Designing Pressure System Characters
At this point in time we have a better idea of what we want from our Game System. We’ve explored the newer ideas of the game. We’ve looked at different modifications that could be added to the game depending on the playstyle/tone. Finally we looked at the previous addition of the game and took feedback from a recent playtest to combine past & present systems to maximize fun.
That is the true guiding star… “what is fun?”. So let’s outline some ideas on what makes up character design. Then list out what particular mechanics are fun to interact with as a player.
Things I want with a character…..
Motivations - Deeds/Goals
Flaws - Beats
Limitations & Barriers
Skills
Cultural Past
Strategies & Tactics
Party Role vs Class
Fame & Renown
NPC - rivals & allies
Factions
What has been fun with Pressure so far?….
Manipulating the Pressure Die
Different ways to use the Pressure Die
Mechanics blending into RP
Good Characters from Books
Brandon Sanderson, the author of the Stormlight Archives, and the Mistborn series, has free online courses on writing. This was from a free guest lecture series at BYU, and they can all be found on YouTube. During this course he goes into details on Character creation, and he talks about a few things.
The first is that he establishes Motivations, Flaws, Handicaps, and Limitations for all of his characters. Let’s list out his definitions for each of these.
Motivation - what is it that they want to be, or what they need
Flaw - Something the character should fix but hasn’t yet. They have the capacity to learn and fix it, but just have not. It is also the major reason why they haven’t attained their motivations.
Handicap - Something that the character has to overcome, but it’s not their fault, and they can’t fix it. I like the term Barrier since Handicap might have certain negative connotations for certain people.
Limitations - a constant in the character’s life that the character does not want to overcome. This can be hard to conceptualize, so examples could be oaths that they’ve spoken, or friends/family that they keep around even though they may be targeted or hold them back from their potential.
The other aspect of character design that Sanderson talks about are three sliding scales for each character: Likability, Proactivity, and Competence. I’m not sure that these need to be mechanized for a TTRPG. Proactivity hopefully comes from player decisions. Competence hopefully is derived from the skills, abilities, or powers that the character has. Likability might be the only aspect that could be fun to mechanize. For me that might be touched on in the Fame & Renown systems later on.
Let’s get into the concepts of Motivations, Flaws, Barriers/Handicaps, and Limitations.
Motivations
There are so many things that can end up driving a TTRPG character in your game. In order to simplify this I decided to try and create archetypes.
You can see in this image that there are tropes like: Revenge, Riches, Destiny, Glory, Exploration, etc. The idea is that players would have 2 motivations. This also come’s from Sanderson’s course, stating that singularly motivated characters can be a bit one-dimensional. Also, the idea of 2 motivations might lead players to have tough decisions. Players could prioritize/rank these motivations, or they could just have them both be equal in importance.
Below each motivation in the image above you will also see random examples. Hopefully these are more for inspiration. Players can fill in whatever details they like, but I like the idea of having an archetype established without specifics. Some players won’t have fully fleshed out backstories, and that’s ok. This gives an opportunity for your story to unfold through play.
Deeds/Goals
The game Heart was reviewed on Quinn’s Quest, the Youtube Channel. That game has a concept called Beats. These beats were associated with different Callings that players would choose from: Adventure, Enlightenment, Forced, Penitent, etc. These callings were similar to motivations, and each calling had a massive list of potential beats. Here are some example beats from the game:
Defeat someone one-on-one (Adventure)
Defend a village/town from attack (Adventure)
Establish a connection on an adventure (Enlightenment)
Sell or sacrifice a major resource to secure a secret (Enlightenment)
Do a favor for someone to gain leverage over them (Forced)
Put yourself in great danger to protect your companions (Penitent)
Now, what do you do with this menu of beats? Prior to a session players would choose 2 beats from their list and give it to the GM. The players were telling the GM exactly the types of things that their character wanted to accomplish or experience in the game. This might have a mixed response from experienced GMs. Some might get excited knowing what the players specifically want. Others might feel that this is too pre-determined and potentially railroading. I lean towards the former. There is still a lot of flexibility in how these things might come to pass.
