The Basics.”

Sitting in the shade you tell them “We have to start from the basics. Firstly, this world is known to us NPCs to be a place the God made to be the playground of Players, and they have no consideration for us.

“Secondly, the Gods have made changes without considering the impacts. One was removing the tutorial. The small quests offered actually had a fair bit of meaning behind them. But you need to know how Skills and Stats work.”

Alizin frowns and interrupts “Stats? What are those?”

You look a bit sheepish. “Sorry, just showing my age there. It is short for Statistics and an old term for Attributes. Easier to say and the people back then understood what it means. It faded away over time, and was killed off when they allowed people to view something called their Status. Status was a quick rundown of your condition, but also abbreviated to Stats. In fact, focus and think on calling up your status details.”

They did, and you also did so, curious to see if it was still active.

Level 1, Garion, Freeter
Human, NPC, Explicit
Experience to level up – 100
HP: 21/21 / MP: 9/9
Fatigue: 01
Buffs/Debuffs
N/A

Short, but contained the important info.

Back to the basics

“An Attribute is how skilled you are in a general area, and a Skill is in a specific sub area, which may overlap different Attributes. For example, ballroom dancing might be improved with better Dexterity for better moves, Endurance to last longer dancing, Charisma to be charming to your partners, and Appearance to look like a good partner.

“For spellcasting you need Dexterity for some castings, Intelligence to know the spells, Wits to find unusual ways to use them, Perception to spot dangers so you can cast the spells in time and Endurance to help you keep casting even as it drains you mana.”

They could understand that.

“Now, how you can get the skills and boost Attributes is by doing things between levels. For Attributes, you do things that use that attribute a lot. And to get the skills, or develop them, you work in that area. For example you might get paid to help a farmer make a dry-stone wall to keep his animals in and the wolves out. Doing that should get you Craft (stone working) as well as boosting your Strength Attribute when you level up.

“Now, Skills can reinforce each other, as I have already told everyone. So are there any questions so far?”

They shook their heads.

“Next comes the matter of Parties, before you even go out on adventures or seek out Quests. When you travel as a group you can be an official group, called a Party. This means you help each other out, and can even share XP from kills. I don’t know the current formula for it. However, it also means you get less XP for each kill you make.

“If you travel as a non-party group than if you fight some monsters, the ones who make a kill get all the XP for that monster, even if they did not help otherwise. Some people do that, letting others wear down powerful beings, and come in at the last moment to kill it, stealing the kill and taking all the XP and Loot.

“So a small group of 5 or 6 at most is fine, or you become too cumbersome and the XP is diluted too much. Too few members, or not diverse enough, and you leave yourself open to some attacks. If you specialize in one area too much, you will become useless for other areas you may need. That is called Mini-maxing; avoid it! I noticed you have the old traditional group formation. It is traditional because it covers the main areas, Melee, Ranged, Stealth, Magic, and Recovery. Each member needs a roll, or they become a burden. I plan to leave after I reach level 3, and teach you all the way there.

“Yes, NPCs can join Parties. They can join as proper members, which I plan to join you lot as, or as Assists. Assists accompany the party and help out, in limited ways. They do not get or share XP (although they do count for when the XP is split among the Party, meaning you lose their share of it), and you may have to pay or convince them to join you. Treat them wrong and they can turn on you or at least abandon you when you need them the most.”

You glance at them each in the eyes and say,