(Dev Diary #10) Blessing / Affliction

[Asch]

Dev Diary #10

In this dev diary, I would like to showcase something I've been thinking about and working on for a while. Although I have mentioned in passing about a more unified system with possible stat, I played around with some ideas and ultimately didn't go down that route. DA is a form of forced character progression and is supposed to flavor your character and their RP so I lean more heavily into the roleplay side of things.

Some comments in various feedback mention that DA are always bad and that there isn't a 'good' version of it as an incentive for not dying. The prototype revamp below is supposed to bridge that gap a little, while retaining the flavor of death affliction.

Introducing: Echoes.

Echoes are essentially imprints that affect your character so deeply that they transfer into the real world. Plus, they come with cool art to spruce up your character sheet.

In this prototype, Endra's Golden Scale is a form of blessing dealing with luck, how it works or affects the RP is entirely up to the DM (if it gets used at all). Some cool application for it is something like you sometimes earn the scale's favor, but upon cashing it all, you go to zero or go into debt where the scale will now tip away from you.

The second card is a dedication card, which may replace the numerical blessing for reset (it has ranks and everything) just a bit more flavor as opposed to mechanics. There is a godless version as well. New people may always dedicate MP/GP to get it.

The third card is basically the old DA, but with a few changes. Each DA now has Wounds and Scars.

• Wounds are basically the negative effects of the DA and a wound can deepen.
• Scars are positive and ways your character cope with or heal their wound.

When your character die, the wounds resulting from their DA may deepen. Conversely, your character sometimes heal and get a scar instead.

Notice how there is a word before the description of the card, these are aspects and DM threads that have those aspects may bring said card to the forefront.

In closing, note that this is a very early prototype and may not happen, purely due to the fact that a lot of it is manual, but it does combine both the positive and negative aspects of character progression.

TLDR

• Echoes is both positive and negative character progression
• Dying may deepen a wound
• You sometimes get a scar on a DA card to show that your character is actively coping or heals from the DA
• Blessing cards are mostly for high-concept flavor and are a form of reward
• All cards have ranks and meeting the prerequisite can increase their ranks

 

[Asch]

Prototype Echoes

Dedication Echoes. These are echoes that you invest in to level up. Certain plot may flip them upside-down, however, whatever that means.

To begin with, we have the post-reset dedication:

Stellar Drive

• (I) The cosmos writes its story on your flesh, each star a tale of your untold potential. In the vast canvas of the night sky, countless lights whisper of possibility – and now they echo in your own being, awakening in brilliant constellations when your inner power flows.

Here are the dedication echoes centered around a concept:

Kindred

• Friendship (I) In your heart, you carry fragments of all those who've stood beside you, their strength, love, and wisdom forge the way ahead when the roads are dark.

Dawn's Promise

• Hope (I) In the darkest hour before sunrise, you carry tomorrow's light in your chest. Each heartbeat sends a ripple of gold through the shadow, a reminder that night, no matter how long, must yield to the coming dawn.

Seeker's Spark

• Discovery (I) Every unopened door a challenge, every blank space on the map a siren's call. Curiosity burns in your chest like a raging flame, drawing you ever outward, ever onward. In the unknown, you find not fear but freedom - each new horizon a story yet unseen. You will be the one to tell its story.

Unbreakable Steel

• Resolve (I): Like fire-forged steel, your spirit is tested and tempered. Your steel never giving to trials and tribulations.

Yearning for Home

• Return (I) The fires of home alight your dreams, memories of previous life flickering in their light, casting the shadows of those who wait. The closer you get to the flame, the bigger the shadow. It's time to return home. (Only available to UI-locked).

Infernal Heart

• Passion (I): Within you burns a flame that no ocean could quench. The flame consumes reason, devours doubt, and leaves only pure desire in its wake. Those beholden to it call it obsession, but it is in this crucible of soul-scorching flames where objects of your desire are held.

Midas Touch

• Wealth (I) More than mere metal, each golden coin a promise of a future untold, the gleam of opportunity, the weight of influence, the rustle of silk, fine dine, and soft power. You've learned that fortune favors not just the bold, but the clever.

Crown of Thunder

• Power (I) Authority sits on your brows like a storm waiting to break. Strength is sweeter than wine, its whisper irresistible. In the shadow of your crown, feeble souls tremble. In their fear, you see your reflection. But power demands its price in flesh and spirit – are you prepared to pay it in full?

Debtor's Chain

• Obligation (I) This promise is a chain forged in words and sealed in your heart. You both yearn and dread freedom from this chain - some burdens are far too dear to let go, but all debts must be paid.

Curse of Remembrance

• Remembrance (I) Time may heal all wounds, but some scars are kept fresh. You are the living archive of moments others wish to forget or unable to remember.

Wrath's Price

• Revenge (I) Your heart pulses to the rhythm of an unfinished story, each pulse a reminder of debts carved in pain. Time does not heal the pain, but sharpens it into a weapon, transforming ill-memories into blade-edge clarity. You will have your vengeance.

And then we have prototype God Echoes:

Synra's Mercy

• Mercy (I) You are adrift on the silent gondola as the goddess of final journeys. In your wake, taken souls stir like autumn leaves, drawn to the in-completion of life and cruel fate. Though you cannot tell their stories, you carry them like precious cargo across the rivers of regret, guiding them back ashore, your mercy hearkened by her.

Tyldr's Radiance

• Justice (I): You are the keeper of the dawnsword cutting thinly veiled evils. Each morning is a battle won, each sunset a preparation for tomorrow's war. Your oaths burns like stars in the dark. O keeper of the dawnsword, in you, others find the courage to stand against the endless night.

Uene's Grace

• Beauty (I): Perfection is your dedication and beauty, your blade. Like moonlight on still water, you reflect what others long to see, what they fear to become. You are noticed by the matron, but beware for beauty's crown weighs heavy and perfection's price is never left unpaid.

Finally, on the topic of Death Afflictions, they will still be unique, but tailored to fit various types of characters and not just one person. The thing about them is that there is some kind of associative effect, and the more they deepen, one can assume the effects worsen. When you gain echo points from completing certain events, however, you will be able to add a scar, which is up to you to define how your character heals from it, or could just be used to lessen the effect.

Singularity

• (Affliction)You are beholden by the spiral between the stars. Now whenever you find yourself in an empty space, the minuscule spiral opens at your core, threatening to swallow you whole, growing larger as your affliction deepens. When your mind is unoccupied, all thoughts drift down toward the spiral singularity.
  • Deepen: IV
  • Scar: III