It’s important to also note that beats can be introduced in a session, but not finish for 1 to 2 sessions later. They don’t all have to be accomplished in a single 3 hour game. Also, there are different tiers of beats. They come in minor, major and zenith levels. These are directly responsible for your leveling. You accomplish a certain amount of minor beats and you then get minor benefits, etc.
This leads ups to the idea of Deeds & Goals. Each of the Motivation archetypes will come with a list of deeds & goals. Players will then pick different ones from each of the Motivations that they have selected.
Deeds - more specific actions they want to do. “Defend a village from attack”.
Goals - seek revenge against their arch nemesis. This is less of a specific action, and can technically be accomplished in multiple ways.
Flaws
Let’s have more archetypes! This will be very similar to what you saw earlier in Motivations. Again I’ve tried to synthesize different flaws that characters might have, and define them as archetypes.
Besides Sanderson saying that flaws make characters more interesting, do other TTPRGs utilize flaws? Absolutely. 5e D&D uses things like Ideals, Flaws, and Bonds, but these are a bit of window dressing. They don’t really have any mechanical significance. Savage Worlds and Crown & Skull are two games I can think of that utilize the concept of flaws really nicely.
Crown & Skull utilizes a point buy system for all your skills and abilities. Players will start off with 50 points to use. Players have the option to take on 1-2 flaws. Each flaw that they take on will grant them 5 additional points to spend on skills, equipment, and abilities.
Example: Ancient = Muscle, Jump, Climber, Breakfall, and Stealth skills may not exceed 9, but you earn respect for your age.
You can see here that this Flaw actually results in limitations mechanically for your character in game. It creates barriers. Now, I want to point out that this is not technically a Flaw the way Brandon Sanderson defines it. This would technically be a Handicap/Barrier. This is something that the player can never overcome.
Savage Worlds has a different term it uses, Hindrances. In this game when designing your character you can get Edges, which are mechanical benefits. Players can increased the number of Edges they receive if they take Hindrances.
Example: Clueless = you receive -2 to Common Knowledge and Notice rolls
Again, this is more of a Handicap/Barrier according to Sanderson. These are fantastic use cases of Barriers but the player is stuck with them potentially forever. The Archetypes listed above could potentially be overcome, so there needs to be a progression system. Some way to mechanically defeat your Flaw.
Harmon Circle
Dan Harmon is the writer of Rick & Morty as well as Community. He’s a pretty ridiculous guy. But he has a science behind storytelling that he utilizes. It’s sometimes referred to as the Harmon Story Circle, and it has similarities to the Classic Hero’s Journey. There are 8 steps to the circle.
You - introduction to the main character(s). Important for creating character arcs. Hopefully this is fulfilled with all of the other components of this character sheet in flushing out who the player is, so an unnecessary step for this section
Need - This has also been established by the Motivation. Remember, that the motivation according to Sanderson hasn’t been accomplished potentially because of the Flaw.
Go - First stage of moving towards the need. The character has made the choice to pursue it. This is the decision to leave order and go into chaos.
Search - The series of obstacles the hero must overcome. This is the bulk of a movie typically. Hercule’s 12 labours.
Find - You find what you wanted, but turns out that you need something else. Something bigger. Plot and character development collide.
Take - Taking your need comes with a price. Heavy losses occur in the taking of your need. Usually this involved an escape. Losses can be temporary setbacks, or the death of characters.
Return - Succeed to make it back with whatever you have taken or needed to find. Result is a change from a lesson, a person, or magic of some sort. This is the return to order, out of the chaos.
Change - Personal change has occurred. Could be change for the better, or change for the worse.
This can be utilized for large stories, like the entire campaign, or it can be utilized for individual sessions. It can be used for personal story arcs, or arcs for the entire party. Harmon himself would use it to help define individual episodes of a show. So how do we want to use it?
The focus should be more on the chaos elements. These are the elements that will have gameplay moments. A lot of the order parts can be discussions with the GM and player potentially between or at the beginning of sessions.
The main focus for the player will be on the Search. This is the road of trials. But how do we make these trials thematic for the player? Let’s lean into the concept earlier of Beats.
