take damage equal to:
(damage stated on the basic attack) + (your damage stat) - (their armor stat - your piercing)

Piercing: cannot deal damage excess of armor it only reduces the armor or resistance applied to the attack.

!! A minimum of 1 damage is dealt by basic attacks !!

Natural Attack (basic attack, range 1): 1 damage.

Special Attacks: Special attacks work similarly to basic attacks. To make a special attack, roll a d20 and add the ability power of that special attack. If the sum result is equal to or exceeds the opponent's dodge, willpower, or immunity (specified by the ability), the opponent is affected by the ability. If the ability includes damage, they take damage equal to:
(damage stated on the special attack) + (the ability power) - (their armor stat or resistance to the damage type of the ability, if a damage type is specified - your piercing)

Movement: When you take the move action, you may move your character a number of tiles equal to your move speed. Special movements may modify how you can move around obstructions.

Jump: All players have a jump speed equal to ½ their move speed. They may use this to traverse any direction and move over traps or lava without triggering them.

Spirit Walk: Allows you to move over Styx tiles without sinking or taking damage. (You still take damage if you swim in those tiles.)

Fly: Flying units hover at a fixed height of 30 ft. Flying allows you to ignore terrain and end movement over enemy tiles. However, you are always in melee range of adjacent, normal-sized characters. Creatures with flying are immune to tile traps unless the trap specifies otherwise.

Swim: All players have a swim speed equal to ½ their move speed. They may use this to traverse liquid tiles.

Climb: Players may use this to move over vertical obstacles instead of going around them.

Public Information: Whenever a player attacks you the targeted defense stat becomes public information. Whenever a player uses or triggers an ability the name and visual effect of that ability become public information. These rules do not apply to hidden creatures.

Public Information - Health State: A player may request a health check on any creature including other players as long as that creature is not hidden. They receive on of the following HP indicators:

Taking Your Turn

At the start of each turn cycle, every player levels up. Leveling up grants you 10 times your level in Gold, which you may then use to purchase loot. When you level up, your HP becomes max, and your non-consumable item uses/charges all reset to max.

When it is your turn, you will be notified, “your turn has been unlocked.” You have until midnight the following day to complete your turn. If you are busy and the monster is already defeated, you may pass your turn and make it up as the last person to enter. If the monster is not defeated, your turn is passed, and you will not get to loot that week. Passing your turn while the monster is undefeated three times results in losing the game.

When entering the menagerie, you have 30 minutes to loot and explore. During this time, you can still lose the game to monsters, NPCs, special abilities, and traps, so it is important to be careful. This timer is always paused during combats. Items are located inside crystal orbs that represent item information:

During your turn, you can explore to unlock secrets of the menagerie. These secrets can advance your game plan, so it is important to consider how to balance your time during your turn.

You may see any item's name, cost, and slot/type on the game map to inform your purchasing decisions. Beyond this, you will need to activate identify scrolls to see item descriptions. Each player begins with an identify scroll, which has 3 charges. Each charge reveals the description of an item. These charges refresh each week.

Trading

You may trade with other players. All trades must include an item. Once an item has been traded, it gets a trade sticker. Items with a trade sticker may not be traded again but can still be sold.

Trades may be made at any time, but once the trade is finalized, the items and/or Gold included in the trade are removed from both players' inventories. The trade is then suspended until the end of the next duel. As soon as the next duel is concluded, the items and/or Gold become available in their new owners' inventories.

Duel Rounds/Monster Rounds

At the end of all players' turns, there is a duel between the last two players to enter the menagerie that week (not including makeup sessions). Those two players duel to the death inside the menagerie. The loser is revived and will then be the first player to enter the menagerie for the subsequent loot turns. The winner will be second, and the others get random slots below that in the turn order. The randomly selected last two players to loot are that week's duelers!

After each duel, there is a monster round. Duel and Monster round monsters are the same each week. The first player to enter the menagerie must fight a monster before their loot timer begins. They are not respawned if they die to this. The monster round continues until a player defeats the monster. Monsters scale exponentially, with each monster strong enough to have been a predator of the last monster round’s monster.

During monster rounds, monsters that are ignored level up* every 3 minutes or 3 turns if in a skirmish style fight. The fight is considered a skirmish if the monster attacks less than once in any 3 combat turns.

Players may bet on the outcome of duels. After the last loot round, players must post all items they will bring with them (name/image only) into their duel. The game is then paused for 1 day to allow players to place bets. Once the deadline is reached, Gold bets are tallied, and the underdog is determined. Bets are not public until the betting round ends. To place a bet DM the game host an amount and who you are betting on.

