PREQUEL: Design Diary 02

Posted on by ixsihjmy in PREQUEL

This is the 2nd entry in my design diary for the design of PREQUEL, a one-shot tactical tabletop roleplaying game of heroic sacrifices. You can find the first entry here.

Now that I have an idea of the tone of PREQUEL, the next step is to determine how I want the Final Fight to work. For the most part, the Final Fight works like it does in HUNT. The biggest change is adding in the ability to identify and preserve the weaknesses. The addition of these mechanics also affects how Heroes, and their Powers and Abilities, are designed. This theme of weaknesses, and how they are exploited or hidden by both the Evil and Heroes will be a central theme in PREQUEL.

The Final Fight

The apex of PREQUEL is the Final Fight against the Evil. After going on their quest and overcoming obstacles major and minor, they have arrived to end the threat…or so they think. When fighting the Evil, I want to target the following phases of the game for the players when participating in the fight.

  1. Fight the Evil
  2. Identify weaknesses
  3. Preserve weaknesses
  4. Sacrifice or die trying
  5. Support after death

As the Final Fight progresses, the first three phases tend to blend together as Heroes perform different actions. To achieve this experience, we want to make each phase fun to be in, but also encourage play behavior so that the players want to proceed to the next step. Let’s examine each step in more detail.

Fight the Evil

In HUNT, a Knight can do two of the three actions each turn:

  • Move
  • Power
  • Maneuver (which is basically anything else, and is resolved by using an Approach)

These actions allow the Knight to complete their main objective, slay the Beast by reducing the Beast to 0 Health before you and your fellow Knight are reduced to 0 Health. Move allows you to reposition your Knights, Power allows you to Harm the Beast and use your suite of tactical options, and Maneuver covers anything else to help you gain advantages. In PREQUEL, we need our actions to also accomplish the following objectives: 

  • Identify a Weakness
  • Preserve a Weakness
  • Sacrifice spectacularly through Legacy Power for benefit.

In PREQUEL, bringing the Evil down to 0 Health isn’t an explicit objective. Narratively, the Evil can’t be brought down to 0 Health, or at least, bringing the Evil down to 0 Health doesn’t mean the Evil is defeated. But HUNT is designed to with the objective to inflect Harm to reduce Health. So how do we leverage this?

What Are Weaknesses?

First, we will need to define what weaknesses are. I’m categorizing weaknesses into three basic categories.  

  • Kryptonite. the Evil can only be killed for good by a certain weapon or person under specific circumstances. These weaknesses cannot be addressed by the Heroes and must be Preserved so that the next generation of Heroes come prepared.
  • Weakpoint. A weakpoint is inherent in the Evil, such as a gap in armor. Exploiting this weakness could give the Heroes benefits or the Evil penalties.
  • Behavioral. The Evil reacts in a specific way depending on how the Hero acts or what Powers are used. An example could be the Evil avoids groups larger than two heroes. Exploiting this weakness could give the Heroes benefits or the Evil penalties.

Identify A Weakness

We want discovering weaknesses to feel like solving a puzzle. Part of that puzzle is figuring out ways to reduce Health of the Evil such that when the Evil reaches 0 Health, the Kryptonite is revealed. For Weakpoints, identifying weaknesses requires the use of approaches to inspect the Evil (narratively, it would make most sense to use Guile to study the Evil, but I’m sure I can come up with narrative justifications for using the other approaches). For Behavioral weaknesses, you would identify them by paying close attention to how the Evil reacts to your actions.

In the case of Weakpoints, there needs to be some way to telegraph to the Heroes that there are Weakpoints so it’s worth using your Approaches to inspect the Evil. Especially if an Evil has more than one Weakpoint. While inelegant, for now I am assuming that the number of weaknesses will be revealed at the outset of the Final Fight so the Heroes don’t have to spend time wondering how many weaknesses there are, they just need to focus on what type of weaknesses there are.

An example of an Evil using these principles is below:

ICE DRAGON

Health: 10/15/20 depending on whether there are 2/3/4+ Heroes

Move: Moves 1 space, counted from any corner.

Weaknesses:

Frozen Heart (0 Health). Only fire brought from the Eternal Flame can melt the heart of the Ice Dragon. Once identified, +1 Harm to all Ice Dragon Powers.