Players might end up having Deeds and Goals representative of their Motivations, but they can also have Lessons that are representative of their Flaws. Depending on what you end up choosing as your Motivations and Flaws we can now set a certain number of each that must be accomplished during the Search phase.
Complete 3 Deeds/Goals, and 3 Lessons
Once a player has done this, they then would move into the Find stage of their character arc. This would be personalized to their Motivation and Flaw, determined by the narrative. This then results in the Take and Return at which point the GM and player would need to determine a new Flaw or Motivation for the player, or that character could potentially retire.
The idea of these could be represented nicely on the character sheet. Showing the progress that the player is making within their specific character arc.
Beats
Each of the above Archetypes could now have their own specific Beats, as Lessons that the player can select from.
Reluctant Leader:
Being thrust into a leadership role during a crisis or conflict
Successfully resolving a challenging situation, gaining recognition of leadership abilities
Embracing leadership responsibilities and inspiring other through decisive action
Reckless Adventurer:
Suffering injuries or losses due to impulsive actions, forcing reevaluation of risk-taking
Seeking advice from a seasoned adventurer on the importance of caution and preparation
Demonstrating strategic thinking and careful planning to overcome a dangerous obstacle
Hero Dice
In the previous Modules newsletter we talked about Hero Dice as being a means to grant the players agency over the story and their actions. Players can be granted additional hero dice in a session for leaning into their Flaws.
Mechanically speaking, players could start a session with Hero Dice equal to their level. There could be multiple ways they could gain more, like inspiration in 5E. However, one specific way they could gain them is by roleplaying into their Flaw. But they do so in a way that puts the players into a worse predicament.
When we get to Limitations I think this could still work with those as well. Players would have X Hero Dice guaranteed, but then 2 more Hero Dice if they were to lean into both their Flaw and their Limitation during the play session.
Limitations & Barriers
It was hard to come up with Limitations and Barriers in a way that created nice archetypes like we’ve previously seen. Let’s explore them.
Limitations
Remember that limitations are self-imposed by the character. They could change the situation, but they choose not to. Here are some of the limitations thus far that could work:
Identity Concealment - Enigmatic
Moral Compass / Code of Honor - Noble/Just
Personal Sacrifice (happiness/relationship/desire/wellbeing)
Vow of Pacifism / Respect for Life / Protect all others - Peaceful / Compassionate / Guardian
Family Loyalty / Legacy Preservation (familial) - Devoted / Legacy
Quest for Knowledge - Scholarly
Power Avoidance
These were based off of Super Heroes. What are the things that different comic book heroes have as their own limitations. Batman doesn’t kill, Captain America has his Moral Compass, Bruce Banner tries to avoid becoming the Hulk, etc.
Mechanically we’ve already touched on how it might be potentially integrated into gameplay. Similar to Flaws you could invoke it and receive a Hero Dice or some bonus. So you are receiving a mechanical disadvantage in the moment for a resource you can use at any other point in time to your advantage in the future. Will have to make sure that this can’t be “gamed” too hard. Players opting to have an inconsequential RP conversation with an NPC and invoke everything on their character sheet to then later have an abundance of resources.
The other question, is do Limitations need Beats? The goal isn’t to overcome them, so I’m not sure that they need any form of progression like a Motivation or a Flaw. At this point I’ll say no.
Barriers / Handicaps
This is probably the trickiest area to design for. Inclusivity is an important part of the hobby, and player’s shouldn’t be severely penalized for wanting to play a character with 1 leg, blind, or with a speech impediment. There are player’s who have these barriers in real life, and want to be able to have characters who reflect that, but without having some stack of penalties enforced on everything they do.
Sanderson referred to Handicaps as something the player has to overcome that is not their fault, and that they cannot fix. You could create categories for these:
Sensory
Communication
Mobility
Appearance
Mental
Coordination / Agility
This is a general start, but to be honest I’m not sure if I want to mechanize these yet. I had a one legged dwarf in a 3E campaign in college. It meant that his movement speed was halved, and there was no upside. I just thought it was a cool character to play. But I don’t want to impose that sort of penalty on players for creating the character they want to design. In terms of the GNS game styles, I supposed I’m not too focused on this game being a direct simulation of the real world.