Underdog: The underdog is the player with the lowest Gold sum bet on them. After the duel is concluded, players who bet correctly receive a payout based on the formula (bets are rounded down):

Bet Size = B, Underdog = D (1 if underdog, else 0)
Payout = (3 × B / 2) + (B / 2 × D)

Players may also bet on a tie. Betting on a tie yields the same outcome as betting correctly on the underdog. If the duel lasts 10 rounds of combat with both players alive (or earlier if both players agree), monsters are released. These monsters level up* every other round.

The winner of the duel receives 2 times their level in Gold in addition to any bets they made. Players may bet on their own duels but cannot bet on their opponent.

In the case of a tie, both players will enter the monster round together, facing twice as many opponents. In this round, they cannot harm or hinder each other, and the first player to defeat their half of the monsters will loot first.

During a duel there are two special actions available to players: concede and thumbs up. Concede: the player takes a knee, the duel round ends immediately and the none conceding player is the victor. Thumbs Up: The player signals to Marmello, then if both players in the duel have taken this action during the duel, the monster is released immediately even if 10 rounds of the duel have not yet passed.

*Monster Leveling: Similar to companion leveling, monster leveling increases all of their stats and can even unlock new abilities.

Duel Features

1 day before each duel, after the last round of looting, there is a duel feature. In this feature, each player who will be fighting posts the following:

This information is not only to help players stay organized with their slot usage but also to inform betting. As soon as the duel feature is posted, betting for the duel is open.

Public Announcements

The following events are announced publicly whenever they occur:

NPCs

The menagerie is filled with NPCs, each with their own rules:

Exploration/Traps

Perception: Perception is a passive stat that allows your player to see things that are hidden. Hidden elements, such as traps, items, and players, are essentially invisible to players until their perception is higher than the stealth of the hidden element.

Hiding Players: To hide a player, roll a d20 and add their stealth. This uses an action. A player gains the hidden condition if no enemy has line of sight on them and their stealth roll total is higher than the perception of any player that enters their line of sight. If a player regains line of sight they check perception against stealth again with +10.

Investigating: Players may spend an action to temporarily gain +5 to perception against anything hidden inside a 5-by-5 cube. To investigate, a player must be inside that cube. Players are restrained to only taking the investigation action max twice during there loot round.

Crits

Whenever a player, monster, or companion rolls a d20, that roll has a chance of a critical result:

Quests

A quest board will be posted with available player quests. Each player may attempt one quest at a time. After completing a quest, a player cannot attempt another quest until they level up. During quests, a player's HP and item uses/charges reset before the quest attempt, and they respawn if they die. After the quest attempt the players current stats/charges are returned to their pre-quest state.

Although players cannot lose the game during quests, the events that take place during quests can have real game consequences.

Quest Info: Each quest includes the following details:

When Attempting a Quest:

Quest Bosses:

Leveling Monsters/Eggs

Monster or Companion Leveling: When a monster or companion levels up, they gain the following bonuses:

Special Abilities: Monsters and eggs may unlock special abilities at certain levels. For example, most eggs become mounts at level 3.

Level 5 Monster Bonuses: When monsters reach level 5, they gain:

Monster Respawn: If all monsters are defeated during a duel round, new monsters will spawn at the same level the last monster was at the start of the next monster's turn.

Egg Leveling: Eggs hatch and gain base stats when they reach level 0. They don’t gain their first leveling stat increase until they reach level 1!

Glossary

AP: Ability Power, determining how strong an ability is. It is the value of X in all references inside the ability.

BA: Basic Attack, denotes that an ability is a basic attack, see combat section for more details on what that means.

Chests: Each week, there is 1 key and 2 chests inside red orbs. These treasure items provide an advantage for players who enter the menagerie early.

Companion: Acts like a player, taking actions on its owner's turn, but cannot equip items unless the item explicitly states it is companion-equippable.

Difficult Terrain: These tiles cost twice the movement to traverse unless a specific move speed type allows you to traverse them normally. Example, flying allows players to traverse sticky tiles at normal speed.

DR: Duration, Denotes how long any ongoing effects from an ability last. Ability durations always last until the end of the stated turn duration.

Force Walls: Marked by lightning-like barriers, force walls cannot be crossed or teleported through by a player without assistance from an NPC.

Formula Effects: Static effects using a formula that includes a stat are applied simultaneously and do not interact with each other. For example, if Bob has 10 HP and equips two items that double his HP total, he will have 30 HP (not 40 or infinite).

Ghost Strike: Damage dealt with Ghost Strike can harm invulnerable targets.

Infinite Combo: Any effect that allows a player to generate an infinite stat or infinitely repeatable sequence generating value is subject to an instant nerfing patch.

