Natural 20

April 2026 - Initial Release

The first public release of Natural 20. Multi-phase quests with d20 skill checks, six D&D ability scores, ARPG-style loot with 40+ affixes, group encounters, and procedural settlements.

Quests

• Multi-phase quest system. Quests split into one or more phases, each paying its own XP and item reward.
• Six objective types: Collect Resources, Kill Mobs, Kill Boss, Fetch Item, Peaceful Fetch, Talk to NPC.
• Quest markers above NPCs: gold ! for available quests, blue ? for waiting turn-ins.
• Difficulty multipliers on phase XP (Easy 0.5x, Medium 1.0x, Hard 2.0x).
• Per-accepter item rerolls so no two party members receive duplicate drops.

Dialogue and skill checks

• D&D-style d20 skill checks in dialogue, rolled as d20 + stat modifier + proficiency bonus (if trained).
• Six DC tiers from Trivial (5) to Nearly Impossible (30).
• Authored DCs for narrative-pinned checks; procedural DCs scale to the NPC's zone level.
• Natural 20 auto-passes; natural 1 auto-fails.
• On-screen dice animation showing each roll outcome.
• Per-NPC, per-player disposition tracking (0-100, persistent across sessions).
• Nine dialogue tone brackets (Hostile, Scornful, Unfriendly, Wary, Neutral, Cordial, Friendly, Trusted, Loyal) pulling from different dialogue pools.
• Three roll mode bands set by disposition: 0-24 disadvantage, 25-74 normal, 75-100 advantage.
• Disposition deltas: +3 on quest accept, +5 on phase turn-in, +10 on full quest completion, +3 on check pass, -2 on check fail.

Ability scores and progression

• Six ability scores (STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, CHA) ranging 0 to 30.
• Universal modifier curve: floor(score / 3), capped at +10. The same modifier feeds combat math, gear scaling, and skill checks.
• Level 1 to 40 progression with +1 ability point and +5 max HP per level.
• Background presets for new characters. Each background distributes starting ability scores and provides a starter kit.
• Proficiency bonus scaling +2 to +6 by character level on trained skills.
• Character Sheet UI accessible via /sheet, showing stats, level, XP, quests, party, and NPC dispositions.

Leveling and XP

• XP from kills, quest turn-ins, and successful skill checks.
• Source weights: regular Nat20 kill 1.0x, champion 2.5x, boss 5.0x, dungeon boss 8.0x, quest phase 7.0x, skill check pass 5.0x, vanilla mob 0.5x.
• 12% XP-per-level growth across the full curve.
• Roughly 685,000 cumulative XP to reach the level 40 cap.

Loot and gear affixes

• Five rarity tiers (Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary) with coloured tooltip outlines.
• Item-level system. Drops scale with the killing mob's level and biome.
• Eight affix families plus stat affixes:
  • Offensive (12): Crit Chance, Crit Damage, Attack Speed, Deep Wounds, Crushing Blow, Backstab, Precision, Life Leech, Mana Leech, Vicious Mockery, Hex, Rally.
  • Defense (6): Absorption, Evasion, Resilience, Thorns, Block Proficiency, Gallant.
  • Ability (9): Indestructible, Fortified, Haste, Telekinesis, plus five mutually exclusive tool block shapes (Quake, Delve, Rend, Fissure, Resonance).
  • Utility (3): Focused Mind, Water Breathing, Lightweight.
  • Elemental Damage (4): Fire, Frost, Poison, Void flat damage on hit.
  • Elemental DoT (4): Ignite, Cold, Infect, Corrupt.
  • Resistances (4): Fire, Frost, Poison, Void resistance on armor and shields.
  • Weakness (4): Fire, Frost, Poison, Void debuffs amplifying same-element damage.
• Six stat affixes (+STR, +DEX, +CON, +INT, +WIS, +CHA) adding flat ability-score points that cascade through every stat-scaled system.

Champion and boss encounters

• Group spawning: every Nat20 mob encounter is 1 boss with 3-7 champions sharing role and tier.
• Four difficulty tiers (Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary) applied as full-body tints (green, blue, purple, gold).
• Tier adds an mlvl bonus to the zone's base level.
• 21-affix mob pool drawn from the gear affix system. Evasion explicitly excluded.
• Affix counts per role and tier: Champions 1-3 affixes (Uncommon to Epic), Bosses 2-5 affixes (Uncommon to Legendary). Champions never reach Legendary.
• Boss compound naming: prefix + suffix with optional appellation. Appellation chance scales by tier (Uncommon never, Rare ~50%, Epic always, Legendary always).
• Champion drop rate roughly 1 in 6 kills. Bosses always drop, with tier-stacked bonus rolls so Legendaries often hand out three or more pieces.
• Kill credit: any damage dealt to a mob in the 30 seconds before its death credits the dealer for loot, XP, and quest progress. Killing blow does not need to come from the player.

Party system

• Every player is in a party. Solo is a party of one with no separate "solo mode" toggle.
• No upper size cap. Invitations and management through the Character Sheet's Party tab.
• Quest accepter snapshot: party members at the moment of accept become the accepter list, locked in for the duration of the quest. Later joiners do not see the quest.
• Shared quest progress. One counter, one set of phases, one quest record.
• 80-block proximity check at phase completion. Accepters in range receive the phase's reward; those outside see a Quest Missed banner and forfeit only that phase's reward (still on the quest for later phases).
• Collect Resources phases are exempt from the proximity check.
• Per-accepter unique item drops at turn-in. Items reroll for each recipient.
• Monster level scaling: +1 monster level per nearby online party member at spawn, capped at +6. The bump locks in at spawn and persists through chunk reloads.
• Leadership succession: explicit handoff or automatic transfer via the seven-day ghost leader rule.
• Friendly fire blocked between party members on PVP-enabled servers.

World generation

• Procedurally placed settlements with role-specialized NPCs (Villager, Guard, Artisan, Traveler).
• Hostile POI generation with anchored quest mob group spawns. Difficulty, affixes, and boss names lock in at first visit.
• Ambient surface mob group spawns during travel, with per-player cooldowns to prevent saturation.
• Compatibility with already-explored worlds. The stat, dialogue, NPC, and quest systems work on existing saves. Settlements and hostile POIs only appear in chunks generated after install.