The other option for Barriers Would be to associate them with Skills. The next section is going to discuss the Skills in the game, but you will see that there are 10 different skills, with 2 use cases for each skill. The creation of a Barrier might be as simple as choosing 1 skill and having it locked (it can’t ever improve), but in doing so you can increase another skill of your choice at creation. Players would then just thematically come up for what their Barrier is based on the skill they’ve chosen to hamper.
Example: My 3E Dwarf would never increase his Move:Physical skill, but I’d of given him a bonus in Create:Physical since he was a master blacksmith.
Skills
From a GMs perspective I wanted the act of calling for skill checks to feel more natural. Some board games do a wonderful job of keeping the language ingrained in the system, so that it doesn't feel like you are leaving the setting. Earthborne Rangers is a game that does this with its keywords and terminology. The sentence "a predator from along the way pounces within reach" is not only an evocative description, but its the actual rules. "Along the Way" and "Within Reach" are the ranges of the game.
This just brings out the idea that skills being verbs might allow for GMs to talk in a more narrative way when asking players to perform checks.
The following are the skills for the Pressure System:
Create
Express
Force
Handle
Heal
Influence
Know
Move
Perceive
Survive
However, there was an issue in playtesting. If someone was really good at FORCE did this mean they were really strong, able to move objects, and they also were fantastic at intimidating people into doing things? This didn't make pure thematic sense, so every skill was now split in 2. There were Physical and Mental representations of almost each skill.
Some of these are still being fine-tuned, but the general concept is there. So players will then make their skill check, based on their dice step or training in the skill vs the Pressure Die.
Combat Skills
Eventually combat might become more nuanced. You might have different styles of weapons: simple, light, martial, heavy. You might have property tags or specific words, etc. But for now we are just wanting to codify combat so we can playtest.
Martial & Ranged. That's it. We will have these two skills that can be added to the above list and leveled up in the same manner. Magic is going to be used in a different way that will be class or tactic specific.
Cultural past
I really like how games: Quest, Distal, and Crown & Skull use a Madlibs style method for creating your characters background. Distal in particular takes it a step farther and makes each entry into the Madlibs statement matter mechanically for you, giving you some skill bonuses, or items.
The sentence that is being constructed by prompts hopefully answers the following things for the Pressure System:
What style of place you come from?
What was the status of your life?
What work or lifestyle did you lead?
Was their an event that changed you (lose of status)?
What’s the direction you’re going now?
How you felt about losing that history (emotion)?
Let's see how this might look. The first part could look like this:
I was born in a (adjective) (settlement type) as part of (status)
Adjectives could be similar to how Daggerheart lists out its community. Subterranean, Coastal, Nomadic, etc. I think these are great words to lean into.
Settlement type could be things like: Kingdom, city-state, hamlet, trading post, frontier settlement, refuge.
Status is important, because in the book The Science of Storytelling described that status and the loss of status is one of the most motivating factors of a heroe’s tale. Its the part that makes the audience empathize and root for them. Now, how to define status might be tricky. Currently I have it listed more as professions, and your particular setting might determine the status of those professions. Examples: the rebellion, the aristocracy, the royal military, the local priests, etc.
At this point our background sentence looks like this...
I was born in a Political Occupied City as part of a mercenary company.
Next we need to figure out how to add in the event that changed your current status, the direction you're going, and how you feel about this change in history. On top of this the question to ask is "does everyone need an event that changed their status"? Is that necessary, or is it going to feel weird? Do we need to tie these into the motivations that are already created? Should we have a list that dovetails off of motivations to fill in this aspect? Let's analyze how the previous games I mentioned have their madlibs laid out
Crown & Skull
I am a …… equipped with……. . It all started when…….but now, I ……..
I am a mottled, frog-kin equipped with mining gear. It all started when we went searching for better fishing but now, I seek and destroy evil-doers.
Distal
I grew up …… and my days were spent …… . I became …… the day …… .
I grew up destined for greatness and my days were spent fixing my mistakes . I became a villain the day I was revealed as a charlatan.
