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Literature
Muscle Growth TTRPG mechanic I need some assistance. I'm trying to establish a workout mechanic for the subsystem, and here's what I've got so far (pf2e only for now): WORKING OUT: You have been divinely blessed with a supernatural ability to build muscle and grow stronger. You can attempt to gain bonuses to your strength attribute modifier equal to your Muscle Level which are in addition to any other attribute boosts you might normally achieve. To do this requires meeting workout point thresholds and advancing your Muscle Level. Your Muscle Level represents the amount of muscle you've gained, and is equal to your STR bonus. It is independent from, and can never exceed, your character level. Each day of adventuring automatically adds 1 workout point. Days of downtime activities such as Travel, Shopping, Crafting, or the like, are not sufficiently strenuous for physical hypertrophy and muscle growth. Adventuring includes days where a combat encounter occurred, putting physical strain on your muscles. Thus, as you adventure, fight monsters, and strain your muscles this way, you will naturally grow in muscular size and strength over time. If you focus on hypertrophy in the gym, however, you can considerably speed this process up. You can spend a day of downtime to add more workout points by performing the workout downtime activity. ----------------- WORKOUT (downtime activity) Cost - 3 protein rich rations or equivalent amount of food; access to a gym with weights of appropriate level Effect - You spend your downtime heavily working out and eating a protein-rich diet to maximize strength gains and muscular hypertrophy. Attempt a Muscle Growth Lore check against a Hard DC for your Muscle Level. Your workout dice are equal to your class HP. For example, a fighter would roll a d10, while a wizard would roll a d6. • Critical Success - You achieve better than normal results in your lifts causing your muscles to grow much bigger and stronger! Roll double the dice. • Success - you've successfully strained your muscles to the point where they can grow. Roll your workout dice as normal. • Failure - You work harder, but your form is off and you need to try again to achieve measurable results. • Critical Failure - You injure yourself while working out and become Clumsy 2 until you can properly recover. You cannot workout until after you've succeeded at a Hard DC medicine check for your Muscle Level which takes a full day of resting. You are still fatigued the day after recovering from your injury. The day spent recovering also costs you a workout point. Regardless of the result, you're fatigued the next day. If you spend more than a day without working out or adventuring, however, you lose a cumulative number of workout points increasing by 1 each day you don't work out or adventure. ------------------------------ Workout points needed to advance muscle level: Muscle Level --> Workout Points needed 0 --> default (normally unaltered character) 1 --> 3 2 --> 7 3 --> 14 4 --> 25 5 --> 42 6 --> 57 7 --> 72 8 --> 91 9 --> 111 10 --> 131 11 --> 151 12 --> 171 13 --> 191 14 --> 211 15 --> 231 16 --> 251 17 --> 271 18 --> 292 19 --> 311 20 --> 331 ------------------------------- For a tangible example, let's say adventurer May is out and about. She's a sprightly little level 1 Ranger and wants to get stronger for her adventures ahead. She's already been adventuring and killing monsters for 2 days straight now, so she already has 2 Workout Points. Just by adventuring she's already close to gaining her first Muscle Level and that much closer to getting a bonus to her Strength Attribute modifier. But she wants to get stronger, faster. So she finds a gym and decides to pump some iron. Thankfully, she's Trained in Muscle Growth Lore and attempts a DC 17 check. She has a +5 bonus to her Muscle Growth Lore check, and spends the whole day working out, eating plenty of food, and rolls..... a 22! Not too shabby. That's a success! So she gets to roll her workout dice. Since she's a Ranger, she uses a d10 and rolls.... a 6! Just above average, and that brings her Workout Points to 8. She only needs 7 Workout Points to advance to Muscle Level 2, but because her character level is only 1, she maxes out at Muscle Level 1. She still retains her remaining Workout Points though, and if she levels up before gaining more Workout Points, she will automatically gain her second Muscle Level. ------------------------- So hopefully that makes sense and works as intended. But back to my request for assistance. What I need help is deciding a gym upgrade system. I want to add a way for players/GMs to have a base camp or a hub town or whatever with a gym they can customize and upgrade. To that end, they'll need ways to improve their gym and give them tangible benefits to improving their muscle growth journey! Ideas I have so far: - Heavier Dumbbells: they would add extra dice for when you roll your Workout Points (2d10, 3d10, etc) - Treadmill/Track: add a bonus to your speed for the next day - Posing Mirror: - Bench: can add Str mod to the amount you gain from Workout rolls (2d10+Str, etc) But I want more than that. Any suggestions? I can fiddle with the balance on my own, unless you've got ideas, but any inspiration is helpful. Even just mentioning the equipment and possible area of concern one might benefit from them could help! Thanks, and hopefully I get the next update before 2026!!