Glacial Reaction. A Hero that uses a Haste Approach gets +1 Harm to the next Hero Power it uses.

Loose Scale (5 Guise). After the Heroes use 5 Guise Approaches to study the Ice Dragon, they notice a loose scale under it’s upper right limb. All Hero Powers get +1 Harm.   

Powers:

Frost Breath. The Ice Dragon breathes out a cone of icy mist. Range: From the Dragon to the end of any row or column it occupies. Effect: 1 Harm to all Heroes within Range. All Heroes cannot move during their next turn.

Flight of Hail. The Ice Dragon spreads its wings and takes flight, raining shards of ice upon those below. Range: Special. Effect: Move the Ice Dragon to any space. This triggers the push effect and deals an additional 1 Harm to all Heroes pushed.

Icy Rend. The Dragon lashes out with its talons. Range: 1 Effect: 2 Harm to a Hero within range.

Shifts:

Ice Wall. All spaces in one row or column cannot be moved into unless a Hero uses an Approach or Power to break through. If a Hero is on the row or column while the Ice Wall is formed, they are pushed to one side of the other.

Snow Minions. The Ice Dragon summons snow minions equal to the number of Heroes. Each Minion can Move 1 and Deal 1 Harm.  

Frozen Shield. The Ice Dragon covers itself in a coat of hardened ice. -1 Harm to all Hero powers for the next round.

Preserve A Weakness

Every Evil will have at least one Kryptonite weakness, something that cannot be exploited during the fight. This ensures the Heroes lose and their only win condition is to discover all the weaknesses and preserve them.

For now, I’m assuming every Evil has at least three weaknesses, with at least one of the weaknesses being Kryptonite. The exact number will likely depend on how many Heroes there are. In fact, I think the only way one can Preserve a Weakness is by using a Legacy Power. To make it achievable, and for Heroes to have other uses for Legacy Powers, I’ll set the number of weaknesses = number of heroes-1.

Legacy Powers

Legacy Powers are special Powers that can only be activated by a Hero once per game, this is the heroic sacrifice. It requires the expense of Approaches (which can be gained through Powers and roleplaying your Bonds), but once used, it can have the following effects:

  • Preserve a Weakness. As explained above.
  • Create a Weakness. This amounts to injuring the Evil in such a way as to prevent the Evil from using one of its powers. For instance, the Blade could make a last charge into the mouth of the Ice Dragon, slicing its throat and preventing the Dragon from using its Frost Breath power. Note that by creating a new weakness, it gives you an advantage in the Final Fight to complete your objective, but the act of creating a weakness in itself doesn’t get you closer to preserving all weaknesses. It does make for good narrative. Imagine your Hero being responsible for cutting off the finger that wears the magical ring of the Dark Lord!

Legacy powers will describe a narrative framework for how the Hero sacrifices themself and how the information is preserved, but the player should feel empowered to narrate the exact circumstances of the hero’s death and the legacy they leave.

Support After Death

One of the challenges I mentioned previously was what would a player do after their Hero died? Would they be disengaged from the game and no longer be invested? While this depends on the player and the table, I think it would be good to have some mechanics to encourage a player to stay invested. James Quigley suggested having the player contribute by narrating flashbacks of their Hero and a fellow Hero to provide bonuses to the other Hero, which I like immensely, as this provides another opportunity to flesh out the Heroes’ backstories and quest up to this point. I’ll allow this ability once per game per Hero, so it keeps the player invested in the remainder of the game, without bogging the Final Fight down with too many turns as the end appears imminent.

Worldbuilding Thoughts

I’ve decided that a generic fantasy world, while easily relatable, doesn’t make for a memorable game identity. The concept of playing heroic sacrifices may be memorable enough, but it will help if I create a unique world for the game through the naming conventions of the Heroes, narrative, and art direction. What would a world need to look like for heroic sacrifices to have such significant generation-spanning effects on the world? Why is this world prone to Evils attempting to establish domains? If a group wants to use Prequel as a one-shot in their own world, they are free to do so, but having its own unique identify will be helpful for branding.

What’s Next?

Now that I have a basic idea of how weaknesses work, I will begin developing the Heroes, their abilities, and powers. As I do this, I’ll consider the world of Prequel, and how to structure the Quest portion of the game.