Quest
My name is (name)/(pronouns) . I'm (age) years old and stand (height) tall. I'm the party's (role). When people see me, they first notice my (Body), (Face), and (Vibe). I wear (style), (style), and move with (blank). I'm from (home) where my people are known for (community). I believe in (ideal), but my (flaw) side can get in my way. I dream of (dream). I carry (other side of sheet).
My name is Travis (he/him) . I'm 39 years old and stand 6'1" tall. I'm the party's Naturalist. When people see me, they first notice my willowy frame, timeworn face, and an air of mystery. I wear antique eyeglasses, a humble tunic, and move with no sense of space. I'm from a city in the mist where my people are known for plainly stating their intentions. I believe in generosity, but my oblivious side can get in my way. I dream of making every stranger smile. I carry (other side of sheet).
Looking at these, let's figure out what we like most. Crown & Skull as well as Quest embed motivation into their prompts. They also have a bit of gear and look to the character that can help players start to visualize their player. Distal has a nice vagueness to it, that allows the player to adapt the meaning behind its prompts, but also has how the player spent their days, which is a nice touch to give potential insight into the character, but not directly tell you how they should act.
Quest definitely has the most information, but this madlibs makes up the majority of the character sheet. The game and rules are designed to get you in the mood and then get out of the way for the player to Roleplay. Its nice to see that it incorporates the Flaw, Motives, Look, City, Culture all into the prompt. Even looking through their optional lists for ideals, flaws, and communities, there are some really inspiring options.
I think its also interesting to point about that Quest does not have an event that put the person on a particular life path.
Our Full Attempt.
I was born as part of (status) in a (adjective) (settlement type) where the people are known for (community). I believe in (ideal), but am a (flaw archetype). Ever since (life event) I (motivation archetype). This (emotional state).
I was born as part of (the nobility) in a (Subterranean) (traveling caravan) where the people are known for (an unhurried sense of time). I believe in (honor), but am a (reluctant leader). Ever since (I was taken prisoner) I (seek redemption). This (is not the life I was intended for).
The question then becomes are there specific links, or is everything randomized? Meaning, do certain life events link better with certain motivations? Should tables be connected, but players can always choose randomly?
Also, I do love how Distal has skills and equipment linked to what is created from your background statement. So I think that it would be really great to build that in.
Strategies & Tactics
This concept originated on our Discord channel, but was more solidified when I thought about games like Guild Wars and also the upcoming MCDM TTRPG.
Strategies are the ways you approach combat, and Tactics might be some of the abilities you have at your disposal because of that larger strategy. In MCDM they have this idea called Kits. If you have the Cloak & Dagger kit then you are going to be hard to pin down, darting in and out of combat. Or you might have the Shining Armored kit Now you have a big sword and max platemail. The idea of Kits replaces a lot of equipment, armor class, etc. It will define your playstyle some, and give you different bonuses.
In Guild Wars the weapon you chose would determine the abilities you’d have on your hot bar. If you had the two-handed hammer you had a really powerful knockdown, but it had a long cooldown to use again. Whereas other weapons gave totally different powers!
Currently I’m not thinking about it from an armor standpoint, but I do see how the more you pour into the kits like MCDM is designing the easier it then becomes to balance everything out. Currently I’m thinking about it solely for weapons.
Here are some examples of what could be Strategies the player has:
Dual Wield
Dirty Fighter
Polearm Master
Sword & Shield
Knife Master
Duelist
Acrobatic Blade
Dagger & Fist
Dual Axes
Sniper
Shadow Stalker
This is one approach to creating Strategies. Thinking specifically about the gear that is a part of a specific playstyle. The other option would be to just think about the playstyle itself without any gear:
Crowd Control
Focus Fire
Buffer
Hit & Run
Flanker
Diversion
Versatile
These will have to be polled on the Discord channel to get an idea about how people feel about the word choices. What is fun to envision, is the idea of a player using an action to change out their weapons, because they need to take on a totally new strategy. I’ve always liked the idea of a warrior who carries different weapons for different purposes. However, most games when you change weapons you might only change 1 weapon property or a damage type. Kits are also not designed for quick changes in the MCDM system so far. This is where I differ from their design. The idea of switching from one Strategy to another to access different Tactics sounds really fun to me. There would be a limit on how many Strategies a character could be trained in.
