Crafting Large-Scale Creative Works in a d20 System

Nolan Robertson
nolanrobertsonmusic@gmail.com

The scope of a creative endeavor is expressed as a series of Working Days and Milestones.
Milestones are achieved through the successful completion of a specified number of Working
Days. The Player and the GM determine together the timeline of Working Days and Milestones,
as well as the Relevant Skills for each Milestone. When all Milestones have been achieved, the
creative work is completed and its quality is assessed.

● Working Day - a Working Day consists of 5-8 hours of Downtime devoted to the
achievement of a Milestone. The number of Working Days per Milestone is determined
by that Milestone’s scale and complexity. The total Working Day count for the endeavor
should be divisible by 5, with a minimum of 20.

● Milestone - a Milestone represents the completion of one significant stage of

development. The number of Milestones per creative endeavor is determined by the
nature and scale of the intended work. The nature of the creative endeavor determines
whether Milestones must be achieved sequentially. Attached to each Milestone is a set
of 3 Relevant Skills.

● Relevant Skill - a Relevant Skill is a Skill employed toward the completion of a particular
Milestone.

Resolving Working Day Attempts

For each Working Day, the player rolls a d6 to determine the Relevant Skill employed that day.
A result of 1-2 employs Skill A, 3-4 employs Skill B, and 5-6 employs Skill C. Next, the Player
makes the Relevant Skill check (standard DC16). On a success, 1 Working Day is gained
toward the completion of the Milestone, and each interval of 5 over the target DC is tallied as a
Raise. On a failure, the time is spent fruitlessly and the day is tallied as a Miss. On a Natural 20,
the character experiences a flash of insight; 2 Working Days are tallied and Raises for that
attempt are doubled.

Determining the Quality of a Completed Work

While the achievement of Working Days and Milestones tracks the progress of the creative
endeavor, the quality of that endeavor is tracked by Raises gained over the course of the
project. Upon completion of a creative endeavor, Raises are tallied and compared against the
total number of successful Working Days and a Quality Tier of S, A, B, C, or F is assigned to the
work. For every 5 Misses, 1 Raise is subtracted from the final tally.
 Quality of Creative Endeavor by Raises per Working Days

20 WD 25 WD 30 WD 35 WD 40 WD 45 WD 50 WD 55 WD 60 WD

S 17-20+ 21-25+ 25-30 29-35 33-40 37-45 41-50 45-55 49-60

A 13-16 16-20 19-24 22-28 25-32 28-36 31-40 34-44 37-48

B 9-12 11-15 13-18 15-21 17-24 19-27 21-30 23-33 25-36

C 5-8 6-10 7-12 8-14 9-16 10-18 11-20 12-22 13-24

F 0-4 0-5 0-6 0-7 0-8 0-9 0-10 0-11 0-12

Subsequent Endeavors

Characters who have previously completed a large-scale creative work of C-tier or higher
possess heightened insight into their craft. Subsequent creative works completed in the same
field receive an amount of bonus Raises determined by the Quality Tier of their finest work
to-date and scaled to the size of the endeavor.

Raise Bonuses
S-tier 1 per 5 Working Days

A-tier 1 per 10 Working Days

B-tier 1 per 15 Working Days

C-tier 1 per 20 Working Days

Revision

Upon completion of a large-scale creative work, the creator may attempt to revise the work if it is
deemed unsatisfactory. A revision is undertaken by devoting an amount of Working Days equal
to a selected Milestone. Successful revision replaces the results of the original Milestone.
Revision may improve the work by a maximum of 1 Quality Tier. Note: the Revision feature
requires all roll numbers to be documented.

Masterpieces

Characters who have previously completed 2 A-tier works or 1 S-tier work have a chance to
create a masterpiece on subsequent endeavors in the same field. Upon completion of an A- or
S-tier work, the Player flips a coin and calls heads or tails. On a success, the work is a
masterpiece. It is considered by those of taste to be not only of the highest technical and
expressive caliber, but also groundbreaking, treading boldly into previously uncharted creative
or technical territory and illuminating new depths of personal expression. In d100 years, the
work enters the canon and remains there while extant.
Example:

Over the course of several play sessions, Darren dedicates his down time to composing a
movement for string quartet. The scope is determined to consist of 20 Working Days spread
across 3 Milestones. 4 days are devoted to planning and sketching, 14 days to composing the
work, and 2 days to tweaking bowings, unifying articulations, copying out parts, etc. The
Relevant Skills are determined to be Performance (A), History (B), and Insight (C), and the DC
is determined to be 16.

On the first day, Darren rolls a 4 on a d6 to determine the employed Relevant Skill, so he makes
a History check and gets a 17. He progresses by 1 Working Day.

On the second day, he rolls a 3 on a d6, so he makes an Insight check and gets a 13. The day
is tallied as a Miss, and no progress is made.

On the third day, he rolls another History check and gets a 21. He progresses by 1 Working Day,
and because he scored 5 over the DC he tallies 1 Raise.

On the next attempt, he makes a Performance check. Natural 20, for a total of 27. Because he
rolled a Natural 20, he progresses by 2 working days, and the Raises scored by his roll are
doubled to 4. With 4 Working Days of progress, he has now completed the first Milestone.

Upon completion, Darren finds that through the endeavor he scored 15 Raises and had 26
Misses. Every 5 Misses deducts 1 Raise from the final tally, for a final total of 10 Raises. For a
20-day endeavor, that’s B-tier!

Had Darren previously completed an S-tier composition, he would have added 4 Raises to his
final tally, resulting in 14 Raises and an A-tier quartet.