(Dev Diary #3) People Die When They are Killed

[Asch]

Dev Diary #3

Preamble.

Today's entry is about an intense topic: death.

Death.

Death has always been the driving force of the main story, an invisible threat that all characters have to wrestle with. While death was mysterious before the 3 deaths discovery, the discovery of the threshold has consequently made death very clinical, where you know the what and the how.

Well, as the system grows, its management of death changes.

Lock Save.

With the growth of the system, all players now resist the UI-lock. Starting from the first death, the deceased must now make a Lock Saving Throw starting with a d20. On any number other than a nat-1, the player resists UI-lock and revives or respawns at a temple as usual. The next time they die, the process repeat, but the die goes down to a d12, then a d10, d8, d6, d4, d2, becoming UI-locked upon rolling a nat-1 at any point in time.

With death 2.0, players have 7 chances to avoid the UI-lock, but will feel the reaper's blade at the throat every step of the way.

Death Penalty.

When a player dies, they acquire a Death Affliction (DA) on a d20, and a d12, which now has a 50% chance to be something unique, and 50% chance to be -phobia type of DA.

Starting from d10 onward, there is a 33% chance the player will lose a fragment of their memory and 66% chance they get a DA (unique or phobia).

If a character is UI-locked, there is a 66% chance that they will lose a fragment of memory than receiving a DA.

What it means?

Dying is terrifying, mystifying, and punishing, do what you can to avoid death.

 

[Asch]

Update.

After reviewing the Feedback, I'm going to tweak Death 2.0 so the first death is roll-exempt and will guarantee the dying person a non-standard (i.e. not phobia) death affliction. So the rolls will start at a d12, then d10, d8, d6, d4, d2, lock.

Perma-death.

Regarding perma-death, these are opt-in. You can always choose to perma-die at any time. Other than the respec cost, the only repercussion of a perma-death is to lose all plot and connections permanently. Your character's perma-death will be recorded ICly and may be used for plot-things by Narrators or other players, otherwise, you can make a brand new character on that account, using their currency post remake costs. There will be a specific service for this if that's what you'd like to do.

Narrator Jail.

Narrator jail is rare and usually initiated by narrators who have an idea of how a character will come back. It is not player-initiated or requested. Sometimes, there are cool story moment where this can happen, but it's something players don't need to worry about.

Death Affliction Gacha.

We're going to test out some different rates to see what works best and perhaps reduce human time resource as well since DA assigning is not at all automated. DA bloat may also be a problem, and we currently cap it at 5, what do you think about keeping that cap going forward? To participate in the DA gacha, spend GP or MP at a temple to clear DA slots.

Memory Loss.

In order to make stories cooler, you can lose any memory fragment, in-game or out-of-game. As for what you lose, we'll test out a roll table with categories written on them. You determine which specific memory you lose in that category. Use it to build on or dramatize your character's story.

 

[Asch]

On soft death.

After much reflection, I am thinking about adopting a system where when a character has to roll their 50/50 on their UI-lock, if they were to fail the roll, they may use Fortune/Fate points they have accumulated on their Endra or Tria's echo card to reroll. If you don't have any favor saved up, you may go negative and the card will be flipped upside down. Being negative in these echoes may have other narrative consequences in the future.

This change makes it possible to avoid being UI-locked for those who really don't want it to happen and may kill their interest in the site. Those who wants to stick to their plot don't have to and may gain something else in the process.