Party Role vs Class
Now we come to a fork in the road. Is it better to design for full Classes, where players have a pool or track of abilities that are tailored to that class’s playstyle? Or is it better to establish a Role that maybe has one key ability and then the rest of the abilities are more a la carte?
DnD is probably the game that currently stands out as a game with designed Classes. You are going to be locked into a class, but that class might have variability in playstyles. That variability though is a very small scope. You can't be a Rogue that truly focuses on healing/support for instance.
Crown & Skull or any other game that uses point buy to create character’s abilities might be a good example of a Role based system. There is a selection of one core ability that is going to define the specific role you can fill, but then after that you can choose whatever skills or other feats/powers you'd like.
It was important to list out the concept of Strategies & Tactics prior to tackling this section. Let’s explore how these might pan out.
What’s fun in the Game?
Before we establish the Roles, let’s take a quick moment to talk the one main thing players in playtests have enjoyed about the Pressure System. Mainly, manipulating the Pressure Die. Let’s think about how this happens, and this will help us decide on Role abilities for the game.
Manipulating the Pressure Die
Switching it with allies
Letting an ally use your Skill Die
Getting steps of advantage upwards
Reducing the Pressure Die for someone
Bonuses to your total result
Adding your Skill & Pressure when you beat the Pressure Die
Adding your Skill & Pressure no matter results
Other fun ways to Use the Pressure Die
For magic I think that the pressure die will be used like the Newer Effect Die rolls, for instance.
Having RP Built into the mechanics
Utilizing beats from the motivations, flaws, etc
Ways to get Hero Dice or any of the manipulations above from RP thematically ways
Role
The idea of roles as a module were already discussed earlier in the newsletter. We had a few different groupings: DPS/Tank/Healer, Controller/Defender/Leader/Striker, RP Based Roles. I think that going with Controller/Defender/Lead/Striker grouping is fitting, since the Pressure System originally set out to make those the Attributes for characters.
Hopefully these abilities give some context to what the Role is trying to accomplish. These Roles wouldn’t have all of these abilities, we would whittle it down to one specific one. Now, the only main issue with these is that they feel generic. The benefit of Classes are that they can have very thematic powers/abilities. There is a lot to be said about that. There is also the question of “can you have Roles and Classes”? But lets not get ahead of ourselves.
Class
Here are some ideas for how classes could be designed.
The structure of these classes would be simple. You have 10 total levels. Each level you get something cool. Levels 1,2,4,6,8,10 you get a Subclass ability. Levels 1,3,5,7,9 you get a pure Class ability.
Maybe there will be choices to be made about which ability you get. Down the line there could be two choices at each level and you pick one. This would take a lot of design and testing, so for now we will keep it as the above distribution.
Fame & Renown
Characters should have an effect on the world, and the world should get to know them more. They should have some form of a Fame mechanic. How the game table then utilizes this mechanic is up to them, but here are my thoughts.
On one side of the character sheet is your combat side. All the things that are necessary for managing and running combat. Powers, skills, equipment etc. On the opposite side of the character sheet is your roleplay side. Here you will have skills again, but you might also have this Fame track.
As the game progresses, and as the players interact more with the world the GM can give them options. You can increase the number of places that know you, or you could increase a place that knows you to one that likes you, to one that eventually loves you. However, the GM might define places that you are disliked or loathed at. Eventually players could instead be Globally Known/Liked/Loved or Loathed/Disliked.
The spaces that are next to each area are for towns, provinces, nations. However you want the scope of your campaign to be described. The benefit for having these levels of fame can be up to the players and GM, but here are some of my thoughts.
If you are known in an area, you get an extra Hero Die while there. Or maybe you get to have 1 contact that you have in the area. You get to design the contact and the GM runs them. If you are liked in an area you might get advantage with certain RP checks. Maybe its advantage with a d8. If you are loved, maybe you have advantage d12, and you have multiple contacts. If you are loved you don’t pay for room & board, and people will defend you.
