Kind of a weird question I know, but let me explain. I’m not talking about your themes or messages, but the general feeling someone looking into your world or imagining themselves in it might get about the situation, when the world is not in conflict. Basically, you know how when you watch a franchise like Star Trek, it has certain recurrent moods and feelings, like the tranquility of flying through space, the bittersweet isolation of being on a ship in deep space, where you are close to your crewmates but far from everything else you know, and the general professional but still sufficiently jovial atmosphere that they seem to go for? Or with Pokemon when it’s very adventure driven and based around meeting everyone you come across and making friends both with other humans and also with these magical creatures! I’m sure you can think of descriptions like these for your favourite franchises. We’ve all imagined ourselves in these worlds or imagined ourselves as characters in these worlds right? What were some of the vibes or feelings you imagined when you imagined your world? Or I guess another way of putting it is what would a slice of life exploration of your world be like?
I set out to create a grim yet bright fantasy setting with the fun powers of Dragon Ball and loads of creative fighting moves. It was meant to be simple, but I ended up having a lot more canvas to fill than I realized.
I ended up making a game about grudges, generally speaking. I changed everything down to the death mechanic to encourage players as noble knights to beef with everyone and everything and eventually die in a spectacular manner over an ultimately petty dispute. So the tone is very grim yet light-hearted.
Part of the goal was to demonstrate that being less cautious can be a fun play style. As a storyteller, you never know what a story really meant until it ends, and encouraging character death through XP mechanics is my way of trying to keep things fresh and memorable.
In order to keep these deaths from seeming trivial or meaningless, it’s all happening in a setting that is as detailed and grounded as I can make it. It has a history, and active geopolitical issues that tangentially inform the plot. These characters have families and groups that may try to avenge them or settle the score. Death never makes things simpler, and like life, violence doesn’t actually solve your problems… But it can be a lot of fun while it lasts.
I do hope I answered the question correctly, but it’s before coffee. Let me know if I need to try again.
It’s giving me a sandbox Don Quixote/ Dragon Ball chivalric vibe, and I’m here for it! Honor in combat just for the sake of it, expression through virtue and bonds.
Thanks! That’s more or less the aim. Game design is about encouraging repeated patterns of play, and you could do a lot worse than “start shit, get hit”