Character abilities and personalities

[Wumpus the 19th]

so in my head is a hodgepog of a story that has entered a chapter involving griftlands gameplay and that made me think of traits and personalities for new characters, such as threekwa being cautious or zealous. one that i thought of was in a fight where the player fights a guy much like nadan, and then said person says the usual "finish me off" thing, and the player convinces them to not hold a grudge if left alive.

point being, i thought of a personality and ability for some new character, and i'd thought this post'd be for any new ideas for said traits.

Manipulative: Combat ability. Player takes x resolve damage at the end of this character's turn.

Violent: Personality. Player takes x health damage every turn of this negotiation.

Second Wind: When surrendering, will instantly rally if an opponent is killed/surrendered.

Detachment: When this NPC takes unmitigated damage, they will gain composure equal to half/double of unmitigated damage (depends on if used as boss or random NPC)

also a few items for new mechanics

Foresight: Either use one stack/entire stack of foresight. draw/redraw a card/your hand to better suit the situation. I.E. if the opponent will defend next turn, by next turn you will draw nothing but or mostly attacking cards to capitalize on these down turns. if opponent is about to deal massive damage, draw maneuver cards that give defense.

Nuisance: Every 3 stacks of nuisance, all enemies/one enemy will specifically attack this NPC. After attack directed by nuisance/every time this character receives unmitigated damage, reduce by 3 (if goaded by stacks of nuisance)/ 1. this would be used by tanks, as this guarantee's getting hit and therefore allowing damage and healers to be ignored.

Emotional: NPC will be blinded by emotion and do 1 action every turn, which are generally useless or counterproductive. example family against family would cause this, leading to either constant defending or pleaing not fight. in said griftlands-esque game thing story i have, it had the ability to negotiate during fights. as a result, in normal griftlands, this status effect would incept cards of (something along the lines of "snap out of it") into the player's deck, and playing them would remove this status effect on the NPC, then remove all incepted cards of (whatever the hell it'll be) from the Player's deck

(The slashes and x's are for where changes could be made)

[Wumpus the 19th]

anyone want to post anything....please?

[pacovf]

I like Manipulative, but it should be more interactive. The player should be able to work around it. Something like "when this character deals unmitigated damage, target loses 2 resolve". Same with Violent, so that one works better as an argument than as a character ability, so the player can take down the argument. Second wind is fine too, but it could get out of hand depending on party composition. Detachment is basically Double edge, from Jakes, no?

I'm not sure I understand what you have in mind with Foresight. I like Nuisance. Last one could be fun for specific story-driven quests where you have an ally that would otherwise be too powerful.

[Wumpus the 19th]

On 3/21/2020 at 1:33 PM, pacovf said:

I like Manipulative, but it should be more interactive. The player should be able to work around it. Something like "when this character deals unmitigated damage, target loses 2 resolve". Same with Violent, so that one works better as an argument than as a character ability, so the player can take down the argument. Second wind is fine too, but it could get out of hand depending on party composition. Detachment is basically Double edge, from Jakes, no?

I'm not sure I understand what you have in mind with Foresight. I like Nuisance. Last one could be fun for specific story-driven quests where you have an ally that would otherwise be too powerful.

well let me explain the beginning part of my post

it's(the story) based on undertale, pokemon, and griftlands. foresight was mainly for frisk as they are...well, a time traveler

foresight as a mechanic, in the context of my story, was that frisk could play cards that let them see what the opponent was going to do, and prepare for it next turn.

I.E. much like griftlands, enemies like dockhands would defend for one turn, then attack the next. foresight would then draw mostly attack cards on the defend turn, then defense cards on the attack turn. that kind of thing? reviving the old glory that was empathy pre-patch (you remember, don't you pacovf?)

they're were multiple characters in my story based on the souls from undertale, and they were almost always with frisk. frisk was supposed to be able to redraw others hands, possibly using the foresight to favor one kind of drawn hand. there was also adaptation because i wanted to add type advantages, but that's a whole thing...

also detachment was damage dealt to the character specifically. Double Edge is unmitigated damage becomes composure for the jake, spread out between arguments. Detachment, in my soulless eyes, was unmitigated damage to the NPC becomes composure, kind of like the shroke boon on 'roids.

[SpicyNiceCream]

There's a unused condition in game that forces enemies to hit whoever has it, so your nuisance could actually be easy to implement.

I think (to be named.) can be simply named "emotional". But I'm not sure what you meant, do you mean some NPC will occasionally skip/defend and players can force them to act with cards?

[Wumpus the 19th]

6 hours ago, SpicyNiceCream said:

There's a unused condition in game that forces enemies to hit whoever has it, so your nuisance could actually be easy to implement.

I think (to be named.) can be simply named "emotional". But I'm not sure what you meant, do you mean some NPC will occasionally skip/defend and players can force them to act with cards?

(YAY MORE PEOPLE ARE POSTING. THIS IS EXCITING FOR NO GOOD REASON)

Main idea of the (to be named) mechanic was that they would specifically have the condition and do their action that doesn't aid or is counterproductive, and the way to rid them of it was specifically to use the incepted card to remove it. in my story where i realized i am taking an immense amount of inspiration from, the boss had one attack that i just realized is very complicated to explain with the context from said story, but it would apply the condition to the healer in the main party, which is obviously bad. said healer would take every turn pleading with the boss enemy, which would unintentionally create the stacks of nuisance that means he (the frail healer) would get hit. 

so in short, because i just realized how much i typed, the mechanic would make them ONLY do x until the player uses the card, at least how i see it.

Emotional does seem like a very good name for it. i'll change it.

[matshazi]

It would be cool if some characters had a "bad reputation" so you didn't get "aggression" from attacking them because no one believes them or they think they got what they deserved!