There are ways to make these fun both mechanically and from a roleplaying perspective. These are some examples, and the base game will finalize how this might look.
NPC - Rivals & Allies
Games just feel better when there is a common enemy or competition. Worlds feel more alive when there are NPCs that players feel like they already know, or that know them. The Fame system is going to allow for some spontaneity of that, but the Rivals & Allies system should give a bit more depth.
The simplest way to implement this would be to have a blank spot on your character sheet labeled Rival. You fill this in with an NPC when you and the GM feel it makes sense. You could start the game during character creation with a Rival if you’d like to.
Rivalries have rankings. They go from 1-4. The nature of the rivalry determines the level:
Friendly competition (someone you genuinely like but are in competition with. Make each other better)
Respected Competitor (Someone you are not friends with, but you respect what they do, and they push you)
Complimentary Antagonist / Crucial Foe (they are your mirror, without them are you actually you? How the Joker feels about Batman. What would he do without the Bat to compete with)
Arch-nemesis (you just straight hate this person. You must eliminate them)
These different levels need better defined names, but they also might have different effects if your Rival is in the same scene as you. If it’s a level 1 rival you might actually get a boost or advantage of some sort when you are near them. If its a level 4 arch-nemesis, maybe your Pressure Die goes up every round you aren’t engaging or dealing with them!
How Rivals might level up could be tied into the beats we previously talked about with Motivations and Flaws. Maybe certain ones state Rival up or Rival down after they are completed. Or these could just go up thematically based on what happens in the story, or how your Fame shifts.
Allies
I think this is mostly a resource. You can gain these as your Fame goes up in places you are liked or loved. These become resources you can tap into. Ways to get thematic information, keep the story going, get clues, or potentially get temporary Hero Dice when in the same area as an Ally.
Factions
The factions system in Blades in the Dark is a master class in game design. It’s so simple, and really breaths life into the setting. There are roughly 40 pre-designed factions, and their clock system allows for these groups to have multiple agenda’s moving forward. This gives the players tension as they wonder what happens when these factions complete their objectives.
The concept of factions on a player character sheet does not need to be complex. It’s important also to move it from some sheet of paper the GM has in a folder onto the individual character sheets. It gives the players more awareness of the world they’re in.
Roughly 5 blank lines to fill in Factions that matter to your setting. Leaving them blank until players encounter these factions is also a nice touch. Once a faction is written on a line you have a series of bubbles after it, and a potential checkbox.
Loved
Liked
Neutral
Disliked
Kill on Site
[ ] Recognize (checkbox)
This now gives you a lot of information about a group quickly. They don’t like you but they also as a group don’t necessarily know what you look like. But another group wants to kill you and they all know your face.
This continuum could also be expanded out from 5, but I think that 5 is a good number for a Likert Scale.
Expanded Combat Rules
Here are some other items that would be included on the Character Sheet, but we need to talk about how they would possibly work mechanically.
Defenses
We are going to have a series of different Defense numbers, or saves. For simplicity and recognition let’s utilize:
Fortitude
Reflex
Will
In the future I’d like to shift away from this and use things like; Mind, Spirit, etc. But I think these mechanically make sense for a lot of my players who played 4th Edition.
For each of these you would end up with a dice step: d4, d6, d8, d10, d12. You would then roll that against the Pressure Die and have to meet or beat the Pressure result. This is a simple Check mechanic in this system, but the die you use is specific to the Defenses you have for your character.
The question becomes, “do players choose their defenses? Or are these the result of the class, background, or role that you have chosen?” I think that it will be more tied to the role. I also don’t think that you will be able to change these on the fly based on the strategy or tactics you are using. But something might give you bonuses or advantage to different defensive checks.
Health System
I don’t think that Hit Points are very interesting. I’ve always had issues with them, but they are so simple and easy to think about as a player for the most part that I have ignored them. However, this might be the new solution that I move forward with.
Damage/Stress circles
This has some similarities to the Major/Minor stress system that FATE utilizes. Imagine you have the following diagram.