Inventory: The storage for items not currently equipped. Your inventory is inside the void and is accessible while you are there. Slot duplicates can also be kept inside your inventory.

Invulnerable: A creature that is invulnerable cannot receive conditions or damage from a source.

Left Behind: Any tangible item owned by you that is in the menagerie when you are not. These items cannot be destroyed/killed/purchased. They are still equipped to you and if the item is slotted that slot remains filled.

Line of Sight: the range your character can actually see. Line of sight is blocked by walls and other obstacles. Because the menagerie walls are only 20ft tall creatures with flying can spend a move action to gain line of sight to the entire map until the end of the turn and creatures with at least +3 size categories always have line of sight to the entire map.

Losing the Game: Once a player loses the game there build and item info become public info and locked from ability use. That player will then be interviewed about there build.

Max Economy: This is a legacy rule that has been removed from the game.

Max Pace: During your rounds your character can take actions as fast as you can speak to the limit of real time = game time. This means if you can say an action in less than 6 seconds real time that would take your character more than 6 seconds (1 action) in game time you must wait. This rule can be flexible if a player is not using the totality of their time clock for actual actions. Example: a player can say "I walk to the other side of the Menagerie and search for a chest" only if that player would have realistically had enough time to do so in the time in-between actions during their turn. That is to say this rule is enforced specifically when a player is approaching the max realistic actions a hero could take in 30 minutes (300 actions).

Mounted: Mounting and unmounting a mount is an action. While mounted, you are considered to occupy each tile your mount fills for range purposes. If your mount moves, you move with it (including teleportation), but your base speed is reduced to 0. If you are pushed or pulled outside your mount's area, you are automatically dismounted.

Partial Stats: These stats (ie 1/2 Speed) are always rounded down to the nearest whole number.

Phasing: You can move through walls, creatures or other terrain obstacles as though they weren't there. You still trigger effects from that terrain such as traps.

Powered: Indicates that an item ability is Quest Disabled and cannot be used during a quest.

Push/Pull: Move the target in a straight X-plane line (can be on a diagonal). If this is a push the target must end further from the ability controller than they started and vice versa. At any point during a push pull the ability controller can ground the creature. This means there current movement type is changed to basic movement until they move again.

QD: Indicates that a tech equipment item has consumed at least 1 manatech crystal.

Regen: At the end of each turn, if you have less than your max HP, gain life equal to your regen.

RG: Range, denotes the max distance in tiles an effect can reach.

River Styx: Light blue, water-like tiles. Starting your turn in a River Styx tile or entering one for the first time on your turn causes you to take d10 toxic damage. Ending your turn in the river causes you to sink 1 tile into it, increasing the start-of-turn damage by another d10. Tiles containing any rock are considered land tiles, not Styx tiles.

SA: Special Attack, denotes that an ability is a special attack usually followed by vs then a type of defense to identify what defense that attack uses.

Size: Size is a non-base stat that generally indicates your characters base tile dimensions. Creaturs with negative 2 size or greater are always 2 ft in radius and can squeeze trough small spaces. Creatures can only mount creatures with higher size than there own. Creatures auras increase with there size. Creatures with size 4 or greater can see and move over walls unimpeded.

Skelis: Work for Marmello and level up throughout the game. There seem to be infinite replacements for them.

Slotless: Items without a designated slot. You may equip any number of these.

Static: An ability with a constant effect that does not require an action to activate or use. All text inside item descriptions is static. Static abilities can stack unless explicitly stated otherwise, but identical abilities within a single item's description do not stack in multiples.

Surprised: An attacker joining combat from a hidden state gains a free action before initiative starts. This is referred to as Surprising. This effect does not apply in duels.

Temporary Stats: Stat buffs granted as part of a duration effect. These stats cannot be reduced to a negative number unless the ability source for them was consumable. Example, a player can sacrifice life to a blood ritual that they gained from a health potion but not from a health buff spell.

The Void: An imaginary space where players exist between rounds. While in the void, players are stunned (this condition cannot be removed). Players can still activate abilities usable in the void but are unaware of time and cannot activate duration abilities just before their duel starts.

Triggered: An ability with an effect the occurs automatically when a specific event triggers it. These abilities always specify their trigger and are optional to use when their trigger occurs. Triggered abilities don't normally require an action.

True Sight: You can see all creatures hidden within your line of sight. You can see whether or not any item/prop/creature is real or fake.

Victory Discount: Green orbs (ultimates) are discounted by 15 Gold for the loot round (greater only) following a duel victory. Identifying them during those rounds may be beneficial for obtaining the best deal.