When you are attacked you roll your Defensive Die against the current Pressure Die. If the Pressure Die result is higher than the Defensive Die you must take the difference in damage. That damage is marked off by circles. If you take 8 damage, you could elect to mark off the two 4s, or four 2s, or any combination. You will always have to mark off a circle if you take damage. If you take 1 damage, but all of your 1s are filled in, then you fill in a 2 or lowest circle you do have available.
Different Roles or Classes might unlock more circles of different levels. Different Roles also might have special rules, like maybe a Defender doesn’t have mark off 1’s damages? Also, there might be boons or banes that are in spaces to the right of those circles. Meaning that if you have all of the 3s marked off, maybe it says Adrenaline Rush. Maybe you get an extra action the first time that happens. Do you want to opt to do that though? Because later on if you take 3 damage you are either marking off one 4, or three of the 1s?
I think this visually is more fun to look at than just Hit Points and will be fun to see the attrition of it going quickly.
Fatigue System from Earthborne
I just want to add in the concept here of Fatigue from the card game Earthborne Rangers. I’m not sure how it fits into the game, but it’s very satisfying.
ER is a deck based card game. Your deck represents your health or energy, and if you draw your entire deck you need to stop playing and rest your character. At any point in time you might take fatigue while playing. This results in you taking the top card of your deck and (without looking at it) placing it sideways face down in a fatigue pile. This means you are tiring out faster.
Occasionally though you can recover fatigue. This feels great because what this means mechanically is you take cards from the top of your fatigue deck and place them directly into your hand. You suddenly have a ton more options, and you didn't draw into your actual deck.
This mechanic just feels good. It’s one of those very simple mechanics that does a lot psychologically for the players. In all honesty it is nothing but a subtly hidden draw mechanic. But because its in a place that you have to figure out how to access, it feels stressful and then earned.
I’d like to add this into the game somewhere. The metacurrency of Hero Dice most likely is where it will go, but I’m not sure yet how it fits.
Hero Dice Uses
This is a running list from the previous modules article on what Hero Dice might be able to do for someone.
Rolled as an extra die to add to your results
As a reaction you could add to someone else’s roll
As a metacurrency that is spent to power a class/role specific power
Spend at the end of combat as a Rest Mechanic
Hero Tokens previous were thought to potentially do the following:
Can increase the dice step of your Skill or Defensive roll
Can decrease the Pressure Die a step
Can add +1 after roll
Can grant -1 after roll
Can add 1 detail to a scene
Hero dice are gained at the beginning of a session. You receive 1 per level. You can also invoke your Flaw, Limitation, Barrier or Motivation in order to get additional Hero die
All of this needs to be refined in order to make it more intuitive and easier.
Drama Escalation
The last new combat mechanic that needs to be discussed is the concept of escalation. I’ve always been a fan of the 13th Age game system, but I never knew some of the mechanical depth of it, having never played. In that system they have an Escalation Die that will start to increase on round 2 of combat. It means that on round 2 all players now receive a +1 to hit and damage. This bonus will go up every round to a max of +6 to hit and damage.
I thought this just sounded cool until I found out that the game purposely designs its monsters to be hard to hit. This now creates some really interesting mechanics. Players now don’t just burn all their best abilities round 1 in order to nuke the enemies. Why? Because they might miss! The chances of hitting are reduced. So now players are on the defensive. They are trying to learn what they are up against and how to stay alive or maneuver themselves until they can finally get the Escalation Die high enough to risk using their big powers.
This is very cool. It also means that by the time the biggest threat is eliminated from the board, the players aren’t wasting time with cleaning up smaller baddies. They do it very quickly because they are hitting so hard at this point in the fight.
I absolutely love this combat progression style. There is a tension build and release instead of a spike at the beginning and weaker play later. So the question will be how to implement this potentially, at least thematically, into the Pressure System.
Wrap up
Small wrap up here. Next thing I believe I’ll be working on is how the character sheet looks. Get a few of those made for a playtest, and then see how the metacurrency of Hero Dice can be fine tuned to be fun! Hope everyone is enjoying the ride.